Free Drew (The Cowboys) by Leigh Greenwood Page A

once in New York,” he said, knowing immediately she’d think he was comparing her to New York showmen. He was counting on her determination to be the best to overcome her anger. “You light a bunch of candles and shoot out the flame without knocking over the candles.”
    “That’s easy as shooting dead ducks for Drew,” Zeke said.
    “Maybe, but the audience won’t know that. It looks very impressive to have those lights go out one by one without being able to see anything do it. If it’s all that easy, we can add it to the act tonight and start working on something else to put in later.”
    “Like what?”
    It was just like Drew to want to know everything now. He hadn’t even thought of what he could do next. He’d been too busy trying to figure out how he was going to worm his way into Drew’s confidence.
    “I’m still working on the candle trick,” he said. “There are a lot of ways to do it, with the candles in a candelabra, in a row, even a revolving table. Think you could do that?”
    “What’s the next trick you have in mind?” Drew asked.
    He didn’t have to see her expression to hear the suspicion in her voice.
    “I hadn’t worked out which would be best to begin with, but I was thinking maybe you could shoot lying down.”
    “Shooting lying down is not much,” Hawk said. “Anybody who’s ever been in a gunfight has done that.”
    “Lying on their back, their head hanging down, shooting at something they’re looking at upside down?” Cole asked.
    “That might be interesting,” Hawk admitted.
    Cole had kept his eye on Drew the whole time. The cold steel of the gun barrel pressed against his stomach was not a comforting feeling. He was relieved to feel the pressure lessen, then disappear altogether. Drew might not believe him yet, but she was thinking about it.
    “I guess I shouldn’t have gone through that crate without asking you first,” Cole said, trying to sound apologetic without sounding so much like a yellow-belly he’d choke on the words. “I really thought we were partners, that you trusted me.” He tried to sound just a little bit hurt. “I have been doing everything I can to think of ways to make our act more interesting.”
    “It’s my act,” Drew said, “and you’d better not forget it again. As for looking through the props, do that before we pack up. I won’t be very happy if you forget to put something back and I have to cancel a trick. I’m not on very long, so I need to get in all the tricks I can while I have the crowd’s attention.”
    She believed him, or at least she couldn’t come up with a really good reason not to believe him. But Cole wasn’t about to get careless again. He knew he wouldn’t get a second chance.
    “That all you going to do?” Zeke asked. “Tell him not to leave stuff lying on the floor?”
    “What do you want me to do?” Drew asked.
    “Let me and Hawk have him for a few minutes. We’ll teach him to forget to ask before he goes through a lady’s trunk.”
    Cole figured Drew would be more successful in getting her brothers to leave his skin in one piece, so he kept his mouth shut. Zeke looked ready to take him apart. Hawk’s expression was harder to read, but Cole had no doubt his thoughts were running along the same lines. Besides, he had gone through Drew’s personal trunks. He thought he’d put everything back exactly as he’d found it, but you could never be sure with a woman.
    A man would throw everything into a trunk and worry about what it looked like when he got where he was going. A woman would spend five times as long making certain everything was packed just right so it wouldn’t crease. Then the first thing she’d do when she arrived would be iron everything and hang it up. Drew didn’t strike him as overly domestic, but she always looked neat.
    “He’s a fool, but that’s not his fault,” Drew said. “If you want to blame anybody for having to put up with him, blame Earl. He’s the one who hired