The Outlaw's Return

The Secret Slips

CHAPTER 5 - The Secret Slips

COLE'S POV

"Hey darlin', wake up now. You passed out on the floor last night." Seth mocked. Lately, I wanted to beat the hell out of him. He was irritating and unbearable to be around. Catherine was bad, but Seth was even worse. I opened my eyes and waited for the blurriness to clear up. Seth reached down and pinched my cheek, right above my scar. I pushed his hand away and stumbled to my feet.

"What the hell happened?" I asked myself out loud. Dr. Jack chuckled and Seth grinned. I didn't care to see it was entertaining, I wanted to know what happened. I didn't remember much of anything. Catherine pissed me off. That's all I remembered.

"You got drunk, fell on top of Catherine and she hit you. It was pretty funny." Seth said, making Jack's laughter grow louder. I rubbed my temples, and sat in the chair.

We came down here to Mexico a few months ago. I had to get Cassidy off my mind. I missed her, but I wasn't going to admit that. I only left because I knew it was the right thing to do. I loved her enough to do what was best for her. I just didn't think it would hurt this bad.

The hotel we were staying in was built onto the saloon. I had spent every night of the past week trying to win at poker. Seth beat me everytime. When he didn't play, I would win. Usually. But when he did, I'd just fold and go somewhere else. He had plenty of practice though. Seth and our Paw used to play all the time. That took me back to when I was younger. I had been thinking about our Maw and Paw a lot lately. I hadn't seen them until we brought Elizabeth down here.

"You heard from Elizabeth?" I asked while still rubbing my head. I looked at Seth and he shook his head. We needed to go see her. She should still be living here.

"We can ride out there this afternoon." I didn't want to wait that long, but Seth had to pick up his new gun from the Gun Smith. That was going to be a couple of hours. The man that owned this one was slow. He was making a custom revolver for Seth, he'd ordered it last week. It was supposed to be ready today.

I spent a few hours in the saloon playing Liar's Dice. I lost about five dollars. I can't lie when I'm drinking. It just don't work. I was standing at the bar, and one of the saloon girls walked up to me. "Hey honey, that's a sexy scar you got there. It makes you look dangerous, I like dangerous men." I didn't look at her, I drank my last shot of whiskey and was walking up the stairs when I remembered something, I never told Cassidy how I got this scar.

"Alright, let's go see Elizabeth." Seth said as soon as I walked through the door. I turned around, and walked down the stairs. He followed me outside and we jumped on our horses. She should still be in the same house. It was about an hour from here. We weren't in a hurry, Seth wasn't anyway.

"What's wrong?" Seth asked in his 'I don't really care, but you're my brother so I have to ask' kind of tone. I shook my head and didn't say anything. He looked at me for a second, then asked again, "I know when somethin' is wrong. I'm your brother, Cole." He was actually being serious. I didn't want to tell him.

"Nothin'. I just remembered somethin' earlier." I said, trying to make it sound like it wasn't a big deal. Seth raised an eyebrow, and I knew I'd have to tell him. He wasn't going to just let it go. "I never told Cassidy how I got my scar."

"You tell us never to say her name, and here you are makin' conversation about her." I cut my eyes over at Seth. He was smiling. "Why were you thinkin' bout that?"

"I don't know. I guess, well, she had asked me several times but I never got around to tellin' her." I missed her, and I still loved her. I knew she hated me now, but I couldn't make the feelings just go away.