His face hardened as he took another step toward her. “You want us out of your life? Then you know what you have to do. Sign that property over to us and we’ll never bother you again.”
She tried to turn and race for the doorway, but her feet tangled in her skirts and he was on top of her before she could regain her footing. He slammed her back, hard, against the wall, knocking the breath out of her lungs.
Screaming was impossible with his forearm pressed hard against her throat. “I could kill you right now,” he growled, “and no one would ever know what happened to you. Break your neck. Make it look like an unfortunate accident. The poor Widow Dorchester tragically killed, falling from her ladder while dusting in her shop. Then the property would revert to us as next of kin. You sure you want to risk—”
The bell jangled. “Katie, I thought—you son of a bitch!” Joe roared, and suddenly Katie could breathe again as the pressure of Dorchester’s arm disappeared.
She sank to the floor, coughing and clutching her throat as Joe punched the other man, sounds of inarticulate rage coming from him.
Shelby Ainsley chose that minute to walk through the door. While Shelby stared for a moment, shocked, Katie regained her voice and her wits. “Shelby! Go get the sheriff, quick!” The woman turned and bolted into the street, screaming for help.
Edward had managed to land a few blows of his own. Now the men were scuffling, evenly matched, and Katie feared for Joe’s safety. As her senses returned, Katie clambered to her feet and grabbed the shotgun. She cocked it and placed the end of the barrel against the back of Edward’s head.
“Give me a reason, you son of a whore!” she screamed. “Give me a damned good reason not to kill you right now!”
Edward froze as Joe broke free and got to his feet. He stepped around her and gently took the shotgun from her trembling hands. He’d have a darned good shiner by nightfall, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, but he didn’t look nearly as bad off as Dorchester.
“Go outside, Katie,” Joe softly said. “Go help Shelby get the sheriff.”
She started to comply, but when she read the blackness in his expression, she knew if she stepped through that door that Joe would kill the man.
She couldn’t let him do that no matter how much Dorchester deserved it. She grabbed a kerchief from her pocket, wet the corner with spit, and dabbed at the blood on his mouth. “I can’t do that. I can’t leave you.” Something about his gaze terrified her. This was more than about what he’d witnessed, she’d swear it. “I won’t leave you,” she insisted.
“Please,” Joe whispered. “I’m going to take care of this once and for all.”
“My father’s a powerful man!” Edward threatened. “You kill me, you’re dead!”
She landed a hard kick to his tailbone, making him howl in pain. She would never admit how good that made her feel. “Shut up! You’re lucky I didn’t blast your head off myself, you damned piece of no-count trash!”
The sheriff, followed by Ben Ainsley, burst through the door. “Joe! What in blue blazes is going on!”
Katie quickly told the story. By this time, several more men crowded in, all of them frowning as they heard what happened.
Joe wouldn’t let Dorchester up from the floor, but that didn’t stop Dorchester from trying to lie about what happened. “That’s not true! I just stopped by, wantin’ to pay my respects to my sister-in-law is—”
Joe knocked him hard in the back of the head with the gun stock. “Yeah, that’s why you had her on the floor, choking the life out of her! Were you planning on raping her, too, you bastard?”
The sheriff nodded to two of his deputies, who hauled Dorchester roughly off the floor but didn’t release him.
“What is she to you anyway?” Dorchester sneered at Joe. “This is family business!”
Joe stepped in, inches from the other man’s face. “Because she’s my fiancée, asshole.”
That elicited gasps from the gathered crowd, and an angry look from Dorchester. “You’re gonna regret stepping in the middle of this, Lansing. I would have thought you’d learned not to mess with my family and what’s ours.”
Before Katie could stop him, Joe hauled off and punched him again. The sheriff looked at his deputies. “You saw Dorchester fall and hit his head, right?”
All the men nodded.
The sheriff nodded, satisfied. “Joe, Katie, congratulations.” He smiled. “You want to press charges, I’m guessing?”
Joe nodded, his jaw set. “Damn straight we do.” He looked at Katie, his face finally softening. “Right?”
She nodded. “Right.”
The sheriff grinned. “Good. Haul him off to a cell.” He laughed. “I’m gonna enjoy this one. Dorchester Senior’s gonna find out real fast he don’t have enough money to buy out the sheriff in Brooksville.”
Once the crowd dispersed, Joe stepped forward and closed and locked the shop door, then flipped the sign to closed and led her to the privacy of the back room and drew the curtain shut so no one could see them.
He pulled her to him. “Are you okay, sweetheart?”
She laughed then started crying as she trembled in his arms.
“What? What’s wrong?” He moved her to the bed where he sat, pulling her down to him. “What’s the matter?”
She laughed again, tears still coursing down her cheeks as she shook her head. “I’m now engaged, but what happens if Mason finds out before you talk to him?”
He swore. “Sweetheart, I’m so sorry. It…just slipped out.”
Fear pulled at her heart. “You didn’t mean it?”
“No! I mean yes, I meant it.” He caught her hands. “I just didn’t mean to do it like that.” He kissed her fingers, his blue gaze capturing her soul. His voice softened. “Would you please do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
He kissed her, stealing all thoughts of their troubles right from her mind. When she could finally form a coherent thought again, she looked up. “Not that I’m complaining in the least, but why did you show up? I wasn’t expecting you until later.”
He smiled. “To see if you wanted to come to lunch with me.” His smile faded. “Thank God I did. That filthy bastard, I wanted to kill him.”
“I know.” She wrapped her arms around him. “Tell me why. That wasn’t just anger at him for hurting me, was it?”
Joe finally shook his head.
Katie stroked his cheek and gently kissed his bruised eye. “Tell me. What did he mean that he thought you’d learned?”
He told her the story about his fiancée, and not only did she feel angry, she felt even deeper fear. She remembered rumors about Edward getting jilted for another and the woman then dying soon after, but had never made the connection before. “Oh, Joe. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t you dare apologize for something you had no hand in.” He kissed her. “I swear to you, we’ll get him locked away.”
“What do we do about Mason?”
He sighed. “I told you, I’ll talk to him. I’ll ask Sheriff Birch if he’s heard any word from the posse.”
She poured him a basin of water so he could clean up. Then he coaxed her into going with him to eat at the little restaurant in the hotel on the main square across from the courthouse. At the restaurant, it seemed as if everyone in Brooksville came up to them and congratulated them on their pending nuptials.
No one seemed a bit upset about Dorchester sitting in Sheriff Birch’s jail.
Finally, during a lull in the well-wishes, she leaned close across the table. “You’d better have that talk awfully fast with Mason,” she whispered. “I don’t want him hearing it from someone else. Word’s spreading like wildfire.”
He grimly nodded. “I’m considering riding up after them myself.”
“Maybe you should.”