Chapter 14
I watch Aiden walk by the hotel through the front parlor window, knowing he just came from the direction of the jeweler, and I’m incredibly pleased to see a flash of black and silver still in his hand.
Judging by his expression, his mood is currently about as light as a storm cloud. Looks broody…again. Very likely cursing my name. The things I would do to hear it.
“Well, well, there he is,” intrudes a grating voice to my right instead. “My Lord, he really is insufferable.”
Before I can stop the reflex, my head snaps right to where Maddock is similarly surveying the comings and goings outside, and I see him smirk thinking he has just ensnared a captive audience. Which he has, but not for the reason he thinks.
“Truthfully, when I brought him on, I really thought he’d be more…” Maddock pauses, circling his hand in the air while he rests his shoulder against the tall window frame. “Awe-inspiring. All those stories you hear about him? Not sure if I believe any now.”
I don’t tell him that I think Aiden is plenty awe-inspiring to look at, frankly because I don’t like the idea of Maddock looking at him at all. Nor do I like the way he’s looking at me, even if it’s the exact outcome I’ve tried to encourage.
This is always the aim, to have them look at me and see one of their own.
Upper class. Influential. By all counts, an extremely advantageous acquaintance to make…
otherwise described as a self-centered asshole who has no concept of their own inadequacy because the same laws of nature haven’t applied to them.
At least, not until they meet me.
“You do know who he is, yes?” Maddock continues.
“Of course.” I smile good-naturedly, shifting my stance so that we’re facing each other, and adding the extra step of tilting my head slightly to make it clear that I have the option of looking down on him in more ways than one. “I’d know him anywhere.”
Interestingly, Maddock’s mouth falls into a frown, displeased with my response, and something tells me his vexation isn’t only disappointment at not getting to be the first to share this information with me.
“If you ask me, the papers made too much of him,” Maddock goes on, unconcerned that I’ve made no such inquiry. “Hard to believe he’s some legendary gunman when I’ve never even seen him reach for his weapon.”
Now that detail does catch my attention. Because I certainly have. Aiden aimed his pistol steady at me no more than two nights ago, not that I’ll mention that to Maddock.
“Don’t bother asking him about it,” he prattles on. “I’ve tried many times, and he is strangely reluctant to talk about the whole thing.”
I make a noncommittal sound, hoping my seeming lack of interest will be enough of a deterrent to halt this conversation. I don’t want to hear about this from Maddock. Whatever Aiden’s history, I want to hear it from him. Because he wants me to know it.
“A real misstep on his part that he won’t,” Maddock is still saying before he pauses to take a pull of the flask he keeps in his vest, evidently planning to celebrate last night’s winning streak right up until he sits at the table again tonight.
“As it happens, I’m more than a fair hand with a gun myself. Fastest in my county.”
“Impressive,” I say, wondering how fair the competition can be when you actually own the county. “I would ask you to demonstrate but I’m afraid my ego could not tolerate letting you outdraw me in more than one arena.”
He laughs. So do I. Though I really hadn’t meant it as a joke.
Maddock steps closer, leaning in enough to make us look like co-conspirators. “He’s dirt poor, you know,” he murmurs. “Barely has a cent to his name. God knows how he must have wasted his earnings. You’d think it would make it easier to get him to fall in line.”
“To fall in line?”
There’s a humming starting at the back of my skull, a white-hot rage flaring back to life in my spine. And however much I was planning to take from Maddock before, I decide it’s not nearly enough.
“Talks back. Doesn’t follow orders. Keeps to himself.
He’s hiding something if you ask me.” Maddock makes an effort to shift his expression to one of sadness and regret, as if truly aggrieved at what he’s about to say.
“It’s a shame, really. He’s so intent on squandering his future when I could help him make a name for himself again.
Only needs to see the potential. But, in his current state…
let’s simply say, he’s not what I paid for. And I’m not in the charity business.”
“No,” I say, my restraint growing increasingly thin as he claps me on the back. “You wouldn’t be.”
He goes back to smiling as if I’ve paid him a compliment, then turns as the men he’s been keeping at the poker table with him appear from the dining room.
“You ready to head out, boss?” asks the one named Arty, easily the greenest of the bunch and by far the most eager to belong. A combination that I can only hope doesn’t bode nearly as ill for him as it once did for me. “Figure we should get going if—”
“Do I seem as if I’m ready?” Maddock replies coolly, not bothering to actually look at the young man. “Or do I seem as if I’m in the middle of a conversation?”
“Sorry, boss.” Arty winces, immediately hanging his head as the others exchange amused glances. Similarly, Maddock sighs before giving me a small shake of his head.
“I apologize,” he tells me. “Afraid there’s not much sense in that one.”
I wave him off, looking out the window once more to confirm Aiden’s still headed in the same direction far down the road before I start heading for the door myself.
“I should get going. Afraid I might lose sight of my priorities if I stand here much longer.” I nod first at Maddock and then his men, and at the smallest bit of attention, Arty brightens again. “Until later.”
“Wait now, where are you rushing off to?” Maddock asks, reaching out to grab my arm a little too forcefully to pass as casual. “Why don’t you come into town with us? We’re after seeing what trouble we can find.”
“Afraid I’ve business elsewhere,” I tell him, rolling my shoulder and moving to pull on the coat I had draped over my arm so he has no choice but to let go. “But I have every intention of continuing ours this evening. Rest assured.”
“This evening,” Maddock repeats, glancing out the window as I had just done before looking back in my direction.
He takes another drink from his flask as he considers me.
“Guess you probably do have some money left.” He laughs, the tension of the moment slipping away but still hovering at the edges. “I’ll be looking forward to it.”
“That makes two of us,” I say, mirroring his enthusiastic expression before again heading for the exit.
He pivots to face me as I go, laughing once more as I reach my hand out for the doorknob. “Never met a man so happy at the prospect of losing.”
I shrug, giving the cool metal in my palm a twist. “Perhaps we’re playing for different things.” I tip my hat, smiling honestly now at the uncertainty on his face. Then I leave them to go find their fortunes while I go find mine.