The Badger City Gang [Bride Train 7] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (32 page)

Rusty and Gideon set their glasses down with a double set of thumps.

“We don’t want your daughter,” said Gideon.

“We want Kate,” said Rusty right behind.

“Now that I know I have a daughter, I want her to have my ranch. That way it’ll go to my grandkids.” Walt sniffed back what Zach figured were crocodile tears. “Always wanted grandchildren. Since you boys know the ranch, I thought I’d offer it to you first.” His eyes, the same color as the whiskey, went hard. “But if you don’t want the Running W, I’ll find my girl a good husband. Someone who’ll appreciate a wife who’s used to pretty things and a life of leisure.” He looked over their clean but work-worn clothing. “Unlike yourselves.”

“And what happens to us if we refuse?” asked Zach.

“I’ll buy you out, and you go somewhere else.” Walt shrugged. “With Kate, if you like.”

“But we like it here, and so does Kate,” said Gideon quietly.

“That’s the choice,” said Walt in the coldest voice Zach had ever heard him use. “The ranch and my daughter, or gold and get out. Take it or leave it.”

“What if we want the ranch
and
Kate?” Zach caught a slight flash of something in the old man’s eyes. He wasn’t sure if it was guilt, or greed.

“In the unlikely event that you can find enough gold to buy me out, I would consider selling to you.” He lifted his drink halfway to his mouth, and then stopped. “If that happened, Emma and I would move to Helena to be with my daughter.”

“So what if it takes us ten years to pay you,” said Gideon. “We’ll keep working as long as it takes.”

“Does the girl have a name?” Rusty’s glare could cut a block of ice in half.

“Not one I’m willing to share with you.” Walt finished his whiskey. He exhaled loudly and smacked his lips.

“Your manners don’t match your fancy suit,” said Zach.

“If you have enough money, nobody cares if you’re rude.” Walt filled up his glass again, blatantly ignoring them.

“We want Kate,
and
the ranch.” Zach spat the words as if they were bullets. “We have a deal, and you’d better follow it.”

“Did you register your deed in Helena?” asked Walt mildly. He looked around at the three of them as if barely interested in their reaction.

“When the hell did I have time to ride all the way to Helena and back when I trusted the man whose hand I shook?”

“Then you’ve got no proof.” Walt smirked at their anger.

“I thought you were a man of honor,” said Rusty. His lip curled up in a sneer of disgust. “You’re no better than my father, or Uncle Peyton.”

“We’d be nothing without the ranch.” Gideon screwed up his face as if he’d eaten most of a crabapple before he found half a worm. “But I want Kate more.”

“Fine!” growled Zach. “You want us gone, we’ll take Kate and go. But you’ll pay us for every minute of work we put in, and then we’ll see you in hell!”

Walt let the silence ring. “Who says Kate will want to go with you?”

“Of course she’ll want to be with us,” said Gideon. “She loves us.”

Walt swirled his drink. “But do you love her?”

Zach choked. Rusty cleared his throat. Only Gideon nodded.

“Thought so,” said Walt triumphantly. “If you really wanted Kate, you’d already be hitched. You’ve had weeks to do the deed.”

“Kate’s not ready to marry yet,” muttered Zach.

“How do you know? Did any of you ask the girl to marry you?”

Rusty and Gideon turned to Zach.

“No, but I will,” said Zach. “Soon as I think she’ll say yes.” He shrugged it off. “Gotta do it before winter anyhow.”

“Huh!” said Walt. “You just want her because she’s pretty, a good cook, and there’s no one else available. And you don’t want Cole at the Sweetwater ranch to snap her up.”

Zach glared. “There’s more to it than that!”

“Prove it!” Walt dared Zach. “Tell her you love her and want to marry her.” He stepped closer and narrowed his eyes. “And mean every word of it!”

Love? A roaring filled Zach’s ears. His brother and cousin might have shouted because their mouths were open, but he couldn’t hear anything else.

Did he really love Kate? How the hell would he know? His father said he loved his ma, and she loved him. But she couldn’t wait to jump into bed with Uncle Peyton. Had Pa taken them to Texas to escape the vigilantes hunting Peyton, or was it to keep his wife from his brother?

He, Gideon, and Rusty weren’t like that. They shared the work as well as Kate. But trust the woman enough to marry her? He shook off old memories.

Rusty was the first to move. He strolled over to his drink, picked it up, and threw it down. He bared his teeth at the burn. Zach’s ears cleared, allowing him to hear more than what was in his head.

“Kate’s got more guts than half the men in the Territory,” said Rusty. “She can do all the womanly things a wife does around the home as well as whatever’s necessary. And she doesn’t complain when there’s a tough job to do and nothing can be done about it. But that’s only a small part of her.” He nodded at Walt. “Yeah, I’ll marry her. I can’t see loving anyone else but Kate.”

“She’s mine.” Zach heard the growled words, both threat and statement, before he realized they’d come out of his mouth. “Kate’s mine,” he repeated. “Unless she wants someone else, and makes a damn good case why, she’s gonna be Mrs. Zachary McInnes.”

“But can you trust her?” Walt waited in the silence. “You don’t know, do you? She might want someone else one day, someone she can laugh with.”

All three McInnes men stared at Walt. Zach heard faint noises coming from the room behind the screen. Either they were carried in on the wind or Mrs. Johnston had mice. His fingers curled into fists but Rusty got the words out first.

“Watch what you say old man. That’s our woman you’re insulting.”

“I saw her, what, a couple days after she arrived? She jumped on Gideon like they were newlyweds while I tied up the wagon.” Walt smoothed down his moustache. He looked at Zach from under his bushy eyebrows. “She jumped into your bed awful fast. What’s to stop her doing it with other men?”

Gideon held Rusty back from punching Walt at the insult. Zach used the control that had kept him from killing his uncle after they buried Pa. “If you weren’t an old man, we’d thrash you within an inch of your life for saying that.” Zach spoke with deadly intent, but Walt shrugged it off.

“I’m just saying what other men are thinking.”

“They’d better not think out loud or they’ll be getting the business end of my gun.” Rusty rested his hand on his pistol, easy like. He meant it as a warning, but anywhere else it would mean the same as if he’d pulled it out, cocked it, and aimed it at Walt’s heart.

Everything in the room took on an added brightness. Words stretched out and movements slowed, making it easy for Zach to follow, and anticipate. He was ready to attack, even kill, in this state. He felt something shift deep inside and everything went calm.

There was no choice. He wanted Kate, no matter what. Like Rusty, he couldn’t see going through life without her. She was an original, nothing like his two-timing mother. He snorted a laugh, startling the other three men. Kate could lust after his brother, and cousin, all she liked. If she wanted wild fun, Rusty would happily give it to her. Gideon as well. And there was nothing stopping her jumping any of them whenever she wanted. His whole body tingled with awareness. He was ready to take Kate to bed for a week and prove that she couldn’t possibly want anyone else but them.

He trusted her, all right. While she was polite to those Southern boys, she’d barely nodded howdy when they met on the street. She didn’t even notice him silently telling them to back off from his woman. She spoke her mind, too loud sometimes. But it was better than Ma’s quiet nod that suggested agreement but meant nothing.

Kate was his woman. His, and Rusty’s, and Gideon’s. But she wanted more than that.

“One of the first things Kate told me on that train was that she won’t marry unless she loves her husband,” said Zach calmly. He strolled over and helped himself with another few fingers of Walt’s excellent whiskey. “If Kate agrees to marry me, it means she loves me, along with Rusty and Gideon.” He held up his glass and winked. “She’s a lady.” He sipped, knowing he was fully in control of the situation.

“So, do you love her?” asked Walt.

“If love means not wanting to live a day without her, then yes,” said Zach. Rusty and Gideon nodded agreement. Rusty looked pleased with himself, but Gideon’s face was red. Zach didn’t think it was the booze. Kate was Gideon’s first woman. She’d be his last, as well. Same as him and Rusty.

“Not so fast, gentleman,” admonished Walt. “Does Kate love you?”

“Yep,” said Gideon.

“You got the right words to use so she’ll say what you want?”

“Why’re you talking about Kate when all you want is the ranch for your hoity-toity Eastern daughter?” Rusty threw the words at Walt, who shrugged.

“Humor me for a moment.”

Now that his decision was made, Zach felt too good to argue. He looked at his cousin. “You’re the one with the flowery words. What should I say to Kate?”

“Tell her what you want her to hear, as long as it’s the truth,” said Walt before Rusty could answer.

“You ever been married, old man?” demanded Rusty.

Walt shook his head. “Nope. The lady turned me down.”

“So why are you telling us how to propose?”

“It wasn’t what I said, son.” Walt spoke quietly, all the bombast gone. “The lady was more afraid of what might be, than she was in love with me. No matter what I said, it didn’t matter. But I think you’re right about Kate loving you. What’ll you say to her?”

“We love her, and we’ll do whatever we can to make her happy. Sometimes things’ll be hard, but that’s the way life is.” Zach’s mind went blank. “Maybe when I see her I’ll think of fancier words.” He shook off thoughts of Kate and glared at Walt. “And why the hell do you care? Bad enough you cheat us out of our ranch, now you want to—”

“Katie’s my daughter.”

It took Zach a moment to close his mouth. He looked at his brother and cousin. They shook their heads in confusion. “What?”

Walt cleared his throat. “I made up that stuff about her being in Helena, but the rest of it is pretty much bang on.” He stood tall and raised his voice. “I’ve only known I had a daughter for a few weeks, but I love her. My Katie looks just like her mother, but she’s got my heart. I’m sorry for pulling this on you, but I wanted to make sure you loved my girl enough to last all her life.”

“Where is she?” Zach growled the words.

“In the room behind the screen.” Walt gestured. “Go on, get her loose.”

Zach shoved the screen out of the way. He stopped in the doorway and stared. Rusty and Gideon banged up against him, forcing him forward. Someone had tied Kate to a chair and gagged her. Mrs. Johnston, smiling far too wickedly for an old lady, removed the handkerchief.

“Get over here and untie me, now!” Kate roared.

Gideon moved to help, but Zach held him back. Kate wore a lovely white dress with ivory lace. She’d never looked so beautiful, or so furious. His cock rose at the sight of her as usual, but this time his heart did as well.

“Whoa, boys” said Zach. “Leave her there for now. We might never get this chance again.” She narrowed her eyes at him. Her lips pushed out in a pout. “Don’t she look cute, boys? All tied up like a present for us to unwrap.”

“Untie me now or I’ll scream!”

“I said it before, darlin’, and I’ll be saying it all my life.” Rusty pulled up his pant leg so he could set his foot on the chair between Kate’s knees. He leaned forward and brushed the backs of his fingers against her breasts as if it was accidental. Her face flamed as fast as her two nipples popped up. Rusty smiled at her reaction. “Long as it’s my name you’re screaming, sugar, go right ahead.”

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it!”

“You heard all that, Kate?” Zach took off his jacket. He tossed it on the nearest chair and opened his shirt halfway to his waist. Her eyes followed his fingers. She realized what she was doing and glared up at him. He set his feet shoulder length apart, crossed his arms, and looked back at her.

“Normally I’d kill any man who tied up my wife, but you’re not my wife. Yet.”

“If you don’t untie me, I never will be!”

“There’s a reason Walter did this,” said Emma Johnston, “and I’d like to hear him tell you. Walter,” she admonished, “tell them.”

“I wanted to make sure they’d treat you right, Katie.” Walt looked both sheepish and righteous. “I couldn’t help your mother, so—”

“And what business is it of yours?” asked Emma. “Kate’s a grown woman. You just found out you’re her father. She doesn’t owe you anything.”

Walt seemed to shrink back into the old mountain man. He coughed and turned away, scratching his beard. Mrs. Johnston cleared her throat loudly. He winced, sniffed, and stood straight again.

“When I came West, I dropped my first name,” said Walt to Mrs. Johnston. “Not only is Wilbur a sissy name, I didn’t want anyone to call me that but the woman I loved.” He stopped and fidgeted with his vest buttons. “That was a long time ago, Emma.”

“Stop stalling, Walter.”

“Enough, woman! I’ll put you over my knee if you keep that up!”

Mrs. Johnston looked startled for a moment before a flush rose up her face. She raised her chin and shot him an imperious glare. “You’ll have to marry me before I’d allow such liberties.”

“Well, maybe we’ll have a double wedding.” Walt nodded abruptly at her gasp. Zach caught his wink before he smoothed his face and turned to Kate. “I loved your mother like anything, but Millie didn’t have your sense of adventure. She said she loved me, but was too afraid to leave with me and travel west. I wanted to make sure you had a choice, one you made without fear.”

“I’m not afraid,” said Kate.

“No, that’s one thing you’re not.” Rusty leaned over and released the simple knots holding Kate to the chair. He and Gideon helped her to her feet and steadied her.

Zach glared at Rusty until he released Kate so Zach could put his arm around her waist to hold her. He needed to do more than hold her, but couldn’t do it until they got her back home and into bed. No, maybe they’d only make it as far as the first set of trees which blocked the road. They’d have to take off her pretty dress first so they wouldn’t ruin it, though. It was pretty enough for a wedding dress.