“You’re probably wondering what happened between me and the governor,” Diana said as she watched him pour three fingers of expensive Kentucky bourbon.
“Yeah, I am,” Longarm replied, taking a gulp and savoring the warm, delicious flow of liquor so much, he smacked his lips. “I expected a real dogfight about your coming on this trip.”
“I suppose I should have explained a few things before we arrived, but we were in such a rush.”
“You have a lot of explaining to do, Diana. You see, neither the governor nor the commissioner were very happy when I talked them into paying you fifteen thousand dollars.”
“Well,” Diana said, “as you might have guessed, the governor and I are old friends.”
“Is that a fact?”
Diana went over to the well-stocked bar and examined its contents. “Oh, yes,” she said, “I’ve even been in this coach a few times. Nothing has changed but the faces. The governor still insists on the best liquor money can buy, thanks to the generosity of his political supporters.”
“Why don’t you just quit dancing with me and spell it out plain,” Longarm suggested.
“All right, Marshal. I’ve not only met Governor Ganzel, but I’ve also spent some intimate hours with him on this coach.”
Longarm just shook his head. “The governor is married now. I can’t imagine that he would have agreed to work with you given this background.”
“He knew me as Miss Diana Frost,” she explained, pouring a crystal tumbler full of brandy and then sinking down on one of the blue velvet couches.
“Is that right?”
“Yes. Richard wasn’t married then. He was between his third and fourth wives, if memory serves me correctly.”
“I’m sure that it does.”
“Anyway, we sort of got well acquainted rather quickly. The governor acts dignified, but he’s really a cold- hearted lout. When someone told him that my past could hurt his future, he turned his back on me like I had a plague. I managed to extort a thousand dollars from him, enough to keep me going for a year. The man squealed like a pig and even threatened my life. That’s the main reason I changed my name.”
Longarm frowned. “Why don’t you look for someone with a good and honest heart?”
Diana took a drink, closing her eyes and brushing back her wet, storm-tossed hair. “Good question, and one I’ve asked myself about a million times.”
“And no answer?”
“Oh, yes, I know the answer, but I don’t want to accept it. The fact is, Marshal, that I’m a fool and hopelessly attracted to rich and powerful men. And if they can’t be either of those things, they have to be real handsome. I just can’t settle for the solid farmer, the butcher, or the baker. They bore me to tears. I’d just cheat on them the way Richard has cheated on all his wives.”
Longarm didn’t understand. Diana Frank seemed intent on destroying herself, even when she understood her weakness and therefore her cure.
“I know,” she said. “I’m pathetic.”
“I wouldn’t say that.”
“Well, no matter.” She drank a little more quickly. “Anyway, I’ll bet you haven’t a boring bone in your whole big body, Marshal Long.”
“Actually,” he said, glancing past her to see the fading lights of Denver through the rain-streaked windows, “I spend a lot of my life doing boring things. Sometimes, though, things do get exciting when I’m somewhere tracking a man down.”
She leaned forward. “Is it the hunt and then the kill that you find so exciting?”
“No, it’s the challenge of trying to outguess and outwit a fugitive from the law.” Longarm considered the matter carefully. “Diana, I’ve never really thought about it much, but I’d say the most challenging part is trying to outguess and then capture an outlaw rather than just kill him that makes it such a challenge.”
“Have you ‘outguessed’ me?” Diana asked.
“Why should I? You’re not the fugitive.”
She came over to stand before him, chest pushed out, eyes bold. “Has it ever occurred to you that I might have been part of Nathan’s plot?”
“No,” he said without hesitation. “It’s plain to see that you hate Nathan Cox.”
Diana seemed pleased by his answer. “Well then, can you at least guess what I’m up to?”
“You want the reward money,” Longarm said matter-of-factly. “Fifteen thousand dollars is enough to set yourself up for life—if you don’t get messed up with another crook like Cox or spend it all foolishly.”
“But I like to be foolish,” she said, placing her hands on his chest and rubbing the nipples through the fabric of his shirt. “Wild, foolish, and wicked.”
Longarm placed his glass of bourbon down on the polished mahogany bar and collected Diana in his arms. “I think you are probably as immoral as Governor Ganzel and that you have a perverse passion about collecting men.”
She leaned in close and nuzzled his ear, her breath hot. “Is that your honest opinion?”
“Yep. You collect men like some women collect plates or silver spoons. You’ll take a common working guy like me, but you prefer rich, powerful, or at least influential men. Politicians, probably judges, ranchers, and I’ll bet
