The Trailrider's Fortune

by Shannah Biondine

  "Ah, a lady with a dry wit." Her captor chuckled without mirth. "He assisted vigilantes in hanging my brother. I was only tried and convicted—lucky me!—of complicity in several robberies. I spent over three years in prison, planning a just reward for Conley when I got out."

  Damned men and their notions of "justice" again.

  Sparkle looked askance at his expensive suit and bowler hat. "Did the warden send you to a haberdasher after your release, or did you rob one on your way to kidnap me? I suppose it would be a gross lack of manners to arrive at a kidnapping in a worn suit."

  "Speaking of garments…" He raked his eyes over her saloon dress. "I see your taste runs to European originals."

  "Sorry, this is only a saloon costume. The owner makes all the girls at the Scarlet Lady wear them. Signature color."

  It was probably one of the most ridiculous debates she'd ever been in, sniping with a convicted criminal over fashion tastes, but it was killing time. Time was her only ally. Sooner or later one of these buffoons would make a mistake or Rafe would show up. And these men would be very sorry. She knew how relentless Rafe was when he vowed to mete out justice.

  Bannister tried to offer a section of moldy biscuit. Sparkle averted her face. There was no way she'd eat anything else they offered her. Bannister didn't seem surprised.

  "Conley with a saloon doxy. Tell me, do you clean his pistol for him?"

  "Yes, and it's a Colt with a very long barrel." She glanced at his crotch before letting her eyes rest on the shoulder holster beneath his coat. "Quite long, compared to your derringer. Is there anything besides snake venom around here to drink? Some plain water?"

  She was tossed back inside the shack with a plate of beans and a cup of well water. She took a tiny sip, figuring if it was tainted again, she wouldn't get enough of the drug to affect her. She noticed her reticule was missing. She patted her right thigh and felt along the garter. They'd taken her bag, but she still wore her knife. The dandy hadn't searched her. His miscalculation. He couldn't assume a woman was unarmed…not in a cattle town. Certainly not when she worked in a house of ill-fame.

  At the first crack of thin gray light, she began shouting for her handbag. The dandy appeared in his trousers and suspenders and said she couldn't have it.

  "There's nothing of any value inside," Sparkle insisted. "At least bring me the deck of cards. I could read them to pass the time."

  "Ah, yes…tarot cards. I was told you're some manner of gypsy. However, I already know what's in my future. I'm going to murder your loving Conley. There," he laughed caustically. "Now you owe me two dollars."

  So he knew enough about her to know what she charged for readings, did he? A revolting thought. "No, I owe you a kick in the crotch."

  "My, aren't we the picture of femininity?"

  Just then a rider approached amid a swirl of dust. Sparkle saw why she'd recognized the voice. "Joe Brooks, you yellow-bellied skunk!" Sparkle shouted as he alit. "Coming around the Scarlet Lady, pretending you liked Ruby Ann, when all along you just wanted to get to Rafe."

  "No, all along I wanted to get at you. I thought that was understood. With your husband deceased, you'll be available. After a decent period of mourning…say a month or so." He snickered before turning to Bannister. "I want my three hundred. The riders I saw with Conley are heading this way."

  "You guaranteed that she'd bring Conley himself. I don't deal with lackeys. You get paid when I see Rafe Conley stone cold dead."

  Sparkle started to laugh, causing both men to stare at her. If it had been anyone but Joe Brooks, she could have kept quiet, but the irony of that particular idiot being the one at the center of this scheme was just too hilarious.

  She turned to Tobias Bannister. "You listened to this swaggering mule? He doesn't know what he's talking about. I'm not married to Rafe. I only said that to get rid of this imbecile. Rafe played along and bought this ring to keep Brooks from making a continued ass of himself." She flashed Brooks a look of pure triumph. "Not that it helped."

  "She isn't married to him?" The question was bellowed at Brooks.

  "Jesus, Bannister! Her boss and everybody in town thought they were married. Conley said she was his wife just that same morning when he came to the drugstore."

  "A mistress," Bannister spat. "Maybe he'll come, maybe not. I wouldn't walk two blocks to go after that whoring mistress of mine. I'll find out what these riders want. Take her to the shack and keep her quiet."

  As Brooks shoved her through the doorway, Sparkle spun and drew her short blade, jabbing it against his side. "Come in with me, Joe," she purred. "You're so anxious to spend time together. Shut the door. You make a sound, you'll find yourself showing everyone what you ate yesterday and just how much liquor's in your liver." Sparkle hoped the false bravado hid her fear.

  If his friends had come, Rafe must be nearby too.

  She and Joe stood locked together, listening as a new voice addressed the leader outside. "Heard you're looking for Conley."

  "I have something that belongs to him. He'll get her back when he comes to face me."

  "He can't come. Had to testify in court."

  "Inform him I'll be keeping his little lady friend until he personally rides out here. I'm sure we'll find many interesting ways to pass the time. She's quite pretty. Who the hell are you, anyway?"

  "I am Sam Parker, friend to Conley and his woman. This is my partner, Driscoll."

  "What the hell's that?" Bannister demanded. Sparkle caught the nervous edge in his voice.

  She cracked the door a quarter inch and gave Brooks another warning jab. "Don't get brave now, Joe. You've always been craven. Stay that way and keep breathing."

  "A horse," Parker shrugged in answer to Bannister's question as a sorrel trotted up. Sparkle recognized the animal instantly and began to smile. Rafe was here.

  "I know it's a horse," Bannister snapped. "Whose is it? It's saddled. Where's his rider?" Parker mumbled something. Bannister trained his gun on Driscoll. "What's that pinned to his blanket? You and Conley think you can put one over on me?"

  Sam calmly went up to the stallion and pulled the scrap of paper from the saddle blanket. "Give me that." Bannister snatched the paper from Parker's fingers and read aloud. "Johnnycakes. Johnnycakes? What the hell's th—"

  Sam nimbly jumped aside as Snatch snorted and reared, hooves flailing. Bannister shouted and went down, firing wildly. Sparkle tried to hold Brooks, but he broke free, flung the door of the shack open, and streaked past the other men. He caught the loose reins of Driscoll's horse. Before he could swing up into the saddle, a bullwhip cracked the reins from his hand.

  "Wouldn't push your luck, Brooks," came a familiar drawl.

  Sparkle emerged to witness a bizarre spectacle. Rafe had his peacemaker pointed at Brooks, who was playing clay statue. The two Mexicans were on their knees, begging and sobbing in broken Spanish to Parker and Driscoll who pointed cocked pistols at them. Bannister lay in the dirt on his back. Snatch stood over him, licking and nibbling at the crotch of his fancy trousers. Sparkle stepped closer and glimpsed yellowish clumps of cornmeal on the suit fabric. Even as she gazed at it, the fabric turned a shade darker. Mr. Well-Mannered Outlaw had just wet himself.

  "What's your horse doing?" Sparkle asked Rafe as he pulled her against his left hip. Her arms wrapped around his waist as she tried to stop herself from shaking. "Besides scaring the hell out of Bannister?"

  "Eatin' his favorite food. He'll rear and kick to get some. Always give him some of those cornmeal cakes after he takes somebody down. Snatch don't work unless he gets his rewards, same as me."

  "I thought you were teasing about him working with you." Sparkle was suddenly a little lightheaded.

  Rafe's arm tightened around her. He glanced down at the small knife in her fist. "Where'd you get the sticker?"

  "It's mine. I always wear it. They forgot to search me."

  Rafe's eyes widened. "But I did, that night in the hallway."

  As if either of the
m would ever forget the search in the Scarlet Lady's monkey hall! Sparkle blushed at the reminder. Rafe's eyes roamed over her. "You have it on you then, too?" She nodded faintly. His face went ruddy as well, but she suspected his color wasn't due to embarrassment. "Later you'll show me where." She met his intense gaze and shivered. His voice softened. "You all right, darlin'?"

  "I'm in one piece," she answered with a calm she didn't feel. Another slight hug, then she pulled back a bit, straightening her shawl. "Where the hell am I?"

  "About thirty miles outside of Dodge."

  "Dodge?" she choked, reeling. "As in Dodge City?"

  "Shit howdy, Dodge City."

  "But I can't be!"

  "Okay, then you ain't," he shrugged. "Pick a town you like and be thirty miles outside of there."

  He wrapped his whip back into a neat coil. Snatch ambled over and patiently allowed his master to tie the coiled whip onto his pommel. "Last thing I want to do with you right now is argue." Rafe pivoted and gave her another lingering appraisal, his eyes stripping away her garments and leaving hot licking little flames wherever they touched and caressed. "The very last thing."

  Bannister and the others must have kept her drugged for days to take her this far, she dimly noted. She'd lost her bag, been frightened half to death and humiliated…all because of Rafe Conley. Who was now being smooth and reasonable and too darned virile. She wanted to kill him.

  Rafe glanced at his partners. "Samson, you two take Bannister to the law. Got to figure out what I owe my pal Brooks here."

  Joe found his voice, but it had gone decidedly high and squeaky. "Holy Jesus, Conley! I, I…It was an accident! I didn't know he planned to harm her, or drag her out here to West Kansas. I thought he'd only pretend, you know? To flush you into coming after him. Honestly, I never thought it would come to this."

  Sparkle liked the way the weasel's Adam's apple bobbed as he lied. Only a dolt would believe the gum he spewed, and Rafe was surely no dolt. He glanced down at her. "What was his part in it?"

  "Seems he's the one who suggested using me. Dear Joe thought his cohort would eliminate you, leaving me widowed. Bannister wasn't happy when I told him we aren't actually wed. He wasn't sure you'd come."

  Brooks tried again. "Conley, I swear I'll make it all up to you. Her, too, if you'll give me another chance. Please, this has all been a terrible misund—"

  Rafe stood near Brooks, but still gazed at Sparkle. "Ain't got all day to listen to bullshit." His fist shot out and knocked Brooks cold in mid-sentence. Then Rafe turned to Parker and Driscoll. "He goes along with you, accessory to kidnappin'. Shouldn't be any problem about the charges. Art Thompson wired every lawman in six states to be on the lookout for Bannister and his men. I'll be at my usual spot. But no rush to come lookin' for me."

  Rafe's dark gaze returned to Sparkle. "Me and my woman got us some catchin' up to do."

  She watched the men load up and ride off. The Mexicans began pleading with Rafe in rapid Spanish. He firmly shook his head and mounted Snatch, pulling Sparkle up onto his lap, then set his spurs to the sorrel's flanks.

  "I'm not going to Dodge City," she asserted stubbornly. "It's the worst trailhead in this whole state. Take me back to Wichita. I lost my reticule, and Frazer's surely cleaned out my room by now, which means my money's gone, too. I stink because I haven't had a bath in…I don't even know how long. And none of this would have happened if I hadn't met up with you."

  "Yes, ma'am," he sighed before bending to kiss her. His lips were too warm and pliable. Sparkle was ashamed to admit how much she enjoyed the kiss. "How much you figure Frazer got?" he asked.

  "Around a hundred."

  At Rafe's low whistle, she tilted her chin up, uncertain whether he was admiring the amount or deriding it. "Close to a hundred dollars in a couple nights' work? You're damned good at readin' cards and hustlin' drinks, then." The soft drawl was right beside her ear.

  "That better not be Dodge up ahead, Rafe." Since he seemed determined to be so infuriatingly charming, she'd try being unreasonable. If he thought she'd just forget the past few days and go right back to where they'd left off that morning in Wichita…Well, she might, but not so quickly. "I told you, I'm not going there."

  "Yeah, I know. That's fine, darlin'. Snatch and I have business in Dodge, but you don't have to come along. I can set you down at the town limits. Sure would miss havin' you with me a hell of a lot, though. And where I'm headed there's a great big bathtub and a clean bed plenty big enough for two."

  "Rafe, Frazer's probably stolen me blind and given my room away by now. It's been days. I wasn't supposed to have any more time off until next month. Now I'll have to wait that much longer to visit my brother, and go home flat broke." She fought a yawn.

  "Maybe. Maybe not. Don't look like you got much sleep." He adjusted her position so her head rested on his shoulder. "Close your eyes for a spell. It's a ways to the city limits and you're safe with me now."

  In all honestly, she felt exhausted. She hadn't noticed until she was wrapped in Rafe's arms, but two days of nerves on edge had a way of wearing down the most stubborn the most stubborn nature, even hers.

  But she wouldn't let him leave her at the city limits. He'd take her to the depot and put her on a train back to Wichita. He could pay her fare and give her some spending money. He owed her that much.

  But they'd talk about it later. Her eyelids were too heavy now. She had no strength left to argue. Rafe's arms took the fight right out of her, made her forget how perturbed she'd been not ten minutes before. Damn, but the man had a strange effect on her.

  Of course, she thought wickedly, she'd known that back in her bedroom in Wichita.

  CHAPTER 10

  Rafe lowered her into the arms of a stranger. Sparkle opened her eyes at the jostling and discovered they were inside a livery stable, dimly illuminated by a pair of tallow lanterns. Horse sweat and manure assailed her nostrils as Rafe gave precise directions to the ostler on the sorrel's care and feeding. Sparkle jerked free of the stable hand and clutched Rafe's left arm. His right balanced his bedroll, pack and bullwhip on his shoulder.

  "Sorry, miss," the stranger mumbled when he saw she'd taken offense.

  "Missus," Rafe corrected. "She's just anxious to get me up in our hotel room. Ain't been alone with her for nigh on two weeks. Gets cranky when I fail in my husbandly duties." He gave the man a knowing wink and they both chuckled.

  That's it. I'm definitely going to murder him, Sparkle inwardly vowed as Rafe paid three nights' boarding fees in advance.

  He walked her past a general store, barber shop, and the huge City Drugs, closed now in the fading twilight. They entered a sprawling saloon called the Bold Adventuress through batwing doors featuring bas relief designs of buxom women. Sparkle stiffened and hesitated, but Rafe caught her elbow in strong fingers and drew her into the gaming hall.

  Sparkle had been employed in three saloons during the past several years and visited others. The Scarlet Lady, despite is new owner and tawdry costumes, was actually an almost decent establishment. Remodeling had improved the atmosphere. Frazer made certain the bar and floors fairly gleamed with fresh wax, the rooms were kept clean. But neither it nor any other saloon she'd visited bore much resemblance to this den of iniquity. The Bold Adventuress, by any standards, was quite simply a glittering palace of amusements.

  There wasn't a woman in sight across the entire ground floor. Tables were packed with men of every description. Chandeliers blazed with candles amid air thick with smoke and curses. The lack of pulchritude was Sparkle's first clue this was no ordinary bawdy house., for paintings of nudes adorned every wall—indicating dalliances were available, at steep prices. Behind the gleaming mahogany and brass bar hung a ten-foot mural depicting three naked females in a scandalous pose. Worse than scandalous. There wasn't a man anywhere in the boudoir scene…and it was quite blatantly a torrid boudoir scene.

  She dropped her gaze as her cheeks flamed.

  "Somethin' the matter?" Rafe
nudged her gently so she'd look up. She gestured toward the mural. Rafe glanced at the display behind the bar. "Oh. Remind you of Abilene?"

  "Topeka. Why would you bring me to a place like this?"

  "Now darlin', that paintin' don't mean the gals here are any different from the ones at the Scarlet Lady. Men just like lookin' at that sort of thing. Gals in any lurid depiction are, you know…inspirin' to a fella. Don't matter. You'll be in a room with me."

  Sparkle was still uncomfortable, yet relieved at the same time. She turned her face into the side of his throat, her words muffled by his rumpled bandanna. "I'm sorry. It's just I left Topeka because it wasn't only the woman herself. She had customers willing to pay to watch her do things like that with me. My fight with Frazer in the street the day you met me isn't the worse I've had."

  Rafe let his gear drop from his shoulder. "Shucks." She found her face cupped in callused hands. "Listen, you're my wife here, same as I was your husband in Wichita. Got that? That means nobody watchin', nobody around when you're undressed, but me. Anybody wants to cause you grief, they'll answer to me."

  His lips sealed the promise. Sparkle clung to him, fighting back tears. It was ridiculous a painting should make her cry when outlaws hadn't. She said so.

  "You been through a lot, that's all," came Rafe's whisper in reply. "But I'll make it up to you."

  Her needs and insecurities were just below the surface, nearly overwhelming her, but Rafe was there. Strong, warm, confident and sure.

  Maybe she wouldn't kill him until tomorrow.

  "Conley, you sidewinder!" A beefy man with a florid complexion waited for a grin of recognition before clapping a meaty hand on Rafe's shoulder. "Where'd you steal this little dove? Not one of mine, sad to say. Nice get-up, sweetie." He winked.

  "Name's Sparkle, Tolover," Rafe answered. "She's my old lady. Been workin' as a pretty waiter gal in Wichita. We need your special. Want the big copper tub, plenty of hot water, supper tray, and a bottle of your best Kentuck." His grin widened. "No poker tonight." Rafe's hand slid over Sparkle's bustle and pressed her close.