I thought about it for a few seconds. “Meet me at the Feeding Trough. It’s the barbecue restaurant that’s part of the theme park.”

   “But isn’t that the place where you were just drugged?” I could hear the frown in Silvio’s voice.

   “Yep. And it’s also the last place they’ll expect me to go back to.”

   “I’ll be down there as soon as I can,” Silvio promised. “What will you be doing in the meantime?”

   I looked over at Ira again. “Grabbing those missing jewels and finally getting some straight answers about what’s really going on around here.”

18

   I hung up with Silvio, then glanced at a clock shaped like a buffalo on the wall. It was just after one o’clock, which meant that I’d been unconscious for about an hour. Once again, worry filled my heart for Finn, Bria, and Owen, but I forced it aside. They were probably still out cold, and Tucker couldn’t question—torture—them before they woke up, which meant that I still had time to save my friends.

   But first, I wanted to know about the man who’d saved me, so I walked over and sat down in the rocking chair beside Ira. “So, you got me off the stagecoach and brought me over here to your place.”

   He nodded. “I had a time of it too. You’d wedged yourself down between those trunks something good. Then, of course, I had to actually stuff you into one of the trunks and roll you all the way over here from the theme park. But I move things around like that all the time, so nobody paid any attention to me.”

   “So that’s why my body feels like it’s been twisted around like a pretzel,” I joked.

   He nodded again and kept on rocking.

   “And why would you do that? Why would you save me? You could have turned me over to Roxy and Brody. They probably would have given you a reward for it.”

   He snorted. “Those two? They wouldn’t give me a reward for saving them from a burning building, much less pointing you out.”

   “Still, it was a big risk to take.”

   The dwarf shrugged and stared into the flames that were crackling in the fireplace. After a few seconds, he cleared his throat. “I saw that vampire, Hugh Tucker, lurking around the hotel lobby this morning, and I knew that something was going on. Something bad. It’s always bad when he’s around.”

   I frowned. “Tucker’s been here before?”

   “Several times. At least once a year, he and some of his buddies would come here for a retreat, and Deirdre would roll out the red carpet for them.”

   My breath caught in my throat, and my heart lifted with a bit of hope. He had to be talking about the other members of the Circle. So they had been here after all. I wanted to pepper him with questions, but I held my tongue, letting him finish his story.

   “Although Tucker and Deirdre weren’t getting along lately,” Ira continued. “This past year, all they did was fight whenever he came here. A couple of months ago, Tucker made her hire Roxy and Brody. Said something about how the resort wasn’t making any money because Deirdre kept spending it all on clothes and jewelry.” Ira huffed. “I could have told him that.”

   “And that’s when Deirdre came up with that fake treasure hunt.”

   Ira scowled. “I was the one who put Sweet Sally Sue’s jewels on display years ago as a tribute to her. I liked walking through the lobby every day and seeing her things, along with her photos. It reminded me of all the good years we’d had here together.”

   “Until Deirdre stole the jewels.”

   Anger twisted his face. “Deirdre knew that I would never let her have them, so she waited until I was busy with the high-noon show one day, and then she swiped them. By the time I realized what she’d done, Deirdre had already left the resort. I tried to track her down, but she kept moving from one of her fancy apartments to the next. And of course she wouldn’t return any of my phone calls. The next thing I know, she’s announcing the treasure hunt, and Roxy and Brody are here, kicking me out of my own office and taking control of everything.”

   Ira’s body stilled, and his dark hazel gaze drifted up to a framed photo on the fireplace mantel that showed Sweet Sally Sue wearing a saloon-girl dress, all decked out in her jewelry. I recognized it as the same photo that was in the display case in the hotel lobby.

   “I couldn’t believe that Deirdre would disrespect Sweet Sally Sue’s memory like that, but I should have known better,” he said in a bitter voice. “I should have protected her legacy better.”

   “You loved her, didn’t you? That’s why you stayed here all these years, even after Roxy and Brody came in and took over.”

   Ira nodded and started rocking in his chair again. “Sweet Sally Sue took me in when I had nothing. She was like the mother that I never had, and this was my home. It will always be my home.”

   I understood his sentiments all too well, since I felt the exact same way about Fletcher and the Pork Pit. Despite all the bad things that had happened in the restaurant, including Fletcher’s murder, it was my home, and it always would be. Even more than that, it was the legacy that the old man had left me, and I would defend it to my dying breath, the same way that Ira had been trying to keep Bullet Pointe going for all these years, despite Deirdre’s best efforts to run it into the ground.

   Ira quit rocking and looked at me. “I’ve been following Tucker around all day, wondering what he was up to. I heard him talking to Roxy about you and your friends and all the trouble you’ve caused for him up in Ashland. Is it true? That you’re some kind of assassin who wants him dead?”

   “Absolutely.”

   I told Ira a condensed version of my history with Tucker, including all the things he’d said about my mother being part of the Circle. “Have you ever heard of them? Did Deirdre ever say anything to you about some group called the Circle?”