“Harder, but not impossible,” Parlan replied. “In human form, they should die like anything else.” He wasn’t sure about that, but it sounded reasonable. “Besides, a fight for dominance doesn’t have to be a fight to the death. If I put this to the mayor the right way, we could pull this off with some bluster and a couple of shots fired in the air to show our superior weapons and let them surrender the field and leave town. They don’t need Bennett. Humans do.

“And after this mock fight?”

“I become Mayor Blackstone and you become Sheriff McCall, and we keep our fine town safe from anyone who would take advantage of the smaller shifters and the humans who sank everything they had into getting here and now have nowhere to go. So we’ll look after them and put a sharp edge on the law in case they forget to be grateful.”

Judd laughed softly, a chilling sound. “I can get behind that.”

Of course he would. Judd was so good with knives because he enjoyed using them. But he was equally efficient with a gun when the work called for it.

“I can reach out to Frank and Eli Bonney,” Judd said. “Last I heard, they weren’t far from here. Same with Durango Jones.”

“Do I know him?”

“You know him by another name. He changes names more often than he changes his underwear.”

“Ah, yes. Him.” Swaggering fool with too much love for the bottle—and an equal love for making trouble—but damn good with a gun despite his flaws. The sort of man who would need to feel the sharp edge of the law once they had taken the town.

“Tell them I intend to be the next mayor, so they should all come to town as upstanding citizens. We’ve got a five-day window before visitors have to commit to working in the town. They can play tourist without anyone asking too many questions.”

“I’ll pass the word.”

Parlan waited, sensing that the other man had more to say.

“They found the damn body too fast,” Judd said. “Don’t know what those crews were doing so far out from the main town, but they found the body too fast.”

“I know. The mayor showed me a photo from the crime scene.”

“Bastard.”

“Showed me another photo of a problem solved.”

Judd understood. “What took him out?”

“Nothing human.” Parlan thought for a moment. If the sheriff knew he was the Gambler, then … “I have a feeling the sheriff knows you’re called the Knife. Be careful.”

“There are eyes everywhere. I can feel them. But there are a few squatters living in empty houses. They’re sufficient camouflage. Easy enough for me to slip out at night and raid nearby houses for supplies, same as they’re doing. They don’t stay more than a few nights in any one area. Then they move a couple of blocks away and set up again. Just have to watch out for those crews coming in to strip the places.”

“I’ll call when the rest of the clan, and any associates, reach town.”

“Looking forward to it.”

Yes, Judd McCall would look forward to it. And so would he.

* * *

* * *

Later that night, when the town was quiet, Tolya went to Yuri’s house.

“Did Lila Gold have any information?” he asked.

“I told her you were interested in reading about dominance fights in frontier towns.” Yuri hesitated.

“And?” Tolya prompted.

“She said she had a feeling that you should talk to Jana, that what you were looking for had to do with perception rather than historical truth.”

An interesting distinction. Did Parlan Blackstone make the same distinction?

Tolya went to the front door and looked across the street. Lights were still on at Jana and Barbara Ellen’s house, so someone was still awake.

“I’d better pay our deputy a visit,” Tolya said.

“Are you staying here tonight?” Yuri asked.

“Yes.” Unlike the humans in the town, he didn’t need to worry about crossing paths with one of the Elders, but he wanted to look at any information he could gather as soon as possible.

He strolled across the street. He’d seen Virgil at the end of block, and Virgil had seen him. The Wolf made no comment about him visiting the two females, and he offered no explanation.

Then Virgil howled, alerting the entire street and probably waking up half the humans who lived there. And then Rusty howled, responding to her pack leader and ignoring Jana’s command to hush.

And then something in the Elder Hills howled—and that sound made Tolya shiver.

Up and down the street, he heard doors that had been open to let in the cooler night air quietly close.

“Mr. Sanguinati?”

Jana stood at the door, looking at him through the screen.

Tolya smiled. “I apologize for showing up at your home, but Lila Gold suggested I talk to you about frontier stories.”

“Oh.” Grabbing Rusty’s collar, she opened the door. “I’m not a scholar like Lila, but I have some novels set during the frontier days.”

Entering the house, Tolya allowed the puppy to sniff him while he greeted Barbara Ellen, who blushed—a reaction he decided had more to do with her sparse amount of clothing than with him.

“You were preparing for sleep?” he asked when Jana led him to another room and turned on the overhead light.

“Why do you ask?”

“Barbara Ellen’s clothing.” And yours.

Jana nodded. “We weren’t expecting company.” She waved a hand at the bookcase. “What were you looking for?”

So they were going to pretend she was wearing her deputy clothes. He could do that. “A fight for dominance in a frontier town.”

“A fight that’s in a ‘this town ain’t big enough for the both of us’ kind of story or something else?”

“A fight between two packs.” Tolya watched the rapid beating of her pulse. Knew exactly where to place his mouth on her neck to drink deep.

Outside the window, he heard a soft growl. Virgil would never consider taking a human for a mate, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t protect a member of his pack even if she wasn’t terra indigene.

Jana hesitated, then selected a book and handed it to him. The cover was dominated by a badge and what humans called a six-gun. The background was land dominated by hills.

“This is the one.” She sounded unnerved for reasons he didn’t understand.

“Why?”

“The elements on the cover were part of a cryptic message that led me to Lakeside and the job fair. My foster father read this particular story a lot. It’s about a fight for control of a town. It wasn’t his favorite frontier story, but he thought it held an important lesson, especially for a girl who wanted to be a police officer.”

Tolya thought he knew what a father would tell a girl child. He smiled.“Justice prevails? The good guys win?”

Jana didn’t return the smile. “No. The lesson was that sometimes the good guys don’t win—or survive.”

CHAPTER 30

Windsday, Messis 29

Tobias looked at the dead cattle and swore fiercely until he remembered that the ranch hand who was riding with him today was a girl. Not that “Ed” Tilman would appreciate the label, but what he’d learned from his mother about what was proper when around the female sex wasn’t shrugged off just because Ed wanted to be one of the boys.

“Think the Elders did this?” Ed asked in an excited whisper.

“The Elders don’t use or need guns to bring down anything that lives out here or anywhere else,” Tobias replied, then added silently, Including us.

Ed frowned at the two dozen carcasses. “Why would someone shoot cattle and then leave them?”

“Meanness or just wanting to cause trouble.” Or maybe the intention had been to rustle the cattle until the thieves realized there was nowhere to go with them. All the cattle bore the Prairie Gold brand, so taking them up to Bennett to sell would be futile. A phone call to the sheriff would keep the cattle out of the stock cars connected to any outbound train. The rustlers couldn’t sell them to neighboring ranches because the people on those spreads all knew each other. Gods, the Skye Ranch was the next closest ranch, and Truman had worked for him until a couple of weeks ago.

And moving a herd through the wild country without at least one of the terra indigene in the crew? There wouldn’t be a cow, horse, or man left by the time the nearest town came in sight.

So whoever had stolen the cattle had killed the animals out of spite because stealing was unprofitable, if not downright dangerous.

Tobias looked up and spotted a hawk overhead. Not sure if he was looking at a hawk or one of the Hawkgard, he removed his hat, held it above his head, and waved it in a wide arc a couple of times. He waited a few seconds, then waved the hat again.

The hawk paid no attention. Either it was a terra indigene who had decided to ignore him, or it was just a plain old hawk.

Tobias settled the hat on his head. It had been worth a try.

The thump of something large hitting the ground behind him had the horses jumping forward, wanting to run.

Wheeling his horse around, Tobias reached for his revolver, then jerked his hand away from his weapon and stared at the Eagle, who stared back at him before shifting into a human male. The head still had feathers instead of hair, and the legs were almost human-shaped but were supported by human-sized Eagle feet that had very large talons.

“Mercy,” Ed whispered, looking at her saddle instead of the naked male in front of them.

“Morning,” Tobias said, ignoring his young, blushing ranch hand.

“Yes,” the Eagle replied. “It is morning.” A pause. “That is a greeting?”

“It is.” He smiled. “But it’s also the time of day.”

Humans make everything complicated.

The words weren’t spoken, but the Eagle made his opinion plain to see. Then he pointed at the cattle. “They are dead.”

Tobias nodded. “Shot. Probably last night or very early this morning. Have the terra indigene seen any strangers around here?”

“I saw some earlier, but not live ones. They are not far from here.” The Eagle thought for a moment. “Not far for me.”

Tobias glanced at Ed, who had gone pale. It was all a grand adventure until a person made a mistake. Not wanting to sour the girl, he didn’t ask how many strangers were now being eaten or if someone needed to deal with a vehicle or horses.

He pushed his hat back. “Well, maybe you could pass the word along that there’s meat here for the taking.”

“You don’t want it for your own … flock?” the Eagle asked.

“Normally, I’d see about hauling some of the meat to the ranch or getting some of it to town, but I have other concerns right now.”

“Defending territory.”

“Yeah. And checking on family.” And warning the other ranches that there might be more cattle rustlers or horse thieves in the area.