Kimberly Nee - The McKenzie Brothers (27 page)

The sudden sharp crackle and snap of tree branches reverberated through the woods around them. Garrett’s head snapped up as a blood-curdling shriek echoed all around them.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

“What was that?” Katherine whispered, her belly knotting in sudden fear.

Garrett was already rolling from her, reaching for his trousers. “I’m not certain. Cover yourself, sweetheart, and stay put. I’ll be right back.”

“Wait!” She jumped up, grabbed her chemise and wriggled into it. “Garrett!”

However, he wasn’t listening, as he tugged on his boots and started toward the thicker stand of trees behind them. She let out a hard breath, blowing a wayward lock of hair straight up as she struggled to re-dress herself. In the distance, branches cracked as if someone ran furiously through the trees, and she had no way of knowing if Garrett was the pursuer or the pursued.

“Damn it!” She shoved her feet into her delicate silk slippers. “Garrett!”

Regardless of his warning to stay where she was, Katherine went racing toward the woods. “Garrett!”

Another shriek reached her ears, freezing her blood in her veins as every hair on her body stood at attention. At the edge of the woods, she stopped, her feet suddenly refusing to move another step.

The rustling and crackling grew sharper, nearer, and Katherine’s mouth went dry as she tried to force her unresponsive feet to heed her brain and move away from the woods now.

“Kat!”

Patsy burst forth from the thicket. Katherine almost didn’t recognize her maid, the girl’s face was beaten to so near a pulp. Black and blue bruises mottled her cheeks. Her eyes were puffy, nearly swollen shut and her lips were twice their size, cracked and oozing thick, dark blood.

Katherine leaped forward to catch the girl as her legs gave out. Cradling Patsy gently, she lowered the maid to the grass. “What the devil happened?”

“Mister Garrett,” Patsy groaned in a weak voice. “He…he’s going to need help.”

Icicles of fear speared through Katherine’s gut as she helped Patsy over to the blanket. “Who did this to you?”

“He was horrid. Looked like his face had been hacked into two and put back together crookedly. Oh, he was repulsive. A toad.” Patsy broke into heart-wrenching sobs, tears leaking out from the swollen slits of her eyes. “A demon toad in the form of a man.”

Katherine’s heart stopped beating for a long, painful moment. “Gerald.” A giant fist squeezed her belly. “Dear God.” She cast a nervous glance over her shoulder at the woods behind her.

Garrett was in there.

With the devil himself.

Smoothing Patsy’s blood-matted hair away from her face, Katherine desperately tried to decide what to do. Did she leave the maid there and try to help Garrett? Or did she take care of the maid, and assume Garrett could take care of himself?

She cast a panicked glance around. One of Garrett’s pistols lay on the grass, half hidden beneath his frock coat.

“You stay right here,” Katherine told Patsy, bunching the velvet frock coat to pillow the maid’s head. “I will be right back. I’m going to fetch Dr. Samuels.”

Patsy shook her head sluggishly. “No, Miss Katherine. Please. I will be fine. It isn’t as bad as it looks. Please, go after Mister Garrett. He is in terrible, terrible danger.”

It took Katherine a few precious seconds to fully understand the words Patsy tried to push through her swollen lips. “Danger?”

“The toad means to kill him.”

Katherine dove for the pistol, her fingers wrapping about the handle. “Does he, then?” she whispered, bringing the pistol close to nestle in the folds of her skirts. “Well, we will have to see about that.”

Turning back to Patsy, she said, “You lie quiet. I promise you, I will fetch help.”

“Please…” Patsy protested weakly. “I only wish to sleep right now.”

Katherine gave her hand a squeeze and got to her feet. “I will be back in but a few moments, then.” She waited for Patsy’s weak nod, and then started out toward the woods.

She was going to make certain Gerald Sanders never cast a shadow in her life again.

Katherine didn’t know exactly what she would do when she found Sanders, but pulling the pistol’s trigger seemed a good way to start. As she plunged through the woods, the sounds of hand-to-hand battle grew louder.

Finally, she came to clearing near the middle of the forest. She froze in her tracks as she came upon Gerald and Garrett locked in fierce combat.

Garrett, clad in only his trousers, towered like a titan over Gerald, whose eyes bugged from their sockets and thick lips were already bloodied. However, it was difficult to tell which man actually took the worst of the beating, as they were both fairly covered in dirt, blood, and bruises.

Her hands shook as Gerald dove at her husband, catching him at the waist and driving him back to the ground with a bone-crunching
thud
.

Garrett was on his feet in an instant. “Surely you can do better than that, Sanders.”

Katherine’s jaw went slack at the smile tugging at Garrett’s lips. He was
enjoying
this battle! Devil take him, he was actually laughing as he added, “Give me your best, mate.”

“Yank bastard,” Gerald sneered, drawing the back of his hand over his thick lips. “I’ll take great delight in taking you apart piece by piece. But I won’t kill you. No, I’d much rather you see me taking my pleasure of your whore.”

“That
whore
you speak of is my
wife.
” Garrett’s smile faded and a dangerous glint came to his eyes. “And if you are so sure of yourself, come get me, then.”

Gerald was a good six paces away from him. Although he was lean and sinewy from living hard off the land for some time, he did not fight as a man accustomed to such pastimes.

Gerald’s eyes narrowed. “As you wish.”

Katherine stood rooted to her place, eyes so wide they actually hurt. She wanted to cry out, to warn Garrett to be careful. Gerald wouldn’t offer up a fair fight and Garrett was a gentleman, he would not expect any nasty surprises. She had no doubt that Gerald had more than one such nasty surprise up his filthy shirtsleeves.

But she did not wish to distract her husband, either. The last thing he needed was to turn his back to Gerald. It could be a fatal mistake if he did.

Her fingers tightened about the handle of the pistol. Lifting it from the folds of her gown, she stared down at it for a long moment. She had no clue as to how to fire it. Didn’t even know if it was loaded, actually.

Gerald charged again and there came the sickening
squelch
of fists hitting flesh. Closing her eyes against the horror unfolding before her, she tried to think back to the night she’d watched Garrett oil the pistol. There had been lead balls scattered across his desk, powder and flashing as well. But, did he — ?

Yes. He
had
loaded it before replacing it in its rosewood box. Of that she was certain.

She opened her eyes once more and her hands shook as she carefully cocked the hammer on it and let it dangle at her side once more. Taking great pains to make certain she didn’t blast her own foot off, she crept closer, watching closely to make certain she stepped on nothing that would give her away.

Neither man noticed her as she crept closer. Garrett’s stare remained fixed on his opponent, his hands flexing and tightening into fists as he continued his taunts.

Fire flashed in Sanders’ eyes as Garrett said, “I can certainly understand your fascination with my wife as she is the most beautiful creature to grace this earth. I almost pity you the fact that you will never know the true depth of her beauty.”

“Ah, but I will,” Gerald corrected, shaking his head. “I will know her until she bleeds.”

She wanted to retch, and her skin almost crawled clear off her bones at those words. Her gaze slid to Garrett, where fury welled in his eyes.

“You go too far, pig,” he rumbled. “You will never again lay a hand on her. Or on anyone, for that matter.”

With that, he pounced. Gerald howled as Garrett’s his fist smashed square into the middle of his toady face. Garrett’s hand came away, smeared with the dark blood spilling from Gerald’s pummeled nose and mouth.

Gerald dropped to his knees, hands clapped over his mouth as he sputtered, “You son of a bitch! You broke my teeth!”

Garrett stood over him, flexing his fist once more. “It’s one of the kinder things I’ll have done to you, you maggot.”

A slow, chilly grin spread over Sanders’ battered face. His hands fell away and split lips parted to reveal teeth broken into stalactites in the bloody cavern of his mouth. Katherine recoiled, a hand pressed to her mouth in horror. That horror burst as Gerald curled his hands into fists and clasped them together, slamming them up between Garrett’s legs.

Pain exploded where Sanders’ fist met Garrett’s body. White light burst in his skull, following by black dots dancing before his eyes. His stomach seized, air
whooshed
from his lungs, and his legs collapsed from under him. He fell to his knees, a low hiss of pain the only sound he could muster. “
Ooooh
…”

“That’s right, pretty boy,” Gerald sneered, getting to his feet and staring down at Garrett. “I’ll have my way with the bitch and you, you lucky dog, get to watch as she gets her first taste of a real man.”

Garrett got to his knees, struggling to calm his ragged breathing, fighting to ignore the flaming arrows driving up into his gut. “You are not laying a hand on her,” he gritted through clenched teeth. “Not as long as my heart beats…”

Rage coursed through his veins. He was going to take his revenge and enjoy doing it. Even as sweat trickled down his back, even as speaking required greater effort than he could manage, Garrett knew who the victor would be.

Gerald sneered down at him. “Stupid bleedin’ Yank. Think you’re so smart then, do you?” He withdrew a pistol of his own, aiming steadily at Garrett as he still fought to rise up.

Garrett saw two of the blasted pistols before him. Pain throbbed a path from his groin to his gut. Relentless, pulsating pain clouded his mind, fired his rage even hotter. He heard the hammer being drawn back and tried to summon the strength to take the toad from his feet.

“I think not.”

Both men jerked to see Katherine step forth from the trees, the pistol held in steady hands. Garrett’s grunt was a mixture of pain and frustration. Damnation, he wished he’d taught her how to fire a pistol.

Still struggling to catch his breath, he looked up to see Sanders had gone a waxy white. Triumph swelled within him. The Englishman had no inkling that Katherine didn’t know what to do with the pistol.

Gerald faced her, a leer lifting the corners of his lips. “Well, well. What have we here?”

“Put it down, Sanders,” she said, her voice low but steady. It took every ounce of will she possessed to keep the trembles from both her voice and her body, but she was proud of herself for accomplishing exactly that.

“Oh, now. Let’s not be hasty, love.”

Garrett let another out a hiss of pain as he finally pulled himself to his feet. “I’d drop the pistol if I were you, Sanders. It’s over now.”

“Think so, do you?” Sanders sneered, shifting the pistol to him again. “One shot, mate. And I’ll take me pleasure of your comely widow.”

Katherine shook her head, her fingers going white as she gripped the pistol. “You will never touch me again, you son of a bitch.”

Both men gaped at her. She ignored Garrett, her gaze locked on Gerald. As the toad swung toward her, she squeezed her eyes shut and pulled the trigger at the same time.

The pistol’s recoil knocked her backwards, but she did not fall. She stumbled, but righted herself almost at once. Lowering her arm, she found Garrett standing over the prone, still body sprawled out on the dead leaves of the forest’s floor.

Waving away the acrid smoke, she whispered, “Is he dead?”

Garrett dropped to his knees beside Sanders. His eyes went to the scarlet stain spreading over the belly of Sanders’s shirt. He pressed two fingers to the side of Sanders’s neck. “Not yet.”

Her hands began shaking then, the pistol dropping into the leaves with a sharp
crunch
as a wave of nausea rose up to slam into her. She tried to take a step, but her legs refused to hold her up, and she sank beside the pistol.