Chasing Rainbows

by Victoria Lynne

  “He might be right,” Jake agreed.

  “Fact is,” she continued, “if it weren’t for the money you’re making in the saloon, I couldn’t afford to keep this place open for much more than a month.”

  “I see.”

  Annie gave him a startled, embarrassed look. “That don’t mean I’m asking you to stay. I know you’d just as soon ride out of town as spend another night here, and I can’t say as I blame you. You don’t owe me anything… you were right about that. You were right to say it. Just because we… well, got closer than we thought we would, that don’t mean there are any ties or obligations between us.”

  “Annie—”

  “No, Jake, let me say my piece.” She took a deep breath, as though forcing herself to go on. “I won’t say that it felt good to hear it, but that doesn’t mean that you weren’t right. The truth isn’t always pretty. I guess what happened between us meant more to me than it did to you. That’s not your fault. I had no right to expect anything of you… or to imagine there was any tie between us at all. You never made me any promises, so I reckon it was just foolishness on my part to think you might have felt something different than you did.”

  “Jesus, Annie—” Hearing her ragged confession made Jake feel lower than a kicked dog and doubled his admiration for her. Most women would have been loath to admit that they had given a failed love affair any thought at all, but not his blunt, courageous Annie.

  “I’m not claiming any hold on you,” she rushed on. “I expect you had a right to be mad at me. You took one look at this place, and you thought I had deceived you, or just plain tried to trick your money out of you. But the fact is, Jake, I had no idea that The Palace was a broken-down bordello. I truly didn’t. It would mean a lot to me, everything else aside, if you could believe that.”

  He nodded. “I believe you didn’t know this place was a brothel.” At least that much was true. As for the rest of his suspicions, Jake supposed they would just have to go on festering inside him.

  “Thank you.”

  “Sounds like you’ve been doing a lot of thinking on it.”

  Annie gave him a rueful smile. “Just about every minute of every day.” She squared her shoulders, assuming a tone that was brisk and businesslike. “Now that that’s said, let’s get on with it. You keeping track of the money I owe you, and taking it out of the saloon profits like we agreed?”

  “Yes. You want me to account for that on paper?”

  She waved the suggestion away. “I trust you,” she replied, with such utter and complete faith that Jake once again felt a sharp stab of guilt slice through his gut.

  As he searched his mind for what to say next, a beam of weak winter sunlight filtered in through the window behind Annie. The light bounced off tiny shards of glass that had been swept up in one corner. Jake frowned, glancing from the pile of broken bits of glass to the newly bare ceiling. “What happened?” he asked, although he already knew. Looked like they’d had another little “accident.”

  Annie confirmed it. “That fancy chandelier fell down this morning. Appears somebody snuck in and cut the chain that held it.”

  “Anybody hurt?”

  “No, thank goodness. The room was empty when it fell.”

  Jake was silent for a moment, coldly furious. The pranks were not only cowardly but growing increasingly more dangerous. Had Annie or any of the other women been in the room when the chandelier had fallen, they could have been seriously injured if not killed. “You have any idea who’s behind it — or why?”

  She hesitated, then drew a crumpled note from the pocket of her dress and passed it to him. “I found this earlier this morning, just before the chandelier fell.”

  He opened the note and read the crude missive. You scared yet, outlaw womin?

  Although Jake’s first thought was of the note he had found in her saddlebags, the writing on this was much worse. Obviously they were not from the same person.

  For that matter, Pete would have no reason to threaten Annie or try to sabotage her hotel.

  “Have you been getting a lot of these?” he asked.

  “I’ve got a whole collection. They started way back with the first little ‘accident.’”

  “You see anybody suspicious around this morning?”

  “No. But I reckon that someone from town is trying to scare us out,” she said, confirming exactly what his instincts told him. Stubborn determination filled her eyes. “I’m not going to let them win, Jake. I’ve never been one to run from a fight, and I’m not running now. We’re staying put, no matter what happens.”

  “You tell the sheriff what’s been going on here?” he asked.

  “How much protection you think the sheriff would be willing to give Outlaw Annie and a group of washed-up whores? ’Specially during an election month?”

  She had a point, Jake conceded silently. It also occurred to him that if she were still part of the Mundy Gang, the sheriff would be the last person she would want sniffing around the hotel.

  Annie stared out the kitchen window, then released a soft sigh. “You think I’m a fool to stay on, Jake?”

  He studied her in silence. “I guess that depends on what’s keeping you here.”

  She nodded. Her eyes filled with a faraway look. “Dreams, mostly,” she finally admitted with a sigh. “I’ve been dreaming about this place for so long that I reckon I just can’t let it go. And the fact is, the place really isn’t so bad. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a finer piece of land than the one this hotel is sitting on. Whole herds of deer and elk gather at the watering hole after sundown. There’s a field of wildflowers that covers the entire south slope. And the way the sun comes up over the mountains every morning… it just takes my breath away. Plus the building itself is in solid shape. It’ll take more money and time to freshen it up, but I know I can make it succeed.” She turned to face him directly. “You know why?” she asked.

  “Why?”

  She smiled the first genuine smile he had seen since he had sat down. “Because I’ve got pluck.”

  Jake’s heart flooded with an aching tenderness. He smiled softly and nodded. “That you do, darlin’. That you do.”

  For a moment, their eyes met, and the familiar energy that had always simmered between them flared to life once again. If they had shared that look back on the trail, Jake wouldn’t have hesitated in pulling her into his arms. But not now.

  A look of sad understanding touched Annie’s eyes. “It’s funny,” she said softly, “it seems we’ve come so far together, but now we’re right back where we started. Just a couple of sniffing dogs.”

  Silence stretched between them once again. While her words held neither accusation or bitterness, they led in a direction Jake didn’t want to go. Determined to steer their conversation away from such dangerous ground, he asked, “So what are you going to do now, Annie?”

  She let out a sigh, then stood and began to pace the floor. “Well, I certainly can’t wait people out,” she said. “I’ll run out of money before they run out of their mule-headed foolishness. I reckon my only choice is to run at them head-on. Get them to meet the girls and me face to face. We’ve been posting flyers all around town for the past week, inviting everyone to a fancy shindig here tonight. I figure that way all the townsfolk can come and see for themselves how we’ve turned the place around. Once they see it with their own eyes, maybe they’ll change their highfalutin ways.”

  As far as he could see, the only thing her plan demonstrated was hopeless naiveté. “You really think that’ll work?”

  A wry smile touched her lips. “If the reception folks give me back in Two River Flats is anything to judge by, I’d say my chances were a bit slimmer than a blind man’s in a shooting contest. So this time I padded the odds a bit. I let folks in town know that if the girls and I weren’t good enough to pay a social call on, then maybe our money wasn’t good enough either. I sort of let it slip that we could do our buying in Abundance as well as we can do it in town.” Sh
e gave a light shrug. “Now it’s up to them, I reckon.”

  Jake nodded. Her plan was a bit heavy-handed, but it might just work. If she truly was interested in getting the hotel off the ground, at least, it was a step in the right direction. “Not bad,” he acknowledged.

  A determined gaze filled her eyes. “Poco a poco, la hormiga comio el elefante..”

  Little by little, Jake translated with an inner smile, the ant ate the elephant. “Do you want me to come tonight?” he asked.

  A look of stark relief showed on her face. “Would you, Jake? It’d mean a lot to the girls. And bring anybody you can think of — anybody at all. I reckon the fuller the house, the better it’ll look.”

  He nodded and stood. “You’re taking a risk, darlin’. Might be that nobody shows up at all. Or maybe you’ll just be entertaining the fella who’s been leaving those notes.”

  Annie brought up her chin and stated the obvious. “Maybe, maybe not. Fact is, I’ve got nothing left to lose.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Annie contentedly surveyed the front parlor, filled with a sense of stark incredulity — and glorious relief — that her party was going so well. In truth, she’d had more doubts about the wisdom of throwing the party than a goose had feathers, but she had gone ahead with it anyway.

  Miraculously it hadn’t turned out to be a complete disaster. The parlor had been swept spotlessly clean, the pillows plumped, fresh flowers filled the vases, and a banquet table full of sandwiches, cookies, and pies had been set out for the guests to enjoy. Low lamplight filled the room, giving it a gentle, welcoming glow. In the kitchen, two fiddlers played a series of catchy tunes; the tables and chairs had been pushed back against the walls to make room for anyone who cared to dance.

  Of course, the evening hadn’t started out so smoothly. Jake and Johnny Dill had closed the saloon and arrived promptly at seven. For a while, it had appeared as though they would be the only guests to attend. They had sat stiffly in the parlor with the women — all of whom were dressed in their best, high-necked, most respectable gowns — and tried with an almost ridiculous earnestness to carry on a polite conversation and not notice that they were being snubbed by the townsfolk.

  At seven thirty-five, to the relief of everyone involved, their first real guests arrived. The rancher from whom Annie purchased occasional sides of beef stood in the doorway, his wife by his side. They both had the sulky, resentful air of children who were being unjustly punished. Annie graciously invited them in and took their coats, then made the introductions. No sooner had she done that than the banker who handled the hotel’s account arrived, followed by the couple who owned the general mercantile.

  As more guests drifted in, the stilted air gradually gave way to a sense of genuine merriment. Jake and Johnny Dill took turns whirling the girls around the dance floor; soon it was crowded with couples from town. The food on the buffet table was quickly devoured and replaced by more home-baked treats. Conversation began to flow smoothly. Annie opened the upstairs and invited her guests to explore the hotel at will, eager to show off the extent of the repairs and renovations she had made.

  Although many of the townsfolk came as a direct result of her financial blackmail, a good many of the attendees simply stopped by out of curiosity Or, more likely, for the same reason they went to see a hanging — for the sheer thrill of watching an ungodly disaster descend upon somebody else. Much to their surprise and Annie’s delight, however, they stayed because they were actually having a good time.

  As Annie stood talking with Jake and Peyton VanEste, Jennie Mae approached them, carrying a tray of lemonade and cookies. “You gonna put this in your article, Mr. VanEste?” she asked.

  VanEste smiled politely as he surveyed the crowd. “I very well may.”

  “You ought to,” Jennie Mae persisted. “Maybe now some of the townsfolk will come down off their high horses and start giving us the time of day. ’Specially the menfolk. Hell, it ain’t like they never met us before, if you get my drift. Most of them were here before Miss Foster changed the place over. They sure enough found their way then, and most of them were dead drunk at the time, with nothing but the moon and the stars and what was ’twixt their legs to guide their way. And I’m not just talking about the lower elements in town. I’m talking about the judge, the sheriff and his deputies, and that little drugstore man with the big—”

  “Thank you, Jennie Mae, that’ll be all,” Annie interrupted shrilly.

  “Horse,” Jennie Mae finished, looking at Annie with an expression of baffled innocence. She shrugged her shoulders and smiled sweetly, then picked up her tray and sauntered away.

  An ornery smile touched Jake’s lips, but he remained mercifully silent. Two spots of bright-red color touched VanEste’s cheeks as he toyed with his mustache. After a moment, the reporter cleared his throat and said, “Speaking of my article, I’m reminded that you still owe me an interview, Miss Foster.”

  “I know, and I haven’t forgotten you. I simply haven’t had a chance to sit down for more than two minutes,” Annie explained. “But I promise we’ll talk within the next few days.”

  “I intend to hold you to that promise,” VanEste replied. He puffed out his chest importantly, continuing in the staged voice of an overpaid thespian, “Outlaw Annie, broken away from the Mundy Gang, now the owner of a fine hotel and on the path of righteousness and redemption That’s the kind of story my readers clamor for.” He sent Annie his overblown, dramatic wink. “I warned you I’d make a legend out of you yet, Miss Foster.”

  She forced a polite smile. “So you did.”

  “And now I’m afraid I must bid you both good night. I should retire and jot down a few notes while my thoughts are still fresh.” With that, he turned and made his way upstairs.

  It wasn’t long before the rest of her guests followed suit. Annie bid them good-bye, thanking them all for attending. Although she knew better than to believe that she had totally turned the townsfolk around, at least they left looking pleasantly surprised. They had spent an evening with the dreaded Outlaw Annie and five recently reformed soiled doves, and it hadn’t been nearly as bad as they had expected. Granted, she and the women still had a long way to go when it came to earning the townsfolks’ trust and respect. But in time, Annie thought, feeling a renewed surge of hope and optimism, they might just win them over.

  They gave the parlor a cursory cleaning, gathering all the dirty dishes and carrying them into the kitchen. That was as much as Annie would allow the women to do. It was well past midnight, it had been a long day, and they all looked exhausted. Distinctly pleased and satisfied, but exhausted nonetheless. Ignoring their protests that they wanted to help, she sent them all upstairs to their rooms. Johnny Dill retired shortly thereafter to the saloon, leaving just her and Jake.

  He studied her from across the lamp-lit parlor as a stillness settled over the hotel. “Congratulations, Annie. Your party was a success.”

  She sent him a wistful smile. “It was, wasn’t it? Who would have bet?”

  A lingering silence hung between them, then Jake reached for his hat. “I guess I ought to go see if Johnny needs any help in the saloon. He probably threw open the doors to any late-night stragglers.”

  The words were nothing but an excuse for him to leave, and Annie knew it as well as he did. She took a deep breath, fighting back an impulse to ask him to stay. No sense muddying the waters between them more than they already were. “Thank you for your help tonight. It meant a lot that you and Johnny were here.”

  He gave a quick nod, then ducked out the door.

  Annie bit back a sigh as she watched him leave. Pushing away any ridiculous thoughts of what might have been, she busied herself with straightening up the parlor. She rearranged pillows, blew out candles, collected a few discarded bits of food before Cat got to them, then turned down the lamps. She moved into the kitchen, intending to pile the dirty dishes into the sink and let them soak overnight.

  But she never made it to the s
ink.

  Annie had taken only two steps through the swinging door that led from the restaurant into the kitchen when she felt a rough hand grab her arm from behind. A second hand came around to clamp firmly over her mouth. Her body was jerked against a hard male form. She felt the man’s gun brush her leg and his hot breath against her ear, but she couldn’t see his face. He held her with her back pinned against his chest, one arm so tightly strapped across her ribs that she could barely breathe.

  His voice came out in a low, gravelly pant that filled her ear. “Miss me, Annie, girl?”

  Annie’s blood ran cold. Although she still couldn’t see his face, she would know that voice anywhere. Glancing down, she managed to catch a glimpse of the man’s boot. The man’s snakeskin boot.

  “I told you I’d come back for you someday, didn’t I?” Snakeskin Garvey rasped in her ear.

  She forced herself to stay calm. All she had to do was to free her mouth. One loud scream and the women in the hotel would come running.

  As though reading her thoughts, Snakeskin lifted a saw-toothed hunting knife from his belt and pressed it against her throat. “You make so much as one little squeal, girl, and I swear I’ll slit you open. You understand me?”

  She nodded against his hand. The man was crazy and ruthless enough to do just that. Not only would he kill her, he’d most likely kill any of the women who came down to help her. Annie had to find some way, any other way, to get away from him.

  He cautiously removed his hand from her mouth, pressing his knife even harder against her throat. Annie felt a slight sting, then a trickle of blood ran down her neck.

  “That’s it,” Snakeskin said from behind her. “You want to feel any more of my blade, you just make a noise. Any noise at all and I’ll kill you, so help me God.”