by Jan Springer
“We pull out first thing in the morning, as I said earlier. No sex tonight. We need to rest.”
Ignoring their surprised looks, he brushed past them and headed toward the barn. The horses would need tending for the trip. They would have to be well fed and in good shape in order to get them to Wolfe’s hideout.
Just thinking about Wolfe brought such a violent rage rushing through Kayne that for a moment he swore he saw red. That son of a bitch needed to be taken care of for what he’d threatened Eve with and yeah, for what he’d done to C.J. He didn’t cater to anyone knocking women around. He didn’t like the fact that he’d scared the daylights out of Eve, threatening his gang and eating unborn kids. The guy was a fucking sick son of a bitch.
Kayne also needed to remember that there weren’t any man-made laws holding him back either to carry out his own brand of justice against Wolfe. Civilized life before the Catastrophe was over. These days only the strong survived. He wouldn’t have to answer to anyone if he killed Wolfe. He would do what needed doing to secure the safety of his family and the gang.
With those thoughts firmly in mind, Kayne stepped into the dark interior of the barn.
* * * *
Maddox watched Eve as she bent over his saddlebag and began rummaging through the side pocket where he kept his comfrey salve. Her cheeks were flushed, and her mouth was twisted into a grimace, whether from pain or irritation at not being able to find what she was looking for, he wasn’t sure. Usually he was pretty good at reading her emotions. Kind of hard not to when she wore her emotions on her sleeve, so to speak.
“You looking for this?” He held up the jar of salve that she’d taken from his saddlebag earlier in the day.
She stood and threw him a weak smile of relief. “I couldn’t remember where I’d put it and hoped you’d found it and put it back.”
“You left it on the fireplace mantel in your hurry to get out of here to meet C.J., which brings me to a serious question.” He handed Eve the jar and tried to ignore the interesting throb in his cock as she brushed a few stray strands of her hair away from her face. Cripes, she looked really pretty, and he’d been thanking the good Lord every hour that he’d seen fit to bring her back to them.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“Your friend. C.J. Can we truly trust her?”
Eve looked thoroughly stunned. Obviously she trusted this woman, but that didn’t mean she could be trusted.
“She saved me from Wolfe, kept me alive in the mountains by sharing her food and showing me how to survive. She taught me how to hunt and make shelters. She brought my baby into the world, and she told me everything she went through with Wolfe. Believe me, if I didn’t think she was trustworthy one hundred percent, I wouldn’t have come here and told you about the gold.”
“Which makes me wonder why he’s been sitting on that gold for so long? Does he know you two know about it? Does he know you two saw it?”
“I don’t think so. I mean, I’ve never seen it, but C.J. did.”
A bad feeling slipped into Mad. He’d been under the impression that Eve had actually physically seen this gold stash that the Durango Gang had once been after. Frig. Kayne was not going to like this bit of news. Not one bit.
“Okay, I’ll leave you to tend to your…um…” Suddenly he didn’t know what to say.
Eve giggled, the sound of her laughter such sweet music to his ears. Her laughter turned him on. Everything about her turned him on. Even the fact that she was now a mother brought a whole new sexy dimension to the love he possessed for Eve.
“You can still say the words nipples and breasts, Mad. Just because I’m a mom doesn’t change my feelings for your or Riley or Kayne. As far as I’m concerned my daughter has three dads. And everything between us stays the way it’s always been.” She wrinkled her forehead in worry. “That is, if that’s okay with you?”
He couldn’t help but breathe a sigh at her confession. He hadn’t even realized those thoughts had been spinning about in his head.
“Yeah, I’d like that.”
“Good, now if you don’t mind, I’d like to take care of a little personal business.” Having said that, she disappeared into the adjoining living room, and a moment later when he took a peek, he saw Eve removing her top and watched her smear the ointment over her breasts and nipples.
Oh fuck. He shouldn’t have been playing Peeping Tom. No siree, and now he was paying for his sins with a cock so damned spike hard, he doubted he’d get any sleep tonight.
Which brought Maddox back to what Eve had said about not seeing the gold. He needed to find Riley and discuss this newest bit of information with Kayne.
* * * *
“She what?” Kayne growled as Maddox revealed what he’d just learned from Eve inside the house. Riley could understand Kayne’s anger. He’d reacted the same way once he’d left the house and the news had really set in.
“She didn’t see the gold. She’s basing everything on this C.J. chick,” Maddox explained.
Kayne didn’t reply, and Maddox turned to Riley, throwing him a now it’s your turn to say something look. Which he did.
“I was thinking that maybe we should call this whole thing off,” Riley ventured into the silence. “I mean we can get your kid and come live here. There’s a nice garden out back, we can hunt and fish and use Trader Jack’s smokehouse for meat—”
“I want that gold.” Kayne growled. “But if Eve hasn’t seen it herself, then as far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t exist there. We’ll pull out tomorrow and get my kid and bring her back here. If you guys have any objections, I’d like to hear them now.”
Riley could tell Kayne was really trying to keep it together. This newest tidbit about the gold seemed to have devastated him. But he could also tell he wanted to see his kid bad. Riley could understand that. He’d been a dad himself, and he still wanted to see his kids. Bad.
“No objections from me,” Riley acknowledged. Hell, he wanted to stick around here. Wanted to settle down in this nice valley. It would be nice to hear a little girl’s laughter again.
Beside him Maddox also stated he had no objections, which sent another volley of relief through Riley. He knew having a kid around was going to change things. He knew that from firsthand experience. He’d had two daughters himself, and he and his wife had been at the freaking park around the corner from their apartment with them that sunny, hot afternoon when the solar flares had come calling. One minute his two daughters, Katie, three, and Sandie, five, were there, laughing and giggling as he and his wife pushed them on the swings.
The laughter had been like music to his ears. Life had been good. His kids were good. His wife just perfect. And in one second it had all been taken from him. Bright flashes of light and the next thing he’d known he’d been pushing smoking ashes and then this damned chilly wind had come, and life had never been the same again.
Fuck.
Riley forced himself to snap out of the sadness that had momentarily wrapped its bony arms around him again. He never wanted to think about his old life. Didn’t want to deal with it. It was way too damned painful. It was why he’d never shared what had happened on that day with anyone. Not even Eve. And he never would. He didn’t want her feeling sorry for him. He’d done a good enough job of it himself until he’d met up with Kayne.
Now he had a new life. And he would stay in the present. He had to, because his sanity depended on it.
“Eve’s not going to like this change of events. I get the feeling she wants to get that gold bad,” Maddox said.
Kayne nodded. “I understand her feeling. The gold would have been good security for all of us, not to mention all the other people we could help out. But I’m not willing to risk our lives over this. We don’t even know this woman.”
“Eve says she trusts her. Maybe that should be good enough for us?” Just saying that had Riley mentally kicking himself. He wanted to stay here, dammit!
Maddox and Kayne both grinned at him. “Either y
ou want to stay or you want to go, Ri. You can’t have both,” Mad replied, lifting his eyebrows in question.
“The matter is settled. We’re not going for the gold,” Kayne said firmly. Riley knew that when their leader spoke in that firm tone of voice, he wouldn’t be swayed to change his mind.
“We tell Eve nothing until we’re ready to leave in the morning.” Having said that, Kayne returned to brushing down Eve’s white horse. Riley watched as Maddox headed over to take care of his own horse, and Riley figured he may as well give his horse a good brushing as well.
Nope, Eve wasn’t going to be happy with their decision. Not one bit.
* * * *
Bastards. They’d betrayed her. Emotions, thick, raw, and painful, swept through Eve as she ducked back out of the open doorway of the barn. A few minutes ago she’d come out of the cabin to see what the guys had been up to in the barn. When she’d heard their voices carrying through the cold afternoon breeze, she’d quietly entered the barn and to her horror caught the tail end of their conversation about deciding not to trust C.J.
Impulses had her wanting to go in there and tell them where they could go with their decision. If they didn’t trust C.J., then as far as she was concerned, they didn’t trust her.
Obviously they were never going to bring her into the loop. She was a better shooter than they were. A better rider and hunter, and she was a better cook, too.
Now she understood why C.J. hated men. They were dominating assholes, and she would hook up with C.J., and they’d go in and get the gold themselves. No man was going to tell her what she could or couldn’t do. Not ever again!
* * * *
“Where’s Eve? I thought she was in here with you two?” Kayne asked as he stomped into the kitchen, tugging off his gloves and blowing on his cold hands. He’d come in through the front door to find the interior of the house exploding from both Maddox and Riley singing at the tops of their lungs. They were creating such a racket that his ears hurt from them singing so off-tune. Professional singers they would not make, that’s for sure.
He’d also been expecting to see Eve nestled snugly in front of the roaring fireplace as late afternoon approached, but she hadn’t been there.
Thankfully, the men stopped singing at Kayne’s question.
“When we came back in from the barn earlier, after our conversation about the gold, we found her in here getting into her outside gear. She said she was going down to the creek for a short walk. She took her rifle with her so she should be okay. We thought maybe you two had hooked up again?” Riley questioned as he stirred some funny-looking white concoction in a cast-iron pot he’d set on the electric stove.
“I went up to check on the windmill after finishing with the horses in the barn, so no, I didn’t see her. I can see we have electricity. I thought I told you to wait until supper?” Kayne queried as he slumped down at the kitchen table and watched Maddox as he went back to singing and salted some venison. Kayne’s mouth watered just imagining how good that deer was going to taste at dinner tonight.
Riley looked over his shoulder at Kayne and shook his head sadly. “If I had to wait until supper to use this electricity, what the hell would its use be for? We can eat by candlelight. I don’t need electric light. You’d have me slaving away, putting wood in this stove, and trying to keep it on an even heat so I can cook my wheatlets without it burning?”
Wheatlets? Riley was cooking wheatlets? Wasn’t that some hot breakfast cereal or porridge for old people or something?
“You’re sounding like an old woman, Ri,” Kayne teased. That would explain why he was whipping up wheatlets.
“Hey, don’t pick on Riley,” Maddox chastised, thankfully giving Kayne a momentary reprieve from his singing. “He’s preparing wheatlets to fry up for tomorrow’s breakfast. If you piss him off, he’ll stop, and I’ll be stuck making everything myself because we all know what a lousy cook you are.”
Great, now both of them were acting like two old, disgruntled women. Kayne chuckled, fell silent, and then gazed out the nearby window. He couldn’t help but tense as both men started singing way too loudly again.
Gold sunshine splashed against the whitecapped mountains to the west. Here in the valley the shadows were getting long and blue, and he jumped when the window panes rattled as a burst of wind tapped against it.
Kayne frowned as uneasiness slithered through him like a snake. He should go out and look for Eve. They hadn’t spoken since she’d told him the news about their kid. He should have told her about his decision about staying. Told her why he didn’t want to go and get the gold. He would put killing Wolfe on hold for now. He just wanted to see his kid. Wanted to ask Eve if she would stay here with him. With them. He would need Mad and Riley around for protection. It wasn’t safe to live on their own.
Hell, for all he knew she didn’t want to have anything else to do with him if he told her he didn’t trust C.J. But he couldn’t help it. He didn’t know her. Didn’t trust a woman who would threaten to kill Eve.
He forced himself to smile as their jovial off-key singing only got louder. He was glad Mad and Riley were happy. He would be happy, too, once Eve showed. He got up and went to the window and peered out. The vegetable garden looked deserted. Beyond that, nothing moved out there but the pine trees swaying in the wind past the meadow. So, where the hell was she?
Instincts told him to go out and find her and talk about his decision, but he clamped down on that feeling. He couldn’t go out looking for her every time she decided she needed a little alone time. She’d get pissed off and think he was some overprotective goof. Yeah, she’d be back soon. They would have supper and talk afterwards by a nice, cozy fire.
Kayne sighed wearily and returned to his chair. In order to keep his thoughts off Eve, he forced himself to start singing along with the other two guys. Heck, someone had to show them that someone around here knew how to sing on key.
* * * *
“She’s gone!” Maddox shouted as he came out of the barn and met Kayne and Riley, who were returning from looking for Eve. When she hadn’t come back by nightfall, Kayne and Riley had headed out in separate directions, and Maddox had remained back at the cabin with the lights glowing, standing on the porch watching for any movement of Eve in the darkness.
Fuck! He hadn’t even thought about checking the barn until an hour had gone by. He’d trusted her when she’d said she was going for a freaking walk.
“What do you mean she’s gone?” Riley snapped.
“Her horse is gone. Our horses, too, and the fucking wagon we were going to use to haul the gold,” Maddox explained in a mad gush. He was surprised he was able to formulate words he was so upset.
“She took all the horses?” Kayne growled.
“All of them. We’ve been fucking abandoned!” Maddox shook his head as disbelief continued to claw through him.
“She must have been listening to our discussion in the barn, and then while we were in the cabin singing our idiot brains out, she snuck here,” Kayne said. Maddox could hear the regret lacing his voice and understood that Kayne would blame himself for not talking this over with Eve. Too late now. He resisted the urge to get snapping mad at Kayne. It was all their faults. They should have included her in their discussion. Man, when would they ever learn that Eve didn’t like to be ordered around?
“How the hell did she get all the horses and wagons out of here without us even seeing or hearing anything?” Riley asked.
“It was all that loud fucking singing. If you’d kept your mouths shut we would have heard something,” Kayne snapped at him and started for the cabin.
“Well, excuse us, but it didn’t stop you from singing along,” Maddox complained.
“Okay, chill, you two. This is not the time to lose it. We need to find her fast,” Maddox said, feeling the tension zipping through the air between Mad and Kayne.
“How? She’s got all the horses, and who knows how long she’s been gone,” Riley said as he followed Mad
and Kayne back to the cabin.
“We’ll have to hoof it out of here and follow her on foot. The wagon will slow her down a little,” Kayne ordered as they burst through the door. “Pack light but pack for several days. We’ll have to live off the land as we go in order to make our supplies last. We need to get to Eve before she and C.J. try to take on the Wolfe Gang on her own. And when we catch up to Eve, she’s going to regret what she’s done, and I’ll make sure she doesn’t run again. Even if I have to tie her to a bed to make it happen.”
Despite the seriousness of the situation, Riley grinned. “I do enjoy a good punishment, right Mad?”
Mad tossed Riley a wobbly grin, but he didn’t answer. He knew, just as both Kayne and himself knew, there was a pretty good possibility Eve would be dead before they ever reached her.
* * * *
Eve was still cursing Kayne, Maddox, and Riley two nights later as she sat cross-legged behind a bunch of scraggly pine trees and watched the black mouth of the cave C.J., Lane, and herself had escaped almost two years ago. Back then it had been just as creepy and cold as now.
Back then she’d been in so much pain she hadn’t been able to orient herself due to her head injury, but tonight she felt revitalized and confident that C.J. and herself could pull off this heist themselves. Over the past couple of years she’d kept every bit of information tucked away in her head regarding how to get to this cave, as well as how many men and women Wolfe would probably have on his payroll. C.J. had also told Eve that Wolfe was a creature of routine as well that he had trust issues. He didn’t like change, and he didn’t like new people. C.J. suspected that’s why Wolfe hadn’t moved the gold, and he’d probably have the same trusted people surrounding him.