Trail of Aces (Hot on the Trail Book 8)

by Merry Farmer

  “Charlie’s wife?” Chet glanced to Charlie, his smile wide and wicked. “Then it really is a pleasure to meet you.” He raised Olivia’s hand to his lips, kissing her knuckles.

  Charlie couldn’t catch his breath. His head swam with panic. Olivia had just painted a target on her head. Chet was far too smart not to realize he’d found a way to get to him.

  “What brings you to Ft. Laramie, Mr. Devlin?” Olivia asked.

  “Chet, please.”

  “Chet.”

  A burst of indignation cut through Charlie’s panic. Now how come she was so quick to call him by his first name when it’d taken her ages to call him Charlie?

  “I’ve come out west with the same intention as anyone else, ma’am. To make a better life for myself,” Chet told her.

  By cheating and robbing half the population blind, no doubt.

  “And you say you and Charlie know each other back east?” Olivia asked.

  “A bit.” Charlie tried his best to downplay the connection.

  “Of course.” Chet straightened to his most charming posture. “Hasn’t Charlie told you all about me?”

  “No, I’m afraid he hasn’t.” Olivia peeked at him, wearing the same sort of suspicion that had veiled her expression the night before, after she’d seen his treasure chest.

  So help him, if Chet interfered with his attempt to make his marriage real, Charlie wouldn’t be responsible for what he did.

  The thought came as unexpectedly as Chet had, and unsettled him just as thoroughly.

  “Charlie, how could you?” Chet said with mock hurt. To Olivia he said, “Charlie and I go way back. We were in business together for almost ten years.”

  “Business?” Olivia’s suspicion grew. “I thought you were a card player.”

  “I—”

  “He is,” Chet confirmed. “So am I. But I think you’ll find that at the level we’ve been playing, it works best to form a business around the game. To help with planning, travel arrangements, and finances.”

  Smooth. But Chet always had been able to talk his way out of any situation and to sound like an authority when he did. Judging by the grin he sent Charlie, Charlie was expected to be grateful that he’d covered the truth with such a respectable-sounding veneer for his wife.

  “I can see how that would be beneficial.” Olivia nodded, her shoulders relaxing. “And I suppose you—”

  “There they are, Colonel Feiser, and there’s the boy. Seize him at once.”

  Olivia stopped short, and together the three of them turned toward the yard in the center of the fort. Charles Nelson, the shifty politician Charlie had been avoiding since the journey started, and his wife marched out of the commandant’s office with an officer. Charlie twisted to see where they were marching, only to find Graham, Estelle, and Tim—who had apparently been found—standing in the middle of a growing crowd of people. A scene had been unfolding around them and he hadn’t even noticed. Losing concentration and a sense of his surroundings could spell disaster.

  “I’m sorry, sir,” Graham addressed the colonel. “I’m not giving up Tim. He’s mine and Estelle’s, and I won’t listen to anything different.”

  “Do you see how belligerent he is?” Nelson appealed to Colonel Feiser. “I’ve tried to reason with him, tried to tell him the council’s decision was final, but he became violent.”

  Olivia’s attention was captivated by the confrontation. Charlie couldn’t have cared less about anything Nelson had to say, especially since little Tim appeared to be back where he belonged, clinging to Estelle’s skirts. He took the opportunity to shift his position so that the bulk of his body blocked Olivia from Chet.

  Chet noticed the move and grinned like a cat about to pounce. More than anything, Charlie wanted to punch the man. If he followed his instincts and did whatever it took to protect Olivia from the monster who had just crawled out of his past, he would give Chet more incentive than he needed to use her against him. But if he separated himself from Olivia in order to protect her at this delicate time in their relationship, it could push Olivia away, give her an excuse to disengage her heart from him. He would rather die than lose her now, but there was a fair chance he’d just landed her in more hot water than she could handle.

  By the time Charlie dragged his attention back to the scene unfolding in front of him, people were coming to Estelle’s defense. Several members of the wagon train spoke up about how wonderful she was. That was enough for the army officer. He refused to step in and take Tim away from Graham and Estelle. After that, the crowd of pioneers clapped and cheered, and Olivia rushed forward to congratulate her friends.

  “She’s lovely,” Chet commented before Charlie could stride off to join them. “I never pegged you as the marrying type.”

  “She’s none of your business.” Too harsh. He was tipping his cards to the one person he couldn’t afford to bluff.

  Chet laughed as if he knew exactly where Charlie’s thoughts were. “Such a delicate flower. Not the sort I would have imagined you with.”

  Charlie kept silent, jaw clenched.

  “I assume she doesn’t know squat about your past,” Chet went on.

  Still Charlie didn’t answer. There was no point, not when everything he said would only make matters worse. He was well and truly in a bind.

  “Isn’t it wonderful,” Olivia said, bright and cheery, when she rejoined them. She was so happy that she nearly bounced on her toes as she reached Charlie’s side. “Graham and Estelle plan to adopt Tim legally as soon as we reach Oregon City. No one will bother them now. It’s such a relief.”

  “How wonderful to see good people get what they deserve,” Chet replied, darting daggers at Charlie out of the corner of his eye. The last thing Charlie needed was what he deserved.

  Olivia took a deep breath, pressing a hand to her chest and beaming wider than Charlie had ever seen. “Mr. Devlin, you must come join us for supper tonight. I was just on my way to purchase supplies so that I could cook a grand feast. Any friend of Charlie’s would be a welcome addition to our table.”

  “I would love to join you,” Chet answered before Charlie could put a stop to it. “It will be a treat to talk about old times, right Charlie?”

  The smile that Charlie put on would have looked forced to a blind man. “Of course it will.”

  “It’s settled then.” Olivia clapped her hands together in joy.

  Charlie’s stomach twisted. No good at all could come of Chet worming his way back into his life.

  It was a good day, the first truly good day Olivia had had in a while. The sun had stayed out all day without being too hot, the supply depot had had everything she needed to restock the wagon and prepare to move on, Estelle and Graham’s situation with Tim was settled, and she had finally met someone from Charlie’s past who might be able to shed some light on who her mysterious husband was.

  “So how did you and Charlie meet?” Olivia asked to begin the pile of questions she was eager to have answered.

  “It’s a funny story,” Chet answered. He paused to chew a bite of the roast she’d cooked in the new Dutch oven Charlie had bought for her at the supply depot. “Mmm. This is delicious, Mrs. Garrett.”

  She should probably insist that he call her Olivia, as he had insisted she call him Chet, but he seemed to enjoy saying “Mrs. Garret” and sending a teasing glance to Charlie when he did. Charlie squirmed on the crate he was using for a chair, as if she’d used too much starch in his drawers. It only made her more curious about the kinds of stories Chet might tell.

  “Thank you, Mr. Devlin. Please let me know if you’d like seconds,” she said, hoping to encourage him to go on.

  “A wise man always asks for more, right Charlie?” Chet arched a brow at Charlie.

  “In moderation,” Charlie replied, then took another large bite of potato.

  Olivia’s senses prickled. Charlie hadn’t been this quiet in all the weeks she’d known him. It dawned on her that he and Chet might have had a conflict
of some sort in their past. Which made her all the more eager to find out how they had met and what their friendship had been like.

  At last, just as she was about to ask again, Chet said, “We met at a card game. Richmond, Virginia, I believe it was, eh Charlie?”

  “Richmond.” Charlie nodded, took a long drink of the beer Chet had brought to supper as a gift. “The Southern Stakes tournament. Richmond was the second stop on that tour.”

  “And Savannah was the third.” Chet twisted to face Olivia. “Your darling husband and I were at the final table, along with a stick of a man named Jenkins. Jenkins was beating the tar out of the both of us. Of course, I didn’t want that, and neither did Charlie. I still couldn’t tell you how it happened, but by force of will and a few well-timed glances, we worked out a way to play Jenkins out of the game. After that, Charlie here won, and once the game was over, we had a drink and talked about our strategy.”

  “We met up in Savannah and tried something similar to oust another tough player,” Charlie added, somewhat reluctantly.

  Chet’s grin grew, and for a moment he studied Charlie with a new light of assessment. “From that point, we worked out a system of supporting each other at tournaments. It turned out that we could catch far more flies working together than either of us could alone.”

  “Teamwork,” Olivia commented. Although a voice at the back of her head whispered that two card players working together to win could be considered cheating. She supposed it was all in how they executed their plans. Charlie would never let himself be drawn into anything truly illegal. Even though he had showed her his amazing card tricks, he insisted that he never cheated when it really mattered.

  Why do you believe him? that voice in the back of her head asked. She brushed it aside.

  “So you worked together that way for ten years?” she asked on.

  “In that way and in a few others,” Chet said. He grinned at Charlie, as if eager to relive good times.

  Charlie smiled, but there was something awkward and off about it. She needed more pieces before she could fit the puzzle together.

  “Where do you plan to settle once you’ve made it to the end of the trail?” she asked Chet.

  “Truthfully, I haven’t thought that far ahead,” Chet answered. He turned his grin on Charlie. “Where do you and your lovely wife plan to settle?”

  “We haven’t thought that far ahead,” Charlie echoed.

  Olivia squinted just a bit, working to figure out her husband’s sudden tension. It was true, they hadn’t talked about where they would eventually settle. “I suppose it will be somewhere that has a school in need of a teacher,” she answered. Charlie nodded. “After all, Charlie is relying on me to support him.”

  Charlie laughed, and it was as if the sun broke through a cloud. It also highlighted how deeply Charlie’s awkward silence had affected her without her knowing it.

  “What’s this?” Chet sat straighter, as if he wanted in on the joke.

  “I merely suggested that a teacher has more potential for a steady income than a gambler,” Charlie said, ignoring Chet and winking at her.

  “Not that old Charlie here ever need to worry about working again,” Chet added. “Isn’t that right, Charlie boy?”

  Instantly, Charlie’s humor vanished and his tension returned. Olivia fought to keep her own smile. It didn’t take a scientist, like Gideon, to figure out that Chet must know how much money Charlie had. Which only made her more curious about how Charlie came into that money. At the same time, that increasingly insistent voice in the back of her head warned her not to speak too fast. There had to be a reason Charlie kept those jewels and the cash in a locked box in the back of a wagon on the Oregon Trail instead of in a bank in a big city.

  “A man of honor works whether he has to or not,” she said to hide the direction of her thoughts. “The purpose of all of our lives is earnest labor and a sense of purpose.”

  Chet barked out a laugh. “So your sweet wife sees you as a man of honor?”

  The comment struck Olivia wrong. “It’s important for a man to have honor. It’s the most important virtue of all. I could never be married to a man who…who misbehaved.” She thought of Silas, thought of his wandering eye and his overbearing, slovenly ways.

  “Well done, Charlie,” Chet snorted a laugh. “Man of honor.”

  Charlie dropped all pretense of smiling. “It is because of Olivia that I am a man of honor.”

  Chet snickered. The prickles of the tension that snapped between them reached Olivia, sending goose flesh along her skin. Friends or not, all was not right between these two men. She fought through her suspicion, reminding herself to be a good hostess, as her mother had taught her.

  “So, what did you do with yourself before you met Charlie?” she asked. If she could keep Chet talking about himself without bringing Charlie into things, maybe it would put all of them at ease.

  “Before I started playing cards and met your honorable husband,” he began with the barest hint of a smirk, “I worked as a shopkeeper in Indiana.”

  “Really? What was that life like?”

  For the next half hour, Olivia managed to keep Chet talking. He didn’t need much of a prompt to tell stories about his childhood, his youth, and the travels he and Charlie had enjoyed as they went from card tournament to card tournament. Even though there was something about Chet that Olivia didn’t quite trust one hundred percent, he could spin a good yarn. She hadn’t realized how well-traveled Charlie was, or that this wasn’t his first trip to the west coast. As Chet bragged and told tales on himself, she learned more about her husband than she ever would have thought to ask on her own.

  By the time the sun sank to the western horizon and Olivia got up to clear away supper, she had a whole new perspective on the man she’d married. He was more intelligent than he let on, for one. He’d seen more of life and had more experiences than she could imagine. But there was still something that raised a dozen question marks in her mind—especially when he and Chet entered into a whispered conversation as she packed away the last of their supper and cleaned the dishes.

  That conversation was so intense, that when she returned to where they sat, they both snapped straight and turned away, the lines in their face hard and deep, as if they’d been arguing. Olivia wasn’t ignorant, but she wasn’t foolish enough to demand that two men with colorful pasts instantly tell her everything they’d been talking about.

  “Well, it was lovely meeting you tonight, Mr. Devlin,” she said instead.

  “And you as well, sweet Olivia.” Chet stood, reached for her hand, and kissed it.

  The gesture was uncomfortable, and Olivia pulled her hand away as quickly as she could, stepping sideways toward Charlie as he stood. “Where will you be making your camp?” she asked Chet.

  Chet opened his mouth, but Charlie beat him to a reply with, “I was just about to ask Chet if he’d like to travel the rest of the way to Oregon City in our wagon.”

  Chet’s mouth stayed open. Olivia dropped her jaw too. She had been willing to bet that Charlie would want to keep his old friend at arm’s length. She would have lost that bet.

  Chet recovered before she did, breaking into a wide grin. “How could I say no to an old friend like you? Why, it will be just like old times.”

  “Just like.” Charlie gave him a wolfish smile, slipping his arm around Olivia’s waist.

  The two men stared each other down for a few seconds, sending Olivia’s curiosity to furious heights. Then Chet nodded and took a step away. “I’ll just go fetch my things.”

  As soon as he was gone, Charlie’s body loosened, as if one wave of tension had washed away, but he anticipated another.

  “Are you sure you want him to join our wagon?” Olivia asked. For some reason, even though the sensible part of her knew it was the right thing to do, the rest of her was disappointed.

  “Absolutely certain,” Charlie replied. He tugged her close and placed a short kiss on her lips.

&nbs
p; That peck turned into a second, longer kiss. It couldn’t be described as passionate, though. “Anxious” was a better descriptor. In need of reassurance. She didn’t know if she should return his emotion or stop everything and demand an explanation.

  He reached for her with his other arm, and pulled her into a full embrace, letting out a breath that felt like a sigh in his tense body. “This will mean delaying a few other things I was hoping we’d get to before too long.”

  A beat late, Olivia realized what he meant. There was no way they would be able to take their marriage where it had been itching to go with a third party in their camp.

  Blast.

  “There will be time for that later.” She did her best to put a good face on it, smiling up at him when he loosened his desperate grip on her.

  She expected him to smile and make a joke. Instead, his countenance filled with hesitation, doubt. Her heart caught in her chest.

  “There will be time later, won’t there?” she asked, far too vulnerable for her comfort.

  It didn’t help that he was slow to answer. “Of course there will be. As soon as we get a little farther along.”

  Whether he meant it literally in terms of their journey across the West or metaphorically in their relationship, Olivia didn’t know. Either way. That pesky voice whispered that they were in for a rocky ride.

  Chapter Nine

  Yep. Just like old times. Charlie knew he should have turned Chet in to the law when he had the chance, back in Nashville. That one little lapse in judgment for old time’s sake was coming back to bite him in the behind.

  “It’s a fool-proof investment,” Chet explained to a pair of farmers as he walked a couple of wagons ahead of Charlie and Olivia, just within earshot. “All I need is a few more backers, and we’re all as good as millionaires.”

  “Millionaires?” Rufus Sowers gaped at Chet, just as he was supposed to. He blew out a whistle, and swiped his worn hat from his head, slicking his hair back. “That’s a lot of money.”