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way into it, rather.”
    â€œBut he’s the one who tried to murder you. As far as I’m concerned, her death was his fault, and that’s the way I’m going to write the story.”
    â€œWell, I appreciate that,” Luke said. He poured more wine for them, then mused, “Any man who makes his living with a gun has to deal with things like this sooner or later, I suppose. I know Smoke carries around a lot of old ghosts with him—”
    He stopped short as he realized he had said more than he intended to say. He hoped Darcy hadn’t noticed, or if she had, that she wouldn’t recognize the name.
    That hope was dashed right away. Darcy leaned forward with an excited look on her face and said, “Smoke? You have to tell me, Luke. Are you related to the famous gunfighter Smoke Jensen?”

Chapter 6
    Luke hadn’t meant to reveal that. Even though he was using the Jensen name again, after many years of calling himself Luke Smith, he didn’t particularly want to publicize the fact that he and Smoke were brothers. Not for his sake, but for Smoke’s.
    Although, Smoke probably would be the last person to be bothered by being related to a bounty hunter. He had been an outlaw himself at one point in his life, long before he settled down to become a respectable rancher.
    While Darcy Garnett smiled expectantly across the table at him, Luke mentally cursed himself for his slip of the tongue. He would have liked to blame the wine he’d drunk for that moment of carelessness, but he knew that wasn’t the case. Darcy had a way of relaxing a man just by her sheer presence and making him more inclined to talk.
    It wouldn’t do any good to deny the relationship now. Most people on the frontier had heard of Smoke Jensen, even if Luke Jensen was unknown to them. Darcy probably wouldn’t believe him if he tried to say that he and Smoke were friends and that was all.
    He nodded slowly and said, “Smoke is my brother.” “I didn’t know he had any brothers other than Matt,” Darcy said.
    Luke could have pointed out that Matt Jensen was an adopted brother, not a blood relation, but that might have sounded petty. He hadn’t met Matt yet, but Smoke had told him all about the young man. Smoke had taken Matt under his wing when Matt was an orphaned boy, and he and the old mountain man Preacher had raised him into a fine frontiersman who was making a name for himself as a scout, gunfighter, and all-around adventurer. One of these days they would all get together, Smoke had said, but so far that hadn’t happened yet.
    â€œSmoke and I didn’t see each other for a long time,” Luke said carefully. “I wasn’t able to go home right after the war, so I sort of got separated from my family for a while.”
    â€œSomething happened during the war to keep you from going home?” Darcy asked.
    Something had happened, all right.... Betrayal, murder, a fortune in stolen Confederate gold . . . For a moment Luke’s thoughts went back to those dark days at the very end of the war, but he dragged them into the present again and told Darcy, “You go through all that killing and it changes a man. I figured I’d drift around for a while, and before I knew it that turned into fifteen years.”
    â€œAmazing,” she murmured. “I think you have quite a story, Luke Jensen. I could talk to you for hours. And you said you weren’t interesting!”
    He shook his head and said, “I don’t think that would be a very good idea.”
    â€œAre you sure?” Her lips curved in a subtle smile that promised a great deal. “I think we’d both enjoy getting to know each other better.”
    Luke pushed his chair back.
    â€œI’ll be riding to St. Johns early in the morning with Sheriff Rakestraw and the posse,” he said. “Reckon I’d better get some rest.”
    Darcy looked disappointed. She said,