Over the Edge (20 page)

Jasper met Bea’s eyes. She was a smart woman bent on going straight. It made her mighty hard to handle. “All right. Yes, we can do that. I hope he does show up.”

“Why can’t you let the money go, Jasper? We’re getting by as we are.”

It was a hard question and Jasper wasn’t sure she’d like his answer. “I feel ashamed, Bea. I feel like I’ve lost my pride. I live off you. I’m a bum.”

“You work hard every day. A bum doesn’t do that.”

“Maybe not.” He brushed her hair back off her face. “You’ve got no right to be so pretty when your life has been so hard.”

“Hush with your sweet talk.”

“Everything we have is yours. And somewhere right around here is the money I spent my life earning. It gnaws at me day and night. I lay awake and twist myself up thinking about it being so close. Thinking about these Kincaids living high off the money I fought years to earn.”

“It’s ill-gotten and you know it.”

“I earned it more than the Kincaids ever did.”

She patted his arm.

“Once I get it back, I can hold my head up. I won’t try to buy us a big house or make you live a rich life. I know you like where we’re at. But knowing I can call it mine instead of yours . . . well, I don’t think I’ll ever know any peace if I can’t say that.”

Bea looked at him. “It’s a fool’s errand. You know that. Better to just go back to Colorado City, and if you want to feel like you’re part owner, then get a job. Hire on to work at the bank or somewhere.”

“Me, in a bank?”

“You can add and subtract, can’t you?”

“I can indeed, and I want to add my money to yours. I’d have to work for years to add a fraction of what’s already mine.”

“But it would be enough, Jasper. More than enough, and honestly earned.” She rested her head on his shoulder.

“I can’t go back without at least trying, Bea. Tomorrow I’ll get my money, and then be the most upright man you’ve ever known. You’ll be proud to have me as your husband.”

“I’m proud now, Jasper.”

“I’m going.”

“I’ll not stand by if you hurt anyone.”

A smile escaped as Jasper realized she was agreeing to let him try. “You have my word that I won’t. Now, let me get this place warmed up.”

Jasper didn’t intend to hurt anyone. He’d find his diamonds, sneak in, grab them and run, with no one the wiser. And staying in the cabin didn’t seem like too big a risk. He felt confident no one was coming home anytime soon. It was too late at night.

The Kincaids must be staying the night at the third house, the one no one knew much about. In the dark he’d have the devil’s own time following a trail. He’d heard twisted stories about Rafe Kincaid’s house being in a hard-to-find canyon.

Jasper expected he’d hunt it down with no trouble, but not in the dark.

He built up the fire. It crackled in the silent room. The wind whined down the chimney and made the flames dance and sparkle like diamonds.

Bea had refused to use the beds, so they’d settled on the floor, wrapped together in a blanket. Tomorrow he’d find his diamonds and get back to his real life.

The warm room pulled Jasper into sleep, and just as he dozed off, the snapping flames and whipping wind changed until he heard what sounded like the devil laughing.

Chapter
18

“What’s a little stack of diamonds worth?” Seth looked at his brothers. Who shrugged.

“A lot.” Julia held the cigar cylinder packed with diamonds in her hands. She reached into the cylinder and pulled out one stone about the size of a baby’s thumbnail. “I know the bigger they are, the more valuable. And as diamonds go, these seem big. All together, they’re worth probably tens of thousands of dollars.”

Callie couldn’t help but gasp. “In that little tube?”

Julia held the diamonds just a bit farther away from her body, as if the tube had turned into a Texas sidewinder. As if holding it made her skin crawl, but she was afraid to let go and get bit. “I reckon you oughta take ’em somewhere. Sell ’em and buy something important like land and cattle and horses.”

Julia shook her head, frowning. “We can’t sell them. My father stole them and I refuse to get rich on his dishonesty.”

“The man he stole ’em from sent low-down hombres after you to take the diamonds back, by force.” Callie didn’t hold with keeping stolen goods, yet was it right to return those goods to a thief? “An honest man would’ve contacted the sheriff and reported that he’d been robbed.”

“True enough.” Seth looked at the cleared area where the line shack needed to go. “Can we stop talking about diamonds and get this cabin built? I don’t want to be all day about it.”

It suited Callie to get back to work. She preferred ignoring something as stupid as stones that looked like broken glass. “Take ’em to the sheriff, then. The lawman in Rawhide can sort it all out. If the man who says those diamonds are his shows up, just tell him to talk to the sheriff. Bet he’ll hit the trail fast enough.”

“I don’t want to take them to the sheriff in Rawhide. Working alone like he does, this might be a big temptation to the man, and I don’t want him to go bad because of us. We need to take them to Colorado City.”

“We can’t get there before spring most likely,” Seth said.

“If we can’t get out before spring, then it stands to reason an outlaw can’t get in.” Rafe took the diamonds from Julia. “In the meantime, we need to tuck these away somewhere safe. These diamonds, once turned in to the sheriff, will buy us some peace.”

“I could try the run to Colorado City, Rafe.” Seth reached for the diamonds and Rafe handed them over. “Now that the blizzard is over, it shouldn’t be hard to make it.”

Rafe looked from the cylinder to Seth. “It could be done. But you need to start early.”

“How about tomorrow?”

“No,
not
tomorrow.” Callie snagged the diamonds from Seth.

“Why not?” Seth asked.

“Because I have to go with you, and I’m not in the mood for another long ride up and down a cold mountainous trail. And if I go, Connor has to go.”

“Seth can make the ride into town and back in a long hard day alone, Callie,” Rafe said. “You don’t need to go.”

“I’m not leaving his side until I’m sure he’s not gonna run off again.”

“Hey! I’d come back. I’m not running off. Why would I do a thing like that?”

“Why indeed?” Callie exchanged a long look with Rafe.

Rafe opened his mouth, then looked at Seth and scowled. “He’d almost for sure come back.”

“I’ve got a wife and son out here. Besides, I want to show Connor the cavern.” Seth’s eyes flashed with wild enthusiasm.

“Okay,” Rafe said. “You can rest up a few more days before you head to town. And if the cold weather shuts down hard on our heads, we can hope the varmint after those diamonds is locked away from us for the winter. Now let’s get back to work.” Rafe, always taking charge. “Ethan and Heath, we’re gonna need a lot more logs.”

Ethan looked at Heath. They both shrugged and led their horses back toward the forest.

———

They kept at their building until full dark. The cabin was close to done when the day ended. “I’ll hang the door and shutters myself.” Rafe pulled off his gloves and wiped his brow. The evening was turning colder, though Callie hadn’t noticed until she’d stopped working.

“We’ll ride for home now.” Seth began saddling his horse.

“No, we have to get Connor.” Callie got to work strapping leather on her own mount.

She saw Seth freeze, take a nervous look at her, then go back to tending his horse.

“Forget you had a son, cowboy?”

Seth’s eyes got wide and his hands moved faster. Callie only kept from slugging him because she was exhausted and had a long ride ahead of her.

“Stay at our house tonight,” Julia said. “It’ll be the middle of the night before you get back to your place.”

“It feels like the middle of the night now.” Rafe swung up on his horse.

Ethan and Seth followed suit. Whatever their quirks, and they seemed legion, Callie had to admit the Kincaid men knew horses and they knew building. The line shack had gone up fast and sturdy.

Soon they were riding down another mountain by moonlight. Callie would get used to the whole world standing on end someday, but for now she missed the rolling hills and flatlands of her father’s ranch.

They rode up the side of another mountain and swung down to lead the horses into a cave. “You live in this cave?” she asked Julia.

“No, this is a vent into a caldera.”

Callie felt free to roll her eyes at the nonsense because they’d entered the cave and it was pitch-dark.

“The cave goes all the way through into a mountain valley,” Rafe said. He was in the lead and his voice echoed back past the row of Kincaids, each leading their horse. Rafe first, then Julia. Heath, Seth, Callie, with Ethan bringing up the rear.

When they came out, Callie saw a vast stretch of meadow bathed in moonlight. It was too dark for her to see it clearly, but she liked the feel of it, the openness. Trees weren’t trying to swallow up every bit of space.

When they reached the cabin, light gleamed in the window. Smoke curled out of the chimney, and Callie smelled something hot and meaty.

They saw to their horses. Inside, Audra was the only one there. She’d heard them coming and was mostly done dishing up plates from a huge pot of stew simmering on a rectangular cast-iron cookstove. The cabin was lit by several lanterns. There were doors to the right and left of the main room, both closed. And two more doors to the back. The main room held a big table near the stove on the right side, and two rocking chairs in front of the fireplace on the left.

Callie and Julia washed up and pitched in to prepare the meal while the men finished cleaning up. Rafe said the blessing, and Callie thought he sounded particularly sincere when he prayed for their safety and wisdom in dealing with the diamonds. Soon they were all eating the savory meal.

They fell on the food like starving lumberjacks and made short work of finishing it.

“Thanks, Audra, honey.” Ethan took his plate to the sink. “A hot meal puts heart into a man.”

With the meal cleared away, exhaustion weighed down Callie’s eyelids and she felt every ache left from her run-in with stagecoach robbers.

“I put the children all in the south bedroom.” Audra looked them over. “Two more bedrooms. One for the women, one for the men?”

“I’ll sleep out here in front of the fire,” Seth said.

“Me, too.” Heath rose from the table. His chair scraped on the floor, and he looked about ready to fall asleep where he stood.

Callie was relieved the boy had spoken up because she didn’t want to be tempted to sleep with her husband.

“Callie, you stay out here with me,” Seth said. “Let Julia and Rafe, and Audra and Ethan have the bedrooms.”

Though she didn’t like it, Callie felt churlish refusing to give the married couples some privacy. Then she realized she was included in that group—married couples. She hadn’t said much in front of the others about not wanting to be with Seth, and now wasn’t the time to bring it up. Nothing
married
would happen while she was sleeping on the floor in the same room as a half-grown boy.

They were soon settled with a generous pile of blankets that took some of the hard out of their hardwood mattress. Callie was too tired to worry much about Seth lying down next to her and covering them both with the same blanket. And she was barely awake when she realized that somehow her head was pillowed on his broad shoulder.

Chapter
19

A scream jerked Callie awake. Something hit her in the face. She clawed for her gun as she rolled aside.

She didn’t have it.

“I’m on fire! Rafe! Ethan!” The cry for help dragged her out of her unthinking reaction as, with a whoosh of relief, she recognized Seth’s voice.

She was kneeling, facing him, well out of striking distance by the time it all sorted through her brain. And she had a throbbing spot on her cheek where she was pretty sure her husband had just punched her.

Her poor tormented husband needed his arm broken.

“I’m burning!” Seth slapped at his arms and face.