Chapter 5 #2
“My brother always had a taste for the finer things,” Cole said.
“Brother?” Lester asked. His expression grew thoughtful and his mouth pressed in a straight line. Snow and ice clung to his mustache and brows. “Well,” he finally said. “That’s a heck of a thing. Wouldn’t want to be in your shoes right about now.”
“Blood doesn’t make you family.” Goliath shifted impatiently beneath him. “What happened after you escaped the barracks?”
“They started shooting, but they was shooting blind. I always keep my pistol on me, and it’s the same with a couple of the others, but we were outgunned and we knew it.
They had the advantage, but we know the land, so we set off for the hunting cabin and put as much distance between us as possible. ”
“Why’d you come back?” Elizabeth asked him. “You’re taking a terrible risk.”
“The only chance we had was if one of us went into town to find you. There’s no telling how long the storm will last, but once the snow stops I figured they might come looking for us. Or worse, the two of you would come home and walk right into an ambush.
“I snuck down from the cabin to see what was what, and went straight to the barn to make sure they hadn’t done anything to the animals or the structure.
I crept around to see if I could get a glimpse of them, but they weren’t anywhere to be seen.
All our stalls are full because of the storm, so they just left their horses loose downstairs to feed and bed down.
I was able to get the barn door open a crack and one of their horses was right there.
Managed to get him out without being noticed.
But I could hear people talking up in the loft.
I got out of there fast as I could. And this is how far I made it. Feel like I’ve been out here for days.”
“You’re still armed?” Cole asked.
“Of course.”
“Fall in line. We can use all the men we can get. You just met the Silver Creek Bandits.”
There was a large tree that Elizabeth’s grandfather had planted in the crook where the road split and the long driveway toward the ranch began. The tree had withstood many storms, and it would withstand this one.
They started up the drive, and about halfway along Cole signaled Calhoun to take his men in the opposite direction.
Their time was limited. Their bodies and the horses could only last so long in the elements.
If their plan failed, they’d all be holed up in the hunting cabin for the night.
And taking the bandits out would be harder and probably cost more lives.
When he and those who had followed him reached the split-rail fence, they veered to the right to circle back around the barn.
They’d put out all but a couple of their lanterns, and visibility was almost impossible.
He used the fence as a guide until they reached the paddock and the barn came into view.
There were no lights, other than the lanterns they used.
“We’ve got to flush them out,” Cole said. “They have the advantage being up high. I need you all to circle around and wait. They’ll try to escape somehow, and they’re likely to come out shooting. Be ready.”
“Wait,” Elizabeth said, grabbing his arm. “What are you doing?”
“I’m going in there,” he said. “If I can sneak in and take them by surprise, there’s a better chance of keeping our men alive.”
“You’re not going in there by yourself. You’d be outnumbered.”
“This is what I’m good at,” he promised her. “They’ll never know I’m coming.”
“Then I’m coming too. I won’t let you go in there by yourself. You keep saying how smart they are. Don’t you think they’ll have planned for something like this? Especially Riley. Doesn’t he know what you’re good at as well as you do?”
He knew she had a point, but his gut instinct wanted to protect her. Not put her in harm’s way.
“You’ll stay with me,” he agreed. She was shivering beneath the warm layers of her coat. They couldn’t fight the cold much longer.
“We can’t use the outside ladder,” she said. “They’ll have someone watching the hayloft entry.”
“No, we’ll have to slip in through the barn door, just like Lester did. The wind is howling so fiercely the barn will already be creaking and groaning.”
He moved to dismount Goliath and she put her hand on his arm. “Wait,” she said, biting her lip to keep it from shivering. “What about the old barn?”
He studied her, confusion on his face. “What about it?”
“I just have a bad feeling about this, trying to outsneak a sneak. He knows you. He’s counting on you coming after him, blizzard or not. This is exactly the kind of trap he wants to catch you in.”
“I don’t see another way,” he said. He had trouble keeping the frustration out of his voice. Time was wasting.
“What if chaos is the best way to draw him out?” she asked. “What he wants in the end is to test his skills against yours. You said he’s as good with a gun as you are. He wants a showdown. He wants to prove he’s the best there is.”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying. Our guns are the only weapons we have to defeat him.”
“That’s not true,” she insisted. “They’re trapped.
He put them on high ground because he thought he knew what you’d do.
He’s waiting for you to come to him, when he needs to come to us.
I say we open the barn doors. Make as much noise as we can and get the animals to scatter.
And then I say we set the barn on fire and smoke them out.
We’ll block the entrances and wait for them. ”
His immediate instinct was to ask her if she’d lost her mind, but he closed his mouth before the words could come out.
He didn’t know if they had a chance of beating Riley, but he knew the odds were against him if he had to face off against his brother.
His fingers were half frozen and his reflexes were sluggish from the cold and fatigue.
“Have I told you how much I love you?” he asked, mesmerized by her.
This woman was his wife, and she amazed him on so many levels.
He’d never understood what it meant to love a person that much.
Yes, he could live without her. He’d been without that kind of love until he met her.
But he was so much better with her in his life.
She was strong where he was weak, and he complemented her the same way.
She was staring at him as if he’d grown a second head.
“What’s wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Now’s when you pick to tell me you love me?
” Her voice was hoarse and sounded as if she’d swallowed shards of glass, raw with emotion and cold and exhaustion.
“Right now? When we’re about to face down six killers in a blizzard and our barn is about to become a funeral pyre? This is the moment you chose?”
Her face was pale, though he wasn’t sure if it was from shock or the cold or the sheer absurdity of the situation.
Tears pricked her eyes, and he could see them gathering on her lashes, threatening to freeze in the bitter wind.
He was really starting to get concerned.
What had he done wrong? He’d thought women wanted to hear those words, had spent months working up the courage to say them out loud when she was awake.
“Do you know how long I’ve waited for you to say those words?
” Her voice cracked on the last word, and suddenly he understood.
She wasn’t angry—well, she was angry, but underneath it was something else.
Relief. Joy. A desperate kind of happiness that didn’t know how to express itself in the middle of mortal danger.
Red streaks appeared on each cheekbone and her eyes narrowed, but he could see the way her lips trembled, the way she was fighting between wanting to kiss him and wanting to throttle him. Lord, she was magnificent even in her fury. Especially in her fury.
“I’ve told you I love you before,” he said, confused by her reaction. He’d said it dozens of times. Maybe hundreds. Every night since—when had he started? It must have been months ago now.
“Don’t lie to me! If you do anything, always tell me the truth.”
“I’m not lying,” he said, sitting up a little straighter in his saddle. “I tell you in bed every night before I go to sleep.”
If fire could shoot out of a person’s eyes he was pretty sure he’d be nothing more than bone dust.
“You…” she started and then tried again. “You…you…”
Before things got out of hand he reached across and plucked her out of her saddle and into his lap.
“I’m only going to say this once because we’re about to freeze to death and we’ve got a gang of robbers who’ve taken over our home.
But I love you. I whisper it in your ear every night before I fall asleep.
And whenever I do you snuggle closer and squeeze my hand.
You’re the one who’s never said it to me. ”
She stopped squirming in his arms and stared at him in wide-eyed shock. “You must be out of your mind. I’ve never heard you say it.”
“Maybe your ears haven’t, but your body sure has. You know what it’s like to tell someone you love them and have them squeeze your hand in response? It’s not a good feeling. I’ve been waiting for you to say it back for months.”
“I love you too,” she said hotly.
He couldn’t help it. He laughed. What were they doing? They must both be crazy.
“I loved you before your father ever stepped foot in my office. I would’ve asked you to marry me if he hadn’t beaten me to it. I’ve fought in war, and I’ve seen terrible things. Enough to make you lose hope in people. But you’re my heart.”
She was so still in his arms he wasn’t entirely sure she was breathing. But then her gloved hand gently touched the side of his face. “You’re my heart too. And I hate to interrupt this moment. But we need to go burn down our barn.”
“This is going to make a heck of a story someday.”
“No one would believe it,” she said.