Lindsay Buroker - Peacemaker

When Kali and Lockhart were alone, she wavedat the kit full of dice, cards, and chips, and said, “If this rusewas for Cedar’s sake, or mine, you can stop now. I know who youare, and he knows that you’re here.”

Lockhart’s face grewclosed. “You told Cedar -” he said the pseudonym with a curl of the lip, “-about me,did you?”

“You played your hand toosoon.” Kali thought that sounded like a gambling-appropriate thingto say. “Showing me the newspaper and pointing him out.”

“Yes, I feared that mightbe the case. I was hoping you’d be concerned when you learned whata monster he is. You seemed smart, so I was hoping you’d knowbetter than to go right to that murderer.”

“He’s not a-” Kali startedto say murderer, but she supposed that technically he was, even ifhe only aimed for killers with bounties on their heads,“-criminal,” she said instead. “I know what happened, and you’reafter the wrong man.”

Lockhart sneered. “Of course he’d tell youthat. Do you even know his real name?”

“Yes. He told me beforeyou ever came to town. I’ll point out that you never gave me your real name, AgentLockhart.”

His eyebrows twitched beneath his hat. “Isee.”

“I wouldn’t spend timewith an evil man, sir. Cedar-Milos-was framed by Cudgel Conrad. Iimagine you’ve heard of him?”

“I’m aware of thefelon.”

“Cedar’s been after himfor years, because Cudgel killed his brother. The man would doanything to get rid of Cedar, but he’s not good enough to killCedar outright.” When Kali said the last, a muscle twitched inLockhart’s jaw. Was he irked he wasn’t good enough to kill Cedaroutright either? “Cudgel must have figured that the next best thingwas to get the law after Cedar, so he’d be harried every step ofthe way and have less time to spend on collecting Cudgel’s bounty.And that’s just what you’re doing, harrying him and making troublefor him, exactly the way that criminal wants.”

Lockhart’s face remained cold and impassivethroughout Kali’s speech, and she feared she wasn’t swaying him atall. She ought to be sweet-talking him, not stating blunt truths,but she was no gifted flannel mouth. She preferred to deliverthings straight up, whether people liked hearing them or not. Shedoubted it would sound sincere if she tried to do anythingelse.

“This is the story he toldyou?” Lockhart asked.

Kali bristled, wanting tosay it was the truth, not a story, but she had only Cedar’s wordsto go on. She believed him-he’d been too honest, and too painedabout his choices, to be making things up. And, even though shealways told him that she wasn’t quick to trust people, himincluded, she did trust him at this point. They’d been through enough togetherthat she believed she could rely upon him.

“That’s what he told me,”Kali said. “Look, there was a series of murders down in SanFrancisco, right? And Cedar got blamed because he was foundstanding over a woman killed in the same manner as the others,right? He didn’t murder her or the others though. Surely you musthave wondered when he left town and the murders continued. You musthave known you had the wrong man.”

“The murders didn’tcontinue.”

Kali blinked. “What?”

“When he was gone, theystopped.”

Damn, she had been sure she’d been on tosomething. What had happened then? Had the murderer figured thingswere too hot and he dared not strike again? Or had it simply beencoincidence that Cedar had left at the same time as this cutthroatstopped attacking women in San Francisco?

“I’m not after the wrongman, Miss McAlister,” Lockhart said softly, gently, as if he wassorry he had to hurt her feelings by telling her a truth she didn’twant to hear.

Kali sat up straight, agrowl in the back of her throat. It wasn’t the truth. “Listen, mister,I’ve seen him do a lot of good up here. He’s brought in heaps ofmurdering criminals. You two should be allies, notenemies.”

Lockhart snorted.

Kali leaned forward, gripping the edge ofthe table. “You weren’t around when he first told me about hispast, so he had no reason to lie to me. He volunteered theinformation.”

“Miss McAlister, I’velearned that most men tell tall tales, especially to women theywant to bed. That fibs are commonplace doesn’t make them true orany less insidious.” Lockhart drew his shiny steel Colt and raisedit above the table.

Kali tensed. He had no law-abiding reason tokill her, but the gun’s appearance made her nervous. He’d see ifshe reached for the man-stopper in her front overalls pocket, but,out of sight beneath the table, her hand drifted to the pocketwhere she kept the pair of smoke nuts.

Lockhart laid the revolver down in front ofher and leaned forward, eyes intent. “They call this gun thePeacemaker, and it’s here with me to kill Milos Kartes and bringpeace to the spirits of those he murdered. Half a dozen innocentwomen in San Francisco, dead by his hand. His guilt was determinedby a jury of his peers. Evidence, not tall tales, condemned him. IfI come across Cudgel Conrad, I’ll kill him, too, because he’swanted a hundred times over for his crimes, but his isn’t the caseI was assigned. I’m here to get Kartes.” He gazed straight into hereyes. “And if you get in my way, Miss, I’ll have the Mounties lockyou up until I catch up with my man.”

Kali wanted to declare that Lockhart wasfrom the United States, and had less sway with the RCMP than Cedardid, but his hard, unwavering stare stole her defiance. She had tofight to not squirm and look away. Seconds ticked by as she triedto come up with a strong, intelligent reply, but she couldn’t thinkof anything.

A scream came from a hallway behind thestage.

Kali lunged to her feet, tipping her chairover. Lockhart leaped up even faster. With his Colt in hand, hevaulted over the table and sprinted for the hallway.

The fiddle halted, and the dancers stopped.Kali started to follow Lockhart, but caught herself. If themurderer was back there, he supposedly liked to torment his victimsbefore killing them. He couldn’t do that in a public place. If hewas kidnapping a girl, he might run out the back.

Kali pushed past groups of gawking men andheaded for the front door. If she could get around the buildingquickly enough, maybe she could stop, or at least delay, someonecoming out the back.

She ducked past a burly man in the doorway,gasped a breath of fresh air, and sprinted down the boardwalktoward the alley. Muffled grunts and whimpers of feminine distresscame from behind the building. Kali dug into a pocket and pulledout one of her smoke nuts. She jumped off the boardwalk and intothe ally. Mud squished audibly beneath her feet, and she winced,hoping the kidnapper had not heard. Striving for quiet, sheadvanced more slowly than she wanted.

A shadow passed over her, and Kali glancedup. The buildings on either side of her hid all but a slice of thenight sky, and she saw nothing but stars in the gap.

“Your imagination,” shemuttered under her breath.

Kali picked her way through the sucking mudas quickly as she could. She reached the back of the saloon andpeeked around the corner.

A towering man with a torso as broad as agrizzly’s was stalking toward her. That had to be Sparwood. A womanthrashed in his arms, but he kept her crushed against his chest,her feet dangling a foot above the ground. Her flailing wasuseless.

Kali tightened her hand around the smokenut, but hesitated before arming it. The shrapnel her weapon flungwould hit the woman, too, probably harming her more than the man,since he was holding her before him like a shield.

They were only five steps from her hidingspot. There was no time to think of a better plan. The man wouldtake at least some of the shrapnel, and Kali could attack him underthe cover of the smoke.