Bride of the Wolf (22 page)

“A what?”

“A party, in honor of my arrival in Pecos County.”

“You didn’t say yes?”

She looked up at him, hoping no trace of her emotions showed on her face. “Was it Sean who whipped Joey?”

He stopped in the middle of an angry stride and swung to face her. “Sean?”

“Miss Blackwell said he had been attacked by a wolf at the same time your ‘outlaw’ suffered the same punishment,” she said.

Narrowed eyes fixed on hers. “It was Sean, all right,” he said grimly.

“For God’s sake, why didn’t you tell me?”

After four long weeks he had finally learned when she was not to be foisted off like a child. He shook his head and rumbled that peculiar, growling noise she had heard him make only when he was dangerously angry.

“It wouldn’t have done no good,” he said. “You wouldn’t have believed Sean could do somethin’ like that, ‘gentleman’ that he is. Even I hardly believed it. You couldn’t have done nothin’ about it, and I—”

“Did you see it happen? Were you there?”

“I stopped it.” A muscle twitched at the corner of his mouth. “I had to bring Joey back, or I would have—”

“Why in heaven’s name would Sean want to hurt him?”

Holden paced a tight circle and came to stand before the table again, his fists knotted with corded tendons and blue veins. “Because he hates Joey, just the way he hates anything Jed loved. Joey reminds Sean that he was cast off by his own pa, who had better things to do than raise a kid. Jed was stuck with a whelp who’d rather see someone dead than let them get anythin’ he couldn’t have.”

“But what could Joey possibly have done?”

“He didn’t have to do nothin’ but get in Sean’s way. Sean wanted to be the only thing Jed cared about, the one Jed would raise up to be the ‘gentleman’ he thought he should be. Sean decided he didn’t have to play by no rules, because Uncle Jed owed him the easy life his pa didn’t give him. When he didn’t have things just the way he wanted, he tricked Jed, stole from him, used him like he was some stupid old man instead of the one who’d taken Sean in and given him a fancy education and duds and money for wastin’. And Jed kept lettin’ him do it until just before he left. He was goin’ to run Sean off himself.”

How was it only now, when so much was coming to a head, that Rachel was discovering the secrets that drove Sean McCarrick and Holden Renshaw to such extremes of hatred? Of course Sean had despised her. He was clearly a bad man, and she was yet another interloper to take his place in his uncle’s affections.

But Joey…he was only a boy. A child who could never have intended to arouse such violent resentment in Jedediah’s nephew.

How could Sean possibly have expected to get away with the whipping? Perhaps there had been no other witnesses, but he would have to be more than a little mad to commit such an act, even in such a seemingly lawless country as this. Joey might be only an orphaned boy, but
he was not without friends. Friends who would not hesitate to punish Sean for his crime.

If she could, if she had influence and money and power like the Blackwells, Rachel would have gladly punished Sean herself in any way short of outright violence.

She closed her eyes. After he had brought Joey to the house, Heath had said the outlaws “wouldn’t be back.” He had implied that he would kill them if they ever tried. But he had just said he’d stopped the whipping, and aside from whatever injuries the wolf had caused, Sean was still apparently hale and employed. No consequences had been called down upon his head for the senseless maiming of a boy who could have done him no harm in return.

Yet she had seen the look in Holden’s eyes when he had spoken of Joey’s attackers. If he had kept the incident a secret and convinced Joey to do the same, he must have had his reasons, and they would not be to Sean’s benefit. Holden would never let Sean get away unscathed. There had to be an explanation for why Holden had taken no action. Why he hadn’t spoken of Sean’s crime at all.

Holden must have sensed her question before she asked it. “He ain’t gettin’ away with it, Rachel,” he said softly.

With vivid, violent clarity, a vision played out behind Rachel’s eyes, an image of Holden and Sean facing each other with Joey lying injured at Holden’s feet. Perhaps there had been no open threats, but none would be needed. A single look from Holden would have been enough, that and the hatred between them.

“He’ll pay,” Holden said, leaning heavily over the table. “He’ll pay, Rachel.”

Pay with his life. Holden would find the gun she had
hidden. He would belt it on and walk onto the range and challenge Sean to a fight to the death.

She had thought to tell him that she would soon be packing and would be leaving on the next stage. But how could she say that now, when something terrible was about to happen? Something…she might somehow prevent?

With exquisite control, Rachel began to fold the diapers she had washed that morning and stacked on the table. “When did you intend to kill him?” she asked.

His fists bumped the table as he jerked away. “I had to be careful, Rachel. I wanted to find Joey first if I could, and I—”

“Is that why Joey ran away? Was he afraid Sean would hurt him again?”

Despair crowded the simmering rage from Holden’s eyes. “He knew I wouldn’t let anyone hurt him again. But he was…” He trailed off and shook his head. “It’s just as well he’s gone now. I didn’t want to bring no trouble down on his head, or yours. I was waitin’ for the right time. But now…”

Now. What had changed in his mind? Was it the party? Rachel’s mind worked furiously, pushing aside the more distressing aspects of Holden’s revelation. The invitation itself made no sense in light of what he had told her.

“Could the Blackwells know what Sean has done?” she asked, sick with sudden horror.

Heath’s lips twisted in bitter amusement. “You think Sean would’ve risked makin’ himself look bad by admittin’ somethin’ like that to anyone? The Blackwells ain’t as nice as they seem, but they have a reputation to keep up. They wouldn’t approve of open violence against someone from Dog Creek. And Sean wants Amy.”

As Rachel had guessed. “So this party is being given in complete ignorance of Sean’s behavior?”

He hesitated, his eyes moving with his thoughts. “Ignorance of whuppin’ Joey, yes.”

Which made perfect sense. Amy had let slip the bit about the wolf attack in complete and blissful ignorance of how it had really happened. Yet Rachel could not shake the dreadful feeling that there was something very wrong in the timing of the party.

“Would Sean have any control over who is invited?” she asked. “He scarcely knows me. Perhaps he now has reason to believe that you have not told anyone at Blackwater of his crime, but what if you had informed me? He would scarcely be in favor of such a celebration if he thought I might expose him.”

“Don’t reckon he thinks you
do
know,” Holden said.

“But
you
were invited! Can it be that he doesn’t expect you to take any action against him?”

Holden barked a laugh. “He
knows
I will. That’s why he won’t let me get anywhere near him when he’s alone.”

“Then he must expect you to challenge him at the party.”

“Challenge him?” Holden’s slow smile was more terrifying than the deadliest rage. “He knows no one would take my word against a gentleman like him, a settled landowner’s kin with friends in high places.”

“Then what…?”

She could have wept at her own stupidity. The picture she had formed in her mind was all wrong. She had always recognized the leashed violence in Holden’s nature. She’d known he couldn’t have worn that gun just for show, and had been prepared to consider that he
might have killed in self-defense. Even yesterday, she and Holden had half seriously spoken of shooting Holden’s adoptive father and the man who had abandoned her.

But that had been only talk, unlike Holden’s plans for Sean. He had never intended to challenge Sean to a fair fight, no matter how likely it might be to prove fatal for one of them. He wouldn’t see any reason to bestow such a privilege on someone who had hurt his friend the same way Pa Morton, a man he despised beyond any common hatred, had hurt
him
.

Shaking, she clenched her hands together and met his gaze. “Do you intend to murder him before the party, or when the Blackwells and all their guests are present?”

“I may not have no education, but I sure as hell ain’t stupid. I won’t do anythin’ to Sean where anyone can see. No one’ll ever know I done it.”

Of course he would have considered such things, unless he wished to be executed. She ought to be glad. Perhaps he would succeed, and a villain would be prevented from ever hurting innocent children again.

But Holden would still be a murderer. He would have surrendered to his most bestial nature. He would never be the same again.

“I can’t let you do it,” she said.

“You don’t have no choice about it.”

“If you attempt anything at the party, I’ll try to stop you.”

“You ain’t goin’ to the party. You’re stayin’ here with Gordie.”

“I don’t see how you can enforce such a command.” Rachel felt a new calmness taking hold, a frigid sense
of purpose even Holden at his most intimidating couldn’t shake. “And you have not addressed my belief that Sean must expect you to confront him in some way. You are a danger to him in more ways than one as long as this situation remains unresolved. Do you assume he will simply allow you to get him alone? He may be an evil man, but he is no more stupid than you are.”

“You think he’s settin’ some kind of trap?”

“If Sean had anything at all to do with inviting you, he must have some purpose for doing so.”

“If he does, it won’t be your problem, ’cause you won’t be there to see what he has in mind.”

“I most certainly will be th—”

With an explosive breath, Holden yanked one of the chairs away from the table and sent it crashing to the floor. “Fool woman,” he growled. “There’s a few more things you’d better understand. The Blackwells may not know what Sean’s been up to, but they ain’t askin’ you to their party just to be friendly. Artemus Blackwell has wanted this place ever since Jed claimed the south side of the creek. Blackwater is one of the biggest outfits in West Texas, but Colonel Blackwell needs the whole creek for the spread to grow as big as he wants it to be. He would already have swallowed this ranch whole if Jed hadn’t made clear he wasn’t acceptin’ Blackwell’s offers and stuck by his guns.”

“But that has nothing to do with—”

He slammed his flattened hand on the tabletop. “Listen to me. Sean has always figured he was goin’ to get Dog Creek after Jed was gone. The ranch was goin’ to be his ticket to everythin’ he wanted. He’d sell it to the Blackwells, go in with them and move up while they
did. But when you showed up, he knew it might not be near so easy as he thought.”

Understanding struck Rachel like the iron-shod hoof of a frenzied horse. Sean didn’t merely resent her coming to Dog Creek because she might supersede him in Jedediah’s affections. She had meant a possible—probable—end to his dreams. A wife would jeopardize his claim to the ranch and any other property Jedediah might leave behind.

But if he had known she was coming and believed she was married, why had he tried to buy her off?

“A man came to me the evening of my arrival in Javelina,” Rachel said slowly. “He said that Jed had changed his mind and didn’t want me. He offered money if I would go back to Ohio.”

Holden stared at her, his mouth opening with a startled demand. She told him the rest in flat, brief sentences, and when she was finished, his face had gone pale.

“Son of a bitch,” he whispered. “Sean told you
I
did it?”

“I knew it couldn’t be true soon after I met you, but Sean came back when you were away getting Lucia. He tried again to convince me that you would do anything to be rid of me, perhaps even resort to violence. Even when I realized
he
must have sent the man to bribe me, I couldn’t make sense of it.”

Never had she seen a man’s expression change so terribly as Holden’s did then. “I thought he was lyin’,” he said. “About knowin’ you was comin’, when he said Jed had told him and didn’t tell me. But he found out. Damn you, Jed, what the hell were you thinkin’?”

Somehow Rachel knew Holden’s present fury had not been provoked by Sean’s attempted bribery. There
was something else behind it, something so horrible that Holden refused to speak it aloud.

“What is it?” she whispered, unreasoning terror striking like a scorpion’s stinger.

Lucia appeared in the hallway just as he began to reply. Her dark gaze darted from Holden and Rachel to the chair that lay sideways on the floor.

“
Perdón
,” she said. “I thought I heard a noise. You are well,
señora?
”

The smile Rachel gave her was the falsest she had ever bestowed on anyone. “I’m fine, Lucia. Is there anything you need? Is Gordie all right?”

“
Sí, señora
.” Lucia hesitated, glanced at Holden and disappeared into the hallway. By the time Rachel had turned back to question Holden again, he had shut himself away behind a rigid mask of steel as honed and deadly as a blade.

“Sean wants you at that party for reasons of his own,” he said in a voice as flat as the expression in his eyes. “He probably put the women up to it in the first place. He can’t think you figured out it was him who tried to make you leave, or he wouldn’t be sure you’d come. And if he knows you ain’t married, he’s keepin’ it to himself. He sure as hell doesn’t think you know about the whippin’.” He swore again. “He must still believe he has some chance to get on your good side and have a say in what happens to Dog Creek when Jed—” He stopped abruptly, the muscles in his jaw clenching and releasing.

What Holden said made sense. Sean had already made an attempt to talk her into vouching for him when Jed returned. But he truly must not suspect she was capable of discovering for herself that
he
might have the best motive for bribing her, or what such an act implied.

But he was making too many dangerous assumptions. He assumed Rachel would go on believing his lies about Holden, and that she would never listen to Holden’s side of any story. He assumed, though he had spent so little time with her, that she was stupid and blind and incapable of assembling facts in a way contrary to his interests.