Preview Dealer's Choice, Chpt 1, entry #9

Icy wind gusted through the doorway. She pushed it closed as he pulled a slip of paper out of his coat pocket and shoved it toward her face. “I waited in town this mornin’ like we agreed, but he never showed up.”

Caroline saw only her brother’s signature before knocking the hand and its offensive paper aside.

“A man shouldn’t oughta wager what he can’t afford to lose.”

Her eyes narrowed. Gentleman, no, dandy maybe, but those words—plus his watch fob, two ivory dice stacked snugly in a little golden cage—told the bigger story. Professional gambler, that’s what he was. She wrinkled her nose. She should’ve known from the start. Nobody except Yankee carpetbaggers and southern sharpers could afford to smell that good these days.

“Do you even know how to use that?”

She felt a flutter of nerves spring to life in the pit of her stomach even as she feigned innocence. “Use what?”

Oddly enough, it was his response—the dismissive flick of an eyebrow—that drained away her nervousness and replaced it with the bravado she’d come to rely on ever since her parents died and left her to overcome or make do as best she could.

“You mean this?” Without so much as a tremor, she raised the pistol straight out, aiming squarely at the middle of his chest. “I surely do know how to use it. Just point and squeeze. We get a lot of varmints out this far from town, so I get plenty of practice.”