Authors: Connie Mason
Chloe’s green eyes hardened. “I hate the bastard! Killing him would be no loss to anyone, including his father.”
“The wildcat has sharp claws,” Desperado remarked. “I’ll have to remember not to rile you if I stay around long enough to encounter you again.” He tipped his hat. “Good day, Miss Sommers.”
“Wait! About that job—”
“I haven’t changed my mind. I don’t work for females. Never have, never will.”
Chloe bristled angrily. “Why are you so prejudiced against women? There’s nothing a man can do that I can’t.”
He gave her a slow grin, granting her a glimpse of his deliciously wicked dimple. “You’d be surprised by what a man can do that you can’t.” A predatory gleam darkened his eyes. “Then again, maybe you already know. If not, I’d be more than happy to show you.”
“Why you…you unprincipled rattlesnake! There’s nothing you can teach me.”
She whirled on her heel, her angry steps carrying her away from him. Though she couldn’t see him smiling, she knew without a single doubt that were she to turn around she’d see that damn dimple.
Desperado blew a ring of cigar smoke into the air and regarded Calvin Talbot through the gray mist as he considered the land baron’s surprising proposition. Blowing smoke rings was a ploy he used whenever he needed extra time to compose his thoughts.
“Let me get this straight,” Desperado drawled, flicking a cigar ash on Talbot’s shiny wooden desk. “You want me to accept the job the Sommers woman offered me.”
Talbot eyed the fallen ash with distaste. “Exactly. But you’ll be in my employ the whole time.”
“Perhaps you should explain what you expect of me before I accept the job. I draw the line at killing women.”
Talbot grimaced. “Killing won’t be necessary. Tate wanted to handle it but he’s too hotheaded for his own good. Besides, he’s made no secret of the fact that he wants Chloe Sommers. Your job will be to sabotage the trail drive. I don’t want those cattle reaching the railhead.”
Desperado sat back in the chair, stretching his long legs out in front of him and blowing a trail of smoke into the air as he digested Talbot’s words. “Any particular reason you don’t want Chloe Sommers to sell her herd?”
“My reasons are my own,” Talbot said shortly.
“Not good enough, Talbot. Give me more than that.”
Talbot slanted Desperado a measuring glance, as if trying to make up his mind. At length, he said, “The Ralston property is a valuable piece of land. I want it for reasons I can’t disclose at this time. If Chloe doesn’t sell her herd, she can’t pay her taxes. That’s all you need to know.”
“So I’m to hire on as a gunslinger and do whatever is necessary to prevent the herd from reaching the railhead,” Desperado summarized.
“That’s the general idea,” Talbot said. “You’re to turn your head when ‘accidents’ occur. Tate and his friends will provide the actual mishaps. You’re to do nothing to prevent them, and aid Tate when you can. Make Chloe Sommers believe you’re working for her. Make yourself indispensable to her, but do nothing to stop my men. If she can’t be persuaded to abandon the trail drive, your job is to make sure the herd never reaches its destination.”
“That’s a helluva lot to ask for a paltry five hundred dollars,” Desperado rasped. “The Ralston land must be worth a helluva lot to you or you wouldn’t go to all this trouble to seize it.”
“Seven hundred and fifty dollars, that’s as high as I go.”
“Half now and the rest when the job is completed.”
“Does that mean you’ll take the job?” Talbot asked, apparently thrilled to have hired a man of Desperado’s reputation with so little effort.
Suddenly the door to Talbot’s office flew open and Tate Talbot barged inside. “What the hell is
he
doing here?” Tate barked, sending Desperado a daunting look that made little impression on the gunslinger.
“I’ve just offered Mr. Jones a job,” Talbot said expansively.
“A job!” Tate exploded. “After what he did to me?” He held up his bandaged hand. “I won’t be able to use my gun hand for weeks.”
“That’s why I hired Mr. Jones,” Calvin explained. “You know how badly I want the Ralston land. You had the opportunity to get it legally, but you went and ruined your chances of marrying the gal by getting drunk and playing rough.”
Tate hung his head. “It wasn’t my fault, Pa. The bitch asked for it.”
“I’m sure she did,” Calvin said dryly. “But that’s water under the bridge. I need someone to sabotage that trail drive. Having Mr. Jones turn up in town when he did was a stroke of luck.”
Tate shot Desperado a venomous look. “Don’t expect me to take orders from a gunslinger.”
“You’ll take orders from me,” Calvin said tersely. “You’re not levelheaded enough to do what needs to be done. Challenging Mr. Jones was stupid. I can’t afford stupid. Get out of here, son. Mr. Jones and I have unfinished business.”
Tate glared at Desperado, his uninjured fist clenching and unclenching at his side. Desperado knew he’d made another enemy but didn’t much care. Making enemies had become a way of life; dimly he wondered what his life would have been like had his father not married Norie Sommers.
For one thing he wouldn’t have been adopted by Black Bear and Prairie Moon, the Apache couple who had cared for him after he’d been brought more dead than alive to the Indian village after his accident. He wouldn’t have spent nearly seven years living with the Apache, learning the special skills and fighting tactics of his mother’s people. He had proved an apt pupil and had taken off on his own at the age of twenty-one. For the next eight years he had worked hard to earn his reputation as a gunslinger, and he’d succeeded.
Desperado’s ruminations came to a halt when Calvin repeated, “Do we have a deal, Mr. Jones?”
Desperado looked up, surprised to see that Tate had left and he and Calvin were alone again.
“I need time to think it over,” Desperado hedged. He had no idea what made him hesitate. Talbot’s offer was more than generous.
Calvin rose abruptly. “Very well. I have business elsewhere. Meet me back here in two hours. Does that suit you?”
“Yeah.” He uncoiled his long length from the chair and strode out the door. Once outside he ambled over to the local cafe and found an empty table against the wall. When the waitress came to take his order he asked for steak, roasted potatoes, green beans, apple pie and plenty of hot, black coffee. Then he sat back and considered the various reasons why he should or shouldn’t work for Calvin Talbot.
By rights the Ralston spread belonged to him, or to the man he used to be. Unfortunately, he’d given up the right to inherit when he’d let his family believe he was dead. At the time he’d thought he was punishing his father by remaining dead to him. As he gained in maturity and wisdom he began to realize that he had wronged his father. He had left the Indian village to return home and make peace with Ted Ralston. To his regret he’d arrived too late to see his father alive. He had attended the funeral incognito. That was eight years ago.
He’d watched dispassionately as two females, both heavily veiled and draped in black, wept beside the grave. Desperado lingered long enough to learn that Ted Ralston, still under the impression that his only son was dead, had left all his worldly goods, including the Ralston spread, to his wife, Norie Sommers Ralston.
Losing the ranch had been a bitter blow, but at the time Desperado had had no use for roots and responsibility, so he’d left town as stealthily as he’d entered. Rather than stir up a hornet’s nest, Desperado decided to keep his identity a secret and let everyone go on believing that Logan Ralston had died on the prairie all those years ago.
But as the years passed, Desperado began to realize how wrong he’d been to let everyone believe him dead. His stubbornness had cost him his home and his inheritance. His resentment of the Sommers women was deeply ingrained. It wasn’t right that Chloe now owned
his
land. It would be ironic should Chloe lose the land that was never really hers to claim.
But isn
’
t it your fault that your father believed you dead and left his land to Norie and her daughter
? a saner voice inside him prodded.
You wanted to punish him for abandoning you and ended up losing everything
. Desperado shook his head to clear it of those disturbing thoughts.
His face hardened. He had a profession now and was damn good at it. He owed Chloe Sommers nothing…not a damn thing. Seven hundred and fifty dollars was a helluva lot of money to turn down. Not only did he resent the sexy-as-hell, trouser-wearing little wildcat for stealing his birthright, but he had a living to make.
Not that he actually cared who owned the Ralston spread, he tried to convince himself. It no longer mattered. He’d given up the right to his inheritance when he failed to speak up at his father’s funeral. So what the hell? Why not take the job Talbot offered? He wouldn’t mind seeing more of the delectable Miss Sommers. Maybe he could even coax her into his bed before he moved on.
By the time Desperado’s meal arrived, he had made up his mind to accept Talbot’s offer. He even made a wager with himself as to how quickly he would get Chloe Sommers into his bed.
* * *
Desperado found Talbot pacing his office when he returned two hours later.
“Well? Have you made up your mind?” Talbot asked anxiously. “I took the liberty of withdrawing three hundred and seventy-five dollars from my safe. It’s yours right now if you agree to work for me.”
“I reckon I can handle the job,” Desperado rasped. He held out his hand and Talbot placed a wad of bills in his palm.
“It’s all there, but you can count it if you want.”
Desperado tested the weight in his palm. “It’s all there.” The money disappeared in his vest pocket. “What if Miss Sommers has changed her mind about hiring me?”
“I’m sure you can persuade her. Maybe I’ll send Tate and the boys around to stir up a little mischief. That ought to convince her she needs a hired gun. Just make sure that herd never reaches the railhead. Do we understand one another?”
“Perfectly,” Desperado said. “I’ll ride out there after I’ve visited the bathhouse and barbershop.”
“Do you need directions to the ranch?”
Desperado almost laughed in Talbot’s face. “No need. I know where to find it.”
“Rider coming, Miss Chloe!”
Chloe turned up her collar to protect her neck from the raw wind howling across the prairie and stared at the sullen gray horizon. She spotted the rider but he was too far away to identify. She hoped it was one of the men from the saloon who had thought over her offer and decided to hire on as gunslinger. There was still a lot of preparation necessary before the trail drive could begin. The cattle had already been rounded up but still had to be branded before the trek to the railhead could commence, and all kinds of mishaps could occur without an experienced gunman on hand to keep predators at bay. Unfortunately, only inexperienced young cowboys with little or no knowledge of trail drives had signed on as drovers, and she’d had to settle for what she could get. Desperado Jones wasn’t the only man in Trouble Creek unwilling to work for a woman.
Desperado Jones had been a perfect choice to join her crew, but the ornery sidewinder had refused her offer. She still fumed at his sexual innuendos and blatant disrespect. Did he think she was a loose woman? Truthfully, Chloe didn’t know how to take Desperado Jones. He was like no man she knew. She’d gone all shivery inside when he spoke in that raspy voice of his. And those black eyes…When he looked at her she imagined all kinds of wicked things she had no business thinking about.
Chloe noted that the rider wore a gray duster and sat tall in the saddle, and a prickling sensation began at the back of her neck. His battered hat rode low over his brow; the turned-down brim obscured his face, but Chloe had no difficulty identifying Desperado Jones. She could pick him out of a hundred men just by the way he sat his horse and the confident manner in which he rode.
Chloe waited on the porch for Desperado to draw rein and tell her what had brought him to the Ralston ranch. She didn’t harbor any false hopes that he might have changed his mind; he didn’t appear to be the kind to back down. Not that she would hire him after the disrespectful way in which he had treated her. Nevertheless, a thrill of anticipation sped down her spine as he rode toward her.
The first thing she noticed was that he wore clean clothing and his face was free of the trail dust she’d noted earlier. He had shaved, too. “What can I do for you, Mr. Jones?” Chloe asked coolly as he dismounted and joined her on the porch.
“I’ve been thinking about that job you offered,” Desperado drawled. “Is it still open?”
“To the right man,” she answered curtly. “I’m inclined to believe that every able-bodied man in Trouble Creek is a coward. Either that or they all fear Calvin Talbot and the town marshal, who happens to be Talbot’s man.”
“I’ve reconsidered, Miss Sommers. I’ll take the job. Where can I bed down?”
“Just wait a darn minute,” Chloe sputtered. “What makes you think I’ll have you? You made your views clear back in town. Am I supposed to believe you suddenly had a change of heart? What made you decide to hire on?”
Chloe shivered beneath the probing heat of his black eyes. It seemed to cut clear through to all her vital spots. His next words did nothing to diminish her distrust of the handsome half-breed.
“I decided to stick around town for a while and I got to thinking it wouldn’t be half bad having a beautiful boss,” he said in that sexy rasp that set her heart to pounding.
“Why? Trouble Creek is hardly the kind of town a man of your reputation would enjoy.”
“How do you know what I enjoy?” Desperado asked, giving her the full benefit of his dimple.
Flustered, Chloe searched for an answer and failed to find one. “I don’t know what you enjoy, Mr. Jones, nor am I interested enough to find out.” There, that ought to put him in his place, she thought smugly.
It did nothing of the sort. Instead, he moved so close to her, she caught an intoxicating whiff of cigar smoke and musk. Her gaze was drawn to his, but she couldn’t stand the tension and quickly looked away.
“I’m
very
interested in learning what you enjoy, Miss Sommers,” Desperado said in a voice so full of promise Chloe found it difficult to breathe. Instinctively she knew this man was dangerous. In more ways than the obvious.
“You never said where I’m to bed down,” Desperado went on when Chloe continued to stare at him with a combination of fascination and fear.
Finally finding her tongue, Chloe said, “I never said you were hired, Mr. Jones. Perhaps I no longer need a hired gun.”
Desperado’s knowing gaze made a slow sweep of the area, lingering a telling moment on a group of cowboys engaged in various chores. When his inspection was complete he turned back to Chloe, his expression far too smug for her liking.
“What did you do, empty out the schoolroom?” he asked, jerking his head toward the cowboys, who had stopped working to stare at him and Chloe.
Chloe’s mouth thinned. She wasn’t about to tell him they were the only ones willing to hire on. She suspected Talbot had scared off all the experienced men, hoping that her herd would never reach the railhead. “They’re old enough to drive cattle, that’s all I care about.”