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

He could feel Cole’s eyes on him as he wiped his face with the bandana that had protected his identity throughout this ordeal, but couldn’t make himself look back, afraid of what he might see. Not because he expected judgement and scorn, but the opposite. He worried Cole would smile and wink at him as if they’d done an excellent job.

Behind Ned’s back, Pearl gave a bright chuckle, but by the time two pairs of footsteps approached him, his vision was back to normal, and he turned to face the king and queen of outlaws.

Pearl pushed into his arms without warning, and since she couldn’t reach his face, she pressed a kiss to Ned’s chest instead. “Thank you for savin’ this lowlife’s skin,” she rumbled, shaking her head as Tom slapped her behind before draping his arm across her shoulders.

The bandana might’ve hidden the bruising left behind by strangling, but Tom seemed quieter than usual, as if he—the Butcher himself—had had the rare opportunity to confront his own mortality. It was a drop of sugar syrup in a pot of tar water, but Ned would take it anyway.

“You did good, Mr. O’Leary. After tonight, you’re really one of us,” he said, patting Ned’s shoulder as Pearl pushed a small canvas bag full of clinking items at Ned.

“Your share,” she said and put both her arms around her husband.

He didn’t know what to do with the valuables, but he put them in his saddle bag nevertheless. Guilt and sorrow had no place in his new life.

Tom’s bloodstained hand, the same that had killed the two passengers, gave Ned’s shoulder a final squeeze before waving at Scotch, who left the steam engine, mounted his horse, and followed the track to where everyone else was gathered. The train would soon move and carry away the most painful evidence of Ned’s culpability. He wanted to ride Nugget until morning and then drink himself into a stupor so he wouldn’t remember any of what had happened.

He tried to stay alert when Tom spoke, reminding his men about the plan to separate into groups of two. Everyone who’d already secured the loot in their saddlebags mounted up, and as they stood in the dark, illuminated only by the oil lamps inside the train and the half moon above, Ned felt like a wolf who’d just been accepted into a pack of man-eaters. He knew he didn’t belong but needed to keep up the illusion of a common cause, or their teeth would rip him apart next.

“Hey,” Cole said, riding up to him on Thunder.

Right. Because Cole was going with him. as planned. Ned’s brain rattled too much to remember such details.

“I… forgot where we’re going,” he said in a small voice so no one else would hear his blunder. The man whose life he saved wouldn’t mock his fear or reveal it to anyone.

Cole’s lips pressed together, and he leaned over the empty space between their bodies to give Ned’s thigh a quick squeeze. “First time you saw someone killed?” he asked in a low voice while the others cheered, already gravitating away from the train.

The touch was so unexpected it thundered through Ned’s body and he couldn’t speak, afraid he’d choke up. “First time I played a part in it,” he rasped.

The mercy kill he witnessed on the day he’d met Cole had been a blessing to the poor old man. Had Cole, Pearl, and Adam really been behind the murder and robbery right at Ned’s doorstep? He’d chosen to never ask.

Ned doubted Cole was unfamiliar with such things himself, but to his credit, he didn’t try to pretend death meant nothing, as if he still had a sliver of humanity left in him, buried deep under the thick skin of an outlaw.

It was time to go.

They waved at Adam Wild, who rode right behind them, eager to reach his bride’s home by tomorrow, and followed the other gang members downhill. Ned’s head was still pulsing when Cole spoke. “You did good. You jumped on that train as if you’d been doing stunts like that all your life. And you saved Tom. It won’t be forgotten.”

“Let’s just hope it was worth it,” Ned said grimly, unable to reconcile his positive feelings toward Cole with what they’d done.

Cole shook his head and poked Thunder with his heels. “No one would have died if everyone did as told.”

What was it like to go through life with that kind of attitude? Instead of bending to the will of others, Cole was set on being the scythe in a field of wheat, and Ned feared he’d be the unexpected rock to break the beautiful blade.

“They—”

Several shots erupted behind them, and Ned’s first instinct was to grab the reins of Cole’s horse when it reared in panic. Cole’s wide eyes met his, but he stayed in the saddle by lowering his body to align it with the wiry neck of his mount. A sharp cry made Ned look back in time to see Adam Wild roll off his own steed. He let go of Thunder’s reins and made Nugget turn, but Adam lay still in the low grass, as lifeless as a squirrel mauled by dogs.