The Mavericks (28 page)

The owner didn't look too happy about that.

“The men spent the hour waiting so they could see us,” Josie said before he could protest. “I know you doubled the prices. We want half.”

The owner got a stubborn look on his face. Josie hadn't dealt with sleazy men for years without knowing what he was going to do next.

“Before you start making threats, let me tell
you
a few things,” Josie said. “If you don't pay us, we won't come back tomorrow. Before we leave, we'll make sure everybody knows you refused to pay us. That ought to make you about as popular as a cholera epidemic.”

The owner turned to Suzette, but she said, “Josie speaks for me.”

“We'll take our earnings now,” Josie said before he could decide they needed to help pay for the damage to his theater.

There was a good bit of haggling about how much money had been made selling spirits, but that was settled when Suzette went to the bar manager, dazzled him with her smile, and got him to tell her exactly how much money he'd taken in. The owner threatened to fire the bar manager, said Josie and Suzette were no better than robbers, and threatened to tell the sheriff they'd organized the fight just to squeeze extra money out of him, but in the end he paid up. They left his office with a very satisfying weight of gold in their purses.

“If things keep up like this, we can retire early,” Josie said to Suzette as they crossed the theater lobby and headed for the front doors. “You'll be able to go back to Quebec in style.”

“I don't want to go back to Quebec. I hate the city and the people in it.”

The passion and anger in Suzette's voice surprised Josie.

“But you said—” Josie broke off when she stepped through the theater door to see Gardner waiting for them. “What are you doing here?” Even though she
knew what kind of man he was, she had to admit his smile was disarming. No wonder the Redfield girl was willing to do anything for him.

“The sheriff couldn't believe that a man of my reputation would attempt to kidnap a woman. He found it completely believable that I was protecting you from that black man. After all, that's what a man of my wealth and reputation would naturally do.”

“Even when the woman you were trying to protect was black?” she demanded. “What about your men?”

His grin grew still broader. “They weren't my men. But even if they were, they didn't have any stolen horses, so they couldn't possibly be horse thieves.”

“In other words,” Josie said, “the sheriff wasn't about to believe accusations made against white men by a black man and a half-breed.”

“What about our word?” Suzette asked.

“Don't be ridiculous,” Josie snapped, barely able to keep her temper in check. “Any man's word will be taken over a woman's.”

“Women don't understand the West and what it takes to survive out here.” Gardner's smile was so self-satisfied, Josie longed to slap it off his face. “Things aren't like they were back East.”

Josie didn't bother to tell him she'd never lived
back East
, that she'd spent her whole life in the West and knew as well as any man what it took to survive. “We're tired and need to get some rest. Good night.” They'd turned before Gardner spoke again.

“You helped them get away.”

Suzette turned back. “Who are you talking about?”

“Hawk and Zeke. They started the fight.”

“The man who grabbed me started the trouble.”

Gardner's chuckle was so jovial it was unnerving. “He was a harmless drunk. Your Injun friend started the fight.”

“It was the least we could do after all they did for us,” Suzette said.

“You mean like accusing me of trying to kidnap Josie? Or did you have something else in mind?”

Josie could guess what Gardner was thinking. Men like him always assumed the worst about women, hoping it was true.

“She means fixing our wagon wheel when it was broken and taking care of our sick friend until we could get her to her parents' farm,” Josie said.

“And finding our mules when I didn't tether them properly,” Suzette added.

“You make them sound like regular good Samaritans.”

“We'd have had a very difficult time making the journey without their help.”

“The sheriff doesn't have the same high opinion of them.”

Josie thought Gardner had waited for them just to gloat, but she should have realized he didn't really care about their opinion. His real animosity was directed toward Zeke and Hawk. Josie's stomach tightened. She wondered what Gardner was up to.

“What do you mean?” Suzette asked.

“The sheriff doesn't believe a black man and an Injun could have come by mares of that quality honestly. Where would men like that get that much money?”

Josie had no idea how Zeke and Hawk made their money, but she was confident they'd paid for the mares
with money they had earned. “We just met them a few days ago, but I'm certain they're honest men.”

“I hope you're right,” Gardner said, his smile growing bigger still, “but don't be surprised if the sheriff holds the mares until they can produce a bill of sale.”

Josie saw Suzette tense, start to say something. She reached out, took her hand, and squeezed. Suzette looked puzzled but remained silent.

“You might want to reconsider my offer to have you perform at the Birdcage,” Gardner said when neither woman responded to his taunt.

“We're being paid very well here,” Josie said. “You'd have to come up with a really good offer to get us to leave. I hear Tombstone is dying fast.”

Gardner's smile shrank a little. “You can't believe everything you hear.”

“Like the fact that you own part of the Birdcage?”

His smile withered a little more. “I own seventy-five percent. The place is a virtual gold mine.”

“Well, you think about how much you can pay us,” Josie said, “and we'll think about how much it'll take to lure us away.”

“Your Injun won't be able to start a fight for you every night.”

“Our success doesn't depend on cheap thrills,” Josie fired back.

“In a few days, the novelty will wear off.”

“Talk to us then. Good night.”

“My offer might not be as good later,” Gardner called after them.

“We'll take that chance,” Josie replied and walked faster.

“Why are you in such a hurry?” Suzette asked when they were out of hearing range.

“We have to warn Zeke and Hawk that the sheriff means to steal their mares.”

“Wouldn't it be easier if just one of us rode out to warn them?” Josie asked.

That had been the original plan, but the more Josie talked about what she believed the sheriff
really
intended to do, the more certain Suzette became that it wouldn't be safe for either of them to remain in Benson.

“Gardner will know we warned them,” Suzette said.

She opened the livery door slowly and looked out. The street was empty, but she stood quietly for a moment to make sure no one was moving about nearby. After discussing every possibility for more than an hour, they'd finally decided to load everything back into the wagon and sneak out of town after everyone had gone to sleep. They'd been concerned about the watchman at the livery stable, but there had been no one there when they'd arrived. It hadn't taken long to harness the mules. Now they had to try to get away without being seen.

There were sounds of music and laughter from the main street, but all the buildings and houses near the livery stable were dark. Suzette led the mules from the stable, then went back to close the door so no one would have a reason to look inside until morning. Still leading the mules, her hand over the muzzle of one to keep him from making any noise, she led them toward a belt of trees that bordered the town on the north side. Once there, Josie stopped the wagon, and Suzette
climbed up beside her. “Do you know a good place to cross the river?”

“I thought I could remember where we crossed yesterday, but everything looks different in the dark.”

Suzette wasn't particularly worried. The water was no more than a couple of feet deep in any place. “I guess one spot is as good as another.”

But she wasn't thinking about crossing the river. She was thinking about Hawk. She hadn't been able to stop thinking about him since she'd seen him in the audience earlier that night. He hadn't left town. He had come to see her. He'd started a fight to protect her. No man would do that for a woman he didn't care about. She knew all the reasons why she couldn't have what she wanted, but she couldn't make herself give up the opportunity to see him again. She wasn't certain whether she and Josie would really be in danger once Gardner found out what they had done. It was simply an excuse to see Hawk again, and she'd reached for it.

She promised herself she wouldn't let her emotions get out of control. She had to warn him and thank him for what he'd done. Maybe they'd spend a couple more days together before she and Josie decided whether to move on to Tombstone or Bisbee, but right now all she could think about was seeing Hawk again. She remembered every detail about him. She wrapped herself in the memory of the happiest times of her life, the nights she'd spent in his arms. She could practically feel the texture of his skin under her fingertips, sense the warmth of his body, taste the sweetness of his kisses. She could hear the sound of the river as it murmured nearby, remember the smell of moist earth. She was so
wrapped up in her memories, she wasn't aware they'd entered the river until the wagon stopped moving.

“We're stuck,” Josie said.

Suzette jerked her mind back to the present just in time to see two drunk cowboys on horseback gaping at them from the opposite bank.

“You're the ladies who danced in the theater tonight,” one cowboy said.

“What are you doing here?” the other asked, suspicion evident in his expression despite the numbing effect of too much whiskey.

Neither cowboy seemed sober enough to understand an answer, but Josie didn't want them telling everybody the dancing ladies were running away. “It's so noisy in town we were unable to sleep. We're going to stay at a ranch a little way from here.” It was still possible to hear the sounds of revelry coming from town. “I grew up on a farm,” Josie explained when the cowboy seemed to have trouble processing what she'd said. “I can't sleep unless it's completely quiet.”

“I hate quiet,” the first cowboy said. “It feels lonely.”

“What are you doing out so late?” Josie asked.

“Heading back to the ranch where we work.”

“Where's that?”

“A little way up Tres Alamos Wash.”

Josie felt some of the tension in her shoulders relax. If the cowboys were leaving town, they wouldn't be able to tell anybody they'd seen her and Suzette. “Our wagon is stuck. Could you give us a hand?”

Despite being drunk, they understood they were expected to help ladies in distress. They slid off their horses and walked straight into the river without checking how deep it was. One stumbled and went down to his knees, but he got back up and kept walking as if nothing had happened. Josie was sure his boots were full of water. Each man put his shoulder to a rear wheel.

“When I give a yell, lay into those mules,” one called to Josie on the bench.

The words were hardly out of his mouth before he let loose a yell Josie was sure would have half the people in Benson racing down to the river to see who was being murdered. She cracked the whip over the mules' heads, and they leaned into their collars. For a moment the wagon didn't move. Then it lurched free of the mud so abruptly, Suzette nearly lost her balance. Josie didn't let the mules stop until she was safely on the opposite bank. The two cowboys sloshed out of the water grinning like little boys.

“I can't thank you enough,” Josie said. “Can I offer to pay you?”

She didn't expect the boys to accept, but she hadn't meant to offend them, either. “We don't accept nothing for helping ladies,” one said.

Josie suspected they were so drunk they wouldn't remember any of this in the morning. She hoped they
wouldn't. “Well, we have to be on our way if we're going to get any sleep tonight. Thanks again.”

“You ladies going to be at the theater when we come back to town?”

“The owner wants us there every night,” Josie said. That was true enough.

The cowboys let loose with another yell, mounted up, and rode off acting like two kids trying to pull each other out of the saddle.

“Get us to the ranch before anybody else sees us.” Suzette's voice sounded thin from worry. “We can't expect that everybody we meet will be drunk and harmless.”

It was only a short drive to the trail leading to the ranch where they'd left the mares. Being very careful to make as little noise as possible, Josie pulled the wagon around the side of the corral farthest from the house. The corral was empty. Maybe the sheriff had stolen the mares already.

“What happened to the horses?” Suzette asked.

“Zeke and Hawk could have moved them. There's not enough grass in that corral. Maybe they've left already. Zeke wanted to get to the ranch before Dusky Lady foaled.”

That seemed like the most logical explanation. If somebody had tried to steal the mares, Zeke and Hawk would have put up a fight that would have been heard all the way into town.

It was too quiet. Josie had lived on a farm long enough to know the night was never completely silent unless someone or something dangerous was present. Normally, crickets chirped, frogs croaked, and nocturnal animals moved around searching for food. Tonight
even the creek seemed to have fallen silent. Moonlight made it easy to see the farmhouse, but it was impossible to penetrate the inky shadows under the trees that bordered the small stream. Their out-flung branches reached for the sky like the arms of so many skeletons. A feeling of dread seeped into her body through the bottoms of her feet, but she had to know what had happened to Zeke. “Stay here,” she said to Suzette. “I'm going to check under those trees.”