In Too Deep (4 page)

“You certainly smell better than Wendell.”

“I can barely stand all the sweet-talk.” He was sorely afraid that was the closest he was ever going to get to a compliment out of the contrary woman.

Audra gave Ethan a strained smile as they walked out of the abandoned shack that Rawhide called a church.

They each had a baby in their arms.

Good grief, I'm the father of two children. I didn't see that coming when I woke up this morning.

Then he realized he'd forgotten to take off his hat for his wedding. He remembered well that he'd said “I do,” though. Ethan had the sudden image of a bear trap snapping shut on his leg.

The rest of their wedding guests—Rafe, Seth, and Julia—followed them out of the miserable excuse for a church.

“Hold up, Ethan, Audra. I want to talk to you while Parson Stamper's still here.” Rafe's voice acted like a lasso thrown over Ethan. He'd never had much luck standing up to his big brother. It was easier to let Rafe run things and for Ethan to keep his mouth shut and curved up into a smile.

Turning around, he and Audra stepped back into the church and formed a small circle with the wedding guests and the parson.

A very small circle.

Rawhide wasn't a real welcoming place for a man of the cloth. This ten-by-ten-foot derelict building was the church, the parson's home, and when the parson was out of town—which was most of the time—it served as the closest thing Rawhide, Colorado, had to a hotel. Bring your own blanket.

They'd been surprised to find that Parson Stamper hadn't moved on yet. Rafe had called that luck.

Ethan had another word for it.

The parson stayed this long because his horse had come up lame, so the parson didn't see it as good luck, either.

Rafe said, “I want to talk to the sheriff while we're in town.”

“I'll go along.” Ethan waited to see what other orders Rafe would give.

“And I intend to search Father's building. He had to hide that money somewhere. Let's split up so we can get home.” Julia could give orders well enough, too.

“No.” Rafe wasn't real good at talking things over. “You stay with me. This is a wide open town and I'm not going to let you out of my sight.”

Ethan was standing right in the doorway. He looked over his shoulder at Rawhide. Eight buildings stood almost swallowed up by the forest. The unpainted wooden shacks faced each other, four on each side of a rutted street. The forest pressing in from all directions until the town looked ready to be reclaimed by the wilderness.

Which might not be such a bad thing.

Rawhide was a mountain settlement mostly abandoned since the Pike's Peak Gold Rush had played out.

There were another two dozen cabins scattered around, mainly up the slope to the west. Ramshackle log buildings peeked out of the woods here and there. Not a single person was visible besides themselves. But one building had a horse and wagon parked in front of it, marking it as the general store, and another had the word
Sheriff
painted over the door.

“It doesn't look all that dangerous, Rafe,” Julia said dryly.

“Parson,” Rafe said, “can you keep this wedding a secret? Just don't mention it to anyone.”

Parson Stamper shrugged. “Don't see why not. I'm a man who can keep a secret. But why?”

“It occurs to me that no one in these parts has the name Gilliland anymore. There's trouble following my wife's pa. He's dead. If someone comes hunting for Wendell, they'll find that out, and no one knew he had a wife and family.” Rafe's arm slid to Julia's back. “Maybe they'll just believe it's a dead end and leave us be. Of course Tracker knows Julia's married, but I'll make sure the sheriff doesn't let Tracker send any messages. And even if they do find out about Julia and Audra, they won't know they've both moved and changed their names.”

Ethan swallowed hard to think that, yes, Audra had changed her name. To Kincaid. The whole thing seemed like a dream, so he smiled and ignored it. A dream or a nightmare. He smiled bigger.

“Fine with me.” Parson Stamper nodded at a building on the south end of town. “My horse is better and I'm leaving town today. I won't mention the wedding to anyone, here or on my circuit. And I'll be praying for the trouble that's dogged you all.”

“Obliged, Parson.” Rafe stepped aside to let the parson head for the livery, then turned to the rest of the group. “Julia, you come with me to talk to Tracker. Ethan and Audra, why don't you go hunt around in Wendell's building?”

Rafe pointed to a tumbledown shack up the hill from town. No windows, a door hanging from one leather hinge.

“That's an even worse building than the one Father bought for a house.” Julia looked at the building, then turned to Audra. “He couldn't have spent much of the money he stole. I wonder what he did with it?”

“I wish we could find it and send it back to the man he took it from.” Audra hugged her sleeping baby closer. “Then he'd leave us alone.”

“The man he stole it from probably came by it in a dishonest way.” Ethan was sorely afraid this was a problem without an easy solution.

“There's no reason to believe that.” Audra frowned.

“No honest man sends vermin like Tracker Breach to regain his money.” Ethan shifted a sleeping Maggie in his arms so her head was resting in his right elbow. “Sending Breach was the choice of a bad man. If we find the money, we should turn it over to the sheriff and let him get to the bottom of who it really belongs to.”

Audra nodded. “Agreed. Let the law handle it.”

“Julia and I will come up to Wendell's building when we're done. Seth, you go with Ethan and Audra. I don't want you talking to Breach.”

“Why not, Rafe?”

“Because you tell a mixed-up version of what happened because of the laudanum he was feeding you, and I want everything clear. You go hunt. We'll come shortly to help you.” He took Julia's arm. It might have been a romantic gesture, but to Ethan it looked more like he was taking her prisoner.

“I'm looking forward to seeing Tracker again.” Julia sounded dangerous. Grim. Possibly violent. Ethan hadn't much wanted to get married to anyone, but the Gilliland brood had the only women available, and he'd gotten the pick of the litter.

Ethan watched Rafe and Julia head down the street. He took Audra's arm. “Well, Mrs. Kincaid, shall we go find your money?”

He smiled. Nothing much to smile about, but he tended to smile over anything and everything, so why not this?

Audra seemed to study his smile for too long. Then she frowned. “Yes, let's go. Maybe we can find it and get all of this behind us.”

“Then can we go home?” Seth asked, heading toward the building, leaving them behind.

“We'll sleep at home tonight, Seth. But first we'll tear Wendell's building apart, board by board if we have to.” Ethan eyed the decrepit building. “That won't take long. And where else could that old fool of a husband of yours have hidden it?”

“Oh, there are plenty of places. Including he could have dug a hole somewhere.”

With a sigh, Ethan said, “You're right. That building is the only place he could have hidden the money where we have a prayer of finding it.”

Audra nodded, frowning. “And if we don't find it and return it, then the man Wendell stole it from may send someone else.”

“You look tired. You only had a baby a few weeks ago. We should have waited to do this until you were rested.”

Her pretty white eyebrows snapped low. “Ethan!”

He touched her lips gently with one finger. When she stopped talking, he said, “I don't mean you're weak or fragile.” She was, but he knew she hated to hear that. “You know a woman who's just had a baby needs a while before she starts riding long hours and tearing apart buildings.”

“You're right.” Audra smiled behind his finger. “I'm holding up, but we've got a long ride h-h-h—”

Ethan felt her smile burn into his finger and he jerked it back.

He couldn't quite manage a smile when he said, “Home. The word you're trying to say is
home
. You're going home with me. Mrs. Ethan Kincaid. Hard to get that idea in my head.”

Their eyes caught and held. Ethan saw a world of understanding there.

Then she nodded. “We've got lots of time to get used to it. Our whole lives.”

Ethan slid his hand to her waist and turned her to face Wendell's shack. “Let's get this hunting over and done, then head for . . .” He inhaled slowly.

Audra said, “Home.”

Julia felt dangerous. She would have liked about five times her normal strength and a few minutes of privacy to pound on Tracker Breach for almost killing Rafe.

“Now be mindful to not mention Audra marrying Ethan.” Rafe paused at the jailhouse door.

“I will.” Julia frowned and crossed her arms. “But I want to let him know that all his evil didn't hurt us in the end. I'd like to stand there on the outside of those bars and tell him he needs to repent of his sins before it's too late. And then I'd like to tell him he's the ugliest man I've ever seen.”

A crack of laughter from Rafe surprised Julia. Then he caught hold of her arm, a gentle vise, and dragged her into the gap between two buildings.

“Hey, I want to go yell at that awful man.”

Rafe kept going until they were swallowed up in shadows, then turned her to face him and kissed her senseless.

Seconds passed, then minutes. Maybe longer. Julia sort of lost track of time. When Rafe eased her away from him, she chased after his lips with her own.

He let her catch him.

“Have I told you yet today I'm glad I married you?” He smiled.

She traced the smile with one finger. “I like seeing a smile on your face, Rafe.”

“I find myself smiling all the time since I managed to corral you, wife.” He kissed her again.

“This isn't the time or place—” Her scolding, which was halfhearted anyway, was silenced by his lips.

“I know we've got to go and see the sheriff, and I'll let you scold that man as long as you like, but it just came to mind that my brothers are finally going home.”

That lifted Julia's spirits to a shameful degree. “I like your brothers.”

“Your favorite term of affection is ‘your idiot brothers.' ”

“They do try my patience, Rafe.” Then a frown turned her swollen lips downward. “But they're taking Audra and the babies.”

“Yeah, even better. Now I can get you alone.” Rafe laughed again.

Julia slugged him in the arm, but she didn't put one lick of force behind it. “Audra needs me.”

Although now that Rafe mentioned it, it would be nice to be alone with him. They'd camped out a good distance from everybody else since their wedding. Rafe had insisted. And being close to him, intimate with him, was so beguiling that Julia had gone right along with the idea. Audra had slept in the tumbledown cabin she and Julia had lived in with Father until the new cabin was weather-tight, then she'd moved in there. The rest of them slept under the stars. Rafe's brothers had camped near the house while Rafe and Julia had gone elsewhere nightly, and to Julia's shock, occasionally Rafe had managed to lure her to a private place during the day.

Since she was finding her new husband downright irresistible anyway, she decided it was right for newlyweds to get away.

During the day, the men had built the new cabin in the caldera, and Julia had chiseled a few fossils out of the very easiest and safest tunnels and done some writing. She wasn't even close to satisfied with her explorations yet. But she was satisfied as all get-out with married life.

“We needed to let Audra rest up for a while after she had the baby, and we needed Ethan and Seth to help us get the cabin up and a corral and stable built. But Audra's rested. The building is done. The cattle are loose in our valley. There aren't any crazy people living in the caverns.”