Luck Be a Lady - Cathie Linz [32]
“I didn’t go around knocking on doors,” he admitted. “But the place looks deserted.”
“Ah, but as you recently pointed out to me, looks can be deceiving.”
“Rowdy wants us to join them in the café for dinner.”
“Okay.” She tossed back the covers. “I hope it’s okay that I put a suitcase in the car earlier. It’s filled with the clothes I bought from Pepper.” She’d kept one outfit aside to wear this evening. She hurried into the bathroom to change, aware of Logan’s watchful gaze as she paused to grab the clothes on her way. Her fast-drying underwear, which she’d left hanging in the bathroom, were ready to put on again. The jumper and a white shirt Pepper had tossed in at the last minute showed less skin than most of the outfits.
Yet the minute she stepped out of the bathroom, Logan eyed her and murmured, “Very sexy.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
He raised an eyebrow with pseudo-innocence. “You could always put the T-shirt and boxer shorts back on again. I was a fan of that look too.”
“I’m starting to think you’re a fan of women, period.”
“Something wrong with that?”
“With the fact that you’re a player?”
“I never said I was a player. A player would try to seduce you . . . like this.” Bracing his hands against the wall on either side of her, Logan effectively boxed her in and caged her in his arms. “And then I’d try to make a move on you . . . like this.” He leaned closer until his lips almost touched hers. “But I’m not doing that.” His warm breath bounced off her mouth.
“You’re not?”
He shook his head and back away. “No.”
“Why not?” Wait, that hadn’t come out right. She shook her head to clear it. She’d heard of the good cop/ bad cop routine, but hadn’t heard about the seductive cop routine. And, wow, was Logan good at it. Clearly he was able to switch it on and off at will. The way he was wickedly grinning at her was proof of that. “I mean . . . never mind what I meant. Let’s go eat.”
Logan started his interrogation of Last Resort’s trio of residents the minute he entered the café. Seductive cop had been replaced with inquisition cop. “Any luck with the phones yet?” Logan asked Pepper.
“Not yet.”
“You know, you never actually said how many people reside in Last Resort now.”
Pepper just shrugged and said, “I’m not good with numbers.”
Logan turned his attention to Rowdy, who grinned and slapped him on the back. “Just relax and enjoy a good burger. How do you like yours?”
“Why is it so hard to get a straight answer out of you?” Logan said.
“Why are you so curious?” Rowdy retorted.
Logan narrowed his eyes at him. “Because something’s not right.”
“I’ll tell you what’s not right,” Pepper said. “That some towns have actually had to disappear entirely because everyone left. Why, they’ve even had to sell some small towns. Coaldale was for sale—lock, stock and barrel.”
“Of course, it was in a movie in the early ’90s and it had an airstrip, so that made it more appealing,” Rowdy added.
“We haven’t put Last Resort up on the auction block. We’re working hard to keep this town alive. We don’t give up easily here in Nevada. We persist through drought and indifference.” Pepper paused to grin. “Don’t you love the way those two words sound together? I read that someplace and always remembered it. Well, not where I read it, but the two words. We’re a tough bunch in these parts.”
“And creative,” Rowdy added. “Chuck is going to update our website.”
“I have a grandson who’s great with computers and Photoshop,” Chuck said.
“He’s phenomenal!” Pepper’s voice rose several decibel levels.
“Can you tell Pepper is a big fan of Mary Murphy, aka the Queen of Screams, the judge from that TV show So You Think You Can Dance?” Chuck said. “Pepper can mimic her voice perfectly.”
“Getting back to the website. We should play up the fact that the Last Resort Silver Mine is rumored to be haunted,” Rowdy said.
“And have a treasure hidden in it,” Chuck added.
Rowdy nodded. “Yeah, those would both be great hooks. We could get the ghost crowd as well as the treasure hunters.