Hell for Leather

by Beth Williamson

  “Put me down, Cade.”

  He complied immediately, setting her on her feet. She straightened her shirt and walked toward her sister, ready to face the consequences of her choice.

  “Hello, Ellen.”

  Ellen’s blue gaze darkened when she looked at Cade. “What did you do, Brina?”

  “I followed my heart.” Sabrina didn’t want to be at odds with Ellen and hoped she wouldn’t have to choose between her new husband and her sister.

  “Your heart? It led you to a dark man with an even darker past. Don’t you understand what you’ve done? Dark men can only bring destruction.” Ellen’s voice rose as she spoke.

  “Let’s go inside.” Sabrina ushered her toward the door. “The entire town doesn’t need to hear this conversation.”

  Ellen was as stiff as the icicles hanging from the roof, but she allowed Sabrina to lead her into the store. Once inside, Ellen closed the door on Cade, almost hitting him.

  “He doesn’t need to hear this.” Her voice was firmer than Sabrina had ever heard.

  Cade met Sabrina’s gaze through the glass in the door. He nodded his understanding and moved out of sight. Already they were communicating silently, another sign they were connected, meant to be two halves of the same whole.

  She turned to Ellen. “Now tell me what you’re feeling.”

  Ellen threw her hands up in the air and starting walking around the store in circles. “You married him, didn’t you? You knew how I felt about the darkness that surrounded him, yet you ignored all the warnings. I don’t know what to do. You’ve set yourself up to fall into the pits of hell.” Her blonde curls flew every which way as she gestured.

  “Ellen, he isn’t your husband and this isn’t your life.” There was just so far Sabrina would allow her sister to go.

  “But you are my sister. What’s going to happen to the store? You know I can’t do the day-to-day things like you. The last two days have been so hard.” Ellen’s voice broke on the last word.

  Sabrina stopped her mad pacing and enfolded her little sister in a hug. She trembled in her arms, reminding Sabrina that Ellen was not as strong as she’d like her to be.

  “I’m sorry,” she crooned. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. Please understand that I love Cade.”

  “You love him?” Ellen pulled back, her tear-filled eyes wide.

  “Yes, I do and I’m sure he loves me too. He hasn’t had an easy life, which may be the darkness you see around him.” It was important to Sabrina that her sister accept her new relationship with Cade.

  “Sam told me he was a gunslinger.” Ellen stepped away, wiping her eyes. “How could you love a man who killed people for money?”

  “Sam is jealous and you know it. He’d say anything to make Cade look bad to me and everyone else in Eustace.” Sabrina closed her eyes. “I don’t know what to say to convince you he’s a good person, but I can only ask that you accept him as my husband.”

  “I don’t know if I can,” Ellen whispered.

  Sabrina’s heart sank. “You can’t mean that.”

  “I don’t want to lose you again, Brina.” Ellen started crying anew, looking more like a five-year-old little girl than a woman in her twenties.

  “You haven’t lost me. I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be here at the store with you, and perhaps this is your opportunity to come out of the shadows.” She touched Ellen’s scar. “You’re a beautiful woman and have so much love to give. I wish you could see that.”

  “I’m ugly.” Ellen shook her head. “I scare children.”

  “No, you’re only scared of people staring at you. If you’d only realize it doesn’t matter one whit what you look like, you could live like a normal person.” Sabrina hadn’t meant to snap like that, but it just came out.

  Ellen reared back as if she’d been slapped. Her mouth opened and closed but all that came out was a gasp. Sabrina took her by the shoulders.

  “You are such an amazing person, kind, sweet and smarter than all of us put together.” Sabrina felt tears spring to her own eyes. “Please, Ellen, give life a chance, give me and Cade a chance, give yourself a chance. Please. Don’t let Whit take your life too.”

  At the mention of her ex-fiancé, Ellen paled, but she stuck her chin in the air. “All right, I’ll try,” she whispered.

  Sabrina’s heart thumped with relief as a smile grew on her face. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

  As the sisters hugged, the door to the store opened and Jeremiah poked his head in.

  “Has everybody gone loco? What in tarnation is going on here?” His floppy brown hair poked out from beneath a knit cap Sabrina recognized as Clara’s. He had a crutch stuck under one arm.

  “We’re just talking, come on in.” Sabrina opened the door wide and gestured for Jeremiah to step in. She looked out and saw Cade standing at the foot of the steps, coatless and stamping his feet against the cold.

  With a nod from Ellen, Sabrina called her new husband. “Cade.”

  He whipped his head around, his dark gaze hidden beneath the ever-present black hat.

  “Please come in.” She held out her hand, and he walked up the stairs and into the rest of their lives.

  They spent the rest of the day cleaning the store, stocking the shelves and getting to know each other. Ellen kept her distance from Cade, but she wasn’t overtly hostile. Jeremiah chattered on about the ghost and how he’d seen her through Antonio’s window. Cade laughed again, the second time he remembered the sensation tickling his belly, and it was all due to Sabrina.

  That night would be their wedding night, when they consummated their marriage and completed the promise made between them. His jittery heart couldn’t help but tremble at the thought. Who would have ever guessed a cold-hearted gunslinger could be nervous? Damn sure he didn’t.

  Jeremiah was like a puppy hobbling around behind Cade, wide-eyed at the man who pulled him from the jaws of death. The kid could talk until the sun went down and came up again. The only thing that saved his unworthy life was the heated gazes Sabrina kept aiming Cade’s direction.

  It kept his pants tight and his temper tamed. He felt like a different person those few hours they were in the store, almost normal. There might come a time when he’d look back and savor every second of it again and again, but for now he lived in every second, actually lived it.

  He finally made his way over to Sabrina, intent on at least getting a kiss when the door to the store burst open. The bell went flying off the top, hitting Jeremiah in the head. Bernice stood in the doorway, her hair clean and in braids, looking like a young girl instead of a bear cub. However, she was breathing hard and her face was flushed.

  “Brody, you got trouble.” She slammed the door closed behind her, barely sparing the goggle-eyed Jeremiah a glance.

  “I thought you were with Antonio and Mrs. Rodriguez.” Cade frowned at the girl. “What do you mean I’ve got trouble?”

  “I was in the kitchen eating cornbread, dang they got good cornbread, and I saw a man come in the saloon. Sunday ain’t a busy day Antonio says, so only a few folks were in there.” She shot a glance at Ellen standing like a deer in hunter’s sights. “Who’s that?”

  “That’s my sister, Ellen.” Sabrina made introductions as if they were at a Sunday social. “Ellen, this is Bernice Wilkerson. She’s going to be living with the Rodriguezes.”

  To Cade’s surprise, Ellen murmured a greeting without bolting for the stairs. Whatever Sabrina had said must’ve made a difference to the painfully shy blonde.

  “How do.” Bernice turned her gaze back to Cade. “This man come in, dirty and stinking like he’d had a week with cheap whiskey and a cheaper whore.”

  “Bernice!” Sabrina admonished.

  “So’s I kept my eye on him,” Bernice continued as if Sabrina hadn’t spoken. “He wore his guns low on his hips, a pair of them looking worn and well-used. Kinda reminded me of your guns.”

  “You got guns?” Jeremiah piped up.

  “Shut up,
kid.” Cade’s heart beat slow and dangerous, waiting for what Bernice was going to say before she even said it. “What happened?”

  “He ate like a pig, sopping up the beans with his fingers. Reminded me of some of the nasty miners used to be around my pa. Anyways, he asks Antonio if he knows any strangers new to town.” Bernice licked her lips while her gaze darted between Cade and Sabrina. “He said no, nobody in town was new. The stranger said he saw a wire asking about a dark-haired gunslinger in Eustace.”

  “Sweet Jesus.” Sabrina grabbed Cade’s arm while his stomach turned upside down.

  “Who sent it?”

  “Dunno. Probably that loud-mouthed fool that slapped Miss Sabrina.” Bernice sneered. “I hope you kick his ass, Brody.”

  Cade held onto his temper by a thread. “The stranger, Bernice, what about the stranger?”

  “Oh yeah, he drank some whiskey and eyeballed Antonio like he expect he’d been lied to.”

  “Did you get his name?” Cade’s jaw tightened.

  “I think it was Reynolds. I skedaddled outta there to come warn you there’s another gunslinger in town and he’s looking for you.” Bernice’s words fell like rocks in a pond, the ripples fanning out in the store, leaving dead silence behind them.

  Sabrina’s hand clenched his in a death grip. “Go upstairs.”

  Cade looked at her. “Have you lost your mind? I’m not hiding from Reynolds.”

  “You know him then?”

  Memories washed over him, and a bad taste filled his mouth. “I know him.”

  “Then you can’t possibly go out there. He’ll recognize you.” Sabrina tugged at his arm.

  Ellen started to panic, her voice growing shrill. “What’s going on? Who is Reynolds and why is he looking for Mr. Brody?”

  Bernice rolled her eyes. “Boy have you got a lot to learn.”

  Sabrina took control of the situation. “Bernice, go back to the saloon and tell Antonio to keep the man in whiskey, no matter what. I’ll pay for it. Jeremiah, Marshal Black is likely still over at Clara’s. Go get him and tell him we’ve got a situation.”

  Bernice waited for Cade to nod before she dashed out the door.

  Jeremiah watched her go, a look of pure adulation on his face. “Ain’t she amazing?”

  “Get moving.” Sabrina pushed him out the door. “Now.”

  He scampered away, hanging onto his hat with one hand while he carefully maneuvered down the snowy steps toward Clara’s small house. Cade started after him, determined to get rid of Reynolds before he did harm to the folks he’d come to know and appreciate, some of them even love. No fucking way he’d let that happen.

  Sabrina blocked his way, her eyes blazing fire. “Go upstairs.”

  “I am not hiding behind a woman’s skirts. You are not going to be hurt because of me.”

  She held up her hand as if to stop him. “And I will not allow my husband to die on our wedding day because he’s a stubborn ass.”

  Cade would’ve smiled if it had been any other moment in time, but he could feel his happiness slipping through his fingers by the second. “Come in here with me.”

  He pulled her into her office, the curtain the only barrier against the big ears listening in the store. “You will not put yourself in danger for me.” Cade’s head pounded with the need to protect her.

  “Why not? You are my husband now and I don’t want to lose you.” She put her hands on her hips. “You can’t stop me.”

  “Just listen.” His throat tightened at what he was about to reveal, but he had to stop her in any way he could. “I am not a good person, hell, I’m hardly a person. Let me tell you what your husband has done in his lifetime, then you can decide if he’s worth saving.”

  “Stop it.” She pushed at his chest, anger stamped on her face. “I won’t listen to you beat yourself up.”

  “Oh yes you will.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Please.”

  “Whatever you have to say won’t change my mind.” She threw her hands up in the air. “But obviously you won’t let me go until you speak your peace, so get on with it.”

  She knew as well as he did that Reynolds could saunter over to the store at any moment. Eustace wasn’t that big—it only took about ten minutes to search every building in town.

  “I was born in a bordello in New Orleans called Kincaid’s. My mother was an opium addict who let men do whatever they wanted to her for money. She barely tolerated the sight of me so the other ladies there raised me.” He leaned against the desk as buried memories rose from their graves, filling him with the self-hate he’d come to know. “She died when I was four and the madam of the house only let me stay there if I started, ah, helping the ladies.” Cade swallowed hard, the tightness in his throat only getting worse.

  “Help them how?” Sabrina’s voice was barely above a whisper.

  “While their customers were busy fucking, I’d steal whatever they had in their pockets. The madam had a little door in the corner with tunnels between the rooms. I learned a lot by watching what was going on, more than any boy should know. I crawled through the rat shit and dirt for another six or seven years, until I got too big to fit. Then she had another job for me.” Cade’s hands curled into fists and he hardly resisted the urge to slam them into Sabrina’s desk. “Some of the clients wanted young boys instead of young girls.”

  He let that sink in and when it did, Sabrina gasped. This was the moment she’d renounce him as her husband and let him go face Reynolds alone. He braced himself for the revulsion and the rejection. Instead, her hands flattened against his back.

  “Oh God, Cade, I’m so sorry.” Her voice was thick with tears.

  So was his.

  “I stayed until I was thirteen and big enough to do some damage to the rougher clients. The madam threw me out and I had nothing but the clothes on my back and a mean streak a mile wide.” He laughed, a scraping sound that made her hands twitch on his shirt. “I found an old man named Reynolds who taught me what he knew about guns, for a price. I stole for him too, everything and anything. One night he tried”—he swallowed the bile that rose up his throat—“to force me to lay under him so I killed him with his own gun.”

  Sabrina pressed her face into his back now, openly weeping, for him. Cade couldn’t stop now if a lightning bolt hit the building.

  “I was fast, really fast with the pistols, and I practiced until I was unstoppable. Soon I was building a reputation and when folks asked me my name, I had to invent one. You see, the only name I ever had was ‘boy’ or ‘kid’. My mother never bothered to give me a name. Some of the ladies in the bordello used to call me Cade since I was born at Kincaid’s, and as a gunslinger, there was only one name I could use. I’m Kincaid.” He straightened and turned around, grabbing her wrists. Sabrina’s tear-stained face wasn’t repulsed or even disgusted. She looked as if she was in pain, as if his story were hers.

  “I’ve killed one hundred and seven men, Sabrina. Some of them for money, others who thought they were better than me.” Tears stung his eyes. He had to convince her he wasn’t worth her life. “I’m a piece of shit born from a hellhole I wouldn’t even want to pass on the street. Don’t cry for me and you sure as hell shouldn’t die for me.”

  She shook her head. “Love doesn’t care where you came from or what you’ve done. Love only knows what’s in your heart.” Wiggling her wrist free from his grasp, she flattened her palm against his chest, his stupid heart beating a loud tattoo beneath it. “In here, you are the man I love, the man I would give my life for. You cannot stop me, and your story only makes me love you more.”

  Cade couldn’t believe Sabrina. How could she possibly still love him?

  “Didn’t you hear what I said? I haven’t done anything in my life except cause misery and pain.” He trembled from head to toe. “Sabrina, you’ve got to let me go.”

  “Never.” She stepped away and wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “I don’t care what dark hole you think you crawled out of, but you’re in my
light now. I am going to save your life, Cade Brody, or whatever your name is, and then we’ll start the rest of our lives together. I will not let you die. Stay here.” Her fierceness made his throat close up with what could only be love.

  “Jesus, Sabrina, what the hell am I supposed to do?” He’d never had a wife or anyone who cared what happened to him. And he sure as hell never expected her to try to protect him, especially when she knew his every dirty secret.

  “You’re supposed to let me do what I can to save your life.” She grabbed her coat from the hook next to the desk and her rifle from the wall above. “For God’s sake, go upstairs and wait.” She cupped his face and kissed him softly. “I love you.”

  Sabrina disappeared through the curtain, leaving a wake of confusion in his head and carrying his heart with her.

  The afternoon air had grown colder with the sun setting behind her. Sabrina ran like the hounds of hell were chasing her, knowing she’d likely only have one chance to save Cade and she was taking it. Her heart ached for the boy who’d had nothing but misery his entire life, yet still had the capacity to care, to love. There was no way he’d die that day—Sabrina would save him come hell or high water. Cade deserved a chance at happiness.

  She looked for Jeremiah and Marshal Black, but they were nowhere to be seen on the street. However, Sam intercepted her on the way to the Last Gate.

  “Where are you going?” He fell into stride next to her. “And why are you carrying that rifle?”

  “I’m saving my husband’s life. That gunslinger in there is after Cade because of you.” She pointed an accusing finger at him. “You sent wires around, didn’t you?”

  Sam had the audacity to look proud of it. “I was protecting me and mine.”

  “Sam, I am not yours and I don’t need protecting. He’s a good man, one who’s done nothing but help the folks in Eustace, and you threw it back in his face.” She pushed Sam away. “I can’t talk to you right now without wanting to shoot you myself. Now go back to the mill and think about what you’ve done.”

  “I didn’t do anything.”

  “You didn’t? You put every person in this town in danger by bringing an armed man gunning for Cade in its midst by sending out those damn telegrams. Anyone could be hurt, including Melissa.” She held up the rifle. “These weapons don’t care who gets killed, and neither does that man in there. I, on the other hand, care a great deal about who gets killed, namely no one.”