Angel

Chapter 26

Angel handed Cassie a knife as soon as they entered the barn. With several lanterns burning, she saw at a glance why a knife was needed. The look she gave Angel was definitely full of reproach.

He merely shrugged indifferently, saying, “Did you really think they’d be sitting around chewing the fat, just waiting for you?”

“I suppose not, but this isn’t going to make them very open-minded.”

“They won’t be leaving until they are.”

“Do you expect me to shove common sense down their throats?”

He actually grinned at her. “I expect you’ll give it a good try.”

She grinned back, because she would. But first she had some neighbors to cut loose. Her mother helped, since Angel hadn’t taken her only weapon. She still had a hunting knife she wore strapped to her boot, and she used it to release the MacKauleys. Cassie went straight to Jenny.

“I’m sorry about this,” she told her friend as she cut through the rope on her wrists.

“What’s going on?” was the first thing Jenny asked as soon as she pulled the gag out of her mouth.

“Angel heard me make that wish the other day and decided to grant it for me.”

“It won’t work, Cassie.”

“Let’s hope you’re wrong. Do you want to do the honors?” Cassie nodded toward Dorothy.

“I’d better. She’s liable to come loose taking a swing at you.”

Dorothy wasn’t quite that enraged, but she was definitely put out at being there. Embarrassment had a great deal to do with that, however, since Angel had collected her right out of her bed. She was in her nightgown, her blond hair loose and flowing around her. She actually looked years younger, and to a woman like Dorothy, who was used to wielding complete authority, that put her at a disadvantage and she knew it. But there was another consequence she hadn’t even noticed yet. R. J. couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her.

He’d also been taken from his bed and was in his long underwear, red in color, but that wouldn’t bother a man like R. J. It was getting caught so unawares that had him steaming, and the fact that he was without a weapon, while Angel stood in front of the closed barn door, arms crossed, looking relaxed and removed from what was going to happen, but with his Colt in plain view to say otherwise.

The only MacKauleys and Catlins not present were Buck and Richard, who’d both been inaccessible due to having bed companions whom Angel hadn’t wanted to involve. Frazer came loose laughing, and was in fact the first one to say anything.

“I gotta hand it to you, Miss Cassie. Things sure have been interestin‘ since you showed up this time.”

His humor, as usual, got her dander up. “It wasn’t my intention to entertain you, Frazer.”

“Guess you just can’t help it, huh?”

She ignored that. R. J. didn’t. “Close it up, Frazer,” his father ordered, and said to Cassie, with all the belligerence he was capable of, “What in hell’s tarnation are you up to this time, little girl?”

Catherine, just finishing slashing through Morgan’s bonds, looked up to say, “Watch your tone when you talk to my daughter, mister.”

“Your daughter? Well, don’t that beat all. You’re a mite late, lady, in showin‘ up to take your girl in hand. You damn well shoulda—”

R.J. didn’t get any further. “You’ll watch your tone when you talk to my wife and my daughter,” Charles said as he stepped up to R. J. and planted a fist in his mouth.

The larger man staggered back two steps, shook his head once, then eyed Cassie’s father with surprised reproach. “Now what’d you wanna go and do that for, Charley? I thought we were friends.”

“After what you did to my daughter? You’ll be lucky if I don’t tear you apart.”

“What’d I do except hurry along what she was plannin‘ anyway?”

Hearing that, Frazer fell back onto a bale of hay, giving in to silent laughter. Only Cassie noticed, but didn’t have time to spare him a look of disgust. She thought she’d talked her papa out of taking on R. J. Apparently not, and their fighting wasn’t what she’d wanted to accomplish here.

“Papa—”

He didn’t hear her because he said at the same time, “What she was planning doesn’t matter, R. J., and you damn well know it.”

R. J. held up a hand when Charles took another step in his direction. “Now, come on, Charley. I don’t want to have to hurt you.”

It was indicative of R. J.‘s confidence that he’d put it that way, and of Charles’s anger that he didn’t care. Charles raised his fist again, R. J. took a stance to block him, and Angel fired a shot into the roof above their heads.

A cloud of dust and wood splinters filtered down on the two men as they and everyone else turned toward the entrance. Angel was calmly slipping his gun back into its holster.

“I’m right sorry to spoil your fun,” he said in his slow drawl, “but if any violence is going to be committed here, it’ll come from me.” He looked directly at Charles to add, “If what MacKauley did was worth a fight, I’d have killed him already, so let it go, Mr. Stuart. For the time being, Cassie’s my responsibility, not yours, and all she wants is to say a few words to these folks.”

Charles lowered his fist and nodded grudgingly, though he gave R. J. a this-isn’t-finished look before he turned away. In the meantime, Catherine came up beside Cassie. “It appears something important didn’t get mentioned to me before I was invited to join this little party,” she said. “Would you mind telling me what your papa is so riled about, and why that hired gun thinks you’re his responsibility?”

“He’s my husband,” Cassie said in a whisper.

“He’s your what?” Catherine shrieked.

“Mama, please, this isn’t the time to explain.”

“Like hell it isn’t!”

“Mama, please!”

Catherine would have said more, a lot more, but Cassie’s expression stopped her. It wasn’t a pleading look she was getting, but one of stubborn determination that Catherine wasn’t used to seeing in her daughter. Cassie simply wasn’t going to discuss it now, no matter what Catherine said.

She wasn’t used to giving in, either, but in this case she did — for the moment. “All right, but as soon as you’re done here, we talk.”

“Fair enough,” Cassie replied, and turned to look at R. J. and Dorothy. She took a deep breath before she said to them, “I tried to apologize before, but I won’t again, because my intentions were good whether you think so or not. I thought a marriage between your two families would end the animosity you’ve been living with for so long. It should have — but you won’t let it, will you? And what’s ironic is you’ve both raised your children to hate and they don’t even know why. Why don’t you tell them why?”

R. J. went red in the face to be put on the spot like that. Dorothy turned her face away, refusing flat out to discuss the feud or anything else.

Cassie sighed. “You’re mighty stubborn, both of you, but haven’t you realized yet that that stubbornness is now hurting your children — at least Jenny and Clayton? If you folks would just leave them alone, they could end up with a happy marriage. Haven’t you figured out yet that they’re both miserable right now?”

“My boy ain’t miserable,” R. J. blustered. “And you ain’t got nothing to say that I want to hear, little girl, so tell that husband of yours to open up that door.”

“Not yet, Mr. MacKauley. You forced a wedding on me. I’m just forcing a little conversation on you.”

R. J.‘s answer was to turn his back on her, making Cassie grit her teeth in exasperation. But she’d known what she was up against. She’d never met anyone so bullheaded, so unreasonable, so plain-out ornery. But before she could even think of what to say that might break through his obstinacy, Dorothy Catlin spoke, and there was no doubt that she’d been caught by surprise from what she’d just heard.

“R. J., you didn’t. Again? You made the same stupid mistake again?”

“Now, Dotty,” R. J. began in what was clearly an attempt to placate, but he didn’t get far.

“Don’t you ‘now, Dotty’ me, you sorry son of a bitch. Tell me you didn’t arrange another wedding with a gun in your hand. Go on, tell me.”

“It wasn’t the same, dammit,” R. J. protested. “She claimed he was her fianc�.”

“And you believed that?” Dorothy exclaimed incredulously. “An innocent thing like her and a ruthless killer?”

Angel winced. Cassie cringed. The MacKauley boys were staring at the arguing pair in wide-eyed amazement, including Frazer, who couldn’t find anything funny about this—yet. But Jenny Catlin was getting mad, as certain things she’d heard over the years started clicking together.

“What do you mean again, Ma?” Jenny asked as she left Clayton’s side — no one had got around to untying him, so she had done it— and confronted her mother. “Who else did he force to get married?”

Dorothy’s fury was quickly replaced with defensiveness. “It’s not important.”

“Isn’t it? It was you, wasn’t it?”

“Jenny—”

But Jenny was standing her ground for once. “I want to know what’s keepin‘ me from my husband, Ma. You’ve put me off every time I’ve ever asked, but not this time. It was you, wasn’t it? Is that what started this feud?”

Dorothy actually looked to R. J. for help. When Jenny saw that, she exploded. “Dammit, I’ve got a right to know! My baby has a right to know!”

“Your baby?”

Three people said it. Clayton added a whoop to his and rushed forward to swing Jenny around in his arms. She hadn’t meant to tell him this way. Actually, she hadn’t thought she’d get a chance to tell him. And his happiness dissolved some of her anger with their parents.

“A baby,” R. J. repeated and sat down on a wooden crate to digest the news. “If that don’t beat all.” And then he caught Dorothy’s shocked expression and grinned. “Did you hear that, Dotty? We’re going to share a grandbaby.”

Dorothy gave him a narrow-eyed look. “Who said anything about sharing? Your boy can come and live at my place.”

“Like hell!” R. J. shot back onto his feet. “Your girl will be havin‘ that baby at my place, or I’ll—” He had to stop, since there simply wasn’t a threat appropriate to this particular situation that he could think of.

Dorothy took advantage of his pause to advance on him. “So now she’s welcome?”

R. J. ignored that and stubbornly insisted, “A wife’s place is with her husband.”

Dorothy reached him and poked a finger so hard in his chest that he was pushed back down on the wooden crate. “Not if she’s divorced it ain’t.”

“Oh, hell, Dotty, you can’t still—”

“Can’t I?”

“Both of you stop it,” Jenny said as she pushed back from Clayton, though he retained an arm around her waist, clearly indicating they were a united front. “Where I have this baby is up to me, and I might not be having it in Texas at all if I don’t get some answers. The truth, Ma, and no more sidestepping ‘round it.”

Dorothy had turned around to face her daughter. R. J. grumbled behind her back, “Where the hell did she get so much gumption?”

“Where the hell do you think?” Dorothy replied for his ears only, before she squared her shoulders and started the explanation her daughter was demanding. “We were in love, that old coot and me.”

It was too much for Frazer, whose humor returned with a vengeance. Morgan leaned over to shut him up with a kick. That didn’t work, so Clayton went over and socked him one.

That got the quiet back, long enough for Jenny to express everyone’s amazement. “Not you and R. J.!”

“Yes, me and R. J.,” Dorothy said in pure disgruntlement. “Now, do you want to hear this or not?”

“I won’t interrupt again,” Jenny assured her.

“We were supposed to get married—”

“You and R. J?”

“Jenny!”

“Well, I can’t help it, Ma. You hate that man.”

“I didn’t always,” Dorothy said defensively. “There was a time when I would have shot the son of a bitch if he even looked at another woman. Trouble was, he was more crazy jealous than I was. And one day he came by and saw me sitting on the porch with my pa’s foreman, Ned Catlin. I was patting his hand in sympathy ‘cause he’d just had word that his ma had died and he was real broke up about it.

“R. J. jumped to the wrong conclusion, though, and went off and got drunk, so drunk he came back that night and took me and Ned to the church, where he forced us to marry. He had some crazy idea about making me a wife and a widow in one day, only he passed out before he got around to the widow-making part. And Ned wasn’t exactly as honest as the day is long. He didn’t mind marrying me at all, not when it promoted him from foreman to boss, giving him a share of the profits from the ranch. He wouldn’t give me a divorce even though he knew I didn’t love him and never would.

“It didn’t end there. R. J. stayed drunk for a couple of months, and he started taking potshots at Ned whenever he saw him. ‘Course drunk, he can’t even hit the side of a barn. But Ned got annoyed enough to start shooting back. He was a bit luckier and hit R. J. once.”

“You call shootin‘ me in my foot lucky?” R. J. interjected.

Dorothy ignored that, continuing. “That’s when R. J. started sobering up and got serious about killing my husband. Ned figured since I didn’t want him around anyway, it’d be healthier if he took off. Only he got my pa all fired up before he left, enough for him to file charges against R. J. But all that did was embarrass R. J. and turn him meaner.

“That’s when he married my best friend, thinking that would hurt me. I’ll admit it did, particularly when she got pregnant so fast. I had a husband I couldn’t get a divorce from, and R. J. was starting a family. I started hating him then.

“And Ned, he only came home when he ran short of money. But he never stayed long because as soon as R. J. found out he was back, the damn shooting would start up again.”

“I know Pa was never around,” Jenny said, speaking quietly now. “But how come you never told us he was such a bastard?”

“Because I had reason to be grateful to him, Jen. He didn’t come around often, but each time he did, he left me with a baby. And the ranch and you children were all I had to live for. Besides, he never would have got so greedy if R. J. hadn’t shoved temptation his way. Ned was a hard worker and a good foreman before that.”

A heavy silence followed. R. J. was the one to break it. “Christ, that ain’t the way I remember it, Dotty.”

She turned around to give him a level look. “I’m not surprised. You were never sober long enough back then to remember much of anything.”

“If that’s the way it happened, I think maybe I owe you an apology.”

She wasn’t impressed. “Is that right?”

He looked distinctly uncomfortable. “Do you — ah — suppose we might put all that behind us and start over?”

“No.”

He sighed. “I didn’t think so.”

“But you can take me to town tomorrow night for dinner and we can discuss it.”

Frazer couldn’t let that one pass. His laughter started up again. R. J. took off one of his boots and threw it at his eldest.

Dorothy remarked, “That’s a strange one you got there, R. J.”

“I know it,” R. J. grumbled. “Dumb shit would laugh at his own funeral. Come on, Dotty, and I’ll escort you home like I used to — that is—” He turned to Cassie. “You got any more conversation to force on us, little girl?”

Cassie was grinning. She couldn’t help it. “No, sir. I don’t believe there’s anything left for me to meddle with in these parts.”

Angel had already opened the door and was standing to the side of it. The chill night air that rushed in wasn’t conducive to lingering. R. J. led the way, minus his boot, but stopped next to Angel to give him an appraising look.

“I think you and me can call it even,” R. J. said.

“Looks to me like you came out ahead,” Angel replied.

R. J. grinned. “Guess I did at that. But satisfy my curiosity, son. How come they call you the Angel of Death?”

“Probably because no one has ever survived a fight with me.”

R. J. found that amusing and left chuckling. His sons didn’t, and gave Angel a wide berth as they exited. Jenny stopped by Cassie to give her a hug.

“I can’t believe this really happened, but thank you,” Jenny said.

“You know what they say about love and hate. Half the time you can’t tell them apart.”

“I know, but Ma and R. J.?”

Both girls grinned. “Take care of yourself, Jenny, and your new family.”

“I will. And now that everything’s changed, you don’t have to leave.”

“Actually, with my mama showing up, I do. You can’t imagine how unpleasant it can get with her and my papa living in the same house.”

“But you’ve got a pocket full of miracles tonight. Why don’t you pull another one out?”

“I wish I could, but I just don’t have the nerve to meddle in my parents’ problems.”

“Well, you take care of yourself, and write me.”

“I will.”

Jenny ran to Clayton, who was waiting for her at the barn entrance. They left arm in arm. Cassie sighed, thinking about what she still had ahead of her. She looked around to find her mama just getting up from a bale of hay. Her papa was leaning against Marabelle’s transport cage, but he pushed himself away from it and came toward her now.

“It’s nice to know I’m not the only one with dirt in the closet,” Catherine remarked snidely as she started toward Cassie, too.

“Your mama has no sense of compassion, and you can tell her I said so,” Charles said.

Cassie did no such thing. All she wanted to do was escape to savor her triumph for a while before she had to placate her mama’s formidable temper. With that in mind, she didn’t wait for her parents, but hurried toward Angel.

“Thank you—” she began, but he cut her off.

“You’re not finished yet.”

“I’m not?”

“No,” he said, and moved to block the entrance just as her parents got there. “You called a cease-fire on your private war twenty years ago,” Angel told them. “Maybe you should’ve fought it out. Would you like to remain in here a little longer?”

“Hell, no,” Catherine replied.

“Yes,” Charles said, drawing a shocked gasp from his wife and a grin from Angel before he shoved Cassie out the door and shut it behind them.

Of course, Catherine immediately started shouting and banging on the door. Cassie stared at Angel in horror as he dropped the wooden bar into place, locking them in.

“You can’t do that,” she said.

“I just did.”

“But—”

“Shut up, Cassie. There’s something about being locked up that brings out the worst — and best — in folks. Let your parents experience it. It could do them a world of good.”

“Or they could kill each other.”

He chuckled and pulled her into his arms. “Where’s that optimism that lets you meddle in everyone’s life?”

She didn’t get to answer. He kissed her, long and hard, and she was so bemused when he finished, she didn’t even notice that the shouting inside the barn had stopped.

“Go on up to the house, honey.” Angel pushed her in that direction. “You can let ‘em out in the morning.”

She went, but only because she expected him to follow. He didn’t. He rode out of her life that night.