The Angel's Devil (Savage Series)

by Lisa Rae

  “You’re right, and neither would your sister,” Diablo replied dryly.

  “Maybe so, but first you tell me why you are here?” Roark asked.

  “Because of Angel. I’m worried about her. I don’t know why she is here, but I know something isn’t right. She wouldn’t willingly work for Wolfe.” Diablo answered, implying that he thought Roark was an outlaw.

  Taking a deep breath, Roark decided to confide in Diablo. When the time comes, his help would be greatly appreciated. Especially now that Angel is deeply involved. “What I’m about to tell you cannot be repeated to anyone,” Roark began as he looked around to make sure no one had snuck up on them. “I am an undercover U.S. Marshal and Angel is undercover for the Secret Service. We were sent here to Deadwood to find out who the Treasure Coach Gang is, and to arrest them.”

  Shocked, it took Diablo a moment for it to completely sink in before he asked, “What can I do to help?”

  Smiling mischievously Roark said, “I’m glad you asked. Here’s what I have in mind . . .

  * * *

  When Diablo and Roark walked back into the gang’s camp, they had the doe hanging from a pole that the men carried between them. Jed and another outlaw walked up to them and took it off their hands. Then they took a rope and hung the deer from a tree so they could start skinning it while the meat was still warm and easier to skin. Roark and Diablo walked to the stream to wash up their arms and hands from gutting the doe back in the forest.

  Angel was busy playing poker with Clint and a couple of the other men in the gang. She agreed to play cards with Clint just so she could take all his money and see how far she could push him. What she didn’t expect was that he was playing with counterfeit money.

  Out of habit, Angel played with a gold double eagle in her hand. Rolling it through her fingers and rubbing it with her thumb as if in good luck. Clint had played this coin in the previous hand, and Angel made a point of winning the pot just to check out that coin.

  As she rolled the gold coin in her hand, she used the sharp edge on the bottom of the ruby ring on her finger to scrape across the coin, exposing the lead color underneath the gold surface. Curious as to if Clint had more of these fake coins, Angel made sure to deal him a hand he thought he couldn’t lose when it was her turn to deal again.

  She dealt the same hand to Clint that was dealt to her and Wolfe the night before. Both of the other outlaws had dropped out and now it was only Angel and Clint. After he made his final bid with another double eagle, she matched it and said, “Let’s see what you got.”

  Full of himself and grinning from ear to ear, Clint laid down all four aces and a king. Instantly he reached for the pile of money but stopped short as Angel said, “Not so fast.” She then laid down her hand of a straight flush.

  “Why you . . . you’ve got to be cheating!” Clint called out angrily.

  Angel pulled her Colt before anyone realized what she was doing and said with death in her voice, “You are the one that’s been cheating.” She then tossed the golden coin she had in her hand onto the table and ordered to one of the other outlaws, “Look that coin over and tell me what you see?”

  The outlaw picked up the coin and turned it over in his hand. When he spotted where Angel scraped the surface, exposing the lead underneath he said, “This coin is counterfeit.”

  “Now take your knife to those two he just played in this hand,” Angel ordered again, keeping her pistol aimed directly at Clint who was starting to sweat profusely.

  Again the outlaw said, “They’re also both counterfeit.”

  Clint held up both his hands and said, “Whoa now, I didn’t realize I was using my play money. I must of got some of them mixed up when we were down in Cheyenne last year.”

  “What do you mean by play money?” Angel asked.

  “El Lobo, he use to give it to us to spend before we moved here to rob the gold coaches,” Clint replied as if it was no big deal to have counterfeit money.

  As good of a poker player as Angel was, you would never have known the shock she was feeling right then at the mentioning of El Lobo’s name. “And who exactly is this El Lobo?” Angel asked as she put her pistol away, playing the part of an outlaw.

  “Why the man that brought you here to our hideout,” answered Clint.

  Of course, Wolfe . . . El Lobo. Why hadn’t she made the connection? “Well you make damn sure to put your play money away and not use it around me anymore. Next time I may just shoot you for cheating!” Angel said angrily to cover her shock as she stood up and walked away from the table after collecting the rest of her winnings.

  She needed to clear her head and think, so she decided to go for a walk. Preoccupied with her thoughts about Wolfe being the EL Lobo she had been searching for, she did not hear Diablo approaching.

  “Penny for your thoughts,” Diablo said softly.

  “Diablo, what are you doing here?” Angel asked curiously.

  “I come to see if you was okay.”

  “No, I didn’t mean right this moment. What are you doing here working for Wolfe? He’s not the kind of man you would hire your gun to.”

  “And you are?” Diablo threw back at her.

  “We’re not talking about me,” Angel replied, trying to avoid the subject of her working for a man like Wolfe.

  “Yes we are talking about you. I’m here because I was worried about you,” Diablo explained.

  “Well there’s no need to worry about me. I’m where I want to be and I can take care of myself. So you just tell Wolfe you changed you mind and move on,” Angel said irritably as she turned away from him.

  “Angel I know why you are here. Your brother just told me,” Diablo said gently as he walked up behind her and rested his big hands on her shoulders in a comforting way.

  So now he thought he knew everything about her, Angel thought. Roark had no right telling Diablo anything. Much less that Wolfe was the man who killed her husband.

  As tears stung her eyes Diablo continued, “I never would of thought you was an undercover agent for the Secret Service, or that Roark was a U.S. Marshal. I don’t know how you got Wolfe convinced to hire you, but you’re obviously very good at your job. You’ve had me fooled all this time.”

  A feeling of relief came over Angel as she realized that Diablo didn’t know about her previous connection to Wolfe. It was something she still wasn’t ready to talk about. She knew if she did, she would break down emotionally. And this wasn’t the time or place for that to happen.

  Right now she had to stay focused on connecting Wolfe to the Treasure Coach robberies and the counterfeit money. Hearsay was not going to be enough. They needed to catch the whole gang in action. Then with the charges of murdering her husband and unborn child, she would finally get to see him hang from the gallows for what he done to her.

  Turning to face Diablo, Angel was all business again as she said, “I’m sorry to have deceived you, but it’s my job. Now if you’ll excuse─.”

  Not giving her a chance to slip away, Diablo pulled her into his strong arms and kissed her long and hard on her soft lips until she was breathless and gasped for air. Nibbling on her ear and kissing her neck, Angel arched her back in pleasure, inviting him to unbutton her shirt.

  Letting passion take over, it wasn’t long before they both were naked on the grassy ground, making love as if it was the last time they would ever see each other.

  Still breathing hard from the throws of passion, Angel stared into his deep dark eyes as he held her close and said, “This has got to stop between us. You need to leave the gang.”

  “Why?” He asked with confusion in his voice. The idea of ever letting her go was heartbreaking.

  “Because I have a dangerous job to do, and I can’t have you here distracting me,” Angel said as she regained her senses and pushed up away from Diablo, and proceeded to get dressed.

  “If our mutual affection for each other is a distraction, I will contain myself until this assignment is over. But I am not le
aving!”

  “Yes, you are!” Angel argued. The thought of something happening to him too, brought raw pain to the surface.

  “No, I am not! I’m here to help you and your brother bring down this rotten bunch, and that’s what I intend to do!”

  Seeing Jed walking their way, Angel motioned her head in his direction and said sternly, “We will finish this discussion later.”

  After they finished dressing, and pulling grass and leaves out of their hair from their throws of passion, they met up with Jed as they headed back towards camp.

  “Time to saddle up and pack your gear. We’re moving out tonight,” Jed told them when they reached where he stopped and waited.

  * * *

  After hiring Diablo to replace a gang member he had lost, Wolfe told his half-brother, “I’ve hired Diablo to work for me out at the mine. You don’t need to hire anyone else to haul the gold to town. Just take it yourself.”

  “But I am worried about that Treasure Coach Gang,” Mr. Brook replied nervously.

  “That gang is not going to bother a small timer like you. They are only after big takes. You’ll be just fine. Now if you want to keep continuing to get a share of the profits to forward your cattle operation, take some gold to town and see what the newest gossip is,” Wolfe ordered his brother.

  Wolfe had left home at an early age. Having not seen his older brother since he was about seven years old, Howard was working in a mercantile store in Cheyenne when they met again. It wasn’t long before Wolfe convinced Howard to move to Deadwood with him. Telling him of all the money they would make from the established gold mine he had bought.

  First thing Wolfe did was have Howard hire men to build a nice big ranch house while he stayed out at the mine shacks and worked the mine with his men. Once the house was built, Wolfe moved in and started bringing gold to Howard to take to town to sell. Soon they had enough money for Howard to send off for nice furniture, draperies, and books. The one thing the two men had in common was they both loved to read. Even living the outlaw life, Wolfe grabbed a hold of any book he could get his hands on.

  Howard Brook had become suspicious of his older half-brother in the recent months. Claiming to not like to go to town more than he just had to, Wolfe always sent Howard to town to sell the gold and learn the newest local gossip. While he didn’t mind doing it as he enjoyed the stimulating conversations, Howard was getting a bit suspicious of the coincidences.

  Seeing John McKnight, the assayer, on a regular basis, they became close friends. Much of the gossip Howard heard came from McKnight. The gossip included when the Treasure Coach would be carrying a load of gold to Cheyenne. This was information that wasn’t supposed to be told to anyone, but McKnight had no reason to not trust Howard considering it was his gold that made up a big part of each shipment.

  Over time, Howard realized that each time McKnight told him about the shipment of gold going out and he repeated it to his brother, the stage would get robbed. The times that McKnight did not mention a delivery, the coach made it through without any problems.

  One day Howard rode his horse out to Wolfe’s mine to find no one there. At the time he assumed the men had all went to town for a day off. But now that he thought about it, the mining equipment didn’t look like it was being used, and there wasn’t much of a pile of tailings outside the mine. Later he found out the gold stage had been robbed again during that time.

  On his ride to town, Howard thought more about his half-brother. Last night Wolfe had pulled his pistol on Angel, his guest, and disarmed her. Obviously they knew each other in the past, and it sure didn’t look to be a happy reunion, even though both his half-brother and Angel played it off as no big deal. Then his brother hires Diablo to work at the mine. Howard wasn’t real bright, but he knew the man was a gunslinger, not a hard laborer. Why would his half-brother need a man like Diablo?

  And now his half-brother tells him he has nothing to worry about from the Treasure Coach Gang. There’s only one way his half-brother would know this, and that’s if he was involved with the gang. Torn between family loyalty and justice, Howard didn’t know what to do?

  “Howard, it’s good to see you again so soon,” John McKnight said smiling as Howard walked into his office and unloaded a couple bags of gold onto the counter from his saddlebags. “What happened to Diablo making the deliveries for you?”

  “My brother hired him to work out at the mine,” Howard said not sounding too convinced of it himself.

  “I don’t see Diablo doing that sort of work, and you don’t sound like you believe it either. Is there something going on you haven’t told me about?” McKnight asked with a worried look on his face.

  “Yes John, I think there’s something going on, and that maybe I screwed up,” Howard said sadly, not making eye contact with his best friend.

  Looking at his watch and seeing it was almost noon, McKnight pulled the shades, locked the door, and turned the sign to ‘Closed’. “Okay, now we won’t be interrupted. Tell me what’s bothering you?”

  Happy to finally voice his suspicions, Howard blurted out, “I think my brother is involved with the Treasure Coach Gang.”

  “What!” McKnight exclaimed. “Are you sure?”

  “Why else would he hire a gunslinger like Diablo? And there’s more . . . He always wants to know the latest gossip from town. Including when the Treasure Coach was due to leave again with a load of gold. Not thinking, I’ve told him about the deliveries.”

  Getting a bit nervous himself for having let it slip a few times to Howard when the gold was due to ship out he said, “Just because you’ve told him when some of the shipments go out, doesn’t mean he’s involved.” McKnight knew he could lose his job over this.

  “It does when the only times the stage was robbed was when I told him about a shipment!”

  “Oh heavens! The Treasure Coach is leaving out tonight at midnight,” McKnight gasped.

  “We must do something,” Howard said.

  “Yes, but what? We don’t have any law in Deadwood yet, and we can’t just tell the guards to not go without better proof.” McKnight commented.

  “Let’s go wire the U.S, Marshal’s office in Cheyenne and tell them of our suspicions. Maybe they can order the stage not to leave, or send a marshal out here now that we have a clue to who is involved.”

  Both men waited impatiently at the telegraph office for a reply from the U.S. Marshal’s office in Cheyenne. When the reply came, they hurriedly paid the telegraph operator and read the message . . .

  There already is an agent working undercover in Deadwood on the case, but has not checked in recently. We will send another agent to check up on the situation and to contact you for the new information you have for us.

  “I wonder who the undercover agent is?” Howard asked.

  “I don’t know, but I bet he showed up around the same time the big wagon train got here. It would have been a perfect time to slip in unnoticed,” McKnight answered.

  “So now what do we do?” Howard seemed at a loss.

  “Well it will take some time for the Marshal to get here from Cheyenne, so there isn’t much we can do for now. When he gets here I will let you know. In the mean time you need to be careful. If your brother is part of that murderous bunch, he probably wouldn’t hesitate to hurt or kill you.”

  “You’re right,” Howard said nervously. “I better wander around town and learn the latest gossip so I have something to tell him when I get home so he doesn’t get suspicious.”

  On the verge of saying goodbye, McKnight had a last minute thought, “I wonder what Angel’s connection to your brother is? They obviously knew each other, and I haven’t seen her in town today. You don’t think your brother did anything to her, do you?”

  Chapter 11

  Arriving back in the outlaw’s camp, Angel and Diablo saw the rest of the men getting ready to ride. They headed for their own shack to get their gear ready and found Roark in there doing the same.

  “I ta
ke it there’s a gold stage rolling out soon?” Angel asked Roark.

  “I’m assuming so. Wolfe sent one of Brook’s cowboys out here to tell us to get ready, and that he’d be here shortly.”

  “That’s something that confuses me. How does Wolfe keep the outlaw gang being here a secret with Brook’s cowboys roaming around here?” Angel questioned.

  “Let me guess,” Diablo said. “Wolfe is the one that hired them for his brother.”

  “You hit the nail right on the head,” Roark replied. “What better disguise for guards, than men looking for stray steers.”

  “What I don’t understand is why don’t you go ahead and arrest Wolfe and all of them?” Diablo asked.

  “Just because we know they are the Treasure Coach Gang isn’t enough proof. We have to see them do it,” Angel explained. “And the one we need to nail the most is Wolfe. If we don’t get him, he will disappear and start robbing and killing somewhere else.”

  Turning to Roark, Diablo commented, “But I thought you’ve been with them since right before the last hold up.”

  “They didn’t allow me to be involved in the holdup itself. I was stationed a ways away as a guard, and then I stayed back behind with another man to make sure no one was following them. So I didn’t get to see what happened,” Roark explained.

  “So now more good innocent men will have to die, just because you have to see it happen?” Diablo asked in disgust.

  “Unfortunately yes. Without an eye witness or a confession to verify that they were the ones that did it,” Roark explained.

  Angel then chimed in, “Most importantly we need to see Wolfe involved. Or hear him actually order the men to do it.”

  Roark walked out of their shack first, headed to catch his horse in the corral. After he left, Angel pleadingly said to Diablo, “I know I can’t convince you to not go, but if given the opportunity, would you please take that guard position Roark said he did in the last holdup? I don’t want you involved in the shooting.”

  “I appreciate your concern, but I won’t give anyone the chance to kill me,” Diablo said with a reassuring smile as they walked out to the corral together.