The Outlaws: Rafe (19 page)

Angel searched his face.
 
Though the light was dim she could tell he was serious, deadly serious.

"You want me to abandon my property?"

"I know it's asking a lot of you but it's the only way I can protect you."

Angela reached for her nightgown, pulled it over her head and settled it around her hips.
 
That simple action gave her time to let Rafe's proposal sink in.
 
But no matter how long she thought about it, she knew she couldn't leave like a thief in the night.
 
Tagging along with Rafe would do nothing to help his situation.
 
She'd prove more of a hindrance than an asset.
 
Somehow she had to change his mind.

"You'd be giving up the mine but you'd still have the money your father left you," Rafe continued when she appeared to be wavering.

"I'd only hinder you.
 
You said yourself you don't need a wife dragging you down.
 
You have your own problems."

"We can go to California, start over, make a new life for ourselves."

Angela wasn't sure she'd heard right.
 
"You want to stay married to me?"

"Is there someone else you'd prefer as a husband?"

"You know there isn't."

"I have no one else in mind for a wife so why not stay married until either of us decides it's not right for us?"

"Desmond insists we're not legally married.
 
There's no proof."

Rafe gave a bark of laughter.
 
"The whole town of Ordway attended our wedding," he reminded her.
 
"That's proof enough for me."
 
He sent her a searching look.
 
"Unless you're afraid to stay married to an outlaw."

"You didn't give me a chance to give you the really bad news."

His attention sharpened.

"When Desmond told Sheriff Tattersal you weren't my fiancé, he jumped to conclusions and decided you were the man who robbed the stage and killed all those people after all.
 
You're being charged with murder in addition to the earlier charge of bank robbery."

A curse exploded from Rafe's lips.
 
"That's another reason you should come with me, Angel.
 
They'll want to question you about me."

"No, they won't.
 
Desmond convinced the sheriff that I knew nothing about your background.
 
That I'm some kind of religious fanatic who's bent on saving souls, especially those who appear to be victims of social injustice.
 
He painted me as an innocent taken in by a slicker.
 
I'm not wanted for any crime, nor will I be questioned."

Rafe's gaze settled disconcertingly on her.
 
"Are you refusing to come with me?
 
Am I correct in assuming you'd rather stay here and fight Desmond, Chandler and Baxter's evil machinations?"

"Yes.
 
No.
 
I don't know.
 
You don't understand.
 
I can't leave here.
 
To do so would be to admit defeat and I'm not the kind to back down without a fight.
 
I...I don't want to spend my life on the run from the law.
 
I never expected to marry at all.
 
Marrying an out..."
 
The word died on her lips.

"Go ahead, say it.
 
An outlaw isn't exactly husband material."

"I'm sorry, Rafe.
 
I'm so confused.
 
Everyone is calling you an outlaw.
 
I don't want to believe it but..."

"Why is believing me so difficult?
 
You don't seem to have a problem making love with me."

"Can't you see I'm torn?" Angela raged.
 
"I care about you, but I'm so afraid I'll lose you for good if I allow myself to love you.
 
I couldn't bear that."

Rafe went still.
 
"I never asked for your love.
 
You saved my life and I'm returning the favor by offering protection.
 
I care about you, too, but love is an emotion I'm not sure I understand.
 
If you don't want my protection, if you have even the slightest doubt about my innocence, then it's best I disappear from your life.
 
I reckon you care more about your mine than you do me."

He surged to his feet and set his clothing to rights.
 
"I hope you and Anson Chandler will be very happy together.
 
Since no record of our marriage exists, then I suppose we can assume we're not married."

Angela searched his face.
 
His stony expression and silver eyes held scant warmth, and it was all her fault.
 
Why had fate seen fit to cross their paths?
 
Hurting him was like hurting herself.

"It's not that, Rafe," Angela tried to explain.
 
"Of course I care about the mine.
 
It's all I have left of my father.
 
On the other hand, I never expected us to become lovers.
 
Don't get me wrong," she added, "I don't regret it.
 
But you have to admit it does complicate our lives."

"I don't even know you," Rafe said, backing away.
 
"Are all women as cold and calculating as you?"

"I can only answer for myself.
 
I married a stranger.
 
A man who might or might not be an outlaw and a killer.
 
I saved your life, I have no further obligation where you're concerned."

Angela wanted to weep.
 
Saying those things to Rafe nearly broke her heart.
 
The only way she could make him ride away without looking back was to be deliberately cruel.
 
She couldn't go with him, not because of the mine, but because she feared she would complicate his life, and he would end up hating her for it.
 
Should the posse catch up with him, they would shoot first and ask questions later.
 
She cared too much to see Rafe die because of his misguided sense of obligation.

"Then we'll call it quits here and now," Rafe said through gritted teeth.
 
"Should we chance to meet again, it will be like strangers passing in the night.
 
Is that how you want it?"

Grateful for the darkness that concealed the mist of tears bathing her eyes, Angela pasted a smile on her face and said, "That's how I want it.
 
Good luck, Rafe.
 
Take care of yourself."

Angela held her breath.
 
He looked as if he wanted to kiss her and she didn't think she could bear it.

"It's not too late to change your mind," he said softly.

"It's far too late.
 
Go, Rafe.
 
It will be light soon and you could be miles away from Canyon City if you leave now."

"Good-bye, Angel."

"Good-bye, Rafe."
 

     
Only then did she let the tears fall.

Cursing beneath his breath, Rafe let himself out the back door into the dark night.
 
He was profoundly disturbed and unable to make sense out of the harsh words that had passed between him and Angel.
 
Something wasn't right but he couldn't put his finger on it.
 
If he was smart he'd get on his horse and ride hell for leather away from the mine, Angel, and the law.
 
Sticking around was dangerous to his health.

Rafe skirted around Baxter's cabin and the privy.
 
He was so engrossed in his own thoughts that he didn't see the shadowy figure behind him.
 
Nor did he sense danger as the butt of a gun come crashing down on his head.
 
He never knew what hit him.

Brady Baxter stood over Rafe, the barrel of his gun still clasped tightly in his hand.
 
"Stupid bastard," he hissed.
 
"The need to plow that little piece you call your wife must have made you soft in the head.
 
You shouldn't have stuck around."

Baxter aimed a booted toe into Rafe's ribs, satisfied when Rafe gave no indication that he felt the blow.
 
A pressing need had brought Baxter out to privy during the darkest part of night.
 
When he'd finished his business he noticed someone creeping toward Angela's cabin.
 
At first he thought perhaps Dexter or Chandler had come snooping around again, but then the shape took on a form that was too powerful to belong to either of those two city slickers.

Following at a discrete distance, Baxter saw the man crawl into the bedroom window.
 
A smug smile stretched Baxter's lips.
 
He knew intuitively that the night prowler was Rafe Gentry.
 
It truly amazed Baxter that Gentry would risk capture for a little loving.
 
His smile widened.
 
He couldn't wait to taste the luscious Angela himself.
 
Concealing himself in the shadows, he settled down to wait.

Baxter's patience had paid off when he saw Rafe leave by the rear exit nearly an hour later.
 
He drew his gun, crept up behind the distracted outlaw, and conked him a good one on the head.

Baxter prodded Rafe again, satisfied that his prisoner wasn't going anyplace anytime soon.
 
Hefting him by the shoulders, Baxter dragged the unconscious Rafe into the yawning entrance of the mine.
 
He paused briefly to pick up a rope he found lying atop a crate and hook it over his shoulder, and to light a lamp.
 
Grabbing Rafe by one leg and holding the lamp with the other, Baxter dragged him into a deserted side tunnel, roundly cursing the man's size and bulk.
 
He dragged Rafe to the end of the tunnel, leaned him against a blank wall, and bound his hands and feet so tight it would take a magician to work loose.

Then for good measure he pulled off his kerchief and stuffed it in Rafe's mouth.
 
"That ought to keep you," Baxter said, backing away to examine his handiwork.

All Baxter's plans seemed to be falling into place.
 
He hadn't counted on fate delivering Rafe Gentry up to him but he certainly recognized a good thing when he saw it.
 
He'd been wondering how to convince Angela to marry him and now he had the means all tucked away safely where no one would find him.
 
Rafe Gentry was the leverage Baxter needed to bring Angela around.

Baxter laughed softly to himself as he made his way back to his bed.

Rafe awoke with an excruciating headache and various other aches, certain that he wasn't where he wanted to be.
 
Blackness surrounded him.
 
He knew he wasn't in the cave for there was no circle of light where the opening should be.
 
There was just the stygian darkness of the unknown.

His mouth felt like a desert, his limbs ached and there was a pain in his ribs, not to mention his sore head.
 
As his wits slowly returned, it took less than a minute to realize he'd been bound and gagged and taken someplace where light didn't exist.

The mine.

How?
 
Why?
 
Who?

He figured out the how and who.
 
It was the why that escaped him.
 
He couldn't believe he'd been so careless as to let himself be seen entering and leaving Angela's cabin.
 
His distraction had allowed someone to creep up behind him and clout him a good one on the head.
 
That someone could only be Brady Baxter.
 
But why had Baxter imprisoned him in the mine instead of taking him to town and collecting the reward for his capture?
 
His head hurt too badly to think.

 
All he could do was wait for Baxter to return and reveal his intentions.
 
And worry.
 
His greatest fear was for Angela.

Angela awoke late.
 
Her body still thrummed from Rafe's loving and her throat ached from crying herself to sleep.
 
She'd sent Rafe away and now she'd never see him again.
 
She'd deliberately made him angry so he wouldn't stick around out of concern for her.
 
The robbery charge was bad enough, but the murder charge was too serious to ignore.

Lethargic and despondent, Angela washed and dressed and went out to the kitchen to fix coffee to go with the leftover biscuits she'd made the day before.
 
She sipped her coffee and picked at a biscuit, not really hungry.
 
She had no idea what was going to happen next.
 
Without Rafe to act as a buffer between her and the three men trying to cheat her out of her property, she felt lost and alone.