CHAPTER 14

Cat saw the man in the checkered suit later that day. He came into the Silver Slipper, took a table near the door, and ordered a beer. His gaze scoured the room as if seeking someone.

She set the beer down in front of the man and paused. “You’re new here,” she observed in as friendly a tone as she could manage.

He shrugged and took the beer but only sipped at it.

“From around here?” Cat persisted. She forced a certain sultriness into her voice, a low husky quality that usually got her anything she wanted from the man she used it on.

“Oakland.”

“Business?”

“Look, miss, if it’s the same to you, I’d just like to drink my beer.”

Cat shrugged. “Your pleasure, mister. If you need anything, I’m Catalina Hilliard, owner of the Silver Slipper.”

“Owner?” he said. His eyes went down, and Cat saw a folded piece of paper protruding from his pocket. He seemed indecisive for a moment, then shook his head. “Just the beer,” he said.

Cat went to the bar. “Keep an eye on him,” she told the bartender. “Let me know when he leaves.”

She decided to go upstairs and work on the books. She felt a bit spooked and needed to concentrate on something orderly and neat that ended up giving her definite answers. On impulse she stopped by Molly’s room and knocked.

“It’s Catalina,” she said.

The door opened, and the girl stood there, her long light-brown hair flowing free, looking impossibly young. She gave Catalina such a tentative smile that it hurt. Cat suddenly felt very old.

She looked around the room that Molly rarely left and wondered whether it mustn’t be rather like a prison.

“Is Teddy back?” the girl asked shyly.

Cat shook her head. She was beginning to worry.

She watched the shy anticipation on the girl’s face fade, and she felt a loss herself. She wished Molly would confide in her, but she seemed to trust only Teddy. Perhaps Molly saw the same innate gentleness that Cat had noticed years ago.

“I was going to work on the books,” she said, “but it’s such a fine day, perhaps I might take a carriage to the cliffs and watch the seals. Would you like to go?”

Molly smiled and nodded her head.

“I’ll order a carriage,” Cat said, pleased at Molly’s rare pleasure. Cat needed to get away herself, to feel the sea breeze and watch the sea. It always renewed her in some mysterious way. She needed renewal at the moment. She needed to forget Canton, to get away from the knowledge that he was only steps away.

Part of her wanted to run away. Again.

But she’d stopped running.

The last thought settled inside, and she felt suddenly free. Free and young. She nearly skipped when she went down the stairs and told Harry to have someone call a carriage. She saw the man in the checkered suit finish his beer and head for the door, and she felt a moment’s relief.

After finding a shawl for herself and a cape for Molly she collected the girl, went out the front door, and got into a waiting carriage.

Once inside and settled down opposite Molly, Cat remembered another carriage ride just days ago. The thought drained some of the excitement she felt. She wished for Canton’s overwhelming masculine presence and then banished the thought and smiled at Molly.

At last the carriage rolled to a stop, and the driver hopped down to help them out. Catalina led the way to the edge of the cliff. The rocks below were home to a colony of seals. It wasn’t the same place where Canton had taken her; she didn’t want to relive that experience and the sensations its memory invoked.

Molly relaxed as she watched the seals play, sliding off the rocks in chase of a fish or flapping their flippers in the warmth of the sun. They were so free. So oblivious to the dangers around them. She shivered in the sun.

“Cold?” Cat asked.

Molly shook her head.

Cat sighed. She’d hoped that Molly would talk to her, tell her what she feared. But she also knew how difficult it was to do that, and that no one could force it. Cat had confided a small piece of her past to only one person, and that only after years. “I’ve been thinking,” she started carefully, “that you sew so well, you might think about your own shop.”

Molly’s eyes widened. “But I can’t … I don’t have any money.”

“My dressmaker has said she needs some help. Perhaps you can work with her, learn the business. The Silver Slipper is no place for you.”

Molly’s lips trembled. “I … I don’t want to leave.”

“Then you don’t have to. But do think about it.” In one of the few spontaneous gestures in her life, she put her arm around the girl and led her back to the carriage. And to the Silver Slipper.

Marsh muttered to himself. It was none of his business.

He’d gone to the door when Cat and the young girl he’d seen at the Silver Slipper slipped out and left in the coach. The man in the checkered suit was lurking in the shadows as usual.

The mutter turned into an oath. Marsh was no longer a hired gun, for Christ’s sake. He didn’t need to protect anyone. And he had warned Catalina Hilliard, though he suspected she didn’t take the warning seriously. The hell with it. She’d obviously looked after herself for a long time. And well too.

At least the man didn’t follow the carriage.

Marsh went behind the bar, poured a glass of whiskey, and gulped it down. It tasted like poison, goddammit.

The Glory Hole was crowded, particularly around the gambling tables. He should feel good about this place, but all he felt was a nagging worry he didn’t understand.

A low growl came from his left, and he saw Win bare his teeth at a customer who stepped too close. He should ban the damned dog during the day, but he couldn’t force himself to do it. Winchester had become something like his shadow, though the dog still wouldn’t tolerate even the suggestion of a touch.

Like Catalina.

Well, not exactly. Catalina tolerated it up to a point.

Tolerate. Well, perhaps more than tolerate, but then …

His mind went back to the stranger. Should he mention the man’s continued interest to Cat?

He decided against it. She hadn’t believed him the first time. Why now?

But still, he thought, it wouldn’t hurt to keep an eye on the man. Perhaps he even had some information about Cat.…

The prospect didn’t excite him as it should.

What in God’s name was happening to him?

He would ride out again, he thought, and do some more shooting. The one absolute in his life. The one thing he did better than anyone else.

He strode out of the saloon to the livery stable, saddled his horse, and rode out. He’d ridden for about fifteen minutes when he realized he wasn’t going to the spot in the hills he’d selected for target practice; he was heading to the place he had taken Catalina—the one place where he might escape this increasing loneliness, the isolation that had never bothered him before but was beginning to eat at him now.

Don’t go there, he told himself.

But he continued on, drawn by something he couldn’t explain.

Calvin Tucker fingered the bills. He’d just told Adams where his daughter was.

“Did you talk to her?”

Calvin shook his head. “I didn’t know if that was what you wanted. You just said information.”

“You’ve done well, Tucker. Now there’s something else I want you to do.”

Calvin didn’t like the look in Edwin Adams’s eyes. But he liked the man’s money. He liked it very much indeed.

“I’m at your service, Mr. Adams,” he said, trying not to sound like the ex-policeman he was. He had been fired when his graft offended even his superiors, because he hadn’t shared sufficient amounts of it.

“I want you to bring her back here.”

Calvin rocked on his feet. “She’s obviously not being held against her will,” he said. “What if she doesn’t want to come?” He had privately wondered why the girl would run from wealth to a saloon, no matter how fashionable the latter.

“She’s my daughter,” Adams said icily. “It doesn’t matter what she wants.” He paused for effect. “There’s five thousand dollars in it for you, when you bring her home.”

Calvin hesitated. “I might need to hire some men to help me.”

The banker turned around in his swivel chair and bent down to a safe. His fingers worked the combination, then reached inside, withdrawing a stack of bills. He counted out several before putting the others back in the safe and closing the door.

He straightened up in the chair and reached out with the bills. “There’s two hundred for additional men. And I expect results.”

“Yes, sir,” Calvin said, thinking he had just hit the jackpot. He could hire a few thugs for less than fifty dollars. He started to add the sums: one thousand for the information, five thousand for the girl, and now an extra hundred and fifty.

“And I expect discretion,” the banker added. “No one is to know of this.”

Calvin nodded. He would use his hired men to grab the girl, and then he would return her himself.

“Well, get on with it,” Adams said with curt dismissal. “I expect to have her back this week.”

Calvin touched the tip of his hat. “I’ll have her back,” he said confidently, before strutting from the room.

Teddy returned the day after the carriage ride. He walked into the kitchen where Cat, Molly, Wilhelmina, and two of the other girls were finishing the noon meal.

A look of relief spread over his broad face when he saw them, and then his gaze settled on Molly. A smile replaced relief—a sweet, protective smile, Cat thought.

Cat looked at him quizzically. “Glad to have you back.”

Teddy’s gaze didn’t leave Molly. “Any problems?”

A big one across the street, Cat wanted to say, but she resisted. Canton was her problem.

She shook her head.

“The cancan?”

“An unqualified success. Customers are packing in.”

“The Glory Hole?”

She shrugged. “It’s still there.”

“I noticed that,” Teddy said with the faintest twinkle in his eyes. “Doing a good business, from what I can see.”

“Temporarily,” Cat muttered.

“No other problems?”

“There are always problems.” She wondered whether she should mention the man in the checkered suit but decided against it. She still couldn’t dismiss the possibility it was only one of Canton’s tricks to worry her. In fact, she had grown more certain of that as she had reviewed her own conversation with the man in the checkered suit. There had been no flicker of recognition in his eyes at seeing her, or hearing her name—no undue interest.

Molly’s gaze had darted between the two of them. She clutched the shawl around her shoulders, sensing that they needed to talk. “I’ll go upstairs,” she said, starting to turn away, then looked back and smiled hesitantly at Teddy. “I’m glad you’re back.”

Cat rose and went over to Teddy, drawing him away from the others even as he stared at the girl disappearing out the door, an oddly vulnerable look on his face.

“Was your trip successful?”

Teddy flushed. His hand dug down in his pocket, and he pulled out the folded flyer. He watched as Cat took it, unfolded the paper, and quickly perused it. “Let’s go up to my room,” she said then. Without giving him a chance to answer, she led the way up to her room, which also served as her office.

The door firmly shut, Cat asked, “How long have you had this?”

“Since just before I left.”

“Have you told Molly?”

He looked miserable. “No. I thought I would see what I could find out about this man.”

“And?”

“He’s a banker in Oakland. Respected. I … met him, and …”

Cat waited patiently.

“I didn’t like him,” Teddy said flatly. “I don’t know why.”

Cat paced around the room. She was remembering how Molly looked when she first came to the Silver Slipper. Hungry. Tired. Desperate. Why would she run from her own father?

Unless … he was like Cat’s first husband. Or she was pregnant, but if so, Cat would have noticed by now. Molly had been here nearly two months.

“Wealthy?”

Teddy nodded.

That explained her ineptitude at so many things. And why she could sew. Most young girls, even wealthy ones, learned how to sew. Cat thought for a moment. “Canton’s noticed a man hanging around for the past several days.”

“Canton?” Teddy started. “He told you?”

“I thought he might have been making it up,” Cat said. “A tale to worry me.” Cat shrugged. “The man Canton described came in earlier. I tried to talk to him, but he didn’t seem interested. He left after drinking a beer.”

“Could he have seen Molly?”

“I don’t think so,” Cat replied. “She’s been staying upstairs except for when we went for a carriage ride. And the man had already left by then.”

Teddy’s brows furrowed. “Should we tell Molly … Mary Beth?”

“She has to be warned,” Cat said, taking the poster and smoothing it out. A thousand dollars. How many people had seen it? Sweet Lucifer. Even Canton. Canton would take advantage of this. But then she thought of his warning and wondered whether she was being fair. But that didn’t matter now. Only Molly mattered now.

Cat nodded. “I’ll tell her.”

“She can still stay here?”

“Of course.”

Teddy started to turn toward the door and then glanced back as an afterthought. “The cancan really did well?”

“Customers are standing against the walls,” Cat said. “And the dancers are teaching some of our girls how to do it. We can continue after they leave.”

“I’m sorry I’ve been gone so long.”

Cat’s green eyes softened. “I missed you, Teddy, but you’re family. Whatever, whenever, you need anything …?”

Teddy looked embarrassed. “I’d better go downstairs. Check the inventory.”

She nodded as he disappeared out the door, and she wondered how she was going to talk to Molly. She had no experience at protecting and mothering. Crisp authority? Gentle sympathy? But she knew nothing about gentle sympathy. Crisp authority—that was the best.

Molly overheard parts of Teddy’s and Cat’s talk, and knew she had to leave. Immediately. She would run until she couldn’t run anymore.

She moved silently back to her room and gathered her few belongings, and the dollars Miss Cat had paid for her sewing. At least she had something this time, thanks to the owner of the Silver Slipper.

Now to leave without anyone seeing her.

The thought was excruciating. Teddy and Miss Cat were the first true friends she’d ever had. And Teddy, with his kind eyes and inherent sweetness, had given her so much hope. But she had to protect them as well as herself. They had no idea what her father was capable of, to what lengths he would go in destroying people who befriended her.

Molly moved swiftly to the hall door that opened onto the steps leading down to the alley.

The alley was empty. She walked quickly to the street that fronted the Silver Slipper, then hesitated. Where to go? There were carriages for hire in front of a hotel a few blocks to the north.

Molly glanced around. Two men were loitering in front of the Silver Slipper. Neither looked familiar. They approached her. Something told her to run. She turned back toward the Silver Slipper, but a hand caught her; another went across her mouth.

A scream died in her throat as she felt a piece of cloth stuffed against her mouth and nose. She struggled as a sickening sweetness filled her nostrils.