“Why?”
“Hasn’t been given one.”
“You haven’t named your horse?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
You know, maybe Maddock shooting me earlier would have been kinder. “Because…” I say through gritted teeth. “He’s notmyhorse.”
“Ah,” he says, still frowning. “He’s one of Maddock’s?”
“Yes,” I reply, then because I know he’ll likely ask anyway, I tack on, “Until the end of the week at least.”
“I see. So you agreed to work for Maddock until the end of the week, and in exchange, he will give you No Name there along with yourshareof whatever money he takes at the table. Do I have all that right?” he asks, continuing without really giving me a chance to deny it. “And you are to do…what? Act as an enforcer for him? That why you jumped me that first night in the alley?”
“Not entirely,” I say, irritated that my initial refusal to tell him the details of my agreement were, apparently, completely futile. “That was mainly for me.”
His crystalline eyes practically sparkle in response. “Really?”
“Christ, not likethat,” I reply, not sure if I’m more exasperated with him for taking the opening or with myself for giving it to him. “I went after you because I knew you were a thief, not because you’re…”
He arches an eyebrow again. “Not because I’m…what?”
“Look,” I say, quickly changing the topic. “There’s no love lost between me and Maddock.Clearly. But I need our deal to get out of here, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t fuck things up with whatever it is you’re doing.”
“Where will you go?” he asks, holding my gaze for a moment too long before looking away and toward the roof. “When the deal is done?”
I exhale, not entirely sure myself. “Home, I guess?”
“And home is…?”
“Somewhere you will never be invited.”
He doesn’t reply for some time, and I start to wonder again if I’ve actually wounded him before he shrugs. “Your loss. I’m a wonderful house guest. You’d hardly know I’m there.”
“Somehow, I doubt that,” I mutter, certain that there would be no way of knowing hewasn’tthere in my small cabin. I clear my throat. “What about you? You going home whenever you finish causing chaos here?”
“Trying to.” He sighs. “In your deal, what happens if Maddock loses it all by the end of the week?”
“I still get the horse,” I tell him, dropping to sit on one of the hay bales, not seeing much of a point in hiding that detail from him when he’s already pieced together everything else. “Well, that is unless he figures out I knowingly let him get played. I take it that is your intention? That hedoeslose it all by the end of the week?”
“It was initially. My priorities have shifted somewhat,” he replies, frowning as he thinks. “You said in the alley that youknew me, and just now you said you saw me at the hotel. Who did you…what made you notice me?”
“Hard to miss you,” I say without thinking, clearing my throat again when I realize how that might sound. “You’re always dressed like a well-moneyed undertaker.”
Cypress blinks in my direction, then laughs deeply, repeating the words between attempts to stop. “A—well-moneyed—undertaker?”
“Yes,” I say, now also struggling with a smile. “Fuck’s sake, even your damn horse is black. Guarantee all your tack is, too.”
“You would be right.” Cypress grins in further confirmation. “But come now, wolf, I thought you were a cowboy. Surely you know the importance of a distinctive brand.”
Wolf.There’s that same nickname, but I’m too busy huffing out a laugh in spite of myself to ask him about it. “Afraid of someone claiming you, are you?”
The lightness in his gaze shifts to something heavier, to something that makes my blood thrum as his gaze does a slow sweep up and down my body, his eyes locking on mine again as he murmurs, “Not at all. In fact, I think I’d rather enjoy it.”
The space we’re in is suddenly feeling far too small, even as I wonder what would happen if I got to my feet and closed what distance there was. “Don’t you think you ought to be heading to the hotel? It’s…it’s getting late.”