“No,” Randall said in a low voice.“And I think she knew it.”
“What do you expect me to do about it?”Rafe hid his fear for Shea under a veneer of indifference.“Because of you, I’m rather occupied at the moment, and the whole damn town seems to have plans for me.”
“Tyler …” Randall stopped and put his hands to his face for a moment, as if hiding while gathering courage.He tried again.“I can’t take back what was done years ago.If you had come to me months ago, I would have given you everything I had.”
“Everything wouldn’t be enough,” Rafe said bitterly as he turned to face Randall.“You could have come forward any time during those ten years.You could have stopped this.”He held out his hand.“Look at it, Randall.The least you can do, God damn you, is look at it!”
Randall remained still under the force of Rate’s fury, resisting the urge to step back.He was losing.He knew he was losing.“So you seduced an innocent girl?”he snapped back.
Rafe smiled grimly.“Is that what she told you?”
“She didn’t have to tell me.Is that how a man like you gets revenge, Tyler?”His anger now was as great as Rafe’s.
Rafe would have killed him if he could have reached him.He tried, dammit, he tried.He lunged toward Randall, but the chain was already taut, and he fell to his knees.
He wanted to roar with frustration and humiliation.Instead, he froze, trying to school his emotions, refusing to give Randall a glimpse of what he had unleashed.
Rafe felt the moments ticking away.Randall was absolutely still.He had not backed up, had not moved.When Rafe slowly straightened and looked into his face, he was startled to find an agony that matched his own.
“You said you have an offer?”Rafe was surprised to find his voice steady.
“If you help me find Shea, safe, I’ll tell the authorities what really happened ten years ago.”
Rafe looked down at the chains holding him.
“I’ll help you escape,” Randall said simply.
“What makes you think I won’t kill you once I’m out of here?”
“I’ll take that chance.”
“How do I know you won’t renege on the offer?”
“You don’t,” Randall said.“You have to take that chance.”
“You mean we have to trust each other?”Rafe said with contempt.
“Up to a point.”Randall turned away.“You were a man of your word.”
“You weren’t.It seems you get the best of the bargain.”
“Yes,” Randall said, his self-contempt obvious, “I get the best of the bargain.”He hesitated, then added wearily, “Do you know where they keep the keys to those irons?”
“Downstairs.I’m a dangerous character.They wouldn’t chance a deputy venturing too close.”
Randall leaned down, pulled up the left leg of his trousers and took a derringer that had been tucked in his boot.He held it just out of Rafe’s reach.“Your word you’ll help me find her?”
“And you’ll confess your part in the payroll robberies?”Rafe said.
Randall nodded.
“And the recent murders?”
“I didn’t have anything to do with those.”
“But your friend McClary did.”
Just then they heard footfalls on the steps.There was no time for more conversation.“In case anything goes wrong when I try to get the keys,” Randall said, “go after her.”He handed the derringer to Rafe, who slipped it in the waist of his trousers and pulled his shirt out to cover it.
