Page 28 of Dead Man's Hand

SADIESTEPPEDINTOthe cabin and glanced around as DJ closed the door behind them. She’d caught the scent of smoke the last half dozen yards up the mountain and now welcomed just being out of the storm.

A fire crackled in an old rock fireplace against the right wall, but from what she could tell, it wasn’t putting out all that much heat yet. She beat the snow off her boots before she stepped toward the heat and took in the rest of the cabin.

It was compact and open. The living area consisted of the fireplace, two upholstered chairs and a kindling box sitting open. Inside it, she could see twigs and pine cones, old newspapers and matches. Turning behind her, she saw what served as the kitchen. It consisted of a sink with a bucket under it. A propane stove and an old icebox-type refrigerator. Pots and pans hung over a small cabinet that she assumed held utensils and possibly flatware.

DJ was right. It appeared someone had been here recently. She saw a package of store-bought cookies open on the top of the cabinet. “No electricity, right?” she asked as she peeled off her gloves to hold her hands up to the fire. Her fingers ached from the cold. So did her cheeks.

“No electric, no cell service, no internet,” DJ said, “but there is a root cellar–type enclosure in the back against the mountainside with canned food that isn’t frozen. There is also a stove with a propane tank and a pile of dry wood under a shed roof on the side of the cabin. We won’t starve and we won’t freeze.”

She couldn’t help but smile at him as she took in the rest of the cabin. She suspected DJ often looked for a silver lining in even the darkest of clouds. There was a back door with some storage along the wall. To the right of that was a double bed taking up the corner of the room near the fireplace.

As she began to warm up, she took off her coat and dropped it into one of the chairs. She saw that they had tracked in snow, but she wasn’t ready to take off her boots. Her toes were just starting to warm up.

DJ threw some more wood on the fire. She could feel the heat go to her face. Her fingers and toes began to tingle, then sting. Her cheeks ached, but she began to relax. They were safe for the moment and as he’d said, they wouldn’t starve or freeze. That was enough for now.

“Not bad, huh,” DJ said, and grinned.

Partners to the end, she thought. “Not bad.”

He turned toward the cupboard over the stove. “Let’s see what there is to eat. I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry after that hike.”

TITUSGRANDVILLESTAREDout at the snowstorm in disgust before spinning his office chair back around to face the two men standing there with their hats in their hands.

“Let me see if I’ve got this straight,” Titus said, trying to keep his voice down. “You lost Diamond, you lost the money and now...” His voice began to rise. “You say you can’t go find him and the money and finish this because it’s snowing too much?”

Rafe Westfall looked at him wide-eyed. “It’s ablizzard. Some of the roads are closed. How are we supposed to—”

“We’ll find him,” Butch Lamar said. “We know Diamond’s headed up into the mountains. Keira left him a note with directions to Charley’s old cabin. She swears that Diamond will show. If she isn’t worried, why should we be?”

Titus swore. “Because you’re standing in my office, dripping melted snow all over my floor instead of being up in the mountains waiting for him.”

“We’re going to need snowmobiles,” Butch said. “There’s no way anyone is driving very far in the mountains right now. We’ll find him. We’re taking Lloyd with us. But what do you want us to do about the woman with him?” The banker gave him an impatient look. “We’ll take care of all of it,” Butch said quickly. “Don’t we always?”

Titus could have argued further, but it would have been a waste of time. “Diamond thinks he can come into my town and make a fool out of me? I don’t want him or his girlfriend coming out of those mountains. Is that understood? By spring there should be not enough left of his body to know how he died, right?”

Rafe nodded. “The animals will see to that.”

“Make sure you dump the remains where some horn hunter doesn’t stumble across them this spring.”

“You got it,” Butch said. “We’ll let you know when it’s done.”

Titus shooed them out of his office and told his secretary to get maintenance to come up and clean up the mess the two had made. Then he sat back and looked out at the whirling snow again.

His father wasn’t going to like this. Then again, Marcus didn’t like the way he ran much about the business. It was time for Marcus to step down, but the old fool was healthy and stubborn and still thought he was running things.

“This kid was Charley Diamond’s protégé. His legacy. Hell, practically his flesh-and-blood heir,” Marcus Grandville had said on the call this morning. “So he outsmarted you last night and walked away with the poker money. Cut your losses. I’m warning you. We don’t want him coming back to Butte. From what I’ve heard, he’s in a position where he could do great harm to our business.”

Titus still didn’t believe that. Diamond was a cheap conman. But even if he did believe it, things had progressed such that it was too late. He had Keira Cross right where he wanted her and thus he had DJ. He couldn’t tell his father that the reason he wanted DJ dead had little to do with the money lost last night or even the embarrassment of DJ getting the better of him. No, this went way back to when he was a kid. Humiliation was something that had stuck with him all these years—and DJ Diamond had witnessed it.

Now it was just a matter of finishing this. Then he would run the business as he saw fit. But he wondered if it would be possible as long as his father was alive.

“AREYOUSUREI can’t help?” Sadie asked as she heard DJ banging pots and pans in the tiny kitchen behind her. He’d told her to just take a seat in front of the fire, warm up and relax. He was going to cook.

“You cook?” she’d questioned.

“I can cook,” he’d assured her. “But this will be more a case of opening canned goods.

“I’ve got everything under control,” he called back now.

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