“Well, I never!” a pinched female voice said from the corner of the room.
“Some people have no shame!” an equally outraged masculine voice chimed in.
Quinn nipped at her bottom lip then slid his tongue over the tender spot. Lacy couldn’t get enough.
Footsteps clicked and thudded against the café’s wooden floor, followed by the closing of the door.
“They’re gone,” Dakota said with a hint of laughter. “Took them a few minutes of staring though.”
Quinn eased his lips from Lacy’s and his hand from beneath her skirts.
When she opened her eyes, she expected to see triumph or mockery in his eyes. Instead all she saw was the heat of desire in his crystal blue gaze.
“You did just fine, darlin’.”
“I’ve ruined my reputation in this town.”
“Don’t worry about it. You’ll not be seeing that couple again.” He stroked her cheek with his thumb. “You did what I asked, no matter who was watching, and that’s the important thing. The thing all our lives may be hanging on.”
“I know.”
He winked at her. “Then smile for me.”
Hearing his pride in her performance, she lifted her lips in a small smile, wishing the woman’s words didn’t still ring in her ears.
“Good.” He eased her off his lap then laid money for their meal on the table. “Let’s take a walk to the mercantile and order supplies for our trip.”
They waited for her to precede them out the door, and outside on the plank sidewalk they flanked her. Quinn took her hand and slipped it inside his elbow once more. Gone was the wanton doxy from the public kiss, the respectable lady once more walked with her two gentlemen.
But she and her escorts knew the truth. She was nothing more than an outlaw-bank-robber-murderer playing a deadly game in which she was the bait.
* * * * *
Inside the mercantile, Dakota leaned against the counter while the storeowner measured out flour, coffee and ammunition to replenish the supplies they’d need for their trip.
“You from around these parts or just passin’ through?” the storekeep asked as he stacked rifle bullets onto the counter. “That’ll be two dollars.”
“Just passing through,” Dakota replied as he shelled out the coins. “I’d like to leave these here until tomorrow, if that’s all right with you.”
“Sure thing, mister. Heading out early?”
“Probably just after sunrise.”
“I’ll be sure to tell the missus to have a few biscuits ready if you be wantin’ some for the trip.” The man grinned, his white moustache twitching as he cut a slab of bacon. “She makes some mighty tasty biscuits.”
“I’d be much obliged.” One hand on the counter, Dakota kept his other on the butt of the gun tied to his thigh. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Lacy move around the store. Quinn had left him in charge of the supplies and protecting Lacy while he’d gone to the telegraph office to look for replies from Will, Ian or Nicco.
Twice she’d come up and stared at the twists of peppermint candy. Apparently, she had a sweet tooth. Did she know how intense peppermint felt when applied to certain parts of the body?
She moved over to the bolts of fabric and stroked the materials as if she were caressing the coats of newborn kittens. He remembered how soft her hands felt on his flesh.
Heat surged straight to his loins.
“Beautiful lady. Your wife or your friend’s?”
“She belongs to my partner.”
And damn if he didn’t wish it were the other way around. Oh hell, he knew Quinn would share her with him anytime, but in the end she’d always be his brother’s woman.
The storekeep moved away to wrap their purchases in brown paper and string.
Just the way she looked at Quinn told him where her heart belonged. He hadn’t needed any vision to tell him so. Besides, he’d never had any control over the visions. The night before the Cheyenne Bank robbery, he’d seen Cap walk into the bank, watched them open fire. But he’d been too far away to help. All of them had. If he’d only had the vision sooner, he could’ve prevented his adopted father’s death.
“You’re looking mighty sad, Dakota,” Lacy said, standing beside him.
When had she snuck up on him?
“You would’ve made a good scout.”
“Growing up among outlaws, it paid to learn to move around as quiet as possible. Life was safer that way.”
Lacy glanced at the peppermints once more, then smiled back at him. “So, what had you looking so sad?”
“Just thinking about home.”
“What was it like living on the ranch after the Captain took you and Quinn in?”
“For a few months I wasn’t sure what to expect, and it took a long time for me to heal from my wounds. But once I was well and felt safe, I learned about ranching, horse breaking, how to muck out stalls, build corrals.” He grinned. “Chopped a lot of wood. Cap taught us about justice and doing what’s right.”
“How many of you were there?”
“Five total. Quinn first, then me. Not long after, Cap brought home Will.” He shook his head. “Now that took Quinn some getting used to.”
“Why?”
He reached past her, his arm lightly brushing her breasts.
She sucked in her breath and her nipples puckered in her bodice.
Damn, the pet was so responsive.
He opened the glass jar containing the sticks of hard peppermint candy. Taking out several, he motioned to the storekeep to add them to his tab, then laid the coin on the counter. Slipping one in his mouth, he sucked on the end and handed another to Lacy before putting the remainder in his coat pocket.
“Let’s talk outside.” With the courtesy Juanita had drilled into each of them, Dakota led Lacy to the door and held it open for her, then offered her his arm. “Will was the son of a freed slave and her white master.”
“And Quinn didn’t like freed slaves because he’s from the South?”
“No, he’s from Missouri and his daddy and mama actually helped escaped slaves get further north. That’s what got them killed. Right before the end of the war, they got caught helping a family cross through rebel guerillas’ territory. They lynched them all. The kids, the parents and Quinn’s daddy and ma.”
“Oh, how awful.” Lacy stopped and turned to face him, tears filling her eyes.
“It’s worse. Quinn was hiding in the woods with the horses, and came to see why his parents hadn’t returned. He found them all swinging from an oak tree.”
“Dear God.”
“Cap found me sitting in the woods near the bodies about three days later,” Quinn said, coming down the plank walk to stand beside them just outside the saloon. “He helped me cut them down, bury them, and the rest is history. Mind telling me why y’all are discussing my family?”
Lacy laid a hand on Quinn’s arm. “I asked Dakota about your other brothers.”
Dakota shrugged. “I started with Will.”
“I did have more trouble than you letting new boys into the circle, didn’t I?”
“Will and Nicco were easier than Ian.”
“The Duke.” Quinn snorted. “Took him a long time to come off his high horse. Still has trouble sometimes. Speaking of them,” he pulled telegrams out of his pocket, “both Ian and Nicco will be in the area in a few days. Will’s got trouble out at the ranch.”
“What’s happening at Los Hombres?”
“Apparently Cap had a family back East. His heir arrived at the ranch.”
“We’re his heirs. His will said so.”
“A blood relative can fight that will.”
Damn. They didn’t have time to fight over the ranch with an outsider, especially not a city dude who didn’t know the first thing about ranching. Will would just have to handle things until they got home.
“We can’t wait that long for your brothers to arrive,” Lacy said over the tinny piano music coming from the saloon
door.
“Why not?” Quinn asked, moving them slightly away from the door. Even though he and Dakota had already decided to move out in the morning, he wanted to hear her reasoning for protesting the delay.
“I fled the camp half a day ahead of a blizzard.” She looked at him then over at Dakota. “If you ran into someone looking for me, that means the pass to Devil’s valley is no longer snowed in. Which means Devil will be itching to rob another bank.”
“Why another robbery if he hasn’t had the time or anywhere to go and spend the loot from the last job?” Dakota asked.
Before she could answer him, the saloon door burst open behind her and two drunken miners slammed into her, nearly knocking her over. Quinn turned to reach for her, but one of the men snatched her around the waist and hauled her back against him.
Lacy screamed.
Quinn saw red.
“Well, looky what we have here, Duffy,” her captor said. “The lady from the café window.”
“Think she’ll sit on yer lap, Pete, like she did that feller’s?” his friend asked, leaning in to leer at her.
“Let me go!” Lacy struggled against the burly man holding her.
“How about a kiss first?” The man grabbed her by the hair, trying to turn her face to his.
In a split second, Quinn had palmed his Colt and pressed it against the man’s temple at the same time Dakota mirrored his movements with the other drunk.
“The lady asked you to release her,” Quinn said with a deadly calm that belied the rage ripping through him.
“You ain’t gonna kill me over some whore, no matter how fancy she’s dressed, mister,” the fool said without loosening his hold.
“She’s no whore. She’s my woman and no one touches what’s mine.” His voice deep and threatening like thunder, Quinn thumbed back the hammer.
Pete’s eyes grew round and he swallowed, but he didn’t loosen his grip on Lacy.
“Pete, let ’er go afore he blows yer head off,” his friend begged.
“I’d listen to your friend, because mine will kill you without hesitation,” Dakota drawled. “Then I’ll be forced to shoot,” he paused to look at the skinny man at the end of his gun, “Duffy, wasn’t it?”
Duffy blinked. “Yessir.”
“Then I’d be forced to shoot old Duffy, here, which would be most unfortunate.”
Finally, Pete sobered enough to realize how precarious his situation was. Quickly he released his hold on Lacy, but didn’t move another muscle.
“Good decision.” Quinn caught Lacy by the arm and maneuvered her toward Dakota, who pushed her behind him.
“I didn’t mean no harm, mister.” A trickle of sweat ran down Pete’s face, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed.
“Should’ve thought of that before you attacked my lady.” Ignoring the crowd that had gathered at the saloon’s door and windows, Quinn drew his other gun and pointed it at Duffy. “Why don’t you join your friend over here?”
“Sure, sure thing, mister.” Duffy skittered over to stand by Pete.
“Good. Dakota, take her back to the hotel.”
“Quinn, he didn’t hurt me,” Lacy said.
“He touched you.” And for that alone the man should die. Quinn narrowed his eyes at the two fools quaking in front of him, but slid his Colt off Pete’s temple, easing the hammer back in place and taking a step back as he did. “Dakota, get her out of here.”
Dakota gripped Lacy’s elbow and turned her toward the hotel. “Come along, pet. Let the man have his fun.”
“But they didn’t hurt me.”
“You have to trust him, pet.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Quinn saw her digging in her heels.
Fool woman.
Damn it. He needed her safe in the hotel before this whole situation blew up in his face.
“Dakota!”
“We’re going.” And with that, he bent down and scooped Lacy over his shoulder, butt in the air.
“Put me down,” she protested, hitting him on the back as he carried her away from the danger and into the hotel.
Everyone around Quinn laughed, including the two fools facing his guns. He cleared his throat. “Gentlemen, may I have your attention? Anyone else want to join these two?”
Shaking their heads, the men in the doorway edged back into the saloon and the windows cleared.
“Why don’t you shoot yer friend, he’s touchin’ yer lady?” Pete asked once they stood alone on the walkway.
“He has my permission. Now turn around. We’re gonna take a walk.”
Both men shuffled backward as they sputtered.
“Hey, mister, yer can’t just shoot us.”
“I never touched her, mister.”
“Keep walking.” Quinn listened to them beg all the way down the street. He’d rather take the pair out back of the saloon and at least pummel them, if not put a few bullets in them for threatening Lacy.
Thing was, Cap wouldn’t approve, and he had a feeling Lacy wouldn’t either. No, she’d probably feel guilty for their deaths, even though, like with Cap, she hadn’t pulled the trigger.
“Stop here.”
The pair stumbled to a stop and looked up at the sign over their heads.
JAIL.
“Yer mean yer ain’t gonna shoot us?” Pete asked, so relieved he and Duffy looked like two daisies wilting in the summer sun.
“Inside.”
Chapter Ten
Maddocks stood to the side of the crowd of men filling the saloon’s door and window, watching the whore. She’d managed to elude the boss for years and now she takes up with not just one man, but two?
The white man drew on the drunk miners.
Bloodlust filled the crowd until he could smell it. They wanted a gunfight. Most hoped her protectors would get killed so they could claim her luscious body.
A moan ripped through the crowd when the lean gunman secured the whore’s release.
Maddocks tried to hear the conversation taking place outside the saloon, but the murmurs of the crowd muffled the words. The whore was protesting and her second protector, the half-breed, picked her up over his shoulder and carried her across to the hotel. The first man marched the miners up the street, disappearing before he could get past the crowd, which was slowly breaking up.
Wasn’t this interesting?
Boss had sent him after Santos, not trusting him to return with the whore and the money.
Instead, he finds the whore, no Santos in sight. Had she promised her protectors part of the bank haul? If so, was she leading them to where she hid it?
He pondered the new twist in his assignment as he headed back to the bar and ordered another whiskey.
Lady Luck.
That’s what this was. A change in his fortune. He could track the whore and her men to the money. And he could take it and disappear without Boss or Santos knowing he’d found it.
Images of the whore stripped and tied to the camp whipping post as her stepdaddy lashed her filled his mind. His cock swelled and pushed against his fly at the memory.
He’d wanted to fuck her since the day he’d joined Devil’s gang, but she’d never let him near enough to get in her britches and Devil had made it clear he’d kill any man who got to her before him.
A smile split his lips as he sipped his drink.
If he played his cards right, he could take what the whore had hidden between those long legs of hers and the money.
* * * * *
“Put. Me. Down,” Lacy ordered Dakota between clenched teeth.
He’d ignored her as he’d crossed the street with her hanging over his shoulder, even though she’d pummeled his back with her fists. Through the lobby he’d continued to ignore her hissing demands to stop carrying her like a sack of feed. Instead, he’d smacked her hard once on the rump in front of the people milling about. She’d even bitten her tongue as she bounced on his shoulder up the stairs.
But damn it, she’d had enough.
&nbs
p; It was one thing to use her to capture Devil, Santos and the other outlaws—they were all guilty of murder. But those two men were nothing more than harmless drunks. Obnoxious drunks, but she could’ve handled them. Hell, she’d handled more than one in her years living in the valley.
But she wouldn’t let Quinn or Dakota use her as an excuse to punish someone for stupidity.
She reared her booted foot back and took aim at the junction of his thighs.
He clamped his free hand around her calf and stopped her from kicking him. “Whoa there, pet, I didn’t stop my grandfather from gelding me as a boy, only to have you do so now. I’ll set you down.”
Slowly he let her slide down the hard front planes of his body, grabbing her by the hips and stopping her just before her feet hit the ground.
He smiled like her anger amused him.
She wanted to smack that smile off his face. “You aren’t supposed to be the mean one. That’s Quinn’s job.”
He lost the smile.
“Do not underestimate me, pet. I’m very much like my brother. If you push me too hard, I will exact punishment. If a situation is dangerous, like just now down on the street, I’ll do whatever is necessary to pull you out of harm’s way.”
He pulled her into him, pressing her hips against the thickness of his cock and forcing her to grip his shoulders for support.
“And if I thought for one minute you’d belong to me, I’d be the one facing those men,” he said, his lips mere inches from hers.
“Then why aren’t you? You’ve had my body as much as Quinn.”
“Because I’d want your heart as much as your body. And we both know that belongs to Quinn.”
He saw too much. And she feared he was right.
“Then put me down.” She pulled her arms between them and shoved as hard as she could. “I’m not in danger now.”
He lifted one eyebrow, then lowered her until she stood on the floor in front of him. She shoved again and he released his hold on her.
“Go help Quinn slaughter those two men if you think he’s so right. Just leave me out of it.” She strode across the room to the oil lamp and lit it.
“Trust us, pet. We’re not like the savages in Devil’s gang.”
The Surrender of Lacy Morgan Page 16
