Their Scandalous Bride, page 9
After everything Charley had done for her, she couldn’t walk away from him. All she could hope was that someone would tell Keegan and Alastair and that they would have enough faith in her to know she would never leave on her own accord.
“I don’t have a horse,” she said.
He grinned. “You’re riding in front of me. And I plan on taking advantage of you every moment of the ride. Maybe I’ll return you to your husbands with a baby in your belly.”
What the hell was she doing? If only she could save Charley some other way. But by the time the men returned, he could be dead. She had no choice but to go with Phillip.
“They will kill you,” she said as she put her foot in the stirrup and crawled up in front of Phillip. “You’re a dead man.”
He laughed. “Keep believing that. Because I’m going to have an ambush all set up for them. They may come after you, but they’ll never live through what I have planned.”
Her heart slammed into her chest, aching. Suddenly she realized that she loved her husbands. She loved them with all her heart and soul and if they died trying to save her, she would kill Phillip. He would deserve to die at her hands once and for all.
Tears rolled down her cheeks as she thought of Keegan and how she loved his tender, kind heart and would give anyone the shirt on his back. Especially a child.
She thought of Alastair, who was so cold on the outside, but once he accepted you, was a gentle giant of a man who commanded like a general but had the heart of someone who had been hurt and no longer trusted people. What would he do once he realized she’d been taken?
“Oh, look, you’re crying,” he said, laughing. “Well, don’t worry, you won’t be crying for long because I plan on taking you every possible way. Starting right now.”
He reached around and pinched her breasts not in a light teasing manner, but one that hurt.
“Is this the only way you can get a woman?”
“Oh, honey, don’t worry, you will never be my main woman. You’ll only be with me long enough for me to get what I want from you. Your pussy and your land. Once I’ve had both, you’ll be with your parents.”
“So all this time, I was right. All you wanted was my land. The sheriff is aware and you’ll never get away with this.”
The man laughed a wicked sound.
“You’ve been away. You haven’t heard the news that the sheriff was killed this week? Seems his horse got spooked and dragged him halfway across the county. The man was so beat up that they had to close the casket at his funeral.”
Her stomach knotted and it was all she could do to keep from throwing up. She knew she was in real danger and she turned and started screaming. A slam against her head had everything going dark. Her last thoughts were of her love for Keegan and Alastair.
17
Later that evening, Keegan and Alastair returned home just as the sun was setting after a long, tiring day of trying to locate their missing cattle. He loved this time of day and was just sorry they had been unable to get home for lunch. But winter would be arriving any day and they had been rounding up all the cattle and making certain they were close to home. Plus, this way they could thwart the cattle rustlers.
Soon they would be sitting in front of a fire with their lovely wife spread between them. He could hardly wait.
“Wonder what’s she’s got planned for us tonight,” Alastair said with a grin. “Eating pie off her pussy, that was my favorite. Damn, it was still warm from the oven.”
Keegan laughed as they rode into the barn. “I don’t know, but I can’t wait to see. Coming home has never felt quite so good.”
For over a week now, they had enjoyed their wife. Sharing her pussy and preparing her ass to soon take her together. Keegan had never dreamed being with Catriona would be so pleasurable.
“Yeah, I agree. Who knew that being married would be so good?”
Suddenly Daniel Hamilton, entered the barn. “Been waiting for you men to get back all day.”
Keegan turned and frowned at him.
“What’s up?”
He pulled his wife up beside him. “Georgia thinks Catriona might be in trouble.”
The woman stood shaking her head. “I’m sorry. I wanted to stop him, but the baby was crying and hanging onto my skirts. She got on a horse with a man and before they got to the edge of town, she was screaming for help and then she went silent. She slumped against him on the horse.”
Fear filled Keegan and he knew immediately that Phillip had returned for Catriona, his wife. Quickly the fear turned to anger at the thought of what even now, he was probably doing to Catriona.
“As soon as Daniel and Martin got home, I told them what I saw. At first, she appeared to go willing, but in the end she was fighting him.”
“Did the man have dark hair?” Alastair asked.
“Yes,” she said. “Do you know him?”
“It sounds like Phillip. He’s the man who wanted to force her to marry him. But why would she climb on his horse and go with him?” Alastair asked, eyes narrowed.
“Charley,” Keegan said. “She’d do anything to protect that man and Phillip had to know that. He must have told her that he had Charley.”
It was bad enough that she went with Phillip, but he knew that she loved Charley and would do anything to protect him. He must have told her something about the older man. Otherwise, he didn’t know why she would go so willingly with Phillip. She hated the man.
Daniel frowned and shook his head. “There’s something else you need to know. When we were in town yesterday, we learned the sheriff is dead. Said his horse killed him.”
The two men looked at each other and stopped taking the saddles off their horses. “We better get going.”
“Be careful,” Georgia said. “That man looked mean.”
“He is,” Keegan said, pulling his saddle strap tight again. Fear filled him that they would be walking into a trap. Phillip would want them dead if he was going to marry Catriona.
“Let’s ride,” Alastair said.
The couple stepped aside as they rode their horses out the barn.
“Good luck,” Daniel called.
“Thanks for letting us know,” Keegan replied as he kicked the sides of his horse and the two men rode hard toward Helena.
“Phillip’s or Catriona’s house?” Alastair said.
“Phillip’s. They won’t expect us there. You know he wants us dead.”
“Oh, yes,” Alastair said.
For a moment, Keegan tried to put himself in Phillip’s position and what he would do. He would take Catriona to his house and place his men at her place. But what would he do with Charley? Because Catriona would expect to see the man alive or she would be hell to live with.
But what if he was wrong? What if they were all gathered at Catriona’s? What if Charley was already dead?
Something seemed to smack him between the eyes, he suddenly stopped his horse.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’m just thinking out loud here for a moment. What if Charley is behind this? What if Charley is not the good man she thought him to be. Maybe he wanted her to marry Phillip for some reason.”
“No,” Alastair said with a frown. “What’s in it for him?”
Something was eating at him like an ant carrying a heavy load to their queen. Something was warning him about Charley and he didn’t understand why.
“Don’t know. But he was foreman when her parents were killed. And now that I rethink about the first time we met Catriona, remember he warned us that another man had set his sights on her.”
It was like he was warning them away from her, and at the time, it didn’t seem obvious.
“True, but the man has been with her for years. She completely trusts him.”
And that’s what bothered Keegan the most. If she believed in this man, he could do anything he wanted to her property.
“That’s what is so devastating. His betrayal would make this the worst thing that ever happened to her. I’m not saying he’s the bad guy, but her cattle have been disappearing as well. He would have access to everything. He could take O’Reilly’s Folly completely down and leave her destitute.”
Alastair stared off in the distance for a moment. “I don’t know. What if she went to sleep with Phillip, knowing we wouldn’t be home for a while?”
“Good God, Alastair,” Keegan replied, disgusted, “get on with your life, man. I’m tired of hearing your disbelief in her.” He turned his head and squeezed the reins in his hands, then they pushed their horses, trying to reach Phillip’s spread before sunset. They needed a chance to check out his place. To find out if Catriona was with him.
The sun was just beginning to set when they rode up to the fence line of Phillip’s ranch. In thirty minutes, it would be dark and then they could approach his home.
“I don’t know about you, but I think we should tie the horses up here and sneak up to the house to see what we can see,” Alastair said. “I’d have a posse of men waiting for someone to come riding in.”
“Agree,” Keegan said. “If he kills us then he can marry Catriona.”
“Our wife is not going to be made into a widow. Not tonight.”
18
Catriona awoke when Phillip dropped her on the ground. Her head was pounding as she opened her eyes and tried to focus on the sight before her.
Charley was standing over. “Girl, time for you to wake up.”
She glanced up at him and then shook her head. “You’re safe. Phillip was threatening to kill you.”
In the background, she could hear Phillip laughing and shook her head, confused.
“Told you she didn’t know,” she heard him say. “You owe me that jug of whiskey.”
“Shut up,” Charley told the man.
“Are you all right?” Charley asked her.
She gazed at him disoriented. Something wasn’t right. It seemed that Charley and Phillip were friends. They were laughing. Confusion filled her as she shook her head and tried to clear the fuzziness.
“Charley, what are you doing with Phillip?”
He ignored her question. “I need you to sign some paperwork for me.”
“What paperwork?” she asked suddenly suspicious. “You know I would do anything for you. But first I need to understand why you’re here at Phillip’s. He told me he was going to kill you if I didn’t come.”
Phillip stood behind Charley with a gun in his hand. “And I will if you don’t sign over your property to me.”
“Don’t you think that’s going to look suspicious if I sign over my ranch to you and then I’m found dead?”
A grin spread across Phillip’s face. “No, because I’m sure even now your husbands are riding to save you at your ranch. There, they will be met with a group of men who will kill them. You see there was a lover’s quarrel and Charley here witnessed it. Now all three of you are dead and I have the ranch.”
Charley turned and frowned at him. “Not you, we.”
Stunned, she looked at him. “Charley, I don’t understand. Are you betraying me?”
The man shook his head. “All you had to do was marry Phillip and then none of this would have happened. Your mamma and papa were out of the way and I kept pushing you towards Phillip, but you refused to do what I wanted.”
The thought of her mother and father had her heart skipping a beat. “You watched Momma and Papa head to town that morning. You hitched their horses.” The realization had her chest aching. “You killed them.”
“No, they died in a blizzard because the wheel spoke broke on the wagon.”
It was true, but she knew something wasn’t right.
A grin spread across his face, and for the first time, she noticed the evil in his dark eyes. “I kind of helped weaken the spoke, but it was only because your father was such an ass. He refused to give me a pay raise. I’d worked for him for ten years and not a penny more. And when I asked him to hire my son, he said no.”
“Son? You have a son?”
“Yes, I do,” he said.
Stunned, she sat there on the floor staring at the man she’d considered her second father, she couldn’t believe she’d been so deceived. “I believed you. I trusted you.”
“And that’s why you now need to sign the paperwork that gives the ranch to me,” Charley told her. “You know nothing about ranch work and this way, my son and I can make it into a profitable ranch.”
“No. I’m not signing any paperwork.”
“Then, once you’re a widow, you get to marry me,” Phillip said with a laugh. “After all, we’re going to get O’Reilly’s Folly one way or the other. It doesn’t matter how.”
Confusion rippled through her. “Why are you working with Phillip?”
“Because he’s my son,” Charley said softly. “All these years, I’ve had to hide his identity, but not any longer. Once his legal father died, I didn’t have to hide the fact that he’s my boy.”
She felt someone had hit her upside the head with a tree trunk as she stared at the two of them. “This is why you kept pushing me toward him. This way you would have both pieces of property.”
“Yes,” Charley said.
“If only you would have married me, things would have been easier,” Phillip said.
“No way in hell was I going to marry you,” she said.
Phillip walked over and yanked her up from the ground. “Now you’re mine regardless.”
He pulled her up against his body and Charley shook his head. “I’m going to ride over to the house and make sure that she’s a widow. You kids have fun.”
Catriona glared at him, her heart filling with hatred. She spat in his face and the older man smiled. “You got a touch of your father’s spirit in you. It’s a shame he hid it in a bottle that I always furnished for him.”
Speechless, Catriona remembered her mother saying she didn’t know where her father found the alcohol and now she knew.
“You’re a disgrace,” she said. “I believed in you. I trusted you and you took advantage of my family. Rot in hell, because if I get a chance, you’ll not live to see tomorrow.”
The old man smiled. “Cat, you always were bullheaded. But don’t worry, once Phillip is done with you, after you’re married, you’ll be dead.”
The man turned and walked away and she stared at him, wishing her eyes were daggers. The man had betrayed her and that made her sick.
“Get undressed now,” Phillip demanded. “You’re used goods, but I’m still going to enjoy fucking you.”
She didn’t move, not willing to betray her husbands. She would never willingly give her body to Phillip for any reason. The man was despicable and a shudder of revulsion swept through her.
“No,” she said and he backhanded her. Dazed, she realized she’d never been hit by a man before. Sure, her husbands spanked her, but they would never hit her.
Tears welled in her eyes. “I hate you.”
“Good, you’ll be so much more enjoyable with me knowing how much you hate what I’m doing to you.”
She slowly unbuttoned her blouse and removed it. Then her boots and next her skirt. All that covered her was her chemise.
“Oh, nice. No bloomers. Is that so they could fuck you whenever they wanted?”
That was a question she refused to answer. It was none of his business what had gone on with her two loving husbands. Her heart squeezed as she thought of them and how they would feel knowing that Phillip had done this to her.
“About now, you’re probably a widow. My men were lying in wait for them. Won’t they be surprised as the bullets tear through their flesh. Wonder if their last thoughts will be of you?”
Tears welled in her eyes and she thought of Alastair and Keegan. She sent up a prayer for their safety and hoped they were safe at home in Bridgewater.
Suddenly her spine stiffened. There was no way that she would let Phillip touch her without a fight.
Picking up an empty bottle, she stared at him. “Come near me and I’ll kill you with this.”
He grinned. “My pleasure.”
He advanced toward her and suddenly the window broke and Keegan rushed at them. Phillip’s eyes grew wide with fear and Keegan ran to her side and pushed her behind him.
“Come on, little man, show me what you got,” he hissed. “You’re never touching my woman, do you understand.”
Keegan threw the first punch and it smashed Phillip’s nose, the cracking sound echoing in the room.
“Son of bitch, you broke my nose,” he screamed.
“That’s not all I’m going to break,” Keegan cried as he stepped toward him and he threw a second punch that hit him in the eye. The man went down to the floor.
“Get up,” Keegan yelled.
Where was Alastair? Why wasn’t he helping Keegan?
If Charley heard this noise, he would be running to help his son and there was no way Catriona would let him get away with this. She would rather see him hang.
Phillip stood and spit at Keegan who dodged him. “What did you do with Charley?” he asked the man as he avoided his fists.
“He’s dead,” Phillip said.
“No, he’s not,” Catriona cried.
“Shut up,” Phillip told her.
“He’s on his way to my house, to make certain you and Alastair are dead. They planned on ambushing you there.”
Keegan grinned at him. “Are you ready to give up?”
“Hell no,” he said. “I’m going to kill you right now.”
He charged Keegan and hit him in the stomach pushing him at the stove. There was no way that Catriona could let any harm become Keegan. She raised the bottle still in her hand and smashed it over Phillip’s head.
“Damn you,” she said. “No one hurts my husband.”
Keegan let Phillip’s body slump to the floor. Then he smiled at her. “Remind me to never let you get angry with me.”
She flew into his arms. “Oh, Keegan, I was so frightened. I’m so glad you came after me.”
He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly. “No one steals my woman, my wife from me. No one.”
