Free Ace's Wild by Sarah McCarty Page A

Eastern women for yourself.”
    “Oh, hell, no!”
    Ace couldn’t help but smile. Luke did like his women wild.
    He waved toward the fancy vest and coat Luke was never without. “You’re dressed for it.”
    “Clothes don’t make the man. And under all this I’m the same no-account desperado I’ve always been.” He swung up on Buddy and picked up the reins. “No lady can handle that.”
    That was the truth. Ace couldn’t imagine anything worse for Luke than being tied up with something all prim and proper.
    He wheeled Crusher around to the north. “Then you best not be saying that too loud. You know fate has a sense of humor.”
    Luke shuddered again and kneed Buddy into step beside him. “Even fate wouldn’t be that cruel.”
    They passed Pet’s little house next to the school. There was no class on Friday. She was probably inside planning a lesson. Or sleeping. The thought of her all sleep warm and ready made him hard. Fuck.
    Shaking his head he muttered, “Don’t bet on it.”
    * * *
    T HE W INTERS ’ PLACE was little more than an overgrown mud wasp’s nest, consisting of sawed sticks and logs packed together with dirt to make a home. From somewhere around back came the irregular sound of an ax hitting wood.
    Luke pulled up and spat. “You’d have to take a step up to make this a hovel. No wonder Terrance is never clean.”
    Ace looked around with the same disgust. “It would be hard to wash this filth off.”
    And it wasn’t the filth of the surroundings that Ace was talking about. It was the utter lack of self-respect the home reflected. Brian Winter didn’t think much of himself or much of his prospects. “Might explain why he was at the gambling table every night looking for a miracle.”
    “And every morning taking out his disappointment on his son. This place isn’t fit for a hog to live in,” Luke said, kicking a nail-studded board out of his way before he dismounted. “Whatever we do, we can’t be leaving the boy in this.”
    “It’s not our responsibility.” The words sounded hollow when he looked around. It shouldn’t have taken Pet coming to town to bring this to his attention. He might have been walled up in that saloon too long.
    Luke spat. “It’s got to be someone’s.”
    “He’s almost the age we were when we were on our own.” It wasn’t the challenge Luke took it as.
    “You forget we almost starved to death till Tia took us in hand?”
    He didn’t forget much, least of all the hunger, the pain of knowing his parents were dead and that he had nowhere after the massacre to go except with the other boys of Hell’s Eight. Then there had been Tia. Tia, who’d taken on the role of mother, guide, disciplinarian. She’d saved their souls, shaped their anger, given them a purpose.
    “We had each other.”
    “He’s got no one.”
    Terrance had better than one. He had Pet.
    Ace made the call. “He’s got us now.”
    Luke nodded. “Amen.”
    They cleared around the little hovel, and they could see Terrance in the back splitting wood. The ax was bigger than the boy.
Too small, too skinny.
Those were the words that jumped into Ace’s head. Hell, even his shirt draping off his thin shoulders made Ace feel guilty.
    “He’s going to cut off a foot,” Luke muttered.
    There was something in that boy’s swing that told Ace there was more to him than the disappointment that life was handing him. “I don’t think so.”
    Just then, Terrance looked up. The only word Ace could think of to describe his expression was
terrified
.
    Luke must have seen it, too. “We’re not going to hurt you, boy.”
    Terrance didn’t put the ax down. Ace turned to Luke. “Must be your sour face that he’s reacting to.”
    “Ha-ha.” His gaze was locked on the bruise on Terrance’s face. It was hard to look at. Harder to believe a man would do that to his own son.
    “You shouldn’t be here,” Terrance said, glancing anxiously at the house.
    “Or maybe his father’s,” Luke