Chapter Eighteen
Sam rode back to town and left his horse with the Swede at the livery.
During the ride back he was very alert. There was no telling what Burkett would do. Sam hoped to push the man into taking some kind of obvious action, but he didn’t really expect it to be
As he approached the town he found himself wishing he could just by pass it and keep on going. He had never liked Vengeance Creek. It had always represented a prison for him, a place he thought he would never escape from if he didn’t leave early. That was why he’d left in the first place. He had always regarded Vengeance Creek as a small town that would never grow up, and while he was here he had seen nothing to change his mind. Maybe a lot of people felt that way. Maybe that was why most of them accepted Lincoln Burkett as a savior, and not a conqueror.
Now he was back here and once again he felt imprisoned. There was no way he and his brothers could leave until they found out the truth, but who knew when that would happen—or if? What if they never found out the truth? Would he never be able to leave?
As he rode down the main street to the livery he felt as if the sides of the street were closing in on him, as if everyone on the street was watching—and most of them were. He and Coffin in the same place would have raised the tension of any town, and Vengeance Creek was nodifferent. They were waiting for what they felt was an inevitable explosion.
After leaving the horse at the livery he started back to the Miller house, but then he made a detour to the saloon. Over a beer he thought about Coffin and about the townspeople of Vengeance Creek. If the town was his prison, then the town’s people were his jailers. As curious as he himself was about Coffin and himself, he would have liked to leave the people hanging, deprive them of their entertainment. He wondered if he and Coffin could avoid a showdown.
He thought about Serena, but quickly dispelled her from his thoughts. Long ago he had resigned himself to the fact that there was no woman in his future. A woman would want him to settle down and, convinced as he was that he would someday die a violent death, it would not be fair to a woman to ask her to marry him, anyway. Serena and Evan made a nice couple, but he didn’t think his brother would stay in Vengeance Creek any more than he would when this was all over.
Maybe Jubal…
Jubal still had time to make a life for himself. He was still young enough to change the direction his life was taking. Serena was only four years older than he, so maybe he could make his future here.
In Vengeance Creek?
Sam shook his head, finished his beer, and left the saloon.
Coffin hadn’t tailed Sam McCall to the Burkett house. He had known he was going there, so he stayed far enough behind so that McCall wouldn’t sense him there. He was watching from a distance when McCall faced off against Conners and made him back down in front of all his men. He was still there when McCall came back out after talkingwith Burkett. Coffin watched as Sam rode away, back to town, and then he approached the ranch.
He was riding up to the house when Chuck Conners came out of the house. Conners saw him and stopped short.
“Looking for me?” Coffin asked.
“How did you know?” Conners said. “I was just about to send someone to town to get you.”
“Well, I’m already here,” Coffin said, dismounting. “I had a feeling Burkett would be wanting me.”
“Come on inside,” Conners said.
The foreman called a man over to take Coffin’s horse and then lead the gunmen into the house to Lincoln Burkett’s office.
“Are you back already?” Burkett asked as Conners entered. A split second later he saw Coffin enter behind the foreman and frowned.
“What—”
“He came riding up to the house,” Conners said. “He said he thought you’d be looking for him.”
“That’s all Conners,” Burkett said, and Conners left.
Coffin sat in a chair and kept his eyes on Burkett.
“How did you know?”
“It was McCall come riding out here? I figured he was going to push the play a little.”
“Well, he did.”
“How?”
“He says he’s got some evidence.”
“Where would he get evidence?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then he probably doesn’t have any.”
Burkett rubbed his jaw and said, “I can’t take that chance. I’ve got too much at stake here.”
Coffin didn’t know what Burkett had at stake, and he didn’t care. In fact, he didn’t even know what kind of“evidence” they were talking about. None of that had anything to do with him.
“You want me to take care of McCall?”
“Can you?” Burkett asked. “I mean, can you take him?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean, you don’t know?” Burkett said. “I thought you were the best.”
“Maybe I am,” Coffin said, “and maybe he is. That’s what we’re gonna find out.”
“And what happens if he kills you?” Burkett asked.
“What do I do after that?”
“There are other men with other guns, Burkett,” Coffin said. “Somewhere there’s a man who can take McCall if I don’t. You’ll just have to keep looking.”
Coffin started for the door.
“When will you do it?”
“When the opportunity presents itself,” Coffin said. He turned at the door and looked at his employer. “When the time is right.”
“And when will that be?”
“You’ll know about it when it happens.”
“But I want to watch!” Burkett shouted as Coffin started down the hall.
“I don’t need an audience!” Coffin called back, and kept walking.
Burkett sat back in his chair and fretted. He had sent for Coffin with the understanding that he was the best man for this job. If McCall killed him, who else could do it?
He heard someone else in the outside hall and left the office to see who it was. He was just in time to see his son heading for the front door.
“John!”
John Burkett stopped, his shoulders slumped.
“Where are you going?”
“To town,” John replied without turning.
“I don’t think that’s wise.”
“Why not?”
“It might not be safe.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“Take someone with you, then.”
John opened the door and said, “I’ll be fine, Pa.”
John Burkett’s ego was still stinging from the last time he had taken someone to town with him. They had seen him humiliated.
“John, you’re not intending to go after McCall, are you?”
John Burkett turned and looked at his father.
“Not Sam McCall, if that’s what you’re worried about,” he said, “but I want the other one, the one they call
