So I stumbled over to the back door, wrenched it open, and staggered outside. I was expecting another alley, but I was in the staging area with its wide wooden pavilions sheltering all the cowboy clothes, hats, boots, and more.

   A white horse tied to a nearby hitching post whinnied and shied away as I limped past, obviously realizing that something was seriously wrong with me and wanting no part of it.

   “Zip it, Silver,” I hissed. “You’re going to blow my cover.”

   Then I realized that I was trying to shush a horse, and I giggled. I never, ever giggled, but right now, all I wanted to do was lie down on the ground and just laugh and laugh and laugh. Oh, yeah. I was this close to passing out from whatever drug had been in that sweet tea.

   I wasn’t going to be able to outrun Roxy and Brody, but maybe I could outsmart them. All I had to do was find a place to hole up and hide until the drug was out of my system. Then, when my giggles were gone, I could come back and kill every last one of these bastards, starting with Hugh Tucker. Not the best plan I’d ever come up with, but my brain was too slow and muddled to think of anything else right now.

   But where to hide?

   The horse wanted nothing to do with me, and I was no cowgirl anyway, so I couldn’t mount the animal and ride away. Given that the pavilions were all open, Roxy and Brody would easily spot me hiding behind the barrels, hay bales, and racks of clothing. I didn’t have the energy to try to climb up the stairs to the second story of the saloon, much less make it up onto the roof, and the only other things back here were fake cacti, brittle balls of tumbleweed, and the stagecoach that was used in the high-noon show—

   The stagecoach.

   That might work.

   I hobbled over to the stagecoach, which was parked under its own pavilion at the very back of the staging area. From a distance, the coach looked new and shiny, but up close, I could see just how battered, dented, and worn-out it really was, just like everything else in the theme park. Bits of metal glinted like silver ore all along the sides where the bright, glossy red paint had been chipped off, and all four of the wheels looked like they were barely hanging on to their axles. The stagecoach door was standing open, as though it were broken and wouldn’t shut properly, and I could see a large strongbox inside—the same one that had been full of fake gold during yesterday’s show.

   The strongbox looked just big enough for me to cram myself into, but I hesitated. It was such an obvious hiding place, and no doubt Roxy and Brody would look in the stagecoach when they finally shoved their way through the saloon fight and raced out here. As I cursed and started to turn around to find a better hiding place, I spotted a ladder on the back of the stagecoach that led up to the roof. Several steamer trunks had been tied down to the roof to represent fake luggage, but it looked like there was enough room for me to wiggle in between them. Still, I hesitated again. Because my enemies would no doubt check the stagecoach roof too—

   “Do you see her?” Brody’s voice boomed through the door that I’d left standing wide-open at the back of the saloon. “Where did she go?”

   I was out of time and options, so I grabbed the ladder. My muscles felt about as strong as wet spaghetti, but I managed to hoist myself up onto the roof. The effort made me even more light-headed, and everything blurred together as though I were on a merry-go-round. I staggered to the side and almost fell off the stagecoach before my vision cleared, and I slowly righted myself.

   Two rows of steamer trunks lined the top of the coach, with a narrow sliver of space in between them. I sucked in my stomach, pulled my shoulders back, and flopped down, squirming my way into that space like a fish trying to wiggle back onto a hook. It was a tight fit, but I managed it, even though my body was as stiff and straight as a board resting between the two rows of luggage.

   A small gap ran in between two of the trunks where they hadn’t been set up flush against each other, so I squirmed up a little higher until I could look through the opening and see out into the staging area. The effort made my head spin, and it was several seconds before I could focus again.

   I could hear Roxy and Brody shouting at the giants to move their asses, and a few seconds later, all of them came running out of the back of the saloon. They stopped, glancing from one pavilion to the next, and their faces twisted with fury when they didn’t spot me.

   “Spread out!” Roxy barked. “Find Blanco! Now!”

   “You heard her!” Brody yelled. “Search everywhere!”

   The giants hurried to follow their bosses’ commands, darting into the alleys that led back to Main Street, while Roxy and Brody stayed behind in the staging area. The two of them spread out, guns in hands, searching behind every single barrel, hay bale, and rack of clothes, just as I’d expected. Brody even grabbed a long, sharp pitchfork and poked it down into all the water troughs, just in case I’d suddenly developed gills and could breathe underwater like a fish. The snarky thought made me want to giggle again, but I swallowed down the crazy laughter.

   “She has to be around here somewhere,” Brody said. “Why didn’t you give her more of that sedative?”

   “I couldn’t make her drink that tea,” Roxy snapped back. “It’s not my fault that the cook didn’t dissolve all the powder in it like I told her to, and Blanco didn’t like how it tasted. Besides, she still drank almost half a glass. That should be more than enough to knock her out. The other three are all out cold. I’ve got some of your boys taking them up to the hotel so that Tucker can question them when they wake up.”

   “I still don’t see why he wants them alive,” Brody said. “Deirdre probably hocked those jewels long ago. If they were here, we would have found them by now. He should just cut his losses and kill the lot of them instead of making us keep up this stupid charade.”

   “And I don’t pay you to think, Mr. Dalton,” a mild voice murmured.

   Roxy and Brody both winced and slowly turned around. Hugh Tucker was standing at the back door of the saloon. The vampire must have followed the commotion of my mad dash through the theme park.