Over the Edge (8 page)

Like every other time when she’d had dealings with her husband, right from the moment she’d found him feverish in an army hospital in Georgia, Callie had to do all the thinking.

And considering her blood loss from yesterday, thinking was quite a chore. But she could see clear as the sunrise that Seth wasn’t up to it.

“When did you eat last?” she asked the boy.

He looked half starved, as most growing boys always did. But he was gaunt and his cheeks were hollow.

The boy got a stubborn look in his eyes, and for a second Callie thought his pride might force him to refuse an offer of food. “I reckon it’s been a while.”

Callie nodded. “Seth,” she said, shoving the money bag in his hands, “go buy two more horses. And the general store oughta have some—” Callie stopped as she thought of all they needed to clothe and feed a young boy for the winter. She really didn’t have the strength, but Seth probably didn’t have the sense. Then the parson came walking down the street, whistling. A man this cheerful was clashing badly with the general mood of the Kincaid family. Fortunately he had his wife with him, and she seemed to be possessed of a practical nature.

“Just buy two more horses.”

“What do we need two horses for?” Seth’s brow furrowed.

“We’re gonna need another pack animal.”

“For what?” he asked, looking thoroughly confused.

“Just do it. And get saddles and leather for one of them, too. If you spend all that money, tell the bank to cover the bills out of what comes in from the price on those outlaws’ heads.” There went her reward money. “Then take the pack animal to the general store, load it with the things the parson and his wife are going to pick out for us, then come back to the hotel.” Callie turned to the newly discovered Kincaid brother. She sure hoped they weren’t all as crazy as Seth. Life was vexing enough.

“Go on into the hotel,” she told the boy. “Tell the clerk you want a meal, just as big as you want to make it. I’m Callie Kincaid. Tell them I’ll be in to pay directly. He can come out here and ask me if he needs to.”

She reached into Seth’s money pouch and got the price of dinner. She was just too tired to shop for all they needed. The boy must’ve been hungry, because he went straight inside.

Not ten seconds later the clerk stuck his head out the door. “This boy with you?”

“Yep,” Callie answered. Not waiting for Seth. “Go ahead and let him eat.”

“My pleasure, Mrs. Kincaid. On the house.”

“No, it’s not. I pay my bills.” She gave the man a look she’d learned from standing down men during the war in Texas, and as she had to fight her way across the West to find her husband.

It worked this time, too. The clerk nodded and ducked back inside just as the parson and his wife walked up.

Callie gave them direct, clear instructions and told them to ask the clerk at the general store to get the money out of a nonexistent bank account. She was supposed to be a town hero, so she’d use up her goodwill and get out of town fast. The parson and his wife headed for the store.

“Callie, honey, why are you buying all that stuff?”

“You don’t have a brain in your head, do you, Seth Kincaid?”

Seth shrugged.

“Buy the horses, gather up what the parson’s ordering for us, then come back and pick us up. We should be ready to head home by the time you’ve gotten everything done that needs doing.”

Seth turned toward the stable. Connor grinned and waved bye-bye to her.

“Stop!”

Seth turned back and Connor giggled. “Leave my son. If you disappear again and this time take Connor with you, so help me, Seth, I will hunt you down and shoot you dead.”

Callie needed to sit down and there was no sense denying it. Not that she was going to admit it out loud, but neither could she deny it to herself.

“I’m not going anywhere, Callie. You and Connor are stuck with me.” Seth handed over the baby.

If only she could trust that.

Of course, he’d been acting crazy when she’d married him, but she’d seen so much potential for sanity. It was a hard lesson she’d learned about looking on the bright side of things. She wouldn’t make the mistake of being optimistic again.

Seth headed for the stable.

Now all she needed to do was feed an angry, starving boy, hope she’d bought supplies enough for winter, and ride miles across rugged mountains to get home. And she had to do it without collapsing.

When she made it to the dining room without falling in a heap, she thought things were looking up.

Seth’s brother . . . Callie shook her head. Whoever he was, he was already eating.

“I’m Callie Kincaid.” She sank heavily into a chair across the table from her pint-sized brother-in-law and settled Connor on her knee. “I’ve never heard the name Gavin Kincaid before, but it looks like he’s my father-in-law. I’m married to Seth. Tell me your name.”

He kept chewing. His plate was about half emptied already, but there were plenty of mashed potatoes and tender-looking roast beef left. The dining room had been generous in their servings.

“Your name.” She jabbed her finger at the boy. He gave her a dark look and filled his mouth with potatoes. She had a startling impulse to give the boy’s ear a good yank to twist some words loose. She decided to chalk it up to her generally poor condition and forgive herself, since she hadn’t gone ahead and attacked him, now, had she?

A young boy came in from the kitchen carefully balancing a heavy white pottery cup brimming with steaming coffee. The boy smiled and flashed the deepest dimples Callie had ever seen and distracted her from her violent daydream. “My pa says the coffee is free and not to argue with him.”

She knew for sure the man had sent this little one out because he was so irresistibly cute. How was she supposed to refuse coffee from him? “Thank you and tell your pa thank you, too. I appreciate it.”

The boy giggled and set down the savory brew without spilling a drop. “Can I hold the baby? I’ve got two little brothers, so I know my way around young’uns. I can play with him down on the floor while you visit.”

“Thanks, I appreciate it.” She really did. Connor was gaining a pound a minute in her shaky arms.

The boy took Connor and retreated to the far corner of the room, which was good. She could ask her questions a little harder than if there’d been a witness at hand. She didn’t think she knew Seth’s little brother well enough to do any ear twisting, though she didn’t completely abandon the idea.

“I just joined the Kincaid family yesterday—in fact, I haven’t all the way joined it yet.” That got his attention. “Seth, the brother you met outside, is my husband. We married back East after the war, and he . . .” She hesitated, not sure just how honest to be. Well, she could always fill in details later. “He came back to Colorado and got a house built while I stayed with my pa in Texas to birth our baby.”

Not a single lie in that little speech. Unless there wasn’t really a house. Seth might’ve imagined that.

“So I don’t know the Kincaids much at all. Seth is the youngest of three brothers. He talked about his family some, of course.” She hadn’t known what was true and what was a product of his feverish nightmares. Seth had a talent for ranting. “There is an older brother, Rafe, and a middle brother, Ethan. Now, what’s your name?”

She’d wrestled her share of longhorns, backed a hungry cougar off a newborn calf, and she’d shot a rattlesnake or two. She wasn’t one bit scared of this young’un.

The child didn’t answer, but he was eating like a half-starved wolf, so she didn’t think his silence was
all
about angry pride. She added, “I have no particular loyalty to the Kincaids, except for my husband and son.” Her son more than her husband, but she didn’t admit that. “Since we look to be joining the family at the same time, maybe we could be friends. It’d be two against three.”

“I’m not joining the family.” The boy finally spoke, and it was more a snarl than words. “I’m here for my share of the ranch. I aim to sell it and move on. When my ma died, I found a letter that said Pa had a ranch near Rawhide and I was to go there if I was in need. Papa liked the gold fields, and he did some trapping. He took off about three years ago and never came back. Ma told me he died. He’d’ve never left us otherwise.”

Callie had heard from Seth that his ma was dead, and she knew how old he was at the time. She could add and subtract good enough to know that Gavin Kincaid had a distinct lack of honor in his dealing with both of his families.

“Things were mighty tight without Pa,” the boy went on. “But we ran his traplines, and Ma taught me to hunt as well as her. She had a good garden and we got by. After Ma died, I found a letter. It was about Pa’s other sons.”

Callie thought she knew how this pinched the boy’s pride, and she couldn’t fault him for his hard feelings.

“What your pa owned needs to be divided between his children. It sounds fair to me.” Callie’s pa had owned a ranch, and she knew how bitterly upset she was that she hadn’t been strong enough to hold it after he died. Seth and his brothers might well feel the same about this youngster coming in to demand they sell one-fourth.

“I’m Heath Kincaid.” The boy nodded his head. “I won’t be around long enough to bother anyone.”

Callie didn’t have to know much about the Kincaids to have a real good idea that this was going to bother
everyone
.

Anyhow, the boy was all bluster. He looked like he knew how to live off the land as well as any frontier child, but he wasn’t up to doing it all the time.

He didn’t need money; he needed a home. She had a cabin, or so Seth said. And she had a ranch, or so Seth said.

If there was a cabin, there was enough room for one more. If there wasn’t, this youngster could sit around a campfire and tend Connor while she helped Seth build one.

“We’ll be setting out for the Kincaid spread as soon as Seth gets back. Do you have anything we need to pick up? Clothes?”

The boy jerked his chin. “There are a few things. I stowed ’em under the back steps of the hotel. I’d asked after Gavin Kincaid, and there was a man who knew Seth was kin and he was staying here.”

“We’ll pick your things up, then. It’s a long ride to the Kincaid place, so we may be sleeping on the trail tonight.”

Heath had obviously been a long time traveling on precious little food and with few warm clothes. Considering what she’d heard about a Colorado winter, Callie couldn’t help but think the boy had found his family at about the last possible minute.

As she tried to figure out what to say next, Seth strode into the dining room, spurs clinking, boots clomping.

“Done?” she asked him.

“We’re ready.”

Callie swallowed the last gulp of her coffee, gathered her strength and stood, doing her best not to wobble. “Seth, I’d like you to meet your brother Heath. He’s done eating. Get Connor.” She wasn’t all that sure she could pick him up. Oh, she could. She’d grown up in Texas. She could do whatever had to be done. But right now she was glad not to push herself to the limit. “Let’s go home.”

While Bea settled in beside him, Jasper stared at the ceiling. He could feel the call to comfort. Silk. A fine house. Power.

On the other side, the love of a good woman, respect from honorable men, God.

But it was
his
money.

When he heard Bea’s breathing even out, he slipped out of bed to walk into the next room, one of only four in this not-so-fine little shack.

He stared out the window.

It was
his
money.

Kincaid was staying in the hotel on the north side of town. Jasper could walk there in a few minutes. He could get his hands on Seth Kincaid and find out everything he needed to know and be back before Bea woke up.

The money was bound to be at the Kincaid property if both Gilliland women were married into it, but Seth would give up the money to protect his wife and that little boy he was carrying around.

Jasper had no doubts about his ability to convince a man to divulge all his secrets. He lifted a box off the mantel and opened it.

His derringer.

It was
his
money.

He looked at the door to his bedroom and slowly, silently, lifted the derringer out of the box.

Chapter
8

“We’ve got a couple of hours before dark, Rafe.” Julia Kincaid reached for her husband’s hand, ignoring his groan of impatience.

A chill wind buffeted them where they stood by the barn door. It blew a strand of her red hair across her eyes, and she swept it aside and tucked it behind her ear. She wouldn’t need her woolen bonnet in the cavern, so she had left it behind when she’d spotted Rafe riding in from checking the herd. She’d dashed out to catch him while he was still wearing his coat.

“The chores are done and the dinner is simmering and will be for another two hours. There are no killers in the cavern.”

“That we know of.” Rafe arched a brow at her, and she weaved her fingers between his and tugged.

“I’ve been really patient, Rafe. You know I have.” And she’d loved helping to build her home. Rafe was the carpenter, but he’d talked with her about all the decisions, and she’d even helped with some of the finer woodwork. Mainly handing him things. “But we’re already getting steady snowfall. When winter comes we’ll have our hands full surviving in here without adding exploring.”