The Man Who Loved Cole Flores (Dig Two Graves 1)

Tom hummed and rubbed his chin. “You seem so taken with him I needed to know what the fuss was about.”

Ned looked between the two and licked his lips. “I hope to be a useful man to have around. I see that you are who I thought you were.”

Tom crooked his head. “What of it?” he asked, but there was curiosity in his voice rather than menace.

“I’ve got this idea that you might be able to forge into a plan,” Ned said, not wanting to sound as if he was about to take over. “But I knew I’d need solid folk to go through with it. Got a friend who works at the Iron Trail City bank, and he’s got a big grudge against his employer. He told me that if I could get the firepower, he’d make it so I can clear their safes. The miners’ payroll arrives every last Monday of the month, so it’s not a game of chance. Solid cash and gold.” Ned’s heart rattled faster with each word, because Tom didn’t stop him and just listened with the attention a man gave a stick of dynamite when lighting a cigarette nearby.

Cole’s brows lowered, but he glanced at Tom right after holding his gaze on Ned’s face. “Sounds like an easy enough job.”

Tom exhaled and took a swig from the bottle he was holding, but after a moment’s hesitation that nearly made Ned’s heart rip out of his chest, slapped his back in a friendly manner. “Tempting, but I already have something big planned, and we’ll have to travel south for that. Let’s keep your idea on the backburner and see what happens. But good effort,” he said with a final pat to Ned’s shoulder. He nodded at Cole and walked off, whistling as if they hadn’t discussed robbing hundreds of men of their wages.

“Why hadn’t you mentioned this to me?” Cole demanded, his dismay hitting Ned out of the blue as he struggled to cool down following the daunting moments in Butcher Tom’s company.

Ned’s head was still too full of terror to comprehend what had just happened. His plan. His tip-off. The whole reason the agents sent him here had been discarded on a whim. He finally settled his attention on Cole when the man slapped his chest.

“I… I’m sorry. I needed to know you were the right people first. And Tom is the boss.”

Cole’s brows lowered, and his hooded lids covered the outer corners of his eyes. “Did you think I’d steal your idea or somethin’?”

Ned wrapped his arms on his chest, but every time he looked into Cole’s face, he could see him flushed and moaning in pleasure. “That’s a mighty dumb thing to say.”

Cole stepped closer, in a way that should have felt like a challenge yet confused Ned instead, and when he exhaled, the darkness around them grew denser. Was the bonfire no longer being fed new logs?

Conversations, music and shouts could still be heard from the middle of the camp, but here on the outskirts, those boisterous sounds were dull, as if Ned and Cole stood between invisible walls that blocked out the noise.

Cole smelled of herbs and the exotic flower called ylang-ylang, which perfumed his hair oil, and when he was so close, Ned found it hard to draw breath, even more so speak.

“Is it?” Cole asked in an even, oddly quiet tone, as if he were aware of the frailty of the silence surrounding them.

The fact that Ned had failed to sell Tom on his bank robbery idea kept hitting his head again and again, making it hurt. He spread his arms in frustration. “Maybe I would have told you if you hadn’t spent the evening with your face in a bosom!” The accusation exploded out of his mouth before he could have stopped himself, but there it was.

Cole showed his teeth in warning. “Maybe I’d have been at your side if you hadn’t told me to find female company.” He spoke in a whisper, but to Ned’s ears it felt like shouting.

“B-because my dancing’s shabby. Was I supposed to make a fool of myself on the first night? Dancing with a man and failing even at that?” He kept the eye contact, desperate to communicate that he did in fact want to be friends.

Cole swallowed, his gaze pinned to Ned’s eyes as if he wanted to blind him with its burning heat. “What about Mary? Would you have gone with her on your own?”

Ned stepped closer to poke at Cole’s chest. “You embarrassed me there. I admitted to you in private that I’m not experienced with women, and you offer the three of us go together? What for? So you can sit back and laugh as I blunder?”

Cole looked away at least, giving Ned space to recuperate from the intensity of this encounter. His face twitched, as if he wanted to speak but couldn’t find the words to express his thoughts.