Excerpt of Hearts Afire by Sara Luck

When Link and Tori reached the Union Block, Link tried the door for the stairway beside the drugstore. When he found it was locked, he felt Tori shiver beside him.

“Don’t worry, we’ll find him. There has to be a stairway in the alley that will lead upstairs.”

Link led Tori down a narrow passageway that led to the back of the Union Block. He noticed that she instinctively pressed her body closer to his, and he put his arm around her and drew her tight against him. When they reached the back stairway, he turned and asked, “Shall we do this, or shall we wait until tomorrow?”

Tori wanted to say wait, but she had no choice. It was approaching midnight, and if she didn’t find Manny, where would she go?

As an answer to the question, she placed her foot on the first step and carefully made her way to the top, with Link following behind her. When they reached the door, it was locked.

“I guess this is the place to yell,” Link said. “Let’s hope your brother hears us. What’s his name?”

“Emanuel Drumm.”

Link swung around from the door.

“Emanuel Drumm? A man in his early twenties? Goes by the name of Manny?”

“Yes, yes! He’s twenty-four and he does go by Manny. Do you know him?”

“I know a Manny Drumm, but he doesn’t live here—at least not that I know of. About a week ago he sat at my table at a banquet in Cripple Creek.”

“Cripple Creek? Is that near here?”

“It’s close but you can’t get there tonight.”

Just then, Link heard from behind the door the distinct sound of a hammer being cocked. “Frank? Frank Atherton? Is that you?”

“Who wants to know?”

“It’s Link Buchannan, from up on Weber Street. I’m looking for Manny Drumm. Do you know if he still lives here?”

“Hell, no. He left last summer. Went to Cripple Creek like every other fool out to get rich.”

“Thanks, Frank, we’ll leave you alone.”

Link led Tori back down the stairs and was surprised to feel a surge of tenderness for this woman. She had to be dead tired, in a place where she didn’t know a soul or what she would do. If she had any belongings, they certainly weren’t with her now. When he got to the streetlight, he turned and saw that tears were brimming in her eyes.

“I have a suggestion,” he said. “If you don’t think it’s too presumptuous of me, I have a bed you can sleep in.”

He felt Tori stiffen immediately.

“No, no, no—not with me. I mean I have a house with four bedrooms and I live there alone, except for Otto and Hulda. They’re my caretakers and they live there, too, while I live most of the time at Cripple Creek.”

Hearing those words, Tori collapsed against him in tears, her body as limp as a rag doll’s.

He held her against him, trying to comfort her as he would a child.

“I’ve made a terrible mistake,” she said as she sobbed uncontrollably. “I shouldn’t have come, and you don’t even know my name.”

Link pulled his head back, and pushing her hat aside, he smiled. “That’s easy enough to rectify. What is your name?”

“It’s Sa—Tori.”

“Satori. That’s a pretty name—not one that I’ve ever heard, but it’s pretty.”

“It’s actually Victoria Drumm, but my friends call me Tori.”

“If your friends call you Tori, I would consider it a privilege if you allowed me to call you by that name.”

“Mr. Buchannan, I would be honored.”

“And my friends call me Link.”