“Yeah.”

   “Hmm.”

   There was that harsh, judgmental sound again. Usually, it took me at least a few minutes to piss people off. Then again, I was willing to bet that just about everything pissed off Ira Morris since his demotion.

   “Well?” he snapped. “Are you going to move, or are you just going to stand there all day?”

   I stared him down a moment, letting him know that I wasn’t afraid of him, before finally stepping aside. The dwarf huffed, moved past me, threw open the door, and stormed away. His quick motions made a violent breeze gust through the tiny office, causing sheets of paper to swirl through the air like snowflakes, before slowly settling back down on top of their respective piles again.

   I peered out the door and watched the dwarf disappear around the curving hallway. Then I looked back over my shoulder at Finn.

   “Wow,” I drawled, “I’ve never seen such enthusiastic ass-kissing in all my life. He just loved you.”

   Bria and Owen both snickered.

   “Shut it, Gin,” Finn growled, then grabbed the key off the desk and stomped out of the office just like Ira Morris had.

9

   Now that we had the key to Deirdre’s suite, I wanted to go up there immediately and start searching through her things, but Finn had other ideas. He insisted that we walk through the theme park and stake out a good seat for the high-noon show. So we headed back to the lobby, then meandered along one of the paved paths that wound from the hotel down the hill to the theme park in the valley below.

   Bullet Pointe boasted all your usual attractions. Carousels, roller coasters, and other rides. Food carts serving corn dogs, nachos, and my favorite, funnel cakes. Shops selling T-shirts, boots, commemorative shot glasses, and other merchandise and souvenirs, all of which were imprinted with the theme park’s rune—a cowboy hat with two old-fashioned revolvers crossed over it.

   Everything had some sort of Western theme, and signs shaped like grinning cowboys, prancing horses, and prickly cacti adorned practically everything, including the old-fashioned iron streetlights that lined the walkways.

   Unlike the hotel, Deirdre must not have bothered with remodeling or upgrading anything in the park, since all the booths, rides, and signs had the same worn, weathered look as I remembered from that long-ago trip with Finn and Fletcher.

   But the centerpiece of the theme park was Main Street. A fifty-foot-tall wooden water tower, with the words Bullet Pointe Main Street painted on it in faded, rusty red, marked the entrance. All of the park walkways fed into the long, wide packed-dirt street, which resembled the main drag of an old-timey Western town, complete with wooden sidewalks and storefronts on either side. Every single bit of lettering on the stores was done in a Western font, adding to the illusion that you’d stepped back in time to the Old West.

   Alleys ran in between the storefront blocks, leading to other areas with more food carts and souvenir shops, with more walkways that led to the park’s rides and other attractions, forming a giant circle. At the far end, Main Street opened up into more of a large square, with several sets of gray, rickety-looking wooden bleachers blocking off the area.

   The Main Street shops and restaurants were much larger and nicer than those in the rest of the theme park and naturally featured much higher prices. They all continued the Western theme, from the Feeding Trough (a barbecue restaurant) to the Gumdrop (a candy shop) to the Silver Spur (a clothing, hat, and boot store) to the Gold Mine (a place where you could pan for gold and gems and then design your own settings for them, as well as buy premade rings, necklaces, and the like).

   But the largest storefront belonged to the Good Tyme Saloon, an old-fashioned saloon where you could get sarsaparillas, along with more common sodas, beers, and mixed drinks to wet your whistle, according to the tin sign in the window. The saloon was also one of several establishments that put on a show every hour on the hour. The plinka-plinka sounds of a piano that desperately needed tuning drifted outside, and through the storefront window I could see several women dressed as saloon girls swishing their brightly colored skirts and dancing across the floor. Still more people in costume—everyone from cowboys to gamblers to gold miners—strolled up and down the sidewalks, tipping their hats to folks, posing for pictures, and spouting cornball phrases in keeping with their characters.

   “Get me some crackers to go with all this cheese,” Bria muttered, watching a giant cowboy amble by in a deliberate bowlegged stance.

   “Well, I think that it’s fun,” Owen said. “Cheesy, certainly, but fun too.”

   I looked at him. “I didn’t realize that you were such a cowboy fan.”

   He grinned. “Are you kidding? What kid doesn’t want to be a cowboy? Ride the range on your trusty horse, sing songs around the campfire, sleep outside under the stars, the whole shebang.” He looked out over the crowds of people moving up and down the sidewalks. “My parents actually brought Eva and me here on vacation once. She was just a baby, so she doesn’t remember it, but I do. It was one of the best trips we ever took. My mom even bought me a real Stetson. I kept it right up until she and my dad died . . .”

   Owen’s voice trailed off, and the smile slipped from his face. Due to his father’s gambling debts, his parents had died in a fire set by Mab Monroe when he was a teenager, leaving him and Eva homeless.

   I reached over and squeezed his hand, and he flashed me a grateful grin for pulling him out of those old, painful memories.

   “Fun? It’s not just fun,” Finn said, his green eyes bright with excitement. “It’s fantastic! I’m so glad we came down here this weekend. It’s the best Christmas vacation ever!”

   As if all the cowboy stuff weren’t cheesy enough, Main Street was also decked out for the holidays. Glittering strands of red, green, and silver tinsel wrapped around all the streetlights, making them look like giant candy canes. Still more tinsel adorned the iron benches that lined the sidewalks. Most of the storefront windows had been decorated with pinecones, mistletoe, and giant snowflakes that pulsed with bright white light. Even the cowboys and other costumed characters had small nods to the holiday season, like red bandannas patterned with Santa Clauses, reindeer, and snowmen tied around their necks. It was a weird mash-up of cowboy and Christmas, but I found it oddly charming.