Castillo's Fiery Texas Rose(46)

“You were not so good at it yourself,” Trace snapped.

Rand ran his fingers through his thinning hair. “No, you’re right, I wasn’t. Look, maybe it’s not a good time for you to have dinner with her. At least not until we get some answers from your wire.”

“I’m going there for dinner and to make sure she’s safe.”

“I got some business down near the saloon. I’m sending another patrol out. I’ll come by later on tonight to make sure you haven’t killed each other.”

Trace nodded.

“Oh, and there’s a bottle in the bottom drawer. One glass won’t kill ya before you go.”

Trace watched Rand walk out the door and disappear from view. With a groan, he sat down heavily in the sheriff’s chair, pulled open the bottom drawer, looked down at the bottle and glass, and took them from the shadows. He poured a neat two fingers’ worth and held it up to the lamp, studying the refraction of the light as it bent through the liquid.

He couldn’t dispel the feeling that the captain seemed too eager to place the blame on Mary Rose. Why did everyone feel the Thorntons were the perfect scapegoats? He brought the glass to his lips and drank. Having the captain as the army’s representative, given his negative feeling, did not bode well when it came to releasing her funds at the bank. Why did the captain feel the need to persecute her?

Trace shifted in the chair and felt something hard roll under his hip. He grimaced and shifted his weight to the other leg, then sent his hand into his pocket to retrieve the offending object. Opening his hand, he gazed down at the gold button found in Moe’s box. “You’re my key. If only you’d speak louder.”

****

Captain Wallace moved through the street in the direction of the Thornton home. Once past the general store, he paused and, finding no one around him, ducked into the back alleyway. His steps hurried, he crossed the darkening streets toward the freight office. Standing in the shadows, he waited.

Behind the glass, he made out the dim shadows of a man moving against the light. A wicked smirk bent the edges of his lips, and he moved unheard to the porch. Sticking to the darker patches away from the light, he approached the doorway. Close enough to see inside, he took a moment to watch the clerk make an entry into a ledger book. Then, seeing the yawning gap of the loading dock doors as an easy entryway, he entered.

All those years of chasing rebels had taught him the use of stealth. Keeping his weight carefully on the balls of his feet, he managed to move without a sound to the back entrance of the office area. From this vantage point, he could see Gentry stood alone. His hand reached to slide the leather cap from the handle of his service revolver and pull the weapon into his hand.

“Hello, Gentry,” he called out softly.

He watched the man’s shoulders flinch. His head rose, and the papers he’d been holding fluttered down.

“Turn around, and do it slowly.”

The freight clerk raised his arms and began to circle. “Augustus,” he hissed. “I didn’t expect you.”

“I’ll bet you didn’t,” he sneered, moving closer.

Caleb’s eyes rounded and focused on the gun that never wavered in its aim.

“Now, just calm down, Augustus.”

“Calm down?” The words hissed from the captain’s mouth like steam from a kettle. “Your bungling has cost us dearly.”

Caleb licked his lips nervously. Wallace took satisfaction in the fine sheen of perspiration dotting the clerk’s upper lip.

“You were supposed to kill them all, including the girl,” Caleb reminded him. “If anyone messed up, it was you.”

Wallace’s lips pulled back, revealing his white teeth like those of a rabid wolf. “You find that coin?”

He shook his head. “I-I’ve searched the office. She must have found it and taken it home.”

“Yes, that makes sense.” Wallace lowered his weapon, and Caleb breathed a sigh of relief—until Wallace’s hand reached out and snared the fullness of his shirt, gathering the material and yanking him close. “I am through with your groveling. I’ve already taken care of two loose ends, Daniel Thornton and my brother. All you had to do was find that damn coin you let get away. But no, you let a snip of a girl get in your way, and now some U.S. Marshal’s come in like a knight on a white horse. I’m through groveling to some wet-nosed, untried officer. I’m getting out, and you’re going to help me,” he snarled.

Gentry sputtered. “You killed your own brother, not me.”

“I’d think that would make you a bit more frightened, Gentry. You’re just another bump in my road to freedom.”

The clerk swallowed hard. “Daniel has a study. I saw her in there the other night.”

“Did you see the coin?”

“No, but it must have been there. I tried to get it, but the box was empty. She must have it on her.”

Wallace let go of the clerk’s shirt and shoved him back. “You’d best be telling the truth. I will have that house turned inside out tonight. You bring two horses to the Thornton house after sundown. I’ll have that coin, even if it means the death of a woman or a marshal.”

****

“Really, Mary Rose, he’s crazy about you,” Penny confided. “You can see it when he enters the room. The way he looks at you!” She sighed. “Why, it’s as if you’re a piece of pie and he can’t wait to take a bite.”

“If only…if only he would say he loved me.”

“My dear friend, words are just words,” Penny replied, a sadness in her voice Mary Rose hadn’t heard before. “But actions,” she continued, blinking back the raw emotion that rocked her voice, “say it all.”

Mary Rose swallowed the lump that had suddenly formed in her throat. “Penny—” The front door opened, and she didn’t finish her question.

Her friend turned and wiped a tear from her cheek. “Oh, that must be the captain now.” She stood and composed her face. “Take a few moments, won’t you, Mary Rose, and think about what is in your heart?”

As her footsteps faded into the other room, Mary Rose stared at the grain of the wood in the table and concentrated on the words her friend had spoken: “…actions say it all.” Trace had shown her nothing but unconditional consideration, even if the word “love” was missing from his vocabulary. She closed her eyes, and the image of his face when they were together filled her vision.

Even the demand that they marry seemed to make sense. He cared so deeply that he would not allow her to go through life with the stigma of being a fallen woman. Yes, it is enough to build a lifetime on, because I will make it up to him, she vowed. I will love him until he is so satisfied he will never leave my bed.

Opening her eyes, she glanced down at the ring he’d placed on her finger. The gold band had never looked so bright, just like her future. She stood and felt excitement and purpose filling the empty space in her heart left by Daniel’s passing. Yes, to be with Trace, I’d give up the business. She’d give up anything to be held in his arms.

“Mary Rose?” Penny called out.

Her brow furrowed, for her friend’s voice sounded odd.

“Could you come in here, please?”

The tension behind the words hurried her steps, but as she entered the parlor, she could see the captain standing beside his bride. Her face brightened, then fell as she took in Penny’s pale color and the gun Captain Augustus Wallace held to her temple.

“Such a pleasure for you to join us, my dear,” he sneered.

****

“You can’t do this.” She tried to reason with the man as he bound his wife’s arms to the dining room chair.

“Actually, I can,” he snapped as he took the folded handkerchief and placed it over Penny’s mouth. “I can’t have you screaming out, my dear, while I interrogate your young friend.”

Tears rolled down Penny’s cheeks, and Mary Rose felt helpless to stop him. “What do you want?” Like Penny, she was tied to a chair, only Captain Wallace had bound her hands behind her instead of to the chair arms.

“Your brother found something that belongs to me, and I mean to have it,” he told her in a cold and chilling voice.

“Daniel?”

Captain Wallace walked around the table, coming to a stop beside her. “Oh, yes, Daniel. You see, his actions are stopping me from completing a lucrative business deal. My associate lost something most valuable. A coin. That coin is my ticket to a life of luxury.”

Suddenly she knew. The image of the Mexican coin from Daniel’s desk flowed into her mind. She swallowed down the fears that welled up inside her. “I, I don’t know what you are talking about.”

The peal of laughter that spilled from his lips chilled her blood. Watching out of the corner of her eye, she saw him bring up the hand holding the gun. She flinched as he brought the cold steel to her face and stroked its length down her cheek.