"I … I, um-"
What could I say? I'd tried to tell them last night, on my own time, but now, being forced to admit the truth, it was hard. I robbed four banks. You're married to an outlaw.
They were US Marshals. I was about to destroy them, destroy their integrity, for they'd put their trust, their devotion in someone who didn't hold their values. Their honor.
But I'd been honor driven! Mr. Rollins had taken my integrity. The money was just taking it back the only way possible. Yet, they wouldn't understand.
"You must think us stupid," Landon said, moving away from me to begin to collect the money, to make an ever-growing pile in his hand.
I shook my head, but said nothing. Tears blurred him.
"Fuck." Seth's curse made me startle. He'd just figured it out. "Did you do it because you thought we'd protect you?"
I closed my eyes, felt the tears slip down my cheeks. I shook my head.
"That taking a ride on our cocks would keep you from a noose?"
My eyes flew open, knowing I'd feel the coarseness of that rope soon enough. I wasn't upset about that, but what they thought of me. "No! You said you knew me. The real me. You still do."
"We're losing our touch, Seth," Landon said, continuing to pick up the scattered bills. "The clues were all there."
Seth laughed, but bitterly. He put his hand up to his temple, winced when he felt the cut, glanced at his fingers. "You're right. She told us first thing she'd come from Rollinsville. The site of the third robbery."
"Exactly," Landon added. He stood, stared at me. "She was in Helena at the time of the robbery, come to the town the night before. Even used the time while we were at the meeting to her advantage. This morning, you didn't seem too keen on returning to Rollinsville. When you told us about what Rollins had done to you, to your father, I'd thought it was because of that."
"No. She hates Rollins. Obvious reasons, of course," Seth added. He crossed his arms, stared at me, even though he was talking to Landon. "But she didn't want to return because she'd robbed the bank. Could be identified."
"She even sucked my cock to delay our trip."
Landon's bitter words finally had me coming out of my stupor. "That is not true!" I said, stomping over to him, grabbing the bills from his hands. He let me, because really, where was I to go? "You had me handcuffed to the headboard. I wasn't in any position to dictate our departure time."
I'd woken this morning to Landon's head between my thighs and I'd been seconds away from coming. Seth seemed to like having me at his mercy, using his handcuffs to secure me to the bed and have his way with me. Seth lifted those restraints and held them up before me. Now, he wasn't going to restrain me for a quick fuck. Instead, they were going to take me to the nearest sheriff.
"Say it, Maddie. If that is your real name."
I put my hands on my hips. "My name is Madison Thomas Bane." Each word was enunciated clearly.
"Say it," he repeated, his eyes completely devoid of all warmth I'd always seen. He looked at me with a coldness I assumed was for the criminals he hunted. "Say what you did."
I took a deep breath, let it out. Lifted my chin and looked in Seth's pale eyes. Held them. "I tried to tell you last night, but you … you had your way with me instead." I bit my lip, then said the words they wanted to hear. "I robbed Mr. Rollins' banks."
There, I'd done it. I'd told someone. Told the two people who meant something to me. But with the truth came the harsh consequences.
Landon swore and ran his hand over his beard. "Why? Why the hell do you have to rob banks? And now? You need the money that badly that it was your only option? We have money-"
"I began before I met you, as you are well aware. This has nothing to do with you."
Landon stepped closer, his eyes, while not angry, were a little wild. His usual calm demeanor had been weakened. "It has everything to do with us!"
His voice boomed like thunder through the air.
I took a step back and he swore again. "You're our wife. We're supposed to bring you in for taking all of Rollins' money."
"I didn't take all his money. I only took $2342."
Seth was rubbing the back of his neck but his hand stilled. "What?"
I sighed, trying to remain calm, which it seemed, they were trying to do as well.
"I only stole a specific amount of money."
He repeated the sum I gave. I nodded in confirmation of the amount. "Rollins said you took all the cash not in the safe."
"Not true," I countered.
"Then why would he lie?" Seth wondered, then dropped his arm, spun on his heel and began to pace as if he knew the answer. But I told him anyway.
"Because he's a ruthless bastard and only cares about himself. Perhaps he wanted to give you more reason to bring me in. Perhaps he wanted my crime to look bigger. Perhaps if he told you the truth his own crimes would be discovered."
"Crimes?" Landon asked. Why had he picked up on that one word? I wasn't going to tell them about Amanda and Tara. Robbing the man's banks to get the money we deserved had been my idea all along. They were complicit, but I'd been the one to drag them into this. To get their money back.
"I told you in the stage. My father wouldn't sell. Rollins offered a fair price, but below value. Daddy didn't need to sell. He didn't want to sell. Why would he? It made him a good living, a quiet life. He had everything he wanted, except perhaps my mother." I sighed, knowing my father had mourned her until the day he died and went to be with her again.
I crossed the grass and picked up a bill I'd missed, added it to the pile in my hand, walked over to Landon and gave them all to him. I didn't care about the money. I never had. All I cared was that Mr. Rollins didn't have it. If I was to give it all to Landon and never see it again, so be it.
"Go on," Landon urged. He was still angry, but his cool reserve had returned.
"I told you, Mr. Rollins didn't like Daddy's answer. A week after he said no, we received notice that the terms of the note with the bank changed. A sum each month Daddy couldn't pay. Within three months, the bank took possession of the ranch. Mr. Rollins came out personally. Told my father he should have sold. He remained while he watched us leave, then set fire to the place."
My throat clogged with tears but I swallowed hard, willed them back.
"We saw the smoke, turned and saw from the hillside that everything was on fire. He burned it to the ground and then rode away."
I looked at Landon, held his dark gaze. "He rode right past us as we sat and watched everything burn. Stunned. Lost. Angry."
"Did he do anything with the ranch?" Seth asked. He'd come up behind me when I'd been talking and startled me.
"You mean ranches? He did this to a few others, those that bordered ours so he could make one large property of his own. He's done nothing but gobble up land like a swarm of locusts, destroying everything in his way."
"So you robbed him just as he robbed you," Seth said, spinning me about to face him.
"How many times do I have to repeat this? I didn't take all his money. I only took what he originally offered for each of the properties. To the penny." The tears fell then. The dam I'd built on the growing emotions broke. Tears slipped down my cheeks. "For what belonged to the families he destroyed."
Seth pulled me into a tight embrace, his strong arms banded about me. His hard chest was warm against my cheek and I cried then. Let it all out. Every bit of it. The upset from the stage, the driver's death, being caught, what Mr. Rollins had done to my father, the other families, the fact that I'd met not one man who wanted me, but two. Now they'd hate me, turn me away if they didn't turn me in.
I had no idea how long I cried. I just felt Seth's steady breathing, the slide of his hand up and down my back. He and Seth spoke quietly to each other, but I didn't pay it any mind. Not any longer. It was over. It was all over.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Landon
Fuck. I ran my hand over my beard, closed my eyes briefly. Maddie was the bank robber. We married a fucking criminal. No. No! We'd married the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen. A woman who was light and laughter, sunshine and damned rainbows all in a simple smile. She'd stopped us in our tracks and both Seth and I had wanted her from that instant. I still did.
She wasn't the dangerous, ruthless woman Rollins painted her.
"What about murder? Did you kill your husband?" I gripped the money in a tight fist. I didn't give a shit about the money, whether Rollins saw a dime of it. We were standing in the middle of the prairie, an overturned stage, a dead driver, restless horses. But I had to know it all. I had to know the real woman we married.