by Sabine Starr
The Hayes Brothers looked like the showmen they’d come to be when they’d taken on Lady Gone Bad’s singing career. Both stood an impressive six-foot four, or so. They’d tamed their wild black hair and were clean-shaven with neat mustaches. They wore fashionable seersucker plaid sack suits with rounded corners, Burt in blue and Bob in green.
Burt stepped forward and gave a slight bow. “Ladies of the Bend, Angelica is our huckleberry. Not only has she captured in words the heroes and heroines, exploits and bravery, danger and romance of Texas and Indian Territory, but everyone from the east coast to the west coast of these United States will want to hear more, see more, experience more of Sweet Rescue in the Indian Territory.”
The café filled with applause.
Angel simply stared at the brothers in shock. What could Burt possibly mean?
Bob stepped forward. “Angelica is considerable of a woman. Acknowledge the corn, she caps the climax!”
“That being said,” Burt continued, looking around the café. “In honor of and as a tribute to Texas Jack, Buffalo Bill, and Ned Buntline for their inspirational and rousing western stage dramas, Scouts of the Prairie and Scouts of the Plains, we hereby announce for your edification the forthcoming stage production of Sweet Rescue in the Indian Territory.”
As everyone leaped to their feet and clapped wildly, Angel sat in stunned silence. Maybe it was a joke, something her brother had put them up to, but it didn’t sound like a joke. Burt and Bob had seen her one time a year ago, but they didn’t seem to recognize her as Crystabelle Morgan.
Still, it didn’t matter. They’d just complicated her life. No matter how thrilling their idea, she didn’t have time for anything else right now. Her search for Tate must come first.
Chapter Twenty-two
Rune couldn’t believe his eyes. He’d sent Angel off with Manny, told her not to pick up any more men, and here she came back with these two brutes. And they were treating her like spun sugar. Manny looked like he was the cat who ate the cream. No doubt Loki was up to his old tricks again, but Rune wasn’t putting up with it. He was living on borrowed time and a single misstep away from the law.
Rune met the group at the entry to the stable, not about to let the two strangers inside. For one thing, there wouldn’t be room for that many big men. For another, he didn’t want them to get the idea they were welcome, no matter what Angel and Manny might have told them.
“Howdy-do,” Burt said, thrusting out a big paw. “I’m Burt Hayes. This is my brother, Bob. Hayes Brothers Entertainment Enterprises.”
“Rune Wulfsson.” He reluctantly shook their hands, but held his ground.
“Understand Manny and Angelica here are your friends,” Burt said, smiling broadly.
Rune nodded, growing more suspicious all the time.
“We manage Lady Gone Bad’s singing career. As we told Angelica, we are primed to put her book on stage. Folks everywhere can’t get enough of the Wild West.”
Rune felt as if he’d been poleaxed. Of all the things to come out of the blue, this was the least expected. He looked at Angel. He felt relieved when she shrugged her shoulders.
“We could use a big, strapping gunslinger kind of guy like you. We’re gonna include lots of fistfights, shoot-’em-ups, and Indian wars.”
“On stage?”
“Right.”
“Ain’t it the beatingest?” Bob said.
“You want me to be an actor?” Rune asked in sheer amazement.
“Folks want the real thing.” Burt gestured around the Bend. “We’re it. Manny can handle the livestock, if he’d like.”
Manny rubbed his hands together, appearing excited. “Mama Lou can cook for us.”
“Good idea,” Burt agreed. “We’ll need that, too.”
“How do you plan to finance this?” Rune asked. “Rob a train?”
Burt stepped back, obviously offended. “There’s money to be made bringing the American West to the world. We’ll get backers. Don’t you doubt that for a minute. And we’ll pay our people well, too.”
“I’m in,” Manny said. “Any friend of Lady’s is a friend of mine.”
“Angelica?” Rune gave her a hard look.
She nodded, acknowledging their prior agreement. “Burt and Bob, I’m flattered you would consider Sweet Rescue as the basis for your stage drama, but are you sure it’s the right material?”
Burt grinned, showing white teeth. “Don’t matter. You’re our writer, if you’ll agree. We can put together whatever works best on stage.”
“I’m certainly tempted,” Angel said, “but I do have other obligations at the moment.”
“Think nothing of it.” Burt waved her reluctance away with a large gesture. “Sweet Rescue promotion comes first. We understand. You take care of that while we take care of putting this show together.”
“You’re our big bug,” Bob said.
“That’s right,” Burt agreed. “And we won’t take no for an answer.”
“I’ve got business, too.” Rune wondered how this had gone so far so fast.
“Sure you do.” Burt pulled out a large, gold pocket watch, looked at it, frowned, and then glanced around the group. “Tell you what. You finish up your business. We’ll take care of our end.” He glanced up at the sky, as if pondering, then looked back down again. “Let’s meet back here in a month. I’ll see if Lady can join us. We’ll iron out the wrinkles and get it going. How does that sound?”
“Savagerous,” Bob said.
“I’ll be right here.” Manny spit a stream of tobacco to one side.
“Let’s see where we all are in our lives in a month,” Angel said. “Might be fun.”
“And profitable. Never forget that part of it.” Burt grinned, brown eyes twinkling.
Rune nodded, not agreeing and not disagreeing. In a month he ought to have his life back in order. If his plans didn’t fall to pieces, he’d be far from Delaware Bend and even farther from the bright lights of a stage. And he’d have cut Angel loose. She could belong to her big, new world, but he wanted nothing more than his old life back.
“We’re all in agreement then.” Burt clapped Manny on the back. “Come on, we’ve got just enough time to buy you a drink and catch you up on Lady.”
“See you in a month.” Bob winked at Angel. “By then, you’ll be raring to go.”
Rune put an arm possessively around her waist and watched the three men walk across the street. “What in thunder was that all about?”
Angel sighed, leaning her head against Rune’s shoulder. “Wouldn’t it be amazing if they actually made a stage production of Sweet Rescue? Of course, if I got involved, I’d probably need to quit my teaching job.”
“Pie in the sky. Can you imagine those two dandies pulling off something like that?”
“They’re pretty impressive.”
“You want to be impressed?” He grabbed her hand, feeling heat built at the touch of her, and tugged her inside the stable. “I’ll impress you.”
She laughed, pulling back. “Rune, I’ve got to change. The Black Widow makes another appearance tonight.”
“The V Gang can wait.”
He led her into the privacy of an empty horse stall, and the sweet scent of fresh hay surrounded them. “I told you not to get involved with any more men. Do I need to punish you to make my point?”
She poked his chest with the tip of one finger. “Think you’re big enough?”
“What do you think?” He pressed her hand against his hard cock, grinning at her surprise.
She massaged his prick as she leaned into him, letting the tips of her breasts brush his chest. “Maybe you’re the one who needs to be taught a lesson.”
“I’m willing to learn anything you want to teach me.”
She reached up and gently stroked the strong planes and angles of his face, trailing sparks across him.
Her touch felt like fire. He pulled her against the length of him, stroked down her back, and grasped her buttocks with both hand
s, grinding against her. She moaned and clung to his shoulders before tugging his head down so she could sear his lips with a kiss. If he’d been hard before, now he felt like rock.
He nibbled her soft mouth, teasing with his tongue, and then plunged into her honeyed depths as he thrust his cock against her, needing release, needing entry, needing her. He didn’t feel gentle or tender anymore. He felt a savage urgency to strip off her clothes and take her, finally and completely, there in the hay and damn the consequences.
But he heard Manny enter the stable. He groaned in frustration, cursing his damnable luck. He stilled, holding Angel tight as he willed his fast heart to slow and his body to cool. He stepped back, clenching his fists and breathing hard. When he looked into Angel’s green eyes, so dark with desire, he had to call up strength to deny their passion.
He had to call up even more strength to get his mind back on business. He must find the Badger Gang before they hurt somebody else.
“Manny,” she whispered. “I heard him.”
“Let’s get ready for tonight.”
“But you won’t deny me later, will you?”
He shook his head, feeling his chest tighten with an emotion he didn’t dare name. “I’ve never been able to deny you a damn thing in my life.”
She gave him a sad, reproachful look. “Except the one thing in the world that I wanted most . . . you.”
Chapter Twenty-three
As the Black Widow, Angel got a great deal of respect from the men playing poker at the round tables in the Red River Saloon. It didn’t hurt that she had a way of turning up a final card to beat them. And she’ d even gotten comfortable in the rough, male atmosphere of the saloon.
By now she’d played most of the night away. She’d replenished her pocketbook and managed to pick up a few rumors about an upcoming gold shipment on a Katy train going north into Indian Territory. But rumors were all she had for the Verdigris Gang.
Dawn wasn’t far away. She stifled a yawn. She wanted nothing more than to get back to Manny’s and catch a few hours of sleep upstairs in the hayloft. But trouble was brewing in the saloon and it had her on edge.
Baines Callahan, the V Gang’s leader, was making every guy in the place mad with his treatment of Diana, one of the saloon’s dance hall darlings. She was a stunner, a surprising find in the Bend. She was tall and willowy with pale skin, strawberry blond hair, and big, chocolate, almond-shaped eyes. Unfortunately, she also appeared vulnerable, not at all suited to such a tough life.
Baines was having a great time dragging the refined beauty in the mud of his blunt coarseness. He’d set her on his knee while he played poker with his gang at his favorite table near the front of the saloon. He’d been plying her with whiskey and pawing her till she looked green around the gills, with bright red splotches of color on her cheeks. She still tried to appear happy, but it was obvious she was in the precarious position of fending for herself in a man’s world and couldn’t afford to insult a powerful man like Baines. Angel hoped the gal at least threw up rotgut all over his fancy brocade vest.
Nobody was going to make a move on Baines, not with his trigger-happy reputation. Rune looked like he was about to throttle the outlaw, but he couldn’t go against his leader, not and remain part of the gang. Not even the saloon’s proprietor could stop Baines’s behavior, or he could end up gut-shot like anybody else. And no lawman was going to step through the swinging doors either.
Angel had begun to fear that when Baines had enough of poker, he’d carry Diana off to his bed and get serious about his abuse. No doubt, he’d pay her, but she didn’t appear to be an experienced soiled dove.
Distracted, Angel glanced around the saloon, hoping for some easy answer to the situation. If it came to saving a lady in distress, she knew Rune would step in at the last minute, but she didn’t want him to have to scuttle all their plans.
At a table across from the V Gang, she sat with her reticule in her lap, drawstring top pulled open for easy access to her derringer. But that wasn’t on her mind. As Diana’s obvious vulnerability had increased, the Spider Grandmother deck had grown warmer, a warning building by the moment.
As a woman, Angel could get away with things a man couldn’t. If she was to diffuse the coming confrontation between Baines and Rune, she had to do something and do it quick.
“Too rich for my blood.” She threw down her hand in disgust and stood up. “Gentlemen, please carry on without me.”
She left the table to grumbles, but didn’t care. She wound her way around the saloon, smiling as she rejected invitations to play poker. She casually eased up to the Verdigris Gang’s table, watching the plays.
Baines glanced up at her and winked, appearing pleased with his evening. Rune gave her a long stare, warning her not to cause trouble. But he was too late. She adjusted her veil, pulled the Spider Grandmother deck out of her reticule, and caught Baines’s attention.
“These cards Lucky gave me are calling Diana’s name. If you guys will excuse us, I want to show her a few tricks.”
Baines frowned, and then chuckled. “Can’t be better than the tricks I plan to show her later.”
Hackett and Jumpin’ Judd laughed, too.
“I’m sure you’ve got lots you can teach a lady.” Angel smiled as she flirted with him. “But this is gal-to-gal.”
Baines squeezed Diana’s breast. “Even better.”
Angel felt like slapping him, but she kept her smile pasted in place. “Diana, if you’ll come over to the bar, we can spread out these cards.” She feared the other woman was too cowed to move.
Diana’s eye widened for a moment, and then she patted Baines on the chest. “Darlin’, this lady has a way with cards. I’m flattered she wants to talk with me.”
Baines frowned, looking suspiciously from one woman to the other.
Diana patted his chest again. “You’re such a big winner. You won’t miss me if I take a little break now, will you?”
Angel held her breath, relieved Diana was playing along with her.
“Sure, baby.” Baines smacked her with a big kiss. “But come right back. I’ll be lonely without you.”
Diana eased out of his lap, patted his shoulder, and then quickly moved away from the table with fluid grace.
Angel followed her to the bar, and then sat down beside her on a bar stool. “Can you eat anything?”
Diana took several deep breaths. “Thank you.”
Angel motioned to the bartender, setting two bits on top of the bar. “Two sarsaparillas. Do you have bread and butter?”
He glanced from Diana to Baines and back again. “If you go out the backdoor, you can get a head start,” he whispered. “I’ve got a shotgun back here.”
Diana shook her head. “Thank you, but no. There are four of them. Somebody would get hurt.”
“Think about it.” He quickly set out the food and drink.
“That bread should settle your stomach.” Angel set the deck of cards on the top of the bar.
“You are very kind.” Diana buttered the bread with a dull knife. She took a small bite, and then another.
As Angel shuffled the cards, her hands trembled. It’d been so long, too long. She could see her mother’s hands overlaying her own as she quickly laid out the pattern.
Diana gasped. “You’re a card reader?”
Angel looked around to see if she’d been overheard. “Softly. Best not draw attention.”
“No need to warn me, sister.” Diana pressed a hand over Angel’s fingers. “I come from a community where the three roads meet. I won’t tell you where. Safer not to know.”
“Your voice sounds Southern.”
Diana shrugged. “It is a fact that certain women can become inconvenient. They’ve been dealt with in different ways at different times. Ever hear of the witches hung in Salem?”
Angel shook her head.
“That’s best. Now there are less obvious ways of dealing with inconvenient women. I know only too well.”
“Are you on the run?”
“Yes.” Diana leaned closer. “I know a little bit too much about certain powerful people.” She squeezed Angel’s hand. “I scrawled ‘G.T.T.’ meaning ‘Gone to Texas’ on my front door before I left one night. That’s what I heard you do when you want to let everyone know you’re going into the wilds of Texas never to be seen or heard from again. I thought it was a clear message and I would be left alone.”
“But you don’t feel safe?”
Diana shuddered and glanced at Angel with anxiety. “Look at the cards. Tell me. Am I safe?”
Angel felt the familiar tingling in her fingertips as she quickly touched each card. “No. Someone is following your trail.” She focused on Diana again. “You’ve been on the stage. You’re an actress?”
Diana shrugged. “I have a small talent. It paid my way this far. But it also draws attention to me.”
“Disguise?”
“Those who seek me also have talent.” She picked up Angel’s right hand and ran a fingertip over the lines of her palm. “You are in disguise yourself. You are healing a broken heart. He is nearby. He will not forsake you. Not again.”
Angel felt tears sting her eyes at the words she wanted to hear, but didn’t dare believe.
“How did you come to be here?” Diana closed Angel’s hand.
“Back in Kentucky, my mother was a midwife, healer, and teller of fortunes. She was well respected and valued for her old ways. She taught me. But the war came. My father never returned. Instead, carpetbaggers arrived, looking for easy pickings. Our land. They called my mother a witch, and finally burned us out. Mother buried the cards that had been handed down in our family for generations. She warned me to never use cards again. It wasn’t safe. After that, we came to Texas to live with my aunt.”
