Page 36 of The Copper Heir (The Gilded West #1)

Running a hand over his face, he acknowledged that she was quickly becoming an obsession.

This was madness. The entire situation had gotten completely out of hand.

She was his hostage and, though they could be lovers—he’d accepted that bizarre breach of his values—they could not be anything more permanent.

Cas needed him to help save his hacienda and Hunter wouldn’t let him down. He couldn’t be sidetracked by her.

“Miguel,” she repeated. “He’s part of your gang?”

“Castillo’s little brother.” He nodded, answering without calculating how much he should tell her. He was so desperate for any part of her that he wanted to tell her anything she wanted to know about him.

“But not your brother?”

“Cas was born to my father’s first wife. Miguel was born long after my father...moved on. He’s a good kid, though. Loyal to Cas. It’s what got him in trouble.”

She stared at him long and hard before saying, “So they divorced? Your father and his first wife?”

“Not precisely.”

“Oh.” She chewed her bottom lip as her mind worked over that information. He couldn’t stop himself from smiling as he watched her come to the logical conclusion. “But...but that means...”

“It means my father is a sinner bent on eternal damnation,” he teased.

Her plump lips dropped open a bit as if she didn’t quite know what to make of that. He found himself staring at them, wanting to taste them again. “And you’re a bastard,” she finally said.

“In the eyes of God, I suppose I am, but not according to the great Territory of Montana. There was a war going on when my father married Marisol. They never made it legal, just said a few words in a church because she was pregnant and I imagine because Cas’s grandfather had a loaded rifle he wasn’t afraid to use. ”

He sat forward again, drawn to her in a way he couldn’t even comprehend enough to resist. “You see, we’re not really all that different, you and I.” He’d never spoken truer words. The knowledge made his breath catch for a moment.

She wanted to agree. It was plain to see in her eyes that she wanted to jump that divide between them. Instead, she changed the subject. “I want to know what this whole thing is about. How did your gang become involved with Ship’s?”

He rose to hide his smile and walked to the sideboard to pour himself a cognac.

He admired how she tried to keep formality between them and a part of him hoped she accomplished the task, but he didn’t feel like her captor anymore than she felt like his captive.

The formality was a barrier. She didn’t know it, but the more she tried to put it between them, the more he wanted to tear it down. “Come have a drink with me.”

He poured her a cognac as well and turned to her with both in hand.

When she shook her head, he walked over and took a seat on the couch before the fireplace.

He’d lit a fire earlier in the evening, but it was burning low now.

Setting her snifter on the low table, he sat back into the corner of the cushions so that he could still see her over the low back and took a small sip.

Enjoying the first taste as it covered his tongue and warmed its way down to his stomach, he closed his eyes.

“I didn’t know I had a brother until Cas showed up here a little more than five years ago.

He’d come to tell our father that his mother had just died.

It had been her last wish that he see his father again.

” Glancing down at the dark amber liquid in the snifter, he clenched his jaw.

Those hadn’t been the words he’d meant to say.

He’d meant to tell her about the shooting that had made Campbell angry.

There had been no need for her to understand everything that had happened since Miguel and Cas had come into his life, but he had an undeniable need to tell her so that she would understand.

So that she would know that there was a reason for all that was happening. That it meant something.

There was a shifting of movement and, without looking up, he knew that she was walking closer.

He didn’t want to scare her away, though, so he didn’t acknowledge her, just kept staring down at the liquor cupped in his hands and continued his story.

He’d started it, so he might as well finish it.

“Honor is important to Cas. He’d never make a promise without honoring it.

So he came here, fulfilled his vow, then turned around and left.

Wouldn’t stay and get to know the father who’d abandoned him and I can’t say I blame him.

“When he left, I followed him and caught up to him just outside of town. You could tell that life hadn’t been kind to him.

He was angry and didn’t trust anyone. It was all I could do to get him to agree to stay in town with me for a couple of days.

” Hunter grew quiet as he remembered those few days.

Cas had been haunted by his mother’s passing and angry at the task she’d assigned him.

He had never wanted to meet his father and he sure as hell hadn’t cared to meet siblings.

But over those days they’d discovered they shared more similarities than they’d originally imagined, despite the differences in how they’d been raised.

Hunter had returned to university in the fall, but the year he completed his studies he’d ridden down to Texas to meet up with his brother.

After a lifetime of only his father, he’d found in Cas and his gang a family that he’d never known.

“Cas’s grandfather had come over from Spain years ago with the idea of making his fortune in the cattle business.

Looks like he gave it a good try, but the ranch was falling down around them and their calves were getting picked off by rival ranchers hoping to make them sell out.

I got there in time to help defend their border, but then other property owners came to us for help.

One thing led to another and before you knew it we were the Reyes Brothers or gang or whatever the hell they call us.

Then his grandfather was murdered and we can’t stop until Cas gets justice. ”

By this time she’d perched on the other end of the couch and he chanced a look at her. She seemed thoughtful as she listened, her head tilted at a slight angle. “Why wouldn’t your father help him?” she asked when he caught her gaze. “He clearly has enough to spare.”

“He would, but Cas wouldn’t accept.” Their father had gifted them both with mining interests, but Cas hadn’t touched his.

He hadn’t even acknowledged it, leaving Hunter to manage it all.

“Cas won’t acknowledge my father. It’s his honor.

His life is his hacienda, his family and fulfilling his grandfather’s vision.

If he can’t save his home, he believes he doesn’t deserve anything.

Not the mines that he should rightfully inherit, especially not from a father he doesn’t accept. ”

“And you feel guilty, as if...maybe, he should be here, own all of this, instead of you?”

He was nodding before he ever even realized it. “Some.”

She nodded, a furrow appearing between her brow as she looked down.

The light from the fire flickered on the pale skin of her neck and he vividly recalled tasting the sweet flesh and wondered if he’d left a mark.

He wanted to mark her all over. Glancing to her profile, he noticed her soft lips, the bottom one plump and pink.

Was it his imagination or was it pinker today than yesterday?

Shifting, he took a deep breath and forced his attention back to his story.

“We started slipping across the border and bringing back some of his cattle that had been illegally sold off. Because that was so easy, before long we started bringing back other cattle, too.” He grinned.

“That makes people angry, so they started following us and we had to fight them off. You do that enough, people think you’re the one causing trouble.

Maybe we were.” They’d never caused problems for anyone who hadn’t deserved them.

“Outlaws are a jealous lot and they lack imagination. Soon, we were fending off all the unsavory types trying to get a piece of our business. That’s when we came across Campbell.

He approached Cas to partner up, but that’s not how we operate.

Campbell didn’t like that so he started spreading lies about us, tried to get a jump on our jobs, just being a jackass and doing what he could to make things difficult for us.

Then one day we were in Crystal City. It’s another story, but we’d followed Miguel there.

We met up with a man named Hardy who sometimes ran with Campbell.

Before we knew it, he was drawing on us.

He didn’t realize that nobody outdraws Cas.

He was dead before he knew what happened.

“Miguel was not at the saloon with us. Campbell found him before we did and took off with him. We tried to follow them, but lost the tracks after a storm. So we tracked down one of his friends and he told us about you. The rest you know.”

He paused to meet her gaze. “We have to get him back, Emmy. Miguel is only seventeen, he was just a kid when all this started and didn’t have a choice about joining the gang.

The gang was his family. If he’s hurt because of the choices Cas and I have made, then I don’t know if Cas can ever forgive himself. We have to find him.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I hate like hell that you’re in the middle of this, but I don’t know what else to do. I want you to understand that I wouldn’t send you back if there was another choice.”

Her deep blue eyes stared into his for so long that he wanted to pull her into his arms and damn the world. His fingers clenched on the snifter to keep him from doing just that.

“I’m sorry that he took Miguel. I know that he won’t hurt him.”

“I wish I could be so confident.”

“I wish for many things.” She took a deep breath. “Hunter...if things were different, would you keep me here? With you?”

“Yes.” The word came out forceful. Definitive.

Her eyes widened in shock and he knew that she hadn’t expected his answer.

Neither had he. It just came out, but it was the truth.

One night hadn’t even been close to enough of her, because her body wasn’t all that he wanted.

He wanted everything. He wanted to know her: to know her favorite things, to know what she hated, to know everything about her life before him.

But dammit all to hell, he couldn’t have her.

Cas needed him and he’d die before he turned his back on his brother.

She rose and fled the room before he could tell her that.