The heavy cigar smoke created a blue hue around most of the guests. Charlotte was used to a light breeze through a stone framed window back in London. It carried the pipe tobacco across your nose, just enough to pick up hints of cherry and aged tobacco. Not like what she had the displeasure of smelling here at the Cactus Moon. Cheap traders and fortune seekers hobbling together what strips of cheap tobacco they could find out here. She would need to get her red dress washed in this town starved for water.

  Luckily for her, this is just the kind of place she thrived in. The desperate seemed to flock to her when she was in her element. Her English accent brought them to the poker tables, just begging to give her their money. She also dealt in a more meaningful currency. Secrets.

  She lights a long, decorated cigarette and takes a quick drag. “One of the men here threw a lot of money down during some of the early games. I knew he would start betting even bigger if I showed a few losing hands.” Charlotte blew her smoke right in front of Caleb. Her voice dropped to a whisper. “When he starts winning, he starts bragging. He tells the table that he paid a bounty hunter to search around Whispering Sands for a card bearer. Said that this bounty hunter can sniff them out.” She taps Caleb’s nose and then into his chest.

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  “So what does that have to do with you getting a card?” Caleb flinches when Charlotte taps his chest. “Did you think I could just walk up to a bounty hunter and take something from him?”

  Charlotte grins at Caleb and taps her cigarette into a horseshoe shaped ash tray. Smoke rolls out of her nose like steam off a cup of hot coffee. “We all must do hard things if you want power out here, Caleb. If you are wanting money, or fame, or a card that has life changing magic, you need to do things that feel… difficult.” The bartender walks towards them with a fresh glass of gin for the English woman. Caleb feels his card thump towards the glass for just a second.

  “This bounty hunter is supposedly keeping a card bearer in a tent here in town. The man told me that they painted a roadrunner on one side of the tent. Find that tent and you will find me a card.” Charlotte bats her exaggerated eyelashes at Caleb.

  “And why won’t you just go into the tent yourself? You don’t need to pay me if you already know where a card is.” Caleb narrows his eyes, something his Pa did to him when he would do something wrong.

  “Did anyone even notice you when you walked in? The bartender when you asked for a drink at the bar? How about when the poker game was going on? You blend in, Caleb. Do you think I blend anywhere here in this shanty town?” Charlotte scoffs a little. “You are exactly what I need and I’m willing to pay you for it. So, do you want to make some money while you are here? Or do you want to fade into obscurity like the rest of these outlaws?”