“Step outside,” Matt said again.
“Why should we?”
“Because I’m going to have to whip your ass, and I don’t want to create a disturbance in here,” Matt said.
“Now which ass are you going to whip?” Bleeker asked. “Because maybe you didn’t notice, but there are two of us and only one of you. And you ain’t wearin’ no gun this time.”
“I know that it isn’t fair,” Matt replied. “I mean, being that there are only two of you. But life isn’t fair, and sometimes that’s just the way it is.”
A big grin spread across Bleeker’s face and he turned to Carver.
“Well, now, what do you think, Carver? Looks to me like he is challengin’ both of us at the same time. Christmas is coming early this year. What do you say we go outside with this fella and teach him a lesson or two?”
“But quietly,” Matt said. “I see no need for disturbing the others at their fun.”
“You mean you don’t want your whore to see you get beat, don’t you?” Carver said.
“Let’s go,” Bleeker said. “This is going to be fun.”
Matt followed the two men outside, but as soon as they reached the street, both of them turned and made swipes at him with knives. Their quick turn, and the fact that both were carrying knives, caught Matt by surprise.
“I thought this was to be a fistfight,” Matt said.
“Yes, well, life is just full of surprises, ain’t it?” Bleeker said as he made another swipe toward Matt. The two men handled their weapons skillfully, but again, Matt managed to avoid the blades.
“Ha!” Bleeker said. “You took away our guns, but you didn’t say nothin’ about knives, did you?”
Carver feinted and as Matt jumped away from him, Bleeker swung his knife in a low vicious arc. Despite the quickness of Matt’s reaction, Bleeker’s flashing blade opened a wound in his side, and Matt staggered back.
Bleeker moved in again, trying to take advantage of Matt’s wound, but to his surprise, Matt sent a booted foot at the Y of Bleeker’s legs. When Bleeker dropped his knife and grabbed his groin, Matt slammed his fist into Bleeker’s neck, crushing his larynx.
Bleeker fell to the ground, even as Matt picked up the knife and turned to face Carver. Seeing what happened to Bleeker, and now realizing that he was alone, Carver turned and ran, leaving his partner writhing and choking to death on the ground behind him.
Matt was in no condition to give chase; in fact, he was in no condition to continue the fight, and he was glad Carver had run. He felt the nausea rising up in him. Bile surged in his throat and he threw up in the street. Dizzy and weak, he staggered back to the hotel, then stepped into the ballroom.
“Mr. Jensen!” Carl called. “Mr. Jensen, what happened?”
At the loud and concerned shout of the fireman, the dance caller stopped, the squares ceased their movement, and even the music, after a few more ragged bars, fell silent. Everyone stared at Matt with curiosity. Then, seeing blood spilling through the fingers of the hand he held clasped over his wound, some of the other women screamed.
“Matt!” Lucy called out loudly.
Matt felt the room spinning, then a weakness, then nothing.
Chapter Twenty-six
When Matt opened his eyes, he was lying in bed in the room he had rented from Lucy Perkins. He felt a slight pressure around his middle and lifting his head from the pillow, saw that he was wearing a bandage that had been wrapped all the way around his body. For just a moment, he wondered what he was doing here, and why he was wrapped in a bandage. Then he remembered the fight he had had with two of Denbigh’s men.
Damn. He had been in this position before when a man named Clyde Payson had hired two Mexican assassins to kill him. They had come at him with knives in the night, and though he had been badly cut in that fight, as he had in this one, he had left one of them dead and the other blind.3
He wondered if the cut he’d received this time had cut across the old scar.
Matt tried to get up, but when he swung his legs over the side of the bed, he felt an overwhelming wave of dizziness, and he knew that he wasn’t going to be able to stand up.
The door to his room opened, and Lucy came in.
“What are you doing sitting up?” she asked sternly. “The doctor said you were to remain flat on your back for at least five days. It has been only three days.”
“Three?” Matt said. “I’ve been in bed for three days?”
“Yes.”
Suddenly, Matt realized that, except for the bandage wrapped around his middle, hewas naked. And the bandage concealed nothing.
“Damn!” he said, and he got back into bed and under the sheet so quickly that he got dizzy again. He put his hand to his forehead, as Lucy chuckled.
“It serves you right, trying to get up by yourself,” she said. “And don’t worry about me seeing anything. Who do you think has been changing your bandage every day?”
“I’m hungry,” Matt said.
