Beauty and the Bounty Hunter Read Online Free PDF Page B

jewels caught the light and flashed. “I know for certain that what happened later”—he shook the bottle again, and the liquid whirled—“was a miracle.”
    Cat’s lips curved as Alexi moved in for the kill.
    “Though Bogatyr was a good and just man, using his gift only to keep his village safe, he was but a man, and eventually his time upon the earth drew to a close. Rather than allow his charmed
arrow
…” Alexi tilted a brow, and the crowd chuckled at their shared joke. Was it an arrow or was it an arm?
    “Rather than allow that arrow, which always flew straight and true, to fall into the hands of one who might not be as righteous as himself, Bogatyr threw it into the sea.”
    Now a murmur rolled from the audience. If his arrow were an arm, how did he throw it? Did he cut off his arm, or did he hurl himself into the depths?
    Alexi remained silent while the questions simmered. Only when the crowd was on the edge of shouting aloud their curiosity did he continue. “The arrow plunged through the water, sinking firmly into the bottom. The sea began to boil, and then…”
    Again he waited, his compelling gaze touching that of several others in the crowd. Cat tilted her head so that her hat shaded her face. Not that she’d fool Alexi. He already knew she was here.
    “Then?” blurted a voice from the crowd, and Alexi allowed the small smile he’d been nurturing to bloom.
    “Then,” he continued, “the roiling waves turned black, bestowing upon the sea its name and hiding forever the location of Bogatyr’s arrow. However…” He lifted a finger upon which a jewel the shade of that sea shone. “From that moment forward, anyone who drank of those waters beneath a moonless sky was healed.”
    Silence settled over the crowd. Alexi remained motionless, gaze upon the bottle, which caught the afternoon light and turned the liquid that swirled within to smoke.
    “How much?” someone shouted.
    A giant appeared next to the wagon. Though Alexi stood upon a platform several feet off the ground, the newcomer’s dark head nearly reached his shoulder. The man had to weigh three hundred pounds. His arms and legs were as thick as oak stumps, his hands and feet the size of cannonballs. A collective gasp of surprise and shock rippled through the crowd.
    “My associate will assist you.” Alexi set his hand on the newcomer’s back. “Mikhail’s English is not so good as mine, but he counts much better.”
    Alexi ducked behind the curtain, and Mikhail motioned for anyone who was interested, and there were many, to join him at a nearby table full of bottles where a placard announced:
Black Sea Solution! The ancient Russian cure. Drink only on a moonless night. One dollar a bottle.
    Trust Alexi to build into the legend a block, confidence jargon for a ruse that would keep the buyer from discovering the truth too soon. In this case, the requirement of drinking the potion on a moonless night would ascertain that Alexi would be long gone before anyone opened a bottle.
    The horde crowded to the table. When they began to jostle for position, one glare from Mikhail ended it.Mikhail was the heavy, the muscle. He prevented any marks from causing trouble. Usually just by being there.
    The colossus calmly and competently took their money as he handed out the cure. Ignoring all questions, he never uttered a word.
    Alexi’s excuse that Mikhail’s English was poor was just that. Mikhail’s English was fine; it was his Russian that needed work. The big man was as incapable of subterfuge as his boss was of telling the truth.
    No one paid Cat any mind as she inched toward the wagon and pushed aside the curtain. As expected, Alexi Romanov was gone.
    She found him easily enough. Cat had traveled with the man for months; she knew the kind of place that he liked. One that provided liquor and women, his two favorite things.
    After money.
    Cat had success in the third saloon she stepped into. “You got a furener stayin’ here?” she