The boy’s gaze was fixed to Cash’s bare chest. “Aren’t you going to pick up your guns?”
Cash shook his head. “No, I’m not. This is your lucky day, boy. You came calling on the morning I decided to retire for good. But before you become the man who shot Daniel Cash, let me give you a few pointers.”
“Sh-sh-sure,” the kid stuttered.
“You’re about to become famous. A man needs to know what to expect when he enters a new profession, right? Otherwise you’re just going to make yourself look stupid, and we can’t have that.”
He continued to bare his chest, his heart, for the kid as he walked slowly forward. “It’s hardest in the beginning,” he revealed. “The first time you see a man’s guts spread across the ground, you want to run behind the nearest tree and spew your own guts up. But you don’t,” he added in a lowered voice. “You push it down, you squash it deep. It’ll be that way for a while when you kill a man and you realize that a thing lies where a living human used to be. That a man’s brains are gray, that he always manages to look... surprised right before he dies. But you don’t give in. You push it deep.”
The kid swallowed so hard, his Adam’s apple bobbed.
“After a while it doesn’t seem so horrible anymore.”
The boy, wide-eyed, nodded.
“It gets worse,” Cash whispered. “Pretty soon you find that you can’t sleep, you can’t... rest. Every rustle of a leaf might be the snick of a trigger. Every settling board in a house might be the creak of an intruder. Someone is coming for you, and he’s faster, meaner, smarter than you are. Somebody’s brother, son, father. You know he’s coming, you just don’t know when. Or where.” Cash flicked his gaze to the boardwalk, where JD shadowed his every step. “Are you listening to me?”
“Yes, sir,” JD said solemnly.
Cash fixed his gaze on the redheaded kid again. “So when is he going to arrive? While you’re eating breakfast? Sleeping? Making love to a beautiful woman? You sit with your back to the wall, you keep an ear open at all times, and you never, never know a moment’s peace.”
The would-be gunfighter went pale, ghostly white.
“You trust no one,” Cash whispered. “And true friends are rare. People cringe when they see you coming because they know you bring death with you. They smile and pretend to be your friend so you won’t shoot them in the back. They smile and despise you.
“You watch while the people around you move on with their lives, take wives, have babies, make families, and you know you can never have what they’ve found, because if you mark a woman or a child with your name, you make them a target. You put them in danger simply because you... care for them. You can’t tell a woman you love her. You can’t even claim your own son.” He looked at JD, and at that moment the kid knew. It showed on his paling face, in his sad eyes. The boy knew Daniel Cash was his father.
“And then the last phase hits you,” Cash said softly, returning his attention to the redheaded gunman. “You don’t care anymore, and it’s much easier that way. You live by instinct alone. Something gets in your way, you shoot it. Your arm, your gun hand”—he offered his right hand for inspection—“takes on a life and a mind of its own. You become... a machine. A thing with no more heart than the bodies you’ve left scattered behind you. You become a man who would shoot a friend first and think later.”
Cash had almost reached the trembling kid. When was the last time he’d cried? He knew exactly. Fourteen years ago. But right now tears filled and burned his eyes and he didn’t care. “And then nothing matters anymore,” he whispered. “Nothing.”
He grabbed the barrel of the gun the kid held and pulled the muzzle against his chest so it touched his heart. “Go for the heart and make it fast. Do me one favor and don’t make me lie in the street twitching and moaning and dying slow. That’s so undignified. Not a pleasant way to go and not a pleasant thing to watch.” He looked deep into the boy’s pale eyes. “Pull the goddamn trigger and get on with it, kid.”
“No!” JD shouted, lifting a hand that, Cash saw too late, held a six-shooter.
“Put that down,” Cash ordered calmly.
“But you’re...” JD began. “I can’t let him...”
“JD, this kid is going to shoot me, and you’re not going to do a damn thing about it. Do you hear me? I won’t have you taking up where I left off. I want better for you.”
JD lowered his arm, and the redhead released the grip of the gun aimed at Cash’s heart as if it had suddenly become hot. Cash caught the weapon by the barrel and easily tossed it aside. “Change your mind?”
“Did my brother really try to shoot you while you were in bed?”
Cash nodded once.
“So it was... self-defense when you shot him?”
Again Cash nodded.
The kid shook his head furiously. “They said... I thought you... Rollie wanted to make a name for himself, and he said... Aw, hell, I just want to get out of here.”
“Not so fast.”
Cash froze at the sound of that voice.
“I was just leaving, Sheriff,” the boy said. “I swear.”
Cash closed his eyes and wished the kid had shot him. Slowly he turned around, and saw that it wasn’t just Sullivan behind him, but all of them. All five. Sullivan was pale but blessedly whole, his arm bandaged and in a sling, a six-shooter hanging from his left hand. Only someone who knew him well would realize that he was holding himself upright by leaning into Jed. That Nate, standing to the other side and just behind, added his support with a hand at Sullivan’s back.
Sullivan looked suitably imposing, badge, bandage, and all. Rico held a Bowie knife in one hand, Jed had his Winchester, Reese was wearing both guns, and Nate, in his preacher’s collar, held a rifle as if he knew what to do with it. And he did.
“I want you to give a message to anyone you happen to meet who has the same kind of idea you had,” Reese said calmly. “It’s a simple message. If a man comes here to do battle with one of us, he takes on all six.”
“All ten,” a low voice said, and JD, Johnny, Teddy, and Rafe, youngsters no longer boys and not yet men, armed and stern-faced, joined the other five.
“Make that fifteen,” a strident voice insisted, and Hannah stepped forward, a rifle in her hands. Lily had a knife, Jo and Mary each held six-shooters, and Eden was armed with a rolling pin. Most of them looked like they’d come straight from bed, hastily dressed and disheveled. They presented quite a picture.
“Sixteen,” Nadine said softly, stepping into the street, unarmed, to stand beside Cash.
People began to come out, most of them armed in one way or another, to line up behind the six. The sixteen.
Reese managed a wan smile. “Let me amend that. Anyone who comes here to take on one of us takes on the entire Rock Creek Army.”
The kid turned tail and ran for his horse. Within a matter of seconds the would-be gunfighter was hightailing it out of town as though the Rock Creek Army was on his tail. Cash watched him go. The boy never so much as glanced over his shoulder.
Nadine moved so she stood directly before him. “Why didn’t you tell me what your life was like?” she whispered.
“How much did you hear?”
“Enough,” she said.
The emotions of the past fourteen years welled up inside him, choking him, threatening to send up everything he’d so diligently pushed down all these years. Two solitary tears ran down his cheeks. “Oh, God, don’t let them see me like this. I’ll never live it down,” he whispered.
Nadine placed her hands on his cheeks, caressing him and at the same time wiping away the tears, and then she came up on her toes and laid her mouth over his.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“That doesn’t mean we can make this work,” he answered softly. “I’m still...”
“Don’t tell me you don’t love me,” she whispered. “I heard what you said, and besides... I had time for a few words with the ladies this morning while the guy
s were getting dressed and armed.” She looked deep into his eyes. “You asked Eden to look out for me, Jo to make sure JD went to church. Lily to teach our baby to sing if it’s a girl, Hannah...”
“Can’t anyone in this town keep a secret?” Cash asked, turning around to glare at the Rock Creek Army.
“Families don’t keep secrets,” Eden said softly.
“I’m not—”
“Yes, you are,” she interrupted.
“I can keep a secret, Uncle Cash,” Fiona said, dancing away from the boardwalk and her sister Millie with her hand in the air. “I didn’t tell anybody that Millie thinks JD is bery han’some.”
“Fiona!” Millie shouted, horrified that her secret was out.
Fiona clapped a hand over her mouth. A moment later, she lowered that hand slowly. “Whoops. I guess I can’t keep a secret, either.”
Cash turned to face them all—his friends, the people from town he had been so sure disdained him for who he had become, the women who had made these men and this town their own. What words were sufficient for a moment like this one? There were none.
His eyes landed on Rico’s wife, properly formidable with a wicked knife in her hand. “I can’t believe that even Lily came out to defend me,” he said in a light-hearted voice.
The crowd began to break up as Lily stepped forward. “You might be a worthless rogue, Cash, but you are our worthless rogue.”
“I knew you could insult me in English if you really wanted to.”
Rico collected his wife, and they made their way arm in arm back to Three Queens.
Jed and Nate assisted Sullivan back into the hotel, and the Rock Creek Army dispersed, leaving Cash and Nadine and JD alone in the street.
The would-be gunfighter was gone; now things were going to get really scary.
“Are you really my...” JD began, turning pale.
No more secrets. “Yes,” Cash said, offering a hand to the kid, inviting him into his arms and his life. “Are you horrified? Disgusted? Angry? I would be if I were in your shoes.”
JD shook his head and walked slowly forward. “I don’t know why, but it seems right to me.”
In the middle of Rock Creek’s main street, Cash took his wife and son into a long, slow embrace. “I wish I could be certain I could keep you both safe forever.”
“Nothing in life is certain,” Nadine said calmly. “Give me a choice, and I’ll take my chances with you.”
“Me, too,” JD whispered.
Nadine lifted her head and laid her lips briefly over his. “I love you, Danny.”
He smiled.
* * *
It had been planned as a double wedding for the Cashes and the Rourkes, but at the last minute Jed and Hannah backed out. Jed declared he was about as married as a man could get, and besides... he wanted to stand back and watch Cash take his vows. A sight he didn’t mind saying he’d thought never to see.
They were already married, but Cash had said he wanted to do this for Nadine... and for himself. It was a big step, the biggest, and he wanted to take it in front of the friends who had become his family.
Cash and Nadine were married, for the second time, beside the river at sunrise. Flowers from Eden’s garden had been placed here and there, and everyone was in attendance. Even a healing Sullivan. Fiona and Georgie wore pink dresses that almost matched, and carried more flowers from Eden’s garden. Fiona had been a little put out that Cash was not marrying her, since she insisted that she’d asked him first, but being a flower girl had mollified her. Nadine finally got her perfect wedding, her perfect wedding day.
The ceremony was performed by Nate, who did his best to keep a straight face. He managed to appear properly solemn most of the time. Nadine didn’t mind, since the reverend’s occasional smiles were as warm as the morning sun.
When Nate pronounced them man and wife, for the second time, his grin bloomed full and true.
After the ceremony, everyone gathered around to congratulate the bride and groom. There was lots of teasing in the grass by the river, a few happy tears.
In the past two days, Nadine had heard all about the favors Cash had asked of his friends. Everyone had been asked at least one favor, as Cash tried to hand the care of his family over to his friends. And he had almost convinced her that he didn’t care.
Cash had asked everyone for something... everyone but Sullivan. He still insisted that he didn’t have the right to ask anything of the man he’d shot. She wondered if Cash would ever completely forgive himself.
Sullivan was healing remarkably well, though he still didn’t have all his strength back. Eden had as much to do with that healing as any medicine, Nadine knew.
The sheriff ambled over to Cash, his face stern and still paler than Nadine liked. He should have stayed in bed today, but nothing could keep him away from Daniel Cash’s wedding, or so he said.
“Cash,” he said in a low voice.
Nadine watched as her husband turned to face the man he’d shot. “Sullivan.” He looked the sheriff up and down. “You’re looking better.”
“I’m feeling better.”
“You do know I hated having to shoot you,” Cash said, looking around to make sure Fiona was nowhere near.
Sullivan nodded. “Don’t give it another thought. If you ever draw on one of my kids, I’ll return the favor.”
Cash patted his black-trousered thighs. “That’ll be tough to do with no pistols.”
“How does that feel?” Sullivan asked, nodding toward the place where holsters usually hung.
“Different,” Cash admitted. “A little naked, but I think I can get used to it.”
“Good.” Sullivan smiled as Eden came up behind him and wrapped her arm around his waist.
“Time for us to go home,” she said. “You boys okay?”
The men both nodded, and Eden and Sullivan left, walking slowly back toward town. Their brood followed behind them—and what a brood it was.
In a little while there would be a large celebratory breakfast in the hotel dining room. Since everyone was doing their part to put the special meal together, one by one the wedding attendees followed the Sullivans back to town, leaving the newlyweds and their son alone by the river.
JD, who had stoically accepted the news that Cash was his father, had been quieter than usual for the past couple of days. Cash had not pushed him and neither had Nadine. They’d let him have this time to accept everything he’d learned.
With the crowd scattered and nowhere left to hide, JD joined his parents with a solemn expression on his young face. He looked boldly up at Cash. Nadine didn’t know what might come next; she was prepared for anything.
“Can I call you Dad?”
Cash smiled. Oh, he was beautiful when he smiled this way, real and contented. “You’d better. Would you think I was being too weird if I told you I love you?”
“Yeah,” JD said, but his smile was wide.
Nadine hadn’t seen her son this happy in a very long time. This moment was better than gold.
JD ran off, telling them that he’d promised Teddy he’d help with the morning chores. When he was gone, everything was so still and quiet she could hear her own heartbeat.
Cash laid his hands on her face and looked her in the eye. “For better or for worse takes on a whole new meaning when you’re marrying me.”
“I know that,” Nadine said softly.
“And yet here we are,” he said, wonder in his voice. “I swear, I don’t know whether to be relieved or terrified.”
“I know exactly how I feel.” She rose up on her toes and kissed him quickly. “Happy. Lucky. Blessed.”
“I love you, Nadine Cash,” he whispered.
“I love you, too.”
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. A half-smile flitted across his face. “Everything’s going to be all right,” he said. “I know it in my gut and in my heart.” He opened his eyes and smiled wickedly at her, swung her up into his arms, and started walking toward town.
“I’m not really all that hungry,” he said. “Let’s go home, back to the clinic. Everybody else will be busy at the hotel. Maybe we can play a quick game of cards.”
“Cards?”
“I know a game where no one loses.” He kissed her quick and winked. “High card gets to be on top.”
Epilogue
One year later
Luke Chandler slowed the pace of his horse as he neared Rock Creek. Not because he was nervous, of course. He just needed a few minutes to catch his breath, that’s all. The little town looked different than he’d imagined it would. There was an awful lot of building going on, nice houses going up just beyond the main street, new buildings edging toward the boundary of the little town. Sure didn’t look like anything to be afraid of.
This was where he’d make his name, once and for all. No more cowboying, no more wasting his time on stupid shooting competitions... By killing Daniel Cash, he’d finally make a name for himself.
The rumors he’d heard couldn’t be true. A shudder, perhaps a small part of himself that wasn’t so sure, shimmied down his spine. Stories, that’s all they were. Tales to scare away anyone who might cause trouble. Of course, he’d heard the stories in more than one town, from more than one person.
They said that every now and then some really bad men headed down this way, and they never came back. Just a few months ago, the Hargett gang had ridden to Rock Creek after hearing some silly tale about a bunch of gold. They hadn’t been seen since.
Luke shook off the shiver in his spine. Jim Hargett was the meanest man he’d ever met, and the other members of his gang were almost as mean as he was. They’d probably just headed for Mexico, that’s all. Yeah, that’s it. Mexico.
It was after noon as he rode down the middle of the street. A kid playing in front of the hotel didn’t mind telling him where he might find Daniel Cash. Luke flexed his fingers, worked a crick out of his neck, and headed in that direction.
The sign over the door he’d been directed to stopped him. THE ROCK CREEK CLINIC. Darn. What if someone had shot Daniel Cash before he got here!
Cash (The Rock Creek Six Book 6) Page 24
