This love she claimed to feel for him would fade soon enough. Then she would realize that she had been caught in an emotional whirlwind and had simply turned to him for comfort and support. In time she would probably thank him for not taking advantage of her vulnerability more than he had already.
When Jonah lurched around to say his final farewell, he gazed into Maddie’s luminous amber eyes and felt as if he’d been gut-punched. Damn, he’d grown accustomed to having her underfoot and dealing with her stubborn defiance. It would take time to adjust to not having her around. Even longer to forget the way she made him feel, deep down in those secret places he shielded from the rest of the world.
His thoughts disintegrated when she impulsively flung her arms around his neck and kissed him senseless. He was still standing there, his senses overloaded with the taste, feel and scent of her, when she abruptly released him and fled from the room.
Jonah swore inventively as he scooped up his gear. He had to get out of here before he started questioning why he should leave and not look back.
He cast one last glance around the spacious room and his gaze landed on the plush four-poster that he would never share with Maddie. Resolutely, he turned and walked away from the place he didn’t belong, away from the woman who deserved far more than he had to offer.
“C
hristina kissed me, right on the mouth,” Boone confided as he and Jonah headed east thirty minutes later.
“Must be a Garret family trait,” Jonah murmured absently. “Kiss and run.”
“She also told me that I was always welcome at the ranch and she would be there waiting for me.” He shook his head in amazement. “Is that girl blind? Can’t she see me for what I am?”
“She’s blind,” Jonah muttered. “So is her sister.”
Boone was silent for two miles, then he said, “It’s hell doing the right thing, isn’t it, Danhill?”
“Pure hell,” Jonah agreed.
Since he’d left Maddie behind, the hole in his chest kept expanding until it felt as if it would rip him in two. He’d been alone countless times, but he’d never felt as lost and lonely as he did right now—even when Boone commenced jabbering on about Christina.
Jonah was so tangled up in his emotions that he wasn’t paying the slightest attention to his surroundings. But the crack of rifles splitting the air just at
sunset nabbed his attention and jerked him back to the present. Jonah instinctively ducked. Boone did likewise. Two bullets whizzed between them and plugged into the wall of the rocky ravine.
Jonah dropped to the side of his horse so he wouldn’t be a sitting duck. Boone did the same. They barely dodged two more flying bullets, which zinged off the rocks and caused the horses to sidestep skittishly.
Jonah panned the cliffs, which provided excellent cover for the bushwhackers. “Newton and Gibbs,” he speculated.
“That’d be my guess,” Boone said. “Why the hell are they shooting at us? They should know we don’t have the money. Maddie does.”
The comment caused an uneasy feeling to slither down Jonah’s spine. He dropped to the ground behind a fortress of stone to return fire at the bushwhackers. “If those two hombres are still after the money, why wouldn’t they go after Maddie now that we’re out of the picture?” Jonah mused aloud as he scanned the rugged ledges, looking for signs of the bushwhacking duo. “And damn it, what is there about me that inspires folks to try to blow off my head?”
“Must be your dazzling personality…whoa!” Boone ducked when an oncoming bullet tried to put a new part in his hair.
“Something doesn’t add up here—” Jonah hit the ground when another bullet whined past him and scattered dirt beside his boot.
He recoiled to get off a shot when he saw a rifle barrel glinting in the evening sunlight. His aim was
on the mark. He heard a surprised squawk above him and saw the rifle cartwheel over the ledge.
“Nice shot,” Boone exclaimed. “Too bad you hit that bastard’s rifle instead of his head.”
Jonah half turned when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. “There.” He and Boone took aim. Their rifles barked in unison and one of the ambushers crumbled on the cliff to their left.
Jonah was on his feet in a single bound, darting in and out of the scrub cedars and mesquite as he clambered up the hillside to reach the downed outlaw. Without being told, Boone provided cover by firing several rounds at the other outlaw, who had grabbed his six-shooter and was blasting away, even though he was too far out of range to do any serious damage.
Jonah crouched beside the injured man, whom he recognized as one of the cowboys who had followed Maddie from Fort Worth. It was Newton or Gibbs, but he wasn’t sure which.
“Boone!” he yelled in between volleys of bullets. “Get up here. I’ll cover you.” Jonah fired off several shots while Boone scrabbled up the steep incline. “Which one is this?”
Huffing and puffing, Boone squatted beside the injured man. “Beau Newton.” He smiled nastily at the grimacing outlaw, then glanced at Jonah. “You wanna torture him for information Comanche style or shall I do it Kiowa style?”
Jonah smiled maliciously. “Let
him
choose. It’s his hide.”
“I don’t know nothin’!” Beau wheezed as he watched blood soak both sleeves of his shirt.
Jonah drew his dagger from his boot and tested the
sharpness of the blade. “That’s the beauty of torture, Newton,” he said conversationally. “The more intense the pain, the clearer your recollection becomes.”
“Let me do it.” Boone spoke up, waving his knife in front of Newton’s face. “I haven’t carved on any palefaces lately.”
“Me, either. I almost forgot how much I enjoyed slicing up spineless white men.”
“Jesse!” Beau railed at the top of his lungs. “Help me!”
Jonah glanced over at the spot where Jesse Gibbs had last been seen. “Looks like your sidekick bailed out on you. Guess it’s just us against you now.” His intimidating gaze settled directly on Beau. “Pick your method of torture or we’ll start carving from both sides at once and meet in the middle.”
Beau’s frantic scream echoed across the ravine as darkness settled around them.
“You big sissy,” Boone mocked. “We haven’t even laid a hand on you—yet.”
Jonah doubted the gutless man would hold out too long before he sang like a canary. Any man who got his greatest thrills in life by terrorizing women would crack easily under pressure. Jonah vowed to have his revenge on this cowardly son of a bitch for falsely accusing Maddie of theft and trying to blow her to kingdom come on two occasions.
Maddie stood at the parlor window long after Jonah and Boone disappeared from sight, watching the sun make its leisurely descent in the cloudless sky. He was well and truly gone, and she would never see
him again. A tear dribbled down her cheek and she wiped it away. Maddie drew in a cathartic breath, squared her shoulders and told herself not to spend the rest of her days staring into the distance, wishing Jonah would have a change of heart and return.
He’s gone. Get that through your thick skull, princess.
Maddie smiled ruefully, recalling that she never had broken Jonah of the habit of calling her princess. He was the only man alive she had allowed to get away with it.
“Maddie?”
She glanced sideways to see her sister, garbed in a pink satin robe, clinging to the stair railing for support. Her face was still pale, but she’d mustered the strength to venture from her bedroom. That was a good sign.
“You should be resting.” Maddie strode into the foyer to frown disapprovingly at her sister. “Go back to bed.”
“I just remembered something about my captivity. I took off the ring Papa gave me for my thirteen birthday and dropped it on the floor between the cot and the wall that first night, before someone poured drug-laced wine down my throat.” Her curious gaze settled on Maddie, who stood at the bottom of the staircase. “Do you suppose Avery had a musty-smelling wine cellar of some sort? It’s the taste of wine that I recall. Never water. Just wine.”
When Christina swayed slightly, Maddie dashed toward her. She lifted the hem of her skirt to keep from tripping, then glanced down at the step. An uneasy feeling settled in the pit of her stomach when she
noticed the clump of red mudstone on the stair. She hurriedly scooped it up on her way to assist Christina back to bed.
A niggling feeling hounded her as she escorted Chrissy to her room. With sickening dread, Maddie plucked up her sister’s soiled blouse and held the mudstone near the fabric to compare the stains.
“Maddie? What’s wrong?” Christina said worriedly. “You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.”
Maddie drew herself up and manufactured a smile for Chrissy’s benefit. “I’m fine. Just tired is all. I think I’ll lie down while you’re resting.”
When she stepped into the hall she uncurled her hand and stared at the telltale clump of reddish-brown mudstone. A vivid image formed in her mind, causing her to mutter an unlady-like curse. She had the unmistakable feeling that she knew where to find Christina’s ring. But now that Jonah and Boone were gone and the sheriff was a three-hour ride away, Maddie was left to tend to the matter herself.
She scurried down the hall to change into her riding breeches and grab her pistol. Then, gritting her teeth with determination, she walked outside to fetch her horse. As the sun sank on Forbidden Canyon, leaving the world in darkness, Maddie rode off to investigate.
“I’ll tell you what you want to know!” Beau yelped when Jonah drew a bead of blood on his index finger.
Jonah was amazed at Beau’s odd tolerance for pain. He’d been winged by a bullet in both shoulders, but the equivalent of a paper cut on his finger sent him over the edge. “You’d never qualify for warrior status
with the Kiowa or Comanche,” Jonah said as he sank back on his haunches. “Now, who sent you after Maddie Garret and then after us?”
“He’ll kill me,” Beau muttered apprehensively. “You have to promise you won’t tell him that I told you.”
Jonah and Boone exchanged glances. Obviously, Beau wasn’t acting under Avery Hanson’s orders, because Avery was dead. When Boone got that impatient look on his face and grabbed Beau’s right hand, the man commenced squealing like a stuck pig before the dagger even touched his flesh.
“It was Ward Tipton!” Beau wailed. “Two years ago he discovered that Avery had an informant relaying information about his ranch operation. Ward decided to get even by paying the spy more money to work for
him.
”
“Clem Foster?” Jonah asked.
Beau shook his head. “Jesse Gibbs.”
Jonah and Boone stared curiously at him.
“Then how did Clem fit into this scheme?” Jonah asked.
“He spied at the Garret ranch for Avery,” Beau wheezed. “Ward and Avery were both after the Bar G Ranch. When Ward found out that Avery sent Clem to kill Maddie’s father, he knew Avery was making a play for Maddie.”
“So Ward Tipton had Christina Garret kidnapped and held for ransom?” Boone growled.
Beau swallowed apprehensively, then glanced this way and that, as if he expected someone to leap up from nowhere and shut him up with a well-aimed bullet. “No, that was Avery’s doing.”
Jonah was thoroughly befuddled. Apparently Boone was, too. He wore the same muddled expression.
“Then how does Tipton fit into this tangled mess?” Jonah demanded impatiently.
“Jesse informed Ward that Avery was sending him after Maddie to make sure she didn’t acquire the ransom money on her own. Then Ward sent me along with Jesse to steal the money so Avery couldn’t get hold of it.”
“So Ward took Avery’s scheme and played it to his advantage,” Jonah surmised.
Beau swallowed hard and bobbed his head. “Yeah. He intended to expose Avery’s involvement, then convince Maddie to turn to him for help. He was angling to negotiate a wedding between them so he could take over her ranch.”
Jonah swore under his breath. Ward Tipton was one manipulative son of a bitch.
“When we told Ward that you’d married Maddie, he ordered us to dispose of Avery and Clem and make it look as if
Maddie
had struck out in revenge for her sister,” he said with a ragged breath.
“That might have worked if Jonah hadn’t used the power of his position and insisted Maddie wasn’t responsible,” Boone mused aloud.
“Why take potshots at Boone and me?” Jonah questioned.
He scowled in irritation when Beau’s eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out before answering the question. Jonah hurriedly bandaged Beau’s gunshot wounds while Boone tied him up to ensure he’d still be there when they got back.
“I still don’t get it,” Boone said as he strode toward his horse. “Why would Ward dispose of us if he already got rid of his rival and now has the chance to buy Avery’s ranch?”
“There’s only one way to find out,” Jonah said as he swung into the saddle.
“Right. Ask Ward Tipton in person. Damn that English dandy and all his polished manners. He almost got away with murder.”
Jonah jabbed his heels into his mount’s flanks and took off at a gallop. He wasn’t leaving this part of Texas until he knew exactly how Ward Tipton fit into this convoluted scheme, and was positively certain that Maddie wasn’t on a collision course with more trouble.
Maddie trotted her strawberry-roan gelding along the moonlit path. She knew of only one place in the area that fit the description of the dank niche where Christina had been held captive. If Maddie found the ring in that makeshift wine cellar, she anticipated that it would raise more questions than provide answers. She had been in that musty wine cellar with Ward Tipton only once—which was one time too many, because it had made her break out in a cold sweat. That was when she’d first realized she had an unnatural dread of being confined in tight spaces. She had experienced those sensations momentarily when Jonah led her into the cavern behind the falls, but the apprehensive feelings were nothing compared to the ones that tormented her that day almost a year earlier.
Despite the thought of closeting herself in narrow
spaces again, she intended to retrieve Christina’s ring and solve this perplexing riddle once and for all.
Dismounting, Maddie tethered her horse, then hiked up the rugged slope to locate the door that opened into a hand-dug hole in the canyon mudstone. Leaving the door ajar, she made use of the ladder, then inched along the rough wall until she located the lantern. Even when light blazed forth Maddie didn’t breathe easy. The narrow cubicle reminded her of a tomb, where not one ounce of air stirred to indicate the slightest sign of life. She felt clammy and short of breath, and unreasonable panic tried to sink its claws into her hard-won composure. When she tried to inhale, the air was so heavy with moisture that it seemed to be sucking the oxygen from her lungs. The stench was as cloying as she remembered from her one and only visit here, and she recalled that she hadn’t been able to escape this place fast enough.
Hounded by a fierce urgency, she hurried to the narrow cot butted up against a damp mudstone wall, where water droplets had condensed. Maddie eased down and shoved her arm between the wall and cot, groping about for the missing ring. Sure enough, her hand closed around it almost instantly. She held it up to the flickering light, noting the red mud that clung to the jeweled stones.