Page 98 of The Outlaw and the Heir

Elias smirked. “And you as well. But you'll enjoy your time with me a lot more than he will...if you behave."

"Yes, and behaving has always been what I'm known for," I said dryly.

"I let you get away with too much before," he said with a snort. "I won't make the same mistake again. You'll learn to behave."

"Disgusting," Joseph piped up because he’d never been able to keep his mouth shut,apparently. "You really lowered yourself to...that?"

The question was directed at Ambrose from the way Joseph glared, but Elias answered, turning around to look at him. "Don't be so rude, Joseph. I assure you my Sammy can be quite persuasive when he wants to be."

"Stop," Joseph hissed, and I stared at him, my mouth parting in surprise. I felt Elizabeth nudge me, letting out a soft sound like a whimper. I barely noticed that her movements accidentally knocked the knife attached to my upper arm loose and forced it to slide down the sleeve of my shirt and onto my pant leg.

"Holyshit," I managed to gasp, staring at Joseph in open shock. "No fucking wonder you were so hellbent on making it seem like they weren't in the area, like they weren't active.You've been working with them. And you're going to judgeus?"

"It wasn't supposed to go like this!" Joseph snapped, shooting to his feet and jabbing a finger at us. Elizabeth flinched, and I felt her twist, hand gripping the knife that had fallen out. I couldn't help but admire her tenacity and self-control. Despite what was happening, she was still thinking ahead, and I quickly got to work sawing through my ropes. "They were just supposed to cause trouble in the area, chase the other ranchers out, and make the town rely on us more! They?—"

"You son of a bitch!" Ambrose roared, getting almost all the way to his feet before leaping forward. Even Elias was caught off guard and didn't have a chance to grab hold of him before Ambrose slammed into his brother, bringing them to the ground with a tremendous crash. Elizabeth shrieked and flailed on the ground, legs kicking, but it seemed no one noticed the knifeshe'd taken from me sliding across the floor to stop between her father's legs or that I had sliced through my ropes.

Which made complete sense as Ambrose was bellowing and Joseph wasn't much better. Even with his hands tied behind his back, Ambrose was getting some good blows in. Most involved slamming his forehead into Joseph's face and using his knees to slam into whatever else he could reach. It might have been a little ridiculous if it wasn't for the fact that Ambrose was going at it full force the whole time.

"Now, don't be doin' all that," Elias said with a laugh as he bent to grab Ambrose off the ground and yank him up. I looked around the room, surprised to see the two men who’d brought the three of us in were gone, apparently having left when Elias had said to and not just backing up. That left only Elias and his two men, all three of whom were distracted.

I winced as Ambrose slumped, body sagging as Elias drove a fist into his gut. All three were still distracted, and I tucked my legs under me, hoping my back didn't give me too much trouble, and pushed forward. One of the two guards twisted as I leaped at him, but there wasn't much he could do as my knife found a spot between his ribs and drove into his heart. I twisted it, and all he could manage was a soft gasp, his body going rigid then limp. I caught him fumbling with the gun in his holster, but I got hold of it before the other man barreled into me, apparently much quicker than his buddy had been.

I grunted, and the gun flew from my hand as the body and I hit the ground, unable to stop the gasp that was torn out of me as my back hit the floor. Pandemonium had erupted in the room, and I heard shouts and bangs as I fought to get my breath back and try to help. With another heaving gasp, I forced myself to roll over and push to my feet and, upon getting partially up, saw the room was a disaster area.

The other two men apparently hadn't retreated far and had come bursting in. The man who had tackled me to the ground was still there, a hole in his back and his eyes unseeing. The source was clear as the only gun in the room was the one in Elizabeth's shaking hands. Well, they were shaking, but they still managed to hold the gun toward Elias with a sufficiently steady hand.

"I mean it," Elizabeth said, her voice far steadier than it had any right to be. "Pull your guns or make another move, and it will be your boss with a hole in him, not just one of your friends."

"I have to say," Elias said, still holding onto Ambrose, who looked like he’d taken another blow while I was down, "you were not the one I was expecting to give me trouble. You sure you can hit me before they get to you?"

"My hand is plenty steady," she said. "Enough to shoot you anyway."

"And when they gun you down for shooting me?"

"You'll still be dead. I'm sure you don't want that."

"I do like living," he admitted. "Maybe after all this is over, I'll take you and Sammy with me. The both of you will be such?—"

No one had been paying attention to Ambrose, who straightened so quickly there was no way he hadn't been faking how badly he was hurt. I saw his hand slide from inside of his boot, and the flash of a knife was followed by a bright red line across Elias' neck. The blood dribbled down his neck and shirt, soaking it.

His two goons were quick to step forward, but Elizabethandher father were quicker. The man might have been older, but he drew fast from his belt, and Elizabeth had been right. Her aim was steady enough to shoot again, just not at Elias. Father and daughter each took down a man as Elias stumbled forward, his hand going to his neck, eyes wide with shock.

One bloodied hand reached for me, and I took a step back. “I think not, Elias. You're going to Hell without anyone giving you comfort."

Ambrose kicked the back of Elias' knees out and shoved him to the floor. “I told ya I was gonna kill ya. Now die quick."

It was a brutality I’d never seen from Ambrose, but not one part of me was intimidated or worried. Elias had come to the ranch, willing to burn the whole place down for a chance to enter Ambrose's home to round up his family. He had planned to take his father and then...well, whatever I was to him—and had followed it up by threatening to take Elizabeth as well. Elias' greatest mistake had been threatening everything Ambrose held dear and then underestimating how dangerous a desperate and protective man could be.

For once in his life, Elias did as someone else ordered him to do and died in seconds. He still had that shocked look on his face when he gave a long, rattling breath, a final attempt at clinging to life that was never going to happen. I imagined he would still have that same stupid look on his face when he rolled into Hell, not believing someone could get the jump on him so easily. In the end, his death had come, as I'd once told him, from an unexpected place and because he was too arrogant to see how dangerous a situation was. That wasn't my way of separating from a former lover, my current one killing him, but it was the cleanest way.

"And you," Ambrose snarled, twisting around to find his brother still standing by the chair, utterly dumbfounded.

"Woah woah woah!" I called out as Ambrose advanced on him, knife clenched in his hand. I wrapped my hand around his wrist and held tight. "Ambrose...don't."

"He's the reason all of this happened!" Ambrose snapped at me, tugging at my hold, but I gripped him tighter. "Do you knowhow many men died because of him? And he was just going to sit there and let them take our father, our sister, and...andyou."

"I know," I told him softly, tugging his wrist so I could set a hand on his chest. "But this is your rage and your pain talking, not you. We both knowyouwould never be able to live with yourself if you killed your brother. He's dung, no, he's lower than that because dung actually has a use around here. He's a foul, backstabbing traitor who was willing to help a murderous bunch of outlaws hurt people because of his own ambitions. And he was willing to sit there and do nothing as the people you love were threatened by one of the foulest men I've known. But if you kill him, you will never be able to take that back. You will have to live with it for the rest of your days. Are you prepared to do that?"

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