Cypress and I both look around for someone else to step forward.
“Me,” Tom snaps. “I’m the new leadership.”
I glance at one of the men with him. “You mutinied forhim? Really?”
“Enough,” Tom snaps, taking a step forward with his gun still raised. “Start telling me where my money is orourpainful deaths are not the ones you’re going to have to worry about.”
Behind me, I can practically hear Cypress thinking, hopefully the same as I am. Hopefully understanding that if we tell them where the money is stashed, it’ll lead them to Dolly’s house, where she—as far as I’m aware—does not have a rifle ready at every window like she does at the bar. She could get hurt. Although, so will we if we tell them nothing.
I reach back with my hand, subtly grabbing Cypress’s and squeezing, willing him to realize that he needs to stay quiet. That he needs to let me handle this. In answer, I feel Cypress’s hand turn, his palm to mine when he squeezes back, and I breathe a little easier through the next part.
“Your money is with your buddy,” I say to Tom, deciding to make a slight but important change to what I’d told Cypress he should’ve done with it earlier. “Buried it with him.”
“I don’t believe you,” Tom replies, looking as doubtful as hesounds. “Why would you leave it with John?”
I shrug. “So the buzzards can help us find it later. Supposeburiedmay have been overstating things.”
Tom’s lip curls. “Well, how fortunate for the buzzards that they’ll get to eat again so soon.” He turns to his men. “Grab him. Five of you will stay here with the crazy one while the rest of us take the gunslinger. If we’re not back in a few hours…” He smiles at Cypress. “Kill him.”
Several men dismount, ready to start closing in, and everything in me wants to fight. But I know how it’ll end if I do. Least this way, Cypress will have a chance at getting free while I lead them away, at getting back to Dolly where he’ll be safe. He’s still armed. He’s fast. He’ll survive, and this time, I’ll have done—
Cypress squeezes my hand once more before he lets go, stepping out from behind me and saying to Tom, “He’s not telling you the right location.”
“That so?” I feel Tom’s eyes shift between us, but I don’t see it, because I’m too busy looking at Cypress, willing him to look back, to see that Ineedhim to stand down like I had in Soldana. He’d done it then. He’d trusted me.
Only this time, he doesn’t.
“You already know he wasn’t the one who buried your friend. I am. I’m the one who knows the location. I’m the one who hid the money,” Cypress is saying as he takes another step away from me toward Tom and his men. “And not justyourmoney. There’s more.”
Tom arches an eyebrow, undeniably intrigued. “You offering somethin’?”
“I’m offering what you want,” Cypress replies simply. “So I get what I want.”
“Which is?”
Without hesitating, he says, “The gunslinger goes free.”
“Cypress,” I warn, needing him toknowthis time when to quit.
Surely he knows. Surely he’s realized the odds if they turn me loose and all go with him. Even if they leave me, they’re not going to leave me armed or with Helios, and by the time I’m able to get back to Dolly’s for a weapon, he’ll be too far ahead without me knowing which way he led them.
He can’t do this. We already agreed. I protecthim. We already agreed. “Cypress.”
He still isn’t looking at me, his focus on Tom, who is starting to smile at him. “Well, isn’t that noble.”
“Is it?” Cypress argues. “Or is it self-preservation? You make it all the way out there and see it isn’t where he says it is…” He shakes his head. “Well, I imagine you would end up coming back to me regardless. I’m telling you now in hopes of saving us all a lot of time and earning your trust.”
Tom scoffs. “Trust? You honestly expect me totrustyou? After you already stole from me? After you already killed my friend? After you nearly killedme?”
Cypress doesn’t waver. “Our previous interaction only means you know what I’m capable of, what I could be capable of foryou.”
“For me?” Tom sounds doubtful again. “You want to work for me?”
Cypress shrugs. “Been a while since I’ve been on a crew.”
“You were on a crew before? Which one?”
“The Levi Gang.”