A Lady in Defiance (20 page)

McIntyre studied the boy and decided he probably hadn’t meant
any harm, but he would have to make an example of him. It was that or face Her
Belligerent Holiness at the end of the street. “Charge him with breaking and
entering and assault, keep him here fifteen days and fine him $150. When his pa
comes into see him, tell him to find me.”

That handled, he marched across the street to pack Rose. He
was not looking forward to the scene she would cause. These melodramas both
embarrassed and infuriated him. Tonight, however, was the end of it. Middle of
the night or not, Rose was going over to the Broken Spoke. Working at the
nastiest cathouse in town might teach her a little humility.

He shot straight to her room and burst in unannounced. To his
great annoyance, the room was empty and some of her toiletry items were missing
from her dresser. He checked her closet. Nearly all of her clothes were gone.
Staring at the all-but-empty clothes rod, he traced his beard thoughtfully,
trying to deal with her unexpected departure.

“She’s gone.” Jasmine’s voice was flat and devoid of any
emotion. McIntyre turned to study his new Asian acquisition. Sultry and
slender, he had been immediately impressed with her in Denver and paid well for
her. Now, she bored him too, even in her exotic, traditional blue silk dress.
“She said you would not lay your hands on her again.”

“And?”

Jasmine shrugged, her expression inscrutable. “She was
raging, not making any sense, going in and out of Spanish. I did hear her say
you better keep looking over your shoulder. That she’d be back.”

McIntyre muttered a vile name for Rose and slammed the closet
door. She couldn’t have gone far; she had to be hiding somewhere in Tent Town.
He would dispatch some men to turn the slum upside down if necessary, but he
would find her and hand her over to Lil for...
softening
.

Chapter
16

When no one could find Rose by sunup, McIntyre called off the
search. It troubled him that she had so easily disappeared. Feeling the lack of
sleep slowing his mind, he told Wade he was going to rest for a few hours but
to wake him if he heard anything. At noon, Wade did just that. McIntyre was
already dressed and working on a cup of coffee when the marshal came to his
room.

“Lil’s downstairs and she’s none too happy.”

That told McIntyre the two things he wanted to know. Rose had
gone to Lil for help; Lil knew better than to give her any. “Tell her I’ll be
right down.”

Lil was behind his bar helping herself to a drink when
McIntyre descended the stairs. She tipped the bottle at him and grinned,
showing the space where a tooth should have been residing. “I didn’t figure
you’d mind, after what I put up with last night.”

McIntyre acquiesced with a nod as he took a seat and waited
for her. Lil was a stunning beauty for a woman in her thirties, until she
spoke. Then her missing tooth, raspy voice and coarse talk quickly betrayed her
vocation.  Her delicate European features and silky, disheveled red hair,
however, had led many men to think her weak and frail. A few foolish souls had
tried knocking her around and quickly discovered why she was called
Diamond
Lil. A tougher, more cold-hearted and violent woman didn’t exist in the new
state of Colorado. If anyone could take Crazy Rose down a peg or two, Lil
could.  She joined him at the table, bringing her full shot glass and the
bottle with her.

“I take it you have Rose then,” he guessed.

Lil swore and tossed back her drink, slamming the empty glass
down on the table. “She came paradin’ into the Spoke about 4 this morning
sayin’ you’d sent her.” She leaned toward McIntyre for emphasis. “I don’t want
her! You can’t use my debt to you for nothin’ like this. We said it was cash,
straight up, for the liquor I buy from you.”

McIntyre leaned his chair back and sighed. “I didn’t send
her…but I was going to. I need you to break her for me.”

Lil spewed a nasty name at him as a look of total disgust
crossed her face. “Ain’t you something. Don’t want to get your hands dirty
straightening her out? You know she won’t be fit for the fancy-shmancy Iron
Horse when I’m done with her.”

“Doesn’t matter. I don’t want her back, but she’s got to stop
causing trouble. Like you and the rest of the gals in Defiance, she’s got to
learn her place.”

A sharp V formed between Lil’s brows, but she didn’t address
the comment. Green eyes glittered with uncertainty as she reached up and set to
re-pinning runaway red curls. “She’s a mighty lot of trouble, that one. Plain
crazy, I think. Them’s the worse kind. Can’t predict’em.”

McIntyre dropped his chair and slapped his hand on the table.
“She thinks you’ll help her, Lil, or she wouldn’t have gone to you. Straighten
her out. I’ll throw in two cases of whiskey and a keg of beer for your
trouble.”

Lil pursed her lips and thought hard. “Why don’t you sell me
the rest of MY saloon? I don’t need a partner anymore.”

“Keep Rose on your side of town and I’ll consider it.”

Lil stuck out her hand. “Shake on it.” McIntyre took the
woman’s hand, relieved that at least this one problem had been handled.

~~~

“Lil will teach Rose some manners or die trying. And I’ll be
able to keep tabs on her. If I kicked her out of town, I wouldn’t be able to do
that. And I do believe Rose bears watching.”

Sitting on the other side of McIntyre’s desk at the Sunnyside
Mine office, Ian looked as if he doubted McIntyre’s plan. “I dunna agree that
Rose is the source of all the trouble in Defiance.”

“Well, she’s the source of most of mine. A few months working
in a crib under Lil’s fist and she’ll settle down.”

“I wouldna wish that on anyone, even on Rose.” Ian pinned
McIntyre with a disapproving glance then shrugged. “But ye’re missing my point.
Hank’s escapade might embolden other men. I think these women need watchin’
over and I mean more than the marshal passing by or escorting them down the
street.”  

Leaning back in his chair amidst squeaking leather and springs,
McIntyre shook his head emphatically. “Mrs. Miller’s run-in with O’Banion
showed everyone she’s a fire-breather. Now they know she’s not afraid to
actually pull a trigger. That’s probably more than enough to get even the worst
drunks in Defiance to stand-down.”

“Mac, the reality of the situation is that ye dunna control
every randy miner, prospector and gambler in these parts. Three reputable women
with no men around is an awfully tempting prize, gun or no gun. If ye’ll not do
something more, I will.”

A grin leaped to McIntyre’s face. He realized where this was
going and decided to help his friend. “By all means, then, I think you should
spend as much time as possible with them.” He couldn’t help but add one dash of
sarcasm, though. “I for one will sleep much better at night knowing their
knight in shining armor is watching over them.”

Ian harumphed irritably at the comment, but didn’t argue. And
if pressed, McIntyre might admit to a twinge of jealousy. Just a twinge. He had
been the first to rush into that room the other night but Naomi had acted as if
the event was somehow his fault. There was no pleasing the woman. Given that
she viewed him somewhere above pond scum but a step below snakes, he would
simply have to try harder−

He heard the sparking, grinding scream of mental brakes.

Try harder? No, he thought with a curse. He wouldn’t try at
all. This was ridiculous. No woman was worth this amount of distraction. And
how had he gone from planning to get her into bed to actually caring what she
thought of him? When had
that
happened?

He shook his head as if to ward off this confounded confusion
and barked, “I don’t have time for this nonsense.” Ian jumped at the unexpected
tone and McIntyre softened his voice. “Feel free to take over the inn as your project.
I’ll come around to check the progress, but you can be there night and day if
it pleases you.”

~~~

Rose picked up a glass and held it to the light. Filthy.
Using her skirt to wipe the nastiness out of it, she eyed her new surroundings.
The Broken Spoke was just one step above a hovel. Top half worn tent billowing
in the breeze, bottom half stick built; most of the seats were just chopped
logs, and the tables were slabs of timber from the mill. A rusting buck stove
occupied the center of the room and gave off more smoke than heat.

But she could stay here for a while. Perhaps this was even
better than being at the Iron Horse. Here she would have her own tent. She
would have more time to pray and practice her arts. No one would come in except
customers and she could handle them. She had a reputation for dazzling men and
that wouldn’t change whether she worked for Lil or McIntyre. Eventually, she
would be right back over at the Iron Horse, running things, tending to
McIntyre, torturing the Flowers and watching the three little
gringas
leave in a cloud of dust. Content, she splashed some whiskey into the glass and
raised it up in front of her.

Lil barged through the front door and strode with grim
determination up to Rose. She reached across the bar and slapped the empty
glass out of her hand, sending it flying across the saloon. Trying to burn Rose
with a scorching glare, Lil growled, “It’s my liquor. You’ll pay for every
drink you toss back.” Rose’s jaw tightened and she straightened a little as Lil’s
eyes narrowed. The two wild cats stared at each other over the worn,
liquor-stained slab of wood. “This ain’t the Iron Horse. Git the notion of soft
beds and one or two customers a night outta your head.”

Like a sudden gust of wind, Lil changed her tact, softening
her tone as she turned and sashayed over to a table. She sat down in one of the
few chairs in the room and laced her fingers. “You get your tent out back. All
your customers come through here. They’ll pay me. You git your cut in the
mornin’. Keep your nose clean, stay out of trouble, and we’ll git along just
fine.” Lil cocked her head to one side and studied Rose for a moment. “But
you’re not gonna to do that, are you?”

Rose didn’t answer or move. She waited to hear what else this
demon
gringa
had to say. Lil laughed heartily, a sound that reminded
Rose of an asthmatic donkey. Muttering a curse, but still grinning, Lil drummed
her fingers on the table and considered things. Finally, she stood and walked
back over to the bar. Her voice low and ominous, she laid it out for Rose.
“There’s no sisterhood here. I only want easy-goin’, hard-workin’ girls. If
you’re not easy goin’ and hard workin’, I’ll
make
you easy goin’ and
hard workin’.”

Lil twirled a long, stray red curl around her finger and
smiled. Rose knew the look glittering in her eyes and felt an uneasy nudge of
fear. “There are different ways to break fallen angels like you,” Lil
continued. “Some can’t stand the cold so I take away their firewood. Some can’t
stand to go hungry.” Lil shrugged. “It’s just a matter of findin’ your
weakness.”

Rose couldn’t hold back a smug smile. “Then you’ll be looking
for a long time.”

“No.” Lil leaned an elbow on the bar. “The bottom line with
you is power. You think your looks give you power. So cross me just one time
and I’ll carve your face up like a Christmas turkey…and you know I will.”

Rose had the urge to dig her claws into Lil’s face and rip
the flesh from her skull. Instead, she breathed and forced the hate down deep
inside to use later. “You are mean, puma, but I am meaner,” she warned Lil. “Do
you think I am afraid of you?”

“You don’t have to be afraid, but you should be smart.” With
stunning swiftness, Lil reached out, grabbed Rose by the neck and slammed her
face into the bar. Pain and stars exploded in her head. Using a bear-like grip
to grind Rose’s cheek into the rough, splintery wood, Lil whispered menacingly,
“I don’t play. Remember that.”

She abruptly released her and Rose smacked Lil’s hand the
rest of the way off as she stood. Chest heaving, nose throbbing, she felt a
warm trickle of blood reach her upper lip as she stared angrily at her new
patron
.
Perilously close to flying over the bar and wrapping her hands around Lil’s
throat, she put the anger to her feet and fled the Broken Spoke. Oh, she was
going to have to kill that
gringa
, sooner rather than later.

Chapter
17

Leaning over a list at the kitchen table, Rebecca and Hannah
finished writing up an order for linens and then stared at each other with
dread in their eyes. “I’m not going to take it to the telegraph office,” Hannah
told her rather loudly, “and you can’t go alone.”

Rebecca cringed, well away of her little sister’s plan. Ian,
only a few feet away supervising the pump installation, excused himself from
the carpenters and offered his elbow to Rebecca. “If ye’ll have me, m’lady?”

Swallowing nervously, Rebecca nodded. Hannah grinned from
ear-to-ear, adding to Rebecca’s butterflies. Ian grabbed his cane from the
corner and came back to her with his hand extended. She commanded the heat in
her face to subside, to no avail, and lightly clutched his fingers.