Cowboy from the Future

by Cassandra Gannon

  That part she couldn’t argue with. “I do want to go home. A lot.”

  Cade eyes squeezed shut and he said something to Deke that Addy didn’t understand.

  “You’d have to be a fucking idiot to even think about it.” Deke muttered back, in English.

  Addy looked between them. “Why is he a fucking idiot?” Whatever that conversation was about, she doubted it was good. “Look, just take a second and process, okay? This is all going to make sense.” She paused and then tacked on. “…Well, as much sense as time travel can ever make.”

  Cade ran a hand through his hair and didn’t respond.

  Jacobi was adjusting to everything much faster. In any era, teenagers apparently loved technology. He grinned widely and headed over to a screen playing different types of music. “What is that sound?”

  “It’s jazz. Louis Armstrong.”

  “Oh man, it’s beautiful.” Nothing against Satchmo, but Jacobi probably would’ve said the same thing if he’d heard nothing but traffic horns blaring and alarm clocks going off. The kid was entranced, trying to see it all at once. “If all this happened in the past, why don’t we know about it?”

  “I think the world must have fallen into chaos, after the flash. That kind of thing has happened before. Empires fall and people forget. Everything has to be rediscovered. One day I’ll tell you about the Renaissance and a man named da Vinci.”

  “Tell us about all of it. About everything.” He pointed at a film clip of a Border Collie catching a Frisbee in Central Park. “Look at that! What is that animal?”

  “That’s a dog.” She frowned at his blank look. “Jesus, dogs aren’t extinct, are they?”

  “I don’t know. What’s a dog?”

  Addy shook her head. “I can’t even answer that. It’s just too sad.” What kind of civilization could you have without dogs? No wonder everyone around here was so screwed up. She focused on something more positive. “Here, look at this.” She gestured at another monitor, which showed Native Americas from different regions. “I think these are your ancestors.” It was a touchscreen map, so she zoomed in on the Black Hills. “The Lakota. They were in these mountains long before the presidents arrived.”

  Jacobi grinned at the images, elated with his newfound heritage. “Grandmother told us that, remember, Deke? She always said we should be proud, because we came from great warriors.” He began to poke at the panels just to see the images move. “Look at them!”

  “I need to sit down.” Deke got out, still looking shell-shocked. He sank down against the wall, his eyes on the monitors. “Why do some of our ancestors have no color?” He finally asked.

  “What?” Addy frowned at that odd question. Then, she realized what he meant. “Oh! No, the pictures are just black and white, not your ancestors. A lot of the images in here are like that. A long time ago, it was impossible to have color photos. …Although, I guess everything is a long time ago, now.” Addy turned back to Cade, who was being much too quiet. “Are you, alright?”

  “I just… realized you don’t belong here.” He whispered. “I knew you didn’t, of course. I knew there was no one else like you in this world. You were always a miracle. But, I didn’t understand that you came from a place of magic and light.”

  Addy didn’t like the hollow quality of his voice. Cade never sounded that way. It made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. “Those lights aren’t magical.” She gestured towards the ceiling. “That’s electricity. It’s the same power you have, just channeled into wires.”

  His brows came together. “It can’t be.”

  “It is. Your powers aren’t unnatural, Cade. They aren’t a stain on the world. Everyone has electrical impulses in their bodies. People can’t usually control it like you do, but electricity is everywhere. Where I come from, it runs our whole society.”

  He shook his head, either denying her words or denying the entire situation. “It doesn’t matter how it works. It matters that it doesn’t run this society. This isn’t you home. You belong there.” He nodded to a screen that showed the world’s various skylines, a faraway expression coming over his face. “Gods, how did you survive here for even a day, when you’re used to that?”

  “I survived, because you saved me.”

  Cade turned back to her, surprised at her words. “No. I didn’t do anything.”

  “Of course you did. You gave me a place to stay when I had nowhere to go. You brought me food when I was hungry. You protected me when I was frightened. You saved my life, Cade. I will never be able to repay you.”

  Especially not if he was still expecting those sixty gold coins.

  “You don’t need to repay me. Anyone would have helped you, Addy.”

  “I don’t think so.” In fact, she couldn’t imagine anybody else doing even half of what he’d done for her. Under all his insistent grouching that Voltyn couldn’t feel, Cade was the most honorable person she’d ever met. “I’ve given you nothing but trouble and still you’ve helped me every step of the way.” Addy stared up him and knew her heart was in her eyes. How did he not understand?

  Didn’t he hear the click?

  Cade dropped his gaze. “You haven’t caused me any trouble.” Either he was lying or blind. “It’s not your fault that you didn’t know your way around here. How could you? No wonder you seemed so odd.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I knew you had to be from someplace far better than this.”

  “My world isn’t perfect. Believe me. There are mortgage payments, and lunatic bombers, and diet foods that taste like wet cardboard. But, that’s where I belong. I need to find my way back.”

  “And Yellowstone is the path?”

  “I have a feeling it is. Yeah.”

  Cade nodded to himself. “Alright.” He cleared his throat. “Alright. We’ll get you to Yellowstone, then. We can get around the pass by going north and then turning northwest.”

  “North by Northwest? Really?”

  “You have a better idea?”

  “No. But, if you got the reference, you’d know you just told a joke. It’s a whole Alfred Hitchcock/Mount Rushmore thing.”

  Cade squinted at her. “On second thought, it’s probably not just the unfamiliar time period making you seem odd, lady.”

  She smiled at that grousing. For a second, he sounded more like the Cade she knew.

  “Listen, I don’t care which route we take. I’m not going back into the Wilderness.” Deke paled at the very idea, visions of the War playing behind his eyes. “No way in hell. I’ll travel with you to Big Rock, but that’s as far as I can go.”

  Cade nodded. “Then, I’ll take her to Yellowstone myself.”

  “Cade…”

  “I’m taking her.” His tone was inflexible.

  “You’re a fucking idiot.” Deke muttered in disgust.

  Cade flashed him a dark look. “Do you think I would let Addy stay in this shithole, when she could go back to a time before the flash and the wars and the death?” He snarled. “A time where she will not be hunted by Outlanders or starve in the snow?”

  Deke got to his feet and said four words to him in their language.

  “No.” Cade scraped a hand over his face. “I can’t. She will have all the things she deserves and she will be safe. Everything else… doesn’t matter.” His jaw ticked. “I’ll need supplies before we go into the Wilderness, though. Big Rock will have them. We can start for the polis tomorrow and stay here tonight.” Cade headed back out the door. “I’ll see to the horses.”

  Addy blinked. “That’s it?” She called after him. “That’s all you’re going to say?”

  He kept walking for the exit, as if he couldn’t escape her fast enough. “What else do you want to hear?”

  “I’m trying to talk to you about my world and two minutes into the discussion, you’re already bored with it? We’re surrounded by thousands of years’ worth of human history. There are things here that even I don’t understand and I’m from the past. Don’t you have any ques
tions?”

  Cade ignored that. He stalked out of the Hall of Records, slamming the door shut behind him.

  Addy’s lips tightened into a line and she glanced over at Deke. “You’re right. He’s a fucking idiot.” She hesitated, her curiosity getting the better of her. “What did he say ‘no’ to, anyway?”

  “I told him he should ask you to stay.” Deke looked frustrated. “He’s refusing to get his head out of his ass and do that, though.”

  Addy wasn’t surprised. Hurt but not surprised. “Whatever.” She must’ve been out of her mind to even care that she wasn’t invited to join Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show.

  Deke cast her a speculative glance. “He wants you to stay with him.”

  “Obviously. Because super-handsome, super-powered cowboys from the future always want girls like me.” She rolled her eyes, not wanting to show how disappointed she was. “Forget it. I have a lot of exciting people waiting for me at home. Too many to even count.”

  “The same people who don’t think you’re pretty and aren’t looking for you, you mean?”

  “Oh, shut up.”

  “You belong with Cade.” Deke said with flat certainty. “And he belongs with you. You have to do something, Addy. I don’t think he’ll survive if you leave.”

  “That’s ridiculous. The man’s so healthy he could carry his horse to Devils Tower and be fine.” She shook her head. “He survived thirty-some years just fine without me. Probably better, since now he’s sleeping in caves and…”

  Deke cut her off. “He can’t go back to the way he was before. I’m telling you, something inside of him changed when he met you. He needs you, Addy. If he’s too stupid to reach up for help, you need to just grab him before he sinks.”

  “And what? Stay in this time?”

  “You won’t even consider it?”

  She had considered it. Addy missed the twenty-first century, but she could be convinced to stay in this dismal place, instead. All her life, she’d wanted a family and now she felt like she’d found one. She wanted to be with the Westins more than she wanted to see her condo again. Mostly, she just wanted Cade. He clearly didn’t plan to even discuss the possibility of a permanent relationship, though.

  “Cade doesn’t want me to stay.” She reminded Deke. “He wants me gone. He just said so.”

  “He wants you safe.” The World’s Unlikeliest Relationship Counselor corrected. “That’s all he’s focused on. The Voltyn blood just tells him to protect you, regardless of the cost.” Deke’s eyes were intent. “He’s in a lot more danger than you are, though. Without you, he really will stop feeling things. He’ll stop being Cade. I know it. You’re the only one who can save my brother.”

  Addy let out a long sigh. “I don’t think he wants to be saved.”

  “Since when has that stopped you?” Deke retorted. “Look, once that fucking idiot starts caring about someone, all he thinks about is what’s best for them, alright? As soon as Cade saw this place, he started telling me that we need to get you home. That you deserve to be in a better world. It’s how he’s built. He doesn’t want you gone. He just wants you happy. He’ll sacrifice anything for that.”

  Addy thought for a long moment. On some level, she knew Deke was right. Cade was a protector by nature. He would do whatever he could to make her happy. It was just who he was. So what would make her happiest? Being back home with takeout egg rolls and Netflix, or staying in the gloomy future with the most infuriating man she’d ever met?

  Shit, that wasn’t a choice, at all.

  The answer was so clear that Addy realized she wasn’t a scatterbrain, after all. She knew exactly what was important in this world. It wasn’t when you were that mattered. It was who you were with. She looked around at the monitors, showing all the wonders of her time and said goodbye without a drop of regret. There no place she’d rather be than with Cade and his nutty family.

  They were where she belonged.

  She took a deep breath. “I want to be with Cade, but he won’t ask me to stay, Deke.”

  “I don’t know that he can ask. It’s not that easy with Cade. Being a Voltyn has…”

  Addy cut him off. “I don’t care about the Voltyn thing. I care about him loving me. I want him to ask me to stay.”

  All her life she’d been searching for someone to belong to. Someone who’d give everything for her. Someone who’d look for her when she was lost. She refused to settle for less, when she knew Cade could give so much more.

  Deke’s eyes narrowed, weighing her resolve. “Alright. We’ll get him to ask you, then. I got an idea to make that happen.”

  She frowned suspiciously. “What kind of idea?”

  “Probably better if you don’t know. No sense in Cade killing both of us.”

  “Oh geez, you’re not going to hold him at gunpoint, are you?”

  “That’s the backup plan. Just let me handle it, alright? And don’t leave this century until it has a chance to work.”

  Addy had no intention of going anywhere. Now that she’d decided to stay with Cade, she planned to devote all her energy to securing their future here in the future. …Even if that meant dragging him into wedded bliss by his shiny hair.

  “Fine, we’ll go with your idea, but no guns.” She warned Deke. “It cuts way down on the sincerity of a proposal.” Shaking her head, she went stalking over Jacobi, who was goggling at screen that showed images from space. “Come help me figure out how to turn off that damn welcome message. Maria Del Sol is driving me crazy.”

  Chapter Eleven

  If you’re worried about having privacy on this tour, you can relax.

  There will be plenty of opportunities for you to have the time you’ll need to commune with nature.

  Brown’s Glampling Tours Official Pocket Guide

  “This is your fault.” Cade stood over Adeline and fixed her with a dark glare, doing his best to ignore the brilliant glow of her aura. Even at this hour of the morning, the woman was beguiling. He’d spent all night convincing himself to let her go, but, looking at her tousled red curls and sleepy eyes, it was hard to remember any of his extremely logical reasoning. Pissed off at everything, he shoved the note into her hand. “Look!”

  “What? Jesus, what time is it? Why are you shouting?” She ran a hand through her hair and sat up in her sleeping bag. “What the hell is this?”

  “You tell me. I know you had something to do with it.”

  She squinted down at the note, which was scrawled on the page she’d ripped from that impossible book the day before. Deke had written across the surface of it in ash from the fire and Addy rolled her eyes. “Are you kidding? You woke me up to see this? I can read --like-- three words of this thing.”

  That was because Deke had meant the note for Cade. The terse sentences were printed in their language.

  Meet you in Big Rock. Use the time alone to claim your woman. Don’t fuck this up.

  Both his brothers were gone and Big Rock was three days ride. Which meant, for the next one hundred gantii, it would just be Cade and the small human girl he desired more than anything.

  Alone.

  Shit. He should have seen it coming. Deke and Jake wanted Cade to keep Adeline. Never mind that Addy deserved to be back in her own time. That keeping her here would be selfish and wrong. His brothers knew Cade wanted the little lunatic, so they were doing their best to sabotage all his efforts to be an honorable man.

  “It says they’re gone.” He told her, gesturing to the note. “We must travel by ourselves, now.”

  As if this whole thing wasn’t already hard enough, his siblings had to go and make it worse. Being alone with Adeline and not touching her would be torturous. That was their whole plan. They thought he’d crack.

  Godsdamn it, he was going to crack. He already knew it.

  “They left us here?” Adeline blinked still trying to wake up. She turned the note in her hand like maybe she’d be able to make out the words if she held it upside down. “That’s a terrible
idea. Why would they do such a thing?”

  Cade didn’t answer that, because he understood exactly why they’d done it. He was even a little bit touched. So many people hated Cade just for being Voltyn. His own father had detested the very sight of him. But, Deke and Jake had never ostracized him or treated him differently. They cared about him. They wanted him to have Addy, because they knew what she meant to him.

  But, it wouldn’t work.

  Cade had to let her go. He was Voltyn, bred only to think of survival, and he knew this world would kill her. She hadn’t fit in right from the beginning and now she was on the run from the law. The harsh weather, the Outlanders, the danger everywhere. How could someone so bright ever survive in this horrible place? She was meant to exist in the sunlight. He had to make sure she was safe and warm, regardless of the cost.

  Protecting Addy was all that mattered.

  “Are your stupid siblings coming back?” She demanded, tossing the note aside. “Did they say where they’re going?”

  “The note says we’re splitting up and they’re meeting us at Big Rock.” He muttered and slapped his hat against his thigh. “Did they tell you about this?”

  “No.” She paused. “Well… not exactly.”

  Cade rolled his eyes. He’d known she was involved in this somehow. Addy was the brains behind all the stupid plots his brothers got mixed up in. “Damn it, Adeline…”

  “I didn’t know they were going to leave!” She interrupted hotly. “Do you think I want that? I like having them with us, Cade. I don’t have a lot of experience with families. Your brothers are special to me.”

  Just like that, Cade’s irritation vanished. Addy adored Jake and Deke. He saw that every day. She was really distressed that they were gone. The need to sooth her overrode everything else. “Alright, we’ll just have to catch up with them in Big Rock and kick their asses, then.”

  Addy snorted. “That idea I actually like.”

  “Good. Come on, we need to make about thirty gantii today.”