Cash (The Rock Creek Six Book 6)

by Linda Winstead Jones

  “Yes, he does, sugar,” Sullivan said in a lowered voice. He turned around, presenting his back to the Indian. “Eden, come get Fiona.” Eden rushed from the shadows of the boardwalk to scoop her little girl out of Sullivan’s arms.

  Cash kept his eyes on the renegade’s forehead for a moment, then his eyes dropped to the heart. Since Fiona was safe, that would be a better shot. He waited for the Comanche to make a threatening move. A twitch would do at this point.

  Sullivan looked up at the renegade. “I don’t suppose you speak any more English than you did last time we met.”

  The man on the horse said nothing.

  Jo spoke a little of the Comanche language, but she wasn’t here. She was back at the hotel minding a passel of babies.

  From the boardwalk Cash heard Fiona say loudly, “We’re hungry. We missed lunch.”

  The Comanche turned his black eyes toward Fiona. Cash tried to see a threat there, a reason to draw and fire, but he couldn’t. If the renegade had wanted to hurt Fiona, he wouldn’t have brought her back to town this way.

  A firm, soft voice coming from behind Cash shocked him. Surprised Sullivan, too, by the look on his face.

  Cash glanced quickly over his shoulder. Apparently Nadine spoke the Comanche language quite well.

  * * *

  The man who said his name was Isatekwa told the story simply, and Nadine translated. He said he’d found the little girl by the river and brought her home, to the town where the crazy warrior lived.

  That done, he turned his horse around and started riding back the way he’d come.

  “Wait,” Eden said, stepping into the street with Fiona in her arms.

  Isatekwa halted his horse and turned to look down at Eden. And he waited.

  “Are you hungry?” she asked.

  Cash groaned lowly as Nadine translated. From the look on the renegade’s face, no translation was necessary. Surely he spoke some English, and hungry was a word he might well know.

  The man on the horse looked pointedly at Cash and asked if that one was going to shoot him.

  “Not if he doesn’t give me a reason,” Cash muttered, after Nadine translated.

  Isatekwa’s hunger won out over his worry about Cash’s trigger finger. He turned his horse around and headed toward the hotel, following Eden. Cash stayed at his side like an armed guard. He wasn’t too happy about this recent turn of events, Nadine could see that too well.

  Fiona reached for her father when Sullivan walked by, and he took her with a sigh. As they all walked down the street, Fiona talked.

  “I didn’t mean to get lost. Millie and Carrie wouldn’t play with me, and I was just going to catch a lizard, like the one Carrie used to have. I thought if I had a lizard, they would play with me.” She took a deep breath. “But I couldn’t find one. I walked and looked and still I couldn’t find one. Then I found a snake.”

  Eden sighed. “Fiona, you didn’t.”

  “Well, I figured that a snake would be almost as good as a lizard,” she reasoned. “Maybe better. I was sneaking up on my snake so he wouldn’t be scared, and then a knife just came out of nowhere and stuck my snake in the neck.” She made a face. “Well, snakes don’t have necks but if a snake had a neck this is where it would be.” She shook her head. “I cried and cried, and then Issy came up to get his knife back. I was mad, so I kicked him in the leg.”

  Sullivan groaned. Cash shook his head and sidled a little closer to Fiona and her father. “Your kid won’t live to see seven with that kind of common sense working for her,” he mumbled. And then, in an unexpectedly tender move, he reached out and brushed a strand of hair away from Fiona’s face.

  “But I didn’t stay mad very long. Issy picked up the snake and opened its mouth, and it had teeth. Big ones!” She demonstrated by lifting both hands to her mouth, one finger of each pointing down to fashion a pretty good imitation of fangs. “I didn’t know snakes had teeth.”

  “How many times have I told you to stay away from snakes?” Eden said breathlessly.

  “Lots, but you didn’t tell me they had teeth.”

  By the time they arrived at the hotel entrance, everyone present stared at Isatekwa with a new respect. They didn’t trust him, and probably never would, but they weren’t ready to shoot him anymore, either. Even Cash had relaxed a little.

  “Come on, Issy,” Fiona said brightly. “Let’s eat. My mommy is a really good cook.”

  * * *

  Cash sat back and watched the renegade eat. He ate well, cautiously, while Fiona told the story about the snake again and all the women coddled her. It wasn’t long before the others returned. A shake of Reese’s head told that no other renegades had been found. Isatekwa was alone.

  As the others walked into the room, armed to the teeth, the Indian almost smiled. It was probably as close to a grin as the man ever got. He nodded to Nate. “Pukutsi,” he said. Nate, the crazy warrior.

  The Indian studied all of them closely, intently. He looked hard at Reese. “Me first,” he said, his English strained and awkward.

  “Me first what?” Eden asked.

  None of the guys said a word as the Indian looked at Rico. “Yo primero.” In turn, he looked to Sullivan and Cash. “Me first, me first.”

  Eden looked at her husband. Since Fiona was safe and she was getting the opportunity to feed a lost soul, the color had returned to her face. “Sin, what is he talking about?”

  “Nothing,” Sullivan grumbled.

  Eden didn’t give up. “Nadine, Jo, you both speak some Comanche. Y’all ask Isatekwa what he’s talking about.”

  They did, and Cash could only imagine, as the old Indian rambled on, that he was telling the whole ugly story. What Jo or Nadine couldn’t translate, Isatekwa managed to provide in English. Cash had an idea the warrior spoke better English than he let on, as he pointed to each of the four who had been there that day. When he was finished, Nadine glared at Cash. Jo shook her head.

  “Eden,” Nadine said calmly, “why don’t you have Teddy and JD take all the children upstairs and put them to bed.”

  Eden didn’t question the suggestion but did as Nadine suggested. When all the kids were gone, Nadine translated.

  “Apparently there was a time when Isatekwa and some of his, uh, friends, had Sullivan, Rico, Reese, and Cash staked to the ground. They were planning to”—she stopped to lick her lips and swallow—“scalp them.”

  Eden sat down hard. “Oh, I remember when that happened.” She turned accusing eyes to the man she had just fed. “That was you?”

  “Oh, that’s not the best part,” Nadine said softly. “Apparently they all begged to die first. All of them. One after another. No, no, kill me first.”

  The women didn’t like what they heard... which is why they had never heard this part of the story. Cash watched as the other three were confronted by their wives. They were married men with children. How could they beg to be killed?

  Isatekwa added another short statement, and Jo translated. “He thinks they’re all very brave,” she said.

  Nadine turned her eyes to Cash, and he knew how the others felt. She accused him with those eyes, asked him why he would throw his life away. If he’d died that day, he would never have seen JD, he would never have held her again. Was he glad he’d survived? Yes. Could he tell her that? No.

  Would he still give his life for these men? Now and always, yes.

  “Ask him if his friends will be calling,” Cash commanded.

  Nadine asked, and the renegade shook his head.

  “He said two are dead, and the others have returned to the reservation.” The harsh expression on her face softened. “And he isn’t ready to do either.”

  When it was well past dark and time for Isatekwa to go, Eden packed him a sack full of food. He tried to refuse, until she said it was a gift to thank him for saving her daughter. He wouldn’t take charity, but a gift of thanks was another matter. The renegade left, and everyone watched him go. Afraid he would spin around and turn
into the warrior who had almost scalped them? Whatever the reason, they were all happy to see him go.

  When Isatekwa was gone and Eden turned from the doorway, her brother confronted her. “I can’t believe you wasted all that food on a damn Injun.”

  She looked up at Jed defiantly. Since he was more than a foot taller than she was, she had to crane her neck. “We have plenty.”

  “Yeah, but he’s...”

  The day had been too much for Eden. She lost her temper. “A renegade. An Indian. A warrior. I know. Tell me something.” Her eyes swept the room. “If when the war was over, the Yankees had tried to stick the six of you on the lousiest piece of land they could find, if they took away your weapons and penned you in and ordered you to remain there for the rest of your lives, would you have stayed? Any one of you?” She got no answer. She shook her finger in Jed’s face. “So don’t say anything ugly about the man who saved my little girl’s life.” Tears filled her eyes. “Not a word.”

  The crowd dispersed, all but Cash, who sat in the dining room, savoring the quiet for a few moments.

  He wasn’t there long before Nadine joined him. She crossed the room, angry, tired, confused.

  When she stood beside him, looking down, Cash wondered if she planned to hit him. She sure enough looked like she wanted to, and if anyone could get away with it...

  Her expression softened. “I don’t want to know how many times you’ve come so near death, do I?”

  He shook his head.

  She took his hand and gently pulled him to his feet. “Come on. Take me to bed before I remember what you did and change my mind. Begging to go first,” she muttered.

  “I’d do it again,” he said. She had to know. “The others, they all have families, a future, women who would die a little if they didn’t come home.”

  “So do you.”

  He shook his head, thought about arguing but didn’t. “Where did you learn to speak Comanche?”

  “From Winema, the Comanche woman who taught me about healing with herbs and poultices. She spoke English but preferred her own language. Come on,” she said, tugging on Cash’s hand and leading him to the stairs. “Let’s get upstairs while the coast is clear. I don’t want to wait until midnight. Not tonight.”

  He followed, because he didn’t want to wait, either.

  Chapter 11

  After Fiona’s dramatic return, Nadine’s days in Rock Creek fell into a comfortable pattern. She saw Hannah, and anyone else who had a complaint. In less than a week she acquired several patients who seemed delighted to have a doctor, real or not, in their town. Nate Lang, the preacher, had done his best, but his training had come in time of war. When it came to a rash or a stomachache, he didn’t have much experience.

  JD took to spending a few minutes with his mother every afternoon, before he and the older Sullivan boys jumped into their furtive treasure hunt they still seemed to think was a secret. She took her meals in the dining room, usually sharing a table with one or more of the Sullivans.

  When darkness fell and the town went to sleep, Cash came to her. She didn’t mind that their relationship remained secret. All that mattered was that when no one else was around, he became her lover. Tender and fierce, he taught her what pleasure was all about. He took her to the edge of something so brilliant and wonderful, she was in utter awe of what she’d discovered.

  Cash never mentioned love, and Nadine was afraid if she did, he’d run far and fast. Most nights they talked, but they kept the conversation safe. They talked about a lot of things, but never about them. The past was too painful, and to hear Cash tell it, they had no future. Sometimes, she thought they did. The future was there, and all she had to do was reach out and grab it. Maybe if she took a chance and told him again how she felt, that she loved him, that she was willing to risk anything to be with him, that future would become real.

  They did talk about JD. She was distressed that he showed no inclinations of giving up his dreams of becoming a gunfighter, but Cash told her to be patient. She tried, and some days she actually succeeded. In spite of the man Cash had become, she did trust him with their son.

  Tonight she waited, as she did every night. The bedside lamp burned low. The coverlet was turned back, but she did not crawl into the bed. Not alone. She’d made a special purchase that afternoon at the sole dress shop in town. Two pretty girls ran the shop, and their work was quite nice.

  The nightgown was simple white satin, and it fit her snugly here and there. No shapeless linen for her tonight. The neckline was a low V that didn’t quite cover the swell of her breasts. It would do Cash in, she was quite sure.

  Where was he? He usually arrived not long after the hotel settled into a complete quiet, sneaking through the front door and climbing the stairs quietly, then coming through her unlocked door. He always left long before sunrise.

  A noise outside her open window startled her. A scrape, a muttered curse. She ran to the window and leaned out, to see Cash scaling the wall by moonlight.

  “What on earth are you doing?” she asked with a wide smile.

  “Someone locked the front door,” he said as he grabbed onto what appeared to be an insubstantial hold and hauled himself up. “And the back,” he added softly. “I can’t believe I’m climbing up the wall of the Paradise Hotel just to get laid.”

  He was trying to be crude, of course, but she didn’t let his attitude mar the sweetness of the moment. He could have turned away from the locked door and waited until tomorrow. But no, in his fine suit and ruffled shirt and diamond stickpin, he scaled a wall to come to her.

  She offered a hand when he reached the window, but he ordered her back and climbed in under his own power. He stood there for a moment, leaning forward, hands on knees, taking a few deep breaths.

  “You wanted to know the real me?” he said breathlessly. “Well, I do not work up a sweat if I can find a way around it.”

  She hummed beneath her breath. “I have seen you work up quite a sweat a time or two,” she teased.

  He lifted his dark eyes, and when he got a good look at her, his eyebrows rose, his spine straightened. “Good Lord, what are you wearing?”

  She smiled. “I bought it just for you.”

  “You’re trying to kill me.”

  “Actually, it was seduction I had in mind.”

  “Not a difficult task.” He came toward her, reached out, and brushed the back of his hand over a satin-covered breast.

  “You never cease to amaze me,” he whispered, his eyes on the slow movement of his dark hand against white satin that shimmered under his touch.

  “I’m glad I have the power to amaze you.” Her body was ready for his. All he had to do was touch her once, look at her this way, as if he were starving. “You certainly amaze me.”

  He smiled and stepped back. One step only. “Take it off,” he ordered.

  Nadine smiled and reached down to grab the nightgown in both hands. Cash stopped her with his strong hands over hers. “Slowly,” he whispered. “Very, very slowly.”

  * * *

  How many days had he been riding? Danny looked at the unfamiliar landscape surrounding him. He couldn’t remember how many days it had been since he’d been shot. Sometimes he blacked out and when he woke he didn’t know where he was.

  The bleeding had stopped, though every now and then the wound in his side would start to seep again. It hurt. It hurt so much he wanted to fall out of the saddle and cry, but he didn’t. He had to get to Nadine. She would make everything right somehow. Melvin was dead, Danny had been forced to shoot a woman, something he’d never intended or expected to be a part of his war, and he hurt.

  Nadine would make everything better.

  Finally he saw it. Marianna, familiar in so many ways. He rode and he rode and he rode, and the town got no closer. It was always just out of reach. Always too far away.

  And then suddenly he was there, among familiar buildings. Nadine would be in school, unless it was a Saturday or a Sunday. He couldn’
t be sure of the day, but he was sure she would be in town, in the school-house, studying and assisting the teacher with the little ones. She’d always been good at that, taking care of the little ones.

  He left his stolen horse and slipped through an alley, one hand over the wound at his side. He glanced down and saw himself clearly for the first time in days. So much blood. Nadine would be scared at the sight of so much blood, but he didn’t have time to clean himself up and find new clothes. After he saw her, he would take care of such inconsequential matters.

  The church was in plain view from the alley as he stopped to rest with his back against the wall. The doors burst open and he squinted at the sight before him. This couldn’t be right. He must be hallucinating.

  Nadine walked down the steps. She wore a white satin wedding dress and carried a bouquet of pink flowers. Her father was there, and Joseph Ellington, dressed in his best suit, had his arm hooked through Nadine’s. She smiled so bright.

  No, he realized with a shake of his head. She wasn’t smiling, she was crying. Big fat tears ran down her face, and her father ordered her to hush.

  And then she smiled again, and Danny sank to the ground with his back against the wall. Bleeding. Hurting. Understanding that everything he’d thought he knew was wrong. One woman had bushwhacked him and Melvin, and Nadine had lied. She’d said she loved him but she didn’t. She was another man’s wife.

  He could still see them, but Nadine wasn’t wearing her wedding dress anymore. She still wore white satin, but this was a flimsy slip of a thing. She wasn’t a girl anymore, she was a woman. She began to dance, to remove the slip of satin, but she stopped in the middle of the dance and began to cry again. She lifted her head and looked at the sky and screamed.

  He tried to scream with her, but he couldn’t.

  “Danny,” she cried. “Danny!” Finally she looked at him, seeing him past all the things and the people between them. Peering into the alley where he hid. “Cash?”

  * * *

  Cash shot up in bed, his breath gone, the dream still all too real. Nadine’s hands were on him. She’d shaken him awake.