Addy walked a few feet away before facing him again. “Have you stopped drinking?”
He brushed some dirt from his shirtsleeve. “Mostly.”
“Mostly? How about completely?”
“Addy, all men drink a little. I can control my drinking, if I’m happy, and thinking about maybe being with you makes me happier than I’ve been since the war. I only drink to forget, to sleep extra hard so I don’t have those nightmares. If I can start a new life …” His gaze moved over her in a way that made Addy shiver. “Maybe a new family, the dreams won’t be so bad. I’m getting better, Addy, since meeting you.”
Addy stepped closer, hardly aware that her hat sat crooked on her head and part of her hair tumbled down the side of her face. The hem of her gray dress was torn. “I might just only be a part of the healing, Cole. And you forget that I have my own healing to do. Neither of us is sure we’re doing the right thing. We can’t make decisions yet, Cole. Only a few days ago we thought the best thing was to get out of each other’s lives, and that isn’t the first time we came to that conclusion.”
He grasped her arms. “And here we are, still involved. Neither of us can quite let go. That has to mean something.”
She could not look away from him. If only he were not so handsome. If only he were not so strong and dependable and able. If only she didn’t already know how he could make her feel in the night, the way he had of satisfying a woman’s every physical need. “Maybe it does.” She sighed deeply. “You have the time you want, Cole. I am in no particular rush one way or another, certainly in no rush to build a relationship with Grant Breckenridge. Right now he’s just a friend with whom it is proper to be seen socially. He’s never …” She felt her cheeks reddening as she looked down. “Kissed me or anything. There is no romance, I assure you.”
“Not that he wouldn’t like it to be that way. Watch out for him, Addy. Sassy says he’s a womanizer. You’re just a prize to him. He doesn’t see you as a wonderful woman he can share his thoughts and needs with. You’re the new schoolteacher, and the prettiest woman ever to come to Central, and he means to have you for himself. You’re his latest prey.”
“You don’t know that for sure.”
His hold on her tightened. “I know he’s almost old enough to be your father, and I know he could never make you feel the way I can make you feel in the night, Addy Kane.”
She pushed at his arms. “Don’t do this. You always do this—keep me from being able to think straight. Please let me go.”
“In a minute. Look up here, Addy.”
She raised her eyes, saw him lean closer. Again his lips met her own, searching, parting her mouth, his tongue exploring suggestively. She felt fire ripping through her bloodstream, every need awakening deep inside. She groaned with pleasure at the kiss, then chastised herself for her continued weakness in this man’s arms. She tore away from the kiss. “Please don’t, Cole!”
He let go of her, and Addy ran back toward the street, wiping at her mouth to be sure there wasn’t more blood on it. She found Sheriff Watson there with a few town businessmen trying to bring order to the situation. A few men lay sprawled unconscious or badly beaten in the street, and most of the women protestors were crying, many of them with torn, dirty dresses, hats missing or askew. Ethel Brown was in a rage, her dress torn, her face dirty, her hair a tumble. She was screeching at the sheriff about the abomination of women like Sassy Dillon, who not only whored with men but who actually attacked other people, fighting in the street with no shame, allowing her nakedness to be exposed to half the town without a care. She demanded that the sheriff arrest Sassy.
Addy quietly moved into the crowd. Sassy stood on the steps to her saloon, surrounded by her girls, who were all a mess from fighting, and by a crowd of men who supported her. Sassy herself was scratched and bleeding, her dress nearly in shreds. She held up one side over her breast to cover it, but she did not look defeated. She glared defiantly at Ethel and the sheriff, a hard, mean look in her blue eyes.
“There’s no need to arrest me, Sheriff,” she told the man firmly. “I’m telling you now that I’ll stop selling myself and my girls, but I’ll by-God not stop doing business here in Central! I’ll still run my saloon, sell whiskey, let my patrons play cards and dance with my girls. I have a right to that! If you try to outlaw saloons altogether like these women want, you might as well close up your mines, because these men won’t put up with it! They’ll go work in the mines in some other town where they can still get their whiskey and relax with a game of poker.”
The crowd of men behind her shouted in support, raising fists. “You close down the saloons, and you’ll see the biggest strike of miners there ever was!” one of them shouted.
Another cheer of agreement went up.
“Addy, dear, look at you!”
An arm came around Addy’s waist at the words, and she turned to look up at Grant Breckenridge.
“I got hung up at one of the mines or I’d have been here sooner. I meant to come and watch out for you.”
He seemed so sincere. Did this man really come to visit Sassy regularly? Maybe Cole was just making it up to keep her from seeing him. Even so, that meant Cole had been talking to Sassy about her. And if Grant really did see Sassy sometimes, maybe Sassy would tell him about her and Cole. A man like Grant could make big trouble for Cole if he knew the truth … and he could have her run out of Central.
“There was quite a brawl,” she answered.
“I can see that. Are you all right?”
Addy noticed Cole walking back onto the boardwalk in front of the saloon. His eyes scanned the crowd, and he noticed Grant and Addy.
“I’m fine,” Addy answered, still feeling the fire of Cole’s kiss.
“I’ve never been so humiliated in my life!” Ethel was screaming, her face blazing red, tears streaming down her face. “You can’t let this woman get away with such barbarism, Sheriff! She must be arrested!”
“Now, now, Mrs. Brown, if I arrest Sassy I have to arrest half the town. You can’t expect to march through this town protesting things the miners love dearly without also expecting trouble. Now Sassy has said she’ll stop the prostitution, and that’ll be a good start for outlawing the same at the Hurdy Gurdy and the cribs and other saloons where we suspect women sell themselves. You can’t say your march didn’t do some good, and you can’t say Sassy hasn’t cooperated.”
Ethel Brown drew in her breath, and she reminded Addy of an enraged bull. She turned to face Sassy. “You had better keep your word, Miss Dillon! We will make sure the sheriff keeps an eye on your place, and if we find out you’re still selling bodies here, I will personally make sure you are run out of Central.”
“Yeah?” Sassy sauntered down the steps and walked closer. “I look forward to you trying, you fat, pompous bitch.”
Ethel gasped, and for a moment Addy thought she might faint. At the same time more gasps and a round of “Oh’s” moved through the crowd of protestors. Sassy just smiled, then turned and walked back up the steps.
“Come on, boys. Drinks on the house!”
A roar of cheers went up as men followed the woman inside, and Sassy moved her arms around two of them, her back to the crowd. Addy’s eyes widened at the realization that to put her arms around the men meant she would have to let go of her dress and let it fall open again. The woman disappeared through the swinging doors to her saloon. Cole started in with the rest of the men when Grant called out to him.
“Cole Parker!”
Cole turned. “Mr. Breckenridge.”
“Call me Grant. I came to town to look after Addy here, but I also came looking for you. I have a gold shipment going out day after tomorrow. Can you be up at the Jackpot by seven A.M.?”
Cole glanced at Addy, and she could see the warning in his eyes. He looked back at Grant. “I’ll be there. Anything in particular I should watch for on the way down to Denver?”
“Yes.” Grant put an already-lit cigar to his m
outh and puffed it a moment, while the rest of the crowd in the street began to disburse. Sheriff Watson led a still-complaining Ethel Brown toward his office. “There is one man in this town who hates me for reasons that are no one’s business. What happened is his fault, not mine, let alone the fact that he blames me for his son’s death, which was an accident. I won’t go into details now. The fact remains that this man has vowed to get his revenge. I think he’s all hot air and no action, but you should be aware of the situation. His name is Ed Foley. Maybe you’ve heard something about him, seen him in the Hard Luck.”
“Can’t say as I have.” Cole decided not to mention he’d heard the story. He thought it best Grant didn’t know Sassy had been telling things about him.
“Well, it’s best to be alert in any case. Foley knows explosives, and he’s a bitter man, mourning his son, needing someone to blame. He has relatives in Kansas, and I’m hoping he’ll go back there. He probably will, in time. Just keep your eyes open and your gun ready.”
Addy felt a pain in the pit of her stomach. Cole could be hurt, or killed. She looked up at him. “Be careful, Mr. Parker.”
Cole read her concern, and he wanted to hold her. “Always am.” He looked back at Grant and nodded. “See you day after tomorrow.” He turned and walked into the Hard Luck, and Grant looked down at Addy.
“You seemed awfully concerned for hardly knowing that man, Addy.”
“Well, the fact remains you hired him to watch your gold and he is apparently risking his life for that. I would be concerned about anyone who would do such a thing. You should be grateful he’s willing.”
“Oh, I’m grateful, all right. He’s being very well paid.” He put an arm to her waist. “I have a buggy nearby. Come with me and I’ll take you back to the boardinghouse. You must want to clean up and change clothes.”
“Yes.” Addy followed him to the buggy. “Are you sure Ed Foley isn’t dangerous?”
“It’s not your concern, my dear. Don’t worry about it.”
Addy had to wonder what he wasn’t telling her. She realized Grant Breckenridge was the type of man who felt his business life was not a woman’s concern, and there was a coldness to his voice at the remark that made her think of what Cole had been trying to tell her about him. She climbed into the buggy, her emotions torn again by Cole Parker’s heated kiss. She glanced back at the Hard Luck as Grant drove off, but Cole had already gone inside. She struggled against renewed jealousy over Sassy Dillon, and her mind raced with the things Cole had told her. He had asked her to wait for him, had all but said he loved her. That put a whole new light on everything.
Twenty
“Are you really going to stop the prostitution?” Cole lit a cigarette as he waited for Sassy’s reply.
“I suppose, if it’s the only way to keep the rest of my business,” Sassy answered bitterly.
The two of them sat together at the bar, Sassy wearing a battered suit jacket one of the men had given her to cover herself. The saloon was packed with men, all laughing and joking about how they had “won,” making remarks about the “stiff old bags” who had come to town to try to oust the whores.
“Give me whores, or give me death!” one man shouted.
The room roared with laughter.
“Sounds to me like you have plenty of support for staying in business,” Cole said with a grin. He met Sassy’s eyes and saw a strange sadness there. The woman seldom showed any kind of emotion. “Hell, Sassy, these men aren’t going to abide by any laws against prostitution.”
Sassy shook her head reaching up and taking a loose comb from her hair. Her face was still dirty and her makeup smeared. “It isn’t that.” She sighed deeply. “I could fight it, but then I might risk losing everything, and I can’t let that happen. I might only be thirty, but I feel a lot older sometimes, and this business is all I know. If I didn’t have my saloon, I don’t know what I’d do. It’s just that the prostitution brought in a lot of extra money, and I need that money for reasons nobody knows.”
Cole took a deep drag on the cigarette. “How did you get into all of this anyway?”
Sassy looked around the room, then smiled at Harvey Dean, a regular customer. He came up to her and slapped her on the back. “You did good out there, Sassy,” he told her with a toothless grin. “You showed them stuck-up ole’ biddies what for!” The man turned to Cole. “I seen you whisk that perty schoolteacher off to the alley,” he added. “I’ll bet you showed that bitch a thing or two! Maybe you even got a poke at her, huh?”
Cole quelled an urge to knock the man across the room. “She isn’t like the rest of them,” he answered. “She’s a very nice lady, so leave her out of your insults, Harvey.”
The man seemed to wither a little at the remark. He knew Cole Parker’s skills with both gun and fists, and he didn’t care to get on his wrong side. “Sorry, Cole. I just figured—”
“You figured wrong.”
Harvey frowned. “Hell, Cole, you should ought ta’ have been out there in the street fightin’ for Sassy’s rights. Seemed to me like you was stickin’ up for them female marchers.”
“I wasn’t sticking up for them. I was trying to avoid trouble because it would only make Sassy look worse. As it is, we ended up in a mess anyway.”
“Oh, that was bound to happen,” Sassy said, patting Cole’s chest. “Actually I made things worse when I attacked that fat, pompous Ethel Brown. She’s given me trouble before, and I just couldn’t stop myself from lighting into her. It was a hell of a fight, wasn’t it? I showed everybody what an uncivilized, uncontrollable thing that woman can be—brought her down to my level, didn’t I?” She laughed, but Cole caught an odd pain in her eyes he’d never noticed before. Harvey laughed with her before stumbling away to ask for another drink. Sassy turned to Cole. “What did you do in that alley, love?”
Cole smiled sadly. “Just had a little talk with Mrs. Kane.”
“About what? You’ve never told me the whole story, Cole Parker.”
Cole shook his head. “How about you answering my question first—about how you got into all of this?”
Sassy shrugged. “I was raised by a mother who drank too much and a gambling father who won enough money to open a saloon of his own back in Wisconsin. I never knew any other life. My pa loved women and had a lot of them. My mother died from too much alcohol when I was only twelve, and on my thirteenth birthday my pa urged me to try some whiskey, which I did.” She looked away, studying a shot glass she held in her hand. “Enough not to feel the pain when my father had one of his friends take me to a room upstairs and make a woman out of me. Somewhere deep inside I knew it wasn’t right, but pa had a way of making me believe that it was. I didn’t even like it. I just got used to it.” She drank down the whiskey. “I was pretty then. The money was good and it just went on and on. As I got older I learned to enjoy it, got to understand men pretty good decided that if this was all there was to life I might as well at least get some pleasure out of it.” She met his eyes. “Ones built like you, they bring me a good time.”
She grinned, but Cole could see that part of her would have liked a better life.
“It’s all I’ve known,” she continued, “and it’s way too late now to change any of it.”
Cole took the cigarette from his mouth. “Oh, I don’t know. Someone told me once that it’s never too late to change.” He thought about Addy, ached for her.
“Well, in some cases it is too late. Come here.” She took hold of Cole’s hand and pulled him toward the stairs, nodding and smiling at more men, accepting their support. “Goin’ upstairs to change, boys,” she announced. “I’ll be right back.” She leaned close to Cole. “Come up with me. I’ve got something to tell you.”
Cole followed her up, amid hoots and hollers. He realized he needed to wash and change as well, but he decided to wait until later. He followed Sassy into her room, as crumpled a mess as he remembered it had been the first time he’d seen it. “Wh
at’s up?” he asked.
Sassy asked him to unzip her dress, and he obliged. She stripped down in front of him with no apparent bashfulness or hesitation, then walked over to wash her face at a wash stand. She toweled off her makeup and turned to look at him. “Don’t look too great without all the paint, do I?”
Cole saw the signs of a hard life. She still had a decent shape to her but was getting plump in all the wrong places. Her face was slightly bloated from too much alcohol, but he could see she had once had a natural beauty about her, a beauty destroyed by neglect and drinking. “Still looks pretty good to me,” he answered, moving his eyes over her nakedness, knowing she needed to hear a compliment.
Sassy laughed and sauntered closer. “Good enough for a roll in bed? You do know how to make a woman feel good, Cole Parker.”
Cole leaned down and kissed her cheek, then bent lower, kissing her neck, the whites of her breasts. “Very tempting, lady. But I told a certain person I wasn’t sleeping with you. I feel obligated to keep that promise.”
“I knew it.” Sassy turned and moved past him to pull open a drawer, taking out a clean chemise and pulling it on. “You’re in love with the schoolteacher. Why in hell don’t you marry her and get it over with?” Then she sighed and added, “Lucky woman.”
“Lots of reasons that are between her and me. And I sure as hell don’t want someone like Grant Breckenridge knowing anything about it, understand? Not a word. A man like that gets jealous. He could find a way to have me killed or run out of town, and he could ruin Addy’s teaching job. I’ll handle Breckenridge my own way. I’ll handle the whole situation my own way, so do me a favor and keep quiet.”
Sassy grinned as she began lacing up a girdle. “I’m not stupid, Cole, and I like you. I wouldn’t say anything. Did you tell her to stay away from that bastard?”
“I told her.”’ He walked over and pressed out his cigarette in an ashtray. “You said you had something to tell me.”
“I do.” She sat down on the edge of her bed, now dressed in a lacy camisole, her girdle pushing her breasts up higher than normal. “Sit down, Cole.”
Until Tomorrow Page 27
