Annabelle Weston (7 page)

Mr. Finney agreed. “Both talk about becoming lawmen.”

“
Send ’em over to the jailhouse as soon as possible.” Jed hiked his thumb in that direction.

“
Will do,” Mr. Finney said.

Trumbull nodded. “I’ll let Betty know.”

“
In the meantime, we should be ready for their return.” Jed’s examined the damage done by the gang. The window of every store on Main Street had been shot out.

Jed needed to know how many men he could count on in a fight. “You own a firearm, Finney?”

The mercantile owner paled. “I keep a shotgun behind the counter.”

“
How about you, Mr. Trumbull?”

The old man straightened. “Of course I do.”

Mr. Finney’s grip tightened on the broom.

“
You keep your missus and young’uns close to home until these men have been captured,” Jed told him.

“
You can’t stop this trouble?”

Jed didn’t miss the fear in the man’s eyes. “I aim to, only we need to be prepared.”

“
We’ll be ready,” Mr. Trumbull said.

“
Good. Keep those weapons handy. No telling when the gang will be back. They may try to rob the livery to get fresh horses. A wagon even. They may need supplies. Until then I’m going to set a curfew.”

“
Is that totally necessary? It’ll be bad for my business,” Mr. Finney said.

The man seemed to have grown some balls.

“
What’s wrong with you,” the livery man scoffed. “You heard what the sheriff said. Crosby will be back and we can’t let him take over our town.”

“
I’m only saying, if I have to close up early, I’ll lose some of my trade.”

“
Just do as you’re told.” Mr. Trumbull cast Jed a look of approval. “I’m off to tell Betty about the offer for her boy.”

Jed nodded. “I’ll be at the jailhouse.”

Trumbull picked up the cart and continued down the street.

Mr. Finney sighed. “I don’t imagine a curfew will do any harm if it’s not too long. You will take care of the gang promptly?”

Jed hooked his thumbs in his pockets. “As prompt as they let me.”

He bid the mercantile owner good day.

Jed turned to Travis. “Can you stand guard over those outlaws in jail while I go and send a telegram?”

Travis raised a brow.

“
I need to let the U.S. marshal over in Tombstone know what we’re up against. Maybe those boys are headed his way.”

Travis smirked. “Sure thing, Sheriff.”

Jed headed for the telegraph office. If what his gut was telling him was right, he would need additional men. This gang—could be a few or many—wouldn’t be easy to capture. If every time he made an arrest they shot up the town in retaliation, someone was bound to get hurt. No one was safe, not even the women down at the Lonesome.

After he sent off his telegram, he would head for the saloon. He’d let Carly know what they were up against so she wouldn’t take any unnecessary risks.

When he was satisfied she would do what he told her to, they’d unfinished

business to take care of.

* * * * *

Carly lay in her bed, alone. Sleep hadn’t come all night. The room already held the morning’s heat but that’s not what kept her awake.

She didn’t know what had gotten into her last night. She owed the sheriff a bit of pleasuring after he’d carried her upstairs and tucked her into bed.

Hadn’t she showed him how a saloon dolly takes care of a man? She’d not been surprised at how he’d responded; she was good at her trade. She’d taken care of business and walked away just as she should have. Her ass still burned from where Jed had grasped her, and her cunny ached to have him inside her.

She blamed the empty bottle of Dr. Baxter’s Eight-Day Elixir for overthinking the situation. The brew relieved her of the next morning blues like nothing else. Most of all, it kept her from caring too much. How could she get her hands on some more? None of the merchants in town sold it. She’d just have to wait until Dr. Baxter paid his next visit to Tucson.

She rose from her bed and went downstairs. Alvin was pounding nails into mesquite boards, covering up the hole where her prized plate-glass window had once been. Bright light filtered through the many cracks.

Carly sighed. A new window would cost money she didn’t have right now.

“
Morning, Miss Carly.” Alvin spoke with a mouth full of halfpenny nails.

“
Morning.” She picked up a chair and set it upright. A customer slept facedown on the table, cradling a pile of poker chips. She’d rouse him and send him home, but he seemed so peaceful, she didn’t have the heart.

She sat down and rubbed her eyes. What was she going to do about Sheriff Poole?

What bothered her was the niggling desire for a repeat performance. Normally she didn’t give two hoots about the customer after he’d paid his dollar.

Of course, he’d boasted big about how he could make a woman swoon at his very touch. What man didn’t brag about his abilities in bed?

What confounded her was how true that’d been. His caress had given her the chills. She sucked her lower lip, still tasting him. The man surely knew how to kiss. Jed had excited her in a way no man ever had and she couldn’t forget it.

The sheriff had gotten under her skin, telling Ester to get rid of all of Carly’s medicine. She’d been angry with him, barging into her place and barking orders at poor Ester.

She’d been justified in not giving him
everything
he wanted.

She needed her Dr. Baxter’s, she mused. A stiff drink of the elixir and she would be able to put the virile sheriff out of her thoughts and forget about those kisses. Next time he came waltzing through that door…

Who should push through the swinging doors but the sheriff? He looked like he hadn’t slept either. Stubble darkened his jaw and his eyes were bloodshot.

She grimaced. The two of them were a pair.

A brief nod of her head acknowledged his presence. A customer was a customer. Hopefully he’d learned his lesson.

She stood and turned to go to her room. She wasn’t running away—she just didn’t have the strength this morning to spar with him.

* * * * *

“
Carly, wait.”

Jed was glad to see her. She’d stunned him with last night’s sex play. He wanted to see her lustful expression again.

She turned around, her eyes half closed.

He sauntered up to her and stopped a foot away, his arms dangling helplessly by his sides. One look at her and he was reminded of her cunt on his cock. He wanted so badly to take her in his arms.

“
What are you after, Sheriff?”

“
I wondered if you were all right.”

“
I’m fine but my window didn’t fare too well.” She pointed to where her barkeep was putting up boards. Alvin pounded the last nail and climbed down from a ladder.

“
I noticed when I walked by.” He gazed into her brown eyes. “Anybody hurt by the flying glass?”

She shook her head. “No, but Alvin and my girls were skittish the rest of the night.”

Jed rubbed the back of his neck and frowned. “I’d hoped those hooligans missed you.”

“
Last night was a first for the Lonesome. Most likely they didn’t care for the company I’ve been keeping.”

Jed smiled. She was full of sass and vinegar, a sure sign the gang had not frightened her.

“
Of course, business was off for the rest of the night.”

The thought of Carly pleasuring another man made him ball his fists. He wasn’t normally a possessive man but he couldn’t deny he wanted her all to himself.

Alvin grunted as he hefted the ladder. He carried his burden out the back door.

“
You look very pretty this morning.” Jed raked his gaze over her. It was no exaggeration. She’d piled her honey-colored hair on her head, exposing her neck. Yellow crystal earrings dangled from her dainty earlobes. She still wore the red dress—just as enticing this morning as it’d been last night.

She crossed her arms over her chest. “You think you can sweet-talk yourself into my good graces? Honeyed words won’t make me swoon, Sheriff.”

Jed gave up. She was in no mood for mending fences this morning.

“
Suit yourself.” He pulled out a chair and sat down.

Carly heaved a sigh. “Water, isn’t that your drink?”

“
A glass of water will be much appreciated.”

She sashayed behind the bar and retrieved a stone pitcher. He watched every move, remembering every curve of that body. Picking up a glass drying on a piece of sackcloth, she carried them to his table.

He hadn’t realized how thirsty he was until he saw the water splashing into the glass.

“
Obliged.” He picked up the glass and drank it dry.

She studied him. Was she curious or did she have something on her mind?

“
Join me,” he said.

Surprisingly, she sank into the chair opposite him and rested her chin on her fist. “Let me guess. You’re going to say you’d like us to be friends.”

He chuckled. “I’d like us to be friends.”

She wrinkled her nose. “You don’t want to be my friend. Friendship is something I’m not very good at.”

What a strange thing to say. He furrowed his brow and examined her. She was beautiful but her eyes were shaded, like she had secrets she was trying hard to hide.

“
Lovers, then. If we can’t be friends, we can be lovers.”

She laughed. “I explained the rules yesterday. As long as your money is good, you can have as much of me as you want.”

What could he say to that? He didn’t want to refuse her, because he
did
want to be her lover. But he wanted to be her
only
lover. Somehow, he didn’t think she’d be too receptive to that suggestion and his pay would never cover the many times he wished to be with her.

She poured him a second glass. “I suppose I should be grateful you came over to check on me.”

“
That and another reason. There’s something important I need to tell you.”

She stiffened, expecting, no doubt, bad news.

If there’d been any other way to protect her, he would’ve done it. Even in the short while he’d known her, he’d understood how important this saloon was to her.

“
About the Lonesome… You’re going to need to close up the saloon tonight. I’m imposing a curfew.”

Her eyes crinkled at the corners and her mouth turned down slightly. “Over a little shoot up?” She shrugged. “Those boys were only letting off steam.”

“
They came to the wrong town.”

Carly regarded him with disdain. “And you’re going to stop them?”

“
I aim to. They’ll be back for the prisoners.”

“
How will a curfew help?”

“
I don’t want anybody to get hurt when the shooting starts.”

She peered over at the missing window and back at him. “Much as I admire your dedication…”

“
At dusk, everyone needs to be locked in tight.”

She sat back in her chair. “You’re joshing, of course. How can I run a saloon if I can’t be open at night?”

“
These men mean to do harm. When they come back, they’ll stop at nothing to free those men from the cell.”

She glared at him. “They won’t hurt us. Not if they expect to get laid ever again.”

Jed was exasperated. Didn’t she understand he was trying to keep her safe? “Just do as I say and everyone will be all right.”

She stood, her hands resting on that curvaceous body. She meant to have her way. Much as Jed preferred her in a friendly mood, he couldn’t give in.

“
What are we supposed to do, Sheriff? How are we gonna make a living?” She tapped her foot.

Jed groaned in frustration. He should have known it would be hard to convince Carly a curfew would protect them until the gang was caught, and there was no other way. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“
I can take care of myself.”

“
You won’t have a life to claim if these men come back in here and shoot up your saloon.”

She lifted her chin higher. “Maybe you ought to go back where you came from.

Things seemed to be a lot better when you weren’t around.”

Jed had annoyed her. Maybe after she was finished telling him off, after her temper cooled down to a slow simmer, they could have a repeat of her sex play? He’d a craving to show her just what he could do.

“
You wound me, sweetheart. I caught those bank robbers my first day on the job. You should be grateful.”

She sucked in a lungful of breath, ready to give him a good scolding, he reckoned.

He lowered his voice to a growl. “And if I’m not mistaken, you enjoyed that little dance of yours just as much as I did.”

She scoffed. “That was only to prove a point. I didn’t enjoy it at all. And look what your first day of catching criminals got us? A gang of outlaws coming to shoot up the town and breaking our windows. Now you’re telling me I need to close of my business.”

“
I didn’t say you had to close down your business completely. You can stay
open until six.”

“
Really?”

“
And you damn well did enjoy it.” He’d raised his voice. The cowhand sleeping at the next table stirred.

“
My business is mostly at night, Sheriff.” She rolled her eyes to the ceiling. “You really are plumb loco if you think a measly old curfew will stop me from entertaining my customers.”

She turned and stalked off but he wasn’t going to let her go that easy. The look of disgust and disappointment was not what he’d hoped to see. He wanted to see her smiling again, wanted to see desire clouding her eyes. Wanted her to admit she’d enjoyed pleasuring him as much as he’d enjoyed her doing it.

He stood and kicked the chair out of his way. She whirled around and he grabbed her wrists, pulling her up against him. He wanted nothing more than to sear her with a kiss. But desire didn’t flash in her gaze, instead it was a smoldering anger he saw.