Outlaw Love

Kelsey plastered a smile on her face and wound her way through the tables and into the kitchen again.

The back door and windows stood open, the fresh air mingling with the smells of frying bacon and baking biscuits. Etta Mae hummed softly to herself as she flipped hotcakes on the stove.

“Kelsey honey, could you get me some more milk? We’ve got a hungry crowd this morning!”

“Yes, we do.” And thank God, Kelsey thought to herself as she placed the coffeepot on the edge of the stove. She wiped her hands on her apron and darted out the back door.

“Pssst!”

Kelsey gasped and spun around, seeing her friend a few feet away. She splayed her hand over her chest. “Mallory, you scared me to death!”

Quickly she glanced up and down the alley. “We’ve got to talk.”

“I’ll say.” Kelsey crossed the boardwalk and stood beside her. Mallory wore a dress of blue silk, with lace gloves and a matching hat—the height of fashion in New York, according to the dressmaker there who’d sent the fabric. Perhaps a bit out of place on the streets of Eldon, had it been worn by anyone but Jack Morgan’s daughter. Mallory wore her father’s wealth well.

Mallory unfurled her fan with a flick of her slender wrist. “Papa sent for the sheriff to come to the house early this morning, and I heard them talking in the study. Papa is fit to be tied over yesterday’s robbery. Fit to be tied!” Mallory giggled and tossed her head“Isn’t it wonderful?”

Kelsey pressed her palms together to stave off their trembling. “Does he have any idea—”

“That we’re the ones robbing his payroll? That you, Holly and I are the Schoolyard Boys—the thieves?”

“We’re not thieves, Mallory.” Kelsey’s expression hardened. “We’re taking back what belongs to us. Jack Morgan stole from us. If he hadn’t interfered in our lives, there would be no need to take his payroll. If we were common thieves, we’d rob a bank or a train somewhere.”

Mallory tossed, her head and giggled. “Anyway, Papa has no idea we’re doing the robberies.”

Kelsey let out a heavy breath. Thoughts of what Jack Morgan had done to her family, and Holly’s, riled her no end. “Then what did he and Sheriff Bottom talk about?”

“Papa is sending the payroll out again this afternoon.”

“Today?” Her eyes rounded. “After it was stolen just yesterday?”

Mallory nodded. “Papa insisted. He thinks the stage won’t be robbed because no one will expect the payroll to be on board so soon after yesterday’s robbery.”

A bold move on Jack Morgan’s part. Kelsey pressed her lips together. And totally unexpected. But she now had this inside information from Mallory.

“We’ve got another problem.” Kelsey pushed a stray wisp of hair behind her ear. “Remember the marshal we rescued yesterday? He’s staying here at the hotel.”

“Damn…” Mallory shook her head. “I told you we should have let him hang.”

Kelsey waved away her comment. “Well, it’s done now, and we’ll have to deal with it.”

Mallory snapped her fan closed. “It must have been him Papa and the sheriff were talking about this morning. He’s some big federal marshal, with quite a reputation. Sheriff says he’s tracked down and brought in dozens of outlaws.”

Kelsey rolled her eyes. “Oh, dear…”

“How long will he be here?”

“I’m trying to find out.”

Mallory shrugged. “Maybe it’s better he’s staying at the hotel. At least that way you can keep an eye on him.”

“That’s true.” Kelsey tapped her finger against her chin and paced the boardwalk. “We’ve got to do it. That payroll is too much money to let slip by. No one will expect another robbery this soon.”

Mallory battsd her lashes. “I’ll pay a call on sweet young Ernie at the express office this morning, as usual.”

“Good. Then drop by Duncan’s and let Holly know—”

“Do I have to go talk to her?” Mailory’s lip crept out in a pout. “You know she grates on my nerves sometimes.”

“I won’t set foot in Duncan’s General Store, not after what Nate Duncan did to my brother. Holly and I can’t speak in public, Mallory, and you know that.”

“Oh, all right.” Mallory fumed silently for a moment.

“Besides, if we get our way, Holly will be long gone from this town, which should make you very happy.”

“Oh, to be gone from this place.” Mallory sighed wistfully, but then her eyes danced with mischief. “But if I were gone, how could I annoy Papa?”

Kelsey drew in a deep breath. She couldn’t blame Mallory for the way she felt about her father or her involvement with the Schoolyard Boys. After the despicable things Morgan had done to her mother, Mallory took great pleasure in irritating Jack Morgan at every turn.

“Find out when the stage is leaving. We’ll stop it at Waterbow Curve.”

“What if the driver won’t stop this time?” Mallory asked. “We almost had to shoot at them yesterday. Remember?”

Kelsey paced, tapping her finger against her chin again. “I’ve got an idea. You’ll need to pick up a few things, then you and Holly get out to Waterbow Curve as quick as you can.”

“Where will you be?”

A little grin tugged at her lips. “I’m going to take a stagecoach ride today.”

Clay hurried out of the hotel and strode down the boardwalk, heat radiating through him. If that woman mentioned his trousers one more time, he wouldn’t be held responsible for what might happen. And the fact that she didn’t understand the effect her comments had on him was all the more maddening. Was she really that innocent? Or did she just think of him the way she would her brother, as she’d claimed in the alley last night? Either way, Clay decided, he’d spent too much time on the trail lately to be having conversations like that.

“Hey, Chandler!” Billy Elder waved to him from the jail. “Sheriff wants to see you.”

Clay crossed the street. Roy Bottom nodded when he entered the jail. “We’ve got a serious problem on our hands with those Schoolyard Boys. We’re recruiting you for the job.”

“Hold on a minute, Sheriff. I’m here on federal business, not local problems.” The Dade gang were his prey, not a bunch of kids who needed a good spanking.

“I don’t give a damn what you’re here for.” Jack Morgan rose from behind the sheriffs desk, his face drawn in tight, angry lines.

“Who the hell are you?”

Sheriff Bottom cleared his. throat. “This is Jack Morgan, one of Eldon’s biggest businessmen.”

“Eldon’s biggest” he corrected. “It was my payroll that got taken when that stage was hit yesterday, Chandler—the fourth robbery in the last six weeks.”

“Darnedest thing,” the sheriff mused. “Every time that stage gets hit, Morgan’s payroll for the mines is on board.”

“I built this town, Chandler. I own it” Morgan curled his hands into fists at his sides. “The governor is a personal friend of mine. I’ve got eastern investors coming out in a few days, men who’ve got a lot of cash to invest and can make something of this town. Sheriff Bottoms here tells me you’re some big-shot marshal. I’m sending my payroll out again today. I want it protected.”