Sugar Ellie Read online

  Sugar Ellie

  #1 Soiled Doves

  Sarah Hegger

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Epilogue

  Sarah Hegger

  Want to know what’s next?

  Books by Sarah Hegger

  Dedication

  For Miss Kitty, because your script writers never gave you Matt, and you deserved him.

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2020 Sarah Hegger

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Format and cover design by: Renee Rocco

  First Electronic Edition: June, 2020

  ISBN: 978-1-7771903-0-9

  Created with Vellum

  Chapter One

  Kitty’s voice split the hot, still summer afternoon, so loud the horses at Gus’s Livery next door snorted and kicked. “Sweet baby Jesus, Maisy! I will kill you dead for damn sure this time.”

  Ellie stopped reading and prayed that would be the end of it. Not that God was doing much listening to a girl like her, but it didn’t hurt to try. Fifteen soiled doves in one house could raise more hell than a summer stampede, and all it took was one to stir the pot.

  A few moments of peace and quiet before her busy night began, that’s all Ellie wanted. With the second-floor windows open to the afternoon air, from her special place on the porch, Ellie couldn’t escape what was happening up there.

  “You dirty heifer!” Maisy yelled. A tooth mug sailed out the window and crashed on the hard-packed dirt about six feet away from Ellie.

  Damn, Maisy was the kerosene to Kitty’s match.

  There went her reading time. Ellie wasn’t going to find out what happened to Moll Flanders today, and just when Moll was back in England and heading for Bath.

  “What did you call me?” Kitty’s voice rose higher.

  “You heard. Now, what you gonna do about it?”

  Maisy was heading for a butt whipping. Kitty could do plenty about it. Ellie sighed, closed her book and got her butt out her rocker beneath the back porch of the Four Kings and a Queen Saloon. Perspiration slid down her sides as Ellie quick-stepped it toward the escalating fray.

  A hummingbird darted into view and then disappeared into the Mexican sage bordering her hideaway. Ellie didn’t know how anything could move that fast in the heat. The heat was getting to the girls as well, making them more fractious than normal.

  Her oldest brother, Theo, had built her porch hideout for her so she could put some distance between herself and the girls when she needed it. These days, her hideout got more of her company than ever.

  “I’m gonna yank every last bit of that dead yeller hair outta your head!” Kitty bellowed.

  Yanking it all out would probably do Maisy’s dead yeller hair more good than the constant dyes she bought from the traveling medicine man who made it into Rattler’s Gulch every three months or so.

  “You can try it.” Maisy didn’t sound in the least deterred, which was part of the problem. Maisy didn’t back down for anyone.

  A scream led to flesh hitting flesh and more screaming.

  Kitty didn’t back down either.

  If Maisy and Kitty got all the way into it, there would be blood on the walls before they quit.

  The back door flew open and Silas trotted out still shoving his shirt over his round belly and into his britches. His few remaining hairs stood up on his glistening pate.

  “Miss Ellie.” Silas’s cheeks were pink from the effort of running in the infernal heat. “We got a problem.”

  Ellie had pretty much figured that already. “I hear it.”

  “Whoee!” Silas dropped into step beside her and snapped his suspenders into place. “I was havin’ my nap, you know I likes to rest up before things gets busy, and they bust right into my room, yellin’ and hollerin’ fit to wake the dead.”

  Double darn it. Ellie had told Jake and told him they didn’t need more girls. More girls meant more trouble, and they were full up on that already. Then Kitty had stepped off the stage from Cheyenne with her bold copper hair and flashy curves and Jake went deaf and hired her anyway. Flash a good pair of tits in front of her brother, and his mind went walking.

  Of course, Jake didn’t run the girls. Nope, that was Ellie’s job. Fast walking through the kitchen, she glanced at Pearl.

  Pearl looked up from the pot she was minding and rolled her eyes. “The cats are getting into it today.”

  From above, a loud thump damn near shook the walls, followed by more shrieking, a door slamming and then glass shattering. That sounded like one of the mirrors Ellie had brought in at great cost from Denver.

  Lifting the skirts of her simple day dress, Ellie ran up the stairs and left Silas panting in her wake.

  On the top landing, several of the other girls milled around, clucking together like hens as they peeped into Maisy’s room.

  Something heavy crashed to the floor.

  “Silas?”

  “Yes, Miss Ellie.”

  “Get me a pail of water.” The wall shook as something big, Ellie was betting a person, banged into it. “Make that two.”

  “Yes, Miss Ellie.” Wheezing a chuckle, Silas trotted off again.

  Ellie slammed her hands on her hips and scowled at the gawkers. “You girls got nothing better to do?”

  Girls stepped back and let her through. They might all tower over her and most of them could pick her up and toss her down the stairs, but like Theo always said, it wasn’t the size of the dog in the fight. Ellie liked to remind them she was the dog with the biggest fight.

  “What are you all standing here for?” Ellie met each gaze in turn. “I know you have plenty to do to get ready for tonight.” She locked on to Ruby’s night black eyes. “And I know you aren’t thinking of going out there with your hair like that.”

  Ruby looked shocked and touched her tangled hair. That girl needed to make good friends with a hairbrush. “Yes, Miss Ellie, I mean, no Miss Ellie.”

  “Mona.” She rounded on the plump, apple-cheeked blonde who was a big favorite with the miners feeling a long way from home and missing their wives and mothers. “You need to take yourself a bath before tonight. I don’t want more complaints about your smell.”

  Mona blanched, opened her mouth to argue and then shut it and scurried away. “Yes, Miss Ellie.”

  “Silas!” Ellie eyed the other girls until they dissipated.

  “Yes, Miss Ellie.”

  “You got that water?”

  “Right here, Miss Ellie.”

  “Bring it.”

 
; In the room, Kitty was squatting on Maisy’s back, one hand in her hair yanking for all she was worth, while the other was around Maisy’s throat.

  Ellie tossed the contents of one pail over the combatants. Ellie didn’t bother with a warning anymore. Warnings got you slapped and scratched for your trouble.

  Gasping and screaming, Kitty clambered off Maisy.

  Hands over her head, Maisy cowered on the floor in a puddle, her white shift soaked to her skin.

  “You want more?” Ellie kept her eye on the main danger.

  For a second Kitty looked like she might take her on and then she shook her head. With a scowl of disgust Kitty swiped water off her face.

  Ellie turned to Maisy who was now sitting up. “How about you?”

  Maisy shook her head.

  “Silas.”

  “Yes, Miss Ellie.”

  “You stand right here with that second bucket. The first floozy to give me lip, you let her have it.”

  Silas chuckled. “Glad to, Miss Ellie.”

  “Or do I need to get a switch?” Ellie would do it too. That defiant gleam in Kitty’s eye meant Jake favoring her all the time was giving her big ideas.

  “No, Miss Ellie.” Maisy sniffed and rang water from her shift.

  Kitty took a bit longer before she said, “No, Miss Ellie.”

  “What happened here?” The girls had made a mess of the room. The chamber pot was broken—thankfully it didn’t look like it had been full—and the dresser leaned drunkenly, one leg snapped in half. And, darn it, they’d smashed the beveled mirror into a thousand tiny pieces all reflecting the harsh afternoon sunlight. The mirror was coming out of their wages for damn sure.

  They’d made an even bigger mess of each other, and that meant she would be two girls down tonight.

  Maisy touched her split lip. “She started it.”

  “No, I didn’t.” Kitty bunched her fists and got ready to start right up where she’d left off. “I brought your dress back, like you asked, and you got all bent outta shape.”

  Kitty looked to be wearing the beginnings of a black eye and had a good few nail gouges over her cheeks and down her neck.

  “You gave it back with man juice all over it.” Maisy touched her swelling nose and winced. “I can’t wear it with man juice all over it.”

  From the way it canted to one side, Ellie would bet Maisy’s nose was broken. “Don’t touch it.” She slapped Maisy’s hand away. “Go and see Pearl later and get her to straighten in.”

  “But it’s gonna hurt.” Maisy pouted.

  “Not as much as my boot in the seat of your pants when I kick you outta here.” Ellie turned back to Kitty. “Got anything more to say?”

  “She can hardly complain about man juice when she gets herself a belly full of it every night. It’s one mark.” Kitty tossed her head and stuck her impressive bosom out.

  Kitty needed to learn who was boss here. Ellie held Kitty’s gaze. “Wash the dress and do a good job or you’ll answer to me.”

  “But I have to get ready for tonight.” Kitty scowled at her.

  “Not with that fat lip you don’t.” Kitty would be unmanageable before much longer. Ellie had been doing this for too long not to recognize the gleam of ambition in a woman’s eye. “You won’t be working until you stop looking like a beat-up cat.”

  “I don’t—” Kitty caught sight of her reflection in a larger piece of splintered mirror and gasped. She turned on Maisy like a rattler. “Look what you did, you bitch!”

  “Me?” Maisy scrambled to feet. “You broke my nose.”

  “Don’t make no difference to your ugly face.”

  “Silas!”

  “Yes, Miss Ellie.” With a grin, Silas doused the girls.

  Both shrieked but shut the hell up.

  “You’re going to get your nose fixed,” Ellie said to Maisy. She turned back to Kitty. “And you’re going to wash that dress.”

  Still sullen, Kitty gave a jerky nod.

  “And as both of you can’t work, you’re going to be scrubbing dishes and washing floors to earn your keep.” She held up her hand to stop any budding arguments. “And then you’re going to see about fixing what you broke in this room.”

  Ellie turned on her heel and stalked out. Waiting around to see if they obeyed her would only make her look weak. She reached the top of the stairs and took a deep breath. Now came the worst part, breaking the news to Jake.

  Descending the stairs from the rooms where the girls worked, she took the corridor beyond the kitchen to the family section of the rambling building. They each had a bedroom and shared the two offices. Lately, Jake had taken over the larger office. If Theo had been about, Jake wouldn’t have dared, but Ellie’s favorite brother wasn’t here, and her least favorite was in charge.

  Ellie tapped on Jake’s office door and took a breath. No chance he hadn’t heard the commotion, and if he didn’t hear what had happened from her, Kitty would be more than happy to fill him in.

  “Come,” Jake called from inside.

  Ellie pushed open the door and walked into a cloud of cigar smoke. Jake’s taste ran expensive and flashy. Drawn red velvet drapes made the room stuffy and dark.

  Jake lounged in his big leather chair with his feet up on his massive desk that took up half the office. Jake had raised the biggest fuss about that desk. It had taken the carvers months to get it exactly like Jake wanted it. The whole thing was an overly ornate waste of money, but Jake could do what he liked with his cut of the profits.

  Draped over the red velvet sofa in her drawers and corset and not much else was his fiancée, Minnie. The last women Ellie wanted to see now. Pretty much the last woman Ellie wanted to see on good days as well.

  Minnie had moved into the house the day she had accepted Jake’s proposal. Ellie reckoned Minnie was protecting her investment from the other girls in the cathouse.

  The heavy musk of Minnie’s perfume competed with Jake’s cigar in the stifling room.

  “We’ve had some trouble.” Ellie got straight to the point. She didn’t fancy being here any longer than she had to.

  Jake lifted one dark brow. He’d taken to doing that, like he was too important for words. It got right under Ellie’s skin, but these days she had to pick her battles with Jake. Jake had Minnie, plus the twins always sided with him over Ellie. When Theo had been here, the twins had stood with him, but with Theo’s continued absence, Paul and Patrick had thrown in with Jake.

  “Kitty and Maisy got into it over a dress.” She braced for the Jake explosion. “Neither of them will be working tonight.”

  “Dammit, Ellie!” Jake slammed his feet on the floor. “I told you to get rid of Maisy. She’s washed up.”

  Ellie took a deep breath and instantly regretted her mouthful of cheap musk and cigar smoke. Since the day they’d expanded operations from a simple saloon, the girls had been hers to run as she saw fit.

  “Maisy has been here since the beginning.” Jake knew that, but Ellie explained it anyway. “She was one of our first girls. I can’t get rid of her like she doesn’t matter.”

  Minnie yawned and stretched her long, slender arms over her head. Her bosoms heaved and nearly spilled over her corset. Like a dog on a rabbit, Jake’s eyes went straight there.

  Nothing so predictable as a man when his pecker was interested.

  “Maisy is a whore,” Minnie said in her slow, raspy drawl. “She knows how this goes.”

  If Ellie resented discussing her girls with Jake, that went double, triple even, for discussing them with Minnie. Since Theo had lit out to San Francisco six months ago, Minnie had been flapping her gums more and more.

  “Maisy may make her living on her back”—Ellie hated using the word whore—“but she’s family now, and we don’t turn our back on family.”

  “No, Ellie, she ain’t.” Jake got the end of his cigar between his teeth. “She works for us, same as Silas behind the bar and Chester running the tables. And if she can’t work, then she needs to find somewhe
re else to stay.”

  “She can work.” Ellie stuck to her guns. If Theo were here, he would tell Jake to leave this with her. “She just needs a couple of days to get rid of the bruises.”

  Jake growled and glanced at Minnie. “So now it’s a couple of days she’s not working. And the worthless bitch has taken Kitty off the floor as well.”

  “I believe Kitty started the trouble.” Ellie tried to get the facts straight. Jake wouldn’t listen to anything where Kitty was concerned, but she still had to try,

  “I don’t care who started it.” Face pinched and mean, Jake leaned on his desk and jabbed at it with his finger. “I’m a businessman, and this is a place of business. I care about money and who’s making that for me.”

  Minnie undulated to her feet and padded over to Jake. “You knew Kitty was worth it the moment she stepped off the stage.” Standing behind him, she draped her arms over Jake’s shoulders. “You know where the money’s at, Jakey.”

  Ellie wanted to gag as Minnie sucked on Jake’s earlobe, pressing her huge breasts against him. Even worse, Jake grew hot and flushed, and Ellie had run a cathouse for enough years to know what that meant. Watching your own brother getting randy was all kinds of wrong and disturbing. “Maisy stays. The girls are mine to run.”

  “Mama’s bored Jakey.” Minnie ran her nails down Jake’s chest. “Mama wants to play.”

  Ellie was standing right there and wanting to throw up more with each passing second.

  Jake twitched like his britches had caught fire, which they probably had. “You run the girls, Ellie, but only for as long as you keep them in line.”