by Danni Roan
The next hour was spent enjoying home cooked food and catching up on the family back at the ranch. Clay had another new crop of foals coming on, and a buyer in Casper looking for fast horses. There was still a need for good working cattle horses, but racing stock was becoming a niche market, and Clay was ready for it.
The school back home was busy with even more children, and Lilly was considering taking a teaching position further west where the town had been struggling to keep anyone in the position.
Blake shook his head as he thought of more family spreading across the country. Still there were enough James decedents that the ranch was in good hands and the Ballads didn’t appear to be inclined to go anywhere else.
“When will you and the family be headed back to the Broken J again?” Blake asked, a faraway look in his amber eyes.
“Probably not until summer,” Bar answered seeing the sparkle in his wife’s eyes. “The children have school and won’t be free until then. We have several promising men who may be able to look after things here while we're gone as well.”
Blake smiled. “It would be nice if I could wrap this case up and get home as well.” He stood picking up his hat as he prepared to go. “I don’t know when I’ll be able to get back here,” he added. “I’ve got some leads to follow, and there is no telling where that will take me.” He pulled some money from his pocket and handed it to Barrister. “Will you see that my horse is well cared for if I have to leave town unexpectedly?”
“I’ll be glad to, and if you’re gone too long I’ll send for your father to take the beast back to the ranch.”
“You will be careful.” Mary grabbed Blake’s arm, her bright eyes filled with worry.
“I’ll be careful,” Blake agreed, taking Barrister’s outstretched hand then pulling Mary into a one armed hug. “Tell the family I’ll be home as soon as I can.” He turned as Mary nodded and headed for the door. There was work to be done and sitting here sharing memories and wishes wouldn’t get it done. Squaring his shoulders, Blake Allen stepped out into the misty morning and headed for the darker side of town.
Chapter 8
“Miss Darcy?” Blake hurried toward the huddled form of the woman in the mink coat. Where she stood outside the door of the saloon. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” the woman said, turning her face toward the darker corner. “I’m, I’m just getting some fresh air.”
Blake scowled as a number of heavy trucks passed by spewing exhaust fumes in their wake. “Maybe you should have gone to the roof top instead.”
“Why don’t you mind your own business,” Darcy barked turning to glare at him.
Blake took a step back as he noted the dark bruise circling Darcy’s left eye and he closed his hands around his anger.
“You should get some ice on that,” he said, gently.
Darcy’s eyes widened and she hissed in pain at the action. “Oh, this?” she smiled waving her hands as if it were nothing. “Silly me, I walked into the coat rack this morning.”
Blake schooled his features to nothing. He would recognize the mark of a fist anywhere, but he wouldn’t’ take the woman’s pride. “Come on inside, and I’ll get you some ice,” he said, gently rapping on the door of the Dog and Bone. Jim opened the door, a wave of emotion flickering across his face when he saw Darcy, but he didn’t say anything.
Blake led Darcy to the bar settling her on a stool and grabbing the ice pick before heading into a back room where he chopped off a chunk of ice and wrapped it in a soft towel. “Here, put that on it,” he said with a smile. “It should feel better soon.”
Darcy leaned against the bar gingerly placing the ice against her eye. She looked weary but said nothing for several long seconds.
“I suppose it’s too early for a drink,” she finally spoke only to be interrupted by Jim.
“Boss says no booze for you Darcy.”
She lifted the towel from her eye and glared at the big man, smiling when he flinched at her hard look.
Blake walked around the bar filling a glass with something clear. “Here, try this,” he offered setting the glass in front of her.
“What is it?” she asked, looking at the glass of clear liquid.
“Water.” Blake grinned at the look of disgust on her face but was gratified when she drank it.
“Blake, the boss is headed out of town again this afternoon,” Jim looked around the empty bar. “You willing to keep an eye on Darcy for him?”
“If that’s what he wants.”
Jim let his eyes run down Darcy’s form where she slumped against the bar. “I’ll let him know when he gets up.” A moment later he had slipped back through the door and was gone.
“Pierce is leaving again huh?” Blake asked Darcy who now had her chin propped on her hand where she leaned against the bar. “He’s a busy man.” The former cowboy turned cop moved back behind the bar to a tiny stove and began preparing coffee.
“Important man, busy man, whatever.” Darcy said. She sounded weary and bitter, and Blake knew this was the best time to prod her for information.
“Isn’t that why you like him?”
Darcy sat up peeling the ice from her eye and as her gaze flamed. “Something like that,” she said. “Isn’t that why you work for him? Everyone wants a piece of what he’s offering.”
“What exactly is it he’s offering?” Blake pressed. “All I see is this.” He gestured around him at the bar. “He seems to do well enough.”
“Humph,” the sound that came out of the woman draped in fur was anything but ladylike. “Pierce has a lot more going than this dive,” she said, as Blake placed a cup of coffee in front of her. “He didn’t make all his money bootleggin’ or in a hole like this.”
Blake stirred his coffee and leaned toward Darcy. He could tell she was upset and though he hated himself for doing it, he had to know more.
“Where’s he go on all these trips?” Blake asked sipping from his mug as Darcy lifted hers. “If I had a girl like you, I wouldn’t be taking off and leaving her alone all the time.”
Darcy chuckled but there was no mirth in it. “Is that what you want Turnip?” she asked. “You want to be a big man like Pierce. Have people jumping every time you snap your fingers? Keep others at your beck and call? You could move right up the ranks you know. If you’re willing to play the game.”
“And what game is that?” Blake’s eyes met her dark brown ones and he wanted to grab her hand and run from this place. There was no future for her here, and he knew that if Pierce found out that he was pressing her for information, they would both be in trouble. Darcy drank too much, and when she did, she talked too much.
“You really did just fall off the truck, didn’t you?” Darcy said, sagging against the bar again. Her coat slipped from one shoulder exposing an expanse of white satin night gown and bruised shoulder. “Pierce is a bad man,” she whispered. “Powerful in the right circles and influential in others. Just last night he had a cop in here wining and dining him. He keeps his eye on everything.” Again she sighed and Blake knew she was thinking of herself.
Hating himself for his next words Blake leaned in close. “Maybe I could be a big man one day if I knew how,” he whispered. “Maybe you wouldn’t be stuck here in Cheyenne anymore.”
Darcy snorted, pushing her mug away. “He’d kill you if he heard you say that. Wait long enough Turnip, and you’ll find out what’s what.” Her eyes flashed. “If I thought it would do any good, I’d tell you everything, but you’ll just leave like all the rest. He’ll move you to another place where you’ll do what he says or end up in prison.”
“Where’s he going Darcy,” Blake pressed. “What’s he doing?”
Darcy leaned across the bar until their noses almost touched. She smelled of lilacs and smoke, but her eyes held his. “There’s this bank up in Casper,” she said, a hard smile spreading across her face. “He’s going to take it this weekend when no one’s around.”
Blake’s heart was poundin
g, but he didn’t dare blink. He couldn’t give himself away. “Who knows about this job?” His voice was steady though his knees had gone weak.
“No one. I heard him talking to someone on the phone about it. That’s how I got this.” She pointed at the black eye. “I told him he was a fool going after a bank when he had everything he needed here.”
Blake swallowed his mind racing as he tried to figure out what to do next. If he went to the commissioner with this information, Darcy would be in danger of more than a black eye. If he didn’t, how was he going to stop the heist?
“Do you love him?” the words were out before Blake could stop them, but he held her eyes even as shock slipped into his belly.
“I thought I did at one time,” she said, slipping back onto her stool wearily. “I…I was grateful, awe struck, naive.”
“What do you want Darcy?”
“A drink.”
Blake reached forward grasping both of her hands in his. “What do you really want Darcy?”
Darcy studied his face earnestly. “Freedom,” she whispered.
“What if I can get it for you?”
Darcy shook her head, her short hair swinging around her neck. “No one can do that.”
“I can if you’ll help me.”
Darcy swallowed hard her throat bobbing as her coat slipped further. “Who.” She paused. “Who are you Turnip?”
“Someone who can take you out of here.” Blake’s gaze never wavered. “Someone who can put Pierce where he belongs.”
“You’re crazy,” Darcy pushed herself from the stool swaying on her feet. “He’ll kill you.”
Blake grabbed her hand holding her in place as he came half way over the bar. “What do you have to lose Darcy? What if I can do it?”
Darcy shook her head, hope warring with fear. “I can’t.”
“You can. If you help me you can start over again. You can go home.”
“I have no home.” The words fell flat in the quiet room.
“Then I’ll make you a new one.” Something turned in Blake’s heart as the words spilled out, and he knew they were true. He would take her wherever she wanted to go, give her a home, hope, help if she would just work with him.
“You mean it don’t you?” Darcy stepped back to the bar gently pulling her hand from his. “Who are you?” She studied his face seeking answers there.
Blake looked at her for several seconds. “I’m your chance at redemption.”
Darcy shrugged the fur coat back up over her shoulders pulling it tight as if to ward off a chill. “You’re a cop.”
Blake didn’t reply letting her work through the whole thing on her own.
“You’ll get us both killed.”
“Not if you don’t tell and play your part.”
“How do I know I can trust you?”
“How do I know I can trust you?”
Darcy turned looking at the door on the far side of the saloon that led to the apartment upstairs. “What if I don’t want to give this all up?” She turned back to capture Blake’s eyes again.
Lifting his hand tenderly Blake touched her cheek below the bruise. “You mean all this?”
Darcy sagged back into the stool with a sigh. She had stepped into her own prison willingly, but now she had a glimmer of hope. A window had opened, and she could fly if she was willing to take the plunge.
“I’m scared.”
“So am I.” Blake’s words were barely a breath, but they rang in her ears like a call to arms. The truth raced through her setting something deep inside free.
chapter 9
It was three days before Blake saw Darcy again, and the nervous itch that rode his shoulder blades increased with each one.
He knew Pierce was still out of town, and that the man’s henchmen were busy keeping an eye on the Dog and Bone as well as the woman upstairs. What he didn’t know was if Darcy had told anyone else her suspicious about his true reason for being there.
It had been a huge risk letting her in on his secret, but he needed her help, and he knew she needed his. Only time would tell how everything would work out.
Blake placed a small barrel of whisky under the bar, tapping it and setting it on a shelf for the bar tender’s use. He scanned the empty room knowing that in only a few hours the place would be bustling with rich and poor alike. Men and woman seeking a bit of fun and a release from the long days of toil or boredom. Perhaps the new laws had been passed with the thought of protecting the weakest in society, but the reality was that it had led to more lawlessness and disregard for the dictates of God than it had quelled.
“Why the long face?” Jim stepped up to the bar running a scarred hand over his stubbled jaw.
“Just thinking on how our world seems to be turned upside down.”
“It’s workin’ out good for us though,” the big man mused, slapping Blake on the shoulder. “We got work, and a nice place ta stay.”
Blake nodded, lifting a cloth and dusting the bar. “A lot of things have changed though. Seems folks think nothing of breaking the law.”
“Folk is the way they always have been. You tell them often enough they can’t have somethin’ and that’s all they’ll think about.”
“Too true Jim.” Blake looked around the room, pure proof of the statement.
“You ain’t getting cold feet is ya?”
“No, I’ve got better work with more pay than I’ve seen in my life. I’ll keep doing my job, you can count on that.”
“That’s good,” Jim grinned, showing a chipped tooth. “I kinda like you and wouldn’t want ta see nothin’ happen to you.”
Blake chuckled. “Kind of sentimental aren’t you?”
The big man shrugged turning as the door on the far side of the room opened. His eyes traveled up Darcy’s slim form and a flicker of light filled their depths. He didn’t leer at the woman the way some men had, and he never touched her, but Blake was sure the man was in love with her just the same.
“Jim, Blake,” Darcy greeted. “You’re up early.”
“Miss Darcy,” Jim nodded. “You need somethin’?”
“No, I’m fine Jim.” Darcy offered the man a smile and a soft pat on a beefy arm. “I’ve been taking some time to myself to get it together before Pierce comes home. I don’t want him to think I’ve let myself go.”
“Not you Miss Darcy,” Jim said. “You always have yourself put together real nice.”
Darcy smiled up at the man. “You’re too kind Jim. Now would you mind heading down the street to that bakery I like and bring us a few snacks? I’m just famished.”
Jim bobbed his head, turning on his heel and striding from the room, his jaw set.
“That man would go through about anything for you,” Blake said, watching the big man slip through the door. “Why’d you want him out of the way?”
“I’ve been thinking.” Darcy met Blake’s eyes. “I think I’ve figured out what bank it is, and I think we’d better go to Casper soon.”
Blake nodded but didn’t speak as the words raced through his mind.
“You know one of Pierce’s men will be watching you.”
“Not if they think he sent for me.” Darcy’s smile was bright and her eyes clear as she pulled a slip of paper from her tiny bag. “See, this is from another time. I changed the date so it looks like he wants us to go up to Casper this weekend.”
“If you go through with this you know there’s no going back.”
“There’s been no going back for a long time,” Darcy said, reaching for a bottle and splashing whisky into a glass. “There is nowhere for me to go but down from here, so I might as well get out while I can.”
“Are you sure?”
Darcy touched lightly at the nearly faded bruise around her eye. “Sure as I’m going to get.”
Blake nodded. “I’ll get the car ready, and you get your things together. It’s not that far to Casper from here, only a couple of hours.”
Darcy patted his hand as if he were a sm
all boy recounting a new lesson he had just learned. “Not far at all.”
“I didn’t know exactly what you wanted,” Jim closed the heavy door behind him shuffling toward the bar with a large box. “I got a little of everything.” His smile was wide and hopeful as he looked between them.
Darcy turned patting him on the jaw with a grin. “Jim I don’t know what I’d do around here without you.” Her eye lashes fluttered slightly and Blake saw a flush rise up the other man’s face. It was amazing, almost terrifying, how easily Darcy could manipulate someone like Jim. He only hoped she wasn’t doing the same thing to him.