Cole choked on air, boiling on the inside as his mouth filled with the salt of his own blood. Had he bitten through the inside of his cheek? Yes, he had. “I have the right to do whatever I please with my life! I can’t let him die! He’s a good person! And I’ll even go with both arms broken! I’ll find a way, and then I’ll take all of you to hell!”
Jan scooted to Cole’s eye level, exhaling as if this were very tedious. “I know what this is about. But he’s turned himself in, Cole. What do you think you’ll do once you get there? Be reasonable.”
There was no reason left in Cole when it came to this. His life wasn’t worth living without Ned, and if he couldn’t save him, he’d have to go through endless days and nights on his own, with guilt as his only companion.
Because whatever happened to Ned would be his fault.
He’d driven Ned to this madness.
“I don’t care! I need to try! I love him, Jan. He’s the only one for me, and I pushed him away!”
Jan’s sneer was so twisted his mouth twitched. “Maybe you should have thought twice before you told your man you hated him, but what do I know,” he grumbled as his frown deepened.
“I’d give my arm to turn back time, but I can’t! All I can do is get him out or die trying,” Cole cried, swallowing coppery saliva while he twisted with pain. He couldn’t stand this. If Ned died because of his selfishness, he’d never forgive himself.
Jan shook his head and took off his top hat as he stood up. “Don’t kill yourself just yet. Lemme think.”
“You can’t seriously be considering this a good idea,” Terje said, squeezing Cole’s arm harder.
Jan shut him up with a gesture and glanced at Cole with a devilish glint in his eye. There was a catch to the plan he’d come up with, but right now Cole would have signed a deal with the Devil in his own blood, regardless of the clauses. “Maybe we can kill two birds with one stone. Would you really do anything for him, Cole?”
Any other time, Cole would have approached such a question as if it were a sleeping mountain lion, but if Jan knew someone who could help or had an idea that might save Ned, the risk was negligible. He’d be considering consequences once Ned was safely back in his arms. “Don’t you toy with me! Spit it out!”
“I’ve got an idea, but if you both come out alive, you will stay with us, Deadeye. At half pay.” Jan circled Cole as if he were Satan himself, demanding Cole’s soul as an offering.
“That’s it?” Cole mumbled without thinking, hanging off Roger and Terje as his entire attention focused on Jan’s smirk.
“I could ask you to stay for no pay, but then you’d have to find new ways to fill your pockets. And I can’t have that kind of attention around my show. So yes, just the rest of your life.”
“Yes. We will stay,” Cole said, nodding as ecstatic fog rose in his skull. He’d never planned to let people tame him, but freedom would be a small price to pay for Ned’s life.
“I happen to own a police uniform. The same one the local street officers wear. If you manage to pull Ned out without getting killed, be in the basement of the Crying House by five and not a minute later.”
Cole stalled, confused by the mention of the old haunted house. “What? Why the hell would I go there?”
Jan waved his hand, but the hold on Cole’s arms was already growing weaker. “If you want my help Cole, you gotta trust me. It’s a lesson you should finally learn. Weren’t you in a hurry?”
When Cole rose this time, Terje and Roger let him go. Without them pulling him down, he felt stronger than ever and ready to take on an entire police station. Ned’s eyes would brighten once he saw Cole, and they’d run off to safety. And if Cole ended up bleeding out before he even got into the building? So be it.
He’d never been afraid to die for the things he believed in.
“Where’s the uniform?”
Chapter 26
The uniform must have belonged to a bulkier man because even after Cole fastened the brass buttons of the long jacket and tightened the belt, the thick black wool scratched the back of his neck, as if it meant to choke him. On the upside, it also created the illusion of broader shoulders, which would play to Cole’s advantage and obscure his identity. He’d stolen a few hairpins from a bowl resting on someone’s windowsill and had used them to secure his long hair under the helmet. Only once that was done did he step out of a narrow alley and onto the street.
In the time it had taken him to get there, he’d gone from wanting to force his way into Ned’s cell to a more realistic plan. He no longer had an entire gang to back him up in moments of crisis, and since he lacked the manpower, it was wise to use deception instead.
Ned was the talk of the town, and Cole had even overheard two patrolmen discussing his unexpected arrival at the station while he was hitching his horse. It hit him like a baton, but as he leaned against Carol’s warm body, resting one hand on the well-used saddle and the other on her soft muzzle, worry soon transformed into relief. Ned might be in captivity, but he was very much alive, ready to run as soon as Cole got him out.
Cole had already scouted the haunted house location on the way, and while navigating out in the wilderness came to him with way more ease, once he reimagined the tall buildings as mountains crisscrossed by caves and the busiest streets as rivers, the route became clear in his mind.
Everything was ready.
Even he was ready, but faced with the imposing building with a clock tower in the middle and grand windows, he couldn’t help the cold sense of dread spreading through his insides like mercury. It poisoned every bit of him, causing cramps and a hot flush that would surely end up giving him away, but there could only be two endings to this story. Either both he and Ned ran away, or they both died. There was no middle ground. And if the dice didn’t fall in their favor, then the savings he’d gathered through outlawry and bounties in the past seven years would go toward Tommy’s keep.
The police station ahead eyed him with suspicion. But then a stranger tipped his hat at Cole, and one look at his reflection in a shop window told him that while he felt like a clown dressed for a cheap show somewhere in the countryside, everyone else saw an officer meant to protect their safety.
There had never been a chest less worthy of the tin badge than his. He’d killed, stolen, and demolished property for rewards much less precious than the life of the man he loved. But he was a bastard and would use it to his advantage nevertheless.
He couldn’t believe he’d been so blind that he’d overlooked not only Ned’s honesty but also his own feelings. The truth had always been there, and he’d just chosen not to see it. His eyes were finally open, and he’d keep them that way.
He nodded back at the polite stranger and walked on with a spring to his step. The afternoon sun shone behind him, and the shadow he cast certainly looked the part he was playing. The closer he was to the entrance, the more comfortable he felt in the assumed role, a wolf wearing the pelt of a sheep as it carefully approached the herd. They’d remain ignorant of his presence until it was too late, until Cole sank his teeth into flesh and drew blood to rip Ned from behind bars.
He was about to walk up the steps to the grand entrance at the front, when the twin doors swung open, pulling Cole out of his predatory high and back to the streets of Denver. He’d only ever gotten a glimpse of Thaddeus Craig in real life, but was acquainted well enough with his likeness from photographs to recognize him the moment the US Marshal headed his way in the company of two policemen.