“How can I do this to you, Roman?” she asked his memory. “You do not love me, but you want to love your child. How can I possibly take that chance away from you?”
But how could she give up the child? The precious babe was all she had left of Roman, and she loved the tiny being every bit as much as she loved its father.
She shivered suddenly as the cool evening breeze strengthened into a strong wind. Dusk became darker as black clouds gathered in the rolling sky above. The wind picked up her hair and sent it lashing at her face.
Fear of the impending storm told her to flee. Misery forced her to her knees.
“Roman,” she whispered. She closed her eyes. Raindrops mingled with her tears. Soundless sobs shook her frame.
But she stilled instantly when she felt a large hand curl around her shoulder and strong fingers dig into her flesh.
She opened her eyes. Two men stared down at her, both smiling grins she’d seen before.
They wore rat hats.
Fear licked at her like a serpent’s tongue.
“It’s a small, small world, ain’t it Gordie?” Burris Jister said.
Gordie chuckled. “Yeah, Burris, real small.” He reached down and fingered a damp gold curl.
“Nice to see you again, purty lady. Saw you walkin’ down the road a while ago and thought we’d foller you.”
The country fair outside town, Theodosia thought hysterically. She’d walked straight past it!
“Why didn’t you come to the fair, purty lady?” Gordie asked, still holding a lock of gold hair. “It’s over now.”
Burris nodded. “Too bad y’didn’t come. We made us a bundle. Thought y’ruined us forever that day in Kidder Pass, huh? Yeah, well, it took us a long time, but we got our games runnin’ again.”
Theodosia screamed when Gordie yanked her to her feet.
He slapped her full across the face. “The day the sheriff and deputy of Kidder Pass took us away, we told you we wouldn’t forget what you done, lady.”
Burris jerked her away from his brother and leered into her eyes. “We told you that somewhere, someday we’d meet up again, and that day’s here. And since that long-haired bodyguard o’ yours ain’t with you no more, there ain’t nobody to stop us from makin’ you pay for what you done to us.”
Revenge.The Jisters wanted revenge. Comprehension exploded into Theodosia’s mind, just as lightning and thunder crashed through the black sky.
With a strength she never realized she had, she tore free of Burris’s hold and, blinded by rain and tears, raced toward a rickety lean-to she’d seen earlier. As she ran, she heard the Jisters’ heavy footsteps behind her, swore she felt their hot breaths on her neck, and remembered the day she’d tried to flee from the Blanco y Negro Gang.
Today was the same. Rain battered down on her.
Thunder shook through her. Evil chased her, and lightning flamed above her.
The only difference was that there was no enchanted hill upon which to wish for Roman.
In the next moment a scream rent the air. Seething with fear, grief, and defeat, the cry had no end but tore from her throat on an unbroken stream of misery.
And then without warning, gunfire silenced her.
The heavy footsteps behind her faded and finally disappeared. She no longer felt hot breath on her neck.
The evil chased her no more.
She stopped, thoroughly bewildered, when she saw the Jisters running out of the rain-swept field as if haunted by a thousand demons.
She caught sight of him then. Sheets of rain tried to veil him from her view, but she knew who he was.
He was mounted, and his gray stallion stood pawing the mud. His long raven hair blew all around him, like a black halo.
