Ned held his breath when he didn’t see a single twitch in the handsome face, but his lungs started to ache when metal flashed at Cole’s hip. He had his gun trained on poor Nugget’s head. Bastard knew where to hit so it hurt, and was smiling despite the rope around his body. “Are you sayin’ you find me pretty?”
The question rattled in Ned’s head for far longer than it should’ve, given the circumstances.
Cole wasn’t ‘pretty’, but tall, with sparkling black eyes and plump lips, he was a handsome man. Stunning even. A force of nature who’d taken an interest in Ned for reasons he couldn’t comprehend. But just like a tornado, Cole might be something to be admired from afar yet best avoided by anyone wanting to keep their life. Ned had once heard of a fellow trying to befriend a mountain lion. It hadn’t ended well for the poor soul.
Ned urged the horse closer but didn’t attempt to tug on the rope. Cole was too quick of a shot to risk it. “I’m saying you’re out of line.”
The wind brushed some of Cole’s dark hair into his face as clouds covered the sun, turning everything gray.
“If you want to follow me, you’ll have to be out of line too,” Cole said, rolling back his shoulders to loosen the loop around his torso as he studied Ned, gun still trained on poor Nugget, who picked at some leaves from a nearby tree, unaware of the threat. “My life’s a dangerous one, and I can’t leave anything to chance. Needed to see what stock you’re made of, Ned O’Leary, and I like what I’m seeing,” he said with a bright flicker in his eyes.
Ned looked away at the unexpected compliment. He groaned in discomfort and rubbed his nape. “I’d already said I’ll go. There was no need for this.”
“Without the horse you’ve raised since it was a baby!” Cole said and uncocked his gun before sliding it back into the holster. “I say it’s rightfully yours, and you were about to be robbed of its companionship.”
Ned watched Cole slide the lasso up his body and drop it as if it were a leaf stuck to his coat. This man was his key to the Gotham Boys, and he was like no one Ned had ever met. Women were often foolishly drawn to dangerous men, lured by smiles that promised both thrills and delight, and for the first time in his life Ned understood why it happened. Cole’s confidence in the way he approached people and spoke to them transcended social mores, and if Ned was to consider him from a woman’s perspective, Cole was quite the catch where looks were concerned. A woman could probably even appreciate the length of the jet black hair, run her fingers through it—
What a ridiculous thing to consider when faced with a predator out in the woods! Pretty feathers didn’t make Cole any less dangerous. A snake’s shiny skin was pretty too.
Ned cleared his throat and slid off Daisy’s back to approach Nugget. As terrible as the spat with Uncle Liam had been, Ned couldn’t justify stealing a horse. He was confident his own uncle wouldn’t report the crime, but it didn’t feel like the right thing to do after years under the man’s roof. But he also couldn’t go back home. Not after Cole’s stunt.
“Are you saying you stole the horse for me? That’s a mighty good excuse.”
Cole jumped to the ground, picked up his fallen hat, and wiped it off with one hand. “Ned, you’re makin’ me blush.”
Were they calling each other with their given names now? Was this really happening?
“You always such a dumbass?” Ned risked offending Cole, but if they were to become friends, there was no point beating around the bush.
He walked up to the bay mare and pulled his carpetbag off her saddle. His head pulsed with worry, but if he wanted a chance to ever reconnect with the only family he had, he needed to make things right. He made sure his body blocked the saddlebag from Cole’s gaze and, with a heavy heart, stuffed the bundle of Pinkerton money into the leather satchel. He hated to see it gone, but this wouldn’t be the first time Ned had been broke. He had enough tools in Nugget’s saddlebags to feed himself in the wilderness for a while.
“How did you know which saddle was mine?” he asked, pulling out a small notebook.
Cole snickered behind him. “Your little cousin told me.”
Of course. After all, Cole had told Rory he ‘knew Jesse James’.
Ned ripped out a page, because the money wouldn’t be a sufficient enough message, and wrote, For Nugget. I’m sorry.
It was all he came up with on the spot, but since he couldn’t risk Cole snooping on him, those few words would have to do. Ned hadn’t counted the money and was certain he was overpaying, regardless of the horse’s merits, but that was the cost of righting wrongs. Maybe once he got to a town, he could write the whole O’Leary family a letter with a more dignified apology. He sure hoped there would be an opportunity for it before he met his end.