Trail of Kisses (31 page)

A feeble cry escaped from Lynne’s lungs as she
realized the bushes were just high enough to conceal them from the
rest of the wagon train. Her knees went weak as fear slammed into
her and she stumbled. Ben’s knife nicked her skin, drawing blood
below her bandage.

“
No one messes with the Briscoe
Boys,” Ben shouted. He jostled her in his arms, still holding the
knife to her throat. “At least no one who gets away with
it.”

Frantic, Lynne searched until she could see
the hill and the trees where Cade was supposed to be hidden. The
bush blocked most of her sight, but she could make out at least
some of the spot where Cade should be. She didn’t see him
there.

She was a fool, an utter fool for separating
herself from him.

“
You’re only fifteen,” she wailed,
scrambling for some way to talk him out of violence.

“
My brother Bob was fourteen when
he killed his first man,” Ben told her, digging the knife deeper
against her skin. “Your father hung him before he was
twenty-four.”

He was stalling. Lynne could feel it. If he
was as cold-blooded as his brother, he would have just slit her
throat and been done with it. She wrestled to keep her wits about
her.

“
But you’re not like him,” she
panted. “You’ve been so helpful. You could have a career helping
people.”

“
Who says I want to help anybody?”
He jerked her arm higher behind her back, causing her to cry out.
“I was biding my time. You didn’t suspect nothin’ all those times I
messed with your things.”

Of course. Ben was the only one who had access
to her hope chest. They’d trusted him.

Where was Cade? Even if he had gone to the
trees like they’d planned, he should still be able to rescue her.
If he was looking in the right direction.

“
But… but you’re so talented with
oxen. You could be a farmer or—”

“
Who wants to be some stupid old
farmer?” he growled, though his voice squeaked all the same.
“Folks’ll look up to me. They’ll see I’m somebody.”

“
Some… somebody to fear?” And she
did. Heaven help her, but she was afraid.

“
Folks don’t mess with people if
they’re afraid of them.”

Ben’s words were strong, but still he only
held the knife to her throat and squeezed her arm. He wasn’t
finishing the job. Lynne’s mind raced. He hadn’t finished the job
the night he’d snuck up on her and cut her. There might be hope.
She could hear his hissing breath behind her, feel the heat of his
body. If she could just twist out of his grasp.

“
Stop! Let her go!”

At last, Cade’s shout split through the tense
stand-off.

“
Cade!” Lynne shouted from the
bottom of her gut. “Help!”

She heard his footsteps before Ben swung her
around to face him. Cade charged toward him, gun drawn and pointed.
The two other men who had ridden out with him were several yards
behind but closing fast.

“
I said let her go!” Cade
demanded.

“
You wouldn’t shoot,” Ben
challenged him.

He was right. The way Ben held her, she acted
as a shield. Any shots that Cade fired could hit her. Ben lowered
his knife, thrusting his hand into his deep pocket. For half a
second Lynne sighed in relief. She could free herself if she could
wrench out of his grasp.

Her hopes were dashed a heartbeat later when
Ben drew a revolver from his pocket. He held it to her head,
pulling the trigger enough that she heard it cock with a sharp
click
.

“
Let her go!” Cade shouted,
desperate now.

Ben ignored him. “Drop the gun or I’ll
shoot.”

“
No!” Lynne cried, breathless.
“Cade, don’t!”

It was too late. Cade took his finger off the
trigger and squatted to lower his revolver to the ground. He
straightened, arms still held out. “Let her go,” he
pleaded.

Ben laughed and squeezed Lynne hard enough to
push the air from her lungs. “You think I’d just let her go? After
what her old man did to my family?”

The other two men who had ridden out with Cade
came stumbling to a stop beside him, guns raised.

“
Drop your weapons,” Cade told
them. “Drop them or he’ll kill her.”

The two men hesitated. They were slower to let
go of their guns, but they must have seen the predicament they were
in.

“
Her family is responsible for
killing mine,” Ben raged on. “And even the Bible says an eye for an
eye. Two of my brothers died, so two of that judge’s kin should
die.”

“
Your brothers were criminals,”
Cade said.

Lynne started to shake her head to warn him
not to upset Ben, but one half shake and she bumped against the
cold metal of Ben’s gun barrel.

Cade’s eyes bored into hers as he went on.
“Criminals get what they deserve. You’re in trouble now, boy, but
not so much that you can’t serve your time and move on with your
life.”

“
Don’t call me boy!” Ben dug the
end of his gun into Lynne’s temple. She clamped her mouth over her
shout of fear. “I ain’t no boy.”

“
Of course you are.” Cade kept his
voice calm, taking a small step toward them. “You’re a Briscoe
Boy.”

“
I am, and don’t you forget it.”
Ben’s grip loosened a hair. Lynne struggled against him to loosen
it more.

“
Let Miss Tremaine go and you can
be much more than that,” Cade went on.

He met and held Lynne’s eyes with complete
focus. Then he flickered his glance down. Lynne’s glance followed
his, but she had no idea what he was trying to tell her. The only
things near where his quick look landed were her feet and
Ben’s.

“
We can find you a lawyer to help
you out, son,” Cade said, still calm. “No one else needs to be
hurt.”

“
An eye for an eye,” Ben reminded
him, pressing his gun into Lynne’s temple once more.

Lynne wanted to squeeze her eyes shut and
block out the scene, but she couldn’t. There was a spark in Cade’s
eyes that kept her own fixed on him.

“
An eye for an eye and a heart for
a heart,” Cade said. He raised his hand to his chest.

“
That’s not how it goes,” Ben
growled. “It’s a tooth for a tooth.”

“
A heart for a heart,” Cade
repeated. He patted his vest over his heart.

Lynne saw it then, the faint bulk of the
Cooper tucked into his vest. Her breath caught in her throat. The
world around her sharpened into intense focus. Cade glanced down to
hers and Ben’s feet again. He slid his fingers under the edge of
his vest. She prayed that this time he’d loaded the Cooper before
concealing it.

“
A heart for a heart,” he
repeated. “A foot for a foot.”

She knew. The plan was crystal clear in her
mind.

“
Stop saying it that way,” Ben
shouted. “It’s an eye for an—”

With all of her strength, Lynne heaved forward
and stomped on Ben’s foot with the heel of her boot. Ben gave an
almighty cry as his grip on her loosened. Lynne jerked forward as
the gun went off. A second gunshot followed immediately behind. She
fell, a sharp, hot stinging splitting her scalp.

The wind was knocked out of her as she thumped
into the grass. Above, she heard more gunshots, Cade’s shout and
Ben’s and those of the men who had ridden with Cade. Something warm
and wet trickled down from above her forehead. She raised a hand to
her face as the last few shots rang out above her and pulled it
away bloody. For a moment, the urge to faint washed over her, but
she pushed it back. She would not give in to a little blood. It
hurt, but she was still breathing, still thinking. She was alive.
She was her Papa’s brave girl, Cade’s fearless woman.

“
Lynne, Lynne, are you all right?”
Cade dropped to his knees beside her and scooped her into his arms.
His eyes were huge and his face went white when he saw the blood
streaking her face. “No! Oh, no.”

“
It’s nothing,” she said,
surprised at how breathless she was. A line across her scalp burned
like fire, but she was alive. “I’m fine.”

Cade gaped at her. He shook himself and
brushed a hand through her hair.

“
Ouch.” She winced.

A smile split his pale face, and if she wasn’t
mistaken, tears flooded to his eyes. “It’s just a scratch,” he
said. “The bullet grazed you, that’s all.”

He curled protectively over her and kissed her
forehead, then her lips. He may have intended it to be a short
kiss, but Lynne was so happy to be alive that she grasped the back
of his neck and held his mouth against hers long enough to prove to
him just how alive she was. She would live for a hundred years if
it meant she could be with him like this always. Well, almost like
this.

“
Ben?” She twisted to see what had
happened to the boy they had so foolishly trusted.

He wasn’t dead. Instead he writhed in pain
several yards away, clutching his arm. One of his legs was also
bleeding. The two other men crouched over him to keep him subdued.
They rifled through his pockets and pulled out another pistol and
retrieved the silver pocket knife. The knife was handed over to
Cade.

“
He told me his brother gave it to
him,” Lynne said. She saw the two B’s inscribed into the knife with
new eyes. “Benjamin Briscoe. My father hired him in St. Louis to
drive my wagon.”

“
He couldn’t have known.” Cade
took the knife from her and tossed it aside. He helped her to sit
upright, then threw his arms around her, hugging her tight. “I’ve
never been so scared in my life,” he confessed. “I thought I could
lose you.”

“
You’ll never lose me,” she said,
holding him as if she couldn’t let go. “You’ll never lose me and
you’ll never be afraid again.”

He laughed at her words, sniffling and wiping
a tear from his eye. Then he took her face in both of his hands and
kissed her with all the passion of a man whose heart had found its
home.

Epilogue

A small crowd was waiting in the field by the
edge of Denver City as the wagons rolled up. Lynne wasn’t sure how
word had gotten ahead of them that they were arriving, but Cade
assured her that news traveled fast in the mountains. Lynne had
never imagined anything as beautiful or as grand as the Rocky
Mountains that surrounded her new home. They were majestic and
awe-inspiring. They gave her hope that the future she was about to
build would be a grand one.

“
Didn’t I tell you?” Cade winked
when he saw the way her face lit up at the bustling new town they
approached. “Denver City is a fine place to live.”

“
I think it must be.” She slid her
arm through his and hugged it as they sat in the wagon’s driver’s
seat.

Cade had been a quick learner when it came to
driving the wagon after Ben was caught. Ben’s wounds were serious,
but there had been a doctor at the river crossing who was able to
remove the bullets and bandage him up. There had also been a few
local militiamen who were able to take him into custody. Ben was in
no condition to travel immediately, but as soon as he recovered, he
would be sent on to Denver City to be tried for his
crimes.

Lynne wasn’t sure what she hoped the outcome
of that trial would be. In the end, Ben had terrified her once she
realized how close he had been through the whole journey. Her scalp
still twinged with pain where Ben’s bullet had grazed her. But she
was alive and safe with Cade, and Ben would get what he deserved in
a court of law, as it should be.

“
Look,” Lynne sat straighter in
the seat, squeezing Cade’s arm with one hand and pointing with the
other. “I think that’s my Uncle George.”

“
It is.” Cade stiffened, his smile
being replaced by a businesslike frown.

“
He’s gotten older since the last
time I saw him,” Lynne said. “So has Aunt Marion.”

The wagons were all stopping here and there in
the field, wherever there was space. Now that the journey was done,
half or less of the travelers would have any need for the wagons or
the oxen. Scattered amongst the men and women who had come to meet
friends or relations at the end of their journey were merchants
hoping to buy up what was left or farmers interested in the
livestock. Lynne was only too happy to see them. She wasn’t sure
she ever wanted to set eyes on a ‘prairie schooner’
again.

She was delighted to see her uncle and aunt,
though, and as soon as Cade brought the wagon to a stop, she
shifted to hop down.

Cade stopped her before she could run off.
“Remember how we discussed it,” he said. “We break it to them
gently.”

Lynne grinned up at him, her heart turning
somersaults over his adorable worry. “Oh, Cade. I’m sure they’ll be
delighted to have you for a nephew.”

He let out a breath and adjusted his hat,
watching Uncle George and Aunt Marion head toward them. “I’m not so
sure about that. I let him down once. He might not even want me to
work for him anymore after hearing about all the trouble you had on
the journey.”