Another sound came to his ears, but in his stunned state, it took him several seconds to figure out that it was Charlotte crying. The sharp crack of a slap silenced the sobs.
“Quiet,” Mirabeau ordered in a harsh whisper. “People will come to see what that shot was about. As far as they know, no one is in this room.”
Sure enough, a few moments later footsteps came from the hall, and a man’s loud voice asked, “Did anybody see what the hell happened up here? Who fired that shot?”
The red-shot darkness that had descended over Joseph’s vision was fading now. He could see a little again. Mirabeau loomed over him. Mirabeau had one arm wrapped around Charlotte’s waist, and his other hand was clamped over her mouth to keep her from crying out.
Joseph tried to move, but his muscles didn’t want to cooperate. He shifted just enough to draw Mirabeau’s attention. The man kicked him again. Charlotte struggled in Mirabeau’s grip, but she was no match for his brutal strength.
The hubbub in the corridor grew louder. Someone knocked on the door. Mirabeau didn’t answer, and his iron grip on Charlotte kept her from responding. Eventually the commotion died down, and the people in the corridor went away.
When Mirabeau let go of Charlotte, she tried to slap him. He caught her wrist in mid-swing.
“Settle down and behave, Charlotte, or I’ll have to hurt you like I hurt Joseph,” he threatened her.
Joseph watched through slitted eyes. His broken wrist throbbed in agony, but he found himself unable to make a sound.
Charlotte stopped struggling with Mirabeau. “How … how could you do that to Joseph?” she asked in a wretched voice.
“How could I …” Mirabeau shook his head. “That precious brother of yours tried to kill me! Didn’t you see?”
“Because he doesn’t want to be a party to hundreds of cold-blooded murders!”
“It’s not murder,” Mirabeau said. “It’s politics.”
She just stared at him, aghast at his casual pronouncement.
Joseph got his good hand underneath him and pushed himself into a sitting position. By the time he was upright, Mirabeau had drawn a gun and pointed it at him.
“Don’t make me kill you, Joseph,” Mirabeau warned. “I’m not sure your sister would ever forgive me for that.”
“You’re already beyond forgiveness,” Charlotte said in an icy voice.
Mirabeau’s broad shoulders rose and fell in a shrug. “The cause comes before personal considerations. I understand that, even if the two of you don’t.” He looked at Joseph. “Did you really think I wasn’t waiting for you to try something, my friend?”
Joseph had caught his breath enough to say, “You are not … my friend. Never again … Anton.”
Mirabeau shrugged again. “I can live without friendship—” He glanced at Charlotte. “And without love, if it means my people will be free.”
“How can you contemplate doing such evil in the name of good?”
“There is no good or evil, only freedom or slavery.”
“You’re wrong, Anton.”
“We shall see.” Mirabeau kept the gun trained on Joseph. “But not if the two of you continue to interfere. I don’t like to do this, but I have to make sure you won’t ruin everything.”
“How are you going to do that?” Joseph managed to sneer. “Kill us both?”
Mirabeau shook his head as he stepped closer. “No. But you won’t be interfering with me anymore.”
Even if he hadn’t been in such pain he could barely move, Joseph wouldn’t have been fast enough to avoid what happened next. Mirabeau bent down, and the gun in his hand rose and fell. Joseph felt the smashing impact on his head. This time when the black curtain dropped, it enveloped him completely.
He was there, and then abruptly, he wasn’t.
“What’s to stop me from yelling for help?” Meg wanted to know as she and Palmer stood in the darkened doorway of a business across the street from the Drover’s Rest that was closed for the night.
“Go ahead and yell,” Palmer said. He pressed the barrel of the pistol he held harder into Meg’s side. “I’ll just shoot you and be out of here before anybody knows what happened. As many people as there are in Calgary right now, nobody’s gonna find me.”
It was a bluff—mostly—but he had a point. The exposition and rodeo had swelled Calgary’s population to several times its normal size, and it was already the biggest town in this part of the country. If a man wanted to hide from the law, Calgary was a good place to do it right now.
“Anyway,” Palmer went on, “you’re a smart girl, Meg. You’ve figured out by now that I don’t want to hurt you. Hell, if you play along with me, I might just give you a share of the gold.”
“I don’t want any of the gold,” Meg said coldly. “You killed Frank and Salty and Reb.”
Palmer sighed. “You’re just not gonna get over that, are you?”
“What do you think?”
“I think you’re gonna come with me. I’ve got to find some place to stash you while I go on about my business.”
