She refused to let him see her to the platform, wouldn’t look him in the eye. When Matthew came home from the station and found her wedding dress hanging on the wall, it was all he could do not to chase after her, to try and beg her not to cry all night again.
Of course he’d heard it. He’d spent a sleepless night with his ear pressed to her door.
It was safe to say he’d made a right mess of things. But now it was the Radcliffes he had to trust her to. That’s where she was going; she’d have no choice in that. They’d keep her distracted, occupied, so that he might make everything right.
Matthew had lied to her.
Roy Beachum had been ordered to kill any man he found at Devil’s Hollow; that much was true. But Beachum’s gang had been hired to nab Charlotte. They had waited for the men to be gone. And they’d come in after her.
It wasn’t about money.
It wasn’t a turf war, a rivalry, or bad blood with the Emerson clan.
It was about her.
That’s why he couldn’t tell her. She’d run off. He knew it. Nathaniel knew it. She’d run off to keep them safe. She’d run off where bad men might find her. And he could hardly look her in the eye, because every time he did Matthew was certain he would swallow his heart, grab her too tight, and she’d figure out what he’d concealed to keep her safe.
Chapter 16
“You can stop glaring at me, Lottie.” Beaumont was entirely bland, bored even, with her glower. He saw her work her jaw and smirked. “It’s a man’s place to protect his wife. ‘Bout time you started to learn that.”
“You owe me an apology, Beau,” Charlie growled, tempted to rip the glass of whiskey out of her mentor’s hand. “Since you opened your mouth my life has gone to Hell.”
“You should be thankin’ me.” Radcliffe’s smirk grew far more arrogant. “I’m doin’ you a favor.”
“By betraying me? By ruining the only good thing I have ever had going?” That’s it, she was gonna hit him. “I was happy!”
Raising a brow at her burst of temper, Beau looked her dead in the eye, and offered advice. “You say you love that man. Well marriage won’t last if you kept up as you were—sneaking around instead of telling the truth.”
Charlie rolled her eyes. “Like you tell Martha everything?”
Swirling the whiskey in his glass, Beau crossed an ankle over his knee before sipping. “She knows where every last body is buried, where every last, hard cent is hidden.”
Charlie downed her drink and rudely held out her glass so it might get refilled.
Beau’s fine crystal decanter was drained to the last drop. “Aren’t you going to say anything?”
Murder was in those baby-blues. “Who hired Roy?”
“I told you. I don’t know.”
Gritting her teeth to keep from shrieking, Charlie leaned nearer. “I know this is somehow my fault. I know you’re all lying to me. What’s Matthew told you? Why do you insist I stay at your house instead of the Drake? Why did you personally pick me up at the station? Did he call you? What’d he say?”
“You’re being a bit dramatic, Lottie...”
Her lower lip shook. “If someone kills him, you’re going to answer for it, goddamn it!”
Beaumont only laughed, opening his coat to pull out a small silver case. Placing a fresh cigarette between his lips, he gave her that look—the playful and dangerous look of an amused evil man.
They sat in silence, Charlie nursing her drink and wounded ego, Radcliffe smoking like he didn’t have a care in the world. When the quiet got boring, Charlie sighed, leaned back defeated, and grumbled, “I have been seeing a lot of Tommy’s ugly mug in the papers. Your boy’s getting pretty notorious—very cocky.”
“Tommy’s down at state line. I got him taking in shipments from the crackers he hates so much. Another week or two of hard labor, and he’ll remember his place.”
“Careful with him, Beau.” Head fuzzy, Charlie watched her friend between narrowed lashes. “That prick sees himself as greatness in the making.”
Beaumont shrugged and sipped his drink. “He’s smarter than some… Smart enough to know what I would do to him should he step out of line.”
“He ain’t that smart.”