Legend (Legend, Colorado 1)

Turning, he gave her a look of shock. “You seem to go to bed with other men, so why not me?”

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re despicable?”

“Not any women, no, can’t say that they have.”

At that she swept past him and started walking up the road to where she knew the old Jordan homestead was.

As she walked, she looked around her. She had seen Legend in two different guises. First she had come to know and love Cole’s dream town, with pretty houses, a school with a big playground, and no signs of the wickedness of life.

Later she had seen the town with Ruth. Then it had been abandoned for years and the buildings were already beginning to fall down. But now the town was a sad sight indeed. Very few buildings had roofs on them, and many had fallen into a heap of boards on the ground.

As she walked, she could feel sadness creeping into her as she thought how the place could have been and what had happened to keep it from being great.

“How was it when you were here?” Tarik asked from beside her, and for once he didn’t seem to be teasing her. At first Kady thought she wouldn’t answer him; she didn’t want to hear his snide remarks about time travel, but the melancholy of her memories was overwhelming her.

“Down that road was the school with a huge sports field. I guess Cole dreamed that one up because a playground would be very important to a nine-year-old. This was the freight depot, and down there was the biggest ice cream parlor you ever saw.”

She began to walk faster as she pointed out each building. Like Cole, she ignored that most of the buildings seemed to have been saloons, choosing to remember what they had been when she’d been with Cole.

“This was the Jordan Line, but when I was here, it was just a pretty hedge,” she said, looking at the remains of a stone wall that had once separated the “good” and “bad” parts of town from each other. “This was named Paradise Lane, and the church there was large and pretty, and this was a huge library.”

Turning right, she stopped before the little road that she knew led to the Jordan homestead. “Down there Cole built a mosque.” Turning, she looked up at Tarik. “It was in memory of his best friend, who was killed with him.” Her voice lowered. “He was named Tarik, like you.”

While she stood there, the heaviness of the place beginning to weigh on her, he took her hand in his and raised it to his lips.

When she saw that his eyes were full of pity, Kady jerked away from him. “You don’t believe me, so don’t pretend that you do.”

He scowled at her. “I don’t know why you have the opinion that I am a monster without feeling, but whether or not I believe you met people who lived a hundred years ago is of no consequence. I can see that this place upsets you. Would you like to leave and go back to Denver? Or New York?”

“And what about Ruth’s codicil? Are you willing to forfeit the money for three years?”

“You could return to New York with me, and for the next three years, I could make all the decisions and you could sign all the papers.”

She blinked up at him. “Work with you? Every day? For three years?”

He gave her a one-sided grin. “Sounds good to me.”

Kady began walking again. “And how would your lovely Leonie like that?”

“She’s not the jealous type, and besides, what would there be for her to be jealous of? It’s not as though you and I—”

“Right,” she said over her shoulder. “It’s not as though there is anything between us. In fact . . .” Halting, she turned back to him. “Why don’t you leave here? You’ve told your uncle that I’m family, so he won’t be shooting at me anymore, so I don’t need you any longer.” In spite of her words, Kady’s heart nearly stopped. Part of her wanted to throw her arms around him and beg him not to leave her with this frightening old man. But another part wanted him to go away so she’d never see him again.

Tarik didn’t bother answering. “The Hanging Tree is down this way. Want to see it?”

“I have, thank you,” she said, letting out her pent-up breath and starting to walk again.

But what Kady had forgotten was that the cemetery was also that way. When she’d been with Ruth, she’d refused to enter it, but now, in the bright sunlight, she stopped before the falling-down fence and stared in hypnotic fascination at the weathered stones.

“Come on,” Tarik said gently, pulling her by the hand.

“No,” she whispered. “I don’t want to see.”

But he was insistent. “Come on, you have to.”

“No!” she said more fiercely, trying to pull back from him.

But he wouldn’t release her hand, and when she tugged harder, he pulled her into his arms. “Kady, please,” he said, holding her and stroking her hair. “I want you to trust me. Haven’t I always been here for you?”