Kane’s lips drew back from his teeth. “Little brother, unless you want me to kick the shit outa you like I just did Deke, I think you’d just better do what I said and do it right gawddamn now!”
Willard smiled. “Your day is comin’, big brother. Comin’ soon too.”
“The day you try me,” Red Kane said, “is the day you’ll be knocking at the gates of Hell.”
Deke hauled himself to his feet and he was gasping and clutching his crotch. “What do you want me to do, Boss?”
“Deke, just sit back down here by the window and don’t you go and get drunk while I’m gone. If you see them two women again, you just stay where you’re at and don’t make a sound. Do as I say, I won’t hurt you again.”
“You shouldn’t have put your knee to my balls like that,” Deke whined, moving all bent over to the table beside the window and collapsing into the chair. “What I said about you … you shouldn’t have taken it so damn personal, Red.”
“I take everything personal,” he told the man. “And I mean to take care of this business my way when we catch up with Ford and them two gawddamn lawmen.”
A tear slid down Deke’s cheek, and it caused Kane to shake his head. “You’re nothin’but a gawddamn baby,” he said with contempt. “You’re just plain weak.”
Deke’s gun hand moved a little closer to his side, but it froze when Kane said, “Go ahead, prove me wrong. Show me that you’re man enough to make a play for that gun. Go on, you chicken-shit little coward!”
Deke’s nerve broke and he placed both of his trembling hands on the table. “I wouldn’t shoot you, Red. We’re friends!”
Kane relaxed. “Deke, you just better hope you never get sent to the Nevada Territorial Prison in Carson City. Cause, if you do get sent, you’re gonna make some inmate a real fine little bunk-mate.”
“We get this money business done, I’m leavin’Nevada once and for all,” Deke said, nodding up and down as if trying to convince himself of this bold declaration. “I am leavin’ for California and I’m buyin’ a little farm.”
Kane sneered. “You don’t know nothin’ about farmin’ or about anything else except how to pick someone else’s pockets or back-shoot ‘em when they ain’t lookin’.”
Deke looked away, staring through the grimy glass, his eyes radiating pain and hatred as he listened to the heavy sound of Red Kane’s boot heels thumping on the floor.
When Kane went outside, he stopped and rolled another cigarette before he sauntered down the street, keeping to the shadows and trying to look as inconspicuous as a man well over six feet and 250 pounds could look. He pretended to admire a pair of new saddles in the saddle shop window, and then seemed to give careful consideration to a new coat being displayed in the Gold Mountain General Store window.
In fact, what Red Kane was really doing was waiting for Sophie Flanigan and Molly Bean to reappear on the street and lead him to Ford Oakley and the two lawman, all of whom he intended to kill after learning where the hell Ford had hidden their four thousand dollars of stolen bank money.
It didn’t take long before Sophie and Molly emerged, and Kane slipped into the shadows between a pair of buildings and watched as they hurried over to the town’s only livery. Kane grinned as he noted that the women were both dressed in riding skirts and had small traveling bags in their hands. They looked nervous, as if they didn’t want to be noticed by anyone as they made their way quickly along.
Kane gave them a wide berth. He’d seen enough to confirm his suspicions, and now it was time to go get their own horses and follow these scheming bitches to a big payday.
He tromped back to the saloon and collected Deke. “Let’s go get those horses,” he said.
“Yes, sir!”
As Kane was passing through the saloon toward the back door, he snatched a nearly full bottle of whiskey from the bar.
“Hey!” the bartender shouted. “You’re gonna pay for that!”
“Don’t worry!” Kane shouted. “As soon as we spring Ford from those lawmen, we’ll come back here and put on a party the likes of what you never seen!”
“You do that!” the bartender groused. “You just bring your money next time.”
It was another ten minutes before Gus and Willard appeared with the saddled horses. “You bastards are sure slow,” Kane complained.
“Where in the hell are we headed?” Willard said, hand snapping out to grab the bottle of whiskey from his brother’s fist. He uncorked it with his teeth, took a long, long pull, and handed it back to Kane.
Kane drank and passed the bottle to Deke, who took a little more than his share because he was still in such pain. Gus finished the bottle and threw it at the back of the saloon, where it shattered.
“Let’s go,” Kane said. “Well just trail them women and let them take us to Ford.”
“Maybe we could use them for more than just to lead us to Ford,” Gus said with a wink.
“Yeah,” Kane agreed, licking his chapped lips and climbing onto his horse, “I was thinking the very same thing.”
Chapter 12
When Longarm left Lone Pine by way of the alley, he did it in a big hurry with three dead outlaws and a very unconscious Ford Oakley locked up in the back of the medicine wagon. Pete had given him some hurried directions, and now he was off on his own wondering how damn far it was over these mountains and then on to Elko.
About five hours out of Lone Pine, Longarm spotted a little homestead off the road about a half mile and decided that, if he were to continue, he needed some food and a few hours of rest. He was feeling a mite puny, and one of the horses had a loose shoe that needed immediate attention before it came off altogether.
The log cabin was small, and there was a barn and corrals with several horses and a pair of good Missouri
