Autumn Lover (19 page)

H
olding her breath, Elyssa crept down the staircase. She prayed every step of the way that Hunter was so exhausted by breaking broncs that he wouldn’t awaken.

Or if he did, that he would mistake the creak and pop of the stairs for more complaints of the house as the damp ground fog settled into the wood.

The thought of facing Hunter after the way he had stripped her pride raw in the brush corral made Elyssa feel hot and cold at once.

Don’t think about Hunter and the hands laughing at you. Next to what’s happening on the Ladder S, all of the rest is just chicken feed
.

But Elyssa still didn’t want to face Hunter. She didn’t know whether she would ignore him or lift the shotgun and watch him sweat.

The latter thought had great appeal.

Don’t think about Hunter
.

Only when the door to the kitchen closed behind her did Elyssa relax and let out a sigh of relief. She had gotten away from her sharp-tongued watchdog.

She hurried across the open area between house and barn. A pumpkin-colored moon hung big and low in the sky. There were a few high clouds, remainders of an
evening storm. Despite the moon’s size, it cast little light. What illumination reached the earth was sucked up by a ground fog that clung to every dip, hollow, and crease.

Something cold nudged Elyssa’s fingers. She muffled a startled shriek and looked down.

Vixen looked up at her, wagging her tail hopefully.

“No,” Elyssa whispered. “Go back to guarding the barn.”

Vixen cocked her head, hesitated, and then trotted off to the barn.

Elyssa looked toward the bunkhouse. Streamers of ground fog danced like silver flames in a faint wind. Not a bit of light shone from the bunkhouse. She was up even before Gimp.

Quickly Elyssa went to the barn, saddled Leopard, and headed for Wind Gap. With her black riding habit, a dark stockman’s coat, and a black scarf tied around her hair, she was very hard to see even in the gaps between the fog.

In the fog itself, she was invisible.

The ride to Bill’s ranch had never taken Elyssa longer. In addition to the fog, she used every bit of available cover to conceal her passage through the night.

There was no way of knowing if the Culpeppers had anyone watching Wind Gap.

As Elyssa had hoped, once she was through Wind Gap, the fog became thicker. But experience told her that the fog wouldn’t last much beyond daybreak. By then, she had to be back at the ranch.

And Bill Moreland had to be with her.

Elyssa feared what would happen if Hunter met Bill over a rifle.

What is it about that cow-rustling, horse-thieving, Culpepper-loving son of a bitch that worries you
?

Elyssa shivered at the memory of what she had seen
in Hunter’s eyes when he had drawn a bead on Ab Culpepper a few days ago.

Hatred.

He needs a bullet
.

Elyssa was afraid that Hunter would shoot Bill on sight, the same as he would four-legged vermin stalking a calf.

I can’t let that happen
, Elyssa thought starkly.
Just because Bill hasn’t lifted a finger to help me, that doesn’t mean he deserves to die
.

He was so good to me all those years before I went to England
.

With determination in every line of her body, Elyssa guided Leopard through the fading darkness. If any Culpeppers were guarding the approach to Bill’s cabin, they didn’t raise a cry when Leopard ghosted past.

Tautly Elyssa watched ahead for any sign of light. There was none. She dismounted and tied Leopard to a bush. With great care she crept as close to the cabin’s privy as she dared.

There was a thicket of brush only ten feet from the back of the privy. Crouching, Elyssa merged her outline with the shrubs as Bill had taught her to do when they hunted together.

Elyssa licked her lips, pursed them, and whistled softly. A clear, lilting nightingale call lifted into the fading night. Bill had taught her the whistling notes years ago, when she was a girl and her mother’s silver laughter rang through the house.

No light came on in the cabin in response to Elyssa’s whistle.

No one called through the night to her.

Nervously Elyssa looked at the sky. The stars were already gone. A faint peach color glowed in the east.

She sent the lilting call through the silence again.

Nothing happened.

Maybe Bill drank too much and is sleeping too hard to hear me
, she thought anxiously.

Licking lips that felt as dry as flannel, she pursed again and whistled. A false nightingale sang to the black cabin for a third time.

No lantern flickered to life.

Dawn condensed across the eastern sky in a pale wash of pink.

Elyssa waited.

And waited.

Just as she was going to give up, the front door of the cabin creaked. A man came out and headed for the privy.

Bill
.

Relief coursed through Elyssa.

Bill walked to the privy with the hesitating steps of a man who was hung over or half-blind in the predawn gloom. Somehow his ragged stride led him past the privy to the thicket.

“Over here,” Elyssa whispered. “It’s me.”

“Christ, Sassy,” Bill hissed. “I told you when you got back never to come here! Go home!”

Elyssa tried to make out Bill’s expression. What she saw of his eyes in the rising light didn’t comfort her.

Bloodshot.

Angry.

And most of all, afraid.

“Just like your mother,” Bill whispered, furious. “Reckless to the bone! Get out of here!”

“Come back with me,” Elyssa whispered coaxingly. “I need you.”

“
Go home
.”

Though Bill’s voice was soft, the expression on his face wasn’t.

“Bill—”

“
Go
!”

“No,” Elyssa said in a low, hard voice. She stood up
in a rush. “Too many Ladder S cows have been stolen. Too many horses are missing. The tracks all lead to—”

“Well, well,” said a stranger’s voice from behind Elyssa, “would you lookee here. Someone brung Ab a prime piece of woman-flesh.”

Bill stumbled and fell into Elyssa. She found herself propelled away from the stranger.

“
Run
,” Bill whispered fiercely.

This time Elyssa didn’t argue. She turned and ran.

Within three steps she was brought up short by the iron band of a man’s fingers wrapped around her upper arm. She gasped in pain as she was spun roughly toward Ab Culpepper. He was tall, rawboned, and had pale eyes that glittered in the gloomy light. The look in those eyes made Elyssa’s stomach turn over.

“Really prime,” Ab said.

Elyssa jerked her arm. “Let go of me!”

“Not so fast, gal. Just because ol’ Bill here is too gone with drink to entertain a lady don’t mean you have to leave all disappointed like.”

“Let me go,” Elyssa said between her teeth.

“No gal never said Ab Culpepper can’t rise to the occasion,” Ab drawled.

Instinctively Elyssa looked at Bill, knowing that she couldn’t defeat Ab alone.

Bill’s hands were nowhere near the six-gun he wore on his hip.

Cold seeped into Elyssa’s soul. Bill wasn’t going to help her now any more than he had helped her in the past two months.

Then Elyssa realized that Bill was looking past her, as though she were no longer important. The bleak, helpless rage on Bill’s face told her more than words could have.

She turned to follow Bill’s glance.

Culpeppers materialized out of the dawn as Elyssa
looked. First one. Then another. Then Gaylord. They were no more than ten feet away from Bill. Tall, rawhide-lean, pale blue eyes; the Culpeppers were alike as peas in a pod.

Or devils in hell.

“Say howdy to the boys,” Ab urged Elyssa.

“Release me,” she said distinctly.

Ab smiled.

Elyssa’s stomach lurched again. The cruelty in Ab was frighteningly clear.

Gaylord Culpepper might have been missing a piece of his humanity, but Ab was missing his entire soul.

“Just ignore ol’ Bill,” Ab advised. “He’s been right testy for a time. Comes of not having a gal to poke.”

Not a word passed Elyssa’s bloodless lips. Her eyes had told her that words would do no good. The Culpeppers had Bill dead where he stood.

All they had to do was pull the trigger.

Ab saw the direction of Elyssa’s glance and smiled. The pressure of his fingers on her arm eased a bit.

There was nowhere for Elyssa to run. Even if there had been, the fog was vanishing as she watched. The last pale wisps were barely knee-high.

No cover.

No place to hide.

Ab pulled off Elyssa’s hat with a fast swipe of his hand. Flaxen hair glowed in the light.

“Thought so,” Ab said with satisfaction. “You be that Sassy bitch.”

“My name is Elyssa.”

The look on Ab’s face said he didn’t care what her name was.

“Let’s go to the cabin,” Ab said, smiling. “We got business to take care of.”

Bill gave Ab a quick, savage glance.

Ab didn’t even notice. All he cared about at the mo-
ment was the girl with the flaxen hair and stubborn blue-green eyes.

“We have no business together,” Elyssa said distinctly.

“Now, don’t be so hasty, gal. You might like my business,” Ab said slyly.

“I’m late. I’m expected back at my ranch.”

“That’s what we’ll be talkin’ about.”

“What?”

“You gettin’ shuck of the Ladder S,” Ab said impatiently. “All nice and legal like. Nothin’ for them blue-bellied Yankees to cry over.”

“No.”

“Thirty Yankee dollars,” Ab said. “That’s my first and last offer.”

Elyssa looked at him as though he was mad. Thirty dollars couldn’t buy a Ladder S corral, much less the whole ranch.

Just as quickly as Elyssa had glanced at Ab, she looked away. Looking into Ab’s eyes was terrifying.

“No,” she said hoarsely.

A fourth man materialized out of the rising dawn, rifle in one hand and six-gun in the other. He was standing well away from the Culpeppers. Gun drawn, he waited.

There was no eagerness in his stance. Nor was there any of the feral lust that possessed the Culpeppers. The calm readiness of the man’s body was more dangerous than the weapons he held.

With great clarity Elyssa sensed that the fourth man was more deadly than the rest of the Culpeppers put together. She was as certain of it as she was of her own too rapid heartbeat.

My God, what have I done
? she asked herself in dismay.
Bill is little better than a prisoner of these raiders
.

And now I am, too
.

The thought of being at the mercy of the likes of Ab
Culpepper made Elyssa’s stomach twist. Without stopping to think, she jerked her arm and stepped back out of his reach.

The motion was so swift it caught Ab by surprise. He grabbed for Elyssa, but a word from Gaylord stopped him cold.

Ab glanced over his shoulder. He said something vicious. Then his hand fell to his side once more.

Elyssa turned to Bill even as she retreated toward Leopard.

“Come back with me,” she coaxed. “Penny is worried about you. We need you.”

Bill shook his head curtly.

“Leave and don’t come back,” he said. “
Go
.”

Elyssa didn’t argue. She scrambled on Leopard, reined him around, and kicked him into a canter.

Just as she was congratulating herself on having brazened out her escape, Elyssa noticed what the Culpeppers obviously had already seen.

A bit ahead and to her right, there was a rifle poking out from the cover of boulders and brush.

As Elyssa galloped by, the barrel didn’t waver from tracking each breath Ab took. Clearly whoever was on the other end of the weapon wasn’t a friend of the Culpeppers.

Hunter
, Elyssa thought.
He heard me going down the stairs after all
.

Part of her was very grateful.

Another part of her wanted nothing more than to get beyond the reach of the scorching lecture she was certain to get from Hunter. She leaned low over Leopard’s neck, urging him into a faster gait.

Despite Elyssa’s desire to flee, she kept the big stallion well below the pace she wanted. She might have been reckless, as Bill had accused, but she was far from suicidal.

The same couldn’t have been said of Hunter at the moment. He caught up with Elyssa before she crossed onto Ladder S land.

The bleak fury in Hunter’s eyes made Elyssa want to hide.

The fact that he didn’t say a word until they were within sight of the ranch building only made it worse.

Abruptly he urged Bugle Boy across Leopard’s trail, forcing the spotted stud to stop.

“Pull up,” Hunter said coldly to her.

With visible reluctance, Elyssa reined in.

“I thought if I talked to Bill—” she began.

“Talk? Is that what girls like you call it?” Hunter interrupted sarcastically. “Well, that puts my mind considerably at ease.”

“—he would realize how desperate it was on the Ladder S,” Elyssa continued in a rush, “and then he would help or at least not hurt. I didn’t know that—”

“You didn’t know one damned thing but that you had an itch and he was the man to scratch it,” Hunter interrupted.

“What are you talking about?”

“Hell,” Hunter said in disgust. “I’m talking about a young girl and a neighbor man who’s old enough to know better.”

“It’s not Bill’s fault he can’t take on the Culpeppers single-handed,” she retorted. “My God, you won’t even take them on with
seven
hands!”

Elyssa’s defense of Bill infuriated Hunter. It reminded him too much of Belinda’s tirades whenever things didn’t go her way. He could still hear his dead wife blaming her husband, blaming the war, blaming Texas, blaming the kids, blaming everything on earth but herself for whatever made her unhappy.

“You’re just like Belinda,” Hunter snarled. “You don’t give a damn about the people who depend on you.
You don’t give a damn about your responsibilities. All you care about is a female itch that has to be scratched and to hell with what’s right.”