by Ivy McAdams
“I didn’t do anything but walk into the bank,” she whispered. He took her bait as quick as she offered it.
He set her feet back on the ground, her back against the brick wall. “You checked everything out, didn’t you? That entire bank is stored up in that big beautiful brain.”
She’d expected his retort, but the kind words surprised her, nearly as much as him pressing his body up along hers. His hand was still locked into her back, but his other dipped below her ear to tilt her head up.
Then his lips touched hers, and her nerves buzzed to life. His mouth was hot and possessive, drinking the excitement from her body, and lending its own. Every ounce of anxiety she’d had about infiltrating the bank and getting away safely disappeared, letting the rush of Ace’s touch crash through her. She lifted up on her toes, pressing her lips harder into his.
Her hat shifted as his hand slid into the thick of her hair. His fingers on her back flexed and dipped to grab a handful of her rear. Her feet skittered against his, a jolt of both surprise and shock hitting her.
He growled her name against her lips, trailing his mouth down her jaw and throat. Her body was so hot and heaving that she thought she might lose her footing beneath her.
What on earth had come over Ace?
She’d watched him from afar for months. Even ogled him secretly from the campfire once when he’d stood around after a dip in the river, dressed only in his slacks. He was a good-looking man. She’d be lying if she claimed she hadn’t ever wondered what it would be like to touch him.
But to have him on her so suddenly had her head reeling.
Not to mention the feel of his teeth as they skimmed her skin, nipping at her throat before opening his hot mouth to it. Driving her wild. Her legs moved and clenched, pressing the invading warmth between her thighs back like wildfire. She couldn’t help but run her own hands up his chest, feeling the hard muscles beneath. She pressed and pulled, exploring his shoulders and neck.
What had come over her?
The hand in her hair dug deeper, and his fingers clenched on a fistful of locks, pulling her head back so he could kiss further down her neck.
The jerk of her head sent an alarming shock up her scalp, and she gasped. Horrid memories grabbed hold of her. Smells, sights, the feeling of her hair being ripped away, just before a fist slammed into her face once more.
“Hey!” she barked and pushed Ace back with two forceful palms to his chest.
He staggered back, hands disentangled from her body and up in the air in defeat. He froze there, staring at her. His shirt was pried apart at the collar and coming loose from his pants. His mouth was wet and rosy, open as he panted. His eyes were locked onto her, sharp and questioning.
She felt suddenly quite vulnerable hugged up to the wall as close as a shadow, and she dropped down off her toes, covering her eyes with a hand and hurrying away. She muttered an awkward apology, but she didn’t make it far before he snagged her arm.
She glanced up at him as he crowded close to her, herding her toward the end of the alley.
“Let’s get home,” he muttered.
His eyes were set far in the distance, beyond the buildings or the horses waiting for them. Certainly nowhere close to her.
She wanted to regret letting him touch her. She felt like an idiot. But she was also highly intrigued by the response he’d elicited from her body. She didn’t regret that, but why the hell had she screwed it up?
His rough hands on her had been scary. Even with the hell she’d been through, she’d never felt so exposed. And to make matters worse, she still wanted him to look at her. To catch his eye and bring him back around. How ridiculous.
She wanted to crawl in on herself and hide.
Chapter 8
“That’s the entire Emerald Falls bank?” Sadie gaped as she peered over Clara’s shoulder.
“The parts that I’ve seen, but yes, most of it.” Clara pointed out the front doors on the blueprint-like sketch she’d drawn, and the crowd around her leaned in closer. “Like I said, the clerks are all up front here. The back of the bank is separated by a door here, always locked. Someone on the other side had to open it for me.”
“Where’s the money?” Otis asked.
Clay gave him a scowl and a shove.
“In the far back of the room,” Clara continued. “A safe is wedged in the wall here. It’s large with a rather thick-looking door. I think if it were closed, no one would ever manage to break in, but they leave it open during the day.”
“Fools,” Clay coughed.
“Thank you, fools,” Jack laughed.
“Quiet,” Ace cut in. “Does that door we saw around the west side lead in anywhere?”
“There is a guarded door in that back room,” Clara said. “The one we saw, I presume.”
He ran his fingers along his chin while the gears in his mind worked, then he nodded. “That’s a big room. Doesn’t sound like we could do much sneaking, but a back door is better than trying to bust in the front.”
“We just going to go in shootin’?” Old man Nelson asked.
Ace’s brow lowered a fraction, and the smallest wrinkle in his nose gave him away. His face might be hard, but the twitch in his face told her he hated the idea of killing the bank people.
“Of course not. We’re civil men here. And ladies. We’re going to infiltrate this bank like a couple of cats in the night and walk out with more money than we can carry.”
“We’re going at night time?” Otis grumbled.
The muscles in Ace’s jaw flexed. “No. We have to go during normal business hours, else the safe will be locked up and impenetrable.”
Clara watched the exchange with a slight nod, glad to hear that Ace was at least paying attention.
“But there will be lots of people there, probably with guns,” Otis said. “I just don’t see how you’re going to pull off hitting this place without shootin’ ‘em.”
"He ain't," Nelson said before spitting a smelly wad of tobacco into the dirt. "If we hit this place during the day, they gonna shoot us. An' we'll have to shoot back if we plan on stayin' alive."
“If Ace wants it done on the stealth, then that’s what we’re going to do,” Clay said. “How many people are in this place, Clara?”
“It depends on the day by the sound of it. Today’s numbers were very low. There was only one clerk on duty. A couple people in the back. The banker wasn’t in, and I heard mention that he won’t be in on Tuesday either.”
"Tuesday," Ace murmured, scratching his fingertips along his chin. "That would give us a few days to prepare. Fewer people is best for us."
“Where are the guns?” Clay asked.
“There was a rifle hanging in this empty office,” Clara said, “and the security guard at the back door.”
“An armed guard sitting there waiting on you?” Sadie asked. The whites of her eyes glistened all the way around. “That sounds dangerous.”
“He might be armed and ready, per se,” Ace said, “but we know he’s there, and he isn’t expecting us. We’ll be fine.”
Her eyes were fixed on the sketch, unblinking. Ace reached through the crowd to rest a hand on her shoulder. She looked over at him, and he gave a subtle nod, first to Clay, then to her.
Sadie tucked her hands in front of her with a nod, and Clay wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
Clara couldn’t help but stare at Ace in his reassuring moment. The way his eyes eased. There was a softness in his mouth. She wasn’t sure what was more alluring, the gentle curve in his lip or the hungry ferocity she saw in them that morning.
That she’d felt in them when they’d crushed against hers. Powerful and claiming, turning her reality upside down in an instant.
She'd kissed two other men in her life. One as a teenager that she immediately regretted. The flirty attention she'd enjoyed receiving from her neighbor had fallen flat when he'd come at her with smelly breath and unwelcomed hands. It'd lowered her expectations so much that by the
time Lloyd came along, she was at least impressed that his breath didn't smell like jerky. Not that kissing him had been altogether enjoyable, but it hadn't been grabby fingers Joe Croft behind the barn.
The thirty seconds she’d experienced with Ace had obliterated those memories.
She couldn’t tear her gaze from his lips.
They moved as he spoke again to Sadie, but Clara couldn’t hear the words. The pale pink of his mouth was all wrong. The memory of them being red and slick made her heart trip. They’d looked perfect that morning. Used. Loved.
She clenched her teeth, wishing she could touch them again.
Even after the embarrassing ending of her encounter with him.
Heat scored her cheeks as the memory rushed her.
She’d enjoyed his hands and mouth on her. No one had ever treated her body that way. She’d wanted more of it.
The hard fingers in her hair was more what she was used to, and it had frightened her. How could he be so good and so bad at the same time?
The complexities of him twisted her up so tight she wasn’t sure what she wanted and what she didn’t.
But she did love the look of those lips. And those dark brown eyes that had found hers. Locked on her and gazed at her expectantly.
She came to attention so fast she nearly leapt to her feet. His eyes weren’t the only ones on her. Many were. She glanced around with a small jerk of her head, the blush in her face deepening.
“What?” she sputtered.
The corner of Ace’s lip quirked in a feigned half-smile.
“The roads and buildings around the bank,” his deep voice drawled. “You got all of them too?”
She lowered her gaze to her paper as the itchy warmth spread from her cheeks into her ears and down her neck. How long had he been talking to her while she stared at him like a buffoon?
“Of course,” she stuttered. “I have all those too.”
She drew out another handful of lines to indicate the neighboring buildings.
“Perfect,” he said. “Looks like we’ve got a good map then.”
“Surprised she didn’t draw a picture of Ace’s face,” Nelson coughed.
A rumble of laughter went around the group, and Clara’s embarrassment scorched deeper.
“Alright, you lot,” she barked, hopping up to her feet. “If you want to eat tonight, you best get out of here. I need space to make dinner. Shoo!”
Most of the outlaws wandered off. A few stuck around, to her discomfort.
“This seems like an insane idea,” Sadie said. “What’s going to happen when―”
The woman’s eye caught Clara’s, and she stopped talking. She must have seen the crazy look Clara felt radiating there and thought better of finishing her question.
“I think I’m going to go take care of some laundry,” Sadie said. “You good here, Clara?”
“I’m fine.”
Sadie slipped off without another word, followed by Clay. Clara took a long breath and released it as she gathered the vegetables she'd lined along the fire to roast earlier that afternoon.
“We really appreciate you participating in the info gathering this morning.” Ace’s voice drifted up from behind her. She hadn’t realized he was still there. “That map is invaluable, and we’d never have been able to get such good inside information anywhere else.”
His praise felt good, but she refused to turn around and give him a true reaction. “You could have gone in there yourself and drawn out a map.”
He belted a big booming laugh. "You think I could remember details like the safe had a six-arm wheel handle and there were nine bars in the divider door, which means they stood approximately four inches apart from one another? Or that the security guard wore his gun on his left hip, making him left-handed? What about there being twenty-seven steps between that front door and the desk you sat at?" She chanced a peek over her shoulder, and his lopsided grin grew. "I don't see those things, Clara. No one does. That's why your mind is so unique. It's amazing."
She stared at him in a strained silence. His words were ones she'd wanted to hear her entire life. Not that it was weird she could recall her first time meeting a person, even if it was when she was a five-year-old child in the general store. Or that she could ace her exams in school and correct her teacher when necessary. Or that she often knew what someone was thinking by the way their face and body moved, even if they didn't speak the words aloud.
Though she often had trouble reading Ace’s face. He confused her, and she wasn’t sure if that was frightening or exciting.
“So don’t forget that,” he said, reaching out a hand to run a few fingers along her jaw. Then his back was turned, and he was picking up the map she’d drawn. “I’m going to study this. See you at dinner.”
* * *
After her embarrassing staring display in front of everyone earlier that afternoon, Clara wasn’t too keen on sticking around to talk after dinner. She put all her attention and energy into cleaning up and took herself off to bed.
The next day was bright with beautiful blue skies. The October chill that had been encroaching, threatening the first snow of the year, had slackened, and an unseasonably warm morning set upon them.
Clara sat at the fire pit, brewing two canisters of coffee and enjoying the birds singing in the trees around camp.
She’d released herself from any lingering feelings of embarrassment, and it felt wonderful. There'd been no reason to dwell on her behavior at the previous evening’s meeting. It was no one's business if she'd been staring at Ace like a lunatic. Perhaps she was just a very devoted follower who happened to pay a lot of attention. Even if that meant she'd been too distracted to hear him.
It was no bother though. It was a new day, fresh and vibrant. Ace could do whatever he needed to do with the drawing she’d given him. Her part was done.
She lifted a tin cup full of coffee to her mouth with a smile. She’d gotten credit for contributing to Ace’s magnum opus plan, and she could sit back and enjoy never going into Emerald Falls again.
Once she finished her coffee, she busied herself with collecting dirty dishes from the night before and taking inventory on some of her supplies. She’d just started down to the river with the dishes when some called out behind her.
“Clara.” Sadie ran to catch up, but instead of the happy face that normally met her in the mornings, Sadie looked rather miserable.
“My lands, what’s wrong?” Clara gasped, grabbing Sadie by the arm and lending a supporting shoulder.
But she knew before Sadie opened her mouth.
The poor woman had a pale-green tint to her skin, and her eyes looked a little hollow. As if she’d spent some time that morning being sick, possibly losing her dinner from the night before.
“I feel awful,” Sadie said.
Clara pulled her closer and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “I’m sorry, sweetie. Want me to make you something for your stomach?”
Sadie’s eyes fluttered as she nodded. “Yes, please. Make it go away.”
Clara pressed her lips to the poor girl’s clammy forehead. “You go rest, and I’ll bring you some tea and crackers.”
“Thank you,” Sadie murmured and wandered back toward her tent.
Clara dropped the stack of cups and bowls by the edge of the campsite and headed back to her tent. The dishes could wait.
She stooped over her trunk and dug for a small bag of ginger. She’d just snagged it when the sunny entranceway to her tent darkened. She squinted up at the shadow, but she didn’t need any further light to recognize that silhouette.
“Good morning, Ace.”
“Morning, Miss McGowen.”
She closed the trunk and stood, resting a hand on her hip. “Really? After all that yesterday, you’re still going to call me that?”
She regretted speaking the words out loud only because she couldn’t see the reaction on his blackened face.
“I didn’t figure allowing myself to indulge in a little
celebratory kiss should be reason enough to relinquish my respect for you.”
His answer caught her off guard, and she fumbled through the retort on her tongue.
“A celebratory kiss? Is that what that was?”
“I suppose I couldn’t help myself. Nor would I suppose you’d understand how difficult it is watching a beautiful woman live and work in your camp for months without being able to approach her.”
His voice had dropped to a deeper, more serious tone, and all the strength she had for ricocheting strong words back at him weakened.
“Not only is she lovely, but caring. This woman cares for my family. Helps lead them, essentially. She’s a critical part of our equation. Then I find out that she’s loaded down with brains?”
He finally stepped inside the tent, and she could see the hard line of his jaw, covered with a soft layer of whiskers that were never present. His face was always clean shaved but for the patch of brown on his chin. But that morning he wasn’t clean-cut, and she found herself intrigued. Her fingers instantly itched to touch it. To run her fingertips over the hair on his jaw and around his strong chin.
His eyes were intense, snatching hers up and drawing her in. The creased brow told her he meant his words, so she did her best to keep the swirling haze from her brain so she could listen.
“You’re a blessing right now, Clara. No matter how I may have let myself slip back there when I kissed you, I won’t stop respecting you. As a part of my family. My plan. A lady.”
The words tickled her insides, toyed with all the pent up desires she’d had over the years. A need to be appreciated for her brain, not just that she could clean house and cook dinner.
She stared at him in silence a moment, allowing his voice to roll through her again and again. Then she gave him a single nod. “I didn’t mind.”
His chin moved a hairsbreadth as his head tilted. “Mind what?”
Her heart flickered as butterflies swirled through her body. “The kiss. It may have been surprising, but not unwelcome.”
It was his turn to fall into silence. At least with his voice.
