The Half-Breed's Woman Read online

  Treadwell looked at Jax with a malevolent glare. “Can I spend it—in hell, McCall?”

  “Only if I pay you in silver, you son-of-a-bitch.” Jax’s eyes glittered black with pure hatred.

  Talmadge Manley came to stand beside Jax, and Treadwell leaned heavily on the pew, resting his cheek on the wooden seat.

  “You’ve done…murder, Reverend.” Treadwell’s voice was a raspy whisper.

  Manley bent close to him and spoke into his ear. “Go to hell, Mr. Treadwell. With my blessing.”

  Treadwell started to reply, but wasn’t able. He gave a sigh, then stared sightlessly at nothing, as he began his journey.

  Manley wrapped long brown fingers around the intricately carved knife handle and yanked it free, wiping the blood on Treadwell’s shirt before re-sheathing it. He glanced at Jax. “I’ll have to give it a good cleaning when we get home.”

  Jax smiled. “Thanks for the help, Reverend.”

  “Señor Jax!”

  Wheeling at the sound of Carlos’s voice, Jax dropped to his knees as the boy raced across the room and threw himself into his arms. For a long moment, Jax held him, one palm at the back of Carlos’s dark head, the other patting his back.

  Jax closed his eyes briefly. His son. In his heart, he knew that it was true. He felt Carlos’s sobs against his chest, and held him even tighter, letting him cry in silent comfort.

  Over Jax’s shoulder, the crucifix hung just above the altar, within Carlos’s sight.

  “Let it be so,” Carlos whispered softly. “Jesus, por favor—”

  Jax carefully held the boy away for a moment. He could see that Carlos wasn’t even aware that he had spoken aloud. “Let what ‘be so’, Carlos?” The tracks of the child’s tears gleamed in the dim lamplight. Jax’s throat was dry as he waited, although he suspected he already knew the unnamed desires of the boy’s whispered prayer.

  “Let it be that you—” He broke off, unable to say the words. He shook his head.

  “Carlos.” Jax’s voice was gruff. “I—I am your father.” He hugged him close once more, one large hand sifting through his son’s tousled black hair. Jax’s own eyes felt hot, and he shut them tightly, savoring the moment, holding his boy.

  “Did you read the letter, Señor Jax? The one my mama left with Padre Dominguez?”

  Jax shook his head. “Don’t have to, Carlos.” He remembered what Callie had said. Releasing Carlos, he placed his hand over his heart. “I think I’ve known it—here—for a long time.”

  Carlos grinned shyly. “Me too, Señor Jax.” He put his own hand over his heart. “Can I…can I call you—Papa?”

  “That sounds good. Real good.” Jax smiled. “Carlos, why did you ask Jesus for me? To be your father, I mean.”

  “Because you are a good man,” Carlos responded solemnly. “You do—right. My mama thought so, too. She told me that you might be—my papa.”

  You do right.

  Well, he hadn’t done such a good job of doing ‘right’ by Carlos. Not so far, anyway. But that was all about to change.

  ****

  Jax barely remembered getting ready for bed. Stripping away his sodden clothes, Callie dried him with a thick towel, then she climbed into bed beside him. He pulled her close, and they were both asleep within minutes.

  In the early hours of the morning, though, Jax was awakened sharply. Callie’s scream tore through the darkened room, and she sat bolt upright in bed, tears streaming down her cheeks, a look of horror on her face.

  “Oh, Dear God!” she whispered, squeezing her eyes shut.

  “Callie, come here.” He pulled her down beside him.

  She put her head against his neck, trembling.

  After a few seconds, he said, “It’s okay…I’m here.” He held her tightly. “Just a bad dream, chica, that’s all.”

  But Callie shook her head against his shoulder. “He—He killed my f-father! Treadwell! He—”

  Jax turned his head so he could look at her. “How do you know that, sweetheart?”

  “I kept seeing him—with my father—kind of, you know, in my mind. But I couldn’t understand why. Now, I do.”

  Jax held her close, his fingers trailing lightly through her tumbling hair. “What happened?”

  “I saw it all, Jax. But, being a child, I must have blocked it out, somehow. I was ten years old when he murdered—” she broke off, steadying her voice, then continued. “They said my father was murdered by an unknown assailant. But it was him. Dunstan Treadwell.

  “I was coming down the walkway to meet my father. To tell him all about my day. He always wanted to know— When I got to the end of the path, I was standing between two lilac bushes. It was summer, and they smelled wonderful.

  “I was waiting for him to finish talking to Dunstan. But—Dunstan took a gun from inside his coat. The sun flashed on it, on the metal. Then, he pulled the trigger. But he pushed it up close to my father so—so it would b-be muffled.

  “My father fell to the ground. Dunstan looked around to be sure no one saw. I hid in the lilac bush. He would kill me, too, if he knew that I had seen what happened. When he was certain father was dead, he began to yell for someone to come help, pretending to be overwrought at finding a dead man. Eventually, he attracted the attention of a passer-by who went for the police.

  “Not long after that, he began to call on my mother—” Callie’s head lifted as she remembered something else. “Jax, he said I’d be worth almost a million dollars on my birthday.” She met his eyes. “Could it—do you think—it’s true?”

  Jax’s lips curved into a slow smile, and he brushed her hair back from her face. “Yeah. I think it’s true.”

  She blushed. “Stupid of me, I guess—but it’s so hard to believe—”

  He framed her face with his hands and she bent to kiss him.

  “Jaxson, promise me something.” Her voice was soft, her eyes worried as she looked down at him.

  He knew he couldn’t refuse her anything. Not now, not ever. “What’s that?”

  “The money—it won’t matter will it? I mean, we won’t let it make a difference to—to us.”

  “Ah, Callie, nothing as simple as money could ever ruin ‘us’. You gotta know that, sweetheart. After everything else we’ve been through…do you really think a little money will hurt us?” Jax pulled her down to him, kissing her deliberately as he rolled over, coming atop her. He felt her breathing quicken as her fingers stroked his ribs, gliding over the smooth bronze skin.

  “The best is yet to come, Cal. Money or none.” He stopped the gentle caress, a smile curving his lips. “We said ‘for richer, for poorer’ in our vows, didn’t we?”

  Callie gave him an answering grin. “It’s just that most times, you think the ‘poorer’ part is going to be the hardest. Oh, what am I worrying about, anyway?”

  “You don’t have to worry, sweetheart.” His tone was serious. “You’ve got me, now. Let me worry for both of us.”

  But Callie shook her head, and Jax could see the love in her eyes, shining bright and hopeful. “No, darling. We have each other. Now, we share the burdens, and the joys; the wonders, and the worries.”

  Jax lowered his head, his mouth coming across hers, hungry and hot, and she moaned at his onslaught. His tongue met hers deliciously, and he nibbled gently at her lip.

  “I love you, Jaxson.”

  He thought of how close he’d come to losing her. How, if he and his brothers hadn’t come home when they did, Treadwell’s plans for her death might have become a reality. He thought of the day he’d met her, and of the determined way she’d looked as she’d tried to shoot Blocker with the little pepperbox derringer in the hotel dining room.

  Saying ‘I love you’ seemed so inadequate. But it was all there was to say, and even though the words were meaningful, they would never, never be enough.

  Jax had never had a woman tell him ‘I love you’ before. Women wanted him to satisfy their needs, but love had somehow eluded him. Now, it was different.
With this woman, he knew he would have to be vocal—often. She was unsure. She needed to hear it. And, he realized, now that she’d started saying it to him regularly, he liked the sound of it.

  “Callie, I-I’m not too good at saying everything I should. Probably say it all wrong, a lot of times.” He glanced away, then, becoming aware of her fingers in his hair, he looked back at her.

  “You don’t say anything wrong, Jax,” she whispered softly, looking into his eyes. “I like to hear it, when you tell me you love me, but I’d know it, even if you never said it again. When you look at me, it’s like cool rain on a hot summer night, like wind in the trees, like—” She blushed.

  “Don’t stop,” he breathed. She was speaking his own thoughts back to him. As if she was looking into his soul. “Like?”

  “Like actually being able to see the sunrise, or the sunset, out here on these plains—not just the hint of it behind the buildings of a city…” Her voice trailed away, and he kissed her once more, gently.

  “That’s because—you are all those things to me, Callie. Especially, the sunrise. But not even the sunrise here. More like sunrise in the Big Sky Country—”

  “Where the sky looks like a big blue bowl turned upside down,” Callie murmured quietly.

  Jax looked down at her, surprised. That was exactly what it looked like, but she’d never been there.

  “Reverend Manley told me all about it,” Callie explained. “I…think he loves it a little bit more than you do, but I suspect it’s because he was born there.”

  Jax gave a short laugh at Callie’s teasing and kissed her nose. “It’s beautiful country. Just like you, chica. Just like you.”

  Callie’s hands moved slowly across Jax’s taut-muscled back and shoulders. The look in her eyes gradually deepened as she met his dark gaze.

  “Can I believe what I see, Callie?” Jax’s voice was raw and husky. “The love? Can you promise me—forever?”

  She nodded and tears welled in her eyes at the uncertainty in his expression. “Oh, Jax, it’ll always be there. I’ll love you til—”

  He hugged her close, rocking gently. “Just promise me forever.”

  “Forever, then,” she whispered, pulling herself completely beneath him. “And start with tonight.”

  “Callie—” he began, his throat tight.

  “Make love to me, Jaxson.”

  Her hand wrapped around him, and he closed his eyes, inhaling sharply. He was at her entrance, but he stopped himself from going into her.

  “What’s wrong?” Her hands reached to cup his firm buttocks and pull him to her.

  “Don’t want to hurt you—” he gritted, fighting the urge to bury himself within her.

  ****

  She understood his hesitancy now. “You aren’t going to hurt me,” she whispered, “or the baby. It’s all right.”

  With a low groan, he slid into her fully, unable to stop himself.

  Callie’s fingers curved into his warm skin, and she bit her lip to keep the moan of pleasure from escaping.

  She bucked beneath him, drawing him deeper and deeper, until finally, he forced himself to shorten his strokes, at the back of his mind, still worrying that he might somehow hurt the child.

  Callie understood why he changed the pace, and she loved him even more for it. “Jaxson, please, I…need you. Like before—harder.”

  He slowed the rhythm a moment, his breathing ragged. “I want it that way too, but—”

  “I asked—Cara Manley. She said it’s all right.”

  “You asked the preacher’s wife?” Jax grinned. “Brazen hussy.”

  “You taught me everything I know.”

  “Including how to ask for the way you want me to—”

  “Jaxson!”

  “Don’t get shy on me now, Callie. Not after asking for it…harder.”

  Callie could feel herself blushing warmly at the quiet challenge in his words.

  Jax ground down into her, slow…and hard…and hot. Callie closed her eyes and bit her lip. He pulled out slowly, deliberately…

  She raised herself toward him, and he moved back. “Jaxson, please—”

  “Shh.” He kissed her to silence, a smile curving his sensuous mouth. “I’ll give you what you want, brat.”

  She bit at his lower lip playfully as he sank into her, deep and full.

  Jax swore, his control evaporating as he shuddered with completion.

  Her inner muscles tightened around him sweetly as she buried her face in his neck, tasting his salty skin, and bit back her own cries of fulfillment. They both lay breathing harshly in the aftermath of their fierce lovemaking. Then, Jaxson carefully moved off of Callie after a moment, lying on his back on top of the covers.

  The room was chilly, but he needed to cool off. He glanced at Callie. She was watching him with a glint of mischief in her eyes.

  She moved languidly, laying her head on his good shoulder. “that was so…perfect.”

  “Oh, no, Mrs. McCall. It will never be perfect. But practicing, that is something we can arrange.” He kissed the top of her head. “I do aim to please.”

  Chapter 31

  Callie awoke the next morning to the comforting kitchen sounds of pots and pans being set on the stove, the oven door creaking as someone opened it. She lay with her eyes shut, trying to identify the wonderful smells that followed. Coffee brewing, bacon frying, and a sugary-sweet aroma that Callie did not recognize.

  She stretched luxuriously, and smiled, feeling Jax’s limbs entangled with hers, skin against skin. She cracked one eye open, then the other. At her movement, he turned, pulling her even closer. With a sigh, she snuggled into the muscular contours of his body. She was safe. She could stop running.

  Through the closed door, the sound of childish laughter filtered in, and Jax and Callie both smiled. She looked up at him and he kissed her nose.

  “Jax? What do we do now? I mean—we don’t have a house, or even know what’s coming next for us.”

  “That’s weighing on you, isn’t it, sweetheart? The uncertainty.”

  It had been always in her mind, she realized. She wasn’t used to it. But, it was more than not having a home. She knew that would come. She’d seen the way Jax’s expression changed when he’d mentioned it before in conversation. He’d wanted a spread of his own, room for the large family he had in mind. Marshalling would take him away from Callie often and long. And, it was too dangerous. He’d like to see his children grow up, and so much could happen in that line of work…

  “What about that ranch you wanted, Jax?” Her eyes captured his, and he gave her a slow smile, coming up on his elbow.

  “We could buy a hell of a place with a million dollars, couldn’t we?” he teased, then became serious. “My father offered me his spread, The Flying M, when we were there yesterday.”

  “So, you made it in time to see him.”

  “Yeah, but—” he glanced away from her. “I turned him down, Cal. His empire—isn’t mine. It’s not what I want for us. What I want—” He looked into her serious expression, then plunged on. “What I want is something new and fresh. A place for you and me, Carlos and the new baby that’s just ours. I want nothing of Jack McCall’s to remind me—” He stopped abruptly, then rolled onto his back, staring at the ceiling. “I know it’s crazy, turning down what he tried to give me, but…can you understand, Callie?”

  “No regrets, Jaxson,” she murmured against his skin. “Life is too short. I’m glad you didn’t take it. Those memories would be there and I—I couldn’t bear to think—” She shook her head. “No. You did the right thing, darling. We’ll make our own place—together.”

  ****

  Tal leaned back in the kitchen chair at the end of the table and began to pack his pipe, a smile on his lips.

  “You’ve been busy this morning, Reverend,” Jeremy said, reaching for the last donut on the plate in the center of the table.

  Tal shot him a quick look, then went back to the pipe. “I visited the sher
iff to explain the events of last night, then the undertaker. Thought I’d take care of those details so that Jax wouldn’t have to be bothered.”

  “Looks like you still got somethin’ weighing on your mind,” Brendan put in, wiping his mouth.

  “I do. You boys know where a man might buy a good size herd of cattle around here?”

  Brendan glanced at Jeremy. Then he said, “There’s a ranch about five hours east of here that might be willing to sell some beef at a good price. What do you think, Jem?”

  Jeremy looked at the preacher. “You going into the ranching business, Reverend?”

  “Been thinking on it, Jem.”

  “Does…this have anything to do with last night? You givin’ up one profession for another, I mean?”

  “Now, son, I didn’t say I was givin’ up anything at all. Just—branching out some.”

  Jeremy smiled. “My mistake.”

  “You lookin’ to buy a whole ranch, sir, or just the beeves?” Brendan asked.

  “Just the meat, son. I plan to take ’em a ways from here. Back home.”

  “Where’s that?”

  “Montana,” Jax said quietly from where he’d come to stand in the doorway. “Big Sky.”

  The preacher looked at him, his smile widening.

  “Well, hello, stranger,” Jeremy quipped with a grin. “Bren wanted to come wake you up, but I wouldn’t let him.”

  Brendan grimaced, but then Jax could see the devilment dancing once more in his brother’s eyes as he spoke. “Everything finally got quiet in there, and we thought maybe you all were asleep after—” he shot Carlos a glance at Jax’s warning expression, then finished with a smile, “—after a hard night.”

  Jax ignored him, his gaze returning to Manley. “Reverend, you planning to leave any time soon? It is December.”

  Tal smiled at Jax’s gentle reminder. “No, son. I figured it’d take a while to buy the stock and get provisioned for the trip. Hoped to head out by the first week in March.”

  “You…got a place up there in mind?”

  “Anywhere north of the Dakota Territory. Where my people are from.”

  The air was charged with a kind of excitement that Jax couldn’t put his finger on. Then, the reverend spoke in a low, resonant voice, his gaze holding Jax’s.