To Kiss a Texan

TWENTY-FIVE

WES BROKE INTO THE QUARTERS WITH ADAM ONLYa step behind. The room was exactly as it had been an hour ago when he’d left. Only, Allie was missing.

‘‘I’ll check on Victoria!’’ Adam backed out the door and tried the next room. ‘‘She had one of the girls show her upstairs ten minutes ago.’’

Empty!

‘‘Maybe they went back to the kitchen for some reason?’’ Adam checked the old woman’s room carefully, as though he thought she might be hiding somewhere amidst the lace and drapes.

‘‘Then who screamed if they went downstairs?’’ Wes inspected the windows. They were locked from the inside. No one could have gotten in or gone out and relocked them from inside.

Daniel thundered into the room like a freight train having trouble stopping. ‘‘I came up the back stairs from the kitchen. No one passed me. Who screamed?’’

Adam shook his head.

Wes stepped to the landing. ‘‘Hardy!’’ he yelled down the stairs.

‘‘Yeah!’’ the old sheriff answered, out of breath.

‘‘Seen anyone come down?’’

‘‘Not a soul! Is Victoria all right?’’

Wes raised his gaze to the ceiling. There was only one place they could have gone. ‘‘They may be on the widow’s walk.’’

‘‘And, from the screams, they’re not alone,’’ Adam whispered as if whoever had the women might hear them through the ceiling.

Wes glanced toward the end of the hallway where a tiny staircase led up to the trapdoor.

Jason lay curled in the shadows at the bottom of the steps. His body rocked back and forth in pain.

The brothers reached him in seconds. ‘‘

‘‘What happened, son?’’ Wes asked.

Adam examined the boy, slowly testing for broken bones.

‘‘Where are Allie and Victoria?’’ Wes pushed for an answer. ‘‘Are they all right?’’

The boy jerked when Adam brushed his hair away from a badly bruised forehead.

‘‘Jason?’’ Adam turned his face to the light. ‘‘Jason? Can you hear me?’’

Trying to turn away from the men he mumbled, ‘‘I can hear you. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.’’ He looked at Wes. ‘‘You told me to watch the women. I tried, but when we were climbing the steps, the man hit me hard in the face. He knocked me down the stairs. The trapdoor closed before I could follow.’’

‘‘You tried, son.’’ Wes comforted the boy. ‘‘What did this man look like?’’

‘‘He was real tall, and thin, with a gun in one hand and a long stick in the other. He wore a great coat that folded around him like a bat’s wings. He kept shoving the women along with his stick. I heard him whisper that he’d kill Victoria first if any of them made a sound.’’

Holding his head, Jason rocked slightly. ‘‘I didn’t cry. Not even when he kicked me. Allie tried to protect Victoria when the man didn’t think they were moving fast enough and swung the stick wildly. She didn’t say a word when the blows hit her, but Victoria screamed.’’

Dread shook Wes to the core. There was only one man who reminded him of a bat. Only one man who would risk anything to kill Allie.

Wes bolted halfway up the stairs before Daniel and Adam’s grip pulled him down.

‘‘Let go!’’ Wes jerked at their holds. ‘‘I have to get to Allie. He’ll kill her this time for sure!’’

‘‘There’s no way to open the door without the man on the widow’s walk seeing you.’’ Adam stated the obvious. ‘‘It would be suicide.’’

‘‘I don’t care!’’ Wes fought at their arms. ‘‘Allie’s up there.’’

‘‘And once it’s open, whoever has Allie will have a clear shot at you.’’ Daniel’s grip was iron around his brother’s arm, but his face showed his understanding.

‘‘You’re no help to Allie dead!’’ Adam shouted.

His words penetrated Wes’s mind. He had to fight not only his brothers but himself to keep from invading the walk.

Wes moved back down the narrow stairway barely the width of his shoulders. Storming the roof would be ridiculous, he realized, but he had to do something. If the preacher named Louis had Allie, he’d been willing to risk a great deal, even his life, to kidnap her. After all, he’d been willing to kill Wes for taking her from the cage. There was no telling what the man might do if cornered.

Gideon hurried up the stairs and darted into the first bedroom. ‘‘Miss Victoria’s missing!’’ he yelled. ‘‘ Outside, the guards said they could see shadows on the walk.’’

‘‘How many?’’ Wes knew the answer.

‘‘Three. One tall man, two short women.’’ Gideon glanced in Wes and Allie’s room. ‘‘They’re both gone? Miss Victoria must be on the walk!’’

‘‘They didn’t go willingly. I think I know our intruder.’’ Wes began to pace, reasoning out his strategy. There had to be something he could do.

‘‘The walk was built into the roofline. It would be impossible to get off a clear shot at night and little better in daylight from a lower angle.’’

Daniel and Adam were not military men. They’d spent the war doctoring and preaching. For the first time since the three brothers were together, Wes’s expertise was needed most. He had to think of something.

Adam persuaded Jason into allowing him to examine his forehead. Daniel stood guard at the foot of the stairs as though fearing Wes might yet bolt for the trapdoor.

Attenbury slowly climbed the stairs from the ground floor. ‘‘I heard shots,’’ the old colonel mumbled.

‘‘Your invisible rider’s on the roof with Victoria and Allie,’’ Wes explained. ‘‘I was so busy guarding the grounds, I left the house wide open. Somehow, he got past us all to them.’’

‘‘What does he want?’’ Attenbury asked. He was too old to be surprised by anything in life, but anger glistened in his watery eyes.

Wes shook his head. ‘‘It’s what he has that worries me.’’

‘‘We can pick him off come morning. I’ve got men who can shoot the left eye out of a rattler at a hundred feet. I’ll put them out on the range to wait for sunup.’’

Wes paced, glad to have someone to voice his thoughts to. ‘‘We don’t have until morning. The women will be dead by then. Our stranger came to kill. If he sees any sign of men on that side of the wall, he’ll probably shoot.’’

Jason pushed Adam’s hand away as the doctor tried to bandage the boy’s head. ‘‘I could go out the second-floor window on the other side of the house and cross over to the walk. I’ve got good balance and I’ve used a gun once.’’

Wes patted the boy’s shoulder. ‘‘Good idea, son, but we can’t risk it. You might fall because of your injury, and from that height it would be three stories. Or, if you made it, whoever has them might shoot you as you drop down.’’

‘‘I could try it,’’ Daniel volunteered.

‘‘The roof’s not safe,’’ Gideon added. ‘‘Tiles fall off, sometimes for no reason. It wouldn’t hold the weight of a boy, much less a man.’’

Swearing beneath his breath, Wes realized there was no way to get to them. He also knew the only reason the two women hadn’t been murdered in their rooms was because Louis liked to play with his prey before the kill. But, soon he’d get tired of his games and strike. Wes had to find a way to help the women before then.

But how? He’d promised to protect Allie. Now she was only a few feet away, and he could do nothing. Nothing.

Allie felt Victoria’s fingers clamp down on her arm, but the old woman didn’t cower in fear. She stood on the narrow walk with her head held high. Her bravery made Allie stand taller.

‘‘Don’t either of you move!’’ the intruder yelled. ‘‘I got to think a minute.’’

‘‘Who are you? What do you want?’’ Victoria demanded as though she hadn’t just been forced at gunpoint to climb stairs to a roof that offered a fall that would surely kill her.

‘‘Why don’t you ask thecreaturewho I am?’’ The man’s voice was filled with hate. ‘‘You might have cleaned her up, but I know she’s a wild savage with no soul. She’s the devil’s child for sure.’’

Victoria’s fingers tightened, but Allie didn’t say a word.

‘‘I should have killed her as I was paid to do, but I thought to make a little money.’’ The stranger’s voice boomed like that of a preacher with a full house. ‘‘But she’s evil, the devil’s daughter. She drove me to do things to her.’’ He laughed suddenly, a wicked laugh. ‘‘Oh, she fought and cried, but in only a matter of days she’d led me down the path of sin again. She’s like a fever that poisons a man’s blood.’’

Allie couldn’t speak. Fear pulsed so violently through her that no language would come. Somehow the preacher had found her. Somehow, he’d gotten past all the men protecting her.

A part of her wanted to curl down and become the animal he called her. Another part wouldn’t allow his words to break her.

Victoria, however, seemed to face him on even ground in the darkness with no fear rattling in her voice. ‘‘What do you plan to do?’’ she demanded. ‘‘If it’s kill us, you’ll never get off this ranch alive. My men will slaughter you and string you up in the courtyard.’’

The preacher laughed. ‘‘I don’t want to live. I’m ready to go to my home in heaven… or I will be as soon as I send this trash to hell. And as for you, old woman, you’ll only be making the journey to heaven a few days before planned. The Lord won’t mind my hurrying the process.’’

The aging woman pushed Allie behind her. ‘‘I’ll not stand by and let you harm the child.’’ She laughed as if almost enjoying the game. ‘‘And I’m not as easy to kill as you might think.’’

The preacher made his first mistake. He touched Victoria. He might have been six-feet tall and thirty years her junior, but when he touched her, he put himself on even ground. She knew where he was.

Victoria shoved Allie backward as she ran forward like a raging angel.

He wasn’t prepared for an attack, not from an old woman. She raked her fingernails across his face before he had time to raise his arms.

Louis screamed. Giving pain might be his pleasure, but he bore no joy when receiving it. His blood looked black in the moonlight as it dripped in his eye and across his face from her scratches.

Louis raised his staff as he shoved Victoria against the railing. The whooshing sound of her breath leaving her lungs combined with the hollow crack of ribs.

Allie watched as he drew in a mighty breath. This blow would be struck to kill. Victoria fought to regain her balance as she turned her head, listening, testing for exactly where he stood behind her. She was alone now and lost.

As the mighty blow lowered toward the old woman, Allie attacked. The knife from her boot filled her palm. Without pulling back to increase the power of the strike, Allie shoved the blade forward into Louis’s chest.

The sharp blade sliced into him between his ribs.

For a moment, he stood before her filled with rage, paused to yet render a blow.

Fear and panic drove Allie. Her knuckles whitened around the handle of the knife as she tried to pull her weapon out of his chest. But it wouldn’t budge!Somehow the blade had lodged between his ribs.

In the length of a heartbeat, Allie saw him start to crumble, his staff falling to his side. Victoria stood before him, listening, trying to understand what was happening.

Allie had to release her knife. She had to pull Victoria from his path or he’d take her with him in the fall.

She had to give up her weapon!

Like a mighty tree that whispers through the air as it first begins to fall, Louis tumbled. His blood sprayed like a warm shower on Allie as she released her knife and pushed Victoria out of harm’s way. As Louis staggered over the railing, the women fell to the floor of the walk.

Allie lay over the old woman, protecting her. At first there was silence, then Allie heard the thud of his body against the hard earth below.

Afraid to move, afraid to believe it was over, Allie clung to her grandmother. But there were only the sounds of the night, and peace.

She rolled away from Victoria. ‘‘It is over,’’ she whispered.

The old woman didn’t move.

Allie brushed the blood from Victoria’s face. Her eyes were closed. Her body limp.

‘‘Victoria?’’ she whispered. ‘‘Victoria!’’ she screamed.

Light suddently filled the walk as the trapdoor flew open. Wes shoved his gun into his holster and knelt at her side.

‘‘Allie, are you all right?’’ His voice was thick with worry as his fingers brushed over her.

Allie made words form into sound. ‘‘Help Victoria! She’s hurt.’’

Wes forced his attention from Allie to the old woman. Gently, he lifted her and carried her to the trapdoor opening, calling orders down to his brothers as he moved. He lowered her to the waiting arms of Daniel.

‘‘I’ve got her.’’ Daniel’s voice reassured Wes. ‘‘Adam is already downstairs making ready. We’ll take care of Miss Victoria. You get Allie.’’

When Wes glanced back to help her, he found Allie was leaning over the railing. He moved to her side and gently slid his hands along her sides, reassuring himself that she suffered no harm.

‘‘Are you all right?’’ He watched the Old Guard below gathering around the preacher’s body. ‘‘Louis is dead. He’ll never hurt you again.’’

Allie circled her arms around Wes’s waist and cried softly. ‘‘I want to go home,’’ she whispered. ‘‘I want to go back to my cave.’’

Wes had no idea what to say. He hugged her to him, realizing how close he’d come to losing her, and he knew without any doubt that he loved her.

‘‘I’ll take you tomorrow.’’ He kissed the top of her head. ‘‘If that’s what you want.’’

‘‘That’s what I want,’’ she answered.