The Lawman's Surrender: The Calhoun Sisters, Book 2 (13 page)

“How am I to pay for this?”

He handed her some folded bills. “This should cover it. Wait for me there, and I’ll come fetch you. Can you handle that?”

Arching her brow, she took the money and tucked it into her drawstring purse. “I can handle anything.”

“You don’t have to tell me that.” With a hand at the small of her back, he guided her out of the hotel.

The mercantile was owned by a hulking ruddy-faced fellow named Martin Kracke. When Susannah first handed him the list, he was somewhat surly until he saw that she would be paying cash money. Then he went about assembling her order with a smile on his thin lips.

While Mr. Kracke put together a box of coffee, beans and sugar, Susannah wandered over to where two young women were giggling over bolts of fabric. A pretty blue and white dimity caught her eye, and she fingered it wistfully. Less than a week ago, she would have purchased the material and had it made into a stylish day dress designed to turn men’s heads. But those days were behind her now, and heaven only knew what lay before her.

She moved away from the piles of cloth and wandered the aisles of the cramped store. If Jedidiah had his way, they would intercept Mrs. Hawkins before she boarded the train in Colorado Springs and convince her to testify to Susannah’s innocence at the trial. However, there was every chance that Mrs. Hawkins
was
the murderer, in which case it would be more difficult. But when it came to law and order, Susannah would put her money on Jedidiah Brown every time.

Yes, Jedidiah was surely as reliable as the sunrise when it came to official matters. But in matters of the heart, he was as capricious as a Chinook. One moment passion ran hot between them, and he kissed her as if his life depended on it. The next moment he held himself cool and distant as if she meant nothing more than the completion of another assignment.

And she was no better, she thought with a snort of disgust. One moment she couldn’t stand to be around the man, but the next moment she couldn’t get close enough to him. She needed to keep her head clear. Falling in love with Jedidiah Brown was out of the question.

She paused before a selection of scented soaps, staring blankly at a jar of small, heart-shaped ones. Falling in love with Jedidiah? Where had that come from? She couldn’t be in love with him—
wouldn’t
be in love with him.

She took one of the little soaps from the jar, closing her fingers tightly around it as the scent of roses drifted to her. Loving Jedidiah Brown was like trying to catch the moon in a bucket, and Susannah was not one to chase the impossible. What they had here was a case of strong attraction under dangerous circumstances, nothing more.

There had been something simmering between them when they had first met last year in Wyoming Territory, but his abrupt departure from her life had surely cured her of any tender feelings. And now they were together again, sharing an adventure out of some dime novel. It was no wonder she was starting to weave these ridiculous fantasies about him.

She pressed her lips together in determination. Falling in love with Jedidiah would only make things more complicated, and she knew he had no intention of staying around after the job was done. Susannah Calhoun didn’t need to fall off a horse twice to know when she couldn’t ride it.

Annoyed by the entire situation, she grabbed another of the small, rose-scented hearts and headed toward the front. Jedidiah knew she wanted soap, and for some reason, it made her feel better to know she was buying the most expensive kind in the store, and that he was paying for it.

The bell jingled just as she reached the counter, announcing another customer in the store. Mr. Kracke had already boxed up her items, but he rudely left her standing there as he attended to the man who had just entered.

She didn’t pay much attention to the exchange at first as she waited impatiently for Mr. Kracke to get back to her. But gradually, something about one of the male voices registered as vaguely familiar. She glanced over, and her heart stopped beating for one long, agonizing second.

Wayne Caldwell stood two feet down the counter, bargaining with the merchant.

Her first instinct was to run. A furtive glance at the door revealed two of Caldwell’s men loitering near the exit, so that way was blocked. Maybe there was a back door...?

“And I need some good strong rope,” Caldwell said.

Susannah bit back the whimper that rose to her lips. She kept her gaze forward, grateful for the large hat brim that concealed her features. Caldwell hadn’t recognized her yet, and every second that passed was more time to think.

Think, Susannah!

Mr. Kracke passed by her and actually smiled, no doubt thrilled by the affluent customer who patronized his shop. “Be with you in a minute, ma’am,” he said.

Caldwell spared her a glance, ran his eyes down her form, then looked away, as if she didn’t deserve his notice.

He looked away!
She could hardly believe it.

Then she remembered about her disguise and blessed Jedidiah’s cleverness. All Caldwell saw when he looked at her was a pregnant woman buying perfectly ordinary staples at the mercantile. As long as he didn’t see her face, she might be able to get out of this alive.

Mr. Kracke came back with a stout length of rope. Susannah’s throat clogged with terror as Caldwell took it from him with a pleased smile. She had an awful feeling she knew what he intended to do with it.

“That’s just the thing, yes, indeed.” He examined the rope, then uncoiled a length and tugged hard on it. “I’ll take this and a box of cigars.” He slapped the hempen coil on the counter.

“Very good, sir.” Mr. Kracke turned to rummage on the shelf and came back with the cigars, which he put down next to the rope. He named an amount, and Caldwell pulled a roll of bills from his pocket.

Pay and go
, Susannah begged silently, keeping her head bowed to better hide her features.
Don’t look at me, just pay and go
.

“So tell me,” Caldwell said as Mr. Kracke handed him his change. “You seen a pretty blonde gal come through here recently?”

“I don’t remember every woman that comes into town,” Mr. Kracke said with a snort.

“You’d remember this one. Looks like an angel, blonde hair and blue eyes.”

“There are hundreds of blondes around here,” Mr. Kracke retorted. “Heck, this nice lady is blonde! Maybe she’s the one you’re looking for.”

Susannah stood so still she thought her spine would snap from the pressure. Any moment she expected Caldwell to discover her ruse and drag her to the nearest hanging tree...and Jedidiah was too far away to help.

She glanced out the corner of her eye at Caldwell, who considered her bulging belly for a bare second before shaking his head and dismissing her with a wave of his hand. “Nah, the one I’m looking for is a real beauty. And she’s traveling with a U.S. Marshal.”

“No marshals come through here since last week,” the merchant said.

“Maybe I beat him here,” Caldwell murmured.

“Sir?” The shopkeeper glanced quizzically at him.

“Never mind,” Caldwell said. “How much for this again?”

Mr. Kracke named the amount, and Caldwell paid him.

Susannah squeezed the soap in her hand so hard she thought it would break into pieces. Caldwell’s heavy footsteps grew more distant as he reached the door. The bell jingled, and he and his men left the mercantile. Susannah let out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding.

Safe.

“Sorry about that, ma’am. Is that everything you need?”

Susannah placed the two heart-shaped soaps in the box. “Yes, that’s everything.”

“Let me just total the bill, and I’ll help you carry this out.”

She waited while he counted the money, her racing heartbeat gradually settling down to normal. Caldwell hadn’t recognized her, thank God. He didn’t even know she was in town, and the faster she got
out
of town, the better! She just hoped Jedidiah was back with the wagon.

Mr. Kracke hefted the box and led the way to the door. Susannah reached for the knob to pull it open for him, but it suddenly swung open before she could touch it. The tinkle of the bell rang like a death knell as Caldwell’s bulky body filled the doorway.

“Forgot my cigars,” he said, brushing past Susannah.

Her heart leaped into her throat as she watched Caldwell head back toward the counter. His two cohorts lingered outside the door. One of them smirked at her bulging belly while the other idly watched traffic roll by.

“Here you go, ma’am,” Mr. Kracke said, setting the box down outside the door. Then he hurried back inside to tend his store. Susannah stepped outside just as Jedidiah pulled the wagon to a stop in front of the mercantile. Glancing behind her, she saw Caldwell heading right for her, a box of cigars clutched in one fist and the coiled rope in the other.

Jedidiah hopped down from the wagon, his attention on the box of supplies, and Susannah started towards him. The door to the mercantile opened behind her. Caldwell stepped out and stopped right next to the box of supplies, barely sparing her a glance. He immediately started conversing with the two men who waited for him. Jedidiah continued to approach the box, his path taking him only inches away from Caldwell.

Caldwell would recognize him. She was sure of it. Jedidiah was walking straight into danger, completely unarmed.

She didn’t even pause to think. Stepping boldly past Caldwell, she laid a hand on Jedidiah’s arm before he reached the box. He glanced at her questioningly, but before he could speak, she stood on tiptoe and pressed a kiss to his lips.

She felt his start of surprise, and she coiled her arms around his neck before he could pull away. Her lips lingered on his, tasting and testing. After a moment, he angled his head to better fit his mouth to hers.

One of the men behind her gave a snort of derision. “Guess we know how she got that way,” he remarked, sending his partner into gales of laughter.

“Let’s head out,” Caldwell said, breaking up the jocularity. “I want to get a room at the hotel and wait that gal out. She and that marshal ought to be along any time now.”

Jedidiah’s shoulders tensed beneath Susannah’s hands, and she realized that he had recognized Caldwell. But it wasn’t until the thud of the men’s footfalls against the wooden walkway faded into the distance that Jedidiah gently broke the kiss.

“Caldwell,” he said in a low voice.

She nodded.

He frowned after the man’s retreating back, his expression grim. “Let’s get out of here.”

They wasted no time in leaving Chalmers behind.

Jedidiah urged the horses on, and the town grew smaller and smaller behind them until Susannah could no longer see it. There was no sign of pursuit, yet she still felt strangely edgy. She couldn’t seem to shake the tension that gripped her.

The near confrontation with Caldwell had rattled her badly, as if she had danced a waltz with the angel of death. She owed her life to Jedidiah’s clever disguise of her. She just wished he would extend some of that cleverness to himself. Her pounding heart had nearly stopped in her chest when she realized how close he had come to being recognized.

She needed Jedidiah desperately, both for protection and in other ways that she dared not even admit to herself yet. She was depending on him to keep both of them alive, yet she feared the power he seemed to hold over her. It wasn’t that he would ever make her do anything against her will. No, he tempted her to give in to her passionate instincts—something she had never done before with any man. He made her long to surrender.

But surrender what? Her body? At the advanced age of twenty-six, she had encountered many men who wanted her body. Some of them had even wanted her heart, though until now she had never given it. But Jedidiah? He would demand everything: her body, her heart and her soul. And she wasn’t at all sure she would get any of it back again in one piece.

She might start out only giving her body, but in the end he would walk away with everything—and he
would
walk away.

And she’d be left behind with a hole where her heart had been.

Getting involved with Jedidiah Brown could only lead to heartbreak. She had enough trouble trying to stay alive, never mind attempting to manage a romance on top of it.

No, she would follow her head this time and not her heart. And just maybe she would come out of this heart-healthy, if not heart-whole.

Just as long as she didn’t fall in love with him.

Jedidiah didn’t stop until Chalmers was little more than a memory.

He managed the speeding horses automatically, his mind locked on the fact that Susannah had barely escaped with her life. His blood ran cold when he thought about how close she had come to being captured by Caldwell.

It was his fault. He wasn’t usually so careless, but his emotions had gotten the better of him this time. He had been so busy trying to ignore his own desire for Susannah that he had relaxed his usual vigilance and almost gotten them both killed. His sharp instincts, which in almost twenty years of law enforcement had never failed him, had been completely submerged beneath his fear of getting too close to her.