Chapter Twenty-Four

"Well she is pregnant, or at least Maria says she's pretty damn sure she is," Gill stated as he joined Jeb and Craig on the porch of Jeb and Gill's cabin.

"You took her to your mother's?" Jeb asked as he held out his arm and slid it around Gill's legs as the man came to stand beside him.

Craig felt pain fill him at the sight. If Susannah hadn't showed up, if Craig hadn't gotten so damn drunk that night he couldn't remember, then Ezekiel would be here with him now and they'd finally be able to openly show their affection.

"I wanted to get an experts opinion on whether or not there was a babe in her belly."

Jeb raised a brow. "What do you make of her?"

Gill chuckled. "Wonderful woman, really. Riding to town with her was almost as pleasant as riding to town with a bur in my saddle."

Gill met and held Craig's gaze. "I also believe that she's lying."

"I don't understand," Jeb muttered. "What is she getting out of this? Craig is a good man but he doesn't care about her. He's not rich. I just don't understand..."

"It's not that difficult to understand," Craig spoke up. "The madame promised a virgin whore to a rich man. Maybe he's a dangerous man. Maybe he's violent. I don't know. But, Susannah wasn't truly a virgin and then she wound up pregnant. I honestly do think she was scared to stay there and she needed a scapegoat. Who better than the drunkard who can't remember if he bedded her or not?"

"But why keep it going?" Gill inquired.

Craig shrugged. "A free ride. I've promised to keep her up and marry her after the babe's born if it's mine." His shoulders sagged as his gaze dropped to the worn out toes of his dusty boots. "And we all know there just ain't a way to prove it ain't mine."

"It ain't right," Jeb growled. "That bitch is taking advantage of you. You're going to sacrifice your whole life because of her lies. I don't want my brother suffering his life away married to that."

Craig sighed as he stood up slowly. "Don't worry about me, big brother. I made my bed and now I'll have to spend the rest of my life laying in it."

***

Ezekiel rapped his knuckles sharply against Edison's office door. He didn't appreciate having his work interrupted by a house maid informing him Edison wanted to have a word.

"Come on in, Ezekiel."

Ezekiel pulled his hat from his head and rubbed at his wiry hair as he stepped inside. "You wanted to see me?"

Edison pointed to the chair in front of the desk. "Please, sit down."

Ezekiel's muddy boots left tracks on the polished floor as he strode to the chair and flopped down. "I'm a bit busy today, Edison. We need to make this quick."

Edison nodded, folded his hands on the desk and met Ezekiel's gaze. "Fair enough. You've become a rather big asshole lately."

Ezekiel blinked several times as Edison simply continued to look at him politely. "Is that right?" Ezekiel asked.

Edison nodded. "Yes. I've received more than a few complaints. You've been physically abusive to several hands....."

"I haven't...."

"You threw Chester into a corral with an angry stallion," Edison countered. "Threw him. Over the fence and flat on his backside into the dust."

Ezekiel's right shoulder rose and fell. "The stallion needed to be broken and Chester was bragging about how good a horse tamer he was."

Edison didn't seem to find humor in the situation and, honestly, neither did Ezekiel. Of course, he hadn't found humor in anything in weeks.

"The men used to respect you because they admired you. You were fair and decent with them. Now, they're respect comes more from fear and they're beginning to think about leaving my ranch. That is a problem, Ezekiel."

"Over Chester and the goddamn horse?" Ezekiel growled.

Edison slammed his hand down in a rare show of temper. "You know good and well that you've been mean and abusive and angry ever since he left. You are upset that life was less than kind to you and you are taking it out on everyone around you. You are self-destructing!"

Ezekiel huffed and threw himself back against the chair. "I'm just fine, dammit. He has nothing to do with it."

Edison's expression softened as he tilted his head and studied Ezekiel. "He has everything to do with it. You're broken-hearted and broken-hearted men tend to act like loud, angry fools."

Ezekiel shoved himself to his feet and paced the floor to the empty fireplace. He stared down at the ash covered, fire scorched stone and swallowed hard. "He was a mistake."

"Is that why you're angry? Because you feel you made a mistake?"

Ezekiel didn't turn to look at the older man. To anyone else he would have yelled, hollered and demanded they keep their mouth closed about his personal business. But Edison wasn't just anyone. "Yeah," he replied, gripping the wooden mantle in front of him.

"And what exactly was the mistake?" Edison inquired. "Falling in love with Craig or allowing him to leave without you?"

Ezekiel's neck turned sharply and he glared at Edison. "I did let anyone leave. I went to town the next morning, the morning he was supposed to leave, and I heard from Phillip at the mercantile that he'd run off with that damn woman and was going to marry her. Apparently, she was over the moon about the whole thing and tickled pink that he loved her."

Goddamn.

That hurt.

Saying those words out loud, giving them a voice and breath and life had them tearing him apart all over again.

Edison let out a patient sigh and stood slowly. He filled two glasses with scotch and made his way to Ezekiel.

Ezekiel stared at the man's offering of amber liquid before taking the glass and throwing back every bit of it in one swallow—enjoying the slow burn that worked its way down into his gut.

"I'll admit that Craig didn't say much when he came here to let me know he'd be leaving town. I didn't push for details either. I could see the pain and confliction written all over the man's face."

Ezekiel merely grunted, strode to Edison's decanter of scotch and refilled his glass, downing the second one just as quickly as the first.

"I've seen love a few times, Ezekiel. I've seen it written on the faces of several men. I've even seen it written on Craig's—but not that day."

Still Ezekiel didn't speak. What was there to say?

Edison sat his untouched glass of scotch on the mantle and turned to face Ezekiel. "The man was in love with you, Ezekiel, much the same as you were him. Now, I don't know the details of what happened with him and that woman but I do know that you're both stubborn, strong-willed men without any real communication skills to speak of. Craig was finding his way here and he was finding himself with you."

"What the hell do you want me to say?" Ezekiel demanded. "Yes, I love him. Is that what you want to hear? Yes, I turned my back on him to save myself a hell of a lot of pain...."

"And did it work?" Edison asked, his graying eyebrow quirking upward. "Were you spared any pain?"

Ezekiel fell down hard in an empty chair. "No."

"I did a bit of digging about Susannah," Edison stated as he too returned to his seat. "Something I'm sure you didn't do given your stubborn nature."

Ezekiel glared but said nothing as he sat up a bit straighter and waiting impatiently for Edison to speak again.

Edison folded his hands on his desk. "She was fairly new to town and to the brothel. There was rather wealthy man who made a deal with the Madame for Susannah. And she had recently been to the doctor with suspicions that she was with child."

"Craig's child," Ezekiel growled, his hands clenching into tight fists on his thighs.

Edison tilted his head. "Perhaps. Of course, she and the madame approached at least three other men before approaching Craig. It seemed that all those before Craig, laughed at the woman's accusations. Craig was the first man to take the bait so to speak."

"That goddamn, heifer, bitch!" Ezekiel growled as he shot to his feet. "She lied. She lied to Craig and she lied to the store keep! Of course Craig didn't turn her away... He's an orphan for christsake! And he spent a good part of his life helping orphans. Kids and family are his weakness."

Ezekiel stopped speaking when he realized he'd been rambling a loud. He turned his attention to Edison who was grinning in his chair. "I will take that as your letter of resignation. If you're ever back around this way, you better stop in to visit."

Ezekiel swallowed hard. "But what if I'm too late?" he asked. "It's been weeks. What if he has fallen in love with her?"

Edison stood up and walked around the desk. He laid a comforting hand on Ezekiel's shoulder. "Impossible. The look the man had on his face when he was with you was a look that only comes around once in an entire lifetime. Go to him, Ezekiel. And learn to communicate, please? I'm an old man. I can't be doing all the work for you forever."