In a Cowboy’s Arms (38 page)

Carson strode toward him, his gait cocky, his eyes wild with the promise of a kill and the spoils of victory. “Before I kill her, I’m going to enjoy taking her over your dead carcass.”

Damn the bastard to hell and back! He took aim and fired just as he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. His Peacemaker clicked. Helluva time for his gun to jam.

Carson spun toward the shadow of movement and emptied his gun, then dropped and rolled. A shotgun boomed to his right, once, then again.

The bounty hunter bowed backward and clutched his thigh, then made a jerky movement forward. Dade knew Carson had been hit, but the bounty hunter still tried to crawl behind the buckboard. He had nearly made it when he suddenly stopped.

Dade stared at him for the longest time, waiting for some sign that confirmed he was still alive. But Carson didn’t move.

An unnatural quiet settled over them, the air thick and acrid from the cloud of gunpowder and spent lead.

Dade tore his eyes off Carson and stared at the shooter. He waited for some emotion to bubble up in him.

Nothing came as he stared at his pa, sprawled on the ground in a pool of his own blood.

“Are they dead?” Maggie whispered behind him, her small hands gripping his sides.

“Don’t know.” He almost said he didn’t care either, but he did care.

Dammit all, this was his pa. A rattlesnake mean outlaw who’d turned his back on Dade years ago.

Countless nights Dade had hoped his pa would return, that he’d apologize for making the biggest mistake of his life. That he’d take Dade and Daisy out of the orphanage and go home.

It never happened. It never would have either.

Yet Clete Logan had put his life before Dade’s today.

Dade ejected the jammed cartridge from his six-shooter and automatically slipped a new one into the chamber, his fingers surprisingly sure.

“Stay here,” he told Maggie.

He slipped off the porch and eased toward the buckboard, his heartbeat striking an erratic beat as he faced the unknown. Allis Carson lay facedown on the ground, blood pooling from the gaping hole in his thigh. Another wound soaked the ground beneath his head.

Dade kicked the bounty hunter’s revolver aside and toed his shoulder. His hat fell to the side and exposed what remained of the man’s head.

Slowly, Dade holstered his gun and walked over to Clete Logan. Judging from the blood soaking his pa’s shirtfront, he expected he’d given up the ghost.

Pale glassy eyes fixed on his. His pa’s mouth moved and Dade was obliged to go down on a knee to hear him.

“Is he dead?” Clete asked.

“Yep.”

Clete swallowed with effort, his gaunt face twisting in a grimace as he did so. “Good. Now I can rest in peace.”

Dade doubted there’d be any peace for the outlaw who’d gunned down innocent men. He stared at the man who’d come here for one revenge and tried to feel something besides pity and disgust. But he couldn’t.

His pa had been tracking Allis Carson for one reason–he’d vowed to kill the man who’d done the same to his outlaw brothers. He’d have done the same no matter who Carson had cornered.

The outlaw let out a choked cough, his eyes an unnatural white now. “Haul my ass into the U.S. Marshal. You might as well collect the reward.”

“Don’t want blood money.”

“Fool. I owe you that and more.”

His pa still didn’t understand that he’d just wanted a parent who gave a damn. No amount of reward money could make up for those lost years.

“Why’d you do it?” he asked. “Why’d you give up your family?”

Clete Logan’s upper lip curled in a mockery of a smile. “Never wanted the responsibility.”

His chest heaved once, then the outlaw went dead still.

Maggie’s hands rested on Dade’s shoulders. “Are you all right?”

He nodded, feeling numb inside. That’s all the emotion he could muster for his pa.

Dade got to his feet and drew Maggie into his arms. He scanned the ranch again and this time hoped it was truly deserted.

“Let’s take a look around,” he said. “I have to make sure Daisy isn’t here.”

She wasn’t. Dade found a back window busted out and crawled inside the house. There wasn’t a stick of furniture or any indication that anyone had lived here in years. Where had Barton gone? How long back? Was Daisy still with him?

“What are you going to do about the dead?” Maggie asked.

“Haul them into the marshal.”

He’d put the reward money to good use, even though it chaffed him to collect it. And the only way those wanted posters would come down was to turn the outlaw in.

“I’m sorry,” Maggie said.

“So am I.” He slid his arm around her shoulders and squinted at the sky. “We’ll head out as soon as I round up our horses and heft Carson and Pa over their saddles.”

“Back to La Junta?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Pueblo. Tavish is working out of there. I trust him to see that Clete Logan is finally put to rest. We’ll stay there overnight, then take the eastbound train to St. Louis.”

She stiffened in his arms. “What about your search for Daisy?”

“It could take months for me to find out what happened to Barton.” If he was lucky. “I promised I’d see you to St. Louis–”

“I’m going back to Placid.” She slipped out of his arms and he felt the distance yawn between them. “I have to make Whit understand that I won’t be the pawn in his dealings with Harlan Nowell. If I don’t, I’ll be looking over my shoulder the rest of my life, wondering if either man has hired another bounty hunter to haul me back to Burland.”

He didn’t like the idea of her confronting Ramsey, but she was right. Neither of them could look to the future until they’d buried the ghosts of their pasts.

“All right,” he said. “But I’m going with you.”

She smiled, and something warm expanded in his chest to thaw the ice surrounding his heart. “I hoped you’d say that.”

Yep, the death of the Logan Gang freed him from being linked to outlaws. In time their names would be forgotten.

Then there was Daisy to fret over. Somewhere out there he had a sister who didn’t even remember him. A sister that he feared he would have the devil’s time finding.

But if Miss Jennean was right, he still had unfinished business with Reid Barclay. He had to settle that before he could forge a future.

With Maggie?

God knew he wanted her. He couldn’t think of living without her. But he didn’t know if she felt the same, and now wasn’t the time to ask.

A hanging was the only thing that drew a bigger crowd than the arrival of a man leading horses with lifeless forms draped over their saddles. Folks knew the dead had to be outlaws, and speculation ran wild about who’d finally met his fate and who’d gunned them down.

Dade was mighty glad that a deputy was on hand to watch over the dead. He ushered Maggie into the U.S. Marshal’s Office and straight into Tavish’s path.

“Who’d you bring in?” Tavish asked.

“Clete Logan and Allis Carson.” Dade went on to explain what had happened on the Circle DB, leaving nothing out.

“I figured it was just a matter of time before the two of them drew on each other.” Tavish crossed to his desk, wrote out a voucher and handed it to Dade. “On behalf of the United States Marshal’s Service, I thank you for upholding the law and bringing in a criminal. You can claim your reward at the bank.”

Dade folded the voucher and slipped it into his vest pocket. He had enough money now to buy a nice spread and settle down.

For the first time in his life he’d found a woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life loving. But he hesitated to ask for her hand.

Oh, she’d told him she loved him. But could a city girl be content to be a rancher’s wife? Would she one day resent that she’d given up her dream to follow his?

Those doubts were more than enough to keep him from proposing to her. He’d waited this long to find her. He could wait a bit longer until he was sure their dreams would mesh and not collide.

Maggie flicked a glance at Dade as the train rattled over the tracks toward Placid. He’d been withdrawn ever since the shootout.

Then when they’d made love last night at the hotel, he’d held her long into the night, as if he did not want to let her go. If she just knew what was on his mind...

Though she longed to comfort him, she sensed he wouldn’t accept it readily. So she left him alone to come to grips with his grief and silently fretted about what today would bring.

The train pulled in to Placid thirty minutes late, and Dade and Maggie were the only ones to get off. While he saw to the horses and their bags, she crossed to the window to see if Whit had responded to her telegram.

“Nothing came over the wire,” the railroad agent said. “But a gentleman left this letter here for you.”

She tore it open with trembling fingers and quickly read the message.

Maggie closed her eyes and gave in to a shiver of pure fear. Dear God, Whit was here waiting for her.

“You all right, Miss Logan?” the agent asked.

“Yes, I’m fine.” She looked out the window at Dade who was waiting impatiently for the horses to be unloaded. “Tell Dade I went to Mrs. Gant’s.”

“Sure thing.”

The walk there had never seemed longer to her. Perhaps she should have waited for Dade to join her, but this wasn’t his battle. And down deep she still worried that Whit would turn on Dade in anger.

She stepped into the house she’d considered her refuge to find Whit Ramsey sitting in the parlor. The stern expression he’d always worn was gone, replaced by an easy smile that she didn’t recognize.

“Thank God you came back,” Caroline said, rising from her chair and crossing to Maggie with just the aid of a cane.

“What are you doing here with him?” Maggie asked.

Caroline beamed. “We are on our honeymoon.”

The look of adoration her foster sister gave Whit left Maggie thunderstruck. She looked fit and happy. With Whit.

“I don’t understand. This man didn’t want you as his wife,” Maggie said.

“Actually that wasn’t true,” Caroline said. “Father had told Whit that my health had taken a downward turn and that I’d likely not survive the winter. He compounded that lie by telling Whit that you’d agreed to take my place as his wife with my blessing.”

“Why would he say such a thing?” Maggie asked.

“I can answer that one,” Whit said. “If I married Nowell’s daughter, I acquired her shares of Nowell Mining and gained control of his holdings. If I wed you instead, I’d only become his equal partner.”

“But after you escaped Burland and Father’s clutches, he feared that Whit would insist on marrying me,” Caroline said. “So Father sent me to a sanitarium in Manitou Springs.”

Whit patted Caroline’s hand and smiled at his wife. “It took me awhile to find Caroline. When I finally did, I asked her to be my wife.”

“We married at the Springs, much to Father’s outrage,” Caroline said.

Maggie took that in and realized that Harlan Nowell had carefully manipulated them to do his bidding. “No wonder he hired a bounty hunter to bring me back to Burland.”

Caroline grasped Maggie’s forearm with trembling hands. “Oh, God, Maggie. If it were only that simple. You’re in grave danger.”

“What are you talking about?” she asked, trembling now too.

“Father held you to blame for losing control of his empire,” Caroline said. “Because if you hadn’t run away, Whit wouldn’t have visited me in the sanitarium in hopes that I knew where you’d gone. We wouldn’t have realized we’d been lied to from the start, and we surely wouldn’t have had the chance to form an affection for each other.”

Whit nodded in agreement with his wife. “Your telegram made me realize that something quite foul was afoot. So we confronted Harlan. He admitted he hired a bounty hunter to find you. But after our marriage, Harlan wired Carson and ordered him to kill you.”

Maggie pinched her eyes shut, reminded of a similar story that Mrs. Gant had told to her. At the deserted Circle DB ranch, Allis Carson had come terrifyingly close to murdering her as he’d been hired to do.

“You need to come with us,” Caroline said, drawing Maggie’s attention back to her. “You’ll be safe in our house until Whit can figure out a way to diffuse this situation.”

“There’s no need for Maggie to hide,” Dade said, his voice strong. “Allis Carson is dead.”

Whit tensed. “Are you absolutely certain?”

Dade gave one curt nod. “Saw him gunned down myself. What about Nowell? What’s to stop him from hiring another gun?”

Maggie’s knees threatened to buckle, for she’d not thought of that very real threat. How could one man be so vindictive?

“Father was so enraged over it all that he suffered a fit of apoplexy. He can’t move, talk, write, or care for himself,” Caroline said.

“The doctor told us he’s failing quickly,” Whit added.

Maggie couldn’t feel any sympathy for the man. Just relief that she was truly free now.

“Then it’s finally over. I don’t have to hide,” she said, turning to Dade with the intention of rushing into his arms.

The remote look in his eyes froze her in place. “You’re safe. I’ll be back in two weeks to escort you to St. Louis.”

And with that he was gone.

She knew he was headed to the Crown Seven to confront his brother Reid. She knew, even if he didn’t, that he needed her by his side. But that old fear of rejection kept her from running after him.

So she blinked back tears and tried like hell to put on a brave front. But Caroline, the woman who knew her better than herself at times, saw right through her ruse.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Caroline said. “Don’t just stand there like a lack wit. Follow your heart.”

The chance of his turning her away scared her, but the fear of losing him forever terrified her. She threw her arms around Caroline. “Thank you.”

“Go with him, Maggie, and be happy,” Caroline said.

Maggie needed no further urgings. She lifted her hem and raced out the door, hoping she wasn’t too late to catch Dade.