They watched as Burke returned to his waiting carriage. As it drove away Riley slumped wearily against the door. "I've thought a lot lately about taking Burke's offer," he murmured. "Maybe it would be cowardly, but it might also be smarter. Trouble is, I don't think I could stand myself if I gave in to his threats. And Jess would have my head."
Running a hand down his stubbled face, Devlin nodded in agreement. After the violence of last week, Jess was more determined than ever that Burke would never win. It couldn't go on much longer, though. If her resolve didn't weaken, her dwindling resources would force her to cut back her efforts. And Burke would go for the jugular. One more incident like the ore wagon accident and the Wildstar would be out of business.
The thought made Devlin grit his teeth. Although he could feel the trail left by the gang who'd robbed his father's train grow colder every day, he didn't intend to quit and leave the victory to Burke. In fact, he'd almost decided to put up the money himself to bring in outside help.
And that was before Jess hadn't come home this evening.
She was supposed to have been relieved by the guard for the evening shift so she could return in time for supper, but supper had been over for a full hour. As worried as Riley, Devlin had gone after her.
He approached the Wildstar with caution, his Colt drawn. He saw her horse hobbled a few yards from the main entrance, but there was no sign of Jess. Nor was there any light shining from within the cabin.
"Jess?"
Devlin slowly dismounted, his eyes searching the moonlit mountain scene. He could hear little but the occasional distant thunder of dynamite as a charge was exploded somewhere, and the dull, hammering echo of drill steel as other mining operations carried on the endless task of cutting rock. Many of the large consolidated mines worked the Saturday night shift, not shutting down until Sunday morning for a day of rest.
The contrasting silence here at the Wildstar seemed highly disquieting.
Needles of fear began to crawl up Devlin's spine. If anything had happened to Jess—if she'd been hurt or shot the way her father had been—he would personally strangle Burke with his bare hands . . . very slowly . . . inflicting as much agony as possible.
Just then, he heard a small slide of rock scree, followed by quiet footsteps. He leveled his six-shooter, holding it steady as Jess came around the corner of the cabin.
She gasped and nearly dropped her shotgun. "Devlin! You scared the life out of me!"
You scared the daylights out of me, too, sweetheart. "Where the hell have you been?"
His demand came out harsher than he'd intended, and Jess's eyes widened in confusion. "I heard a noise. . . . I went to look. . . ."
Devlin's mouth tightened at her stammered explanation. "If you mean to continue this fool notion of guarding the Wildstar yourself, you'd better learn to use your head. Never leave your post, for any reason. A noise could be a decoy . . . to draw you away and leave the mine unprotected. Stay put and keep your eyes open for a trap." As he spoke, Devlin took her arm and steered her firmly toward her horse. "Why didn't you come home?"
Chastened, Jess pulled her arm from his grasp. "Because somebody had to be here for the evening shift."
"Llewelyn didn't show up?"
"Oh, he showed up. He came up here to tell me he was quitting."
The bitterness in her voice sliced at Devlin's heart. The need to put his arms around her and offer her comfort was like a burning knife in his gut, but he didn't trust himself to touch her and do nothing more than that.
Instead, he kept his hands off her and saddled
her horse. "You should have ridden down to get me."
"This is Saturday night. I figured you would be in town living it up."
Devlin turned to eye her coldly, his gray gaze hard in the moonlight.
Jess was the first to look away. "I'm sorry. That was uncalled for. You've done more than I had any right to ask of you. I'm just tired."
"I know. You're driving yourself into the ground."
"I'll be all right."
Like hell From the comer of his eye, he saw her raise a weary hand to rub her temple and he cursed under his breath. It was insupportable that she'd taken this entire burden on her shoulders. She was pushing herself to the brink of exhaustion and was going to break soon. No one was that strong.
He tightened the cinch around the horse's barrel with more force than necessary, making the animal dance. "You won't be all right if you keep up this pace."
He heard her sigh softly. "I can't give up. The crew will only work because I promised them protection."
"You don't have to do it all yourself. You've got no business staying up here every night, Jess. Dammit, you're not invincible."