Payton's Woman (34 page)

Dunbar hobbled to the
headboard and grabbed Payton’s arm with his left hand. Groans of pain came out
of his mouth with every step. He attempted to grab the cuff, but his right hand
held the revolver. He glanced at Julia.

For fear he’d see a hint
of her plan, she cast her gaze downward. She leaned on her elbow and slumped
onto the bed while letting out an exaggerated sigh of exhaustion.

Out of the corner of her
eye, she saw him grab the nightstand and slide it closer to the bed. He laid the
revolver on the top before grabbing Payton’s arm again. His right hand snagged the
cuff.

“Shove him this way,” he
said.

Her hands pressed against
Payton’s side. She uttered a loud groan as she pushed against him. His body
barely budged.

“Shove harder,” he
ordered. “This time, put your back into it.”

She pushed again.
Slowly, she scooted his body toward the head of the bed.

Payton moaned. His
eyelids fluttered.

“Harder,” he demanded. “I’ve
almost got it.” Dunbar pulled at his arm while stretching the chain to its
limit.

She pushed again and
watched him struggle to put the cuff around Payton’s wrist. After he accomplished
the task, he staggered back a step. Her hand clinched into a tight ball. She jumped
off the bed and leaped toward him. With all her strength, she slammed her fist against
his wounded leg.

Dunbar collapsed onto
the floor. He writhed in pain while shouting obscenities.

She grabbed the revolver
from the nightstand and pointed it at him. “Shut you’re filthy mouth.”

The shouting caused
Payton to stir. He touched his hand to his forehead. His other arm stretched
out taut, his wrist shackled in the cuff. He groaned as he lifted his head to
look around the room.

“Julia?” A dazed look covered
his face.

“It’s all right. I’ll get
you loose in a minute.” She glanced at the nightstand.

Dunbar sprawled on the
floor between her and the key. He squirmed around on the floor. His body rocked
back and forth in pain. He clutched at his leg with both hands

“Move away from the
nightstand,” she ordered.

He swore at her and
called her several names from between clenched teeth.

“Move,” she repeated.

He struggled into a
sitting position and flopped back against the nightstand. “I can’t walk.”

“I don’t want you to get
up.” She motioned with the revolver to where she wanted him to go. “Crawl over
there away from the bed.”

“What are you going to
do? Shoot me if I don’t move?”

Her lips curled into a
smile. “Don’t tempt me.”

The jangling of chains
made her look in that direction.

Payton lifted his body
onto one elbow. “What happened?”

She put her attention
back to Dunbar, but spoke to Payton. “Everything’s all right. I’ll have you out
of those cuffs shortly. But stay where you are. Lawrence Dunbar is on the
floor.”

“What?” He struggled
into a sitting position so he could see the floor. One leg curled under him for
balance. He rubbed the back of his hand over his eyes as if he couldn’t see. “Who’s
on the floor?”

“You won’t shoot an
unarmed man.” Dunbar glared at her. “You don’t have the nerve.”

“Don’t bet your life on
it. I’ve got plenty of reason to kill you. It wouldn’t take much for me to
shoot you where you sit even if you’re unarmed.”

“What reason could you
have? I don’t even know you.”

“My name is Julia
Anderson. You murdered my brother.”

“I’ve killed a dozen
men. I don’t remember any son of a bitch by the name of Anderson.”

Her blood ran cold. Her
body tensed. She used the palm of her other hand to cock the hammer.

The click of the turning
cylinder got his full attention. His eyes opened wide. His jaw went slack.

Payton seemed to come
out of his daze. He held his hand out to her. “Give me the gun.”

Without looking at him,
she shook her head.

“Julia.” The chain
rattled as he scooted closer to the edge of the bed. “He’s going to hang for
everything he’s done. That’s worse than shooting him. You’ll only be doing him
a favor it you kill him now.”

“I want to kill him.”
She licked at her dry lips. “But at the moment, I haven’t quite made up my mind.”

Dunbar tried to get to
his feet.

Her arm stiffened. She aimed
the revolver directly at his chest. “But if he gives me cause, I’ll shoot him
now.”

He eased back against
the nightstand. “How do you know it was me that killed your brother?”

“He wrote a letter as he
lay dying. He named you as his killer.”

He looked dumbfounded,
but quickly stumbled for excuses. “Maybe it wasn’t me. Maybe he was mistaken.”
His lips formed a snarl. “Maybe he lied.”

“My brother never lied.”
Her finger tensed on the trigger. “Reginald Eddington was a good and decent
man. And you murdered him.”

“Who?” Dunbar asked.

“Julia, let me have the
gun.” Payton got his feet squarely on the floor, but when he stood, the chain
jerked against his arm. His body swayed. He fell back onto the bed.

“Eddington?” Dunbar
scrunched up his face. “Red Eddington?”

Payton kicked at him
with his foot. “Get out of the way.” He reached for the drawer, but Dunbar’s
body prevented him from opening it. He put the bottom of his boot against his
shoulder and shoved the man away.

“His name was Reginald Eddington,”
she corrected. “You probably never knew him since you only consorted with murderous
scum like yourself.”

A confused look crept
over Dunbar’s face. He glanced at Payton. “Her brother was Red Eddy?”

Payton didn’t answer. His
attention focused on the nightstand. Frantically, he clawed through the open
drawer.

Dunbar glanced at Julia.
The puzzlement on his face changed to humor. He let out a sharp crack of
laughter.

“You’re going to shoot
me for killing your brother?” he said to Julia before looking back at Payton. “She
doesn’t know. You never told her.”

Payton quit searching
for the key. He held out his hand to her. “Give me the gun, Julia. You’re not
going to shoot him.”

“That’s right. Don’t waste
your bullets on me,” Dunbar agreed. “You’re going to need all six of them if
you’re going to kill the man that shot your brother. But it’s not me you’re
going to have to kill.”

“Shut your mouth, Dunbar.”
Payton’s voice sounded like a growl.

“Maybe you’re the one
who’d like to shoot me, Tyler. Is that why you want the gun? You want to kill
me so you can shut me up?”

Julia glanced back and
forth at the faces of the two men. Payton looked angry. Dunbar seemed happy. It
should be the other way around.

“Should I tell her, or
would you like to?” he said to Payton. “Maybe you’d rather wait until you’re in
bed together. Then you can whisper all the details in her ear while you’re rutting
between her legs. That ought to endear her to you.”

“I told you to shut up.”
He kicked at Dunbar, but he crawled just beyond his reach.

She rubbed at her forehead
in an attempt to clear her mind. “What are you talking about?”

“Maybe you and I can
make a deal, honey.” A cruel smile spread across his face. “I’ll hand over your
brother’s killer if you let me walk away from here a free man. How’s that sound
to you?”

“You’re not going
anywhere except to the gallows,” Payton said.

“What’s happening?” she
shouted over their arguing. “Something is wrong here.”

“Do we have a deal?”
Dunbar asked. “You get your brother’s killer, and I walk.”

“You killed him. He
named you in his letter.”

“I’m not the one who shot
your brother, but the man who did is sitting right here in this room.”

“You’re lying. There’s
only you and Payton in this room. I know he didn’t kill my brother.”

She glanced at Payton.
He sat motionless on the bed, his body ridge. His chest didn’t move, as if he
held his breath. His mouth opened, but no words came out. No denial rolled off
his lips.

“Look at him,” Dunbar said.
“It’s written all over his face.”

“Payton?” A cold chill
traveled up her spine.

“It was an accident,” he
said, his voice barely audible. “I didn’t know it was him. It was dark. There
was a lot of confusion—fighting, shooting. I spun around and saw a man point a weapon
at me. I shot first. He didn’t fire because he recognized me, but I didn’t
realize he was Eddy until I leaned over his body.”

“Eddy?” she repeated as
her bewilderment grew. “My brother’s name wasn’t Eddy. It was Reggie. Reginald
Eddington.”

“Eddy was short for
Eddington,” he said. “Your brother went by the nickname of Red Eddy because of
his red hair.”

Her world tilted. The wall
behind Payton spun into a blur. Her knees went limp. Her body swayed.

She managed to regain
her balance, but she stood in the middle of the room in stunned disbelief. The
words had come from his lips, but she didn’t believe it.

“Do I walk?” Dunbar
asked.

“No.” Payton glared at
him.

“Yeah? Well, maybe I’ll
just take you to hell with me.” A glimmer of evil gathered in his eyes. His
lips curled into a sinister smile. “Why don’t you tell her why there was so
much fighting and confusion? Tell her about the raid, and the pirates who
boarded the ship.”

Dunbar smirked with
satisfaction as she glanced at Payton and waited for an explanation.

“Pirate, you say,”
Dunbar said in a mocking tone. “They were on opposite sides—Eddy and Tyler.
Would you like the honor of telling her which one of you was the pirate?”

“You’re the only pirate
here,” Payton said hotly. “You blood sucking, murderous bastard. You knew how
to corrupt a saint. Catch him in a weakened moment, then turn him into
something to use to your own advantage.”

“He was no saint,”
Dunbar said. “But do tell who I corrupted. It was someone we all know. He
became a pirate, preying on others, plundering and killing for profit.”

“It wasn’t my brother,” she
said. “He’d never do anything like that, no matter how desperate he was.”

“Not your brother?”
Dunbar repeated. “Two men shoot it out on the deck of ship. One of them is a
pirate. If not your honest, decent brother, then who? Tyler?”

Her free hand pressed
against her ear. She didn’t want to hear any more, but the venomous words
spewed from Dunbar’s mouth.

“I could be wrong. Maybe
it was Tyler. I heard he bought this crappy little dump. The Double Eagle
Shipping Company is his now. Could it be he’s planning to carry on in Hennigan’s
footsteps?”

She tried to blink away
the dazed look she knew hovered in her eyes. Payton had explained to her, but
she’d forgotten. She looked at him. “Why did you buy the Double Eagle?”

“I bought it for us. You
didn’t want me to go back to sea.”

“Are you involved in
piracy?”

“You know me better than
that.”

“I thought I knew my
brother.” She shook her head to clear her thoughts. “All those things you told
me about your friend Eddy. That was actually my brother?”

“We can talk about this
later. First, help me get out of this cuff. Then we’ll turn Dunbar over to the law.”

“Hold on. You said I
could go free if I handed over your brother’s killer.”

Her gazed darted back
and forth between the two men. Dunbar may not have been the one who pulled the
trigger on the gun that took her brother’s life, but he was still a cruel and
evil man.

“I never promised you
anything,” she said. “And whatever my brother was, whatever he became—,” The revolver
jerked in her hand as her body shivered. “Reggie wrote in his letter that the
man responsible for his death was you. I believe my brother’s dying words.”

Payton let out a visible
sigh of relief, but his alertness remained. “Don’t let your guard down, Julia. Keep
a close eye on him.”

“I am.” Without looking
away from Dunbar, she nodded with her head to a spot near Payton’s feet. “I
remember where the key is. It fell on the floor and bounced under the bed.”

He scrambled to the
floor. The chain stretched taut as he got on his knees and searched under the
bed. When he found the key, he unshackled his wrist. All the while he kept an
eye on Dunbar. He worried that in her dazed condition, Julia might not react quickly
enough if Dunbar tried to take the gun.

As soon as he freed
himself from the cuff, he grabbed Dunbar’s arm. The man didn’t go easily. He fought
viciously to get free. During the scuffle, Payton kicked against his wounded
leg. Dunbar gave up his fight and collapsed on the floor in defeat. Payton
dragged him closer to the bed and tightened both cuffs around his wrists.

The exertion of
shackling the struggling man caused Payton’s head to throb. He touched his
scalp where he’d been hit and felt a knot on his head, but no blood showed on
his fingertips.

He took a deep breath to
steady his nerves. He needed to talk to Julia. She may never forgive him, but he
had to tell her the truth.

When he turned, he saw
the revolver setting on the dresser. Julia was nowhere in sight. She’d disappeared
from the room. Perhaps from his life.

Chapter Thirty-Four

The sun dipped over the
horizon as the crewmen prepared the steamer for its voyage up the Sacramento
River. Payton ran up the gangplank. A man in uniform stood on the deck. He
grabbed at him to get his attention. “I’m looking for a woman.”

The officer glanced at
his shoulder where Payton’s hand gripped him. He looked back at his face. “Calm
down, mister. There’s bound to be a few women like that onboard.”

“No,” he shouted as his
frustration grew. He closed his eyes and shook his head in an effort to clear
his thoughts. “I’m looking for a particular woman. She’s young, blonde hair,
about this tall.” He gestured with his hand. “Did she come aboard?”