Blake Allen

by Danni Roan

  Blake ducked under the door frame, stepping to the side and putting the wall to his back. In the next few moments he would know if they were to be accepted or shunned. He could only pray that the gamble would pay off and that he would live for another day.

  “Pierce!” Darcy squealed rushing, with swaying steps, toward the man who looked like he’d been shaken from a sound sleep. “I missed you sooo much,” Darcy pouted tossing herself into the burly man’s arms and kissing his face “You went off and left me all alone.”

  Blake watched as the girl simpered in the man’s arms, his breath leaving his lungs as Pierce’s dark eyes found him.

  “You were lonely,” Pierce said. “Well I’m glad you’re here then,” he grinned, dipping his head and kissing the girl roughly. “How’d you know I was here?” he asked breaking the kiss as his hard eyes searched Darcy’s face.

  “I heard someone say you went to Casper,” she whispered smoothing the lapel of his satin dressing gown. “I just had to find you. Everything is so boring without you.” Darcy fluffed her short brown locks and giggled selling the story with every inch of her being.

  The big man chuckled wrapping a possessive arm around Darcy’s slim waist. “Bring me a bottle,” he snapped pushing the girl through the door before him. “My girl missed me.”

  ***

  Blake’s heart fell as he watched Darcy and Pierce disappear through the door. Would she tell him everything? After the trouble they had taken to get here would she tell the other man his secret? She hadn’t so far, but Blake knew how much Darcy was giving up bringing him here. What if, in a moment of weakness she decided she was better off as the kept woman of a dangerous man?

  “You brung her all the way up here on a whim?” the stocky man by the door asked, folding his arms over his chest with a glare.

  “That’s what she wanted,” Blake said. “Besides, I don’t want to be a door man for the rest of my life. I hear things are heating up in Casper, and I want a bigger piece of the pie.”

  The other man huffed but nodded, turning to the bar. “Coffee?”

  “Thanks,” Blake agreed following. They passed through a small door behind the bar and into a tiny kitchen where a pot bubbled on the stove.

  “Youre move will either get you in with the boss or out of life for good.” The burly man’s eyes were interested as he poured two cups of coffee then nodded back toward the bar.

  “No point in letting an opportunity slip through your fingers if you have the chance.” Blake smiled knowingly. “Besides, it ain’t like any of us are getting’ out of this world alive.” He just hoped that he and Darcy wouldn’t be leaving before their time.

  Chapter 12

  By the time dinner was served that night in the hopping gin joint, another three men, all hard, tough, and suspicious looking, had joined the little crew.

  Pierce, with Darcy still clinging to his arm, took a seat at the head of the table and looked each man over carefully.

  “It’s gonna be easy pickin’s,” the man grinned. “Don has been watching the bank for weeks now and knows the routine of every person working there. “They’ll take a delivery at four o’clock tomorrow afternoon and that’s when we’ll hit. It’s the most vulnerable moment.”

  Darcy looked up, meeting Blake’s eyes for a fraction of a second and the flash of fear that filled their dark depths shot to his heart.

  “Blake, you’ll be here,” Pierce bent over a hand sketched map and filled the gang in on the plan. Blake only hoped they would be able to stop the whole thing before anyone got hurt. Greedy, powerful men like Pierce didn’t care who got hurt as long as they got what they wanted. It would be a fine line between bringing the man down for his crimes and not crossing a line at the same time.

  “Piercy,” Darcy walked her fingers up the man’s arm smiling sweetly as she did so. “What will I do?” she batted her eyes at the thickset man who patted her cheek.

  “You’ll wait in the car,” Pierce said. “We’ll be out in a moment and off to the hideout.”

  Blake felt his heart skip a beat. The hideout, it was the place he had been trying to find for nearly six months and the one time he had gotten close had nearly killed him.

  The young lawman curled his fingers into a fist, resisting the urge to touch the scar along his temple. This was his chance to bring the whole gang down. Pierce might be top dog among the men at the table, but Blake was sure he answered to someone else out there. He had to find out who that was before turning them all in to the police.

  “I gots to make a call,” Pierce said, brushing Darcy’s hand from his arm. “Blake why don’t you take my girl for a stroll. Some fresh air will be good for both of you.”

  Blake nodded, pushing himself from his chair and walking around the table to offer Darcy his arm. “Whatever you say boss,” he drawled, making it plain he was eager to please. It had taken hard work and risk to get this far. He was finally deep on the inside and didn’t dare slip for a second or all would be lost.

  The skies had cleared throughout the day, shifting from dark, brooding gloom, to pale, cold gray. Now the royal blue of night sparkled in a clear sky, and Blake sucked in a cleansing lung full of air, adjusting his dark fedora on his head. He had thought he might never see the stars again as his new life seemed destined to keep him in some dark, hidden speakeasy or other dive indefinitely.

  “What’s the plan?” Darcy asked as together they turned, walking slowly down the street. “Are you going to the police now?”

  Blake was silent for several seconds, meandering further down the lane until Darcy pulled him to a stop. “What’s going on in that head of yours Turnip?” Darcy placed her hands on his arms forcing him to face her as she met his eyes.

  “If we help Pierce pull this job,” the former cowboy said, “we can find out who is really pulling the strings for the whole operation.”

  “You want to help them?” Darcy narrowed her gaze studying his face, her fingers digging into the hard muscles of his bisects.

  “No, not truly help, but I think we have to go along. I have to find out who’s really in charge of this gang. If we can bring him down, everyone in Wyoming will be safer. Someone far more powerful and well placed than Pierce is behind this gang. I need to know who that is.”

  Darcy’s dark eyes bore into his, and Blake fought the need to swallow at the hard glare. He knew this wasn’t what the girl had agreed to. He knew that he had promised to get her away from the abusive man who all but owned her. She hadn’t signed on for a longer stint of dangerous living.

  “Can you do it?” Blake asked, his eye searching hers as he hoped. “Can you hang on just a little longer?”

  “I will if you promise me one thing,” Darcy’s gaze never left his. “When this is all done and over with, I want you to take me home.”

  Blake opened his mouth to reply but slim fingers covered his lips with a gentle touch. “Not to my home. I want to see where you come from. I don’t mean for you to take me to meet your folks or have Sunday dinner,” she chuckled, a harsh sound in the night. “I’m not fit for that kind of invitation. I just want to see the spread, the place that produced someone like you.”

  Blake nodded slowly, his lips still compressed under her cool fingers as he slowly placed his hand over hers. “All right,” he agreed, lifting her hand from his face. Still studying her face, he tried to understand what purpose would be served in Darcy seeing the Broken J. It was just a ranch in the wilds of Wyoming. Something he and his family were proud to call home, but nothing special to anyone else. Still, he gave his word and would keep it. If she wanted to see where he came from, he would show her. “Why?” The word was out before he could recall it, and suddenly, Blake knew he needed to know that more than anything else in the world.

  Darcy chuckled. “I want to know where Turnips come from.” She tapped his chest with a painted nail and grinned, then turned back down the street leaving Blake to follow if he chose to.

  Blake watched the young woman totte
r down the damp street, her mink coat almost obscuring her slight form. He had come this far, there was no turning back now. No matter what happened, he and Darcy were irrevocably yoked together in this daring attempt.

  For the next hour Blake trailed Darcy as she walked along one of the better streets in Casper, looking into various shops, buying treats, or baubles and otherwise keeping them occupied. Although it was early evening many shops were starting to close, even with easy access to electricity few establishments stay open into the night.

  The City of Casper had changed drastically in recent years. Ever since gas and oil had boomed in the early years of the decade everything was being remade. Across the wide North Platte River smoke from the refineries could be seen puffing into the dark sky like manufactured clouds. Though Wyoming’s agricultural industries had slowed significantly since the Great War, the oil boom had been good to the town and there was money to be had.

  Men had come from all around looking for work and many of the rough and tumble single men were also looking for places to spend the money they earned. Saloons, gambling halls, and even brothels had sprung up to accommodate that desire. Even now, in the days of prohibition saloons and speakeasies fill the town with liquid libations of every kind.

  It was rumored that some of the best bootleg whisky came from right here in Wyoming, produced by northern European emigrants who had long brewed and distilled their own beer, wine, and whisky.

  Blake couldn’t help but wonder what came next for this town, the gateway to the west and the starting place of his own family.

  Darcy stepped out of a sweets shop and reached for Blake’s arm. She smiled slightly popping a lemon drop into her mouth. “Walk with me up to Mansion Row,” she said, offering him the bag of treats. “I like to look at the big houses.”

  Blake nodded, popping a lemon drop into his mouth and shifting the packages he already had tucked under one arm.

  “They are pretty impressive,” he said. “Nothing like home but big and beautiful. As a kid I always loved it when Pa would drive past that area.”

  “You have a big house?” Darcy asked, her heels making a gentle clicking on the pavement.

  “My grandfather’s house is big. It had to be, he raised six daughters.” Blake’s smile was sweet and his eyes dance with remembering.

  Darcy chuckled trying to imagine a big house full of people who actually liked each other. “What about you?”

  “My ma and pa built a place in the horse pasture up past the barn. It’s smaller, just one story, but comfortable. That’s where I grew up, though we were at the big ranch house as much as not. Most of the family still likes to meet up for dinner there at least a couple of times a week.”

  “You mean everyone’s still there?”

  “Not everyone,” Blake peered out from under his hat. “My cousin Mary and her husband moved away. Ma and Pa still travel for business, selling cattle and horses, and I’m pretty sure Lilly will be gone soon as well. She’s a teacher and I know she wants to make a difference in the lives of young people that don’t know her as one of the family. She’s been helping my aunt Alexis teaching at the local school near home, but I know she wants more.”

  Darcy stopped turning to look up at him. “Sometimes wanting more isn’t such a good idea,” she said. “Sometimes what you’re reaching for isn’t what you thought it would be.” The slim woman turned back around looking up at a red brick house with a large portico and wide paved drive way. A shiny car sat in the drive, droplets of the recent rain shimmering like diamonds on its deep green surface.

  “We’d better get back,” Blake suggested waiting while Darcy got her fill of the big house, before they turned and walked back to the darker side of town.

  The town had changed greatly in recent years. The oil industry had prospered the town of Casper, but had also expanded the vice in the town. Saloons, brothels, and gambling dens had expanded with the oil workers arrival.

  The industry and subsequent air field and other amenities had meant that though prohibition was the law, much of the drinking, gambling, and carousing continued to go on while officials turned a blind eye.

  As much as Blake hated the disregard to the law, he had set his sights higher and was determined to bring down a gang who had already knocked over three banks in Wyoming and were reported to have killed at least two agents.

  “I’ll leave you here,” Blake spoke to Darcy as they approached the building. “I’m going to …” he stopped mid sentence as a man he recognized as a police official in the town stepped out of the speakeasy stuffing a money clip full of bills into his side pocket. Blake had planned on going to the police chief that day and letting him know about the planned robbery, but now he was having serious second thoughts.

  “Never mind,” he finally said, taking Darcy’s elbow and escorting her into the building. “I’ll see if I can send a note.” Surely there was someone who he could trust with his news, but who? How many officers had been bought and paid for in Casper? Blake needed to be sure that whoever he contacted could be trusted.

  “You two been gone a long time,” Pierce swirled the amber liquid in his glass of ice, lifting it like a toast as Darcy hurried toward him. “I see you did some shopping my dear,” he grinned. “I hope you got something pretty.”

  “It was nice to stretch my legs,” Darcy said, hurrying to Pierce to kiss his cheek. “I thought we might be away a while and wanted a few extra things. Lemon drop?” she added lifting the paper bag before him.

  Pierce raised a dark brow as Blake sat the carefully wrapped packages on the table, but waved the girl away. “You put everything in the car,” he commanded the younger man. “We’re hitting the bank right after it opens in the morning. I just got word that the delivery time was changed. Best get a good night’s sleep. Pack the cars and be ready to go. Darcy you’ll go with Blake since no one in these parts knows him. He’ll be our best surprise.” A wolfish grin spread across the boss’s heavy face.

  “Whatever you say sweetie,” Darcy drawled, lighting a cigarette. “Go on Turnip, get my stuff together. I’m looking forward to being alone with my snoochems.”

  Blake nodded gathering the packages once more and heading for the car. A cold dread settled into his stomach at the other man’s words but it was time to get this done. In a few more hours he would be in the middle of things, for good or bad, he didn’t know yet. Blake knew he was close to breaking this gang into a million little pieces. He just hoped that he and Darcy wouldn’t be shattered at the same time. Everything hung on this bank job going off without a hitch, so that he could find out who the real ‘Mr. Big’ could be.

  A cold shiver ran down Blake’s spine as he placed the packages into the trunk of the runabout he and Darcy had driven to town and saw the guns, shining dully in the damp light. The game was afoot, and it was more dangerous than any of them could know.

  Chapter 13

  Blake helped Darcy into the flashy robin’s egg blue car, squeezing her hand for a moment to still the trembling that thrummed through her fingers. It was time for action, and he was torn between pressing forward or running the other way. He was so close to finding out who was behind this gang and all the pain and suffering they had caused but was it worth risking Darcy at the same time.

  In time, Wyoming would sort itself out with the ban on whisky and wine, but he needed to get to the root of the criminal problem. Three bank men had already died at the hands of this bunch. If Blake could hold on just a little longer, he could cut off the head of the serpent bringing this string of robberies to an end.

  “You ready?” Blake asked, slipping into the driver’s seat and pushing the starter button. “You can back out if you want, I won’t blame you.”

  “I’m seeing this through,” Darcy said, her eyes focused on the sleek black car in front of them that the other men had all climbed into. “I want to do at least one good thing in my life.”

  Blake felt a deep sorrow slip into his soul at the young woman’s words. She
couldn’t see that our own good works were not the way to redemption, but perhaps this was one step in the right direction. Shifting gears he rolled slowly in behind Pierce and his big car.

  ***

  Within moments of entering the bank, faces covered and guns in hand, everything had gone wrong. Darcy, who had insisted on being in on it, had delivered a note to the clerk only seconds before Pierce and his men crashed through the door guns in hand.

  Blake, who had entered practically on Darcy’s heels, had hung back by the door, hoping to see that no one was hurt but was powerless to stop what happened next.

  “Get on the floor,” one of Pierce’s men growled through his mask as he brandished his shot gun at the few patrons present so early in the morning.

  “Start filling these bags,” another man demanded shoving heavy sacks at the tellers who quickly began stuffing notes into the sacks. Another man grabbed the bank manager shoving him toward the vault and grabbing all the money he could just before the doors crashed open once more.