Burke's Rules. Pat Tracy

long as the government is considering revoking my federal charter to mint U.S. coins.”

      “I can’t believe they would let a few robbery attempts affect something as important as that charter. Hell, you own and operate the only privately held financial institution in the country with the equipment to print money and mint coins. The government would be crazy to shut you down.”

      “Representatives from another Denver bank insist their facility would better serve the needs of the federal government.”

      Gideon scowled. “Let me guess, the Bank of Colorado, owned and presided over by Winslow Dilicar, has been suggested as a replacement.”

      Burke laid aside the letter, pushed back his chair and stood. He went to the window that overlooked the congested street below, where buckboards, buggies and men on horseback vied for their place on the packed thoroughfare. “Dilicar hasn’t made it a secret that he wants that charter.”

      “There’s an arrogance about Dilicar that sets my teeth on edge.”

      Burke pictured the dandified Easterner, whose facial expression habitually bordered on disdain. “He’s not one of my favorite people.”

      “Emma doesn’t care for him. He’s been blackballed from our guest list.”

      Burke felt a smile overtake him. “That settles it. If someone as discriminating as your new wife doesn’t care for him, he’s snake excrement.”

      Gideon chuckled. “My wife is an excellent judge of character.”

      “Except for that one memorable lapse when she married you.”

      His friend’s eyes sparkled with an inner light that made Burke uneasy. A smart man didn’t let himself become as enamored as Gideon was with his bride. Bitter experience had taught Burke that the world was a dangerous place. A person had to be on his guard at all times. The delusion of romantic love invited disaster. The heart was a vital organ only so far as it pumped blood through one’s system. All the rest was vain imaginings. A clear-thinking brain was the key to survival.

      “You know how tenderhearted Emma is,” Gideon said, warming to what was clearly a favorite topic. “She’s always concerned about the welfare of others. If she doesn’t want Dilicar in our home, it’s as good as saying he hasn’t a redeeming quality.”

      “She won’t get an argument from me.”

      A pause followed. For the first time, Burke wondered what had brought Gideon to his office. “Would you care for a brandy?”

      His friend shook his head. “I can’t stay much longer.”

      More silence ensued. Gideon appeared restless. The man had been through a lot during the past four years. His younger brother and sister-in-law had been murdered, and he’d assumed the care of his young niece, while struggling to hold his freighting empire together. It astounded Burke that, despite the recent period of savagery, Gideon had lost his heart to his niece’s tutor and married her.

      The skin at the back of Burke’s neck prickled. Until Emma Step had entered his life, Gideon Cade had been a ruthlessly logical man. But like Burke’s brother, Logan, the freighting tycoon had sacrificed his cold-blooded rationality for the fiction of romantic love. The fallibility of two otherwise sane men made Burke distinctly uncomfortable. He could accept their physical craving for the women who’d joined them at the altar. It was the men’s emotional weakness that disturbed him. As far as he was concerned, their declared love made them as vulnerable as newly hatched chicks.

      Burke pushed his thoughts in a new direction. “Has Hunter had any more problems with rustlers?”

      “Not that I’ve heard. It appears your bank has claimed the honor of becoming a magnet to the area’s lawless element.”

      “Considering what Pappy told us, that’s not likely to change,” Burke said glumly.

      “If what he said is true, you can count on every bandit within a thousand miles paying you a visit.”

      In frustration, Burke shoved a hand through his hair. “In effect, someone has put a bounty, payable in advance, on the First National.”

      

      “Offering a free horse and fifty dollars up front to known thieves if they’ll strike your bank is a powerful incentive to men with no scruples.”

      “It’s not going to do much good to keep foiling robbery attempts. I’ve got to find the person paying the bribes.”

      “Do you have any doubt who’s behind this?”

      “Obviously Dilicar has the most to gain from the First National losing its credibility with the government. He’s formally petitioned the treasury department to award the charter to the Bank of Colorado.”

      “And it’s his newspaper that keeps printing articles about the lack of safety at the First National.”

      Resolve settled in Burke’s gut. “It’s going to take irrefutable proof to convict a rich, respected businessman like Dilicar of being guilty of anything illegal.”

      Gideon nodded. “Sounds as if the Guardsmen have a new assignment.”

      Three men had formed the organization known as the Guardsmen. Burke Youngblood, Gideon Cade and cattle baron Hunter Moran had banded together to form an organization to protect honest, hardworking people whom local lawmen seemed unable to shield from not-so-random violence.

      The Guardsmen refrained from exacting their own justice at the end of a rope or smoking pistol. Instead, they turned the thieves and murderers they caught over to authorities, with the names of people who’d witnessed the crimes and would testify against the wrongdoers.

      “Emma doesn’t mind that you’re still involved with the Guardsmen?”

      Burke heard the edge in his voice and regretted it. He didn’t begrudge Gideon his illusion of happiness.

      “When I’m on Guardsmen business, she worries, of course.”

      Emma was the only outsider who knew the identities of the secret group’s members. “Has she taken to nagging you to quit? Wives do that, I’ve heard.”

      

      Amusement flickered in his friend’s eyes. “Emma tended to nag before she became my wife.”

      “You have my sympathy,” Burke said with an exaggerated shudder.

      “I don’t need it. Emma’s sweet nagging is one of the many ways she shows how much she loves me.”

      Burke shook his head. “You’ve got it as bad as my brother.”

      “Good, ” Gideon corrected softly. “I’ve got it good. Life has never been so worth living. Until now.”

      Until Emma, Burke heard him silently say.

      A chill, having nothing to do with the threat against his bank, brushed Burke’s spine. It made him nervous that a onetime cynic like Gideon Cade could crumble over a woman. Burke recalled an incident Gideon had related several months ago, an abbreviated account about climbing through a second-story window of his own home during a midnight rainstorm to woo his lady. That tale alone illustrated the asinine depths to which an intelligent man could plummet, if he believed he was in love.

      “Be sure and give Emma my best.”

      “She’s the reason I dropped by.”

      Surprised, Burke returned to his chair. “How so?”

      “She has a favor to ask of you.”

      The chill paid a return visit. Burke rotated his shoulders. “What kind of favor?”

      “It involves her friend Jayne Stoneworthy. You might remember her. She was one of the guests at our wedding. Anyway, Miss Stoneworthy is starting a school for young ladies and...”

      Burke heard the drone of Gideon’s