Free Calico by Raine Cantrell

keep Maggie safe if she isn’t where I can keep an eye on her?”
    “Can’t this wait till morning, boss?”
    “Three-thirty is morning,” McCready responded as Dutch sat up, blinking and yawning.
    Keeping his eyes averted from the brightly turned-up lamp, Dutch shoved aside his blanket and, with his hands rubbing his face and threading his hair, mumbled, “Let me talk to her. She’ll listen to reason.”
    “Only if you kicked her charmingly rounded posterior first.”
    “Seems to me that you’re mighty taken with Maggie’s body since yesterday. Can’t say that I like it.”
    The warning didn’t make McCready stop his pacing. “Can’t say that I much care. Will you help me?”
    Dutch felt his sleepiness disappear. He yawned, stretched, and rubbed his rumbling belly through the gap of a missing button on his union suit. “Let me see if I got this plan of yours straight. All I do is get Satin away so you can get Maggie ’cause you know and I know that she won’t go willingly with you anywhere. Then I tell everyone that Maggie left the dog with me since she changed her mind about marrying Quincy and lit out for one of the claims. You figure that Quincy’ll get tired of waiting and leave. Right so far?”
    “That’s about it.”
    “Not so fast, boss. You’re figuring to stash Maggie up at your cabin. That’s near a day’s ride from here. So tell me where will you be while I’m lying through my teeth?”
    Pausing, McCready rubbed the back of his neck, but he refused to look at Dutch. “Around,” he murmured.
    “What’s that?” Dutch leaned forward on the edge of the bed, cupping his hand over one ear. “Say again. I didn’t catch that.”
    “I said around.”
    “Around here? Around Maggie? Around where?”
    “Right, Dutch. That’s all of it.”
    Gripping his knees, Dutch eyed McCready. “You’re fixing to seduce that girl, and don’t be trying to flimflam me otherwise.”
    “I’m fixing to save her life.” McCready bit the words off, his body aching from both the physical pounding he had taken from Dutch’s hands and the one his senses had taken from being near Maggie. He rounded on Dutch, this time meeting his direct gaze. “You had to see her, Dutch. Maggie looked, well, beaten. Even when Pete died, she didn’t look as if she didn’t have a friend in the world to turn to.”
    “Murdered.”
    “Right,” McCready agreed quickly. “Pete was murdered, and I don’t intend to see Maggie end up the same.”
    “It’s not just the gold anymore, is it?”
    “Nothing else but the gold.” McCready knew his voice lacked conviction.
    Dutch chose to ignore it, forming his own conclusions. “Well, it seems to me that saving her life is a point we agree on. It’s from there we take different roads on how. You know,” he suggested, stifling another yawn, “Maggie could stay here.”
    “No. Wouldn’t work. She’d be vocal in protesting her confinement.” McCready draped his lithe body into the corner chair, booted feet crossed at the ankles, his head resting in the hands clenched behind his neck. With his eyes closed he added, “Too many people would know that she’s here. Between the two of us, we couldn’t check out every stranger that comes into the Rawhider.”
    “But along with us she would have Cora Ann and the Rose. Not only for company, not to mention me, but they’d help sniff out—”
    “Maggie has no desire to further her acquaintance with them. And you’ve heard what Cora Ann and the Rose had to say about Maggie. Remember, this is Maggie’s life we’re talking about. I don’t trust anyone, Dutch.”
    Dutch stared at the floorboards, his chin sinking onto his chest. “Boss, you’re not going to like what I’m thinking.” McCready’s groan was his only response. “Just hear me out. I think you’re missing something. Something important.”
    “Sleep, for a start.”
    “You stole mine. It’s only fair that you shouldn’t get any. Now, just listen. You said