Gideon, Robin - Desire of the Phantom [Ecstasy in the Old West] (Siren Publishing Classic) (25 page)

She went inside, leaving her brother to meet Richard. She did not want a face-to-face meeting with any Darwell
unless it was absolutely necessary, and since Richard was
riding alone, his visit couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the break-in at the Darwell mansion.

Still, curiosity was killing her. From the kitchen, she could hear Richard and Jedediah talking in low tones on the porch. But what were they saying? Neither raised
his voice, yet neither whispered, indicating that Richard
wasn’t angry or trying to keep a secret.

So what was it all about?

From the cupboard, Pamela pulled out her brother’s bottle of homemade whiskey—the cheap stuff made by Jack Bowden, not the special Kentucky sipping whiskey—and
two clean glasses. Though every cell in her body rebelled
at the thought of pleasing any Darwell in any way, she stepped out onto the porch, a smile on her face.

“With all that talking, I thought you two might need
something to wet your throats,” she said.

Richard Darwell put the stopper back into the gold, engraved flask that he and Jedediah had been passing back and forth and put it back into the inside pocket of his jacket.

“This may be a bit strong for your taste,” Jedediah said to Richard as he took the glass from Pamela. He waited until his sister had poured three fingers’ worth of whiskey into each glass before nodding his approval to her. “It’s not as
smooth as what you’ve got in that flask.”

“I’m sure it’s got character,” Richard said before sipping
the whiskey.

The liquor burned going down his throat, very nearly bringing tears to his eyes, but he kept his contempt for the harsh brew to himself. He couldn’t afford to insult Jedediah. The bounty hunter’s reputation with a gun was
unequaled, and Richard needed Jedediah’s services to catch
the Midnight Phantom.

Casting a sideways glance at Pamela, Richard was pleased with what he saw. He’d long thought she had the potential
to be beautiful if only she’d make the effort. But how could any woman be beautiful when she insisted upon wearing blue denim trousers, like a man, and spent her
time tending to cattle and riding the range? And no woman
could expect to draw and hold Richard Darwell’s attention long enough for him to take her to bed if she insisted on wearing a Colt at her hip. It just wasn’t ladylike, and Richard liked the women he had sex with both docile and sluttish.

He wondered what she would look like without any
clothes on.
Dressed, she was a curvaceous tomboy, but
without clothes, Pamela would be just another woman for him to have his fun with.

“A little more?” Jedediah asked, breaking into Richard’s
reverie.

“What?” He looked at the bounty hunter uncompre
hendingly. Mental images of a naked Pamela Bragg had re
ally gripped him. “Oh, whiskey. No, no more for me, thanks.” When Pamela turned to go back into the cabin,
Richard felt compelled to ask her to stay. Even with trou
sers on, she was someone special to look at. “Stick around, Pamela.
Maybe you can offer your brother some advice on a propo
sition I’ve just presented to him.”

She stopped, a quizzical look on her face. Richard won
dered if he could get her into bed, and what she’d be like
once he got her there.

“You’ve been reading about the Midnight Phantom in the
newspaper, haven’t you?” Jedediah asked. Pamela nodded. “Richard wants me to hunt him down. He’s offering ten
thousand dollars if I can bring him in.”

“No questions asked. Just bring me his corpse, and the
money’s all yours. Of course, you’ll have to prove that the
body is really the Midnight Phantom’s,” Richard explained.

“Of course,” Jedediah replied. He thought of the bounty
from Cold Ridge that had been so difficult to collect, but he’d
heard no rumor that Jonathon Darwell was a man who didn’t
pay his debts.

“W-Why? Why you?” Pamela asked her brother
. “I thought you only went after murderers.
The Midnight Phantom has never murdered anyone. I’m
sure
he hasn’t.”

“How can you be so sure?” Richard asked with a dis
missive sneer. “He’s a thief. He’s probably a murderer as
well.”

“You don’t know that,” Pamela snapped back. “The news
papers have never said he’s fired a gun against anyone.
He’s only been seen a couple times, from what I’ve read,
and then it was from a great distance.”

Richard, his face stern, turned toward Jedediah. “See,
this is exactly why the Midnight Phantom has to be brought
to justice. The newspapers have turned a common thief
into some kind of hero. This kind of reaction to the Mid
night Phantom has got to be crushed, I tell you.”

Jedediah nodded his head slowly, but he could not com
pletely dismiss what his sister had said. As a bounty
hunter, he read the wanted posters and decided for himself who he’d go after, made his own judgment as to who most
needed to be brought to justice, who presented the greatest
danger to decent people. The reward for the capture of the Midnight Phantom would be five hundred dollars from the businessmen of Whitetail Creek. Jedediah knew that the Darwells had spearheaded the drive to make the Midnight Phantom a wanted man with a price on his head. The
ten thousand dollars was an additional inducement put up
by Darwell. There really was no good reason for a “Dead or
Alive” tag on the wanted poster since the Midnight Phantom
hadn’t killed anyone. He hadn’t even stolen a cent from the general public, only from Jonathon Darwell.

“You see what I’m talking about, I trust,” Richard said, forcing the last of the cheap whiskey down his throat. He hated the taste of it, and he didn’t really like being in such
close proximity to men like Jedediah Bragg, but he needed the bounty hunter’s services, and until he had them, he would continue to pretend to be enjoying the companionship. “What about giving you an advance against the bounty?”

“Advance against the bounty?” Jedediah was puzzled.
He’d never heard of getting paid for a job not yet begun.

“Call it working expenses. Say two hundred dollars?” He reached into his pocket, extracted a wad of
bills folded in half, and began counting them out in front
of Jedediah, making sure the bounty hunter could see each
bill as it flipped forward.

“I don’t know about that,” Jedediah said quietly, distracted by anticipated delights
. The young lady he had been seeing would be enormously impressed. Still,
he couldn’t quite shake the notion of a trap, and if he accepted the money, he’d be stepping into it. “Somehow, it doesn’t seem quite right to get paid for something that isn’t done yet.”

“Don’t you worry about that. I have every confidence in you.”

“Still…”

“Perhaps five hundred would be more in keeping with
your expectations,” Richard said, sensing Jedediah’s weakening resolve. He flipped several more bills over in his hand.
Five hundred dollars was every penny he’d taken with him
from his home, so he counted the money out slowly, re
alizing the effect it had on a man like Jedediah.

“I don’t think you should do it,” Pamela said
. “You only go after killers.”

“This is business for men,” Richard said crisply, no
longer finding the voluptuous blond’s companionship so
appealing. “Why not leave the decision up to your
brother?”

“Jedediah, I just—”

“Shut up, woman!” Richard snapped. He positively loathed women who didn’t know their place.

He saw the dangerous glint in Jedediah’s eyes and knew
instantly that he’d made a terrible mistake. In a flash of precognition
, he pictured himself in a duel with Jedediah
Bragg, and that was horrifying. Richard had never been particularly good with guns. The two men he’d shot had
been hit in the back, one from ambush and the other as
he was running away. He wouldn’t have a similar advan
tage with Jedediah.

“I’m terribly sorry,” Richard said, not to Pamela but to Jed
ediah. He hated apologizing to anyone, but most especially to people of inferior station. “This business with the Midnight Phantom has gotten my
family, and me most especially, terribly upset. I apologize for what I
said to Pamela. I’m sure she’s only trying to do what’s best.
Jedediah, what about you taking this five hundred and
considering it just half of your advance? You can ride into
town, and I’ll have another five hundred in cash waiting for you.” Richard saw the stony anger in the bounty
hunter’s eyes. “Well, as soon as I get back home, I’ll draw out another five hundred and have a rider bring it straight
here to you. How would that suit you?”

“Be careful, Jedediah,” Pamela said, her tone softer now. “You don’t want to find yourself too obligated.
Rather than making a decision now, why don’t you
sleep on it?” she suggested softly, her hand resting on her
brother’s forearm. “You were going into town tonight, right? Why let this ruin your fun?”

Jedediah looked first at Pamela then at Richard Darwell. “My sister’s got a point. This kind of job is real different for
me. Bank robbers that murder folks, rapists and those kinds of varmints, they’re no more than animals. That’s why I hunt them down like animals. But this Midnight Phantom, he’s never killed anyone. Sure, he’s stolen from you and your family, but it doesn’t seem to me that he’s
exactly taken your last penny. I don’t have to be a lawman
to know that you Darwells haven’t exactly been on the right
side of the law in all you do.”

“Neither have you,” Richard said, grinning falsely. “Per
haps we’ve bent a rule here and there, Jedediah. I won’t
insult your intelligence by pretending otherwise. But you can’t say that the Darwells have ever had anyone murdered,
now can you?”

Actually, the Darwell name had been linked to several
murders, though nothing had been proven. Jedediah
kept this to himself.

“Sometimes you’ve got to bend the rules to make
money,” Richard continued, his tone friendly, man to man.
He didn’t look in Pamela’s direction. “That’s just the way life
is.”

“Your life, maybe,” Pamela said.

Jedediah hooked his thumbs into his gun belt. “Let me sleep on this one. Maybe I will take it on, and maybe I won’t. Either way, I won’t be pushed for or against by
either one of you two. The offer is real generous, and I’ll
keep that in mind.”

“When can I have your answer?” Richard asked. At that
moment he was so furious with Pamela he could have slapped
her to the ground then put a boot to her—but for Jedediah
and his deadly skills.

“Soon. Tomorrow, maybe. I’ve got some celebrating to
do. I just returned after being gone better than a month, and I want to find out what it’s like to sleep in my own bed again.”

After Richard had ridden away, Pamela started in again on
why her brother should turn the job down, even though it
promised a substantial amount of money. Jedediah,
though, was more interested in getting to Whitetail Creek and in
seeing the pleasure in a certain young woman’s eyes when
he gave her the necklace he’d bought.