Cowboy from the Future (13 page)

“She’s
got a point.”  Jacobi interjected, stacking chairs.  “You keep telling her
she’ll have to go in the springtime.  The girl is bound to feel unwanted.”

“Did
I ask you, Jake? 
No
.  I am saving her life, alright?  Don’t push me.”

“You’re
being an ass.”  Addy corrected.  “I know getting there will be hard, okay? 
But, I don’t have much of a choice.  I
have
to find Yellowstone.”  She
willed him to understand.  “It will lead me home, Cade.”

His
head tilted.  “
Lead
you home.  I thought Yellowstone Why o’ Ming
was
your home.  Where you helped the polis’ only woman doctor and worked with your
incredibly wealthy boss Brian on some kind of webs.”

Drat…

Addy
stared at him silently, knowing she’d just made a mistake.

“No
one lives in that place.”  Deke put in, his voice soft and certain.  “The water
reeks of sulfur and the winters are more brutal than anything I’ve ever known. 
She’s been there, but it’s not her home.”

All
three brothers turned to look at her, their eyes narrowed suspiciously.

Double
drat.

“Adeline,
talk to me. 
Now.
”  Cade met her gaze with those fathomless lavender
eyes.  “Tell me what’s really going on, lady.”

Oh…
drat.

She
wanted
to tell him.  She really did.  She wanted to tell him
everything.  But, if she did that, he’d think she was crazy.  Hell, even
she
thought she was crazy half the time.  What if Cade kicked her out or had her
locked up in some future-y asylum?  No matter what she was starting to feel for
the guy, could she risk that?

Addy’s
lips pressed together to hold back a weepy rush of words.  “I’m going to Yellowstone
National Park.”  She informed him tightly.  “I don’t need to explain myself.  I
don’t need your permission.  And I don’t need your help.  You won’t draw me a
map? 
Fine
.  I’ll figure it out myself.”

Cade’s
hands slammed against the bar in frustration.  “You drive me insane, you know
that?  It doesn’t surprise me
at all
that none of your people are
looking for you.  You are so stubborn that…”  He stopped short, his head
snapping towards the entrance.  “Someone’s coming.”

Deke
peered out the window, just as loud knocking started at the door.  “Hugo.”  He
muttered.  “
Fuck. 
He’s finally back.”

“He’s
gonna want to meet Addy.”  Jacobi glanced over at Cade, a worried expression on
his face.  “You
know
he’ll have heard about her the second he got here. 
What do you want to do?”

“Let
him in.”  Addy ordered, before Cade would answer.  Whoever Hugo was, he was
saving her from an inquisition.  “If he wants to see me, he can see me.  I have
nothing to hide.”

“Of
course you don’t.”  Cade shot her a sneering look.  “You’re always such a
fountain of truth and honesty.  Four gods, how does your aura still look like
that, when you lie so easily?”

“Well,
I polish it a lot.”

“We’re
not going to get rid of Hugo unless we let him in or shoot him.”  Deke reported
over the continued pounding on the door.  “Wanna hear my pick?”

Cade
cursed under his breath.  “Let him in.”

Deke
said something in their language.

“You
think I don’t realize that?”  Cade snapped.  “But, we knew it was coming. 
It’ll be for the best.”

“Will
it?”  Deke didn’t sound convinced.  “Did you ask her?”

“Ask
me what?”

“What’s
the point in asking her?”  Cade demanded.  “Even if I did ask, what do you
think she’d say, Deke?”

“Hell,
I didn’t think she’d say most everything she’s ever said.  What do you have to
lose by just
asking?
”

“Asking
what?
”  Addy repeated loudly.

Cade
swore under his breath.  He glanced down at her, his eyes roaming over her
face.  “Adeline, I…”  He hesitated and changed his mind about whatever he’d
planned to say.  “Just go upstairs and let me handle this.”  He finally
decided.  “Alright?”

Jacobi
sighed at Cade and showed off his new command of English slang.  “Dude, you
suck.”

If you
encounter any wild animals during your visit, remember to stay calm and use
your head.

These
natural inhabitants are more scared of you than you are of them.

Brown’s
Glampling Tours Official Pocket Guide

“Just
got back from Hot Springs a couple hours ago.”  Hugo Wode, Shadow-of-the-Gods’
mayor, said affably, even as his beady eyes scanned around the saloon.  “First
thing I hear is that you boys have a visitor.”

Hugo
was a young man, who took pride in his appearance and tonight he seemed especially
fancified.  He was dressed in the same too-tight suit he’d been wearing since
the election, but he’d added a gold chain to his neck and shined his boots to a
high polish.  His hair was waxed into place with buffalo tallow and his
mustache was slicked into stylish cat’s whiskers.  He would’ve blended right
into at some ritzy Hot Springs’ restaurant, but he looked completely out of
place standing in the Westins’ bar.

Cade’s
jaw ticked.  There was only one reason for this ridiculousness and she was currently
peering down from the upstairs balcony.  He could feel her waiting for an
opportunity to cause disruption.  Every instinct in his body told him to vault
over the counter and drag Hugo from the building before he got within ten feet
of Addy.

…Which
was why he didn’t move.

Cade
had been waiting for weeks for Hugo to arrive.  The bastard would never allow a
lady like Addy to stay with a Voltyn.  Cade knew that.  The mayor would insist
on carting her back to his mansion on the hill.  This whole situation was
inevitable… and for the best.

Cade
was getting
way
too attached to the girl.  He needed to let go of her
now
,
while he still could.  Buying her gifts, so he could see her smile, and
listening to her play the vianorgan was just getting him in deeper.  Hugo was
probably saving his life by taking Addy out of his reach.

So
why had Cade sent her upstairs?

“Folks
are saying she’s a real looker, too.”  Hugo continued when all three Westins
just stared at him.  He didn’t like to stand too close to Cade, so he hovered
an awkward distance away from the bar.  That put him closer to Deke, though,
which also seemed to unnerve him.

Possibly,
it was the look of death Deke was shooting him.

Hugo
cleared his throat, uneasy with the silence.  “Is she hiding in her room?  Any
lady would, being around a Voltyn and the trash in this bar.  Best let me have
a chat with the poor girl.”

Jacobi
flashed Cade an unhappy look.  He didn’t want Adeline to go anywhere and he
clearly blamed Cade for even letting Hugo through the door.

The
kid adored Addy, soaking up the attention she showed him.  Cade had never
realized how much Jake missed having a feminine influence in his life until he
watched Addy lecture the boy about his card playing or teach him Why o’ Ming dance
steps.  Jake hung on her every word, no matter how crazy it was.  And at least
six times a day, he was nagging Cade to do
something
so they could keep
her.

Godsdamn
it,
wanted
to.  He just knew it wouldn’t work.  Addy didn’t want him. 
There was no way.  She could do so much better than Cade and she deserved so
much better than this gods-awful place.

“Addy
speaks the Old Language, Hugo.”  Jacobi finally said in a surly tone, when it
became clear neither Deke nor Cade was going to speak.  “So, she’s not going to
understand you.  …And she’s pretty boring, anyway.  You probably don’t want to
waste your time on her.”

Hugo
smirked.  “I’ve had a bit
of education, so I think I can communicate
with her in that tongue.”  He sat down at one of the tables, his gaze lazily tracing
over the portrait of Mon-Row behind the bar and lingering on her breasts.  “Boring
or not, it won’t be a waste of time to help a wealthy visitor to the polis.  A
lady has got to have influential friends, right?  She’ll be glad to have someone
a little more
refined
to talk to.”

Deke
arched a brow at that remark and switched to Addy’s dialect.  “We could still
shoot him.”  He said casually.

“No
thanks, I don’t drink ale.”  Hugo reported, not understanding a word of that
threat.

Jacobi
had to turn his head to hide his snickering.  Even Cade felt his mouth curve. 
In the weeks that Addy had been staying with them, all the brothers were
smiling more.  Deke was speaking in full sentences.  Jacobi was filled with
boyish speculation about her homeland.  Cade woke up in the morning and didn’t
dread the start of another day.

He’d
told Addy to stay away from him, but he was the one who couldn’t bring himself
to steer clear.  How could anyone avoid the only bright spot in the house?

It
was hard to explain, but the little nut somehow
lightened
everything
around her.  Addy didn’t have to do anything beyond walk into the room and the
day was better.  It was like she was the missing piece the Westins had been
searching for.  She
fit
with them, completing some picture that he
hadn’t known was unfinished.

Of
course, she was also creating more chaos then even he’d anticipated and he’d
anticipated
a lot
.  It was impossible to predict what she was going to
do or say next, because nothing she did or said made sense.  She liked to tease
him about being an alien, but sometime he thought
she
was the one who’d
come from another planet.

The
woman had no idea how to light a simple lantern.  Every time she tried, she
nearly lit herself on fire.  When a sanbor prowled up the street, she watched
it like she’d never seen a lizard before.  The previous night, Jacobi had asked
her to tell a famous story from her polis and she’d woven some crazy tale of a
mermaid who fell in love with a prince and gave up her voice to walk on land. 
She even sang a song about living under the sea.

How
the hell could Addy think of a story like that?  The oceans had been dead for
five hundred years.  Did she not know that?  How could she
not
know
that?  Where did she come from that she didn’t know the most common sense things?

The
questions kept Cade awake at night.  Well, that and the knowledge that Addy was
tucked in bed, one room away, soft and sweet and possibly naked.  Every time he
closed his eyes, he could picture her flawless skin sliding against the
sheets.  She was so fucking
perfect
.  Nothing so perfect could come from
this shithole world.  He knew that.  No matter how he tried, Cade couldn’t
explain her presence in any logical way.

Maybe
she was the miracle Deke believed.  Addy had just walked in from the snow, like
she’d appeared out of thin air.  Where were her people?  Her baggage?  Her
wagon?  He’d scouted the whole area and there was
nothing
.  He couldn’t
believe that she’d traveled all the way from the Wilderness alone, so, however
she’d arrived, it wasn’t normal.

She
wasn’t normal.

But,
whoever she was and wherever she came from, having Addy around lifted the gloom
that had existed over the Westins since before he could remember.  Or maybe he
couldn’t remember a time without it, because the oppressive cloud had descended
at Cade’s conception.

Ever
since his father impregnated a Voltyn woman, a pall of shame and hopelessness
had settled over the family.  Nothing could dispel the stigma of his birth.  Not
his mother dying in childbirth or his father marrying a cold and pious human.  Addy
had no idea about Voltyn, though.  Hell, she didn’t even know how to
pronounce
Voltyn.  The girl was quite possibly the only person in the world with no
hatred for his race.  Being near her was like getting washed clean.  Every time
Cade saw her, the click grew louder and louder.

…And
he grew more certain that he needed to get rid of her before it was too late.

“Adeline.” 
He called and hated himself.  “Someone’s here to see you.”

“Moron.” 
Jacobi muttered in disgust.

Deke
shook his head and went back to staring out the window.  “You’ll regret this,
Cade.  You should’ve just asked her to stay.”

Godsdamn
it.

“I
was about to come back down on my own.”  Addy bounded down the stairs.  Her
compliance had lasted a full thirty seconds longer that Cade thought it would,
so he supposed she deserved some credit.  “I needed to see Tony the Tiger up
close.”  Her eyes locked on Hugo’s cat-whiskered mustache, like it fascinated
her.  “I mean,
damn
.  That thing is epic.”

Hugo’s
jaw sagged.  He might have been told she was “a real looker,” but there was no
preparing for Adeline Mulhaney.  She’d been borrowing Jacobi’s old clothes, so
she’d have something clean to wear.  The lush curves of her body filled out the
pants and flannel shirt in ways that defied the laws of gods and men.  Someone
would have to be blind not to stare.

Cade’s
eyes flicked over to Hugo and wanted to slaughter the son of a bitch, anyway.

“This
is the mayor, Addy.  He wanted to meet you.”  Jacobi shot Cade a sideways look,
gauging his reaction to Hugo’s gaping.  “This is
your
fault.”  He
mouthed.

Cade
ignored that and moved from behind the bar, so he was between Hugo and Addy. 
He couldn’t stop himself.

“He’s
your
mayor?
”  Addy’s gaze stayed on Hugo’s fashionable facial hair.  The
feline look was all the rage in the bigger cities.  Even Cade knew that.  But,
she couldn’t seem to tear her eyes off of the half-foot wide whiskers sticking
off the sides of Hugo’s face.  “Someone
voted
for a guy who looked like
this?”

“I
didn’t.”  Deke intoned, still staring into the night.  “Bigoted fuck.”

“I’m
Mayor Hugo Wode, ma’am.”  Hugo squeaked out in a too-high voice.  Then, he remembered
she didn’t understand their language.  “I mean,” he cleared his throat,
speaking very slowly, “Greetings beautiful cow.  You bring much Wednesday to
our jungle.”  He gave a gallant bow.  “I am the ardent groper, Hugo Wode.”

This
time Jacobi didn’t bother to hide his snickering.

Addy
blinked.  “Um… thank you.”  She was always lady, even in the face of idiots. 
“I’m Adeline Mulhaney.”

Hugo
tried to edge closer to her, but Cade blocked his path.  Hugo was too far gone
to notice.  “I had heard of your sausage, but you are…” Hugo trailed off and
looked at Cade, switching back to their dialect.  “Quick, how do I say ‘more
lovely than I dreamed’ in her language?”

Cade’s
teeth ground together.  He lowered his voice, so only Hugo could hear.

“Warts
cover my ass.”  Hugo obediently repeated to Addy in a breathless tone.

Deke
honest-to-the-four-gods burst out laughing.  The guy hadn’t laughed since the Wilderness
War, but now he was roaring with hilarity.  Jacobi wasn’t much better.  The
kid’s head was on the table as his shoulders shook uncontrollably.  It occurred
to Cade that he’d never made his brothers laugh before.

Addy’s
eyes went wide.  “Okay.  Good to know.”  She looked over at Cade and her mouth
curved.  “You
may
have given him the wrong translational there.”

He
loved to see her smile.  “Voltyn have no sense of humor, so such a petty act is
impossible.”

Hugo
ignored their chatter.  “A woman like this cannot be staying
here
.”  He
sputtered, regaining a bit of brainpower.  “She deserves to be in a respectable
place.  Look at her!”  He swept a hand at Addy’s perfect body.  “Mizusa
Mulhaney is clearly a lady.  What would it do to her reputation if word got out
she’d shared a house with
you?
”

Cade
had known this would happen, but rage still filled him.  “She is a guest in the
hotel.  Nothing more.”

Hugo
ignored that.  “It simply won’t do.  I think I’d better take her home with me. 
Much more appropriate…”

“No.”

The
word was out before Cade could stop it.  Now that the moment was here, he
couldn’t let Addy just walk away.  Something rose up inside of him, revolting
at the very idea.  It couldn’t be emotion, since Voltyn didn’t feel.  But,
whatever it was, it trumped every rational thought in his head, driving out
logic.  Addy brought sunlight to his dark life.  He
needed
her.

Deke
and Jacobi turned to look at him in proud surprise.  Anytime he made his little
brothers proud of him, he had to be doing something right, right?

Shit,
what was he doing?

Hugo’s
round face suffused with color.  “You cannot…  A woman like this will never…” 
He was too flustered to even form sentences.  “See here, Cade, you must be
reasonable about this.  You’re a Voltyn.  You know how this looks.”

Addy’s
gaze cut between them, sensing the escalating tension.  “Now what?”

“Hugo
wants to take you to his house.”  Jacobi volunteered.  “He doesn’t like you
being with Cade.”

“Why
not?”  Only she would have to ask something so obvious.