Drew (The Cowboys) (18 page)

“This is private information.”

“Then why do you have it?”

“Because I’m the one who talked these people into starting savings accounts. I keep a record of their deposits, the banks they’re in, and the accumulated interest. This way they can see their savings grow.”

“Why would you do something like this?”

“They’re all reaching the age when they won’t be able to work much longer. When I found out they didn’t have any savings, I talked them into putting some of their money aside so they won’t be destitute. We’ve had this discussion before.”

“They can’t save much in so few years.”

“I’ll transfer the money to one bank.”

“Which one?”

“One owned by some friends of our family.”

“Who?”

“Jeff and Madison Randolph, if you must know. They nearly doubled the money we invested with them last year.”

“You know the Randolph family?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

He was treating her like a criminal, demanding answers to questions he had no business asking. “Cole, what’s this all about?”

“Just answer my question.”

That was it. She didn’t care what was bothering him. He could go on being miserable by himself. She was tired of trying to be concerned and having it thrown back in her face.

“My father served in George Randolph’s company during the war,” she said. “They have a ranch about fifty miles from us. We always send our cows to market together. Now that’s the last question I’m going to answer. I don’t know what’s bothering you, but I resent the way you’ve treated me and my friends.”

He hesitated, as if he wasn’t sure what to do next. Despite her anger, she couldn’t help worrying. This was so unlike Cole. Something must be badly wrong, but she couldn’t imagine what it could be. Or what it had to do with her friends depositing their money in the bank.

He turned to Myrtle. “Is that all the money Earl pays you?”

“Pitiful, isn’t it?” her husband said. “And to think what I used to make when I was an acrobat.”

“We all made more when we were young,” Myrtle told Cole, “but we didn’t save anything.”

Cole seemed to rock back and forth on the balls of his feet, apparently trying to make up his mind about something. “You’re all depositing part of your salary,” he said, “nothing else?”

“We’ve got nothing else,” Ben said. “I wish we did.”

Cole paused a moment longer before obviously forcing a smile to his face. “Sorry.” He turned and strode from the bank without another word.

“What was that all about?” Myrtle asked Drew.

“I have no idea.”

“He looked really worried.”

“Upset,” another said.

“Mad as hell,” a third volunteered.

“All of that,” Drew agreed.

“I wonder why he wanted to know about our money,” Myrtle said.

“From the way he acted, you’d think he thought we stole it.”

“Nobody would steal this little dab of money. It’s not worth the risk.”

But Drew was thinking about something else. The Cole who’d come into the bank was no lazy drifter going from one job to the next with no thought for his future. This Cole had his mind focused on something specific, something that had gone wrong, something that was very important to him.

One thing was certain. Cole Benton wasn’t who he pretended to be.

Drew thought for a moment he might have been hired by Earl to make sure nobody stole his money, but she discounted that. That would have explained why he wanted to know where they got the money they were depositing, but Earl had never been robbed. There were too many cowboys in the show, too many genuine Indians, all of whom were excellent shots.

Cole Benton was here for some specific purpose, she was certain of that. Even though she had no idea what it might be, it made her feel better about liking him. She wouldn’t allow herself to get truly interested in a man. That would wreck all her plans. It would have been especially foolish to like a drifter. But a man with a secret mission? Well, now, that was something else.

The clack of the train wheels nibbled away at the edge of Cole’s nerves, making him jumpy and irritable. At the same time, the noise served as a barrier, cutting him off from conversations around him, allowing him to wallow in the morass of the bleak thoughts that filled his mind.

After their confrontation in the bank, Drew was keeping her distance. Cole was seated with Myrtle and her husband. Other people filled the car with conversation, noise, and the smell of closely packed bodies.

He must be losing his grip. He’d been going around in circles for the last several days, trying to make sense of Drew’s activities. No, that wasn’t true. He’d been trying to find a way to prove her activities couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the latest robbery.

Everything he knew about her character, everything he felt when he was around her, said she was a woman of strong principles. He might not like what she said and did, but she acted according to what she believed.

Then there was all the evidence. She and her brothers had taken a later train, giving them plenty of time to stage the early-morning robbery. And it wasn’t as though it was a random choice. He had seen her sitting in the bank observing everything that went on. Myrtle said she did it all the time.

Then there was this business of her herding all those old people into a bank to make their deposits. It could be exactly what she said, an investment club for their retirement, but show people were notoriously improvident. Saving money was the last thing they’d do. Wasn’t it possible Drew had divided up the money stolen from the bank and had each of those old people deposit a portion of it in his or her name? There wouldn’t be any problem getting it back. They obediently gave her their deposit slips with all the information she would need to take the money out at some future date.

The mention of the Randolph family gave him pause, however. Everybody in Texas knew the Randolphs. Rose Randolph was General Grant’s goddaughter. He’d sent General Sheridan to check on them when they were having trouble with rustlers. Monty was making a name for himself as a cattleman, Hen as a gunman, Madison and Jeff as men of business, while George oversaw the whole family enterprise. They all had reputations as tough men to deal with, but everybody knew they were rigidly honest. They wouldn’t have had anything to do with robbers.

Of course Drew could have lied about her father serving with George Randolph. Any number of people must have known him in the army, and there were hundreds of ranches in that part of Texas. Cole had no evidence to prove or disprove her story, and he wasn’t likely to find any.

But now he had a new worry. Drew had been disappearing regularly the last few days. He hadn’t paid any attention to it when he’d first joined the show. He couldn’t expect to know where she was all the time, but now everything she did could be significant. The fact that she appeared to be determined to make sure he didn’t know where she went was even more worrying. What could she be hiding now?

“You’re worried about something.”

Cole came out of his abstraction. “Sorry I’m such poor company, Myrtle.”

“You’ve got things on your mind.”

“You might say that.”

“Are you in love with Drew?”

The blunt question jolted Cole out of his abstraction. “What?”

“She’s a lovely girl. I suppose I should say woman, but at my age she seems like a girl.”

“She’s definitely a woman,” Cole said. “But I’m not in love with her.”

“It would be all right if you were.”

No, it wouldn’t. It would be the worst thing that could happen. He was having enough trouble dealing with the physical attraction.

“Drew told me she didn’t like any men except her brothers,” Cole said.

“Then a handsome young devil like you is what’s needed to change her mind.”

“She says I’m a drifter, that she can’t depend on me from one day to the next. Not exactly the kind of man to interest a down-to-earth woman like Drew.”

“Maybe not, but she likes you anyway.”

“I haven’t seen any sign of it.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re a man. I don’t know a single man who understands Drew.”

“That’s all the more reason not to be in love with her,” Cole said. “A man should understand his wife.”

“I didn’t say anything about marriage,” Myrtle said. “Drew is dead set against that.”

Cole supposed it was his proper Southern upbringing, but the women he knew automatically associated love with marriage. He had assumed all women did.

“In that case, it’s a good thing I’m too old to be climbing up a vine-shaded veranda.”

“What a lovely picture. Do you have a vine-shaded veranda?”

Damn! He was talking too much. “No, but if I ever get married, maybe I will.”

“Drifters never stay anywhere long enough for vines to grow big enough to give shade.”

Cole looked up to see Drew standing in the aisle next to him. As usual, Zeke and Hawk were in close attendance.

“Men don’t drift forever,” Myrtle said, with her sweet, understanding smile. “Some—the very best ones—are just looking for a reason to put down roots.”

“Are you looking for a reason to put down roots, Cole?” Drew asked.

Her smile said she was baiting him. Cole didn’t like being needled, especially when Myrtle’s words contained enough truth to make him uncomfortable.

“The word
marriage
has been responsible for more hasty departures than the threat of a shotgun,” Cole said, trying to sound as lighthearted as he could.

“Are you getting ready for a hasty departure?”

“I told you I’d stay through New Orleans. I may be a drifter, but I’m a man of my word.”

“Sit down, dear,” Myrtle said to Drew. “You’re giving me a crick in my neck.”

“There’s not enough room for all of us.”

“Hawk and I will come back later,” Zeke said.

Zeke and Hawk moved away and Drew settled down next to Myrtle.

“I’m glad you invited me to join you,” Drew said to Myrtle. “The boys are very good about keeping an eye on me, but they get tired of hanging around all the time. Especially when there’s a good card game to be had.”

“They like cards?” Cole asked. Somehow, he couldn’t associate those two with gambling.

“Hawk is a genius with cards. If he keeps it up, he’ll win enough money for his ranch before I can earn mine.”

“He wants a ranch, too?”

“All three of us want ranches,” Drew said, “but Zeke and Hawk aren’t very good at saving.”

He wanted to ask what they found to spend their money on, but decided that wouldn’t be smart.

“You ought to enroll them in your savings program.”

“I have, but the kind of ranch they want will take a lot more than we can earn in the show.”

So where were they planning to get the extra? She might as well tell him she had to steal to get the money she wanted.

“I suppose gambling is one way to get the extra money, unless you lose it instead,” he said.

“I think games of chance are stupid. Life is enough of a gamble for me.”

Robbing banks was a horrific gamble. She placed her life on the line every time she did it. “So what do you do when you disappear nearly every afternoon?”

She smiled like a woman with a secret. “I manage to entertain myself.”

“Would I find it entertaining?”

“I don’t know. Myrtle, do you have any leftover cloth?”

“Lots, dear, but what would you want it for?”

She glanced at Cole, then turned back to Myrtle. “I’ve been told that if I dressed in something more interesting than brown, the audience would like it better.”

“I’m sure that’s true, dear. You look very nice, but brown is such a depressing color. It always makes me think of rotting leaves.”

Cole had difficulty suppressing a smile.

“I had no idea you disliked my clothes so much.”

“I don’t dislike them, dear. They’re quite nice, but bright colors are much more cheerful. Don’t you agree, Mr. Benton?”

“Mr. Benton has already made his opinion known to me,” Drew said.

Cole did smile this time.

“If he said you ought to wear brighter colors, I hope you listened to him.”

“The saleswoman in Taylorsville showed her several very attractive dresses,” Cole said, “but she didn’t like any of them.”

“Why, dear? If they were pretty …”

Drew looked annoyed at the direction the conversation had taken. “I’m not fond of pink.”

“It would be perfect with your coloring,” Myrtle said, instantly animated. “Why don’t we go look for a dress tomorrow?”

“There aren’t any good shops in the next town. We’ll have to wait until we reach St. Louis.”

“You don’t have to wait that long,” Cole said.

“Why?” Drew asked.

He knew she wasn’t going to like what he’d done, but this was the perfect opening. “I’ll be back in a moment.”