Lawless Love (Lawmen and Outlaws) (5 page)

“And then what happened?” Waiting for what he knew was inevitably coming, Dylan drew in a breath and leaned back. But he wasn’t comfortable. Neither was Lacey. She paced the room, wringing her hands like dishrags that had become too wet.

“I found Luke that day,” she started as the tears began to blossom like petals dropping down her cheeks. “He and Morgan were out by one of the line camps where Del had sent Luke, loaning him a ranch horse. Morgan had ridden Bossy and the two were arguing. As I rode up I didn’t…I didn’t understand what I was seeing—”

“You don’t have to go on, Lacey. You don’t have to…describe anything. If you don’t want to. I think I know what you saw.” Dylan leaned forward before he rose and opened a window, bile rising in his throat only to be mastered and taken back down.

“I don’t have to describe?... Is it something men do that I just didn’t know about?”

“No.” He felt like telling her, ‘not between decent folks,’ but he suspected there were men who just couldn’t help themselves, who agreed to this. But not those who forced themselves on others; that, for sure, wasn’t what he would call normal.

Lacey swatted away some tears. “Luke was beggin’. He was cryin’ and beggin’ that he be left alone but Morgan was…was pullin’ off Luke’s belt and pushing down his pants as I rode in. I sat there, sat there on my horse just…stupefied I guess. Uncomprehending at what I was seeing. I remember I said, ‘Luke? Luke what the hell is going on?’ I slid down from my horse. Luke turned to me with such a look, Dylan—such a look. Ever’thing fell into place. Suddenly I understood ev’ry single thing that had been goin’ on. And I drew my gun and shot that bastard sonovabitch right between the eyes.”

Part Three

“You
told
him?” Luke paced the length of the parlor, stopping in front of his sister before going to the other end and staring down at Dylan. “You gonna tell the whole town, make me out to be some…some…
” His face colored as he turned to Lacey.

Dylan was hunched over, his hands hanging by his sides as he stared at the floor. “No one’s gonna know until this gets to court.” He spoke quietly.

“Court?” Lacey froze where she stood.

“She’ll swing!” Luke’s voice raised a pitch, his eyes wide with terror. He turned on his heel back to Dylan.

“Now calm down. Just calm down the two of you.” The marshal stood at last. Out the window, the front gate crashed and slammed on its hinges as tumbleweed bowled by. “It’s gotta go to court. Lacey’s admitted to a crime. I mean, for what she’s done, for what Morgan tried to do…which was against the law…”

“She’ll swing! You know she’ll swing!”

“I know no such thing.” Dylan turned back to face the siblings, finally finding a modicum of control. But his own gut was heaving, and there was numbness throughout his body he’d never known. This case was something he had never encountered—this was a situation where the truth could bring the wrong result. “Morgan was obviously a sodomite; that’s against the law. And he was corrupting a minor which the Court won’t take lightly.”

“If they believe us. It’s Luke’s word and mine,” Lacey said quietly. “And if they’re like you, they’ll just naturally think I wanted him dead because I owed him money.”

“I didn’t think that, Lacey. I never said that.”

“Yeah, I believe you did,” she went on in the same pensive tone, “and you sure as heck thought it. And if
you
thought it, they’ll think it.”

Dylan pondered this a moment, his hand scraping the stubble of his face. “No. How could a woman and a young man think up something like this? It just couldn’t be. Furthermore, look at him; he’s scared stiff of it coming to light. It’s not the first thing you’d say as an excuse, now is it? Why, you didn’t even know what you saw.”

“No, I didn’t. But fact is, they’ll still think it. They’ll still think it was owing him money or some such. And even if they don’t, even if someone were to come forward and say, yeah, that old bastard did this, that or the other to someone else, it still don’t mean they’re not gonna find me guilty. Oh, I may get sent off to prison ’stead of bein’ hung, but if it came right down to it, quite honestly, I’d rather die than spend the rest of my life holed up like that.”

Dylan stood, his eyes wandering over the whole of Lacey, from her neat little feet to her sun-colored hair, and he tried to remember if a woman had ever been hanged in Wyoming. And then he tried to imagine such a creature being kept in a dank, dark prison. “I gotta think on this,” he finally said. “I gotta do some thinking.”

Lacey nodded to Luke to follow her out and leave Dylan alone. In the warmth of the kitchen, Luke settled at the table and let his head rest in his hands. “I shoulda told you,” he whispered. “I shoulda told you straight off he was making suggestions, touching me wrong, but I just couldn’t do it, Lace.”

“I know. Don’t you fret none ’bout it now.”

“If I’da told you, none of this woulda happened.”

“Luke. There’s just no point on riling yourself like this. I reckon you were too embarrassed to say anything.” Damp eyes greeted her words.

“I shoulda been more of a man, shoulda shot that bastard myself. It’s just…I was so stunned first time he tried something. I jus’…just didn’t know what the heck he wanted. And then as time went on, and with the horse and all, he started to make his intentions clear. I was goin’ to tell you. Really. But I thought I’d handle it. Get Bossy to keep. But then…he said some disgusting things to me.”

“That’s enough now, Luke. It’s over and done, and it won’t be undone. We’ll just have to trust the marshal now.”

And then she heard the front door open and shut.

****

A couple of lights flickered within the house as Dylan rode back in, the inky blackness of night relieved by a low, full moon. Shadows moved through the orange glow and disappeared as he swung his legs off Daisy to lead the horse into the barn. Well, the Everharts hadn’t run off by the look of it. He had long missed supper, and Lacey would not take kindly to being asked to warm something, not that he had any appetite. He could smell the whiskey on his breath, and Lacey wouldn’t take kindly to that either.

Feeling somewhat dazed—or was it drunk?—and tired, Dylan pulled the saddle from the mare and got a bucket of feed before currying her. Drinking had not answered any questions. His mind still felt like unspun cotton, fibers with seeds that needed to be picked off. Fact was, it was even more tangled now. How could he live with himself if he sent Lacey Everhart to the gallows? And how could he live with himself, knowing what he knew? All his life he had known right from wrong, seen the law clearly as black and white. But this…this was something totally beyond anything he had ever experienced. And the matter wasn’t just colored by his admiration of Lacey either.

The barn door yawned open, and Lacey stood there, moonlight giving her a silver aura. She’d gotten ready for sleep, her long hair loosely bound in a single braid and a robe wrapped tightly about her. Dylan felt a flutter in his gut as a yearning overcame him, making him numb. He somehow managed to shut the stall door behind him and come out to face her.

“We waited on supper some,” Lacey started in a small voice. “But I’d burnt it anyways so…”

Dylan never let her finish. In two strides he had her in his arms, his mouth capturing hers as he held her to him. Lacey gasped as she allowed herself to be taken before melting into him, responding to his tongue’s search for her answer. She tried to think, to ask herself if this was what she wanted, but it was too late for any sense to rule. Her hands pulled his shirt out of his denims and ripped open the snaps, shoving it back from his arms to expose those muscles she had glimpsed at the river.

Dylan shrugged off the shirt before grabbing his bedroll and throwing it down on clean straw. He fingered loose the plaits of her braid and inhaled sharply as her hair hung down about her shoulders.

“Listen, listen,” he said breathlessly. “I don’t know…I don’t know…”

Lacey hushed him with her mouth, the taste of whiskey sweet on her tongue. His hands found the tie for her robe and thrust it back before he yanked it off and cast it aside. He pulled her down on top of him, lying back as he struggled to kick off his boots.

Lacey burst out laughing.

She sat back on her haunches and looked down at him, the startled and puzzled expression on his face endearing him to her as she sat there grinning. Dylan’s face went from mystified to amused as he sat up and pulled at some straw.

“It’s not easy, is it?” Lacey tried to soothe him knowing laughing might hurt his pride.

“I haven’t thought…I can’t think…”

“No. I didn’t mean that. I meant undressing, Dylan. If I’m gonna die I really ought to do this at least once, don’t you think?”

A pained expression creased his brow as he let out a ragged breath. “It’s taking advantage.”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake.” She bent to pull off first one of his boots followed by the other, before crawling up to him to unbuckle his belt and yanking it from his pants. He reached for her shoulders and pulled her to his waiting mouth. His hands moved down the outline of her body, finding her curves as she finally shoved his trousers and drawers down so he could kick them off.

“Hell and damnation.” Dylan lifted the nightdress making her feel suddenly exposed until he said, “You are so dang beautiful.” He gently pushed her back down to run his fingers over the map of her body before lowering his head to plant kisses down the length of her neck to her breasts.

A sigh escaped Lacey as she ran her own hands through his hair, but his head moved lower now. Heat moved from her groin through her whole body with a yearning such as she’d never known. She felt fluid, as if the borders of her figure had melted away. As Dylan reached the core of her being, everything seemed to dispel and only the yearning remained.

Dylan carefully moved back to find her mouth once more, their skin becoming a single shield against the night. Her hands moved tentatively down the points of his spine before pulling him in closer as his arousal nested against her stomach. But the heat within him was overpowering as Lacey’s body asked for its release. Dylan pulled back from her before moving in once more to make his final claim.

As he broke through her last barrier and heard her gasp, he stopped and waited to reassure her with his kiss. Then his body moved to Lacey’s rhythm as the kiss went deeper, and his body sought her depths. With every movement he claimed more of her; like an uncharted territory she would be his. And then, finally, he knew she had relinquished herself to him completely, lost herself in the ultimate shared ecstasy of a single moment.

“Hell and damnation,” Dylan whispered as he caught his breath. “Holy shit.”

****

“You have straw in your hair.” Luke’s sleepy, morning gaze focused on his sister as she stood filling the coffee pot. “And you’re not dressed. What…Oh, Lacey. That’s pretty clever. Did you seduce the marshal?”

“Luke Everhart!” The coffee pot slammed down on the range. “I most certainly did no such thing. Why, how could you even think…?”

The front door slammed. Lacey watched as Dylan stood there a moment before striding down the hall to the kitchen, a big smile on his face and straw in his hair, too. Luke looked from one to the other.

The young man turned back to his sister. “‘Even think’? Tell me what I think happened didn’t really happen.”

Dylan’s smile broadened. “Your sister and I are getting married!”

“What?”

“We
are
?” Lacey fidgeted with some mugs. “You don’t know me. Well, not really. I mean, we’ve just met and all.”

“Well, I’m a man who knows his mind.
Usually.
And my mind is made up on this. We’re getting married.”

“Dylan, I don’t…” Lacey pulled her robe tighter about her.

“Lacey, let’s not beat about the bush here, sweetheart. I think things have gone a bit further than ‘hardly know me.’ ’Sides which…” Dylan paused, a look of smugness turning up the corners of his mouth before he went on with his pronouncement. “A husband cannot testify against his wife.”

Luke gasped, looking from one to the other. Lacey’s mouth puckered as various thoughts flit across her brain, but she remained silent.

“Heck, I thought you’d be more excited than that, Lacey. This is the answer to my problem, my being torn ’tween protecting you and telling the law. I marry you, I
can’t
tell the law. Simple as that.” His future bride wasn’t enthralled by Dylan’s relief at having solved his conundrum.

“Simple as that, huh?” Lacey crossed her arms. The coffee pot seemed to bubble with approval, and she turned to fill the mugs. “Well, well. I read about that there law a while back when I was teaching Luke about the states’ history and all. There’s just one small problem with that, Dylan.”

“There’s no problem. Get dressed. We’re finding a preacher, and that’s an end to the matter.”

“An end to the matter, huh? You just gonna leave it that you can’t testify against me and so not turn me in?”

Dylan leaned back against the wall, arms across his chest and legs crossed. “I guess that’s about the sum of it. No point really, is there? I mean, no one else knows ’cept the three of us here. I can’t testify against you so I can’t tell no one. Makes sense, doesn’t it?”

Luke’s head continued to swivel from one to the other.