Evan shrugs. “Sure. I think that’s fair.”
He fetches his saddlebags, extracts the money, which Wade counts out, each of us getting a few hundred.
Once this is done, Wade stands to slap Evan on the back. “You are now officially part of the Farrow gang. Welcome.”
Nobody asks a man how he came to be an outlaw. I doubt any of us intended to be one. I suspect Evan fell into it because his brother was already robbing banks. I always thought I’d be a rancher, get me a spread, but I killed a man when I was fourteen, man who tried to steal my horse, and I ran away from home because of it. I tried to keep working the ranches, but there always came trouble and I had to kill another man, which made me see life was never going to let me settle. Then I met some men who were robbing trains and got in with them, learned the whole deal, not the least of which was that men do things with each other, which was most welcome since I was leaning that way.
I’m liking that Evan and me share this, even though I don’t know for sure and probably never will, but I can think what I want and this is what I want.
Wade passes him a drink and he downs it quick, has another, then looks to me, and for a second, holds my eye, his gaze steady as a rifle’s aim. I know then we will get up to it because that barb wire that had me snagged lets go its hold, leaving no wound, leaving a good feeling instead, hot like whiskey, filling more of me than just my dick. All in just a second before I look away to find Wade watching me.
Jack tells the kid he smells something fierce, needs to bathe, and says how we do it in the river and he’ll take him there. When they set out, Wade looks my way because we know Jack means to have the kid again. I try not to show concern, what with Wade’s eyes on me, even though I feel a stab because it should be me instead of Jack having the kid.
* * * *
I’m drunk by the time Evan gets back. It’s after dark, the other men have gone up to Hannah’s supper, but I keep to the cabin with the bottle. Laid out on my bed, lamp low, I see Evan and Jack come in and want to kill Jack because of what he’s done, and I know he’s done it because he’s wearing a shit-eating grin. He adjusts his privates like to announce himself, should I have failed to get the situation. The kid shows no expression, just strips off his shirt and climbs into his bunk.
“There’s supper up to the house,” I tell him.
“Not hungry.”
“I sure as hell am,” says Jack and goes out, never one to miss a meal.
That leaves just Evan and me, and I can feel him there, never mind he’s across the room. I think on his hurt and his prospects, on him now being one of us, and I down the last of my whiskey, thinking him in with us is a good thing. My last thought before sleep takes me is on what’s in his pants.
* * * *
I wake in the night, get up to piss the bucket, and hear the familiar sound of a hand on a dick, the low grunts of a man about to come, and I think it’s the kid doing himself because he’s the most likely, being young. I also think how I’d like to go over and help him out, pull away his hand, get him into my mouth. I piss, then for a second or so, stand holding my cock, which starts to stiffen, but I tell myself no and get back to bed. I don’t sleep for some time, caught in thoughts of Evan’s young prick. Finally all is quiet, Evan satisfied, me worn out. I do like that he satisfied himself and sleeps that kind of sleep.
* * * *
It’s Jack who says we ought to rob the bank up in Kettner, Wyoming, but I know it’s not really him talking because he’s never come up with an idea since he joined us. It’s Evan who told him, which I confirm when I get the boy alone. He says he and his brother had scouted the place. “I told Jack about it,” he says, “and he wants to do the job, just him and me, but I don’t want that.”
“How’s Kettner look?”
“Ready. Bart said they’d never been hit, so we’d catch ‘em unawares.”
“I’d want to see for myself.”
“Sure. I could show you and Wade.”
His mention of Wade is respect for the outfit and I like that, but I already know I’m not taking Wade. Kettner is a good hundred miles north, which is fine as we keep our robbing far from Greenlee so we stay well hid. It’s a good two-day ride, which gives the robbery appeal, as does the idea of getting off with the kid and maybe giving him a try.
“Don’t need three men to scout a job,” I tell Wade when he questions the plan. “Evan knows the layout, so he should go. You stay here and keep Jack in line because he thinks he’s got a claim on the kid, which he don’t.”
Leland Mulkey is back from seeing his woman, as is Harry Davenport, who supports a wife in Nevada. I gather everybody to lay out our plan. “Noble has some new stock, so you can work the horses while we’re gone.”
The men don’t object as Noble Switzer is a value to us, and when he rustles horses, we help with rebranding and such. Noble takes a high risk with us on his property.
I
