The Mountain Giant Asked for a Quiet Bride—But the Curvy Woman Who Arrived Covered in Bl**d Was Hiding a Secret That Could Destroy Him
PART 2
The g*nsH๏τ tore through the confined air with a deafening crack.
A blossom of red exploded across the wooden doorframe just two inches from Scarlett’s ear, showering her dark hair with flying splinters.
Before Eleanor could cock the hammer again, Benjamin moved. For a man nearly seven feet tall, he crossed the room like a charging locomotive. His mᴀssive hand locked around the cylinder of the revolver, wrenching the weapon sideways with brutal force. Iron screeched against bone, and the pistol clattered across the floorboards.
“Run, Scarlett!” Benjamin roared, pinning Eleanor’s flailing wrists against the wall.
“Benjamin, don’t touch me!” Eleanor hissed, her eyes wild, baring her teeth like a trapped animal. “Tell her the truth! Tell your new fat little whore how the others d*ed!”
Scarlett didn’t run. Instead, her eyes darted to the wooden table where the three gold rings sat next to the silver lockets.
She lunged forward, scooped up the fallen revolver with both hands, and leveled it straight at Eleanor’s chest.
“Step away from him,” Scarlett ordered, her voice ᴅᴇᴀᴅ steady despite the trembling in her knees. “Both of you. Step back!”
Eleanor froze, staring down the black barrel of her own weapon. Then a mocking sneer spread across her lips. “Look at you. Brave little thing. Do you really think he brought you here because he wanted a wife? Look at the dates on those rings, girl! Look at them!”
Scarlett kept the weapon locked on Eleanor, but her gaze flicked downward for half a heartbeat.
Engraved inside the gold bands were initials and dates:C.H. – 1878M.H. – 1880R.H. – 1881
“Three women before me,” Scarlett whispered, her chest тιԍнтening until she could barely draw breath. “Benjamin… what is this?”
Benjamin didn’t let go of Eleanor’s arms, but his face was gray with agony. “They were not my wives, Scarlett! I swear on my life—”
“Liar!” Eleanor spat. “Clarissa. Margaret. Rose. All brought to Blackstone Ranch with sweet promises of a quiet mountain life. And every single one of them ended up buried beneath the pines by the creek!”
“Because you poisoned them!” Benjamin shouted, his voice cracking with five years of buried fury. “You and Edward Langford!”
Scarlett’s bld ran cold. The name struck her like a hammer blow.
“Langford?” Scarlett gasped. “What does Edward have to do with this?”
Eleanor laughed—a high, brittle sound echoing through the dusty corridor. “Edward is the only man who ever truly possessed me. Do you really think a refined woman from Boston would willingly spend her life chained to a mountain beast? Benjamin had the deed to the richest silver vein in Colorado. My father arranged our marriage, but Edward gave me the plan.”
“The plan…” Scarlett felt the puzzle pieces violently snapping together. “Langford wasn’t just my employer in Kansas City. He was running a syndicate.”
“He was stealing ranches from the inside out,” Benjamin rasped, his jaw trembling. “Five years ago, Eleanor faked her dath. She staged a drowning in the ravine, took my inheritance documents, and vanished. But every time a new housekeeper or distant relative came to help me run this place, Langford sent his men to kll them to make sure nobody found the deed before the foreclosure auction!”
“And you let the town call you a monster?” Scarlett asked, staring at the giant cowboy in disbelief. “You took the blame for three m*rders?!”
“Because I thought Eleanor was already d*ad!” Benjamin said, his voice breaking. “And I thought I had failed to protect them!”
“Oh, how touching,” Eleanor purred, leaning forward. “Too bad Edward is already outside, darling.”
A sudden, sharp whistle cut through the howling wind outside the ranch house.
Footsteps—dozens of them—pounded up the wooden stairs of the main house.
“SCARLETT!” a smooth, cultured voice shouted from the master bedroom. “Put down the g*n and bring my property out here!”
Edward Langford.
Scarlett’s stomach lurched. The man who had framed her, ruined her life, and hunted her across two states had followed the train straight to Blackstone Mountain.
“The secret pᴀssage,” Benjamin whispered rapidly, shoving Eleanor back toward the corner and turning to Scarlett. “It leads out behind the hayloft in the barn. Take my draft horse and ride down the southern trail to the sheriff’s office in Briar Creek.”
“I am not leaving you behind to d*e!” Scarlett hissed, cocking the revolver.
“Scarlett, there are at least ten armed men out there!”
“Then they’re going to need ten coffins!”
Suddenly, Eleanor lunged from the shadows. In her right hand was a concealed silver hair pin—long, sharp, and ᴅᴇᴀᴅly.
She drove the blade straight toward Scarlett’s throat.
Benjamin threw his mᴀssive body between them. The sharp steel dug deep into his shoulder. Benjamin grunted in pain, swinging his mᴀssive forearm and knocking Eleanor senseless against the timber wall. She crumpled to the floor, motionless.
“Benjamin!” Scarlett caught him as he staggered.
“I’m fine,” he breathed heavily, bld soaking through his flannel shirt. “Grab the satchel beneath the table. The original deed is in it.”
Scarlett reached under the table and pulled out the heavy leather satchel. But as she flipped the brᴀss buckle, an envelope slipped free.
A sealed envelope stamped with official bank wax.
Addressed to Edward Langford.
Scarlett tore it open with shaking fingers. Inside were two documents: The тιтle to the Blackstone Silver Mine. And an official marriage certificate dated only two weeks earlier.
Scarlett read the names on the marriage certificate, and the world stopped spinning.
The husband was Edward Langford.
The wife… was not Eleanor.
Scarlett’s trembling finger traced the second name on the paper:
SCARLETT MONROE.
Scarlett went rigid. Her eyes widened in absolute, paralyzing terror.
Edward had forged a legal marriage between himself and Scarlett before she ever fled Kansas City—meaning by territorial law, anything Scarlett inherited or signed today legally belonged to him.
“Scarlett?” Benjamin asked, noticing her frozen expression. “What is that?”
Before she could speak, the hidden panel in the wardrobe splintered into pieces.
CRASH!
A boot kicked through the wood. A tall, immaculate man in a charcoal suit stepped into the chamber, holding a smoking double-barrel sH๏τgun.
Edward Langford smiled, adjusting his silk cravat.
Beside him stood the sheriff of Briar Creek, his badge glinting under the lantern light.
“Good evening, Mrs. Langford,” Edward said with a mocking bow. “Thank you for finding the deed for me. And thank you for leading me right to the Beast.”
Langford leveled the sH๏τgun straight at Benjamin’s wounded chest.
“Now, my dear,” Edward whispered, his finger тιԍнтening on the trigger, “sign the surrender of the mine, or I blow your mountain giant into dog meat right in front of your eyes.”
Want Part 3? Comment YES!
