The Circle Eight: Nicholas (22 page)

Nicholas pointed at his bruises with a scowl.

“It was a fool named Willard. He used to do maintenance at Fuller’s Home.” Matt crossed his arms. “Now works as a gardener for the Fritz’s.”

“How do you know about him?” Winnie had barely left Nicholas’s bedside for hours.
It seemed she had missed a great deal.

Matt speared her with a look. “
While you were here, Caleb and Brody interrogated Willard and the other man, Tucker.”

She vaguely remembered mention of two men but she’d been too concerned with the injured man in her arms. Nicholas held up two fingers.

“Yep, Tucker was holding a gun to Willard, but he was no match for two ex-Texas Rangers.” Matt’s tone held grim satisfaction. “It appears you two had a shadow. Tucker followed you around Houston for the last two days.”

Winnie’s brows went up in surprise. “Two days? Who is he?”

“He was an orphan at Fuller’s Home. Told us he was sold two years ago to a cotton farmer when he was sixteen. Little bugger ran away within a month but by the time he got back to Fuller’s to help the other young’uns, it had already closed.” Matt looked at Winnie. “He knows Martha well.”

Winnie’s heart galloped. “Then why was he following us?”

“It appears young Tucker has been trying to find the children who were sold and rescue them.” Matt waited a moment. “Sound familiar?”

Although her cheeks heated, she refused to
apologize for doing the right thing. “It’s too bad the authorities didn’t listen to him.”

“Most don’t pay attention to a scruffy young man with a chip on his shoulder.”

“Where is he now?”

“He’s at your friend Fuller’s house. It seems the old man remembers him and invited Tucker to stay under his roof.” Matt grunted. “I wouldn’t trust him not to walk off with whatever he can carry.”

“There is nothing to steal from Mr. Fuller. He’s dying and he barely has enough to feed himself. If he offered to take in Tucker, it was done with genuine fondness.” She would not allow Matt to speak ill of the old man.

“I ain’t doubting Fuller, but I hope Tucker doesn’t take advantage of him.” Matt sat on the edge of the cot. “It’s not the angry young man I want to talk about, it’s the other one, Willard. He almost killed you, Nick.”

Nicholas grimaced and Winnie squeezed his hand.

“The good news is, Willard had a book, a ledger, when we found him and Tucker behind that hat shop.”

Winnie’s hopes jumped. “The ledger! You were right. It was there.” She beamed at Nicholas.

He nodded and managed to croak. “
Woman?”

“Miss Gregson is nowhere to be found and Tucker hasn’t seen her either. Caleb and Brody are chasing her down. She can’t hide forever.” Matt seemed very sure the woman would not escape. For that, Winnie was grateful.

“What about Layton? Is he part of this too?” Winnie didn’t trust the lawman and she didn’t want him to get his hands on Vaughn.

“He’s working with my brother and brother-in-law but I don’t think he’s happy about it.
”

Vaughn poked his head in the room. “He’s awake!” He stepped in with the other three men on his heels. “We wanted to talk to Winnie.”

The Grahams were a serious lot and Layton fit right in with their fierce visage. Winnie didn’t think she wanted to hear what they had to say.

“Maybe we should do this outside the hospital.” She got to her feet but Nicholas grabbed her wrist.

“No.” His gruff word cost him, judging by the pain in his gaze.

“Then we stay here.” She sat back down. “Tell me what you have to say.”

Vaughn was the one who spoke and she braced herself for bad news. “I spoke to Mr. Fuller’s brother-in-law, the attorney.”

It was going to be bad. He crouched down beside her.

“What did he say?” Her voice had dropped to a whisper.

“There is no legal precedent to take Martha from the Conklins. They have paperwork that was filed with the cour
t properly. There are no record of her birth and no way to prove you are her mother.” He swallowed as she absorbed the news. “And one more thing. Josie passed away the night after you visited her.”

Winnie closed her eyes and refused to allow herself to cry. Martha was alive and so was Nicho
las. Winnie would find a way to make up for what she’d done ten years ago.

“I’m sorry.” Nicholas’s gruff words made her heart melt.

She looked at him and managed a small smile. “You don’t need to be sorry. I haven’t given up, Nicky.”

“I never thought to see Nick mushy over a woman.” Caleb
watched them. “But I think I see mush. And she called him Nicky.”

“I think you’re right. Ain’t that a sight?” Brody was a cold looking man with his black hair and cool blue eyes, but she definitely saw a teasing glint in them.

Nicholas shook a fist at them.

“
You deserve it.” Matt shook his head. “What were you thinking disappearing like that? When I got your letter, I had about thought you dead. Not to mention what Rebecca just put us through.”

“Bec?” Nicholas tried to sit up but Winnie easily stopped him. He was lucky to be alive and she knew it.

“She’s home but she ain’t leaving again until she’s thirty. Maybe even forty.” Whatever their sister had done, it had earned the eldest’s ire for sure.

“We’re glad you’re alive.” Caleb looked at Nicholas with a tenderness that surprised Winnie.

“It would make me angry if you died, you know.” Matt was less affectionate but she heard the genuine concern and love in his words.

“I can tell you my wife would be mad if you died.” Vaughn grinned at his brother-in-law.

Winnie stared at her friend. “Where is Elizabeth and why aren’t you on your honeymoon?”

“She is home
at the ranch. We made it to Galveston but as soon as she saw the ocean, the smell made her sick. I don’t argue with my pregnant bride. We turned around and made our way back to the Circle Eight.” Vaughn grinned. “She was happy to be home in our new cabin and bed.”

“Hey now. Don’t talk about our sister like that.” This from Caleb.

“Hmph. You should talk. It was Aurora who taught her about sex.”

Winnie laughed while Caleb sputtered. “She did no such thing.”

“Your wife is an angel on earth. The things she knows. You must reap those rewards.” Vaughn had been uncomfortable with his family but it seemed marriage agreed with him, allowing him to tease his new brothers-in-law.

At Vaughn’s words, Winnie would swear the tough Caleb blushed. It earned a few guffaws from the others.

“These men are apparently not aware you are married,
Mrs. Graham
.” Layton interrupted the foolishness. “I assumed you were telling the truth about your marriage.”

It was a challenge the lawman threw down. Winnie considered how to respond but then to her surprise, Nicholas saved her.

He took her hand. “Wife.” His fierce word fell across the room. No one doubted him, and for that blessed moment, Winnie felt like his wife in truth.

“We can leave that subject behind.” Matt’s words pushed the lawman to let it go, but in his gaze, she saw the truth. There would be a reckoning between them. Envy slashed through her at the way his family came to his rescue and protected their own no matter what the cost. She’d never had that. Vaughn and she had done what they could, when they could, and had true affection for each other as a brother and sister would, but it was not nearly the same.

She wanted a family, wanted the support, love and fierce protectiveness they all demonstrated, no matter how much they squabbled.

“What’s the next step, Layton?” Brody spoke up from the corner, his face seemingly cut from granite.

“I interrogated Willard and he’s no more than a simpleton. A big, brute of a simpleton. He might now how to prune a rose, but he is not the mastermind behind the child slavery ring.” Layton’s gaze found hers. “You were right about the ledger. It has damning information about all twenty-seven children.”

“Twenty-seven?”

“Holy shit.”

“Poor mites.”

They all spoke at once and Layton cut them off with a sharp chop of his arm. “We will not find all of them nor do we have solid legal rights to take them back. Whoever was in charge of this was smart enough to make everything appear legal. The only evidence we have is this ledger.”

“And Tucker,
” Winnie added. “He can testify what happened to him.”

Layton looked doubtful. “Yes but he is a street ruffian. The judges in Texas don’t take the word of a boy like him over an adult.”

“He is an adult. Eighteen, right? He can certainly testify as to what they did to him. They accumulated wealth by selling children from an orphanage. How much lower can go you go?” Winnie was sick to think of it.

“Oh you’d be surprised.” Caleb’s expression was infinitely sad. “I’ve seen much worse.”

“Much, much worse,” Brody added. From what she knew, Brody and his wife Olivia had spent four years searching for their brother Benjy and rescued numerous children who had been kidnapped.

“We’ll do what we can with the evidence, but as Mr. Montgomery told you, there is nothing we can do to break the legal right the Conklins have to Martha.” Layton tapped his chest. “I won’t break the law even if it ain’t right that a child was traded for money.
What I can do is investigate the Fritz family like I said I would. You do what you have to just don’t tell me about it.”

Winnie wanted to
be angry with him but she couldn’t. He was right. He was sworn to uphold the law, not break it. The lawmen in Texas were known for their fierceness but also their sense of honor. He was a pain in the ass and had put Vaughn through hell, but he was still right. She would battle Conklin on her own.

She looked at Nicholas and saw determination in his gaze. Whatever she wanted to do, she knew he would be at her side. It gave her confidence to
do what had to be done.

“Then I
fight Mr. Conklin for her.”

The men all looked at her. Anticipation hung in the air. She knew what she was pro
posing was risky. Extremely risky. Winnie could lose everything, including Martha. However, if she did nothing, then she would be giving in. These people sold her daughter and she could not let that go.

“I will
blackmail him into letting me adopt her.”

Vaughn’s eyes widened but the Graham family all nodded. Nicholas
nodded at her.

“
The man is a selfish bastard. He won’t want to go to jail for a crippled girl. I can use the ledger and some friends.” She had already decided and now that she had started down this path to accept her motherhood, she would stop at nothing.

“
Dangerous.” Nicholas’s voice was a rusty whisper.

“I can and I will.” She looked at the rest of the men, each of them obviously uncomfortable with her pronouncement. “Each of you would do the same. Don’t dare judge me because I’m a woman.”

“That isn’t it.” Vaughn took her hand. “You gave this child up nine years ago. Now you’re willing to endanger yourself to get her back.”

“Yes I am. She should have been in my care since she was born. I was a coward. No more.” She got to her feet, sure of her path, undeterred by their doubt. “What would you do for your children?” She threw the question at Matt. He flinched.

“Fair enough. You are a woman grown. I ain’t gonna judge you and what you want to do with your life. I do care that Nick is involved.” Matt nodded at his younger brother. “He says you’re his wife. Isn’t this decision his to make?”

Winnie saw red. Fury raced through her and if she’d had a gun, she might have shot the eldest Graham.

“How dare you? A husband and wife are partners, not a feudal monarchy where the kind controls all decisions.” She got to her feet, fists clenched. “That child is part of me, no matter if she has been lost for most of her life. She deserves a family. Would you deny her that? Do you even know how it feels to be at the mercy of someone else, unable to do anything but obey?” Her voice rose to a shout and the doctor poked his head in the door. “Get out!”

The man disappeared in an instant.

Matt widened his stance and crossed his arms. “I don’t know what that feels like but I do know what family is.” His brothers remained silent while Vaughn watched the play between Winnie and Matt. Layton leaned against the wall, clearly amused.

“
Well I know what it feels like to live your life in fear. I lived the first sixteen years of my life with a monster. My father was evil incarnate. A greedy, selfish man who turned me into a whore when I was nine. If I can save that child even a moment of the horror I endured, then it’s worth every cent I have.” Her heart erupted with the pain of her past. Now that she’d opened Pandora’s box, there was no closing it again. “I had a child at sixteen and gave her away because my father forced me to. I have paid for that since. Believe me, Mr. Graham, I didn’t choose to be a pitiful old whore who killed her own father, but here I am. If you don’t believe I’m good enough for your brother, that’s your prerogative. He has a choice to love me just as I love him.”