My Desperado by Lois Greiman

face like she imagined a hawk would watch its prey, his eyes unblinking and sharp.
    She said nothing, her mind wandering blearily, and he jerked her arm again.
    "Woman," he growled fiercely. "It's your fault we're in this hole. Now get us out."
    Reality snapped in place with a click and a start. Katherine raised her nose, drawing her arm haughtily from his grasp. The lousy ingrate. She'd save his worthless hide, and he dared treat her like some mangy, stray dog!
    "New Prospect," she said with hard finality, rising rapidly to her feet. "I've got friends there."
     

Chapter 6
    The town was quiet, the streets dark.
    Katherine waited in the deep shadows of the pines, watching the Red Garter. She'd lied outright to Ryland. She had no friends in New Prospect. But Daisy did.
    Stroking one grubby, scratched hand absently down Soldier's broad neck, Katherine wet her sun-dried lips. What now? It would be dawn in a couple of hours. Ryland was slumped over the stallion's neck like an overused rag doll, scraps of her nightshift tying him in place.
    What if Red and Cory had come to New Prospect after all? What if word of Patterson's death had spread from Silver Ridge and the entire state was armed and searching for them?
    Ryland moaned, the sound weak and eerie, and Katherine's hand froze on Soldier's neck. Her options were few. She'd made her best choice, had labored along the river's rugged wandering course for hours without end, and she had no strength to go farther. Besides, New Prospect was the only place the man called Red had said they wouldn 't go.
    "Stay here." Her hand slipped to Soldier's face, not realizing she expected him to understand. "I'll be back."
    Moonlight cast its wavering shadow along her skittered course toward the dance hall. The back door proved to be locked when she tested it. Katherine bit her lip, glancing furtively about, looking for another way in and finding none.
    There was nothing to do but knock. The rap of her knuckles against the heavy portal sounded ominously loud in the darkness, and Katherine squeezed closer to the door, hoping to be swallowed by the shadows.
    No answer. She let her air out in a quiet whoosh, grimaced, and rapped again, slightly louder.
    "We're closed, laddies. Go sleep it off elsewhere."
    The voice from inside was husky and confident, laced with tired good humor, and staunchly Scottish.
    Katherine straightened, hope stiffening her spine. "Please." Her voice sounded pathetic to her own ears. "Please. Open up." She leaned against the door, feeling weakness flood up like a consuming wave. "I need hel..." she began, but before she'd completed the word, the door opened with a snap and she was pulled into Daisy's hearty embrace.
    "Miss Katherine. Oh, miss." Daisy hugged her tightly, stroking the wild mass of her tangled hair. "I was so worried, I was. What with you running after Ryland like you done. I was 'fraid I'd never see you again. But I says—she's smart, Daisy. What would a smart lady do? And then I remembered telling you about the Red Garter. And I thought you'd come 'ere, if ever you could. So I come straight 'ere, 'oping against 'ope that you'd be along—that you'd get away from that crazed killer and—"
    "He's outside." Katherine could barely press the words past her overwhelming fatigue.
    "Out—side?" Daisy pushed Katherine slowly to arm's length. "Outside?"
    "Where?" asked another voice.
    For the first time Katherine noticed the woman by the window. Her hair was just a shade brighter than the scarlet gown she wore, her expression harder than pressed steel, and in her hand she held a rifle with casual familiarity.
    "Lacy. Lacy MacTaggart," Daisy explained with a pert nod. "A friend."
    "Where is he?" asked the woman solemnly, her Scottish burr strong.
    "Ryland?" Katherine asked, straightening a little to pull from Daisy's arms as she watched MacTaggart's taut expression.
    "Is there someone else about that I might be speakin' of?"
    Katherine's gaze dropped to the rifle,