The Redemption of Jake Scully (15 page)

Really. As if Blackie smelled any better.

Choosing to keep that thought to himself, Barret instructed, “She’s up to something. She’ll be ready to make her move, soon. Keep your eyes on her.”

“Yeah…anything you say.”

His temper exploding at Blackie’s mocking tone, Barret retorted, “You and Larry are involved as deeply in this whole situation as I am, so watching Lacey Stewart should be as important to you as it is to me!”

“Sure.”

Imbecile
was too generous a description.

Barret strove to control his anger as he repeated, “Don’t let her out of your sight.”

“How many times are you going to say the same thing?”

“As many times as I have to in order to make you understand.”

“Larry and me understand. We ain’t dummies.”

Sure.

Barret watched as Blackie walked out onto the street, slamming the office door behind him.

One thought remained in Barret’s mind. He would soon have no recourse in what he must do.

Lacey glanced up at the position of the sun as it dropped past the midpoint in the clear sky. As she made her way back from the church at the conclusion of Rosie and Jewel’s lesson, it occurred to her that she’d seen nothing but clear skies since she had returned to Weaver. She had somehow forgotten that detail during the long years spent at school in New York. A rainy spring and fall was more the norm in that city, with undependable weather in between. Somehow she’d forgotten how bright the Arizona sun was, how vast the sky could be, and how blue.

Careful’s welcoming bray brought a smile to Lacey’s lips as she turned into sight of the livery corral. The dear burro had been expecting her. It hadn’t taken him long to become accustomed to her routine and to expect her visit on her way back to the boarding house each afternoon. However, Careful’s uncanny comprehension of human activity had turned out to be a drawback for her in this particular case. She had known he would be waiting and had not wanted to disappoint him, even though she was exhausted after her sleepless night and wanted nothing more than to go back to her room to rest before she met Scully for supper.

Scully…so intent on her welfare, so perceptive, and so
annoyingly
outspoken in his observances. Lacey scratched Careful’s muzzle and the patient animal practically smiled. The unusual attachment between them had resumed as if her ten-year absence did not exist for the burro. She could not express how much that simple continuity meant to her. It was a link to the past that she treasured and she—

“Lacey.”

Lacey jumped with surprise when Scully walked out of the livery stable into her view. She gasped, “You startled me!”

“Did I?”

“You walk as silently as a cat. You’d make anybody jump.”

“You’re on edge because you’re tired.”

Lacey did not reply.

“Your nightmares are getting worse, aren’t they?”

“Mary told you.”

Scully did not confirm or deny.

“I frightened her, Scully. I’m sorry about that.”

“There’s only one way to stop those dreams. You know that as well as I do.”

“I’m not ready, yet.”

“You’re as ready as you’ll ever be.”

“Besides, I don’t have time. Sadie needs me at the restaurant.”

“She can get Millie to replace you for a day.”

“I have…things to do at the church.”

“They can wait.”

“No.”

“Listen to me, Lacey. You won’t be free of your nightmares until you face them head-on.”

Lacey felt panic rising. “I won’t go.”

Scully’s voice softened. “You don’t have to be afraid. I’ll be there.”

“No, I can’t.”

“You have to face the shadows in your dreams sooner or later.”

The sudden fear in Lacey’s expression stopped Scully cold.

“What wrong, Lacey?”

“Nothing.”

“Tell me.”

“It’s just…I don’t know if I want to face them. The shadows scare me, Scully. I don’t want to remember anything about them.”

“Shadows can’t hurt you.”

“I know, but—”

“But what?”

Lacey’s eyes filled. “You won’t always be there for me, Scully. What will I do then?”

The question suddenly more than he could bear, Scully slid his arms around Lacey and drew her close. She trembled as he stroked her hair and said, “Who said I wouldn’t always be there for you? That might be wishful thinking on the part of some young fellas in Weaver, but I expect to be around as long as you need me.”

Lacey drew back from him. Suddenly embarrassed, she said, “Are you disgusted with me, Scully?”

“Disgusted?”

“I keep telling you I’m an adult and I’m responsible for myself, then I end up shaking like a child because of a dream.”

Scully gripped her shoulders, forcing her gaze up to his when she looked away. He said, “Those nightmares aren’t simple bad dreams. They’re memories that have been lurking in the back of your mind for ten years, waiting to be finally put to rest. You have to remember whatever it is that’s frightening you, or you’ll never be free.”

Lacey did not reply.

“I’ll get the supplies together and tell Sadie to talk to Millie.”

“I didn’t say I’d go.”

“We’ll go tomorrow.”

Silence.

“Tomorrow, Lacey.”

Scully watched as Lacey turned and walked away. She did not look back.

Chapter Ten

S
he couldn’t believe she was doing this. She didn’t want to believe it.

Lacey glanced at Scully as he rode beside her on the trail lit by early morning sun. Scully sat his mount easily, his weathered hat pulled down low on his forehead to shade those sober gray eyes; his broad shoulders erect; his boots fitted firmly, but naturally, into the stirrups as his long legs hugged his mount’s sides with instinctive skill.

It occurred to her that no one would believe this fit, alert cowboy was the same man whose dark, custom-tailored suit, brocade vest and dark Stetson normally marked him the owner of the area’s largest and most successful saloon. Nor would they believe that the strong, callused hands presently holding the reins also dealt cards with consummate skill.

The truth was, Scully was at ease in whatever setting he chose, with a competence and self-confidence he had earned the hard way while overcoming difficult years.

Self-confidence in which Lacey was presently, sadly, lacking.

The day had barely dawned before Scully was at the boarding house door with the day’s supplies carefully packed on his saddle, and with Careful trailing behind. They had stopped only for breakfast before mounting up and leaving town. They had eaten breakfast in virtual silence, the same condition that had existed between them since Scully had insisted on the journey they were presently taking. They had been on the trail for hours with hardly a word spoken between them.

In thinking back, Lacey didn’t remember actually agreeing to Scully’s plan. He had merely announced during their supper meal the previous evening that the supplies would be ready for their journey in the morning, that Millie White would replace her at the restaurant while she was gone and they would be leaving at dawn.

She supposed her consent had come when she had slipped out of the boarding house after Scully left her there and had gone to the church to leave the day’s lesson for Rosie and Jewel with Reverend Sykes.

She had returned to her room afterward and retired to her bed with true trepidation for the night to come. Yet, surprisingly enough, she had slept nightmare-free.

Lacey’s mount moved relentlessly forward, appearing unaffected by the heat of the day even as perspiration beaded her forehead and upper lip. Scully looked her way unexpectedly. Their eyes met, and her throat choked tight.

That observant gaze.

Scully said, “We’ll be stopping soon. There’s a stream not far from here where the horses can drink and we can rest for a few minutes.”

Lacey nodded, then looked away. She felt the weight of Scully’s stare, but she refused to look back. Her eyes were still averted when they stopped and Scully dismounted.

Dismounting as well, Lacey walked to the narrow rivulet sparkling in the afternoon sunlight. She leaned down and splashed her face, then looked up to see Scully crouched beside her.

She was unprepared when Scully asked softly, “Are you still mad at me, Lacey?”

Mad at him?

Was she?

“I’m not angry, Scully. I’m just…” She took a breath. “I’m just
afraid.
”

Her emotions bursting free with that admission, Lacey began sobbing in earnest. How could she make him understand that as much as she wanted to remember every detail of the time her grandfather and she had spent together, she feared remembering the night she had lost him?

But Scully’s arms were around her. He was murmuring soft reassurances against her hair, and the realization belatedly dawned that she had no need for explanations, or the attempt to make Scully understand.

Because he understood instinctively—without any explanations at all.

“What’s going on down there?”

Larry adjusted his spyglass and studied the shaded spot where Scully and Lacey had paused at the stream. His view was partially blocked by low-lying bushes thickly shielding the area, but that did not halt his response as he turned to his cohort and said, “What do you think’s going on, Blackie? They’re cooling off at the stream while we’re baking out here in the hot sun.”

Blackie grabbed the spyglass from his hand and focused it carefully. He heard Blackie’s low curse as he studied the scene, then lowered the glass and said, “It don’t seem like they’re going to be stopping there very long—just to water the horses and wet down a bit. I expect they’ll be moving on soon.”

“To find her grandfather’s strike.” Larry gave a harsh laugh. “You know what I think? I think there ain’t no strike at all. I think that old coot Charlie Pratt never did strike it rich like the boss thinks. I think it was all in Pratt’s head, and now it’s stuck in the boss’s head, too!”

“You’re crazy.”

“No, it’s the boss who’s crazy.” When Blackie shook his head, negating his statement, Larry continued hotly, “If there was gold out there, how come we couldn’t find it?”

“Because we didn’t know where to look, that’s why.”

“We checked every inch of ground for weeks after we killed that old man. No, we couldn’t find that gold because there wasn’t any to find.”

“That isn’t what the boss thinks.”

“He’s crazy, I tell you! And since Lacey Stewart came back, he’s been getting crazier.”

“Maybe.” Blackie lifted his hat and wiped his arm across his forehead. “And maybe not. All I know is that he puts money in my pocket, and that suits me fine.”

“It don’t suit me too fine. I don’t like it out here, sizzling my heels in the sun while he sits back in his office, all cool and fine, waiting to tell us how dumb we are for not being able to find a claim that don’t exist.”

Blackie responded, “Did you ever stop to think that woman down there wouldn’t be so determined to go back to a burned-out cabin in the middle of nowhere unless there was a good reason?”

“Her grandpa’s buried out there.”

Blackie’s expression was skeptical. “Would you ride all the way out here just to look at a grave?”

Larry did not reply.

“And if you’d been living in a big city for ten years, and you grew up to look half as good as she does, would you come back to Weaver just to work in a restaurant?”

Still no reply.

“So maybe the boss ain’t so crazy after all.”

Larry’s tight expression did not change as he replied, “All I know is that I’m getting tired of doing
hoity-toity
Gould’s dirty work.”

“But here you are, ain’t you?”

Larry took an aggressive step. “You ain’t thinking this whole thing through. What do you think the boss is going to do if he finds out there ain’t no gold strike out there for him to cash in on?”

“I don’t know, and I don’t care. It’s no skin off my nose either way.”

“He ain’t going to take it kindly, I’m telling you.”

“Yeah…sure.”

“There ain’t no telling which way he’ll jump when that happens.”

“
If
it happens.” Blackie raised the glass back to his eye, then reported, “They’re leaving. Get yourself ready.”

“For what?”

“We’re going to sit ourselves down by that stream when they get far enough away, and we’re going to cool ourselves off for a while.”

“But I thought—”

“You thought, what—that I’d say we’d better keep on their tails? What for? We know where them two are heading. We can catch up with them anytime we want. They won’t get away from us.”

Larry considered that thought, then grabbed the spyglass from Blackie’s hand and raised it back to his eye. “Yeah, there they go, all right, traveling at a snail’s pace. We can be right behind them when they get to the grave with no trouble at all.”

Larry turned back to Blackie, smiling for the first time as he said, “Now, that’s using your head.”

He must’ve been imagining things.

Scully scrutinized the terrain around him cautiously as the sun burned hotly on his shoulders. The first portion of Lacey’s and his journey had been fraught with tension, a part of it of his own making. He’d been unable to pinpoint the source of his discomfort, but a sense of being watched had plagued him, setting him on edge. The sensation had waned inexplicably as they neared their destination.

He had begun wondering if the heat had been getting to him, and had then dismissed the thought, grateful that the former strain that had existed between Lacey and him earlier had also dissipated.

I’m afraid.

With those two words, the dam had broken, releasing Lacey’s fears. The truth was, he had known it would be difficult for her to return to the site of her grandfather’s grave, yet he had not realized the depth of her misgivings.

Nor had he realized how difficult it would be to release Lacey after he had held her comfortingly close again in his arms.

Emotion twisted tight inside Scully. He was disturbingly affected by Lacey’s distress, so much so that he knew he would gladly have assumed her fears if he could, no matter how great their proportions, but that would’ve been too easy. Instead, he was forced to watch while she suffered through her terrors.

He was beginning to learn it was the hardest thing he had ever done.

Scully glanced at the mountains in the distance. They were drawing closer. They’d be arriving at the site of Charlie’s cabin soon. He looked at Lacey where she rode silently beside him. She would soon be faced with memories she had avoided for years.

How would they affect her?

What would she do?

Scully knew only one thing for sure. He would take care of her—and, yes, he would protect her with his life.

Rosie’s forced smile began failing as the sun fell from its apex. She had started work early at the Nugget, only a few hours after Jewel and she had gone to the church and found Reverend Sykes waiting to tell them Lacey couldn’t make their lesson that day, but that she had prepared some work for them to do. They had accepted the paperwork Lacey had left and had departed immediately, uncomfortable in the pastor’s presence.

They had been stopped by Bill, the bartender, on the way back to their boarding house. He had notified them that in Scully’s absence, he needed them to come in to work a little early.

The realization that both Lacey and Scully were gone had momentarily panicked her. The safety that the Nugget afforded had relieved that anxiety temporarily. However, the extended hours spent there had come back to haunt her.

The surrounding din rebounded, and Rosie’s head pounded in time with the sound. She took an unsteady breath as she looked out at lengthening afternoon shadows on the street, then stood stock-still as her stomach lurched perilously close to revolting.

Rosie attempted to steady the queasy waves engulfing her. She was more upset than she realized, and her stomach was paying the price. The problem was, she had just begun believing things could change.

It had been incredible to her that she could actually write her name. She had also been touched in a way she had never been before when she realized that Lacey was almost as excited as she at her progress.

Then Scully had stood up for her, and when he had sent Riley packing, she had felt almost
worthy.

Now they were both gone.

Rosie glanced to where Jewel was talking with a bearded, smiling wrangler. She knew Jewel felt somehow responsible for her welfare. She wasn’t quite sure how that had come about, except that Jewel and she had become closer than most sisters she knew. Yet, if only for that reason, she didn’t want Jewel taking the risk of getting involved in her problems.

Her stomach lurched, and Rosie hastened out through the swinging doors onto the street. She took a few unsteady steps toward the alleyway and gulped in fresh air free of the smoke and closeness of the saloon. She caught her breath when she was jerked unexpectedly backward, then dragged into the shadows between the buildings. She shuddered when a familiar voice whispered into her ear, “You ain’t too smart, are you, Rosie?”

Riley.

Riley turned her around to face him as he said, “Did you think your protector would spend all his time looking out for you? No, he’s got better things to do, and you ain’t one of them.”

Rosie struggled to free herself from his painful grip as she said, “What are you doing here, Riley? Scully’s inside right now. If I call him—”

“He ain’t in town, and you know it!”

Rosie’s blood went cold.

“Did you think I wouldn’t hear about how he’s out somewhere having fun with that fancy woman he’s been supporting all these years? He chose her over you, Rosie, and he left you for me.”

“It’s not like that—none of it! You’re twisting things like you always do.”

“But he’s not here now, is he?”

Failing to free herself, Rosie asked abruptly, “What do you want from me, Riley? Everything you said to me about how much you love me was a lie. You know it, and I know it.”

“No, it wasn’t. You’re just saying that now because somebody made you think you can do better than me.” Riley crushed her closer. “You need to get it through your head that there ain’t nobody who’ll ever treat a Nugget woman any better than I treat you.”

“Let me go.” Rosie refused to listen. “Let me go!”

“I ain’t letting you go, and there’s no way you can make me.” Still holding her cruelly tight, he said, “Set your mind to it. You’re
my
girl, Rosie. You’re going to stay
my
girl until I’m ready to let you go.”

“No, she isn’t.”

Rosie gasped at the unexpected sound of Jewel’s voice.

Her expression emotionless, Jewel entered the alleyway and advanced toward them. Her hand closed around the handle of her concealed derringer as she walked closer. She had known it would come to this sooner or later, just as she had known what she would do when it did.

“Get back into the saloon, Jewel.” Rosie’s voice shook revealingly. “Riley and me are just talking.”

The panic in Rosie’s tone was obvious as Jewel continued her approach, ordering softly, “Let Rosie go, Riley.”

“Sure—like I’m going to take orders from a Nugget woman like you.”

Jewel’s finger curled around the trigger of her derringer. The metal had warmed to her skin. It felt strangely comfortable in her hand, as if it were a part of her.