She was not dismayed. Her fingers raked through his hair. “You can still come back to my room,” she whispered.
“No.” He removed her arms from around his neck and quickly righted his clothes. “We’re not going to take any more chances. No one will know about this but us.”
She felt a little... cheated. “I thought you wanted everyone to know we were...” Again, she could not make herself say the word lovers aloud.
“I changed my mind,” he said succinctly. “Evan suspects. Eden, Sullivan, Rico, and Reese know I spent one night with you, which means all the guys and their wives know. They’ll assume that one night was the price you had to pay for me to work with JD, but they won’t blab it all over town.”
“Do you want your friends to think you’d be so heartless?”
“My friends already know I’m that heartless.”
He didn’t want anyone to know they were truly together, no matter how briefly, no matter how insignificantly. He didn’t want to claim her in any way. Not publicly, at least. Most of all, she realized, he didn’t want anyone to know that he cared for her.
And he did care for her. She had seen it in his eyes, felt it in his touch. “If that’s what you want.”
“What I want has nothing to do with it,” he hissed, and then he turned his back on her and walked away. “Go back to your room, Nadine,” he said as he stepped onto the boardwalk. “Dream sweet dreams.”
“Aren’t you coming with me?”
He turned to her and offered his hand. She took it.
“No,” he whispered.
Chapter 10
Cash sat back in his chair, exhausted after another sleepless night, and watched as JD grumbled and scrubbed the floor. Sunlight streamed in over the doors, lighting the wet slats of worn wood and a surly JD.
He had to get this chore over and done with as soon as possible so he could get JD and Nadine out of his life before this went too far. He couldn’t afford to feel like they were his. His to protect and to love. His to claim. It was a trap, one he had carefully avoided since leaving Marianna for the last time.
Rico came bursting through the doors, a scowl on a face that was almost always smiling, an ominous thud in his step.
He nodded to Cash and started toward the table, kicking over the bucket of soapy water at JD’s side as he passed. Water splashed everywhere, rolling over the floor, soaking JD’s knees and feet.
“Goddammit!” JD said, shooting to his feet.
Cash raised his eyebrows slightly. “Language, JD,” he reprimanded gently.
JD was not at all chastened. “This greaser splashed dirty water all over a floor I already washed and all over me!” With his hands on his hips, JD glared at Rico’s back.
Rico turned around slowly, his hand falling to the handle of the knife he wore at his waist. “Greaser?” he repeated softly.
JD did not back down. “Apologize,” he commanded, “and then clean up this mess.”
God in heaven, Cash thought in dismay, his kid wouldn’t last a week on his own.
Rico looked JD up and down. “Big talk for a niño tonto,” he said lowly. There was an unmistakable threat in Rico’s voice, a hint of warning most men would take seriously.
JD didn’t budge. “What did you call me?”
Rico leaned slightly closer to JD. “I called you a foolish child.”
“Don’t call me a child,” JD seethed. “And you’re the one who’s foolish. Clumsy, too! Can’t you watch where you’re going?”
Cash didn’t know whether to be proud or terrified that this fearless child was his son.
With a move so fast it was a blur to the eye, Rico drew his knife. In the same motion he grabbed JD by the shirt collar and pulled the kid close. The tip of the knife touched JD’s throat, and the boy went deathly white.
Without conscious thought, Cash’s hand fell to his six-shooter. His heart threatened to pound through his chest. This confrontation was his idea, his latest plan, but the sight of that knife touching JD’s throat was enough to make him do something rash. His hand stilled over the butt of the weapon.
“I do not scrub floors, niño tonto,” Rico said in a low voice. “And I do not take any lip from errand boys who do not know when to shut their whiny mouths. I do not apologize. Not to the likes of you.”
JD trembled. Cash could see it, and it made him a little crazy. “Enough,” he muttered in a low, dark voice.
Rico released JD, and the kid stepped back. Yes, that was terror in his eyes, the kind of terror you experience only when your own death is imminent. A knife at the throat, a gun barrel in the gut... Any man who didn’t respond with fear was dead inside. He didn’t have anything left to lose.
Cash had not felt real fear in a very long time.
“Go upstairs and change your clothes,” Cash ordered. “You’re soaking wet.” JD quickly complied, bounding up the stairs without looking back.
Rico smiled wanly as he sat at Cash’s table. “Dios! What a kid. I thought he was going to challenge me to a gunfight.”
“You’d better hope he never does.”
“He is that good?”
“No, you’re that bad.”
Not at all offended, Rico placed his forearms on the table and leaned forward. “Think I scared him out of his ambition to be a gunslinger?”
Having come face-to-face with possible death, surely JD would think differently about his plan now. Fear wasn’t pretty. It didn’t make you feel powerful and important.
“Hell, Rico, I think you scared me out of my ambitions,” Cash said lightly, not revealing how important this moment was. Not letting Rico know that if he had actually cut JD, he’d be bleeding himself.
Oh, hell, this was a sad state of affairs. It was bad enough that he liked the kid, but to get protective and possessive was not a good idea. First Nadine and now this. How much worse could things get?
* * *
Nadine came down the stairs for lunch to find Eden in a tizzy. Eden was always so calm, so sweetly in control, the sight took Nadine aback a little. The pretty blonde leaned down to place her nose next to Millie’s. “What do you mean you don’t know where she is? She was with you.”
“No,” Millie said, frowning. “Carrie and I were talking. One minute Fiona was there, and the next she was gone. I thought she was in the kitchen with you.”
Teddy came running down the stairs, and Nadine deftly moved out of the way as the young man hurried past. “She’s not upstairs.”
Rafe burst through the back door. “She’s not in the garden.”
Eden stood tall and took a deep breath. “Teddy, go fetch your father. Now.” The kid ran to do as he was told.
Nadine approached Eden cautiously. “Fiona’s missing?” she asked, heart in her throat.
“She’s wandered off,” Eden said, tying to remain calm and not doing a very good job of it. “I thought she was with Millie, and Millie thought she was with me... and... and...”
“How long?” Nadine asked.
“About an hour, we think.”
Not so long, Nadine tried to convince herself. And yet, if JD had gone missing at the age of four, five minutes would have been too long.
Word spread quickly in a town like Rock Creek. Sullivan arrived, angry and looking a little scared. Rico and Lily, who had seen the commotion, were on hand moments later. Jed came bounding down the stairs, having heard the news from Teddy as the kid searched the hotel. It wasn’t long before Cash walked into the hotel lobby, cold-eyed and tense.
They split into groups, determined to search the town from one end to the other. Lily and Rico went off together, to start at the north end of town and work their way down the street. Jed was going to start at the south and meet them in the middle, unless one of them found Fiona before that happened. The kids went to call on all of their friends, and Eden remained in the lobby in case Fiona should return on her own. Sullivan headed out to the street.
“What should I do?” Cash asked the sheriff as he fol
lowed.
“Check with Nate,” Sullivan said tersely. “Fiona might have wandered down to the church.”
“You got it,” Cash said without hesitation, and the two men stepped out of the hotel.
Nadine decided to remain with Eden, who was much too pale and agitated. She definitely shouldn’t be left alone. “I’m sure everything will be fine,” Nadine said with a half-smile. “Children do this sort of thing. They wander off and turn up in the oddest places.”
Eden nodded her head, trying to agree. “I should have checked with Millie earlier,” she said, blaming herself. “I shouldn’t have just assumed that Fiona had stayed where she was told to stay. She usually does,” she said softly. “But she has that stubborn streak, and... and...” She lifted tear-filled blue eyes to Nadine. “Everything’s going to be fine,” she said softly.
“I know,” Nadine agreed, even though she could see very clearly that Eden didn’t believe what she said.
* * *
Cash knocked on the rectory door, his eyes peeled as he searched every corner, every alley, for a little girl with dark hair and a devastating smile. He had always known kids were trouble, but he hadn’t realized a single little girl could turn an entire town upside down so quickly.
A surprised Nate answered the door. He certainly hadn’t expected his old friend to come calling. Cash didn’t waste any time with niceties. “Is Fiona here?”
The Rev shook his head. “No. Why?”
“She’s missing,” Cash said succinctly. “Sullivan thought she might have come here.”
Nate joined Cash on the porch, and together their eyes scanned the street, searching windows and doorways. “She wouldn’t have gone far,” Nate said. “Right?”
“Who knows?” Cash said curtly.
Since the others were working their way up and down the street, Nate and Cash rounded the church and headed for the edge of town. There was nothing out there, no good place to hide or exciting place to play, but with a kid... who knew where they went when they wandered? Not far. Cash knew that. Fiona would never go too far.
Who was he kidding? Sullivan’s daughter was much too bold for four years old.
At first he and Nate didn’t talk as they searched for Fiona, each of them taking his turn calling the little girl’s name as they checked in every ditch, each patch of tall grass, and around every woodpile they passed. With every passing minute Cash got more anxious. Where the hell was that kid?
“So,” Nate said as they turned over a discarded door that had been propped against a rock, making a Fiona sized cave. “How have you been?”
“Fine.”
“Glad to hear it.”
Cash glanced at his old friend, took a good long look. Nate’s hair hung over his ears now, and an awful lot of it was white. “How about you?”
“Good,” Nate answered with a smile that showed he meant it. “Really good. You should come by one evening,” he suggested. “Have dinner with the family...”
“Talk about old times,” Cash interrupted caustically. “I’m sure Jo would like to hear about those whores in Dallas. The sisters, remember them?”
“No,” Nate grumbled.
“There was the gunfight that next morning, and the girls were so excited they... never mind. Maybe you’d rather have me tell the tale about that shoot-out in Laredo and the four-day celebration that followed.”
He expected Nate to get either riled or indignant, but instead the Rev answered calmly. “I’m sorry. I know you feel betrayed, the way things happened. We can talk about it sometime if you want.”
“Betrayed?” He cast Nate a wide smile. “The way you talk, you’d think we were married. You went your way and I went mine. No hard feelings.” Hell, if this was what Nate wanted, he should have it.
“I understand you’ve been seeing Mrs. Ellington.”
Cash snorted, turned his back on the Rev, and headed down the trail they’d found, a narrow beaten path through the long grass. “If I’m going to get a sermon while we search, I’d just as soon you shoot me now and get it over with. Fiona,” he called in his sweetest voice. “Come on out and give Uncle Cash and Uncle Nate a big hug.” He listened carefully, hoping to hear something. The sound of little feet running across the ground, a familiar giggle. There was nothing. “She probably crawled into a hiding place somewhere and is taking a nap while the entire town searches for her.”
“Could be,” Nate agreed, letting their unpleasant conversation die.
After a good hour of searching, they headed back for the center of town and gathered in the street with the others. Reese and Mary were there, too, having gone to the homes of a few friends just on the outskirts of town. Jo was there, baby in her arms, doing her best to keep Eden calm.
Sullivan paced in the street, steps long and angry, hair whipping behind him. “Fiona!” he shouted, lifting his head and calling his daughter’s name. “If you’re hiding, you come out right this minute! Game’s over!”
Cash stepped forward and matched his step to the stalking Sullivan, laying a stilling hand on the frantic man’s arm. “If she is hiding, you’re going to scare the crap out of her, yelling that way.”
“You got a better idea?”
Cash lifted his head and took a deep breath. “Come on out, Fiona,” he called in a calm, friendly voice. “Let’s play another game now, sweetheart.” He stopped and listened again for those little feet, that giggle. All was silent. Nothing moved. Even the children were still and quiet as everyone awaited some kind of answer. “You win,” he called. “Come on out and find out what your prize is.” A spanking followed by a big hug, he imagined.
He was getting a bad feeling about this, and he didn’t like it. He didn’t like it at all. The uneasiness grew as he stood in the street and waited for an answer. Cash turned around and stalked back toward the crowd. “We’ve looked all over town. Would she go down to the river?”
Eden went even paler than she already was. “No. I’ve told her a thousand times... She wouldn’t go there alone.”
“Maybe I should ride down there and check, just in case,” Cash offered calmly.
“I’m going with you,” Sullivan said through clenched teeth.
Cash nodded, and Teddy went off to fetch their horses.
Reese stepped up. “The rest of us will ride the perimeter, widening out as we go. A single shot in the air when you find her, and then we all meet back here.”
As everyone headed for their homes and horses, Eden made her way through the crowd to find Cash. “You keep an eye on Sin, you hear me?” she said softly.
“Of course I will.” He gave her his most charming smile. “It’s what we do.”
“You don’t understand,” she whispered. “If anything happens to Fiona, it’ll kill him.” Tears filled her eyes.
“Nothing is going to happen to Fiona,” Cash insisted. The renegade who had been spotted in the area was on everyone’s mind, but no one mentioned it aloud. The possibilities were too horrible, too frightening to bear. For any of them. Cash found that oddly enough his knees were weak and what was left of his heart threatened to climb into his throat. What must this be like for Sullivan and Eden?
Teddy quickly led Cash’s horse and Sullivan’s to the front of the hotel. Most everyone else had dispersed, getting ready to widen the search. Sullivan’s head popped around, and one at a time those who remained gathered in front of the Paradise Hotel turned their eyes south.
Cash squinted in that direction. Dust rose around the hooves of a horse that lumbered down the middle of the street, just entering town. The next thing he noticed was the headdress on the rider. Buffalo scalp.
The sight that stopped his heart was a flash of yellow calico and a head of dark curls.
Sullivan shooed everyone back onto the boardwalk and into the businesses that lined the street, and walked boldly down the center of the street. Cash joined him. Eden, who had been warned to stay back, shook off the order and kept pace with them. She did have the good sense to sta
y on the boardwalk, in the shadows.
“I can take him from here,” Cash said, hand on the butt of his six-shooter.
“No.”
“You know damn well I won’t miss,” Cash argued.
“You are not shooting that Indian while he’s got my daughter in his lap, do you hear me, Cash? I don’t want that renegade’s blood and brains splattered all over my little girl.” Sullivan swallowed hard. He’d gone pasty white. “You shoot as a last resort,” he said in a lowered voice. “He might want to trade her for food or something.” They were close enough now to see that Fiona was fine, smiling and waving when she saw her daddy and Uncle Cash in the street.
“And once you get her out of his lap?”
“He’s all yours.”
The horse coming toward them moved slowly, but soon they got a good look the rider’s face. “Is that who I think it is?” Cash asked through clenched teeth.
“I’m afraid so,” Sullivan answered, his eyes unerringly forward.
The Comanche who had Fiona in his arms was the same one who had staked four of them to the ground last year.
“Well, shit,” Cash drawled. “I wonder where his pals are.”
Sullivan didn’t break his stride or take his eyes from Fiona. “The others will find them if they’re out there.”
“You heard them leave?”
Sullivan grunted what seemed like an affirmative answer.
Apparently Reese, Rico, Jed, and Nate had seen the Comanche and Fiona and had taken off to look for the other Indians. On occasion a renegade rode alone, but this one didn’t. They knew that too well.
Finally they met. The horse came to a halt, and so did the two men who met the Comanche warrior face-to-face.
“Daddy!” Fiona cried with a wide smile.
Cash waited to see what would happen next, hand on his gun, eyes on a spot in the middle of the renegade’s forehead. Sullivan stepped to the horse’s side and raised his arms. Without argument, the renegade lifted Fiona and handed her to her father.
“I got lost,” Fiona said, throwing her arms around Sullivan’s neck. “Just a little bit. My new friend Issy found me. He has hair like yours, and doesn’t he have a pretty hat?”
Cash (The Rock Creek Six Book 6) Page 12