by Catie Rhodes
“Are you sorry? Would you do it again?” I ignored the mumble from the crowd and held up my hand when it threatened to get loud. They shut up immediately. Zora clapped her hands, and a few people giggled.
“No, ma’am. I’ve been in this community for going on fifteen years. I’m a convicted felon. Had a hard time getting started after I got out. All I want is to see Sanctuary keep going.” He swallowed hard. If he’d had a hat, he’d have held it at waist level. “Thing’s been getting kind of crazy the last year. I just got scared of losing it.”
I nodded, thinking things over. What would Priscilla do? The mantle swirled inside me, locked into the deepest part of my soul, even this small measure more giant than I could have ever imagined.
“Well?” Anita Johnson glared at me. “What’s our punishment?” She swallowed at that, eyes darting back and forth.
“Understand that what you did was strike one and two. There won’t be any more chances.” I sucked in a deep breath, concentrating on my magic. The black opal warmed on my chest. I narrowed my focus on Kenny and Anita. “If you betray us again, I will crawl all over you like an army of fire ants.”
I aimed my magic at the couple and imagined red, livid fire ants crawling all over their bodies and biting. Kenny and Anita stood still, staring back at me with identical frowns of confusion stamped on their plain faces.
Then Anita rubbed at her neck and let out a little shriek. She grabbed for her leg and slapped at it. Kenny jerked his shirt away from his chest and stared down his hairy chest. He began to dance foot to foot, face contorted in fear. I waited until both of their cheeks turned red and swept my hand in front of my face, the same way I’d have brushed fire ants off a kitchen counter. The two relaxed and turned their sweat-sheened faces toward me.
“Do we understand each other?” Fatigue from the little show pounded in me, but I held myself straight, determined not to let it show. Kenny and Anita nodded.
Cecil gave me a pat and stood again. By now, I knew this was his way of telling me I’d done what he wanted. “This community is and always has been for people who are a little different. A safe place for people like us. We do allow those with no special talents to travel with us, but they will never lead this group. There’s room enough for them in the outside world.” Cecil nodded at Finn, who stood up.
“Meeting adjourned. Enjoy the barbecue and get a good night's sleep. We hit the trail at daybreak,” he shouted.
The crowd dispersed. None of my family made any move to get up, so I stayed put too. Wade came over, shrugging into his leather jacket.
“I need to get moving.” He kissed my cheek. I hugged him.
Cecil watched the exchange, glancing back at Jadine then at me. “We’re opening our membership again, healer. You’d be welcome here. Be a good place for you to start again.”
“I can’t leave the Six Guns. I owe them my life.” Wade held out his hand to shake. Cecil took it.
“Some debts beg to be paid and forgotten.” Cecil gave Wade a smile I couldn’t interpret.
Wade smiled and saluted Cecil. He walked away. I followed Wade to his motorcycle.
“This would be a better place with you in it.” I watched him pull his gloves and riding glasses out of his saddlebag. “Even if you don’t want to be with me.” I thought of Wade flirting with Jadine and cringed.
Wade shook his head, his jaw set. “I’m not the kind of man to walk away from a debt like the one I owe the Six Guns.”
He wasn’t, but did King Tolliver share Wade’s unflinching loyalty? He’d beaten Wade for coming here. Something bad was going on with King, and I hated to see Wade go back to it. While I was thinking it over, Wade leaned close and spoke into my ear. “And Jadine’s too young for me. I just like torturing Bradley.” Our eyes locked, and that old, heady lust worked its way through me.
“When will I see you again?” I had to ask. Just couldn’t help myself.
Wade winked at me. “You know me. I’ll be around whenever you need me.”
I stared at the healing bruises and cuts on his face. Fear and anger stirred around in my head. Was King’s problem with me? He could drink a toilet water martini if so. I’d mash him flat.
“What’re you thinking about?” Wade’s grin made me think he knew more than he let on.
“Just about how much I’ll miss you.” I hugged my friend, still wishing he was my lover, and went back to my family. The day passed too quickly. Before I knew it, people began packing up and preparing to travel the next day.
“It’s time to talk about the Coachman.” Cecil’s soft voice surprised me, and I nearly dropped the cigarette smoldering between my first and second fingers. “He’s still alive, is he not? Trapped wherever he hid his soul?”
Finn and Dillon stopped playing with their kids and wandered over, wariness etched on both their faces.
“Yep. I sent him back to where he hid his soul.” It had seemed like a cave of some sort, and the article I read about him had mentioned an underground river to hell.
“What’s next?” Finn pulled up a lawn chair next to mine. Jadine wandered over, her hand on Brad’s arm. Once Wade left, the two of them glommed onto each other.
I thought it over. It was only a matter of time before someone else found a tile and the Coachman started whispering in their ear. There was no telling how many Samuel and Samantha missed or where the Coachman had hidden other runes. We needed to find the place where the Coachman hid his soul.
But the scar tissue keeping me from the mantle’s power also needed my attention. I suspected I’d need way more of the mantle’s power than I currently had in order to separate the Coachman’s soul and banish it from the living plane. Finn’s impatient sigh drew me out of my thoughts.
“We have both the Coachman’s soul and the scar tissue spell to deal with.” I glanced at Cecil, hoping he had more answers than I did right then.
“I have a contact in Central Texas I’d like to talk to about that spell,” Cecil nearly whispered. “He’s our best bet if we can find him.”
“Meanwhile, I’ll try to figure out what Samantha meant about using the disk and the runes to uncover the location of the Coachman’s soul.” I kept my voice low too.
“And we keep what we’re doing quiet, right?” Dillon scooted a chair in front of us, her own cigarette burning between her fingers.
“Yes.” Cecil nodded. “No need to alarm anybody. For all they know, we’re traveling to Central Texas because of Kenny killing that stupid fence in Florida.” Cecil’s dark gaze found mine, and I murmured my agreement.
Another time, not very long before this one, I might have argued with Cecil, told him his community needed to know everything. Now, after what I’d seen, I knew why we kept things even from the people we loved and wanted to protect. The truth was dangerous.
I drove home to Griff and Mysti’s in the dark, the moonlight dancing through the tops of the pines. The concrete roads and heavy traffic overtook me soon enough. The mild sadness, the odd longing I’d felt since I came down here to live didn’t come with them. I’d left the crossroads where I’d been trapped since the day of my father’s murder and chosen my path.
This rutted, potholed road cut through the landscape of the rest of my life. Deadman’s curves hid in shadowy valleys and had big, deadly trees in just the right spot to kill me if I misjudged my speed. Long stretches of straightaway lay in waiting, their shoulders full of hitchhikers with plans to make sure I didn’t see another day.
But I had friends who’d sacrifice everything to help me. A new family who wanted me, for better or worse. Power beyond what most people could imagine.
Maybe I couldn’t know the dangers waiting to trip me up. But those baddies had a surprise coming. Picking the wrong girl to mess with burns like hellfire.
DEAD END EXCERPT
Chapter 1
LATE AFTERNOON SUN streamed into the window of Gaslight City Title Company’s conference room. It heated my jeans-clad leg to the point where I slid of
f my leather jacket and laid it over the back of my chair. For the billionth time, I asked myself if I was doing the right thing.
It didn’t matter how long I waited to sell Memaw’s property. It would never be easy to let it go. I’d considered keeping it, but knew I’d never live in Gaslight City again. My ugly past lurked around every corner. These city people had offered above market value for ten acres with a burned-out house and barn. I had to take it and move on.
The upside was I could see Hannah while I was in town. That would make all the unpleasantness worthwhile. We had spoken only a few words since the night I killed a man to rescue her. Things would never be as they were. But I couldn’t just let her slip away, our friendship ending altogether. Maybe soon she’d answer one of the half-dozen messages I’d left her over the last week.
While the woman read from the infinite stack of closing papers, I stared out the window at the Easter decorations, eggs and bunnies in pastel colors, fluttering on the antique gaslights lining the street. A tall woman, sun glowing on her long, red hair, hurried down the street. She stopped to peer into the plate glass window of Purtlebaugh’s General Store, where they still sold cups of coffee for five cents with purchase of a souvenir ceramic mug.
I sat up straighter, really alert for the first time since I sat down. Hannah? Perhaps she hadn’t returned my call because she was coming to meet me here at the title company. My heart beat faster.
A little red-headed boy raced down the sidewalk and hugged the woman’s legs. She bent to kiss his head, and I caught a direct look at her face. Not Hannah. I slumped in my seat and checked my phone to see if she’d returned my call since I set it to silent.
“Leave that alone.” Rainey Bruce shoved a stack of papers at me to sign.
I shoved the phone in my pocket and signed the first paper. A sob crept up my throat. Relinquishing ownership of the land where Memaw raised me stabbed me right in the heart. I swiped at my face.
“You planning on staying in Houston?” asked the male half of the yuppie city couple buying the property. I finished signing and raised my head. The couple wore the kind of clothes they probably thought country people wore—pearl snap shirts, tight blue jeans, brand new cowboy boots. I pushed the stack back at Rainey.
“Still undecided.” No need to bother telling him I no longer lived there. “What are you planning for Memaw’s land?”
The woman showed me a mouthful of perfect teeth and pushed her phone across the table. “We’re having this house built.”
I glanced at the phone. A brick McMansion that looked like it belonged in Griff’s subdivision back in The Woodlands. Deep sadness worked its way through me. Rainey passed me another stack of papers and gave me a warning glare. She needn’t have worried. I was too numb to say much. I started signing again.
“We’re going to get some cows and horses, maybe some chickens,” the husband said. “Be modern-day farmers.”
“Good luck with that.” I had no reason to be angry at these nice people, but I was. Letting go of the last piece of my life here in Gaslight City stung like a bitch. I signed the last paper and pushed them back at Rainey.
She glanced through the forms. “If this is all Peri Jean needs to sign, we’ll be on our way.”
The title company lady, whose name I couldn’t remember even though we went to school together, scowled but nodded.
I nodded at the yuppie couple and shook both their hands. Smooth as babies’ butts. They sure had a rude awakening on the not-too-distant horizon.
Rainey and I walked out to her convertible Mercedes. She popped the trunk and took a sheaf of papers out of the leather messenger bag she used as a briefcase.
“The last of the jewelry and gems from the Mace Treasure sold to an antiques collector in Austin.” She passed me a sealed envelope with my name on it. “This is the final sum transferred into your bank account. As agreed, I cut checks for Hannah, Wade Hill, and me, set up the scholarship fund we talked about, and paid myself back what I loaned you to buy your Toyota sedan. Where is it, by the way?” She stared up and down the street.
“I made the drive in this.” I patted the huge, white truck next to me. The car was in storage, and I was considering its sale. “It pulls the travel trailer better than my Toyota would.”
Rainy made a face at the truck. “I can’t believe you’re traveling around with a bunch of grifters and living in a camper.” She said the word with her lips puckered.
I ignored the barb. Rainey couldn’t possibly understand how wonderful it was to be around people who shared both my gifts and my blood for the first time in my life. “Did you name the scholarship what I told you?”
She rolled her eyes. “The Chase Fischer Budding Musician scholarship.”
I smiled, hoping some kid like Chase would be encouraged to go to college instead of hang around this town and waste away.
Rainey set out another sheaf of papers. “This is the paperwork for the trust you had me set up for your uncle Jesse. It’ll be taken out of the property sale. Very good of you. It’s what your memaw would have wanted.”
“This needs to cover his legal counsel and drop the maximum in his commissary account each month.” I glanced through the papers. The words didn’t make sense. I was too rattled from letting go of my last tangible link to Memaw.
“You think I’m incompetent? I always get your uncle everything he needs.” Rainey tapped the paper with one long, dragon lady nail to show me where to sign.
I scribbled my name. “This feels like a kiss-off. I wish we could get him out.”
Rainey shook her head and stared down the street. It didn’t hide the flush in her cheeks. She always got that flush when we talked about my uncle Jesse. I didn’t dare ask what it was about. She might snatch me bald. I handed back her papers, and she stowed them in her trunk. When she turned back around, she had her lips pressed together and held a white envelope pinched between her thumb and forefinger.
“As you requested, I sent King Tolliver a check. He returned it un-cashed with this.”
I opened the envelope. King had scribbled “void” on the check, which had been for a sizable amount. Especially since he didn’t do a damn thing to help find the Mace Treasure.
The money had been a show of respect, one Wade strongly encouraged to keep King as a friend. Behind the check was a folded slip of paper. I withdrew it and read the typed words . My scalp tingled as sweat broke out.
The bill read “services rendered.” The amount listed was easily five times the check I’d had Rainey send King.
“You want my professional advice?” The disdain on Rainey’s face gave a good idea what she’d say.
“I don’t guess it matters because I don’t have this kind of money. Not after all the other stuff I did.” I folded the invoice and put it back in the envelope, offering it to Rainey.
She waved it off. “King has no right to expect anything, especially not the amount of that invoice, from you.” The cords in her neck tightened, and fury crossed her face. “No right at all.” She shut the trunk of her car too hard. “Where are you and the rest of your con artist family camped?” She crossed her arms over her chest and squinted her eyes at me.
“Outside Shreveport.” My family had flat out refused to cross into Burns County. Our mutual ancestor had been lynched in Gaslight City by a bunch of witch haters. Her descendants feared Burns County the way some folks fear boogeymen in closets. My great-uncle Cecil, who’d taken me in like a prodigal daughter, had expended considerable hot air trying to convince me to conduct the sale of Memaw’s property online. But I’d come anyway in hopes of talking with Hannah, to see if I could salvage some part of our friendship.
“Get on out of the county before dark.” Rainey settled her direct gaze on me. Something in her eyes chilled me, made me sort of want to leave.
I checked my phone and shoved it back into my pocket. “I want to see Hannah, but I can’t get her to answer her phone.”
Rainey sucked in a deep breath and
stiffened. She’d done that every time I mentioned Hannah. I didn’t understand the problem. If Hannah wanted no more to do with me, why didn’t Rainey just tell me? She’d never cared about hurting my feelings before.
The blat of a motorcycle echoed off the buildings. Before I turned away from Rainey, I saw her shoulders relax. What had her in such a twist? The old Rainey would have encouraged me to go out to Long Time Gone and eat King Tolliver a new asshole for sending that stupid invoice. She wouldn’t have said get out of town before dark.
The motorcycle cruised toward us, sunlight winking off the iron horse’s chrome. The driver’s massive body came into view. Wade. My face stretched into a big, goofy smile, and I forgot about Rainey, stepped off the curb, and began waving.
Wade Hill pulled to the curb. I threw myself at him and hugged him as though it had been more than a couple of months since we last saw each other. He hugged me back, laughing into my hair.
I broke the hug and planted a kiss on his cheek. The part of his cheeks not covered by his gray-shot black beard reddened. “I thought you were tied up today with Six Gun Revolutionary business.”
“I pulled a diva fit. Told King I was damn sure going to see you before you got out of town.” Wade took off his sunglasses and tucked them into the neck of his leather jacket. The skin around his left eye was puffed out and beginning to bruise.
“King do that to you for coming to see me?” I didn’t need Wade’s confirmation. Not after seeing King’s bill for services rendered. I had his services rendered. Sure did. I’d shove them right up his hairy old ass.
“Doesn’t matter. We’re together now.” Wade glanced at Rainey, something moving behind his dark gaze. I followed it and saw something almost like fear cross Rainey’s exotic features. She covered it quickly.
“I’ve got to prepare for court.” She walked to her car and started climbing inside but stopped and turned back to speak to me. “If you need anything else, come by the office.” She waved and drove off.
