Cowboy from the Future (15 page)

Neither
did Cade, but he knew what it meant.

“Right.” 
Addy looked over at Hugo and got back to business, calling on Jacobi’s language
lessons.  “Fuck off, asshole.”  She said in their dialect and gave the mayor a
taunting wave goodbye.  Turning on her heel, she headed for the stairs.  “There
you go, fellas.  I think Hugo understood that just fine without the big fight
scene.”

Oh,
Hugo understood it, alright…  Which was why the fight was about to be far, far
worse.

Cade
would’ve reacted to the whole situation faster, but his brain was still
stalled.  He simply couldn’t process the seismic shift in his reality.  Addy just
kissed him.  Publically.  Even if she’d only meant it to discourage Hugo, it
was still unprecedented.  No human would ever publically kiss a Voltyn,
especially not a lady like Adeline.  They didn’t consort with his kind.  It was
against the law and, more important, against every rule of respectable human
society.  Cade had known all along that what he wanted from her was impossible.

Except
she’d kissed him and it had been… pure.  Absolutely pure, like nothing he’d ever
known.  He reached over to steady himself on a tabletop, his whole system
reeling.

“Holy
shit!
”  Jacobi blurted out in scandalized delight.  “Now, she’s done
it!”

Deke
cringed as if he knew they were about to witness the first casualty in a new
war.

Hugo’s
whiskers twitched in fury.  Thinking back on it later, he probably didn’t
mean
to grab Addy’s arm as she flounced off.  The whole thing was over in even less
time than the kiss, so he surely hadn’t planned it.  The mayor was just used to
being the most eligible bachelor in the polis.  He probably didn’t know how to
deal with a woman blatantly choosing someone else over him.  Certainly not a
Voltyn.

In
the face of Addy’s rejection, Hugo’s bland aura went wild.  Usually, it was a
dim blob of beige-y brown, with some oozing maroon smugness at the edges.  Now,
it sparked with unprecedented shades of violent red.

With
no other recourse to save his pride, the mayor charged towards the stairs after
Addy.  His meaty fingers reached out to seize her wrist, his grip biting into
her perfect skin.  “Hold on a fvreing minute!”  He barked and events spiraled
so damn
fast
that no one reacted quickly enough to stop them.

Addy
cried out in surprise and pain, as Hugo dragged towards him.  “Son-of-a-
bitch!
” 
She tried to yank away from him grasp, because the woman would always fight
against bullies.  It was part of what made her Adeline.  The crazed and
impossible belief that she could take on all the injustice in the world and
make it right.

Hugo
hadn’t expected her resistance.  He tugged harder and Addy lost her balance in
the brief struggle.  She fell backwards, passed Hugo’s shocked form, and hit
the ground at the base of the stairs.  Her body crumpled into a small heap,
flaming-gold hair tumbling against the floorboards.

…And
Cade’s vision went black.

He
had no idea what happened next.  One second he was gaping down at Addy’s dazed
face and the next Hugo was being launched into the air.  Cade knew he must have
done it, but he was didn’t recall reaching for his powers.  They were just
there,
blasting out like every horror story ever whispered about his kind.  Purple
lightning scorched the air, creating a firestorm of flashing and heat and
screaming.

So
much screaming.

He
heard Hugo frantic shrieks, and his own bellow of rage, and Deke shouting his
name, telling him to
stop
, but the sounds were drowned out by Cade’s
powers.  He saw Jacobi scrambling forward and dragging Addy out of range, his
body shielding hers as sparks rained down.  He even had the impression of
Addy’s eyes going wide, finally realizing why she should fear a Voltyn.

But
mostly there was just Cade and the fucking human who’d hurt his woman.

The
first lightning blast had hit Hugo in the chest, sending the guy flying halfway
across the bar.  Panicked and in shock, he regrouped enough to try and flee. 
Hugo rolled onto his stomach and desperately crawled for the door.

Cade
stalked after him, all his instincts screaming for blood.

“Stop!” 
Deke bellowed again.

“My
God.”  Addy whispered, her voice seeming to come from a long way off.  “Voltrons
can control electricity.”

“Stay
back!”  Hugo shrieked, wobbling to his feet.  “You can’t do this to me!  I’ll
have you arrested, you inhuman monster!”

Another
purple arc slammed into Hugo, this one striking him hard enough to send him
right through the exterior wall.  Wooden planks and plaster fell away like they
were never there at all.  It was going to be a real pain in the ass to repair. 
Hugo’s body left a gaping hole in the side of the tavern, jangling Addy’s wind
chime.  The bits of metal and glass clanged together, as he sailed passed and landed
in the middle of the street.  Cade stared out at the unconscious mayor and
realized he’d scorched the man’s mustache off.

“
Fuck!
” 
Deke rushed over to grab Cade’s arm and his expression desperate.  “Are you out
of your mind?!”
 
He gave Cade a shake trying to regain his attention. 
“Stop!”

There
were laws to protect humans from Voltyn.  This situation wasn’t an honor
ritual, like the honuel.  It was a crime.  It didn’t matter that Hugo would
recover or that Adeline had been harmed first.  Cade wasn’t allowed to touch
the son of a bitch. 
Ever.

Cade
gave an indifferent shrug and knew he’d do the same thing, again.  Maybe it was
Adeline’s influence, but making a pointless stand suddenly didn’t seem so
pointless.  “
Nynan
.”  He said simply.

Deke
closed his eyes like he was in pain.

“Cade,
are you okay?”  Addy called, trying to figure out what was going on.  It would
be a wonder if she wasn’t traumatized for life by what she’d just witnessed.

“I’m
fine.”  He didn’t want to look at her for fear he’d see disgust in her eyes. 
“Stay back, Adeline.”

“He’s
not
fine.”  Deke shoved Cade away, his hands plowing through his matted hair. 
“Gods
damn
it, Cade!  Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

“Of
course I do.  And you would’ve done the same thing.”

“I’m
a human, asshole.  I’m allowed to be a maniac!  They’re going to come for you!”

Jacobi
glanced between his brothers, his eyes suddenly young.  It was the same way
he’d looked at Cade when he found out he was suddenly an orphan.  Scared and
lost and expecting his big brother to fix it.  Only Cade hadn’t been able to
change the fact that their parents had been killed by Outlanders and he
couldn’t fix this.  The best he could do was make it easier.

Voltyn
might not know how to love, but they knew how to defend.  It was what they’d
been bred to do, after all.  All the softer emotions Cade couldn’t feel were
channeled into protecting his family.  The unmistakable whisper of his mother’s
blood moved within him.  The knowledge that he’d do anything to ensure the
three people in this room were safe.  He had to keep them out of this.  Jake,
Deke and Addy needed to be okay, even if it meant Cade wasn’t.

Protecting
them
was
all that mattered
.

“Cade.” 
Jake whispered and his voice shook.  “What’s gonna happen, now?”

Cade
watched as the humans began to gather in the street and kept his voice calm.  “You’re
going to wait in here and close the door, while I go outside.”

Jake
frowned, not understanding the plan.  “Then what?”

“Then,
I’m going to be hanged.”

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“So,
now we have to break the big doofus out of jail.”  Addy summarized, looking
between Jacobi and Deke.  “How do we do that?”

“
You
don’t do anything.”  Deke was drinking alcohol straight from the bottle as
he paced around the saloon.  “The last thing he’d want is you heading down
there and making this worse.  Cade wouldn’t even be in this mess if it wasn’t
for you.”

“And
now I’m going to get him out of it.”  She shot back.  “And the only way to do
that is a jailbreak.”

When
Cade had walked outside, Addy had been right behind him.  She’d tried reasoning
with the hateful crowd and that asshole sheriff, but they hadn’t been
interested in anything except hauling Cade away.  And hitting him.  And not
even giving him a trial, before they sentenced him to death.

Oh,
and Zecker looked
nothing
like Timothy Olyphant.  As usual,
Shadow-of-the-Gods couldn’t do a damn thing right.  The sheriff was a rotund
jackass with corkscrewed facial hair.  His white pompadour and the
triangular-shaped badge on his hip gave him an air of authority that he used
like a club.

Cade
had been totally right about Zecker disliking Addy.  Apparently, just staying
in the tavern was enough to blacken her name in his eyes.  The sheriff’s gaze
had narrowed as she talked, not understanding a word she said or even trying
to.  She told him that he was making a huge mistake, but he’d waved her aside
like she was nothing.  Instead, he’d snapped something with the word “Voltyn”
in it and Addy assumed that he was accusing her of being on Cade’s side.

Before
she could agree with that completely accurate assessment, Cade had interjected
a firm denial.  He shook his head at Zecker, but his gaze was on Addy.  “Do not
say another word.”  He warned her in English.  “It won’t do any good to land
yourself in a cage beside me.  Stay with my brothers and be safe.”  Then, he
turned to say something to Deke and the sheriff had carted him off to prison.

Jacobi
had hauled Addy back from getting between Cade and the gestapo or she’d
probably be in jail, too.  God, she’d never been so angry in her life.  This
couldn’t
happen.

The
plan to keep an airport-conversation distance between herself and the Westins
was history.  Hell, it had probably never really been a workable plan, to begin
with.  Not with Cade being so damn appealing.  Would she have kissed some
random guy she met on a flight to Denver?  No.  She’d kissed Cade, because the
impossible jackass was…
Cade
.

“I’m
going to fix this.”  Addy insisted, mostly for her own benefit.  “There’s
really no one we can appeal the sentence to?  Like a higher court or
something?”

Deke
shot her a fuming look, but remained silent.

In
the hour since Cade had been arrested, they’d nailed a quilt up over the hole
in the wall, but otherwise everything was still in shambles.  It took all of
their concentration to shout at each other and try to think of what to do next.

Jacobi
was paler and more somber than she’d ever seen him.  “No one cares if a Voltyn
gets executed.  Even if they did, there isn’t time to stop this.  They’re going
to hang Cade at dawn.  They’re really gonna do it.”  For once, Jake looked like
the scared kid he was underneath the bravado.

“No
one’s going to hang Cade.”  Addy promised, reaching over to grip Jake’s hand. 
“We’ll get him back, sweetie.  Don’t worry.”

Jacobi
turned his palm so his fingers linked with her.

“And
how are we gonna do that?”  Deke gestured out the window, towards the wooden
building that served as the jail.  “There are a hundred pissed off humans
standing around down there, waiting for the show.  You think they’ll let us
walk in and open his cell door?”

Jacobi’s
blue eyes met Addy’s steady gaze, ignoring Deke’s negativity.  “You’re not
scared of Cade now, are you?”  He blurted out.  “You shouldn’t be, Addy.  Really. 
Cade likes you.  More than I’ve ever seen him like
anyone
.  What
happened wasn’t about anything except him seeing you get hurt and losing
control for a minute.  The power he has,” he shook his head, “it doesn’t make
him not human.”

“I
know.”

Jacobi
wasn’t convinced.  “Because, everybody’s always scared of Cade.  My mom and dad
were always watching him.  Telling me not to get too close to him.  Waiting for
Cade to hurt me or something.  But, he never did.  Not
ever
.”

“I
know.”  Addy repeated.

Cade
Westin would never harm anyone weaker than himself.  She’d known that from the
first.  The man was a protector.  He’d argue it was because of his super-soldier
DNA, but she knew better.  It was his heart.  The man had the biggest, most
honorable, softest heart she’d ever known.  He’d saved her life and done so
much more.  Addy’s free hand slipped into her pocket, her fingers rubbing
against the bottle of nail polish Cade had given her.

Damn
it, she was getting him
back.

“I
have always been a screw up,” Jake continued, “but Cade watches out for me,
even when he shouldn’t bother.”  He gave a watery sniff.  “I lost Dad’s compass
one time, playing cards with that asshole Berh Hutty.  Remember that, Deke?”

Deke
rubbed his hands over his face so hard that his skin pulled tight.  “Jakey…”

“I
was about seven and I knew the old man was gonna kill me.  So, I came running
into Cade’s room and I hid under the bed.  It was where I felt safe.”  Jacobi
was staring down at the table and not seeing it.  “But, then Dad comes
rampaging it and starts in on Cade, accusing him of hiding me.  Drunk off his
ass, like he always was.  Hitting Cade, ‘cause Cade’s not telling him where I
am.  And hitting him and
hitting
him.  And I’m crying out, but Dad’s too
far gone to even hear me.”

Addy
closed her eyes.

“Cade
lands on the floor, right in front of bed.”  Jacobi went on.  “And we look at
each other.  I see he’s hurt and I start to crawl out, but he pushes me back
under the mattress.”  Jacobi gave a mystified snort, like he still couldn’t
believe it.  “The son of a bitch
pushed me back
, so Dad didn’t see me. 
He got beat to hell, for something
I
did, and all he cared about was
protecting me.  And when it was over, the only thing he asked me was if I was
alright.”

Yes,
that sounded like Cade Westin.

Jacobi’s
reddened gaze met her, willing her to understand.  “My brother is more human
than anyone I’ve ever met.  He doesn’t see it, but I do.  You need to know
that, because he’s gonna think you’re scared of him.  And I don’t want him
thinking that at the end, Addy.  It’s not
fair
that he would think…”  He
stopped, unable to go on without breaking down.

She
gave his hand a squeeze.  “Jake, I promise you, I have never been scared of
Cade.  I never will be.  And this isn’t the end.  I get feelings about things
sometimes and I have a
very
strong feeling that I’m not through with
your idiot brother, yet.  Not by a long shot.”

Jacobi
pulled back to swipe his palm under his nose and nodded.  “Right.  Good.”  He
cleared his throat.  “So, you’ll think of a way to get him out, then?”

“No. 
We’ll
think of a way.  The three of us.”  If they couldn’t do it the
legal way, they’d go with drastic measures.  “Like I said, we need to break him
out of jail.”

Deke
snorted.  “Zecker’s going to suspect that me and Jake will try something. 
They’re not going to let us near Cade.”

“
I
could get near him.  Hugo’s still out of it and the sheriff sure wasn’t
listening to me earlier.  What if I tell them that I was leaving with the nice
mayor and cruel Cade tried to stop me?  I’ll bet you they’d let me into the jail
to confront my Voltyn abductor, if I squeezed out some tears.”

Deke
took another long drink from his bottle, his eyes narrowed.  “Fine.  Then
what?”

“…I
have no clue.  That’s as far as I got with the idea.”

“Fucking
hell.”  He went back to pacing.

“Well,
why do I have to come up with everything?  Help me think of the rest of the
plan!”

“We
should’ve gotten out of here years ago.”  Jacobi muttered.  “Zecker’s been
looking for an excuse to get rid of Cade.  It’s ‘cause Ma never liked him and
the sheriff always had that thing for Ma.  If that son of a bitch had his way,
he wouldn’t have let Cade buy this place, at all.”  He angled his jaw.  “We
need to free Cade and never come back here.  That’s the only way.”

“Even
if we get him out,
where are we going to go?
”  Deke was consumed with
pessimistic despair and refusing to contribute anything beyond anger.  “We
won’t be able to come back here and there’s snow blocking the pass.  We’ll
either freeze to death in the mountains or they’ll track us down and hang all
four of us within the week.”

Addy
glowered at him.  “Then at least your brother will be alive for another seven
days.”  She snapped.  “Since he loves you and you love him, I think it’s worth
the risk.”

The
relationship between the Westins was one of the main reasons she’d always been
so comfortable around them.  They might be future-y cowboys who bickered, and
occasionally exchanged blows, and generally drove each other crazy, but they
had an unbreakable bond.  Maybe it wasn’t sitcom perfect, but they were still how
she’d pictured a
real
family should be, back when her parents forgot her
in Brussels over Christmas break.

Deke
turned away.  “Voltyn don’t love anyone.  You heard Cade say that yourself.”

“Cade’s
full of shit.”  Addy told him succinctly.  “He feels just as much as everyone
else does.  Maybe more.  If the situation was reversed, he would come for you.”

“She’s
right.  Cade would do anything for his family.”  Jacobi agreed, his attention
on Deke.  “He loves you and me and Addy.  Anyone could see that.”

Addy
flashed him a surprised look, astonished that she was being included in that
list.

“He
would come for
any
of us.”  Jake picked up a deck of cards, restlessly
shuffled them like he just needed some outlet for his nervous energy.  “When
you got captured in the Wilderness, Cade went out to find you, Deke.  You
woulda died, without him.”

“I
was
supposed
to fucking die.”

“Cade
didn’t see it that way.  He got you back home and helped you when you were out
of your mind.  When you were talking to walls, and shooting at people who
weren’t there, and locking yourself in the closet for a month at a time.  He
saved
you.”

“I
know!”  Deke roared, more words than he’d spoken in years rushing out of him. 
“I know Cade better than I know myself.  I
know
he’d always come for me,
alright?  I knew lying in that fucking Outlander cage, that my brother would
come.”  He held up his amputated arm.  “I knew it when they took my hand and
ate it front of me.”

Addy’s
eyebrows soared.  Holy
shit
.

“Cade
was what kept me living for one more day and one more day and one more day.”  Deke
continued.  “Even when it would’ve been so much easier to stop, I kept going,
because I
knew
Cade would be there soon.”

Addy
couldn’t imagine having that kind of faith in someone.  To just
know
they would find you, if you were lost.

“You
think you’re the only one who grew up in that house, Jake?”  Deke’s voice
cracked.  “The only one who knows that Cade fucking saved us
every day?
” 
He looked over at Addy.  “Dad was a godsdamn drunk.  Too fucking weak to be
with the Voltyn woman he loved, so he married the only human in the polis
desperate enough to have him.”  He shook his head.  “That meant Jake and I got
a bitter shell of a mother, who spent every day of her life hating my father
for being obsessed with a dead woman and Cade for existing at all.  You think
that was a stellar childhood?”

“No.” 
She said softly.

“It
was
Cade
who got us through.  It’s always been me and Jake and Cade.” 
His tone was tormented.  “I love my brother more than
anything
.  And,
you’re right.  I know he loves me back.  Voltyn or not, I have never doubted
that he feels it, too.  I would do
anything
for Cade.”

“Good. 
Then, we can…”

Deke
cut her off.  “But, he wouldn’t want me to do
this
.  He wouldn’t want me
to risk you or Jake to save him.  Not
ever.
  He would
die
before
he chose that and you’re asking me to go against his wishes.”  He shook his
head.  “The very last thing he said to me, as they dragged him away, was to
look out for you, Addy.  To protect
you
.”