Circle Eight: Vaughn (9 page)

The boy’s emotions were as volatile as a summer storm, swinging back and forth as fast as could be. Nick didn’t know what would happen but Benjy was his partner in this rescue, come hell or high water. He hoped they all survived to make the Circle Eight whole again.

Vaughn had been trampled by horses, or possibly kicked by a dozen men. Something had beaten him until he couldn’t even move his pinky without pain. That same cruel person had left him tied to a horse, bouncing in the saddle as they rode endlessly toward hell.

He cracked open one eye and closed it with a groan. His head pounded as though a monkey beat on a bass kettledrum deep within. He hadn’t even been drinking for pity’s sake.

“About time you woke up.” Elizabeth’s voice cut through his head. Was she wielding the damn drumstick?

“Head hurts.” He formed the words, they fell out of his mouth, but they didn’t taste very good.

“I reckon it does. They used your face to clean their boots.” It was a good thing his companion was so worried about his welfare.

“You didn’t stop them.”

She didn’t answer right away. “I tried but there are three of them and one of me. You laid there like a boot mat.”

Vaughn didn’t want to laugh but a chuckle bubbled up in his throat. He liked her, which surprised him. Most days he didn’t have the time or the inclination to bother to like people. His was a lonely existence, punctuated by new personas, new places and new tricks. The ranch he landed at brought him the one thing he didn’t expect—Elizabeth Graham.

“Who are you?” She spoke in a harsh whisper.

He opened both eyes and looked at her earnest expression. She had no idea how different they were. “Vaughn Montgomery.” It was as good a name as any. One of his favorites.

“Why does Gibson call you O’Connor then?” She scowled at him.

“It’s a long story.” Vaughn shrugged. “It started a year ago when I was introduced to a man named Mick O’Connor. He was an Irishman who, uh, had a business he wanted help with.”

“A business? I was right. You swindled people and O’Connor was your partner, right? I’m sure it wasn’t a legal business.” Elizabeth thought she knew who he was and what he did. She was sorely mistaken.

“I participate in many ventures. Sometimes I make money, sometimes I don’t. This time, no one did.”

Tobias turned and glared at them and Vaughn held his stare, daring the man to do something. The big man was good at beating another while he was down but he turned around when confronted. It was as Vaughn thought. The key was going to be finding the right moment to use that information to his advantage.

“It sounded as if you stole Mr. Gibson’s money and he wanted it back.” She simplified too much.

“Mr. Gibson?” He snorted at the thought of calling the thug “mister” anything. “Tobias knew he was handing over money to gamble on an investment. There were no promises made.”

“He apparently thought there was a promise or we wouldn’t be tied to these horses in the middle of nowhere.” She straightened her shoulders. “I can’t even scratch my damn nose.”

He raised one brow. “Did you just curse again?”

“Damn right I did. There ain’t nothing wrong with it. Damn, damn, damn.” She looked as though she dared him to correct her.

“Damn isn’t much of a curse.”

“I’ve got four brothers, Mr. Montgomery. I can shit, fuck, hell, bitch and damn with the best of them.”

This time he did laugh. Out loud. “Ellie, you are a one-of-a-kind female.”

“I don’t know if I should be insulted or flattered.”

“Flattered. I don’t throw out compliments every day you know.”

She shook her head. “That’s a flat out lie. I’ll bet you charm the britches off plenty of women with that silver tongue and pretty face.”

“You think my face is pretty?” He was flummoxed.

“Not right now but you aren’t ugly regularly.” She looked so prim and proper he almost believed her.

“Are you flirting with me?” Vaughn was utterly charmed by the pink flush on her cheeks.

“You wish I was,” she scoffed. “I’m stating a fact. I did, after all, see you in the altogether. And then some.”

Now it was his turn to feel heat in his cheeks. “I hadn’t forgotten.”

“And I didn’t forget you changed the subject. What does Mr. Gibson want from you and why?” She was relentless.

“He wants the money and deed he invested.”

“Then give it to him.”

“I don’t have it. It’s gone.” Vaughn wasn’t about to give back money to a fool who parted with it. Besides, he didn’t have it any longer. Such was the consequence of working with someone else on a venture. He wasn’t the swindler in charge.

“What happened to O’Connor?”

He wasn’t sure how much to tell her so he settled for a half-truth. “He died before the Gibsons met him in person.”

She narrowed her gaze. “You pretended to be a dead man to swindle the Gibsons out of their money.”

“No. Not exactly. He was killed when leaving out the window of a hotel. Broke his neck when he hit the ground. I knew the venture he was involved in so I took over.” He didn’t mention O’Connor had been leaving a woman’s bed. A married woman’s bed.

“What was this venture?”

“Woman, do you ever stop asking questions?”

“No. As a middle child of eight, I have to make noise to be heard. I don’t give up and I don’t get tired.”

He sighed. “I can believe that.” A child of eight? Good Lord, these ranchers kept having children, didn’t they? They didn’t have any idea how cruel the world could be.

“What was this venture?” she repeated.

He had a choice. To tell her the truth, or most of it, or deal with constant questions until his sanity broke. “A gold mine.”

She snorted. “A gold mine. And he believed you.”

He was not squirming in the saddle. “Yes, he did.”

“How did you convince him you had a gold mine you needed investors for? You must be a very skilled liar.”

“What makes you think there wasn’t a mine?” He didn’t like to be called a liar, true or not.

One brow rose. “Because, unlike the Gibsons, I’m smart enough to know a fairy tale when I hear it.”

“It could be true. I had O’Connor’s equipment and a map.” Not that he knew exactly what to do with it. He had orders and he followed them, as simple and as complicated as that was.

“You swindled them out of their money and a deed according to Mr. Gibson.”

“A fool and his money are soon parted, Ellie.” The bald truth was his only hope at this point.

“You strike me as a smart man, Mr. Montgomery. I’m going to guess you know exactly where that money and deed are and how to get them but you don’t want to.” Damn girl was too smart for a woman.

“What makes you think that?”

“The way you talk, your manners, the way you treated Granny.”

“That makes no sense. I had nothing when you found me.”

She tsked. “That’s because the most important thing to you are possessions. Having what you want even if it’s someone else’s money.”

He stared at her, his heart slowing to a hard thump. “What do you think is the most important thing?”

“That’s easy. Family.”

Family.

Vaughn had never experienced what a real family was. Her idea that it was more important than money, clothes, a fine horse and security was absurd. Ridiculous even. She was naïve, brought up on a ranch full of countless family members with endless names. She didn’t know what it was like to live in the real world.

“Family doesn’t keep your belly full.”

“Yes, they do. They hunt, grow food, cook it and share it.”

“They don’t keep you in nice clothes.”

“Yes, they do. My sister-in-law Hannah is right handy with a needle.”

He scowled at her. “I’ve gotten along fine without one nearly all my life.”

“Then I’m sorry for that. I can’t imagine life without my family.” Her voice caught and he glimpsed the real Ellie beneath the exterior.

“Don’t be sorry for me. I’ve had a good life.” He’d had ups and downs but it had been good. Sort of. He wouldn’t think about Abraham. The closest thing he’d had since he was ten was Winnie, and they were more friends than family.

“Is that why we’ve been kidnapped, tied up and my family’s house burned down? Because it’s a good life?”

Another unexpected emotion assailed him—guilt. It annoyed him. A lot.

“I didn’t ask you to help me.”

“You didn’t have to. My family brought me up to be a good person, to help those who need it.” Her words implied he didn’t have such an inclination.

It was true.

Vaughn had been on his own for more than fifteen years. Hell, he didn’t even remember life before he was ten years old and ran from the work farm he’d lived on after Abraham’s death. Survival had been his driving force, helping no one but himself. Her ideas were foreign to him. What must it be like to rely on others to live? He broke into a cold sweat contemplating the possibility.

“None of this is my fault.” He sounded petulant to his own ears and fought back a wince.

“I ain’t gonna argue the point with you. But we need to find a way to get out of this. I have to get back to the Circle Eight and Martha.”

Her voice hiccupped when she mentioned the old lady. “You called her Granny before. Now she’s Martha again.”

She looked away. “She’s Hannah’s granny but she’s been with us so long, she’s almost mine too.”

He heard the longing buried deep in her voice. She might not have even known.

“I hope she’s all right.”

Elizabeth turned back to contemplate him. “I think you mean that.”

He told himself not to be affronted. “I do. I like her. She is as refreshing as you are. I enjoyed my time with her.”

Silence fell between them and Vaughn missed the banter. She was smart, funny and had a foul mouth he could grow to appreciate. Her manners were rough, her ideas ridiculous, but there was something about Ellie Graham that appealed to him. Why, he couldn’t even begin to explain. And it wasn’t because he was afraid to understand.

Two days passed with excruciating slowness. Elizabeth nursed her anger, at the same time she studied the three men, their weapons, their weaknesses and their intelligence. Tobias was the smart one. The other two, Jeb and Will, could barely pull on their boots without help.

She didn’t want to ask Vaughn for his opinion. Not the confident man who’d somehow convinced these three men he had a gold mine he wanted to share. Of all the ridiculous schemes! No one in their right mind would have believed it. He must have tricked them with sleight of hand or some other flim-flam to make the Gibsons believe the nonsense. They paid him for the equipment and map that belonged to the dead O’Connor. It was shocking and sad.

Perhaps Vaughn told her a lie and he had some other kind of tomfoolery going on with the Gibsons. She didn’t trust the man at all. He had told lie after lie. She had always been accused of tattling by her siblings. Elizabeth told the truth no matter what. Now she was literally tied to a man who couldn’t tell the truth if he tried.

“You’re thinking of some devious plan, aren’t you?” Vaughn eyed her with suspicion.

“No, but I am thinking of how devious you are.”

He seemed surprised. “I’m not devious.”

“Every word that drips from your mouth is devious.”

“Shut up, both of you. I’m done tired of hearin’ you jabber back here.” Tobias pulled the reins of her horse. “We’re almost there.”

She had no choice but to follow. It was an opportunity to find out if Vaughn had told her what happened. Although Mr. Gibson didn’t have to tell her a thing, she would do her best to wheedle information. As a younger sister, she was very good at wheedling.

“Excuse me, Mr. Gibson?”

He scowled at her. “I ain’t mister anything.”

“My parents taught us to be respectful.”

He raised one brow. “Even when you’re beatin’ on my face?”

Heat washed down her cheeks. “I have a temper and I was provoked by your heinous deeds against my family.”

“I likely woulda done the same.” He was a conundrum of violence and normalness, not unlike the thief she’d let into her body. Both of them needed to be horsewhipped.

“I was hoping you would tell me about your dealings with Mr. Montgomery.”

“Who?”

“You know him as Mr. O’Connor. He’s a swindler.” She glanced back at Vaughn, who didn’t look happy to see her in close proximity to Tobias.

“I done figured out the swindler part. But his name ain’t Montgomery. I asked around about him before we made our deal.”

“And that worked out well?” She waited while her words sank in.

“No, it sure as hell didn’t.”

“Then he told you the truth about his name but lied about everything else?”

Gibson scratched his chin. “I reckon not.”

“Then believe me when I tell you he is not Mr. O’Connor. His name is Montgomery. Tell me what he sold you.”

Tobias’s jaw tightened. “Why you want to know?”

“Because I helped a stranger in need and for my efforts, my grandmother was probably killed, my house burned down and I was kidnapped. I deserve to know why.” Her voice shook with rage. She had controlled it for a while but it was back, burning her throat until she had to let it out.