by Linda Devlin
But she realized, very quickly, that no one here wanted to see Ethel die. They simply wanted her to put down the derringer. With a hand on Sin's back, Eden peeked around him and watched as Cash reached out and touched Ethel's shoulder.
Ethel spun around and pointed the derringer at Cash. Surrounded, outnumbered, and outgunned, she panicked.
Cash reached out to take the pearl-handled derringer from Ethel, but she hung on tight. He forced her arm down, into a less threatening position, and the weapon discharged.
Cash cursed as he yanked the derringer away from Ethel. He uttered, quite clearly, the most vile words imaginable in bizarre combinations. He sprinkled in a few of Jedidiah's favorite words, the ones that always made Eden blush. She didn't dare chastise him.
Sin grabbed a disarmed Ethel from behind and held her arms tight behind her back as Nate and Rico burst into the room.
"She shot me!" Cash shouted, his hand pressed firmly over a spot high on his left thigh. He'd put all his weight on his right leg, and he stood there listing unsteadily to one side. Now that the initial shock was over, he limited himself to what was obviously his favorite curse word. "Shit!"
Nate offered Cash an arm of support and he took it, as Rico took custody of an unrepentant Ethel and led her from the room.
Eden stepped out from behind Sin, determined to do something useful. "Get him to bed. Not this one," she said quickly. "The room across the hall is cleaner. Let's have a look at that wound. Is there a real doctor in town?"
"Slow down, sweetheart," Cash said calmly. "I'll heal up across the street, in my own room. Nate can patch me up as well as any real doctor." Or you. The unspoken censure hung in the air between them.
"At least wrap the wound tightly to slow the bleeding before you try to walk." She bent over Grady's chest and came out with a clean shirt."This will do." She turned to do the chore herself, but Cash lifted a hand to stop her, one finger demonstrative and insistent. Well, she had to admit the wound was in a rather delicate place.
Nate took the shirt from her and dropped down to wrap it around Cash's thigh. "A couple inches to the left and a little higher," he said with a smile, "and you'd have to restrict your immoral activities to gamblin' and drinkin'." There was too much good humor in his voice, given the dire circumstances.
"Just bind it up and let's get out of here." Cash glared at Sin. His impassive face didn't reveal even a hint of the pain he had to be feeling. "You know, I haven't lived a sainted life. In the back of my mind I guess I always figured that one day I'd get myself shot over a woman. I did assume, however," he said crisply, "that it would be my woman."
"Thank you, Mr. Cash," Eden said, realizing that her thanks were insufficient. "I do so hate it that you were injured helping me."
Cash cursed again as Nate led him from the room. He refused the offer of Sin's added assistance, saying he would not be carried to his room like an invalid.
When they were alone, Eden slipped her arm around Sin's waist and leaned into him. It was a wonderfully comforting feeling, warm and intimate. "How did you know?"
"Rico said the room looked like it had been searched, and he didn't buy Ethel's explanation. He said she looked shifty eyed."
"I'm glad Rico is so observant. Otherwise..." She shivered. "Sin, Ethel was actually trying to push me out the window! She thinks Grady hid a fortune in gold somewhere in this old hotel, and since her father helped to steal it, she said it was hers. Her legacy. I would've let her have it, if there really was any gold. Do you think there is?" She looked up at him.
Sin ignored her question. "She could've shot you," he said in an unaffected voice. There might not be any emotion in his voice, but he held her close and wrapped his arms completely around her. She could feel his relief and his fear. "At any moment while the two of you were alone. One afternoon while the two of you were cooking supper." A note of fury crept into his voice.
"I don't think she really wanted to hurt me. She just wanted me to leave." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "It's over," she whispered.
"We still have the Merriweathers to contend with," Sin said darkly.
"Maybe." She looked up at Sin and smiled. "If I were a Merriweather, and I knew what I was up against, I'd stay as far away from Rock Creek as possible."
Sin looked down at her. "Yeah, but I have a feeling you're a lot smarter than the Merriweather brothers." He touched her face. It was amazing to her that he could be so big, so hard, and still so gentle. "I just don't want you hurt."
"Because you love me?"
"Because I like you."
"That's something, I suppose." She dropped her arms, let Sin go, and headed for the door. She still shook, a deep quiver from head to toe, but she felt no real fear. The danger was over, and her mind turned to more immediate matters. "I really should make Cash some soup. Will he ever forgive me?"
"Probably not."
"I do make very good soup."
Chapter 20
Eden made a conscious effort not to look from side to side as she walked through the saloon. It was not yet dark, but the evening had begun. Rough men drank, painted women laughed, and gamblers caressed their cards the way a lover might caress a woman's flesh. She kept her eyes on the stairs at the rear of the room, even when she felt a growing number of eyes on her back.
Nate stayed close, and she could feel, too, the temptation this place held for him.
"Honey," one of the saloon girls hollered, "if you're going to visit Cash, you might as well save yourself the trip up the stairs. He's kicked us both out already. Twice. He's in a foul mood."
Eden glanced over her shoulder. "Being shot is bound to put anyone in a foul mood. Besides," she added, lifting her tray aloft, "I brought soup."
She didn't see any reason for laughter, but a few drunken men did just that. Turning her back on them all, Eden climbed the stairs. Nate stayed right behind her.
"They're right," he said softly. "Cash is not going to be glad to see you."
"He was injured helping me. The least I can do is bring him some chicken soup. He'll need nourishment to heal." She stopped at the top of the stairs. "Which room is his?"
Nate pointed, then stepped around Eden to knock curtly and then push open the door. Cash's room was smaller than those in the hotel, cramped but clean. It was also rather... decadent. The bedspread that covered him to the waist was bright red and surely made of the finest silk, as were the sheets and the pillows. The single chair was covered in red velvet, a fabric similar to the thick curtains that covered the single window.
On his bedside table there was a deck of cards, two distinctive six-shooters, an almost full bottle of whiskey, and a cut-glass tumbler with just a drop of whiskey sitting in the bottom.
Cash opened his eyes as she stepped into the room. "What the hell are you doing here?"
She refused to be put off by his rude tone of voice or the blackness of his eyes. "I brought you soup." She lifted the tray slightly.
"I hate soup." He waved a dismissive hand. "Get out."
Eden ignored him, stepping into the small room and perching on the edge of the red velvet chair. "I can feed you or you can feed yourself. I won't have you wasting away."
Slowly, using the strength in his arms, Cash moved into a sitting position. Crimson silk pillows cushioned his back. A crimson silk coverlet covered his legs. His mouth, surrounded by a precisely trimmed mustache and goatee, pursed and twitched. Finally, he pinned his dark eyes on her.
"Let me assure you that I have no intention of wasting away, Miss Rourke," he said in a dangerous voice that positively dripped sarcasm. "Or is it Mrs. Sullivan? I'm often confused these days."
"Call me Eden," she said, taking the spoon in her hand and dipping it into the soup. "Open wide."
He looked horrified, his black eyebrows arching, his head rearing slightly back. "You are not going to spoon soup into my mouth as if I were a baby or a feeble old codger."
"All right," she said, standing with the tray in her hands.
She very gingerly placed the tray on Cash's lap.
The gambler reached down with both hands and grasped the bowl. She knew, immediately, what he intended to do.
"Surely you wouldn't be so childish," she said calmly.
He cut his eyes up and narrowed them. "You'd be surprised." But he didn't toss the bowl across the room.
"While you two argue about the soup," Nate muttered, "I'm going downstairs for a drink."
Eden spun around. "No, you really shouldn't." It broke her heart to see the man lose himself in whiskey, to drink until he was insensible. "You drink too much, Nate. It's not good for you." She kept her voice low.
"Not good for me?" he asked, amused by her concern.
"No," she said softly. "You really shouldn't..."
"If I need a drink it's none of your business."
"Well, yes, that may be true," she said, unable to let it go. "But you don't need a drink. You want it, but want is entirely different from need."Given the way Sin affected her, she really wasn't one to talk. That didn't stop her, though. "I'm not one to say that whiskey is evil, but..."
"Lady, when you've seen what I've seen, you can preach to me," Nate said with a touch of bitter humor. "Until then, leave me the hell alone." With that he stalked out of the room, leaving the door open.
So far the day had been a complete disaster. First she'd been confronted by Ethel and her nefarious plans, then Cash and his stubbornness, and now Nate.
"Sullivan was right about you," Cash said.
Oh, she was in no mood to be on the receiving end of Cash's sarcasm, not now. "Right about me how?" she snapped, trying, and failing, to stop her eyes from filling with tears.
Cash smiled wickedly. "He said you were out to save the world, one person at a time. If that's the case, Rock Creek is as good a place as any to be. Lots of people here need saving."
Dejected, she sat again in the red velvet chair. "But I'm not doing a very good job of it. Grady died, Ethel tried to kill me, Sin only wants to send me back to Georgia, Nate put me in my place, and you"—she pinned her eyes on him—"you nearly get yourself killed on my account, and now I can't even get you to eat a bowl of soup." Her lower lip quivered.
"Save the histrionics," Cash drawled. "I'm too damn old to fall for that practiced con. The tremulous lip, the watery eyes. You're quite the actress, Miss... Eden."
"You hate me," she whispered, certain of the fact.
"Perhaps."
"Would you like to tell me why?" She didn't really care if this man liked her or not, but he was in Sin's closest circle and that meant something to her.
"I don't like to see my friends jerked around by their nuts."
Shocked, Eden tilted back and widened her eyes. "Well, you don't mince words, do you, Mr. Cash?"
"In the past I've found it a waste of time to do so," he snapped.
Amazingly, she found a tender spot in her heart for Cash at that moment. Tough as he was, he obviously cared about his friends. That meant he cared about Sin. They had something in common after all.
"Let me put your mind at ease," she said softly. "I love Sin, very much. I would never jerk him around by... by anything." She could feel herself blushing, the heat rising to her cheeks. "If I've made mistakes since coming here, it's because I've never been in love before." She smiled. "I'm learning as I go."
Cynicism filled his black eyes. "Maybe you really think you love him...."
Eden stood and glared down at Cash. "Don't tell me I don't know my own heart. Don't you dare. I am getting heartily tired of the men of Rock Creek trying to tell me I don't know what I want. Do you want to know a secret?" She leaned slightly forward and unabashedly met Cash's stony gaze. "Sin and Jedidiah think I'm going back to Georgia once the Merriweather brothers are caught, but they're wrong. I'm not leaving. Unless, of course, Sin leaves. I'll follow him if I have to. I'll become the kind of woman I need to be in order to be his wife."
"You would trail after a man who doesn't love you?" Cash asked, his voice cold.
Eden was tempted to tell him that Sin did love her, but that wasn't really the question he'd asked, was it?
"Yes."
She turned on her heel so she didn't have to look any more into those dark, emotionless eyes. "I'm going to leave before Nate has too much to drink. Eat the soup or don't, Mr. Cash. And thank you, again."
After slamming the door behind her, she waited a moment, expecting the crash of a bowl against the door. But all was silent.
* * *
Sullivan sat back on the green lobby sofa while Jed paced and raged.
"Ethel is in the Rock Creek jail?"
"Until we transport her to Ranburne, si," Rico said calmly. "We hired Sam Sanders to keep an eye on her and feed her until then. Until we get a sheriff of our own, there is not much else we can do."
It had been well after dark before Jed had returned, frustrated that his visit to the newly married Lydia had led him nowhere in his investigation. He'd been incensed to know that Ethel, who'd been living under this very roof, was Eden's tormentor. He'd been just as livid that he'd missed all the action.
"I should skin Eden's hide for coming here in the first place," he seethed. "The sooner we get this Merriweather mess over with and get her back to Georgia, the happier I'll be."
They all turned toward the door as it opened.
Cash limped in, his white ruffled shirt on but only halfway buttoned, his face unnaturally pale. He carried a tray in one hand and an empty bowl in the other. As he stepped into the light, Sullivan saw a spoon sticking out of his pocket.
Rico stepped forward and offered an arm of support, but Cash waved him off. "It's just a scratch," he said as he limped into the room. "I wanted to return these."
Eden came into the lobby from the dining room, Nate right behind her. "Would you please quit following me," she snapped. "Ethel is in jail, and I seriously doubt the Merriweather brothers are hiding in the pantry."
"Just doin' my job, ma'am," Nate said with a wry smile, weaving unsteadily as he came to a halt.
Eden stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Cash. "What on earth are you doing out of bed? Don't you have a lick of sense?"
"I'm fine," he said again. "It's just a..."
"Fine my foot," she said, walking to where Cash stood. "You should be resting."
"I came to return these," Cash said, barely lifting the tray and bowl. "And to thank you for the soup. It was very good."
Sullivan sat up straight. He'd come here to thank her? That was not like Cash at all.
Eden took the bowl and tray and handed them to an unprepared Nate, who almost dropped both. "How can you boys just stand there?" she snapped. "Don't you realize that Mr. Cash has been shot?" She placed an arm around his waist. "Lean on me, Mr. Cash."
Cash grinned as he complied, leaning much too familiarly against Eden and placing a casual arm around her shoulder. "Why don't you call me Daniel?"
Daniel?
Jed and Rico exchanged a surprised look.
"Daniel," Eden said with a smile. "What a lovely name." She led Cash to the sofa and brusquely ordered Sullivan to move aside. She didn't completely let go of her charge until he was settled comfortably on the sofa, his back resting against one arm, his legs stretched out.
"When did you take Cash soup?" Sullivan growled.
"This afternoon," Eden said sweetly, "while you were sleeping."
"I had to sleep a couple of hours in order to take the night watch. Can't you stay out of trouble for two hours, so I can sleep?"
She didn't seem at all offended. "I didn't get in trouble, Sin. I just took Daniel a bowl of chicken soup. Nate was with me."
Daniel. Sullivan glared at Nate, who shrugged his shoulders.
Jed shook a long finger at Sullivan. "Wait a minute. You've got the night watch? Why not..." Jed looked at the men around him, at a weaving Nate and a grinning Rico and a smug Cash. Apparently, at this point, there was not a man among them he trusted with his sister. "Maybe I should take the nig
ht watch myself."
"You were up before dawn to ride out and question Lydia," Eden said sensibly. "I wouldn't sleep any better with you snoring outside my door. In fact, I don't think there's a need for this constant guard any longer."
"Not a need?" Jed roared. "What about the Merriweathers?"
"Really, Jedidiah"—Eden reached up to pat her brother on one rough cheek—"if you were a cowardly highwayman who made a business of killing and robbing defenseless families, would you ride into town to face"—she glanced around, her gaze moving from one man to another—"all of you? I seriously doubt they are so foolish. They're probably halfway to California by now."
Jed grinned. "Good. Then we can leave for Georgia tomorrow."
Eden wrinkled her nose. "I don't think so. I'm not ready to go." She spun around before Jed could argue, leaving her brother standing there with an open mouth and a wagging finger.
"Daniel," she said sweetly, "you look pale. Would you like a cup of hot tea? I think you need the sugar."
Sullivan held back an evil grin. Hot tea? That offer would wipe the contented smile off of Cash's face.
But Cash continued to look quite pleased with himself. "That would be wonderful, Eden. Hot tea. Now, why didn't I think of that?" While Jed and Rico watched Eden and Nate return to the kitchen, Sullivan glared down at Cash. He got a friendly wink for his trouble.
* * *
Eden woke as the bed dipped, knowing, without question, that it was Sin's weight that made the bed sink. She rolled over slowly to face him.
"I had begun to think you weren't coming."
"I almost didn't," he said softly. "Besides, I had to wait for everyone else to fall asleep."
She scooted across the bed to be closer to him, to lay her hand on his side. "It's been such a long day," she said tiredly.
"I know." Sin let her snuggle against him, as he hadn't last night. "But you did find time to make soup for Daniel."
With her face hidden against his chest, she smiled. He was jealous. Not in a million years would he admit it, but he was jealous. "Well, he did get shot on my account, bless his heart."