"If I'm bettin' on a loser, I'm gonna have the devil to pay, but it's the only game I know to play, it doesn't matter anyway. I'd bet it all on a good run of bad luck." Clint Black 'Good Run of Bad Luck'

Joe cursed her luck as she came out of the livery that night. Not a single fur trader was still open and that meant spending the night in a hotel, selling her furs in the morning and not getting out of Barbadine until whenever she got done.

Joe really wasn’t looking forward to a night in this town. There were too many people, too much chimney smoke and too much noise.

“Hey, Joe!” Joe saw Bart running toward her and she sighed.

“Howdy, Bart.”

“Ya still know how to play poker better than any other woman I know?”

“And most men.” Joe agreed causing Bart to laugh loudly.

“Well come on to the saloon with me then and let’s show them boys how it’s done.” Joe nodded and followed Bart down the dark street to the brightly lit, saloon.

The lanterns and light filled the dusty air inside with brightness. A staircase led up stairs to bedrooms and Joe saw a scantily clad woman leading a man up them. A piano toward the back of the room was filling the saloon with music while a woman wearing a black lacy skirt and matching corset, leaned against it singing softly.

The crowded saloon was full of tables and men drinking, laughing, talking and playing poker. Cowboys, drifters, rovers, trappers, outlaws, farmers and family men all just trying to forget their troubles and have a good time.

“I’m gonna get me a drink first.” Joe said to Bart and the man nodded. They made their way up to the scarred up bar with a thick wooden top and Joe tapped it with her finger.

“I need a beer.” she called out. The bartender, a man with sleepy brown eyes, a square head and black mustache simply nodded and began to fill a dirty glass.

“What’s a tiny filly like you gonna do with all that beer?” A man down the bar asked. Joe met his gaze. He was dirty, but so was she, and he grinned a crooked toothed grin at her from beneath his tattered hat.

“I’m gonna drink it o’course.” she replied before taking a big swig. The man walked toward her slowly and then leaned his forearms against the bar as he stood beside her.

“Where did a filly like you learn to drink like that?” the man asked with a smile and a wink just before he reached out and squeezed Joe’s backside.

Joe sensed Bart tensing beside her as her own jaw tightened almost painfully as did her grip on the glass mug of beer.

“I reckon it was the same damned place where I learned to do this.” she snapped and then she turned and caught the man hard in the jaw with her clenched fist.

His head snapped back as the saloon fell silent. The man stumbled backward several steps, his tattered hat falling to the scarred up wooden floorboards.

He glared at her, his dark eyes narrowing as he wiped a bit of blood from his split lip.

“Why you little…” he charged toward her but stopped suddenly when the tip of the twelve inch blade she carried was suddenly pressed against his stomach.

He stared down at the knife and then back at Joe’s face and she smiled at his fear.

“Who in the hell do you think you are?” he whispered in a shaky voice.

“I think I’m the damned woman gonna gut you like the hog you are if’n you so much as breath the wrong way toward me again. You think just cuz I ain’t got a pecker ‘tween my legs you can come pawin’ all over me like a ruttin’ buck? Well I got news for you mister.” Joe put her knife back in the holster on her leg and pointed toward the swinging doors. “Now get yer ass on outta here.”

The man looked as if he wanted to argue but then he took another look at the knife on Joe’s leg and seemed to think better of it. Joe snorted as the man all but ran out of the saloon.

“Woohoo! You sure showed him, Joe.” Bart stated appreciatively before taking a swig of his own beer. The saloon quickly became full of noise once again as everybody went back to what they’d been doing before, only now they had something new to talk and laugh about.

“Didn’t even spill my beer.” Joe replied with a smile as she took a long drink. The bartender chuckled.

“And I thank you for that and for not getting any blood on my floors.” Joe tipped her head in acknowledgement.

“Well let’s go find us a poker game, Joe.” Bart urged. They made their way to a back table with two men currently playing five card stud.

“Can we join your game?” Bart asked and the men eyed Joe curiously.

“What’s the matter, boys?” she asked with a tilt of her head. “’Fraid of losing yer money to a little old filly like me?”

“Sit on down then, y’all.” one of the men said with a chuckle. “I reckon your money will spend just as good as a mans.”

Joe bit back her smart retort and sat down.

They began the game and Joe quickly showed them why she was a force to be reckoned with at a poker table. At some point Reb entered the saloon and Bart waved him over.

It didn’t take long for the two other men playing to decide they’d had enough, leaving Joe, Reb and Bart playing poker alone.

“Where’s Jonah?” Bart asked Reb with a frown and the man snorted as he folded his cards and adjusted his eye patch.

“Where the hell do ya think that there fool of a man is?” he grumbled. “He had to make sure Scarlett was all settled in at the hotel. He couldn’t leave the little devil woman to fend fer herself.

Joe felt a twisting pang in her chest that made her stomach hurt. She wasn’t sure what the feeling was but thinking of Jonah with Scarlett, seeing the two of them acting like quite the couple all day, had caused that uncomfortable feeling to hit Joe quite a few times.

“What the hells he doin’, Reb? Are we gonna lose him again?” Bart asked with a frown and Reb sighed.

“It sure seems that away.” he admitted, his blue eye sad. “Ya know as well as I do that he’s always been the settlin’ down type.”

The three of them looked at each other and each of them trembled. Settling down, tying yourself to one place, one person sounded like Joe’s idea of hell. No more freedom. No more open space. Depending on someone else for your happiness. What kind of a fool would want that….?

Joe’s train of thought came to a screeching halt and was then sent careening off an unfinished bridge before crashing against the rocks and perishing in a giant ball of flame and smoke, the moment she looked up and saw Jonah walk through the swinging doors.

***

Jonah looked around the dusty saloon. Piano music filled the air and he heard feminine laughter come from a room above his head. Jonah made his way over to the bar and ordered up a beer.

He sat on the stool and looked down into the brown liquid. Scarlett had wanted some time to herself. She said she wanted to be clean and smell nice before they made use of that big bed in her room.

Jonah’s gut said something was off about her but he chose to ignore that. Surely his gut was just paying too much attention to Reb and Bart and their jealous disbelief that any woman as pretty, cultured and ladylike as Scarlett Reign would ever want to settle on a roaming drifter like him.

Tomorrow morning he would take her to the bank and then he would say goodbye to Reb and Bart and escort Scarlett to her home back east. Where things went from there only time would tell.

“Hey, Jonah!” Jonah turned when he heard Bart’s voice call out from behind him. He saw the other man waving him toward a back table where he sat with Reb and Joe. “Come on over here, Jonah! We found a better poker player than you!”

Jonah took a swig of beer and walked to the table with a smile.

“Who’s better than me?” he asked with amusement as he sat down between Reb and Bart, across from Joe.

“She is.” Reb admitted as he pointed a finger at Joe. “Never did think I’d see a day when a better poker player’n you came ‘round, but it happened.”

“I doubt that.” Jonah replied and Joe shrugged on shoulder and handed the blue backed cards she’d been shuffling to Reb.

“Only one way to know for sure.” she stated and Jonah could see the competitive spark in her green gray eyes.

“Well let’s get to it then.” he said with a wink. He frowned when he saw her gaze falter. Something flickered in her eyes and Jonah would be damned if he was almost certain he saw a blush on her cheeks. Of course it was impossible to tell beneath the layer of dirt smudged across them.

“Well ya heard the man, Reb!” Joe grumbled with a snap of her fingers. “Deal the damn cards.”

Jonah was faintly aware of Reb’s voice as the over talkative man told tales as he served as the dealer.

Jonah’s mind was not on him. It was on Joe and the game they were playing. Jonah was usually a man who could read poker tells fairly easily. Poker had never been a challenge for him and he seldom lost, but poker with Joe…?

Poker with Joe was different. She was good. Probably just as good as him, maybe even better.

He couldn’t seem to get a read on her and it didn’t take long before he realized he had bitten off more than he could chew.

Hand after hand it was all Jonah could do just to stay in the game and his pile of change was dwindling quickly as Joe’s grew.

“See!” Bart exclaimed as he slapped Jonah on the back after he lost yet another hand. “I told ya she was better than you!”

“I could have sworn she was bluffing….” Jonah replied quietly. She had twirled at her hair which she had done while bluffing a couple of hands ago.

“Tryin’ to learn my tells is a waste of yer time there, Jonah.” Joe said matter of factly as she leaned back in her chair. “Pa taught me well how to keep folks such as yerself guessin’.”

“Is that right?” Jonah asked with a grin as he took another drink of beer. Joe nodded before taking a drink of her own and then swiping her sleeve across her mouth.

“Yep, that’s right.”

“Deal another hand, Reb.” Jonah ordered and Reb chuckled but did as he was told.

Jonah noticed it then. A flickering in her eyes. Barely noticeable, hardly more than a twitch, but it was there.

He knew there was no way she was faking that just to throw him off. Jonah smiled to himself. He had just discovered her tell.

***

“Dear wife, have you had fun with our new friend?” Scarlett smiled when she heard Harmon open the door to her hotel room and speak to her.

She kept her back to him as she sat on the edge of the bed and ran the brush through her west black hair.

“Yes I have, darling. Though I must admit I have missed you.” she replied.

She felt the mattress shift and then Harmon’s arms were wrapping tight around her waist and his lips were on her neck.

“Our separation is almost over, my dear, and then we’ll be together for a good long time and I’ll give you what you’ve been missing.”

“I can’t wait.” Scarlett whispered, a tremor running through her and causing moisture to form between her thighs.

“I trust all is going according to plan?”

“Yes. He is thoroughly smitten, my dear. He plans on escorting me to the bank in the morning.”

“Wonderful.” Harmon growled, his hands cupping her full heavy breasts and squeezing them gently. Scarlett moaned and leaned back against him, her own hand dipping down into her underclothes and stroking the wetness that was forming in the dark curls between her legs.

“You have missed me haven’t you, dear?” Harmon asked with a chuckle. Scarlett’s breaths became more ragged as her pleasure built and grew. She continued working her fingers in her wet core and Harmon’s hands continued stroke her breasts, teasing her taut nipples through the thin fabric of her underclothes. His hot breath teasing her neck as he licked and nibbled at her ear.

Scarlett felt herself nearing her peak and then she fell over the edge and let out a whimper as her body stiffened and Harmon chuckled against her neck.

“There you go, my dear. You are now all good and warmed up for our new friend when he comes back tonight. He is coming back tonight, isn’t he?”

Scarlett’s breaths were still ragged and her body was trembling as she leaned against her husband.

“Yes, he’s coming back.” she whispered.

“Good. You just make sure he comes to the bank with you in the morning, Scarlett, and this is going to work out just fine.”

“You make sure you’re there to get me away.” Scarlett countered and Harmon chuckled.

“Don’t worry, dear wife, of course I’ll be there to take you away.” He stood from the bed and Scarlett remained where she was and gazed up at him. “I would never leave you behind.. Especially when you’re holding all the money.”

***

“Well, I do believe I was wrong.” Bart stated as he pushed himself to his feet after several hours of watching Joe go back and forth with their poker game. “She ain’t no better than you but she ain’t no worse either.”

“Yeah.” Reb agreed, tossing down the deck of cards. “I do believe this game could last all night.”

Jonah chuckled and pushed himself to his feet. After discovering Joe’s tell the game had become a virtual stalemate. A back and forth that had gotten neither of them any closer to winning.

“Nice game, Joe.” Jonah admitted as Joe got to her feet as well. “I can honestly say I’ve never played a more challenging game of poker.”

“Me either.” Joe agreed. Jonah reached out his hand and Joe placed hers into it.

Jonah felt as if a fire had just been lit in his fingertips and he quickly jerked his hand away and wiped it roughly against his thighs. He saw the questioning look that Reb and Bart sent in his direction and when he tried to make eye contact with Joe, she seemed distracted by the coins she was shoving into her pockets.

“I uh.. I’m gonna go get some shut-eye.” Jonah said quickly and then he hastened his pace and made his way out of the saloon.

It was well past midnight and Jonah took his time heading back to the hotel where he had left Scarlett. He hadn’t meant to stay gone for so long but playing poker with Joe had proven to be a more challenging and entertaining thing than he could walk away from.

Jonah rubbed at the back of his neck as he thought about that odd woman who had nearly bested him at poker.

She was dirty, grumpy and completely unladylike. Her body stayed hidden beneath those oversized clothes and her golden streaked red hair clearly hadn’t seen a comb in a long time.

So why then had he felt such a shock when he had shook her hand. Why had her touch seemed to burn him so? Jonah looked down at his palm which was still tingling from the contact and he shook his head and rubbed his hand once again on his trousers.

It had to have been simply a trick of his brain. It could not have been anything else.

Jonah made his way up to Scarlett’s room and tested the knob, finding that it was unlocked.

He opened it just a crack and saw her lying on top of the covers wearing only her sheer underclothes. Her light skin and dark hair illuminated by the dancing lantern light.

She sat up quickly, appearing startled by him and then she smiled coyly and motioned for him with her finger.

“How dare you keep me waiting.” she whispered teasingly.

“I apologize, ma’am.” Jonah replied with a wink. “How about I try my best to make it up to you?”

“Are you up for a bit of work?” Scarlett asked as she nibbled at her lip.

Jonah let out a bark of laughter as he undid his gun belt and tossed it onto the tiny arm chair by the door. He stalked toward the bed, his body heating at the anticipation of what was coming.

“Always.”