At the mention of
Harlow
, all her fear disappeared.
Scharlie’s
shoulders went back, and her eyes narrowed. “You have no right to mention
Harlow
.”
“I don’t? Why? Because Webb and Brooks told you I killed him? I didn’t, you know. Brooks did. Shot him in the back.”
Everything inside of her froze. He must have seen the doubt and confusion on her face because he laughed, a nasty sound devoid of all amusement.
“So I am vilified, and, naïve you believed him.”
“Shut up! Are you saying you were friends with
Harlow
? That you knew him?”
“No, I’m not. I wasn’t friends with Harlow Thorn, but I respected him.”
“Because you were both outlaws!”
“No, because
Harlow
saved my life once. We didn’t like each other, but we were comrades.”
The idea of
Harlow
being friends with this man made her sick to her stomach. She took a few more steps backward.
“You left me that doe to find,” she accused.
“I did.”
“You searched my house.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re
Harlow
’s sister. And I told him I’d take care of you.”
His words would have sounded nice and safe if he hadn’t smiled at her, because she saw all his poison and hatred come out in that twisted slash of lips.
She didn’t believe him, of course, didn’t trust him at all. But then she realized she couldn’t trust any of them, not even Garrett and Cassidy. Because what if, just what if, there was a measure of truth to his words?
When he took a step toward her,
Scharlie
reacted without thinking. The hand holding the whip lashed out, the leather slicing through the air and landing on the soft flesh of his cheek with a crack. The skin split open, blood poured, and Breaux Cox howled in rage as he fell to his knees in pain.
Scharlie
wasted no time. She turned and ran, running full speed back to her hotel, where she ignored the grumblings of the front desk clerk as she dashed upstairs to her room. In moments, she had packed what she needed, hurried back down, and left the hotel. She rushed to the stable where, hours earlier, Cassidy and Garrett had dropped off the horses.
Scharlie
woke up the stable hand, handed him a bunch of coins, and waited impatiently as he saddled Cassidy’s horse. Thirty minutes later, she was riding from
Willow
City
as if the hounds of hell were chasing after her.
Chapter Fourteen
Dawn was cresting over the horizon as she rode up to her house. Exhaustion clawed at her mind and body, but she stubbornly pushed it aside. She knew that Garrett and Cassidy would be following her soon, that they would ride harder than she had, would push themselves to find her.
And now she knew that Breaux Cox was also coming for her. She had stood up to him, defied him, had hurt him. He wasn’t the type of man to let that slide. She had felt the evil radiating from him, and though she didn’t trust him at all, she didn’t know how much truth was behind his accusations.
Sharlie
dismounted and walked the horse into the barn. She took off the saddle, blanket, and bridle, rubbed him down until he cooled enough to be fed and watered.
Her plan was to head out again as soon as she changed clothes, washed up, and ate something. The only person she could trust now was Sheriff Tanner. However, after washing away the traveling grime in the small washstand, her bed beckoned. Unable to resist its pull, she lay down, intending to only get an hour’s rest. But as soon as her head hit the pillow, oblivion pulled her under.
* * * *
The sound of horses woke her up.
Scharlie
sat up, slightly disoriented, until she shook her head to clear it of cobwebs. Then everything rushed back to her, the trip to
Willow
City
, meeting Breaux Cox, and her hasty retreat back to Rock Ridge. She glanced out the window. The slant of the sun shining through the window made her gasp and jump off the bed. She dressed hurriedly then stepped out of the bedroom just as Cassidy and Garrett entered her house.
“Get out!” she yelled, pointing to the door.
“What the hell!” Cassidy yelled back. “You left in the middle of the night! We were worried sick!”
“Why did you run,
Scharlie
?” Garrett asked, his voice calm.
She looked back and forth between them, her heart twisting in pain. How could she still love them?
“How could you break my heart?” she whispered.
All was quiet for a moment.
“What?” he asked, shaking his head.
“
Scharlie
Thorn! Are you in there?” Sheriff Tanner’s voice yelled from outside.
Scharlie’s
eyes widened. “Get of here,” she said frantically. “Hide in the cellar. I’ll get the sheriff to leave, and then you can get away.”
“What are you talking about?” Garrett asked.
“I came to the realization in
Willow
City
that I may not like who and what you two are, but it doesn’t stop me from loving you both.” The admission slipped easily out of her mouth. “I don’t want you two to be arrested. I don’t want you to be in prison. So go. Get out of here.”
“
Scharlie
! If you won’t come out, I’ll have to come in!” the sheriff called.
Cassidy’s eyes closed. Garrett swore under his breath. And
Scharlie
hurried to the door, opened it, and stepped out.
“I’m here, Sheriff.”
Sheriff Tanner was an older man with a heavy mustache, but he was still agile. He watched her with narrowed eyes. His shoulders were stiff with tension.
“I’m fine, Sheriff,” she said, trying hard to make her smile believable. “Perfectly fine.”
But the sheriff realized something was off, and he pulled out his gun. “Miss Thorn, step away from the house.”
Just then the door opened behind her. Cassidy stepped out with his hands up in the air, Garrett right behind him.
“Hold it right there!” Sheriff Tanner yelled at them. “Cassidy Brooks! Garrett Webb! I found you guys out. You’re wanted by the law in
Illinois
, and I mean to send you back, dead or alive.”
“No!”
Scharlie
yelled out.
“Sheriff, in my right vest pocket, I have documents you might find interesting.”
The sheriff’s gun did not waver.
“Let me get them out,” Cassidy insisted. “You’ll want to see them.”
Very slowly, the sheriff gave a nod of permission. Equally as slow, Cassidy reached into his vest and pulled out a leather pouch. He held them out.
“Open them and hold them up,” the sheriff ordered.
Cassidy did as he was told. He took a step closer and squinted before grabbing the papers to read them more thoroughly.
“Goddamn it!” The sheriff eased the hammer back down on his Colt and put it back in his holster. “Are you kidding me?”
Confused,
Scharlie
looked from him to Cassidy. “Wait! What are those papers?”
He looked down at her and ran a hand over her cheek with his free hand. “Those are my Pinkerton documents.”
She blinked. “Your what?”
The sheriff thrust the papers into Cassidy’s chest. “He’s a goddamn Pinkerton agent.”
Cassidy grabbed the papers. “Pinkerton’s agency was hired by the State of
Missouri
to bring down Breaux Cox and his men, who have managed to hit about four hundred banks throughout the state.”
“Four hundred!”
Scharlie
gasped.
“Garrett Webb, Harlow Thorn, and I were sent in to infiltrate Cox’s gang, gather irrefutable proof of their activities, and then bring them in to face justice.”
The sheriff swore under his breath and turned his back on Cassidy.
“Wait,”
Scharlie
said, “
Harlow
was an agent too? He wasn’t an outlaw?”
Garrett’s hands came down on her shoulder. “None of us are outlaws,
Scharlie
. But we had to make everyone believe we were. Hence the fake warrants from
Illinois
.”
She pulled away from him and spun, angry. “You made me think he turned against the law! That he hurt people! I thought he was a wanted man!”
“We had to maintain our cover,” Cassidy replied.
“Cox shot
Harlow
in the back, but we didn’t see it happen,” Garrett explained. “Proof, remember? In the three months we rode with him and his men, he never trusted us enough to bring us along when they robbed a bank. They would disappear, we would catch up, but the deed had already happened. But we knew Cox was coming for you, so we arrived here first. Mainly to protect you,
Scharlie
, but also because we love you!”
“Why does he want me so badly?”
“Because of
Harlow
.” Garrett sighed and ran a hand over his face. “Cox found
Harlow
’s Pinkerton papers. He found your letters. For him, you’re a means of revenge,
Scharlie
.”
At that statement, the sheriff turned and marched up to the two men. He placed a hand on
Scharlie’s
shoulder. “How do we protect her?”
“I’m not leaving again,” she said again. “This is my home. Besides, I ran into Breaux Cox in
Willow
City
.”
“What?” Cassidy yelled.
Garrett ran his hands up and down her arms. “Are you hurt? Did he hurt you?”
She shook her head. “He told me Cassidy killed
Harlow
.”
“Is that why you ran?”
She nodded. “I knew he was lying. I could feel his evilness surrounding me. But I couldn’t think. I didn’t know what to believe anymore.”
“It’s okay,” Garrett said softly, pulling her into his arms.
She smelled the heated scent of his skin and relaxed, letting the tension drain from her body. She was almost light-headed from the relief of everything turning out right.
While she was cocooned in Garrett’s arms, she heard Cassidy talking with Sheriff Tanner.
“We have men in
Willow
City
,” he was saying. “We had set up a false payroll delivery in hopes of luring Breaux Cox out into the open, but we only caught
Cautling
and Barnes. Cox never showed.”
So that’s what they were talking about
, she thought.
“You think he’s coming back here?” the sheriff asked.
Scharlie
broke away from Garrett’s arms. “He will,” she assured them. “He’ll come after me.”
“What makes you sure?” Garrett asked.
“Because I hurt him. A man like that, he’ll come after me.”
Cassidy grabbed her arm and marched her away from the other two men. He took her far enough away so they couldn’t be heard, but he still pitched his voice low.
“Get out of Rock Ridge for a while,” he urged.
“Do you really think that’s going to work?”
“At this point, I’m more focused on making sure you stay safe rather than trying to find evidence against Cox.”
“But that’s not who you are, is it?”
He cocked his head, confused. “What do you mean?”
“Cassidy, if you kill him, then you’d lose everything, ’cause like you said, no evidence. You’d be guilty of murder.”
He shook his head. “Pinkerton agents are contracted through the federal government. There’s enough against Cox, so I wouldn’t go to jail.”
“But you wouldn’t be allowed into the field again, right? You wouldn’t be an agent anymore, would you?”
His silence answered her questions.
“So,” she continued, “we come up with a plan to catch him.”
Chapter Fifteen
Evening was falling.
Sheriff Tanner lingered for another half an hour as each of them tried to come up with a way that made sense to finish Breaux Cox.
Scharlie
would just as soon shoot him in the back, as he did
Harlow
, and be done with it, but the men of the law thought differently.
Scharlie
couldn’t understand that, because snakes always managed to crawl from under rocks to return. In her opinion, chaining Cox up and letting him live wasn’t punishment, it was mercy, and she held none of that in her heart.
After he left, without a workable plan on catching Cox, she went back inside the house. Garrett and Cassidy followed her.
She was aware of them behind her, men who had taken her life and turned it upside down. They had taught her about love, fulfillment, and rapture. But where did they go from here?
She turned to face them, even went so far as to open her mouth to talk, but before any sound come out, Cassidy marched up to her, placed one hand in her hand and one hand on her ass, and pulled her into his body. His mouth came down on hers fiercely, his tongue plunging to meet her hers. Desire rose sharply inside her, the need to feel him inside her, a hunger she couldn’t quell.