CHAPTER19
When they walked into the house, Mary felt such a sense of relief. It felt so good to be home with her men. But they had some explaining to do.
Frank had told her what they did to him; had they done it to others?
She went into the kitchen and started the stove once again, so her roast could continue cooking and then she returned to the living room where they waited.
“Tell me everything,” she said. “I don’t want any other secrets between us. Secrets are so ugly. Look at my sister and Frank’s relationship. If only she had agreed to leave him, she would still be alive. I’m not going to put up with secrets between us.”
The men’s faces were blank like they didn’t expect her to be so stern, but she needed to know now if she’d gotten herself into some slimy marriage. She was done with running. Time to face her problems head-on.
“We were young,” Andrew said. “Broke.”
“Stupid,” Jesse said. “And then one night while we were playing cards, two men at our table got into a fight.”
Andrew started to laugh. “They were throwing punches and then soon it seemed most of the saloon was fighting. We didn’t want to fight, and most of the money on the table was ours. So we grabbed it up and ran out the door.”
With a sigh, Jesse said, “We left town immediately fearing that someone would come after us. But no one did. That’s when we realized the law was not going in there to find out who robbed them. We had just found a way to make money playing cards.”
They were silent for a moment and then Andrew shook his head. “We were out east at the time. We had been trying to find work, and instead, we learned how to gamble and cheat.”
Her men paced the floor like caged tigers.
“It was in a saloon in Savannah where we met up with Frank Thompson, only we didn’t know who he was. Or that he would remember us,” Jesse said.
Mary was stunned. Her honest, hard-working men had not come about their money in a good way.
“We started heading toward Montana, only now, we started the fights with one another. Soon we’d have all the drunks going at one another and while they were fighting, we’d sneak out with all the cash on the table,” Andrew said, shaking his head. “We did that all the way to Kansas City.”
Suddenly Mary knew how Jesse had been injured. She gasped. “You were shot in Kansas City.”
“Yes,” Jesse said. “A man we had previously taken money from shot me when we started the fight. If it hadn’t been for Andrew, I’d be dead.”
They were all silent for a moment and then Mary shook her head. “Did you not realize you were stealing?”
“Yes, we did,” Andrew said. “And there is no excuse for what we did. It’s why we are now trying to pay back some of the mine’s earnings to help people.”
“If we hadn’t done this, we could not have purchased the mine. We would not be able to employ people in the mine or help others. We were dead broke when we started. Now we’re no longer broke, but we feel guilty for what we’ve done.”
It was wrong. Her good men had committed a crime. They were wrong and yet she knew they were worthy men.
“We promise you, we will never do this again,” Andrew said. “In fact, we don’t even go into saloons any longer. Not our kind of place.”
They walked the floor glancing at her uneasily like they were afraid she was going to run out the door. But they didn’t have to worry. She loved them and even good men sometimes did bad things.
“After I almost died, we agreed it was time to end our criminal activities and come home. So we did. And since then, we’ve been good, honest men. Frank Thompson was the first man to come here and recognize us.”
“But there could be more,” Mary said, thinking how much she loved them.
“Are you going to leave us?” Andrew asked, his dark eyes clouded over.
What should she do? Did she stay with men who had committed crimes? But that was not who they were now. She believed they were sorry for what they had done and she hoped and prayed no one else ever recognized them. And besides, they owned her heart.
“Will you promise me you’ll never steal again?”
“We promise,” they both said at the same time.
For a moment, she stared at both of them and then she smiled.
“How can I leave you when my heart is connected to yours. I love you, Andrew. I love you, Jesse, and if you don’t take me to bed soon, I’m going to just wither here on this sofa and die with need for you.”
Andrew pulled her up from the couch. Jesse turned her neck to face him and his lips covered hers. The kiss was harsh and controlling, and she felt like she’d died and gone to heaven.
Suddenly he released her lips, shaking his head. His eyes were wide with what almost looked like fright.
“Mary, I love you so much, I can’t imagine my life without you,” Jesse said. “Don’t ever give up on us.”
Warmth filled her as she realized that her men were just as much in love with her as she was with them.
“Then take me to the bedroom and fuck me. Make me yours,” she said, her eyes filling with tears. So much had happened today that she needed to feel their arms around her. She needed the care that only her men could give her.
Her cowboys laughed and they all ran up the stairs and into the room she considered their hideaway from the world. Their place where the magic happened and they took each other to the moon and back every night.
“Are you certain you don’t want to wait until tonight?” Jesse teased.
“No, I don’t,” she said, running her hand down his face. “I need you, my husbands. Now.”
He turned her around and quickly unbuttoned her dress. While she was removing her clothing, she heard their shirts and then their pants hit the floor.
The sun shone brightly inside the bedroom, and frankly, she didn’t care. All she knew was she wanted both of them at the same time.
Quickly, she lay on the bed and Jesse came to her side while Andrew crawled between her legs.
“Are you certain you’re ready?”