Chapter Twenty
"I believe it would be, 'you've got a hell of a lot of nerve,' but grammar never was your best talent was it?" Finnegan questioned as he turned to face a man who had sworn he would kill Finnegan if he ever saw him again.
Ezekiel Thompson.
Shite.
It would seem that Ezekiel was just as big, ugly and nasty as Finnegan had remembered. The man stood nearly seven feet tall and had enough layers of muscle and fat on his damn body to hibernate through an arctic winter and still wake up big enough to eat small children. And his face, with all those pock marks and bumps would be what those children's nightmares would have been made of.
"You getting smart with me, you little Irish bastard?" Ezekiel growled.
"No o'course not," Finnegan shook his head and grinned as he grabbed a toothpick from the counter and stuck it between his teeth. "I wouldn't rub your lack of intelligence in your face, Pretty Zeke." Finnegan winked. "Tell me, where is your dear sister these days?"
"How dare you even think about her!" Ezekiel bellowed and he lunged at Finnegan, who easily sidestepped the bigger man. Ezekiel turned and raised his fist but suddenly Cassandra was between the two of them.
Finnegan's eyes widened when Ezekiel went for the punch anyhow and Finnegan grabbed Cassandra, shoving her sideways and taking the hit square on the jaw.
It was as if a bolt of lightning had exploded inside his head. The room blasted with light and stars as he weaved on his feet and fell back, barely managing to grab the bar and hold himself up.
"You nearly hit me, you great oaf!" Cassandra's voice snapped somewhere around him. Finnegan blinked hard, hoping to clear the spots from his vision. He reached for Cassandra, or at least the blurry image he suspected was Cassandra, and she wrapped her arm around him to help him stand straight.
"It would have been your own fault for jumping in between two men fighting!" Ezekiel countered.
Finnegan saw red and lunged at the bigger man. If that punch had hit his Little Cass it very likely could have killed her. Ezekiel had always been an idiot but he was certainly going to pay for that mistake.
Finnegan leapt upon him and punched for all he was worth but if the oak tree of a man felt it then it didn't show. Finnegan swallowed hard as he felt himself caught up in Ezekiel's arms and then he was flying through the air.
"Shite!!" Finnegan yelled just before he crashed into a table, which shattered beneath him and he was sent slamming into the ground.
The air left his lungs in a rush and he could hear chaos around him as the fancy crowd panicked, cried out and took off away from the fight. He could also hear Cassandra calling his name and then he became aware of her crouching over him. "Finn?" her sweet voice whispered. "Finn, are you okay?"
"Never better," Finnegan whispered. He winced at the pain he felt upon taking a breath. Perhaps breathing wasn't quite so important and he could get by without it.
"Good, because they are coming to kick us out as we speak and I am going to kill you myself just as soon as we get outside for getting us thrown out of here!" Cassandra warned.
"Such lovin' words ya speak to me, Little Cass. How is a man to control himself?"
"I'm gonna kill you, Finnegan Callahan!" Ezekiel warned as he strode toward them.
"I'm hearin' a lot of that tonight," Finnegan mumbled. He pushed himself into a sitting position and guarded Cassandra with his arm and shoulder.
"Can we at least take this outside then and away from the lady?" Finnegan demanded. "If ya come close to hurtin' her again, Pretty Zeke, It'll be you that's doin' the dyin'."
"Nobody is going to be killing anybody," another voice chimed in. Finnegan turned his gaze to the right and saw the three lawmen standing there staring back down at him, "Do we have a problem here?" the one bearing a sheriff's badge asked.
"Of course not," Finnegan replied quickly as Cassandra helped him to his feet. "I tripped and fell into this good man's fist and sadly the table took the brunt of the accident."
"I'm sure," the sheriff drawled. "Now, Ezekiel here is known for causing trouble so who might the two of you be?"
"Name's Finnegan," Finnegan bowed deeply, though he regretted it when his head swam. "And..uh. this is Cassandra. My..."
"His wife," Cassandra spoke quickly stepping in front of Finnegan.
Finnegan couldn't explain the emotion he felt at hearing her call herself his wife. It made him feel tough and strong yet soft and weak all at the same time.
Cassandra cast imploring eyes at the lawmen and batted her pretty lashes. "Sheriff, I apologize for the disturbance. My husband has had a bit too much to drink tonight and he simply loses all decency when he does so. I'm truly sorry for the mess but since no one has been harmed, other than my oaf of a husband, please allow me to take him up to bed...."
The sheriff shifted his feet and seemed more than a little swayed. Before he could speak however another voice was filling the room. "No!" The hotel clerk shouted as he stormed over. "I want money for the damage done here tonight and for the interruption to the evening."
"We don't have any money to give," Cassandra replied. "Please we are just starting out and heading west to settle. We have no money to pay for any of this damage."
Finnegan noticed that Ezekiel was trying to edge away. He reached out and caught the other man by the arm, stopping him in his tracks.
"Then put these two men in jail until I get my money!" The hotel clerk demanded with a snort as he crossed his arms over his thin chest.
"I'm sensin' a flaw in your logic," Finnegan spoke up. "How am I to get ya your money if I'm locked in a cell?"
"I'm sure your little woman will figure something out," Ezekiel snorted. Finnegan wanted to knock him for a loop, or at least try to once again, but the lawman was grabbing him then and slapping cuffs on his wrists.
"Finnegan!" Cassandra exclaimed. "Please, sirs, this man attacked my husband! I understand that Finnegan should have simply walked away but..."
"Save it, miss," the sheriff snapped as one of the deputies went about cuffing Ezekiel. "We're going to let these two cool off until morning and then we'll see about getting Mr. Wilson's money to him."
"And what am I to do? Am I still permitted to stay upstairs in my room?" Cassandra demanded with an indignant snort.
"I suppose," Mr. Wilson grumbled after a sharp glance from the sheriff.
Finnegan met Cassandra's eyes and he could see her disappointment and annoyance. He hung his head as he was lead from the hotel with Ezekiel behind him. He had just got done vowing to Cassandra that he would be a good man, one she could count on, and now look at him! He was going to jail.
He and Ezekiel were tossed into cells next to one another and Finnegan slumped down on his cot. Hell, he wouldn't be surprised if she took off in the night with Theo and the map and found the treasure herself. Hell, he sure hadn't done anything to help her so far on this journey... All he'd managed to do was get her into trouble and get into trouble himself.
***
Cassandra strode to the jailhouse nearly an hour after Finnegan and that massive brute had been taken inside.
"Miss you can't be coming in here," one of the deputies warned with a frown. "It isn't the proper place for a lady to be spending her time."
"Where I spend my time is of no concern to you," Cassandra snapped, rising to her full height and sticking up her nose as she'd seen countless other society ladies do when they expected to be listened to. "I will go and speak with Finnegan now so if you'd be so kind as to show me the way..."
"The sheriff won't like that," the deputy swallowed hard.
"Yes, well, he is not here."
"Well alright but.... I still don't think this is a good idea," the deputy noted.
Cassandra was led through another locked door and into a hall with iron bars on either side. The cells were mostly empty, only a few sleeping men here and there and the floor plan was more open than she had thought it would be. There were only a handful of very large cells instead of many small ones.
She saw Finnegan then. He was on his back with one arm over his face and one behind his head. The giant brute of a man he had been fighting with was in the cell next to him with two other sleeping men. Ezekiel was awake however and staring with hatred at Finn.
"Finnegan," Cassandra called as she walked up to his bars.
Finnegan leapt to his feet and rushed to her. His brown eyes were full of apology. "I'm so sorry, Little Cass!"
Cassandra held up her hand, "Save it, Finn, because I do not want to hear it. I understand why you went at him after he nearly hit me but tell me, please, why did he come after you in the first place?"
"Jealousy over my boyish good looks o'course," Finnegan replied with a shaky grin.
"Don't lie to me," Cassandra snapped. "I'm debating very hard on whether to try to get the one hundred dollars that the hotel clerk is demanding is your half of what is owed, or simply leave you in here to rot while Theo and I head off in search of treasure."
"Oh you most certainly want to take me with ya," Finnegan assured her and Cassandra felt her hand twitch with the urge to smack him even as she fought back a smile.
"Then tell me what you did to deserve his attack."
"What makes you think I deserved it?" Finnegan questioned with a frown and this time Cassandra found herself unable to stop her laugh.
"Because you always deserve it, Finn. Now tell me!"
"I'll tell you what he did," the brute grumbled. Finnegan's eyes widened but the man continued before Finnegan could speak, "He took my sister's innocence is what he did! Told her all these pretty little words about love and then left her just as soon as he'd deflowered her."
Cassandra felt her blood run cold. She thought back to the love that she and Finnegan had made only hours before and the way he had whispered that he'd never before had an innocent woman. Had he been misleading her?
"That's a damned lie and I won't stand for it!" Finnegan raged as he pushed away from the bars and strode toward the bars on the other side of his cell where the brute was lounging, "Your sister was no innocent girl, Pretty Zeke, and someone had gotten to that flower long before me....."
Cassandra swallowed hard. "Did you tell her that you loved her?"
"I..." Finnegan wouldn't meet her eyes. "I don't remember."
"You can remember that she was not a virgin but you cannot remember if you said you loved her?" Cassandra could sense the deputy and the other men in the jail hanging onto the conversation's every word and it was only that fact that kept her from allowing her tears to fall.
Finnegan rubbed his neck and stepped closer to her. "I told her... but it didn't mean anything!" he assured her quickly.
Cassandra felt her dinner turn violently in her stomach and threaten to make a reappearance. "So you only told her you loved her in order to get into her bed? Is it so easy for a man to lie about such things?"
"Of course it is!" Finnegan exclaimed and then his brown eyes widened and he shook his head, "No, no, no, no, don't ya do that!" he begged as he went to the bars and Cassandra took several steps back, "Little Cass, ya know that what we share is different."
"Do I?" Cassandra whispered.
"Don't you?" Finnegan asked seeming confused.
Without saying anything further, Cassandra turned on her heel and all but ran from the jailhouse and away from Finnegan who seemed to have no idea how badly he could cut her to the core.
***
Finnegan felt...deflated. It was as if everything inside of him had somehow been sucked out. He fell upon his cot and buried his face in his hands.
"I hate ya, Zeke."
"You deserve it, Finnegan. My sister cried for weeks over you. You told her that you loved her and she gave you her innocence and then you just took off!"
"I did not take the girl's innocence!" Finnegan shouted. "I would not do that. I may be a lot of things but I'm not that! She knew what we had was just for fun and just for that one night and she was fine with that. There had been at least one man there before me and many more if her impressive array of skills were any indication."
A resounding laughter filled the jail from the other men and Ezekial's face reddened. "I should have killed you the minute I saw you in the hotel."
"Yeah," Finnegan flopped onto his back and stared at the wooden ceiling above his head. "Yeah, ya should have."
The door to the hall opened but the footsteps were too heavy to be Cassandra's and so Finnegan did not even bother to glance away from the ceiling. He hated himself in this moment. Dear Lord what he shared with Cassandra was special and what he had shared with Ezekial's sister, Mona, had been nothing! She had known it was only for the night... Shite! She had approached him and offered it! And yes he may have mumbled an 'I love you' during the thralls of passion but it had meant nothing and Mona had laughed about it.
But then Ezekial had barged in and caught them in the act and while Finnegan had been fleeing out the window, Mona had been telling her brother dearest all types of falsehoods simply to save her own hide.
Finnegan sighed. Cassandra only needed time to cool off. She would come around. Surely she knew how much he loved her--how much he needed her--didn't she?
Finnegan realized the footsteps had stopped outside his cell and then he cursed when he heard the damned voice he'd hoped he would never have to hear again, "Well what do we have here, brother? I saw Cassandra storm out of here. I didn't think it would take her long to realize what a mistake you are."
"Shite," Finnegan mumbled as he sat up and looked at Seamus's smug expression. "My day could get no worse."
He was going to kill whoever had determined that Irishmen were lucky.