Stuck Together

by Mary Connealy

  That left Vince with a long night and no hope of sleeping.

  He went to the north window in the front room that looked down the length of Main Street. A second window on the east gave him a nice angle on Dare’s house.

  That was who needed watching.

  Vince leaned against the window frame, settling in to stand guard through the night. Without even asking, Vince knew Luke would watch later, and that was why he’d gone to sleep early. No doubt Dare was up and alert, too. Vince knew his friends well, his faith in them absolute. The only one Vince wasn’t counting on was Jonas. And even at that he’d have been on guard, except he knew Vince, Luke, and Dare were all in town.

  It was getting late enough that soon Jonas would come and take Tina away. Maybe then Vince would get himself a couple of hours’ sleep in a chair stationed at this window. If he didn’t, he’d somehow get through the day without it. Vince had learned at an early age never to relax. Keeping watch was the only way he’d ever found to truly feel safe.

  A lesson learned from a father who would kill a harmless little pony and think he was doing it for his son’s own good.

  It was a way of life that had served Vince well, and he wasn’t going to abandon it now . . . especially since he wasn’t going to sleep anyway. Not with Tina so close he could practically hear her breathing.

  Standing watch, though, wasn’t keeping his unruly mind under control.

  He thought of that first moment when he’d seen Tina. When she’d gone flying into Jonas’s arms. Jonas had lifted her off her feet, whirled her around, and Vince had looked right into her eyes. More had passed between them in that first glance than he’d ever shared with a woman in his life. He’d seen all the way to her heart.

  Clenching his hands, he could still feel the weight of her when he’d lifted the bedraggled little pest out of that mudhole. He’d wanted her in his arms. Carrying her to the diner, no matter how annoying she was, had been a pleasure.

  When he’d foisted the job of sheriff on her, she’d been horrified but too stubborn to admit the job was beyond her. Vince had known Dare and Jonas were around to help out, so he’d gone right ahead and handed over his badge.

  Then he’d come riding into town from New Orleans, filthy, exhausted, starving. And she’d come charging out of the jail to greet him, smiling that smile that made a man feel like the sun had come out from behind a cloud. Oh, she’d said it was because she was tired of being sheriff. But it had been purely nice to have her welcome him.

  And then he’d kissed her. He could still taste her lips. Even if he spent a lifetime avoiding her—which he fully intended to do—he’d never forget how sweet she was.

  Nope, he wasn’t going to sleep so long as she was in this house, and that was that.

  He had an addled mother.

  A little sister who was supposed to help but who had instead, at least for now, abandoned Mother to anyone else’s care.

  His friend Red Wolf had been shot by a drunk, who’d made a clean getaway.

  He had someone selling whiskey to the Kiowa tribe.

  And he had a runaway prisoner who he oughta round up first thing in the morning—even though it might mean he’d be gone for days when he shouldn’t abandon his mother for more than a few minutes.

  All that should give a man plenty to occupy his mind. But all he could think about was pretty, feisty Tina Cahill. And the fact that the two of them were stuck together minding Mother.

  He shifted his stance to get a better look at Dare’s house and did his level best to think of something else.

  And failed miserably.

  Chapter 20

  Tina finally got out of Vince’s house for the night, but she was right back in the morning because Melissa had asked for help when she’d arrived home. Melissa would need a few moments to run to the privy and such. Most likely before Mrs. Yates was up and dressed for the day. Vince watching her would never do.

  She woke to an unusual rainy morning, for it was a dry land here in Texas. She wasn’t prepared for the sand to stick to her shoes as it had, and she’d only been in the house long enough to pull off her muddy shoes when she heard the crash. All she knew was that if Mrs. Yates was breaking things, it was bad. Barefoot, she rushed for Virginia Belle’s room. A cry of alarm from behind the locked door nearly made her drop the key they’d left in the lock.

  Livvy yelped from inside, then broke into a whine.

  Tina fumbled the key for a second but held on and got it turned. She wrenched the door open.

  Mrs. Yates held a lit match in her hands.

  She stood amidst shards of glass from a broken lantern, looking around as if she wasn’t sure what the match was for. The front of her long white nightgown was soaked in kerosene. If she dropped that match, she’d light herself on fire as well as the whole room, and with the fuel soaking the floor the whole boardinghouse could go up in flames.

  The poor little foxhound stood outside the circle of glass, focused on her mistress but unable to get to her. Livvy had probably stepped on the glass.

  Tina took one step toward Virginia Belle and stopped. Her feet would be cut to shreds, but the match in Virginia Belle’s hand was burning down. Tina couldn’t let the match drop, even if it meant walking on broken glass with bare feet.

  Before she took the next step, Vince thundered up the stairs.

  She looked back, and their eyes met for a moment. She could have cried, she was so relieved to see him.

  He pushed past her, crunched over the glass. He was wearing his shoes . . . and wearing the same clothes . . . and he’d come from downstairs.

  He’d kept watch all night. But he must have slept or he’d have come out to torment her when she arrived.

  Vince crossed the room to his ma, plucked the burning match from her fingers and blew it out, then swept his barefoot mother up in his arms.

  “Missy made this mess, Julius.” His mother looked stern.

  “We’ll clean it up, don’t worry.” Despite his soothing voice, Vince’s expression of worry put lines in his face. How could they keep her safe?

  It had never occurred to Tina to take the lantern and matches from the room, but now it seemed so obvious. What other things were they forgetting? Mrs. Yates looked like a befuddled child.

  “Stay back, Tina. I don’t want you to get cut.” The concern in his voice almost drove out the memory of how he’d rejected her last night. “Get your shoes on, then come back and gather some clothes for Mother. I’ll take her to my room. We’ll need to wash the kerosene off her. You can do that and get her dressed while I clean up this mess.” Vince looked toward the dog. “Livvy, come.”

  Slowly the dog followed him out of the room. At first glance Tina didn’t see any wounds, but the dog’s yelping had sounded like pain. She’d check Livvy’s paws as soon as she could.

  Tina dashed down the stairs and yanked on her sodden half boots. She heard Vince’s orders as if they still echoed in the house. He was a man who knew how to lead. Tina didn’t think that was a bad thing, but she suspected Vince only saw his natural take-charge reactions as a regrettable resemblance to his father.

  Soon Tina was back in Virginia Belle’s room. Mindful of the shattered glass, she stepped carefully as she gathered up a fresh bundle of garments for Mrs. Yates.

  Tina went into Vince’s room and saw his mother sitting on the bed. Vince knelt at her feet, head bowed as if he were before royalty. He spoke softly to her as he lifted one foot and examined it carefully for cuts.

  “You didn’t cut yourself.” Vince sounded so loving as he cared for his mother.

  “My mother is a madwoman, and my father is a tyrant. Whichever one of them I am, no woman should tie herself to me. I am never going to inflict myself on a woman and most certainly not on a child.”

  That was what he’d said when he rejected her. And yet here he knelt, a picture of decency and love. Not like either of his parents.

  “I think Livvy cut her paw.” Vince said it so quietly, it took
Tina a second to realize he’d aimed the statement at her rather than his mother.

  Before he had to give more orders, Tina went to Livvy. The dog was standing there resting her chin on the bed. Tina stooped down by the dog, which put her shoulder to shoulder with Vince. When Tina lifted the injured paw, she noticed a few drops of blood on the floor. Nothing serious, but the dog would be hurting for a while.

  After checking, Tina said, “There’s no glass stuck in her paw, and it has stopped bleeding already.”

  “Good, because we need this dog.”

  “Livvy is hurt?” Mrs. Yates reached down and patted the foxhound’s head. “This is Missy’s fault.” Mrs. Yates turned to Vince. “Julius, I insist you dismiss her at once.”

  For all the things she was forgetting, what if Virginia Belle remembered Missy breaking the lantern and refused to be around her? That would take an important pair of hands away from the job of caring for Vince’s mother.

  “I have to ride out and hunt for Lana and Porter, and we need to track down the man who shot Red Wolf. If we don’t settle things to the Kiowa’s satisfaction, well, we don’t want the tribe to start feeling hostile.”

  Focusing on the dog’s paw, Tina knew what would come next. The job of caring for Mrs. Yates was going to fall even more heavily to her. And that still left her job at the diner.

  She looked out and saw the sun was pushing back the night. Tina barely had time to get Mrs. Yates cleaned up and dressed before she’d need to get to the diner and start her morning’s baking of bread.

  Well, Mrs. Yates was just going to have to pour coffee today, because Tina couldn’t watch her over here and cook over there. And giving the lady a big pot of boiling hot coffee no doubt qualified as one of those potentially dangerous things they should make sure she be kept away from.

  Of course Glynna could care for Mrs. Yates. She could be spared far more easily at the diner. A sad but true fact, though the menfolk in town thought getting a private moment to speak to Glynna was an important part of their meal.

  None of them had much to say to Tina—what with her scolding them for their drinking habits. But that was just fine, as she was too busy scooping up food for the polecats. And maybe they’d start liking her more soon, because with cooking and sheriffing and now tending Mrs. Yates, Tina hadn’t found time to picket for quite a while.

  “You know, I saw protesting Duffy’s Tavern as a mission field.” Tina gave Vince a disgruntled look.

  Vince didn’t answer as he examined his mother’s other foot, but Tina thought she heard a quiet moan come from him.

  “And my mission is even more badly needed in light of the drunken cowpoke at Luke’s and the shooting of Red Wolf.”

  “Not sure you waving around a placard would’ve changed all that. Besides, Duffy denied selling any bottles of whiskey.”

  “Well, he would, wouldn’t he?” Tina decided kneeling beside Vince was too friendly. It made her feel as if they were kneeling at the altar. She’d heard of couples doing such during a wedding ceremony and she had no wish to emulate that, however slight the comparison.

  She rose from the floor, scooped Livvy into her arms, and sat beside Mrs. Yates, who reeked of kerosene. “Livvy and I are going to get more water. I believe Mrs. Yates is going to need a bath.”

  “I have a fair supply of water already heating,” Vince said.

  “When did you do that?”

  “I had plenty of time because I didn’t get any sleep last night.” Vince looked up at Tina, and she saw the dark circles under his eyes.

  “I’m sorry if you’re tired, Julius.” Tina said the name with relish, and Vince’s expression promised retaliation. Good luck to him. “It’s just that I don’t have much time for sympathy, what with having two jobs and being on the verge of being evicted from my home when the day comes that Jonas casts me aside for a wife.”

  “He won’t cast you aside.” Vince looked at her hard, and the heat in his gaze reminded Tina of every time he’d touched her.

  Tina felt her resentment grow. She liked being angry better than feeling hurt. “I’ve got less than an hour before I need to start breakfast. I’ll be back with a tub and the water.”

  Stalking toward the door, thinking of how heavy it was all going to be while a big strong man was right here and not offering to help, she was in the hall when Vince said, “Tina, wait.”

  His commanding voice had her stopping without really choosing to, which annoyed her. But she turned back. Maybe he was going to offer to do the heavy lifting at least.

  “It’ll be a lot easier for you if you leave the dog here.” Vince smiled a cranky smile that let her know he was tormenting her deliberately.

  “Fine.” She let Livvy down, and even the dog she’d been tending abandoned her to worship at Virginia Belle’s feet.

  As she tromped down the stairs, Tina thought back to the day she’d come to town and moved into Jonas’s house. A single woman caring for her bachelor brother in a quiet little Texas town hadn’t seemed like it was that big of a job. But honestly there weren’t enough hours in the day.

  Chapter 21

  There just weren’t enough hours in the day for all Vince had laid out in front of him.

  Vince had seen a lantern come on in the diner, and after nearly wrestling the bucket of water away from Tina and carrying it, he’d left Mother in Tina’s care. He wanted to help any way he could, but he had no role in getting Mother bathed and dressed. So he’d come over to the diner to find Dare and Luke already there, while Ruthy made coffee and put bread on to bake.

  “We have to go search for Quince Wilcox.” Luke sat at the table, his eyes so cold that Vince felt the chill as if he’d never stepped indoors. “Red Wolf’s people aren’t that happy with me, anyway. Dodger said he’d get Red Wolf home last night, and Red Wolf will stay friendly, but if the Kiowa are upset enough, he may not be able to control every warrior in his band. We need to lock Wilcox up and make sure the Kiowa know we aren’t going to stand for him shooting their chief.”

  “No.” Dare slashed a hand to silence Luke. “We can round up Wilcox later. We have to go after Lana. She’s more dangerous than the Kiowa.”

  Luke slapped the table. “Lana Bullard is not more dangerous than a tribe of restless Indians.”

  “Well, she tried to kill me, Glynna, Paul, and you, Vince. The Kiowa haven’t done that.”

  “Not yet.”

  “We need to do both,” Dare said. He began pacing so fast it was making Vince’s neck hurt to follow the man.

  “Jonas thinks she’s running,” Luke said. “If that’s so, then there’s little chance she’ll come back, and we’ll never catch her with this much of a head start. I’m not about to follow her trail all the way to California.”

  “But she could circle back.” Dare’s back-and-forth path started curving, as if he were circling back. “I need to make sure she isn’t going to attack Glynna. That’s got to come first.”

  Dare and Luke glowered at each other, then together they turned to Vince.

  Invincible Vince. He knew—even though it was never spoken of—that he was their leader. It had always been that way. And now he had to say what was on his mind.

  “Mother came within seconds of burning the boardinghouse down this morning. Even if we could’ve gotten the fire out, she’d have been badly hurt because she broke a lantern and spilled kerosene on herself while she stood there holding a lit match. I don’t dare run off right now chasing after an escaped prisoner.”

  “So you’re saying,” Luke growled, “that our choices for today are between heading off a tribe of Indians, tracking down Lana, or tending to your ma?”

  Vince had never felt less invincible in his life. “I wouldn’t put it exactly like that.”

  “We can’t let Wilcox get away.” Luke shoved himself to his feet so hard the bench under his backside tipped over. “There could be trouble that might spread through the Indian Territory. The whole tribe could turn on folks in the area. Lives coul
d be lost—”

  “All right!” Vince said. “I get it. We’ll go after Wilcox.”

  Dare shook his head. “You’re gonna let Lana just ride off? That woman held a knife to Glynna’s throat. She almost killed—”

  “Dare!” Vince cut him off. “You know I never asked for the job of sheriff, and no one pays me a cent.”

  “You took an oath.” Luke stood, pulling on his gloves. “We go after Wilcox first. We’re wastin’ time—let’s ride out to the S Bar S.”

  “No, we ride after Lana first,” Dare countered. “She’s the one who broke jail. She’s the prisoner Vince was supposed to be in charge of.”

  “She’s on the run and you know it,” Luke snapped.

  “We don’t know any such thing.” Dare actually stood still, though the anger in his eyes as he faced Luke was an active kind of anger. “Yes, they ran when they first broke out, but who’s to say she didn’t lay down a false trail?”

  The diner door swung open. Luke and Dare fell silent. Tina came in guiding Mother. The woman grinned at Vince as if the sun shone from his eyes. “Julius, good morning. It’s so nice of you to come home from work and join us for tea.”

  The dog was moving pretty well, not limping at all.

  Tina brought Mrs. Yates over to Vince. “I need to start cooking,” she told him. Mother was fresh and clean now, but Tina was a disheveled mess and she smelled a bit like kerosene.

  Vince rested a hand on his mother’s back and smiled, even as he chafed at being called Julius again. Then all his common sense and leadership skills snapped into place. “Dare.”

  Dare stood to attention, then caught himself and relaxed, glaring at Vince. “What?”

  “We let Lana go.”

  “We can’t—”

  “You said I’m sheriff, and that’s the sheriff’s decision. We trust Jonas when he said she was quitting the country. You can ride out and check the trail if you’re worried, but Jonas knows how to track.”

  “Yep, he’s a tracker for sure, but he can’t be trusted.”

  “What do you mean he can’t be trusted? He’s a man of the cloth, for heaven’s sake.”