Renegade

by Anna Schmidt

  “I don’t consider this an unnecessary risk,” she replied, running her tongue over his ear and rejoicing in the shudder of pure pleasure that elicited from him.

  He tightened his hold on her. “You’re playing with fire, Lily,” he muttered, but he didn’t back away. “All right,” he said after kissing her so passionately, her legs threatened to buckle beneath her.

  “All right?” She looked up at him.

  “All right in that there’s more to this than just stopping a robbery. There’s also the need to clear Jake’s name and prove he wasn’t involved with Johnson’s plans. You knew Jake possibly better than anyone. Maybe he said something you originally dismissed, or you saw something you’ve forgotten. Come with me and help me think this through. I’ll make sure you’re back well before dawn.”

  She didn’t hesitate. Before Cody could change his mind, she grabbed his hand, and together, they slipped out the rear kitchen door and on across the plaza to his office. As she waited for Cody to light a lantern, she closed her eyes.

  We’re going to find justice for you, Jake. I owe you that.

  Chapter 11

  Once they were inside his office Cody deliberately took his seat at the desk, indicating Lily should sit across from him. But as usual, Lily did as she pleased, and it pleased her to pull her chair next to his as he laid out the notes he’d made after the meeting with Ty Drake. The kisses they’d just shared still clung to his lips, and he could still feel the light touch of her tongue tracing his ear, feel the outline of her body pressed to his as they’d hurried away from the hotel. Add to that the fact that he could practically see the flashes of desire that flew between them as she sat only inches away, drawing their bodies closer, and he understood how great a mistake he’d made in allowing her to come here with him.

  His bed was not ten feet away.

  He stood so suddenly that Lily jumped.

  “What?” she asked, her eyes wide with expectation.

  He moved to the map of the territory, a safe distance from her, and pointed to the place where he and Nick had spied on Victor and his crony. “When we were in Santa Fe, Drake didn’t give us anything really solid. The break-in at La Casita was done at night with no witnesses.” He tapped the map several times. “We know Victor and the other man are holed up here.”

  “Yes?”

  “What we don’t know is if there are already others perhaps camped out here—or here.” With Lily in arm’s reach, he couldn’t think. His usually sharp mind was muddled. He had to come up with some way of getting Lily to agree to go back to the hotel before he started something they both might regret. “What I need to do is ride back out there and check the surrounding territory,” Cody proclaimed, making things up as he went along.

  He began making preparations, grabbing a saddlebag from a hook and packing it with jerky and extra ammunition. He wasn’t lying to her, not really. Checking the area surrounding the abandoned cabin was the right move. He could hardly plan to thwart a robbery until he knew what he was up against. He was simply doing his duty—not running away from a pair of sparkling green eyes that had him thinking about the bed in the dark room just around the corner from where she sat.

  “Tonight? You’re going right now?”

  “Night is best. If there is anyone out there, most of them will be sleeping.” He added a couple of tin cans of beans and peaches to his bag, then took paper from a shelf and started writing a note. “I’ll be gone for a day or two. It’ll take at least that long to investigate all the canyons around there where men could hole up for a week or so. I’ll stop by Frank Tucker’s place on the way—he can handle things here in town. And here’s a message for Aidan.” He scribbled a note, folded and stuffed it in an envelope. “But not a word to anyone else, all right?”

  He couldn’t look at her. He knew she was confused, but he couldn’t help that. “Come on. Let’s get you back to the hotel.” He strapped on his gun belt, then took out the weapon, broke it open, and checked the bullets.

  Reluctantly, she followed him out into the dark night and walked at his side as they returned to the hotel. “You’ll be careful,” she said softly once they reached the door.

  “Don’t worry. There’s no real danger. I’m just going to take a look around.”

  “If there’s no real danger, then why look to be sure your gun is loaded?”

  “Habit.”

  The only way he knew to shut her up, to stop her probing, was to kiss her—a kiss he figured had to last him a couple of days and nights at least. She clutched at his shoulders, tugging him closer, opening her mouth to his, pressing herself to him so that he felt the outline of her breasts against his chest.

  He was the one to pull away, but he didn’t release her, and she still clung to him. Their breaths came in ragged heaves in the dark of the night. “Lily, when I get back—”

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  He pushed her hair away from her forehead. “Don’t be so quick to answer,” he murmured. “What I was about to say is…I love you, Lily, and the truth is I want you in every way a man can want a woman. When I get back, we have to…”

  “Oh, Cody, is that why you have this sudden need to go somewhere away from me?”

  He nodded. “A man can only fight temptation standing right in front of him for so long. Think on it, Lily. Once I get back, once this whole thing with the outlaws and Johnson is finished, I’d like us to think seriously about maybe—”

  She placed her fingers against his lips. “Sheriff Daniels, that is possibly the worst proposition—or proposal—any girl has ever heard. You’ll need to work on that, all right?” She raised herself on tiptoe and kissed his jaw. “Now go before I drag you back to that little room next to your office and have my way with you.”

  He couldn’t help himself. He chuckled. The woman had a way of shocking him and making him laugh all at the same time. “Is that a promise?” he countered.

  “Come back to me and find out,” she teased, and then she was gone, letting herself into the dark kitchen and softly closing the door behind her. Cody stood in the yard and waited until he saw the curtain move in her third-floor window and Lily standing there, looking down at him. She blew him a kiss, and he walked away feeling like the luckiest man who’d ever lived.

  * * *

  Three long days and two longer nights Lily waited for Cody’s return. She worked, she cared for Grace, and she tried—without success—to sleep. She had the room to herself on the nights Emma spent downstairs with Grace and was able to pace and sit by the window, listening for his horse or watching for any sign of his return. Once, she had seen a light coming from the jail, and her heart had leapt. But only a few minutes later, she’d heard Frank Tucker’s gruff voice admonishing some cowboy to “sleep it off” as the shopkeeper made his way back through town to his living quarters above his store.

  On the third night, she wearily descended the back stairs to relieve Emma.

  “Grace is sleeping,” Emma whispered as the two friends stood in the kitchen. Emma stirred the milk warming in the pan on the stove, her cure for sleeplessness that she’d insisted Lily try. “There’s no reason you shouldn’t get some rest as well. Honestly, Lily, you look awful—dark circles under your eyes, and…have you been eating? You look drawn and thinner than usual.”

  Lily smiled. “Emma, it’s been only a couple of days since Cody rode out. Stop worrying.”

  “I worry about you, not him. When it comes to Cody Daniels, you’re doing enough fretting for both of us. Now drink this down.” She added a dash of cinnamon to the milk and handed Lily the cup.

  “Lovely,” Lily murmured as she sipped the sweet beverage. “Mr. Harvey should add this to the menu.” She carried the cup to the door to Grace’s room. “Good night, Emma.”

  Emma walked to the stairs but hesitated. “I could stay tonight and let you sleep.”

  “
Good night, Emma,” Lily repeated, raising the cup of milk in a toast before slipping inside the small room and closing the door.

  The lantern on the crate next to where Grace slept had been trimmed to a glimmer, but it was light enough for Lily to see clearly. She sat on the cot she and Emma used and sipped the milk as she looked around the room for something to pass the time. Her gaze settled on the wardrobe where she’d hastily tucked Jake’s belongings the day they brought Grace to town. Gently, she opened it, the carton holding his things within easy reach. Milk or no milk, she knew there would be no sleep for her, so she reached for the box and pulled it onto the cot next to her.

  Carefully, so as not to wake Grace, she lifted the items out, examining each of them. A knit hat Jake had worn in cold weather, a slender bundle of letters from his sister in Ohio that were tied with twine, a certificate from the Harvey Company citing Jake as an exceptional employee, and a sepia-toned picture of the staff of the Palace. They’d posed for it after Grace and Nick’s wedding celebration. In the photo, Jake stood between Emma and Lily, his arms around their waists.

  They had enjoyed so many happy moments, and Lily had simply assumed there would be more. She would not make that mistake again. She was going to live every day and treasure every friend from this moment forward. She studied Grace, sleeping peacefully, her hands cradling her unborn child, and thought of Emma upstairs, hopefully also at rest.

  And Cody?

  Where was he on this night? Sleeping under the stars or prowling around boulders and sagebrush, trying to spy on the outlaws? She squeezed her eyes shut, silently praying for his safe return.

  Pushing her melancholy aside, she turned her attention back to the photograph. Bonnie Kaufmann stood straight and unsmiling at the end of the back row of employees. Now she was leaving, and although she and Lily had had their conflicts, Lily was sad to see her go. Emma would take her place, and Lily couldn’t help but wonder how that might change their friendship. Certainly, she could no longer expect Emma to cover for her if she wanted to stay out past curfew with Cody.

  With a weary sigh, Lily began replacing Jake’s property in the carton. She picked up a uniform jacket, like the one he’d worn daily in the kitchen. How had it ended up with his personal effects instead of in the laundry with the tablecloths, napkins, and aprons? Folding it and smoothing out the wrinkles, she felt something in the pocket. She pulled out a sheet of hotel stationery and gasped as she held it to the lamplight.

  The handwriting was familiar—Victor’s handwriting.

  24 hours, Collier. Smokehouse.

  She turned the paper over. There was nothing more. The note was not signed or dated, but it was Victor’s jagged scrawl—of that she had not the slightest doubt. And it was a threat, the or else implied and unnecessary. She refolded the note and tucked it back inside the jacket pocket. At first light, she would take the jacket to Cody’s office and leave it there with a note.

  What else have we missed?

  She recalled Cody saying he had been through Jake’s belongings, but he hadn’t found this. She pulled everything from the box once again, this time going through every letter from Jake’s sister, examining the knit hat for she didn’t know what, and finally once again staring at the photograph. She removed it from the frame, hoping perhaps Jake had hidden an additional clue behind the picture, but there was nothing. Besides, why would Jake be thinking of leaving clues? How could he know he might die—or be murdered? She sank onto the cot in defeat, still staring at the image of her friend.

  Oh, Jake, what were you doing and why?

  Without the protection of a glass cover, the photograph was brittle. That was odd. It hadn’t been that long since they’d all posed for it, and her copy was still pristine. Had Jake taken his out of the frame so he could study it more closely—study her more closely? For he had loved her, and she felt such guilt that she hadn’t loved him in return. She ran her finger over his grinning face. “Jake, I’m so sorry,” she silently mouthed as tears welled and one dropped onto the photograph—onto her face.

  With her thumb, she wiped the tear away and noticed the paper beneath her touch was rough. Again, she moved closer to the light, peering closely at the photograph. Because she had known all the faces clustered together, she had not focused on any specific one before now—certainly not her own. But now, she saw that her image had been scratched. There was a small black mark that ran across it, and the paper had been rubbed as if someone had tried to erase the mark.

  There were only two possibilities she could think of. First, that realizing she would never return his feelings, Jake had marked her face in a fit of anger or despair. Or second, that someone had marked her face as a warning to Jake. The first was so uncharacteristic for Jake that Lily simply could not imagine it. But she could see Victor doing something like this—finding something Jake prized and vandalizing it. He had stayed in the hotel, and if Jake was away after the kitchen closed, he would have had no problem going through things in Jake’s room. Either way, she was fairly certain Jake had tried to repair the damage.

  She replaced the photograph in its frame and wrapped it in the jacket. She would take both to Cody. It might not be much, but it was something. Or was it? To her, the message in the note was a clear threat. To Cody—or anyone else—it might be seen as simply confirming an appointment.

  But why would Victor meet Jake in the smokehouse—a small adobe structure set well away from the hotel, where the cooks smoked bacon and other meats?

  She thought about the night Jake had staggered into the yard, his face a bloody mess. He had come from the direction of the smokehouse, and when she held him, his hair had smelled of smoke.

  Grace stirred. “Lily?”

  “Right here.”

  Grace blinked. “Is Cody back?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Tomorrow then,” Grace murmured as she closed her eyes again.

  Yes, Lily thought. Tomorrow. And prayed it would be so.

  * * *

  It had taken the better part of two long nights of searching, but Cody had found exactly what he was looking for—the outlaw hideout. There were half a dozen of them, near as he could figure, making eight once you added Johnson and the man staying with him at the miner’s cabin. That man seemed to be the go-between as well as the gang’s leader, showing up at the camp twice during the time Cody kept watch.

  Gut instinct coupled with experience told him the gang was getting ready to strike. Sheer gut instinct told him Independence Day would be the perfect time. The payroll was scheduled to arrive on July 3 by way of the four o’clock train. The outgoing deposit was scheduled to leave on the first train on July 5. On the actual day of celebration, all that money would be in the bank. When the gang hit the hotel in Santa Fe, they got away with only the payroll. Getting both the payroll and outgoing deposit from Juniper held the promise of tripling their take.

  As the sky lightened, Cody mounted his horse and turned toward town. He’d be back before the sun was fully up. After three days of little sleep and nothing to eat but canned goods and jerky, he was looking forward to a decent breakfast—and he was hoping just maybe Lily might be filling in at the counter. Once he’d seen her, he’d have all the energy he needed to get to work foiling Johnson’s plan and putting the man and his gang behind bars. And once he did, he’d let headquarters know they’d be needing a new sheriff in Juniper.

  Cody had other plans.

  * * *

  The kitchen staff started work before dawn, and the noise they made wakened Lily and Grace. Still fully dressed, Lily stretched and yawned. A light tap on the door told her George was there. She let him in, bringing a pan of water so Grace could wash up. He set the pan on the crate by Grace’s bed and handed Lily a stack of clean towels.

  “How’re you doin’ this morning, Grace?” he asked, looking everywhere but directly at the pregnant woman.

  “J
ust fine, George, thank you. I do think folks are making far too much of this.”

  George chuckled. “Don’t tell Nick that. Now how about I cook you two ladies up a mess of my famous huevos rancheros?”

  “That sounds heavenly,” Grace replied.

  “Lily?”

  “Not for me. I have an errand to run, and then I need to get ready for my shift later this morning.” She picked up Jake’s uniform jacket and clutched it to her chest.

  “That for the laundry?” George asked.

  “No.” She cast about for some excuse. “I need to mend a rip. I’ll take care of it.” She didn’t miss the way Grace arched an eyebrow. Lily did many things well, but sewing was not one of them.

  “You run along, Lily,” Grace said. “The boys in the kitchen will be here if I need anything.” She stared at the bundle in Lily’s arms. “After you take care of that, please do lie down for an hour. You look completely done in.”

  “Promise,” Lily replied and squeezed past George. “See you later.”

  Sunlight fanned over the plaza as she stepped out of the hotel. The day would be hot and dry. And the night would surely be perfect in their secret place in the hills rising behind the hotel. Lily smiled. Tonight. Cody home safe. Cody holding her, kissing her…

  She had just stepped inside his office and was searching for paper to leave a note explaining the uniform, note, and photograph when she heard a rider stop outside and a voice speaking low. Then she heard the jingle of spurs approaching the door. She looked up as the door swung open and Cody stepped inside.

  Her relief at seeing him was so overpowering, she ran to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “You’re back,” she said, the words catching in her throat. He was covered in dust and in need of a bath, but she didn’t care. He was there.

  “Yes, ma’am,” he replied, dropping his saddlebag and sweeping her off her feet in a hug that had her laughing with pure joy. He was laughing as well, his dimples etched deep in his cheeks.