“I hope you’re right,” Gardner said, his smile growing bigger still, “but don’t be surprised if the sheriff holds the mares until they can produce a bill of sale.”
Josie saw Suzette tense, start to say something. She reached out, took her hand, and squeezed. Suzette looked puzzled but remained silent.
“You might want to reconsider my offer to have you perform at the Birdcage,” Gardner said when neither woman responded to his taunt.
“We’re being paid very well here,” Josie said. “You’d have to come up with a really good offer to get us to leave. I hear Tombstone is dying fast.”
Gardner’s smile shrank a little. “You can’t believe everything you hear.”
“Like the fact that you own part of the Birdcage?”
His smile withered a little more. “I own seventy-five percent. The place is a virtual gold mine.”
“Well, you think about how much you can pay us,” Josie said, “and we’ll think about how much it’ll take to lure us away.”
“Your Injun won’t be able to start a fight for you every night.”
“Our success doesn’t depend on cheap thrills,” Josie fired back.
“In a few days, the novelty will wear off.”
“Talk to us then. Good night.”
“My offer might not be as good later,” Gardner called after them.
“We’ll take that chance,” Josie replied and walked faster.
“Why are you in such a hurry?” Suzette asked when they were out of hearing range.
“We have to warn Zeke and Hawk that the sheriff means to steal their mares.”
“Wouldn’t it be easier if just one of us rode out to warn them?” Josie asked.
That had been the original plan, but the more Josie talked about what she believed the sheriff really intended to do, the more certain Suzette became that it wouldn’t be safe for either of them to remain in Benson.
“Gardner will know we warned them,” Suzette said.
She opened the livery door slowly and looked out. The street was empty, but she stood quietly for a moment to make sure no one was moving about nearby. After discussing every possibility for more than an hour, they’d finally decided to load everything back into the wagon and sneak out of town after everyone had gone to sleep. They’d been concerned about the watchman at the livery stable, but there had been no one there when they’d arrived. It hadn’t taken long to harness the mules. Now they had to try to get away without being seen.
There were sounds of music and laughter from the main street, but all the buildings and houses near the livery stable were dark. Suzette led the mules from the stable, then went back to close the door so no one would have a reason to look inside until morning. Still leading the mules, her hand over the muzzle of one to keep him from making any noise, she led them toward a belt of trees that bordered the town on the north side. Once there, Josie stopped the wagon, and Suzette climbed up beside her. “Do you know a good place to cross the river?”
“I thought I could remember where we crossed yesterday, but everything looks different in the dark.”
Suzette wasn’t particularly worried. The water was no more than a couple of feet deep in any place. “I guess one spot is as good as another.”
But she wasn’t thinking about crossing the river. She was thinking about Hawk. She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him since she’d seen him in the audience earlier that night. He hadn’t left town. He had come to see her. He’d started a fight to protect her. No man would do that for a woman he didn’t care about. She knew all the reasons why she couldn’t have what she wanted, but she couldn’t make herself give up the opportunity to see him again. She wasn’t certain whether she and Josie would really be in danger once Gardner found out what they had done. It was simply an excuse to see Hawk again, and she’d reached for it.
She promised herself she wouldn’t let her emotions get out of control. She had to warn him and thank him for what he’d done. Maybe they’d spend a couple more days together before she and Josie decided whether to move on to Tombstone or Bisbee, but right now all she could think about was seeing Hawk again. She remembered every detail about him. She wrapped herself in the memory of the happiest times of her life, the nights she’d spent in his arms. She could practically feel the texture of his skin under her fingertips, sense the warmth of his body, taste the sweetness of his kisses. She could hear the sound of the river as it murmured nearby, remember the smell of moist earth. She was so wrapped up in her memories, she wasn’t aware they’d entered the river until the wagon stopped moving.
“We’re stuck,” Josie said.
Suzette jerked her mind back to the present just in time to see two drunk cowboys on horseback gaping at them from the opposite bank.
Chapter Sixteen
“You’re the ladies who danced in the theater tonight,” one cowboy said.
“What are you doing here?” the other asked, suspicion evident in his expression despite the numbing effect of too much whiskey.
Neither cowboy seemed sober enough to understand an answer, but Josie didn’t want them telling everybody the dancing ladies were running away. “It’s so noisy in town we were unable to sleep. We’re going to stay at a ranch a little way from here.” It was still possible to hear the sounds of revelry coming from town. “I grew up on a farm,” Josie explained when the cowboy seemed to have trouble processing what she’d said. “I can’t sleep unless it’s completely quiet.”
“I hate quiet,” the first cowboy said. “It feels lonely.”
“What are you doing out so late?” Josie asked.
“Heading back to the ranch where we work.”
“Where’s that?”
“A little way up Tres Alamos Wash.”
Josie felt some of the tension in her shoulders relax. If the cowboys were leaving town, they wouldn’t be able to tell anybody they’d seen her and Suzette. “Our wagon is stuck. Could you give us a hand?”
Despite being drunk, they understood they were expected to help ladies in distress. They slid off their horses and walked straight into the river without checking how deep it was. One stumbled and went down to his knees, but he got back up and kept walking as if nothing had happened. Josie was sure his boots were full of water. Each man put his shoulder to a rear wheel.
“When I give a yell, lay into those mules,” one called to Josie on the bench.
The words were hardly out of his mouth before he let loose a yell Josie was sure would have half the people in Benson racing down to the river to see who was being murdered. She cracked the whip over the mules’ heads, and they leaned into their collars. For a moment the wagon didn’t move. Then it lurched free of the mud so abruptly, Suzette nearly lost her balance. Josie didn’t let the mules stop until she was safely on the opposite bank. The two cowboys sloshed out of the water grinning like little boys.
“I can’t thank you enough,” Josie said. “Can I offer to pay you?”
She didn’t expect the boys to accept, but she hadn’t meant to offend them, either. “We don’t accept nothing for helping ladies,” one said.
Josie suspected they were so drunk they wouldn’t remember any of this in the morning. She hoped they wouldn’t. “Well, we have to be on our way if we’re going to get any sleep tonight. Thanks again.”
“You ladies going to be at the theater when we come back to town?”
“The owner wants us there every night,” Josie said. That was true enough.
The cowboys let loose with another yell, mounted up, and rode off acting like two kids trying to pull each other out of the saddle.
“Get us to the ranch before anybody else sees us.” Suzette’s voice sounded thin from worry. “We can’t expect that everybody we meet will be drunk and harmless.”
It was only a short drive to the trail leading to the ranch where they’d left the mares. Being very careful to make as little noise as possible, Josie pulled the wagon around the side of the corral farthest from th
e house. The corral was empty. Maybe the sheriff had stolen the mares already.
“What happened to the horses?” Suzette asked.
“Zeke and Hawk could have moved them. There’s not enough grass in that corral. Maybe they’ve left already. Zeke wanted to get to the ranch before Dusky Lady foaled.”
That seemed like the most logical explanation. If somebody had tried to steal the mares, Zeke and Hawk would have put up a fight that would have been heard all the way into town.
It was too quiet. Josie had lived on a farm long enough to know the night was never completely silent unless someone or something dangerous was present. Normally, crickets chirped, frogs croaked, and nocturnal animals moved around searching for food. Tonight even the creek seemed to have fallen silent. Moonlight made it easy to see the farmhouse, but it was impossible to penetrate the inky shadows under the trees that bordered the small stream. Their out-flung branches reached for the sky like the arms of so many skeletons. A feeling of dread seeped into her body through the bottoms of her feet, but she had to know what had happened to Zeke. “Stay here,” she said to Suzette. “I’m going to check under those trees.”
“It’s too dark to see. Besides, if they’re gone, you won’t find anything.”
“I have to know.” Josie didn’t like the idea of wandering around a strange ranch in the dead of night. Even less did she like approaching dark woods at any time. The clatter of her shoes on the rocky ground sounded unnaturally loud in the silence. She approached the edge of the trees and peered into the darkness, but couldn’t see anything.
“Zeke.”
She didn’t dare call loudly. Rather than enter the darkness, she walked along the edge of the trees, calling softly as she went. The farther she went without getting a response, the more nervous she got. If the men were here, why didn’t they answer? Suzette said Hawk would wake up if she breathed too loudly. Zeke didn’t sleep soundly either. Why hadn’t one of them heard her? Deciding she’d gone far enough from the comparative safety of the wagon, she stopped and tried to peer into the darkness, only to have the silence mock her fear. Feeling more uneasy than ever, she turned to find Zeke standing only inches away. She was barely able to stifle a scream.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded.
Josie’s heart thumped so hard it was painful. It took her several moments to recover her breath. The shock of Zeke materializing out of nowhere when her nerves were already wound tight caused a sudden weakness in her limbs. She swayed and reached out to him for support.
“Are you okay? Are you sick?”
She forced herself to concentrate, to will her limbs to regain their strength. “I’m fine. You just surprised me.” And stunned her as well. It was stupid to believe she could walk away and forget Zeke any more than Suzette could forget Hawk. She wasn’t in love with him, but she could be if she let herself. “Where are the mares?”
“We heard you approaching from the road. It sounded like your wagon, but we figured someone might be using it to lure us out into the open, so we hid the horses. Why are you here?”
No matter what happened, Zeke and Hawk always seemed to be a step ahead, but they couldn’t know what the sheriff planned to do. “Gardner said the sheriff means to impound your mares until you can produce proof you own them. He said he didn’t think you and Hawk could have earned the money to buy such quality animals.”
“We have the bills of sale.”
“From the way Gardner enjoyed telling us about it, I don’t think that’s going to be enough.”
“You mean he’s going to say they’re forged and take the mares anyway?”
“I don’t know what he’s going to do, but I think you ought to leave tonight.”
She’d been so caught up in her worries, the sound of wheels on rocky ground hadn’t registered until now. She turned to see Hawk and Suzette approaching with the wagon. Suzette held the reins, but her gaze kept returning to Hawk. One glance, and Josie knew Suzette had reached the point of no return. Heartbreak was inevitable.
Why hadn’t Zeke and Hawk kept going after they fixed the wheel? Why hadn’t Hawk refused to let Suzette spend the nights with him? Why did Zeke have to be so nice even when Josie did her best to drive him off? She and Suzette had their lives carefully planned. They knew what they wanted to do, how to do it, and how to keep from getting hurt in the process.
But Zeke and Hawk had ruined all that.
“Suzette’s not going back.”
Suzette and Josie had already decided that, but Hawk said it as if something had changed.
“Neither am I,” Josie told him. “We’re going to Tombstone.”
Zeke’s expression hardened. “After this, you’re going to work for Gardner?”
“There have to be other places where we can work.”
“Tombstone is too small to have more than one theater that can pay you the kind of money you got in Benson.”
Josie hadn’t expected that, but she was certain they could find a well-paying job. Their act was too popular to believe otherwise. “We’ll find something even if we have to go to Bisbee.”
“Gardner’s going to know you helped us,” Hawk said to Suzette. “He might pursue you there.”
“Stop worrying about us!” Josie’s patience was running out. She wanted the men to get started toward their ranch so she and Suzette could head toward Tombstone. Or Bisbee. Anyplace but with Zeke and Hawk.
“We know this man who had a gambling hall in San Francisco,” Hawk said. “I think we could get him to give you a job.”
Josie didn’t let herself think about San Francisco. After New York, that was the ultimate dream of every entertainer. “Who is he? How do you know him?”
“He’s Zac Randolph. Jake served with his brother during the war. Zac used to own a place called the Little Corner of Heaven. His old partner runs it now.”
Josie had heard of the Little Corner of Heaven. She had no doubt Hawk had been there, but she considered it unlikely he knew Zac Randolph well enough to get jobs for two women he’d never seen. “Fine. Send him a telegram, but you’ve got to leave tonight. I don’t trust Gardner not to do something underhanded.”
“I’m just waiting for you to get in the wagon,” Zeke said. “Hawk and I are ready to go.”
Though she’d never done it before, Josie let Zeke help her climb up on the wagon seat next to Suzette. Something about his touch, his mere presence, made her fears seem less pressing. As absurd as it sounded, she felt as if nothing really terrible could happen to her when Zeke was around. But that was stupid. The worst thing possible had already happened.
Zeke and Hawk led the mules into the woods, through the creek, and into the open area on the other side where the mares grazed hungrily on grass that grew with surprising abundance among the cactus and mesquite. The horses the men rode stood, saddled and ready, under a sycamore. The two men walked toward their horses, but instead of mounting immediately, they stood talking for so long Josie started to get worried. “What are they talking about?” she asked Suzette.
“Hawk told me they had been talking about not following the river. Now that they know what the sheriff intends to do, I expect they’re deciding what route to take.”
Josie looked to the south. About ten miles away the Whetstone Mountains reared up against the night sky. She was sure that going around them was certain to add at least two days to the trip, but she wouldn’t have to worry about that. Once the men got under way, she and Suzette would head for Tombstone.
Why hadn’t they left already?
She didn’t know how it had happened, but she felt a deep personal connection with Zeke. She wasn’t in love with him, but the connection was strong nonetheless. She liked and admired him. She enjoyed being with him. She had a feeling she’d only scratched the surface when it came to getting to know the real man, the one he kept hidden from everyone but Hawk and the members of his adopted family. Knowing she was left out of that charmed circle made her feel jealous and a little sad.<
br />
“What can they be talking about?” Suzette had clasped her hands in her lap so tightly her knuckles cracked.
“Us.” Anyone who’d been around the two men for as much as a day knew they thought virtually with a single mind. They were so used to working together, they could probably defend themselves in their sleep. It was the presence of two women that had put a knot in their thinking.
“What will they make us do?”
Josie had never seen Suzette look so despondent. The moonlight gave her drawn face a bleached-out quality. She was so white she looked like a ghost.
“They won’t make us do anything we don’t want to do,” Josie said.
“That’s not what I meant to ask. Do you think they’ll let us go with them?”
The desperation in Suzette’s voice cut through Josie’s tangled thoughts like a hot knife. Suzette was in love with Hawk and wanted to be with him.
“What do you mean by go with them? Are you saying you love Hawk and want to live with him?”
Suzette stared at Hawk in the distance. “Yes.”
“What about your sister? What about our act?”
Suzette’s gaze didn’t waver from Hawk. “I don’t know.”
“Does he know?”
“No.”
“Is he in love with you?”
“I don’t know.”
Josie had been aware of pressure building inside her, but now it increased until she felt as if she’d swallowed a ball of fire that was threatening to consume her. Ever since those housewives in Globe started their crusade against loose women, her life had come apart faster than a rockslide down a mountainside. They’d lost good jobs in a prosperous town and had been forced to travel through the desert in the company of two of the most self-sufficient men in the world. They’d gotten involved with a rich horse thief, and had to leave another good job. Now their unwanted attraction to these two men was threatening to destroy their act and the rest of their lives.
“Maybe we ought to turn around and go back to Benson. If we’re lucky, nobody will know we left. Gardner can’t prove we warned Zeke and Hawk.”
The Mavericks Page 22