Chapter Eighteen
Malika
Jayce had explained her storyline to her.
She was a mystery woman in Butch Cassidy and Sundance’s lives.
She used several different aliases. The men were returning to Montana Territory after spending time in South America.
She’d known Sundance in the past, and they had reconnected upon his return.
Her current alias was Malika George, a woman without means who’d been abandoned by her brother.
That was where her adventure converged with Eli’s.
Eli was proving harder to discourage than she’d hoped. He must be very rich indeed if he could afford to ignore the blows she’d aimed at his pride. Or he was desperately in need of the familial connection to Adeel, which seemed more likely, and would be the greater challenge for her to overcome.
Fortunately, she was resourceful.
Linda held Eli’s hand and chattered at him the entire short trek through the woods to the berry patch. The Mexicans seemed happy to keep to themselves and observe. One of them carried a cast iron kettle to use to hold berries. Malika got the impression they weren’t fond of Eli.
Jayce walked with Malika. He carried his rifle because the bear threat was real.
She could tell he’d figured out who Butch Cassidy was by the way he watched Cassidy watching her.
If he had an opinion about it, he kept it to himself, but he didn’t seem angry with her for not letting him in on her plan, which she was optimistic about.
She didn’t want him to get in trouble with the town or with Adeel, which was why she hadn’t told him, but she didn’t want to be in trouble with him. She adored him.
They entered the clearing.
“Are you going to help us pick berries?” Malika asked.
“I’ll leave that to you. You seem to have everything under control.”
He smiled at her with his eyes, and she knew everything was okay between them. Contrary to her first impressions of him, he did have a sense of humor buried under all that male beauty. They were going to have a wonderful life together.
Just as soon as she got rid of Eli.
And took care of Adeel.
“Come along, Mr. Cassidy,” she said to Eli. “I’ll show you how it’s done.”
She used a fold of her skirt to create a pocket for berries. Once she filled it with a few handfuls, she tipped the berries into the kettle. “See how easy it is?”
Eli’s enthusiasm for the activity was on par with Jayce’s. The Mexicans were much better sports, although they ate more than they added to the communal kettle. Linda’s task was to keep Jayce occupied. She darted back and forth between the berry bushes, Jayce, and the sparkling creek.
Malika moved farther away from the Mexicans, who’d started a competition to see who could stuff the most berries in their mouth, in search of berry bushes that hadn’t been thoroughly picked over. Eli moved with her, adding his contributions to the pocket she’d created.
He was a quiet, stern man with very little fun in him, despite her efforts to engage him in conversation. She was angry all over again that Adeel thought he would suit her, and that she should be grateful.
“Sundance tells me you’re planning to rob the bank,” she said. “How exciting.”
“Sundance told you that, did he?”
“He tells me everything. We have no secrets in bed. We’re deeply in love. American romance is wonderful, don’t you think?”
“It has its charm,” Eli said.
She was getting nowhere with him.
She dropped her skirt. Berries spilled onto the ground and rolled under the bushes.
“Oh, no,” she cried. She got down on her hands and knees. “Mr. Cassidy. Can you help me?” She wriggled farther into the bushes.
There it was.
Eli shifted his bowl to his other hand. He reached down to grasp hers. She grabbed the wire under the bush at the same time.
The jolt of electricity pulsed from the fence, up her arm, through her chest, and to the hand connecting her to Eli. She hadn’t known how much it would hurt. Every muscle enroute tightened and cramped. Her chest squeezed into one giant spasm.
The pulse of electricity peaked, then it stopped. She released her hold on the wire. The roots of her hair and her fingertips tingled.
The effect on Eli was much worse, as Jayce had predicted. She let go of his hand. His whole body had gone rigid. He toppled over, clutching his chest, as his muscles unclenched. He curled into a ball on his side on the ground and drew his knees to his stomach. She thought she smelled smoke.
She’d killed him.
That resolved one problem, but it might have created another.
Jayce and the Mexicans trotted over. Eli moaned, proving he was alive. Everyone crowded around him. Jayce knelt and took his pulse.
Eli’s eyes popped open. He said something indelicate in his native language, and Malika gasped. She clapped her hands over Linda’s ears, even though the little girl wouldn’t understand the words.
“Mr. Cassidy. There’s a child present,” Malika said.
She could never be happy married to a man who believed it was okay to swear around children.
Eli tried to sit up. “What happened?”
“Lightning,” Jayce said. “Random strikes happen sometimes in the mountains, even on a clear day.” He helped Eli into a sitting position. “We should get you to a doctor. A shock like that can be bad for the heart.”
The last comment was directed at Malika. The accompanying eye contact said he wasn’t angry with her, at least not very much, but he wasn’t amused, either.
Eli glared at Jayce. “My heart is fine.”
“How can you be so certain? Undiagnosed heart conditions in men your age are very common,” Malika said.
He really should be seen by a doctor. Having him die in Burning Scrub wouldn’t be good for business and it would make Adeel very unhappy. She honestly hadn’t known the shock would be so severe.
One of the Mexicans spoke up. “She’s right. My grandfather was fit as a fiddle. Then one day he just dropped dead. He was in his eighties.”
“I’m not in my eighties,” Eli said. “And I’m not going to drop dead.”
“We’ll give you a few minutes and see how you feel.
Once you’re okay with walking, you and the Mexicans can head back to camp,” Jayce said.
“It’s probably best if Malika and Linda stay in town for a few days.
I’ll take them. Adam’s due back today or tomorrow, and when he gets here, we’ve got bank business to attend to.
We won’t have time for berry-picking or other distractions. ”
“We won’t be a distraction,” Malika said.
“You don’t think you will,” Jayce replied. “But you can’t seem to help it.”
*
Jayce
Cassidy could have no doubt now as to his relationship with Malika, although attempting to kill him seemed an extreme way for Malika to prove it.
Jayce pointed it out on their walk back to town.
Linda had skipped ahead. She knew the path well, she was used to roaming alone, and between layers of cayenne pepper and the strategically set electric fences, bears weren’t a serious concern this close to town, but Jayce kept one eye on her, just in case.
“I wasn’t trying to kill him,” Malika insisted.
“I know you weren’t. Good thing he doesn’t have a heart condition, though.” He reached for her hand and laced their fingers together. “Why didn’t you just tell me he’s Eli Chamas?”
“Because there was no need to involve you. Burning Scrub owes him an adventure. I owe him nothing,” she said.
“You thought his adventure is worth more than you are to me,” he said, making a guess.
It turned out to be a good one. She glanced at him through lowered lashes, with her chin dipped low and her head slightly tilted. Her fingers flexed. He felt the tension in them.
“Isn’t it?” she said lightly.
She had no idea how much money she was going to cost him. But it wasn’t her fault, and she wasn’t going to find out from him. “No.”
The speed of his answer pleased her.
“It’s too late to worry about it,” she said happily. “Not even a connection to Adeel will make Eli want to marry me after today.” She squeezed his fingers. “I doubt if he has the stamina to please me the way you do. That’s very important in a marriage.”
She was so ridiculously adorable.
“Young wives can be a handful for an old man,” Jayce said. For young ones too. “You made that point clear. There are other ways for you to give him a heart attack that wouldn’t involve you electrocuting yourself, you know.”
She made a face at him. “I agree with Tilly on this. The room couldn’t be dark enough for me to mistake him for you. I’ll take electrocution.”
And if that didn’t make him love her, then nothing else would.
He should tell her he loved her. Then, maybe next time, she’d come to him first.
“Malika, I—”
But Linda decided she’d gotten too far ahead and came running back to show them a ruby-colored butterfly she’d found, that turned out to be a hummingbird moth, which generated a great deal of feminine excitement, so the moment was lost.
*
Adam showed up in camp the next afternoon.
His arrival meant the bank robbery was set to take place prior to sunrise the following morning.
Sunrise couldn’t come soon enough for Jayce.
Cassidy had been very quiet after Malika’s not-so-subtle attempts to discourage him, but the speculative looks he shot Jayce said enough to make his sleep very restless.
He wasn’t supposed to get out of this adventure alive, but he hadn’t counted on his death being literal.
Adam handed out weapons while Cassidy went over the details of the robbery. The weapons were custom-made to fit the period and loaded with paintballs.
“Adam goes in first and blows the safe with the nitroglycerin. You, me, and Joachim”—Joachim meaning Dave—“will enter the bank and bag up the money,” Cassidy said, proving he’d at least glanced at the script.
Adam had stored the nitroglycerin somewhere safe, in a location known only to him. Given the town’s track record for curiosity, and a willingness to experiment with things that either exploded, caught fire, or potentially maimed, Mavis had insisted the nitro be brought in at the last minute.