Wild Country (The World of the Others #2)- Anne Bishop Page 0,188

walked out of the government building, Tolya beside him.

A Wolf howled, somewhere nearby. Then another howled a few blocks away. Then a third.

And then something else howled. Something that made Parlan’s skin crawl just from the sound of it.

“What is that?” he whispered.

Tolya Sanguinati shuddered. “That, Mr. Blackstone, is a warning.

* * *

* * *

Standing outside her house, Jana shivered, frozen by the sound of that last howl. The one that didn’t belong to a Wolf.

Barb stood just inside the screen door, looking at the street. “What do you think it means?”

Nothing good. “I’m going to check on the neighbors.”

“But dinner is almost ready.”

“I won’t be long.”

Jana jogged across the street to the Gotts’ house. They were home and dinner was on the table. She declined an invitation to join them, then hesitated. She wasn’t an Intuit, but she was learning to be a cop and trust her instincts.

“Stay home tomorrow,” she told Hannah. “All of you. Stay away from the town square.”

“Trouble?” Hannah asked, looking toward the Elder Hills.

“Maybe.”

She went up the street to Maddie’s house and talked to Evan, asking that he and Kenneth stay home with the children tomorrow.

That something howled again and reached inside her past the place of rational thinking. But she wouldn’t—couldn’t—allow herself to be too afraid to think.

The Ravengard had reported sightings of strangers moving into houses within the town’s borders, but Craig and Dawn Werner, as the town’s land agents, had issued no paperwork for houses on that street. When she told Virgil, he wouldn’t let her check it out and threatened to lock her in the Me Time cell if she defied him.

This had something to do with outlaws, with the men coming into town these past few days. But until someone broke the law, she didn’t know what to do about it.

* * *

* * *

Parlan bought a bottle of whiskey at the saloon and returned to the hotel. He needed to eat, but first he needed a couple of stiff drinks to settle himself.

“Parlan.”

He turned and waited for Sleight-of-Hand Slim, Durango Jones, and the Parkers to join him. “I think we could rustle up a few more glasses if you want to come up and join me for a drink.”

William Parker went to the hotel’s dining room and returned with a tray of glasses.

Parlan didn’t want the company, didn’t want any of them in his room, and hoped none of them noticed the stone he’d found in the mattress, which he’d left in plain sight.

“I saw you at the poker table,” he said as he poured a glass for Slim.

“Cards weren’t with me at all tonight,” Slim replied. “Made me glad they were playing for small stakes. If I didn’t know better, I’d say I was jinxed.”

Parlan’s hand shook a little as he poured Durango’s drink.

“We set for the showdown?” Durango asked. “Tomorrow, isn’t it? Judd called and told me he’d moved some merchandise to a couple of houses just north of the tracks. At that location, the goods will have easy access to the train station and other places on that side of the square.”

Damn it! More men inside the town meant more chances of someone getting itchy and making a mistake.

He poured drinks for William and Wallace Parker, and finally one for himself.

He saw it in their eyes. If he told them he was going to challenge the Sanguinati just to back down, they would kill him now and go in his place, not knowing what would happen when the first shot was fired. Even if he told them what would happen, they would still go into the fight with guns blazing. Outlaws were becoming an extinct breed of human who couldn’t survive in any environment except human-controlled towns, and they were being driven out of those places too. These men needed Bennett, and they weren’t going to walk away.

But he might be able to convince them that they had a chance, and keep them believing it long enough for him to get away.

“We call out the mayor and the sheriff tomorrow,” he said, raising his glass. “To new beginnings.”

They toasted, they drank, they talked—but Parlan had the feeling none of them trusted him quite enough anymore.

CHAPTER 34

Watersday, Frais 1

Startled awake, Jesse grabbed for the phone on her bedside table. “Hullo?”

“Jesse Walker?” A young female voice. Shaky.

“Rachel?” She knew it wasn’t Rachel but couldn’t think who else would call her at that hour of the morning.

“No, it’s Hope. Hope Wolfsong.”

Jesse sat up, her heart suddenly pounding. “Hope?