Reese (16 page)

Rico bent to pick up his arsenal. "Now we will discover the best place to hide a knife on Miss McKendrick, and you will practice retrieving the knife."

"What good is a knife if you have a gun and so do they?"

"A knife never runs out of bullets and is better than nothing when it's just you and a very bad man. As long as you have one knife left, you have a chance. I cannot tell you how many times I have saved my life, and that of my friends, with that one last knife. Humor me,
senorita. Mi capitan
said you must learn about knives."

His words brought back yesterday's lesson, the sensual interlude she and Reese had shared, all she had felt for the man and how little he must feel for her since he'd ordered Rico to take his place. Unaccustomed annoyance returned.

"Do you always do whatever Reese says?"

In the process of returning his knives to their homes, Rico did not pause. "I like him to think so."

"Are you afraid of him?"

"Isn't everyone?"

"No."

"They should be."

So far Rico had told her nothing very politely. Time to get more specific. "What has Reese done that makes men like you follow him as if he were General Lee."

Rico's teasing manner evaporated, and his dark gaze rested on Mary's flushed face. "That is for
el capitan
to say. If he wishes for you to know."

Ignoring the warning in his eyes, she continued. "Y'all met in the war? How?"

"I cannot say."

"It's a secret?"

He shrugged. "Perhaps I do not wish to talk about those days any more than
el capitan
does. The times were bad."

"What's his real name?"

"How would I know?"

"You followed the man to hell and back and you don't know his name?"

"Reese."

"First name or last?"

"I do not know."

"Why do you call him captain? He said he wasn't."

Rico shot her a quick, dark, unreadable glance. "He said that?"

"Yes."

"He lied."

Mary frowned. "Why would he lie?"

"Ask him. Now..." Rico flipped a small, thin knife end over end then caught it lithely by the handle. "Would this work better in a garter on your thigh or perhaps in a sheath beneath your chemise?"

Mary blushed. "Rico Salvatore, watch your mouth!"

His head tilted as if he were listening to something far away. Then his grin turned devilish, and he inched closer. She stepped back and promptly stepped on her skirt.

Rico grabbed her around the waist. "I'd much rather watch
your
mouth, Miss McKendrick." His gaze lowered to her lips.

She could have made him stop, but the demon inside whispered:
Is it Reese who fascinates you so or merely the act of kissing?
As she wasn't sure, she allowed Rico to kiss her.

The man was no doubt quite skilled from extensive practice, yet Mary felt nothing when his mouth touched hers. No sparkle, no warmth, no lightning or thunder. In fact, an irresistible urge to laugh came over her, and she choked.

Rico pulled back. "Were you... laughing?"

Her eyes went wide. "Of course not."

"Most women would not dare."

"I'm not most women."

He smiled. "I like you, Miss McKendrick. You have
cojones."

"Somehow I don't think that means I smell good."

"You do."

"What in hell do you think you're doing, Kid?"

The growl was unmistakable.

Reese.

* * *

The rage that rushed through Reese at the sight of Rico with his smart mouth all over Mary's surprised him. What had he thought would happen when he sent the Kid in his place to teach Mary about knives? That Rico would actually teach her about knives and keep his hands to himself?

Reese wasn't that stupid.

At the sound of his voice, Mary stiffened in Rico's arms and tried to pull away, but Rico held on tight, staring at Reese with a sparkle in his eyes, which made Reese realize the truth.

No one sneaked up on the Kid—except Sullivan. Rico had heard him coming, and he had kissed Mary on purpose. Though to what purpose, Reese had no idea.

"What I am doing should be obvious," Rico said.

Reese growled again, and Rico let Mary go. She spun around, eyes wide, cheeks flushed, and her hands went to her mouth, but not before Reese saw her lips. Those lips that had only been kissed by him were now wet and red from another man.

What he felt must have shown on his face because Rico stepped in front of Mary, earning himself life instead of death because he thought of her first.

"Relax,
Capitan
. She found my kiss quite amusing."

Reese narrowed his gaze on Mary's face, and she burst out laughing.

The sparkle in Rico's eyes died. He might have kissed Mary for reasons other than lust, but her laughing about it provoked him. Reese almost felt sorry for the Kid, who had the idea he was God's gift to women. Obviously, Mary didn't think so. Reese coughed to cover his own desire to join in her mirth.

"I'm sorry, Rico. You kiss very nicely, I'm sure. But I've never been kissed until the six of you came to town, and now two handsome men are kissing me. It's just too funny."

"Two men?" Rico raised his eyebrows. "Fascinating."

"Get lost."

"But I am to teach the
senorita
about knives. We were just deciding if a knife would work better in her garter or beneath her chemise."

Reese's laughter died. "Get."

Rico didn't run; he strolled. Very fast.

Reese hadn't been near a decent woman in nine years, and he should have stayed as far away from this one as he could get. She was killing him, and he deserved it.

After spending all of yesterday berating himself for touching her, kissing her, needing her, he had spent the night dreaming of her. When dawn threatened, he had been unable to face her; so, coward that he was, he'd sent Rico, then spent the next hour wondering what the two of them were doing.

Mary stared at Reese as if she expected him speak. He stared back, wondering if he'd ever get to see the untouched flesh of her shoulder or kiss the soft skin above her breast again.

Why did she fascinate him more than any woman ever had, even the one he would be married to right now if things had gone differently?

Because Mary looked at him as if he were still the man he had once been. But Reese needed to remember that he would never be that man again. And as he was now, he did not deserve to touch the hem of Mary McKendrick's dress, let alone put his mouth where he dreamed of putting it.

"Won't you be late for school?" he asked.

"That's it?" She stepped toward him. "Go to school, Mary." Another step. "Be a good girl, Mary."

She kept coming until they stood toe to toe, and he could smell the scent that was hers alone. His body responded in a predictable manner, and he gritted his teeth to keep from grabbing her and erasing any taste of Rico from her mouth, every memory of the Kid's pretty face from her mind.

"Don't mention yesterday, Mary." She kicked dust over his boots.

"What are you mad about?"

"What do you think?" She put her nose in the air, spun on her heel, and walked back to town.

Reese watched her go and fought not to laugh. If he didn't lust after her so damn much, he'd like her even more.

Chapter 10

"The days are becoming dull, Reese." Cash tossed another card onto the table.

He and Nate had found the saloon, which wasn't hard. The building faced the hotel.

It was a mess. Broken bottles, broken windows, broken tables. Cash and Nate had taken one glance at the place and nearly wept.

They'd decided to spend their free time restoring the saloon to some semblance of order so they could play cards and drink. As if being without a decent saloon had ever stopped either one of them from partaking of their favorite pastimes.

Reese found the two of them, and Jed as well, ensconced in the saloon before ten that morning. Sullivan was in the tower, and Rico had disappeared. He'd been doing that a lot lately.

"Heard you nearly took the Kid's head off earlier," Cash observed, eyes still on his cards.

"If I'd have wanted his head off, his head would be rolling in the street."

"Big talk." Jed tossed his hand in the center. "I fold."

"What the hell does that mean?" Reese demanded.

"You treat that kid like he's your own," Jed answered. "So you can be the one to kick his butt."

"What did he do now?"

"I don't know. But he's up to something. He keeps disappearing. Maybe he's got a
senorita
stashed somewhere. And that's gonna get us into trouble in this town. Every
senorita
here is someone's little girl or wife."

"I
am
gonna kick his butt."

"Every woman is a daughter or a wife except for the one who hired you." Cash gathered his winnings. Nate still stared at his cards, though the hand was done. "She has no daddy in these parts."

"She's got no daddy at all," Reese said before he could stop himself.

"Oh, really?" Cash smiled thinly. "How convenient."

"What are you trying to say?"

"Just a little advice on women, Reese."

"I can handle women."

"Now that's something we're not certain of. You haven't touched a woman since Fort Sumter."

"Just because I don't let females hang all over me in every saloon between here and Abilene doesn't mean I haven't had a woman since 1861."

"Glad to hear it. Abstinence like that can rot a man's mind quicker than whiskey."

"Here, here." Nate threw his cards in the middle of the table and poured himself another drink.

"Myself, I like fallen women. They're far less trouble than the upright ones who expect more than money from a man. Those kind of women want your soul too."

Since Reese's soul had been lost on a battlefield in Georgia, he had nothing to worry about.

"Lost my soul long time ago," Nate murmured to the bottom of his glass. "But not to a woman."

"Did you sell your soul to Satan?" Jed clapped a hand on Nate's back.

"Maybe." Nate drained his glass. "Maybe I did at that."

"As you can see"—Cash dealt the cards, leaving Nate out of the loop—"melancholy is setting in. The boys are bored. You promised us trouble, Reese, and there's no trouble to be had. I was lookin' forward to shootin' that Indian and his Yankee sidekick, but they seemed to have turned tail and run."

"That's what El Diablo wants us to think. The longer he waits, the more bored we get, the sloppier we become."

"How do you know he hasn't run off to Mexico for good?"

"Because Sullivan has seen him watching us."

All three men sat up straight and frowned. Jed picked up his cards. "I didn't see anything when I was in the tower."

"Me, either," Cash and Nate agreed.

"Which means?"

Jed sighed. "Sullivan always sees what nobody else does."

"Exactly. There'll be trouble soon enough."

Reese left them to stew on that. The rest of the day passed slowly. He wandered about. There was little to do but wait for El Diablo to return and hope they could kill all the bad guys next time around. Otherwise they'd be sitting in this godforsaken half ghost town forever.

Mary's idea of arming the populace seemed to have gone bust. Which was too bad, since it had been a good suggestion. Reese was all for less bloodshed. But if that wasn't going to happen, he would stick to his original plan of blasting every one of the invaders back to hell.

Should he continue to teach Mary about guns in the meantime? The lessons would be useful to a woman alone. But was he convincing himself of the advantages for Mary's sake or his own?

He'd told Cash trouble was on the way, but Reese knew in his heart that trouble was already here. He wanted Mary more than he'd ever wanted anything else. Since he couldn't take her, he was distracted. Which was a good way for a man to get himself killed.

No wonder the others were concerned. A leader whose brain was in his pants was no leader at all. But then he'd never said he was.

Long ago they'd elected him captain. He'd declined, but they'd just kept calling him "Captain" and following him around. Like sap on the trunk of a tree, those men stuck to him. Oh, sure, they went their separate ways, but they always came back—like bad luck.

As Reese wandered about town, people continued to scurry into hiding at the sight of him. Their behavior was starting to get on his nerves. Should he tell them he hadn't shot anyone for getting in his way in at least a year? He suspected his attempt at humor would be lost on the people of Rock Creek.

Every night, a different woman showed up with a day's worth of food for six men. They plunked their pots and plates in the kitchen and hightailed it out of there as if the hotel were infested with smallpox.

Except for Jo Clancy, who chatted up a storm, even though no one but Rico listened, then trounced upstairs to see Nate.

Reese had tried to talk to first Nate and then Miss Clancy about their relationship. Both had stared at him as if he were incredibly stupid.