Only My Love (35 page)

"Michael's not coming back here," Ethan said. "She's working out front this evening."

"Better safe..." Houston didn't bother finishing the homily. "I got a wire today. Coded, of course. We're being asked to take No. 486 on her way to Cheyenne. Cooper'd like it done the week of the 20th. He has business in San Francisco later in the month. He'll be on the train going west then."

Jake whistled softly. "Did I hear right? He wants us to hold up the train he's on?"

Ben shrugged. "Sorta makes sense. Houston promised we could meet him sometime. Ain't no better way than to pluck him clean."

Houston nodded. "And there'll be a shipment of silver from the Salina mines. Not as much as we brought in last time, but enough to make it worth the risk."

"How much you figure?" Happy asked.

"Thirty, forty thousand." There was a general murmur around the table. "Same terms, of course. We split sixty percent between us. Forty percent goes back to him."

Obie's fingers stopped drumming against the table top. He frowned slightly.

"Something wrong, Obie?" Houston asked. "You have some objection?"

He thought about it a while before he spoke. "Well," he drawled, "it don't seem right somehow. The risk is always ours. Seems like forty percent is a lot to give back for information when we could pick the trains ourselves."

It wasn't Houston who answered, but Ethan. "We wouldn't be nearly as successful and the risk would be much greater. Because of Cooper we generally know how much is going to be on the train, how many men are guarding it, who we might expect to encounter. Pretty difficult for us to find that sort of thing out without raising suspicion. My life's worth my share of that forty percent."

Ben nodded. "It's true what you say, but he mucked things up last time out. We shoulda been warned about the cars from the
Chronicle."

"Which is why we'll meet with him this time," Houston said. "Happy, you tell him what happened with the
Chronicle.
Coop only knows what he's read in the papers. Obie, you tell him what you think about his forty percent. Maybe we can renegotiate something more favorable."

Obie looked uncertain at first, glancing around the table to see if he could count on support. He finally nodded. "I'll do it."

Houston smiled. "Good."

"The 20th's only ten days from now," Happy said. "Not much time to plan. We took No. 349 when we thought the time was right. Coop didn't dictate then."

"I think this is different," Ethan said. "I know I've only been with you since you decided you wanted 349. You brought me on board because of the safe. But there were... how many?... five, six trains you stopped before I joined you?"

"Six," Happy said. "Unless you don't count Seneca Valley. Obie don't like to. That's where he shot hisself in the foot."

Ethan waited for the laughter to die down. "What I'm getting at is Coop's provided you with quite a bit of information. Depending on who he is, what his job might be, he could be coming under suspicion. If that's the case, I'd do the same thing in his place: invite you all to rob me."

"The same thing's occurred to me," Houston said approvingly. "It makes sense. If we mean to go on as we have been then this robbery is critical. We have to do it to take suspicion away from the source of our information."

Ben picked up the deck of undealt cards and flicked through them with his thumb. "Sounds all right by me."

Happy spit. "By me, too. Any one got any ideas? Detra? You're usually good for one or two."

Detra stopped twirling a strand of her hair as all eyes went to her. "I haven't had much more time than you to think about it. I don't see how we can use the same ruse as last time to get all of you out of town together."

"We can't," Houston said, putting a period to any more thinking along that line.

"You could all leave separately, though," she said. "Different times, different reasons. Perhaps within a few days of one another. You have a schedule for the train, don't you, Houston?"

"Jake got the latest one this afternoon, right after he got the wire."

"We still have to pick a place to take the train. That will decide the time. We'll need confirmation from Cooper that he's actually going to be on it."

Houston shook his head. "I can't reach him, you know that."

Ethan rubbed the back of his neck. "He said the 486. We'll have to hope he's got it right and they don't change schedules on him." Cooper's identity had frustrated Ethan from the beginning. He was the reason it was impossible to quit after the robbery of No. 349, the reason it wasn't good enough to simply have Houston and the others dead to rights. He needed the man who gave them their information, the man who made it possible for them to take the trains in the first place. Ethan's private money was on Cooper being a dispatcher or someone from the Wells Fargo office who knew about gold, silver, and payroll shipments. So far nothing had turned up a Cooper working in either place. Ethan hadn't really expected it to. Cooper was undoubtedly not his real name.

"What's your idea, Dee, about us leaving at different times?"

"I haven't thought it through, you understand," she said, "but it makes sense that Ben and Happy should go out prospecting together. Happy's always talking about finding placer gold again. After his last 'incident' of getting lost, he'll take Ben along for safety. That will take care of the mules and supplies you'll need. Obie can go to Stillwater for me. I'm expecting some things I ordered from Chicago."

"What about me?" Jake asked.

"If a wire came in for the sheriffs office to look into some leads on the 349 robbery, you and Houston could leave for a few days." Dee's dark blue eyes rested on Ethan. "I'm not certain what to do about you."

"And I'm not certain what to do with Michael," he said.

Houston leaned forward in his chair and folded his arms on the table. "I am. She stays holed up here. I don't trust your wife to be any part of this."

Happy got up, stretched. "Sounds like we got some discussin' to do about that little lady. Hold your fire till I get back from the privy." He opened the door to leave the dining room.

Michael stumbled into the room carrying a tray of glasses in one hand and a pitcher of beer in the other. She steadied herself and looked up, feeling the eyes of everyone in the room boring into her. Her smile faltered. "Kitty just tapped a keg. Drinks around?"

Her hopeful question was met with stony silence.

Chapter 10

"Shut the door, Happy," Houston said calmly. "And take a seat. Your trip will have to wait."

Happy accepted Houston's dictate. He took the tray from Michael and put it on the table. "You'd better have a seat yourself," he told her.

There was only one unoccupied chair in the room. Happy took it from against the wall and set it squarely next to Houston. Michael stared at the pitcher in her hand and wondered at the steadiness of it. She felt as if she were shaking with ague. She sat slowly in the chair Happy held out to her and set the pitcher down.

"I don't think I understand," she said. "I was only bringing the beer. Kitty asked me to."

"Then why was your ear pressed to the door?" Ben asked.

Michael faced her accuser directly. "I'd like to see you open that door with a tray of glasses and a pitcher. I was trying to turn the knob with my elbow."

"You might have knocked," Jake said.

"With what? My head?" She glanced around the table. No one was amused. "I did tap at the door, this one and the outer one, with my foot. No one answered either time."

"No one heard anything," Ethan said.

"That doesn't mean I didn't do it." They'd had an argument like this before, she recalled, only now the tables were turned. "Obie, are you going to sit there and pretend nothing of the sort's ever happened to you? Just this evening you almost fell on your face when Ethan opened the door. Were you listening then? That seems to be what I'm accused of."

"No, ma'am. I wasn't."

"And I can tell you that what was going on inside that room was a lot more interesting than a poker game."

Ethan tamped down his smile as Obie's ears turned pink. He saw Ben and Jake were grinning. Happy cast him a sly glance. Trust Michael to charge ahead rather than retreat. It was exactly the right strategy to use. Only Houston and Dee remained unconvinced by her explanation.

Houston touched Dee's arm. "Go out and ask Kitty how long it's been since she sent Michael here with the drinks." Dee excused herself. "I'll take that beer now," Houston told Michael.

She gave no indication of wanting to pour it over his head. She served up glasses to everyone while waiting for Dee's return.

"Kitty can't be sure," Dee said, taking her seat again. "She'd only say that it wasn't long. They're busy out front. Michael should be going back. They need her."

Michael picked up the empty pitcher and tray and stood, considering herself dismissed. Houston put a hand on her forearm. Her skin crawled.

"The next time tell Kitty to bring refreshment herself," he said. "You stay out front. We'll be checking from time to time." He let her go. Michael put the tray under her arm and fled the room. Houston looked directly at Ethan. "She stays here," he repeated. "I don't trust her."

"But we'll be gone a few days. How will you keep her quiet?"

"Dee will think of something."

Dee nodded.

Ethan saw there was nothing more to say. It had all been decided before he got to the table. He was quiet for most of the meeting, contributing only when they looked to him for answers about the safe, explosives, or blowing the track. It was agreed that he would make the trip to Stillwater with Obie on the pretense of getting supplies for the mine. Since he did the requisitioning and was in charge of all the explosives, no one would question it.

They looked over the schedule and detailed maps of the territory. Happy's knowledge of the mountains was critical, giving them escape routes that would take them away from the rail lines where it would be difficult to follow. The full moon would be a problem, the weather would always be uncertain. It was fairly certain to be cold; they hoped for cloud cover. There was a trestle the train would cross on the night they wanted to stop her. They elected to take the train just before the trestle, then send it on, cutting off any possibility of a reverse chase by destroying the side span. Ethan would set the explosives the day before. Obie would cut telegraph wires as 486 came down the side of the mountain. A bonfire would alert the train to trouble. The boarding procedure would be similar to the last robbery but this time Ben and Ethan wouldn't be passengers. They'd make their assault on the mail car after the train had stopped. There would be only one guard posted in the mail car. Someone had apparently thought less guards would not bring undue attention to the shipment. It might have worked if not for Cooper.

The meeting ended shortly after two. Ethan took his money from where it lay untouched in the center of the table. He stuffed it in his pocket and followed Obie and Ben out.

Michael was sleeping when he returned to their room. She stirred when he slipped into bed beside her.

He turned on his side and fitted himself against her. One of his arms slid under her pillow. Her hair was slightly damp from an earlier bath. He breathed deeply of its fragrance.

"You're back," she said softly.

"Mm." He kissed her gently on the back of her neck. His arm came around her shoulder. She took his hand in hers, their fingers intertwined. "I thought you were sleeping."

"I was. Did you just come in?"

"A few minutes ago. It's after two."

"Did you win much?"

"Broke even."

"That's too bad."

"How long were you listening at the door, Michael?" The question had caught her off guard as he'd known it would. He felt her stiffen and struck again before she had time to think. "There was never any tap. I know I would have heard it. How long were you there?"

"Not long. I swear it."

"You're fortunate Kitty covered for you."

"What she said was the truth."