Chapter Four

A shrill cry startled Brady awake. He sat up, his hand going instinctively for the Colt on his hip.

“Thomas, I am not going to tell you again. Stop teasing your sister. Becky, no more yelling.”

The woman in the seat behind him, Brady realized. The one with the two children. She leaned forward to apologize.

“I’m so sorry, sir. It’s the children. They’re becoming restless with all this waiting.”

“S’okay,” Brady mumbled, his hand withdrawing from the holster. That’s when he noticed the seat beside him was vacant. Annie! Where the devil was she?

Surging to his feet, he scanned the car in both directions. She was nowhere in sight. He spoke to the woman with the two children. “The lady who’s with me. Did you see where she went?”

“I believe she left the car, perhaps to view the rock fall. No, Thomas, you cannot have another licorice.”

Damning himself for his careless nap, Brady strode down the aisle in pursuit of Annie. He should have known better than to trust her, should have known she’d disobey him at the first opportunity.

Exiting the train, he went forward to join the other passengers, who were milling around the tracks in front of the locomotive. Annie was not among them. He began to ask if anyone had seen a woman in a green plaid dress. None of them had.

Brady feared the worst, and he finally heard it from a young man leaning against the cowcatcher. “I seen her, mister. She went down the embankment over there and into the woods.”

Brady didn’t hesitate. He headed down the slope and into the trees where the young man had pointed. The little fool! She’d gone and made a break for it, after all. How did she think she was going to survive out here in all this wilderness? Well, whatever it took, he was going to get her back. And when he did, he was going to wring her sweet little neck.

****

Following Judd Halter hadn’t been easy. Not when she’d had to be careful to keep him from learning she was behind him. In the beginning, he had periodically looked over his shoulder to make certain he was alone in the forest. On those occasions, Annie had managed in time to duck out of sight behind the thick trunk of one of the pines that dominated the woods.

Keeping a safe distance between them was necessary. Also a problem, because she’d lost him a couple of times. To her relief, she’d always been able to pick up his trail again.

Judd seemed to know just where he was going. Wherever it was, he moved toward it with purpose. In the end, he picked his way down a steep incline and around an outcropping of rock.

Annie would have followed. And been caught, if the sound of voices at the bottom of that slope hadn’t stopped her. Judd was no longer alone.

Bright light just in front of her indicated a clearing up ahead. She crept toward it and found herself on the sharp lip of an overhang. Below her was an open hollow.

Crouched now out of sight in a thicket, Annie peered into the hollow. Judd stood there with a dozen or so other men. They all had horses, along with a spare one that was maybe intended for Judd. And from what she heard, he was the leader of this disreputable looking gang.

“Get it into your heads,” he snarled, fixing his threatening gaze on them, “we’re not going anywhere until Buck gets here.”

This meeting was no accident, Annie realized. It was a rendezvous. But for what purpose?

One of them dared to object, a rough customer with what looked like an old knife scar on his face. “Hell, I don’t see why we gotta wait for him.” The toe of his boot nudged a bulging satchel at his feet. “We got the explosives, ain’t we?”

“Don’t be a fool, Andersen. It was one thing for you and the boys here to blow a rock fall. You think the door of a baggage car is going to be anywhere near that easy? Not when they’re carrying a gold shipment behind that door. We need Buck. He knows just where and how to plant the charges.”

Annie understood it then. They were going to rob the train! And Judd must have just reported to them that the train had been successfully stopped. That was why he had been on board. Why, too, he had visited the livery stable back in Sweet Spot, she thought, eyeing their mounts waiting at the edge of the hollow. Probably to arrange for fast horses for himself and the gang.

A scrawny fellow spoke up. “Then why ain’t Buck here?”

“He’ll show,” Judd assured him.

“Yeah, but maybe too late. We’re waiting, but could be the train won’t.”

“Relax, all of you. That train isn’t going anywhere for at least another two hours.”

Annie had heard enough. Getting silently to her feet, she started to back away. She couldn’t have gone more than a few yards when a hand from behind her clamped over her mouth. Hellfire, she had been discovered!

She struggled against that hand and the arm that had circled her waist and was now dragging her soundlessly back through the trees. Useless. Whoever it was, he was much too strong for her. She did, in the end, manage to work the fleshy part of one of his fingers between her teeth. She was ready to bite down hard enough to draw blood when he whispered in her ear.

“Don’t try it, you little savage. And stop fighting me. You want them to hear us?”

Brady!

He didn’t release her until he’d hauled her far enough away from the edge of the overhang to permit them to talk safely. Annie wasted no time in rounding on him furiously.

“Don’t you ever manhandle me like that again, Brady Malone!”

“Then don’t give me another reason to come after you. I trusted you not to run away, idiot that I was, and at the first opportunity you did just that. And keep your voice down.”

Recognizing the wisdom of that, Annie lowered her voice. “I wasn’t running away. I was following—” She checked herself, having almost made the mistake of naming Judd Halter.

“Who?”

“One of the men on the train,” she murmured. “He... Well, he was acting very suspicious.”

Brady's left eyebrow rose a fraction. “Uh-huh. And on the strength of just that, you decide to follow him into the woods.”

“I was right to follow him, wasn’t I? Turns out he’s the leader of that gang down there in the hollow. They’re planning to rob the train of the gold shipment it’s carrying.”

“Yeah, I heard enough to understand that.”

“Then why are we standing here? We’ve got to warn the train.”

“Just wondering when Annie Johnson became this upright citizen. But we’ll discuss that later.”

Without another word, Brady turned on his heel and led the way back through the forest. With his long-legged stride, he didn’t make it easy for Annie to keep up with him. Now was not the time for her to be again admiring his well-defined backside in those form-fitting jeans pants, as well as his muscular calves and thighs. But that’s exactly what she did. She couldn’t help it. He was that potently male.

****

Why was she not surprised, Annie asked herself, that the whole train, passengers and crew alike, without argument or discussion, let Brady take full command of its defense? But then why not? An authoritative figure, he was a natural choice.

She had admired his backside on their swift return to the train. Like it or not, she now found herself admiring the way he took charge of their preparations. He seemed to be everywhere at once, so efficiently organizing and directing he made her head swim watching him.

Annie wasn't surprised that there was no lack of weapons on the train. The men of the West, the majority of them anyway, rarely left home without their side arms, and a journey by train was no exception.

In no time at all, Brady had every willing and armed male posted at his appointed window along the length of the train, the fears of the women calmed, and both the women and the children instructed to lie flat on the floors of their cars. What seemed in one moment to be noise and confusion was suddenly silence and order, with everyone in place and out of sight. The train was ready.

They hadn’t long to wait. Within minutes, the robbers swarmed out of the forest on their horses, yelling like savages and firing their revolvers into the air. Their loud ambush was clearly meant to frighten the occupants of the train into a quick, easy submission.

If Annie could have begged or borrowed a gun of her own, she would have joined the hidden defenders in the hope of personally taking down Judd Halter. As it was, all she could do was watch, and not from the safety of a floor either.

His Colt in hand, Brady had stationed himself on the open platform between two of the parlor cars. The roof overhang here, with the narrow sides below that supported it, provided him with both a cover and a good firing position. He wasn't aware at first that Annie had crept up behind him. She hoped he would remain so. He didn’t. Sensing her presence, he turned his head in her direction with an exasperated, “What are you doing here? Why aren’t you with the other women where you belong?”

Annie had no intention of joining the other women. Nor did she have to argue with him about it. Brady became too occupied to bother with her. The robbers were charging up the embankment to storm the train.

All along its length Annie heard the shattering of glass as the defenders broke out the windows with the butts of their revolvers. Seconds later those same revolvers were returning fire.

Unable to stand the suspense, Annie risked peeking around Brady’s shoulder. And there he was out there, facing the open platform where they stood. Judd Halter.

Even with the lower half of his face concealed behind a bandana, like the other members of his gang, she recognized him.

His gaze met hers, his black eyes registering shock at the sight of her. Did he know she’d been able to identify him? Was that why he swung his gun in her direction?

He was able to get off a single shot that pinged against the side of the car, and that was all. Before he could fire again, Brady acted with lightning swiftness. He shouldn’t have missed putting a bullet in Judd’s heart, not when Halter was in a direct line with the barrel of his Colt. And Brady wouldn’t have missed that target. If Annie hadn’t jostled his elbow, that is.

The shot went wild. But not so wild that it failed to strike Judd, the bullet burying itself in the shoulder of his gun arm. Annie watched as, his revolver useless now, Judd released it and clutched his wound. She could see the blood seeping through his fingers.

Annie mumbled an earnest, “Sorry,” to Brady. And heard him mutter back something that sounded like a curse in no way fit for a lady’s ears.

To her satisfaction, he was unable to get off a second shot. Judd, who must have realized the battle was already lost, wheeled his horse around and sped down the embankment, fleeing into the forest.

Annie wasn't surprised he abandoned his comrades without compunction. She knew from experience that Judd Halter didn’t know the meaning of loyalty.

His gang fought on without him. Not for long, however. Their confidence rapidly ebbed as one after another of their members dropped from their mounts. Their attack, in no way the surprise they had planned, had backfired on them. In the end, leaving their wounded and dead behind, the remaining robbers retreated from the scene, melting off into the forest.

It was all over. But not for Annie. She realized that, sooner or later, Brady would get around to her. She was prepared for him. The confrontation didn’t happen for some time, though. The injured had to be cared for. Along with the other women, Annie helped with that. When the wounds had been dressed, including those of the robbers still living, and the patients settled as comfortably as possible, Annie went back to her seat.

She sat there, hands folded demurely in her lap, the very picture of the lady she wasn’t, and waited for Brady to join her. He didn’t come. Nor had she so much as caught a glimpse of him since he had parted from her without a word after the battle.

He was out there somewhere. She knew that. Probably directing and assisting with whatever cleanup was necessary. But she didn’t see him. Even when the crew arrived on the flatcar to clear the tracks, he remained missing.

Annie refused to search for him. But her stubborn patience was beginning to suffer badly. Damn him! Was he punishing her? Was this why he didn’t come? Didn’t bother to so much as check on her?

Long afterwards, when the train was finally underway again, Brady arrived in the parlor car. With her gazed trained on the passing scene outside her window, she didn’t see him. Not at first. But she felt him. How could she not with the very air charged with his presence?

When Annie turned her gaze in his direction, helpless to do otherwise, he strode down the aisle toward her. A daunting and, yes, undeniably virile, figure. He was even more intimidating when he halted at their plush seat, towering over her, his face as dark as a summer storm. Silently, she shifted over, permitting him to lower himself beside her. The storm, she knew, was about to break.

He turned to her at once, his voice low but cold. And maybe dangerous, too. “Would you care to explain just what happened earlier out on that platform and why?”

She played innocent. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Don’t try that Sister Cecilia act on me. You know just what I mean. You caused me to miss my aim.”

“Oh, that. Well, it was just an accident. I told you I was sorry, didn’t I?”

“It was no accident. It was deliberate.”

“Now you’re being ridiculous. Why would I deliberately cause you to miss your aim, when all I was doing was trying to see what was happening out there? I suppose I got a little too excited. You know, bumped your arm by mistake. That’s all.”

Brady didn’t say anything for a moment. He just stared at her with those penetrating eyes of his. “You recognized him, didn’t you? You know who he is, and you were protecting him. Who is he, Annie? A lover from your shady past? Is that why you followed him into the woods?”

His speculation was so outrageous that Annie didn’t know whether to laugh in his face or slap it. She did neither. Nor did she have any intention of telling him the truth. She’d learned the hard way that people, even those you thought you could trust, had an unpleasant habit of turning the knowledge you shared with them against you.

Yes, she had deliberately spoiled Brady’s aim. That much of his accusation was correct. As for the rest...

I saved Judd Halter, Brady. I saved him for me. He’s mine to kill. And if I’d been permitted a gun, I would have put a bullet through his heart myself. I wouldn’t have missed either, because I’m that good a shot.

Killing him herself was the only way Annie could get satisfaction, a sense of closure. She had pictured the scene many times and just what she would say to Judd before she pulled the trigger. “This is for my mother and the baby that never had a chance. Your baby.”

Only she had missed her opportunity. This time. But there would be another. She’d see to that. One way or another, she would catch up with Judd Halter again.

Brady still stared, at her, waiting for her response. She lifted her chin with a cool, “This is preposterous and insulting. I won’t even discuss it.”

Leaning toward her, he caught that same chin in his strong hand, sending an unwanted tingle down her back. “Have it your way, Annie. You want me to believe you, so I’ll believe you. For now. But I promise you one thing. I plan to watch you closely after this.”

“That’s a little odd, considering you weren’t interested in being anywhere near me for the past couple of hours.”

He put his face so close to hers that Annie felt more than a tingle this time. What she experienced was plain sexual awareness that had her actually trembling.

“Oh, I knew just where you were and what you were doing.” His voice sank to a whisper that was almost seductive. “Remember the lady behind us with the two cherubs? I asked her to keep an eye on you. Asked her to never let you out of her sight. The attack on the train upset you something terrible, and I was worried about you, and would she please come and find me at once if you didn’t remain here in the parlor car? That’s what I told her. She was very sympathetic, happy to oblige me. So you see, Annie, you were never once away from my loving care.”

****

Judd Halter had ridden hard, wanting to get as far away as possible from the scene of his failure.

He stopped only once to see to his wound. Finding an old shirt in his saddlebag, he managed to tear a strip out of it. Binding up his shoulder was awkward. He did the best he could. At least the bleeding had stopped, but his injury hurt like the devil.

Cursing the man who had put the bullet in him, Judd mounted his horse again and rode on. When he reached a clear stream, he stopped once more, this time to water his horse and satisfy his own thirst. He needed to rest, too, if he was to continue without dropping from the saddle.

Lying flat on the bank of the stream and using his cupped hands, he drank his fill of the cool waters. Then, pushing himself back from the edge, he sat up in the grass his horse was already cropping and lit a cheroot. As he smoked it, he permitted himself for the first time to think beyond his state of fierce bitterness over his loss of the gold.

How the hell had that train known there would be an attempt to rob it of its gold shipment? They had to have known, or they wouldn’t have been prepared like that. He would probably never learn the answer to that one. Besides, Judd had something more serious to worry about. Annie Johnson.

He’d been shocked to find her on the train. Convinced that she couldn’t have survived the desert where he’d left her behind all those years ago. Could Lydia and the brat have survived as well? Didn’t matter. It was Annie who concerned him.

She’d recognized him, could identify him as one of the gang who’d attacked the train. Oh, yeah, she was definitely a threat. He’d have to take care of that. But not yet. First he had to hole up somewhere safe while he recovered from this wound. Judd knew just where that would be.

A small town that was not too far from here. Enterprise, Colorado. A hotel was there. He was on friendly terms with the ex-madam who operated it. She would let him stay there, even find him a sawbones who wouldn’t ask questions about the bullet that had to be removed from his shoulder.

And all the ex-madam would expect of Judd was that he service her regularly once he’d sufficiently healed. He could do that easily enough. Belle was not only handsome but a lusty bed partner. He smiled at the thought of her, finished his cheroot, and tossed the butt into the stream.

’Course it might take a while before he was fully recuperated, but Judd was willing to be patient. Then, once he was fit again, he’d track Annie Johnson down. And when he found her, he would make certain that the troublesome little bitch never testified against him in a court of law.

****

Brady was taking no chances with her this time. He never left her side and remained particularly vigilant whenever the train stopped at one of its scheduled stations. He even accompanied her to the doors of whatever ladies’ facilities were available.

Annie found his constant surveillance unnerving. It might have helped if he’d been willing to talk to her. She did try. She asked him questions about her grandfather, wanting to know all over again why he’d sent Brady to Sweet Spot to get her back? Why she should matter to the old man after all these years, even if he was dying? And just what did Walter plan to do with her once he got her on his ranch?

Brady’s answers were never satisfactory ones, usually amounting to some variation of “I’ll let your grandfather explain it to you.” Beyond those brief responses he maintained a stony silence.

Maddening. In the end, Annie abandoned any effort to engage him in conversation. They had left Colorado behind them by then and daylight with it. There was no longer any view outside her window to occupy her.

The business of clearing the tracks had meant a lengthy delay for the train. They couldn’t hope now to arrive in Banning, the nearest town to Walter Johnson’s WJ Ranch, until morning. It had been a long, exhausting day for Annie. Logic told her to settle back in her seat, forget everything and go to sleep.

Except—

Yes, Brady Malone. She didn’t have to steal a glance in his direction to know he was there close beside her. Every nerve ending in her body was aware of his enticing nearness. With those nerve endings on sensual alert like that, how was she supposed to get comfortable enough to fall asleep?

In the end, though, that was exactly what she did manage to achieve. What’s more, she slept undisturbed through the night as the train rattled west through the rolling grasslands of Wyoming.

The sun was just clearing the horizon when Annie opened her eyes to its brightness the next morning. To her surprise, Brady was no longer at her side. She knew better than to suppose he wasn’t somewhere nearby. But before he returned, she had a job to perform.

It couldn’t be much longer before they reached Banning. Annie had too much pride to arrive in the town looking downright disreputable. And after the better part of a day and a whole night sitting up in a parlor car, she realized that presentable was not how she would describe herself. She could feel strands of her hair coming loose from the pins that had anchored them, and there was probably more than one smudge on her face. Soot was usually the penalty for traveling by train. Repair was definitely in order.

She carried a pocket mirror, a comb and brush, a packet of hairpins and a clean handkerchief in her reticule. She had placed the reticule in her worn leather bag for safekeeping. Sliding the bag out from beneath the seat where she’d stored it, Annie unfastened its straps and opened it. Tucked inside on top of all her other things was a folded paper. The paper had not been there when she had last looked in the bag.

What on earth…

A sense of unease overcame her as she reached for the paper, spread it open, and read it. Brief and direct, written in a bold, hasty scrawl was the simple message: Received of Annie Johnson twenty-nine silver dollars, assorted coins and one small gold nugget, value unknown.

Even before she snatched up her reticule, lifted out her purse down inside, and opened it, Annie knew what she would find. Nothing. The purse was empty. All of her hard-won savings, and not all of them dishonestly earned either, were gone. What’s more, she knew who had stolen them and left her that brazen note.

It couldn’t be anyone but the tall figure swinging cheerfully down the aisle at this moment, bearing in both hands waxed papers in which were nestled something that smelled appetizingly yeasty. That he had the nerve to look impossibly appealing, with sleep-tousled hair and morning stubble on his cheeks, while Annie looked anything but respectable, only added to her outrage.

“I managed to get us breakfast,” he announced brightly when he arrived at their seat. “A vendor boarded the train at our last stop, and he’s selling warm, buttered rolls up in the next car.”

“No hot coffee?” she asked him sarcastically as he folded his length beside her.

“Sorry. Guess that will have to wait until the ranch. Here.”

He offered her one of the rolls. She didn’t take it, even though it looked delicious and she was hungry.

“You don’t want it?” he asked, his tone all innocence when he had to know from the expression on her face that she was furious.

“What I want, Brady Malone, is the money you stole from me.”

“Stole?” One of his dark eyebrows lifted in a look of mock injury. “Why, Annie, are you of all people calling me a thief? How can I be a thief when I left you a receipt for the full amount?”

“What you are is a snake. A low, nasty one at that.”

“All snakes are low, Annie. Poor things have to be when they have no legs.” He bit into one of the rolls, chewing with a look of pleasure. “Mmm, good. Sure you won’t have one?”

“Where’s my money?”

“In a safe place.”

“I want it back. Get it for me.”

He shook his head. “Uh-uh. It stays with me. You see, Annie, as long as you don’t have any funds, you don’t have the means to get away from the ranch. You’ll get it all back. After your granddaddy dies. Now stop fuming and eat your roll.”