“There you are.” Hannah beamed at the dog as he pranced around her in a circle. “Who’s a good boy?”
Jinx wiggled his butt. He was always a good boy.
After showering attention on the dog for a moment, Hannah lifted her head and caught the dark-haired man’s gaze. “I’m Hannah Hickok. I’m ... um ... sorry about that. He’s never seen a horse.”
The man planted his hands on his hips and shook his head. “I’m Cooper Wyatt, head of security. Welcome to Casper Creek.”
It wasn’t exactly the most auspicious of introductions.
3
Three
She was pretty. That’s all Cooper could think when he moved toward her and the dog, who looked perfectly happy despite the commotion he caused. For some reason, Cooper didn’t want her to be pretty.
She had long, blond hair. It fell past her shoulders by several inches. Her eyes were bright, blue, and inquisitive. She was slim, with a set of legs that looked absolutely great in a pair of simple Levi jeans.
He didn’t know why, but it would’ve been easier if she looked less like ... her. He didn’t want to be attracted to her. He thought of Abigail as a second grandmother, for crying out loud. He didn’t want to look at her granddaughter as anything other than his new boss ... and maybe even a potential friend.
He pushed thoughts of Hannah’s looks out of his mind and adopted what he hoped was a stern and yet welcoming expression. “You need to watch the dog around the horses.”
Hannah nodded without hesitation. “I’m sorry. He’s been cooped up for twelve hours. We came straight from Michigan and ... well, he’s kind of goofy.”
Cooper shifted his eyes to the dog, who was happily rubbing his head against his knee. The dog was friendly to the point of being obnoxious. Despite his adorable personality, he was worrisome. They’d never had a dog in Casper Creek before. That meant trouble could follow. “Does he follow orders?”
“Kind of.”
“I take that to mean he does whatever he wants because you don’t make him behave.” The words came out harsher than he intended and the way Hannah straightened her shoulders told him they weren’t getting off to a great start. He adapted his tone. “I just meant that I don’t want anything to happen to him. You’re obviously fond of him.”
“Jinx,” she offered. “His name is Jinx ... and I love him.”
“Then we’ll have to get him used to the animals.”
“Okay. I can do that.”
Hannah looked more hopeful than Cooper assumed she felt, but he decided to let it go. “I’m head of security, like I already said. I think we should probably start with a tour.”
“That sounds great.” Hannah exhaled heavily and blew her bangs from her forehead. “This place isn’t easy to find. I’m sorry I’m late. I made the mistake of following the signs and it took me to the base of the mountain. I obviously couldn’t bring Jinx up on the ski lift.”
“No,” Cooper agreed. “Let’s start this way.” He cast a look over his shoulder, to where Tyler was trying to appease the horse. “That’s Tyler, by the way. He handles all the animals. He’s also a licensed vet, so if Jinx needs something, he’s the guy to go to.”
“Awesome.” Hannah took a moment to absorb the view of the town. “How come no one is here? I thought this was a tourist destination.”
“It is, but we’ve been closed since Abigail died. We weren’t sure what was going to happen in the immediate aftermath. Then we got word that you were coming and we figured it was best to wait until you got the lay of the land.”
“That’s smart.” Hannah absently rubbed her hands over the top of Jinx’s silky head. “It looks like you have everything here.”
“We do. We have a blacksmith shop, a hotel, a dry goods store, a telegraph office, a jail, a saloon, a bank, two restaurants, a studio for photographs, a church, and a meeting hall. Keep in mind, the dry goods store really sells souvenirs and if you need specific items, you’ll have to go to town to get them.”
“And how far away is the nearest town?”
“Only about twenty minutes. It’s small, but it has a huge grocery store. The other stuff ... well, you’ll have to order online. We get a big delivery from UPS with all our stuff once a week.”
“Okay.” That obviously wasn’t what Hannah was used to, but she assumed she would be able to adjust her expectations. “Does everybody who performs stay in the town?”
Cooper chuckled, the sound low and dry. “No. You’re the only one who will live here. Well, you and Tyler. There’s an apartment complex that way.” He pointed toward the west, to where there was nothing as far as the eye could see. “Most everybody else lives there.”
“Including you?”
“Actually, I have a house about three miles farther down the road you took to get here.”
“And your family lives there?”
“Just me. I bought the house before I took this job. I was looking for some quiet. Then I heard gunfights in the street one day — mind you, I thought they were real — and came tearing in because I thought somebody needed help. Abigail thought it was funny and offered me a job. I’ve been here ever since.”
“And how long is that?”
“Four years.”
“A decent amount of time,” Hannah mused, more to herself than him. “How well did you know my grandmother?”
“Very well. She was a remarkable woman. She ran this place by herself. You have some big shoes to fill.”
Hannah’s expression was hard for him to read, but she didn’t appear to take the statement as an insult. “I didn’t know her. In fact, I’ve been thinking hard on it since I got the letter from the lawyer. I don’t have one memory of her.”
“I’m sorry.” He meant it. “You truly missed out on a great human being.”
“I can’t figure out why my mother never told me about her. I always assumed she was dead.”
“You could ask your mother.”
“No, she died when I was sixteen. That just left me with my father and brother.”
Cooper was taken aback when he realized he knew almost nothing about Hannah, including her life story. “I’m sorry to hear that. It must’ve been difficult for you to go through that at such a young age.”
“It was hard when she died but ... I don’t know.” Hannah adopted a far-off expression as she stared down the street. “I don’t understand why she left this place to me. My grandmother, I mean. She didn’t know me.”
“Perhaps she wanted Casper Creek to stay in the family. She was genuinely fond of the place.”
“Yeah, but ... I have a brother. She didn’t leave him anything. He’s annoyed, by the way. He thinks he’s been robbed because he was completely omitted from the will. He’s trying to arrange it so he can come and visit me here.”
“Are you close?”
“We’re ... kind of close,” she hedged, uncertainty flitting through her mesmerizing eyes. “There’s been some stuff. I dropped out of college and he was always mad about that. He thought it was the stupidest thing I could’ve done. It turns out he was right.”
Cooper was at a loss what to say. “Well ... maybe this is a new start for you then.”
“I hope so.” She affixed a bright smile on her face. “So, you said you were going to give me a tour, right?”
“I am.” He bobbed his head and gestured toward the bank. “Most of this stuff is for show. The restaurants actually serve food. We have a great chef on hand and she oversees both restaurants. There are a total of sixty people who work here full or part-time. The bulk of those people are re-enactors who play specific parts.”
“And what part did Abigail play?”
Cooper smirked. “Mayor … at least most of the time. She liked being in charge. She jumped around occasionally, too.”
“I’ve never been in charge.”
“Then I guess this will be an adventure for all of us.”
HANNAH FELT OVERWHELMED as the ruggedly handsome security chief showe
d her from building to building. She had questions about how things operated, but she didn’t want to come across as a rube so she held some of them back. She understood the basic gist of things.
There were three people in the bank and they pretended to be robbed twice a day during performances. There were ten people on the waitstaff between the two restaurants and, apparently, they cleaned up on tips. There were five “bad guys” who participated in various fake gunfights over the course of the day. There were saloon girls, fake prostitutes, and an actual blacksmith who knew what he was doing.
There was an entire staff to handle the animals, which she learned consisted of cows, horses, pigs, chickens, and goats. There was a professional photographer who took kitschy photos, workers in the stores, and even a cleaning staff that tackled the buildings from top to bottom every afternoon after closing.
To Hannah, it felt like a ridiculous mountain of responsibility had been lodged on her shoulders.
“I don’t think I’m qualified to do anything but be a saloon girl.” She meant to think the words, but she uttered them as Cooper ordered sarsaparillas from the comely bar wench making eyes at him behind the counter. Hannah had heard so many names she’d already lost track of them.
“Then you can be a saloon girl.” Cooper kicked back in his chair and regarded her with unreadable eyes. “What did you do before you came here?”
Hannah was rueful. “Made really bad decisions.”
Cooper didn’t comment, only waited.
“I was an administrative assistant at a law firm,” she volunteered. There was no way she would go into the entire story. She looked bad in it and wanted to put her idiocy behind her. This place was a fresh start, and even though she wondered if she would be able to hack it, she was looking forward to the attempt. “I dropped out of college before graduation. It was a dumb move. I regret it.”
“You could always go back.”
She shrugged, noncommittal. “Maybe.”
“Or you could figure out what you want to do here and be really good at it.”
She smiled. It was as if he was reading her mind. “I think I would like that.”
“Well, we need to get you settled first.” He downed his sarsaparilla. “Come on. We need to head upstairs.”
“What’s upstairs?”
“Your apartment.”
Hannah was taken aback. “My apartment is above the saloon?”
“It is.”
She had no idea what to make of that. “Is it nice?”
Cooper’s smile was engaging. “You’ll have to be the judge of that.”
She finished her drink — she’d never had sarsaparilla before and was thrilled with the taste — and eagerly got to her feet. “Show me.”
When he realized they were heading upstairs, Jinx got a running start. Hannah recognized he was going to barrel through anybody who didn’t move fast enough because he loved adventures and wisely put a hand to Cooper’s chest to move him out of the way of the dog. She could feel muscles rippling under the thin fabric. He was apparently all muscle as far as she could tell. And she momentarily lost her train of thought as she gazed into his blue eyes.
“Is something wrong?” he asked, confused.
She shook her head in an effort to return to normal. “No, just ... wait for it.”
As if on cue, Jinx careened around them and hit the stairs. He almost slipped on the wooden floor and then he was gone like a shot climbing the steps.
Despite himself, Cooper laughed. “He has a lot of energy.”
“I got him from the pound,” Hannah admitted. “He’d been brought back twice because he was into everything and people didn’t like that. He looked so sad I think I fell in love with him that first day.”
“Well ... he’s cute.”
“He is. He’s not very well behaved. You were right about that.”
“Talk to Tyler. He’s great at training animals, that horse you saw notwithstanding. That beast is giving him fits.”
“I’ve never really been around horses.”
“You’ll get over that. We’ll teach you to ride.”
“What if I screw this up?” Hannah let her fears out to play for the first time. “What if I can’t do this?”
“We’re here to help.” His voice was gentle. As much as he wanted not to like her, he couldn’t help himself. He saw a young woman in search of some greater meaning in life. He recognized in her what he couldn’t see in himself years ago. Casper Creek fixed things for him. Maybe it would fix things for her, too. “We’ll start tomorrow. For tonight, you should get settled. You met a lot of the people, but you’ve probably already forgotten the names.”
Hannah was ashamed to admit that was true. “Yeah, well ... maybe they should all wear name tags.”
“Nobody wore name tags in the old west,” he teased.
“Fair enough.” She exhaled heavily. “So, show me my new home. No matter what, I’m determined to make this work.”
“Then we have that in common.”
THE APARTMENT TURNED OUT TO be more than Hannah could’ve imagined. It was large, taking up the entire second floor, and featured a full kitchen, living room, two bedrooms, two baths — including a jetted tub that Hannah was instantly in love with — and balconies at the front and back. It was ten times the place Hannah was living in when she left Michigan and she felt the apartment alone was worth it to move.
Cooper showed her around, pointed out that all of her grandmother’s things were still in the apartment because they weren’t sure what to do with them, and then left her on her own to settle in. He promised to be back first thing in the morning to help her with her new work duties and then left her in the apartment to adjust.
Once she was alone, Hannah engaged her inner girlie-girl and did a twirl before dancing a bit with Jinx. Then they moved from room to room so they could get a better picture of how the apartment was designed.
“This place is great,” she said as she dropped the bags she’d brought on the guest bedroom floor. The other room was bigger, but it was filled with her grandmother’s stuff. She didn’t want to disturb the older woman’s belongings until she had a chance to settle. It didn’t seem respectful. Besides, she was fine in the guest bedroom. It was better than the terrible Roseville apartment, that was for sure.
She opened both of the balcony doors to get a cross-breeze going. The apartment had obviously been closed since Abigail’s death and there was a staleness to the air. Jinx spent his time running from balcony to balcony so he could happily yip at the animals he saw while Hannah moved to the chest in the living room.
It was large and ornate. It looked to be hand-carved if she had to guess. It had to have cost quite a penny when it was first made. Even now, if she wanted to sell it, she wagered she could make a song. She had no intention of selling it, though. The cabinet was her favorite part of the room. For some reason, it called to her.
Unfortunately, it was locked and she couldn’t figure out how to open it. She looked for a key, checking every drawer she could find, and came up empty. She fetched a butter knife from the drawer and tried to open it that way but was unsuccessful and didn’t want to risk marring the wood, so she gave up. She made a mental note to ask Cooper about it the next day and then moved to the bathroom so she could enjoy the jetted tub.
She wasn’t worried about Jinx, who often followed her in the old apartment. He was the sort of dog who enjoyed watching his mistress bathe — something she initially found uncomfortable but had grown used to — but he had other things on his mind. Since she wasn’t worried about him trying to jump from the balcony, she left him to his exploits and settled into a steamy bath. The jets were a godsend on her sore muscles and she pressed her eyes shut and sank as low as she could get.
She had no idea how long she was there. In truth, she figured she dozed a bit because the water was noticeably cooler when she registered it. She was still comfortable and yet ... she felt something. She didn’t consider herself the sensit
ive sort and yet she was almost positive that she was being watched ... and not by Jinx. She could always feel when he was in the room. The floor was tile. His nails would’ve clicked on it if he entered.
No, the dog wasn’t the one watching her.
Slowly, the hair on the back of her neck standing on end, Hannah opened her eyes. It took her a second to adjust and she instantly turned her attention to the open door. There, for a split-second, she was certain she saw a woman standing in the opening.
Hannah’s heart skipped a beat and she opened her mouth. Whether it was to scream or demand answers, she couldn’t say. Ultimately it didn’t matter, though. The woman was gone just as fast as she appeared, almost as if she’d never been there in the first place.
“Hello?” Hannah’s voice was a raspy whisper.
No one answered, making her wonder if she’d imagined it. The possibility was there, she told herself. She was in another woman’s home. This wasn’t yet her home, although she had high hopes it would eventually turn out to feel that way. She could’ve easily fallen asleep in the tub and not been fully awake when she thought she saw the figure watching her.
Hannah swallowed hard and reached for the towel on the floor. She wrapped herself in it quickly and, with no little bit of trepidation, padded out to the living room. Jinx was still there on the balcony, rapt as he watched the goings-on. He didn’t act as if someone had been in the house. Of course, to be fair, he’d never been the best watchdog. He was liable to lick a robber rather than bite him. He still would’ve made some noise. That’s simply how he was wired.
It was that thought that kept Hannah calm as she closed the balcony doors, double-checked the locks, and then crawled into the guest bed. The mattress was soft and inviting and she burrowed under the blankets as Jinx got comfortable next to her, his head on the adjacent pillow.
Hannah thought it was impossible to sleep. She was too wired and nervous. She was wrong, though. Within five minutes of her head hitting the pillow she was out. That’s when the figure from the hallway returned. It was a woman, and she was ethereal. Her features were almost completely invisible in the limited light.
The Dirty Coven Page 3
