After the Ashes(80)

He thrust the map at Corey. “Show me.” He made a special point not to look at Lorelei again.

Archie sat in the chair Braddock had vacated. Lorelei must have found the spring, because the man had washed his face and hair. Sober, he appeared younger. He was probably around Braddock’s age. Coherence sharpened his clear blue eyes. And in those eyes was pain, a frozen pain that had just started to wake after a long hibernation.

Braddock didn’t wonder what had happened to Archie. He could guess a hundred different scenarios. He turned away before he recognized too much, but not before he noticed Lorelei rest her hand on Archie’s shoulder.

Braddock looked at her. She didn’t even glance his way. Her dark eyelashes fanned her cheeks while she watched Archie clench the wool trousers covering his thighs. She knew what had happened to Archie. They had shared something at the spring. She’d found a new three-legged dog to rescue.

Archie wasn’t good enough for her either. She didn’t need to take on his ghosts.

Corey pointed to the map he had unfolded and smoothed across his lap. “Here.”

Archie abruptly stood. He clutched the loose shirt covering his stomach and swayed. “Excuse me.”

Lorelei worried her bottom lip as she watched him stagger behind the barn. She finally turned her gaze to Braddock. “He was in the war.”

“Weren’t we all.” Braddock knelt beside Corey’s chair so he could get a better look at the map. Finding Mulcahy’s location was what he’d been wanting for years. Unfortunately, having the map right in front of his face didn’t help him focus. The image of Lorelei spending her days tending a drunk blurred the map’s faded script and worn lines.

Corey used his finger to trace a path. “You come in here. Follow this creek bed. If it floods, you’re dead.”

“Is there any other access?”

“Nope.”

Lorelei sat in the chair across from them. She leaned forward to touch Braddock’s arm. “Why do you have to go alone?”

Corey answered when all Braddock could do was stare at the map and try to make sense of it. “Not that I think he’s going to make it, but the more people you bring the less likely you’ll be able to get in unnoticed.”

He had to recommit to his mission. Mulcahy deserved to be brought down, and Braddock knew he was the man to do it. Violence was all he was good for. Braddock shifted to his other knee, knocking away Lorelei’s grip as casually as possible.

“What good will it do if he gets killed?”

“I won’t get killed.” He would survive. That was the one certainty. The sky could fall, the seas could rise, and the sun could burst, but he wouldn’t get killed. For some reason his destiny was to survive.

Corey folded the map and handed it back to Braddock. “What else do you want to know?”

“Where are the guards?”

“The canyon narrows until you’re sure you won’t get through. You will, and it widens after that. The first set of guards is stationed on top of the narrowest part.”

“How many men do they have?”

“Hard to say. Some died in the robbery, probably a few more from their wounds. But Mulcahy isn’t the only outlaw who uses the hideout. There are others who are just as bad. There could be fifteen to fifty.”

“Against one?” Lorelei pleaded.

Braddock finally glanced at her, and he was once again her favorite stray. The sheen coating her dark blue eyes made them look even brighter in the sunlight.

“The more there are, the better it will work to my advantage. They’ll have their guard down, thinking they’re safe. But men like Mulcahy breed chaos. The more there are, the more chaos—the easier it will be for me to slip in unnoticed.”

“Are we through?” Corey stood.

“Sure.” Braddock kept his gaze on Lorelei. She stared into the folds of her faded gray dress. The glow she had started the day with had been blotted out by a dark cloud. As usual, he was responsible.

Corey glanced at his sister, then glared at Braddock before he turned and walked away.

Braddock eased into Corey’s vacated chair. He thought of all the things Corey had said, of Beth’s stabbing stare, and knew he had to think of something to give Lorelei. And it wasn’t just because he was desperate to see her smile again. He owed her more than just a goodbye.

He waited for her to look up at him. She didn’t.

Finally he lightly squeezed her knee. “I’m going to be all right.”

“You’re not indestructible, Christopher.”

He wished. How much easier his life would be if that were true. “This won’t be the death of me, but breaking your heart might.”