He didn’t grunt or stagger under the impact of her body. He just stood there, smiling down at her, as if he did this sort of thing every day. His arms felt strong, easily capable of handling her weight.
Drew felt her pulse leap and her heart hammer in her chest. Not once since she was a small child had a man held her. Yet she was now cradled in Cole’s arms like some sort of fancy woman. She knew she ought to order him to let her down, but she couldn’t summon the strength. Or the will.
More than ever she found herself acutely conscious of his virile appeal. She could feel the magnetism that made him so self-confident, made women want to be near him, want to surrender to his charm. She couldn’t miss the musky smell of him as he pressed her close. She tried to ignore the pulsing knot that formed in her stomach, but it was useless. She rested firmly in the arms of a strong, handsome man, and she was acting just like a brainless female. She wanted him to go on holding her.
She was an idiot. She should have threatened to quit before she jumped into Cole’s arms, but it was too late now. The damage had been done.
She cleared her throat and pretended not to be affected. “You’re supposed to put me down immediately,” she said. “You don’t want to slow down the act”
She was pleased to see he didn’t produce his usual snappy comeback. In fact, he looked just about as bemused and confused as she felt. Good. If she was going to be knocked senseless by some useless male, it was only fair that he be just as strongly affected by her.
“Great! Wonderful! Marvelous!”
Cole set her down as Earl came running up, sparing Cole the necessity of responding.
“That was perfect. The audience will be breathless. Everything after that will seem better than ever.”
“Good. I’ll go over it with Zeke as soon as he’s done practicing,” Drew said.
“Forget Zeke,” Earl said. “Cole is going to catch you. I want him to become part of your act.”
“No!” Her response, a desperate attempt to separate herself from the feelings that assailed her when she was in Cole’s arms, came before she thought. She couldn’t do this every evening.
“Why not?” Earl asked.
She desperately searched her mind for an excuse Earl might accept.
“Being in the arms of a man I barely know upsets me,” she said. “I’m not sure I’d be calm enough to shoot well after that. If any of my family saw me, I know I wouldn’t.”
“Your family’s not here, and you’ve got all the time in the world to get to know Cole,” Earl said. “I won’t force you to put him in your act, but it would certainly give it a big boost. You could become a real star.”
“I’ll do it with Zeke or Hawk.”
“It would be better with Cole.”
“Why?”
It was a stupid question. She knew the answer before Earl said it.
“He’s good-looking in a sassy sort of way that will drive the women crazy.”
“If he’s part of my act, he can’t challenge me at the end.”
“He’s worth more in the ring. Holding up those bull’seyes was a brilliant idea,” Earl said to Cole. “What made you think of it?”
“I don’t know. It just seemed the natural thing to do.”
“He’s got good theatrical instincts. You listen to him, and soon you’ll be the star of the show.”
Drew had endured the comments about her act being slow and even boring, but that was too much. Her temper flew out of control. “Then you’d better let him replace me. I can be out of here before tonight.” She turned and started out of the arena.
“I didn’t mean that,” Earl said, running after her. “People love you. You’re a great shot, a great act.”
She stopped and spun around to face him. “Then why are you and everybody else trying to change it?”
“If other people are saying the same thing, maybe it’s something you ought to consider.”
But she didn’t want to consider it. She just wanted Cole Benton out of her life.
“I’ll talk to Zeke.”
“Zeke’s a great stunt rider, but he doesn’t do anything for the women.”
“How about Hawk?”
“Better, but Cole is still the best choice.”
She stood there, feeling trapped, knowing Earl was right, wanting him to be wrong.
“If you’re uncomfortable around Cole, spend some time getting to know him. He seems like a nice enough fella.”
“And what happens if we make him part of the act and he decides to drift on out of here next week?”
“Then you can use Hawk or Zeke until the end of the season. If it works really well, we’ll find somebody else for next season.”
She’d ask Matt. If Earl wanted somebody to capture the women’s attention, Matt was just the man he needed. And if Matt wouldn’t do it—he hated to leave the ranch—she’d ask Will. He was young and a little undependable, but there wasn’t a more handsome boy west of the Mississippi.
“Practice it a time or two more,” Earl said. “You might feel a little better about it then.”
She couldn’t possibly feel better if she had to jump into Cole’s arms two or three more times. She’d probably be so shattered she wouldn’t be able to work for a week.
“Okay, but I’m not promising anything.”
Earl broke into a huge smile. “Great! I knew you’d do anything you could for the good of the show.”
Right now she felt more like a fool about to stick her head into the lion’s mouth, and she couldn’t come up with one good reason why she wouldn’t lose it.
“Are those men really your brothers?” Cole asked Drew. They had finished practicing and were sitting in the stands watching the stunt riders go through their routine.
“I said they were, didn’t I?”
“Yes, but—”
“Do you think I’m lying?”
She’d been snapping at him ever since she’d jumped into his arms. He couldn’t say or do anything that didn’t rub her the wrong way.
“No, but it’s hard to imagine how a black man, a half-breed Comanche, and a white girl would end up being adopted into the same family.”
“My parents are unusual. What are yours like?”
He didn’t want to talk about his family. “Let’s just say I’m a misfit who couldn’t live up to their expectations.”
“What sort of expectations?”
“That I’d be a solid citizen. You know, get a job and go to work every day. Marry, settle down, raise a family. Drink, cuss, gamble in moderation, and carry on all affairs discreetly.”
“My family was a lot like that, too. That’s why I didn’t go back to them.”
“I don’t understand.”
“My real parents turned their backs on their families. Unfortunately they didn’t have much in common besides wanting to get away from their kin. They fought all the time. They ignored advice to travel west with a wagon train. They set out alone and were killed by Comanches. I was saved by a man who heard the shooting and came to investigate.”
Cole couldn’t help letting his eyes stray toward where Hawk was working nearby.
“Hawk had nothing to do with that attack,” Drew said. “The Comanche didn’t trust him and the white people threw him out Isabelle found him in an orphanage with seven of my brothers.”
“But you just said you had a family.”
“My aunt found me about a year after my parents were killed. She wanted me to live with her, but I decided to stay with Isabelle and Jake. I figured if my family didn’t want my parents, they wouldn’t be too happy with me, either.”
“Why aren’t you with Jake and Isabelle now?”
“Why aren’t you with your family?” she shot back.
“I asked first.”
“It’s none of your business.”
“If we’re to get to know each other well enough for you to let me be part of your act, we’ve got to know more about each other.”
“Who said I’m goi
ng to let you be part of my act?”
“Nobody, but you know the spectators love me.”
“Modest, aren’t you?”
“I prefer to call it being realistic.”
“How long can I expect you to stay around? If I’m going to change my act to make you part of it, I need to know if you’ll be here past the end of the week.”
“Why should I leave?”
“You floated in. I figure you’ll also float out. Drifters do.”
So that was what she had against him, or at least part of it. “How long do you want me to stay?”
“Until the end of the season.”
“When is that?”
“The regular season ends after Memphis, but Earl wants to go to New Orleans in November. You’d have to stay until then.”
“Okay.”
“Just like that, you’ll agree to stay?”
“Why not?”
“Suppose you get the wanderlust?”
“I won’t.”
“Suppose you do?”
“I’ve given my word. I’ll stay.”
“Just how good is the word of a drifter?”
He wasn’t making much progress at working his way into her confidence. She’d thrown up enough barriers to repel a battalion.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Pack up and leave today so Earl will stop bugging me about putting you in my act.”
She said it quickly, looking him straight in the eye, but he saw something else in her eyes, in her stance. She might want to get rid of him, but she was also a little frightened of him. Why?
“I’ve said I’ll stay through New Orleans, and I will. Now tell me why you left Jake and Isabelle.”
“Because I want my own ranch and this is the fastest way I know to make the money to pay for it.”
Especially if she was using it as a cover for the robberies. The robbers had taken more than a hundred thousand dollars. She could buy a very nice ranch with her share, but thieves didn’t normally invest the money they stole. They usually squandered it and had to steal more.
But he hadn’t seen any sign Drew was spending money. In fact, he hadn’t seen her spend anything at all. Zeke or Hawk neither. Maybe all three of them wanted to buy a ranch.
“I would have thought your parents would help you, maybe even give you some of their land.”
She threw him an exasperated look. “I told you, Jake and Isabelle adopted eleven of us. That’s too many to provide for. Besides, they have a daughter of their own. We figure after all they’ve given us, we ought to provide for ourselves.”
“That’s very noble.”
She gave him another look, this one definitely unfriendly. “You don’t sound like you think so.”
“What about your own family? You said your relatives wanted you to live with them.”
“Everything in life comes with strings attached. Let’s just say I didn’t like their strings.”
He could understand that, even if he couldn’t believe anything else she said. She’d hardly looked at him, but kept her gaze fixed on the trick riders. She mumbled to herself occasionally and wrote on her pad. She didn’t like people messing with her act, but she apparently planned to make several suggestions to her brothers.
If he could believe they were her brothers. It seemed unlikely to him that anybody would adopt eleven orphans, especially such a mix as Drew described. Yet when he allowed his instincts full rein, they told him Drew Townsend was exactly what she appeared to be, a superb shot who had taken a job with Earl Odum’s Wild West Show. She had been adopted, along with Zeke and Hawk, and had formed a very close bond with them over the years. Her brothers had probably been sent by her parents to make sure nothing happened to her.
But he couldn’t let his feelings become involved in his work. That was a good way to botch his assignment, an even better way to get killed. He had no doubt in his mind that Drew could kill him. He also had a strong feeling Zeke and Hawk were rather good with guns themselves. It was a perfect setup for thieves, and working in the show a perfect cover.
His captain had said the evidence was mounting, that he was nearly certain Drew was the leader of this gang. Cole had been here only a few days, not long enough to pit his feelings against evidence gathered by several law officers from different states. He had to go with the facts.
“You agreed to tell me about yourself,” Drew reminded him.
He brought his attention back to Drew. She had leveled an accusing glare at him.
“You don’t mean to weasel out, do you?” she asked.
He didn’t know why her descriptions and comparisons always had to be so unflattering. “There’s not much to tell. My family had very specific plans for me. When I didn’t do what my parents wanted, they made their displeasure known.”
“Parents are always expecting you to do or become what they never managed to do or become themselves. What was so difficult about your situation?”
“Probably nothing. But as you said, I’m the drifting type. I don’t like being tied down.”
“So you started drifting.”
“Yes.”
Her gaze remained on him, open, curious. “And now you find you can’t stop.”
“Let’s just say I haven’t found a reason to stop.”
The comers of her eyes crinkled, and she laughed unexpectedly. It was a soft laugh, easy and liquid. He couldn’t remember ever hearing a sound he liked better.
“I bet I know what could stop you, at least for a little while.”
“What?” She couldn’t possibly mean … she’d probably shoot him on the spot if the thought even crossed his mind.
“Some silly woman with enough money to pay for your pleasures and sufficient foolishness to ignore the fact you’re a shiftless, conscienceless drifter who would waste her money and be unfaithful to her at nearly every opportunity.”
Her evaluation shocked him. True, he’d pretended to be a drifter who thought it might be fun to work in a wild west show for a while, but that didn’t make him a womanizing wastrel. It certainly didn’t mean he was the type to take advantage of the credulity of some poor woman desperate to trade her money for male attention.
“I don’t think I’d be all that bad.” He expected her to temper her evaluation.
“You’d probably be worse,” she said. “Men always take advantage of women. It’s their nature.”
“Taking advantage is one thing. Being a scourge on society is another.”
She looked him full in the face. “Men can’t help being that either.”
“You don’t like men very much, do you?”
The crinkles around the eyes appeared again. “I like them just fine. I just don’t make a fool of myself over them.”
“How about your brothers?”
“Zeke doesn’t have any family. At least, if he does he doesn’t know where they are. Hawk’s mother is dead, and his white and Indian relatives don’t want him. My family doesn’t want me the way I am, so all we have is each other. We stick together because we don’t ask anything of each other we aren’t ready to give in return.”
“What’s that?”
“Loyalty. Outside of that, it’s everybody for himself.”
“That’s a pretty harsh evaluation of life. Don’t you believe in the goodness of man?”
“Sure. Jake and Isabelle are the best people on earth, but there aren’t any more like them.”
“What makes them so good?” He was beginning to take this personally. She didn’t really know him, but she’d lumped him in with the worst of men. “You’ve practically said they are the only two decent people in the world. There must be something outstanding about them.”
“No. They’re just ordinary people.”
“Then why aren’t they liars and deadbeats like the rest of us?”
“I didn’t say everybody was a liar and a deadbeat.”
“Yes, you did. What did Jake and Isabelle do that was so wonderful?”
H
e’d angered her now, but that was all right. He was a little put out himself.
“They adopted all of us when nobody else wanted us. They gave us a home, made us feel wanted, helped restore our self-respect.”
“Do-gooders on a monumental scale.”
“Don’t make fun of them.”
“Did they succeed in their lofty objectives?”
It surprised him when she didn’t snap back at him. “I used to think so, but most of the boys have left. Now I don’t know.”
He wanted to explore the issue further. If Jake and Isabelle were real, if they really had adopted all those kids, they might have established a network of gangs all over the South. No telling what a really clever leader could accomplish by adopting kids already alienated from society and teaching them to get back at people who’d hurt them. He wanted to know more about this couple.
“Who are those men over there?” she asked.
“Which men?”
“The ones talking to Carl. Why is one of them pointing at me?”
“Those are reporters. I invited them to come see you give a demonstration. I’m going to make you the biggest attraction in this show.”
Chapter Seven
“Who gave you the right to bring them here?” The look she gave him said she’d rather riddle his body with bullets than speak to even one reporter.
“I told you what I wanted to do.”
“I never thought you’d do it.” She got to her feet. “You asked them here, you talk to them.”
Cole grabbed her wrist. “You can’t leave. They came to see you, not me.”
“Watch me.”
Drew pulled hard against his hold on her; he let her go. He didn’t understand why she was so set against meeting the press, unless she didn’t want anybody to take a picture, for fear somebody could identify her as the leader of the robbers.
“Do you want your act to be a success?”
She stopped and turned to face him, irritation pinching her features. “We’ve already been through this.”
“Do you want to earn enough money for your ranch in one more year, or do you want to keep doing this for the rest of your life?”
“You know the answer to that, too. Get to what you mean to say.”
“This is show business. The person with the most talent doesn’t always come out on top. You’ve got to sell yourself to the public, make the audience want what you have to offer. You’ve got a great gimmick, a woman who can shoot better than a man.”
Drew (The Cowboys) Page 8