Masked Cowboy (Men of the White Sandy)

by Anderson, Sarah M.

  “That’s enough!” The lady doctor’s ice-cold voice sliced through the air, bringing everyone up short. She stood and glared at Nobody, who took that step back and dropped his eyes. “You—stop stalking people without their express written permission. And you.” She turned to Jacob, her mouth twisted into something that was more horrific than mean. Against his will, he shrank back. “Accept that you’re not in this alone. Both of you, shut up. You’re scaring the girl. I swear, I won’t stitch either of you back up.”

  Jacob spun to see Kip curled up into an impossibly small ball on Mary Beth’s lap, her eyes wide open, staring at the window at the last gasp of the sunset. Shit. He’d woken her up.

  Plus, Mary Beth was trying her damnedest to kill him with her eyes. “For crying out loud,” she muttered, rubbing Kip’s back. “Are you two done yet, or should we come back later?”

  He wanted to apologize to her and to Kip—especially to Kip, poor kid—but not in front of Nobody.

  Ever the diplomatic one, Rebel asked, “What kind of tracks?”

  “Don’t know. Couple of human tracks one night—maybe size twelve, men’s—but then…” he shrugged. “Don’t know what those other things were. Bigger. Pointed.”

  Flashes of the thing that had cut him passed before Jacob’s eye. Big—bigger than a man and not quite human. “Hooves?”

  “Or something someone wanted to be a hoof,” Nobody agreed.

  A tiny noise, barely audible, came from behind him. Then Mary Beth gasped. “Did you hear that?” she demanded in as quiet a voice as she could.

  “Was that you?”

  “It was Kip.”

  In an instant, Jacob, Rebel and Madeline were all crouched around the small girl. Even Nobody had come closer, looming over everyone.

  No one spoke. Instead, they all stared at Kip, who, if anything, had curled into an even smaller ball. Eventually, her eyes closed, but not in sleep. Instead, her forehead creased with the effort. She looked like she was in pain.

  It was still out there, whatever it was. And Rebel had spoken the truth—maybe it was tied to the rancher or Buck, maybe it wasn’t. That didn’t change things. He still had a duty to keep Kip safe. He owed it to her, to her parents and to himself.

  “Nobody’s right,” Rebel said after another silent moment had passed. “Your trailer isn’t safe enough.”

  “Where are we supposed to go?” Kip did best with her routine. She was already so scared…

  “You’ll stay with me, of course.” Mary Beth’s tone made it clear she wouldn’t take no for an answer. “I have a land line, a smart phone and a back door. The porch is crumbling, but it’s an exit. And if anyone tries to smoke us out, we can open a window and yell for Robin and Ronny. Problem solved.”

  Jacob felt everyone else in the room relax—everyone except him. If he started crashing at Mary Beth’s house, people would notice. People would talk.

  For some crazy reason, that made him almost as nervous as knowing something had been stalking him to his trailer.

  “Jacob,” she said, her voice dropping down several notches until it bordered on sultry. “Trust me on this.”

  Hell.

  After Mary Beth and Madeline had exchanged office numbers, home numbers, cell phone numbers and email addresses, she and Jacob loaded Kip up into the truck. Night had well and truly fallen, the dark sky endless over the grasslands of the rez.

  “Dinner?” he offered. He’d promised, after all.

  He remembered. She smiled at him, but it felt a little shaky on her face. “I think…” She looked up at the night sky, interrupted only by the light of the clinic. “I think I’d like to go home now.”

  Jacob looked at her with his one eye. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Hell, she didn’t know what to think anymore. This world she’d stumbled into? If she believed. The problem was, she didn’t know what to believe anymore.

  Jacob nodded. The only talking was him giving her directions up to the highway.

  Finally, after a long forty-five minutes, they hit the Faith Ridge exit. Mary Beth took the corners a little faster than she normally would have, but she couldn’t help it. The night seemed extra scary.

  She tried to tell herself that she was being ridiculous, that that they were in no immediate danger, that even if something—besides a very scary man named Nobody, that was—was stalking them, it’d take everyone a few days to realize that Jacob and Kip were staying with her, but all those true things didn’t stop Jacob from flinging open the truck doors, grabbing Kip and racing into the safety of the house with her hot on his heels. It wasn’t until the doors were safely bolted and the table safely shoved behind it that Mary Beth realized that Kip was out like a light.

  “She fell asleep, even after that nap earlier?” Mary Beth whispered in surprise.

  “She always liked the movement, even as a baby.” Jacob carried her back to the bed. When he came back out, he continued, “Freddie always used to ride her around on this old gelding he had when she was fussy. Worked every time.” His smile grew as he kicked off his boots. “You should have seen them. Fred was this big guy—made Ronny look tiny—up on this old horse with this little white baby over his shoulder. That’s what he was doing the day I found them.”

  It was unusual for him to talk about Kip’s family, but then, what part of tonight had been normal? “How long had you been looking?” she carefully asked as she slipped off her jacket and curled up next to him.

  “Three weeks. And it’s not what you were thinking,” he defended.

  “What? I didn’t say anything. What was I thinking?”

  “I didn’t go looking for Susan. Freddie won her fair and square. I loved them both.” His eye grew misty as he ran a hand through his hair. “After my grandfather died, I didn’t have any other family except for the Benges and the Yellow Robes and Fred and Susan—you know. The tribe was my family.”

  Mary Beth nodded. One big extended family, linked by blood. Once, they’d taken care of him, and now he returned the favor as best he could.

  “But by the time I finished college—well, I only had Fred and Susan. Ronny was back from Iraq, but he wasn’t back from Iraq, and Tommy—well, he had it rough for a while, and I didn’t have anyone else.”

  She’d never asked, partly because she’d never thought it was any of her business. But he was making it her business, even after he’d told her he didn’t have anything else to give. One of these days, she thought as he leaned his head against hers, I’m going to figure you out. It’s just not going to be today.

  “I didn’t want them to just go away. I didn’t want to feel so…alone,” he whispered.

  She fought the urge to tell him if he stayed with her, he’d never be alone again. “So you tracked them down.”

  “Freddie was plenty mad at me at first. They didn’t want to be found, and they figured that if I found them, others would too, but Susan…she was smart. You would have liked her a lot.” He smiled at the memory, and Mary Beth was sure she would have.

  Once, Susan had loved him. Mary Beth couldn’t help but wonder what had changed that. Maybe it hadn’t been her destiny. Sometimes, fate had a funny sense of humor.

  “She cooked up the idea that I would say I’d heard from them in Pierre and stuff,” he continued.

  “You became the decoy.”

  “And the pack mule.” He snorted. “You can’t just go off the grid with a three-month-old, you know. You need stuff.”

  Mary Beth smiled. “I can just see you buying Pampers and formula.” Strangely enough, she could. He wouldn’t be terribly good at it, like he wasn’t any good at dressing Kip, but he’d do it without blinking an eye. One eye.

  “Yeah, something like that,” he said with that half-shrug. “I went out every week or so, stealing a day from studying. Made sure to take a different route every time. Never the same way twice.”

  The until hung in the air as his face darkened and stilled into the stone-faced cowboy again. “Jacob,” she said quiet
ly, “I’m sorry they died. I really am.”

  “Yeah.” He picked up her hand and laced his fingers between hers. “It just doesn’t make any sense why this is happening.” He looked around, coolly assessing the defenses. “Only the porch door in the bedroom and that one window?”

  She nodded.

  “Tomorrow, we’ll move the bookcase in front of the window. She can sleep with you, and I’ll guard from the couch.”

  The horrifying image of a shadow—a thing with big hooved feet chasing a dancing warrior around—floated up in her mind again. “What about tonight?”

  “Tonight?”

  Mary Beth stood and faced him. Her smart mouth deserted her and she felt small and insignificant in the face of something she couldn’t even begin to understand. “Jacob, please, I don’t want to be alone tonight. Please.”

  He wrapped those strong arms around her and kissed her forehead. “Yeah. Neither do I.” He turned and pulled the sweatpants out from behind the TV.

  “You left those here?” She almost laughed.

  “I was planning on coming back,” he sheepishly explained as he began to undress.

  But this wasn’t a show. This was life or death hanging in the balance, and sex was not part of the equation, not tonight. So she turned away and went to change in the bedroom.

  As she slipped her old Garfield nightshirt over her head, Jacob silently padded in. They worked in unspoken unison as they slid the dresser in front of the door. While Jacob took the shade off the lava lamp and set it under the window, Mary Beth scooted Kip off the covers and climbed in bed.

  She wrapped her arms around Kip, and seconds later, Jacob was behind her, his arms circling her waist as his stiff leather nose poked through her hair.

  She half-rolled over. “Do you always sleep with the mask on?”

  “No,” he whispered, looking ashamed.

  With her free hand, she reached up and traced the edge where leather met skin. “I won’t look. I promise.”

  As she rolled back over, she heard three small snaps before his arm was back around her.

  “You are an amazing woman, Mary Beth Hofstetter,” he whispered, his mouth against her ear as he molded his body against hers. His breath rushed against her hair at a different angle, bathing her in his warm musk.

  Safe in his strong embrace, with Kip tucked into hers, Mary Beth fell asleep.

  And slept dreamlessly.

  Snap.

  Huh? Mary Beth thought. What time is it?

  Snap. Snap.

  Oh. Right. The mask. She opened her eyes and found herself face to face with Kip, her purple eyes only inches from Mary Beth’s.

  “Morning, honey,” she whispered. “Do you get to see Jacob without his mask on? He won’t show me.”

  “I can hear you, you know.” He chuckled behind her. “I’ll be right back.” Jacob shoved the dresser out of the way. The bathroom door clicked a few seconds later.

  “You okay, honey? I hope Jacob and that Nobody didn’t upset you too much last night.”

  Mary Beth wasn’t expecting an answer, but she was surprised when Kip reached up and rested her hand on Mary Beth’s cheek. Even for being wrapped in blankets and against Mary Beth, her skin was still cool to the touch.

  “Yeah. Okay. Just have to remember that patience is the key.” The bathroom door clicked again as Mary Beth stretched out. “It’s Friday. I’ve got cereal, toast and eggs. You want breakfast?”

  After they mowed through the last of the eggs, Mary Beth asked, “You want me to walk with you two?”

  “People would notice.” Jacob shrugged.

  “Yeah. Okay. No need to set the gossips off.”

  “You pick her up tonight. I’ll run by the trailer and grab some stuff before I come down.”

  Mary Beth kissed Kip’s forehead. “I’ll see you tonight, honey.”

  She stood up and into Jacob’s arms. He kissed her forehead as he hugged. Tightly. “See you tonight. And be safe.”

  Despite the weirdness of the situation, Mary Beth couldn’t help but float as she dressed for the office.

  He hadn’t been gone when she woke up.

  He was coming back tonight.

  She’d never been so happy at the thought of having a man to come home to in her whole life.

  Kip polished off the spaghetti and buttered bread, and then Mary Beth gave her a bath before Jacob tucked her in. Mary Beth read two more chapters of Island of the Blue Dolphin before Kip’s little body settled into sleep.

  Out in the living room, Jacob was sitting cross-legged on the couch wearing nothing but his sweatpants again, an open book on his lap and a Colt .45 beside him.

  “Man, and I thought everyone had knives,” Mary Beth muttered as she sat next to him.

  Grinning, he wrapped his arm around her shoulders as she picked up the book.

  “The Ecology and Management of Grazing Systems? Sounds like fun.”

  “Always.”

  “You really have an MBA?”

  “University of South Dakota, class of 2010. Summa cum laude.”

  “I am impressed, you know.”

  “White people usually are.” He snorted.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  He sighed heavily, his eye apologizing. “It’s just that it takes a lot of work to walk in both the white and Lakota worlds, and few people appreciate that.”

  “So the Lakota don’t think much of the MBA?”

  He snorted again. “Which ones? The ones that think I’ve sold out the tribe, or the ones who treat me like an endangered species? These days, the only person who really gets it is Shawn—and he’s still at Harvard.”

  She threw up her hands, dropping the textbook back in his lap with a thud. He winced. “I’m trying over here. I don’t speak the language. I talk with medicine men. I have an albino asleep on my bed. And you are about the best damned businessman I’ve ever seen.”

  His eyebrow shot up as he carefully turned the page. “Businessman? Not what I was hoping for.”

  “You are impossible!” She sighed as she collapsed on his bare shoulder.

  Lightly chuckling, he wrapped his arm around her, snuggling her in tight as he turned another page filled with charts and graphs.

  Mary Beth sat and listened to him breathe for a few moments, but the question that had been bothering her all day refused to go unanswered any longer. “Jacob?”

  “Hmm?” he asked, turning the page.

  “What happens next?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Okay. Let’s just assume, for argument’s sake, that we defeat the shadow thing and save Kip and earn our superhero tights. Then what? What happens next?”

  He cocked his head in that way that Mary Beth knew meant she had his undivided attention. “I’m still not sure I know what you’re talking about.”

  “You do realize that she’s just a little girl who misses her mom and dad? She’s only seven. She’s not ready to lead the free world or the tribe or do much but run around and ride horses. You’d do her a big favor if you just treated her like a real girl, okay? She just wants to feel normal.”

  “She’s not normal,” he patiently explained. “Even if she’s not a holy woman like her grandmother, she’s not normal.”

  “I know.” He was being intentionally obtuse, damn him. “That doesn’t change the question. What happens next? Will she ever be normal?”

  He thought about that for a while. “She used to be pretty normal, for a four-year-old. Giggled at squirrels chasing each other, laughed when I stuck straws up my nose and snorted milk—”

  “Geez, you are a boy, aren’t you? Garth Courland used to do that all the time in school.”

  He hugged her tighter. “I’ve got some money set aside for her. Then, when she’s around thirteen, she’ll go to Bear Butte for her vision quest. After that—well, it depends on what she sees. The elders—and that does include Rebel—will interpret her vision. No matter what happens, I’ll take care of her for
as long as she needs me to.”

  Mary Beth looked at him next to her, the proud Lakota warrior. “You’re a good man, Jacob Plenty Holes.”

  He kissed her forehead with a smile. “You make me better.”

  She blushed, hard, under the weight of that compliment. It was a damn good one, made all the better by the fact that he’d given it in such a casual way. He could turn on the charm when he wanted to. “Great.” She rolled her eyes. “When puberty hits. Can’t wait to see what raging hormones do to her. Looking forward to it.”

  “You know—” he leaned forward, his lips hovering just beyond hers, “—you’ve got some mouth on you. I like it.”

  As he kissed her, Mary Beth let herself get lost in the sheer manliness that was Jacob Plenty Holes. His strong arms around her, his firm lips pressing against hers, his tongue caressing hers—it was almost too much to bear. She broke away from him before she completely lost what was left of her mind.

  He ran his fingers along her jaw, lifting her face to his. “You are an amazing woman, Mary Beth Hofstetter. I keep waiting for you to run screaming.”

  “I couldn’t leave her. She needs me.”

  “Yeah,” he agreed as he feathered kisses down her neck. “She’s not the only one.”

  The next kiss was anything but light. Mary Beth curled into him as she wrapped her arm around that fine bare chest. Her cowboy hero, sworn to protect the weak and helpless, just like in romance novels. Maybe one day, she thought, we’ll ride off into the sunset together.

  But then an old memory bubbled up to the surface, and she could almost hear her Granny saying, “Romance is a tragedy that happens to someone else.” And this tragedy wasn’t finished playing out. So she pulled back from his warm arms and warmer lips, and he let her.

  “No, wait.” She sighed, forcing herself to push him away. “We aren’t done yet.”

  “Fine,” he grumbled, pulling her back up. “What part of this did you want to talk about?”

  “Assuming that everything turns out okay, and she’s safe and all that good stuff, what happens with us?” She ran her hand down his bare chest. “What happens with this and us?”