Whirlwind Cowboy

It had been almost an hour since she had gone into the bedroom and shut the door. Her look of bafflement had seemed earnest. So had the lack of recognition when she saw him. She had seemed genuinely lost. But he’d trusted those eyes for months, believing she told the truth about her feelings being as strong as his, and look how that had turned out. She claimed not to remember anything. Bram remembered just fine.

He fingered his scar. The wound was still somewhat tender, just like his reaction to her queries about the two of them.

There was no them. She’d made sure of that.

He stared at the bedroom door.

Her questions reminded him of what they’d had, how she’d lit out just like his ma. He didn’t want to feel anything for her, but he did.

Bram couldn’t abide more of her professed memory loss. He wanted her to take responsibility for what she’d done. There had to be some way to get her to admit she was lying about losing her memory. Or at least some way to get her to point him in Cosgrove’s direction.

She had the cretin’s horse. Maybe she had something else of his.

Bram’s gaze went to the saddlebags in the corner. He’d brought his in from the barn along with two that were probably Cosgrove’s. Bram rose, picked up the lamp and walked over, going to one knee beside them.

Inside the first pouch was a comb, shaving cup and soap, a straight-edge and hair pomade. His lip curled. Pomade. He reached for the other leather bag, which was considerably heavier.

He flipped up the flap and opened the pouch wide. His pulse thudded hard.

Sweet mercy. He’d been looking for something to tie Deborah to Cosgrove and here it was. His heart sank.

Inside the saddlebag was money. A lot of money. Some loose bills, some in a flour sack. Unless Cosgrove had spent some, it was the forty thousand dollars he’d taken from the Monaco Bank.

In the next instant Bram was overwhelmed by a numbing fury. He surged to his feet, grabbed the saddlebag and stalked to the bedroom.

He threw the door open, lamplight flickering.

Standing in the middle of the room, Deborah jumped, one hand at her throat. “You scared the daylights out of me!”

“You keep sayin’ you don’t know Cosgrove, but this right here proves you do.” Speaking to be heard above the storm, he tossed the saddlebag toward her. It landed heavily at her feet.

She eyed it the way she would a snake. “What is that?”

“Money. Stolen money.”

Shaking her head, she glanced down, then back at him. Questions were plain on her pretty face.

“You said you were leaving me for a teaching job,” Bram snapped, taking a step toward her. “Looks like your real job was being an accomplice to a bank robbery.”

Chapter Three

Twin spots of color stained her cheeks. “Accomplice to a robbery? I wouldn’t do that.”

“How do you know?” he asked archly.

She bit her lip, stooping to look inside the saddlebags. Those innocent blue eyes widened.

Folding his arms, Bram took in the flush on her face, the rapid rise and fall of her chest, the wild trip of her pulse in her neck. He was uncomfortably reminded of how long it had taken him to get the image of her in that chemise out of his mind.

“This is the work of your beau.”

She closed the pouch and stood. “How do you know? And how do you know the money is stolen?”

“Because my cousin Georgia and my uncle Ike were in Monaco’s bank when the robbery happened. They both saw Cosgrove’s face. Because of that, he shot them.”

“Oh, no!” In the dusky amber lamplight, the horror on her face seemed genuine. “Are they—”

“They’re alive, although I imagine Cosgrove thinks he killed them. He wouldn’t have knowingly left them breathing.”

“Why do you think I had anything to do with it?” She skirted the saddlebags. The defiance on her face was mixed with uncertainty. “I told you I don’t remember.”

“Yeah.”

“Did your kin see me in the bank, too?”

“No. You weren’t inside.”

“Then I wasn’t involved,” she concluded, looking hopeful.

“Maybe you were waiting outside with horses for a quick getaway.” He didn’t like that he could detect her fresh scent beneath that of the dirt that hung in the air.

She rubbed her temple, appearing surprised by the possibility. “I can’t believe I would do something like that.”

“You mean you don’t want to believe it.”

“Of course I don’t want to believe it! Would you?”

Bram recognized the challenging light in her eyes. “The length of time you rode and the direction from where you came all add up to you making the trip from Monaco. You either left Whirlwind with Cosgrove or met him somewhere. It makes sense to think you’d travel with him.”

“Maybe he was helping me get somewhere.”

“To Abilene for your job?” Bram could imagine how the bastard would’ve tried to “help” her. Still, Deborah was cooperating, so he kept that to himself. “If he meant to put you on a train or a stage, he could’ve done that at a few places before you ended up in Monaco. Maybe you wanted to stay with him.”

“You want to believe the worst of me.” Lifting a hand to her temple, she winced. “But you don’t know.”

“You had to be with him or nearby in order to have access to his horse. What I want to know is where did Cosgrove go?”

“And I’m telling you again that I don’t know,” she said hotly, grimacing.

Was her head hurting? Bram hadn’t forgotten how pained she’d looked tonight. For a while he’d thought that had been a ruse to get him to stop questioning her. Now he wasn’t sure. “Does it matter to you that people who counted you as a friend were hurt? That a man was killed?”

“Yes, it matters! But I can’t tell you what I don’t know. Maybe if you gave me more information.”

“Like what?”

Still touching her head, she thought for a moment. “How long have you been chasing this man?”

“Three weeks. From your house, I followed him east then south. I lost his trail at Buffalo Gap and returned home for a couple of weeks. Then my uncle sent a wire from Monaco saying that he and my cousin had been shot in a bank robbery. By Cosgrove. Monaco is west of here. My brother and I started tracking him from there. Jake went the opposite direction, but when I found Cosgrove’s horse in the barn here, I thought I’d found him.”