Free The Eagle and the Fox (A Snowy Range Mystery, #1) by Nya Rawlyns

trouble. So he asked, “What did the kid do when you showed up?”
    “Well, he waited for me to come in front of the store. With the light shining out the windows and the door, it made it damn near impossible to make out his features.” Josh pursed his lips in irritation. “I’m thinking this ain’t the kid’s first rodeo.”
    “Not following.”
    “He knew how to position himself to put me at a disadvantage.” The muzzle to his temple tilted the odds in the kid’s favor too, but he wasn’t going to mention that to Marcus. Bullet to the brain or cold-cocking him, either way, the juvie had a clear bead on a getaway before Marcus could even process the sound and come out to investigate.
    “You able to ID him at all?”
    Josh closed his eyes, thinking on what he’d been able to gather in his peripheral vision. “I’m about ninety percent certain it was the guy I spied on Polly’s porch. Dark hair, pulled back. Couldn’t see a braid, but it don’t mean it wasn’t there. Jeans, tee-shirt. Usual uniform. Both dark, impossible to distinguish colors when he was in shadow.”
    He took the last swallow of coffee. Marcus took the mug and placed it on one of the milk crates, then egged him on. “So did he say anything? What did you do?”
    Other than mess my shorts?
    “It wasn’t so much what he said, but how he said it. He asked... Where is she? ... and I swear to God he was freaking out, like he was close to tears, his voice all choked up. At that point you were upstairs, and I had hope Petilune would still be there and hadn’t done a runner. So I told him that.”
    “And...?”
    “And nothing. He took his good old time making up his mind about something. When he finally spoke all he said was... Promise me you’ll take care of her .” The muzzle pressuring the soft spot below his ear lobe added emphasis to the request. “ Promise. Or fucking hell... ”
    Marcus interrupted. “Or what?”
    “We didn’t get that far in the negotiations. He heard you coming through the store and took off. Before he made it over the railing, he told me to tell Petilune Kit Golden Eagle was gonna take care of everything.” Josh sighed. “After that he was in the wind. Even without me being a near cripple, I don’t think I’d have had a snowball’s chance. He was a fast sumbitch. And a hella lot younger than me.”
    Marcus mumbled, “Sorry.”
    “What for?”
    “Well, if I hadn’t shown up when I did maybe you could have gotten something out of him. Like why he’s here. How he met Petilune. And what the heck did he mean that he’s taking care of everything?”
    Shrugging, Josh took another tack and asked Marcus if he had a notebook he could borrow. When the man returned with a notepad and pen, Josh jotted down all he could remember about the teen, including the few words they’d exchanged.
    Mumbling to himself, Josh recorded as many physical characteristics as he could dredge up. The boy was around five-nine or -ten, slim build but not scrawny, and dusky-complexioned. And though the face had been cast in deep shadow, he could tell the boy had the high cheekbones and flat features typical of his race.
    In the margins, Josh jotted down Sig P226 ? It was most likely a tactical 9 mil since they were relatively easy to find. He still felt the imprint of cold alloy under his jawline.
    Marcus gawked at the notation, then opted to ignore it. Instead, he pointed to the boy’s name and asked, “You think he’s come down from the Wind River Rez?”
    “Possible, but...” Josh thought back to the rhythms in the boy’s speech patterns. Despite the tension and the obvious emotion coloring his words, there was an underlying accent that was just on the edge of familiar. Pursuing that thought he asked Marcus, “You met George, Janice’s no account missing husband, right?”
    Marcus nodded. “Unfortunately I’ve had the pleasure. Why?”
    “Well, when he wasn’t drunk or shooting up, if you listened to him talk, he had a