Page 76 of In Honor’s Defense

An extra loud sniff echoed from the doorway. Luke glanced up to find Nate leaning against the wall, a mischievous grin stretched across his face. “Guess I did you both a favor with that stunt, then, huh? You’re welcome.”

Luke chuckled as he loosened his grip on Damaris and returned her feet to the floor. “All that proves, you rascal, is that the Almighty can bring good out of any trial.”

A fact that had been proven true several times during the past few weeks.

A fact Luke prayed would be borne out again when he loaded Nate and Damaris onto the train that afternoon in Huntsville.

When the moment came and they left his side to board the passenger car bound for San Antonio, Luke’s heart throbbed painfully in his chest. He kept telling himself the separation was necessary, but that didn’t make it any easier. It just meant he’d have to find Harbinger’s henchman fast. Get him in custody and the land development company under government scrutiny so his family could come home.

Luke waved to Nate through the window, then turned his gaze to Damaris. When she put her hand to the glass, he swore he could feel her palm press against his chest like it had back in the kitchen.

A whistle pierced the air, and the train lurched forward. A sudden panic speared through him, but Luke tamped down the irrational fear as he walked the length of the platform, keeping their window in sight as long as possible. They’d be fine. Matt would be waiting for them at the depot. Luke reached the end of the platform and lifted a hand in farewell. Really, he had nothing to worry about. They were surrounded by dozens of passengers—

A pair of faces in the last car snagged his attention as the train rumbled out of the station. One refined, blond, and arrogant. The other dark, dangerous, and smirking as he raised a hand in silent, sarcastic salute. The lawyer and the rustler.

No!

Luke bounded off the platform and chased after the train, yelling for it to stop. But it chugged on, spitting steam and gaining speed, taking his family out of reach.

God help him. He’d just put Damaris and Nate on a train with the very people who were trying to kill them.

CHAPTER

THIRTY-FIVE

Ignoring the stares of the people milling about the platform, Luke raced back to the depot. For a heartbeat he considered veering to the street, leaping on Titan, and giving chase to the train. But by the time he untied the horse and wove through the buildings, the train would have gathered too much steam and be too far away to reach. Even now it was fading into the distance. Better to save Titan’s strength for a strategy that had a better chance of success.

So instead of attempting dime-novel heroics, he dodged luggage carts and family reunions to get to the telegraph office. Pulse pounding and lungs heaving, he scribbled a message on a telegram blank and shoved it through the barred window.

Thugs on train. Might take Baxters to Austin. Heading there. Send the troops.

“I need this wired immediately.” Luke slapped a silver dollar on the counter, almost double the fee required. “Do it while I watch, and you can keep the change.”

The clerk’s eyes widened at the brusque demand. His gaze moved to the gun strapped to Luke’s thigh, then crawled up the length of him. His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat as he tentatively reached for the form. Slugs moved faster than this fellow.

“Hop to it, man.” Luke thumped his hand on the counter, the clap making the clerk jump. “It’s an emergency.”

“Y-Yes, sir.”

The fellow scurried away from the counter and nearly knocked his chair over in his haste to take his seat at the telegraph table.

How had Mullins known about the train? Luke had told no one in Madisonville of their plans. Except . . . The clicking of the telegraph key pecked at Luke’s skull like a woodpecker on a pine tree. His hand balled into a fist. Except the telegraph operator when he’d wired Matt this morning.

The telegrapher must have tipped off Mullins. Probably unintentionally. The postmaster who doubled as telegraph operator back in Madisonville was a bit of a gossip, and a lawyer could easily mine him for information, especially if he professed to be helping Nate and Damaris. With the slower travel speed of the Baxter wagon, Mullins could have easily beaten them to Huntsville on horseback. And if he’d avoided the roads, Luke never would have seen him.

He’d missed it. Luke bumped the pad of his fisted hand against the wall, wishing he could clobber the thin wood. After Nate’s arrest, Luke had been suspicious of Mullins, and he’d known the lawyer profited from the sales he brokered for Harbinger, but he hadn’t actually thought the lawyer capable of consorting with a murderer. He’d been fooled by the suit and fancy education. Mullins didn’t fit the mold of the coarse outlaws the Horsemen usually pitted themselves against, yet it seemed he was equally corrupt. Maybe more so. Outlaws didn’t pretend to be something they weren’t. They waved their guns right in a man’s face. Mullins hid his treachery behind a smile and his crimes behind conveniently orchestrated accidents.

The truth Luke had failed to see glared at him like a blinding shaft of sunlight.

Mullins wasn’t just consorting with a killer. He was giving the orders.

Damaris and Nate would flee from the man who attacked them, but if Mullins approached them alone, they wouldn’t recognize the threat. Which gave the lawyer a tactical advantage.

One Luke had to find a way to neutralize.

The telegrapher ceased clicking the key and turned his face in Luke’s direction. “It’s sent, sir. Do you want to wait for a reply?”

“No.” He pushed away from the counter, ready to stalk out, but a railroad map tacked to the wall at his left snagged his attention. He strode over to it and traced the various rail lines leading to Austin.