Cash (The Rock Creek Six Book 6)

by Linda Winstead Jones

  “That’s just three. What about the other two?”

  “A rifle is Jed’s weapon, and besides... he’s about to become a father.”

  “So?”

  Cash took a deep breath. “The whole idea doesn’t sit well with me,” he said in a tone that left no room for argument.

  “And the other one?”

  They were passing Lily’s place, and Cash glanced toward the closed doors. “I tried to teach Rico to shoot, I really did. It was a hopeless cause. He might put a knife through your heart before you can draw your pistol, but you can’t make a name for yourself taking out a man who can’t hit the broad side of a barn.”

  JD sighed in disgust.

  “That leaves me,” Cash said.

  JD whirled around, but he kept walking. Backward. “I would never call you out. You’re my hero.” The kid gave him a wide, true smile. “There’s gotta be somebody else I can start with.”

  Cash caught and held the kid’s green eyes. “There’s always Teddy. He’s damn good.”

  JD’s smile faded. “He’s just a kid.”

  “So are you.”

  JD glanced toward the hotel. “And he’s my friend. I don’t think I could shoot a friend.”

  “Glad to hear it.” JD and Teddy had become friends quickly. Sweeping and scrubbing together, they’d had plenty of time to talk and get acquainted. Well, from what Cash had heard, JD did most of the talking and Teddy listened. It was eerily familiar. A little Cash and a little Sullivan, nearly twenty years younger and yet... so similar. Teddy wasn’t really Sullivan’s son, and no one but Nadine knew JD was a little Cash.

  “There’s the church.” JD pointed ahead. “I guess if you’re planning a wedding, you start there.”

  “Why?” Cash said softly.

  “Because that’s where people get married.”

  Cash shook his head. “First of all, the Rock Creek church is nothing special. It’s small, it’s old, and it’s disgustingly plain. Second of all, I haven’t set foot in a church in several years, and that was under duress.”

  “How come?” JD asked, wide-eyed with curiosity.

  Cash stared at the church. Nate’s church now. On Sunday morning most of the townspeople went into that church and listened to Nate Lang preach. It was a concept Cash could not quite imagine, and one he would never see if he had any say in the matter. “If you’re going to enter my profession, you might as well get used to it. The people who hire you to clean up their messes don’t want you sitting next to them while they pray for their souls. They don’t want the blood on your hands to rub off on them.”

  Besides, it was damned difficult to take a man’s life and then sit down in a quiet church and sing hymns, like it was going to make a difference.

  JD put his hands on his hips. “Well, if you don’t get married in a church, what other choice is there?”

  Cash glanced around the town. It was a hell of a lot better than it had been when he’d first seen it, but Rock Creek was still... plain. “New Orleans would be nice, but that’s out of the question.”

  “How come?”

  JD didn’t know who this wedding was for. Jed wanted it to be a secret, and Cash was pretty sure JD didn’t know how to keep one. “Never you mind.”

  “Is it for you?” JD asked brightly.

  “Good Lord, no.”

  JD nodded his head slowly. “Well, what else is there to plan besides the place?”

  “The time, the flowers, the candles, the music, and the words.”

  “You can pick your own words?” JD was apparently confused. “I thought all weddings were pretty much the same.”

  “Pretty much.” The last thing he wanted to do was stand in the middle of the street and plan Jed and Hannah’s second wedding. He was thinking of advising Jed to toss his wife over his shoulder, carry her to Nate, and have it done. If he did this while Hannah was pregnant and unusually agreeable, there shouldn’t be too high a price to pay.

  Cash shook his head as he looked up and down the street. Most dreams faded quickly, leaving nothing but a vague recollection behind. But now, as he and JD planned another Rourke wedding, last night’s dream remained too damn clear. He could still taste the fear, still feel the burning path of the bullet. He could still see what was left of Melvin.

  Even worse, considering the current situation, the dream had him remembering what a fool he’d been about Nadine. What had he been thinking? That he could go home, marry her, and buy old man Brubaker’s general store? Daniel Cash, a shopkeeper? What a ridiculous notion.

  She’d done him a favor by marrying Joseph Ellington. It was the best thing that could have happened, given the circumstances.

  “You could have a wedding in your place,” JD suggested as he studied the plain town around him.

  Cash slapped his son lightly on the back of the head, and they both laughed.

  Chapter 6

  Cash hadn’t asked her to dine with him again, and he hadn’t so much as shown his face all day. Nadine didn’t like it. She wanted to know what progress he was making with JD, and she needed to see her son.

  It had taken all her will to stay away from Rogue’s Palace today, as Cash had ordered her to do before he left last night, but she’d managed to stay busy. Taking care of Hannah had consumed a good portion of the day, and baby Alex had a tummyache she’d treated with a mild mint tea she carried in her medical bag. Eden had been full of questions, and over tea during a quiet part of the afternoon they’d had a long conversation about natural remedies. The mother of five had been quite interested, and had even asked Nadine to help her put in a useful herb garden.

  But the night was so lonely. She’d never wished for a man in the house after Joseph’s death, and JD was always there. They talked in the evening, sometimes they read or played a game. She missed him now. She did not, she silently chastised herself, wish for even one minute to see Daniel Cash!

  She paced the room long after dark. The lamp on her bedside table was turned low, and she’d donned her nightgown and wrapper hours before, right after she’d had dinner with the Sullivan family. She had hoped to fall asleep early, but that was not to be. She paced, and she worried.

  The soft knock on her door took her by surprise, so much so that she jumped. Ah, word was out that she was a healer, and everyone would be coming to her with questions now. At all times of the day and night.

  She opened the door, and quit breathing when she saw Cash standing there. His eyes raked over her, taking in the plain calico dressing gown and her loosened hair.

  “Invite me in,” he whispered, even though there was no one else in the hallway to hear.

  She shook her head. He raised his eyebrows.

  With a sigh, Nadine stepped back and invited Cash in with a wave of her hand.

  He stepped into the room and closed the door behind him, slamming it so forcefully, everyone in the hotel was sure to hear.

  “What are you doing here?” she whispered.

  “It’s part of the plan, remember?”

  “But no one knows...”

  “Sullivan was in the lobby and so was Rico. They saw me and I’m sure they knew exactly where I was headed, with a grin on my face.” He was not grinning now.

  She couldn’t care less what the people of Rock Creek thought of her, she told herself forcefully. As Cash had reminded her more than once, she wouldn’t be here long. “How’s JD?”

  “Fine.”

  “Does he still want to be a gunfighter?”

  Cash gave her a smile. Even in the low light she could see the festering anger there. “Afraid so. You didn’t think I could do this overnight, did you?”

  “No,” she admitted softly.

  Cash’s eyes fell to her lips and lingered there, and his hand came up to caress the strand of hair that fell over her shoulder. The back of his hand barely touched her, high on her breast. The light contact stole her breath away.

  “You are just as beautiful as you were at sixteen,” he said in a low voice
.

  “A pretty lie,” she whispered.

  His eyes snapped up to hers. “I don’t lie.”

  “You’re lying to JD. You’re lying to everyone in this town about JD.”

  “That’s a lie of omission,” he said. “And it’s for the kid’s own good.”

  “Why?” She wanted to know why he refused to accept his own son.

  He winced just slightly. “Think about it, Nadine. The kid already wants to hire his gun out. Stick him with the name Cash and he won’t last a week.”

  She shuddered, and he responded by laying a comforting hand on her cheek.

  “I never thought of it that way.”

  “I haven’t thought of anything else.”

  Her heart broke for him, for the boy she had known and for the man he had become. “How do you live like that?”

  “It’s all I know.”

  She had the strongest, strangest urge to rise up on her toes and kiss him. A comforting kiss, that’s all it would be. Something to tell him she was so sorry that he couldn’t claim his son. Something to tell him she wished their lives had worked out differently.

  But she didn’t. Cash was not the kind of man to whom one offered a kiss of comfort.

  “You should go now,” she whispered.

  His eyebrows shot up. “I told you, Sullivan and Rico saw me come up.”

  “Well, you’ve been here long enough to... to...” She felt herself blush warmly. “Do whatever it is you want them to think you’re doing.”

  “I most certainly have not,” he said, sounding utterly horrified.

  Their first and only time together had been fast and furious, an uncontrolled frenzy. Her nights with her husband had been mercifully quick. She could not imagine what might take Cash so long. He’d been in her room for a good five minutes!

  “Don’t tell me Ellington never—”

  “I don’t want to talk to you about Joseph,” she interrupted.

  His curious eyes devoured her, and he saw too much. The uneasiness in her rigid body, the fear in her eyes. “Has no one ever made proper love to you, Nadine Ellington?”

  “That’s none of your business!”

  “Is that why you never remarried? Nothing to miss? Nothing to crave on cold, lonely nights?”

  “What I crave or don’t crave is none of—”

  “None of my business,” he finished for her. “I know.” His hand caressed her neck, and the soft touch was unexpectedly agreeable. Warm and intimate, that gentle caress made her relax. “Why do I feel like it is very much my business?”

  Agreeable or not, this had to stop. “I don’t know, but that’s your problem, not mine.” She tried to sound cool, but it wasn’t easy with those fingers caressing her throat, with those dark eyes looking at her so hungrily.

  “You said you would do anything I say,” he reminded her.

  Nadine’s heart skipped a beat. “That doesn’t include allowing you to—”

  “Kiss you,” he interrupted. “Surely there’s nothing wrong with a kiss.”

  Oh, she did remember the way he kissed, the butterflies that had fluttered in her stomach and the way she had never been able to get enough of his mouth. Joseph had never kissed her that way. Usually, he hadn’t bothered to kiss her at all.

  “A kiss,” she whispered huskily. “I don’t suppose there would be anything wrong with that.” Suddenly she wanted the kiss more than anything. It was as if she were starving for the touch of Cash’s lips. Her heart beat too hard. She trembled down deep.

  But Cash didn’t quickly lay his lips over hers, as she expected. He threaded the fingers of both hands through her hair. He stared at her so hard, she felt the force of his gaze. He licked his lips and tilted his head and pulled her body up against his. And held her there. She was helpless. Completely and totally helpless.

  The hands in her hair moved subtly, caressing her scalp, pulling her just a little bit closer and tilting her head back. Had she really thought Cash was a cold man? There was heat here. An undeniable, sensual heat. His body, which was pressed so closely to hers, was wonderfully warm.

  His nose brushed against hers, and she closed her eyes. Warm lips brushed her cheek, the place just beneath her ear, and then came back to touch her mouth.

  Her entire body responded, shuddered and burned. She lifted her arms to wrap them around Cash’s waist, needing something solid to hold on to. And he was solid. Wonderfully, warmly solid.

  He parted her lips with a slight shift of pressure and she allowed her mouth to drift open. She felt his breath, his very heartbeat, and when he flicked the tip of his tongue into her mouth, she began to melt.

  She didn’t want the kiss to end, not ever. The world shifted, everything changed, and all because he moved his mouth over hers. The years rolled away and he was her Danny again. She was madly in love. Nothing would ever come between them. She wanted to slip beneath his skin, to be with him always.

  Her entire body throbbed, and an unexpected heat pooled low within her. Something tugged at that heat, made it swirl and dance.

  Cash took his mouth from hers as slowly as he had brought it to her. She could taste his reluctance, and her own. Her brain was fuzzy. Her dogged determination was fading rapidly. “Why didn’t you come home?” she whispered. “Why didn’t you come back to me?”

  “I did,” he whispered against her neck, where he laid his wonderful lips.

  “When?”

  He was silent as he kissed her throat. “It doesn’t matter,” he said. “The only thing that matters is now. Right now, Nadine.”

  He dropped one of the hands that had been lost in her hair to her breast, caressing her through the thin wrapper and nightgown, raking his fingers over the pebbled nipple. It felt good, and she wanted him to touch and kiss her again and again. But she also knew where this would lead if she didn’t put a stop to it now. She didn’t want Cash, or any man, in her bed.

  “Stop,” she whispered.

  “Why?” His exploring hand trailed from her breast to her waist, where it stopped and held on.

  “You can go now,” she said quickly. “Surely you’ve been here long enough to maintain your reputation and satisfy your friends.”

  He lifted his head from her neck and stared down at her. “I am not at all concerned about satisfying my friends.”

  “I don’t think you should stay here,” she insisted.

  He gave her a crooked grin. “I can’t possibly leave in this condition and expect to maintain my reputation.” He pressed his body closer to hers and she felt his arousal, hard and insistent, pressing into her flesh.

  She had gone too far with that one kiss. Cash would insist that she do whatever he demanded, and if the kiss was any indication, he would not be quick.

  “Wipe that worried expression off your face,” he growled. “I don’t force myself on women who don’t want me.”

  “What about your... condition?”

  He let her go so abruptly, she felt a wave of dizziness. “Talk to me of other things. Boring things,” he suggested as he turned his back on her, ran a hand through his hair, and laughed harshly.

  “No,” he said, whirling around on her without warning. “Tell me about JD. Before he decided to become a gunfighter, was he a good kid? Has he given you much trouble?”

  Nadine smiled. “He’s so much like you.”

  “Sorry about that.”

  He sat in the single chair in the room, and she crawled into the bed and sat there with her back against the headboard. She talked about JD until the middle of the night, and he listened intently. There were no more kisses, which was just as well considering the effect of the last one, but Cash didn’t seem to mind. When he nodded off in his chair, she covered him with the extra blanket from JD’s pallet, slipped beneath her own covers, and turned out the light.

  * * *

  His neck hurt, his arm was asleep, and he was more out of the damned chair than in it. Coming awake slowly, Cash clutched at the blanket and tried to work out the
kinks that had his body in knots.

  The sun was coming up, lighting the hotel room with a soft glow, and suddenly he remembered where he was and how he’d gotten there.

  Nadine slept on, curled beneath the covers with her dark hair spread across the pillow. Cash came to his feet to see her more clearly. She was so beautiful, so much a woman. And she was so very terrified of him.

  He’d seen her fear last night, in her eyes, in a tremble that had nothing to do with passion. She was afraid of him, and he couldn’t blame her. Because what he wanted right now was the same thing he’d wanted last night. To crawl into the bed with her and make her his again.

  But it was too late for that. He didn’t cry about the past, he didn’t wallow in self-pity over what he didn’t have. The woman who had once been his wasn’t his anymore. They’d gone in different directions. Hell, they couldn’t possibly live their lives any differently!

  Besides, Nadine wasn’t a woman a man could bed and walk away from.

  He slipped quietly out of the room, grateful that no one else was in the hallway at this ungodly early hour. With any luck, he could make it back to Rogue’s Palace without being seen.

  Why the hell did that thought even cross his mind? He wanted everyone to think he and Nadine were sleeping together. Why did he have this urge to protect her reputation now?

  Because she was a good woman. Because she deserved so much better.

  The lobby was deserted as well. He had almost made it to the doorway, when a cheerful voice called out.

  “Daniel!”

  Cash spun about to face Eden, who exited the dining room wearing a flour-covered apron and wiping her hands on a linen towel.

  “I thought I heard someone in here. It’s a little early for breakfast, but I’ll have something ready in just a few minutes.” She glanced at the closed door behind him, then raked her eyes over his wrinkled suit. “Wait a minute. Are you coming in or going out?”

  “Coming in, of course,” he said coolly. “I... couldn’t sleep and wanted some decent coffee, but the dining room was empty and I decided I’d just slip out and try again in a little while.”