Lucy's Liberation [Elk Creek 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (22 page)

“I’m not thinking anything of the sort, Cody,” Prentice said, trying to maintain his cool and not escalate the situation with an aggressive tone or stance. It took everything in him, though, not to just punch Cody’s lights out or… He felt it then, the psychic tingle on the edge of his consciousness.

Prentice gave Cody a mental push and jerked back when he touched the other man’s mind. It wasn’t the strongest contact he had ever experienced. He just received a whisper of what Cody was thinking. Prentice didn’t have to be psychic, however, to comprehend the hatred and malice that Cody harbored against Ki and Lucy.

Had he himself been that hateful and mean toward Thayne, Cade, and Maia? If so, Prentice decided he owed them all an apology, big time.

He reached down, preparing to squeeze Cody’s brain, only a little, enough to make him wince and back off of Lucy, but suddenly stopped himself. Even if he hadn’t been planning to hurt Cody a lot, why hurt the man at all if he could avoid it?

You’re learning
real
self-control, Prentice. Good.

Prentice’s chest filled with pride, as if he was a little kid in grade school whose favorite teacher had just given him a gold star on his class work.

“Pr—Ethan? Are you okay?” Lucy asked.

He shook himself, looking first at her and then around the table at the men seated around Cody, all seeming to be waiting with bated breath for him to do something.

“I’m fine.”

“I’ll bet you are, living in that house of sin with the fancy pants lawyer and his whore to warm your bed. Just another unholy trinity iffen you ask me, just like the doc and his wife and brother and that injun and the Baldwins. All a bunch of perv—”

Cody flew back in his chair, hitting the floor with a loud crash as some of the glasses on the table went flying along with the platter of cornbread.

“Sucker punch me, will you? I’ll show you who’s boss, you no-good whelp!” Cody sprang to his feet, brandishing his gun.

Prentice stood in front of Lucy to shield her, shaking his hand like crazy.

Damn that had hurt him as much as it had hurt Cody, but it was worth it. Cody was lucky Prentice hadn’t hit him sooner. He was lucky Prentice hadn’t—

Don’t do it, son.

The deep voice brought Prentice up short, such a shock to his senses for the mere fact that Caith didn’t usually do much talking. He seemed entirely content to let Brielle do all the communicating with Prentice.

Wait, had he just called Prentice son? That had to have been some kind of Freudian slip.

“Let’s see you try that again, Crawford.” Cody pulled back the hammer of his gun.

“Stop it right there, Cody!”

Everyone who had cleared away from the table and had run for cover now turned their focus to the bar where Eartha stood with her shotgun drawn.

She chambered a round while she had Cody’s attention. “You know I don’t cotton to this kind of behavior in my establishment, Cody. I try to run a classy place. Now if you don’t pull in your horns, we’re going to have some difficulty.”

“Ah, Eartha, you know we’re just having a little disagreement is all.”

“You take your disagreement outside and leave my people be. And don’t come back in here until you’re able to play nice with others.”

“You’re kicking me out?”

“You heard me, Cody.”

Cody growled and holstered his gun. “Fine. I’ve been kicked out of better places.”

“I’m sure you have.”

Cody cursed one more time before he took the edge of the table in both hands and upended it on his way to the swinging doors. He turned back to aim a glare Prentice’s and Lucy’s way as he pointed at them. “You two troublemakers better keep an eye out.”

Prentice watched as Cody turned on his heels and left. He turned to Lucy and caught her around the shoulders. That’s when he noticed that she was shivering. He swore, drew his arms around her, and pulled her close. “Are you okay?”

“Just a little shook up. That’s the second altercation I’ve had with Cody since he and Ki and I all met with Rance’s lawyer about the will. I think he really hates Ki and me.”

“Don’t go feeling special. Cody really hates everyone. He’s just a hateful person.”

Kind of like I used be before…before I came back?

Lucy laughed and the light, musical sound did Prentice’s heart good. If he could prevent a frown from ever again forming on her face or a tear from spilling down her cheek, he would.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” he murmured.

“I’ll be all right.”

Cody’s behavior toward Lucy and Ethan made Prentice wonder if maybe he had had anything to do with Ethan’s murder.

At this point and since he didn’t have a viable suspect, Prentice had to look at everyone, and had been since he’d started working in Winchester’s. Problem was, he hadn’t a clue what or whom he was looking for. No one in town could agree on what the “unsavory character” with whom Ethan had taken up looked like. The situation reminded Prentice of those police sketches that used to flash on the evening news with the newscaster asking anyone who recognized or knew of the perpetrator’s whereabouts to give the authorities a call. The trouble with those sketches was they were so generic they looked like just about every other average guy.

“Why don’t you two go take a break while I get this mess cleaned up and get ready to introduce Rebel’s show,” Eartha said.

“Are you sure, Eartha?” Lucy asked, loyal until the very end.

“Don’t you worry none. Now skedaddle and come back once you’re settled down.”

“C’mon.” Prentice took Lucy by the hand and led her through the bar toward the back entrance. He caught himself scanning every face they passed, looking for any undue interest or anything suspicious at all.

The problem was
everyone
—from the regulars he saw nightly like Cody and Boone Logan, who like a lot of the cowboys around here worked out at the Westyn ranch, to the businessmen who came in for an occasional drink or game of cards, to the men he’d never seen before and probably would never see again—looked suspicious to Prentice, because he didn’t know
who
he was looking for.

He decided to cut to the chase and use his powers since he had them back. He reached out to touch the random mind of a patron at the bar and…nothing happened. He didn’t get anything, not even a whisper like what he had gotten from Cody.

Damn. So it
had
been a fluke, or maybe his subconscious had fed off of the energy of Cody’s hatred and rage and these were what had reinvigorated Prentice’s powers.

Had Goddess decided he wasn’t to be trusted because he had contemplated hurting Cody so she had taken Prentice’s powers back? Had she been testing him to see what he would do when she’d returned them? Whatever the reason, he didn’t have his powers now.

No matter. He’d handle this the old-fashioned way if he had to, and from the looks of it, that’s exactly what he would have to do.

* * * *

Hearing the rumors and seeing the kid alive and well, kicking and breathing not several feet away from him were two different things.

He had been hoping the old-timer behind the bar in the other town had been mistaken when he’d said some young fella who’d been shot dead had come back to life. Even after he had seen the item in the newspapers about the phenomenon, he hadn’t wanted to believe it until he saw the proof with his own two eyes.

Well, he had seen the proof and now the proof was walking right by him with that pretty little filly and out the door.

He noticed how protective Ethan was of the girl, how possessively his arm curved around the filly’s waist as if he might kill anyone who tried to hurt her.

He filed that information away now to use at a later date.

Everything he had previously learned from the people in the town, from Ethan himself, had led him to believe that Ethan was sweet on that cute, redheaded, churchgoing girl, the gunsmith’s daughter named Ginger McCall.

Hell, maybe Ethan was sweet on both girls. Nothing wrong with a man keeping his options open, and he had to admit, he wouldn’t mind having a taste of both the little fillies himself once he took care of business and got Ethan out of the way…for good this time.

“Well, it’s about time you two arrived. It’s well past any decent hour to serve dinner, but I’ve managed to keep the food warm enough to enjoy now that you’ve finally arrived.”

“Darling, this is my mother, Margaret Peyton Benjamin-Sachs,” Ki quickly introduced, feeling guilty that he had failed to intercept his wife and properly prime her before his mother had launched her opening salvo.

Ki knew that Lucy could be the soul of amiability and discretion under normal circumstances but his mother could try the patience of a saint if one wasn’t familiar with her special brand of love and nurturing.

Lucy crossed the room with her hand outstretched as his mother stood from the table and crossed the floor to meet her halfway. “We’re sorry we kept you waiting, Mrs. Benjamin-Sachs.”

His mother took Lucy’s hand in her usual firm grip, the one Ki had seen her employ at countless fundraisers, greasing the wheels of high society and politics to get what she wanted from the most unflappable, toughest moguls in New York City with a sly wink and a breezy smile. “Please, let’s dispense with the formalities. It’s Margaret and I’ll call you Lucy.”

“Of course,” Lucy said.

His mother turned her attention to Ethan standing just behind Lucy like a dutiful sentry. “You seemed to have slipped out earlier before I could make your acquaintance, young man.”

Ethan stepped from behind Lucy and proffered his hand. “I’m Ethan Crawford.”

She shook Ethan’s hand, giving him a shrewd look from her endless repertoire of insightful looks that inevitably made a chill run through Ki’s body.

“Well, Ethan, from what I hear, you’ve had a little trouble at home with your parents.”

“Something like that, yes.”

“And my son and daughter-in-law are letting you stay here, what, indefinitely?”

“Mother, you’re being impolite,” Ki said.

“What? I’m just trying to ascertain the circumstances that brought the young man here to live with you and exercising a little healthy concern for your and your new wife’s well-being.”

“She’s right. Ki and I perfectly understand your concern, Margaret. Ki and Lucy are allowing me to stay here out of the kindness of their hearts until I can find a better place.”

His mother nodded her head as if in agreement, but Ki could see her busy mind working out the logistics. He knew she was well aware of the other amenities in town of which Ethan could have availed himself instead of staying with him and Lucy. His mother was no dummy and she probably knew there was more afoot than what he, Lucy, or Ethan was willing to tell her.

Thankfully, his mother chose not to point any of this out to them, at least for now.

Instead she said, “Ki mentioned that you usually all have dinner in the kitchen. However, I think it more appropriate that we eat in the dining room from now on, like civilized people. Don’t you agree, Lucy?”

Oh God, this wasn’t going to go well, Ki thought.

“The dining room is so…formal,” Lucy said.

“Is there something wrong with making dinner a formal occasion?”

“If it’s just the three or four of us, then, yep, I rightly think the dining room is too formal a setting for a regular old dinner.”

Ki noticed Lucy had let her Oklahoman accent off its leash and wondered if she had done it purposefully or not. He smiled at the thought. It looked like his mother might have a bit of a fight on her hands if she thought to lay down the law according to Margaret Peyton Benjamin-Sachs and expected Lucy to acquiesce without a struggle.

Ki folded his arms across his chest, looking from his mother to Lucy and back again, waiting for his mother’s inimitable response.

“I’m surprised you prefer the kitchen over the dining room. You don’t seem like the type of woman who spends a lot of time in the kitchen.”

Ki gaped and turned to Lucy, who was gritting her teeth as if her life depended on it.

Hold it together, honey. It’ll be over soon. Just hold it together.

“Actually I spend quite a good amount of time in the kitchen.”

“Here or at your other job?”

Lucy pursed her lips and turned to Ki. “I had some good news for you, darling. I quit Winchester’s as of tonight. I was going to tell you when I first arrived, but I guess now is as good a time as any.”

“That’s wonderful news.” Although he wondered exactly what precipitated the sudden change. He had sensed his wife’s discontent and uneasiness and had known Lucy’s leaving Winchester’s was just a matter of time. He suspected, however, that there was more to the story than Lucy making a choice out of desire and wondered if something had happened at the saloon tonight to force her to quit.

Before Ki could dwell on it any further, Ethan suggested sitting down to dinner before the food got cold and everyone readily agreed, quickly departing the great room to wash up.