Flash Gold

“So, you want his head. And these others you’ve been collecting are for…?”

“I swore I’d find Cudgel and avenge his death, but I didn’t want to be restrained by regulations and procedures-that’s what got Andre in trouble. So I found mentors and trained at fighting and shooting. I started collecting bounties on other criminals so I could fund my quest. I got good at it.” He shrugged. “But I keep missing Cudgel.”

“I’m sorry,” Kali said.

“Don’t be. Please. I didn’t come looking for that. I just wanted to explain and…apologize for using you. I wasn’t expecting you to be so…someone who I, ah…well, who’s…”

She watched with bemusement as his fingers groped in the air.

He finally said, “When it comes to fighting and such, you’re as fine as cream gravy.”

“Gravy?” She rubbed her lips to hide the smile. He must not compliment women very often. “Well, now, those are nice words, thank you, but there’s no need for flattery. Unless you’re trying to win me over? Did you still want me to modify your rifle? If so, you just have to promise not to tell anybody about…” She tilted her head back toward her office.

Cedar blinked. “I don’t care about any of that. Well, a little about the rifle, but if I’m a flatterer, it’s because I want you to come with me.”

This time Kali blinked. And stared. “Withyou? To be permanent bait until this Cudgel bloke comes along?”

“No, to be my partner.” He fished in a pocket, pulled out a sack, and dropped it in her hand. Coins clinked. “That’s half of the money from the ones I just turned in, and there’s another five hundred if you come with me to Dawson to drop off the pirate captain’s head. A couple more bounties after that, and you’ll have as much as if you’d won the race. I owe you that much at least.”

She started to shake her head and say he didn’t owe her anything, but hehadwrenched up her plans. Or rather, his presence had turned her into someone who wrenched up her own plans.

“Once you’ve got your thousand dollars, you could go,” Cedar said. “Or you could stay. I sure wouldn’t mind having you around to help on the day I do find Cudgel.”

Kali fiddled with the sack. “I don’t know what to say. I’m not that comfortable with the idea of killing folks, criminals or not. I have this belief that heads look better when they’re attached to bodies. I can’t see myself as a bounty hunter.”

“How about anassistantbounty hunter? I’ll find the scalawags, and you hand me some fancy invention of yours to help wrestle them into surrendering.”

She scratched her jaw. “Dawson, huh?” Maybe she could go for a while and see how life went. The Lord knew there was nothing for her here. And she was bait going forward no matter what. She might stay alive longer with a decapitation-specialist bounty hunter at her side. “I guess it might be more interesting than dinner with Nelly’s girls.”

“That I can promise.”

She pointed a finger at his nose. “This doesn’t mean I trust you.”

Cedar’s blue eyes crinkled at the corners. “Naturally.”