Silver Nights With You (Love in the Sierras Book 1) (20 page)

“It was me,” Morgan announced, his voice steady and deep. “I killed your brother.”

Lila’s eyes snapped to his, but he didn’t look at her. His gaze remained fixed on the gun, which was now moving to aim right at him.

“So, you’re David Gardner? You're the one who helped her?”

Lila's eyes darted to David, who stood still and silent as Morgan spoke.

“I’m the one you want. Leave her be, and I’ll go with you right now.”

“I don’t think so,” he said. “I think I’ll take her either way. I can think of a few ways she can be of use to me. You, I’ll just kill.”

He wrapped a finger around the trigger, and Lila knew she was about to see Morgan killed. Panic surged through her, and she sucked in a breath, closed her eyes, and threw her head back as hard as possible into the villain’s nose just as the shot rang out. She heard the bullet zing through a glass window and opened her eyes, relieved to find Morgan standing there, unscathed. He pulled the pistol from his hip and aimed it at Jared just as he was wrapping an arm around Lila’s throat and pulling her in front of him again.

Collette came rushing down the stairs with an empty water pitcher poised to shatter it over his head. He saw her approach through a thin film of watery eyes and lashed out with the butt of the gun, striking her hard across the cheek. She tumbled back against the wall and crumpled to the ground.  He pressed the end of the barrel to Lila’s eye so forcefully that she had to close it.

Blood slithered from his nostrils but apart from the pain he was panicked. His eyes darted around for a way of escape and the window at the bottom of the stairs provided the opportunity. He flung Lila over the banister and grabbed Ellie, pulling her down the stairs with him as a cover until he released her with a shove and jumped through the glass.

Lila screamed as she felt her body tumble over the rail. She grabbed the wooden spokes and hung on for dear life as she watched Ellie dragged down the steps. Her sweaty palms slipped from the posts, and she screamed as she fell through the air and landed in a sturdy pair of arms.

“Are you all right?” Morgan asked, and she nodded as he briskly set her on her feet and took off toward the window. He jumped through it and landed on his feet, aiming his gun at the shadow darting away on horseback. Squinting for aim, he pulled the trigger. The bullet hit the man’s arm and the limb sprang out from his side only to hang limp in the next instant.

“Dammit!” he muttered as he lowered the gun.

Lila leaned from the opening behind him while Philip and David helped Ellie and Val saw to Collette.

“Did you get him?” she asked pleadingly.

“Just his arm.”

She felt a boiling heat rise from her legs, bringing with it a blanket of total blackness. Her legs went watery and her head lolled before everything went completely black.

Morgan turned to find Lila teetering on unsteady legs, her face pale, broken glass from the shattered pane cutting lines of blood through her palms. He caught her as she fainted and hefted her into his arms. Ellie was on her feet and shrugged off the helping hands of David and Philip as she rushed to Lila’s side.

“We’d better get her father,” she said. “Tell him what’s going on. David, go!”

David looked drunkenly from Lila, slack in Morgan’s arms, to the front door. He shook his head, trying to clear the effects of the drug still clouding his mind. When Ellie pushed him toward the portal he took off at a run.

“She’s going to need to be looked after until he’s caught,” Morgan said. He huffed and shook his head, exasperated. “Damn Samuel. Maybe now he’ll realize the consequences of serving up lies as journalism.”

He rounded the landing and headed toward the third floor steps, rushing past Val, who was being shooed away by an irritated Collette. Val left the French lady and the trembling girl attached to her leg and followed closely behind Morgan.

“Why did you let him think you were David?” he asked.

“Because it doesn’t matter. He wants her whether she killed his brother or not.”

Val stared at Morgan as they stomped toward their bedroom door. “
Did
she kill his brother?”

“The man she killed was shot right in the heart. He’d been shot in the back, too, but I don’t think she could have made a better kill-shot if she had tried. If that was his brother, then that’s the man she killed. You’d best take Philip and see if you can find a trail. I know it’s dark but if we at least know the direction he went that’ll help us out. Look for blood. I'm sure his arm is dripping it, and watch your back.”

Val nodded and put a hand on Morgan’s shoulder before heading back down the stairs.

Morgan pushed through his bedroom door, and set her down on his bed. Ellie had gone to get a fresh pitcher of water so he gathered the linens and covered her body, tucking the quilt high up under her chin so that her physical assets were no longer visible. Already his arms ached at the loss of her lithe form curled against him. He shook away the tremors attacking him at the image of her being held against the man’s body, a gun to her head and tears running down her face. He tucked a stray tuft of hair behind her ear, and when he glanced at her face, her eyes were open and staring right at him. 

“So, I fainted,” she said with some chagrin. “That’s the first time I’ve ever done that. How’s that for fearless?”

“A man held a gun to your head. You are entitled to fear, Lila,” he said quietly as he rose and poured her a glass of whiskey from the wash stand.

She took a sip and nearly spat it back out over the quilt. Morgan smiled softly.

“Don’t sip it. Just throw it all into the back of your throat.” She gave him a dubious look. “Trust me. It’ll burn going down, but you’ll be relaxed before it even hits your belly.”

She sighed and did as he instructed. Her eyes watered and she coughed a few times but soon she was slumping down farther onto the bed.

"I should have never bought that gun in Nebraska," she said sadly.

His muscles tensed at the soft flecks of fear in her eyes. “You don’t have to worry. I’ll always protect you.”

“I know,” she whispered.

There was such tenderness in her gaze. He went to the wash stand and poured himself a drink, draining it in one shot. He could feel the adrenaline leaving his body and the burning pain began to sear his back again as he fought a battering of spasms leaping from his spine. He closed his eyes softly and breathed deeply and calmly. He could feel his brow dampen, his pulse beating down into the bottom of his feet. His face scrunched up into a silent wince, and he heard the soft movement of Lila rising from the bed.

She came to his side and grabbed a thin blue garment that was slung over the chair beside him. It was her robe. His eyes fell to the roundness of her breasts and the shadowy nipples hinting through the fabric. She made no effort to hide herself, but took her time pulling the robe on, watching him enjoy the sight of her flesh before she tied it shut.

“Let’s take a look at your back,” she said, and he turned away again.

“It’s fine.”

“Please,” she said softly, resting a palm on his bicep. “I know you’re in pain. Let me take a look.”

He didn’t want to lean on her but had no choice. The pain from his back spiraled down both of his legs and he didn’t trust them to hold him up during the spasm. Her body felt small and fragile beneath his bulk but he knew the strength of her grip. She eased him down to sit on the bed and Morgan feebly lifted his arms, trying to remove his coat but it was too much for him.

“Here, let me do it,” she said.

She knelt before him. Slowly, she worked one arm free and then the other while he noticed the way her body moved beneath the thin layers of fabric. With no undergarments or boning to manipulate her shape, the fabric clung greedily to her perfect form.

Next, she began unbuttoning his shirt, one tiny bead at a time. Each touch of her fingertip, each brush of a knuckle over his bare skin as she worked her way down was like a cord tightening around his midsection. He breathed in the scent of her hair as it hovered beneath his nostrils. Her palms were smooth and soft as she ran them down the length of his arms, rising and sloping over each ridge of muscle as she removed the sleeves. Her face was close enough to his chest to plant a warm kiss to his flesh without moving a full inch.

When his arms were free, she pulled the shirt slowly from his back where it had attached itself to bits of raw blood and scab near the shoulders.

“This may hurt.” Her lips were temptingly close to his. She tugged the shirt completely free, and he felt part of his flesh rip. He didn't even flinch. She looked around and her breath escaped on a sympathetic sigh as she surveyed the damage.

“Oh, Morgan,” she breathed. “You must be in agony.”

She was kneeling in front of him, her eyes golden-green pools of concern. Her hair was resting on one shoulder, her bottom lip sucked nervously beneath her upper one. She was utter perfection, and he'd almost lost her. Agony was the perfect word for what he felt, and it was bone deep.

“You shouldn’t leave the house on your own until this man is caught,” he advised. “Not even to the well.”

“Morgan…” she whispered, "What if he comes back for me?"

"Then he has a death wish."

"I saw him last week," she said quietly. "He was in The Silver Queen and tried to proposition me.”

Anger boiled in his gut. If she had never been there in the first place…The bedroom door flew open, and Ellie marched in with a fresh pitcher of water. She stopped in mid-stride and surveyed the position of the occupants.

“I must admit I expected to find Lila in the bed, not you, Morgan,” she said.

“He’s in a far worse state than I am,” Lila said, motioning to his back.

“So, that’s his blood on your hands?” Ellie asked, nodding toward Lila’s palms and she gasped.

“Goodness! I didn’t realize I’d even cut myself.”

Val and Philip returned, each wincing at the bruising on Morgan’s back before they told him they couldn’t find a trail. Next, Collette stomped in, a look of fury still plastered across her otherwise beautiful face. Her right cheek was already swollen and beaming an angry red, but the seamstress carried on as if she were completely unaware that she’d been struck as she walked right up to Lila.

“Are you all right, darling?” she asked.

“I’m fine. How is your cheek?”

“Oh, poof,” she swatted the air. “It will take more zan zat witless coward to damage me.”

“Thank you,” Lila said. “Thank you for trying to help me. You are a very brave woman.”

She shrugged with a smile and finally looked around the room. Val and Philip stood taller in an instant, each doffing his hat and smiling in greeting. Her features softened slowly as she surveyed the trio of men, her appraising eyes shooting from one brother to the next before settling on Val.

“Would you be so kind as to help my leetle Helene carry my goods down to za carriage, monsieur?”

“
Absolument
,” Val said smoothly, and Collette purred with surprise.

“
Parlez-vous francais
?”

“
Oui
,” he answered, taking a heap of fabric from the young girl’s arms. She looked him up and down again, this time more slowly and tweaked an eyebrow approvingly before heading down the stairs. Val followed with a smirk.

Philip glanced at Morgan. “This place is exciting.”

“More so as of late,” he replied with a quirked eyebrow.

“Is this your lady?” Philip asked with a nod toward Lila.

“She is,” Morgan beamed with pride. “Lila Cameron, I’d like you to meet an old friend from Germany, Philip Deidescheimer.”

“How do you do?” she asked as Ellie finished bandaging her palms.

“It’s a pleasure,” he returned before looking at Morgan, nonplussed. “I’m afraid I don’t understand what is happening here. You killed a man whose brother thinks that Miss Cameron killed him, but he thinks that you are David Gardner and he wants to kill you now?”

Morgan chuckled. “Close, but not quite. I’ll fill you in later. I think Miss Cameron ought to bandage me up and then we should all go to the parlor. There are going to be a lot of bodies in here soon, and I don’t think this room can handle the company.”

Argyle’s voice boomed beyond the slamming of the front door. “Lila!”

She looked from Morgan’s back to the doorway, and Ellie stepped forward. 

“I’ll take care of Morgan,” she volunteered. “You go on. We’ll meet you in the parlor.”

Lila smiled gratefully, spared a final glance to Morgan, and ran out to greet her father.

“Whose idea was this?” Morgan asked from his stance in front of the parlor window.

“Val’s,” Argyle answered. "I quite agree with him. We should get Lila out of town and somewhere safe as soon as possible, take advantage of the fact that the man has been shot and will be laid up for at least tonight."

Val stepped forward. "You need to get out to your homestead as it is, Morgan. You might as well take Lila with you."

"But it doesn't resolve the larger issue of catching this criminal," Morgan said. "I'm not going to run away only to look over my shoulder for the rest of my life.

“Neither am I,” Lila pronounced staunchly. “I don’t want to slink away into the shadows and hide.”

“It’s not a permanent arrangement, Lila,” Argyle soothed. “It’s just until the man is found.”

“And how long will that take?” she returned. “What if he’s decided it’s not worth the trouble of getting shot and leaves town? What if he plans to sit back and hide? What if he plans to watch the boarding house until I make an appearance? You have to give him a reason to show himself and hiding me away is not going to do that.”

“That is ridiculous,” David said with an impatient roll of his eyes. “Lila, sweetheart, just sit down and be quiet.”

She flinched at the patronization and her eyes widened with the wound, but Morgan's hard voice came quickly to her aid.

"Watch your mouth, Gardner," Morgan warned. "Or better yet, keep it shut like you did in the dining room. This is one situation I am not going to let you shirk the blame on."

His eyes went from narrow to wide, and he glanced nervously at the faces around the room. "What are you talking about? How can this possibly be my doing?"

"You took Lila to The Silver Queen and practically packaged her up for Jared Percy. I've kept quiet on the matter at Lila's insistence, but if you show one more sign of disrespect toward her, so help me God I'll-“

“You took my daughter to that cesspool of depravity!” Argyle sputtered and turned angry eyes onto the increasingly-shriveled form of David, who groaned and covered his face with a palm, thoroughly regretting his time at Mr. Wu’s.

Lila shut her eyes in frustration. “Papa, it doesn’t matter now. What’s important is-“

“What’s important is the safety and care of my daughter,” Argyle interrupted. “I’m obviously too old. You’re obviously too inept,” he glared at David. “It appears that Morgan Kelly is the man for the job. I apologize for thrusting such responsibility at you, Morgan, but I absolutely insist that you take Lila and me to your homestead as quickly as possible. Now is not the time to work out the particulars of a resolution. Now, is the time to use our advantage and move her to safety.”

Lila locked eyes with Morgan. He stared at her for a long moment before nodding toward her father.

"I will show you and Lila to my place, but then I'm coming right back."

"What?" Lila's brow creased.

"You were right," he told her. "Jared needs to be flushed out, but not by you. The man wants revenge on whoever killed his brother. Right now, he believes it is either me or you. If you're away and safe, then sure as the sun rises he’ll be coming for me.”

“No!” Lila objected. “No, I’m not letting you put yourself in danger for me. You had nothing to do with that killing. You didn’t fire a single shot. You weren’t even there! If you were punished for my actions…” Her voice faltered. “If something happened to you…” She shook her head, unable to finish the sentence.

David looked suspiciously from Morgan’s moved expression to Lila’s, and his eyes narrowed as Morgan crossed the room and took her in his arms. She spared him a fleeting glance before resting her head on Morgan's shoulder and completing their embrace with her arms around Morgan's waist.

“He’d be after me even if I never confessed to killing his brother,” Morgan said softly into her hair. “I shot him, remember?”

“For trying to kidnap me,” she returned.

“That’s not why I shot him,” he said, and her brow scrunched up as she tilted her head to look at his face. “He broke two of Ellie’s windows, and that is unacceptable.”

Morgan smiled in an attempt to comfort her with humor but she didn’t want to smile. In fact, she wanted to slap him for looking so calm and unaffected. They heard the slam of the parlor door and looked to find that David had gone. She sighed and went to the liquor cabinet. Shakily, she poured herself a shot of whiskey, sparing no time between the pouring and the swallowing, and shut her eyes. The heat swarmed her throat and belly while she prayed for it to calm her like it had earlier.

When the silent room tickled her ears she turned to find a mixture of gazes shooting her way. Argyle wore the same astonished look he had when he first saw her raise a gun. Ellie and Philip frowned. Val chuckled openly and Morgan’s smile was soft, his eyes full of amusement.

She held the bottle aloft. “Does anybody want a drink?”

One by one they filed in for a glass. Even Ellie and Argyle shrugged off the shock and joined in for a tipple. Lila ignored the admonishing look of her father and moved back into the circle of Morgan's arms, clutching her glass to her chest. Several pairs of curious eyes were now fastened on the couple. She felt the deep rumble of Morgan's laugh before he addressed her father.

"I know this is hardly the time for it, but I wanted to ask for your daughter's hand in marriage, Dr. Cameron."

Lila felt the glistening of her eyes as she looked at her father. His wrinkled brow gathered into more grooves, and his nostrils flared above the pinch of his lips. There was a slight quiver in his chin as he fought the moisture rushing to his own eyes.

"You're asking to take my baby from me, Morgan," he rasped as the words seemed to stick in his throat.

"Never," Morgan answered. "She needs you as much as you need her. I would never stand in between you two. I don't want to take her. I want to love her and honor her. I want to protect and care for her, give her children for you to spoil and keep you young. You will always be welcome to live with us, for the rest of your days."

Tears flooded Lila's eyes and poured down her cheeks. "You two are killing me," she sobbed as she broke away from Morgan and jumped into her father's arms. They had shared so many deep emotions over the past months, a soul-shaking grief no one else could understand. She didn't want him feeling like his last connection to her mother was walking out of his life.

"I'll always be your baby, Papa," she whispered as she tightened her hold on him.

"My daughter…" Argyle mused. "A wife!"

He chuckled, not caring about the ceaseless flow of tears wetting his cheeks and mustache. Lila laughed in response and sniffled as she pulled back to look into his eyes.

"So, we have your blessing then?"

Argyle looked at Morgan over Lila's head, and nodded. "Aye. I give my most hearty consent, and I wish you both a lifetime of happiness."

He hugged Lila again and she felt herself being closed in by several other bodies as Ellie and Val jumped forward to hug them. Morgan laughed and shook hands, welcomed hugs and drank another glass of whiskey before Lila fitted herself back in his arms.

“Here’s what I propose,” Morgan inserted. “I'll take Lila, Philip and Argyle out to my place tonight. I can't say for sure, but I reckon there's not a scrap of resources there. I'm going to need food and supplies. I'll leave a list with you, Val, and if you could bring a wagon down tomorrow with supplies that would be excellent. I'll need you to stay for a few days to help collect my cattle and get a fence up. I’m sure we have a few days before we have to worry about our man, what with the gunshot wound he’s got to tend.”

“I'll load you up with as much food as you can carry before you go," Ellie said. "That way you've got victuals to hold you over 'til Val makes it down."

“Great,” Morgan said matter-of-factly. “Now, let’s move. Can everyone be ready to leave in a half hour?”

“Even less,” Argyle said.

Lila quickly dressed in her new clothes, a mauve skirt and plain white blouse, covered by a buckskin vest. Next, she went to David's old room to gather the rest of her belongings. She opened the door softly so as not to wake the injured miner. The wood made the smallest whisper as it snapped back into its frame, but as she turned around it wasn’t the miner who sat on the bed. It was David, and her heart jumped up into her throat.

"David, you scared me," she said. "What are you doing in here? Where is Mr. O'Callahan."

"He went to the privy," David answered. His voice was cool and steady yet swollen with anger, like his gaze boring into her. He quietly worked his lips back and forth between a pressed thin line and a purse.

“So, when did you come to the conclusion that Morgan was the man you wanted?"

“The morning of the opera,” she answered.

His breaths came and went sharply through his nostrils. Slowly, he stood and crossed the room to her. She backed up until she was against the wall and he stood before her. His nose was a scant inch from hers, and she suddenly became fearful. His eyes burned through her skin. The threat she sensed in every inch of him towered over her, but she called forth her courage and raised her chin.

“He has asked me to marry him, and I’ve agreed.”

He didn’t move. His face remained as stone cold as it had been before she spoke. The hammering of her heart sped to arresting speed and strength.

“So, you used me to ensnare the man you really wanted,” he growled with a toss of his head.

“No, it wasn’t like that,” she defended. “I really did believe I had a growing attachment to you, and you know good and well that I chose to spend my days with you.”

“And your nights with him?” he spat, and her hand shot out to whip him across the cheek.

After a few thick moments, he spoke. “I could have forgiven you, Lila. I could have forgiven you leading me on, tempting me with outrageous flirtations and fawning, forgiven even your rejection of me, if it weren’t for Morgan. Not him.” He shook his head curtly. “How he must have laughed at me all this time, watching me shower you with praise and attention, knowing all the while that he would be the one to climb between your thighs after all of
my
efforts!”

“David, a little restraint, please.”

“Restraint!” His fist balled and she flinched, though he did not strike her. “You have no idea the restraint I’ve shown, of the restraint I’m showing now when my fingers long to grasp your throat and choke the life out of you for cuckolding me with
that
man.”

His hands went to either side of her neck and curled as if practicing what he just spoke of and she turned her head.

“Stop it! You’re scaring me.”

Slowly, as if fighting against himself, he lowered his tight fists to his sides and looked away. His chest inflated with a few deep breaths before he opened the door and stomped out.

There was never enough whiskey, Jared thought as he poured another mouthful down his throat. His left arm was on fire like a hundred bees were trapped inside, stinging their way out. Bobby worked a dirty needle through the flesh with some thick twine and he yelped again.

“Goddammit, Bobby!” he shouted. “Go easy on the arm. It hurts like a sonofabitch.”

“Stop howling like a baby,” Bobby said as he pricked the reddened flesh again. “At least the bullet went through. You’d be screaming a lot worse if I had to go digging around for a ball of lead.”

“Yeah, it’s a Goddamn blessing,” Jared drawled sarcastically. “Just hurry up already.”

His left arm was completely useless, void of any feeling but pain. Part of him worried that he’d lose the use of it for good, but he talked himself into believing that once he was sewn up the feeling and function would return.

“Why the hell did you go down there without me?” Bobby asked. “You should have come back for me. Then we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“I didn’t know the men would return so soon,” Jared defended with a hiss. “I thought it would be easy enough to overtake three women and a little girl.”

“Well…” Bobby finished the last of the stitches. “You probably could have if you had gone in there shooting instead of trying to take her alive. Guess you learned your lesson, eh? Why would you want to keep a girl around who killed your brother, anyway?”

Jared shrugged Bobby away from him and winced at the pain it caused him. “You ain’t seen this girl.”

She proved an unexpected delight. The way he’d read the article he imagined an abnormally large woman with completely masculine features. He couldn’t have been farther from the truth. He almost pitied that she had to die. He didn’t believe for one second that she was innocent of his brother’s killing.

“She’s that much of a looker?”

“Let me put it this way, I creamed my pants when I first saw her.”

“Really?” Bobby glanced down at Jared’s pants. “I hope you’ve washed since then. Don’t smell like it.”

Jared ignored his companion and walked to the mouth of the cave as he took another swig of whiskey. David Gardner and Lila Cameron. He thought the names over and over, serving up another measure of loathing for each as he did so. His fingers itched to close around somebody’s throat, as tense as he was over the events of the past weeks, but a posse of do-gooders was sure to be combing the area for him. They’d be on the watch for him, and the girl would be heavily protected.