The Ruination of Essie Sparks (Wild Western Rogues Series, Book 2) (31 page)

Little Wolf found Shyen Zu in her room, curled up in the corner. He'd waited until he saw the old man who had just used her leave, straightening his baggy cotton clothing as he walked.

"Come with me," he whispered to her when he snuck into her room. "We're leaving this place."

Her eyes went wide as she looked up at him, the bruise on her cheek still ugly and purple. With a shake of her head, she refused him. "No go. You stay."

"No. Shyen Zu, you will
die
here.
I
will die here. We can't stay. Run away with me and I will protect you. I will take you to my mother and her people. They will help you."

She sliced a hand across her throat and shook her head again. "You
boy
. Chen Lee kill. Quick, quick. He own Shyen Zu."

"I will take his scalp if he tries." He produced the small knife he had pilfered from the opium cutting room. Chen Lee hadn't yet missed it.

Afraid, she got to her feet, staring at the weapon. With a quick, longing look out the barred window at the darkened street beyond, she considered her situation. Little Wolf watched a dozen different emotions flicker across her expression before she finally turned back to him. A small, first-time-ever smile hitched her mouth that made her even more beautiful. "
Shi,"
she whispered.

"Yes? That means yes?"

"Yes."

He grabbed her hand and tugged her toward the door. Then he pressed a finger against his lips. "Follow me."

* * *

Pink, Ollie and Essie crouched in the alley across from Chen Lee's Opium House, watching Chinese men go in and come out of the tent that sat in front of the hastily built two-story building. Overhead, the moon was less than a crescent, so except for the meager light spilling from the cribs and the glow from smoking tent, the street was very dark. The strange smells from the cooking pots and burning incense from the shacks nearby drifted to Essie on the night air.

At this end of town, the construction that marked this newest section of Magic City hadn't kept pace. Here, summer tents and shacks made of thrown-together wood dominated the landscape, but none of these would last through the cold Montana winters. Before the next moon passed, most of these would be replaced by sturdier buildings, or their owners would follow work south to a more habitable climate.

A shiver ran through Essie at the thought, wondering if she'd seen her last winter here as well.

"I say we just go in and get him," Pink said.

Ollie took him by the arm. "What if he's not in there?"

"Then we say sorry and move on. Like as not, the boy's asleep at this hour. We go room by room if need be."

"That should make Chen Lee happy," Essie said. "Did you not notice the rather large Chinese man standing guard outside the tent?"

"I ain't no wallflower myself, Mrs. Sparks, in case it escaped your notice," Pink offered.

Ollie looked at him sharply. "We should have come armed."

"And end up alongside Cade, in jail?" Essie said. "No. We do this without violence."

"Easier said than done, I think," said Ollie.

Another man stumbled out of the tent, in some sort of altercation with an older Chinese man with a long, gray queue. The first man stumbled backward, shoved by the older man who was yelling incomprehensibly.

At the same moment, Essie caught sight of a movement at the front door of the house. It was so dark, she could hardly make it out, but the movement resolved into two shadows. One about the size of the boy she'd known as Daniel.

As the old man literally kicked the other man down the street, the movement to his right caught his eye, too, and instantly, he forgot about the man and shouted something to the large guard, hurrying to his side.

The shadows began to run.

She, Ollie and Pink took off running simultaneously, but they weren't equal to the strides of Chen Lee's henchman, who caught the two before they could jump the barrier of the shanties in their way.

In the boy's hand, something metal flashed in the half moonlight. The guard shouted and easily disarmed him, then grabbed the girl by the hair and hauled her back against him. Brandishing the small knife, he pulled his arm back to swipe at Little Wolf.

"No!" Essie threw herself between him and the boy. "Stop! Don't you dare hurt this boy!"

Shock flattened the large man's expression and he froze in place, sending a look back at Chen Lee who was, even now, running their way with a furious look on his face.

The old man barged in front of his bodyguard, yanked the girl out of the guard's hands and pulled her behind him. She squeaked in pain, but did little to resist the man who dragged her by the hair like a rag doll.

"No!" Little Wolf scrambled away from Essie's protective stance. "Let her go!"

"Stay back, Daniel," Essie warned.

The huge guard threatened her and the boy again with his knife, but hesitated as Pink and Ollie rushed up beside them. Pink took two threatening steps toward the guard.

"Get yourself back, Biggety Bob, or I'll kill you my own self."

Chen snapped at the man in Chinese and the man lowered the knife. The guard, who clearly spoke no English, squinted menacingly at Pink but found himself forced to take a step back.

Turning to Essie, Chen said, "You go! I own!" He thumped his chest with his fist. He jerked the girl by the hair again to prove his point.

"Own him? I think not. I think whoever sold him to you made a terrible mistake."

"Own!" He grabbed a pouch of coins from his pocket and shook it at her. "Own!" He lifted the girl by the hair again. "Own!"

"We're leaving now," Essie told him. "With the boy. Who you
don't
own. C'mon, Daniel."

Ollie grabbed him by his other arm, but he broke free from them both. "Not without Shyen Zu!"

The young girl stared back at the boy with terror-struck eyes. She was just a child. She couldn't be more than fourteen or fifteen.

"I promised her," he pleaded. "I won't leave her behind."

This unexpected complication was much more than she had bargained for and Essie found herself actually debating whether to risk rescuing this girl too, or simply settling for the boy's safe return. But one look at the girl's desperate expression and she knew she had to at least try. A man like Chen Lee would not lightly forgive her attempt to run away and if the rumors were true, might even do worse than simply punish her.

In a fight, it wasn't clear Pink would prevail, unarmed, against a behemoth like Chen Lee's guard, but the old man apparently didn't like the numbers standing against him. Or, just as likely, he suddenly saw an opportunity to make money. A sly expression wizened his face. "You pay. For boy."

"No," Essie told him. "No money for the boy. You lose whatever you illegally paid those men for him. Or I could send the sheriff your way. Pink? Go get Sheriff Sampson. We'll see what
he
has to say about buying free boys as slaves."

All the conniving leaked out of his expression and the older man threw his hand up to stop Pink. "
Bu
! No!
"
He spat on the ground between them. With a murderous look at the boy, he relented, muttering something to the guard. Jerking the girl around by the hair again, he started back to the brothel with her.

Essie glanced back at Ollie, who gave her a small nod. "I will pay you for the girl, though," Essie shouted after him. "One hundred dollars."

Chen Lee stopped and turned back to her. "
One
?" He let out a bark of laughter then sent another wad of spittle to the ground at his feet.

"Two, then." It was nearly all they'd brought with them, all Ollie was able to scrape up at such short notice. Essie held up two fingers to be clear.

With a nasty smile, he stroked the terrified girl's bruised cheek with his hand. He held up five fingers.

Essie shook her head. "Two fifty. That's my final offer. That's all I have." She gestured to Ollie, who handed her the money they'd brought. She fanned it out for Chen Lee to see that they were not holding back.

Considering, the old man narrowed his eyes. "This," he said, gesturing to the money, "and that." He pointed a gnarled finger at the gold locket at her throat.

Instinctively, she grabbed it, protecting it from the little weasel as Cade had so aptly named him. "No!"

"No sell." He motioned to the guard and dragged the girl toward the brothel. She let out a terrified whimper.

Pink was already turning his pockets inside out to look for money and Ollie grabbed Essie by the arm. "I'm afraid for her."

Essie swallowed hard. Though the locket was worth something, it certainly wasn't worth what he wanted for the girl. But that, she realized, wasn't the point. At all.

"Wait!"

Chen Lee stopped dead and turned back to look at her.

Lifting her arms, she unlocked the clasp on the locket and slipped the thing off. With a killing look at the old men, she raised a palm to stop him when he walked back and reached for the necklace.

Prying open the locket, she fingered up the glass cover and tipped the contents into her hand. Short wisps of Aaron's blond hair floated into her palm and she closed her fist around it. Snapping it shut, she threw the necklace at hm. "Take it," she told him. "It means nothing to me now."

He did, fingering the thing with a victorious smile. Ollie shoved the money she'd brought into his hands and he had the guard count it quickly before he released the girl, throwing her at them.

Shyen Zu stumbled to the ground and stayed there on all fours. Little Wolf dropped down beside her, wrapping an arm around her.

As he walked away, the old man laughed and shouted something in his language at them, slicing a hand across his throat.

Ollie had to restrain Pink, who jerked toward the old man with a murderous look. "What the hell did he just say?"

The trembling girl spoke haltingly. "He say, this my last day, anyway. Free money." She got to her feet. Little Wolf rose with her. "We go now! Quick, quick!"

Pink growled down low in his throat.

"Come on," Essie told them. "She's right."

Pink lifted the girl by the arm and pulled her up against his side, while keeping an eye on Chen Lee and his guard who watched them go.

The old man disappeared into his opium den, laughing.

"How did you find me?" the boy wanted to know.

"That's a long story, Daniel, which I will tell you. But now, we have to get you both somewhere safe."

Wide-eyed, he shouted, "I'm not going back. I won't go back to that school. You can't make me!"

"And I wouldn't take you there," she assured him. "Trust me, Daniel. You'll never go back there."

"You could take them to my place," Ollie offered as they walked. "But it's not a good situation for the likes of them."

"You
did
see where they just came from," Essie said, pulling Little Wolf against her. He was shaking, too.

Ollie shrugged. "Point taken. But the farther away we can keep them from that bastard back there, the better I'd like it. I'd sooner trust a polecat than him."

"Where do you suggest?"

"This might sound crazy, but the boy is sorta kin to Cade's father."

"No. That doesn't sound crazy. Actually, Cade said his father might help the boy if we needed him. But aside from that, his father should know what's happened to his son."

"Black Thorn?" Little Wolf asked. "You know him? Where is he?"

"I'll tell you everything," Essie said gently. Though she had no desire to tell him that his mother was gone. That he was an orphan. That all of them were in trouble. "In a little while."

* * *

Mitchell Laddner sat with his back to a corner at the Cattle Baron's Saloon, nursing a near-empty shot of whiskey. He'd had three drinks already and Moran was flat-out drunk, yakking it up with the local riffraff at the bar.

After giving the situation a lot of thought, Laddner had decided there were two ways he could go. One was to wait until the end of the month for the circuit judge, with the hope that a guilty verdict would get him his reward money. That, however, would risk the judge finding Cade Newcastle innocent, or Sheriff Sampson claiming he and Moran weren't eligible for the money because they'd been paid to find the man by Reverend Dooley. This also gave Tom Newcastle's half-breed son time to flap his mouth about the unfortunate incident at Powder River. While he felt no personal guilt over the squaw and child he'd shot that day—after all, they were godless heathens—their deaths at his hand, once revealed, might color his chances for a future here in this burgeoning hub of commerce where opportunity practically grew on trees.

No, he preferred his second plan better and decided it would take very little to implement it. Not only that, he couldn't be blamed for whatever happened. All it would take was a word here, a well-placed comment there... and once done, no one could deny him the reward or his status as the man who'd given the town of Magic City a dose of justice.

* * *

At Ollie's place, Essie tended first to the wounds on Little Wolf's ankle and Shyen Zu's cheek. Pink drew a bath for each of them and Lucy was given the task of helping the girl.