Reese

by Lori Handeland

  When he’d touched her, just one finger on her chin, the softness of her skin had made him remember everything he had spent years trying to forget. Because Mary was a woman straight out of his secret past—a past so far gone that not even the five men who chose to ride at his side knew of it.

  Oh, they supposed, and they guessed, and they even placed bets on just who and what he had been before the war made him what he was. But they didn’t know, and they never would.

  So he’d go to Rock Creek, and he’d help Miss McKendrick, and he’d take everything, but he wouldn’t touch the one thing he wanted to the most.

  This woman who had never been touched before.

  *

  Two weeks to the day after Mary had climbed back on the blasted stage and retraced her route home, dust billowed on the eastern horizon. The church bells rang once—a Rock Creek warning to herd your innocents out of sight. Thus far the bad men had taken only things, not people, but that didn’t mean times weren’t going to change.

  The children had gone home an hour ago, and Mary was just leaving the schoolhouse, where she’d been contemplating her fingernails and cursing Reese. He wasn’t coming, and not only had she wasted two weeks believing he was, but hiring him had been her idea. If he didn’t arrive, she doubted she’d be allowed to go hunting another man like him, even if she knew where to find one.

  Her friend, Josephine Clancy, daughter of the Right Reverend Clancy, joined her. They stared at the dust cloud approaching town. The thunder of hooves filled the air, making the suddenly deserted streets seem even more ghostly.

  “We’d better get inside.” Jo tugged at Mary’s arm.

  “Just a minute.”

  Mary squinted at the cloud, which had drifted close enough to distinguish the shapes of men on horses. Six men to be exact, and the one in the middle wore black from the tip of his hat to the toe of his boot.

  “Reese,” she whispered, and in that one word she heard too many things.

  The group pulled up as they neared town, and Mary got a glimpse at what she’d paid everything for. They looked rougher than the outlaws they’d come to drive away, these six men of various ages and sizes with an arsenal attached to their saddles and hips. Mary hadn’t seen that many guns since she rode out of Missouri.

  “That’s them?” Jo asked.

  “Yes.”

  Jo’s hand slipped from Mary’s arm, and she laced their fingers together. “I only have one question.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Did things just get better, or did they get worse?”

  Chapter 2

  Reese and his men had been on their horses for days when they reached Rock Creek, but they weren’t tired. They’d gotten used to riding during the war. Riding and fighting, that was what they did, and in the five years since surrender, they’d honed those skills to bayonet sharpness.

  Each man had a story to tell of how he’d come to follow Reese. If they knew how woefully inadequate he was as a leader, they’d probably kill him. But no matter how hard Reese tried to get someone else to lead the way, they all just laughed and told him to do his damn job.

  Each man had a past life too, though Reese chose to know as little as possible about their lives before they wore the gray. Since he didn’t plan to tell them about his past, he thought it only fair he did not collect theirs.

  As a result, the five were a close-knit crew, which left Reese on the outside, and that sat fine with him. He didn’t deserve friends, family, or a life better than the one he had. Being alive at all was more than he deserved, an opinion most folks down home in Georgia—including the woman he should have married—would have agreed with wholeheartedly.

  Reese and the others pulled their horses to a stop at the outskirts of town and contemplated Rock Creek. The place resembled a hundred other Texas hamlets—small, rough, with a single main street of crude buildings and a few homes straggling into the land beyond. There was a church and steeple, which was more than a lot of towns had and a white building that must be the school. Beyond the settlement, trees and greenery hinted that a river ran just over the slope, but the land everywhere else stood dry, brown, and rugged.

  “There it is.”

  Reese spared a glance at the large, somewhat unkempt man who rode to his right. Jedidiah Rourke had a habit of stating the obvious, usually with a large amount of profanity thrown in.

  “You would know, since you’re the one who got us into this.”

  Jed grunted. “Free room and board and a little bit of change is better than a whole lot of nothing. Which is what we were all down to when you sent for us.”

  Reese didn’t comment. He knew as well as Jed that when one of them called, the others came. It had little to do with money and everything to do with honor and loyalty, two tenets they all clung to, even though everything else had gone as dead as the Confederate Army. They might be rough, but they knew what was right.

  “I was doin’ fine in Fort Worth, gentlemen. My ship wuz gunna come in.” Nate Lang took a sip from his ever-present flask, then slipped it back into the breast pocket of his dandified suit with an ease born of practice.

  Nate rode on Reese’s left side for two reasons: Reese could grab him if he drank too much and slipped off Bessie, and Nate, despite his constant state of drunkenness, was the best sniper shot of the bunch. Reese often wondered if Nate could shoot straight while sober. Since he hadn’t seen Nate sober since well before Gettysburg, Reese figured that was one worry he didn’t have.

  “Las mujeres, who are they?” Rico Salvatore always wanted to know who the women were.

  Reese turned his attention toward Rock Creek. Two women stared back at him, the winds of Texas whipping their skirts. They held hands, obviously frightened, but as he watched, one of them stepped forward and waved at him.

  “Mary,” he whispered before he could stop himself.

  “Maria?”

  “Knock off that Mex talk, Kid,” snarled Daniel Cash. “You’re in the recently reunited United States.”

  Rico and Cash rode hip to hip more often than not, though the two annoyed each other to no end. Rico often spoke the language of his father, even though he’d been born right here in Texas. For some reason, this grated on Cash, which only made Rico do it more. Something Reese couldn’t quite figure.

  Cash was the most dangerous of them all. When he wasn’t with the six, he was a gunman of some renown. What had happened in Cash’s life to turn him sour, Reese didn’t want to know. They all had their little problems.

  “Reese!” Mary’s voice carried on the spring wind. She waved again, even though the girl at her side pulled on her arm to make her stop.

  The woman was a puzzlement. She’d actually given him all of her money before telling him where to find Rock Creek. Being the man he was, Reese had taken it. He was also trotting into Rock Creek exactly when he’d promised.

  Despite being run out of his home in disgrace, it seemed he wasn’t much of a thief or a cheat.

  Just a murderer.

  Reese let out a low growl and kicked his horse into a walk. Sinclair Sullivan, the last of the six, joined him. Reese enjoyed being with Sullivan the most because Sullivan knew how to keep his mouth shut. Reese liked that in a man.

  “She the one who hired us?” Reese nodded. “Sweet on her, aren’t ya?”

  Reese shot a narrow glare at the half-breed scout. “Keep your private thoughts private.”

  “That’s what I thought.” Sullivan snorted and dropped back to join the others, muttering, “A hundred and fifty dollars plus room and board.”

  Reese ignored him. Sometimes Sullivan’s ability to see what wasn’t visible saved their lives, and sometimes it just made Reese’s head ache.

  Mary ran out to meet them, her face one big smile. He would really have to talk with her. The woman was asking for trouble the way she trusted the untrustworthy and wore everything she felt on her face. But for a moment he let himself bask in the warm welcome of her eyes. No one had looked at
him like that in far too long.

  Reese stopped his horse, murmuring gentle assurances as he slipped from the saddle. He didn’t want the animal spooked by Mary’s flapping skirt, nor did he want Mary slashed by Atlanta’s razor-sharp hooves. Nothing would have spooked Ares, the horse he’d ridden into battle. But Ares was gone, along with so many other things.

  Her scent invoked memories of rainwater and cloudy nights. Reese went light-headed with hunger and leaned against his horse for strength.

  “You came!” Surprise colored her voice.

  Ruthlessly, he pushed aside longings for a past that was dead and gone, then turned with narrowed eyes. “You thought I wouldn’t?”

  Mary flinched, and her smile froze. Reese hadn’t meant to sound so vicious. Sometimes the anger crept up and bubbled over when he wasn’t expecting it.

  Her dark-haired little friend stepped up next to her and laid a hand on Mary’s arm. “I thought you’d be in the next state by now, with Mary’s money.”

  “Then you’re much smarter than Mary.”

  Mary tilted her chin. “You’re here, aren’t you?”

  Someone behind him laughed. Reese turned and glared, but no one’s face held even the glimmer of a smile—except for Nate, who seemed drunk enough to be happy the rest of the century.

  “I’m here,” he agreed as he returned his attention to the ladies. “Appears the rest of your town is too, Miss McKendrick.”

  She spun about, and her skirt touched his leg. How was it he could feel the brush of blue cotton even through the wool of his pants?

  “Humph,” she muttered. “Nosy busybodies. Left the hiring to me, but now they want to know every little thing.”

  “That’s always the way of it,” Reese observed. “I suspect if you introduce us, they’ll go away.”

  “Introduce?” Jed snorted. “I’ll be damned if I’ll stand still for introductions. Just show me where the hell I can put my horse and get me a frigging drink.”

  “Here, here!” Nate agreed.

  Mary’s friend frowned.

  Reese sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Excuse Jed, Miss…” He dropped his hand and glanced at the girl.

  “Clancy,” she answered. “Josephine Clancy.” She refused to meet his eyes; instead, she continued to stare at the men.

  “Well, Jed lives alone, Miss Clancy, and you can see why.”

  “Jed would be the man of the colorful vocabulary who visited Rock Creek a few months back?”

  “So I hear.”

  “I was more concerned with the man hanging by one stirrup.”

  Reese cursed. Miss Clancy smirked. He spun about to discover that Nate had slipped free of his saddle, but no one had put him back.

  “Dammit, Cash, can’t you do something about Nate?”

  “I could shoot him, but you’d be mad.”

  “I’ll take care of it.” Miss Clancy walked over to Nate and set about freeing him from his horse.

  Reese rubbed at his temple. Sometimes these men were worse than children, although they fought a hell of a lot better. A flash of agony shot through his brain, and Reese gritted his teeth to stifle a moan. Best not remember what he kept trying to forget.

  “Reese?”

  Mary’s soft voice, closer than before, brought his head up. He nearly bumped noses with her and took a quick step back, where he bumped into Atlanta’s big behind and bounced forward. Whoever had snickered before did so again.

  “What?” Reese snarled.

  “These are the men I paid everything for?” Her voice but a whisper, she seemed skeptical, and Reese couldn’t blame her. They always made a lousy first impression. Still, he knew his men, and they were worth a lot more than everything.

  “They don’t look like much, but you should see them in action.”

  “If you say so.” She contemplated the others then smiled brightly at one of them. Rico. Reese didn’t even have to look. The Kid had a way with women, though Mary should be able to see through a sly fox like Salvatore with ease. How did she manage little children if she believed every lie they spouted?

  Well, that wasn’t his business, but he would have a talk with Rico. No seduction of Mary or Reese would kick the Kid’s ass all the way home to San Antone.

  “If you would all follow me, I’ll take you to the hotel. It’s not much, but it’s all we’ve got.”

  Mary walked off toward town, where the crowd awaited. Reese studied the people who studied him. She hadn’t been lying when she’d told him Rock Creek held only old men, boys, and cripples. Besides women and a man dressed in black who must be the preacher, that was all Reese saw. Rock Creek did need them, no doubt about it.

  Still, Reese hesitated, admiring the sway of Mary’s skirt and the curve of her rump. She must have sensed they weren’t following, because she stopped and turned with a raised brow, then caught him admiring her backside and blushed like a virgin.

  Like? Hell, she was, and off limits to him as well as the rest.

  “Coming?” she asked.

  Another snort from the jokers behind him had Reese coloring too. Not trusting his voice, he merely nodded and took a step after her, committing himself and the others to saving Rock Creek.

  *

  Mary’s heart felt ready to burst from her chest. What had she done by bringing such men to her home? And Rock Creek was home, or would be soon enough.

  The home she’d been dreaming of all her life.

  Would these men do more harm than good? She could only hope and pray that she’d made the right decision for everyone.

  Reese caught up and walked at her side. The breath she’d been holding brushed past her lips on a sigh. The man was something special to look at, and the way he looked at her…

  She faltered a step. No one else had ever looked at her like that. Mary wasn’t sure the omission was a bad thing, either, if it made her mind go mushy. She had neither the time nor the patience for nonsense.

  Reverend Clancy, Jo’s father and the closest thing Rock Creek had to a mayor these days, stepped out of the crowd. Personally, Mary thought he was a pompous ass, but he was all they had for a preacher too. The way he treated Jo, his only child, sometimes made Mary want to kick the man in the shins. She was no doubt courting hell with such thoughts, but sometimes she couldn’t stop them.

  “Reverend,” she began.

  “Present!” shouted the drunk. Nate, Reese had called him.

  Mary glanced over her shoulder. Jo was riding the man’s horse astride, holding him in the saddle with her arms around him. With her skirt hiked up, her ankles were clearly visible, and as Mary watched, Nate laid his hand on her thigh.

  “Josephine Clancy!” The reverend’s impressive belly heaved with the force of his outrage, and his shock of gray hair shook like a tiny tree in a big wind.

  “Hell,” Mary muttered. “We’re all going there.”

  Jo glanced over at her father’s bellow, but she did not blanch or shirk or even remove Nate’s hand from her leg. Instead, she merely nodded to her father as if he’d been greeting her politely. “I’m taking Nate to his room. He should lie down.” Then she turned the horse toward the Rock Creek Hotel.

  Reverend Clancy appeared as if he were about to have heart failure. Despite his constant harangues over her behavior, Jo pretty much did as she saw fit. Her creed was “do unto others,” and a more Christian soul you’d never want to meet. If her father could see past his ideas of proper, ladylike behavior, he might even be proud of the daughter he’d raised in spite of himself.

  “Reverend.” Mary stepped forward as Clancy stepped in the direction of the hotel. “These are the men I hired to help us.”

  Obviously torn between going after his daughter and meeting the hired guns Mary had hunted down, Clancy wavered. The reverend hadn’t wanted Mary to go to Dallas. But since he wasn’t willing to do anything, when she’d gotten the rest of the town to agree, he’d had no choice but to accept her plan. As a result, he wasn’t too happy with Mary, but then he never h
ad been.

  Reese stepped forward and held out his hand. “Name’s Reese, Reverend.”

  Clancy stared at Reese’s hand as if he expected to see a snake there. Instead of shaking the proffered hand, he nodded once and put his own behind his back, out of reach of the rabble.

  Reese’s eyes narrowed, but he said nothing, merely turned and introduced the rest of the men. “You’ve met Jed Rourke, I assume. Or at least one of you did.” He raised a brow at Mary. “Sullivan, Rico, Cash, and Miss Clancy’s new friend, Nate.”

  He turned back to the reverend with a smirk. Mary saw where the meeting was headed and stepped between the two. “Thank you. Now I’ll just take y’all to the hotel and you can get settled.”

  Clancy and Reese glared at each other like two dogs over a bone, though what the bone was, in this case, Mary couldn’t quite fathom.

  She didn’t want to touch Reese, but she needed to get his attention. If he came along with her, the rest would follow; she’d seen that right off. What was it about Reese that made him their leader?

  Well, that was neither here nor there as long as he could keep them in line. Because if these men got out of control in Rock Creek, they’d be worse than the men she’d hired them to chase off.

  Mary shivered and thought again, What have I done?

  Before she could go down the same road, a second time, toward answers she didn’t have, Mary reached out and clasped Reese’s forearm. He tensed and yanked away, hand going to his gun in one fluid movement that would have been beautiful if it weren’t so deadly.

  “Stop! Right now!” she ordered, surprising herself.

  Clancy skittered back, out of harm’s way. Coward. Reese turned his head just a bit, and his eyes met hers. Whereas he’d been completely civilized up until now, introducing his men as if they’d come to dance at a ball, the civility was gone, eaten, no doubt, by the animal in his eyes.

  “I’m not one of your students, Miss McKendrick. Don’t tell me what to do.”