to the side, and after hitting them a few times, haunting music crackled through the room, drowning out the noise from next door.
Rosa snuggled closer to him. “This is a perfect night!”
Janson didn’t think so. His eyes ran over that jaunty black skater dress Mollie wore as she brushed past them through the aisle of benches. A banded waist showed an hourglass figure as she moved with a soft step, her skirt dancing over her hips. Her legs looked to be sculpted from pure muscle. In another time, she’d be a robust dairy maid. His memories weren’t wrong. The girl had curves. That wasn’t why she dressed all in black, was it?
Too late, he realized she’d caught him staring again, and she gave him the “stink eye” with those amazing sapphire cat eyes before she lowered into a wooden high-backed chair at the front of the room like a barbarian queen staring down her subjects.
Rosa’s soft kiss on his cheek startled Janson from his woolgathering. She squeezed his arm. “Hold me, Janson.”
He instantly obeyed. Rosa was a natural flirt, and even if her heart was miles away with some jerk from Omaha, she usually knew how to make Janson feel like he was the only one in the room. Usually. Mollie’s chin jutted up in response—of course her chin would jut in such a cute way. Freckles covered every bit of her skin, all the way down to that elegant scalloped lace against her neckline. The captivating freckles decorated her arms, her cheeks, that pert nose. He wanted to touch each one. What is wrong with me? Glancing down at Rosa, he ran his hand down her creamy smooth arm. She giggled up at him.
His bodyguards relaxed behind him in the seats, ready for tonight’s entertainment. Janson had a feeling that they’d both love to see him crash and burn tonight, anything to alleviate their boredom. Mollie might give them what they wanted. With misgiving, he watched the mischief spread across her impish face as she began her introduction.
“This isn’t some history tour; this is a warning to anyone who trespasses Eureka Springs with bad intentions.” Her eyes shot to Janson and left no question that she referred to him. “We don’t know when the healing of these waters began—the Choctaw, Osage, and Creek tribes talk about a chieftain’s daughter whose sight was restored in these springs; others say these waters are fed from the original Fountain of Youth discovered by Juan Ponce de León. No matter—rumors that Eureka Springs could cure any disease spread through the Wild West. A boomtown rose here overnight. People with nothing left to lose came from all over to try out the waters.”
Rosa nudged him and handed him a bottled water from her big beach purse. “You should bottle some water from this Eureka Springs, no? You can sell it for your company and add to your billions.”
Yeah, the media would have a heyday with that. They already thought that Janson worked with that kind of mumbo jumbo, though he did see the possibilities of a great brand name in the making.
Mollie’s head tilted. “We’ve had our share of snake oil salesmen here.” She never missed an opportunity to put him in his place, though she softened her remark with a smile. For a moment he was arrested by the twist of her lips. “There’s a dark side to marvels like these. Some settlers came to profit off the pain of others, to make quick cash. Snake oil salesmen, swindlers preying on the desperate, but we here in Eureka Springs always come out from the ashes stronger than ever. This town knows and remembers the wrongs against it, not just our friendly neighbors on Spring Street, but those who’ve passed on, the heroes, the criminals, the mischief makers; those who gathered here for a cure—whether they found one or lost everything. We call them ‘the Watchers’.”
Mollie was laying it on pretty thick. Ripping off the cap on his bottled water, he took a deep drink, curious to see where she was going with this.
“We’re protective of Eureka Springs,” she continued. “We recognize those who are family—only the honest in heart, the true, the principled—are allowed to stay.”
“Allowed?” the grumbled question poured out of Dwayne’s mouth. His bodyguard’s body was rigid—was that with fear? Suddenly Janson understood the guy’s reluctance to come tonight. That muscle of a man must be terrified of the unknown.
Mollie’s eyes softened on Dwayne. “I’m sure you’ll be fine.” Her attention