Victoria kissed Longarm’s mouth. Kissed him hard and with great passion. When she pulled back, she whispered, “That’s for what you are and what you said you’ll do.”
“Heavens to Betsy!” Dan exclaimed from his bed. “Can I get kissed like that too?”
“No,” Longarm said with a smile. “You’re too old and you’re a preacher, remember?”
“Bible says nothing against getting kissed.”
“Shut up,” Longarm told the old man without any heat in his voice.
“My prospector’s shack,” Victoria said, “will be perfect, and you do need a sanctuary.”
Longarm’s smile faded. “I just can’t allow you to come there with us, Victoria. I’m going to have enough to worry about taking care of my own problems. Can’t you understand that?”
“Yes, I can.”
“Then you agree?”
“All right. Whatever you say.”
Longarm hugged her tightly. “Good! Now all we have to do is figure out how to get to your claim without being seen by anyone—no easy task.”
“You’ll have to sneak out through the back alley,” Victoria said. “And maybe a diversion would help.”
“What kind of a diversion?”
“I don’t know. How about a fire?”
“Are you serious?” Longarm knew that fires could sweep through a clapboard town like Wickenburg in minutes. They were the scourge of all frontier settlements.
“My friend has an old barn that sits alone in the back of her yard. We could set it on fire. It wouldn’t pose much of a threat to anything nearby, but the volunteer fire department would come running and so would everyone else.”
“That would be perfect!”
“All right then,” Victoria said. “I’ll draw you a map to that mining shack and then set the fire.”
“Set it at high noon,” Longarm told her. “We’re going to need a little time to get things ready to leave.”
Victoria nodded, then she dragged a pencil and paper from her pockets and proceeded to draw Longarm a map that would lead him to her hidden mining shack in the mountains.
“Any chance you could get us a buckboard and canvas to cover Dan when we leave?” Longarm asked. “He’s not up to riding a horse and-“
“Sure I am!”
“No, you’re not,” Longarm countered. “And a travois would leave tracks that even a half-blind man could follow.”
“How about a carriage and two-horse team?” Victoria asked. “Would that be all right?”
“It would be just fine.”
She sighed. “Then that is the first thing that my friend and I will do.”
“Tell Mrs. Ann Reed that I’ll never be able to thank her enough.”
“Me neither,” Dan said.
“How did you know my friend’s name?”
“The desk clerk told me last night when we came in. I was going to pay you a quick visit once things settled down and I had taken care of our horses.”
“Ann is a saint and I’ve told her all about you,” Victoria said. “She also hates Hank Bass. He is the reason that she is a widow.”
Longarm nodded with understanding. “It sounds to me like Bass has made a lot of widows in this part of Arizona.”
“He’s made his last,” Victoria said with a firm set of her jaw. “And, Custis, if he kills you before you can kill him, I’ll find a way to settle the score. I swear it!”
Longarm believed her. There was a lot of hatred and pain in Victoria, but also a lot of courage and determination. It was clear from the look on her pretty face and the tone of her voice that she was not bluffing.
Victoria kissed Longarm good-bye and then, because Dan looked so envious, she leaned over and gave him a nice kiss on the forehead and said, “You both watch out for each other.”
“We will,” Dan promised.
After Longarm was sure that he understood her map, Victoria hugged him again and then she hurried away. Longarm stood beside his window and watched her cross the street. She was even more beautiful than she was daring and courageous, and that was really saying something.
“You are a lucky dog,” Dan said. “I never in all my life had a woman that pretty kiss me like she kissed YOU.”
Longarm shrugged.
“If I had, I’d have married her,” Dan said.
