River Lady Read online

  Abe stood still, glaring at her. “You tell me when you’re ready to listen.”

  “Never, I—,” A groan from Wesley made her turn back to him.

  “Leah,” he whispered, his eyes barely open. “Get out of here. Save yourself.” With that, his head fell to one side.

  “No!” she cried. “He isn’t—?” She looked up at Bud who shook his head once.

  “You got a choice, missy,” Abe said. “You help me and I’ll let you take care of your rich boy, but you keep refusin’ me and callin’ me names and I’ll let him rot right here. And you better make up your mind fast ’cause he looks like he’s about to bleed to death.”

  Leah didn’t take more than a few seconds to make up her mind. “I’ll help you,” she whispered, her hand on Wesley’s cool forehead. “What do I have to do?”

  Chapter 16

  Leah looked down at Wesley’s sleeping form. His wound was clean now and she realized it wasn’t as bad as she’d thought, although he’d lost a lot of blood. He lay on a fairly clean bed in an old cabin that was hidden on the side of a mountain.

  Slowly she moved from her seat on the side of the bed and took the pan of dirty water outside to empty it. Standing outside the door, silhouetted in the early dawn light like mountain guardians, were the young men, Bud and Cal. She’d been too upset about Wesley to know exactly when the brother had made his appearance, but now there were two of them, both massive, both silent, almost indistinguishable from each other. The brothers had carried the unconscious Wesley to the cabin, and without speaking a word they’d helped her wash and bandage him.

  “He’s sleeping,” she said tiredly to the silent men, one on either side of the door. “In time I think he’ll be all right.”

  “Told you he would be,” Abe said loudly, making her jump as he slipped around the side of the cabin.

  “Do you always have to sneak up on people?” She seethed at him, her eyes blazing.

  “You’ve got to be the unfriendliest sister a man ever had. You gonna listen to me or we gonna fight over that rich man of yours?”

  Everything in her hated having to cooperate with him. She’d do what he wanted in order to save Wes, but as soon as he was well, she’d get away from Abe. “What is it you want from me?” she asked belligerently.

  Abe grunted but otherwise ignored her tone. “You don’t have to do much to help out a member of your very own family. All I need you for is to do a little brain work. And maybe a little cookin’,” he said under his breath.

  Her head came up sharply. “So that’s it, is it? You don’t need me to help plan your robberies, all you want is someone to fetch and tote for you.”

  “Now Leah,” he began, then stopped and gave her his rotten-toothed grin. “Sure, that’s all we want. You come along and cook for us, do a little cleanin’ and them other things women do. Ain’t nothin’ wrong in that, is there? There ain’t nearly as many of us as all them kids Pa had.”

  Leah felt almost relieved. She’d hated the idea of having to plan robberies and although the running of the camp would be hard work, she’d rather do that than something directly bad.

  Abe was watching her. “That makes you feel better, don’t it?” he said as if talking to a kitten. “You just have to do a little cleanin’, a little cookin’, although these here boys eat a powerful lot.”

  “And what do I get in return?”

  “You get to look after your rich husband.” He looked down at his shoe. “Although maybe you better not tell Revis about him. Maybe it oughta be our secret,” he said, ignoring the presence of the two young giants.

  Leah glanced from Bud to Cal, but their faces were impassive. She wondered how intelligent the men were and wondered too if they realized how degrading Abe’s treatment of them was. “Who is this Revis?”

  “My partner!” Abe blurted with pride. “Him and me are in this together. We run the whole show.”

  “What happens when Wesley recovers?”

  Abe grinned at her. “I’ll tell Revis you run away, couldn’t stand all the work. It’s happened lots of times before. We sorta wear women out.”

  “You shot my husband to get a replacement cook?” She spat at him. “If cooks are so easy to come by and you have to rehire them so often, why did you have to shoot someone?”

  Abe looked puzzled for a moment then smiled happily. “I wanted my sister near me. I ain’t seen you in a long time.”

  Leah grabbed a long piece of wood from the woodpile and started toward him.

  “You hurt me, Leah, and you’ll never find your way out of this forest,” he half warned, half pleaded, covering his face with his arms.

  She lowered the wood inches away from his head. “You dirty rotten blackmailer,” she hissed before turning back toward the cabin and Wesley.

  “You boys ain’t no use at all,” Abe said from behind her. “Wait till I tell Revis how you let somebody threaten me, nearly killed me she did. Revis’ll have a few words to say to you two”

  Leah took her time repacking her few belongings before leaving with her brother. She wished Wesley would wake up so she could tell him some story about where she was going, although she hadn’t had a chance to come up with anything good yet. But he slept hard, his breathing deep and slow. There was a furrow of pain across his brow.

  She sat beside him and touched his cheek. At this moment she couldn’t seem to remember why she’d been so angry with him for the last few months. All she could remember was being a young girl and falling in love with him. Maybe it was Abe’s presence that was reminding her of the nasty farm she’d grown up on. Thoughts of Wesley had kept her sane.

  “You get through moonin’ over him, you better come on. Revis’ll want breakfast. He don’t like the boys out of his sight for very long.”

  Quietly Leah leaned forward and kissed Wesley’s sleep-softened lips. “I’ll return as soon as I can,” she promised him, then left the cabin.

  Abe gave a squint toward the rising sun and said, “Let’s get goin’.” He was obviously beginning to get nervous.

  The trail down the mountain was a maze through brambles and rocks. While they were fighting their way down, Leah tried to think. It would be to her advantage to find out all she could about this gang she was reluctantly joining.

  “Where are Bud and Cal?” she asked, pushing a briar away from her face.

  “They don’t like walkin’ with other people. They’re too dumb to know people ought to stick together. Even Revis can’t make ’em understand.”

  “Is this Revis ever able to control them?”

  Abe stopped and turned to face her. “If you’re thinkin’ of gettin’ the boys on your side against me, you can stop it right now.”

  Leah tried not to let him see that this was just what she’d been planning.

  “Revis and the boys is brothers,” Abe said smugly before turning around. “Some families stick together,” he added.

  “You mean there’s another one of these ‘boys’? There are three of these giants?”

  “Naw, Revis is just regular size and not stupid or nothin’ like the boys. They ain’t real, blood-related, but Revis’s ma got Bud and Cal from somewheres when they was babies. They was raised right alongside of Revis and that means somethin’ to ’em.”

  Leah made a face behind his back, sick of his hints that she was disloyal.

  They walked in silence for a while.

  “Do Bud and Cal talk?”

  Abe snorted. “Only when you pester ’em. I figure they got such little brains they don’t have much to say.”

  “You think the more people have to say the bigger brains they have?”

  “Sometimes you’re too clever, Leah. I ain’t so good with words, but Revis is. You try your words on him. And you be careful you don’t start attackin’ him with logs ’cause the boys protect Revis. I’d sure hate to see my own sister hurt.”

  “I’m sure you would,” she said sarcastically.

  “Ain’t me got no family feelin’s,