Her Bodyguard (36 page)

“Oh, that’s ridiculous.”

“That’s what I said. And when she started yammering on about your wedding, I told her to hush her mouth.”

“My wedding? Just what pearl of wisdom did she have to say about my wedding?”

Kat wrinkled her nose. “She said you shouldn’t wear Mama’s dress, that since Emma wore it and Casey died, the good luck has rubbed off. She said people in town are back to calling it The Bad Luck Wedding Dress, and they say if you wear it to marry Luke the marriage is headed for a bad end.”

“Why, that pinched-face, snot-nosed witch! Of all the…oh, wait. Wait one minute. The last thing I need is for Papa to hear about this.”

Kat winced. “It’s not going any better with him?”

“He’s being stubborn, Kat. Luke is bending over backward to win his good graces, but Papa is acting hardheaded as a stump. The wedding is two weeks away, and Papa is still grumbling about it. He claims he wants me to be happy, but he looks like he’s sucking a sour ball whenever Luke’s name comes up.”

Now it was Kat’s turn to offer comfort. “He’ll come around. You know he will, Mari.”

Mari wasn’t so certain. “I realize Papa won’t love Luke like he loved Casey when he gave Emma away at the altar, but I’d at least like to walk up the aisle without worrying that my father might decide to punch my groom in the stomach.”

“He’ll kick him in the privates if he catches the two of you in a tête-à-tête the likes of which he almost walked in on last night.”

“We weren’t doing anything.”

Kat snorted. “You were doing everything but anything, and it was darn sure on the menu. You better thank your lucky stars that Tommy threw up and we had to leave Uncle Tye’s house when we did. If we’d stayed for dessert and then come home, it would have been ugly. I have to say, though,” Kat added, her eyes twinkling, “Mama, Emma, and I thought those broad bare shoulders of his were mighty fine looking.”

“You saw!”

“Through the parlor window. Why do you think we made so much noise coming in the front? Be glad Papa couldn’t see for carrying Bobby. Come on, Mari. For everyone’s sake. Can’t you wait until the wedding?”

Mari leaned over and banged her head against the table. Kat laughed. “You know why Papa is so persnickety about Luke, don’t you? The two of them are so much alike it’s frightening. Do you know how lucky you are, Mari? Luke has substance. Why does his brother have to be so different?”

“Have you decided what you’re going to do, Kat?”

She let out a long, sad sigh. “Yes, I think so. I think, for the baby’s sake, I’ll have to marry him. I’ll marry him, then I’ll hold out hope that you are right about our accomplishing tasks and finding love that is true. Maybe I’ll get lucky and end up a widow like Emma.”

“Why, Katrina Julianne!” Mari exclaimed, a shiver running down her spine. “That’s a terrible thing to say.”

“Yes, well, I’m feeling terrible. Actually, that’s the truth. I think I should go straight home and rest. I have one more stop on my list, but would you mind doing it for me, Mari?”

“Sure, honey. What is it?”

“Emma broke the chain on her necklace this morning, and she asked me to drop it by Haltom Jewelry to be repaired. He’s closed for lunch, too.”

“I’ll take it. I need to go by there anyway. I had Luke’s wedding ring engraved with our initials and our wedding date and it’s supposed to be ready today.”

“Thank you.” Kat finished her lemonade, popped another chocolate into her mouth, then stood. Deciding she looked a little wobbly, Mari suggested, “Why don’t I flag down a driver, Kat? It’s a long walk home.”

She shook her head. “Thanks, but I saw Uncle Tye at the bakery. He had the baby with him. She’s such a doll—so tiny and pink and pretty. Anyway, he has the carriage and he said he’d take me home when I was ready to go. I’ll head over there now.”

“All right. Tell him I said hello and give the baby a kiss for me.”

After Kat’s departure, Mari ate her sandwich and tidied her shop in preparation for the afternoon rush. In the back room, she’d just removed a bowl of mint-chocolate filling from the icebox when she heard the another rap on the door. Thinking it was Kat, she opened it without looking. “Did you forget something?”

“I surely did.” Luke sauntered into the shop, his hot caramel eyes glowing with a devilish promise. He walked up beside her, dipped his finger into the cream, then slowly licked it clean. “Mmm…I forgot to finish what we started last night, and you know me well enough to know I hate leaving a job half-done. Grab that bowl and c’mere, woman.”

Mari was a full hour late reopening her shop after lunch, but she felt too good to regret it. No sooner had she turned the lock on the front door than she noticed a streak of mint-chocolate filling dipping down into her bodice. Now, how had he missed that? She hurried into the back room to wash just as the front door bell jangled.
Well, shoot. Customers already
.

She made quick work of the mess on her skin, then pasted a friendly smile on her face and carried a pan of chocolates into the front of the shop. “Good afternoon. May I help—”

She gasped and the chocolates hit the floor with a bang.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

LUKE SAT IN HIS attorney’s office, reading over the bill of sale for the Blue Goose Saloon and his other Hell’s Half Acre properties. This was it. After almost two hours of meetings, discussions, negotiations and proposals, his signature at the bottom of this page would conclude the divestiture of assets and appointments connected to his clandestine life.

He’d resigned his position with the Texas Rangers and following the wedding, he’d begin his new job as, of all things, city sheriff, the vacancy created just last week when the previous sheriff ran afoul of a shotgun down in the Acre. It was an interim position for Luke. If he wanted to keep the job he’d have to stand for election next April, but it would give him something to do until he and Mari decided if a continued career in law enforcement was right for their family.

He felt good, he thought as he scrawled his name on the document transferring the properties to their new owner. He felt clean, clean and renewed, and ready to meet his future with the woman he loved by his side.

Or on top of him, as the case may be. With mint-chocolate-cream filling drizzling from a spoon. His lips twitched with a grin. The things that woman could do with dessert.

“So, will there be anything else?” the lawyer asked, jerking Luke from his most delicious memory.

“Actually, yes.” Luke stood and stretched. “The lot directly behind mine on Summit Avenue has been offered for sale. I’ve made arrangements with the owner to buy it. I need you to see to the paperwork for me.”

“Certainly, Mr. Garrett.”

They discussed Luke’s wishes regarding financial terms for the purchase, then Luke took his leave. Standing on Main Street across from the Tarrant County courthouse, he checked his pocket watch. Twenty minutes before his next appointment. Good. That gave him just time enough to breeze by his lodging and retrieve his wish list for the house he wanted to build for Mari. Undoubtedly his architect, her father, had plenty of ideas about what would best suit his second-born daughter.

“Like separate his-and-her bedrooms, built at opposite ends of the house,” Luke grumbled as he glanced toward the throng of men milling around the jailhouse. Trace McBride thawed about as fast as a glacier. If he had his way, instead of being two weeks off, Luke’s wedding day would be set for the turn of the century, if that.

An angry shout from the crowd down the block snagged his attention, and Luke decided to take the long way home, detouring by the jailhouse to see what was causing the ruckus. What he discovered turned his blood cold.

“Jailbreak?” he repeated to a bystander, dread pooling in his gut.

“Yep. They’re saying it must have been the Brazos Valley gang. Shot two men dead, wounded three others.”

“Did their evil right in the big middle of the day. Do those fellas fear no one?”

Luke ignored the question; he already knew the answer. His feet were already making an about-face to find Mari.

“You joining the posse, mister?” the stranger asked. “They’ll be leaving in minutes. Goin’ north. That’s the direction the outlaws headed. The marshal hopes to catch up with ’em before they reach Grapevine.”

Luke shook his head, his mind on the message sent to him via Jared Harper. Cold fingers of fear crawled up his spine.
I know your weakness
.

Mari. He had to get to Mari.

“It’s stupid to worry,” he told himself as he broke into a run. Murphy wouldn’t have had his gang break him out of jail just so he could hang around town and wreak his revenge on Luke and Mari. The man would have to be crazy to do that.

But Finn Murphy was crazy. Luke increased his pace. Within minutes, he rounded a corner and Indulgences came into view. Luke’s mouth was dry. His heart pounded as if he’d run eight miles instead of eight blocks.
She’s there. She’s inside. She’s safe and sound
.

The sign in the window read Closed.

Luke’s heart skipped a beat. He muttered a foul curse and put on a burst of speed that carried him to the chocolate shop’s front door. He twisted the doorknob and pushed. Nothing. Locked up tight. Drawing his gun, he kicked the door in and stepped into the candy shop. “Maribeth?”

Evil tainted the air. He could feel it on the back of his neck, smell the stench of it all around him. His finger twitched on the trigger as he moved on silent feet to the front of the shop.

The sight that met his eyes took his breath away. Mari’s necklace dangled from a blade of the slowly turning ceiling fan.

I know your weakness
.

Luke closed his eyes and staggered beneath the weight of the fear that turned his boots to lead. For a long moment, he couldn’t think. Couldn’t react. Bone-deep terror unlike any he’d known before gripped him.

A violent pounding sounded on the back door, yanking him back to reality. “Maribeth?” Trace McBride called. “Are you in there?”
Pound, pound, pound
. “Open the door, sweetheart.”

Luke flipped the lock and tugged the door open.

Relief in his tone, Trace said, “Thank God. I was worried. Did you hear that Finn—”

“He’s got her,” Luke said, his voice rusty. He pointed toward the necklace. “He’s got her and this time, he won’t let her take him by surprise.”

“Oh, God.” Trace, reacting much like Luke had, stood frozen in horror.

“We need to find her, McBride. Right away. We need to organize…” Luke’s voice trailed off as he noted something out of place in Mari’s candy kitchen. Why was a bowie knife sitting next to Mari’s sugar canister? A knife that looked hauntingly familiar?

Rory, what the hell have you done?

The knife lay atop a page torn from a recipe book. Scratched across the page in pencil in his brother’s handwriting were the words
Finn took Mari hostage. I’ll lay a trail. Hurry!

“Goddammit, Rory, you stupid son of a bitch,” Luke muttered as he handed the note to Trace. His brother was no match for the likes of Finn Murphy.

“This is from your brother?” Trace asked. “What is he doing with Finn Murphy? Was he part of this? Did he help break that bastard out of jail?”

“No,” Luke said, hoping, praying that was true. “Rory wouldn’t do that. He and Finn had a falling-out months ago. He’d have no reason to pull a stunt like that.”

Not unless Rory’s precious altar cross was somehow involved.

MARI CAME to slowly. Her mind was mushy and it took her a moment to recall what had happened. She’d made a chocolate bar out of Luke, then…what?

Memory returned like a nightmare.
The tray of chocolates falling. Finn Murphy’s mouth stretched into an evil smile as he pointed a revolver at her head. “Hello, darlin’. I’m here for somethin’ sweet.
”

She’d expected to feel a bullet, but instead, he’d raised the gun and brought the butt down upon her head. She remembered nothing more after that.

So where am I now?
She knew she was alive. Her head hurt too bad for her to be dead. She lay stretched out on her back, and she couldn’t move her arms or her legs. Something gagged her mouth. A cloth. It tasted of sweat. She opened her eyes, but she couldn’t see. Something lay atop her body. Something scratchy that smelled like…was it onions? Yes. Onions. Onion sacks. She was hidden beneath burlap onion sacks.

I’m in a wagon and my ankles and wrists are tied with rope
.

She’d been abducted by Finn Murphy. Again.

Fear washed over her like a cold winter rain.
This time, he’ll kill me
.

She couldn’t tell how long she’d been out. Hours, perhaps. Had night fallen? She sensed no sunshine beaming down upon her, and she heard the drone of cicadas all around her. No sounds of town. They were out in the country traveling a bumpy, rutted road.

Then, to Mari’s shock, she heard a familiar voice. “I’m telling you, Finn,” said Rory Callahan. “Taking a hostage was a mistake. Especially this particular hostage. It’s bad enough you’re gonna have every lawman in the state after your hide, now we’re gonna have Luke on our ass.”

“I owe him.”

“This wasn’t part of our deal. I wasn’t counting on crossing my brother again. I’m not sure getting my hands on that treasure is worth it. What good will it do me if I’m dead?”

“Just shut up and drive the wagon. I’m not comfortable out here in the open. Somebody might see us.”

“We’ve already been seen and the disguise worked like a charm. Nobody’s gonna recognize you. Who’d ever connect Finn Murphy with a priest?”

“Shut up!”

Rory took the hint. Mari’s mind spun. What deal? Had Rory helped Murphy escape from jail? He must have. Murphy must have promised him he’d help recover the treasure. That stupid pirate treasure. Look at how much trouble it had caused, to so many different people. Better for everyone if it had just stayed buried.

Fear nibbled at the edge of Mari’s thoughts as she tried to plan a way to save herself. Was this a flatbed wagon? Could she roll herself off the back without being noticed? Or should she look for a way to loosen her ropes? Take the men by surprise when they came to do whatever nefarious deed they had planned.