Texas Bride (20 page)

“You devious sidewinder,” she muttered aloud.

“Are you referring to me, my dear?”

Maddie started when the taunting voice wafted toward her. Her left hand inched toward the pistol she had tucked in her waistband.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Ward Tipton warned.

The click of a trigger broke the vaporous silence, indicating that Ward had a pistol trained on her back. Maddie thought quickly and decided she
did
dare because her fear of being closeted in this dingy hellhole was greater than her fear of being shot at.

Employing Jonah’s technique of dropping and rolling, she dived from the cot and reached simultaneously for her pistol. Ward’s bullet whizzed over her head and struck a glass bottle. Wine dribbled onto the rock floor. Maddie aimed at the weasely scoundrel who had sneaked up on her through the narrow tunnel that connected the wine cellar to his ranch house. Unfortunately, Ward ducked around the corner into the tunnel and her shot ricocheted off the stone wall.

Ward’s next shot shattered the lantern, plunging the small cavern into darkness. Before Maddie could control her apprehension he was upon her like a pouncing panther. He wrested her pistol from her hand, grabbed her by the hair and jerked her roughly to her feet. His chokehold on her neck only intensified the panicky sensation of being enclosed in these dark, narrow confines that reminded her more of a sepulcher than a cellar.

“Nervous, Maddie?” Ward jeered. “I noticed you were uneasy that time I brought you with me to fetch a wine bottle during one of my dinner parties. I’m surprised you found the gumption to come back here.”

“I’ve developed considerable gumption during the past six months. And I will never forgive you for stashing my sister in this wretched place,” she muttered. Then she winced when he crammed the pistol
against her jugular vein, making it even more difficult to breathe in this vacuum of darkness.

“You’ll forgive me, all right,” Ward said confidently as he frog-marched her into the tunnel that led to his house. “If you care about your sister you will cooperate completely.”

Maddie tensed as Ward forced her through the dank passageway, which was barely five feet high and two feet wide. Her nerves screamed and her severe case of the jitters had her gasping for breath.

Ward smiled devilishly as he hunched over and propelled her along in front of him. “When we’re married you can expect to be punished for your insolence by spending time in the cellar. That should serve to make you a cooperative wife.”

“I’m already married.”

“Widowed by now,” Ward predicted as he hurried her along toward the ladder that led to the trap door in the floor of the pantry. “Your husband and his friend have met with a stroke of bad luck—not uncommon in this wild part of the country, what with all the Indian renegades, outlaws and rustlers running loose around here. In fact, rumor has it that those two half-breeds were connected with the rustling.”

Maddie was having trouble maintaining her composure, but Ward’s comments practically knocked her to her knees. The thought of Jonah and Boone having their reputations ruined and then perishing because of their association with
her
deflated her spirits in one second flat.

She moved numbly up the ladder as Ward shoved her forward. But defiance and fury returned in full force when she reached solid footing in the pantry
and dragged in a fortifying breath of air. Maddie plunged forward in an attempt to escape.

“Bloody hell!” Ward snarled as he snaked out his hand, grabbed her ankle and jerked her off balance.

She landed hard on the planked floor, scraping her chin and snapping her teeth together so quickly that she bit her tongue and tasted blood.

“Behave yourself, you little twit,” he snapped as he hoisted her to her feet. The spitting end of his pistol jabbed her between the shoulder blades. “You are trying my patience, woman. It’s bad enough that I have to saddle myself with an untitled nobody of an American wife in order to expand my holdings. But you can bet your life that I will do what I must to return to the earl’s good graces and collect my rightful inheritance. When that controlling bastard finally keels over, I will claim my title and no longer have any need of you.”

Maddie found herself shoved into Ward’s elaborately decorated office and pushed into a chair.

“Now then,” he said briskly. “Here are the terms of our agreement.” He smiled tauntingly as he held her at gunpoint. “I will allow your sister to live, provided you agree to marry me and turn control of your ranch over to me.”

“You sniveling bastard. You are not going to hold my sister’s safety over my head and I will not be intimidated into marrying you!”

Ward clucked his tongue and shook his blond head in disapproval. “You were much easier to deal with before you allowed your feisty temperament to rule you.” One refined brow lifted in aloof challenge.
“Just as Avery made your father disappear, so I can arrange for your sister to conveniently vanish.”

“You won’t be able to blame Avery for her disappearance this time. Obviously you disposed of Avery when you no longer needed him as your scapegoat.”

“That queer bastard tried to outmaneuver me,” Wade said, and scowled. “I simply turned his own underhanded tactics on him, and he got what he deserved. I should think you would be grateful that I had him killed for disposing of your father, in his treacherous crusade to marry you so
he
could take control of your valuable property.”

Maddie sneered at the arrogant dandy. Having her worst fears about her father confirmed caused angry resentment to coil in her belly. Her anguish and grief over her father’s death—and quite possibly Jonah’s and Boone’s—made her daring and reckless, and she vented her frustration on Ward. “I am
not
appreciative. You are no better than Avery was and I won’t marry you under any circumstances. I can’t believe innocent people have died just to ensure you are reelevated to some ridiculous stature in British society.” She flashed him a scathing glare. “You are unworthy of any title other than
bastard,
and you are beneath contempt!”

Ward took offense at her disrespectful slur and glowered disdainfully. “If you refuse to cooperate then I will marry a child bride after
you
suffer an untimely accident. It hardly makes any difference to me. Christina will serve my purpose just as well.”

He contemplated that prospect for a moment, while
Maddie battled the insane urge to go for his throat, despite the loaded pistol aimed at her chest.

A sinister smile stretched across his lips, making them all but disappear from his face. He didn’t look as handsome when the dark side of his personality came pouring out, Maddie noticed.

“As it turns out, I really don’t need you, after all,” Ward declared. “Christina will welcome my consolation and support after your mangled body is found at the bottom of a canyon. No one will question the fact that your horse lost its footing on the crumbling edge and sent you plunging to your death.”

Maddie swallowed the lump of fear that jammed in her throat. For all Ward Tipton’s proper British manners and blue-blooded breeding, he definitely had an evil mind and a black soul.

“I doubt Chrissy will be as easily manipulated or eager to accept your pretentious compassion as you seem to think,” Maddie snapped. “Turns out that she’s fallen in love with someone else and I doubt she’ll settle for less, even after she learns of my demise.”

A muffled noise in the foyer caught Ward’s notice. The instant Maddie realized she wasn’t the absolute focus of his attention she launched herself off the chair, lowered her head and plowed into his midsection. Howling in outrage, Ward stumbled over his feet and fell to the floor in an unceremonious heap. While they wrestled for control of the pistol that was clenched in Ward’s fist, the roar of a familiar voice distracted Maddie. She made the crucial mistake of glancing toward the doorway.

And found herself clamped in Ward’s arms, used
as a shield to protect him from the men who burst into the room.

Maddie was so relieved to know Jonah and Boone were alive that she didn’t react immediately when Ward shoved the pistol into her neck again. Her wild-eyed gaze flew to Jonah in silent apology as Ward climbed awkwardly to his feet without releasing his stranglehold on her.

The deadly expression on Jonah’s chiseled features indicated that he was mad as hell at her for getting herself into another scrape, and furious with Ward for using her as his defense.

“Drop your guns,” Ward demanded as he poked his pistol a little deeper into the underside of Maddie’s chin.

“I don’t think so,” Jonah snarled, his murderous green eyes boring holes into the rancher.

The comment flustered Ward momentarily and he pulled Maddie so tightly against him she found it difficult to breathe. Stalemate, she mused.

“She’s your wife, Danhill,” Ward mocked in that uppity British accent that was beginning to grate on Maddie’s frazzled nerves. “Drop your weapons or she loses her head because of you. Not that I give a bloody damn if her death is on your conscience. If, in fact, mongrel half-breeds like you even
have
a conscience.”

“Just shoot him,” Maddie demanded of Jonah and Boone. “He’s the one who had Avery and Clem murdered. He kidnapped Chrissy and held her captive in that tomb of a wine cellar!”

Jonah frowned, bemused. “I thought Avery kidnapped your sister.”

“You’ve been misinformed. I want this selfish bastard punished for the hell he put Chrissy through. He even tried to intimidate me into marrying him after he’d marked you and Boone for death. He intended to blackmail me into cooperating to spare Chrissy’s life!” Maddie stared Jonah squarely in the eye and said, “Just
shoot
him, even if you have to go through me to get to him. He deserves to die!”

“You’re insane,” Ward snorted, incredulous. His gaze bounced from Jonah to Boone, both of whom kept their six-shooters trained on him and Maddie.

Jonah decided Ward Tipton was right; Maddie had gone a little crazy. There was a wild, reckless gleam in her eyes that scared the bejeezus out of him. He sensed that she was about to do something rash—and he had no idea what in hell it was. His only clear shot was at the arm Ward had wrapped diagonally across Maddie’s chest. If Jonah missed his mark by mere inches he could hit Maddie. He stepped sideways, hoping to draw Ward’s attention and get a better angle for a shot that would spare her from injury.

Damn it, he’d been in some tough scrapes before, but he’d only had to worry about spilling his own blood. The thought of Maddie injured at his hand was enough to give him the shakes—which was the very last thing he needed right now.

“Just shoot him!” Maddie choked out impatiently.

Jonah nearly suffered heart seizure when she abruptly raised her knee and kicked backward like a mule, catching Ward in the shin. And suddenly all hell broke loose and years of experience and instinct took over. Although Maddie dived sideways to avoid
the line of fire, the English dandy was so outraged by her maneuver that he took his fury out on her.

Jonah and Boone fired simultaneously, but Ward managed to get off a shot before he crumpled in a lifeless heap atop Maddie. Jonah thought he screamed her name as he rushed forward to shove Ward aside, but he couldn’t swear to it because his pulse was pounding so loudly in his ears that he wondered if he’d been struck deaf.

He sank to his knees, so shaken by the sight of the bloody wound on Maddie’s shoulder that he couldn’t think straight. He’d forgotten what disabling panic felt like. But he was sure this was it—this helpless sensation that swirled through him, paralyzing his reflexes and robbing him of strength. Feeling as if he was moving in slow motion, he tugged her body into his arms and tilted her ashen face to his with a trembling hand.

“Damn it, woman, are you out of your mind?” he yelled, his fear for her making him lose his tentative grasp on his temper.

A faint smile wobbled on her lips as she stared at him with unfocused amber eyes. “Did you get him?” she croaked.

“Got the son of a bitch,” Jonah confirmed, his voice quaking as badly as his body.

“Good.” She swallowed with noticeable effort, then said, “I love you….”

When her thick lashes drifted against her pallid cheeks and she slumped heavily against him Jonah hit another level of frenzied panic. He knew how to stem the flow of blood from a wound—or at least he
used
to know. But that was before Maddie intentionally got
herself shot. Suddenly his mind went blank and, like a witless imbecile, he just stared at the spreading bloodstains.

After what seemed like minutes of indecisiveness Jonah’s survival skills finally kicked in and he tore off his shirt to use as a makeshift tourniquet for her arm. “Find some whiskey to cleanse the wound,” he barked at Boone, who was hovering over him. “There has to be some around here somewhere.”

Boone darted to the massive oak desk and rummaged through the drawers until he located an unopened bottle of wine that would serve as antiseptic. To Jonah’s dismay, Maddie didn’t rouse when he dribbled liquor over her shoulder. That was not a good sign.

“Let’s see how bad it is,” Boone insisted as he hunkered down beside Jonah.

“If she survives I’m gonna kill her for that daring stunt,” Jonah growled in frustration.

Boone peeled away the tattered sleeve to inspect the wound. “You’re in luck. She’ll live. Doesn’t look as if the bullet shattered the bone.” He glanced at Jonah. “You wanna go ahead and kill her now or shall we patch her up first?”

Jonah scowled darkly. “You are
not
amusing.”

“Maybe not, but
you
are.” Boone’s mouth quirked as he cleansed the wound. “Never saw you fall apart before. Now
that’s
amusing.”

“I am
not
falling apart!” Jonah bellowed.

“Right. My mistake. What was I thinking?” Boone shoved the wine bottle into Jonah’s free hand. “Here. You need a drink. Or three.”