Diablo (20 page)

The thought of Cobb stirred the hot anger inside him. Hot anger and thoughts of revenge. She would pay for rejecting them,
after
she told Yancy what he wanted to know. Perhaps even tonight. He grew hard thinking about it.

He moved over to the faro table where she stood. Her green eyes saw him, and she nodded, but it was only a small nod and had little welcome. “A drink?” he offered.

“Sorry,” she said. “I promised these gentlemen I would bring them luck.”

“Yeah,” one said. “Can't take her now. Got a hundred dollars riding on this.”

Yancy tried a smile. He saw her eyes turn cool, and he knew he hadn't succeeded. “Maybe later,” he said.

“Maybe,” she allowed.

He spent the rest of the evening watching her, hearing her laugh. Her eyes kept wandering to the door, and Yancy wondered why.

It was hours and several drinks later before he finally got a minute with her. She was walking past, and he grabbed her arm.

She pulled away, but stopped. “Sorry,” she said, “but I'm off now.”

“Just a minute,” he said. “I'm looking for Calico.”

Her eyes changed slightly. “So are a lot of people,” she said noncommittally.

“I'll make it worth your while.”

“I never know when Calico comes,” she said.

“I want to get to Sanctuary.”

“I don't know what you're talking about,” she said, turning away and looking toward the door. A tall, lean figure was entering. The newcomer hesitated at the door, his gaze moving around the room before stopping when it found the woman. Yancy could feel heat vibrating between them, and the anger grew in him. The stranger was just another trail bum from the looks of him, yet the woman had eyes for no one else once he entered the room. Damn it, John swore silently, she was with
him
, John Yancy.

“Excuse me,” she said politely, and without waiting for an answer moved over to the newcomer and gave him a radiant smile. Yancy studied the stranger again, readjusting his first impression. There was a quality of danger about the man, an assuredness of movement that marked him as a man who knew how to take care of himself. Also there was something familiar about him that nagged.

Yancy went to the bar. “Who's that cowpoke?”

“Smith,” the bartender said. “Ben Smith.”

“Been here long?”

The barkeep stared at him, hostility gleaming in his eyes. “Folks around here mind their own business. Mr. Smith does. You best do the same.”

Yancy shrugged, though he took offense. Deep offense. He wasn't used being talked to that way. “You know who I am?”

“Don't know, don't care,” the barkeep said. “You want a drink or not?”

Yancy felt like going for his gun. But the bar was full, and this was a popular place. There may not be a sheriff, but most of these towns had a lynch law of their own. “Just asking,” he said soothingly. “I'll take a bottle.”

The barkeep handed him a not very clean glass and a bottle already opened. Watered, Yancy guessed. Not like Sanctuary, where the whiskey was good. Where his brother had been killed. Where he had been run out like a common beggar. They would pay. They would all pay, including this insolent barkeep.

He took the bottle and found a table, keeping his eyes on the man named Smith and the woman. They talked for a few moments, then left together out the back. He wanted to go after them, kill them both, but first things first. He would bide his time for a few days, wait for Calico. Calico was a surer thing than the woman. If the guide didn't show in the next week, Yancy decided, then he would go after the woman.

He filled his glass and gulped it down, then another.
I'll get them for you, Cobb. I swear.

Chapter Thirteen

“So you've decided to accept my offer?” Nat Thompson leaned back in his chair and puffed on a thin cigar.

“I need at least two weeks first,” Kane said. “I have a promise to keep.”

“That's what I like about you,” Thompson said. “You're reliable.”

Kane shrugged the comment aside. “I don't make many promises. I try to keep the few I do.”

“And I have your promise you'll return.”

“You have my promise I'll try. My picture's still on a number of posters.”

“I can help you with that,” Thompson said.

“How?”

“Our barber used to work for a theatrical company before he fell in love with the leading lady and killed her husband,” Thompson said with a wry smile. “There isn't anything he doesn't know about changing appearances.”

“With my scar?”

“He can fix that, too. He's a magician, which is one reason I kept him,” Thompson said.

Kane nodded. “When can I leave?”

“When a guide returns,” Thompson said. “Should be a couple of days or so. He's bringing in a new guest.”

“You don't trust me?” It turned Kane's stomach to ask the question.

“Step by step,” Thompson said. “I'm a careful man. Maybe in a few months.”

A few months.
Kane didn't have a few months. Neither, he thought as he looked at Thompson's pasty complexion, did Thompson.

Kane shrugged. “It's your deal.”

“You might keep your ears open while you're out there,” Thompson said. “I like to hear anything that's said about Sanctuary.”

“I will.”

Thompson offered him his hand. Kane inwardly winced as he took it.

“Why don't you and Nicky take a ride, a picnic this afternoon. It's a fine day.”

Kane had no excuse, no reason to say no. He knew now that Thompson was playing cupid, that he hoped Nicky would insure Kane's loyalty. But spending hours alone with Nicky was sheer hell.

He tried to sidestep the torture. “Promised some men I'd let them try to get their money back.”

“Plenty of time for that later tonight,” Thompson said. “You're still winning, I hear.”

“Nothing else to do in prison,” Kane said ruefully. “One of the other prisoners was a professional gambler. I learned a lot in a year.”

Thompson raised an eyebrow. “In Texas?
”

Kane shook his head. “The Yank prison camp,” he said. “They didn't let anyone close to me in the Texas jail.”

“Except that priest.”

“I doubt the guards will make that mistake again,” Kane replied dryly.

Thompson smiled, but it was a strained smile, laced with pain. “I would have liked to have seen their faces when they discovered your absence.”

“There was one man in particular,” Kane said, watching Thompson's face grow pale despite the determined set smile. “I wish he'd been there that night. I owed him a few blows.”

“Maybe you'll have your chance at him some day.”

“Maybe,” Kane said. “I found out a long time ago, though, revenge isn't usually worth the trouble it brings.”

“Is revenge why you crossed over the law?”

“One reason,” Kane said. “I've never been real good at rules.”

“Then how did you survive the army?”

“More like the army survived me,” Kane replied.

Thompson stood. “About … Nicky …?”

“Are my intentions honorable?” Kane asked. “Isn't it a little late to be asking?”

Thompson stared at him. “I'm usually a good judge of character. I hope I'm not wrong this time.”

A plea was in Thompson's eyes, and Kane knew the time for fencing was over. He still wasn't sure whether he liked Thompson or not, but his respect for the man was growing.

“I told her,” Kane said, “I'm a lousy candidate for a future. But I care about her.”

Thompson smiled. Nodded. Kane had the feeling that his comment was better received than declarations of love would have been.

“Go on,” Thompson said. “I asked Juanita to fix a little something for you.”

Kane turned to go, then stopped to look back at Thompson. “I'll try to look out for both of them—for Nicky and Robin.”

“You wouldn't be here if I didn't think that was true,” Thompson said. His face suddenly contorted again. “Get out.”

Kane closed the door softly, held on to the knob for a moment. He swore softly, then went in search of Nicky.

Kane watched Robin race ahead as he and Nicky followed more sedately behind. He kept his eyes straight ahead, avoiding Nicky's searching looks.

He didn't know how long he could keep his eyes from her, could keep her from realizing how much he wanted her. Robin's presence was the only reason he was controlling himself now. Nicky had looked so pretty in the kitchen where he'd found both her and Robin. He'd wanted to grab her, to kiss her, to just simply hold her. He longed to tell her he needed—and wanted—her more than he'd ever wanted anything in his life. He'd wanted to tell her how much she had given him.

But none of that was possible, not until he worked out his problem, not until he knew he wouldn't harm her even more than he already had.

And so he had asked Robin to accompany them on the picnic.

“Bring the hawk,” he said to Robin, “and some meat.”

Robin didn't even try to hide his pleasure with manly indifference. He grinned. “Andy took the sling off my arm for good.”

“I see,” Kane said, then changed the subject. “You need a tether for the bird,” Kane said. “Go ask Andy to fix you one. About fifty feet at first.”

Robin grinned. “I already did. I'll get Diablo.”

Robin was out the door before he could say anything else. Nicky looked at him with both gratitude and disappointment. She was back in her man's shirt and trousers. As he watched, she ran a hand through her hair. It was now an endearingly familiar gesture.

“Thank you for inviting Robin,” she said. “But …”

“I know,” he said softly. And he
did
know. God, how he knew. He wanted to be alone with her as much as she obviously did him. But then he really would lose his soul. “But I need to keep my hands off you.”

“Why?”

That damned honesty again. He loved it. He hated it. Christ, it always made him feel lower than a worm. He wanted to be just as honest, but for Davy's sake he was only allowed lies. “I'll be leaving in a few days.”

“But you'll be back.”

“I'll
try
to come back.”

Her mouth creased in a wonderful smile. “Then you'll stay?”

Kane swallowed hard. “For a while.”

She studied his face, the smile disappearing. “Something's wrong, isn't it?”

Kane shrugged. “A lot of things can happen. Pictures of my face are all over the place, and it's too damned distinctive.”

Her eyes looked puzzled, and he knew she hadn't accepted the explanation. “If I know your uncle,” he said, “Andy will have our horses saddled and ready.”

“Is that it?” she asked with sudden insight. “Did Uncle Nat say anything about me? He isn't forcing you …?” Her voice trailed off as a stricken look permeated her eyes.

“No one forces me to do anything,” Kane said. Which was a lie. Everyone seemed to be forcing him to do something, all of which went against every instinct he had. But for once he was glad he had lied. Her eyes cleared slightly, only a small spark of doubt remaining.

He wanted to lean over and touch her, to wipe away that doubt, to bring the mischief back into her eyes. He had just started to reach out his hand when Robin bounded back in the room, the hawk on his wrist.

“See,” he said. “I've already trained him to sit on my wrist. He eats from my fist. He'll be able to fly in no time.”

“And go back home to the cliffs,” Kane said.

Robin nodded eagerly. He had transferred his desire from keeping the bird to teaching it to fly and hunt. He had a new purpose now, and Kane realized that at least part of it stemmed from a wish to please Kane. The other part—the best part—was finally having a goal of his own.

His eyes met Nicky's, and she smiled. He remembered her saying how she had raised Robin almost by herself. He knew how worried she'd been about his attraction to gunfighters.

“Let's go,” he said, unable to meet her eyes any longer, and the three of them walked over to the stable, where Andy had two horses saddled. Kane quickly saddled his own gray. Only once did the blacksmith glance toward Kane, and it was a worried look. Kane knew in his bones that the blacksmith smelled trouble.

The three of them trotted out of the stable, Nicky carrying a basket of food. Robin and his horse exuberantly moved ahead, as Kane and Nicky rode more leisurely.

“Thank you,” she said. “Thank you for giving him the hawk. I haven't seen him so interested in anything since he lost our dog.”

“He's a natural with animals,” Kane said. “He would make a good horse doctor.”

“If I could get him away from this valley,” Nicky said wistfully, and he knew then what she'd hinted at but never said: She, too, wanted to leave Sanctuary.

Her face suddenly flushed, and he knew she was reminded that he'd just said that he'd decided to stay. Once again, pain drove through him. She had been willing to stay for him, to give up whatever dreams she'd had of leaving. He made a
vow to himself then. No matter what happened to him, he would make sure Robin and Nicky did leave. He still had people back in Texas who owed him, and he would do something he'd never done before: call in a debt.

But the day was too fine to worry. The sun was bright and the sky too blue to describe. They stopped at what Kane now considered Nicky's hill. He watched Robin slide down from his horse, the young hawk still on his arm. For the next hour, Kane worked with Robin as they patiently tried to teach the hawk to take short jumps, moving a piece of meat farther away each time. One foot, two feet. It needed to gain strength and confidence before it could fly.

Kane turned around frequently and looked at Nicky. She seemed very content sitting and watching. The sun sent shimmers of gold through the light brown hair and a warm breeze ruffled it like so many fingers. Even in the shirt and trousers, she looked incredibly feminine. And desirable.