Chapter Nineteen #2
Beau could see the steam start to collect like a thundercloud over her head. Thinking back on it, forcing Adam’s hand about their relationship might not have been the best move. He’d clearly botched the delivery.
Belle opened her mouth, ready to argue with Earp, because that was just the mood she was in, so Beau jumped in before she could say something that would convince the sheriff to change his mind as to whether women should hang.
“Mine was a crime of passion, too,” he said. “No one likes a man who cheats at cards. The scoundrel deserved to get shot.”
Sheriff Earp remained unmoved by his defense. “How could he cheat? The cards hadn’t been dealt.”
“Hang the sheep herder,” Benny said to Earp, jerking a thumb toward Beau. “But Belle goes free.”
Beau couldn’t let that one pass. He had his reputation—and role—to maintain. “Box herder,” he said. Benny and Sheriff Earp looked over at him. “I herd harlots, not sheep.”
“You can take the harlot with you,” Sheriff Earp said to Benny, referring to Belle. He reached for the ring of keys hanging from a hook on the wall by his desk. “The box herder hangs tomorrow at noon.”
Beau wondered if Earp knew that the cell door didn’t lock.
“She’s a doctor, not a harlot,” Benny said, indignant.
Belle hooked her arm through Beau’s and anchored herself to his side. “I’m not going anywhere without Beau. He and I are in love. The shooting was my idea. We were planning to take the gambler’s money and run off together.”
Benny looked as if he might be suffering a stroke. Beau took pity on him.
He held Belle’s hand and looked into her eyes.
“My life ends tomorrow,” he said to her, adding a little catch to his voice for tragic effect.
“Maybe it’s best if you stay with your husband.
You know … so he can take care of you. That way, after I swing, I’ll be able to rest easy.
If you truly love me, though, do one last thing for me.
Could you please bring me my guitar? I want to write a song for you to remember me by. ”
“Ham,” she mouthed at him.
But it broke her mood.
She stood, smoothed the wrinkles from her skirt with a theatrical attention to detail, and lifted her chin. “I’m ready,” she said to Earp, pressing the back of her wrist to her forehead, proving that Beau wasn’t the biggest ham in the room. “Release me.”
Benny followed Belle out, leaving sheriff and prisoner alone.
Earp made Beau nervous. He was the only person in Burning Scrub whose role in the adventure wasn’t scripted. He reacted to the action, and he had his own ideas as to what a sheriff might do. How he’d gotten his hands on a real gun remained a mystery.
“I’ll be back as soon as I make a round of the town to make sure things have settled down,” Earp said to Beau. “I’m short a deputy.”
Beau stretched out on the narrow bed, cradled his head on laced fingers, and crossed his legs at the ankles. “That deputy is no loss. Someone would have shot him sooner or later.”
Belle returned with his guitar shortly after Earp left.
She opened the cell door and passed it to Beau.
He slid over to make room for her to sit.
She flounced onto the cot, and he put his arm around her shoulders.
She leaned into him, and he rested his cheek on her hair.
Adam was out there somewhere, and he likely wasn’t too happy right now, so Beau wasn’t looking forward to his hanging tomorrow with as much pleasure as some people were.
But if this was how he spent his last night on earth, with Belle in his arms, he could die happy.
“Want to talk about what happened today?” he asked.
Belle’s shoulders stiffened. “Adam says he’s my father.”
“I take it you aren’t happy about that.”
“Why would I be happy?” she demanded. Her eyes darkened. Not a good sign. “You knew, didn’t you?”
Beau tucked his guitar under the cot, out of harm’s way. Things might get ugly.
“I wasn’t sure about it until this morning.
I, uh, caught him sneaking out of Shanda’s room and put two and two together.
” He didn’t want to get into too many details about what he’d seen.
His eyeballs still burned. “I told him if he didn’t tell you, I would.
In retrospect, having him tell you might not have been the best plan.
” But seeing Belle shoot him, and the shock on his face, had been darned satisfying.
Belle seized on one detail. “He’s sleeping with Shanda? That does it. I’m done here,” she said.
For a minute Beau thought she was referring to him, because he’d kept information from her, and his pulse pummeled his eardrums in panic.
She jumped to her feet. “I’m taking you up on your offer. We’ll run away together. Tonight. Come on. Jail break. Let’s go.”
Running away together had sounded good when he’d raised the possibility.
But he knew her better than most people did, and she was too angry to make a clearheaded decision right now.
Her default setting was kindness, and running off with him would be a mistake.
She’d revert to her normal sweet self, and when she did, Adam and Mavis would take advantage of it.
She couldn’t cut Burning Scrub out of her life any more than he could quit music.
“Let’s back it up a little bit, shall we?
” he said. He wanted Belle to come with him.
But he wanted her to do it because she loved him—because she was running with him—and not because she was running away.
“Before you make a decision you might later regret, let’s look at things from Adam’s perspective. ”
“Are you taking his side?”
Beau inched away. She was still in a temper, and his willpower was only so-so. He wasn’t above having sex on this cot, but it was a little too public. The town wasn’t big, and it wouldn’t be long before Earp returned.
“No one’s more surprised by that than me.
But imagine yourself in Adam’s shoes. With no experience as a parent.
” Plenty as a cold-blooded killer, though.
“And you’d tried your best to make sure that your beautiful, smart, gifted daughter was well taken care of, and that she grew up as adjusted and normal as possible.
” He might be giving Adam more credit than he deserved, considering he’d dumped her in foster care, but Beau plowed on anyway because it sounded good.
“Meanwhile, he lives in Crazy Town. Would you know how to break the ice on all that with your daughter?” Especially since Beau had forced him—although he probably shouldn’t draw her attention to that.
“All of which gives you a lot to unpack. You already shot him. Don’t make any more rash decisions today. ”
“It wasn’t a rash decision. I planned to pepper spray him.
But we were indoors, and if I’d used pepper spray, it would have affected the whole room.
Anyone with respiratory problems could have died.
” Belle shriveled like a leaky blow-up doll with a faulty air pump.
“Is it wrong that I wanted a family that’s more …
I don’t know.” She shrugged her shoulders and deflated completely. “Normal?”
Beau patted her back. He knew all about expectations and disappointment. Hello, country music. “Not wrong. But not necessarily realistic. Don’t believe everything you see on social media, sweetheart. I tried to tell you. No family is perfect.”
“You mean there are lots of families who live on a commune in the mountains and operate a Wild West theme park year-round?”
“I mean there are worse places to live, and there are worse families to have.”
“When you put it like that…” She hugged him.
He hugged her back. “Everything will work out. You’ll see.”
He might as well go ahead and say what he really wanted to tell her, because tomorrow, he hanged.
Then there was the concert the following night.
After that, he’d have to leave—with or without her.
It was hard to believe that in a few days he’d be home in New York.
He might not get another chance. His heart started to hammer. Just say it.
“I have a song for you.”
Dammit. That wasn’t what he’d intended to say. Especially since the song in question wasn’t yet fully formed.
But the words I love you hunkered back because he shouldn’t say them at the tail end of her finding out about Adam—even if her mood did change its course.
“Really? Are you going to sing it for me?” she asked, her eyes shining.
The thought of having to leave all that brightness behind stung his heart. “You’ll hear it when everyone else does.”
“How will I know it’s for me?”
“You’ll know,” he said.