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  “What happened to that particular, ah, suitor?” She had meant to ask him before now. She’d thought about the sound of the rolling pin hitting the man’s head many times.

  “He woke up with a hell of a headache, pardon my language. Said something about an angel kicking his ass, pardon my language again. We found his horse over by the saloon, and that cowboy rode on outta here.” Booth watched her carefully. “Told me he’d never come back this way again.”

  “I’m glad he was well enough to leave, but I don’t regret protecting Alice.” Angeline kept her shoulders back and her spine straight. That night in the darkness of the restaurant, she’d found true courage, and she wouldn’t be ashamed of it.

  “I’m glad you did protect her. She’s a good girl, even if she has a sharp tongue. Now, what makes you think this man in the restaurant is dangerous?” The sheriff didn’t appear to disbelieve her, but he wasn’t exactly running out the door to arrest anyone either.

  “He’s unkempt and suspicious, and unfortunately, I’ve had some troubles with men, um, following me.” Angeline didn’t quite want to admit her not-really husband had sent a bounty hunter after her. “He’s already asked for me, and I think he means to do me harm.”

  “He’ll do no such thing while I’m the law in Forestville.” The sheriff picked up the gun belt hanging on a nail behind his desk. “Let’s go see what this fella thinks he can do.”

  They left the jail side by side and hurried down the sidewalk toward the restaurant.

  Angeline was grateful Sheriff Booth didn’t ask for any additional details. She should tell him everything, but that would have to wait until later. For now, she needed to get back to the restaurant before the bounty hunter found her first.

  Sam walked out of the general store with a box of penny nails. He needed to finish the table he was making for his father before another job came his way. Fortunately, his father was taking an afternoon nap so he could make a quick trip to the store.

  He was turning toward home when a flash of blue caught his eye. His mouth dropped open when he realized it was Sheriff Booth sprinting down the sidewalk with Angeline. Sam knew immediately something was wrong, and she could be in danger. Her loco husband might have sent another hired gun after her.

  Sam dropped the nails and ran. He kept her in his sights. The shiny gold of her hair sparkled in the sunlight each time she moved between buildings. They had a good head start so they arrived at the restaurant before he did.

  When the sheriff pulled his gun and walked in with Angeline at his back, Sam ran harder, his heart lodged somewhere near his throat.

  Sam arrived a minute later, his breathing as labored as his heart rate. The sheriff was walking toward the door.

  “Henry, what’s going on?”

  The older man glanced up at Sam and tucked his gun back in its holster. “Darned if I know. Miss Angeline said someone was going to hurt her, so I came over here and turns out she knows the fella.”

  “She knows the fella?” Sam repeated it as if it were a foreign language. “What do you mean?”

  “Said something to him about he wasn’t supposed to be here and scolded him a bit for scaring her.” The sheriff shrugged. “She said she was okay. So, now I’m leaving.”

  Sam was completely confused. He rounded the corner into the restaurant to find Angeline staring at a stranger, and instead of being afraid, she looked sad.

  “Jonathan, I told you to leave. You can’t stay here.”

  Sam took stock of the stranger. He was young, likely no more than twenty with short dark hair, at least three days’ worth of whiskers, and unkempt but serviceable clothes. It was his eyes, however, that drew Sam’s attention. The man looked completely, hopelessly in love with Angeline. Sam’s stomach clenched.

  “I can’t just leave, Angeline. Everything I expected, wished and hoped for just got taken away from me. I’m lost without you, without our future.” The man, who she called Jonathan, was pleading with her.

  Sam felt like punching him.

  “You’ve got to find your own path. I can’t tell you where to go or what to do, but I know you can’t stay here.” Angeline sounded firm and unshakable. Sam almost didn’t recognize the sweet, soft-spoken woman.

  He wanted to clap for her.

  He also wanted to drop to his knees and ask her to marry him again, to mark his territory so this stranger would leave her alone.

  Sam stepped into the room, and the stranger noticed him.

  The man’s lips curled back into a sneer. He pointed at Sam. “I see your Indian is still here, sniffing around your skirts.”

  Sam couldn’t have been more surprised if the man had slapped him. How the hell did he even know who Sam was or that he and Angeline were linked?

  She snapped her gaze to his, and her expression changed to guilt. Sam’s heart dropped to somewhere near his feet. What hadn’t she told him? He’d thought they’d been completely honest with each other about everything, including the man she ran from. This was likely not that man because the kid was barely shaving.

  “Angeline, what’s going on?” Sam was disappointed to hear his voice was husky, full of the dark emotions swirling around inside him.

  “I, uh, ran into an old friend.” She sounded shaky and nervous. “I asked him to keep quiet about seeing me, and he left Forestville.” She turned back to Jonathan and narrowed her gaze. “He was supposed to leave and not come back.”

  The younger man had the balls to kneel in front of her like a penitent in front of a preacher. “Angeline, darling, I love you. I have since you were five years old. I can’t just leave.”

  There were a number of things Angeline had not shared with Sam, not the least of which she already had a beau who was obsessed with her. Not that he blamed the man, Sam was a little obsessed himself, but the fact remained she had hidden that piece of information. As well the fact Jonathan had been here in town to see her a few days earlier.

  Sam’s temper began bubbling up from the slow simmer it had been at. “You heard her, now get out of here.”

  “I’m not talking to you, Indian.” The stranger looked up at Angeline, pleading with her with his entire body. “Please, please, tell me you still love me.”

  She looked at Sam, and he could see the pleading was wearing at her. That was all it took for Sam’s temper to completely boil over. He grabbed hold of the kid by the collar and dragged him out of the restaurant. Fury drove him to ignore the other man’s protests and feeble attempts to stop him.

  Sam made it outside and pulled Jonathan out into the street. The dirt wasn’t mud, but it was wet enough to leave dark smears on the man’s already dirty clothes. He let the kid loose and stepped back, fists up. His anger at Angeline mixed with his love for her, coming together to make him into a man ready to defend his future.

  The kid glared at him and rose to his feet. He wasn’t small by any means, being at least as tall as Sam. Not overly muscular, but he was solid for sure. It was apparent, however, that Jonathan had never been in a fight before in his life.

  Sam’s grin was positively feral. “You ready to fight me for her, kid?”

  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the sheriff leaning against the side of the restaurant, watching them. Henry would make sure nothing got too out of hand, but had the common sense to stay out of the way when two bucks were battling over a doe.

  The younger man brushed off his clothes and stared warily at Sam’s fists. “I’m not going to fight you, Indian. She will choose me because she’s always chosen me.”

  “Ha! You think so? Then where the hell were you when she married the bastard who beat her?” Sam’s anger turned to fury over the condition of his angel’s body. She was scarred badly enough she would always wear the silver marks from the man’s beatings, almost as if they were angel’s wings etched into her beautiful skin.

  Jonathan had the courtesy to look guilty. “I didn’t know about it. She didn’t tell me.”

  Sam clipped the kid on the jaw, eno
ugh to make the younger man stagger back with wide eyes.

  “Then she don’t love you. She ran because there was no man to help her, to save her from that fucking monster.”

  “Sam, please stop.” Angeline stood on the steps, hugging herself while the two men who both loved her fought in the dirt for her. “I don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

  “Too late. You already got hurt. I’m not going to let this puppy threaten you.” Sam turned his attention back to the kid in time for the younger man to charge him.

  The boy caught him in the stomach with an exceptionally hard shoulder, and they both went down into the soft dirt. Jonathan had no idea what he was doing, but he could definitely make a fist. Sam’s head rang from the blows to his head while he tried to suck in a breath. The shoulder had knocked all air from his body and the kid straddling him kept it gone.

  Sam put all his strength into an uppercut that knocked Jonathan clear off his stomach. He managed to get air back in his lungs and rolled to his feet as quickly as he could. The kid’s face was a mask of rage and hate, much different than the pleading, pitiful fool who’d been on his knees five minutes earlier.

  The fight turned into something much more dangerous. Sam recognized the kid had been on the edge of losing control, and this altercation was the event that shoved him past it.

  With a scream worthy of any battle cry, Jonathan lunged at him, fists flying. Sam deflected most of the blows, but they ended up on the ground again, wrestling and beating each other. The younger man was like a caged animal let loose for the first time. Sam kept punching him, but Jonathan kept coming back for more. Soon, the boy’s face grew slick with the blood from a multitude of cuts.

  “Booth!” Sam grunted as he tried to capture the kid’s flailing fists. “Get this kid before I kill him.”

  Sam heard Angeline’s gasp over the sheriff’s pounding footsteps. Soon, the younger man was trying to wiggle out of the big sheriff’s grasp. He was howling like a wolf, snarling and crying. Sam understood what the kid was going through, knew the dark, dank emotions that swam deep inside like poison. Jonathan had lost all sense, lost himself in the black tides within.

  The sheriff managed to get the kid on his stomach and put his handcuffs on him. Still, Jonathan bucked and grunted, growling and snapping his teeth.

  Sam was breathing like a bellows, trying to clear the ringing in his head while his entire face throbbed. “You need help getting him back to the jail?”

  “Nah, I don’t need any help, but you’re coming too, Sam. You started this.” The sheriff’s blue gaze was completely unmovable.

  “Fine. I’ll come, too.” Sam met Angeline’s horrified gaze. She shook her head in denial over the state of her childhood sweetheart.

  “I don’t understand, Sam.”

  He shook his head. “I’ll explain later. I’ve got to be arrested first. Can you please go check on my father? He was napping.”

  Later on, he’d sort out his own dark emotions that had egged him on to start a fight with a kid half his size. Sam loved Angeline to distraction, and obviously so did Jonathan. She inspired men to great heights, and now he knew, to the lowest depths.

  “Yes, I will.” She glanced at his face and stepped toward him with her apron raised. “You’re hurt.”

  Sam shrugged off her touch. “Not now, Angel. We can talk about this later, but not now.”

  He couldn’t begin to explain to her how much he wanted to howl like Jonathan did. That he was only a hair’s breadth from losing his control, too. Elemental rage still coursed through him, and he wanted to beat the younger man until the breath was knocked from his body for good.

  Sam had never felt the killing lust like this. Even when he’d been in war, it had been more horror than lust. Yet when his relationship, his future with Angeline was threatened, he wanted to kill.

  She must have seen it in his gaze because she stopped and stepped away from him. “I’ll go check on your father now.”

  Sam took the kid’s other arm, and together, he and the sheriff half-dragged Jonathan to the jail. The entire way there, the younger man tried to bite them.

  Angeline turned to find Marta and Lettie standing in the door, their faces awash in sympathy. Alice poked her head out beside them.

  “Never thought I’d see two men fight over her.”

  “Shut up, Alice,” Lettie snapped. “Get your skinny ass inside and mind your own business.”

  Normally, Marta would have scolded Lettie and Alice, but instead, she met Angeline’s worried gaze. “Go take care of Mr. Carver for him. We’ll mind your duties until you get this mess sorted out.”

  Angeline nodded her thanks to Marta then looked to Lettie. Her friend was more than angry; she was also scared. Angeline could see it in her brown gaze.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Ain’t your fault. Men are always making a mess of things.” Lettie’s lips pinched together so tightly they turned white.

  Angeline felt terrible about everything, but she knew Lettie was right. It wasn’t her fault. She had to keep remembering that, or she’d get caught up in the men’s feud. They were the ones acting like idiots. She had considered throwing a bucket of water on them as they had wrestled around in the dirt, as if she had to break up a fight between two animals.

  That’s what they’d been—two animals fighting over her. She walked to Sam’s house in a daze, shaken to her core by the fight she’d just witnessed. There wasn’t much fist fighting in Utah, and she’d been shielded from life for so long that every time she saw violence, it shocked her.

  To see Jonathan act like an animal, echoed by Sam, was devastating. She could hardly fathom what had happened to both of them. They were gentlemen, soft-spoken and sweet. What she’d just witnessed told her they had a side to them she had never even imagined existed.

  They’d become animals fighting in the dirt for her. She didn’t understand it and certainly didn’t like it. Then to see the look in Sam’s eyes… She began shaking so hard her teeth rattled.

  Men were creatures of their very nature, and that had been true throughout history. Wars and battles were fought due to the intense emotions of men. She’d never expected to see it within the two men who had touched her heart. Jonathan was a piece of her past, a memory she would hold dear for the rest of her life. Sam was her future, the man she wanted to have children with, to wake up each morning to his dark eyes full of love.

  They hadn’t been full of love back there on the street. Instead, they’d been full of fury, hate, and something she could only think of as darkness. He had been caught up in whatever had overcome him when the men were fighting. She understood he’d been out of control, not quite as much as Jonathan, but definitely not himself.

  It scared her as much as it intrigued and angered her. She knew there were so many things she didn’t understand about men, about life, even about human nature. Her flight into the world had taught her quite a bit, but she obviously still had much to learn.

  She went over to the Carver’s house and found Michael just waking up. He frowned at her as he rubbed his right eye.

  “I know you.”

  “Yes, my name is Angeline. I’m a friend of Sam’s.” She walked over and handed him an obviously well-loved sweater. “He couldn’t be here so he asked me to make you dinner.”

  “I am a might hungry.” Michael got to his feet and slipped on the sweater. “You wore the same dress the last time you were here.”

  Although Angeline was embarrassed he’d noticed, she smiled at the fact he had recognized it. “Unfortunately, I don’t have many clothes, so I wash them often, as much as I wear them.”

  They stepped out into the hallway and walked side by side to the stairs.

  “You are the same size my wife was. She was thin like you, but her hair was like midnight, silky black midnight.” As he spoke of his wife, Mr. Carver seemed to come to life.

  She smiled as they walked downstairs together, ready to hear every story he wanted to tell about t
he woman who still held his heart. It reminded her that love was more important than anything.

  Sam’s jaw throbbed in tune with his heartbeat.

  Thump-thump-thump.

  The little scrapper had a lot of power in his skinny arms, that was for sure. Sam knew he had crusted blood on his lips, nose, and forehead. His stomach also hurt from his opponent’s sharp shoulder.

  Both of them were in cells, facing each other across the tiny space between them. Henry knew better than to keep them together, or they just might hurt each other even worse. The kid had fought all the way to the jail. He’d even bitten the sheriff on the arm and had earned a sharp cuff to the head, rendering him unconscious.

  Jonathan lay on the other bunk like a ragdoll, snoring softly. Sam wanted to throw something over there to wake him up. Little shit had come in there like a cock of the walk, stirring up trouble and trying to take Angeline.

  Ain’t no way that was going to happen, not while Sam lived and breathed.

  “You calm down yet?” Henry Booth leaned against the wall, his arms crossed.

  “Yeah, I’m calm.” He glanced outside, startled to realize it was nearly sundown. He’d been locked up most of the afternoon, which meant his father might be alone. “You hear from Angeline about my Pa?”

  “No, I haven’t.” The sheriff frowned at him, his silver brows creating a V. “What’s wrong with your Pa?”

  Sam gingerly touched his lip, avoiding the other man’s gaze. “He’s not feeling well. I, um, asked Angeline to look after him while I was here.”

  “I heard you ask her and wondered why. Something you ain’t telling me, Sam?” Henry had always had an uncanny ability to see through a lie, even if the liar was a twenty-nine-year-old man.

  “Nothing I can talk about just yet. Leave it be for now, okay Henry?” Sam didn’t want to let the town know just yet about his father’s loss of faculties.

  “Fair enough.” Booth stepped closer and unlocked Sam’s cell. He gestured to the cell to his right. “What do we do about this one?”