Slocum and the Grizzly Flats Killers (9781101619216) by Jake Logan

else thinks I am snobbish. Oh, I get plenty of business, but I am not held in any esteem. Grizzly Flats is quite parochial and many here consider me an interloper, my arrival being so recent.”
    â€œI appreciate you getting me out of jail,” Slocum said. He started to disengage his arm, but Madam Madeleine wouldn’t have any of it. She gripped down hard enough to dig her fingernails into his flesh and draw blood.
    â€œWe have a few things to discuss,” she said.
    They entered her house through the front door. Slocum saw that one pane of beveled glass had been broken and a hinge had been pulled free of the doorjamb by the fleeing robbers.
    â€œYou want me to fix that up?”
    Madeleine raised a carefully plucked eyebrow.
    â€œAll that and a handyman, too? I should have suspected.” She pointed to a love seat. “Sit there.”
    The way she spoke wasn’t an invitation as much as an order. Slocum dropped into the love seat and watched her go to a cut crystal decanter and pour two drinks. She handed one to him and then sat next to him, her thigh pressing warmly into his.
    Madeleine lifted her glass in a toast and said, “To our new partnership.” Her emerald eyes fixed on his.
    â€œMay it be mutually profitable,” Slocum said. He downed the whiskey and wasn’t surprised to find that it was much smoother than anything Malone served over at the Damned Shame Saloon.
    â€œYou are a cautious man, too, I see,” the redhead said. She took the glass from his hand and shifted in the love seat.
    Her whiskey-scented breath was hot and sweet as she bent closer. Her lips touched his, a fleeting caress more tentative than he’d expected. Madeleine drew back so she was just inches from him.
    â€œLet’s go upstairs,” she said. “My bed is all mussed from being roused so early. There’s no reason not to muss it further before the maid makes it up.”
    â€œNo.”
    For a moment the woman stared. Then she blinked and backed off another inch. Her ruby lips parted, clamped shut, and then she finally said, “You are not joking, are you, Mr. Slocum?”
    â€œYou want something else from me. I owe you. Let’s get that debt paid before adding others to the bill.”
    She rocked back and stared at him.
    â€œWhat do you want me to do?”
    â€œI’ve never run across a man quite like you before,” she said.
    â€œOne who turned down your advances?”
    â€œI don’t make advances,” she said sharply. “Men come to me, begging for what I have to offer.”
    He said nothing. He had read her right. She had to be in control and used her sex as a potent weapon. Willingham had been more inclined to spill blood—before Madam Madeleine came. She made him forget, at least for a moment, about his blood lust. She thought she could manipulate Slocum the same way. And truth to tell, he was tempted. The redhead was a gorgeous woman, and he suspected she was damned good in bed. If he gave in now, though, he would be forever indebted.
    â€œIs it that woman you’re sharing a hotel room with?”
    â€œMirabelle? No.”
    â€œDamn me if I don’t believe you.” She turned and faced across the room, smoothed out nonexistent wrinkles in her dress, making sure she fluffed up her bosoms to let him know what he was passing up, then continued, “I am tired of those two drunks annoying me and my girls.”
    â€œTell the marshal. He needs something more to do than lock me up.”
    â€œI don’t cotton much to the law. You understand that, Mr. Slocum, since you are my kindred spirit in that regard. They have tried to rob me before, they accost my girls outside the house, and they never—never!—come in as paying customers. If they did, I would thrash them soundly.”
    â€œTell the mayor.”
    â€œMayor Zamora is an honest man,” she said. “My influence over him is