Page 30 of Dark Horse

“Yes.”

“That isn’t dangerous? Hudson’s not going to be furious, is he?”

“Calculated risk. Rowan and Essie will be with me. The two of them won’t let anything go wrong.”

“All right. I’m sorry to ask so many questions. I don’t doubt you know what you’re doing. I’m just…” The words fade on my lips.

“Nervous. I get it. I would be.” She pauses and looks out one of the mirrored windows to the bar. “I am, too, really. This could lead back to the death of Hudson’s grandparents if it is what we think it is—who we think it is.”

Hudson’s grandparents had died in a suspicious house fire around the same time as my parents. It had sent him on life-altering mission to find the culprits. We suspected thekillers had been one in the same after last year’s events and long hours of research on Charlotte’s part.

“If it is who we think it is pulling the strings, we’ll have all-out war on our hands.” I scrub a hand over my mouth.

“A war Hudson will start.” Her face falls, and she shakes her head.

“I’ll be right there with him.” I don’t want war. But I need answers, and if answers lead to war, then I’ll do what I have to.

“I know. That’s what worries me.”

“But we can’t let it go on like this.”

“And if it’s not someone familiar behind the curtain?”

“I don’t know what’s worse. The devil we know or the one we don’t.” I lament our options. None of them are good. We sit in contemplative silence for a few moments, watching the tourists on the casino floor before Charlotte shifts in her seat.

“I should be going. Essie and I need to be back in Denver before tonight. Meetings and all of that,” she announces.

“Essie came back to Purgatory Falls? I thought this was too backwater for her.” Essie is Charlotte’s personal bodyguard, a woman who could rip most men limb from limb. Even I wouldn’t want to cross her unprepared.

“Hudson insists. Rowan and Finn don’t even like me going to the grocery store without her if one of them won’t be there.”

“You do your own grocery shopping?” I tease her.

Hudson and Charlotte ran in very elite circles. The ones us backwater kind were rarely even invited to attend. Years ago, when the underground order of things had been decided, the Kellys, better known colloquially as the Gallowsmen for their ancestors’ ability to narrowly avoid the gallows, had been the anointed ones. Years of being on the inside of the best homes and privy to society’s secrets, they snaked their way into positions of power and prestige. Positions that included the well-connected East Coast upper crust where they connected thehaves with the have-nots and the thieves and criminals with the wealthy parts of society that could afford their goods.

The Stocktons, or the wider association out west that the Stocktons came to lead—The Quiet Horsemen—were silent partners. Money launderers and facilitators, making sure that all of the money was washed back out through legitimate and some less-than-legitimate means—saloons, silver and mineral investments, ranching, and casinos among them. It’s why Purgatory Falls was the perfect home and how it got its name—halfway between sin and salvation.

“I do occasionally have time to go grocery shopping, yes, and I prefer it. I still don’t feel right having help for everything, given how I grew up.” Charlotte shakes her head. You wouldn’t know her humble beginnings given her current lifestyle—one I imagine she could earn herself even if Hudson hadn’t been in love with her.

“There’s no reason to make it difficult just for the sake of difficulty.” I grin, thinking of Hudson worrying about her mulling around the grocery store.

“But challenge for the sake of challenge.”

“Is the grocery store a challenge?”

“Have you ever been in a grocery checkout line the night before a snowstorm? It’s a knife fight.” She laughs as she stands.

“Can’t say I’ve tried it, so I’ll just have to believe you.” I smile in return.

“All right. On that note, I guess I’m off then. We’ll see you back here in a few weeks for the wedding, though, right?”

“Absolutely. You’ll get to meet the entire dysfunctional family then.”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world. And I can’t wait to see your brother finally get his girl. They’re so sweet together.”

“We all can’t wait for that. We might finally get some peaceand quiet for a moment then.” I walk Charlotte to the door, and she grins back at me.

“You next or Levi?”

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