Page 5 of The Runaway Heiress (The Gilded West)

Chapter Five

G ray had broken the only rule Sinclair had given him.

He had become personally involved. This was supposed to be a job like any other.

Protect the target until it was time to bring him down.

LaSalle was the target. His niece wasn’t supposed to figure into things.

She was someone in LaSalle’s sphere, so she was someone they had to protect, but she wasn’t important to their mission.

Gray wasn’t supposed to touch her. Kiss her. Begin to lose his heart to her. Two weeks had passed since he’d blasted through that boundary and he could still feel her in his hands, taste her on his lips.

“You seem agitated. Everything all right?”

Gray hadn’t realized he was staring into the window of the dress shop until Sinclair’s voice interrupted the downward spiral of his thoughts.

Sophie was in there for another fitting for her wedding gown where she had been all evening.

She usually went after hours, when Martine could focus on her alone.

The shopkeeper was her friend, so he assumed much of that time was spent lamenting her upcoming wedding in the privacy of the shop.

“I’m fine.” Gray turned toward the street where he should have been facing the entire time. Any threat would come from that direction, not inside.

Sinclair didn’t seem convinced. He glanced through the window, but he wouldn’t see anything. The women had already disappeared into the back room.

“We haven’t had a chance to talk much since we learned of the wedding.” He stepped close and kept his voice low as his gaze took in the shadows around them. “I’ve heard back and it’s confirmed. Everything will come together at the wedding.”

They had discussed this plan before. All of LaSalle’s associates and even some enemies would be in attendance. It would be the perfect time to get them all together and arrest them at once. It made sense, but Gray didn’t like it.

“You’re sure they’re coming?” he asked.

Sinclair nodded. “I saw Miss Buchanan updating the guest list myself, and later I looked at the responses she received. Every last one of them is planning to attend.”

Finally, they would all face justice. LaSalle had spent the last several years building his empire.

He was attempting to buy up all of the land with mining potential, whether people wanted to sell to him or not.

If they refused, he’d use force or coercion to make them.

Sometimes people went missing or were found dead.

He never got his own hands dirty, which is why it was taking so long to bring him to justice.

He used a couple of different companies and hired men, including his good friend Beaudin, to handle the negotiations.

Sinclair, a deputy marshal, had been working to get him for a couple years already and finally had evidence of all involved.

The problem facing Sinclair the past couple months was getting them all in one place.

For a while, it looked like they would have to take the chance and arrest them separately.

The big issue with that was coordinating the operation so they were all arrested at the same time.

Even the difference of a couple hours would leave it to chance that someone would find out and go on the run.

The wedding was the perfect opportunity to get them all together in one place, which eliminated that problem.

“I still don’t like it.” Gray had voiced his concern with this plan when they first conceived of it. “It puts Miss Buchanan in danger.”

“She’s always been in danger. Comes with being related to LaSalle,” Sinclair said.

“What of the other guests? Any one of them could get hurt.” Gray was grasping at straws and he knew it.

“I agree, it’s not ideal, but we don’t have a choice. We have to end this now, and we have to arrest more than LaSalle and Beaudin. I have extra men coming in to help. If all goes to plan, we’ll be able to take them before the wedding even starts.”

Gray knew he was right, but he didn’t like it.

Even without the danger, it could all go so wrong that Sophie would still end up married to Beaudin.

If a couple of the guests didn’t show, they would have to regroup and try another time, which meant the wedding would go forward as scheduled and she would be married to that ass.

This is why he should have kept his hands off her. She compromised his judgement. His loyalty in this should be bringing LaSalle to justice. Not keeping her from marrying Beaudin.

“She doesn’t want to marry him,” he said anyway.

Sinclair took in a meaningful breath and Gray braced himself for the inevitable question. He wouldn’t lie about his feelings for her.

“Gray…have you…?” His voice trailed off as Gray came to attention.

“Look,” Gray said, his eyes following the single figure in black that crossed the road a couple of blocks down.

The woman wore widow’s weeds, a black dress and a hat with a veil.

She might have been anyone, but something about her called to him.

It was in the unique grace she used in holding her skirts up so they wouldn’t drag the ground; such a common, feminine movement, but he recognized it somehow.

He had spent so much time over the past several months watching Sophie that he knew how she walked and moved around the world.

She led with her left hand, even though someone must have taught her along the way that she must use her right because that’s the hand she used to write, in everything else she favored her left hand.

That’s the hand she used to grab the railing as she hurried up the steps across the street.

“It’s Miss Buchanan. Go inside to the dressmaker. I’ll follow her.”

“You’re sure it’s her?” Sinclair asked, glancing inside the window to make sure she wasn’t in there.

“It’s her.” The rhythm of her step, the sway of her hips, the set of her shoulders; they were minor things, but Gray could have picked them out given a thousand women to choose from. “She’s escaping.”

He’d been waiting for this ever since she’d admitted she didn’t want the marriage. That desperate sadness in her eyes had led him to believe she would try something.

“Damn,” Sinclair muttered.

When Gray went to hurry down the steps, Sinclair stopped him with a hand on his arm. “Wait. Beaudin’s men.”

Beaudin had had men on her ever since the marriage had been arranged. Two of them were watching now from across the road. Gray had nearly forgotten them. He wasn’t thinking clearly which was dangerous.

“If they suspect a thing, Beaudin might demand to move up the wedding,” Sinclair said very reasonably. “We can’t let them know she’s trying to escape.”

Gray was in full agreement with that, though likely for different reasons.

He didn’t want the bastard to get his hands on Sophie.

“I’ll follow her.” She was farther down the block now, almost completely lost to the gray of twilight.

He had to hurry. “I’ll take her to my room.

You take Miss Martine home in her place.

We’ll meet back here tomorrow morning and switch them. ”

“They’ll never know,” Sinclair agreed. The men had been swilling from a bottle of whiskey ever since they’d gotten here. “I’ll send the carriage around to the back door and sneak the dressmaker in. Go.”

Gray didn’t need further prompting. Aware of Beaudin’s men watching him, he sauntered across the road in the direction of the saloon until they lost interest, probably having assumed he was off duty for the night.

The very moment they stopped watching, he hurried down an alley and in Sophie’s direction, determined to find her again.