The Law and Miss Penny (21 page)

She'd noticed that he was staring at her from across the table, his green eyes practically glowing in that odd way she found so exciting. His eyes were pinned to her mouth, and Mariah realized she was still licking the honey off of her finger, still rolling her tongue in circles, seeking the very last drop. Yes, she decided then and there. She would do it. She would tell him who he was and beg him to take her away with him. She would do anything if it would keep Cain looking at her like that for the rest of her life. Anything at all.

Breaking into a broad grin, Mariah turned to Oda, who was sitting beside her, gave her a big, noisy kiss, and said, "You're just about the most wonderful mother in the world."

If Oda had been puffing her usual cigar, it would have dropped out from between her lips and landed with a splat in the middle of her mashed potatoes. Her mouth still agape, she glanced across the table to where her husband sat, her brows high with surprise. Zack, normally unflappable under any circumstances, was a mirror image of his wife's stunned expression.

Cain, not exactly sure what was happening, cleared his throat.

Shifting her attention to her father, Mariah said, "And Zack is not only the best father in the world, but he runs the best medicine show this country has ever seen. Why, hiring Artemis as a musician was an inspiration. He really knows what he's doing with the banjo."

Zack, still visibly surprised, agreed. "Ayuh, he does, at that. Why, it seems that boy can play almost any musical instrument you hand him, and any tune as long as he's heard it before. A natural, the kid is. Just a born natural."

Mariah beamed, knowing the show could go on without her. "I think it'd be a good idea to keep him around for a while. He's just plain good for business, not to mention an extra pair of strong hands. Wouldn't you say so, Mother?"

Oda stared at her daughter a long moment, sure something was afoot but baffled as to what that something might be. "Oh, I suppose he's all right."

Satisfied she wouldn't be leaving her parents in the lurch, Mariah glanced across the table at Cain again. His reaction was even better than she'd hoped. He was smiling at her, a bright, open grin with just a hint of sensuality, an expression which suggested that as far as he was concerned, the barriers had fallen.

Mariah returned the smile triumphantly. Tonight would be the night, all right. Tonight would be a time for truth... and love.

And time was a-wasting.

Without another moment's hesitation, Mariah gathered her untouched chicken into a napkin and excused herself from the table.

Chapter 11

Artemis gnawed on what was left of his thumbnail as Tubbs paced in their cramped room at the Last Stop Hotel. He was having trouble explaining about the medicine show and Marshal Slater, Lord if he wasn't, and any minute now, he expected Tubbs to turn on him, call him viler names than Billy had ever thought of, and then maybe even shoot him.

But Tubbs surprised him by saying, "That clever son of a bitch. So as far as you know, Slater has stayed in disguise and hasn't even made contact with Sheriff Black?"

His confidence building, Artemis smoothed the sides of his hair, hoping to draw attention to his new haircut, and said, "Nope, but I did."

"You did what?"

Artemis hadn't meant to mention the episode at City Hall, but now it seemed a rather important bit of information. At least part of it, anyway. Still preening, he quickly relayed the story about the lost dog. "While I was waiting in the sheriff's office for him to go get Daisy, I took a look around, and what do you think I spied?"

"Get on with it, kid."

"A Wanted poster of the Doolittle Gang. There was a likeness of Billy, and Shorty, and Tate, and a whole lot of words beneath that." He didn't mention that Mariah had deciphered those words as he added, "Most of what it said was a description of Cletus."

"Damn." Tubbs punched the rough-hewn wall, driving several minute slivers into the tight skin around his knuckles. "Cletus should already be in place up at Silverton, poking around for information about the next big gold shipment to Durango." He shook his head. "Nothing we can do about that poster now but hope it ain't reached Silverton, and that if it has, no one's noticed him. Billy and the rest will be heading for Needle Creek in a day or two, and then there'll be no turning back."

This was the first Artemis had heard that Billy was changing locations. "What's at Needle Creek?"

Tubbs, busy wondering if he ought to send a wire to Cletus warning him about the poster, and trying to figure out exactly how to word the message in a code only Cletus would understand, thoughtlessly said, "That's where we're going to dynamite the train to stop it."

"We're going to blow up a train?" Artemis was absolutely incredulous. "Won't someone get hurt that way?"

Sorry now that he'd mentioned it, Tubbs brushed him off. "We're going to blow up the tracks, kid, not the train. No one's going to get hurt, so forget about it. What else have you learned? Did Slater tell you when he figures on leaving the medicine show?"

Artemis scratched his head, still trying to draw attention to the fact he no longer wore a dunce cap, but Tubbs was interested only in answers. Trouble was, Artemis had forgotten to ask the questions. Backed into a corner, he did what he'd done earlier: lied to his hero. He never would have thought himself capable of it just a few weeks ago, but Tubbs hadn't called him names or slapped a woman around in front of him before then, either.

With a surprising amount of ease, Artemis shrugged and said, "He ain't planning to leave for a while yet, leastways not until after we take the medicine show to Silverton. He'll most—"

"Silverton?" Tubbs grabbed Artemis by the collar of his shirt. "Slater's going to Silverton?"

His eyes bugging out of his head, Artemis nodded rapidly. "Well, sure he is. We got a show to put on."

"Why the hell didn't you tell me that the minute you walked into this room?"

"I—I d-didn't figure it was too important where the show went, Tubbs. We ain't taking the train for a week or so yet."

"The train? Morgan Slater is taking the damn train to Silverton and you didn't think it was important enough to mention?" Enraged, Tubbs didn't just shake Artemis this time. He threw him against the wall. "Maybe Billy's right about you after all."

Momentarily stunned, Artemis staggered a few steps to the left, and then listed to the right. "Sorry, Tubbs," was all he could say as he shook his head to try and clear it.

"You'll be a lot more than sorry if you mess up like that again." But as he considered it, suddenly the thought of finding the marshal aboard the train didn't sound so bad. In fact, Tubbs couldn't think of a simpler way to take Slater out than kicking his ass down into one of the steep, rocky gorges between Durango and Silverton.

* * *

A few hours later in room 226 at the Strater Hotel, Cain tossed and turned between his flannel sheets. He was having another nightmare—actually, the same nightmare he'd had three nights running, a terrifying scenario in which he was both hunter and quarry. A group of nameless, faceless men bore down on him, driving him farther and farther into a box canyon from which there was no escape. He turned on them, the hunter now, and reached for pistols that were no longer strapped to his thighs. His heart hammered loudly against the walls of his chest and sweat popped out along his brow, running down into his eyes, blinding him. He was trapped. Cain could no longer see his tormentors, but they were coming after him, the sharp retorts of their weapons exploding all around him.
Bang! Bang! Tap! Tap... tap.

Cain abruptly sat up in bed, suddenly aware that the sound he heard was someone knocking at his door. Groggy and disoriented, his pulse still racing, he lit the small lamp on the bed table and climbed out of bed. Tugging his jeans up over his hips as he hurried across the room, Cain held his waistband together with one hand and opened the door with the other.

Squinting into the hallway, with its blinding lights, he said, "Mariah? What the hell...?"

Without waiting for an invitation, she brushed past him and pushed the door shut behind her. Cain quickly turned away from her and hastily buttoned his jeans, but not before she caught a glimpse of the shock of auburn coils at his groin. Mariah shivered at the sight, wondering when or if he would initiate something in that area of their relationship.

Shirtless, but with his pants decently fastened, Cain turned back to Mariah. She was dressed in a voluminous robe of soft white cotton, her long black hair spilling over one shoulder like a river at midnight, that flow barely contained by a purple satin ribbon. Her eyes, captivating as always, were alight with a curious glow; a far, far better dream than the one he'd been having. Cain cleared his throat. "Is something wrong, princess?"

"It's, ah, Daisy."

He glanced down at her arms, finally noticing that she was carrying her dog. The little mutt's tongue was hanging out, and she wore a big purple bow between her ears which matched the shade of Mariah's ribbon. "Is she sick?"

"Umm, not exactly. She ate most of my chicken dinner and now she can't sleep." Mariah gave him a shy smile. "But I think she'd forget all about her tummy ache if you'd just talk to her a while."

Cain could think of a thousand things he wanted to do at the moment, and talking wasn't anywhere near the top of the list, especially not to a dog. Daring to believe that Mariah's visit meant what he hoped it did, he returned her smile. "She must have something awfully important on her mind if it can't wait until tomorrow."

"Important, yes. She, ah..." Cain was moving closer to her, the soft glow of the lamp casting shadows on his smooth, naked torso. Suddenly Mariah's prepared speech faded, growing vague and insignificant in her mind. "She's—"

"Daisy doesn't have a thing to say to me, does she?"

Mariah shrugged. "Not really. I just brought her with me so I'd have an excuse for being out in the hallway."

His hope evolved into reality. Mariah had come to him because she couldn't stay away any longer. Because it was time for her to show him how much she cared. Desire lapped at his loins as Cain snatched Daisy from Mariah's arms, marched over to his bed, and picked up one of his two pillows. He continued to the corner of the room nearest the door, where he dropped the pillow to the floor and settled Daisy onto it.

As he turned back toward Mariah, Cain checked the clock on his dresser. "It's after midnight. What took you so long?"

A little warning went off at the incongruous statement, but Mariah stumbled along, still searching for the right words to explain how she'd tricked him into thinking he was Cain Law. "I, ah, didn't mean to disturb your rest. Maybe I ought to just go back to my room."

"Oh, no you don't." Cain stepped between her and the door. "A woman doesn't come waltzing into a man's room wearing nothing but her nightclothes just to deliver a dog. You have something to tell me. I suggest you get on with it."

The lamp's soft glow hit him full on the torso, highlighting his chiseled muscles and the rigid outline of his chest. How was she supposed to think with him standing there half-naked, looking so very, very seductive? Mariah swallowed hard, forcing herself to remember the things she'd planned to say. She'd come to tell him who he was, to possibly even save his life; yes, that was it. Her mind back to the business at hand, she said, "I have something really important to tell you, something that may change the way you feel about me forever—"

"Of course it will change the way we feel about each other, sweetheart, but those changes will be for the good." Cain opened his arms, and then whispered, "Come here."

Another unexpected statement, this one even more incongruous than the last, and delivered in such a smoldering way, Mariah's legs began to tremble. Did he think she'd come to offer herself to him? Did he want her? Mariah shook off a tremor of excitement at the idea, knowing she'd never be able to proceed if she allowed herself to be drawn into his warm embrace.

She closed her eyes against the invitation, her ears against the sensual caress of his voice, and said, "Let me finish, Cain. Before we can talk about the real reason I'm here, I thought you might like to know that things are just fine between me and my mother."

She'd even gone to the trouble of meeting his terms. Cain smiled. "I'm way ahead of you, princess. Don't think I didn't notice how hard you were trying at supper to patch things up, or how delighted Oda looked."