Six months later

 

“Come on…”

Those two impatient words had been coming out of his cousin’s mouth all damn day. Whereas earlier the complaint had been muttered under Eli’s breath, building excitement had churned eagerness into aggravating enthusiasm.

Already out of the truck, Eli stood with the last crates of shine stacked in his arms, eager eyes darting towards the Willards’ barn. The party inside was going full swing.

Matthew leveled a warning glare on the boy, saying wordlessly he’d better cool it. After all, there was still work to do before play.

They’d spent a long day driving around Monroe County, talking briefly with their neighbors and selling jars of Emerson moonshine on the cheap.

When they had a notorious buyer with deep pockets and a showy reputation just waiting in Chicago, impulsive Eli couldn’t fathom why Matthew insisted they putter around the country wasting time for pennies on the dollar. Nathaniel was the easy one - Matthew’s older brother just did as he was told, so long as he could take his cut to spend as he liked. But their younger cousin missed the bigger picture.

Solidarity was necessary.

Whether or not locals supported bootlegging, Monroe knew the money brought in from brewing shine kept their forgotten community afloat while the rest of the state was falling apart.

On occasion the business brought trouble. Now and then feds sniffed around... and found no one talked. Then there were thugs, drifters, fools underestimating the business, seeking out a country rube to rob, or a racket to move in on. Men like that, the Emersons took care of personally.

Trouble didn’t last long in Monroe.

A decade of good business with one’s neighbors could get you far. A willingness to get your hands bloody could get you further. That’s what Emerson success boiled down to. Matthew had pulled a profit for years - selling as far as Charleston, in fact. But cutting off Harrison McCray’s face and hand delivering it to his most powerful adversary... that was the kind of currency that had opened up new doors to new devils - forging a standing contract with the greatest beast of all: Chicago.

Business went from hundreds of gallons a month to thousands. Money was pouring in hand over fist, and Matthew was making more in a month than most made in a year of hard labor in the coal mines. He justified the risk, the danger, as a short-lived opportunity. He could see what was coming. There was just too much good money in alcohol. The American people were wising up, seeing the benefit in legalizing, in redirecting cash away from slimy gangsters and corrupt politicians.

Prohibition was nearing its end, but Matthew hadn’t fought through nine bloody years of bootlegging to lose his standing, his profit, or his future by getting squeamish. Unlike his older brother and baby cousin - who were both just along for the ride - he was going to make something greater that would last. Something he could lean on. Something stamped with the Emerson name.

Through years of living lean, almost every penny made reinvested into bigger stills, Matthew found the means to buy up land - preparing for the next venture when illicit business would be replaced with a legitimate distillery. Matthew’s intended legacy: Emerson’s finest whiskey.

Lighting a cigar, Matthew saw nothing but another venue for profit in the Willards’ party. Scoping the best spot to set up shop, he ignored the apprehensive glances of local lawmen and the friendly nods of fellow bootleggers.

A dusky corner was chosen, orders barked for Eli and Nathaniel to tend the line already forming.

Brim low, Matthew observed transactions, trading few words with the menfolk out of custom.

“Well, look at that,” Deputy Dooley whistled after a long sip of shine. “Ain’t she just bright and shiny?”

Glancing where the lawman was grinning, Matthew found the golden hair of a woman standing just inside the barn door. Mincing steps brought her nearer, a shy smile below eyes that took in everything as if it were novel.

There was something different about her beyond the fact she was an obvious outsider. Then it hit him. It was just as Dooley said - she was too bright. Her dress, the cotton, wasn’t faded like the clothes of the local women. Her hair, finger waved like a magazine, too shiny.

Matthew lost her in the crowd, his eyes darting about for a flash of pink skirt. The next song struck up, lines formed, and the masses parted enough for a glimpse. There she was, sitting alone on a bale of hay, a self-conscious quirk to her lips at the approach of Eli’s sweetheart, Ruth Cormac.

The petite daughter of the local sheriff plopped down beside the strange woman and made her acquaintance, all smiles, no hesitation. Ruth said something - something hilarious, it would seem - since the woman burst out laughing. Right in the middle of her grin for some reason, bright eyes darted up to find Matthew staring right at her from across the barn.

He inhaled, the glowing red tip of his cigar illuminating a deeply scowling brow. Whoever she was, the golden girl unflinchingly met that gaze and waited, almost expectantly, eyebrow hitched slightly in challenge.

Contest or no, Matthew watched a blush creep up her cheeks, those blue eyes darting back to Ruth once he exhaled a cloud of smoke. She was going to glance back, he could feel it, but Deputy Dooley swaggered over, grinning stupidly as he asked the stranger for a dance.

Even from a distance, Matthew could read her rouged mouth say, “I don’t know how.”

The deputy must have said something right, because the beautiful woman shrugged and offered her hand.

She hadn’t been lying - she was awful. But bolstered by an encouraging partner, she laughed her way through a lesson in country dances, the local deputy managing to keep her upright.

Tripping again, instead of looking up at Dooley, the pretty blonde’s attention landed on him instead.

Matthew held her gaze, eyes narrowed and oddly provoked.

He would’ve kept staring but the image of Eli slipping off crossed his line of sight. Annoyed at the boy’s need to constantly chase after that Ruth girl, Matthew turned towards Nathaniel and kept a close watch on the business instead.

Jars and money changed hands, yet steely eyes kept darting over the crowd, involuntarily drawn to that unfamiliar girl.

The woman never looked back.

Near the end of the evening, product all sold, Nathaniel gave a stifled cough. Glancing at his brother, Matthew found a strange look on the man’s face, his kin actually paying attention to something besides the jar in his hand. When Matthew followed Nathaniel’s stare, there was the golden girl again… smirking almost wickedly as she nodded once at his older brother – his kin grinning like a fool and rubbing his shoulder.

The woman laughed, or she was laughing, until Walter Keck stumbled right into her. Bracing himself by gripping her arms, he asked for a dance. Something about the exchange made Walter storm out and left the woman’s lips thin and shoulders stiff.

Choosing to ignore the distracting blonde, all seemed fine, yet ten minutes later he caught himself once again scanning the crowd, finding nothing but the ordinary dull palette he was so accustomed to in Monroe.

The golden girl was gone; in her place Walter Keck ambled back inside, the man falling face first onto the dirt floor, his eye swelling shut something awful.

Walking up creaky wooden steps and seeing the place in sunlight was surreal. It was still just a typical backwoods roadhouse - the same tin signs, dingy fridge for Coca-Cola on the porch, and vacant side garage. But it was different, too. The air smelled like the bloom of summer, a little dusty with the heat of warm drying grass; nothing like the crisp cold and smell of blood from her last visit.

A fly zipped past, buzzing loud, and Charlie’s hand went to the door latch.

Matthew was only just making his way downstairs, still buttoning up his vest. Looking up when the screen door whined, he found a slender arm pushing it wide, and the woman, the very woman who had so confounded him just the night before, stepping into the grill. Even with the bright sun behind her, he made out the smart dress outlining her hips, the wash of color matching her eyes.

Watching her glance around the room, her expression taking in the chairs and tables as if they were familiar, as if she were pleased with all she saw, drew his brows tight. The screen door snapped shut. Matthew cleared his throat, watching the golden girl walk straight towards him, all polished city elegance.

Before she could part her rouge painted lips, Nathaniel came bumbling in from the back, mouth full of pilfered bread. His brother froze, stopping short at the sight of her.

Matthew reached for his hat, a show of good manners towards the female. Nathaniel followed suit, rubbing crumbs off his shirt before snatching his cap from his head and pressing it to his heart.

Hesitant, she closed the distance between them. “Good morning, gentlemen. I was hoping I might have a private word with you both.”

She received approval in the form of a grunt.

Looking first to his brother, those big blue eyes sparkling at Nathaniel, the female offered a smile coupled with a nod of recognition before settling back on Matthew Emerson’s scowl.

She could tell he was sizing her up, immediately intense in his regard and just as unfriendly as she remembered.

After quickly chewing her bottom lip, she opened her mouth and got to the point. “I want to apologize, Mr. Emerson. The way you were glaring at me last night - it’s my fault really. I should’ve come here first but…” her voice trailed off, “I couldn’t help but enjoy Monroe for a spell before we conducted our business.”

Matthew’s scowl deepened once he noticed Nathaniel shifting his weight between his feet. After a pause, he said, “I don’t… rightly know what you’re talking about, ma’am.”

The woman absently smoothed her hands over her skirt. “I’m assuming Eli isn’t here?”

“He ain’t.” It was Nathaniel who spoke up.

She was relieved. “That’s probably for the best. Don’t get me wrong, I really like that boy. My time with him was… it was nice.” Soft finger waves bounced at her jaw, the woman laughing to herself. “But to be honest, Eli is still quite a talker. Hardly stops to draw breath.”

Ever so slightly, Matthew’s brow twitched. Though his voice remained steady, those pale eyes took her in as if she were flat out confusing. “Still quite a talker? How you know Eli?”

Charlie’s attention went straight to Nathaniel, an obvious question on her face. The woolly head briefly shook in the negative, a movement not missed by his younger brother.

Cocking her head to the side, Charlie asked point blank, “Mr. Emerson, are you telling me you don’t know who I am?”

The only answer offered was a short throaty hum vaguely implying he had never laid eyes on her before the previous evening.

Nodding, she forced an uncomfortable smile, unsure what she’d done to garner such disapproving scowls at the party.

Planting her feet, she straightened her spine and lost all traces of delicacy. “On the night of December 12th, my car broke down a few miles up the road while I was transporting a prisoner to be executed.”

Though she addressed Matthew, Nathaniel nodded, squeezing the hat pressed to his chest. “I offered you five hundred dollars for a ride, a small fortune. You found it unacceptable at first, but you and I came to a soft agreement after a group of thugs attacked your roadhouse - the hired lackeys of a man I informed you was Harrison McCray.” The light in her eye grew dangerous. “I shot five of them in your defense and stitched up Nathaniel here in exchange for your chatterbox cousin to drive me to New York. I sent the cash along a few weeks later with a newspaper clipping showing you just who you helped rid this world of. Thanks in small part to you, a man responsible for the murder of at least twenty-seven people got fried and is rotting six feet underground.”

Sucking his lower lip, still holding his rough hat pressed to his chest, Matthew Emerson took an intimidating step closer. She was not the unkempt face and scratchy voice from that night. Where were the harshly angled jaw and beady eyes? The dirty hair cropped short like a man’s? The broad shoulders? The woman standing before him was feminine, proportionate and willowy. She looked like soft things.

Hell, she smelled soft.

“You’re telling me that you…”

She cut him off before he could continue. “Yes, I am.” It was clear Matthew was accustomed to people respecting his authority to an extreme, but Charlie’s reaction to intimidation, intentional or not, was to bristle. “After our little shootout, I spent three days with Eli, the boy talking my ear off the entire way to Sing Sing. Everything he said about Monroe was…” she hesitated, unsure how to explain. “I never thought a nice place like that could exist. I mean, I used to daydream that nonsense, but…” Charlie looked out the window to the greenery. “I suppose this brings me to the first reason I came to see you. I would like to stay.” Seeing the instant judgment in Matthew’s gaze, she quickly amended, “Just for a short time. I’m not here to cause any trouble, and I’m asking your family for permission. I’m aware the Emerson name is a powerful thing round these parts. If you wish it, I’ll drive away tomorrow.”

Matthew fixated on her mouth, remembered the scarred lip of the bounty hunter, realizing her pretty red lipstick was nothing but camouflage.

“I’d like to sit and look at things.” Charlie knew once the words were spoken neither of the Emerson brothers understood. In fact, they were both looking at her as if she were a peculiar oddity in a freak show. Clearing her throat, she took a small step back from the looming over nearness. “What I mean to say is, the way Eli talked about Monroe - it would be nice to sit and rest in the quiet.” Pursing her lips, she looked to Nathaniel. “It’s been years since I have had the chance to sit still… and look at things.”

There was a deep throat noise of disagreement. When Matthew’s verdict was made, it was abrasive and clear. “A woman like you don’t belong here.”

Charlie didn’t try to hide her disappointment. “I understand. In that case, let me cover the second reason I came to see you today, then I’ll be on my way.”

She pulled her gaze from colorless eyes and looked down into the bag hanging from her shoulder. Digging into the satchel, her fingers found the rectangular object, extending the small-framed photograph between her and the bootlegger. “I brought something for Eli. A memento, you could say, of his adventure. You can give it to him after I’m gone. Say it came in the post.”

In the candid shot, Eli stood in front of Sing Sing, the boy proud, full of life.

Charlie’s fingertip brushed it warmly, and her eyes grew soft again. Lost in fond memory, she spoke, “I really do like that fool boy.”

Matthew moved with the sluggishness of cold molasses, reaching out to take the framed photograph. Once it was handed over, Charlie watched the man study Eli’s picture, his scowl even deeper than before.

With a peacemaking smile, Charlie met Nathaniel’s ruddy gaze. After slipping off her glove, she offered a handshake. “It was nice to see you again, Nathaniel. Glad to find the shoulder mended so well.”

The eldest Emerson stood dumbstruck, took her hand and pumped their joined fists once. After croaking out a “Ma’am,” he released her from his paw and looked down at his younger brother.

When her attention went back to Matthew, she found him unwilling to meet her eye. Politely, she offered her hand. “I appreciate you taking the time to speak with me. I won’t trouble you further.”

Hesitating, he wrapped his hand around hers so lightly she wondered if he might actually be disgusted to touch her. He did not shake her hand but rather turned it, studying the light smear of bruises across her knuckles. Matthew didn’t know what on earth possessed him, but he growled and brushed his thumb over the marks.

Embarrassed, Charlie pulled her fingers away.

Nathaniel’s eyes saw the same thing Matthew’s had. That little girl had punched someone good and hard to earn those bruises.

A slow spreading grin replaced Nathaniel’s stupid expression. “You the one who clocked Walter Keck last night?”

As she pulled her glove back on, Charlie shrugged. “He’s lucky that’s all I did. Bastard cornered me outside and wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

“Jesus, Matthew,” Nathaniel began wheezing. “You should let her stay for that reason alone. Wally is one dumb sumbitch.”

Charlie tried to fight the tick at the corner of her mouth, blue eyes glittering.

“You ain’t never gave us your name,” Matthew’s soft-spoken reprimand was that of a mother correcting a bad mannered child.

With a bashful smirk, she realized her blunder. “Charlotte Elliot… Charlie.” More had to be said. “After I’m gone, I would appreciate if you and Nathaniel continued your silence about my profession. There are a lot of bad men who would relish the chance to harm a bounty hunter, and it would be dangerous for me if anyone learned I was really a woman.”

“You can stay,” Matthew grunted so low Charlie wasn’t sure she’d heard him.

A slow spreading smile lit up her face. “Really? I can stay?”

Matthew nodded, shuffling his mass behind the counter to fire up the grill.

Nathaniel grinned, shooting a wink at the glowing blonde. “Be seeing you around, Miss Elliot.”

“Call me Charlie.”

“Charlie’s a boy’s name,” the gruff eldest Emerson ribbed, cackling at the glare Matthew shot his way.

The woman just snorted, pushing through the screen door to set off towards her car.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Nathaniel said, slouching back into a chair and pulling a jar of shine from his coat pocket. “I can hardly believe that foul mouthed ballbreaker looks so damn fine in a dress. I like her! You think she’d marry me if I asked?”

“You knew who she was last night.” Matthew was not asking a question.

Nathaniel offered a grin. “A man don’t forget eyes like that.”

“You knew it was a woman…” Angry, Matthew rested his hands on the counter and leaned nearer.

“The second she braced my hand on her hip and I got a feel of just what was hiding under all those clothes, I suspected. When she started speakin soft, offerin comfort before she dug her bare hand right into me, I was certain. Then there’s the fact that while you were upstairs I watched her stitch up a nasty gash that prisoner ran through her belly.”

Matthew looked thoroughly pissed off.

“You can pout at me all you like, little brother.” Nathaniel took a long sip. “Doesn’t change that what she was, was no one’s business but hers.”

A few moments later, Eli came bounding through the door. “Was that Miss Elliot? She stop by for breakfast or something? I wonder what a fancy city lady like that would be doing here. Was she lookin for work?”

Nathaniel took a long swig and grinned at his cousin. “She came by to court me.”

Driving back to town, Charlie found herself grinning so hard her cheeks began to ache. After the way unpleasant Matthew had been watching her the previous night, she was certain he would shoo her off. But he hadn’t. He was going to let her stay.

Charlie couldn’t remember the last time she’d found a place to relax without needing to constantly look over her shoulder. Hell, it had been a lifetime since she’d been able to wear a dress, grow out her hair, and openly be a woman.

She knew exposing herself to the Emerson boys was a little crazy - that starting somewhere where men actually knew about her might backfire - but Eli had described a wonderland, and she wanted a piece of it. Monroe County might boast darker commerce, the Emersons might have a less than reputable character, but none of that mattered. Compared to the seedy places she’d lurked, the little town of Gap Mills seemed downright wholesome.

Men and women milled about, running to the feed supply, picking up necessities from the general store, and chatting in the shaded awnings of the sparse public buildings - including the township’s only place to lodge: Fontannes Boardinghouse.

After informing the proprietress of her intention to stay on a month, Charlie made her way upstairs and flopped onto the creaking bed.

She could stay!

“Eli, load up them crates.” Matthew pointed, before he turned to the tallest. “You too, Nathaniel. When I get back, I better not see you two jackasses foolin around.”

Hands shoved in his pockets, Matthew walked towards the general store and glanced out the corner of his eye towards the boarding house. Charlie’s beat-up car was there - the woman back from wherever she disappeared to every other time he had come to town.

He didn’t find taking notice to be prying, more an act of social welfare. Having given his consent she could stay, if the woman did anything - harmed anyone - it was his responsibility to answer for it.

Hell, he’d watched her shoot five men and cut off a man’s finger without flinching. God only knew what else she was capable of.

Growling, Matthew looked back to the small plank path under his feet and just about ran into the very object of his thoughts.

Charlie was far more distracted and smashed face first into his chest. With a yelp and a hurried apology, she stepped back. “I’m so sorry, Mr. Emerson. I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

“S’alright.” He looked past her, making it clear she was not only in his way, but annoying him as well. After a pregnant pause, Matthew made a throaty mumble of gibberish and stepped around her, leaving Charlie there without so much as a good day.

Arching a brow, she turned to watch him go, hearing the low chuckles of the older brother nearby. “I don’t think he likes you too much, Charlie.”

Charlie walked right on over, squinting up at the scruffy man. With a halfcocked smirk, she agreed, “That’s for damn sure.”

Pulling off his hat and using it to shade her eyes, Nathaniel grinned. “Howdy.”

“Been behaving yourself, Nathaniel?”

“Not hardly.”

“Color me surprised.”

His grin only grew. “It’s been a week since you came down to visit us, Miss Charlie. When you gonna come on back to Devil’s Hollow?”

Charlie seemed to think it over, pursing her lips. “Maybe I’ll stop by for some lunch.”

“Supper’s better. That’s when things get real excitin.”

It felt good to banter the way she used to. “Spending my evening with a bunch of drunks does sound tempting, but in this instance, lunch will do me just fine.”

When the sound of the general store door creaked behind her, Charlie tossed Nathaniel a playful sneer and sauntered off before Matthew could turn up and give her more long disapproving looks.