Chapter 4

Chapter Four

T he hot wind whipped his hair harshly and drove the acrid stench of death into Cal's nostrils. It was hard to concentrate on the task at hand when Jesse's story kept replaying in his mind. When the younger man had prompted them to play for information, Cal had been hoping he'd catch him in a story full of bullshit to help ease his thoughts about him. Being around Jesse was bad for his brain and caused him to feel like he was in a constant state of fighting through mental fog. His playful, full-of-shit smirk was starting to haunt him in his dreams, as was the firm form Cal caught sneaky glances of when he had allowed him some time in the bath.

What had his heart arguing with the logic center of his brain was the fact that Jesse's foolhardy actions had been to help his brother and niece. Goddamnit, he had wanted just a sliver of a lie to be in that story, but there was nothing there but open honesty. Jesse had told him the damn truth, and he could see it in his cunning, pretty eyes.

He had asked to see my beetles . That made his cheeks flush slightly. That also hadn't seemed like a jab or some type of trick but an honest request. He'd never shown anyone his collection. Hell, he'd never really told anyone about them, yet Jesse now knew about his secret passion. A Centaur who liked bugs. It sounded like a bad joke. Gods, this was bad. In only a few short days, Jesse had thoroughly crawled under his skin.

Cal wiped his brow with the sleeve of his shirt and nodded at Mack who walked up with a sealed letter.

"From Worthington. Just came in," Mack explained. Cal tore the envelope open and read the page inside, surprised the turnaround was so fast. As he read the information, his chest tightened slightly in guilt.

"They want to have him tried and hung immediately." Cal cleared his throat some to keep his voice from straining slightly. "Said it'll be about two weeks until they can get to us here though."

"We gotta babysit that shithead for two weeks? Lord." Mack sighed, adjusting his hat slightly. Cal slipped the letter back into the envelope and tucked it into his chest pocket. Two weeks from now, Jesse would be taken into the wagon for Worthington to be killed for running down trains. A man no more than twenty-five at most was going to die for trying to do right by his blood and got caught up in something worse.

Fuck. It's not right.

Not right? He's a criminal, a grown man. He chose this. This is his doing.

A ghost of Jesse's handsome face with that damn grin flitted past his mind like a leaf in the wind.

I'm just obsessed. Lonely. You're infatuated with a dead man. Pull yourself together.

"Cal?" Mack was laughing.

"What?" He glanced around, then back at his friend. "What? Why are you laughing?"

"You gotta start sleeping better, my friend. I was asking you what you wanted to do about getting those flyers out with his face on it. He ever give you a last name? "

"No, he didn't." Cal rubbed the back of his neck, guilty from letting his mind drift so hard. "I'm working on it."

"Good luck with that. Need help with this?" Mack nodded to the ravished pieces of what had been three healthy cows. The fence was still intact, and it was clear whatever had attacked had done so out of need to eat, but there weren't any footprints to speak of. If it had been worgs, wolves, fucking bears, anything normal, there would have been some type of prints or marks. This seemed like a whirlwind of terror and teeth that tore the massive bovine to ribbons and barely left bones behind.

"Any clue what would have caused this?" Cal planted his hands on his hips and looked back down at the remains.

"No clue. I've never seen anything like this before. Sky's still off healing somewhere, or I'd ask him to come check it out."

Cal grunted and pushed his hat back some. "We're going to need night watch until we can figure this out. I don't want whatever this was to go after more livestock or Gods forbid a person."

"You think the kid can handle this?" Mack glanced up at Cal, referring to the youngest member of the crew.

"He can handle it." Cal nodded, not terribly sure if he could but wanting to give Cody a chance to prove himself. The young buck had gone under his wing as soon as he came to Stallion Ridge, and Cal was determined to get him up to their level. There was nothing more Cody wanted than to be part of the team and tried his best to do whatever they needed him to do.

"Alright. I'll see you back at the office." Mack slapped Cal's meaty bicep and started back toward the town to leave Cal alone with his thoughts and cow bones.

When it was Cal's time to guard Jesse, he hated that he found himself looking forward to it. He had to start working on disconnecting himself from the man in order to keep his sanity. Gunner looked up as Cal came in and gave him a little nod.

"Heard you got the letter back from Worthington. That mean I can finish my flyer?" Gunner tapped his handiwork on the desk. Cal glanced over the portrait of Jesse's face and glanced at the man in question, who was watching them quietly.

"You feel like giving up a last name, Jesse?" Cal asked, not bringing up his family in front of anyone else. It seemed like a low blow, and he wasn't going to pull that card just yet. Jesse gave a slow head shake.

"No, sir."

"Make it easier for your family to find you. Save them a lot of grief." Gunner leaned back in his chair to look at him.

"Not killing me would save them some grief, Deputy."

"Good luck with that." Gunner pushed to his feet and held his hand out for the letter. "I'll finish up the flyer tomorrow with the details they have in the letter. I can get these out in the morning."

Cal glanced at Jesse for a breath, then handed the letter over to Gunner.

"Thanks, Gunner."

"You got it, boss." He tucked the flyer into the desk casually as he grabbed his hat. "Have a good night."

"Yep." Cal moved to the desk and took his spot, reaching for his book as Gunner let the door shut behind him.

"Ready for more cards, Sheriff?" Jesse offered from the bars. "I'm feeling pretty lucky tonight."

Cal had been hoping like hell he'd ask, and not just because he had a plan to go with it. He enjoyed playing with the man, and it sat like a rock in his chest. He shouldn't be looking forward to playing poker with a man that might be dead in two weeks.

Might.

That's what he was hoping like hell he'd change soon.

Cal arranged the table like he had the previous night and started dealing out the cards. They mixed up the game a little, playing a variation of the normal poker with some rule changes to spice the game up slightly. Cal played well and put down a winning hand, using it as a springboard to what he wanted to talk about .

"Let me ask you something."

"That's kind of the point," Jesse teased, shuffling the cards.

"You know that if you help us catch the rest of the Iron Bandits, they'll go easy on your sentence." Cal leaned on his elbows.

"Yeah, I figured." Jesse eyed him. "You asking me to snitch on the Iron Bandits, Sheriff?"

"Why not? Do you know where they are or will be?"

"Why not." Jesse laughed humorlessly, slapping the table. "You're hilarious."

"This could be what keeps you from the gallows. What the hell do you have to lose?" Cal's anger was starting to boil in his gut at the blatant dismissal of his plan and Jesse's salvation. Why wouldn't the man want to take a way out? "Are you loyal to the people who left you for dead?"

"They're no kin to me." He shook his head with a sneer.

"Then why not?"

"Jeb knows about my brother and niece." Jesse leaned forward to stare into Cal's eyes, tapping on the table with his knuckles. "We may not have known shit about each other, but he knew all of us, all of our families. He made sure we knew he knew, with the promise of going to them if we ever betrayed him. No, Sheriff, I won't be turning on the Iron Bandits. I'll face the gallows."

Cal wanted to protest, to assure him that his family would be safe from the faceless monster, but that would have been a lie. There was no way he could promise that to the man right then, and lying wasn't something that sat well in his gut. And Jesse wouldn't believe him anyway.

"They're going to hang you, Jesse," Cal whispered. "You can't help your family if you're dead."

"I can't help them now either. All I can do right now is play cards with you and enjoy my last days on this earth." Jesse started dealing. Silence stretched out as the whisper of the cards sliding into place did a poor job of filling the void. The game was played almost solemnly, Jesse eventually winning and giving a little smirk. It was like a warm candle lighting in a cold room.

"You got yourself a wife, Sheriff?"

"No." Cal shook his head, taking the cards to shuffle.

"Husband?"

Cal glanced up from his shuffling, unfazed. "No."

"I find that hard to believe. A strapping lawman like yourself? You must be pretty popular."

"My popularity is none of your business." Cal started dealing the cards, trying not to be tickled by the fake flirting since it was clearly just a dig. "Besides, aren't the bad boys the ones that get all the attention?"

Jesse barked a laugh and slapped the table. "Holy shit, the sheriff has a sense of humor."

"I have my moments." Cal scooped up his cards and started playing. Jesse leaned back after a moment and eyed Cal with his sharp eyes, then raised a brow.

"Let's make this interesting."

Cal didn't respond, instead just mirrored Jesse's arched brow and waited.

"If I win this round, I want something."

"Like what?" he scoffed. "The key to the cell?"

"If that's on the table." Jesse shrugged, then laughed when Cal shot him a "go to hell" look. "Look, since I'm on my last stretches of life here, I'd like to indulge my more… carnal needs."

Cal's heart thumped, and he scowled slightly because of it. "You're playing for sex?"

"I'm a red-blooded man with desires, Sheriff."

What kind of desires? Cal huffed at his mind running away for a moment and rolled his shoulders back as he moved his eyes back to his cards. They weren't great, but they weren't useless. Clearly, Jesse thought he could win if he was tossing out changes to the rules. A small part of Cal was screaming to indulge it, to see what Jesse would ask for, to know that primal side of him. That cocky bastard would be something extraordinary, and the fire of lust smoldering in his belly was starting to really twist his thoughts.

This man wasn't his.

This man was a bad idea and not worth his time.

This man would be dead soon.

"Fine," Cal found himself saying. "But if I win, I want something."

"Fair. What do you want?" Jesse's eyes sparkled with mischief, and it made Cal's gut twist.

"Tell me your last name."

"No deal." Jesse shook his head.

"I won't put your name on the flyers."

The caged outlaw eyed him like he was a snake oil salesman telling him he had the key to eternal life. He wanted desperately to believe him, but all evidence was pointing to the words being false.

"It is for finding your family after the fact, Jesse." Cal dropped his voice and observed him closely.

"You don't get it, do you? I don't want them to know what happened to me. My brother would never stop blaming himself if he knew how I was getting money to help him. It would kill him. And my niece… I was her hero. I was…" He shook his head, emotion clear as day on his face, and that twisted Cal's insides more. "I'd rather vanish off the earth without them ever knowing."

A dull ache rushed up and seized Cal's heart at the words, a pain he had pushed down deep and buried tight. The cold, haunting whisper of loss was like a shadow that consumed him, turning his blood cold and his air bitter.

"That's the worst feeling a family could have, never knowing what happened to someone they love," Cal whispered, meeting Jesse's gaze. "I would never wish that on anyone. They deserve to know what happened to you, or they'll never stop looking for you. They'll never find peace. "

Jesse's eyes had gone from wary to soft as he watched him, his cards facedown to show he was listening.

"Who did you lose?" he whispered.

"My brother." The words were like ice falling from his lips, numb, cold, hurtful. "Older brother by three years. He went into the war before I did. My parents said it wasn't our fight. It was a human war, and we had no part in it. West didn't feel that way. He knew that it was our war because we wanted a stake in how this country viewed us as people, as citizens. Our family was proud, ancient warriors, but when my grandfather came over, he was a workhorse. West didn't ever want that to be our history again.

"West went in a year before I did, and we lost contact with him right away. I knew he had gone in to fight on the West Coast, so I followed him there. People had heard of him, knew his rank and name. West had become something notorious in battle. The Winter Stallion."

"I know that name." Jesse nodded quickly, sitting up. "The Pale Horse of Death. That was your brother?"

"Yeah." Cal smiled, still proud. "That was him. After the Battle of Tanikia, he just… disappeared. I spent my entire military career trying to find him. West was gone. This is all I have left of him now." He touched the medallion hanging around his neck. The inlaid circle with his family's crest, two swords crossed with the ancient creed of his clan written in the top curve: Find Love in Strength & Honor . It had been the only thing he could find after trying to find West, his hero brother's necklace left behind on the battlefield.

Memories of his big brother smiling at him, playing in the sunlight, and running through the fields played like a warm daydream laced with poison. Each flash was warm and wonderful but stung worse than a heated poker in his heart.

He missed his big brother more than a dying man missed air.

"Give me your word," Jesse whispered, his voice firm but soft as snow. "Give me your word you'll never breathe a word of it to anyone else. Just for my family, Sheriff, if it comes to that."

"You have my word." Cal nodded, eyes still on him. "My word and my honor."

Jesse studied him for several long moments before picking his cards back up. "Play good, Sheriff."

The game was intense, but Cal wasn't about to let his chance of knowing Jesse's last name slip through his fingers. He had to win, to make this right for whoever was out there that loved Jesse like he had loved West. No one else should have to face that pain. When the moment of truth came, Cal placed his strong hand down with the hopes of claiming victory.

But Jesse's hand was better. And the game was done.

The relieved smile that flashed across Jesse's handsome face was like a slash through Cal's heart. He had come so close to knowing the truth, to finding a pathway to Jesse's past and family, but lost it to a couple of worn strips of thick paper. The distraught in his face must have been evident because Jesse gave a little chuckle.

"Don't look so down, Sheriff. Fair's fair, right?"

"Right." Cal's voice felt thick. "You won fair. It was a good match."

"Let's talk about logistics here." Jesse rubbed his hands together with a wicked smile.

"I'll go talk to the girls down at—"

"Don't want girls." Jesse leaned on the bars with a smile that rivaled the devil's sinful grin. Cal's mouth went dry at the tone of the man's voice, Jesse's eyes going sharp and bright.

"Alright." Cal swallowed.

"What are my options?" Jesse gazed at him playfully, the grin still teasing his lips. For a fleeting, heart-stopping moment, Cal thought he saw the man's eyes flick to his mouth.

Before Cal could respond properly, the door behind him swung open loudly, and Cody came stomping in .

"Sheriff— Are you playing poker with the prisoner?" Cody snarled, rifle over his shoulder. Cal exhaled, welcoming the distraction, and got to his feet to move the hell away from Jesse.

"What's your report?"

Cody adjusted his rifle and pulled his curious gaze away from Jesse to aim up at Cal. "I didn't see anything so far, sir. I wanted to ask if you'd be willing to let me take some silver buckshot in case it is a pack of worgs or something."

"If it were worgs, they would have left footprints. You're welcome to the buckshot, but I don't think you'll be seeing worgs." Cal nodded to the weapon safe for Cody to go ahead.

"Something's attacking and not leaving prints?" Jesse piped in from behind them. Cal glanced over his shoulder but didn't look at him too long, still trying to get the look Jesse gave him out of his head.

"Yeah. Attacked three cows and didn't leave much behind. No prints, no damage to the fence."

"Sounds like Wraiths, Sheriff," Jesse offered.

"Wraiths don't eat meat." Cal shook his head, but Jesse snorted loudly.

"Blight Wraiths sure as hell do. They'll go after anything that moves in the dark. That farm that was attacked, it near any type of cemetery?"

Cal shook his head, but Cody spoke up. "The Smith's family plot is near the farm. They buried their great aunt a couple months ago, remember?"

"They feed off the recently dead and build strength from that. The soil around here doesn't repel them very well unless you add salt." Jesse was on his feet now, looking concerned.

"You've dealt with them before?" Cal asked curiously.

"Yeah, unfortunately. When my mom passed away, we got a small one that started causing havoc to the town she was buried by. Idiots didn't salt the grave like they were supposed to." Jesse winced at the memory. "It starts small, but it'll grow fast. If it's already at cows…"

Interesting.

"Blight Wraiths gain energy slowly killing small prey first. They'll work up to humans once they're strong enough. We need to move." Cal got his ass in gear, moving to the weapons safe and grabbing supplies.

"What do you want me to do, Sheriff?" Cody asked eagerly.

"Go wake up Mack. I'll get Gunner. Don't you dare go near that farm without any of us. That clear?" Cal made sure to stare Cody down to drive his point home, and the boy nodded quickly.

"Yes, sir!" Cody was off like a rocket then, out the door to bolt to Mack's place, which wasn't far. Gunner was going to be at the saloon, since the man never seemed to sleep unless he got in some gambling, cheap whiskey, and maybe a round or two of fucking. Cody was hardly a child, but Cal still didn't feel right sending the young man into the lion's den of sin in their small town unless he had to.

Next was what to do with Jesse while they were gone. Cal needed all of his men out tonight to deal with the Wraith and wished like hell Sky was around to help as well. The Native knew everything about the land and what would be crawling, soaring, or haunting on or near it. Unfortunately, when Sky went away, he was gone until he wanted to come back. No one was ever sure where the man went when he wasn't there, and they all knew he didn't have a tribe to fall back on. The lone Native Skinchanger was a mystery that remained unsolved.

Cal grabbed a pair of cuffs and strapped his gun to his hip as he made his way to the cell. Jesse was standing inside watching him as Cal ordered him to put his hands behind his back through the bars.

"You're gonna leave me cuffed in here while there's a Blight Wraith out there?" Jesse scoffed.

"I'm sure as hell not going to leave you free to try and escape." He motioned for him to turn around. Jesse grabbed the bars and moved close to them to look in Cal's eyes.

"I can help," he said quickly. "I've dealt with them before. I can help you get rid of it."

"And catch freedom on your way out." Cal scowled at him. "Put your arms behind your back, Jesse."

"Sheriff, this thing is going to destroy your town, and it's already gaining a lot of power. You need all the help you can get."

"We'll manage. Turn. Around," Cal growled.

Jesse's jaw set, and his mouth pressed into a hard line as his eyes darkened. "Woodlock."

"What?"

"My name," Jesse ground out, "is Woodlock. If I run while I'm out helping you, you can put it on the flyers and blast my name to the ground."