Chapter Seventeen #2
Ellie heard feet pounding in the distance, and she let out a long breath. Good, help was on the way. Micah had to hold him off until they arrived. “That was before the money came to her. Now, it’s hers and belongs to any family she has left. She has a whole passel of us, and it’s Mrs. Sutton now.”
Micah had gotten even closer, and Ellie peeked further out from behind the barrel as he kept Percival talking.
“Call her whatever you want,” Percival spat.
“She was supposed to be mine, just like her trollop of a mother before her. When her mama refused, we knew she’d do whatever she could to keep Eleanor away as well.
I took care of her just like I am going to take care of Eleanor. ”
The gasp, somewhere between surprise and soul wrenching grief stole Ellie’s breath.
She stood, her heart pounding in her chest. “You killed my mama.” It had always been something she’d suspected, but hearing it confirmed for her threatened to tear her heart from her body. “You killed her so I’d marry you?”
“Ellie,” Micah growled. “Get down.” She was too far gone. The man in front of her had killed her mother, murdered her without a thought. Had her grandfather been involved?
Percival’s eyes trained themselves on her, the predatory expression he wore nothing compared to her rage.
“Of course, I did.” He took a step forward, raising his pistol until she stared down its barrel.
His finger barely had the chance to twitch towards the trigger when Micah sprinted forward and tackled Percival to the ground.
He grabbed the businessman’s wrist, squeezing until he dropped the gun.
His fist clenched, Micah drove his hand down into Percival’s face once, then again.
“That’s for Ellie’s mother,” he said after the first two.
Another blow came. “That’s for Ellie.” Finally, as Micah’s brothers and a whole herd of cowboys came running into view, Micah placed one final blow to the man’s face, and she heard his nose crack from where she stood. “That one’s for me.”
Jacob hauled Micah off Percival while Isaac and Abe flipped Percival to his stomach in time for Sheriff Titus Ray to come jogging at barely more than a stroll from where the rest of the town gathered at the dance.
From what Ellie had been told, the man never got in a rush for anything and didn’t care much for the Sutton men.
Micah broke loose from Jacob’s hold and rushed to pull Ellie into his arms. “You’re okay? He didn’t get you, did he?”
No, she didn’t feel any pain other than a smarting elbow from where she’d hit the ground, but Micah’s shoulder had blood seeping onto his shirtsleeve. Panic raced through her, and she turned to look for Callie among the fray. “No, but he got you.”
“You’re sure you don’t want something for the pain?” Callie made another stitch in Micah’s shoulder at the clinic an hour later. “We’ve got it here.”
Jacob snorted beside him, knowing good and well there was no way Micah would have his faculties compromised while Percival James was still anywhere near Ellie, even if he was locked away in a jail cell. “You’re arguing with a brick wall, Thorn.”
Callie huffed, rolling her eyes as she finished the last of the stitches. “Fine, be in pain, then. You’re lucky it was a graze.” She finished up, grumbling about stubborn cowboys and turning both Jacob and Micah’s lips into grins.
The sound of Ellie’s sniff beside Micah immediately sobered him and had his head whipping in her direction.
“I’m fine, darlin’. We’re both fine.” She’d have grieving to do, knowing for certain her mother had been murdered rather than suspecting, but he’d be with her every step.
Raising his good arm to run it down her cheek, Micah relished the feeling of her soft skin under his fingers and knew he’d never take it for granted. “I promise.”
Ellie’s eyes shone with tears, tears he wished he could take away. “I know, I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you.” The tear rolled over onto her cheek, and Micah cupped her face in his hand, the pain forgotten.
“You’re not gonna lose me, El. You’re stuck with me for the rest of your life.
” They had entirely too much future ahead of them for anything else.
Before he had a chance to say anything else, the clinic door opened, and Isaac stepped through the patient room door.
Louisa and Abe had stayed with the children at the festival, but Hal followed him in.
“Please tell me Ray’s actually taking this seriously. ”
He hadn’t wanted to kill Percival James, as taking a life weighed on a man, but he’d do it if it meant keeping Ellie safe. Isaac nodded, his eyes tired as he sighed. “Yep. Because Percival premeditated the murder and he crossed state lines to do it, Ray’s calling in the Rangers.”
The Texas Rangers, the group their brother Ezekiel “Zeke” had joined when he was eighteen.
“Think Zeke’ll be with them?” He didn’t know how he felt about that, to be honest. Micah and Zeke were the youngest Sutton brothers, and he’d always felt a little abandoned at the way Zeke left things.
It wasn’t that he’d left home, but he never came back to visit and rarely wrote - as though none of them meant anything to him after all they’d been through together.
Isaac’s jaw tightened, and Micah knew he wasn’t the only one with the question. “Guess we’ll find out.”