Her fingers found the stack of towels, then wrapped around the small handle of her knife.
Slocumb finally inhaled and uncoiled his muscles, launching himself forward. He lunged at Sam, never once tearing his gaze from Rafe's weapon, unaware Sparkle had pivoted and extended her arm. Ned threw himself right onto Sparkle's three-inch blade.
"Murderin' whore!" He reached for her throat with one hand, the other clapped over his gut.
There was a loud roar and Ned jerked, releasing her. The base of his skull whacked against the tub's rim. A thin maroon trickle formed below the hole in his forehead. He slumped back, unmoving, unseeing. The bathwater had already gone red from the gash Sparkle had opened in his belly.
She was too shocked to realize Ned Slocumb wasn't the only one bleeding.
Rafe holstered his Colt and caught her to him.
"We got him, Rafe." Her voice sounded strange, distant. The candles on the dresser must have blown out. The room seemed dark and too cold. She began to shudder.
Rafe saw the blood and rushed her over to the bed. "Son-of-a-bitch! Sam, get a doc up here! She's hit."
Tolover sent for the law. Rafe didn't say more than two words to Earp, walked the length of the room as Slocumb's body was dragged out. He continued to pace while the doctor stitched Sparkle, stepped over the employees sent to remove the tub and Slocumb's clothing. Paused only to open the window when the doctor said Sparkle needed fresh air, then resumed pacing. Rafe was still prowling after Parker and Driscoll paid the doctor and saw him out.
Tolover spoke from the doorway. "You wife's all right, Conley. Just a couple stitches in her scalp. Doc says it was probably the murder itself sent her into shock, not the flesh wound. He sedated her because she needs rest."
The gunslinger paced without looking up. Tolover had known Rafe a long time, but had never seen this odd reaction before.
"Dammit stop, Conley! Your spurs'll put a track in my floors I'll never get back out. Come downstairs and have a drink. She'll sleep for a spell. I'll send one of my other gals to stay with her."
Rafe crossed the room and doubled back. He never acknowledged Tolover's presence or indicated he'd heard the words meant to console him. Just kept moving, staring at the floor in front of his boots. That strange aversion sent Tolover across the hall for help.
CHAPTER 13
"Stop that pacin' and set a spell."
Rafe ignored the husky voice. It came again, this time in a harsh warning. "Set yourself on that bed and start usin' your jaw instead of your feet. You don't stop wearin' the wax off the floors, I'll take you down. You know I can do it. Set your bony ass down."
Rafe had heard Alice use that tone of voice with him exactly once before.
He stopped and sank to the edge of the mattress. He scanned the huddled form beside him, spill of mahogany hair on the pillow, then stared down at the bare floors again. "Al, I'm busy right now…contemplatin'."
Alice pulled the Victorian chair directly in front of Rafe and set her hands on her knees as she lowered her bulk into it. "I can see that. Ain't never seen you 'contemplate' quite like this. Tolover, neither. Got him spooked, Raford, and that ain't easy to do. Heard a bullet strayed and clipped your gal." The big woman inclined her head toward the sleeping girl. "It happens. Can't tell me you never had one stray before."
"It ain't the scratch. Whole thing never should've happened. Should've known she'd try somethin' with that knife. She didn't listen to me. All she had to do was get the guns away from him and give me the signal." He rubbed his palms together, still staring at the toes of his boots. "She shouldn't have been there at all. My fault she was."
"I thought the idea was to use her to bring him down."
"Bad idea. Broke my own rule—never work with an amateur. Got stuck bringin' her into town with me, and I thought…Naw, I ain't been thinkin'. Should've reckoned what could go wrong, taken better precautions. Might have, if I'd been usin' my brain half as much as my pecker lately."
"She wanted to work with you?"
"Truthfully, she hated the notion. But I didn't leave her much choice, cause before we rode in, she'd—" He stopped, glancing up at Al for the first time. "It's complicated."
"The best stories always are. Got a customer sleepin' off a three-day drunk. He won't be raisin' his flagpole anytime soon, unless rigor mortis sets in," she snorted. "I got time to listen. You got somethin' better to do?"
Rafe heard himself asking Sparkle that same question before making love to her on a long, sultry morning. He'd forgotten where he'd learned the phrase.
"Met her outside a saloon in Wichita. She was a waiter gal, told fortunes. Pretty good income, but the owner wanted her on her back in his monkey hall. She wouldn't do it. He booted her out, but I got him to take her back. She read my fortune. I tipped her big, gave her a nice open-mouth kiss…Purposely tweakin' the fool runnin' the place, you know?"
"So far it's simple enough."
"Well, I liked her too, naturally. Awhile later, I was in Wichita again on business. She came runnin' up to me on the street. Some fella'd been pesterin' her on the stage ride into town and she wanted me to play husband, get rid of him."
"That's how the matrimony tale started, hmm? And the ring?"
"Bought her the ring to make things easier for her, so her boss wouldn't pressure her to be whorin'. She was scared, hadn't never been with a man." Alice's eyes narrowed, and he rushed on. "Know it sounds like hogwash, her bein' so pretty and workin' in bagnios and still bein' pure. But she was tellin' the truth. I proved it."
"Well, well."
He released a heavy sigh. "She told me earlier tonight she'd been savin' herself all that time for some other fella. She's still got feelin's for him."
Alice drew in a deep breath. "Well Raford, you got two separate wrinkles need ironin' out. Let's take one at a time. You're lower than a snake's belly over the shootin' tonight. Makes sense, but part of your guilt's cause you had her first, and you ought to understand that."
"Come on, Al. I'd feel like shit if anybody got hurt."
"I'd hope so, but this ain't anybody, it's Sparkle. And it's worse cause you opened up the world for her. Ain't all that different than if you save somebody's life. Feel responsible for what happens to them afterward."
"Is that why you're in here now?"
"Damned straight it is."
He glanced at Sparkle, then back at Alice. "How much did you tell her?"
Al shrugged. "That you'd been a cowpuncher, pretty raw when we had our times. Didn't tell her just how raw, how your uncle brung you to me at twelve for breakin' in. And Lord Almighty, but I sure did, didn't I?"
Rafe got to his feet again. "Already signed on to take out Slocumb when I got word some fool had kidnapped her from the Wichita saloon. Thought she was my wife. It was a joke. I played along like I was her husband, figurin' we might end up…like this." He met Alice's searching gaze squarely. "Truth is, I just wanted her in my bed, worse than any woman I've ever met, and I couldn't buy her."
"This way turned out a lot harder, huh?"
"Christ, it's like I bought into a poker pot way too rich for my blood. Been anted and raised about five times, and I'm only holdin' a pair of threes. Can't win this unless I get real lucky on a bluff. Look at her, Al," he hissed. "Should I feel lucky, or like shit, for what I've done?"
"Outlaw's dead. You're alive; so's she. Some would call that lucky enough."
"We're still breathin' because I understand how wanted men think, know what I'm up against with them. Ain't like that with her."
Al didn't respond right away. "You and that little gal grind hipbones like I ain't heard go on in years. You're not walkin' the floor just cause of a guilty conscience. That other fella's got to you. But I can't help wonderin'…if Sparkle's so keen for him, how come he wasn't her first? What's she doin' under you?"
"Hell if I know. Says she's known him a long spell, that she was waitin' for him to come around…" He paused in confusion. "What's a gal mean when she
says a fella doesn't see her like the men in a saloon do? He some Nancy-boy? Got to be somethin' wrong there. You think he's maybe older and married? How could any man not see Sparkle as a pretty gal?"
Al nodded slowly. "Could be married, I reckon. You ask her?"
"We weren't exactly havin' a peaceable chat when the subject came up," he admitted sourly. "Then all hell broke loose." He wiped a rough palm over his eyes. "Hell, I don't know what to do. Probably best for both of us if I just step out of her life. She wouldn't have that new part in her hair or been kidnapped if she spent nights with anybody but me."
"Thought maybe you loved this gal."
His voice was tight. "No maybe about it. I do, Al. She'll do anything I want, anytime I want, any way I want. And I always want, no matter how much I have of her. Can't let her out of my sight. Can't get her out of my thoughts. What the hell else could it mean?" Now his voice was tinged with sarcasm. "Yep, she'll do anything I want, except say she loves me."
Al lumbered to her feet. "Ever ponder she might, only not know it yet?"
He shook his head. "Has it in her mind she loves the other man."
Alice snorted again. "You ever known a woman to keep her love in her mind, Raford? Along with about a thousand men, I've known my share of gals in my years on the rack. Never met one who didn't hold her love in her heart. If Sparkle ain't in love, she's in some powerful mad lust. I'd use that, make her see it's you she wants, not the married fella. Known whores to go soft over some man they couldn't ever have. Maybe that's what it is with her. She might think about that somebody else, but she needs you."
"You know the situation, though. Can't give her forever."
"Can't…or won't? You don't offer that, some other man will," Al pointed out quietly. "Ain't none of my funeral, and I ain't fond of tattle-asses, but a fella came up to the landin' a couple nights back while you were over at the livery. I heard them talkin'. He offered Sparkle an opportunity on the Barbary Coast. Said he owned a gaming parlor, offered her a partnership if she'd read cards out there."
Rafe's eyebrows shot up. "Figured you didn't know," Alice went on. "Point is, you ponder how many gals pray some fella will come along, make them an offer like that? Sparkle turned it down."
"Not cause of me," Rafe answered. "Cause her brother's a cripple and she wouldn't move so far away from him."
"Maybe, but you ain't never run from a fight. If you're fixin' to give up so easy, then you deserve to lose her…Even though she won't find what she has with you again. You won't find another like her, neither." Alice shambled toward the door.
Rafe moved quickly, slapping his palm against the wood barrier before she could open it. "Al, I know you're right. I won't find another like her. She doesn't care about my scar or that she's too pretty for me. But—"
The whore's massive arm slipped around his midsection. "Make her see she loves you, Raford. But remember, her kind needs forever. Forever's your challenge, not Hoffman or whatever Wanted poster gets printed next. Someday you got to face it all down. It's huntin' you, sugar, gettin' closer all the time."
"Al," Rafe's voice was hoarse.
The big arm withdrew. "Go on back, take care of Sparkle. Get her on her feet again, get her out of here, and don't come back here again."
* * *
Sparkle jerked awake and sat up, heart pounding. She'd just escaped from something ugly in a dream. Though clearly daylight, it was pouring rain outside. Water streamed down the dingy windowpanes. She was alone in the brass bed, alone in the room.
"Rafe?"
No answer. The saloon was still as a tomb. Had he left town? Collected his reward and stranded her? He'd been so angry the other night…When was that? Sparkle found she couldn't quite recall. She fumbled into the blue gingham dress, not bothering with undergarments. She raced out the door to the landing. "Rafe?" She peered down through the gloom, calling through cupped hands. "Rafe."
He was downstairs with Tolover and Parker when he heard the screams. He bounded up the staircase as Sparkle came tearing down. They collided and he nearly knocked her off her bare feet. "Jesus, I'm sorry. I didn't know you were awake." He grasped her shoulders to steady her.
She abruptly burst into tears. Rafe couldn't have been more startled had she flung a bucket of ice water at him. Doors opened here and there above them. Curious women gawked at them along with a scowling male. Unhappy customer. Sparkle wailed as though Rafe had just announced he'd shot her pet hound. "Come here, darlin'." He dragged her back into their room and closed the door.
He wondered how one small filly could hold so much water. She was leaking from everywhere—but what was seeping onto her skirts was bright red. He bolted across the hall to Al's room.
"Get off, cowboy! We got an emergency." Rafe grabbed the naked man stretched full length atop the strumpet's immense white belly and flung him off the sagging bed. Then he grabbed a thick wrist and yanked, jerking Alice to her feet. "Sparkle…" he panted. "Somethin's wrong. She's bleedin'!"
Al waddled over to study the girl, barefoot and quietly sobbing in a huddle on the floor. Alice saw the dark stain on the cotton skirts and began to jiggle with suppressed laughter. "You mean this?" she pointed with a chubby index finger.
"Yeah! Do somethin', Al. I'll go for the doc. Wait…which way from here?"
Al lost control and let loose a booming laugh. "She's just havin' her monthly courses, Rafe. She ain't dyin', for Christ's sake! You just ain't knocked her up yet, despite all the effort." Alice literally slapped her thighs and wiped tears from the corners of her eyes.
Rafe's face went slack, then red, followed by livid purple. Sparkle stopped hiccupping and looked at the other two with a mixture of horror and mortification. Rafe thought she'd had some kind of medical episode?
"Sorry Alice," Rafe ground out. "I'm goin' back down and have a nice stiff belt. You two gals can sort this out." He threw Sparkle a murderous glare and banged out the door.
"My, oh my…Don't I feel silly?" came Sparkle's rhetorical question. Waking up from a nightmare, imagining the worst—that she'd been abandoned in the Sodom and Gomorra of the West—totally unaware it was "that time" again. She was genuinely embarrassed clear to the soles of her bare feet. She'd acted like a ninny.
But then again, it was hard to feel too ridiculous. Rafe thought she'd been bleeding to death. Heaven only knew why, since the man clearly knew women's bodies almost better than his own.
And why should Sparkle feel so mortified, when she sat peering up at a stark naked woman the size of a young hippopotamus?
'I apologize for all this," she tried explaining. "I woke up and Rafe wasn't here. I was afraid he might have left town. I don't have any money. I've got a headache and cramps. It's raining. Rafe's furious…Otherwise, everything's peachy. Got anything for the monthlies, Alice?"
"Yeah, be right back. Got a customer, too, so you'll have to get straightened out and patch things up with that fool husband of yours."
"Alice, you know Rafe's not—" Alice was gone. But a moment later, she returned, wrapped in an embroidered tablecloth. Sparkle looked twice. Yes, it was a tablecloth. Al thrust a bundle of faded cloths and a pair of pantalets at Sparkle.
"Rafe doesn't need a drink," Alice pronounced firmly. "You got hurt the other night. You've been sleeping off the morphine the doc gave you for two days. Rafe ain't finished a plate of food in all that time, but downed plenty of bourbon. Had to threaten to sit on him before he'd take nourishment at all. He don't need liquor, honey. Clean yourself up, then take him to Marybel Wing's eatery. Tell Marybel to boil you up some chamomile tea and charge the vittles for you and Raford to my account."
A haughty tilt to her head, the elephantine woman in the tablecloth disappeared.
Sparkle changed and found Rafe at the Adventuress' long bar, studying his whiskey glass as though he expected it to spin and dance on the polished wood. His features were taut. Chagrined was an endearing expression on his rugged face, Sparkle decided.
"Al says Marybel Wing has
some special tea at her restaurant that will make me feel better. Maybe some food would help you." She reached for his arm.
"It's rainin'," he scowled, talking to his whiskey tumbler. "Too wet for a walk."
"Afraid of a little water, Rafe? We won't drown."
Rafe closed his eyes, struggling to blot out the memory of Slocum threatening to drown her as he watched. The bartender produced an umbrella and gave Rafe a wink.
Rafe led Sparkle outside and opened the umbrella. "Sorry I was so stupid back there. My sister's a few years ahead of me in age. Our ma's been gone a long while, and whores don't work when…you know. You were hollerin' and wailin', then I saw blood. Sort of panicked." He laid an arm across her shoulders.
"I was crying because I thought you'd left me here."
Rafe frowned. Left her? "Darlin', you should know better." Then he considered their argument the night of Slocumb's killing. He'd accused her of planning to dump him. Maybe she didn't know better.
"I swear that would never happen. I'd never leave you." He pressed a soft kiss to her cheek.
"Guess I panicked, too." She stared up into his eyes. "Al said I'd been hurt. Is that why I have this awful headache?" She gingerly reached up to her hairline.
He began walking along the sidewalk, shortening his strides to keep her next to him and under the shelter of the umbrella. "Your man ain't too bright sometimes," he sighed, slowly reiterating the events of two nights before.
A half-hour later he was sipping strong black coffee and studying her face in the empty restaurant. He'd explained only what he had to. Sparkle drank her special tea and seemed to ponder the tale. "When are we leaving town?" she finally asked.
"Reckon I'll get the balance of my fee tomorrow. Soon as this weather lets up, we can head out."
Sparkle's gaze raked his face. "You don't have to work another case right away, do you? You made enough that you should be able to take some time off. Please tell me you're not going after Hoffman next."
Rafe set down his mug. "Hoffman ain't about money. It's personal."
The Trailrider's Fortune Page 15