“But they always gave in, didn’t they?”
She nodded. He caught her chin on his finger and focused her eyes back to his. It wasn’t as easy as usual. She was ashamed. “You give me their names and I’ll handle it.”
“There’s nothing to handle. They paid their money.”
And bought her soul.
“Give me their names, Maddie.”
Her whisper was barely audible. “I don’t remember them all.”
“Then give me the ones you do.”
They’d have to have been real memorable for her to hold their names close.
“Jasper Mason.”
One name, just one, but said with such hatred he didn’t ask if he was a happy memory. “What does Jasper Mason look like?”
She glanced up, her eyes big with doubt, as if she’d long since accepted no one would ever fight for her. “You’d kill him for me?”
He didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
“You don’t know what he did.”
“I know.”
Her hand slid across her lap, fingertips skimming material and skin, touching his fingers, sliding up over his hand, encircled his wrist before settling against the inside, connecting them in a tenuous grip. “He’s evil.”
“Describe him to me.”
“Tall, a little shorter than you. Long blond hair, light blues eyes and a bushy mustache.” She shuddered as if assaulted by a bad taste. “He always carries a quirt. His horses are always marked up.” Again she looked away. “He liked me.”
“Did he use that quirt on you, Maddie?”
She didn’t answer. He didn’t need her to. A man who marked his horses wouldn’t hesitate to mark a woman. He cradled her cheek in his hand, pulling her against his chest. Holding her close, thinking of all those years she’d needed him and he hadn’t been there. Thinking of her at Culbart’s, needing him again.
“You don’t want me now.”
There was only one way to respond to that small-voiced statement.
“I always want you. Why do you think I stayed away from Hell’s Eight so much?”
She didn’t look up. “Because you’re restless.”
He snorted. “Wanting you made me restless.”
She shook her head. “It’s not the same.”
He kissed the top of her head and debated how much to confess. He finally settled on everything. “I have the same baser instincts as every other man, Maddie, but I want you to understand something.”
“What?”
He tipped her chin up, not saying a word until her gaze met his. “When I look at you, I don’t see a whore.”
She blinked. “But you do see a traitor.”
Hell, did he? “I don’t know what the hell I see you as, Maddie, but it’s not a whore and it’s not a traitor, and that pisses me off.”
“Why?”
Such a simple question to raise such turmoil in him. “Because I used to know exactly who you were, and I was comfortable with that.” The insight came out of nowhere, but as soon as he said it, Caden realized that it was the truth. He wasn’t mad at Maddie for being caught up in circumstances that she couldn’t control. He wasn’t mad at her for her past. He was mad at her because she wasn’t who he’d decided she should be, and he didn’t know what to do with her.
“I’m still your wife.”
“Yeah, you are.”
“You can change that, though, right?”
“I expect so.”
Silence for a bit and then, “So you don’t have to be mad at me for that.”
“No. I don’t have to be mad at you for that.” He could barely see her in the dark, and he had a feeling now was a really good time to be able to see Maddie’s eyes.
“What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking I don’t want you mad at me.”
“Why did you follow me, Maddie?”
“Because I don’t belong to Hell’s Eight, either.”
That was news.
“But you were safe there.”
She nodded. “Yes. And Tia and Desi and Ari and Bella and everybody have been very kind to me, made me very strong, taught me what I need to know.”
She played with the ruffle on her pantaloons.
“But?” He let his finger drop from her chin to her shoulder, his palm naturally cupping the curve.
“Now I know who I want to be. I know how I want to be. I just don’t know where I want to be it.” It should have been said with tension.
“You sound excited.”
“You sound surprised.”
“I am.”
She scooted off his lap to kneel before him. It was an unconsciously seductive pose his cock fully appreciated. “Caden, my whole life I’ve been locked in a room, locked in a name.” She shook her head. “I’m not locked in anymore. Tia says I can be whatever I want. Bella says I can do whatever I want, but I don’t even know what there is to want.”
“You don’t have to risk your life in Indian country to find out what you want, Maddie mine.”
“I know now. I just didn’t think any of this would happen. I was just going to follow you, catch up.” She shrugged. “Have an adventure.”
“If I’d known you were back there, you would have been safe.”
She shook her head again. “Culbart’s men just came out of nowhere. One minute I was alone on the trail and the next they were all around me.”
He caught her chin on his finger again, drew her face back to his, shifted more so that the faint light from the fire rippled across her features.
“Did they hurt you, Maddie?”
She shook her head. “No.”
A man could take that no at face value unless he knew a woman’s past.
“Did they touch you?”
“Not really.”
“There’s a whole lot of room for wrong in that ‘not really.’”
“They dragged me around a bit by the arm, put me on a horse behind somebody else and rode back to the ranch.”
“And what happened when you got there?”
She looked at him and her eyes went blank. “Culbart threw a welcome-home party. It was very sweet of him. I haven’t seen Uncle Frank in ages.”
Fuck. He was going to kill Culbart. A party? What kind of party?
“That’s nice, Maddie.”
“It was.”
He could believe she was totally lost in her pretending unless he looked down at her hands. Her short nails were digging into her skin. Whatever was going on in her mind wasn’t as pleasant as a welcome-home party thrown by a loving uncle.
“Maddie.”
“Yes?”
“Come here, honey.”
He opened his arms and in a heartbeat she went, her hands slipping around his neck, her chin going instinctively to his shoulder as if it belonged there. Hell. She fit his arms as if she belonged there. He held her close, feeling the tension inside her draw tighter.
“I’m glad you liked your party.”
That tension started to dissipate. Maybe there were times it wasn’t so bad to go along with her delusions. He rested his cheek on her hair. She felt so small in his arms, so soft. A woman who’d gotten shit her whole life but deserved love. He waited a good ten minutes before she relaxed. That was because, he realized belatedly, that was how long it’d taken to feel safe. Shit.
“I’m ready,” she whispered against his throat.
It was his turn to blink. “For what?”
Her fingers went to work on the buttons of his shirt. “For our wedding night.”
He was dog tired, and from those circles under her eyes, so was she, but she was ready to do her duty, let him give in to his base nature, let him do whatever he wanted. He remembered the way she said that. The disgust for those men, the loathing for herself.
He stilled her hands.
“Well, I’m ready for something else.”
Ace was right. Maddie was sweet and she’d never had a choice. But she was his wife. A man owed his wife a hell of
a lot more than a choice. He owed her passion. Security. Tenderness. Respect. Love.
“Would you be terribly hurt, Maddie mine, if instead of—” He waved his hand. What word did a man use that wasn’t crude?
“Fucking?” she asked.
He winced. “I’m sorry I used that word with you.”
“It’s all right.”
No, it wasn’t. “Ah, Maddie, come here.”
He pulled her close and then leaned sideways, taking them down, her on top. As she lay there stiff as a board, he grabbed the blanket and pulled it over them. The night air was fast cooling. With pressure on the back of her head he tucked her face into his neck. She didn’t resist. Not then and not as he dragged her thigh over his and her arm across his chest and settled his head on the back of a rolled-up blanket he was using as a pillow.
“What are you doing?”
“Going to sleep.”
“You don’t want to—”
“Give in to my baser instincts? No. But let me know when you want to make love.”
She didn’t have a thing to say to that then or an hour later, but when her breathing evened out and her body relaxed as she finally drifted off, he didn’t care. A woman only slept in the arms of a man she trusted. Caden brushed his lips over the top of her head, tangling his fingers in her hair, holding on, matching his breaths to hers, smiling as he fell asleep.
CHAPTER NINE
THEY WEREN’T ALONE.
Caden came awake instantly, his senses straining to catch any clue as to what had awakened him. Beside him, Maddie dozed. Across the fire he could see Ace, from all appearances still asleep. From the angle of the moon, they were three hours from dawn. Sliding his free hand under the blanket, Caden pulled his revolver clear. There was a blankness of sound to the north end of the campsite. Even the crickets were quiet. Whatever the threat was, it was located there.
“Ace,” he whispered under his breath. If Ace weren’t awake, he wouldn’t have heard the call.
The response was immediate and just as soft. “I’m on it.”
Years of working together hunting bounties had made Ace and Caden a team. Caden heard him slide out of the bedroll. A shadow amid shadows. Caden eased Maddie’s arm from across his chest and slipped out from under his own blankets. When her eyes opened, he covered her mouth with his hand. She jumped and instinctively struggled. He shook his head. When she was fully awake, he placed a finger over her lips, and bringing his mouth to her ear, he breathed, “Don’t move until I tell you to.”
She nodded, eyes big.
Caden eased back, careful not to snap any sticks or otherwise give away his location. He knew Ace was doing the same. It could just be a bear. The intruders could be Indians or claim jumpers. There was only one way to find out. He knew Ace was working his way around the right flank of whatever was out there. Caden’s job was to cover the center, draw them in. Only this time Maddie was in the center. Confident no one lurked by the fallen log, Caden crept back to Maddie. She’d pulled on her dress. They’d talk about that later. After giving her another sign to keep quiet, he motioned her behind him. Shielding her with his body, he backed them into the shadows. With a touch to her shoulders, he indicated she should lie down beside the log. It was the best cover he could find.
Clearly terrified, she propped herself up on her elbows and mouthed, What is it?
He kissed her quickly just because. “Push up tight to that and wait for me. And this time don’t move.”
She scooched down. He could barely make out the glint of her eyes in the dark. Satisfied, he nodded. The log wasn’t perfect, but it would be some protection if bullets started flying.
The crickets stopped chirping over to the left. Ace had gone right.
With one last graze of his knuckles down Maddie’s cheek, Caden faded back into the night. He was willing to bet his last dollar that an attack like this was perpetrated by white men. He smelled them before he saw them, the acrid scent of stale sweat and whiskey broadcasting the accuracy of his guess. He slipped his knife from its sheath and set it between his teeth before grabbing the young sapling in front of him and pulling it back. The man walked like a bull in a china shop, twigs crackling under his feet, scuffing his boot along the ground. Not a professional killer, then. More likely a claim jumper.
Shit.
He was hoping to have more time. The man was just a darker shadow among the shadows. Caden let the sapling go. It made a rustling sound before it slapped the man in the face. With a shout he stumbled back, arms flailing. Caden jumped him before he could recover.
Someone yelled from across the campfire, “Did you get ’em, Burt?”
Caden drew the knife across the man’s throat, feeling skin and tendon give. Blood spurted. Burt wasn’t going to be answering anyone. He let the man drop and moved on, picking his quarry from the darker shadows moving between the trees.
Panic started among the attackers at Burt’s lack of response. They started calling to each other, giving away their position. There were four, maybe five of them. All scared. Wanting contact to bolster their courage. They were in the wrong profession. A man who went hunting at night couldn’t count on safety in numbers.
The man looking for Burt called out again, fear pitching his voice an octave higher. The yell ended midshout. Caden smiled and wiped the knife blade on the dead man’s pants. Ace was doing his part. Ducking back into the shadows, Caden leaned against a tree and studied the situation. The claim jumpers had the campsite surrounded. Which meant they were all around Maddie. He remembered the terror in her eyes, her trust when he’d tucked her away. Fuck. She’d better keep put. She’d be fine as long as she kept put.
Like a voice from a bad dream, one of the claim jumpers called out, “Stranger.”
He supposed “stranger” was him. Instead of coming out, he started working around toward that voice.
“Come on out.”
Like hell.
“Do it now, stranger, or your lady friend’s going to have another hole in her.”
Maddie! He kept silent.
“You thinking I don’t have her? Give your man a shout, sweet thing.”
He heard Maddie cry out in pain. A high-pitched sound that brought him up straight. And then there was the sound of a man grunting in pain and Maddie’s panicked “Run, Caden!”
She was fighting them to give him time to escape? Who the hell asked her to do that! As he pushed away from the tree, Caden heard the distinct sound of a fist connecting with flesh.
“Maddie,” he whispered, knowing what that sound meant.
The next sound he heard was a groan.
Goddamn... Maddie!
“If you don’t want me cutting off one of her pretty little fingers, you’ll come out now, mister.”
“I’m coming.” But not that fast, and not without buying Ace as much time as he could.
“I’m going to start counting,” the claim jumper warned.
Caden walked through the woods until he reached the clearing. It was just a few steps. He could see Maddie standing in the firelight, her shadow blending with another, her yellow skirts wrapping around his legs. She was holding her cheek. He could see the darker stain of blood on her jaw. Rage flared hot before settling into icy resolve. Just five minutes ago, she’d been asleep in his arms, her soft breath blowing over his skin, and now she was in the arms of scum, scared out of her wits. It was the way of things out here. Survival was for those who had the strength to maintain their position, and Maddie didn’t have any strength at all. She depended on him and he’d failed her. He wouldn’t again.
“Did you find out his name, Maddie?” he asked, keeping his voice calm.
She shook her head.
“Drop your guns, mister. Right there in the dirt.”
He never dropped his guns in the dirt. Caden bent down and slowly placed his revolver on a rock. “It doesn’t matter. We’ll add him to the list anyway.”
“And that knife, too.”
What was the guy,
a cat? He could see in the dark?
Caden set the knife down beside his revolver.
“Now stand up and put your hands over your head.”
It was a plus they hadn’t shot him on sight. He did, tucking them behind his neck.
“What do you want?”
The man was holding Maddie by her chin and throat, practically lifting her off the ground without a care to her comfort. He was going to pay for that.
“Well, we came for the gold, but now we got us a bonus. He’ll pay extra for her alive.”
“Who?”
“None of your business.”
“Someone sent you here for my wife but not my gold?”
“He wants both. But we’re not fools. The gold’s ours.”
Who the hell was “he”? “There is no gold.”
“Don’t play dumb. We checked around. Rumor has it there’s a lot of gold here.”
“Rumor has it there’s a lot of gold everywhere.”
The knife sheathed between his shoulder blades grew heavier and heavier with every moment. His fingers twitched with the need to grab the hilt. It would be so easy to kill the leader, just let the blade fly. Except the way Maddie was wiggling, he couldn’t risk the shot.
He brushed his fingers over the hilt. In time. “Maddie,” he drawled, getting her attention. “Let me handle this.”
She slowly subsided. The leader pulled her higher. Caden waited. Sooner or later the man would mess up. “If you let her go, I might let you live.”
It was an outright lie. That man was going to die as painfully as Caden could arrange. Nobody came into his camp and threatened his woman and tried to take his property.
The man laughed, his rotted teeth showing behind his overgrown beard. “Hardly. I haven’t had anything this sweet in ages.”
More shadows came out of the dark. One, two, three, four. They were definitely outnumbered.
“No sense putting up a fight. You’re a bit outnumbered.”
So he was, but of those shadows that came close to the fire, none of them was Ace.
“I’ll ask again. What do you want?”
“And I’ll tell you again. The gold and the woman.”
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