“I’d like to take my britches off with Rita agin,” the mystery man said with a rough chuckle.
And I’d like to stick this pistol ... Rita mentally brushed away the very ugly thought. But it was a satisfying thought.
“You reckon Hanks is so stupid he don’t realize what his boys is up to?”
“He’s nuts. He don’t realize them crazy boys of his’n would kill him right now if they thought they could get away with it.”
Rita crouched in the darkness and wanted to cry. Not for herself or for her father—he had made the boys what they were today, simply by being himself—but for her mother. She deserved so much better.
“It better be soon, ’cause the boys is gettin’ restless.”
“It’ll be soon. But we gotta do it all at once. All three ranches. There can’t be no survivors to tell about it. They got to be kilt and buried all in one night. We can torture the widows till they sign over the spreads to us.”
“We gonna keep the young wimmen alive for a time, ain’t we? ’Specially that Fae Jensen. I want her. I want to show her a thing or two.”
“I don’t know. Chancy. Maybe too chancy. It’s all up to Jason and Lanny.”
“Them young wimmen would bring a pretty penny south of the border.”
“Transport them females a thousand miles! You’re nuts, Hartley.”
“It was jist a thought.”
“A bad one. Man, just think of it: the whole area controlled by us. Thousands and thousands of acres, thousands of cattle. We could be respectable, and you want to mess it all up because of some swishy skirts. Sometimes I wonder about you, Hartley.”
“I’m sorry. I won’t bring it up no more.”
“Fine.”
The men walked off, splitting up before entering the bunkhouse.
Rita felt sick to her stomach; wanted to upchuck. Fought it back. Now more than ever, she had to make it to the Box T. She waited and looked around her, carefully inspecting each dark pocket around the ranch, the barn and the bunkhouse. She stood up and moved out, silently praying she wouldn’t be spotted.
Once clear of the ranch complex, Rita began to breathe a little easier. She slung her valise by a strap and could move easier with it over her shoulder. She headed southwest, toward the Box T.
The restlessness of the horses awakened Smoke. He looked at his pocket watch. Four o’clock. Time to get up anyway. But the actions of the horses bothered him. Dressed and armed, he stepped out of the ranch house just as the bunkhouse door opened and Lujan stepped out, followed by the other men. Smoke met them in the yard. They all carried rifles.
“Spread out,” Smoke told them. “Let’s find out what’s spooking the horses.”
“Hello the ranch!” the voice came out of the darkness. A female voice.
“Come on in,” Smoke returned the call. “Sing out!”
“Rita Hanks. I slipped away from the house about eight o‘clock last night. You might not recognize me,’cause I cut off my hair to try to fool anyone who might see me.”
“Come on in, Rita,” Smoke told her, then turned to Beans. “Wake up those in the house; if they’re not already awake. Get some coffee going. As soon as Hanks finds out his girl is gone, we’re going to have problems.”
She was limping from her long walk, and she was tired, but still could not conceal her happiness at finally being free of her father. Over coffee and bacon and eggs, she told her story while Fae and Parnell and all the others gathered around in the big house and listened.
When she was finished, she slumped in her chair, exhausted.
“I wondered why the gunnies were holding back,” Hardrock said. “This tells it all.”
“Yes,” Lujan said. “But I don’t think they came in here with that in mind. No one ever approached me with any such scheme. And both sides offered me fighting wages.”
“I think this plan was just recently hatched, after several others failed. Rita’s attack did not produce the desired effect; Hanks didn’t attack Cord. Blackie failed to kill me. So they came up with this plan.”
Smoke looked at Rita. The young woman was asleep, her head on the table.
“I’ll get her to bed,” Fae said. “You boys start chowing down. I think it’s going to be a very long day.”
“Yeah,” Beans agreed. “ ’Cause come daylight, Hanks and his boys are gonna be on the prowl. If this day don’t produce some shootin’, my name ain’t Bainbridge.”
Silver Jim looked at him and blinked. “Bainbridge! No wonder they call you Beans. Bainbridge!”
Hanks knocked his wife sprawling, backhanding her. “You knew, damn you!” he yelled at her. “You heped her, didn’t you? Don’t lie to me, woman. You and Rita snuck around behind my back and planned all this.”
Liz slowly got to her feet. A thin trickle of blood leaked from one corner of her mouth. She defiantly stood her ground. “I knew she was planning to leave, yes. But I didn’t know when or how. You’ve changed, Dooley. Changed into some sort of a madman.”
That got her another blow. She fell back against the wall and managed to grab the back of a chair and steady herself. She stared at her husband as she wiped her bloody mouth with the back of her hand.
“Where’d she go?” Hanks yelled the question. “Naw!” Dooley waved it off. “You don’t have to tell me. I know. She went over to Cord’s place, didn’t she?”
“No, she didn’t,” Liz’s voice had calmed, but her mouth hurt her when she spoke.
