And so was his temper, because as the reverend started the ceremony, as Maddie repeated the vows in her sweet, low voice, happiness written all over her face, he couldn’t shake the certainty that he’d been set up. It wouldn’t be the first time and it likely wouldn’t be the last. But to think that he’d fallen into a trap of Maddie’s making, betrayed by one of Hell’s Eight, soured his stomach. From the expression on Ace’s face, it wasn’t sitting too well with him, either, and as much as he wanted answers, now wasn’t the time to search for them.
The ceremony was short, to the point. No rings were exchanged, which didn’t stop Maddie from holding out her hand and expecting one. The expression on her face was crestfallen when he didn’t produce one, but then just as quickly, she tucked her fingers up into her palm and smiled at the preacher.
“He’s saving up to get me a special one. I’ll be the envy of all the women.”
She was going to be something. She’d be lucky if he didn’t put her over his knee.
“I bet he will, pretty thing,” Culbart said, “but if he doesn’t, you come give your uncle Frank a visit.”
The threat was thinly veiled.
“Do you really want to be on the wrong side of Hell’s Eight, Culbart?”
Culbart gave Maddie a hug, tilted his head to the side. “Seems to me I just forged an alliance with Hell’s Eight.”
“One that lasts only as long as this wedding.”
“Never known a Hell’s Eight man to break a promise, and you just promised to love and cherish this lady forever until death do you part.”
Son of a bitch. So he had.
“A promise made under duress.”
“A promise is a promise,” Culbart cut in.
Caden had to agree. He really had promised to love and cherish and protect Maddie forever.
“Dickens, put down that shotgun,” Culbart said. “No need for it anymore, and fetch the whiskey. Bob, go fetch your fiddle. I fancy a dance with the bride.”
Maddie giggled and blushed. “I’m sure my husband will want the first dance.”
Caden flexed his shoulders as Dickens cut his bonds. “Dance with whomever you want.”
Maddie’s smile faltered but then steadied. “He’s such a considerate man.”
Culbart’s frown didn’t match the lightness of his tone. “A regular prince.”
“Yes. My prince.”
The men pushed the chairs back and Culbart put his arm out. Maddie cast him one uncertain look before taking it, her smile more forced than before. The strains of the fiddle picked up speed. Culbart twirled her forward. He danced the way one would expect for such a big man, more enthusiasm than grace, but after a couple spins, Maddie didn’t seem to mind. She tipped her head back and laughed. Her hair came out of its elaborate bun and flowed over Culbart’s arm. The sight was just one more aggravation in a day of them. The man was entirely too familiar with his wife. When Culbart and she stopped dancing, the next Fallen C hand was in line. This one was more graceful. He’d obviously danced a lot. Maddie’s tongue peeked between her lips as she concentrated on following his intricate steps, but follow them she did, her laughter rising above the music, landing on his pride, galling him.
When the next man would have stepped up, Caden had had enough. Shotgun marriage or not, Maddie was his wife, not some floozy for all to handle. He strode across the room, tapping the man on the shoulder.
“My turn.”
Maddie stood there, looking impossibly sweet, fragile, treacherous. For a moment he thought he saw fear in her eyes, but then her smile was back, soft and gentle, the way she only smiled for him. She held up her arms. He put one hand around her waist and grabbed her hand with the other. She blinked when she didn’t get the kiss she expected, but as he led her into a slow waltz, she fell in step with him. Now that he had her in his arms, Caden wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with her.
She sighed. “Our first dance as husband and wife.”
“Likely our last, too.”
She blinked, but that smile didn’t shake.
“You think the fiddler is getting tired?”
She was deliberately misunderstanding him.
“I think I’m tired.” Tired of this charade. Tired of believing she could betray him. Tired of accepting it was more than likely she had. Maddie hungered for respectability, and today she’d found a way to get it.
Shit. He’d been a fool. They’d all been fools. But there was no undoing this, no getting out of it right now.
He danced Maddie over to one of the hands and passed her off. He’d had enough of this crap.
“Giving away the bride so soon?” Dickens sneered.
Caden dropped her hand and turned away. “Yes.”
Maddie gasped, and a reflective growl rose in one of the men. Caden flexed his shoulders and smiled. He could use a good fight. Before Caden could take anyone up on the challenge, Ace threw his arm around his shoulder and shoved a whiskey into his hand.
“What the fuck are you doing, Caden? Trying to get us all killed?” he muttered, shoving him toward the door and out.
“She played me for a fool, all of us for fools.”
Ace shrugged. “Maybe. Or maybe this is all some scheme thought up by Culbart.”
“She didn’t need to go along with it.”
“Hell, Caden, it’s Maddie. Half the time she doesn’t know if she’s here or there. You can’t be blaming her for this.”
Caden remembered the moment of satisfaction on her face at the end of the ceremony. “Yeah, I can.”
“Well, whatever’s going on, we can’t do anything about it now, so let’s just get the celebrating done, get Maddie loaded up and get the hell back to Hell’s Eight.”
“I’m not taking her back to Hell’s Eight.”
“Why not?”
“One, because I can’t afford to lose the mine to claim jumpers, and two, she wanted to be my wife, then she can be my fucking wife and deal with all that means.”
“And what the hell is that?” Ace asked.
Caden shoved his hat back down on his head, glaring into the house through the window at Maddie, who was dancing with yet another cowboy, her smile not as light as before, her step not as merry.
“I have a feeling we’re both about to find out.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
CULBART INSISTED ON providing them with an escort. Maddie was grateful. Caden was not. Every clop of their horses’ hooves just scraped along his anger, until an hour from the mine, Caden reached the end of his patience. Culbart might have forced a wife on him, but he wasn’t going to force the revelation of the mine. Caden pulled Jester up so short, Maddie’s little mare ran into its ass. Habit had him looking over his shoulder to make sure she was okay. She wasn’t the best rider, and if he gave a thought to how she’d left in the middle of the night from Hell’s Eight, he’d probably have a fit of apoplexy.
“What’s the problem?” Dickens asked from farther back.
Leather creaked as Caden turned in the saddle. “This is as far as you go.”
Dickens’s horse gave a toss of its head the way an animal did when the grip on the reins got too tight, too fast.
“Boss said we were to see you home.”
“Consider us home.”
“It wouldn’t be right to send them back without supper,” Maddie whispered.
Ace just shook his head. Caden didn’t answer. The silence grew heavy with Culbart’s men determined to fulfill their role, Maddie fretting about a nonexistent meal and Caden’s sense of betrayal growing. If any other woman had pulled that stunt, he would have been pissed but understood. But Maddie? He shook his head. That was betrayal of Hell’s Eight. Of their friendship. Of him. It was Ace who finally broke the silence.
“Maddie, honey, your uncle Frank needs his men home tomorrow. I saw Indian sign back there.”
She frowned. “Indians wouldn’t bother Uncle Frank. He gives them cattle.”
No amount of cattle was going to settle the unrest
swelling in this land, and from the looks Dickens gave his companion, Michael, that Indian sign had him worried, too.
“Maddie,” Caden said, drawing her attention.
“Yes?” Her voice was soft and clear, as if a world of tension wasn’t lodged between them.
“Culbart’s men are leaving. Now. This is as far as they go.”
“But—”
Dickens cut in, way too agreeably for a man carrying the grudge Dickens was. “Ma’am, truth be told, we are needed back at the Fallen C.”
She sighed and turned her little mare around in the tight confines of the trail; he could only assume she was smiling at them as she said ever so properly in manners that Tia would admire, “Thank you very kindly for your time.”
Dickens cut Caden a smile as he took her hand and brought it to his lips. Caden bared his teeth in response.
“It was truly our pleasure, ma’am.”
With a tip of their hats, Dickens and Michael left. There was a brief moment of jostling when Dickens’s horse had to get past Ace’s on the narrow trail—Caden had a feeling it was intentional—but finally the men left and it was just the three of them. Maddie didn’t turn even after they’d vanished from sight.
“Maddie.”
No response beyond the slight stiffening of her shoulders. The sun glinted off the red of her hair, giving the impression of fire. Caden sighed. It was too bad Maddie’s inner fire was extinguished before it even got to flicker
“You’re going to have to turn that horse around and face me sometime, Maddie.”
With a slow breath that expanded her ribs beneath the yellow wool of her dress, she did, and when she faced him, her expression was blank, totally and completely blank. No mischief. No dread. No nothing. Unlike her moments of pretense, that expression bothered him. He didn’t know what to do with it. Son of a bitch.
“What’s wrong?” Ace asked.
Caden shook his head and sighed. “Maddie needs a moment.”
Ace looked down the trail. “We don’t have one.”
“Then we’ll make one.”
“I don’t trust that Dickens as far as I can throw him.”
Neither did he, but they didn’t have a choice. Turning Jester, Caden rode up beside Maddie. The trail was so narrow their knees touched. The sensation that snaked through him was pleasure, pure and simple. It pissed him off. He slid his fingers under Maddie’s chin and turned her face to his. Her gaze looked right through him. Stroking his thumb over her lips, he shook his head.
“Why, Maddie?”
She didn’t answer, just kept staring. He had the oddest sensation she was bracing herself. Way down deep where no one could see. The guilt was no more welcome than the pleasure. Grabbing the reins from her hands, he looped them over his saddle horn before switching his grip to her waist and dragging her off the mare and across his lap.
“I wasn’t kidding about that Indian sign,” Ace stated quietly.
“I know.” Ace was the type that took precautions in the middle of his recklessness. With a sigh, Caden settled Maddie in. She fit against him perfectly; the side of her breast pressed into his chest, her hips rested on his thighs. Soft. Everything about her was soft. Grabbing Flower’s reins and wrapping his arm around Maddie’s waist, Caden directed Jester with a press of his knee. The big horse responded as he always did. Immediately and without hesitation. He was loyal to a fault. Unlike Maddie. Fuck, that was hard to swallow.
“She all right?” Ace asked once they were moving.
He glanced over his shoulder again, but there was nothing to see except the set of Ace’s shoulders, the top of his hat pulled down low over his brow and the firm set of his mouth.
“She’s fine.”
Ace grunted. Caden could tell Ace wasn’t pleased with him. He didn’t really give a shit. Ace could afford to be chivalrous. Ace wasn’t saddled with a wife he hadn’t expected or wanted, one who wasn’t even in her right mind. And while Caden hadn’t spent much time speculating what kind of life he might have, the few times he’d gone down that road, the woman he’d pictured had at least been sane.
A scent that reminded him of wildflowers drifted up from Maddie’s hair. It was as natural as breathing to press a kiss to the top of her head. So natural he wasn’t even aware he’d done it until her fingers found his wrist and she was looking up at him with hope in her eyes.
“I’m sorry, Caden.”
He pulled his hand free. The hope drained from her face, leaving it once again starkly blank. They rode on for several minutes like that, neither speaking, her body tense against his. His tense under hers. Anger where there had once been trust.
He nudged Jester into a trot, forcing Maddie back against him. Her elbow dug into his stomach, her head collided with his bruised chin. For a second, he saw stars.
She stiffened more, which just caused her to bounce more.
“Relax before you get us both killed.”
She did immediately, on a harsh gasp that sounded distinctly like a sob.
Gritting his teeth, Caden urged Jester into a canter, letting the sound of the horses’ hooves drown out the sound of her crying. It didn’t drown out his anger. He’d trusted her, and she’d turned on him quick as a rattlesnake. Goddamn her. She was lucky he didn’t wring her neck. Her tears soaked through his shirt, cutting into his conscience. Before he knew it, he was stroking her shoulder, soothing her. The woman who’d betrayed him. Caden stilled his hand.
Fuck.
* * *
BY THE TIME THEY GOT BACK to the campsite, Maddie was quiet and Caden was seething. Ace pulled his horse up beside them, dismounted and smiled at Maddie.
“Good to have you back, Sprout.”
As far as Caden could tell, Maddie didn’t respond. Ace looked between him and her and shook his head. “Go easy on her.”
Caden unwrapped Flower’s reins from the saddle. “I wasn’t even planning on talking to her.”
Ace snorted. “You’re so ready to talk you’re about to explode.”
“She’s my wife and none of your concern.”
He gave the reins a little tug so Flower recognized who held her. Maybe that was what Maddie needed. A leash so she wouldn’t forget to whom she belonged.
Caden pulled his hat down over his brow and held his hand out for Ace’s horse’s reins. “I’ll water the horses.”
“I’ll scout around and make sure everything’s the way we left it.”
Caden nodded. Ace hesitated, glancing between Maddie and him. Shaking his head, he pushed his hat back.
“Hell, Caden, just remember half the time she doesn’t know what she’s doing.”
Not this time. “This is none of your business, Ace.”
“Maddie’s Hell’s Eight. That makes her my business.”
The anger knotted in Caden’s gut as truth he’d been chewing on for miles settled. “She betrayed Hell’s Eight. That changes everything.”
* * *
MADDIE’S QUIET LASTED until they reached the pond. Then as if he’d flipped a lever, she slid off the horse and grabbed the reins down by the bit. Holding Jester for him, he realized. As if that was necessary. Hell, maybe she wasn’t in her right mind. She looked around.
“We’re home?”
He should be used to her mental comings and goings but he wasn’t.
“If you’re willing to call a tent in the middle of a pile of rocks home, yes.”
She blinked at his tone. “You must be hungry.”
What he was was pissed. “What in the hell makes you think that?”
“You’re hard to live with when you’re hungry.”
“Noticed that, did you?” He swung down off Jester. “I’m even harder to live with when I’m played for a fool.”
He grabbed the gelding’s reins out of her hands, keeping ahold of the other horses’, as well. The last thing he wanted right now was her help.
“I don’t understand.”
The hell she didn’t. “Go back to the camp, Maddie.�
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“I can help you with the horse.”
“Right now the only thing that will help is you disappearing.”
She stopped walking beside him. “A wife’s place is with her husband.”
The cliché snapped the last of his control. “And a whore’s place is on her back. What’s your point?”
Caden regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth. Maddie gasped and stepped back, her pale skin bleaching a ghastly white. Guilt lashed at him. He’d never thrown her past in her face before. He ran his fingers through his hair. The woman flat-out drove him crazy. “I’m sorry, Maddie. You didn’t deserve that.”
She deserved a hell of a lot, but not that.
She didn’t respond, just kept looking at him as if her world was crumbling. Inside, the wild anger twisted in a lash of guilt. Needing release. Before he could say anything more, Caden turned and walked away, leaving Maddie there, forcing himself not to look back. He heard the slide of soft rock under her feet as she started back up the hill, heard the ping of stones as they tumbled down behind her. Heard her sob.
Fuck. Why the hell did he care?
Letting the reins slip through his fingers, Caden stood while the horses drank their fill, his thoughts so dark he couldn’t feel the sun. One by one he relived the events of the afternoon, but no matter how he shook it out, there was no way in hell Maddie hadn’t played along with Culbart when it came to the marriage, maybe even put the idea in his head. Hell, she had to have put the idea in his head. Why else would Culbart consider marrying him to her? There was more for him to gain by marrying her himself in the form of an alliance with Hell’s Eight. No, any push toward marrying had come from Maddie herself. Damn her.
Who the hell was Maddie? The sweet, abused woman who’d come to Hell’s Eight for shelter or the gold digger who’d conned her way into a marriage with a man she expected was going to be wealthy.
Caden took the nugget out of his pocket, rolled it over his fingers, looking for that faint trace of gold within the hidden depths. He thought Maddie had depth, but maybe he was just fooling himself the way men wanted to fool themselves when it came to women. He closed his fingers around the nugget and squeezed. He shoved the nugget back into his pocket. Or more than likely Maddie was both sweet and conniving, and who could blame her? Brought up as she was, the one thing in this world she’d want more than anything was security, and nothing brought security like a husband. A wealthy one just that much more.
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