Sixteen
Ashton lamented their lack of supplies. He'd managed to save his bag, so everything wasn't completely lost. And Cora at least had the clothes on her back, and when she got back into Detroit she would still have plenty of money from her brother to replace what she had lost on that train. But things had just gone from a comfortable train ride home to a long one.
Even then, a second train ride seemed like it might be a foolish decision. But there wasn't anything else to be done. If they took a stage, it took a day's worth of risk and turned it into a week's worth. Even if they had already learned that they were vulnerable on the train, they were at least less vulnerable than they would be on a stagecoach.
So they had to do what they had to do, and that was get back onto the train. "You ready?"
He closed his eyes as he heard the frustration in her voice. She didn't like how he was acting, and she shouldn't have. It was because of what had just happened, what had almost happened before, that he had to be so distant. Because it was only a matter of time, if he wasn't, until it happened again.
Ashton Lowe was a monster hunter. He wasn't a knight in shining armor, he wasn't a priest, but that didn't mean that he didn't at least make an effort to remain somewhat respectable. He ought to have tried harder, though, because instead on this case he'd fucked a woman he was under strict orders to bring back to her brother, with no allowances for letting his cock do the thinking for him.
Besides, they wouldn't be able to stay here forever. Ash shivered at the thought that when they went back out of that room and into the main hotel, that the cold and the wind would still be kicking up. Devils were patient things. A hundred years to move three miles tended to do that.
The big ones, the ones that could really move, they were less patient, but only because they had less need to be. If they wanted something, they were going to get it. Eventually. And heaven help whoever they wanted.
But he had to hope that they'd be able to make it out safely. The alternative was… what? To stay in that bedroom forever? He could have gotten behind that, if there were some way to get food and drink brought to them. That bridge had already been burned with the way they'd entered.
The owner didn't seem too plum pleased about the way he'd barged in. Hunters out here were not too few, but they were usually better received than that. Then again, their first act of protection didn't usually involve destruction of property.
He settled his hand on his gun and shut his eyes a moment. He hadn't prayed, not in years. Not since his apprenticeship had ended. It had always been something he did to please the old man, nothing more. Well, now he did, clumsily struggling to remember the right words.
'Father… don't… let me die. I know that's not right, but can't we just overlook it this once? Amen.'
With that done he set the flat-brim black hat on his head and stepped out into the hall. For all the build-up he'd felt, nothing happened. Whatever the Devil had been here for, it had evidently decided it was needed elsewhere. Ash was not optimistic enough to believe that it might have decided that Cora wasn't worth pursuing. Rather, it was more likely that she was there for the taking whenever the moment was right, and the moment wasn't right any more.
Something else had taken its attention.
Ash looked back and signaled for her to follow with his head. "It's safe. For now, at least."
She pushed herself up from the bed and followed. Nothing to carry, and no porters to hire, because everything she had was at the bottom of a valley, more than likely crushed to a pulp and then burned to boot.
They didn't speak on the way through the hotel, because Ash didn't speak, and he knew that she wasn't going to speak to him until he started to act more personable with her. Couldn't she understand that he was doing the right thing? Couldn't she try to stop punishing him for what he had no choice in?
He'd broken the line of the door when he smelled something odd. A slow, acrid burn, and a hard gust of wind that seemed timed exactly to catch him and nothing else. It made him take a step to catch his balance, and then it was gone again.
But for that instant, he swore he heard someone shout out Cora's name.
He turned back, and Cora wasn't behind him any more. Ashton cursed under his breath. It didn't take much retracing his steps to find what had happened. Someone in the front room, someone who looked like they had spent more time drinking at noon than most did the whole day, had attracted her attention.
No doubt, that was who had shouted at her. A little message left for her by the Devil that so badly wanted her, he supposed. Well, he'd felt the 'signs, and that was enough to tell him not to trust whatever she was being told now.
He stayed by the door. No telling how soon trouble would start, and he didn’t' want to break his concentration all on account of listening to one old bum. If something was going to start, then he would be ready. If it wasn't going to start, then he knew enough to know that whatever was happening here, he wasn't going to go along with it.
Cora's face twisted in thought, and then she nodded. The old drunk turned up to look at her, and then said, louder than before. "Who are you?"
Cora stood up to head back over to Ashton. "Nobody at all, mister."
He stepped out the door. "What was that all about?"
"Nothing," she said. "A misunderstanding, that's all."
"As long as you don't listen to anything that old man said, then misunderstand all you like."
"Of course not." Cora waved the idea away like she would've never considered it. Ash let out the breath he'd been holding in, the tension gone just a little bit. Just enough to maybe not have to worry about her doing something stupid.
"Good."
He bought the tickets. Two, heading through Ohio to Detroit. He paid the teller and then they started the wait for the train to arrive. It wasn't long. Twenty minutes of strained silence, and they were in business. Then it would be a little more than a day—no doubt they would have something that they could read to pass the time—and Cora would be home.
Ash would be fifteen thousand dollars richer, and he could try to forget any of this had ever happened. Easy. Cora would forgive him, eventually. She would move on. That was how the world worked.
He smiled grimly as the train pulled into the station, assuring himself that he would forgive himself, too. If he never did, like he wasn't going to for Peters, then that was fine too. After all, he was a real bastard.
There wasn't any luggage to see onto the train. Just two people stepping on, guided to their rooms by the steward. Ashton left her be. She deserved to be angry at him, and he wasn't going to look for forgiveness he hadn't remotely earned.
Conductors made the last call, which seemed as good a time as any. He stepped out into the hall and rapped at the door to Cora's room. Another woman answered. She was in her fifties, with a bony figure and a nose like a knife. "Yes?"
"Cora Little in there?"
"The woman who was supposed to stay with me?"
"I suppose so." He hadn't realized that they were anything other than private compartments, but he hadn't specified, either.
"She said she had something to take care of back in town, and she left." The woman shrugged. "Are you looking for her?"
The train was already starting to move. Inches now, but soon it would be going far too fast to get off, unless he had no other choice. He made for the exit.
"Sir, the train's already moving—" he bowled past the conductor who tried to stop him, sending him back-first into the steel wall behind him. It was better than out of the train, and that was exactly where Ashton was going. He made the platform with inches to spare, and Cora Little nowhere in sight.
Seventeen
The wind wasn't blowing any harder than normal. If anything it was a nice day, once she got back off the train. A coat might be useful, but she certainly wasn't going to need one too badly, not before she got on the next train heading south toward Utah.
The train behind her started to go. She wou
ld need to get the hell out of there, long before Ashton figured out what had happened. It was lucky that she had managed to get off the train without him seeing. Now she was going to have to hope that it took him just a few minutes more.
She heard, dimly, a conductor trying to stop him. Well, she wasn't about to be caught just because of something like that. She made a bee-line for the other side of the ticket booth, steadying her breathing as she heard boots hit the wooden station floors hard. That was him, all right.
If he caught her, then it was just another long, silent wait for the next train back to Detroit, and she couldn't back. Not knowing that they had missed something. It was gone by now, she knew, but the old man had confirmed it as sure as anything.
Her mother was with a family now, and a large one. It made sense now, that it was in Utah, because apparently she was one of several sister wives to some man, and from what Cora knew that was nearly the exclusive purview of the folks who lived there.
She forced her heart to slow down as she heard the boot-heels knocked their way straight to her. Knock, knock, knock, until it sounded like all he had to do was turn his head and he'd see her. But she was around the corner, and then he stopped short.
"You seen a woman get off that train?"
"I haven't seen anything, mister."
"I'm just trying to get her home, nothing funny going on."
"I haven't seen a thing, I told you."
"Great." She heard Ashton let out a frustrated sigh. "Give me a ticket to Utah, will you?"
Ashton paid ten dollars for a ticket. She didn't have her baggage any more, so most of her money was gone. But she'd at least brought her clutch, and that had a few dollars in it. More than enough for what she was hoping to do, and she could wire for more when she got back to Salt Lake City.
She heard the boots walking away, and then the teller's voice spoke to no one in particular. "He's gone, you're fine."
Cora turned back out. "Thanks."
"Don't mention it."
"I need a ticket to Salt Lake City."
The man behind the counter raised an eyebrow, but didn't argue with her. Ten dollars, same as before. She counted out two five-dollar bills and passed them. The man passed back a ticket.
Then she settled down into one of the benches and waited. It would be a while, but she wasn't going to risk running into Ashton any sooner than she had to. He would be mad, no doubt. But did that matter?
She didn't realize that she'd started to nod off until Ashton's hand was on her shoulder, shaking her awake.
"You still going to Utah?"
She looked up at him, bleary-eyed. "You can't stop me."
"It would seem that way," he agreed. "Unless you don't get on that train, then I won't need to."
A train was sat up ahead. The whistle blared, as if to accentuate it.
She stepped up onto it, showed the man the ticket. He read it a moment, looked at her, and then stamped it. "Welcome aboard."
A conductor took her to her berth. She settled into it. At least she didn't have a room-mate this time. The woman had looked like an old peacock, she thought, and then laughed at the image.
She pulled herself into the bed. She hadn't realized how tired she was until Ashton had woken her up on that platform, but now she felt like every little movement was a grind, too tiring to do anything but head toward the nearest bed.
She could hear Ashton following behind a ways. This had better not be a trick, she thought. It had better damn-well not be.
Ashton settled into a chair, lit the lamp in his room, and opened the magazine he'd bought in town for a nickel. It promised all sorts of lurid, inappropriate stories, and that was exactly what he didn't need to be reading right now. The knowledge that it was doing exactly the wrong thing only seemed to make it more fun. Like the real mistake had been thinking he could get away from it.
Well, Cora had him beat once, and he wasn't going to let it happen again. If you can't beat them, join them, they said. It would be easier to keep her safe if he could keep a close eye on her, and she wasn't going to let him keep that eye on her on the way back to Detroit empty-handed.
If he tried to get her back onto the train heading East, she'd try to make for the window next time, and then maybe things would get uglier from there. So he would let her do what she wanted. Ashton settled in and turned the page.
The title promised that he would hear about a woman violated by an ape, and the man who had made it pay. He had no doubt that the story that followed would deliver on that promise.
A few minutes later he turned the page again.
Now all they had to do was wait for the train to take them right back into dangerous territory once more.
Eighteen
It was late into the evening when Cora stepped back into the Royal. She never had thanked that nice man, so it was nice to have a second chance. Ashton followed a little way behind, looking worse for wear. His coat was torn, she had noticed, and he didn't seem happy about it.
She had made it out mostly okay, except for her bottom, which was still sore from the fall, but with all his acrobatics it seemed to have split a seam in his jacket, and worse, torn the fabric. She would need more clothing if this investigation would go anywhere. She could at least find a tailor capable of patching his clothes up. It was the least she could do.
She paid another twenty dollars for two rooms, two nights, and to cover their meals.
She made her way over to the concierge desk next. The man there recognized her immediately.
"Oh, ma'am. I, ah—" he leaned his head out a little way to see Ashton following behind. "I see that man found you alright."
"I wanted to thank you," she said softly. Slowly, she was beginning to realize that this had been a bad idea. "Mister Littlefeather was killed by some sort of… thing, out on the trail. But…" she took a breath to steady herself. "Up to that point, he was the picture of professionalism. So I wanted to thank you for your recommendation."
"Of course," he said. His voice held measured calm that said that he didn't know what to do with that news, and the truth was that she didn't know what to do with it, either.
Ashton leaned down behind her, fishing a dollar out of his pocket and sliding it across the counter. "We're looking for something, if you know where to start, we'd be obliged to hear it."
The concierge took the dollar and slipped it into his pocket. "What can I help you with?"
"Cora, tell him."
"I'm here looking for my mother. I'm told that she's remarried. To a man with several such wives."
The concierge's lips pursed. "That's not very specific. Could be any of dozens of people in Salt Lake City alone."
Ashton's voice was low. "I don't think this is that sort of marriage, and isn't that kind of fellow."
"I don't take your meaning."
"Every step along the way, Devils have had their hand in this. I think they have something to do with it. I know you folks have your religious disagreements with the east, but I don't think we're looking for a man who would be seen around town much."
"Golly, then," the man said softly. "I don't really know how to help. We've all heard stories, here and there, but they’re just the usual Devil stories. Nothing stands out in my memory."
"No," Ashton agreed. "The city's too entrenched here. And too religious. Devils would stay away when they could, and when they couldn't… well, they'd keep a low profile, at least."
"Sorry I can't be more help," the man said, raising his shoulders apologetically. He reached back for his pocket when Ashton waved his hand.
"Keep it."
A boy took them both up to their respective rooms. Separate rooms, all proper. Cora settled into her bed and laid back. In a few minutes, she would need to get provisions settled again. She'd need a new bag to carry supplies and a change of clothes. Her chemise would need washing, and she could do with another one if this was going to take more than a day or two.
It wouldn't do to have Ashton running
around in a ruined jacket, either. It hurt his image and she knew that he took that very seriously just from looking at him.
Until things started moving again, though, all she wanted was a little bit of peace and quiet.
She opened them again and forced herself up. She had slept too much already. Now it was time for action, time to figure out where to go next. Even with the old man's advice, she didn't have much to go on. Head back. The family is still in Utah, you can find them. The man and his wives were waiting for her, keeping things safe until she arrived.
The idea hit her like a shot. She was outside Ashton's room a moment later, knocking on the door hard. He answered the door in his undershirt, his jacket and shirt draped over the back of a chair. "What is it?"
"I have an idea, and I need to know how crazy it is."
"Knowing you?" He gave her a tired smile. "I'd say, 'very.' Let's hear it."
He pushed the door open a little, and she moved in, sitting down in the chair with his clothes over the back. She was careful not to touch them any more than she had to, though, at least. She noticed that even as she settled in, he wasn't closing the door behind her. So that was how little he trusted himself? She almost smiled at the thought.
"Well, I was thinking. The folks out here, they have plenty of… what do you call it? Multiple marriages?" Ashton gave her a nod that said to get on with it, regardless of what they called them. "Well I was thinking. That makes it hard to find one that stands out, right? A man here isn't likely to hear about one peculiar family in a town twenty miles south, are they?"
"No."
"But they'd have heard about dangerous areas, right?"
"I suppose so. There would be stories, things like that."
"What if there was a place that didn't have any trouble?"
Ashton considered it for a moment. "What's your point?"
"Well, this thing seems pretty… I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong, but whatever we're dealing with seems to be on the scarier end of things."
Sadistic Master Bundle (BDSM Billionaire Erotic Romance) Page 14
