For a few crazy moments, Eve thought of bolting into the underbrush and hiding until Reno gave up and rode away. Almost as soon as the idea came, she abandoned it.

Reno’s aura of lazy grace no longer fooled her. She had seen him move in the saloon, his hands so fast they blurred. The Lyons had often praised Eve’s quick fingers, but she had no doubt that the man called Reno was faster than she was. She wouldn’t get three steps from her bedroll before he caught her.

«Don’t suppose you’d want to tell me where my ring is?» Reno asked after a moment.

«Yourring?» Eve asked indignantly. «It belonged to Don and Donna Lyon!»

«Until you stole it and lost it to Raleigh King, and I won it from him,» Reno said, shooting her a glance out of eyes like green ice. «Then it became my ring.»

«I didn’t steal it!»

Reno laughed.

It wasn’t a warm sound.

«Sure, gata,» he said sardonically, «you didn’t steal the ring. You just won it in a card game, right? Was it your deal by any chance?»

Anger rippled through Eve, driving out the odd sensations that had bothered her since she had seen the delicate pearls held so gently in Reno’s hand. With the surge of anger came a diminishing of her caution. Once more her hand eased toward the shotgun that lay just beyond her blankets.

«Actually,» Eve said in a clipped voice, «the ring was taken at gunpoint from a dying man.»

Reno gave her a disgusted look and went back to rummaging in the saddlebag.

«If you don’t believe me —» she began.

«Oh, I believe you, all right,» he interrupted. «I just didn’t think you’d be so proud of outright robbery.»