“Share a girl with a fella, buy him a few drinks, and he might talk to you.”
“Share a girl…”
“Well,” Evan said, “maybe you won’t have to go that far.”
Jubal still wasn’t quite sure what his brother was talking about, but when Evan said, “Come on,” he followed him out of the saloon.
Although Evan and Jubal had not been to Louise’s before they knew where it was from passing it on the street. It was a building the size of the hotel, but there was no sign over the door proclaiming it a whorehouse. Still, everyone in town knew what it was.
The front door was locked, so they had to knock to gain entry. The man who opened the door was almost as big as Sam, and uglier.
“Whataya want?” he asked.
“What do you think we want?” Evan asked. “You serve food here?”
“Hell, no,” the man said. “Just whiskey and women.”
“We’ll settle for that,” Evan said.
“Come on in,” the man said, stepping back.
When they entered they were almost blinded by the crystal in the chandeliers. In a room filled with overstuffed sofas and brocade curtains, men and women sat around, relaxed, drinking, the women in various stages of undress. The men were comfortable, but they still had their pants on.
Someone was playing a piano in one corner, and some men and women were standing by the piano, dancing.
“Would you look at this place?” Jubal asked. “What’s a place like this doing in Vengeance Creek?”
“I don’t know,” Evan said, still looking around in wonderment.
“Well, well, new blood,” a woman said, approaching them. She was in her thirties, heavily made up, with lips as red as blood and hair as black as night. She was wearing a black nightgown that left little to a man’s imagination.
“Hello, boys, my name is Louise. I run this place. I can see you’re impressed, and this is just the downstairs. You should see what happens upstairs.”
Jubal was dumbstruck. He’d been in whorehousesbefore, but he’d never seen a place like this. Evan had, but only in Portsmouth Square, in San Francisco.
“You boys want to start with a drink?”
“Uh, sure,” Evan said.
“Well, come on then,” she said, linking her arms in theirs. “The whiskey is included in the price.”
She took them into the sitting room and turned them over to two girls. One was a tall, lank blonde with small breasts, the other a slightly chubby redhead with a very pretty face. They gave each man a drink and sat with them on a sofa. Evan and Jubal were between the two women, who were pressing their thighs tightly against the brothers’.
Jubal looked up and saw John Burkett and two of his friends pushing past the big man at the door.
“Uh-oh,” the blonde said. “Looks like trouble.”
Evan and Jubal watched as the big bouncer tried to bar the three men from entering.
“Look, fat boy,” they heard John Burkett say, “if you want to keep your job you’ll get out of the way.”
“You are not allowed in here,” the big man said.
“If you don’t move,” Burkett said, “we’re gonna move you.”
At that moment Louise appeared with another big man in tow. The second man joined the first man in blocking the door.
“Please, John,” Louise said, pleading, “you know your father doesn’t want you in here.”
“Tell these two to step aside, Louise,” John Burkett said.
“John—”
She didn’t get any further before John Burkett threw a punch at one of the men. The big man caught the punch easily and pushed it aside.
“Don’t hurt him,” Louise said loudly.
“Move on, cowboy,” the bouncer said.
“To hell with you,” Burkett said, and threw another punch. This one bounced off the man’s nose, angering him. He drew back a massive fist.
“Don’t hurt him!” Louise shouted, but the man was beyond hearing her.
John Burkett ducked and the punch hit the man behind him, knocking him out. The third man with Burkett turned to leave, but the second bouncer caught him by the collar, turned him around, and knocked him to the floor with one punch.
“Now’s your chance,” Evan said to Jubal.
“For what?”
“Get in there,” Evan said, pushing Jubal up off the sofa.
The girls moved so that they were sandwiching Evan between them, and he threw an arm around each of them and settled back to watch.
Both bouncers had now cornered John Burkett, and there was no way he was going to be able to duck a punch this time.
As one of the bouncers drew back his fist Jubal launched himself and landed on the man’s back. Burkett, seeing a reprieve, lowered his head and drove it into the other man’s belly, staggering him back. As the man straightened up Burkett hit him with a punch. The man rocked back on his heels, but refused to go down.
Meanwhile, Jubal was riding the other man like he was a bucking bronco, holding on for dear life as the people in Louise’s came to life and began shouting encouragement to the two young men.
Jubal slid his forearm down across the man’s throat and began to throttle him. Meanwhile, Burkett had hit his opponent again, and then fell back a step and launched a kick that landed right between the big man’s legs. Thebouncer gagged and slowly fell to his knees. From that position it was easy for Burkett to kick him in the chin, finally felling the man like a huge tree.
Jubal’s man was blue in the face by this time and had gone to his knees. This allowed Jubal to plant his feet on the floor for better leverage, and before long the big man was unconscious. Jubal released his hold before he killed him, and the bigger man fell to the floor.
The place went crazy, cheering and yelling and stomping their feet.
Burkett and Jubal, both huffing and puffing, looked at each other across the two fallen men, and John Burkett smiled.
“Much obliged for the help,” he said.
“Couldn’t see letting them pound on you. Two-to-one odds just ain’t fair.”
“You two better get out of here,” Louise said.
Jubal looked at Burkett, raising his eyebrows.
“Now that you’re in, what do you want to do?”
“I proved my point,” John Burkett said. “How about I buy you a drink someplace else, by way of thanks?”
“Sure.”
They started for the door and Louise said, “What about them?” She was pointing to the two men who had come in with Burkett.
“When they wake up, tell them to meet me at the saloon,” Burkett said. “I’ll be buying my friend a drink.”
Burkett went out the door and before following him Jubal looked over at Evan and smiled.
Evan pulled the two girls to him tightly and said, “Now, which one of you ladies is going to offer to show me the upstairs?”
The blonde leaned over, put her tongue in his ear, and said huskily, “Why not both of us?”
Evan smiled and said, “Sure, why not?”
