Sullivan (30 page)

Ethel spun around, the derringer concealed in the folds of her skirt. The door flung open, and Eden gratefully pulled her head into the room.

Cash gave Ethel a wide smile. "Ready to move back across the street where you belong, sweet thing?"

Ethel tilted her head slightly. "How on earth did you know where to find me?"

Cash nodded toward the hall. "Rico's sitting in the lobby, half asleep. He said you girls were up here, cleaning."

Eden felt movement behind her. If she hadn't already seen the boot on the ledge, she probably would've screamed. A leg slipped silently through the window, snaking into view directly beside her. Another leg followed as Sin slithered, without making a sound, into the room.

"Cleaning," Cash said, rolling his eyes. "Ethel, darling, you were meant for better things." He took a long, casual step forward.

Ethel tensed. "I'll head over to the saloon in a little while," she said, her voice unnaturally high. "Let Eden and me finish up here...."

Sin moved in front of Eden, shielding her. He drew his gun and Cash took another step toward Ethel.

The telling sign might've been the look in Cash's eyes or the soft sound of Sin's weapon being drawn from its holster. Ethel suddenly realized what was happening, and she spun around as she raised her derringer. Next to Sin's six-shooter, the weapon looked much less threatening than it had before.

"Drop it," Sin said.

Ethel showed no signs of complying.

"Don't shoot her, Sin," Eden whispered. He didn't pay her any mind at all, didn't acknowledge her words.

But she realized, very quickly, that no one here wanted to see Ethel die. They simply wanted her to put down the derringer. With a hand on Sin's back, Eden peeked around him and watched as Cash reached out and touched Ethel's shoulder.

Ethel spun around and pointed the derringer at Cash. Surrounded, outnumbered, and outgunned, she panicked.

Cash reached out to take the pearl-handled derringer from Ethel, but she hung on tight. He forced her arm down, into a less threatening position, and the weapon discharged.

Cash cursed as he yanked the derringer away from Ethel. He uttered, quite clearly, the most vile words imaginable in bizarre combinations. He sprinkled in a few of Jedidiah's favorite words, the ones that always made Eden blush. She didn't dare chastise him.

Sin grabbed a disarmed Ethel from behind and held her arms tight behind her back as Nate and Rico burst into the room.

"She shot me!" Cash shouted, his hand pressed firmly over a spot high on his left thigh. He'd put all his weight on his right leg, and he stood there listing unsteadily to one side. Now that the initial shock was over, he limited himself to what was obviously his favorite curse word. "Shit!"

Nate offered Cash an arm of support and he took it, as Rico took custody of an unrepentant Ethel and led her from the room.

Eden stepped out from behind Sin, determined to do something useful. "Get him to bed. Not this one," she said quickly. "The room across the hall is cleaner. Let's have a look at that wound. Is there a real doctor in town?"

"Slow down, sweetheart," Cash said calmly. "I'll heal up across the street, in my own room. Nate can patch me up as well as any
real
doctor."
Or you.
The unspoken censure hung in the air between them.

"At least wrap the wound tightly to slow the bleeding before you try to walk." She bent over Grady's chest and came out with a clean shirt."This will do." She turned to do the chore herself, but Cash lifted a hand to stop her, one finger demonstrative and insistent. Well, she had to admit the wound
was
in a rather delicate place.

Nate took the shirt from her and dropped down to wrap it around Cash's thigh. "A couple inches to the left and a little higher," he said with a smile, "and you'd have to restrict your immoral activities to gamblin' and drinkin'." There was too much good humor in his voice, given the dire circumstances.

"Just bind it up and let's get out of here." Cash glared at Sin. His impassive face didn't reveal even a hint of the pain he had to be feeling. "You know, I haven't lived a sainted life. In the back of my mind I guess I always figured that one day I'd get myself shot over a woman. I did assume, however," he said crisply, "that it would be
my
woman."

"Thank you, Mr. Cash," Eden said, realizing that her thanks were insufficient. "I do so hate it that you were injured helping me."

Cash cursed again as Nate led him from the room. He refused the offer of Sin's added assistance, saying he would not be
carried
to his room like an invalid.

When they were alone, Eden slipped her arm around Sin's waist and leaned into him. It was a wonderfully comforting feeling, warm and intimate. "How did you know?"

"Rico said the room looked like it had been searched, and he didn't buy Ethel's explanation. He said she looked shifty eyed."

"I'm glad Rico is so observant. Otherwise..." She shivered. "Sin, Ethel was actually trying to push me out the window! She thinks Grady hid a fortune in gold somewhere in this old hotel, and since her father helped to steal it, she said it was hers. Her legacy. I would've let her have it, if there really was any gold. Do you think there is?" She looked up at him.

Sin ignored her question. "She could've shot you," he said in an unaffected voice. There might not be any emotion in his voice, but he held her close and wrapped his arms completely around her. She could feel his relief and his fear. "At any moment while the two of you were alone. One afternoon while the two of you were cooking supper." A note of fury crept into his voice.

"I don't think she really wanted to hurt me. She just wanted me to leave." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "It's over," she whispered.

"We still have the Merriweathers to contend with," Sin said darkly.

"Maybe." She looked up at Sin and smiled. "If I were a Merriweather, and I knew what I was up against, I'd stay as far away from Rock Creek as possible."

Sin looked down at her. "Yeah, but I have a feeling you're a lot smarter than the Merriweather brothers." He touched her face. It was amazing to her that he could be so big, so hard, and still so gentle. "I just don't want you hurt."

"Because you love me?"

"Because I
like
you."

"That's something, I suppose." She dropped her arms, let Sin go, and headed for the door. She still shook, a deep quiver from head to toe, but she felt no real fear. The danger was over, and her mind turned to more immediate matters. "I really should make Cash some soup. Will he ever forgive me?"

"Probably not."

"I do make
very
good soup."

Chapter 20

Eden made a conscious effort not to look from side to side as she walked through the saloon. It was not yet dark, but the evening had begun. Rough men drank, painted women laughed, and gamblers caressed their cards the way a lover might caress a woman's flesh. She kept her eyes on the stairs at the rear of the room, even when she felt a growing number of eyes on her back.

Nate stayed close, and she could feel, too, the temptation this place held for him.

"Honey," one of the saloon girls hollered, "if you're going to visit Cash, you might as well save yourself the trip up the stairs. He's kicked us both out already. Twice. He's in a foul mood."

Eden glanced over her shoulder. "Being shot is bound to put anyone in a foul mood. Besides," she added, lifting her tray aloft, "I brought soup."

She didn't see any reason for laughter, but a few drunken men did just that. Turning her back on them all, Eden climbed the stairs. Nate stayed right behind her.

"They're right," he said softly. "Cash is not going to be glad to see you."

"He was injured helping me. The least I can do is bring him some chicken soup. He'll need nourishment to heal." She stopped at the top of the stairs. "Which room is his?"

Nate pointed, then stepped around Eden to knock curtly and then push open the door. Cash's room was smaller than those in the hotel, cramped but clean. It was also rather... decadent. The bedspread that covered him to the waist was bright red and surely made of the finest silk, as were the sheets and the pillows. The single chair was covered in red velvet, a fabric similar to the thick curtains that covered the single window.

On his bedside table there was a deck of cards, two distinctive six-shooters, an almost full bottle of whiskey, and a cut-glass tumbler with just a drop of whiskey sitting in the bottom.

Cash opened his eyes as she stepped into the room. "What the hell are you doing here?"

She refused to be put off by his rude tone of voice or the blackness of his eyes. "I brought you soup." She lifted the tray slightly.

"I hate soup." He waved a dismissive hand. "Get out."

Eden ignored him, stepping into the small room and perching on the edge of the red velvet chair. "I can feed you or you can feed yourself. I won't have you wasting away."

Slowly, using the strength in his arms, Cash moved into a sitting position. Crimson silk pillows cushioned his back. A crimson silk coverlet covered his legs. His mouth, surrounded by a precisely trimmed mustache and goatee, pursed and twitched. Finally, he pinned his dark eyes on her.

"Let me assure you that I have no intention of wasting away, Miss Rourke," he said in a dangerous voice that positively dripped sarcasm. "Or is it Mrs. Sullivan? I'm often confused these days."

"Call me Eden," she said, taking the spoon in her hand and dipping it into the soup. "Open wide."

He looked horrified, his black eyebrows arching, his head rearing slightly back. "You are not going to spoon soup into my mouth as if I were a baby or a feeble old codger."

"All right," she said, standing with the tray in her hands. She very gingerly placed the tray on Cash's lap.

The gambler reached down with both hands and grasped the bowl. She knew, immediately, what he intended to do.

"Surely you wouldn't be so childish," she said calmly.

He cut his eyes up and narrowed them. "You'd be surprised." But he didn't toss the bowl across the room.

"While you two argue about the soup," Nate muttered, "I'm going downstairs for a drink."

Eden spun around. "No, you really shouldn't." It broke her heart to see the man lose himself in whiskey, to drink until he was insensible. "You drink too much, Nate. It's not good for you." She kept her voice low.

"Not good for me?" he asked, amused by her concern.

"No," she said softly. "You really shouldn't..."

"If I need a drink it's none of your business."

"Well, yes, that may be true," she said, unable to let it go. "But you don't
need
a drink. You want it, but want is entirely different from need."Given the way Sin affected her, she really wasn't one to talk. That didn't stop her, though. "I'm not one to say that whiskey is evil, but..."

"Lady, when you've seen what I've seen, you can preach to me," Nate said with a touch of bitter humor. "Until then, leave me the hell alone." With that he stalked out of the room, leaving the door open.

So far the day had been a complete disaster. First she'd been confronted by Ethel and her nefarious plans, then Cash and his stubbornness, and now Nate.

"Sullivan was right about you," Cash said.

Oh, she was in no mood to be on the receiving end of Cash's sarcasm, not now. "Right about me how?" she snapped, trying, and failing, to stop her eyes from filling with tears.

Cash smiled wickedly. "He said you were out to save the world, one person at a time. If that's the case, Rock Creek is as good a place as any to be. Lots of people here need saving."

Dejected, she sat again in the red velvet chair. "But I'm not doing a very good job of it. Grady died, Ethel tried to kill me, Sin only wants to send me back to Georgia, Nate put me in my place, and you"—she pinned her eyes on him—"you nearly get yourself killed on my account, and now I can't even get you to eat a bowl of soup." Her lower lip quivered.

"Save the histrionics," Cash drawled. "I'm too damn old to fall for that practiced con. The tremulous lip, the watery eyes. You're quite the actress, Miss... Eden."

"You hate me," she whispered, certain of the fact.

"Perhaps."

"Would you like to tell me why?" She didn't really care if this man liked her or not, but he was in Sin's closest circle and that meant something to her.

"I don't like to see my friends jerked around by their nuts."

Shocked, Eden tilted back and widened her eyes. "Well, you don't mince words, do you, Mr. Cash?"

"In the past I've found it a waste of time to do so," he snapped.

Amazingly, she found a tender spot in her heart for Cash at that moment. Tough as he was, he obviously cared about his friends. That meant he cared about Sin. They had something in common after all.

"Let me put your mind at ease," she said softly. "I love Sin, very much. I would never jerk him around by... by anything." She could feel herself blushing, the heat rising to her cheeks. "If I've made mistakes since coming here, it's because I've never been in love before." She smiled. "I'm learning as I go."