desk and pointed the other in her face. "Now you listen to me! You and your husband is only here because Sheriff Barnes thinks you're worth a damn. If I had my way, you'd have till sundown to clear out of my town before I ran you out. It still ain't settled in my mind that you ain't drifters looking to turn a quick dollar before moving on to some other fool town. Lord help you if that's true. I won't stand to be made a fool of."
Cora let him finish, a small grin playing at the corners of her mouth. "Ain't no fool I've ever met that needed help being made, marshal. I know you got to keep this town together, and that ain't no mean feat. Last time I was through here, why, you could have thrown a stone from one end of town to the other without hitting a single head. Now the only thing you got more of than saloons and brothels is the miners that use them."
The marshal's finger sank to his desk as she talked, and she took that as her cue to stand. "As I said before, we're looking to make your life a bit easier," she said. "You're a right fine lawman, but you're green when it comes to handling any sort of monsters. Me and Ben happen to be experts in that area, and as experts, we're fixing to lend you our expertise. If you choose not to take it, that's your business. We'll be on our way, no hard feelings. You and that sleepy Mexican in the front room and all your other little deputies can have this town to yourselves."
"But." She planted her own palms on the desk and leaned toward the marshal until their hats touched. "When that thing in the woods finishes picking them wolfers out of its teeth, you can bet your badge it'll come back for more. Creatures like that can't never get their fill. If it can't find any idiots like them wolfers out in the forest, it'll start prowling around your streets. Pretty soon, you'll hear stories of lonely miners disappearing between brothels. Maybe that vaquero out there won't show up one morning." She grinned at him, her brown eyes colder than the frost on the windows. "Could be your office here ends up looking like that clearing, only instead of you cleaning up some unlucky saps, it's your wife cleaning strips of you off the windows."
Cora straightened up and rested her right hand on the hilt of her cavalry saber. "Of course, your monster could take a fancy to none of that. Maybe killing the wolfers was a one-time thing. I wouldn't bet an entire town on it, but it ain't my town. Ain't no piss in my soup if Leadville gets torn apart and dragged to hell bit by bit. Me and Ben can kill this thing for you, but not without your help. So it's your call, marshal."
Duggan stood silent for a moment. This woman had a way of getting under his skin that few could manage. The hot-headed Leadville marshal was known for his temper, but it usually took longer than a few minutes to whip him up into a fury. A self-proclaimed woman spook hunter with enough lip to call him a fool in his own office was a new thing for him, and he hated every bit of it.
Her words unsettled him down to his bones, though he would never admit it. In his four years as Leadville marshal, he'd jailed more than his fair share of ruffians, rowdies, and crooks. Most were drunk enough that a good smack on the head and a night behind bars would clear them up, but he'd settled a few high-profile troublemakers as well. He'd even faced down the mayor a time or two, refusing to let a rich friend of his walk free until the man sobered up. Duggan feared no man, but what this woman described wasn't a man, and he knew it. As much as he hated to even think it, he couldn't pistol-whip something that could shred two grown men in seconds and disappear without a trace. He could shoot it, maybe, but one of the wolfers had done the same thing and ended up dead anyway.
He rose to his full height and looked across his desk at this strange bounty hunter. Duggan was not a tall man, and his eyes were level with hers. As she