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looting and killing in Kansas, all the while claiming to be fighting for the Confederacy. Some of the most infamous outlaws had ridden with the gang, including the James boys and the Younger brothers.
    The older Callahan was a rough loner, always avoiding people. The younger one, Ben, was more civilized, always reading about new ways to improve their cattle. Considering that the other ranchers had gone along with his plan to buy the cattle, this Ben fellow appeared to be well-liked. Could Ben have shot his own brother? Perhaps there had been a falling out between the brothers, or maybe he had realized that not even new cattle would have been enough to bail them out of debt. It would have been a temptation for either brother to keep all the money and head farther west. But for Ben to leave his brother for dead? Will was stumped. He was inclined to believe that Ben was dead too. Nothing else made sense.
    “Let’s head back to Laramie, boys.”
    His posse turned their horses north and forced the tired animals into a gallop. Will was sure of only one thing: The wounded man was the key to unlocking the mystery.
    Josie paced back and forth, trying to summon enough courage to enter the sickroom. She’d be the first to admit that she was a proud person, proud of winning her case before Judge McSparren, proud of the medical knowledge she’d learned from her adoptive mother—but since that man had come along, she’d become downright bashful.
    She’d seen Callahan in
all
his glory and could still hear his laughter as she dashed out of the room like some kindof schoolgirl. But she wasn’t a schoolgirl, and behind her embarrassed physical reaction lay suspicion. Most of her court cases forced her to interact with mean, dangerous men who had the same look in their eyes that Callahan did.
    That look had turned Josie back into Joe again. Joe, the tough ragamuffin boy who’d tried to pick Dr. Annie’s pocket at the Brooklyn train station. Though her real mother had tried early on to protect Josie from the truth about her own profession, in the end, Josie was no stranger to men and women—together. The walls of a house of prostitution were thin. There was little she hadn’t seen or heard.
    The physical mechanics of mating she understood, but the kind of desire Callahan talked about was something she’d never comprehend. Josie had vowed never to let a man make her lose control. None had.
    Until now.
    Her pacing took her to the kitchen. “Lubina,” she asked hesitantly, “I know you’ve never married, but have you ever … been with a man?”
    Lubina dropped the tin basin she was carrying and watched it roll down the corridor to a stop. “Been … with a man,
señorita
?”
    “That’s what I asked.”
    Lubina closed her eyes and shook her head. “Miss Josie, you should not even think about that. Dr. Annie wouldn’t like it.”
    Josie thought about Dr. Annie and how she and Dan were forever touching and sharing secret smiles. “I may not ever have a husband, Lubina, but when Dr. Annie returns, I intend to ask her how it feels to want one.”
    A roaring voice reverberated down the corridor, followed by a crash from the hospital room.
    “That devil is calling you, Miss Josie,” Lubina said.
    “You go see what he wants,” Josie snapped.
    “No, ma’am, es time for me to go to church.” Lubina untied her apron and draped it over the hook beside the kitchen door. “I’ll send Wash to look after him,” she said, wringing her hands as she stood by the door.
    “Lubina, you big coward. Come and help me.”
    A bang was followed by another roar.
    “Hurry,
señorita
,” Lubina said, “he es going to destroy your mama’s sickroom. None of her other folks ever busted up the place.”
    Josie sucked in her cheeks. Lubina was right. The dark, angry man was
her
responsibility. She’d put a stop to his behavior—right this minute.
    She marched down the hall and flung open the door. The bed had been dragged halfway across