The merry sparkle in her beautiful eyes alerted him to something he’d yet to understand. Quick as a striking serpent, he grabbed the game operator’s hand.
“Hey!” Gordie hollered as his cash box crashed back to the counter. “Just what the hell do you think you’re—”
“He did not lose, sir,” Theodosia insisted, “and you know it.”
Burris grabbed his brother’s, shoulder. “I tried to tell you, Gordie! That woman is—”
“Allow me to see the pin my escort rang,” Theodosia said, snatching it from the game man’s hand before he had time to stop her. “There are two ways of looking at this pin, Mr. Montana. Hold it thus, and you do indeed see number ninety-one. But if you hold it upside down like this—” She turned the pin upside down.
Number sixteen met Roman’s eyes.
Theodosia laid the pin down. “The seven winning numbers, nine, sixteen, eighteen, sixty-one, sixty-six, eighty-nine, and ninety-eight, may all be turned upside down so that they read six, ninety-one, eighty-one, nineteen, ninety-nine, and eighty-six. The customer can win only if the operator chooses to allow him to do so. So you see? There is nothing at all scientific about the game. It only requires a good memory and aim—and a bit of observation concerning numbers.”
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Roman murmured.
“The number man cheated us!” a man shouted. “I want my three dollars back!”
“Me too!” another man echoed.
Frantically, Gordie and Burris tried to escape the horde of people. Burris fell in the dirt, Gordie fell on top of him, and several of the townsmen quickly captured them. “Somebody fetch the sheriff!” one of the men ordered.
Satisfied the men could handle the Jisters, Roman opened the cash box and removed his winnings. He then handed the box to a young man standing beside him. “You can divide the rest.”
“We ain’t gonna forget what you done, lady,” Gordie warned as the sheriff and deputy of Kidder Pass arrived.
“Damned right we ain’t,” Burris added. “Somewhere, sometime, we’re gonna meet up again. And when we do—”
“When you do, you’ll meet up with me, too, Jister,” Roman reminded him.
“They’ll be incarcerated, won’t they?” Theodosia asked as the lawmen led the Jisters away.
“I doubt it,” Roman muttered. “The sheriff’ll probably just run them out of town and warn them not to come back.”
But the Jisters would be back, he knew. Both had promised to exact revenge on Theodosia, and the cold hatred in their eyes had echoed their vow.
God, Roman thought. In Oates’ Junction, Theodosia’s lack ofcommon sensehad placed her in danger with the three gold thieves. Here in Kidder Pass hergeniushad earned her the hatred of two carnival thugs who had not only seen her gold, but had a thirst for retaliation that would haunt them until it was fulfilled.
Daft or brilliant, it didn’t seem to matter which Theodosia was. She invariably attracted danger.
Roman decided to leave Kidder Pass in the dead of night when no one in town would notice their departure and no one outside town would expect to find them. The more miles he put between Theodosia and the Jisters, the safer she would be.
“Mr. Montana, those game men should be jailed. They—”
“Their games aren’t illegal. Shady, yes, but not illegal. Most people don’t put up much money to play the Jisters’ games, so when they don’t win, they don’t lose a lot. Of course, most people don’t have a genius to help them beat the odds.” He looked down at the money in his hand. “I…thank you,” he whispered. He wished he could say more, but he wasn’t certain how to express feelings he couldn’t decipher.
Theodosia smiled and drew her hand down his muscular arm. Her mind warned her to stop touching him so often and so intimately.
But the tender emotions in her heart impelled her to caress him whenever she had the opportunity. Indeed, she felt like hugging him.
“Will we be making another trip to Templeton, Mr. Montana?” she asked, unable to find the courage to hug him the way she wanted. “After ten years of working toward your dream, you must be thrilled to be able to give Senor Madrigal the final payment and obtain the deed to your land.”
Roman didn’t know what to say. Her insight into his thoughts and feelings…her understanding of how important his land was to him…her willingness to postpone her own plans and return to Templeton with him…
He felt like giving her a hug. Only a plain and simple thank-you hug, of course. After all, he felt nothing but gratitude toward her. Nothing more, and that was that.
But she’d probably read some profound thing into his plain and simple hug, he realized. She’d think he was infatuated with her, or maybe that he was falling in love with her.
He wouldn’t hug her. It was a stupid idea in the first place, and he was damned glad he hadn’t given in to the urge.
