Authors: Parting Gifts
He heard the sickening thud of a fist hitting flesh before he reached the side of the shack. Anger brewing within him, he peered through the narrow slats of the splintered shutter. Maddie was sprawled on the dirt floor. A giant towered over her.
“You’re lying, Maddie girl.”
Shaking her head, she struggled to sit up. “I don’t know where the money is, Silas.”
Silas slammed her to the ground, and Jesse felt the molten rage shoot through him. He released his stranglehold on his revolver and reined in his anger. Now was not the time to lose control of his emotions.
“Walsh, get me a rope.”
Jesse watched the other man lumber out of the shack. The larger man knelt over Maddie, grabbed her hair, and yanked her up. “I know ways to make you talk. Give you my word before this night is over, you’ll tell me where the money is buried, and you’ll be damn glad to dig it up for me.”
Jesse stepped away from the window and heard something snap beneath his boot. He glanced down at two small twigs held together with a piece of string so they formed a crudely shaped cross. Turning his attention back to the task at hand, he crouched low and stalked his prey.
Maddie felt as though she was a rag doll when Silas slung her onto the bed in the corner of the single room. She scrambled up and pressed her back against the wall.
“Walsh surely is taking his time,” Silas said as he unbuckled his gun belt and dropped it onto the table. “Probably forgot what the hell I sent him after.” His mouth formed a distorted smile as he raked his eyes over her.
She clutched the wrapper around her throat. “If you do anything, Silas—”
“What? You won’t tell me where the money is?” He grabbed her ankle and jerked her down to the bed. He fell on top of her, captured her wrists with one beefy hand, and held them in place over her head. His free hand roamed insolently over her curves.
His breath was hot and rancid as he ran his mouth across her throat. Deep within, Maddie screamed, but she knew to voice her horror would only ignite his lust and violence. He worked her nightgown up, and a small whimper broke free of her restraint. He chuckled and dug his fingers into her buttocks. She heard a rope thud to the ground, grateful Walsh had come back in time.
“You can stay and watch, Walsh,” Silas growled without lifting his head from where it was buried next to her throat, “or you can leave, but you stop me from taking her this time, and I’ll kill you.”
Silence permeated the room. Then chains rattled to the floor. Silas jerked his head to the side and met the gaze of a silver gun barrel. He looked up and discovered Satan had risen from the bowels of hell.
“Get off her, or I’ll kill you,” Jesse said, his voice ominously low.
Silas eased back. With one rapid, smooth motion, Jesse holstered his gun, swung his fist around, and sent Silas crashing to the packed earth. “Get up, you son of a bitch,” Jesse growled.
Struggling to his feet, Silas flailed his stocky arms. Jesse delivered a solid blow to the man’s gut, then another to the center of his face. Silas dropped to the ground with a resounding thud. Jesse grabbed the shackles and rolled Silas to his back. He clamped his hands and feet into the restraints before dragging him across the earthen floor. He deposited him in a corner and walked back to the bed.
Curled in a ball, Maddie stared at him. Swollen flesh and black bruises marred one side of her face. Tears welled in her eyes as he gently touched her abused flesh. “They won’t hurt you anymore, Maddie.” He extended his gun toward her. She raised her eyes from the silver barrel to his hardened face. “Hold the gun on that one. If he moves an inch, shoot him. I’ve got the other shackled up outside. I want him in here where I can see him.”
Taking the gun, Maddie held it with trembling hands. She watched him walk through the door. She’d prayed he’d come, prayed he wouldn’t. She’d seen in the cold depths of his eyes that he knew the truth. He was no longer the man she’d kissed by the creek, nor was he the man she’d waltzed with in the barn. He was a Texas Ranger determined to carry out his duty.
Confusion marking his face, Walsh stumbled in ahead of Jesse. He walked to the corner and dropped beside Silas. Jesse picked up a rope.
“Shoot him, Maddie girl,” Silas urged. “Shoot him or you’ll hang along with us. You were there, girl, when we killed the first one. Makes you as guilty as us.”
His back to her, Jesse wrapped the rope around the men as though Silas wasn’t talking. She felt as though someone had sliced her heart. He trusted her, and for some reason she couldn’t explain, it pained her all the more that he did.
When the two men were adequately immobilized, Jesse hunkered down and addressed them. “I’m short on patience, and I’m anxious to get home. I figure you’re both going to hang anyway, but if you do one thing to aggravate me, I’ll shoot you dead right here and now.”
He got up, walked over to Maddie, took the gun from her, and slipped it into his holster. She dropped her gaze to the shackles resting on the ground. Closing her eyes, she held out her hands, palms up.
“Why don’t you see to fixing some coffee? I’ll need it to keep awake tonight. I’m going to hobble my horse, then I’ll be back.”
She watched him disappear. Wishing he’d treat her like the dirt she was, she knelt before the small fire in the hearth. She felt as though she was a little girl who knows she’s done wrong and is expecting a whipping, but the whipping never comes, and therein lies the punishment.
“Did he make you promises, girl?” Silas threw out across the room. “He’s got no power over the law. He can’t save you. Only old Silas can do that. My gun’s still on the table. Get it and just wound him. I’ll finish him off. Know what they do to women in prison? They’ll do to you all the things I’ve wanted to do, but no one will stop ‘em.”
“I stole his dreams from him once before, Silas. I won’t do it again,” A sound in the doorway gained her attention, and she glanced up. Holding his rifle, Jesse strode into the ramshackle structure.
“You can sleep in the bed tonight,” he said as he laid his rifle on the table.
She poured some coffee into a cup and set it on the table. Then she limped across the earthen floor and lay on the bed, rolling to her side so she faced the wall. She felt the bed dip under his weight.
“Here. Hold this to your cheek.”
Reaching back, she took the damp cloth he offered and pressed it against her cheek. She wished it would ease the ache in her heart as easily as it did the pain on her face. She didn’t move when Jesse placed her foot on his thigh. She heard him rip a blanket. Then she felt him wrap the woolen strip around her foot.
“They didn’t even let you put on your shoes?”
She didn’t answer, didn’t think he expected an answer. Tenderly, he wrapped her other foot in silence. When she felt him leave the bed, she reached down and drew up a blanket. The room suddenly seemed as cold as a winter storm. She heard him scrape a chair across the floor and set it against the wall beside the bed. It moaned in protest as he dropped his body into place.
“Does Charles know everything?” she asked quietly.
“Yes.”
“And the children?”
“No.”
Finding some comfort in his answer, she wondered how he would explain her absence to the children when he returned home. She felt him pull the blanket over her shoulder. As simple as the action was, it caused a far greater pain within her heart than any of the harsh words he’d ever flung at her.
“Try and get some sleep. We’ll be starting a hard two-day ride tomorrow.”
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“I’ll be taking you to the Ranger headquarters in Austin.”
She drew her knees up and let the tears wash silently down her cheeks.
Jesse concentrated his attention on the two men huddled in the corner. The army had taught him discipline. The Rangers had taught him restraint. It took every bit of willpower he possessed not to crawl into that bed and wrap himself around Maddie.
He had to maintain a tight rein on his heart. His heart had no say in this matter, but it sure as hell wanted to say its piece. If he allowed his heart to speak, he’d have come into this shack with his guns blazing and killed two men for daring to take her. If he allowed his heart to talk, he’d take her to Mexico and build a ranch there. He’d send for the children, but what sort of life could he give them? Certainly not one they could be proud of. No, his heart had to stay silent on this matter.
He glanced around the shack. He didn’t think it had changed much over the years. All the furniture was homemade, and it didn’t appear anyone had taken much time to make it. He imagined Maddie as a little girl, playing on the dirt floor. She would have had no tiny teacups. He wondered if she’d had a rag doll. He dropped his head back and listened to the wind howling through the cracks in the walls.
Jesse jerked awake. The interior of the cabin was gloomy. Beyond it, through the slats in the shutters and the cracks in the door, he could see the emerging dawn. In the corner, the two men snored like hibernating bears. He glanced toward the bed at his side. It was empty.
He bolted out of the chair, and it crashed to the floor. He rushed outside and came to an abrupt halt. All the horses were hobbled nearby.
Taking in every detail surrounding him, his eyes and ears alert, he began to stalk the area. He moved around to the side of the shack and felt like a damned fool when Maddie glanced over at his crouched, hunting stance. Then she returned to her task.
He knelt beside her. “Your mother’s grave?”
Nodding, she straightened the crude cross his big foot had nearly destroyed the day before. “I used to think if I ever had any money, I’d mark her place with a proper cross.”
“Imagine she prefers the one you made when you were younger.”
“I hate to ask, but if they hang me, will you bring me back here and bury me beside my mother?”
He took the twigs from her trembling hands, leaned over, and poked them into the earth. “No one’s going to hang you.”
“I think I’d rather hang than go to prison. Prison for a woman can’t be pleasant.”
“No, I don’t reckon it is.”
She balled her fists, fighting the tears, wishing it was anyone but Jesse turning her in, grateful it was Jesse now at her side. Sometimes, she thought she’d go insane with the mixed emotions she felt for him. “The money that Silas was looking for—”
“I know you don’t know where it is.”
She took a shaky breath. “It’s buried beneath the dirt in the hearth.”
Grabbing her arm, he spun her around. “What?”
“It was taken from a Wells Fargo stage. Posse was hot on our trail, so we split up. Father and I came here, and he buried the money. Then we met the others outside Fort Worth. They decided to do one more job before coming back here for the money. Only they didn’t know the Texas Rangers were expecting a robbery and had set up an ambush. Father and Andrew were killed. Silas and Walsh didn’t know where the money was buried.”
He studied her face. “Why didn’t you come back and get the money?”
“Because it didn’t belong to me. I never used the money from any of the robberies.”
“Why didn’t you tell Silas where it was?”
She shrugged. “It wasn’t his, either. I knew he’d kill me whether he had the money or not. I wanted to die with some dignity, knowing I’d thwarted his mean heart.”
His fingers tightened around her arms, then he gently cupped her face. Her heart cried at the anguish she saw reflected in his eyes.
“Why didn’t you trust me?” he rasped.
“I trust you as I’ve never trusted anyone in my life, and that makes all this that much harder to bear. I was ashamed, Jesse. I didn’t want to see the truth of what I am reflected in your eyes. You, Charles, the children. You’re all so good, so upstanding. Charles thought when I walked into Bev’s, I was moving down in the world, but I was actually moving up.”
“How the hell do you figure that?”
“At least at Bev’s, I wouldn’t have taken a man’s money without giving him something back.”
“And that was important to you?”
Her warm tears ran in a rivulet along her cheeks. “I never knew what Father and Andrew did until my mother died. When it was time for their next job, they took me with them. The first few times I only held the horses while they robbed a stagecoach, but as I got older, I threatened to shoot people if they didn’t cooperate. I hated it, and I hated myself for not walking away. I believed Father when he said the next time would be the last.”
She released a strangled laugh. “I know it’s hard to understand, but he was a good father, and Andrew was a good brother. I loved them, even after I learned what they did. But they weren’t good men. They took things to which they had no right. It was so hard … loving them, but hating the things they did.”
“You ever kill anyone?”
She shook her head. “I was afraid I’d kill someone, so I never loaded my gun.”
“You little fool. Do you know how easily you could have gotten killed?”
“I didn’t care. My life was worthless until Charles asked me to be a mother to his children. It was a chance for me to give without taking.” Fresh tears filled her eyes and spilled onto her cheeks. “Does Charles hate me?”
He brought her face so near to his that she felt his breath whisper across her lips.
“How could anyone hate you?”
“Don’t you?”
His eyes delved deeply into hers. “No, Whiskey, I could never hate you.” He grazed his knuckles across her cheek. “But I have to take you to Austin.”
Bravely, she nodded. “I know. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be the man you are.” Or the man she loved.
At that precise moment, he wished he was anyone but who he was. He stood. “I’ll dig up the money, and we’ll take it back with us.”
Reluctantly, she followed him into the shack, whispering farewell to her dreams on the way.
It was past noon, three days later, before Jesse herded his captives into the Ranger headquarters. A man behind a desk stood and shook his hand. “Well, Jesse, I didn’t think I’d see you back so soon.”
“Got lucky, Bob. I’m turning over these two outlaws along with this money they stole from a Wells Fargo stage.” He dropped his saddlebag on the desk.
Bob signaled to two Rangers standing nearby. The men grabbed Silas and Walsh. Silas struggled. “You’re coming too, Maddie. You’re one of us.” The Ranger pulled him toward the cells. “Don’t know what he promised you, girl, but you’ll hang with us!” His voice echoed along the corridor until it faded into silence.
Bob sat behind his desk and pulled out some papers. “This is them, isn’t it?”
Jesse glanced at the wanted posters. “Yep.”
Bob nodded. “And what about this last member of the gang? This young fella.” He studied Maddie. “Been some speculation that maybe he’s a girl.”
“She’s the leader’s daughter.”
Maddie dropped her gaze to the floor. She expected Jesse’s next words to sound like a death knell, but no words came, only the silence hovering around her. Sadly, she realized he was waiting for her to openly admit the truth.
Squaring her shoulders, she lifted her eyes to the man behind the desk. She would face what was to come without the cowardice Silas had shown. She took a breath, ran the words quickly through her mind, and opened her mouth to speak.
“But she was laid to rest in Fort Worth,” Jesse said.
Maddie snapped her head around. Stone faced, Jesse was looking directly into the eyes of the man sitting behind the desk. Bob cleared his throat. “I see. Know that for a fact, do you?”
“I’ll stake my life on it.”
Bob leaned back in his chair. “Don’t recall you introducing me to the lady here.”
“Maddie is my brother’s wife. Those two kidnapped her. I guess they were looking for a ransom.”
Bob ran his finger over his lips. “What was that fella yelling about her hanging?”
“You know as well as I do, Bob, you can’t give any credence to anything an angry prisoner says.”
Bob chuckled. “I guess maybe I’ve been behind this desk too long. Course I wouldn’t be here at all, if you hadn’t saved my life back in seventy-eight.”
Jesse shifted his stance. “Rangers don’t keep a tally on the debts they owe each other.”
“I know most don’t, but I do.” He scrutinized Maddie a moment longer, then cleared his throat. “Without a body, I can’t give you a reward on the last member of the gang.”
“Wasn’t looking for one.”
Bob scribbled on some forms and handed them to Jesse. “Just sign on the bottom line, and I’ll see that the money for those two gets sent to you.”
Jesse signed the papers. Then he put his hand beneath Maddie’s elbow. “I’ll be seeing you around, Bob.”
Bob leaned forward. “I’ll get the word out about this young lady. No sense in bounty hunters wasting their time looking for her.”
“’Preciate it,” Jesse said as he opened the door.
“Jesse?”
He glanced over his shoulder.
“You just make damn sure she doesn’t come back to haunt us.”
Jesse gave a brusque nod and escorted Maddie outside. She wrapped her arms around a rough pillar. She had never expected to walk in the sunlight again or breathe untainted air. Her legs wobbled. It was several moments of breathing deeply before she dared glance over at Jesse.
Stepping off the boardwalk, he gave her a cursory glance before turning his attention to the passing activity. “I can’t take you home looking like that. There’s a bathhouse just off Congress Avenue. We’ll go freshen up, have a quick meal, then we’ll ride home.” He grabbed the reins of their horses and began walking.
As though in a trance, Maddie followed as he weaved through the throng of people. She wanted to touch the buildings just to make sure she hadn’t fallen asleep and dreamed all this, but his long strides left no time for wanderings.
They entered the bathhouse, and a small woman bustled over. Jesse talked with her a moment. Then the woman approached Maddie, smiled at her, and took her arm. “Come with me, señora.”
Maddie felt a moment of panic and looked at Jesse.
He gave a curt nod. “Rosa will see to your needs. Just go with her.”
Obediently, she followed the woman to a small room at the end of the corridor.
“You sit here, señora, while I have my boys fill the tub.”
The young men traipsed in time and again filling the wooden tub with steaming water. Sitting on the wooden bench, Maddie studied her hands. Her fingernails were cracked and broken, her knuckles grazed, and her skin rough. For a while they had been the hands of a mother, before that the hands of an outlaw. Now, she didn’t know what they were.
The young men dumped the water from the last pails into the tub, tipped their hats, and walked out, closing the door quietly behind them. Maddie unwrapped the strips of blanket from her feet and rubbed her toes. Every muscle and bone in her body ached. A brisk knock on the door sounded before Rosa stuck her head inside the room.
“Señora, are you decent?”
Decent wasn’t a word she would have ever associated with herself. “I’m still dressed.”
Rosa bustled into the room. “Your husband told me to give you these things.” She handed Maddie a large parcel wrapped in brown paper.
Slowly, Maddie unwrapped the parcel. She ran her fingers over the riding skirt, blouse, boots, and underclothes.
“Oh, señora, you are so fortunate to have such a caring husband who loves you so much.” Rosa rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. “And one so handsome, too.” She held up a small vial. “He told me to pour these into your water.’ As the bath salts hit the water, the scent of forget-me-nots wafted through the room.
Hugging the clothes, smelling the sweet fragrance of the water, Maddie collapsed to the floor. The first sob wracked, her body. Somewhere in the distance, she heard Rosa’s voice. Her light footsteps as the woman ran from the room were soon replaced by heavier footfalls as Jesse rushed in. He dropped to the floor and took her in his arms.
She pressed her face against his bare chest and cried for all the things she’d been, all that she was, all that she’d ever wanted to be.
“Shh, Maddie, it’s over now.”
She shook her head vigorously against his chest. “He knows you weren’t telling the truth.” “Probably.”
She tilted her tear-streaked face, her eyes searching his. “Don’t you know what you’ve done? They’ll send you to prison—”
“No one’s sending me to prison. As far as the state of Texas is concerned, the fifth member of that gang no longer exists.”
“But the man from the Pinkerton Agency—”
“I don’t think Somner will be bothering you.” He sighed deeply. “He told me more than one person was involved. I’m assuming he meant Silas and Walsh. I think once he got on the stagecoach, he doubled back to wait for them. Since he didn’t stop them from taking you, I can only assume he wasn’t as smart as he thought. I figure they ran across him and killed him.”
“Maybe he’s just hurt somewhere.”
“Maybe. I’ll have a good look around when we get back. If I don’t find anything, I’ll send a telegram to Washington.”
She studied his calm face and remembered words he’d spoken long ago about the mistakes a man made when he didn’t think through his actions. “You can’t take the law into your own hands. You’ll come to regret—”
“No.” He brushed the loose strands of hair away from her face. “No, Maddie, I’ll never regret what I did today.” He ran his finger over the worry lines etched within her brow. “This isn’t something I did lightly. I thought long and hard about it; I thought it nearly to death.” He gave her a small smile.
She shook her head. “You can’t make this a personal—”
“I didn’t. Why the hell do you think I’ve been such a cold bastard since I walked into that shack? Because I didn’t want my heart talking instead of my head.”
“Jesse, what you’ve done isn’t right.”
“Dammit, Maddie, why are you fighting me on this? I spent years hunting outlaws and desperadoes. I know a bad person when I see one.” He cupped her face, his eyes holding hers. “There’s not a spark of bad in you.” When she opened her mouth to protest, he rushed on. “All right. You rode with some bad men. You held the horses and you pointed an unloaded gun at some people, but there’s more honesty and goodness in you than there is in half the people walking that street out there.” He rubbed his thumbs over her cheeks. “Trust me on this.”
“But Charles and the children—”
“Would only suffer if you went to trial and in the end, you’d be found innocent. By the time I stepped down from that witness stand, not a person on that jury would dare vote guilty.”
“What would you do—threaten them with nightmares?”
“No, I’d tell them how well you care for my brother and his children. I’d tell them how you’d rather sell your body than your soul. I’d tell them about a strongbox buried in a hearth that could have given you a life most people only dream about.”
Tears filled her eyes. “I don’t deserve this,” she whispered hoarsely.
Wrapping his arms around her, he drew her against his chest. He felt her warm tears trickle down his chest. “I don’t know anyone who is more deserving of a new start, Maddie.”
They rode long after the sun set. Maddie thought Jesse intended for them to ride through the night, but without warning, he stopped and dismounted. He lifted her down from the mare and proceeded to set up a camp without a word. He unsaddled the horses and hobbled them, then built a fire.
Maddie sat on the blankets she’d spread before the fire and watched as Jesse stalked silently around the perimeter. Satisfied that all was secure, he returned to the fire and added some more dry wood. His gaze was focused on the writhing flames. She wondered if his thoughts burned as steadily as the fire, if he was beginning to regret the lie he’d delivered with such ease to a fellow Ranger. She would harbor no ill feelings, would understand completely if he took her back to Austin at first light.
He stirred the fire, and when he spoke, his voice blended in with the roar of the fire’s blaze. “I want tonight, Maddie.” He twisted his body away from the fire until his attention was focused entirely on her. “Tell me you don’t love me, and I’ll sleep on the other side of the fire. Otherwise, I intend to take tonight.”
Tears brimmed within her eyes. “I care for Charles,” she whispered hoarsely. “I don’t want to hurt him.”
In silence, he moved lithely across the narrow space separating them and sat beside her. He cradled her cheek as his thumb caressed her soft skin. “I won’t take anything that belongs solely to Charles, but I’ll push his ownership to the edge.”
She lowered her gaze. “Please don’t ask this of me.”
“I’m not asking you to dishonor your vows. I’m only asking that you give me something to carry away with me when we leave here tomorrow.” He leaned close until she felt his breath fan her cheek. “Tell me you don’t love me.”
A sob escaped her clogged throat. He tilted her face, his thumbs gently wiping the tears trailing her cheeks. “I love you, Whiskey.”
Another sob sounded, and the tears increased. If he hadn’t said the words, she thought she could have overlooked the tender expression in his eyes.
“You’re my brother’s wife. I carry that thought with me every minute of every day, every second of every night. My dearest wish is that Charles will live long enough to hold his first grandchild, but that means I’ll be an old man before I ever have another opportunity to hold you in my arms throughout the night.”
Laying her face against his chest, she listened to the steady rhythm of his heart. She inhaled the lingering scent of his bath, mingled with the sweat of travel. “You can’t wait for what may never be.”
“How can I not?” he asked, feeling the warmth of her tears soak through the cloth of his shirt. “You touch me in ways I didn’t even know I could be touched.” He wrapped his large hand around her smaller one. “I’m not talking about this kind of touching, though God knows I think about it often enough.” Gently, he placed a finger beneath her chin and tilted her gaze up to meet his. “I’m talking about the way I feel when I watch you with the children.” He pressed her palm flat against his chest. “I’m talking about what I feel deep in here when you smile, the terror that rips through me when I see fear in your eyes, the joy that explodes within me when I hear you laugh. Do you feel any of that for me?”
She felt all of it and more, but she couldn’t give him hope where there was none. As he tentatively touched his lips to hers, she forced her mouth to remain immobile, to ignore the warmth of his mouth, the lure of his touch.
“Dammit, Maddie,” he rasped. “Either tell me you don’t love me or show me that you do.”
No anger marred his voice, only an anguished pain. A fleeting moment was all he asked for, was all she could give him. She could not deny his heart, nor could she deny her own.
When he again lowered his mouth to hers, she welcomed his kiss with the certain knowledge that true love brings. Groaning at her response, he swept his tongue inside her mouth, stealing the treasures she offered. Her fingers clutched his shirt, and he pressed her closer, relishing the feel of her within his arms.
Tonight. They would have tonight, and he intended to make sure it was enough to get him through all the nights that lay ahead when he wouldn’t have her in his arms. He lifted his mouth from hers and gazed into her eyes. He saw doubt flicker briefly within the passionate depths.
“I swear, Maddie, when I take you home to Charles tomorrow, we’ll both be able to look him in the eye and feel no guilt. Trust me.”
She gave him an impish smile. “It’s not you I’m worried about trusting, you bleedin’ idiot.”
Smiling, he pulled her close. “God, I love you. There’s a little river just beyond those trees. Swim with me.” Not waiting for her answer, he wrapped his hand around hers, pulled her up, and walked toward the river.
The full moon reflected off the dark waters as they meandered downstream. Somewhere a fish splashed, a frog croaked, and crickets chirped.
“I’ll get undressed over there and meet you in the water,” Jesse said.