An Agent for Ulyssa Read online

  An Agent for Ulyssa

  By

  Patricia PacJac Carroll

  An Agent for Ulyssa ~ Author Patricia PacJac Carroll

  Copyright © February 2020

  Published by Patricia PacJac Carroll @ PacJac Publishing

  ALL rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, (except for inclusion in reviews), disseminated or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or audio. Including photocopying, recording, or in any information storage and retrieval system, or the Internet/World Wide Web without written permission from the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

  Cover by: Virginia McKevitt

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  Ulyssa Long has been a Pinkerton agent for seven years. She likes working alone. And is ruthless in solving the cases she’s been given. She is surprised when she is called into the Denver office to take on Sam Paxton as her partner in training.

  She refuses but is told that she can look for another job if she doesn’t want to do as she’s told.

  Sam Paxton needs to prove himself as a good man to make up for his outlaw past. He’s eager to learn, but Ulyssa is a beast of a woman. Oh, she’s pretty all right, but meaner than a snake. He’s met outlaws that were friendlier.

  The case – Roy Allred, a wealthy rancher in southern Colorado, has a problem. His only child, a daughter – Trucilla, Rusty, Allred who is twenty-three years old, pretty, and in love with a man that Roy thinks is an outlaw and just out to get the ranch.

  Ulyssa and Sam are to break up the young couple and protect Rusty from Cade Monroe. Well, all I can say is you’ll just have to see what happened.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  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

  Epilogue

  An Agent for Ulyssa

  Chapter 1

  Ulyssa Long reread the telegram. After five reads, it still said the same thing. She was to report to the Denver office and pick up a partner. Not any partner, but a man she was to help train in the Pinkerton way.

  “This can not be happening.” She never worked with a partner. Never. Why now? She was an excellent agent and had solved the cases given to her. Why was she being punished?

  She glared at the mirror in her hotel room. “I told them when I hired on, no partners.” She stared at her image. But she heard nothing to refute what the telegram had said. In fifteen minutes, she would walk into the Denver office and pick up her partner.

  “Ridiculous. The man must be an idiot if they have to train him, and what a waste of an agent of my caliber to make me.” Then again, she’d heard of Archie’s diabolical plan to match male and female agents together and make them marry one another for the first case.

  At least, the wire hadn’t said she was going to have to marry the man. Because she would not. “I will not marry any man.” As far as she was concerned, the male version of the species were all beasts.

  Harsh, she knew. But after her horrid upbringing by a father who didn’t care and being dumped in an orphanage that cared even less, who could blame her. She’d suffered abuse and mistreatment from every man she knew. And this was only more proof.

  She stomped to the door, grabbed her derringer from the dresser, and stuffed it in her pocket. Ulyssa went out, letting the door slam behind her, not caring if she woke others in the hotel. No one should be sleeping at ten in the morning anyway.

  ***

  A slamming door jolted Sam Paxton awake. He rubbed his eyes and then squinted to see the clock on the hotel wall. His heart leaped to his throat. He had ten minutes to get ready, leave the hotel, and get to the headquarters. The head detective had said he was to meet his partner today.

  He had some weird name like Ulysses. He hoped it wasn’t a fat drunk that was supposed to train him. Although that would be his luck. Then again, he had his sister and husband to thank for keeping him out of prison and getting him a job with the Pinkertons.

  Actually he had Evangeline to thank for not letting him hang. If she hadn’t saved him when she had, he’d have had a stretched neck and been buzzard food. Now, he was saddled with some guy named Ulysses. “Useless.” Sam laughed as he jumped into his pants.

  He grabbed his shirt, threw it on, and stuffed part of it in his pants. He didn’t have a gun. The sheriff wouldn’t give him one until he was accepted as one of the Pinkertons.

  The sheriff didn’t trust him. Not that Sam blamed him. He barely trusted himself. Crazy. But he was grateful for the chance. At least for a while. He wasn’t sure what kind of case they’d give him.

  The boss had said something that he couldn’t mess up. It was no joke that most of the agents looked at him with a jaded eye. They didn’t trust him, which was probably why he got picked to have a partner named Useless.

  A glance at the clock showed he had five minutes. Well, he could run. After all, he’d been running most of his life. The irony made him laugh as this time, he was running to the law instead of from it.

  Sam hit the stairs two at a time, rushed through the door, and ran across the street. He was almost to the front door of the Pinkerton agency when he saw some lady enter before him. She looked horrifically prudish. Ha, some poor guy was probably going to have to marry her and train her as an agent.

  He’d heard all about Archie’s plan and was so glad that he wasn’t required to marry anyone. No sir. He was not the marrying type. Not at all.

  He rushed in after the prudish woman, brushing her shoulder as he ran past her. “Excuse me.” Might as well sound polite. He laughed and barged into the room.

  Archie stared at him. “Well, you made it on time with a minute to spare. Your partner should be in here as the clock chimes. She’s always spot on the minute.”

  As he finished talking, the clock chimed, and the door opened. Miss prude walked in, gave him an icy stare, and folded her arms. She glanced at Archie. “Please don’t tell me that is my partner.”

  Sam looked down and had to admit he looked a bit ragged. His shirt was half in half out. His hair was probably mussed because he’d forgot to brush it much less shave. He hoped some horrible mistake had been made and one of them was in the wrong room.

  Archie shook his head. “I’m sorry. For both of you. But this is the orders from on high. It’s a special case, and Mr. Pinkerton figured you two would be the best ones to solve it.”

  Sam slumped down into the chair in front of the desk.

  Miss Prude stood with her arms folded and her lips in a firm grim line. But her eyes smoldered enough that words weren’t necessary.

  Sam shrugged. “All
right. I’m here. What’s the case? Forgers, train robbers, rustlers?”

  Archie shook his head. “Sit down, Ulyssa.” When she refused, the lead detective looked up at her. “Please.”

  Sam felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to see her hand flapping in his face.

  “Move over.” She growled in an icy voice.

  Sam wanted nothing more than to grab that flapping hand and bite it but remembering Evangeline’s warning that he be on his best behavior, he stood and scooted over to the other chair.

  She dusted the seat off, sat, and proceeded to move her chair away from his. Then she folded her arms again.

  Sam was about to ask how she caught any outlaws with her arms folded but thought better of it. Especially when he noticed that the boss was glaring at him.

  Throwing a folder at him, Archie shook his head. “Roy Allred is a friend of Mr. Pinkerton. So, this comes from high up.”

  Ulyssa cleared her throat. “Where’s my folder.”

  Archie didn’t look up. “You have to share.”

  Sam rushed to pick up the folder in front of him and opened it. “I see. Roy Allred. Big time rancher in southern Colorado.” He looked at Ulyssa and grinned.

  “At least it is a comfort to see that you can read.” She turned her head and looked at Archie. “And what are we to do?”

  “Roy’s daughter, Rusty, has become interested in a rather questionable character, and Roy is afraid his only child will be taken advantage of. You two are to go and break them up. Roy doesn’t want the man killed. He just wants Rusty to understand that the guy isn’t right for her.”

  Sam set the folder down. “Sounds simple enough. It seems like her father ought to be able to do that.”

  Archie raised an eyebrow. “How many twenty-three-year-old daughters do you have?”

  Nodding, Sam shut the folder and put on the desk, but out of Ulyssa’s reach. “None.” He grinned. “I can probably handle it myself. I have been known to be a ladies’ man.”

  Ulyssa stared at him. “That is hard to believe. I’d hate to know what kind of ladies they were.”

  Sam shook his head. “I doubt you would know anything about being a lady.” She must be the agent one of the guys referred to as the Ice of Hearts.

  Ulyssa glared at him. Not that she’d ever stopped glaring, but her eyes had reached their peak and any more would probably have shot fire out at him.

  Ulyssa reached for the folder which Sam pushed out of her way. “Ha! You’re a miserable excuse for a partner. Maybe you can buy a comb and a razor before we leave.”

  Archie cleared his throat loudly. “All right. Enough. That is exactly what Mr. Pinkerton doesn’t want. You two are to get along and be friendly to one another and to Rusty and her father. I don’t care what you do with,” He paused and looked at the folder. “Cade Monroe.”

  Sam stood. “Simple, I’ll handle Rusty, charm her, and show her what a real man is like. And miss all-smiles can scare Cade into the next county maybe even out of the country.”

  Archie slammed his fist down, hitting his mug and spilling coffee over the folder. “Ahh, look what you made me do.”

  Ulyssa shook her head. “That’s all right. I saw enough over his shoulder to memorize the pages.”

  This time, Sam rolled his eyes. “When do we leave?”

  “Preferably after you bathe and clean up.” Ulyssa stood and shushed him out of her way.

  Sam looked at the boss for reinforcement, but he was busy blotting up the spilled coffee.

  Finally, Archie picked up two soggy tickets. “You’ll leave on the next train for Colorado Springs, and then you can buy a couple of horses and ride to his ranch.” He handed the wet tickets to Sam.

  Ulyssa snatched them out of his hand and glared at Sam. “You’ve got an hour to clean up and meet me at the depot. Be there. I don’t wait for anyone.”

  Sam sneered at her. “Good thing you’re not the train conductor. I’ll be there. Don’t you worry.” He left the room, glad to be away from her. Right about now, he wasn’t sure if prison would have been a more pleasant prospect than being a partner to the Ice of Hearts. Well, that was just about the color of his luck. He looked at her and mumbled her name.

  “Useless.”

  Chapter 2

  Ulyssa stared out the window and watched the scenery pass by. She found the chugging train and the clack of the wheels on the tracks comforting. Soothing even. The times when she could relax and have peace were rare.

  That she was in the railroad car in the front of the train and her partner was in the last car, was part of the reason for her calm feelings. The man rattled her. From the moment she first saw the rogue running across the street to the moment they met in the Pinkerton office, he had kept her on edge.

  Ulyssa had felt at the moment he brushed by her that he’d been sent to antagonize her. What had she done to rile God so? The moment she was old enough to get out of the orphanage without being hunted down, she’d lived a decent life and worked hard.

  For what? To have some outlaw come into her life as her partner so he could pester and annoy her. Just his breathing bothered her. There was nothing about the man she liked. Not one thing.

  She rested her head on the back of the seat and listened to the train and dreamed she was going somewhere peaceful where everyone wasn’t against her. Where someone cared about her and would take her in his arms and hold her.

  Ulyssa sat up and looked around. Where had that dream come from? No. She was fine by herself and on her own. It was the way she lived. She needed no one. Wanted no one. Especially not Sam Paxton.

  The man was a menace.

  She concentrated on the green hills and the mountains in the distance. Even though she had a good job and money in the bank, something was missing. She felt as if she lived on the outside, but never entered in. With a sad thought, Ulyssa recognized that her heart was hollow.

  “Snap out of it, Ulyssa.” Dabbing at her eyes, she shook her head. She’d begun talking to herself more than she thought was right. But then, who else did she have to talk to? No one. Sam wasn’t the only she kept at arm’s length.

  With no family or friend, Ulyssa was alone in this world. That was the way she preferred it. So, why was she stuck with a partner? “I don’t need anyone.”

  She stared at the faint reflection of herself in the window. She wasn’t ugly, but her eyes and mouth were not welcoming. Not even to herself. Ulyssa tried a smile that only resulted in lifting a corner of her lips and ended up looking more like a snarl.

  Disgusted with herself, she turned away and looked straight ahead. There was some truth in what Sam had pointed out to her.

  “You look like you lost your best friend and were going to blame and shoot the next person you saw.” That’s what he’d told her as he left her and walked down the railcar to “get as far away as he could from her.”

  Ulyssa had to admit. Sam was right. Except that she never had a best friend. She sighed and wished she was—where? Yet, she couldn’t remember a place she’d been that she’d want to go back to.

  Everyplace was the same. Lonely. Desolate. Dead. “Shake it off, Ulyssa. You’re letting this man rattle you too much.”

  Again, disgusted at having to talk to herself, she closed her eyes and then opened them again to see the mountains. Pike’s Peak was somewhere out there. Probably the tall one. The mountains still had snow on the peaks, and she had to admit they were beautiful.

  “They’re pretty, aren’t they?”

  Ulyssa looked in the window and saw her reflection and then Sam’s. She stiffened. “Yes. They are.”

  “We’ll be in Colorado Springs in a few minutes. I thought I ought to find you, so you didn’t get lost.”

  Her momentary lapse into sharing a moment with him collapsed into disgust. “I don’t get lost.”

  “Good to know. I hope your memory has the map to the ranch because the coffee blurred out the markings. All I can make out is southern Colorado.”

  “Wh
at!” Ulyssa grabbed the folder from him. He was right. The map had a big stain right in the middle where the markings to the ranch would have been.

  Sam nodded toward the window. “Don’t worry, if it’s the biggest ranch in the area, I’m sure someone knows how to get to it.”

  Ulyssa nodded. “You’re right. It just gave me a scare.” She patted her heart. “Calm down.”

  “I’m not worried.”

  Ulyssa stared at him. Then realized she’d been talking to herself again. Not wanting him to think she was half-crazy, she neglected to tell him that fact. The silence between them grew into a thick wall. She was accustomed to the feeling as putting up walls was typical for her. She liked the seclusion. It was easier than having to talk to others.

  The conductor came by. “Depot is just ahead. Take your seats.”

  Sam sat behind her. “I guess you can ride a horse?”

  Without turning around, she answered him. “Of course, I can.”

  “We should get some supplies. You can do that, and I can pick out the horses.”

  Her shoulders tightened. Who did he think he was? She was supposed to be training him. “We’ll stay together. That will save time. If we split up, we might have to wait for one another.” Actually, she was afraid he’d head to the nearest bar.

  Sam shrugged. “All right. Archie said you had the money. Want to give me half? That way, if you get robbed, we still have some.”

  “Robbed?” She faced him. “I do not get robbed.”

  “Just a thought.” Sam sat back with a disgusted look on his own face. “Tell you what, I’ll just follow you around like a puppy in training.”

  That stung. “Suit yourself. I am the lead agent, and I am to train you. Attitude is important, so I think you should adjust yours. This case shouldn’t take long.” If it took more than a day, it would be too long.

  Ulyssa figured if she got the rancher’s daughter alone and explained the ways of men, the girl would come to her senses. Simple. She did not need a partner for this case. Especially one like Sam Paxton.