Prince Charming

Then she sat down. She’d started a ritual of her own the night she found out the babies had disappeared. Every time Lucas left to search for the little girls, she prayed for him. Her plea to God was twofold. She asked Him to keep Lucas safe from harm and to help him find the babies. When Hunter had joined in the search, she of course added his name to her petition.

She couldn’t sit still long. Pacing, it seemed, had also become a ritual. She would worry and pray and pace until Lucas and Hunter were safely home.

Perhaps tonight they wouldn’t come back empty-handed.

“Please, God,” she whispered over and over again, “let them find my babies.”

Hunter and Lucas both felt they had a solid lead this time. They found the man named Boyd. They were in the process of becoming his best friends, and all because Hunter was paying for his whiskey. They sat with him at a round table in the corner of the saloon. Their goal was to get him liquored up enough to betray his own mother.

An hour later, they had accomplished their goal. Boyd took one look at the money Lucas was offering and started talking. He thought he was doing the Borders a good deed, because Hunter had hinted at the possibility of buying the twins. Money, Hunter boasted, wasn’t a concern since he’d made his fortune.

Boyd was an extremely unpleasant individual. Demons, after all, usually were. He was completely devoid of morals. He was also as ugly as sin. He had thick, pockmarked skin and eyelids so heavy, the folds hung down over his eyes. He squinted in order to see. He had the disgusting habit of puckering his lips together every time Hunter mentioned money. It was as though he was tasting his own greed.

Lucas barely spoke a word. He was afraid his voice would betray him. His loathing for the creature sitting across from him made his insides burn. The animal pretending to be a man was calmly discussing the pleasures to be had from young flesh.

Lucas wanted to kill him.

He had to give Hunter his due, however. He knew his friend was just as repulsed by the obscene man. Yet he didn’t let his hatred show in his expression or his voice.

“How’d you come by so much money?” Boyd asked Hunter. “You’re a half-breed, ain’t you?”

Hunter ignored the second question and answered the first. “Gold,” he lied.

“You hit a strike?”

Hunter nodded. Boyd grinned. “Must have been a mighty big one,” he remarked.

“What about the Borders?” Hunter asked, trying to bring the man around to the main discussion.

“They already got themselves a buyer,” Boyd said. “They could be convinced to go back on their word. It was a woman buyer, after all.”

“A woman?” Hunter asked. He couldn’t quite hide his surprise.

Boyd gave Lucas a worried glance. “Your friend doesn’t talk much, does he?”

Hunter didn’t answer him. “You said the woman was a buyer?”

Boyd nodded. “She wants twins for her brothel. Least that’s what she told the Borders. You really willing to pay triple the asking price?”

“I got the money,” Hunter replied. “Might as well use some of it. If the twins are worth it,” he added. “I’d have to see them first.”

“And you’ll give me a split because I told you about them?”

“I already said I would.”

“What if they ain’t twins?” Boyd asked then. “I can’t be certain they are,” he admitted. He took a long swallow of whiskey, let out a loud belch, then wiped his mouth on the back of his sleeve. “I haven’t seen them. I heard the brothers had a pair of twins and their older brother. The boy’s a half-breed. Could be his sisters are, too. If that be the case, none of them will be worth a plug nickel.”

Hunter turned to Lucas. The message was clear in his eyes. He wanted to kill the bastard. He couldn’t stand to look at him another minute, and he’d heard quite enough. He reached for his knife.

Lucas shook his head. “Not yet,” he told his friend.

“Not yet what?” Boyd demanded to know.

“Tell me where they’re keeping the children,” Lucas ordered. He couldn’t keep his anger out of his voice and didn’t even try. Boyd didn’t seem to notice. His full attention was directed on the stack of bills Lucas had just placed on the table.

Boyd’s gaze was riveted on the sight. He puckered his lips together and reached for the money. Hunter’s knife stopped him. The blade sliced through the crack between Boyd’s fingers.

“Not so fast,” Hunter announced after Boyd had finished screeching at him.

“Give us the address first,” Lucas insisted. He poured Boyd another drink under the guise of friendship.

Boyd gave Hunter a glare and then drained his glass. He stared at the money another long minute, obviously trying to make up his mind. Then he blurted out the address.

“You won’t be telling how you found them, will you?”

Hunter wasn’t paying any attention to Boyd. He stared at Lucas, waiting for permission, no doubt, to kill the bastard.

Lucas denied him once again. “Boyd’s going with us,” he explained. “If he’s lying, you can kill him.”

“And if he isn’t lying?”

Since Boyd was following the conversation, Lucas lied. “We’ll give him the other half of the money.”

“I got me enough money here,” Boyd argued. He was so drunk now, his words were slurred together. “I ain’t going anywhere with you.”

It took all Lucas’s discipline not to reach across the table and grab the bastard by his neck. He forced a mild tone of voice when he spoke. “My friend likes to use his knife,” he said with a nod toward Hunter. “He does some pretty fancy work with his blade.”

Hunter raised an eyebrow, then smiled. “Thank you,” he replied, pretending to be pleased by the outrageous lie.

Boyd’s face was turning pale. It wasn’t good enough for Lucas. He acted as though he was discussing the weather when he continued. “He’s partial to skinning a man. He keeps him alive while he works on him. Isn’t that right?” he asked his friend.

Hunter nodded. “Wouldn’t be any fun if he were already dead. What’s the point then?”

“Exactly,” Lucas agreed. “What’s the point?”

Boyd was shaking now and giving worried glances around the saloon. He was apparently looking for someone to help him.

No one was giving him the time of day. “I’m a white man,” he protested.

Hunter smiled. “It’s all the same to me,” he drawled out.

Lucas nodded. “You called it, Boyd. My friend’s a half-breed and therefore a savage, right?”

Boyd nodded, then shook his head. He couldn’t seem to make up his mind to agree or disagree. He snorted. “You aren’t going to take me anywhere. I’m staying right where I am. There are too many people in this here saloon. Witnesses,” he added with a smug smile.

Five minutes later, Boyd had tears in his eyes. He was being dragged down the street between Lucas and Hunter.

They were looking for an alley. They found one two blocks later. They left Boyd there, bound and gagged and unconscious, behind a stack of wooden crates. They didn’t want Boyd having second thoughts and possibly alerting the Border brothers of trouble, and as Lucas patiently pointed out to Hunter when he demanded the right to kill the son of a bitch, they might need to ask Boyd more questions if the Borders had moved the children to another location. There was also the telling fact that neither one of them was a cold-blooded murderer.

“We might want to kill him, but we won’t,” Lucas said.

Hunter didn’t like being reminded of the truth. He growled low in his throat. “If we were in Montana Territory . . .”

“It would still be murder,” Lucas countered. “When this is finished, we’ll make certain everyone in town knows Boyd sold out his friends. That should make his life miserable.”

Hunter cheered up. He fell into step beside Lucas and walked down the main street. Neither said a word for several minutes. Then Hunter broke the silence.

>

“So I like to skin a man alive, do I?”

Lucas grinned. “I thought it was a nice touch.”

Hunter laughed. “Expectations,” he said with a nod. “He expected me to behave like a savage.”

“And I merely reinforced his own ignorant beliefs.”

The two men put Boyd out of their minds. They found the address they were looking for twenty minutes later. They had to backtrack twice. They were in the heart of the slum of the city, surrounded by tenement buildings. Clothing hung down from broken rails, windows were broken or altogether missing, and the sound of human misery echoed all around them. Babies cried while adults shouted. The dilapidated buildings were gray. The ground surrounding the housing was covered with garbage and worse. The stench was almost unbearable.

“They’re inside. I feel it in my gut, Lucas.”

“I got the same feeling,” Lucas said. “I’m going to have to go and get Taylor.”

“Why?”

“She’s the only one who will know for certain if the twins are her nieces,” he said. It was a lame excuse and they both knew it.

Hunter rolled his eyes heavenward. “How many twins do you think the Borders have up there? For God’s sake, Lucas, either way we’re going to get those children out of there.”

Lucas nodded. “I know,” he agreed. “But Taylor deserves to go with us. I promised her.”

Hunter quit arguing. “I’ll wait here,” he said. He was already moving into the shadows between the two buildings, looking for a spot where he could keep his gaze on both the front and the back doors. If the Borders decided to move the children, he wanted to know about it.

Lucas hailed a cabbie three blocks away. He had the driver wait for him in front of the hotel while he went upstairs to get Taylor.

She opened the door for him. She took one look at his dark expression and tried to brace herself for bad news.

He stopped her questions with an abrupt order. “Get your coat.”

She didn’t take the time to ask him where he was taking her. She ran to the wardrobe, grabbed her coat, and went running back to her husband. She patted the pocket to make certain her gun was still there.

Lucas gave her only a partial explanation of what had happened. He didn’t go into any detail about Boyd. He didn’t want to waste the time.

Taylor was gripping her hands together. She was tense and frightened.

“You say the little girls have an older brother with them?”

“That’s what we were told.”

They reached the vehicle. Lucas assisted Taylor inside. She waited until they were on their way before speaking again.

“If they have an older brother, they can’t be my sister’s twins.”

“Do you want to go back?”

“Of course not,” she cried out. “You insult me by asking such a question. We’re going to get these children away from the vile animals first. Then we keep looking for my babies.”

He was pleased with her answer. “I want you to stay between Hunter and me the entire time we’re inside.”

“Yes.”

“You’ll do exactly what I tell you to do. No arguments.”

“No arguments,” she promised.

The list of his orders continued. Taylor understood why he was being so harsh and sounding so angry. He wanted to keep her safe. Worry made his voice take on a hard edge. She found it comforting.

They were nearing the tenements when Lucas finished with his instructions. Because she looked so frightened, he decided to give her something positive to think about.

“By next week, you could be on your way to George’s relatives with the twins. Think about that happy reunion, Taylor.” He was offering her a glimmer of hope. He was surprised when she shook her head. She was staring out the window, taking in the godawful view, and barely paying any attention to what Lucas was saying.

The smell of boiling cabbage and human stench made her want to gag.

“Did you ever meet any of George’s relatives?” he asked.

He had to repeat his question because of her inattention. “The twins’ father,” he said. “Did you meet any of his relatives?”

She couldn’t imagine why he was asking such a strange question now.

“No, George was an orphan. He didn’t have any relatives. Look, there’s Hunter. He’s walking toward us.”

Taylor had the door opened before the vehicle came to a complete stop. Lucas paid the driver and offered the man a handsome bonus if he would wait for them. The lure of the money outweighed the cabbie’s concern about the safety of the neighborhood. He pulled out a rifle from under his perch, put it across his lap, and then promised to wait as long as thirty minutes.

Taylor waited next to Hunter until Lucas crossed the street. Then she moved to his side and took hold of his hand. She put her other hand in the pocket of her coat and held onto her Colt.

They walked in silence up the rickety steps of the tenement. Lucas went inside first. Taylor followed. Hunter was right behind her.

The apartment they were looking for was on the third floor and in the very back of the building. The floorboards creaked, but there was so much noise inside, they could have pounded their way down the hallway and not been overheard.

The walls were paper thin, as were the doors. When they reached the number they wanted, Lucas motioned for Taylor to stand against the wall several feet away. If there was gunfire, he didn’t want a stray bullet hitting her.

Hunter already had one of his guns out. Lucas readied his own, nodded to his friend, and then slammed his shoulder against the door and rushed inside. Hunter followed him.

A young man, around the age of twenty, had been asleep on the divan. He awakened to find Hunter’s six-shooter pressed against his temple.

A woman twice his age came running into the living room from the kitchen. She wore only a sheer nightgown. She had orange-colored hair and a heavily painted face. She didn’t try to cover herself. She sneered at Hunter and went running toward him with her hands out and her jagged nails ready to do injury, but she came to a quick stop when he pulled out his second gun and leveled it at her.

She apparently decided to take a different approach. She put her hands on her hips and pulled the material of her nightgown tight against her so he’d be sure to see what she was offering and thrust her breasts out. “My name’s Shirleen. I do my business out of the bedroom back yonder. Why don’t you put your guns away, sugar? I can show you a real good time. It will only cost you a dollar, two if you want to use my mouth. I’m worth the money, aren’t I, Charlie?”

The man on the divan was too frightened to answer her. He didn’t even nod.

“You wouldn’t shoot a lady, would you, sugar?” she crooned at Hunter.

His voice was devoid of emotion when he answered her. “I’m not looking at a lady.”

She didn’t care for the insult. Her eyes became bare slits again. Hatred glowed from her expression. “You’re in the wrong place,” she told him. “This here belongs to the Borders.” The sneer was back in her voice. “They don’t take kindly to being robbed. They’ll cut you good if they catch you. You’d best get out of here while you still can.”

Hunter didn’t show any reaction to her threat. He simply stared at her and waited for her next move. Lucas had already made his way around the cramped apartment. There were two bedrooms. The first was empty, and from the rumpled and soiled bedding, he assumed that was the room the woman used to conduct her business. The second bedroom door was locked. He started to use his shoulder to break the barrier down, but then he heard the sound of a child crying. The noise was faint, yet still recognizable. Lucas stepped back. He was afraid to crash through the door for fear he would injure the child if he or she were standing close to the opening.

He needed the key.

“Surely you’ve heard of the Borders,” Shirleen muttered. “Everyone has heard of Billy and Cyrus.” She snorted with laughter. “You got to be new in town, sugar, or you

’d know how dangerous and foolhardy it is to dare to rob . . .”

“Give me the key to the bedroom door.”

Lucas issued the order from behind the woman’s back. She jumped a foot and whirled around. Until he spoke to her, she hadn’t realized there was more than one man inside the apartment with her.

This one was far more threatening to her than the other one holding Charlie captive. He didn’t make a sound when he moved. Only a man used to breaking the law knew how to walk like a shadow. Shirleen took a step away and tried to hide her fear.

Taylor walked inside then. Hunter told her to shut the door. She did as she was ordered, then turned around again.

She gave the scantily clad woman only a passing glance. It was enough, however, to convey her disgust. Her gaze moved on to the man stretched out on the divan. She noticed what he was doing, and since both Hunter and Lucas were watching her, she gave the warning.

Her gaze was on her husband when she spoke to Hunter. “He’s reaching for his gun. It’s probably under one of the cushions.”

Hunter smiled. “I know.”

She didn’t understand. If he knew what the man was doing, why didn’t he stop him?

Lucas understood. Hunter was waiting for an excuse to kill the vermin.

“No gunfire,” he called out to his friend.

Hunter frowned with disappointment. Then he let out a sigh. He flipped the gun around in his hand, and before his prisoner understood his intent, Hunter slammed the butt of his gun against the side of his head. He didn’t kill the man, but when he woke up, he was going to wish he were dead. His head was going to feel as though it had been split in two.

Hunter shoved the unconscious man onto the floor, then reached down between the cushions. He found the pistol hidden there and tucked the weapon in his belt.

It suddenly dawned on Shirleen that the strangers weren’t there simply to rob the place. Her gaze was locked on Taylor. She watched Taylor cross the room to the bedroom door, thinking that she looked like an angel. And for that reason alone, the threat she issued carried all the more substance.