Love's Last Gift (on hold)

Chapter 6

Heyes lifted the mug of strong, black coffee to his lips and let its contents flow down his throat.   He had been on the boardwalk out front of the Long Horn this morning when Gus had came down from this room upstairs to get the place started for another day.   They weren't open for business yet this early, but Gus had seen the former outlaw standing outside the window and had let him in.   He should have gone back to the hotel and let Kid know where he was.   He was probably pacing the floor,  in between naps of course,  wondering where the devil his partner had been all night.  But Heyes just couldn't see the Kid right now.   He had too many things to work out in his mind right now.   He needed to be alone.

He had left her while it was still dark.   He had not wanted to leave but he knew it was probably dangerous to stay, even if Ramsey and his lackey were gone.  He didn't want to take the risk.  And now that he knew how to get into the mansion without being seen,  he knew he would go back.   The dark thing had taken over him last night as he sat alone in his hotel room.   He had wanted to get blind drunk and pass out so he didn't have to keep thinking about Evie,  his Evie, kissing another man.   But that nasty thing had wanted to stay sober.   It wanted to stay sober so that it could go there where she was and show her exactly who she belonged to and always would, regardless of her last name.   And it didn't want drunkenness to be considered its driving force.  It was the rage that drove it.   How many times in his life did he have to let go of everything that he loved?   How many times in his life did he have to walk away and accept his plight as penance for his past actions?    Well this time he wasn't going to let go and this time he wasn't going to walk away.  And this dark, cancerous thing inside of him would make sure that he didn't.  Until he knew the whole truth about her decision to marry Clay Ramsey this thing inside of him would not be satisfied and it would not slumber.  

But after being with her last night and lying in her arms for just a few hours, it had gone to sleep momentarily.   He had been cruel to her when he had first found her there alone on the balcony.    But at that moment he had not cared.  In fact the dark thing had enjoyed her torment and her subsequent surrender to his touch.   It had wanted to laugh at the tears she shed.  But when he had carried her to her bed and he had felt her in his arms like a child,  the tender part of him began to re emerge.   He had then let that part of him make love to her gently and thoroughly.   She had fallen asleep as he lay awake, his head on her belly,  fighting the urge to scoop her up and run away with her.   But exhaustion from his own lack of sleep and the exertion from their lovemaking  had made his eyes heavy and he had fallen asleep himself.  He had awakened at four a.m.  He went to the balcony and found the discarded white gown that had blown against the railing.   He picked it up and shook away the petals of the late spring blossoms that had collected on the thin, wet material.   He had rubbed the softness of it against his cheek and inhaled her scent that still clung there.   His body reacted swiftly to her scent, but he knew he could not stay long enough to properly finish what he wanted to start.   So he had plucked a rose that was growing from the trellis and vined up along the balcony rail.   He kissed her forehead and placed the rose on the pillow next to her before he quietly sneaked from the room.

The encounter had left his body momentarily satisfied, but not his heart or his soul.   And even when he discovered the whole truth he knew his heart and his soul would not be satisfied until she was his once again.   His in name and in spirit.

"You just getting in or just heading out?"   Gus asked as he stacked empty shot glassed under the counter in preparation for the Saturday crowd that would be coming in later.

"Getting in.   I had a late night."

"So it would seem.   The Kid  was wondering where you had went off to.   I told him you'd took a bottle and headed out.   He came back a while later and said you'd barely touched the bottle but you was gone.   He was awful worried about you."