“Another room in another hotel. Somewhere that they wouldn’t be able to find you in case things do not go quite as well as planned.”
Megan squeezed his hand. “You mean in case you are killed trying to arrest Horace Leach?”
There was no sense in lying to the young woman, so Longarm just nodded his head. “Something like that, yes. And if I was absolutely sure that your shoulder could stand the bumps and jolts of traveling back to Reno, I’d put you on the evening stagecoach.”
“I wouldn’t go,” she told him. “I’d never leave without knowing that you were all right.”
Longarm gently took her in his arms. “I ought to go and get ready for tonight,” he whispered as she slid her hand between the buttons of his shirt and began to rub his chest. “I ought to go now.”
“No,” she breathed, her breath hot in his ear. “You need to make love to me all day long.”
Longarm smiled, and decided that there really wasn’t much in the way of preparations that he could undertake anyway other than relocating Megan to another hotel and room.
“I suppose that we can wait a few hours before we sneak you out the back way and find another hotel.”
“At least a few hours,” she said, reaching for him.
“All right,” he said, cupping her breast and then bringing it to his mouth. “We might as well enjoy what time we may have left.”
Megan closed her eyes and let the waves of pleasure sweep over her as she whispered, “Darling, I couldn’t agree more.”
Chapter 16
Longarm relocated Megan to the Grand Central Hotel, which was located on Main Street just below the King Street intersection and across from Wagner’s Saloon. It had a reputation for being an establishment of quality and Longarm knew that the owner, George Summers, and his manager, S.N. Pitcher, were very proud of their elegant banquet facilities and the twenty-one luxuriously furnished rooms upstairs, every one of which boasted its own window.
“This place even has its own indoor plumbing,” Longarm said when he had Megan comfortably resting in her new room with its elegant chandelier and brocaded velvet wallpaper.
“Its own plumbing?”
“Sure,” Longarm said, going over to turn on a faucet. “Mr. Summers had a well dug at the back of the property along with a large pump that forces water up into all the rooms.”
“Is it hot for bathing?”
“No,” Longarm said, “but they’ll bring you up hot water.”
Megan looked around. “This is really nice,” she said. “Why didn’t we come here first?”
“This room costs two dollars a night,” Longarm told her.
Megan patted the bed, “It’s only a single. We need a bigger one.”
“This will do for tonight,” he told her. “Tomorrow, after I’ve taken care of Leach, we can see about moving to a larger suite.”
Longarm went to the window and watched the sun fade into the Sierra peaks. “I had better be on my way, he told her. “I’ve got some preparations to make.”
“Come over here and hold me,” Megan said. “I’m afraid for you, Custis.”
He went over to hold the girl. “Don’t be,” he said, trying to ease her worries. “I’m an old hand at this sort of thing. My plan is to go in about midnight, sneak past Leach’s gunnies, and take him by surprise in his bed.”
“But then he’ll sound the alarm and you’ll be surrounded!” Megan wailed. “Custis, I don’t think that is any kind of a plan at all.”
“I haven’t told you all of it,” he said. “Once I get to Leach, I’ll make sure that he can’t sound the alarm. I’ll knock him out, toss him over my shoulder, and sneak off the Savior Mine’s property. I’ll have Horace Leach in custody and behind bars by three o’clock tomorrow morning.”
“But even if you can do all that,” Megan argued, her voice strained with apprehension, “don’t you see that his friends are likely to come for him? Those gunnies want to keep getting paid. Custis, they won’t rest until they free Leach and put an end to you.”
Longarm frowned. In truth, he had been afraid of the same thing. If Ivan Kane and his deputy had still been alive, they would probably have supported him. But with them gone, Megan and Dr. Blake were his only remaining allies, and they could not be counted on to provide much help. Hell, he wouldn’t even allow them to help.
“Why don’t you do this,” Megan suggested. “Get my horses saddled and ready—the ones we rode down here as well as the ones that I bought, and let’s make a run for Carson City. Once there, no one would dare touch us and you’ll have all the help you need.”
“It’s not a bad plan,” Longarm said, “except that you can’t travel with that shoulder.”
“But I can travel!”
“Not on horseback.”
Megan was nearly beside herself. “Then … then let’s buy or borrow or even steal a buggy or wagon! Custis, you haven’t a prayer in Bodie! Can’t you see that?”
Longarm stood up and began to pace back and forth, hands clasped behind his back, mind working furiously. He knew in his heart that Megan was right because, even if he did get Horace Leach out of his mansion, he’d never be able to hold off all of Leach’s friends, which would probably include part of that coalition that held Bodie in its firm control.
