by Maren Smith
“Do you know why I am here?” he asked. When Chin only waited, he said, “It is because China must change. China must become like the West. It must have democracy. No man, dragon born or not, should have the power to wipe nine families from all living memory. It is for this traitor’s belief that my father no longer acknowledges his son, though I have not given up hope that one day he might see things as I now do.”
Chin gazed on her father’s sword, held just out of reach unless she was so uncouth as to grab for it. She really had been among the gwailo too long. The temptation was almost more than she could bear.
“One week ago, through nothing more than sheer happenchance,” Ji confided, “I arrived in Culpepper Cove. I came to the Red Petticoat to have a drink and perhaps share a few minutes’ company with a woman from my own country. There was such a woman here, I had been told. A dancer of beauty and incomparable grace. When I saw you upon the stage and I saw your eyes—your father’s eyes—I recognized you, as you did me. Your fear shamed me. When you fled, I realized I could not leave until you knew you had nothing to fear from me. I mean the last remaining survivor of the Chen family line no harm.”
He held out the sword, balanced upon open palms for her to take.
The minute she clutched it to her, Cullen’s hand was on her shoulder and he was once more before her. And just him now, a veritable wall moved to protectively block her—Cullen, Gabe and the sheriff, standing shoulder to shoulder between her and Ji.
“Just so you know,” Cullen told him. “If I ever see you again, I mean you every harm.”
Inclining his head, one final and sad bow, Ji motioned to his bodyguard and all three left the Red Petticoat.
“We’re just letting them go?” Garrett asked, stepping back inside now that they were gone. Chin didn’t know how much of the story he had heard, considering how softly Ji had spoken, but by the look on his unsmiling face, it must have been enough.
“I don’t think my jurisdiction extends to murders committed in China,” the sheriff frowned at him. “Especially not murders sanctioned by their Emperor. I’m more than happy to escort him to the edge of town and to give him a strongly worded suggestion that he not come back this way again. Beyond that, there’s not a whole lot I can do. I can, however, do something about the two of you and what you’ve done to this place.”
“We weren’t the ones who put a bullet in the ceiling,” Garrett pointed out.
“Son,” Justice turned on him with an arched eyebrow. “That is not the tone you’re gonna want to take with me. What you boys did is called disturbing the peace. How badly do you want to spend the night in jail?”
“I’m not pressing charges,” Gabe grumbled, running his hands through his short, dark hair and across the back of his neck. He had a cut there. He looked at the blood he found on his fingers, frowning, and touched the cut again.
“You’re not?” Jewel and the sheriff echoed in equal disbelief.
“Don’t do me any favors,” Cullen scowled.
Gabe stiffened. “I’m not. I’m doing it for Jade. You came in here, fixed for bear, for her. After hearing what I just did, I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the exact same thing—” He glanced at Jewel, the severity of his expression softening. “—if it had been me.” He shot Cullen a dirty glance. “Not that I wouldn’t happily kick your ass for lesser reasons.”
Cullen beckoned. “Whenever you’re ready, little man.”
“Pendejo.” Gabe bristled.
Jewel stepped in between them, one hand caressing Gabe’s check and the other pointing to the door. “I think you need to leave now,” she told Cullen. “I don’t think you need to come back, either.”
“As if I’d ever need to come back here.” Cullen reached for Chin. “Come on, honey.”
Jewel visibly startled, her blue eyes widening a half second before she laughed. Hard, a little too shrill. It was more a bark than a real laugh and one that held only notes of disbelief.
“Don’t be ridiculous!” She slapped his hand off Chin’s arm, ducking around him to put herself between Chin and the frowning Cullen. “She’s not going with you! That’s absurd! As if I would ever stand by and let someone like y-you…you….you!” She gestured, a fluttering wave of her hand meant to encompass all of him in a way that suggested every part had been found laughably lacking. “Just look what you’ve done to my place!”
When Cullen gave the floor around his feet a cursory, uninterested glance, Madame Jewel snapped around to catch Chin by the shoulders, dropping down to her eye level, sympathy and urgency at war in her voice as she whispered, “You don’t have to go with him, Jade honey. You don’t have to leave. You don’t have to stay. Y-you don’t have to do anything. Just let us know what you do want and we’ll do whatever we can to make it happen. Just… Just don’t feel like you have to go with him!”
Feel?
Fingers tight on the carved ivory sheath of her father’s sword, Chin clutched it to her chest and didn’t move. She couldn’t, and it was funny because one week ago she hadn’t thought twice about leaving. She’d torn from that stage as if pursued by a horde of demons, dove out of the upper-floor window and rode out into the worst night imaginable. All without so much as a second thought to the fact that she’d never had any intention of coming back here. Yet now, looking into Jewel’s eyes, somehow this felt more final.
There were two broken tables and a chair that would never be useful for anything but kindling at this point. The floor was covered in glass. Every breath she took stunk of spilled liquor. Both Gabe and Cullen looked like…well, like they’d been in a fight. The wounds and cuts they bore on their lips and noses, cheeks and eyes, told plainly that each had given as good as he’d received. But feel? If anything, she felt intensely sorry. She looked at Ruby, who had been about to break a chair across Garrett’s back before her sheriff husband had stopped her. She looked at Emerald, who hadn’t worn her Indian beads and buckskins in months now, and yet who had been completely “savage” when she’d thrown herself on Cullen. She looked to Jewel, who had risked herself to join the fight. For her. For Gabe. For each other, because maybe they were only whores, but they were family too. A family Chin had never allowed herself to recognize or be a part of the whole time she’d worked here. Now, standing in the aftermath of both the brawl and Quan Ji’s leaving, faced with the prospects of walking out the door forever, all she could feel… was loss.
Turning back to Jewel, Chin knew Jewel knew what she was going to say by the grim resignation that crept into her blue eyes.
“Thank you,” Chin whispered.
Slowly straightening, Jewel did her best to put on a smile. “Oh honey, anytime. You’ll always have a place here, if you need it.”
“She won’t,” Cullen promised, touching two fingers to Chin’s elbow. “I guarantee it.”
Gabe snorted.
So did Jewel. “You can’t even put shoes on her feet!”
Everyone looked at her feet. Embarrassed, Chin bent her knees enough to hide them under her skirt.
“I can,” Cullen said stiffly, and took Chin’s elbow more firmly. “I just choose to wait until I’m sure she’s done running, is all.”
“Yeah,” Garrett added with a grin. “He can barely keep up with her as it is.”
Gabe laughed.
“Like you did any better,” Cullen shot back and took her out the door, back into the bright sunlight. More than a dozen people walked the street, all of them going about their day as if nothing out of the normal had just occurred. To Chin, it seemed her whole life had just been shredded and quietly pieced back together again.
“I left the wagon in front of the bank. If you want to wait here, I can bring it around so you don’t have to walk.”
Chin shook her head. “I’ll go with you.” Having made up her mind, there was no reason to linger. The Red Petticoat had been, in reflection, one of the best things to have happened to her. But despite Jewel’s offer, it was also in her past. She was ready to leave
it there and try something new. Something scary. She was ready to stop running somewhere safe where she could put down roots.
She was ready to stay.
Slipping her elbow out of his grip, she linked their arms instead, wanting to walk with him instead of being led. And yet, even as they took that first step together toward a life she still wasn’t fully convinced she’d earned or deserved, she couldn’t quite stop herself from looking back. She wasn’t the only one either.
Lingering in the saloon doorway, Garrett was looking back too. Unlike her, though, he was smiling. Not his usual smile of habit, this one seemed to be directed at someone in particular. Just who that might be, Chin wasn’t sure, but it wasn’t until after she and Cullen had turned the corner and were halfway down the alley toward the next street of town that Garrett caught up with them. Falling into quiet step beside his brother, he studied the palm of his hand.
“What?” Cullen asked when he noticed Garrett rubbing it.
“Oh… nothing.” Garrett flexed his fingers. “Silly, really.”
“What is?” Cullen asked again.
Shrugging, Garrett held up his hand, showing off a half-moon of reddened indentions. “She bit me.”
Chin and Cullen looked at one another. “Emerald?” Chin asked, cautiously.
“Yup.” Garrett flexed his hand again.
She probably shouldn’t say anything. Chin eyed them both. “Be glad it was only your hand. She once tried to rip the throat out of a customer.”
Both Drake brothers gave her the same wide-eyed stare.
“What the hell kind of brothel is the Red Petticoat again?” Cullen asked, incredulously.
“He tried to hold her down,” Chin defended. “He wouldn’t let go, so she bit him on the neck. He wasn’t hurt, but he was bleeding some when he came running down the stairs. She told him she didn’t like being pinned.”
“Did she now?” Rubbing the teeth marks one last time, Garrett let his hand drop. Hooking thumbs in his back pockets, he cast them both another grin. “She’s feisty.” He sauntered. “I like that.”
“God,” Cullen said and grabbed Garrett by the hat, shoving it down over his head and eyes. “Go get the wagon, Romeo.”
Fixing his hat, Garrett waggled his eyebrows before he jogged off ahead of them.
Cullen watched him go, shaking his head. “That boy never has been right.”
“Must run in the family,” Chin said without thinking. “Otherwise, you wouldn’t want to be with me.”
They both stopped walking at the same time.
Standing in the shadows of the buildings that marked the end of the alley, Chin couldn’t quite bring herself to look at him after that. Not when he stepped out into the sunshine and planted himself directly before her. Not even when he stood there, as if he were waiting for her to acknowledge him. Staring at his feet felt so much safer. It felt prophetic: He was the sunlight he stood in; she was and always had been cool shadow.
Hooking a finger under her chin, Cullen raised her face until she had no choice but to meet his eyes. “Same side of two different coins, remember? My offer stands. Give me one year, one month; I don’t care. Just give me a chance. If it doesn’t work, anywhere you want to go, I’ll make sure you get there. I’m also going to make sure I repay you every penny you gave me.”
“No…” She started to shake her head, but he held up a staying hand.
“Fourteen thousand.” He whistled, then looked at her. There was no judgment in his eyes, only quiet, curious acceptance. “You went back to the Red Petticoat because you gave me all the money you had, didn’t you?”
Chin turned her face away, unable to hold his knowing stare.
“You didn’t have to, you know.”
“Cullen…”
“No more running,” he told her. “No more whoring. There’s no reason for either, anymore. All you’ve got to do now is talk to me.”
She tried to laugh. Only one corner of her mouth managed an upward twitch. “I’m not very good at that.”
“Neither am I,” he admitted. “Sometimes I say the wrong things and I don’t always do things the right way, either. I ain’t perfect. I reckon that’s something we can work on together.”
He offered her his hand, golden sunlight spilling across his palm, fingertips dipping into shadow while he waited for her to take it.
She felt like such a fool for wanting so badly to do just that. And for what? She didn’t love him. Oh, but the potential was there. She could feel it, tickling as it began to bud deep down inside her. It felt warm, the way new-growing affection for one’s dragon should feel.
The straight line of the building’s shadow divided the dirt between them as surely as if it were a line of decision drawn just for the two of them.
“You’re going to look back on this moment,” she predicted, “and you’re going to regret it.”
Cullen considered it, nodded once, then shook his head. “Probably nowhere near as much as you will the next time you say anything like that to me again.”
His hand never wavered. It remained, like his offer, open before her. The hand of her dragon.
A dragon who spanked.
Well, she reasoned, so long as they both knew what they were getting into.
Slipping her hand into Cullen’s, she let him lead her out into the sunlight. It bathed her face, warm as summer’s kiss and together, they went home.
The End
Author’s Note:
I was so thrilled when I was picked to participate in the Red Petticoat Saloon story. It’s been a wonderful experience although a little different from anything I’ve done before. Not just for what I wrote, but how we wrote it. I had a vision for Jade’s Dragon early on, right from the moment when I was asked what gem I wanted. As I ran down the list of what stones were still available, Jade evoked an immediate story.
The 1850s saw a phenomenal amount of change for the development of our country. The land/gold rush was in full swing. The railroad wars were just beginning. The gloves had come off between outlaws and lawmen, the Native American Indians who had been pushed about as far as they intended to be without pushing back, and the military who took part in some of the most shameful actions that nevertheless helped us expand and build our country into what it is today. But in addition to all of that, we also saw a massive influx of Chinese immigration into California. The 1880s would see this as a negative thing, but there was just enough tolerance towards immigrants in the 1850s that I decided to take the plunge and attempt my first (and probably only) interracial romance. After all, when one thinks of Jade, doesn’t one automatically think of things Asian?
The idea of tackling a subject matter that combines prostitution with a spanking romance was an immediate draw. I like different. I like doing stories that you (or I, at least) don’t see very often. The Red Petticoat Saloon was one of these. I like the idea of a lady of the night getting out of her tough situation and finding a HEA no matter what life throws at her. Face it, these ladies were tough. They had to be in order to survive what, where and when they were living. Not just in the wilds of the Wild, Wild West, but the harshness of the land and the men who populated the west ahead of them. The idea of being a foreign immigrant, a woman alone in a place without family or money or help, is something I don’t think I would be brave enough to tackle half as well as Chin did. And as her story unraveled before me, I couldn’t help but want for her to find someone big enough, strong enough—and mean enough, in his own unforgiving eyes at least—to take her from the life of a gem and give her something better.
Cullen was that man. A man with a past at least as bad as the one chasing Chin, I was glad to see that beneath that initially suspicious and crusty nature, Cullen was a good man with a gentle soul and a hugely protective streak. He was exactly what Chin needed, whether she wanted it or not.
So, settle back with something to nibble and something wonderful to drink, and please enjoy the next in the Red Petticoat Saloon series. We have a girl
on the run, a villain in hot pursuit, and a man who’d do anything to keep the woman he’s falling in love with.
And, if possible, even keep her safe.
Maren Smith
“Hi, I'm Maren. I'm 30, married to a wonderful, dominant man, and have five four–legged children: two dogs and three cats. I love strong, authoritative men–men who are both ready and willing to leave the lady of their choosing red–bottomed and weeping and for her own good. Writing has given me the wonderful freedom to explore my spanking side without feeling 'weird.' Even better, with the invention of the Internet, I can write what I love and know it will be appreciated by people with the same interests.”
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OTHER BOOKS BY MAREN SMITH
Last Dance for Cadence, Corbin's Bend Book 8
How to Live Without a Man
Something Has to Give
B-Flick
Bippity-Boppity-Boo
Black Sheep
Daughter of the Strong
The Diva
Enemies
The Great Prank
Jinxie’s Orchids
Katy Run Away
Kindred Spirits
Life After Rachel
The Locket