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skidded to a halt in his pacing.
    His attitude disappointed Tina mightily. She’d convinced him to come to the jail and had carefully and thoughtfully laid out her arguments. Dare seemed unable to get over Lana’s string of murder attempts. There had been three—on Dare. Tina wasn’t counting Glynna and Vince and Paul, though Glynna, Vince, and Paul sure counted them.
    So six murder attempts. But Lana had never succeeded, for heaven’s sake!
    “You think we should just throw open the cell door and let her loose?” Vince, of course, never failed to disappoint her. Tina didn’t even consider appealing to Vince to show some mercy to poor Lana.
    But she’d hoped for better from Dare.
    His momentary stillness didn’t last. He went back to his customary pacing back and forth from one side of the small jailhouse to the other, a bit faster than before, shaking his head emphatically.
    “No, it’s a ridiculous notion. She can’t be allowed to run around free.”
    Lana lay on her side on the thin mattress in her cell. She drummed her fingers on the mattress, her head propped up on her fist, watching them with sharp eyes. She seemed to have gotten used to being in there. Now she watched silently as Dare, Tina, Vince, and Mitch Porter, the former sheriff of Broken Wheel, talked about her fate.
    Somehow in the midst of Lana’s madness she’d also found time to strike up a more-than-friendly acquaintance with the ex-sheriff. Porter had been bought and paid for by Flint Greer, and Porter had twisted the law around to suit Greer’s best interests. Now Vince was the sheriff, sworn in by Big John Conroy, but it was an unpaid job without Greer to supply the money as he had for Porter.
    Porter meanwhile had moved into one of the vacant houses in Broken Wheel and lived on money he must have saved up from Greer’s salary.
    Tina knew that besides fetching food for Lana, the job of sheriff didn’t take much time, so Vince had been a good sport about being stuck with the job.
    Tina sat ramrod straight. Aunt Iphigenia had always insisted on correct posture, and never more so than when a woman needed to make a case for something. “I know she’s dangerous.”
    “You figured that out all by yourself, huh?” Vince stood behind his desk with his back leaning against the wall. The jail had two cells that took up half the back of the building. A small hallway led between the cells and a tiny storeroom. There was a rack for rifles at Vince’s back thathad no rifles in it. If Vince wanted a gun for sheriffing, he needed to bring his own.
    Vince had his arms folded and his ankles crossed, looking calm as ever. But his eyes were alert and they were staring at Tina so hard they seemed to punch holes in her very compassionate idea.
    “She can’t stay here any longer and you know it.” Tina tapped her foot.
    The question was, if not here, where? Big John, who made his home in Broken Wheel, even though he traveled most of the time, would make that decision next time he was in town.
    Until then, Vince, the town lawyer, sworn deputy and unpaid public servant, was in charge of the prisoner.
    “She needs to be released,” Mitch Porter shouted. He was sweet on Lana, which might be why he thought letting her loose was a good idea.
    “Women are locked up in the same prison with men in Texas,” Tina said. “We can’t let that happen to her.”
    “Yep, we can.” Vince’s eyes shot fire at Tina.
    “It’s too horrible.” Tina surged from her chair, tempted to start pacing right along with Dare. “It’s unspeakable! She’d be at the mercy of evil men.”
    Vince didn’t even quit his easy leaning. “I hope the poor men survive her company.”
    Tina seriously considered whether Vince was going to survive her company. “I can’t believe you don’t see we have to help her.”
    “What I see ,” Vince said as he straightened from the wall and uncrossed his arms, so Tina knew he was serious, “is the knife sticking out of Dare’s back.