Odessa started to protest even as she attempted to stifle the yawn. “And while I sleep, I know my husband would just love to tell you how we met amid a hail of bullets and ended up in church together.”
“My, my.” Surprise filled Hobart’s face. “Sounds like I’m going to have quite a story to tell my Minnie.”
“If you’ll excuse us, Mr. Hobart”—Shadow took Odessa’s tin, noticing she was finished eating—“I’ll make a bed for her and then I’ll help you break camp.”
He gently leaned toward Odessa, then decided not to whisper for her to come closer. Instead, he said loud enough for Hobart to hear, “Now come with me, sleepyhead, before you make our host think that I don’t take care of you properly.”
“Yes, do, Mrs. Rivers.” Hobart tipped his hat at Odessa. “But I wish you folks would just call me Tim or Timothy.”
“Thank you for everything, Timothy.” She linked her arm through Shadow’s. “We’ll never forget your kindness.”
Shadow escorted Odessa to the back of the wagon and suddenly swept her up into his arms. He set her on the wagon bed and kissed the top of her head. “You little minx, now what am I supposed to tell him?”
She didn’t protest the kiss. It felt more than a little endearing. “He’s a nice man. Why not tell him the truth?” she suggested. “As he said, he’d have quite a story to tell his Minnie.”
“You just might be right.”
She warmed to the approval in Shadow’s tone, aware of how much she’d done in the past twenty-four hours to seek his compliments. Several times she’d caught herself trying to please him, watching his eyes just to see if she could break his concentration. And she had, sending a thrill through her that made her feel more woman than anything else in her life ever had. She’d allowed herself to enjoy the way his hand caressed her even when he didn’t know he was doing so, stopping short only when he noticed her looking. It wasn’t one of those grabby touches men at the Gilded Garter tried, but one that Shadow made almost unconsciously as if she were a favorite pet he was stroking.
Odessa especially liked the way his lips curved and withdrew momentarily from their thin line when he was pleased with something she said or did. She knew she was letting her heart pull her from the goal she’d set for herself never to trust or care for any outlaw or gunslinger, but Shadow Rivers was different. He made her want to feel different. Whatever type of man he truly was, he had somehow defined himself as his own kind.
“Stop looking at me like that or I’m going to ask you to honor your second part of our deal even though Hobart can’t see.” Shadow’s words exited soft and husky.
“You mean, move in close like this?” She scooted forward, rubbing her thumb gently over his lower lip.
His tongue darted out to taste her touch, his eyes sweeping over her hungrily. Only then did she realize she’d ridden into Hobart’s camp with her top shirt button still unfastened to relieve the heat. Her fingers rushed to refasten the breech, but the warmth of Shadow’s gaze prickled the back of her hand as if it were heated tingles from the sun. Odessa glanced up at him again, staring as he did at her.
A strangely exotic silence ensued. She had to find a way to somehow be closer now, the urge so compelling that she couldn’t satisfy the need unless she felt the span of muscles that had encompassed her since they’d began the ride. Her fingers splayed across his chest, traced the ridge of each shoulder, then delved into the ebony hair at his collar, silently asking him to draw nearer.
“You want Hobart to come back here finding out what’s taking so long?” Shadow half groaned, half teased as he glanced around the edge of the wagon.
She giggled. The idea of Shadow being nervous about anything was too blamed funny to hold back her laughter.
“He’s going to hear you.” Shadow sounded like he could have been applying for membership to become a monk and it made him seem all the more endearing. Now who was worrying?
“So keep me quiet,” she challenged, her heart taking voice. She realized what her words suggested and refused to find fault with her feelings.
It was as if she’d given him license to live. Shadow pulled her into the hard planes of his chest, staring deeply into her eyes as if he was measuring her in some way. “I’ve never met anyone like you, Des. I think my luck turned for the better when you broke me out of jail. I know my life has. I’ve just been waiting for you to say that what’s stirring up between us is a good thing.”
As if one had asked and the other had agreed, she slipped her arms around his neck and their mouths met softly. His warm, wet tongue teased until she could do nothing but answer its quest and appease her need to taste him and discover why he had come to mean so much to her. Odessa surrendered to the feelings that had been building since she met him—the beckoning from somewhere deep in her soul, a tender acceptance of her heart’s revelation, a treasured taste of heaven that made her tremble in its wake.
She felt herself unfolding, blossoming like the bluebonnets his eyes reminded her of. Years of wanting to be cherished, to feel like she counted as something good and fine and honest to someone, melted away with each pass of his hands along her back, with each caress that traced the curve of her hips.
He finally pushed away, his breath ragged, his eyes smoky blue and hooded.
“I think that ought to do it for now, don’t you?” she lied breathlessly, motioning behind her. She needed some way to stop the world from spinning. Teasing him by reminding him that they did have company seemed to be the necessary call of order. “Timothy might think we weren’t affectionate if you left your new bride too soon to help him. That should convince him we’re married, don’t you think?”
A look of hurt swept across Shadow’s face as he backed away, misunderstanding her need to regain control of her senses. “You made a believer out of me, darling. Just be glad I’m still gentleman enough to remember that we really aren’t.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered as he walked away, “for making light of something that shifted my world.”
Chapter 8
“That’s quite a story,” Timothy admitted, continuing to drive the team over the rutted trail that led to Jerkwater.
Shadow admired the man for not pulling up rein and demanding that he and Odessa leave his company. She had been sleeping all morning and had not risen even once to ask them to stop for personal reasons.
“You say she’s innocent?” Timothy glanced back at his female passenger. “She sure seemed plenty nice to me this morning. Hard to think a woman like her could be much of an outlaw.”
Though their situation wasn’t one bit humorous, Shadow chuckled, maybe just to release some of the tension from leaving her last night. “She’s not much of one.” In a more serious tone he added, “I’ve got to get her home before she’s forced to really become one, Tim. She’s fit for more in this life than that.”
“I’ve got to admit when you introduced yourself by your last name, I thought I’d heard it before and she looked kind of familiar but I couldn’t quite place her. Then when you told me your first name this morning, I almost stained the inside of my trousers.”
“You didn’t pull that hog leg under your seat there.” Shadow added honesty to one of Tim’s traits. “But you could have.”
“Maybe.” Hobart’s gaze left the roadway momentarily to sweep to the bench where they sat and the curled blanket that rested just below it at the back of his legs. “But if you’re as fast with the gun as they say you are, Shadow, I fear I’d been dead before my rifle ever left the blanket.”
“When I was younger and if you had pulled it first, probably,” Shadow admitted to the possibility. “But I’ve put that life behind me now. I wanted you to know it all because I think you’re a fair man. Odessa does too because she was the one who said we should tell you the truth. Now the question is, what will you do with that information?”
“You say this Lambert chap plans to meet you in Jerkwater and she’s being kept from town, right?”
Shadow nodded. �
��That just about sums it up.”
“Then there’s only one thing I can do.” Timothy shrugged and faced Shadow for a second. “I’ve got to take you both straight to Cassius James.”
“The sheriff?” Recalling the name on Odessa’s wanted poster didn’t reassure any qualms Shadow might have concerning his new friend. In fact, Shadow didn’t like the sound of this at all.
“She’ll be safer with him than anywhere else, guilty or not, at least until he gets it all looked into.” Hobart focused on the team again. “And if there’re any warrants for Lambert’s arrest, they’ll be posted. That might prove helpful to you. Come to think of it, that’s where I know Odessa from. I’ve seen her wanted poster.”
“Tell me about the sheriff.” He didn’t want Tim dwelling on whether or not she was innocent. Poster or no poster, Odessa had been wrongly accused. Shadow was sure of it. “What kind of man is he?”
“I’m surprised you haven’t heard of him. He rode with George Jordan of the Ninth Cavalry during their successful defense of New Mexico territory against the Apache. Near Tularosa, I think.”
“The Ninth, you say? That’s a unit of Buffalo Soldiers.”
“Right you are. Cassius is one of only two black men to serve as sheriff in Texas. That’s how well he’s respected.”
Hobart’s list of respectable traits was building in Shadow’s estimation. The surveyor suffered no prejudice except for a way a man conducted himself.
“He’s a crack shot and has won more than a dozen shootouts with men who all drew on him first, and he’s never suffered a wound. It’s said that only one man has ever gotten away from him.”
“You sound like you know James well.” Shadow hoped Timothy did if he was going to trust the sheriff with Odessa’s future.
“I do. Being a land surveyor, you sometimes have to rely on the local authority to keep you from getting shot. There’s an occasional dispute about who owns which water rights. Anyway, Cassius is a skilled detective, a master of disguises, and an expert tracker when he has to be. I expect that’s why those Apache feared him so much.”
Odessa finally sat up behind them, stretching and yawning. “Sheriff James is someone we can trust, Shadow. He was out of town the morning it all happened. I couldn’t go to him and I was afraid to involve my mother. I knew I’d be tracked there. The only thing to do was leave. I just couldn’t get back to return the stuff.”
“Do you mind telling me what you’re trying to return?” Curiosity filled Hobart’s tone.
“This.”
Shadow turned around in the seat and saw the wad of cash she was pulling from the lace that made a delicate triangle at the top of her slightly unbuttoned shirt.
She dug a little deeper. “And this. Ouch, that itches like sin.”
She rubbed the place where the ring she held up must have been pressing between her breasts. She saw Shadow gaping at her. “Close your mouth, darling. I’m sorry they’re not as big as you hoped.”
“What’s this?” Hobart asked, unable to turn around well enough to see what was in her hands.
Odessa fanned the wad of money. “About five thousand dollars and a man’s ring.”
She had kept saying Shadow could have robbed her but he didn’t. He had thought she meant the extra money she might be carrying with her. He didn’t know it was a blasted fortune. “And tell me exactly how you didn’t steal that,” Shadow said.
“Mind if I put it away and crawl up there with y’all?”
Shadow waited until she’d hidden the stash away again, making her breasts look much larger than they actually were. He shook his head wondering what other little secrets she had that she’d not told him. He scooted over on the bench and held a hand out to help her over. It took a moment or two, but she finally managed to squeeze herself between him and their host.
“We’re waiting,” Shadow reminded.
“I know,” she said. “I’m trying to find the right words.”
“Just the truth, Des. That’s word enough.” Shadow didn’t know how long she’d been awake. “I’ve told Tim the truth and what I know of your story. You can trust him with the rest.”
She took a deep breath and splayed her hands on her knees. “Well, you know how I told you about me being from bad blood?”
Shadow linked one arm through hers to make sure she rode safely on the seat, to silently tell her he’d put away the anger that had stirred from her teasing last night, but mostly to anchor her from whatever it was that seemed so difficult to say.
“You aren’t your family’s keeper,” Timothy said softly. “You answer only for your own deeds.”
“Did I tell you I’m happy to have met you, Mr. Hobart?” Odessa’s eyes looked upon their host in sincere askance.
“Timothy,” the surveyor reminded. “And yes, you did.”
Shadow owed the man for many kindnesses since they’d come upon him, but the biggest kindness of all was his willingness to hear Odessa out.
“Well, I allowed enough people to convince me that I had such bad blood I thought why not just be what I was accused of being.” She turned and looked at Shadow, tracing the place where their arms linked. “I got drunk one Saturday night and decided I would shoot a man. Oh, I had good reason. He tried putting his hands on me one time too many. He thought I was one of my mother’s working girls. I work for her, all right, but not in that kind of way and I told him so, plenty of times.”
Shadow wanted the man’s name and where he could find him. But that would come later after Odessa had cleared herself.
“Trouble was, sober I couldn’t have shot him if he’d been standing two feet in front of me. Shadow can attest to that. I sure couldn’t have shot him drunk to the gills. So instead I got mad at God and started shooting the hell out of Him.”
Unable to help himself, Shadow started laughing.
“Stop it. It’s not funny. It wasn’t then and it isn’t now.”
She tried to unlink her arm but he wouldn’t let her. “I’ll behave,” he promised, catching his breath. “It’s just that the image of you drunk and shooting at anything ought to have sent everyone in the vicinity running for cover.”
She sighed heavily. “Actually it did. I happened to be in an alley between two places I thought the vagabond would be, and when I started shooting, I couldn’t stop myself. All those years of being called bad and not deserving it. All that dodging from grabby men. I wanted to shoot out every star in the sky because none of them seemed to be shining for me.”
Tears welled in her eyes. “That’s when I heard a scream. In my drunken stupor I figured I had lost my aim and shot somewhere other than up. Before I knew it, a woman and a man who’d been passing by on the sidewalk were stripping off their coats and threw them at me. The man almost clobbered me with his ring. They thought I was trying to rob them. They took off running like . . . well . . . like Shadow Rivers himself was gunning for them.”
Her gaze locked with Shadow’s. “They didn’t wait around long enough to listen. All they heard was me shouting, not what I was saying, apparently. You believe me, don’t you, Shad?”
He patted her hand, then reached up to wipe a tear from her cheek. “I believe you, Des, and I’ll make the sheriff believe you if I have to.”
“I don’t understand.” Hobart slowed the team a little so their harnesses wouldn’t jingle so loud. “Why didn’t you just take everything to the sheriff?”
Odessa exhaled a deep breath, then continued with her tale. “That would have been the easiest thing, but you remember that I said I was drunk.”
“And that Sheriff James was out of town,” Shadow recalled.
“So smart me decided I would wait till morning—which, by the way, was the only Sunday I’ve ever missed church—and I would go to the lady’s house while she was at service. I meant to return their coats and the ring.”
“So you know who they belong to?” Shadow saw hope in that fact. It would go a long way in aiding the lawman to help Odessa.
; “Yes. At least the lady’s, I do. Like I said, it was dark, I was drunk, and they were not exactly around long enough for me to see their faces well. But Cathleen Cullen wore that coat any night there was a cool breeze stirring. She liked to show it off. Got it from Paris, France, so she said. I’d admired it for a long time.”
“So how did the money come into play? I understand about the man’s ring, but is it common for people in Jerkwater to walk around with that kind of money?”
“That’s just it, Shad, it’s not. And I only found that by mistake.”
“You mean there’s more to the story?” The surveyor’s eyes widened in response. “Minnie’s going to want to meet you, I can already tell.”
Odessa looked uncomfortable for a moment and Shad realized it had nothing to do with her seat on the wagon. “Go ahead and tell us. It can’t be that bad.”
“I tried that coat on just for the sport of it. I figured she’d never know. It was only when I thrust my hands into the pockets and twirled around that my hand came out with a wad of cash in it. By the time I quit counting, I discovered I had about five thousand dollars. I knew I was in big trouble then and had to get it back to Cathleen as quickly as possible.”
Shadow put two and two together. “So that’s why you missed church the next morning.”
“Cathleen always goes every Sunday and sits on the front pew. She’s one of the town’s society matrons. Come to think of it”—something lit in Odessa’s eyes—“her husband was away on business down in Austin. That couldn’t have been him with her that night.” She squeezed Shadow’s arm. “That explains a lot about the next morning.”
“Go on,” he encouraged.
“When I got to her house, I checked around to see if her buggy was gone and it was. Then I snuck into her parlor and was just taking off the coat when I saw a man’s boots at the top of her stairway.”
“It wasn’t Mr. Cullen, was it?” Hobart asked, though none of them had any doubt that it wasn’t.
Odessa shook her head. “No, Mr. Cullen wears fancy tooled boots. The man at the stairs wore boots of a lot less quality. I got a good look at him as I stripped off the coat and threw the other one on the settee. I assumed he really might be robbing Cathleen so I couldn’t take the chance of leaving the ring or the money.”
Give Me A Texas Outlaw Bundle with Give Me A Cowboy Page 32
