Jake, Devils on Horseback, Book 2

by Beth Williamson

  Gabby frowned. “Destroy the town? Is that what you think?”

  “It’s what we know, Miss Rinaldi,” Gideon said. “What we’ve seen and found.”

  “Tanger is dying. If you want to stop it, then we need to find out for certain who’s behind it. There’s something else I need to tell you.” Jake looked at his friends. “I know what Wolcott is up to.”

  Gabby stared at him hard. “What did he do?”

  Jake had intended on telling Gideon and Lee later, but he had to include Gabby. She was just as much a victim as anyone in Tanger. The mill had the largest bank account aside from Wolcott and Lucy.

  “He’s been embezzling money from every account in the bank for the last year. By my estimate, and his ledger, he’s taken more than fifteen thousand dollars and moved it to a bank account in Kansas City.” Jake let that sink in. “He’s got a contact there taking care of the money until he leaves town to collect it.”

  “That son of a bitch,” Gabby snarled. “He’s taken all our money, hasn’t he?”

  “Yes, he did, and a lot of it.” He glanced at Gideon. “I don’t think he’s behind the raiders though because if the town has no money, then he can’t steal it.”

  “Good point. And if he’s been doing this for a year, then the last thing he wants is to have his hand forced.” He rubbed his hand on his whiskered chin. “When do you think he’s gonna run?”

  Jake thought about everything he’d seen and read in Wolcott’s house. Although there was nothing to suggest Wolcott was leaving on a specific date, Jake followed his instincts.

  “Within a week.”

  Gabby cursed, drawing a surprised grunt from Lee.

  “We have to stop him.” She touched Jake’s arm with one bandaged hand. “How do we do that and catch the raiders?”

  “We’re going to have to work on a plan, Miss Rinaldi.” Gideon gestured in the direction Zeke had disappeared. “Before we do that, we need my cousin to make the circle complete. Let’s meet in the morning and figure out what to do.”

  “Agreed.” Jake nodded. “I know I sure as hell can’t think worth a damn right now and I’m guessing you two want a bath.”

  Gabby reluctantly agreed. “Fine, but don’t you dare start without me.”

  Gideon and Lee headed off into the night to clean up and get changed. Gabby tucked her arm in Jake’s and led him to the river’s edge. The fine mist from the rushing water coated his face as they stood side by side. Her arm trembled beneath his, the only sign she was still struggling with the events of the day.

  “Are you all right?” Jake whispered.

  “No, but I will be after we find those bastards and put them all behind bars.” Her voice shook with fury. “I am so tired of living in fear, of not knowing what would happen from one day to the next, of thinking I will never be normal. God, I hate this.”

  “We’ll do our best to stop it. I promise.” Jake cursed the fact that his voice wasn’t steady. The thought of facing the tasks ahead made him break out in a sweat. Thank God Gabby didn’t know how terrified he’d been earlier. She shamed him with her bravery.

  “I know you will.” Gabby turned and nuzzled his neck. “I believe you, Jacob Sheridan. I trust you.”

  The lump in his throat had nothing to do with being afraid and everything to do with the love he hid. She couldn’t know how he felt, not yet, not until he was a whole man. Gabby deserved more than a man scared of his own shadow.

  “Kiss me.”

  Softly spoken, the command echoed through him and his heart pounded in tune with the night creatures’ music. His soul called out for surcease from its pain, deliverance from its dark prison.

  As he bent his head to kiss her in the darkness, her breath came out in a gust, as if she’d been holding it. Perhaps he’d been holding his as well.

  He lay her down in the damp grass and they became as one. Their clothes melted away and soon it was their bodies singing together. It wasn’t the desperate dance in the mill days ago, but rather a slow, sweet song.

  Gabby arched into his touch as he latched onto her ripe breasts, tugging at the turgid nipple until she gasped.

  “Oh God, yes.” She leaned into his touch, eager for the pleasure he gave her.

  Her skin tasted salty and warm, and he lapped up the essence of her life. Fire blazed through his veins as his temperature rose.

  “Please, Jake, now.” She opened her legs and beckoned him.

  When his aching cock settled at her welcoming, wet entrance, he closed his eyes and wondered how he could have found her in a world full of such pain and misery.

  As he plunged into her welcoming body, she wrapped her arms around his back, moving with his rhythm, rocking back and forth. Jake knew they had needed to remember what it felt like to be alive, but being with Gabby filled him with the power of love and life, healed some of the tears in his heart. He clenched his eyes shut as his release blossomed within him.

  He whispered her name as her muscles clenched around him, pulling him deeper toward her womb, toward life. It took several minutes for the shudders to pass, then Jake rolled off her onto the cool grass and gently took her bandaged hand in his.

  Loving Gabby had put him in an untenable position, one he didn’t know how to resolve. A wanted criminal who wasn’t right in the head wasn’t exactly a prized catch. She couldn’t possibly want to spend the rest of her life running by his side. He needed to figure out a way to either leave Gabby for good or get rid of the demons of his past.

  Neither would be easy, the former might kill him.

  Reluctantly, Jake rose and put on his clothes. “I’ve got to go find Zeke. I’m worried about him.”

  She frowned. “I thought Gideon said—”

  “I know Zeke better. He’ll need someone to talk to.” A blatant lie, but she didn’t know that, and he wasn’t about to admit it. Jake needed to clear his mind and he couldn’t do that with Gabby beside him. Her presence muddled him up so much he didn’t know his ass from his elbow.

  “I’ll see you in the morning then.” She kissed him, the touch sweet and tempting.

  Jake swallowed hard and stepped away from the woman who owned his heart. “Good night.”

  He walked away quickly but with as much dignity as he could, turning his face to hide the tears on his cheeks.

  Zeke swam in a sea of pain so deep, he could barely hang on. It wasn’t as if he’d been in love with Allison, but she’d appeared like a bright light in his life, a beacon of all that was still good in the world. Sweet, innocent and beautiful enough that it hurt to look at her.

  His own inadequacies got her kidnapped, then his stupidity got her killed. The image of that angel’s face as her throat was slit would haunt Zeke the rest of his life. His friends might sympathize with him, but they wouldn’t understand. He’d allowed that sweet girl into his heart and it was rent asunder when she was murdered.

  Zeke tipped the bottle back and took a long pull of the amber liquid. Maybe he might forget, even for a moment, if he drank enough.

  “Are you sure it’s them?” Captain Elliot Nessman peered through the gloom at the stranger. “I refuse to go out of my way if you’re unsure.”

  He’d come too far to make another mistake. Command was already issuing him orders to return to Houston. Elliot couldn’t do that until he’d exhausted every lead on the men he chased. The only men who’d ever escaped from his prison during the war, those Southern bastards were doomed from the second their feet hit the loamy earth outside the prison walls.

  “It’s them, I’m sure. A redhead, two blonds, one with a missing arm, and one with curly brown hair, right?” The stranger stuck out one hand. “You give me what you promised and I’ll tell you where they are.”

  Elliot hated paying for information, but it was necessary. Time was running short for his quest. He knew he was close, but he’d found too ma
ny dead ends to wait any longer. The stranger made an impatient cluck and wiggled the proffered hand.

  “If I find out you’re lying to me, I will find you.” Elliot made sure the stranger understood that. The army captain was nothing if not persistent in pursuing criminals.

  “It’s the truth. I ain’t lying.”

  Elliot laid out five golden eagles on the stranger’s palm. “Where are they?” He kept his hand on the pistol strapped to his hip.

  “Tanger, Texas.”

  Chapter Eight

  Two days had passed since Allison had been killed and the cloud of misery hadn’t lifted. If anything, it had gotten worse.

  “We’ve been sitting on our asses trying to figure out what do to. I’ll tell you what we need to do, we need to find them and kill them.” Zeke’s bloodshot eyes challenged everyone to contradict him.

  “I think we need to find them and find out why the hell they’ve been trying to destroy Tanger.” Lee, for once, made more sense than his older brother.

  Jake stared hard at Zeke. “We’re all upset about what happened to Allison—”

  “Don’t you even think about taking that road, Sheridan.” Zeke’s voice made the hairs on Gabby’s arms stand up.

  “Let’s not fight about it. We need to be reasonable and agree that going after them, all of us at once, is the best course of action.” Gideon seemed to always be the voice of reason.

  “Fuck reason.” Zeke could have wilted a meadow with the hate and anger in his expression.

  “If we don’t use reason, then we’re no better than them.” Gideon tried to be patient, but Gabby could see he was losing that battle.

  “I don’t care what you do, I’m going after those bastards and shove my gun down their fucking throats.” Zeke pushed away from the table, spilling coffee from the abrupt movement.

  Elmer frowned and with a sigh, started wiping it up with the rag from his pocket. Breakfast at Cindy’s had become their morning ritual, however today they mourned not only the loss of the restaurant, but the life of a young woman ended violently. Instead they gathered around the small table in the Devils’ shack. It wasn’t much, but Elmer had become their bunkmate due to the restaurant burning and they felt they owed him the respect to give him a place to lay his head.

  “What would that accomplish?” Gideon wasn’t giving up just yet.

  “It would make me feel a hell of a lot better.” Zeke looked at each of them in turn, including Gabby.

  She felt the sheer agony rolling off him. The despair of losing someone so precious had hit him as hard as it hit her. The truth was, Gabby agreed with Zeke. She wanted to kill them all. Justice in Texas was hard coming, and they surely had a big dose in store for the raiders.

  Gabby stood, her blood zipping through her veins like a river of vengeance. “I’m going with Zeke.”

  Astonishment lit the faces of the other four men. She’d have thought she suggested going naked to church.

  “What?” Jake’s face flushed red. “You can’t be serious.”

  “I’ve never been so serious in my life.” Gabby’s heart pounded, an echo of pain with each thump. “I have lived in the shadow of blood and fear for too long. When they killed Allison, the one pure thing in town died with her. I will not, I cannot let anything else happen. I am going with Zeke.”

  She turned to face him, noting the wrinkled clothes, the stink of a night of drinking and the whiskered face. What she noticed most though was respect in his eyes.

  “Let’s ride, Miss Rinaldi.”

  The two of them turned and left side by side. It took mere moments for everyone else to scramble out of their chairs and follow, protesting all the way. Jake grabbed her arm.

  “Gabby.” His blue eyes pleaded with her. “You can’t use your pistol because of your hands. And you might get hurt. Please, think about this.”

  “I’ll use the shotgun and wear gloves.” She pulled her arm from his grasp. “I’ve thought of nothing else for the last two days. I have to do this.”

  Phineas Wolcott appeared on the street, watching them as they headed toward the livery. His gaze never wavered. Gabby had the insane urge to punch his doughy face for stealing from the town, but she had more urgent matters to focus on. One rat at a time.

  Lucy stood on the steps of the saloon, her wavy red hair loose, a look of resignation in her eyes. “Y’all gonna kill those bastards now? It couldn’t have happened when they took my girls, but kill the preacher’s daughter and revenge becomes more important. She wasn’t any better than—”

  Zeke was in her face before she finished the sentence. Her eyes widened in fear at what she saw in his. “Don’t even think it, Lucy. She don’t deserve your sharp tongue. I’m ending this here and now for everyone.”

  Gabby realized Zeke must’ve spent some time with Lucy since they’d been in Tanger. A little voice inside her piped in that perhaps Jake had spent time with the whore too. Gabby slapped the little voice.

  “I didn’t mean nothing, Zeke. I’m just tired is all.” Lucy stepped away from him. “Go get ’em. They deserve every second of pain you can give.”

  Zeke nodded and jumped back onto the street, taking Gabby’s arm. “Let’s go, partner.”

  * * * * *

  Jake’s stomach rolled with fear. For himself, for Zeke, but mostly for Gabby. She’d never looked so fierce, so angry before. Allison’s death must’ve hit her harder than he thought. He’d known the girls were friends, but her anger went beyond that friendship. He suspected it also had to do with what she’d learned about Phineas, and perhaps her mother. Mary’s behavior had always struck Jake as odd, but how she acted on the day of the fire was strange even for her.

  Jake knew he’d be going with Gabby and Zeke. No way in hell he wouldn’t, but it didn’t mean Jake wasn’t scared out of his mind. A night didn’t go by that he didn’t wake up in a cold sweat, terrified he was back in the war, back in Nessman’s hands. He tried to shake off the feeling of dread, but it lingered over him like an unwanted shadow.

  Any one of them could be killed. The fear of dying had never plagued him before and now it seemed he couldn’t shake it. God forbid he showed anyone that fear. He’d hidden it well over the last year and planned to continue hiding it.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Mary Rinaldi’s screeching voice halted them all in their tracks. She stomped down the street, grimace contorting her face. For a moment, she looked murderous.

  Jake had thought all along Mary was to be watched and he hadn’t changed his mind.

  Gabby stuck her chin up in the air, an air of determination about her. “I’m going with these good men to find the raiders who murdered my friend and turned Tanger into a ghost town.”

  Jake swallowed hard at the way she called them “good men”.

  “Oh no you’re not. I won’t have any daughter of mine stepping out with a low-class group of men. I forbid you to go.” Mary’s expression was colder than a January snow.

  “Forbid me? I don’t have time to talk about this, Mama. We’re leaving and that’s that. Nothing you say can change my mind.” Gabby brushed past her mother. Jake felt like applauding.

  “You will not go anywhere with this thief. He’s bamboozled you, all of us, with his lying, conniving ways.” Mary pointed a bony finger at Jake and he almost felt the chill from her touch.

  “I’m not listening to you.” Gabby didn’t even slow down.

  “He broke into Phineas’s house. I saw him.” Mary’s grin could not be considered pleasant. “You told me yourself they were gunslingers, bad men, and yet here you are like a queen back-talking me and going off with them like a harlot.”

  Jake didn’t think anyone or anything could have stopped Gabby from slapping her mother, not even the healing injuries on her hand. The sound echoed in the dead silence around them. Jake noticed a few folks poking their heads out do
ors and windows. Gabby’s face flushed a bright pink as she bared her teeth. Mary looked more shocked than anyone.

  Without another word to her mother, Gabby turned and walked to Jake. The pain and guilt in her beautiful eyes tore at him.

  “Will you come with me to say goodbye to my father?” she whispered. “If I don’t come back, I want him to know I love him.”

  Jake didn’t bother telling her Sam Rinaldi knew his daughter loved him. She showed it in so many ways, a blind man couldn’t miss it. Jake took her arm in his, noted the trembling, and walked with as much dignity as he could toward the mill.

  “Does your hand hurt?” He knew the blisters from the fire were still healing. The last thing she needed was to reinjure her hand by slapping her mother.

  “It stings, but I don’t regret what I did. I just couldn’t bear one more second.” She sucked in a pained breath.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “There’s nothing for you to be sorry about. My mother isn’t a nice person and I don’t think she ever was. All my life she’s treated me as if I would never be good enough, never be the son she lost in childbirth no matter what I did.” A small sob escaped her throat. “My papa was always there for me. He never treated me like anything but a person, worth his love and attention. But now, I don’t even have him anymore. I’ve got nothing.”

  Jake hadn’t really known his father, and his mother hardly spared him a glance except when he didn’t come home with food or money for her brood. He felt a small stab of envy over the relationship Gabby had with her father. It was amazing to him when folks didn’t realize what they held in the palms of their hands.

  “You’ve got me.”

  Gabby stopped and stared at him, her dark eyes awash with tears. “Is it true?”

  “Is what true?” Jake’s mouth felt cotton dry, knowing he was delaying the inevitable. Where had his charm gone, or his ability to distract ladies with flattery? Damn Mary for accusing him in front of the whole damn town. If that didn’t get Nessman’s attention somehow, he’d eat his shoe for breakfast.