Jayce began to understand why Malika had been so thrilled to be kidnapped.It wasn’t about him or his magnificence at all.She’d come to the boardinghouse looking for him because she’d wanted a front row seat at the new adventure, and he’d fallen for it because she’d offered him sex.
He ran the possibilities for her wanting to antagonize the new client through in his head.He narrowed them down, then fit the timeframes together.And concluded he wasn’t just dumb—he was colossally stupid.In epic proportions.
Why hadn’t she told him who Cassidy was?
The answer to that was also blinding clear.She hadn’t believed she could trust him.She thought a seven-year-old made a better ally than he would.
She’d made a good call.Linda was the daughter of two theater majors.She knew how to perform.She was also an expert at figuring out what a person’s weaknesses were and zeroing in on them with laser precision.
She went straight from hugging her pretend mother to planting herself on Cassidy’s lap.
“Hi, Santa Claus.My name’s Linda.Why aren’t you at the North Pole?Where are your reindeer?”
He’d developed a white scruff of stubble on his unshaven chin.That was the only resemblance to Santa Claus Jayce could discern.
Cassidy, to his credit, had no obvious objection to children.He was also nobody’s fool.He took in Linda’s blond hair and blue eyes.
“This child is your daughter?”he said to Malika, who did not have blond hair and blue eyes, and likely possessed none in her gene pool for her to pass on.
“She’s the daughter of my best friend, who died giving birth in one of the brothels where we both worked.I adopted her,” Malika said smoothly, with more batting of eyelashes.“I love children.”
Wait until Grady learned of the new plot twist that his daughter helped introduce to the script.Better yet, wait until Benny caught wind of it.Jayce might not take the whole blame for losing twenty-five million dollars.Twenty-six million, if the Butch Cassidy storyline continued its current southern spiral.
“Sundance loves children too,” Malika added.“Don’t you, Sundance?”
Jayce smiled at Linda, who beamed back.“I surely do,” he said, because who could resist that sweet little face.“Especially this little sweetheart.She and I are best buddies.”
“I was going to marry Sundance when I grow up,” Linda informed Cassidy, “but now I’m going to be ruined, like Malika.She says it’s better than marrying an old man, and Sundance will be almost as old as you are by the time I’m a grown-up.”
The Mexicans were having a hard time keeping straight faces.
“Do you know what would be fun?”Malika said to Linda, who remained parked on Cassidy’s lap and looked well settled in.“We could pick serviceberries this afternoon.Would you like to pick serviceberries with us, Mr.Cassidy?Oh, but we’d need someone to spot bears for us.You’ll come along, too, Sundance, won’t you?”Her eyes beseeched him.
Heck, yes, he was coming.He didn’t dare miss this.He was going to die in the bank robbery anyway, and twenty-six million dollars was already swirling the drain.The only thing he had left to lose was Malika, and she was taking care to make sure that didn’t happen.She might not trust him as much as she should, but his faith in her ability to cause chaos was unwavering.
“I’d be happy to join you,” he said.
The Mexicans didn’t plan on missing it, either.
“Let’s all pick serviceberries,” Dave said, showing more enthusiasm for Butch Cassidy’s adventure than he had so far.“Esto será divertido.”
Yes.It was going to be fun.
Maybe more so for some.
Chapter Eighteen
Malika
Jayce had explainedher 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.
