Janie looked at the woman warily.
Mary-Ann laughed at her expression. "Don't you be worrying. I mean you no harm. Just got to keep my man in line." She glanced over at what was left of the pile of twisted metal. "Sorry he did that to your truck."
Janie and Quinn shared a look.
Mary-Ann laughed harder. "Oh, he's not entirely sure what's going on, but I'm well aware that I'm stuck haunting this town 'til the end of time with that worthless man." She shrugged. "That's what greed gets you.Better'n hell, I suppose."
"Is the other prospector still around?" Quinn looked around the main street. "The one who was in the gunfight withJebediah ?"
She waved at her red-stained blouse. "That would be me. Both of us were good shots, don't you think?"
"You shot each other? Over gold?"
"We both wanted it. We fought hard to get it. And when it came down to him or me having the gold,
then we fought. Didn't even occur to us to share, even with our wedding vows."
"And now you're stuck together," Janie said.
Mary-Ann gazed off in the direction of her husband. "Forever and ever, amen. And now that he keeps scaring off the tourists, it's just the two of us."
Janie took the story in and tried not to see any parallels between her and Quinn. They were both after the same thing. She had been instructed to kill him to get it. Did he feel the same way? Would he fight her for the Eye? Would he try to kill her when it came right down to it?
Just then, Quinn slid his hand down to grab hers. She looked at him with surprise, but he was focused on Mary-Ann.
"So you're not going to shoot us?" he asked.
She raised an eyebrow. "Not unless you give me reason. And as long as your woman keeps her filthy paws off my husband—"
Janie made a face. "I wasn't even touching him!"
"—then we don't have a problem. You can be off now. I won't try to stop you."
As if Janie would touch a creepy old ghost with a ten-foot pole. "Great. Well, since the truck is now beyond repair, I guess we're on foot." She glanced at Quinn. "Just got to find theAsesinodelMonstro ."
Mary-Ann gasped. "You're looking for theAsesinodelMonstro ?"
Janie nodded and grabbed the map out of her purse. "Yeah, you know it? I figure it's a few miles north of here, right?"
Mary-Ann held up a hand to block the map from her view. "Leave now. Go. And don't come back."
"Can you tell me—"
Mary-Ann faded away until she was completely gone.
Janie turned to Quinn with a frown. "That was rude."
"At least she didn't try to shoot us."
He was looking at her funny.
Her frown deepened. "What?"
"Why did you tellJebediah that you'd do anything if he didn't hurt me?"
Good question, she thought.
She looked away. "Because if he shot your head off you wouldn't be much good to me, would you?"
"It's not like you need me. You could find the Eye all by yourself."
"Are you trying to give me ideas here?"
"No. Just stating facts."
"Yeah, well, don't do that. And thanks for pushing me out of the way of the falling truck. I was obviously doing my impression of 'deer in headlights.'"
"You hurt your head." He reached up to push the hair off her forehead. "You're bleeding."
She felt at her forehead, pulling her fingers away to see that he was right. Her head stung a bit, but it felt like a minor injury. "Well, don't go getting any ideas for an early lunch. I'll be okay."
His hand twisted into her hair and he gazed into her eyes. "Good."
She put a hand on his chest and could feel his heart beating—slowly.Vampires's hearts beat much slower than humans, but they still beat.
She wanted him to move away from her immediately. Being this close to him made her mind fog up. She couldn't forget what she had to do. Find the Eye and—now that she hadn't let Jeb do her dirty work—kill Quinn, whether or not she wanted to.
But he didn't move away from her. Instead he lowered his face and kissed her forehead. Her body clenched at the feel of his lips against her skin. Then he backed up a step.
"Because if you're not okay, I'm not carrying you," he continued, giving her a wicked grin before he turned to walk out of the ghost town.
She trudged after him, her body tingling from where he'd touched her, cursing her lot in life to have fallen for a man whose life she'd have to end to save her sister's.
Hehad to get rid of Janie as soon as possible. She managed to do things to him, without even touching him, that other women had to work very hard at. Just one look in her beautiful blue eyes and all he wanted to do was protect her.
But Janie Parker didn't need his protection.
Well, maybe from the falling truck, but that was about it.
The way she'd stood up to the ghost? She'd protectedhim . He wasn't used to that. Nobody usually protected him from anything.
He damn well liked her way too much. Forget infatuation. Forget lusting after her body. Those things were too simple for what he was feeling.
Heliked her. As a person. And that "like" was growing stronger every moment he spent near her,
growing into something larger and deeper and much scarier than anything he'd faced before.