After the Ashes(48)
“I don’t know what he wants to know. Can’t you see he’s crazy?”
She glanced at Braddock. Their gazes held. Painful emotion welled up in him like a fountaining wound, and he had to bite the inside of his bottom lip to keep from blurting out that he was sorry.
“He’s hot crazy,” she said, looking away first.
Braddock shifted in his saddle to keep his exhalation of relief from being noticed.
She studied the barren town. “I must be the crazy one to be out here with either of you.”
The grin creeping up on him felt too good to stop. “I told you that from the start.”
Braddock guided his mount beside Lorelei. He fished out the key to her handcuffs before he fully realized what he was about to do. Just as well. Thinking always got him into trouble. He unlocked the cuffs.
“Thank you.” She rubbed her freed wrists.
He reached into his saddlebag and retrieved one of Corey’s pistols. If he watched her much longer he’d have to take her hands in his to examine the damage he’d done to her soft skin. Instead he loaded the pistol, then handed it to her. “You can thank me by not shooting me in the back.”
“I wouldn’t do that.”
He cocked an eyebrow, silently reminding her of her promise to slit his throat. She dropped her gaze to examine the gun more closely. He shouldn’t be so satisfied at the proof that she’d never intended to carry out her threat, but he was. “You do know how to use it?”
She cocked the hammer, then released it. “I’m better with a rifle.”
“What about me?” asked Corey. “Those are my guns.” Braddock feigned surprise. “I just took your advice and made sure your sister had protection. I figured since she was your main concern you wouldn’t mind her using your gun.”
“If you’d let me go, I could protect her myself.”
Braddock chose to ignore him. There was too much he had to say about the boy’s ability to protect his sister. He turned to her. “Keep the pistol hidden. Use it only if you absolutely have to. And that doesn’t include saving him or me. Got it?”
“She isn’t going to lift a finger to save you, Braddock. She’s got you all figured out. Right, Lori?”
Lorelei gazed at Braddock, her face open, her eyes bright.
“Understand me?” he said firmly.
“Tell him, Lori. Tell him what you think of him,” Corey pleaded.
She held Braddock’s gaze. “I think I understand.”
“Good.”
This time he looked away first, sure the pounding of his own heart gave away how much her words meant to him. What did she understand—why he’d handcuffed her or why he was such a bastard? Well, she didn’t understand either.
“Follow me,” he called without looking behind him. The sound of Corey’s whining assured him they complied.
“Lori, can’t you see what he’s doing? He’s going to get me killed.”
“Seems to me you’ve been doing a pretty good job of that on your own, Corey Lochlain O’Sullivan.”
“Don’t tell me you’re on his side.”
“I’m on the side that gets me out of this blasted saddle the fastest.”
“Mulcahy’s going to kill me!”
Braddock swung Lucky around and trotted toward Corey. “Do you have any idea how to keep quiet?”
“What?”
Braddock retrieved the key to the boy’s handcuffs and unlocked him. “Maybe if you could keep your mouth shut, we could leave here without alerting the whole town that you’re the one who screwed up the stagecoach robbery.”
“I didn’t screw it up. Mulcahy didn’t plan right. He didn’t know there’d be so many guards.”
“What did you say?” Lorelei turned in her saddle.
Corey glanced out over the cactus covered hills surrounding the town, realizing his mistake. “It’s just what I heard. It wasn’t my fault. That’s all I’m saying, but Mulcahy won’t see it that way.”
Lorelei stared at her brother, and Braddock knew she didn’t believe him. She’d never known anything about the robbery. Not that he’d really doubted it, but even his cynical side couldn’t deny the shock she tried to blink out of her wide blue eyes. For her sake, Braddock almost wished the kid’s story were true.
“Let’s just ride into town like we’re passing through and see what we find out.”
“Can I have a gun?” asked Corey.
Braddock reached out and tugged the brim of Corey’s brown slouch hat down on his head. “No. Now keep your mouth shut, and I’m sure no one will recognize you.”