There All Along (4 page)

“That smile should make me nervous.”

“Ah, but does it, mighty lawman? Do I make you nervous?”

He laughed then, hearty, a sound she rarely heard from him. “Any smart man would be advised to remain nervous around a beautiful woman who smiles like she’s got a secret. It’s what they call evolutionary learning, aye? Now, on to cards. We can’t neglect your card sharp training.”

They played cards for several hours as she coaxed stories from him about his travels. He rarely liked to speak about himself but she did something to him. Loosened him up before he even realized it. It was . . . nice to let his guard down around her. To feel safe within the walls of her cozy home and simply be Loyal.

She cleaned up, preparing everything for the next morning as she usually did, and for a moment he allowed himself to imagine this with her. This with her as his woman. Frivolous, and a waste of time, he tried to argue with himself, but he did it anyway.

She turned back to him once she’d finished. “I’m to bed. Since you’re all leaving tomorrow there’ll be a flurry of things to take care of. You know how people are. Always waiting too long to do the necessaries.”

He nodded. It was the same in every garrison. The morning they left the townspeople would line up to get those last-minute letters and packages on the transport. The bits and bobs they wanted to barter with others up and down the highway.

“Human nature.”

She stepped closer but he’d been leaning against the doorway to his room so he had no place to step away. Her scent wrapped around him, a fist of the glory of her womanhood, and he could do nothing but let it.

“I’ll miss you.”

He had to clear his throat to get the words out as she stood close enough that her hair brushed the back of his hand where his arms were crossed over his chest. Flowers and sunshine and a tiny bit of wood smoke. The spice of his cigar was what got him the most. His scent had marked her in a sense and though he didn’t want to, he found himself moved by it. His cock hardened.

“I’ll be back afore you know it. You stay safe. Brigand reports not too far down the Highway. Stay behind the walls.”

“I can’t always do that.”

“You need to.”

She went to her tiptoes. “And what’ll you give me if I do?”

Her breasts brushed against his forearms and he groaned, grabbing her upper arms before he knew it, hauling her that tiny bit closer and his mouth came down on hers.

She moaned, opening up to his tongue as it swept into her mouth. She was sweet and hot, eager as he took and took. There was no artifice about her. She wasn’t an expert at kissing, but what she lacked in experience she more than made up for in enthusiasm.

Even as his brain screamed at him to stop, his heart, his bones, his cock, everything he felt with urged him to take. To seduce and tease.

Her taste slid through his veins, gripping, digging in and rooting itself deep.

She made a startled sound—not distress—excitement, desire, when he nipped her bottom lip. He’d been trying to pull away, but the sound brought him back for more. Gods, more and more.

He kissed his way over her jaw, feasted on the spot just below her ear until she made another sound, a gasp of his name.

With every last bit of strength he possessed, he set her back from him, licking his lips as she looked up at him, dazed, her mouth kiss-swollen, skin flushed. So beautiful and carnal.

“I’m sorry.” His chest seemed to burn as he fought his instinct to take her to the bed, to strip her of all her clothes and feast on her skin.

“Why?”

“This can’t happen.”

She frowned. “Ridiculous. It just
did
happen. I liked it. You liked it. Why shouldn’t it happen more?”

“I already told you, I am not for you. Go to bed, Verity. Go to bed and thank your heavens above that I have the strength to make the right decision here.” He pushed her back slightly to get around her and inside his room where he could close the door before he made any more mistakes.

W
hen she’d woken up, he’d already packed his things and gone. A look out the windows showed the transport and escort vehicles lined up.

She didn’t speed her pace. It was early still. She made herself breakfast and drank some tea before heading down to the mercantile and opening up. She handled all the last-minute packages and other mail and with Tobin, organized people into orderly lines to hand over their things to the transport drivers.

She caught sight of Loyal down the way at the garrison offices with the other members of his team. He looked up the hill and saw her, nodding his head. She waved, but kept at her work. The night before had simply been step one. He’d awakened something in her she hadn’t even really known she possessed.

A sort of carnal awakening, a sense of her own power as a woman. She’d made him short of breath. She’d brought him so much need his fingers had dug into her upper arms hard enough to leave two fingerprint bruises. Not that she’d mention it. She got the feeling he would feel guilty and she didn’t want that.

It had filled her with . . . a sort of satisfaction to see them. To see the effect of the loss of his control. His need had washed over her skin like a narcotic of sorts.

Loyal Alsbaugh wanted her. With so much ferocity it had set her aflame just being in contact with his body. She wanted more. Knew when it happened—and it would—it would change her. And hopefully him as well.

She could wait. For the time being in any case.

The townspeople used to the process of the leaving of the transport had been orderly and ready as their turn had come. Verity handed over the mail sacks and signed them in for delivery.

They’d all congregate shortly down at the bottom of the hill at the gates. But she moved to the lead vehicle where Loyal had just locked his rifle into the slot on the dash.

“You stay safe. And return soon. You didn’t finish your card lessons.”

He shook his head, a half smile on his mouth. A mouth that had been on her own, on her neck. A shiver went though her at the memory.

“Stay in the garrison like I said, aye? Please?”

She knew what that please must have cost him, so she nodded. “As much as I can, I will. Come back soon.”

“Safe travels.” He got in the vehicle.

“And to you.” She stepped back to the walk and watched him close the door and click the side shield into place over the window.

“I don’t know how they do it. How they face the dangers of that Highway each and every time the way they do.” Tobin said it with some greed as he watched the procession head down the hill.

Perhaps she wasn’t the only one in the family with a curiosity about the world outside.

“They do it because it needs doing.” She waved at the transport and then the vehicles at the rear of the procession.

There were shouts and horns sounding at the gate as the sentries called out the all clear and the wheels began to turn as the gate slid to the side. Each vehicle drove through until they were all out. She knew they’d cross the bridge singly and then head down the fortified road to the Highway and drive north.

Her old life clicked back into place as the gate did.

“Come along then, Tobin. We’ve got some inventory to do.”

•   •   •

S
he’d spent her time immersed in all the daily work she needed to do to get ready for the coming seasons. Out behind the mercantile she spent her late afternoons after she’d closed down tilling the soil and getting her planting rows in order.

She planted her seeds for the melons and root-based vegetables. Those she kept in the cellar below the store. The cool earth would keep them through the snow times. She’d be able to use them in soups and stews, baked in casseroles all through the coldest months. She trimmed back all her berry bushes near the low walls that separated her land from her neighbor’s. Those would burst into life in a few moons and keep her in pies and preserves for the rest of the annum and also give her plenty to trade.

She opened all the parcels that had come with the delivery. Read the letters from her far-flung friends at garrisons up and down the Highway. She always saved them until he’d gone. For those first, hardest weeks when she felt his absence the deepest. There were little bottles of perfumed water, pots of healing salves for burns and rashes, muslin bags of dried herbs. Jars of preserves, of sauces, of flavored spreads to put on game and fish. Most she’d keep for herself, as they were little trades in return for her jars and bags of things she’d created. Others she’d use as payment for goods and services in the garrison throughout the annum. When her machinery needed fixing, or when she needed extra labor in the mercantile.

Over the weeks she’d received several blips from the central governance. Reports of increased brigand attacks on Highway traffic. And two incursions on garrisons.

Jackson Haldeman, the head of the garrison defense, showed up at the mercantile just as she was closing up. “Good day, Verity.” He tipped his head and she smiled.

“Hello, Jackson. Do you have need of something from inside? I know the proprietor so I can open up for you.”

He laughed, his smile spreading over his features, making him very handsome indeed.

“Appreciate that. But no. Not today. I came to let you know that, if you’d like, we’re going to be doing some instruction. With the rifles. I know you have some first aid education and if you’d be of a mind to teach others, I’d see it as a kindness. With the increase in brigand attacks, I want to stay at the ready.”

“Of course. To both. I know how to shoot. But I could use more instruction. I just put by some healing herbs and salves. I can make extras for the garrison barracks as well. They keep if you leave them in a cool, dry place. A root cellar or the like.”

He nodded. “Thank you. On the morrow then, an hour before the sun sets we’ll be starting with target practice.”

“I’ll be there. I can do some lessons on dressing wounds and the like on the off days. With harvest season ahead, it’s a good knowledge. Always end up with injuries that time of year in any case.”

He nodded. Pausing. His gaze sliding over her face with pleasure.

If it weren’t for Loyal, would she wish he’d invite her for a walk? Should she go if he invited her? He would be a good catch, as her sister would say. Jackson with his broad shoulders and his easy smile. A provider. She’d never heard tales of him hitting the bottle or anyone else.

“I’ll see you tomorrow then.” He stepped down. “And perhaps . . . perhaps I will be seeing you at the fest this coming week’s end?”

The fish were running. Every year the big, fat silver fish would come in high numbers to the river to lay their eggs and have lots of tiny baby silver fish. The town would net them and set them to smoke, to dry them, to jar them in oils and herbs and preserve them for the annum ahead. It was a unified effort. There was music in the evenings and a big dance out under the stars.

“Aye.” She smiled, not really knowing exactly what she was agreeing to other than the target practice.

S
he’d been toting her rifle over to the field behind the garrison offices when she heard the horn sounding at the main gates.

She noted that the field was empty, so they must have all gone down already. Wisely, she kept the rifle. The horn wasn’t the friendly note of non-hostile traffic, though not the alarm either.

She caught sight of Tobin. “Go back home.”

“Why? I want to see who it is.”

“Because there’ve been blip bulletins about the brigands attacking up and down the Highway lately. Because I said so and I’m your aunt, that’s why.”

He frowned.

“If it’s bad, you’ll need to be in a place you can hunker down and protect your family. Now get on home.”

He nodded, grumbling, but he turned and headed back toward home. That was one less worry.

Men weren’t running down the hill with rifles so that was a plus, but she headed up to her parlor to look out and saw the tail end of the procession. Lawmen.

Her heart skipped a beat and she put her rifle back in the closet and headed to her porch.

It had only been a moon since they were in Silver Cliffs last. Happiness replaced her worry at the rare treat to be able to see him again so soon.

The gates rumbled open as she watched.

Not the usual large official transport though. A smaller one. They used to be that size back when she was younger and the deliveries came about once a moon. The time between deliveries had lengthened as she’d gotten older.

Clearly something had changed. She wondered if it was a good thing or not.

Tobin came running up just a few moments later. “Guess I better get the mercantile open.”

“Doesn’t look like we’ll be taking in a large order. But yes, let’s get the back doors open and see what we’re dealing with.”

•   •   •

L
oyal pulled up to the garrison offices and got out. One of the vehicles remained at the gates until they’d closed and would be along in a bit.

Haldeman came out with a wave. “Weren’t expecting you back so soon. Everything all right?”

“Brigand attacks increasing. I suppose you been hearing?”

Haldeman nodded. “We’ve been doing target practice frequently to keep everyone sharp. Extra patrols. Verity has been doing triage and first aid for those wanting the lessons. Course, a pretty woman teaching you how to sew up a wound makes for some full classes.”

Loyal wanted to snarl at the idea, but held it back. Nodding. Because he understood it. The world was dark sometimes. Hard living in these garrisons. Lots of work. You took your pleasures when you could get them. And most certainly looking at Verity Coleman would count as a pleasure.

“More lawmen out. They’ve cut our territory down, added two more escorts to each sector of the Highway. Figure it’s better to let them see our increased presence and to keep folks happy with more mail and the like.” And shorter trips for the escort edged the danger back a smidge, even as it filled the Highway with more guns and men and women who’d use them to protect those they were charged to protect.

“About a dozen annum back, aye? We had a lot of attacks then too. That’s when we added the fortifications to the road leading up from the Highway. Is it that bad now?”

“Don’t rightly know just yet. But if you can afford to add to your patrols, you should. Keep people up in those towers full time. They’re leaving the Highway to come to the garrisons more and more often. Maybe they have a baby boom.” He shrugged. They didn’t know a whole lot about the brigands. They were nomads in nature, moving in large encampments.

He’d been a tracker first, before he’d hit the Highway with his escort team. Throughout history, especially after the big tech war, the central governance had tried to reach out to the brigands, to offer them land to set up, help with crops and the like. Urging them to leave peaceably. But what the governance had been confronted with was that the brigands weren’t the same. They didn’t want to settle. They
liked
their raids. Seemed to embrace the bloodlust of preying on the weak, of the raping and killing.

They were human still, yes, but not fully. There was something different. Less . . . civilized he supposed. And they had no hesitation in the burning and the pillaging of anything they could.

“I’m on it then. I’ll be able to find you at the mercantile later?”

Loyal knew he should stay there at the barracks. After that kiss—and gods knew he’d thought about it constantly since he’d left—he should keep his distance. But he wouldn’t. Couldn’t.

He turned, catching sight of that sunset red as she took delivery of the mail. “Yes. I’m available to help with your patrols as well. We’ll be here three days.”

“I’ll be up later then.” Haldeman smiled as he looked up the hill. “Think I’ll be getting the mail for my mother. Always nice to have an excuse to chat a spell with the widow Coleman.”

Loyal wanted to punch the other man for even thinking about her. Instead, he nodded again and tried to keep his expression neutral. “All right.”

He left his vehicle near the garrison and met up with the rest of his people.

“I’ve offered our services to Haldeman with the patrols. Trinity, I want you to be sure they’re at least taking the opportunity to track on occasion. Bren, you work with them on their hand to hand. Marcus, take a look at their sentry points outside the walls. Haldeman says he’s working on target practice so I imagine Indigo can help with that. Not tonight. Everyone get some rest tonight. Let’s be sure we leave Silver Cliffs safer than we found it.”

He headed up the hill, knowing she’d be there, needing it more than he should have.

The line for mail was the usual and he waited his turn. She caught sight of him and smiled. A smile just for him. “Head on up. I didn’t know you’d be arriving, so there’s no basket of baked goods. There’s fresh bread on cooling racks in the pantry, though. I’ll be up later.”

He nodded and headed around back.

•   •   •

S
he managed to get finished and to close up within the hour. Since the delivery had come so late, most folks would wait until the following day to pick up their orders, which worked for her as she was hungry and tired.

And she wanted to see him.

The scent of his cigar hit her as she climbed to her front door. He sat at her kitchen table with a mug of tea at his left hand, a sheaf of papers before him on the table. She noted the red stamp at the top. Sealed blips, she noted. She delivered those—unread—to the garrison when they came. And there’d been a lot of them as of late.

“Good evening, lawman.”

“Good evening, Ms. Coleman.”

She squeezed his shoulder as she moved past. “Are you hungry then?”

“I am.”

“I’ll make us some supper and you can tell me what’s happening with this new schedule.”

She pushed her sleeves up and washed her hands before she began to pull together a meal.

“You’re too bright for your own good.”

She laughed. “If only you were the first person to tell me such nonsense. How is one too smart for their own good? In any case, I can read the blips. I know there are more attacks. Your change in schedule is most likely due to that. It’s not mysterious.”

“Aye. They’ve put more lawmen out on the Highway. It’s good for citizens to see us, to know they’re protected. But the shift only just happened a week ago so there’s been some scrambling. We made a big jump and drove straight through without stopping. Stayed in Salt Flats two nights though, so it’s better than we were before that.”

“And how long are you here this time?”

“We’re staying in all mid-sized garrisons three days now. Small ones we’ll do overnights. The largest we stay for two days. My team will accompany patrols, do sentry duty.”

“Good training for the garrison soldiers here. To see how you all do your job in that setting. Most of them are farmers. Aside from the full-time garrison sentries.” She paused as she deposited a bowl of sliced fruit on the table. “It’s bad then? Risky?”

“There’s been a great deal of activity along this sector. We don’t think you’re at risk for an assault, but it won’t hurt for their scouts to see us on the ramparts of the garrison walls.”

“All right then.”

“Been busy since I last left?”

“Gearing up for—” There was a knock on the back door. “Can you get that then? I need to turn the fish when it’s ready.”

He stood, moving carefully to the door.

Jackson Haldeman stood there with a smile. “Well met, Loyal.”

Loyal stood aside to let Jackson in, hiding a frown as he headed straight to the kitchen.

Verity smiled when she saw who it was. “Good evening, Jackson. I was just making some supper. Would you like to stay?”

Jackson’s expression lit in an entirely different way when gave his attentions to Verity. His smile softened as he took her in from head to toe. “I would very much, thank you.”

That’s when Loyal realized Jackson Haldeman had his eye on Verity as more than a passing fancy.

“I’ll get another place set.” Loyal moved past Haldeman to grab another plate and some utensils. He put them on the side away from Verity.

Jackson held up a sack. “I brought some sweets. My mother wanted to thank you for the poultice you made for her leg.”

Verity took the bag and peeked inside. “Spiced fried dough? Your mother knows my weakness. We’ll have them after dinner. Sit. Both of you.”

She filled their plates with food and sat, chattering about her day and whatever else was going on for some time until she finally sat back. “All right then. I’m sure you’re here for an official reason, Jackson. Go on.”

“You might as well speak plainly in front of her or she’ll pester you until you do.”

Verity’s surprised laughter came right as Loyal realized he’d spoken his thoughts aloud. He gave her a stern look but she waved it away and kept eating.

He and Jackson spoke then about their plans. About the news that the brigands had attacked Banyon Pass two days prior. The garrison had managed to repel the attack, but not without losing a third of its livestock and nearly twenty citizens.

Banyon Pass was roughly the same size as Silver Cliffs, though it wasn’t quite as protected by the surrounding landscape as Silver Cliffs was.

“Why are they suddenly so much more active?” she asked.

“We don’t know. It’s always like this. It ebbs and flows, aye? We can go an annum or three with minimal activity and then suddenly they’re everywhere, attacking. We don’t know much about the other side of the mountains.” Just that it was fairly inhospitable and crawling with brigands.

“I’ve got a meeting set for just after breakfast. Come down to the garrison offices and you can address my people. We’ll double our patrols. I’ve already doubled the sentries on the walls.”

“Smart.”

Jackson stood. “I need to get back home. Thank you for dinner, Verity.”

She smiled at him. “Thank you for the sweets. And your mother. If she needs more of the poultice let me know. I’m teaching a few in town how to make them and it’s good practice.”

He disappeared with one last nod at Loyal and a promise to see him the following morning.

“Looks like Haldeman has an eye on you.”

She looked Loyal’s way, one of her brows hiking. “Yes, I believe he does. Question is, Loyal, what are you going to do about that?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, you look like you just sucked on a lemon. Clearly you don’t like it that Jackson is sweet on me. And I’m asking what you plan to do about it.”

She moved out of the kitchen, pulling her curtains closed here and there as she moved through the house. He wandered behind her, breathing her in.

“I . . . Nothing, I suppose.”

She spun, stomped over and poked him in the chest. “Nothing?”

“Are you sweet on him?”

“I’m on fire for you.” Her voice was low. Urgent. Full of emotion and it set his world on its end. “There’s no sweet on him, no room for that. Not when every time I think of you I can remember what it felt like to have your mouth on mine.”

He licked his lips. Knowing he should step back.
Knowing it.
But he didn’t.

“You shouldn’t be. He’s a better choice. Safer. He’s here. I’m not.”

She made a sound, frustrated. “Since when does that sort of thing ever play into it? I’m not my sister. I can’t place my affections, my desire, based on a set of calculations about which man would come with more cows and pigs, who could chop more wood to keep my home warm through the snow. My desire doesn’t care about that. It cares about the way your voice changes, deepens when I stand this close. How your scent rises to my nose as your skin heats. Spicy like your cigars. How when I see your vehicle my entire system seems to come alive and I realize all the time when you are not here is gray. You make me feel alive, Loyal. So stand there, why don’t you, and tell me what you plan to do about Jackson Haldeman wanting to court me. Hm?”

He should have told her to back off. Hells, he should have backed off himself, retreated to his room and closed the door.

Instead, he slid his hands around her neck and yanked her close, his mouth falling on hers like he needed it more than his very breath. Which he was fairly certain was true.

She sighed, her body molding to his, her posture softening, submitting to his control and that only made his need worse. The roar of it harder to overcome and so he ignored all the voices telling him to stop and continued to plunder the sweetness of her mouth.

He sucked her tongue and she gasped and then moaned, arching. Irresistible. The need to show her what a real man could do in bed, how he could love her until she was boneless, raced through him. He wanted to show her that. He wanted to make her come so hard she sobbed, and the idea that anyone else wanted to do that, wanted to lay with her at night drove him on, drove him to burn into her memory just how much he desired her.

Wanted her to never forget him.

And it didn’t matter that he shouldn’t. It didn’t matter that he’d told himself for years not to let himself get carried away with what he felt for Verity Coleman.

All that mattered was the need that beat at him, the way her breath hitched, the way her fingers had tangled in his hair, holding him close as he continued to kiss her.