Hernando Heat Read online

  He stroked her cheek. “Do you trust me?”

  She nodded.

  “Then let me handle this. Please?”

  “You can’t run him off.”

  He sat up. “That’s the last thing I have planned, believe me.” He clasped her hand to his chest. “You love us both enough to be with us?”

  She nodded, afraid to say it out loud. Dreams spoken aloud rarely came true.

  He brushed his lips across her knuckles, sweetly, yet lighting fires inside her. “Then trust me to handle this,” he repeated. “Please.”

  She worried it wouldn’t be that easy, but she nodded. After all, he knew his cousin a fair sight better than she did.

  She wondered how Mason had spent his night, and if he was safe.

  Worry filled her heart. What if something happened to him while he rode with the posse? What if she never got a chance to tell him how she felt?

  What if something horrible happened and she had to live with this burden of guilt for the rest of her life?

  Joe leaned in and kissed her. “Let’s get up and I’ll help you with breakfast,” he said. “Then I’ll take you into town.” His face hardened, and he squeezed her hand, just a little, firmly but not painfully. “And today, when I tell you to stay put until I come for you, you mind me. All right?”

  That made her smile. “All right. I promise.”

  A smile lit his face. “That’s my good girl.” He helped her out of bed.

  She returned to her room to wash up and dress. The sight of Paul’s picture filled her with sadness. No, he was gone even though her love for him would never wane. It didn’t make it any easier to look at his visage and feel heat rise in her again at the memory of Joe’s hands and mouth on her.

  She carefully wound the clock. “I’m so sorry, Paul,” she whispered. “I hope you’re not ashamed of me, but they’re good men, and I’m so damned lonely without you. And you did tell me you wanted me to be happy.”

  As the sun peeked over the woods beyond the eastern pastures, she stepped outside and checked the clothes she’d hung the evening before. They’d mostly dried, still a tad damp in the seams from the evening air, but they wouldn’t sour if she brought them in.

  They ate breakfast in a comfortable silence, frequently pausing to look at and smile at each other. When he finished, before he stood he took her hand in his and brushed his lips over her knuckles, clasping it between his warm, strong palms.

  “Please, Katie, believe me when I tell you this will be okay.”

  She nodded.

  “You think you can handle two men chasing after you all the time? Because you realize once I talk with Mason, we’re both going to be after you.” His lips quirked in a delicious smile that made her pussy ache in a pleasant way and started another trickle of moisture between her thighs.

  Heat rose in her face. “After more than a year alone, believe me, it would be nice not to spend my nights alone anymore.”

  He drove her to town and left the buggy at the livery before riding his horse to the sawmill. She tried to keep herself busy, to not think about either man, but whenever her eyes fell upon the chair she and Mason had shared during the rainstorm, worry crept in.

  What if Mason didn’t want to share her? What if she caused a rift between the men?

  What if Mason hated her? Thought her a whore for so easily settling for this solution?

  She couldn’t let herself think that, so she threw herself into busy work, dusting and rearranging and organizing her shop. That’s why she didn’t look up at first a little before lunch time when the bell jangled on the front door. She was standing on the top step of a ladder and struggling to reach and dust the far corner of an out-of-the-way shelf. “I’ll be right with you.”

  “You should be careful there, Katherine. You wouldn’t want to fall and have an accident.”

  She dropped the feather duster with a terrified squeak and grabbed hold of the ladder as it swayed under her. Her former brother-in-law, Edward Dorchester, Jr. stood just feet away from the ladder.

  Anger and fear coursed through her, and she immediately scrambled down to safety, retreating toward the doorway leading to the back room. Just inside, the shotgun lay propped against the wall where she could reach it. “Get out of my store!”

  “Aw, I haven’t seen you in a while and you treat me like that? Father sent me to try to talk some reason into you.” She hated the pleasant tone of voice he used, fake sweetness she knew hid a rotten, evil core. “I wish you’d let me court you. I can understand how—”

  “Get out!”

  His face hardened as he took another step toward her. “You want us out of your life? Then you know what you have to do. Sign that property over to us and we’ll never bother you again.”

  She tried to turn and race for the doorway, but her feet tangled in her skirts and he was on top of her before she could regain her footing. He slammed her back, hard, against the wall, knocking the breath out of her lungs.

  Screaming was impossible with his forearm pressed hard against her throat. “I could kill you right now,” he growled, “and no one would ever know what happened to you. Break your neck. Make it look like an unfortunate accident. The poor Widow Dorchester tragically killed, falling from her ladder while dusting in her shop. Then the property would revert to us as next of kin. You sure you want to risk—”

  The bell jangled. “Katie, I thought—you son of a bitch!” Joe roared, and suddenly Katie could breathe again as the pressure of Dorchester’s arm disappeared.

  She sank to the floor, coughing and clutching her throat as Joe punched the other man, sounds of inarticulate rage coming from him.

  Shelby Ainsley chose that minute to walk through the door. While Shelby stared for a moment, shocked, Katie regained her voice and her wits. “Shelby! Go get the sheriff, quick!” The woman turned and bolted into the street, screaming for help.

  Edward had managed to land a few blows of his own. Now the men were scuffling, evenly matched, and Katie feared for Joe’s safety. As her senses returned, Katie clambered to her feet and grabbed the shotgun. She cocked it and placed the end of the barrel against the back of Edward’s head.

  “Give me a reason, you son of a whore!” she screamed. “Give me a damned good reason not to kill you right now!”

  Edward froze as Joe broke free and got to his feet. He stepped around her and gently took the shotgun from her trembling hands. He’d have a darned good shiner by nightfall, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, but he didn’t look nearly as bad off as Dorchester.

  “Go outside, Katie,” Joe softly said. “Go help Shelby get the sheriff.”

  She started to comply, but when she read the blackness in his expression, she knew if she stepped through that door that Joe would kill the man.

  She couldn’t let him do that no matter how much Dorchester deserved it. She grabbed a kerchief from her pocket, wet the corner with spit, and dabbed at the blood on his mouth. “I can’t do that. I can’t leave you.” Something about his gaze terrified her. This was more than about what he’d witnessed, she’d swear it. “I won’t leave you,” she insisted.

  “Please,” Joe whispered. “I’m going to take care of this once and for all.”

  “My father’s a powerful man!” Edward threatened. “You kill me, you’re dead!”

  She landed a hard kick to his tailbone, making him howl in pain. She would never admit how good that made her feel. “Shut up! You’re lucky I didn’t blast your head off myself, you damned piece of no-count trash!”

  The sheriff, followed by Ben Ainsley, burst through the door. “Joe! What in blue blazes is going on!”

  Katie quickly told the story. By this time, several more men crowded in, all of them frowning as they heard what happened.

  Joe wouldn’t let Dorchester up from the floor, but that didn’t stop Dorchester from trying to lie about what happened. “That’s not true! I just stopped by, wantin’ to pay my respects to my sister-in-law is—”
r />   Joe knocked him hard in the back of the head with the gun stock. “Yeah, that’s why you had her on the floor, choking the life out of her! Were you planning on raping her, too, you bastard?”

  The sheriff nodded to two of his deputies, who hauled Dorchester roughly off the floor but didn’t release him.

  “What is she to you anyway?” Dorchester sneered at Joe. “This is family business!”

  Joe stepped in, inches from the other man’s face. “Because she’s my fiancée, asshole.”

  That elicited gasps from the gathered crowd, and an angry look from Dorchester. “You’re gonna regret stepping in the middle of this, Lansing. I would have thought you’d learned not to mess with my family and what’s ours.”

  Before Katie could stop him, Joe hauled off and punched him again. The sheriff looked at his deputies. “You saw Dorchester fall and hit his head, right?”

  All the men nodded.

  The sheriff nodded, satisfied. “Joe, Katie, congratulations.” He smiled. “You want to press charges, I’m guessing?”

  Joe nodded, his jaw set. “Damn straight we do.” He looked at Katie, his face finally softening. “Right?”

  She nodded. “Right.”

  The sheriff grinned. “Good. Haul him off to a cell.” He laughed. “I’m gonna enjoy this one. Dorchester Senior’s gonna find out real fast he don’t have enough money to buy out the sheriff in Brooksville.”

  Once the crowd dispersed, Joe stepped forward and closed and locked the shop door, then flipped the sign to closed and led her to the privacy of the back room and drew the curtain shut so no one could see them.

  He pulled her to him. “Are you okay, sweetheart?”

  She laughed then started crying as she trembled in his arms.

  “What? What’s wrong?” He moved her to the bed where he sat, pulling her down to him. “What’s the matter?”

  She laughed again, tears still coursing down her cheeks as she shook her head. “I’m now engaged, but what happens if Mason finds out before you talk to him?”

  He swore. “Sweetheart, I’m so sorry. It…just slipped out.”

  Fear pulled at her heart. “You didn’t mean it?”

  “No! I mean yes, I meant it.” He caught her hands. “I just didn’t mean to do it like that.” He kissed her fingers, his blue gaze capturing her soul. His voice softened. “Would you please do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

  She nodded. “Yes.”

  He kissed her, stealing all thoughts of their troubles right from her mind. When she could finally form a coherent thought again, she looked up. “Not that I’m complaining in the least, but why did you show up? I wasn’t expecting you until later.”

  He smiled. “To see if you wanted to come to lunch with me.” His smile faded. “Thank God I did. That filthy bastard, I wanted to kill him.”

  “I know.” She wrapped her arms around him. “Tell me why. That wasn’t just anger at him for hurting me, was it?”

  Joe finally shook his head.

  Katie stroked his cheek and gently kissed his bruised eye. “Tell me. What did he mean that he thought you’d learned?”

  He told her the story about his fiancée, and not only did she feel angry, she felt even deeper fear. She remembered rumors about Edward getting jilted for another and the woman then dying soon after, but had never made the connection before. “Oh, Joe. I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t you dare apologize for something you had no hand in.” He kissed her. “I swear to you, we’ll get him locked away.”

  “What do we do about Mason?”

  He sighed. “I told you, I’ll talk to him. I’ll ask Sheriff Birch if he’s heard any word from the posse.”

  She poured him a basin of water so he could clean up. Then he coaxed her into going with him to eat at the little restaurant in the hotel on the main square across from the courthouse. At the restaurant, it seemed as if everyone in Brooksville came up to them and congratulated them on their pending nuptials.

  No one seemed a bit upset about Dorchester sitting in Sheriff Birch’s jail.

  Finally, during a lull in the well-wishes, she leaned close across the table. “You’d better have that talk awfully fast with Mason,” she whispered. “I don’t want him hearing it from someone else. Word’s spreading like wildfire.”

  He grimly nodded. “I’m considering riding up after them myself.”

  “Maybe you should.”

  His head snapped up from his cup of coffee. “If you think I’m leaving you alone, think again!” He reached across the table and laced his fingers through hers.

  She managed a smile. “So when is our wedding, Mr. Lansing?”

  He sighed. “I suppose as soon as possible, once Mason’s back.” He squeezed her fingers. “This will be okay,” he whispered. “It will all work out. I promise.”

  She wondered how many times he’d have to say it before he started to believe it himself.

  Chapter Nine

  Mason hated riding posses. If there was one part of his job he’d gladly do without, it was this. Not that he was old, but he wasn’t nearly as young as the Campbell brothers, eighteen and nineteen, and Joss Porter, twenty. Those men had no trouble sleeping out every night after riding all day and awaking fresh as sunshine the next morning, while he was left to cover his groans and popping joints with the sound of coughing.

  Unfortunately, this time he couldn’t bring their quarry back alive. The man had holed up in an old shack and refused to come out, firing on them when they closed in. They’d returned fire and killed him.

  No need for a trial, at least. And since the man admitted his guilt when he was yelling at them that they’d never take him alive, swearing that the victim deserved killing, Mason’s conscience felt clear.

  At least on that point.

  He laid there a little before dawn, determined to make home before lunch, where he could have a bath and a hot meal, put on clean clothes, grab a fresh horse, and ride to town to see Katie.

  And have a talk with her.

  He didn’t want to wait until that evening to let her know he was stepping aside. Joe deserved happiness.

  It’d break his heart, but he’d survive.

  He’d deal with the jealousy somehow. But it was more important to him for Joe to be happy. Joe hadn’t smiled as much or as broadly in years as he had over the past few weeks with Katie around. Only a fool would miss that.

  He refused to deny him that happiness. God knew Katie had suffered more than her fair share of grief, enough to last her several lifetimes. They could help each other heal. They had so much, including that, in common.

  Finally he arose, washed up in the creek they’d camped beside, and nudged the others awake. Skipping breakfast, they saddled up and rode, splitting up just north of Brooksville. Joss, who lived in town, volunteered to report back to Sheriff Birch for him, to let him know they’d returned and that Mason would be in to talk to him that afternoon.

  As the house appeared before him on the road, he breathed a sigh of relief.

  Home.

  One of the stable hands took his horse for him and would swap the gelding out for a fresh one for Mason’s ride to town. Inside the house, on his way to his room, he paused at Katie’s door. After hesitating, he opened it. The clock, which he knew she wound religiously every day, sat on a shelf alongside the picture of her husband.

  He tried to convince himself this was for the best, the right thing, despite how much it hurt now that he was home again. He drew water into the washtub on the back porch, cleaned up, and put on a clean change of clothes.

  I want her to be happy. She deserves better than a deputy she has to worry about getting shot. Joe’s responsible, a businessman. Respectable. He can provide for her.

  The ride home had given him time to think. Joe had protested when Mason revealed his intentions not to court her, but neither had he denied he had feelings for her, either. Joe had been so happy these past few weeks since she came into their lives.

 
No, this was for the best.

  He ripped a hunk of bread off a loaf and took it with him to snack on during his ride to town.

  Inside, he felt his heart dying and tried to ignore it.

  He was halfway to town when he came up on one of their ranch hands heading toward him, driving a wagon full of supplies.

  Calvin Rodgers reined the team to a stop and pushed his hat back on his head. Mason wasn’t so sure he liked the grin on the man’s face. “I heard you was back. Ran into Joss in town. Congratulations!”

  Mason tried to tamp down his irritation. “What are you talking about?”

  “About you gaining a sister-in-law, so to speak.” He spit a mouthful of tobacco into the dirt. “Dorchester Senior’s gonna be right sore when he finds out he cain’t bail Junior out of Sheriff’s hoosegow!”

  Mason leaned forward in the saddle, his heart freezing despite the heat. “What are you talking about?” he asked again.

  Calvin looked a little confused. “I figured you’d already heard. Sheriff said he thought someone rode out to tell you. Dorchester Junior’s sitting in his jail. He attacked Widow Dorchester this morning.”

  “Katie? Is she all right?”

  “Yeah. Joe showed up jus’ in time and beat the tar outta Junior. Junior got mouthy wit’ him, and that’s when Joe spilled the beans to everyone ’bout him and the widow plannin’ on getting’ hitched.” He tipped his hat to Mason. “Congratulations.”

  Numb shock washed through Mason as he nodded. “Yeah. Thanks.”

  Calvin hooked a thumb over his shoulder at the load. “I gots to get this back to the ranch or boss’ gonna have my hide.” He snapped the reins as Mason moved his horse out of the way.

  It was one thing to do what was right and honorable, and another thing for the man he considered a brother to swoop right in and take it right out from under him, even if he’d already said he was going to step aside.

  He stared at the dusty road leading to Brooksville and decided he didn’t want to face either one of them right then. Not to mention the rest of the town. He waited until Calvin crested a rise in the road. Then Mason turned off the road and headed his horse across an alfalfa field. He could cut through the woods and hit a little gin shack just north of town and buy a bottle of whiskey.