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Walker didn’t look convinced. He’d known his friends longer, but I heard the truth directly from them. It wasn’t rumor. “Piper, I think you’re wrong about this. It just doesn’t make sense.”
“Do you really want to argue with me about this?” I asked.
He studied me for a moment. “You don’t even know how to get to Slate Springs.”
I smiled, although it was without any warmth. “That’s why you’re going to take me there. If they want me instead of Lil, fine. They’ll know where to find me otherwise. Do I need to point my gun at you? I promise, I’m a good shot.”
He held up his hands in surrender, although I assumed it was less because of my threat of bodily harm than because he didn’t want to continue to argue. He knew I was right, knew that I was justified to be fucking furious that my men would sway.
“No, ma’am,” he replied, but pointed a finger at me. “Your men are going to spank you so you can’t sit down for a week. Fair warning.”
“They can try.”
I took the steps two at a time to collect my things.
“They can try,” I muttered once again to myself as I walked into Lane’s bedroom, where the bed was still unmade from our night of… abandon. It was quick work to fill my bag; I hadn’t been in the house long enough to take much out. I was out of their life just as fast as I’d arrived.
***
It took three hours to climb the narrow road that threaded through the mountains, over a steep pass and back down into a narrow valley that housed the town of Slate Springs. I’d never known I could be so high, see such rugged beauty. Walker had gone slow with Celia on his lap, ensuring the journey wasn’t too rough for her. Watching their connection, even without Luke with them, was hard to watch. It was everything I wanted from Lane and Spur, but would never have.
Once we were in town, Walker put his foot down and refused to take me to Spur’s house. He refused to even tell me which one was his. I was expected to stay with them as he’d promised my husbands I’d be protected.
“I can’t protect you from across town. You’ll stay in our house or I’ll take you back to Jasper.” When he saw my angry expression—for I was furious he had tricked me somewhat—he added, “This is the compromise, Piper. It has nothing to do with your husbands. It has to do with me keeping you safe.”
He was right, my anger wasn’t with him and he was just trying to do right by me. Even with my gun, I wouldn’t win this fight, so I’d relented and they’d showed me to a spare bedroom. It was only then, with the door closed behind me, that I gave in to my feelings. I cried. Cried for what I’d wanted, but would never get. Cried for my men’s lies. Even cried for Patricia. I just cried and waited. Deep down, I wanted Lane and Spur to come to me, beg my forgiveness, that they’d sworn off Lil and any other woman and would devote themselves to me. But that didn’t happen.
After two days, they still hadn’t come and I wondered, had they chosen Lil after all? I thought of my own secret and how it affected the marriage. Hell, there was no marriage.
But even if my name really were on the marriage license, anger pumped through my body, thick and hot and I was ready to confront the men, shoot them even, to let them know I wouldn’t stand for philandering. Only when they vowed to be faithful would I tell them the truth. Until then, it wasn’t really a marriage either way.
But it wasn’t Spur or Lane who woke me on the third day, but Luke. He was filthy, covered in dust and grime. His shirt was ripped and he looked beyond exhausted, having ridden through the night to return to Slate Springs. Walker and Celia stood in the bedroom doorway behind him.
“The mine, it collapsed,” he said, his voice weary.
I pulled a shawl from the foot of the bed and placed it over my shoulders. At the high elevation, the air was cool in the mornings. “Yes, I’m aware of it. That’s why Lane and Spur went in to help, why you stayed behind as well. Are they with Lil, then? Is that what you’re here to tell me?”
He sighed, shook his head slowly. “God, I wish it was something as simple to fix as that. The mine collapsed again while they were repairing the bad beams. The entry’s blocked. It’s been blocked since yesterday. Big, big rocks. No way to move them.”
Bile rose in my throat. From the grim look on his face I knew there was more, that it was so much worse.
“There don’t seem to be any survivors.”
I crumpled to the floor. I was the widow of two men I never married.
CHAPTER NINE
Spur
“You don’t have to tell me how lucky you are,” Lil said. Her voice was soft, much weaker than we’d ever heard it. She was in her bed, propped up with a number of pillows. Her hair, now gray, was plaited in a simple, thick braid over one bony shoulder. She wore a simple white nightgown with a pale pink robe over it. She’d lost so much weight from the cancer, practically wasting away before our eyes. After sixty years, she would be brought down from within, not from her hard, wild and often difficult life.
While the rest of the brothel was busy with men eager to slake their needs at this time of night, it was quiet in Lil’s room, nestled at the back corner of the second floor; everyone respected her privacy. She’d moved from Denver to be near Lane when she became ill, settling with her friend, Rachel, who ran the Frightful Fawn. They’d known each other for decades. While Lil hadn’t been a madam for a few years, she felt most comfortable in the environment. It was the only one she really knew. And so Lane, who never gave in to anyone, had succumbed to her wishes to stay with Rachel. In trade, he visited her religiously and even sent for me in Chicago to move back.
I sat on the side of her bed, held her hand, felt her pulse with my fingers as she spoke. It was steady, now. Soon though, soon it would be over.
“Yes, the collapse sealed the entrance, but didn’t bring down all the supports. While we were cut off, we were safe enough.”
Lane’s words made Lil’s mouth turn down. “I’ve heard all of this, and then some, from everyone who’s come to visit. What I don’t know is how you came away with only scrapes and cuts.”
