“No, not truly help, but I think we have to go along. I have to find out who’s really in charge of this gang. If we can bring him down, everyone in Wyoming will be safer. Someone far more powerful and well placed than Pierce is behind this gang. I need to know who that is.”
Darcy’s dark eyes bore into his, and Blake fought the need to swallow at the hard glare. He knew this wasn’t what the girl had agreed to. He knew that he had promised to get her away from the abusive man who all but owned her. She hadn’t signed on for a longer stint of dangerous living.
“Can you do it?” Blake asked, his eye searching hers as he hoped. “Can you hang on just a little longer?”
“I will if you promise me one thing,” Darcy’s gaze never left his. “When this is all done and over with, I want you to take me home.”
Blake opened his mouth to reply but slim fingers covered his lips with a gentle touch. “Not to my home. I want to see where you come from. I don’t mean for you to take me to meet your folks or have Sunday dinner,” she chuckled, a harsh sound in the night. “I’m not fit for that kind of invitation. I just want to see the spread, the place that produced someone like you.”
Blake nodded slowly, his lips still compressed under her cool fingers as he slowly placed his hand over hers. “All right,” he agreed, lifting her hand from his face. Still studying her face, he tried to understand what purpose would be served in Darcy seeing the Broken J. It was just a ranch in the wilds of Wyoming. Something he and his family were proud to call home, but nothing special to anyone else. Still, he gave his word and would keep it. If she wanted to see where he came from, he would show her. “Why?” The word was out before he could recall it, and suddenly, Blake knew he needed to know that more than anything else in the world.
Darcy chuckled. “I want to know where Turnips come from.” She tapped his chest with a painted nail and grinned, then turned back down the street leaving Blake to follow if he chose to.
Blake watched the young woman totter down the damp street, her mink coat almost obscuring her slight form. He had come this far, there was no turning back now. No matter what happened, he and Darcy were irrevocably yoked together in this daring attempt.
For the next hour Blake trailed Darcy as she walked along one of the better streets in Casper, looking into various shops, buying treats, or baubles and otherwise keeping them occupied. Although it was early evening many shops were starting to close, even with easy access to electricity few establishments stay open into the night.
The City of Casper had changed drastically in recent years. Ever since gas and oil had boomed in the early years of the decade everything was being remade. Across the wide North Platte River smoke from the refineries could be seen puffing into the dark sky like manufactured clouds. Though Wyoming’s agricultural industries had slowed significantly since the Great War, the oil boom had been good to the town and there was money to be had.
Men had come from all around looking for work and many of the rough and tumble single men were also looking for places to spend the money they earned. Saloons, gambling halls, and even brothels had sprung up to accommodate that desire. Even now, in the days of prohibition saloons and speakeasies fill the town with liquid libations of every kind.
It was rumored that some of the best bootleg whisky came from right here in Wyoming, produced by northern European emigrants who had long brewed and distilled their own beer, wine, and whisky.
Blake couldn’t help but wonder what came next for this town, the gateway to the west and the starting place of his own family.
Darcy stepped out of a sweets shop and reached for Blake’s arm. She smiled slightly popping a lemon drop into her mouth. “Walk with me up to Mansion Row,” she said, offering him the bag of treats. “I like to look at the big houses.”
Blake nodded, popping a lemon drop into his mouth and shifting the packages he already had tucked under one arm.
“They are pretty impressive,” he said. “Nothing like home but big and beautiful. As a kid I always loved it when Pa would drive past that area.”
“You have a big house?” Darcy asked, her heels making a gentle clicking on the pavement.
“My grandfather’s house is big. It had to be, he raised six daughters.” Blake’s smile was sweet and his eyes dance with remembering.
Darcy chuckled trying to imagine a big house full of people who actually liked each other. “What about you?”
“My ma and pa built a place in the horse pasture up past the barn. It’s smaller, just one story, but comfortable. That’s where I grew up, though we were at the big ranch house as much as not. Most of the family still likes to meet up for dinner there at least a couple of times a week.”
“You mean everyone’s still there?”
“Not everyone,” Blake peered out from under his hat. “My cousin Mary and her husband moved away. Ma and Pa still travel for business, selling cattle and horses, and I’m pretty sure Lilly will be gone soon as well. She’s a teacher and I know she wants to make a difference in the lives of young people that don’t know her as one of the family. She’s been helping my aunt Alexis teaching at the local school near home, but I know she wants more.”
Darcy stopped turning to look up at him. “Sometimes wanting more isn’t such a good idea,” she said. “Sometimes what you’re reaching for isn’t what you thought it would be.” The
