Flash Gold by Lindsay Buroker Page A

you get this? I didn’t post it.”
    “ Nelly’s Good-Time Girls.”
    “ Nelly. Oh.” Kali puffed out an annoyed breath. While it had been nice having someone step in as a big sister after her father died, sometimes Nelly presumed too much. At least this meant the man was probably not there to rob or interrogate her. “That’s a mistake.” She waved at the flyer. “I can’t afford to hire help. I’m going alone. Sorry to have wasted your time.”
    Cedar lowered the paper, but did not leave. “If you win, there will be prize money.”
    “ Yes.... One thousand dollars hard money goes to the first-place finisher, thanks to Francis Barton’s lucky claim. The old sourdough’s spending like a drunk.”
    “ Then you’ll be able to pay me.”
    Kali’s suspicions toward her visitor returned. Only gold miners worked for the possibility of payment, and most of them were addled in the head. More, nobody in town thought her steam sled would do anything except crash through the ice and disappear forever. Francis wouldn’t have let her enter the race if anyone believed otherwise.
    “ If I win, I’m using that money to build...something I’ve wanted to build for a long time,” Kali said. “And I’m getting out of Moose Hollow to go somewhere warm.” And where nobody knew about her crazy family or called her a witch.
    “ One hundred,” Cedar said.
    “ Are you truly trying to negotiate with me over money that odds are against me winning?”
    “ You believe you’ll win.” A hint of impatience hardened his jaw.
    “ Everyone believes they’ll win or they wouldn’t risk their lives in this Godforsaken endless winter to run their dogs up a river. Look, Mister—”
    “ Cedar.”
    “ Look, Mister Cedar. I appreciate you coming—”
    Something shattered upstairs. Kali froze. That sounded like the ceramic-pot booby trap she had set up in front of her bedroom window.
    She scowled at her visitor, suspicions deepening. He did not appear surprised. His head was lifted, eyes toward the open stairway at the back of the workshop.
    “ You know anything about that?” she asked. He was probably the distraction while his cronies—
    The front door slammed open. Three men charged inside, six-shooters leading.
    Cedar whirled to face them. Metal rasped, and his sword appeared in his hand.
    Hoping the men were focused on him, Kali darted for the bank of levers. She yanked the one with the billiards-ball knob.
    A door along the wall slid upward, revealing two bulky figures in a shadowy cubby. Gears whirred, and a pair of four-legged mechanical constructs clanked out. Though comprised of a patchwork of spare parts and metal scraps, they had cohesive, canine forms. And they were big.
    Her guard “dogs” angled toward the intruders, issuing growls that sounded like knives rasping against sharpening stones. Two of the men noticed the metal hounds and stumbled backward, eyes wide. The dogs’ steel maws gaped open, and iron teeth snapped.
    A shadow fell over Kali. The intruder from upstairs. He vaulted over the railing and landed in a crouch beside her. A leer split his beard and displayed a row of tobacco-stained teeth. He raised a Colt Peacemaker toward her chest.
    Kali hurled her wrench at his jaw and spun, intending to run for cover behind the steam sled. A second man dropped into her path from above, and she crashed into his chest.
    Before she could jump back, massive arms wrapped around her in a bear hug.
    “ Got her!” her assailant yelled.
    She squirmed, finding room to angle a knee into his crotch. His grip slackened, and a startled grunt flew from his lips. She yanked free, but the first man had recovered and grabbed her from behind.
    As quickly as he snatched her, he released her. A howl of pain assaulted her ears. One of her dogs had clamped onto the man’s leg with those iron fangs.
    “ Good boy,” she caroled while jumping to the side to avoid the man still behind her. He caught her braid though and whipped her