By the time Shadow got Dollar loaded, Odessa had awakened the mercantile owner and managed to buy an armload of clothes. Two shopping stops later and she had finally convinced Shad not to call her boss.
“Pretty fancy . . .” He was admiring the lace gracing the eight single-sash windows along the touring car’s west wall when he suddenly realized he could see her from the oval dressing mirror that stood on hinged legs in the corner of the Pullman car. He had turned his back to allow them both privacy in dressing, but the full image of her stepping into the serge travel skirt and bringing it up to a perfect flare of hips made him stumble over his words. “A-arrangements you made.”
She sported her own share of lace that looked delicate against her shoulders, and he watched in disappointment as a blouse the color of newly churned butter quickly hid the lace away.
He instantly got busy looking the other way and finished dressing in the fancy trappings she had bought for him. Brocade frock coat, tailored vest, clean white shirt, and string tie. Pants that fit him as if they were a second skin. She’d guessed his size well.
“Personally, this is all too girly for me. The car and these clothes. My, don’t you look good,” he remarked.
Glad that she had finished, Shadow turned around just in time to see her unpin the ostrich-feathered hat from her hair and let it sail onto a chair.
“I’ve seen worse, believe me,” she informed.
He supposed she had, being brought up in a brothel. He admired her ease at talking about her past with him. It showed how strong her confidence was. She must have more than her share of grit to face what society doled out to people of so-called bad blood. He too had suffered that particular branding, from those far closer than “society.”
Odessa motioned to some of the furnishings. “I figured a married couple would travel this way, and the Pullman would be an easy way to avoid passengers in case any of them were on the lookout for me.”
“The tickets cost you a pretty penny.” And they call me a thief, Shadow grumbled inwardly as he remembered how much of Odessa’s money the ticket master had demanded for their travel arrangements. Lucky for them, the train had to take on water, allowing time to make all the necessary arrangements.
Shadow eyed the rosewood chest, high-backed chair, and washstand lining the same wall as the mirror. The tickets were worth it, he guessed. A stove offered a way to heat water if they decided to enjoy a bath in the provided water closet. His new duds were a pleasure, but getting a good bath was something he looked forward to. The image of joining Odessa in hers seemed a tempting option but a closeness no promise he’d demanded would ever ask of her . . . unless she offered the invitation first. From what he knew of her so far, that wasn’t likely to happen.
He ran a hand across the top of one of the chairs. Upholstered in the best grade of plush, it offered a place to sit and shone with a polished pattern that someone of better society than himself probably could have named. Even the four-poster bed housed against the car’s back wall promised an interesting way for a real married couple to appreciate a long train ride. To him, it just all looked rich and offered more luxury than he’d seen in a while. Pullman knew what it took to make people comfortable.
The car suddenly jerked forward, then back, causing Odessa to stumble. He grabbed her and helped her regain her footing. Once she was steady, he escorted her to the chair, then parted one of the curtains to look out.
“I didn’t hear the conductor call, did you?” she asked, facing Shadow. “And the whistle didn’t sound, did it?”
As if on cue, the whistle blared and the Pullman began to move. “I guess I didn’t hear him yell all aboard because we were talking.”
“Stay put,” Shadow ordered, not sure he wanted to tell her what he’d seen going over the eave of the touring car. Trouble had already tracked them down. “I want to check on something. I’ll be right back.”
When she had informed him about wanting to reach Jerkwater by train, he’d thought it was unwise, but she’d insisted that it would be the fastest way to get there. He couldn’t argue that point, but he didn’t like being boxed in anywhere. He learned a long time ago that that limited his getaway possibilities.
The train was well under way now, chugging at its maximum of thirty-seven miles per hour.
Shadow grabbed the other chair and headed for the door that led out to the platform. “Here, prop this against the knob and don’t remove it unless I come to get you. Don’t open that door for anyone, not even the conductor. If I see him, I’ll tell him you’re bathing and he should come back for the tickets later.”
Though his tone demanded no argument, her back slammed against the door, blocking the exit. “You saw something you didn’t like out there.”
Hazel. Her eyes were hazel, a combination of green and brown with streaks of gold in their midst. Eyes darkened with worry for whose safety? Hers or his?
She would be stubborn enough not to listen to reason, so he told her the truth about the boots he saw slipping up and out of view over the farthermost window. “Someone saw through your disguise or spotted me. Either way, the train ride’s impossible now.”
“I’m going with you,” she stated flatly, refusing to move away.
Maybe they did stand a better chance if she stayed with him instead of him trying to come back for her once he took care of the threat. Maybe if they could reach Dollar’s boxcar before anyone found them missing from their car, they’d have a way to get off this rolling cell and make a run for it. But it would challenge them both to reach him. He wished the hell the Pullman offered a two-ended exit. Now they’d have to go up and over.
“All right, but stay close,” Shadow invoked his first demand of the promise she made, then added, “and behind me.”
He opened the door and pointed to the roof’s scalloped edges, waiting for sight of the attacker before attempting the next move. Sunlight glinted off the window of the car in front of them, making him blink to ward off the glare.
A man squatting over the coupling between cars stood abruptly and swung at Shadow.
“He’s trying to pull the linchpin to disconnect us!” Odessa shouted from behind him.
A shot rang out, the noise deafening. Another quickly followed. Odessa screamed. Someone was firing from the direction of the tool car. The man swinging at Shadow took the bullet, crumbling below the fittings, disappearing between the crush of iron wheels. A third bullet hit the car wall above Shadow’s head.
He grabbed Odessa’s hand and rolled, landing on his feet only to have the momentum send him and his employer into the passenger door in front of them. The door flung open, apparently striking whoever was opening it from the other side. Shadow felt himself falling into the opener’s torso.
“He’s going for his gun!” Odessa warned. Women screamed at the fracas. Children began to cry. Passengers looked on in surprise, but no one got up to help.
Shadow wrestled with the culprit, trying to grab the man’s gun before he did. He couldn’t keep Odessa’s hands out of the fray. She was being too helpful. “Back away, Des,” he ordered. “You’re getting in the way.”
The gun left leather and the fight for control of the weapon intensified. Both of Shadow’s hands deadlocked around the fighter’s wrist. As he tried to twist away from Shadow’s grip, the sound of a pain-filled curse and bone cracking rent the air. In an act of desperation, the man’s other fist slammed into Shadow’s chin, meeting its mark.
Shadow reeled backward but held on, wrangling the weapon from the broken wrist as the impetus took him backward into Odessa. Her hand shot past him, grabbed the gun from Shadow, and reared back. Suddenly, the fighter’s head took a hard blow from the butt end of his gun. The man went limp.
“Remind me never to make you mad,” Shadow half teased Odessa and her handiwork, but the moment he got a good look at the unconscious man and recognized him, his tone took on a deadly seriousness. “Cole Lambert.”
“You know him?” Odessa took a long lo
ok at her victim.
“Yeah, this one was after me.” If Cole was there, that meant his older brother, Sal, was on board somewhere. That explained a lot of the suspicions Shadow had felt lately. He knew someone had been following him since Fort Worth. If Odessa weren’t with him, he would just wait until Cole revived and demand to know the whereabouts of his brother. He would call Sal out and finally have the reckoning they both knew was coming.
From the other end of the car, passengers finally started moving toward them. Shadow didn’t wait to see if they had finally found a sense of duty to help or if any of them were part of the Lambert gang. He couldn’t take a chance.
“Back to our car. Stay close enough we can move like we’re seamed together,” Shadow commanded, grabbing a parasol from one of the ladies sitting nearby. “Sorry, ma’am, I’m just borrowing it.” That is, if someone doesn’t try to bust the door down and break it.
Once outside, Shadow hooked the curved end of the parasol’s handle over the doorknob and stretched its stem under the metal that formed a handrail to climb the boarding steps. It wouldn’t hold long, but maybe just long enough to offer them time. He pointed to the roof and, with tremendous effort, swung himself atop the Pullman, praying that the man whose boots he’d seen go up earlier was the same one who had tried to pull the linchpin. A quick look offered relief that he’d been right about the linch puller. He leaned over and extended Odessa a hand up.
“Is this any time to tell you that I haven’t walked a roof before?”
He suspected the teasing in her tone meant to cloak her fear, but safety lay in reaching Dollar. The freight cars that housed the animals and hay for their travel lay behind the touring cars for passengers. “Once is all it takes to give you experience. You trust me, don’t you?”
She accepted his help and gripped. “With my life.”
He boosted her up and, once there, she nearly flung herself into his arms. He gave her a moment to gain her balance, but he couldn’t linger in their nearness, no matter how much he would have liked to do so had circumstances been different. They would be visible to anyone brave enough to follow them.
“Crouch low as you walk,” he instructed, showing her how to turn slowly.
“Why?” she asked, the wind whipping at the serge to make her petticoats billow out behind her. “We’re a target no matter how short we are.”
He grabbed her hand and urged her forward. “The wind. Grab your skirt and tuck it up into your waist.” He reached to help her, but she quickly pushed him away and followed his instruction. “Yeah, just like that. Keep your arms in close and curl your body like a half bowl. You’ll be more compact and that will steady you better.”
They managed to make it to the end of the car, down and over the top of the next one. When they walked midway of the second touring car, Odessa suddenly held a finger to her lips and cupped her ear, signaling him to listen. Voices carried on the wind and it was difficult to discern which direction they came from.
Stealthily, Shadow made his way to the edge of the car and listened. Men arguing below. He took in their conversation, then signaled Odessa closer, raising his boot heels to indicate she should tiptoe. She looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. They weren’t exactly taking a stroll. To her credit, she kept her body curled and moved forward, looking very much like a condemned man heading to the gallows.
When she reached him, he pointed downward. “Danger.”
She nodded understanding and waited for further instructions.
“Cole should have been back by now,” a man bellowed. “See what the hell is keeping him. No, wait a minute. Let me think.”
Shadow went into full alert. Whoever followed those orders would have to climb over Odessa’s Pullman in order to get to the passenger car Cole Lambert had been in. He and Odessa had to get off of the top of the car in case the man turned around and saw them.
“That linchpin should’ve already been pulled by now and this train stopped. One of the hell of you had better see if you can’t give Sanderson a hand, and the other of you go after Cole.”
The rush of wind died off enough that Shadow could plainly hear the man giving orders this time. A distinct voice Shadow had known since childhood. It hadn’t changed much over the years. Just as demanding and full of threat if it wasn’t obeyed. Sal Lambert’s. He’d been right about the brothers being together.
“Who do you think the woman is?” another man asked. “The conductor said a married couple had taken the Pullman for the ride. You think she’s his wife?”
“No, dipweed. She must be some kind of cover. He swore he’d never marry if Laurie hitched Banker Patterson.”
Shadow stiffened, wishing he’d gone ahead and had them jump to the next car before Odessa heard Laurie’s name. Her mind needed to concentrate on what they were about to do, not on connecting his dream to what she’d just heard.
“Your Laurie?” she whispered.
Shadow shook his head and grabbed her hand. “She was never really my Laurie,” he whispered back, glad he wasn’t really lying to Odessa. If Laurie had ever been in love with him, she never could have told him to get out of her life. To keep away. “You ready to take a big leap of faith?”
She looked over at the next car, her eyes widening as he squeezed her hand in reassurance. She understood that they couldn’t take the chance of climbing down to make the transfer. This car had two exits. “I think I already have,” her voice quivered as she squeezed his hand, “in you. I’ve just got one question before I do it, though.”
“Ask it.”
“I wonder which of us is the most wanted?”
Chapter 5
Being on the outlaw trail with Shadow Rivers was more than Odessa had bargained for. Already she’d been shot at, walked the roof of several cars on a moving train, and nearly fallen off into the mesquite trying to swing herself into the open side door of the boxcar. The man thought she was one of those monkeys the organ grinders used to draw in customers.
“Where did you learn to do all that?” she asked, still lying sprawled on her backside atop the hay that littered the floor of the animal housing. It had taken her several minutes just to get her heart to quit galloping from sheer fright.
“I never swung into a side door before.” He sat alongside her, dusting off his legs. When a gust of hay dust rushed up to billow around them, apology wrinkled his brow. Shadow started dusting off her legs and working his way up. “Sorry, I forgot about your itchiness.”
She pushed his hands away, her nose wrinkling in response as she busied her own hands to the task. “I can do that.” Her gaze shot up to glare at him. “You mean to tell me you had me go first through the door because you were afraid?”
He chuckled and reached up to wipe away a piece of straw from her cheek. “You were doing so well, jumping that last car before I did. I figured why not give you some rein. You knew as much about it as I did.”
“If I had a gun right now, I’d shoot you myself.”
He stood and offered his hand. “If you were wearing a gun, you’d probably have shot Lambert back in the passenger car. Instead you just plunked him with his own. If we plan on getting you back to Jerkwater to prove your innocence, then it might be best you don’t go murdering anyone before we get there.”
She accepted his offer and stood, her feet still a little wobbly from what they’d just done. The smell of animal excrement indicated they’d found the right car, and she was extremely grateful that she’d landed only in hay, no matter how much it itched. “Where’s Dollar?”
“Give me a second.” Shadow moved away. “I’d whistle for him, but someone might hear him trying to bite through his hitching or kick the stall down trying to get to me.”
Not long after, Shadow came back leading the bay by the reins. The horse had already been saddled and his bags looked full.
“You ready?”
Odessa looked at Dollar. “You mean we’re going to ride him?”
A dark brow arched higher o
ver one blue eye. “Well, why do you think we went to all this trouble to reach him?”
She looked out into the passing scenery, then back at the horse. “We’re going to jump?”
“Would you rather stay here and let them find us? They’re sure to shoot me, and I wouldn’t want to guess at what they might plan for you. Lambert isn’t fond of women and even less of witnesses.”
“We’re really going to jump.” She’d hired the man to save her, not kill her trying to get there. “All three of us?”
Shadow saw her start to raise her foot into the stirrup and stopped her. “Not on top of him. That would kill us all. We’ll give him a shoo, then you and me will follow. Got to get past some of this mesquite and wait for some buffalo grass. It’ll cushion the fall.”
He quickly secured the reins around the saddle horn so they wouldn’t get tangled in the bay’s legs or a bush and break the poor beast’s neck. Then he grabbed hold of the side of the door and scanned the passing countryside. “Looks like there’s a place coming up. You ready? You hesitate and we’re both dead.”
She nodded, taking a deep breath as her heart thudded in her chest and her pulse felt like it would drum her ears off her head.
Shadow moved to Dollar’s flank and counted, “One. Two.” He swatted the bay’s rump. “Hii-yah!”
The horse bolted through the door, taking a flying leap that made him look suspended in air for a flash, and then he was gone. The train rushed on.
“Ready?” Shadow grabbed her hand and swung her toward the door edge. “When I say three, jump, then tuck and roll. Got me?”
“Do you got me?” she asked through gritted teeth.
“One. Two. Threeeee . . .”
“Ho-o-ly . . .” Her curse was lost on the wind as she remembered midair that she was supposed to tuck and roll on the way down.
“Oof!” Breath left her lungs as she landed on something hard yet soft and rolled, rolled, rolled, finally ending on her back. A second later, Shadow crashed into her with such impact that she was certain she plowed a foot deeper into the buffalo grass. She tried to push him off, but her legs and arms were still quivering from the bone-jarring jump. “Get off me, Shad. Let me breathe.”
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