Maia's Magickal Mates [The Double R 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (24 page)

The journey into town proved a rough one, reminding Cade of a cab ride over pothole-ridden streets in Manhattan. Not to mention the blazing sun beating down on them when none of them had covering or hats to protect them.

With his ongoing headache, Cade didn’t need a case of heatstroke on top of it.

Within a couple of hours they arrived at Elk Creek. Never having had a job that required him to commute, Cade couldn’t imagine having to take this trip more than once a week.

The unpaved streets were empty except for a few souls braving the late-afternoon heat to take care of business at the prairie community’s various establishments.

They passed two saloons, a dry-goods store, a livery stable, a blacksmith’s shop, a saddle shop, a gunsmith and gun shop, a sheriff’s office and jail, a lawyer’s office, a doctor’s office, a bank, and a restaurant. This was just at the beginning of the town. As they rode farther in, seeing more of what the town boasted, they passed a freight office for the railroad, a telegraph office, a tobacco shop and barber, a general store, a lumber yard, a laundry, a couple more saloons, a boarding house, a justice of the peace, a church, and a mortuary.

Cade caught himself gaping as he scanned all the classic storefronts.

The signs were large and hand painted on wood in distinctive Victorian fonts. Most were basic in color—white, black, red, and maybe green trim if the proprietor wanted to get real fancy. The majority of the storefronts were allowed to simply weather
au naturel
. Horse-hitching posts and rails, from which a couple of horses remained tied just outside one of the saloons, and elevated wood-plank sidewalks completed the authentic Old West experience.

“You look like a rube visiting his cousin in the big city,” Thayne whispered in his ear.

Cade closed his mouth as he turned to see his brother’s grin and Maia giggling at him. “Pardon my astonishment at being thrust into nineteenth-century America.”

“I wonder how far back in time we came,” Maia murmured.

“Late 1800s from the looks of it. Maybe 1875, 1880,” Thayne said.

“You’re really enjoying all this, aren’t you?” Cade asked.

Thayne shrugged. “I took a trip to the Calico Ghost Town for the hell of it while I was still in California and then to the Ghost Town Museum in Pikes Peak when I first moved to Colorado. They made an impression.”

“This from a guy who never had any time to play cowboys and Indians with me when we were kids.”

“I was busy.”

Cade didn’t respond, knowing full well at what his brother had been busy back then—becoming a grown-up overnight and taking care of his rebellious, undisciplined younger brother.

“I just thought of something. What are we going to do for money in order to buy the things we’ll need out here, mainly food and shelter?” Cade and Maia both turned to Thayne.

“The bartering system was pretty popular back in this time.”

“And we could always trade on our skills,” Maia added.

“Luckily there are several saloons to choose from.”

“I don’t think the people in this town have need of your fancy mixology services. No mojitos or apple martinis for this crowd,” Thayne said.

“Probably not, but I’m sure there’ll be a few running poker games I can get in on.”

“Not sure about that one, either.”

“Look, we’re not going to make it out here without some kind of cash, unless you want to rely on the kindness of strangers.” Cade cut a look at the couple who had graciously given them a ride into town, and as if on cue, Wyatt turned back to glance at them.

“Sabrina Walker runs the boarding house at the end of town. Her rates are pretty reasonable. I reckon you could work off your first week’s rent fixing things around the place.

“Sabrina’s always needing repairs and such, and the last month I been too plumb tired working on our place to devote the time needed for Sabrina’s house.”

Cade exchanged looks with Thayne and Maia, but no one said anything.

“Or you could stay at our place. There’s plenty of roo—”

“Lilybelle.”

Oh, Lily had to be skirting trouble if hubby dear said her first name with its formal extension like that, and though Wyatt had uttered the word
sotto voce
, there wasn’t any mistaking his intent or power. Evidently, Lily had overstepped her wifely boundaries.

Cade wanted to jump to the lady’s defense, but who was he but a stranger in a strange land who had no right coming between a man and his wife?

Hell, back in this time, women like Lily were still considered their husband’s property to do with as their husbands saw fit.

“Our place is a mite farther away from town than you want to be, I reckon. But if you’re really in need of a place to stay and you can’t find anything available in town, you’re welcome to stay.”

Well, wasn’t that nice of him?

Cade wondered if maybe Wyatt had something to hide or he just plain didn’t trust the new outsiders in his midst. Could anyone really blame him if the latter was the case?

“We thank you kindly for the ride, but we’d best be on our way,” Thayne answered for all of them.

“If you go to Sabrina’s, tell her I sent you,” Wyatt said as Cade, Thayne, and Maia got out of the wagon.

Cade vaguely wondered if maybe Wyatt had something going with this Sabrina. Sure he had a bombshell wife beneath the plain calico dress, but stranger things had happened. “Will do. And thanks again for your help.”

Wyatt touched the brim of his hat and nodded his acknowledgement before clucking at the horse and pulling the animal’s reins to get him going.

Cade watched him and his wife ride off then turned to Thayne and Maia. “So, now we’ve made it to the town. What’s next on the agenda?”

“I’m starving.” Maia rubbed her flat belly like a pregnant woman, and Cade smiled at the image, something coming alive inside him at the thought of her with child—his or Thayne’s, it didn’t really matter to him. “And my mouth is still watering for Thayne’s delicious lasagna that I’ll never have a chance to taste now.”

“For the second time,” Cade joked.

“Not to mention Aunt Aura’s house might have burned down by now,” Thayne said.

“It was either stay there and wait to take the lasagna out of the oven while the madman threatened to kill us all or get the hell out of Dodge.”

Thayne and Maia both laughed at the irony of Cade’s statement, and Cade joined them.

“Considering the circumstances, I suppose we made the right decision,” Thayne drawled.

“There’s a restaurant over there.” Maia pointed to a plain wooden storefront with a sign out front that simply read Restaurant several doors down. No brand names, no familiar golden arches, no pitchman with royal lineage or little girls with red ponytails.

“I hate to break it to you, honey, but I don’t think they’re going to have anything in the way of vegan selections,” Thayne said.

“I’m sure they won’t, but when in Rome…”

Cade hated that she had to compromise on something so important to her, but their predicament called for all sorts of compromising, and the food issue was only the beginning.

“So, about the money question?” Cade opened.

Thayne reached for the wallet in his back pocket.

“And we can’t use anything on us.”

“Oh, right. I forgot just that fast,” Thayne said.

Maia looked down at his wristwatch. “Maybe we could trade for that.”

“I don’t think wristwatches have become popular yet. It would bring too much attention to us, and we’re going to have enough of that already.”

“You’re right.” Maia looked at Cade and arched a brow.

“Don’t look at me. All I’ve got on me is a wallet full of credit cards and a BlackBerry, which would be even more attention grabbing.” He’d failed to mention the condoms in his wallet. Maia didn’t need to know about them, at least not yet, and he didn’t think Thayne the prude would appreciate the allusion, either.

“Think, people. What do we do?” Thayne asked.

“I’m still up for several hands of poker,” Cade said. “I’m telling you, it’s easy money.”

“In a town where no one knows you from Adam’s housecat and none of us has a gun to protect ourselves?”

“Would a gun really help?” Maia asked.

“It’s all a matter of perception, and out here a gun is just an extension of the man, a necessity and a deterrent.”

“Even if you don’t know how to use one?”

“Who says I don’t?” Thayne responded.

“Oh. I thought since you’re a doctor and a Wiccan…”

“I wasn’t always a doctor, a Wiccan, or a vegetarian. I did some shooting and hunting as a kid with our Uncle Jeff. The knack was a necessary evil and kind of unavoidable on a spread like he and my aunt owned.”

“I understand.” Maia turned to Cade. “I’m assuming you can shoot, too.”

“I do okay.” He’d kept up with his skills long after the childhood that Thayne mentioned, especially when he had been helping LAPD close those missing-persons and murder cases and his name had regularly appeared in the local papers. There were a lot of crazy people out there who just didn’t appreciate what he could do, even if he did it for noble reasons. Some factions, mostly Christian fundamentalists and Teabaggers who leaned toward book burning, especially of the Harry Potter variety, believed Cade’s abilities came from the devil and that he, by default, was one of the devil’s minions. Consequently, he’d learned to fear the God-fearing on so many levels it just wasn’t funny.

Cade couldn’t help thinking that people like him, Thayne, and Maia had regularly been burned at the stake at one point in history. He was glad that Thayne hadn’t shuttled them back to
that
time and place, at least.

“So is that our next order of business, after food? Getting guns?” Maia asked.

Cade heard the disapproval in her voice, and he wished he could set her mind at rest, but he couldn’t. “If we need them,” he said.

Maia sighed and nodded her head in resignation, since it had already been established that they would need them.

“I guess we’ll start with that poker game Cade is itching to get in on, and then, if he’s as successful as he thinks he’ll be, we’ll need to go on a shopping spree for some clothes and accessories before we hunt down that Sabrina lady and bed down for the night.”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Cade said, clapping and rubbing his hands together.

“Don’t get so excited. You know I don’t approve of you using your powers this way.”

“Yeah, yeah, like Maia doesn’t approve of guns. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, guys, but we’re all going to have to make some sacrifices.”

“I almost forgot, since we’ve established we can’t use our own money and don’t have anything else of value, what will you use to stake your game?” Maia asked.

Oh shit, Cade thought. Good point.

He stood for a moment chewing his bottom lip before his eyes landed on the jewelry at her neck and on her hands.

Maia’s hand went to her throat as if to ward off a physical attack and made him feel like the lowest kind of parasite, but there wasn’t any help for it.

“I promise I won’t lose any of it.”

“Cade…” Thayne started and stopped in acquiescence when he probably understood that they didn’t have a choice.

“It’s okay, Thayne. I’m not wearing anything important like your pendant.” She turned to Cade then and grinned. “I trust you.”

His heart did a funky little dance in his chest at her words, and he realized that he’d do anything within his power to keep her trust and not disappoint her.

They waited while Maia took off her ankh necklace, Goddess ring, and moon earrings.

She handed the items over to Cade. “You think this’ll be enough, or do you need my bracelets, too?”

“This’ll do.” What she’d given him was good for a start and would
have
to do. He refused to strip her bare unless it proved absolutely necessary. “Let’s head in.” Cade turned and marched toward the saloon that had the several horses tied to the hitching post outside, figuring it their best bet.

Maia caught up to his purposeful strides and grabbed his biceps. “I’m not so sure it’s a good idea for me to go in with you guys.”

Cade arched a brow, unable to understand her concern until she voiced it.

“I don’t think I’ll be welcomed.”

“Why? Because you’re a woman?”

“Hel-
lo!
I’m a
black
woman.”

“Maia, this isn’t the South. Black cowboys thrived in the Old West right next to whites and in some instances did better.”

“I don’t know,” Maia hedged. “Racism and lynching traveled far and wide.”

Cade couldn’t deny either racism or lynching existed here, especially coming from a time where both still existed in one form or another despite all of man’s advancements, but he couldn’t let Maia go on worrying herself either. “They didn’t have Jim Crow out here. Right, Thayne?”

“Yes and no,” Thayne said. “Jim Crow wasn’t the law out here like in the South, but depending on the town’s leanings, they might have enacted their own version of Jim Crow and enforced it however they saw fit. You might have had some sympathetic proprietors and businesses that treated everyone equally, but more often than not respectable women, black or white, weren’t welcomed in saloons.”