Promises Linger (Promise Series) (51 page)

She tried to tangle her feet in Brent’s. “If you don’t lay off, you’re going to meet the same end as your mother.” He hauled her higher, choking her in the process.

Time stopped. Hardly caring about her lack of breath, she wheezed, “My mother?”

“She wouldn’t cooperate either. Killed herself when Coyote Bill caught me at the ranch. Stupid bitch fought me for the gun.” As he spoke, he continued to drag her uncompromisingly backwards, toward his safety. Toward her death.

“Why?” She had to know. Even if she died, she had to know.

He shrugged against her back, then she felt his muscles pull as he scanned behind him. “I would have had the ranch years ago. All I had to do was seduce your mother, kill your father, and I could have married into the best piece of property this side of the Mississippi.” He stumbled on a rock. The gun rapped her on the temple; pain slammed her eyes closed, but not her ears. “A place like that could fund a man for a good many years.”

In her mind’s eye, she pictured her gentle mother’s face. She remembered her father’s devastation upon her death. The suspicions she’d harbored against him. “You killed my mother because you didn’t want to work?”

“No.” Grunting, he picked up the pace, dragging her around a water trough. “I killed her because she didn’t have the sense to appreciate what I offered.”

“My mother was a very smart woman.”

She whispered a prayer to her father, asking for forgiveness for thinking he had killed her mother, before she opened her eyes.

The first thing she saw was Asa. He was behind Cougar and Aaron, staying back, but following. Waiting. Watching. She met his gaze through the dust kicking up at their passage, and shivered. The man she was looking at bore no resemblance to the easy-going man she’d married. The man she saw now was pure warrior. This was the man who would follow her to the grave if they allowed it.

A strange calm settled over her. “Let me go, Brent.”

“In a minute.”

“Now.”

“You never did as you were told.” He made it sound like a failing.

He swore as he tripped in a rut. She could smell the acrid sweat of his fear. Or maybe it was hers. There were a couple of things she was sure of in her life. One of them was she wasn’t prepared to die since she’d just discovered how much fun life could be. The other was she was done being tossed about like dandelion fluff on the capricious breeze of a man’s whim.

“I’m not going with you, Brent.”

“You might want to wait until you’re asked,” he grunted as her weight began to tell on his strength.

“I mean now,” she said calmly, sliding her hand into her reticule. “I’m not going any further with you now. You have to let me go.”

“Not likely.” He yanked viciously on her throat, hauling her to the left. “Seeing as how you’ve made a habit of ruining everything, I’ll be making the decisions.”

“No. You won’t,” she said softly before letting her body twist into his, closing her eyes, and pulling the trigger on the derringer she’d hidden in her purse.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Three things happened at once. Her gun went off. Brent jerked backward and the world around her exploded in a hail of bullets. When her shoulder slammed into the hard ground, she opened her eyes. The first thing she saw were the worn soles of a man’s boots. Brent.

She closed her eyes, rolled to her side and retched violently. Hands on her shoulders tried to pull her back. She fought. They tugged harder. She moaned, but it was a soundless protest. She couldn’t hear anything beyond the ringing in her ears. The hands firmed their grip and willy-nilly, she went up and over.

Something hard propped up her shoulders. That was better. At least the world stopped spinning. Fingers patted her cheeks. She thought she told them to go away, but she couldn’t be sure if her lips just shaped the words or she actually said them. The annoying ringing persisted. God! Her head hurt!

She said so.

“I know, darlin’, but I’d be mighty grateful if you opened your eyes.”

She should have known it was Asa irritating her when she wanted to be left alone.

“How grateful?” she asked, keeping her eyes closed because the sun through her lids was enough to have her gritting her teeth.

Her perch bounced under her shoulders as he laughed, sending more pain shooting through her skull. She moaned. He was properly contrite, immediately stopping, smoothing her hair off her forehead, kissing her brow, whispering things she’d never thought to hear a man say. Sweet things. Ridiculous things. Love things.

She reached up blindly and wrapped her fingers in his hair. She pulled his head down and asked in a hoarse whisper, “Do I look a fright?”

“You look beautiful.” This time, his kiss landed on her lips.

“Save that for later, young man,” a gravelly voice interrupted. “And lay that young woman flat. Don’t you know better than to disturb a patient with a head wound?”

As soft as thistledown, she was flat on the ground. She frowned. She’d have much rather had Asa’s lips than the cold dirt.

She flailed out with her hand. “Asa?”

“Right here.” Her fingers were wrapped in a rough, warm palm.

“My father didn’t kill my mother.”

A kiss as gentle as a breeze brushed her cheek. “I heard.”

“Save the kissing for later, young man.” That gruff voice could only belong to Doc. For a moment, a shadow blocked the painful light of the sun. She moaned with relief.

“Hello, Doc.”

“How are you doing, Elizabeth?”

“Where’s Asa?”

“Stuck like glue to that spot beside you, but that doesn’t answer my question,” he said in his usual gruff manner.

“My head hurts, but at least my ears have stopped ringing.”

‘Well, then, I’d say things are looking up.” She heard a rasping sound. It was familiar from her youth. He was opening his medical bag.

“No vile medicines,” she ordered as he picked up her wrist to feel her pulse.

Doc’s “We’ll see” was congenial. It overshadowed Asa’s “You’ll take whatever Doc says you’ll take.”

“Leave my patient alone,” Doc ordered, “or I’ll make you go wait a block south of here.”

No more commands were forthcoming from Asa, but she heard dirt shuffle beneath his boots as he stood. Elizabeth smiled, imagining indignation drove him to his feet.

“Does anything hurt besides your head?” Doc asked as he probed the side of her skull.

“My shoulder from where I fell.”

His touch on her head, though gentle, hurt like the devil and she winced.

“Hurt?”

“Yessss,” she hissed.

“I’m not surprised,” Doc answered, moving his fingers down her neck, manipulating gently. “That bullet creased you good, but I don’t think there’s any permanent damage.”

“Then why hasn’t she opened her eyes?” Asa demanded.

“I imagine she has quite a headache and the sun is hurting her eyes.” Doc’s fingers reached her collarbone. “No,” he warned. “Don’t tense up.”

His fingers slid down her arm, straightening it as his knee pressed on her chest. Before she realized what he was doing, he snapped her shoulder back into the socket. The scream ripped from her throat as the pain tore through her.

Doc’s apology coincided with Asa’s “Jesus!”

“That’s better now, isn’t it?” Doc asked before shouting, “Someone catch that man!”

Elizabeth opened her eyes to see Asa being lowered into a sitting position by Cougar.

Doc shook his head. “It’s always the tough ones.”

He shifted so his body blocked the sun from her eyes. Unfortunately, he also blocked her view of Asa. All she could see was Doc’s grizzled silhouette with his fly-away hair sticking out all over.

“What?” she croaked in response to the question in his eyes.

“I hope you aren’t counting on him when it’s time to deliver your babies.”

She hadn’t thought about it, but now that she had, she realized she was. “Why?”

Doc shrugged. “He won’t be much use to you if he passes out every time you make a little noise.”

“Asa fainted?”

“Got a bit weak in the knees.”

“Asa?” She couldn’t believe it.

Doc smiled. “Yup.”

As if conjured by his name, Asa appeared around Doc to kneel beside her. He was as white as a ghost. “I’m sorry, darlin’.”

“For what?” She experimented with her good arm. It didn’t hurt when she moved it, so she placed it against his mouth.

He kissed her fingers before desperately clenching her hand in his. “For not seeing how Brent and Jimmy were double-teaming.”

“Well, you didn’t and it worked out all right.” She took a breath and cast a glance in the direction of Brent’s body. He hadn’t moved. “Is he dead?”

Asa touched her cheek. “Yeah. I’m sorry.”

“I never really knew him, did I?”

He silently shook his head.

“None of us did, apparently,” Doc said as he closed his bag.

She bit her lip. “Did I kill him?”

Asa shrugged. Doc pushed himself to his feet with a grunt and walked over to the body. “If you did, you’d have to get behind about thirty other folk.”

Elizabeth winced at the image. Despite all that had happened, she was grateful she didn’t have to bear the guilt of Brent’s death.

Asa stroked her cheek with his fingers as if needing the contact. “No one was too fond of the way he manhandled you.”

“I wasn’t thrilled myself.” She glanced over at Doc. “Can I get out of the dirt now?”

“I don’t see why not.”

Asa immediately slid his arms under her body.

“Handle her easy,” Doc instructed.

It was a totally unnecessary warning. Expensive china hadn’t ever been handled as delicately as she was lifted. She closed her eyes and rested her head against Asa’s broad shoulder.

“Watch her for signs of a concussion,” Doc continued. “Don’t let her sleep or take anything for the pain for twenty-four hours. After that, you can give her one spoon of this powder in a glass of water three times a day.”

She dipped slightly as Asa took the pouch from Doc.

“What about her shoulder?” Asa asked.

“A couple of weeks in a sling and she should be right as rain.”

“Thanks, Doc.”

“Call me if there’s any change, but I don’t expect any complications beyond some stiffening.” He moved ahead of them into the throng of people. “All right, folks, let’s give them a little room.”

Elizabeth opened her eyes to see half the town around them. As Asa cut a path through the crowd, a cheer went up. One unthinking soul slapped Asa on the back, jarring her head. She moaned. Doc whirled on the man.

“Have a care, you fool!”

She closed her eyes and thanked the Lord she didn’t look a fright. Her dignity was about all she had left after being made into a spectacle in front of the whole town.

Asa carried Elizabeth up the street to Millicent’s boarding house. She felt so delicate in his arms. So fragile. God, he’d almost lost her. It took all his concentration to hold her carefully and not press her into his body, to hold her so close, she’d never be in danger again.

“Where are we going?” she asked in a low voice.

“I figured on seeing if Millicent could put us up. You’re in no shape for a ride home.”

“Oh.”

“Do you have any problem with that?”

“No.”

An unreasonable part of him resented her compliance. He sighed, recognizing reaction setting in. He, on the other hand, was itching for a fight. Maybe he’d head over to the saloon later. A man could always find a body there to satisfy such urges.

By the time he got to the front step of the boarding house, Millicent was standing in the doorway. “McKinnely said you were coming,” she said. “I made up the bed in the room next to the back parlor. There’re bandages and such on the dresser.”

“Thanks.” He carefully maneuvered the three steps to the porch. As he drew abreast of Millicent, she clicked her tongue and declared, “Good Lord, honey! The first thing we’ve got to do is get you cleaned up. You look a fright!”

Asa swore under his breath as Elizabeth came alive in his arms, “What?” She turned those big green eyes on him. “You told me I looked beautiful!”

“You do.” He refused to feel guilty. Even blood-streaked and dirty, she was gorgeously, beautifully alive.

She twisted, ignoring his efforts to keep her straight, trying to manage a peek in the hall mirror as they passed. She must have caught a glimpse of her reflection because her hiss of pain exploded into a screech of horror. “You carried me through town looking like this?”

“Wasn’t much I could do seeing as how no one stepped forward with a comb.”

The logic of the argument was lost on her. “I asked you if I looked a fright!” She struggled to lift her good arm to straighten her bun. “You said I didn’t.”

“I said you looked beautiful.” He pushed the bedroom door wider with his foot. It was only two steps to the bed. Millicent rushed forward to pull down the covers.