The Bounty Read online

  Four words rang in Nicky’s ears louder than Tyler’s declaration of love. “When we say goodbye?” Nicky sat up and her eyes felt like they were on fire with anger. “Goodbye?”

  “What’s wrong? I thought—”

  “I know what you thought. You thought that’s what I wanted to hear. You’re wrong.” Tears began to pool in her eyes and she swiped at them angrily. “You tell me you love me, then so long?”

  “Nicky, you deserve a stable home and husband, which isn’t as the wife of a bounty hunter. Do you know there are men out there that would kill just to get to my wife? I don’t even want to think about what they’d do to you.”

  “I don’t give a shit for what anybody else would do. I’m a big girl, Tyler.” Her breath hitched audibly. “How could you? How could you think of just leaving me? I love you too, dammit.”

  “I can’t give you forever, Nicky.”

  She glared at him. “No one expects forever. I can hope for it, but you’re not even giving us a chance. Our marriage so far has been a goddamned dime novel. I can’t believe you are throwing this away.”

  He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I can’t do it.”

  “No, you won’t do it. You’re a goddamned coward, that’s what you are.”

  “You’re the second woman to call me a coward in the last month.” His eyes narrowed dangerously. “I don’t think you should do that again.”

  “Coward! Yellow-bellied toad! Coward!” she yelled at him and she jumped from the bed.

  He caught her wrist and pulled her back. She gasped when she realized he was not only naked, but aroused as well.

  “Stop, Tyler, let me go,” she said.

  “I’m trying, but you won’t let me.”

  She hit his chest with her fist, cursing the fact that she couldn’t punch him with both hands, and ignoring the pain of the healing sprain. He captured her flailing wrist and brought her face to his. He kissed her salty tears and then kissed her lips.

  “Tyler,” she moaned into his mouth. “Don’t leave me. Please. I need you.”

  “Shhh. No more words.”

  He gently removed her clothes, kissing the exposed skin as it was revealed. It was as if he was worshipping her. Her nipples were aching with need by the time her shirt was off completely. Her pussy damp and throbbing when her trousers were off.

  “Please, Tyler…” she whispered, needing him, wanting him.

  His hands touched her from the top of her head to her feet. His lips blazed a trail behind them as he kissed, licked, and nibbled her all over.

  She was shaking with desire as she watched him rise above her. Her legs spread in welcome and he slid into her, deep, deep into her core. Tyler stopped, resting his forehead against hers, breathing each other’s breath. Nicky’s heart thumped and she felt whole again for the first time in a long time.

  Tyler had healed her, had brought her to a place where she could be whole again. Oh, Lord Jesus, she loved this man.

  After a moment, he started to move. The delicious friction caused tingles to scatter throughout her body. She rocked with him as he moved faster. Tyler’s mouth found hers and his tongue thrust with the same abandon as his cock.

  Faster and faster they reached for their peak together. She raised her legs and clutched him tightly as the passion of a thousand suns burned through her. Hot, scorching pleasure so intense she cried out his name, hearing her own echo back to her. Their bodies fused into one being.

  Nicky knew there would be no one else for her but Tyler Calhoun. She would fight for him.

  ———

  While Tyler went to retrieve the wagon, Nicky tapped on Belinda and Rebecca’s door. She was surprised to see her hand shaking, and clenched her fist, chastising her weakness in the face of danger. It had been her constant companion for so long, it should not affect her so. Three years on the run with nothing but vermin—human or animal—for company should have honed her nerves to finely chiseled rods. But it hadn’t. She felt as if there was already a noose around her neck and Owen Hoffman was about to drain her life out, along with her very soul. She hadn’t settled anything with Tyler either. Her marriage, her future, and her life were dark unknowns. Today was the day the rest of her life, or lack of, was decided.

  As Rebecca opened the door with frightened eyes, Nicky forced herself to be calm. “It’s time.”

  ———

  After gathering their belongings, the three women marched somberly downstairs and directly outside, not even discussing breakfast. No one had an appetite anyway.

  Tyler was waiting for them and helped the cousins into the wagon. As Nicky watched, three riders approached their little group. Her stomach clenched in fear as she thought of Nate. She tried to hurriedly finish checking the cinch on Ophelia’s saddle before the strangers got too close. It was Tyler’s turn to drive the wagon, so Nicky was riding her mare this morning. Her palms became wet with fear and her hands were slippery. Far too slippery to finish quickly.

  One of them was on a gray gelding, which looked remarkably like Logan’s horse Shadow, and he stopped at the hitching post next to her. As he dismounted, he landed directly in front of Nicky. She looked up, terrified, from under the brim of her hat, and realized that it was her brother Raymond. She stood up slowly and stared at him.

  Ray looked as though he’d been poleaxed.

  Tyler stepped up beside the speechless siblings.

  “Move along, mister,” he growled.

  Raymond snapped out of his reverie and glanced at Tyler. His jaw visibly tightened.

  “I said move along.”

  Ignoring Tyler, Raymond turned his attention back to Nicky.

  “Ray.”

  “Do you need help?” He glared in Tyler’s direction.

  She shook her head no. She bit her lip to hold back the tears that threatened. Jesus, she felt like a watering pot lately. She felt Tyler’s hand on her arm and looked up at him. Concern was etched on his handsome face.

  “He’s my brother.”

  “I figured that out. Do you want him to stay?”

  She glanced at Ray and nodded. Ray hugged her quickly, then held her at arm’s length to look at her. “I can’t believe you’re here. What are you doing with him? Isn’t he…well, a bounty hunter?”

  “Yes, but it’s too complicated to explain right now, Ray. Don’t worry, Tyler is my husband.”

  Ray’s eyes widened in astonishment. That was probably the last thing he ever expected her to say. Her eyes beseeched him for understanding.

  “I don’t understand any of this, Nicky,” he hissed.

  “Please, we’re going to try to clear my name, but I need you to keep silent about seeing me…for now. Is that Shadow?”

  Ray nodded. “Jed Parker bought him out at the stagecoach station. I found him when I was looking for you and Logan, so I bought him back.”

  She smiled sadly. “I’m glad. Logan would have wanted you to keep him. He loved that horse.”

  “Ray, what’s going on over there?” came a voice from the sidewalk.

  Coming up behind Ray, another man leaned in to look at the trio. Tyler tried to block his line of vision, but he caught a glimpse of Nicky anyway.

  “Sissie?” Jack gasped.

  “Hello, Jackaroo.

  “Holy shit!” He skirted around Tyler and grabbed her in a bear hug. “Jesus, we thought we’d never see you again. I thought you were dead.” A mist of tears could be seen in his blue eyes as he stared at her in patent disbelief.

  Tyler’s jaw clenched. “We can have the family reunion later,” he ground out. “Let’s go, Nicky.”

  Jack finally looked at Tyler, and recognition flooded his eyes. “Ray, is that…”

  “Yeah, but Nicky says he’s her husband.”

  “What?”

  He glared at his little brother. “Can you just shut your mouth for a minute, Jack?” Turning to Nicky, he said, “Is Logan with you?”

  Nicky closed her eyes and shook her head. “He’s
been dead since the day I left, Ray. I made him, forced him to go with me, and oh God, he… I can’t explain it all right now.” She opened her eyes and forced herself to look her brothers in the eye. “Owen killed him because of me.”

  Jack’s face turned bright red. “That goddamn two-faced son of a bitch!”

  Ray sucked in a breath of outrage. “We all wondered why he was convinced that you were the one to blame for Burt’s death, and the missing money. Folks had a hard time believing him to begin with, much less that it was you who was the ring leader and not Logan. He came to us with Logan’s things about six months after you two disappeared, claiming he had been killed someplace in Colorado. I knew it didn’t smack of the truth.”

  “I can prove he’s guilty of Logan’s murder, and some other things, too. Trust me, Ray. I need today.”

  “Hang on. Let me talk to Skip. I need to let Regina know where I am.” He turned to approach the third man who had ridden with them, and had a brief discussion.

  “Regina?” Nicky looked at Jack.

  “Regina Goodson, well, Malloy now. She and Ray got married about a month ago.” His look was a little sour. “They’ve been staying at the ranch while their house is built. Pa gave them five hundred acres up at the northwest corner.”

  Nicky remembered Regina very well. She had been a spoiled, selfish girl with a mean streak a mile wide.

  “He married Regina Goodson. She wasn’t exactly Ray’s type as far as I remember. How did it happen, Jack?”

  Jack shook his head with a grimace. “Don’t ask.”

  “Is she…well, that is…am I going to be an aunt?”

  Jack snorted. “Yeah, looks that way. At least I think so. I have my doubts it’s even Ray’s.” He looked so fierce for a moment that Nicky forgot this was Jack. Sweet, gentle, funny Jack. Obviously Regina hadn’t endeared herself to the rest of the Malloys.

  As Ray turned back to rejoin his sister, Tyler shielded her from the line of vision of anyone on the sidewalk.

  “I’m coming with you,” Ray declared when he returned.

  “Me, too,” Jack added.

  Tyler cursed softly and glared down at Nicky. She needed him to understand. “Please, Tyler. They’re my brothers.”

  He nodded tightly. “Let’s go then.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Nicky could not quell the shaking in her legs any more than she could slow the pounding of her heart as they stopped at the sheriff’s office in Cheshire. It was almost as though this was a bad dream. Almost. Having Ray and Jack there was more than she had hoped for, and having Tyler by her side was her only anchor in the sea of dread in which she found herself drowning.

  Be strong. It’s almost over.

  After helping Rebecca and Belinda down from the wagon, Tyler stood next to Nicky and enfolded her cold hand into his big, callused one. Silently, the grim group walked into the small building.

  ———

  Sheriff Jim Weissman looked up from the ledgers spread open on his desk to survey the group that had just entered the building. He recognized Ray and Jack Malloy immediately as he nodded in greeting, but his attention was focused on the other two men who seemed to be holding hands. His surprise turned to outright shock when he registered the identity of the smaller man—Nicky Malloy. He stood abruptly, knocking one of the ledgers off the desk in his haste.

  “Good God, Nicky, never thought I’d see you again.”

  “Neither did I, Jim. It’s good to see you.”

  “Well, goddamn, it’s good to see you, too. I mean, darn, sorry ladies.” He inclined his head to Rebecca and Belinda. “So what are you doing here? You know I gotta arrest you, darlin’. Owen’s been wanting your head for a long time.”

  Tyler spoke before Nicky could. “Nobody’s arresting her, darlin’.”

  Jim looked Tyler over with a frown. “Who in the blazes are you?”

  “Nicole is my wife, and nobody is putting her behind bars.” Tyler’s voice was as cold and deadly as the guns strapped to his waist. “Got that?”

  Jim’s jaw dropped. “Will someone please fill me in on what’s going on here?”

  Rebecca stepped forward and offered her hand to him. “Rebecca Connor, Sheriff. Perhaps we ought to begin with my cousin Belinda and me. I want to tell you the whole story, and to share it with Nicky’s family, so that they can understand what happened.” Her pretty gray eyes locked with Jim’s as he shook her hand slowly.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  After the Connors were seated comfortably, the telling commenced. It began with Rebecca and Belinda.

  ———

  As Jack listened in disbelief to the almost surreal story, he could barely contain his fury at Owen Hoffman for what he’d done to these two sweet innocent young women, and that poor boy, Jacob, who’d never had a chance to live. He admired them all for their grit and courage. When he listened to Nicky relay her portion of the tale, his fury turned to red-hot rage. What was done to them, to his brother, was unforgivable, unthinkable, and it made Jack want to howl at the moon and weep like a child at the same time. A memory buried deeply inside him began to shift, like a great slumbering giant awakening. He ignored the memory in favor of his rage.

  “I’ll kill him myself.” He hadn’t realized he’d spoken until Rebecca turned her gaze to him.

  “Whatever punishment is due to that poor excuse for a human being will be meted out by the law and the Almighty Father, Mr. Malloy. I would be disappointed if I knew you exacted revenge on him.”

  He felt like a little kid being scolded by a schoolteacher. But hell, she was about the same age as he was. What was she doing preaching to him?

  “Get used to disappointment, Miss Connor. I don’t cotton to being told what to do by uppity women.”

  Rebecca’s left eyebrow rose. “Uppity? Well, I can honestly say I’ve been called worse.”

  “I don’t doubt that.”

  “Jack,” Nicky scolded.

  “It’s all right, Nicky. Men do or say things in anger that they don’t really mean.” Rebecca’s gray eyes dared Jack to deny it.

  Jack muttered under his breath that he had really meant it. All of it. Every goddamned word. Miss Connor could take that to the bank. He wanted to kill Owen Hoffman. He’d half a mind to resurrect Burt Hoffman just so he could kill him, too.

  ———

  Ray sat with his hands together, looking down at the floor between his knees, listening to his little brother exchange words with one of the Connor women. He understood Jack’s rage, for he felt it himself, but he wasn’t as quick to fly off the handle. Jack was a man of great passion, and he freely expressed it whenever he felt it. Ray let his simmer until it boiled over, which it was about to do, so he forcibly locked it away by focusing somewhere else. Later, when he saw Owen Hoffman again, he could release it fully.

  Ray was positively overflowing with questions for his sister, but the look on her face stopped him. He’d rarely seen his little rough-and-tumble sister scared before now, except when she’d been locked in the root cellar by that bastard Owen. Then to have faced what she did in another root cellar made him nearly bloodthirsty for revenge.

  He glanced at his new brother-in-law. He was holding Nicky against his chest with such a look of tenderness that Ray nearly wished them away. He’d never felt that with Regina, nor would he expect to. She had trapped him into this sham of a marriage, and now he was so caught in her web, he couldn’t escape even if he thought it possible. In the end, he hoped Nicky would come out of all this mess intact. It would be a shame to lose what she so obviously shared with her husband. He was puzzled to see her pull away from him and Tyler’s face become implacable. Perhaps their relationship wasn’t as stable as it seemed. Then again, the world seemed to have turned topsy-turvy in the past hour, and nothing was as it seemed anymore.

  Nicky approached Ray and took his hand, gripping tightly. “I need to know, can you ever forgive me for what I did?” Her voice was a hoarse whisper.

  Ray fro
wned. “Forgive you for what, Nicky?”

  Biting her lip, she continued with her eyes downcast. “You heard what I said. I had a chance to save him, but I hid like a coward and let him give his life for mine. That was unforgivable.”

  “There’s nothing to forgive.” Ray squeezed her hand gently. “You did nothing wrong, Sissie. You’re not to blame for the things a monster like Owen Hoffman does.”

  She took a deep breath and swallowed.

  “But if hadn’t been for me…”

  “There’s nothing to forgive.” Ray tilted her chin up to gaze into his eyes, so like his own. “Nothing.” He enfolded Nicky in a tight embrace, trying to will away the guilt and fear he knew were wreaking havoc on her. She shuddered slightly in his arms.

  “Thank you,” she whispered into his neck. After a minute, she released him and walked to the window overlooking the street.

  ———

  Jim Weissman was a shaken man. All the pieces to the puzzle fit now—why Logan Malloy disappeared and then mysteriously died, why Owen chased Nicky like a relentless bloodhound, why a girl like Nicky would suddenly be an outlaw on the run. The question was, what would he do about it?

  “By law, I should arrest you, Nicky.”

  She had started alternately pacing and wringing the heck out of her hands. Her spine stiffened at Jim’s softly spoken words. Her proclaimed husband widened his stance with his hands dangling at his sides, looking very ready to do battle for his woman.

  “The truth is, I believe your story. But I’m not the one to decide innocent or guilty. I say we round up Judge Elms and ride out to Owen’s. He’s a fair man, maybe he can help us sort this out.”

  ———

  “Ride out to Owen’s?”

  Tyler felt the embers of his rage flare to life as he heard the fear in his wife’s voice. Damn that monster for making her so afraid. He felt a kinship with Jack—he wanted to kill Owen Hoffman, too. The bastard deserved to be roasted in hell.

  The sheriff crossed the room to stand in front of the young woman he apparently treated like a kid sister. “It’s the best I can do…legally, anyway. Otherwise, if you were to ride away, I never saw you.”