Authors: Sarah McCarty
Ace's Wild (33 page)
No, it didn’t. “Tia did declare the cake fair game after the
first serving.”
She bit her lip, revealing white teeth and the slight gap
between the top front two. She always tried to hide that gap. Personally he
thought it too appealing in a far too sexual way. Maddie wavered, clearly torn
between the two things she wanted. Caden took pity on her. Maddie wanted that
cake, and right now he needed to give her one last thing because it might be a
while before he saw her again. By the time he came back, she might be more
grounded in this world. Maybe even married. He resisted the urge to stroke his
fingers over the freckles sprinkling across her cheekbones.
Caden put his champagne glass on the potting table beside him.
“Go get your cake, Maddie.”
Still she hesitated, looking up at Caden with those leaf-green
eyes, her fear in her gaze. “You won’t leave before I get back?”
“No.” He’d be leaving tonight, though. It was time for him to
go.
“Best hurry,” Caine prodded.
Maddie frowned at Caine. She looked like a kitten challenging a
cougar as she ordered, “You won’t tell him bad stories? He doesn’t sleep well
when you do, and he needs his rest.”
Shit, she made him sound downright feeble. Something that
wasn’t lost on Caine if the smile tugging at his lips was anything to go by.
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
Caden turned Maddie toward the crowd gathered at the cake
table. “Go, Maddie, before there’s none left.”
She did, lifting her skirts and showing an indecent amount of
ankle in her haste to beat Tucker to the cake. She had pretty ankles.
“I’m not even going to ask how she knows how you sleep,” Caine
stated with an arch of his brow.
And he wasn’t going to tell. Caden folded his arms across his
chest. “I haven’t been messing with her.”
Caine dismissed the challenge with a wave of his hand. Whiskey
sloshed in the cut-crystal glass he held. Caden remembered when they used to
drink it straight out of the bottle. “Hell, I know that, but that woman has a
powerful affection for you.”
“She’s like a child.”
“Maybe when she first got here. But have you noticed lately
she’s more here than there?”
“She’s healing.”
“Desi says she’s forgetting.”
Caden took one of the glasses from Caine. “How the hell does a
woman forget being forced to serve men from childhood?”
“A woman who knows how to escape into make-believe?” Caine made
a slashing motion with his free hand. “How the hell do I know?”
“Then, why are you bringing it up?”
“Because Sally Mae told Desi that I should.”
Of course she had. Caden sighed and swirled the whiskey in the
glass. “Life was a hell of a lot easier before we had women cluttering up the
place.”
Caine’s whole expression softened as he looked over at his
wife. Blonde and petite, her curly hair temporarily confined in a knot, Desi was
the love of Caine’s hard life and he was hers. If ever two people fit together
like pieces of a puzzle, it was Desi and Caine.
“I happen to like the clutter,” Caine drawled.
Caden bet he did, but the Miller men didn’t have that kind of
heart luck. They were treasure hunters, adventurers, trailblazers. Caden took a
sip of whiskey. The only thing the Millers brought women was loneliness and
disappointment. “I know.”
“You really going to try to salvage that gold mine of Fei’s?”
Caine asked.
Caden swallowed the whiskey, savoring the burn. That was more
like it. Enough whiskey could cauterize any wound. “Yup.”
“Sam said Fei blew it to hell and gone.”
Caden shrugged. There were ways around that. “Just presents
more of a challenge.”
“A hell of a challenge for one man.”
Caden smiled and took another sip. “Since when did Hell’s Eight
shy away from a challenge?”
“Never.” Caine swirled the whiskey in his glass. “Is that what
has your feet itching? No more challenges for you here?”
There were plenty of challenges at Hell’s Eight. Just because
they’d staked their claim didn’t mean there wasn’t someone who was going to try
to take it.
His father’s face flashed into his mind. Frozen in time.
Remember who you are...
He’d done his duty by the Hell’s Eight and Tia. But now it was
time to do right by his family.
“More like a promise I’ve got to keep.”
“What promise?” Caine asked.
“Nothing that involves you.”
“If it involves you,” Caine countered, “it involves Hell’s
Eight.”
Caine’s loyalty to those he considered family was all
encompassing. Caden drained the glass and set it beside the delicate champagne
flute. Such elegance where before there had been none. He turned away. “Not this
time.”
“The hell you say.”
He met Caine’s gaze squarely. “I do.”
“At least let Ace or Luke go with you.”
Caden could see Maddie scooping up her piece of cake. Saw her
smile at Tucker shyly as he pretended to grab for it. Inside, something twisted,
revealing a touch of...anger? He pushed the feeling aside.
“You can’t spare the hands.”
“We can spare what you need,” Caine said.
Caden knew the state of the ranch as well as anyone. Knew the
threats against it. They’d just expanded. Every man was necessary. And now with
the cavalry being pulled back East to deal with the discord there between North
and South, they had to add the renewed threat of Indian attacks to the mix. “Too
many people would draw attention.”
“Two is hardly too many,” Sam cut in, coming up beside them, a
whiskey glass in one hand and a bottle in the other. Behind him was Ace. “Hell,
it won’t even get the job done. Remember, I saw the place after Fei blew it up.
The woman is thorough.”
Caden knew he’d eventually need help, a lot of it likely, but
right now, he didn’t want it. “I need to do this on my own.”
“Because of that promise you made your da?” Ace asked, his dark
hair flopping over his brow, giving him the look of a devil-may-care no-account.
Until you looked a little lower and saw his eyes. No one that had any ability to
take a man’s measure could mistake the coldness and purpose that shadowed his
light brown eyes. Ace could cut a man’s throat with the same aplomb with which
he could perform those card tricks he liked to show off. And with a smile on his
face. Not that Ace enjoyed killing, but if it was necessary, he didn’t have any
qualms about settling a score. Caden sighed, noting Tracker and Shadow making
their way over, too. This had all the makings of a well-intentioned ambush.
Shit.
“Did someone send out an invite I missed?”
Sam smiled. “Nah. This is more of an impromptu party.”
“What promise did you make to your da?” Caine asked, with that
tenacity that marked everything he did.
“Nothing.” Caden glared at Ace. Of all the Hell’s Eight, he was
closest to Ace, which had resulted in a drunken confession about his father many
years ago that should never have been made. Ace merely shook his head.
“Don’t get your tail in a twist. You’re a grown man. You get to
be as foolish as you want.”
“The hell he does.”
“Let it go, Caine,” Caden ordered.
“The hell I will.”
Sam leaned in and poured more whiskey into Caine’s already
quarter-full glass. “Drink that.”
“Shit, if I drink that, I’ll be drunk.”
Sam shrugged and offered Ace the bottle, before saying, “At
least you’ll have an excuse for spouting nonsense.”
“It’s not nonsense. That gold mine is in the middle of Indian
country, and Culbart isn’t going to be any help if anything goes wrong out
there.”
That was true. The mine wasn’t the only thing Fei had blown to
hell and gone. When Fei’s father had sold her cousin Lin to Culbart, Fei had
taken matters into her own hands. A lot of dynamite had been blown to rescue
Lin. Which meant the only white man close enough to come to Caden’s aid at the
mine wasn’t going to be feeling that friendly toward a Hell’s Eight man. Caden
mentally shrugged. He’d faced tougher odds.
“Culbart’s a hard-ass, but no one has ever accused him of being
stupid,” Ace said. “If Hell’s Eight calls for help, he’ll be there. He can’t
afford to be that friendless with that ranch of his smack-dab in the middle of
Indian country and tensions rising the way they are.”
“Besides, I thought some of the problems with Culbart stemmed
from the fact the man thought Lin was being kidnapped?” Caden asked.
“He’s got a point, Caine,” Ace offered. “Like the man or not,
truth is Lin came to no harm in Culbart’s care, and any man worth his salt would
go after a woman stolen from his care, even if it was one of us who did the
stealing.”
Caine frowned and took a large swallow from his glass. His
green eyes narrowed. “The man still has an ax to grind. He lost good men in that
‘misunderstanding.’”
“It would have been easier if Fei had bargained a bit before up
and taking off with her cousin,” Sam interjected wryly. “Might have saved on the
grinding.”
“Culbart didn’t leave her much choice,” Caine drawled, taking
another sip. “He’d lost good money in the deal. Holding on to Fei was his best
chance of getting it back.”
Ace shook his head. “Or so he thought. Fei did a good job
covering her pa had gone bat-shit crazy. You can’t totally blame Culbart.”
Caine cocked a brow at Ace. “You sound as though you like the
bastard.”
Ace shrugged. “I do. He’s tough as nails, but he’s got a strong
sense of right and wrong.” He took a drink of whiskey. “Not to mention an
interesting sense of humor.”
“When the hell did you ever see his sense of humor?” Caden
snapped, impatience rubbing his temper raw. He wanted to go, not sit here and
discuss Culbart’s good qualities.
“When Caine here sent me to set Culbart straight.”
“You were supposed to intimidate him,” Caine countered.
“I decided to socialize first.”
Caden shook his head. Leave it to Ace to turn an enemy into an
ally.
“I wouldn’t say he’s a friend,” Ace continued, “but he’s not
hostile.”
Caden straightened. He was doing this, and to hell with Culbart
and to hell with argument. If that ruffled feathers along the way, then too bad.
“Well, if Culbart still has an ax to grind, let him grind it.”
“Goddamn it, Caden,” Caine snarled. “Why do you have to do this
now when we’re spread so thin?”
Because he did. Turning on his heel, Caden walked away, not
answering, pushing past Shadow and Tracker, ignoring the surprised lift of
Tucker’s brow. As he reached the garden gate, he heard Caine say, “Would someone
tell me about this promise?”
“It’s personal, not important,” Ace responded with a blatant
lie for which Caden would owe him.
“It’s important enough that the man who never breaks promises
is breaking one to keep it.”
Ace swore, “Shit.”
Maddie. Caine was talking about Maddie. Caden had promised her
he wouldn’t leave the party before she got back. Caden saw her out of the corner
of his eye, standing slightly apart from the others, smiling and watching the
dancers, looking as pretty and as inviting as sunshine after a storm. Saw Luke
head her way, and swore. She’d get over it. He shoved the gate open and kept
walking. As the gate slammed closed behind him, he heard her call his name, the
surprise and disappointment nipping at his feet in a tone he’d heard his mother
use too many times.
Fuck.
He was his father after all.
Copyright © 2012 by Sarah McCarty
ISBN-13: 9781460349779
Ace’s Wild
Copyright © 2015 by Sarah McCarty
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