“I’m not allowed in the assembly hall.” Cade reminded him without inflection.
Addy frowned.
“Shit.” Jacobi looked ever more sheepish. “I’m sorry, Cade. Really. I didn’t think about…” He cleared his throat and glanced back at Addy, determined to change the subject. “Hey, did this Bach fella live in Yellowstone, too?”
“I don’t think so. Unless they skipped that part in the tour book.” She told him vaguely, her eyes on Cade. He was fascinated in the ancient, god-awful, painting of Marilyn Monroe behind the bar, not meeting her gaze. “Does this town have segregation against Voltrons, Cade?” That would explain why he never went with her to that awful, filthy, so-called “store.”
“Voltyn.” He snapped back, stilling not looking her way. The guy was so touchy.
“Who cares how you pronounce it? It’s bullshit that the rest of this town ostracizes you.” It pissed her off that anyone would treat Cade badly. “You can’t let them get away with that.”
“It’s easy to live in some fantasy world of justice, when you’ve never been judged unworthy, Adeline. The rest of us exist here in reality, where things aren’t so fucking fair.”
“So, I don’t know what it’s like to be bullied? I was the only girl not invited to prom, you prick. My whole life, nobody ever wanted me around.”
He squinted at her, like he thought that was nonsense. “Don’t be ridiculous. Anyone would want you around. You are…” He stopped short and shook his head.
“I am what?” She prompted, because that sentence just might have an interesting ending.
Cade studied her for a long moment. “Odd.” He finished sourly.
So much for that.
“Do the ‘without you’ one, Addy.” Deke interjected still staring out the window.
With or Without You was his favorite of all the songs she attempted. If it were up to him, Addy would perform it on a loop. U2 weren’t exactly the composers that Mrs. Baines stressed during piano lessons, so Addy was winging most of it. Luckily, she knew all the words and that seemed to make up for the mangled notes in Deke’s mind. Addy didn’t completely understand the lyrics, but they seemed to speak to him.
“She’s played enough.” Cade muttered, his flash of temper fading. “It’s getting late.” He switched to his own language and apparently ordered everyone out.
Jacobi sighed loudly, as his poker-Go Fish buddies tossed down their cards. “Thanks, brother.” He muttered. “I had a winning hand, too.”
“You always think you have a winning hand, Jake.” Addy couldn’t stop herself from interfering, since it was clear his brothers were useless. “It’s why you’re always broke. You can’t play cards all night, every night. It isn’t good for you.”
Jacobi frowned at Cade, like he wasn’t sure how to respond to that.
Addy frowned at Cade, too, ready to argue her point. “I want him to stop gambling.” She insisted. “It’s going to ruin his life.”
Cade watched her with a strange expression and then looked over at Jake. “I think Adeline’s concerned about you, Jake.” He said quietly. “You want to worry the lady or do you want to quit this shit?”
Jacobi blinked. “Really?” He blurted out. “You want me to stop playing cards?”
“Yes.” Cade and Addy chorused.
Deke grunted in agreement.
Jake let out a long sigh and tossed down his cards. “Fuck.” He muttered and gave in. “Now what am I supposed to do at night? The only pretty girl in the polis is already spoken for.”
That sleazy Manston guy glowered between them and spat out something that Addy didn’t fully understand. Jacobi was helping her with their language, but Manston’s dialect was thick, mangling even the words she was beginning to recognize. Something about Cade closing too early these days, because he couldn’t wait to be alone with his… tree? Or flower, maybe?
Cade’s response was a curt shrug and something that sounded like, “Visit another bar, if you’re not pants.” Judging from the context, Addy was probably mixing up the words for “pants” and “happy,” again. They sounded pretty much identical.
Whatever Cade said, Manston didn’t appreciate that suggestion. The nearest bar was at least ten miles away and the guy liked to drink. Infuriated, he bit off some angry curses and stalked out, taking his rancid smell with him. He and Cade had some pissing contest every night and every night Manston slunk off in a huff. He was pretty dumb, but not dumb enough to go up against the massive descendant of genetically engineered, possibly alien, warriors.
The rest of the customers left at a more peaceable rate, some of them even giving Addy respectful nods goodbye. She waved back at them. It was smarter to keep her distance, but good manners wouldn’t let her snub people.
Cade muttered something under his breath and turned to grab a bowl of stew from the counter behind him. “Here.” He set it on the bar a little harder than he needed to. “Stop inciting a riot and come eat something, Adeline.” He was always trying to feed her. “You’re getting too skinny. No one’s going to pay to get you back if you’ve wasted away to bones.”
The man was a jackass, but she did appreciate it when he said things like that.
Addy headed over to sit across from Cade. The seat of her barstool fell off, nearly knocking her to the floor. Rolling her eyes, she shoved it aside and picked a slightly less broken one. Damn it, how could every single chair in the place be defective? Cade seriously needed a new hobby, because furniture making was just not his calling.
Balancing on the new stool, Addy examined her dinner. “Buffalo again?”
“Be grateful you’re eating, at all.” Cade wiped down the bar, while Jacobi started cleaning off the tables. “Providing you with three square meals a day wasn’t part of our agreement, lady.”
“Hey, I’ve been doing a lot of extra work around here. I invented a wind chime today, pal.”
“That thing made of old spoons and broken glass? What does it even do? It just hangs on the porch making noise.”
“It’s doing what it does. It’s a wind chime. It hangs on the porch and makes noise.”
He arched a brow. “And you believe littering my tavern with something so pointless is a fair trade for food?”
“Whine all you want, my inventions are still way better than your carpentry.”
While Addy was marooned in Shadow-of-the-Gods, she figured she might as well try to bring a teeny bit of twenty-first century tech to the place. Unfortunately, it was much easier to live with gadgets than to actually invent them. She had no idea how to recreate most of the awesome stuff about modern civilization. Diet Pepsi, light bulbs, television sets, stretch denim, Hersey Bars… all of it was a mystery. So, she stuck to manufacturing simpler things. Like wind chimes and socks. Socks had the potential to be huge around here, if the marketing was in place.
“My carpentry skills are just fine.” Cade looked at his brothers. “Tell her my carpentry skills are fine.”
Deke and Jake exchanged a sideways glance.
“Oh, both of you shut-up.” He glowered back over at Addy. “At least what I build is useful.”
“I’ve seen you using the coat hangers I made.” She gestured to where his jacket was hanging on a new and improved rack. “I doubled your storage space.”
“And destroyed three rolls of wire.”
Yeah, getting the hook right had been harder than she thought. Addy made a face. “Who are you? Joan Crawford? I’m telling you, wire hangers are going to revolutionize closets in this town. After I’m gone, you can sell them and make a fortune.”
Cade’s scowl got even deeper, something about that idea pissing him off.
Addy found his usual grumblings kind of entertaining, but she didn’t like it when he was really annoyed, so she tried to compromise. “Look, if you’re going to be a grouch about it, add the food and repairs to Brian’s bill, okay?”
Cade shot her a brooding look through his incredible lashes, still not mollified. “Brian wil
l pay even more for you? You must be very… close.”
“He’s married, wiseass. But, for your information, he has plenty of gold. He keeps it in big vault and he swims through it like Scrooge McDuck.”
“McDuck is the same person as McGruff?”
“No, silly. One’s a duck and one’s a dog.” Cade’s blank expression made her grin. Messing with the guy was only fair, considering all the unrequited lust she experienced ogling him all day. “Besides, I offered to help you out, with cleaning and cooking and stuff.” She continued. “You told me to not to touch anything else under penalty of death.”
“You think I’d let you near my kitchen again, after your disastrous experiments with ‘coffee’?”
God, flood one little room and you never heard the end of it. “I’m trying to create a magical elixir of life, okay? There are bound to be some missteps in the discovery process, but you’ll thank me when I finally figure it out.” Addy shook her head in irritation. “I know how to cook.”
“Yesterday, you asked me what bread was.”
“That stuff was not bread. Trust me. I took classes at Le Cordon Bleu.” That was during her “chef phase.” She’d quit when her clothes all got too tight. Another in the long list of Addy’s partially attained skills. When was she ever going to find something that clicked?
He snorted. “Perhaps you can cook Why o’ Ming foods, like snicker doodles and the chocolate. Here, I doubt you’d know how to make anything beyond porrvand.”
Jacobi chuckled at that.
Addy had no idea what porrvand even was, but she had a feeling “making it” was the equivalent of boiling water. “Fine, Cade. Be a jerk. You’re the one missing out on my awards winning meringues.” She ate a spoonful of the buffalo stew, which wasn’t so bad all things considered. And she was pretty sure buffalo was low in fat, so points for sensible eating, too. “What’s got you in such a lousy mood, anyway? Did a victim escape your alien dungeon?”
“Don’t be an idiot.” He glanced at her and amusement sparked in his eyes. “No one escapes my dungeon.”
She grinned at that smartass remark. Cade’s rare flashes of humor always caught her off guard. One of these days he was actually going to smile and it would blow her mind. “But you do finally admit you’re an alien, right? You might as well come clean, because I’ve suspected it all along.”
“If I was an alien, you wouldn’t be wandering around, driving me crazy. I’d have you safely locked up somewhere.” Cade slapped a small glass bottle on the bar top, not meeting her gaze. “Oh, by the way, here.” He announced in a suspiciously casual tone. “This is for you.”
Addy blinked in surprise. “What is it?”
“Paint. For your nails.” He gestured towards her ruined manicure. “Your color is chipping off, so I got you some more.”
Addy’s eyes slowly traveled back up to his averted face. “You bought me a gift?” She whispered. Tears welled and she sniffed them back. No one had bought her a real present since her mother died. “Why?”
“I thought you would like it.” He shrugged, flashing her another quick look through his lashes. “You have pretty hands.”
Her mouth curved at his discomfort. “Are you sure you aren’t flirting with me? That sounds kind of like cowboyish flirting.”
Cade focused on his cleaning like it was brain surgery. “Buying it was just a random impulse.” He grumbled.
“Do they even sell fancy stuff like that around here?” Jake taunted with a gleeful smile. He might still feel guilty, but that didn’t stop him from being a little brother. “Seems like that paint is something you’d have to special order. Can you randomly special order something?”
“Yeah and how’d you even get into the store to buy it, Cade?” Deke chimed in. “Aren’t Voltyn banned from everyplace, unless they’re spending a lot of money? How much did that shit cost you?”
Cade snarled something menacing at his siblings.
…And Addy realized that nothing would ever be quite the same for her. Cade Westin changed everything, just by being his grouchy, awkward, reluctantly sweet self. She smiled at him and knew there would never be another man in any timeline who compared to this one.
“You didn’t have to go through so much trouble for me.” She told him. “Really. I’m…”
He shot her a fuming look. “Do you want the paint or not, lady?”
Addy grabbed the jar before he could ungive it. “I want it.” She hugged it close to her chest. “Thank you, Cade.”
He grunted, not wanting to talk about it anymore.
Too bad for him, Addy did. “Is this why you’re in a lousy mood? Were you nervous I wouldn’t like it? Because I love it.” She had no idea what nail polish was made of in the future or what color he’d bought, but it didn’t matter. It was… perfect. She slipped it into her pocket, rubbing her fingers over the small bottle like a talisman.
“I’m not fucking nervous.” He snapped. “And I’m not in a lousy mood. This is the same mood I’m always in.”
“No, it’s even more lousy than usual. If it’s not nerves, something else must have happened. Whatever it is, I sure you’re going to blame me for it, so you might as well tell me.”
“She’s right, Cade. You should tell her.” Deke put in, staring out the window, again. “She should be ready.”
That sounded ominous. “Ready for what?”
Cade hesitated. “I don’t want you to worry, but scouts saw Outlanders a few gantii from here.” Clearly, this was a big deal for the Westins, because they all looked serious, now. “They’re moving this way.”
“Oh. Right. Outlanders.” Addy sometimes thought they just made stuff up to screw with her. “Sure. That’s so… yeah.”
Three sets of incredulous eyes jumped to her face.
“You do know about Outlanders, right?” Jacobi demanded, like she was quite possibly the biggest simpleton in the universe.
Addy wasn’t going to tell them she had no frigging clue when they were gaping at her. Not after the Voltyn debacle. She wasn’t a scatterbrain, damn it.
“Sure, I know about them.” She’d read the book with the Scottish guy, at least. Shit, that story was about time travel, wasn’t it? She should have paid more attention to the details. It might’ve given her some pointers. “Obviously, everyone knows about the Outlanders. They’re famous for… all that stuff they do.”
“They’re here because of you.” Cade pressed. “You get that, right?”
“See? I knew you were going to blame me.”
“They’ve heard of you and they’re interested. Everyone’s heard of you. You draw too much attention. I told you this would happen.”
She made a face at him. Giving her gifts or not, the guy was still an asshole. If she’d been around for the nuclear holocaust, he would’ve claimed that was her fault, too. According to Cade, she was the cause of all the world’s problems. “Whatever.”
“Do not take your frustration out on Adeline.” Deke always stuck up for her when Cade started on one of his rants. Not because he cared about Addy’s feelings getting hurt, but because he didn’t want Cade to regret hurting her feelings. “Think, Cade. The only way to get what you want is to be softer. She’s pleased with her paint, so don’t ruin it.”
“I am pleased with the nail polish.” Addy agreed. “He’s not going to ruin it for me, no matter what he says.’
Cade ignored her, his eyes on Deke. “Voltyn cannot be soft. I do not feel love or empathy or caring. Those emotions aren’t part of my makeup.”
“That’s absurd.” Addy opinioned. “I can’t believe you would buy such complete lies, Cade. You’re usually smarter than that.”
“Ask anyone, Adeline! Voltyn are simply meant to protect. It’s why we were bred. But, you make that task impossible, just by being yourself.”
Addy scoffed at that foolishness.
Cade looked back at Deke, very agitated for such heartless robot. “Of course, the Outlanders have heard of her. Everyone’s heard
of her. Men come in here just to stare at her and hear that magical music she plays.” He gestured to the not!piano. “You think it isn’t infuriating to see their auras light up with wanting her? They come to my saloon and fantasize about my…” He stopped short, regaining control.
Addy blinked at him. Had Cade been about to call her “his”? No one had ever thought she belonged to them before.
“The girl’s done nothing wrong.” Deke told him. “Just kill the men, if they bother you.”
“I’m not blaming Adeline.” Cade ran a hand through his hair. “It would be a fucking blasphemy to change one thing about the woman. But, she’s still vulnerable to every asshole in the polis, because she has no idea what she’s doing.”
Addy wasn’t sure if she should be insulted or not. “Hang on…”
“So, what do you want to do, Cade?” Jacobi rolled his eyes, cutting her off. “Shave her head? Lock her in her room? Take away the vianorgan?” He snorted. “Save yourself the embarrassment of even trying. Addy will do as she pleases and you will allow it. We all know that.” He said something in their language that Addy didn’t catch.
Deke’s mouth quirked upward. “She does, every time you look at her, Cade. That’s why you’re in a lousy mood.”
Whatever that meant, Cade didn’t like hearing about it. His expression darkened even further. “Fuck you both. I want her safe.”
Addy had had enough. “Can you guys not talk about me like I’m not even here?” She looked over at Cade. “Tell me what’s going on? Are these Outlander guys coming here because I’m playing the piano?” That seemed asinine, even for this century, but she was amazed each day by the lunacy around her. “If it’s a big deal, I’ll just stop.”
“No.” Deke and Jake objected. They loved music.
Cade shook his head. “It’s not just the songs, Adeline. It’s you. The Outlanders hunt the most beautiful women and there is no one anywhere as beautiful as you are. It was inevitable that they’d come looking for you.”
Cowboy from the Future Page 9
