Trouble in Disguise: 5 (Eclipse Heat) by Gem Sivad Read Free Book Online Page B

on top of the butler’s suit. They were welcome since the weather had turned cold. She removed the leather spats from her feet and transferred the fancy shoes to her saddle bag.
    It was doubtful she’d again find use for them, but she’d keep them in case she needed them in another disguise. She removed Calvin’s short wig, kept her own hair pinned high, pulled on Beau’s wig of light-brown hair cut in a ragged style, and slapped on her floppy hat. Once she’d laced up her knee-high moccasins and pulled on her duster it was Beau Beauregard riding his pinto and carrying outlaw cargo down Rusk Street.
    Before the sun had completely reached above the horizon, the young bounty hunter had delivered Ned to jail and collected a promissory note. The release for the reward would be wired to the Eclipse Bank as soon as the US marshal certified that the prisoner in jail was the same man on the poster.
    When the payment was released, Beau Beauregard, a bounty hunter well-known in Eclipse, would withdraw the funds and Miri would be set for winter. That’s when she’d relax, put on the shirt of Deacon’s she’d worn and subsequently purloined. That’s when she’d let herself remember.

Chapter Three
     
    Deacon was already awake and getting dressed when the key turned in the hotel lock. In pants only, holding his gun in hand, he faced the door, greeting the Pleasure Dome goons when they entered his room. Lydia was not far behind.
    “Where is he?” she demanded.
    “Who?” There was no one in the bed with him. But the scent of sex and tangled sheets testified that he hadn’t been lonely during the night.
    “Don’t play innocent,” Lydia said coldly. “I have a steady customer who enjoys the safety of the Pleasure Dome when he’s in town. His horse is in the stable but he’s not in the house.”
    “He’s not in here either.” Deacon shrugged and pulled a clean shirt from his saddlebag. “And I wasn’t bounty hunting last night.”
    “Was Calvin in here?”
    “Excuse me?” That gave him pause. Why the hell would Lydia think her butler had visited him? She answered before he asked.
    “My butler as well as my customer is missing. Melanie says she was on her way to your room yesterday afternoon when Calvin rerouted her to another room.” Lydia looked with interest at the wrinkled sheets. “You obviously didn’t spend the night alone.”
    Deacon didn’t argue about Calvin or try to convince Lydia that her butler hadn’t visited his room. Nor did he disclose the real occupant of his bed the night before. The two security men in his suite remained by the madam’s side, setting off alarm bells in Deacon’s head.
    They were bruisers who kept the brothel’s working girls in line as much as the Pleasure Dome visitors. He concentrated on convincing Lydia he hadn’t poached in her territory by nabbing one of her customers. She lost interest in him and left. Before the door was completely closed, she peeked around the edge.
    “Robert, I had no idea you favored that persuasion.”
    Alone again, he searched the room, including flipping back the bed coverlet. His memory hadn’t been false. He removed the bottom sheet, folded it and put it in his saddlebag, then left enough money on the nightstand to cover the cost of the expensive bedding.
    He had no desire to discuss her with Lydia but he intended to talk to his companion from the night before. No butler was on duty when he descended the steps but Lydia appeared and walked beside him toward the door.
    “I take it I’m not having breakfast,” he said wryly.
    “I’d prefer that you leave without a fuss,” Lydia said when he stopped in the foyer.
    “I’m not leaving without talking to the woman you sent to my room last night. She was as tall as most men, slender with a full bosom and had pale-blonde hair falling long and straight.”
    “I don’t know who you spent the night with. I’m sure my elusive butler Calvin could explain if we could find him. I think