Page 87 of I Do, I Do, I Do
“You can tell your reasons to the Mounties when they get here. Until then, it’s best for everyone if you’re confined.”
To Zoe’s surprise, none of her nervousness appeared in her voice. She sounded steady and sure of herself. It helped that she had a rifle and Horvath only had a hammer. And it helped that she’d been a fighter all her life. Men like Horvath, cowardly little men who blamed others for their own shortcomings and who shot people in the back, didn’t scare her—at least not much.
“Well, ladies. I ain’t gonna be arrested. And I ain’t gonna confine myself to no tent. The Mounties ain’t coming, and if they did, they’d recognize my right to punish the man who cheated me out of my saloon.”
“You’re the one who bet your saloon on a hand of cards, Mr. Horvath,” Juliette called in tones of deep disapproval. “It’s not honorable to blame another for your lapse of judgment. Or to accuse someone of cheating because the cards didn’t fall your way. You are no gentleman, sir!”
Hatred blazed from his tiny raisin eyes. “You go on, now. Git. And you can tell Bear Barrett and his whore that next time no one will rescue them. Next time they’re dead!”
Zoe narrowed her eyes and spoke with authority. “Drop the hammer, Mr. Horvath, and walk down this path.”
“I ain’t gonna do that. Ain’t you listening?” He looked back and forth between them. “Now git.”
Juliette stood tall behind her rock. “If you don’t come with us now, Mr. Horvath, then Miss Wilder will have to shoot you. We genuinely regret having to shoot you, I hope you understand that, and we apologize in advance. But since you’ve threatened to kill our friends, we have no choice.” She nodded to Zoe. “I think you should fire a warning shot now.”
Zoe wiped snow from the top of the boulder, then brought up the rifle and let him see it. She decided a small lie was in order. “I’ve killed dozens of men, Mr. Horvath, and I won’t hesitate to kill you, too, if I must. But I’d prefer not to. So do as we ask and walk down the hill to your tent.”
He glanced at the rifle and looked hard at Zoe. Then he pursed his lips and nodded. “Looks like you got me,” he said finally. “Let me put away my tools and get my jacket, then we’ll go.”
The instant he stepped inside the cabin, Juliette called in a low voice. “It’s going splendidly, don’t you think?”
“Unless he went in the cabin to get a gun.” Zoe chewed her lip and watched the unfinished doorway. Maybe this was a trick.
“Oh.” Juliette considered. “Well, if you think he has a gun in there, why didn’t you shoot him?”
“Because maybe he really is surrendering.”
He wasn’t. Horvath appeared in the doorway of the cabin with a pistol in each hand. Before Zoe could react to what she saw, a bullet glanced off her boulder, spraying up chips of granite. One of the chips hit her cheek, and she felt a trickle of blood as she ducked down.
“Things are really going our way now,” Juliette called. Her voice came from low and behind her rock. “He’s trying to kill us, so we can kill him back. I believe that’s the law. No one will arrest us for killing someone who’s trying to kill us. And he fired first.” She shouted at Horvath. “It’s extremely ungentlemanly to shoot at women, Mr. Horvath. Have you no shame? I demand that you cease and desist. This is your last chance.”
In answer, bullets peppered the rocks in front of them.
“Well, there you are,” Juliette called to Zoe. “The man has no concept of propriety. He’s an incorrigible. We’ve warned him and we’ve explained. So why aren’t you shooting at him?”
“I’d like to, damn it. But I have to see to fire, and I’m afraid he’ll shoot off my head if I lift it above the rock.”
“You didn’t think of this before now? Really, Zoe.”
Zoe ground her teeth together and wondered how many shots Horvath had fired. She’d lost count. But she did know that things had changed and now Horvath held the high cards. She and Juliette were pinned down, unable to retreat without exposing themselves. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that he would kill them both given half a chance.
Rising on her knees, facing the rock, she slid the rifle barrel up on top of the granite and squeezed off a blind shot. Ignoring Juliette’s applause, she took a second shot. For all she could tell, the rifle barrel was resting on a bump and aimed at the sky. Or maybe she’d hit the cabin. The odds of actually hitting Horvath were slim, damn it.
A rain of bullets showered the rocks that protected them. When she heard Horvath laugh she knew she hadn’t hit him.
“You bitches have to show yourselves sometime, and when you do, you’re dead. You hear me? Dead.”
“Did you hear that?” Juliette crowed. “He threatened us. We’ve got him now. But I wish you’d hurry up and shoot him. I’m getting cold.”
“Well, I’m trying!”
Zoe managed a couple more shots and then took stock of their situation. As long as she continued to fire in Horvath’s general direction, he wouldn’t advance on them and come down the path. But she and Juliette couldn’t withdraw without exposing themselves. And Zoe was getting cold, too.
“We’re stuck,” she said finally, calling to Juliette. “I can’t get a decent shot, and we can’t retreat without Horvath killing us.”
She had come to the Yukon with no illusions. She had planned to shoot and kill Jean Jacques Villette, and she had expected to hang for his murder. She had come to terms with Jean Jacques’s death and with her own before she left Seattle.
But now, hunkered down behind the granite boulder while bullets whizzed over her head, she understood that everything had changed. She didn’t want to die. Not by hanging, not by getting shot. She wanted to live happily ever after with Tom Price. She didn’t even care if they ended in Newcastle as long as they were together.
