Angel Creek Read online

  Luis reined his horse off to the side, his lean, dark face taut with anger and his hand on his pistol butt. He didn’t know what the hell had gotten into Bellamy, but he didn’t intend to make war on a lone woman.

  He was good with a pistol, but not good enough to take on twenty men in a blood lust. For a split second he considered killing Bellamy, then realized that wouldn’t stop it. He didn’t have a lot of time to get help before the sons of bitches either killed the woman or overran her cabin and raped her; he’d seen enough blood lust to know that it wouldn’t make any difference to them which it was.

  The cattle were stampeding wildly, panicked by the gunfire, maddened by the smell of water. A thick cloud of dust billowed over everything, cutting visibility. Luis went with the cattle, yelling to agitate them even more, then finally broke free to turn his horse toward Prosper.

  He rode the animal hard even in the heat, and it was white with lather by the time he reined it to a halt in front of the marshal’s office. He jumped down, his booted feet thudding on the sidewalk as he shoved the door open. The office was empty.

  The most logical place to look was the saloon. If the marshal wasn’t there, someone would likely know his whereabouts.

  But the marshal was nowhere in sight when he entered the saloon. “Where’s Marshal Cobb?” he asked of anyone in the saloon.

  “Don’t rightly know,” a man said. Luis recognized him as a shopkeeper.

  “I thought I heard he’s visitin’ his daughter up Denver way for a few days,” another said. “You got trouble?”

  “Bellamy’s trying to run his cattle into the Swann woman’s valley,” Luis said curtly. “There’s shooting going on, and it’ll be either a raping or a killing if it isn’t stopped.”

  Everyone in the saloon was silent. Luis looked around at the men, but none of them were jumping to help. “Since the marshal’s gone, are any of you willing to help that woman?”

  Eyes shifted away. For the most part the men in the saloon at that time of day were townsfolk, merchants and clerks. They hadn’t cleaned their weapons in years. If a bunch of rowdy cowhands had gone wild, they weren’t going to stick their noses into it, at least as long as it stayed out of town. It wasn’t like Dee Swann was a friend or anything; she always kept to herself.

  Ranchers would have had weapons handy and been willing to help, but there weren’t any ranchers in the saloon. They were too busy during the day doing what they could to keep their cattle alive. Luis turned away in disgust, his dark eyes going cold.

  “Wait,” Tillie said, hurrying toward him. She stepped out on the sidewalk, her hand on his arm. She looked pale. “Lucas Cochran on the Double C will help.”

  “She doesn’t have that kind of time,” Luis said harshly.

  Tillie’s brown eyes were huge and anguished. “Then you go back and help her, and I’ll ride to the Double C.”

  Luis gave a brief nod, already turning away. “You’d better hurry.”

  He cut overland, pushing his tired horse hard and coming in from the side. He could still hear gunfire, which meant that the woman was holding her own. Despite his grimness his mouth twisted in a grin. She must be a real hellcat. A woman like that deserved all the help she could get.

  He left his horse and worked his way the last hundred yards on foot, choosing a thick stand of trees for cover. Bellamy and his men had pretty well settled in their own cover and were taking their time squeezing off shots at the cabin. Some kept trying to work their way around and catch her from behind, but the cabin was in a large clear area, and there wasn’t a lot of cover for them to use. The woman was a good shot. She was using a rifle now and was moving from window to window.

  Luis considered his strategy. He didn’t care about keeping either his identity or his position hidden; his only objective was to help the Swann woman prevent them from overrunning her cabin, or maybe turning the cattle back onto her land. It might even help if Bellamy’s men knew he was helping her; though he had lived a calm life in Colorado, his skill with a pistol was well known. It might make some of them reconsider if they knew he was waiting for them.

  Time was both their ally and their enemy. If he and the woman could hold off long enough, the Double C men would be able to get there. If aid didn’t arrive by nightfall, then Bellamy’s men would be able to reach the cabin undetected.

  With that in mind, he cooly began choosing his targets. His purpose wasn’t to keep them pinned down, but to rebalance the odds in his favor as much as he could. If a man was dead or severely wounded, then you didn’t have to worry about him even in the dark. His mouth moved into a thin, cold smile. Hell, he’d spent enough time in Colorado anyway.

  Tillie didn’t take the time to change into riding clothes or to ask permission to borrow the nearest horse. By the time Luis was galloping out of town in one direction she was galloping in the other. Her garish short skirt made it possible for her to ride astride, though her legs were bared from the knee down. She glimpsed several shocked faces as she raced out of town but didn’t spare a thought for the picture she made.

  Her heart was pounding as hard as the horse’s hooves on the packed earth. Oh, Kyle! she thought. Why had he done it? She would have lent him the money; no one would ever have known, and he could have kept his ranch, kept his dream of being a prosperous, respected rancher. Now he had attacked Dee Swann, and the townspeople would never forget, never accept him. It didn’t matter that he had done it out of desperation; he would be condemned. And if Lucas Cochran didn’t get there before Dee was raped or murdered, Kyle would be hanged.

  The saddle leather rubbed raw patches on the insides of her tender thighs, but she didn’t dare slow down, not when every minute counted. It would take Lucas a long time to get to Angel Creek anyway, maybe too long. At least Dee had Fronteras helping her now—unless they were both killed.

  The horse began to tire. Panic welled up in her, but she refrained from kicking the poor beast. If she killed it by running it too hard in this heat, she would never reach the Double C in time. But the urge to hurry beat within her like bird wings until her head echoed with the refrain, Hurry, before it’s too late. Too late for Dee, too late for Kyle . . . too late for herself.

  Then she saw the ranch buildings. The Double C ranch house was two-storied, with a white-columned porch wrapped all the way around it. She didn’t pull on the reins until she reached it, and the exhausted horse stumbled clumsily.

  “Lucas!” she screamed even as she slid from the saddle. “Lucas!” She ran up on the porch and pounded on the door with her fist.

  “Here! Tillie, I’m over here.”

  She turned and saw him striding up from the barn, his long legs eating up the distance. She ran down the steps and sprinted across the yard toward him, screaming the entire way. “You’ve got to get down to Angel Creek! They’ve gone crazy, they’re shooting at her, trying to take the land—”

  She reached him, and he grabbed her arms to halt her. His blue eyes had turned to ice. If hell had been cold, it would have looked like his eyes. “Who is it?” His fingers bit into her soft arms. She gasped for breath, and he roughly shook her. “Damn it, who is it?”

  “It’s Kyle,” she said, still gulping air. “Kyle Bellamy. He’s desperate—the Bar B’s water is almost gone.”

  Lucas turned, roaring for everyone to get their rifles and saddle up. Every man within hearing ran to obey. Lucas sprinted for his own mount. Tillie ran after him, her red taffeta skirts kicking up and showing her petticoats.

  “Luis Fronteras is helping her,” she yelled. “He rode into town and sent me after you, then he went back.”

  Lucas gave a brief nod to show that he’d heard. The tight sense of panic in his chest eased a little as he realized Dee wasn’t facing Bellamy and his men all alone.

  He swung into the saddle, and Tillie grabbed his leg. “Don’t kill Kyle,” she begged frantically. “God, Lucas, please don’t kill him. I love him. Please, please don’t kill him, promise me.”

&nbsp