Nicademus: The Wild Ones (9 page)

He looked over at her. “That’s right, you’re right, I mean. That’s what I mean.”

She winked. “Smarter than you think, huh?”

“Very wise,” he said genuinely surprised.

“That’s why I’m gonna be a nurse. Who knows, I might even be a doctor.”

She took off ahead of him with her pole. He caught up to her with a few fast steps. He carried the line for hooking and stringing up the fish. Annabelle stepped in the creek ankle deep and cast her line. Dropping in the grass, he watched her. Her vitality captivated him. With each passing day he discovered more than the raw knot of revenge he carried in his gut. Jeremiah knew that the source of his renewed fondness for life was her. But how was that even possible? In the past no matter how beautiful she was he would have never looked upon a Negress the way he did Annabelle. In fact, he was set to marry Suanne Milford until he was forced to enlist. When he came home, she was the one who told him about the fire that killed his folks. She was the one who kept Randy and his father’s saddle for him hidden on her ranch. It was Suanne who shared the tale of the fake will and deed that was all signed over to Tyler Shepherd. How he was penniless and she was set to marry Daniel Avery. Life gone.

“Looks like you good luck!” she called back at him and brought him out of his thoughts. She lifted a large trout out of the water. She had only been at it for a spell. She hurried over and let the flapping beast sprinkle him with water from its fin.

“I doubt I had anything to do with it!” he said, putting his hand up to guard his face from the large drops.

“C’mon, we cain’t stay much longer,” she warned.

He accepted her hand and she pulled him up. “You cleans it I’ll cook it.” She hit him in the chest with the fish, and then took off running for the cabin. Shaking his head he followed.

Later that day they did exactly that: he cleaned the fish, and she cooked for him. Together they sat at the table swapping stories of their past lives. He listened to her tell tales of her father, and the tribe she longed for. She got the picture from her dresser he had discovered weeks earlier. She showed it to him. Told him missionaries came and took the photos. Only the important men of the tribe were allowed to take the photos, and she was mighty proud of her father being among them.

Jeremiah told her of the home he had in Arkansas and the family he’d never see again. Talking was easy, and so was the friendship they found with each other.

A gun fired.

Cora froze. She was certain the trigger had been pulled in her place.
Her place!
Before her mind could register her actions she was up and running fast. She nearly collided with Joshua who bounded up the stairs. The customers were at their tables and barstools with perplexed and curious frowns on their faces.

“No she didn’t. She had better not!” Cora said and hurried after Joshua, grabbing the sides of her dress to keep from tripping on the hem. Only one person was bold enough, crazy enough, and reckless enough to dare to fire a gun at a customer in her place.

“Honey!” Cora said through clenched teeth as she surveyed the scene. Jacob held Honey by the arms. Ezekiel looked on dazed as he struggled to draw his pants up and grab his hat.

“Let her go!” Cora said.

Joshua looked reluctant but did as he was told. Cora tried to temper her rage and put a sweetness to her smile and her voice out of respect. “Ezekiel? What’s going on in here suga?” she asked. The man was one of her best customers and he had a personal thing for Honey. She walked over to her patron as he fastened his belt and mumbled curse words under his breath. “Have a drink on me. Got a pie we just pulled out of the oven downstairs.”

“She’s fucking crazy, Ms. Kitty!” he said. “I’m done with this shit. Fucking crazy!”

“I’ll show you crazy!” Honey hissed like a viper and leapt. Joshua caught her by the waist, swinging her around. The girl kicked and clawed at Joshua’s face to be free. He had to bodily restrain her on the floor.

“Go!” Cora ordered Ezekiel. She then turned on a squirming Honey underneath Joshua’s big frame. “You want to follow him? ‘cause I can easily throw you out after him!” she said. “Stop it! Now!”

Joshua rose off her. Honey huffed and puffed with her caged rage, and got to her feet. Joshua removed his handkerchief and wiped the blood from his jaw thanks to the three scratches she had given him.

“Out! I’ll deal with her,” Cora said.

“Here,” Joshua handed over Honey’s Smith & Wesson. “When I come inside Ms. Kitty, this gal here got the gun leveled at Ezekiel’s dick. Poor man looked pale from fright. He said all he tried to do was kiss her, Ms. Kitty. That’s all he done. And she went crazy.” Joshua cast Honey a look of disgust. “More trouble than she worth, Ms. Kitty.”

“That’s for me to say now isn’t it?” Cora corrected him.

“Yes ma’am,” he nodded, forgetting his place.

“Get out. Like I said, I’ll deal with her.” Cora put the gun into the front of her dress.

“Yes, ma’am,” Joshua said and left, but not before casting Honey another look of distrust. And then they were alone. Cora paced. Honey fixed her tattered dress she often wore and dropped her head.

“I knows your problem. You broken. We all are, Honey. But if you stay here, if you works for me, you got to set it all aside.”

“He tried to kiss me. He know the rules,” she said with a pout.

“So you were gonna kill him?” Cora cocked her head to the right.

“No ma’am, Ms. Kitty. Just teach him not to break the rules.” She wiped a tear.

Cora sighed. She pulled a chair in front of Honey and sat down. She waited until Honey was calm enough to be reasoned with. It took several minutes.

“You been wired tight for several weeks now. More than your usual. What is it?” Cora asked.

Honey amber brown eyes lifted under the coils of hair that covered her brow. “Next week is the day. Day I lost my babies.”

Cora could kick herself. She had all but forgotten the date. She should have known better. Honey was once a mother, a wife; her children had been slaughtered and her husband lynched in front of her before the nasty buzzards went after her. Some wounds never heal. And when the date grew near every year Honey struggled. Cora reached for her hands and took them into hers. Honey was wanted by the law because, unlike the rest of them, she was the only woman brave enough to seek revenge and get it. She hunted down each one of those raiders in her Tennessee town and killed them. All six. Cora kissed her hands. “Take some time off. Work in the kitchen, or go away if you need to. This ain’t the place to be next week.”

Honey nodded her head in agreement. Cora sighed. She stood. She removed the gun from the waistband of her dress and handed it to Honey. “I can’t have you threatening the men who come in here, Honey. I can’t heal what hurts you, but I can provide you shelter and keep you from the hangman’s noose. Only if you learn to live and let live.”

“I understands,” Honey said.

Cora smiled. “Scared the shit out of Ezekiel! But he’ll be back.”

Honey looked up and smiled. “Yea, he always come back.”

**

“Cora,” Sheriff Ben Taylor said.

She turned from the table of cowboys as he sauntered into her saloon, bringing the heat and dust of the day with him. The sheriff headed straight for her bottom floor office. Cora patted one of the men on the shoulder and winked at Mable. Her girl hurried over to keep the friendly banter going. Cora followed the sheriff inside. He took a seat on the edge of the desk.

“What can I do for you, Sheriff?”

“Honey? She a problem. Ezekiel said she tried to kill him today.”

Cora smiled. “Now you know he has a tendency to exaggerate. She fired a gun into the ceiling and he took off running. No harm done.”

The sheriff stood. Cora’s gaze stretched upward to meet his. He stared down at her with those smoky brown eyes of his. “I let her stay here, turn a blind eye, she had a tough go of things. I was with you when we found her. You said you could handle her.”

“I can—” Cora interjected.

“I’m here to tell you it’s going to be trouble coming down on Nicademus soon. We got an outlaw on the run. I’ll have all kinds of lawmen and bounty hunters riding through town. You get caught harboring her, I can’t protect you.”

“You don’t need to. I can take care of my girls. I can take care of ma-self,” Cora said.

“Even from Tyler Shepherd?” he asked.

Shock yielded quickly to fury. There was one name no one evoked in her presence and thankfully only two men in town knew it. Now one of them stood before her saying the impossible.

Ben knew of her past with Shepherd. He hated the railroad baron with a raging passion because of it. Almost as much as he hated that Indian for taking her away from him. He stepped closer and this time she didn’t run from him completely. Maybe evoking the name Shepherd was enough to soften her to him. He didn’t care. He just wanted to touch her. And he did. He pulled her in by easing his arm around her waist. Her hands went up to his chest in protest. “The outlaw stole from him. It’s serious, Cora. He’s hired a damn army to find the bandit. The 9
th
Calvary say he’s been bringing havoc in the neighboring towns and the governor is growing impatient with him. That hasn’t stopped him though. Which makes him even more dangerous. I want Nicademus safe. I want you safe.”

He held her to him and leaned in to kiss her. She turned her head. He brushed his knuckles across her cheek and moved her silky curls away to reveal her neck.

“Let me go,” she insisted. He captured her chin and forced her to look at him. He brushed his lips over hers and she pushed at his chest. “I said let me go!”

“I’m tired of this!” he shouted at her. He forced her to the wall. The smell of her, the feel of her, he couldn’t stop himself. He yanked up her dress and she didn’t fight him.

“So you plan to rape me like Shep? Treat me like he did to prove you a man?” she asked.

“Rape? Is that what you think I’d do to you? I love you! Damn it, woman, you aren’t blind. You know it!” He couldn’t release her. Being between her thighs with her pinned against him had been denied him for too long. Even her breath smelled sweet. “What is it, Cora? What keeps you turning from me and running to him?”

“Let me go, Ben,” she replied.

He slammed his pelvis against her. He kissed her harshly and she refused to part her lips. He dropped his forehead against hers trying to steady his breathing to find the strength to pull back. But she made him weak with need. And it was a terminal illness. He lay in bed so many nights dreaming of her. Not since his dear dead wife Essie left this Earth had he wanted another woman so desperately. “Answer me, dammit! Why Red Sun and not me?”

She grabbed his face with both hands and lifted it to look in his eyes. “I care for you, Ben. You know I do. But I loves him. And that has nothing to do with you. He’s the only man who never wanted anything from me. Can you say the same?”

The spell broke. The sheriff released her and she eased down the wall fixing her dress. “You came to town and made a proposal,” he said. “You set up this saloon. Got out there and got these girls to whore for you. And I let you do it for—”

“For a price! A price! Don’t you understand I know I’m a whore? I was born from one. I know what I see in your eyes. It’s the same hunger I saw in Shepherd’s when he wanted to control me. I’m sick to death with men and their wants! Nothing happens here in my saloon for free. Not even my damn heart is free. I will keep Honey hidden and keep this place in line. But I will not fuck you to do it!” she said.

The sheriff sighed. He put his hat back on his head. “That Indian can’t keep you safe. No one can but me. I’ll forget your words when you come to realize it and return to me.”

Cora watched him go. She turned and knocked over a chair. Her heart raced so fast. She hadn’t seen Tyler Shepherd in over six years. Like Honey, she had her scars. But her bravery didn’t run as deep as Honey’s. No. She was terrified of the man, the past, and she couldn’t relive it again. Shepherd didn’t know she was in Nicademus. She had hoped if he did he didn’t care. She put her hand to her forehead. This was someone else’s nightmare. The outlaw wasn’t here. There was no reason for Tyler Shepherd to come to town.

Four Days Later –

Annabelle carried the water pail with two hands and a curved back. Her slumped wide-legged walk was the best way to manage the weight. Filled to the brim with fresh rainwater from the night before, it felt like a ton of bricks. She had plenty of washing to do before sunset. As she rounded the cabin to the front porch she heard the hard pounding of hooves galloping toward her and she lifted her head.
 
She dropped the pail and spilled the precious water into the grass. A posse was headed straight for her in a cloud of dust. Annabelle picked up the rifle from the side of the porch. She stepped out to the front of her property with it pointed south. There were six of them, and all of them looked like trouble.

Jeremiah reached for his shirt and found that Annabelle had mended the patch where the bullet had torn through. Easing into his shirt he stood. He rotated his upper arm. It worked the muscles in his side, which only ached every now and then. For the most part he was stronger, better.