<< Go Back

Texas Law

By Anne Greene

Order Now!

Chapter 1
June, 1879 – Between Austin and San Antonio, Texas
The lurching halt of the stagecoach threw Caitlin Devine to the floor. Her knees crushed her new travel dress. Her sister, Jane, landed beside her.
“Cat, what’s happened?” Jane screeched in her ear.
Caitlin struggled to her seat, rolled up the flap covering the stagecoach window, and stuck her head out. She gaped and slapped a hand over her mouth. She must not scream and call attention to herself. “It’s—”
The door flew open almost spilling her to the ground. Rough hands clamped her arms, plucked her out, and deposited her on her feet.
She gazed into a hard face, half-masked by a bandanna, under a battered Stetson. A healed slash from forehead to jaw distorted one of his ink-black eyes.
“Robbers! Three of them!” Cat stepped off the road and into a field of bluebells.
“Just give us what we want, lady, and you won’t get hurt,” Distorted Eye’s deep voice rasped through his mask. He leaned into the stage and jerked Jane out to slam her on her feet in front of the coach.
Her younger sister’s eyes bulged, and her mouth opened in a scream.
“Ain’t no one hereabouts to pay no attention to your squalling gal, so shut your trap.”
Cat jabbed her fingers in her ears. “Please, Jane. Do stop screaming. You’re making things worse.”
Jane pressed her lips tight, but her skin paled. She teetered on her high-heeled boots and appeared about to faint.
One of the other masked bandits shoved the coach driver and the man who rode shotgun over to stand next to Jane, lining the three of them up against the stagecoach.
Cat’s legs trembled. Despite a breeze that freshened the spring air, her forehead beaded sweat. Whatever the three masked men wanted, the outcome would be unthinkable.
“Take whatever you’ve a mind to,” the driver mumbled. Neither the driver nor the shotgun’s posture or demeanor indicated they would put up a fight. Both held their hands high and their heads down.
Without their interference, the three bandits could have their way with her and Jane … or would steal the cattle money lying heavy inside her bodice.
“Down on the ground, you two.” The bandit with the distorted eye, obviously the leader, poked the driver’s chest with the barrel of his over-size six-shooter.
The coach driver and the man who rode shotgun dropped to their knees in the weeds beside the road.
“Flat on your faces, hands over your heads.”
The two men obeyed.
One robber leveled his weapon at the two recumbent men. The other two bandits stared at her and Jane. The bandit with blue eyes so light they appeared to be almost without color growled, “Where is it?”
“What?” Cat hated that her voice trembled.
“You know exactly what. Hand over that bundle of cash you’ve got on you somewhere.” The pale-eyed bandit stepped over to the coach and shoved his torso through the open door into the coach. He backed out, her hand bag and Jane’s dangling from his arm.
The cock-eyed leader leered at her. The devilish gleam in his eyes spidered cold chills down her spine. This man was evil.
Cat faltered a step backward. Dear God, please keep us safe, she breathed.
The lead robber’s height and breadth blocked out the sun. He grabbed both her arms and shook her. “Where is it?”
Her teeth rattled.
The other man, his bandana snug below his almost white eyes, crouched on the grass beside the road and emptied their handbags on the hard-packed dirt road. Jane’s comb bounced behind the stagecoach wheel, the rest of the contents spilling into a pile.
Cat yelped and jerked forward to save her belongings, but the cock-eyed robber tightened his grip on her arms. “Ow. Please don’t. That hurts.” The sleeve of her dress ripped at the shoulder seam.
“I’ll hurt you more if you don’t tell me where that money is!”
Cat forced herself to look straight into his hard, black eyes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Nothing in these pocket books except female trinkets.” The light-eyed man hollered as if she wasn’t two feet away.
Cock-eye shoved her onto the ground.
She landed hard on her bustle and couldn’t catch her breath. If only she hadn’t worn her tightest corset for this trip to the big city. Darkness closed in. She sank down, down, down. Voices and people drifted away.
She gasped for breath and the blackness cleared. The cock-eyed leader knelt beside her, one muscular knee pinning her long dress into the weed-choked bluebonnets. Light Eyes backed Jane against the stagecoach. Cat levered herself up to a sitting position, then wilted against a wooden coach wheel like a rag doll. This couldn’t be happening.
“Hand over that money and you won’t get hurt!” The leader’s rough hands travelled over her body searching her pockets, her thighs, moving up her waist toward her bodice.
She kicked him in the shins, just above his boot tops. “There’s no money!” She gasped for deep breaths, but her constricting corset hampered her ribs.
Cock-eye knelt on her legs. “Dressmaker said you was loaded.”
She fought to escape. “Get off. You’re hurting me!” Would that heavy muscular body break her legs? Ugh. The pain spurted all the way up to her spine.
His elbow smacked her chest, pinning her against the hard wheel hub.
She moaned.
“There’s a lot more where that came from. I can break a delicate little thing like you in half without even trying. Where’s the money?”
Cat arched her back against the pain.
Oh no. Back in Austin, she’d mentioned to the friendly Miss Purdy about selling Pa’s cattle and travelling to the San Antonio National Bank to deposit the money. A surge of
disgust hit her. Why had she been so free with her words? No wonder the seamstress had been such a busybody. Pressing for answers until the plump woman verged on being impolite.
Cock-eye’s calloused fingers ripped open the top buttons of her bodice. His rough knuckles scratched her skin.
She flailed against his intruding hands. “Stop, please. I…I’ll give you the money. Please take your hands off me and let me up.”
He reared back on his haunches, his weight still pinning her, and wrapped one huge hand around her throat. “Don’t try nothing funny. Fork over the money, and we’ll be on our way.” His fingers squeezed.
She wheezed, mouth open to suck in air, black dots drowning her vision, and dug inside her bodice. She drew out the hidden pouch, holding the velvet strings tight in her fist. If he took the cash, how could Papa pay the ranch mortgage?
She held tight to the heavy bag, ignoring his grasping fingers.
Cock-eye yelled, “Hammer, do whatever you want with the other gal.”
“Stop!” Her voice whispered little more than a croak. She sucked in what air she could and slapped his face with the money pouch. “Now leave my sister alone.”
His hand around her throat tightened. “Is that all of it?”
Unable to talk, she nodded. She pounded his chest. Like beating her fists into a rock. Bruising her knuckles.
Still holding her by the neck, he dragged her to her feet. “I’ll take them earbobs. He jerked her late mother’s diamonds from her ears. “And that ring.” He wrenched her wrist and worked the cameo from her finger.
Tears pricked her eyes.
Light Eyes, whose name must be Hammer, ripped off Jane’s bracelet and tore the ribbon-held locket from around her neck.
Jane trembled, and tears streamed down her cheeks.
Cat choked. Her bones were rubber. She sagged.
The leader loosened his hand from her neck.
She pulled in the deepest breath her corset allowed until the black dots disappeared.
Ink black cock-eye slid his hands down her upper arms and squeezed. His eyes narrowed. His gaze fastened to her like a bee zeroed in on a flower.
“Oh, no, please.” She cupped her hand around her precious necklace. “This contains my mama’s picture.”
“It’s gold, ain’t it?” He spun her around, and his big fingers worked the clasp until her locket fell into his beefy fingers.
She whirled, both fists clenched, and glared at him.
The back of the stage driver’s neck reddened, and his tendons bulged. “Okay, fellas, you got what you came for. Time to leave those two girls alone and vamoose.”
The leader laughed. A deep, sinister rumble. “We’ll hit the road when we’re ready. Check under the floorboards, Hammer. See if there’s any loot hidden there.”
Light Blue Eyes Hammer slowly released his bear-hug on Jane and leaned into the coach. Jane collapsed against the stage sobbing and covering her tear-stained face.
“Nope, nothing here,” Hammer yelled over his shoulder, still poking the coach floorboards and cushions.
Cat glanced at Jane. She needed to console her sister before Jane suffered an attack of hysteria. Cat hiccupped, gasped, swallowed, and raised her hand to massage her aching throat.
“This red-head’s a spit-fire. Sure is purty when she’s mad.” Light Blue Eyes Hammer stepped close to her and tugged her hair.
Cat shivered and curled her fingers. She would claw his eyes.
“I got a weakness for red hair. Let’s take this one with us.” Hammer jerked Cat’s hair until tears filled her eyes.
The leader stared at her as if considering. Then he shook his head, his dark Stetson shadowing his crazy black eyes. “And have a posse on our heels the rest of our days. Nope, don’t think so. Time to vamoose.”
He leaned close and whispered in Cat’s ear. “I’ll see you again, Miss Caitlin Devine. It’ll be on my terms then!” He winked that crazy eye. “I’ll be comin’ for you.”
Her knees almost buckled. Fear slammed into her heart. A load landed on her shoulders, making them slump. She couldn’t face that awful man again.
He vaulted onto his horse. Leered at her and galloped off raising so much dust she coughed.
She pulled in a shaking breath. She and Jane would survive. Cat held the ripped top of her bodice together with shaking fingers.
She ached all over. She would never forget Cock-eye or that voice.
Father, please don’t let that man come after me. She would pray that prayer every day of her life. And expect her guardian angels to protect her.
But, now she must face Papa.

Order Now!

<< Go Back