Tough to Kill by Matt Chisholm Page B

a five dollar piece from his pocket and gave it to her.
    â€œYou got gold on your chairs?” he asked. He turned and pushed through the crowd, heading for the livery stable. Here he loaded his pack-horse, saddled up, paid his dues and rode slowly out of town. He crossed the. wooden bridge over the creek and started slowly up the rise beyond. Coming over the crest was a buggy. In it sat Carlotta Markham. She was alone.

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    At the sight of her, his heart missed a beat and he thought:
You damn fool, you’re acting like a kid
. She halted her horse at the top of the crest and waited for him to come up to her. He reined in and lifted his hat.
    Carlotta saw a big lean man, Indian dark with lank black hair and eyes that looked almost black too. There was something hawklike and fierce about him as if he were powered by a strongly controlled energy, more force than should have been stored in one man. She should have been afraid of him, but somehow she was not and this puzzled her. She had never been less afraid of any man.
    â€œWhy, Mr. McAllister,” she said, displaying a coolness she didn’t feel, “this is a surprise.”
    For once in his life McAllister didn’t know what to say. He looked at her as if he had never seen a woman before. Shelooked abashed at his hard stare and lowered her eyes.
    He settled his hat back on his head and forced himself to speak.
    â€œI’m taken a-back, ma’am,” he said. “I had a mighty pretty speech prepared for the next time we met. Can’t think of a durned word of it now.”
    She frowned.
    â€œI have been thinking of what I would say to you, too,” she said. “I heard what my brother did to you.”
    â€œThat ain’t between you an’ me,” McAllister said.
    â€œIt’s between the Markhams and the three men who run the MC Connected. We owe them a debt and it can never be paid.”
    McAllister smiled.
    â€œI wouldn’t say that”
    â€œHow can it be?”
    â€œThere’s only one way a beautiful women can wipe any debt out.” McAllister ground-hitched his horse and walked around to the side of the buggy. The woman looked alarmed.
    â€œMr. McAllister, what do you mean?”
    â€œIt won’t kill you an’ it will wipe out any debt you owe me.”
    â€œMr. McAllister, you come near me and I’ll scream. The whole town will hear.” He put a foot on the buggy step. “You know how men act when a woman has been molested in this part of the country.”
    McAllister went still.
    â€œI ain’t about to molest you, ma’am,” he said. “The debt can only be paid if’n you molest me.”
    The blush started in her white neck and ran swiftly to reach her black hair.
    â€œYou’re impertinent and coarse.”
    â€œI’m a man and you’re a woman and nothin’ much else matters.” He took his foot off the step and turned toward his horses.
    She said: “It’s in broad daylight on the open trail.”
    â€œI ain’t ashamed to be seen a-kissin’ you. I’d be proud.”
    â€œBut what about me?”
    â€œThey’d say Markham’s sister was human after all.” He turned and smiled at her. “She is human, ain’t she?”
    In a low voice, she said: “She’s human.”
    â€œProve it.”
    She tied the reins with a slow and deliberate movement, stepped down from the buggy and came toward him. Whenshe stood in front of him, he saw that she was taller than he thought. She lifted her eyes to him and he saw that at close quarters her eyes were unbelievably lovely. She was breathing quickly; her breasts moved and the movement made the blood pound in his temples. She stood on tiptoe, put her hands behind his neck and pulled his head down to hers.
    The lips she placed on his were soft and cool like the petal of a spring flower. He expected passion to overtake him, but instead he experienced an