Brendan stepped forward and hooked his arm around the kid’s neck. “Jimmy,” he said, his voice quiet and low, “what’s goin’ on? Where has Helena got to that you thought I’d gone along? And tell me the truth. Think how bad you’d feel if somethin’ happened to her.” He gave the lad a little shake. “Where. Is. She?”
“She goes to the hotel restaurant Fridays...w-with a friend.”
Brendan ground his teeth, stepped back from the kid and turned to untie Harry’s reins, crushing them in his fist. Avery. He’d heard all about Helena’s Friday meals with that snake in the grass. Brendan took a calming breath. Helena had no idea of the kind of man who’d befriended her, and Brendan couldn’t tell her. Suppose Avery realized she knew? She’d become a sure target. That wouldn’t do.
Looking back at Jimmy, Brendan saw the lad was mighty worried. “I’ll keep it to myself that you told me.” He pointed, hoping to get the seriousness of the matter across to the boy. “But don’t you ever let her leave Shamrock alone. If she does, you find either me, Mallory or one of the men. Damn fool woman,” Brendan muttered as he turned back to Harry.
As he mounted, he wondered if she’d intended to ask for an outrider. He’d noticed how pretty she looked, but he’d not put that fact together with a jaunt to town. He’d never considered she might go there on her own. She’d already admitted she was scared. He’d have thought, given that fact, she’d at least have asked one of the hands to accompany her.
And she probably would have, he realized with a sinking feeling. But then he’d had to go and kiss her, just to rile that temper of hers up a bit more. That kiss had bitten him in the butt good and proper. It had probably set her thinking she’d do as she pleased to spite him. And it had reminded him of all he’d sacrificed for injured pride and his scruples.
“Just one more question, Jimmy. Where’d you get the idea I was supposed to be her escort?”
“She said so, else I’d never have let her go alone. Mr. Mallory’d have my hide.”
Brendan gave a quick tug on the reins and dug his heels into Harry’s sides, enough that the gelding knew there was reason to be in a hell of a hurry. “Damn the woman,” he spat out as he tore up the ranch road. It was bad enough that she’d go off alone, but now that poor kid back there was scared spitless.
And so was her stupid, thoughtless husband.
Suppose the damned watcher had seen her leave alone? Heart pounding, Brendan leaned over Harry’s neck and urged him on. He found himself praying Avery was so enamored of Helena he wouldn’t think to throw suspicion off him by seeing her come to harm. Brendan had hoped all along she’d be safer not suspecting her supposed friend, but jealousy still ate at him.
Jealousy he knew he had no right to feel.
He didn’t know how to act when he found them having their little tête-à-tête. He’d better be deciding right quick. She was his wife, after all, and he’d already let it be known he was home to stay. So how should he approach the situation in town, with everyone watching?
No doubt Helena would act like the fine lady she was, lest she be seen in a poor light. He didn’t want to lend fodder to the gossip, either, so he’d keep his own temper under wraps no matter how much he loathed that murdering bastard Avery.
It wasn’t till Brendan found her gig in front of the hotel that he decided what he’d do. He climbed down, tied Harry to the rear of the conveyance, pulled off his saddle and tossed it into the back. He rubbed Harry down a bit with his blanket before tossing it next to the saddle. All that was left was to climb up, settle back in the fine leather seat and wait.
* * *
Lucien Avery was a patient man. More than one fellow who’d crossed him had found that out the hard way. But his adversary this time was a lady of some fortune. Winning this kind of battle took care. And planning. It had been moving forward perfectly until Kane decided to take an interest in Shamrock.
Avery had waited nearly two years for Helena Kane to have her fill of her husband’s desertion and fall in line with Avery’s plans. By his calculation, she’d been mere weeks from being able to divorce the fool. It was a bit risky to murder a Texas Ranger, but with Kane having moved to Shamrock, it had begun to look like the only option.
Today alone, while acting the perfect gentleman with her, Avery had suffered through talk of the Varga women leaving town. Somehow he’d managed not to show how angry he was with their refusal to sell him Belleza.
The don had disinherited his son, so it was the women’s to dispose of. But neither would speak of selling, or cutting Dylan Varga out of the property. They preferred to take time and consider their options. Avery would have to set his men loose on the son’s place again. When the damned Varga women learned the Comanche had killed Dylan and his little wife, they’d sell both places rather than return where so much tragedy had befallen their family.
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