"Look at that, here I was thinking you were a demure little thing," Lourdes tells Katterina. More men fill the Guinevere Hotel. Girls dance on stage. Katterina sits with Lourdes. The boy, for the first time displaying an emotion not synonymous with apathy or pain, looks on as Katterina grasps his bottle. She takes the liquor, squints at the proof, and brings it close to her mouth. But the whiskey never reaches her lips, instead emptied onto a cloth as Katterina pulls up Lourdes's sleeve.

"Beatrice said you had a nasty gash..." Katterina starts. Lourdes doesn't stop her. He just sits as the girl scans his arm. There's no wound to be found. Puzzled, she pulls back his other sleeve, but still, there's not a blemish on Lourdes's porcelain frame.

"Beatrice was mistaken," Lourdes breathes. "How about you not waste any more of the whiskey and instead have a nice conversation with me? Unless, that is, your table's still not clean." Katterina blushes. She sets the bottle down and searches for something else, anything else, in the Guinevere to lock her eyes on. Her vision latches around a pair of cowboys, a goat, and a bottle of brandy. Katterina takes a step away, and Lourdes raises his voice above a whisper. "Why are you running? Emma says running away's why you're here. Personally, if I was running, I'd head to the chapel not that far away."

"It's too close to the cemetery," Katterina speaks. She stops some paces from Lourdes's table and turns her eyes to the floor. "I don't like being around dead things." Lourdes smirks. He leans back in his chair and watches Katterina's fire-painted hair. It floats above her while all around the girl is pandemonium. Men chase after women. Lourdes's yellow eyes turn to the spot where Katterina stopped. Women chase after men. Katterina stands just a step away from a pile of sawdust and a fresh foul-smelling stain. Women chase after women. This is where Liam Macintosh fell dead. Men chase after men. Katterina doesn't make any further move toward the bar, nor does she return to Lourdes. He watches the girl quiver.

"That man scratch you?" Lourdes asks Katterina.

"No, you took care of him before he could," she responds. Her vision's still on the floor, her back still toward Lourdes.

"Sit down with me. Have a drink," Lourdes offers. He lifts his bottle, shaking it until Katterina shakes her head. "Then just sit down with me." Katterina sways for a moment. She bites her lip and brushes the hair from her eyes. She fills her lungs. She turns and all too quickly is across from the boy. She brushes the hair from her eyes again. Katterina smiles.

"I thank you, Mr. Lourdes, for what you did for me, and if there's anything I can do to repay you, you let me know," Katterina speaks. Her words come fast, each running over the last, almost as if rehearsed over and over again. Her face is anxious and afraid.

"You don't owe me anything," Lourdes dismisses.

"No, you stood up for me!" Katterina shouts. "You're the first decent man I've met in a long time."

"I hardly think killing another man makes me decent, and while I helped you out back there, your friends helped me when they took me in this morning. Far as I can tell, that makes us even," Lourdes breathes. "But if you want to do something for me, tell me why you're here. I don't want to be rude to a lady, but why do you keep company like this?" Somewhere, drunks yell and a bottle breaks. Somewhere else, a table's overturned. Somewhere else still, fingers drowned in liquor try to remember how to form fists. Katterina lowers her eyes. Not looking at Lourdes, she speaks.

"Men first came here looking for work in a mine out in the hills, but it dried up as fast as it brought them hope. They fight now over the dust that's left. Their wives try different trades, ending up here or worse. Sons follow their fathers. Daughters turn into me," Katterina looks up and tries to smile. It hurts. "The girls here take care of me. I'm doing my best to fit in."

"Ever thought of leaving?" Lourdes asks.

"I got no place else to go and no one else who'd take me in. You only get here by losing everything," Katterina speaks.

"Then there's nothing stopping you from starting over," Lourdes offers. "As long as your heart still beats, you've got a chance."

"That's what I'm trying to do," Katterina nods. "Right here. These girls are my family." Beatrice mops the floor. Cassidy fills empty glasses. Helena pushes a drunk onto the street. Emma, liquor in hand, passes Lourdes and Katterina on her way to a crowd of cowhands.

"Katterina, have you taught Lourdes how to speak?" Emma laughs. "I couldn't get two words out of him yesterday." The woman disappears.

"If she didn't talk so much, maybe she would have," Lourdes rustles, his eyes on the mob who've swallowed Emma whole.

"Is that the truth or an excuse?" Katterina inquires. Not expecting any question with a sharp tip and not knowing how to respond, the boy just blinks. "Emma tells me you're running away. What is it? Hmmm? You don't look like you belong here." Lourdes is silent. Katterina leans close to him. "Got bills? A business deal gone bad? A woman after you?"

"None of that," Lourdes speaks.

"How much they want for you?" Katterina asks, sucking in a breath. "Seeing how coldly you put a bullet into Macintosh's head, I don't think he's the first man you sent to his maker."

"I'm not going to lie to you," Lourdes states. The girl sits for a long moment before realizing no more words are going to come.