Outside, the gunman Nick had left flopped onto his belly and began inching toward the gun that he’d tossed. His hands were tied behind him and his ankles were bound, forcing him to move like a caterpillar. He could hear the rusty hinges squeaking and the thump of heavy footsteps behind him, but kept inching his way on the ground while straining his wrists against the ropes.
Suddenly, the footsteps came to a stop. Next, the unlucky gunman heard the heavy crash of something being dropped in front of him. He had to pull his head back a bit to get a look at what it was. “Jesus Christ!” the gunman hollered when he saw the gaping hole in George’s head.
Nick squatted down beside the body he’d dropped. “There’s one of your friends,” he said. Grabbing the gunman’s hair and wrenching his head around to face the first corpse, he added, “And there’s the other. If you want to keep from joining them, you’d best tell me how many men you and George hired on.”
“Four,” the outlaw replied. There was no fear in his voice. Instead, there was just resignation. “They already rode ahead to meet up with the rest.”
“Where at?”
“Some ranch named the Busted Wheel. It’s about twenty miles or so from here, due south.”
“You’re a cooperative sort.”
“What the hell I got to lose? If you were gonna gun me down, you wouldn’t have trussed me up like a goddamn steer.”
Nick studied the bigger man’s face and then nodded. “All right.”
When he saw Nick walk over to pick up the gun that had been tossed away, he asked, “Ain’t you gonna untie me?”
“Nope.”
The gunman was still grousing outside when Nick poked his head into the store. “You got a firearm, old man?”
The store owner looked around as if he didn’t know whom Nick was addressing. He then pumped his head up and down. “’Course I do. I ain’t stupid enough to make a move against armed killers, though.”
“How many of them were here?” Nick asked.
Scrunching his eyebrows thoughtfully, the old man replied, “Them three you already met and four more. There were a few others who came by a few days ago, but that was just to conduct some business.”
“What kind of business?” Nick asked carefully.
The store owner nodded toward a narrow hallway behind his counter. Standing there, huddled together, were three women in various stages of undress. They appeared to be a little frightened, but curious nonetheless. “That kind of business,” the old man said.
“You run a whorehouse as well?”
“And sell liquor. This is the only store for miles, so’s I figure on taking advantage. I just hope to hell those bastards don’t kill the girls I sent out to them camps when they hear about what happened back here.”
“When are they due back?” Nick asked.
“Tomorrow. Maybe I should bring them back sooner, though.”
Nick blinked a few times and glanced back to Joseph. When he looked back to the old man, he said, “We might just be able to help you with that.”
“How?”
“We’ll go and make sure they get back here without you or anyone else having to risk yourselves.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Because that way you can forget it was us who shot these men and you can let anyone who asks know that we’re just working for you.”
The old man squinted at Nick carefully as his face slowly pinched up. “You ain’t the law. Are you bounty hunters?”
“We want to get close to those killers,” Joseph said. “That’s all you need to know.”
Finally, the old man shrugged and said, “Fine. If you can get my girls back, that’s all I care about. You two sure got a better chance of walking into them camps and getting out alive than me and the kid who normally runs my whores. You make it back and I’ll even forget about the damage you caused to my place. It ain’t gonna cover the cost of all that food and supplies you’re takin’.”
Just then, Joseph walked up to him and handed over a small bundle of money. “That should be enough to cover the supplies.”
The owner counted up the money he’d been given and stuffed it in his pocket.
“You’d better find that shotgun of yours,” Nick said. “There’s someone out there you might want to keep an eye on. He’s tied up, but you still should be careful around him.”
“What should I do with him?”
“Call the law or feed him to the coyotes, I don’t give a shit which. We just don’t have the time to waste on him.”
As Joseph dragged the bags he’d packed out the door, the shop’s owner looked around as if he’d been thrown into the middle of a whirlwind. Clenching his fist around Joseph’s money, he shrugged and wandered over to collect his broom and shotgun.
TWENTY-SEVEN
The gang was divided into two small camps with just over a mile between them. In the main camp, Dutch talked to the men who’d gathered up the fresh recruits and discussed their next move. He’d looked in on the other camp before returning, like a field commander making the rounds among his troops.
“Lot of new faces,” said one of the veteran gang members.
Dutch nodded and picked up a stick off the ground. With his other hand, he pulled a hunting knife from his belt and started whittling away the tip. “There should have been more, Bertram. You know that.”
Bertram nodded. “Yeah, I know.”
“What happened?”
“It’s too soon after the raid at Van Meter’s place. Some law’s been poking their noses into it after all that ruckus and—”
“No law’s been looking into it,” Dutch cut in. “No more than usual, anyhow, and you know it.”
Bertram shrugged and said, “Then I don’t know why. We got more’n enough to pull the next few jobs, though, so what’s the problem?”
“The problem is that you’ve been getting lazy. You’ve also been getting sloppy. You took too much time at the Van Meter ranch.”
The memories brought a smile to Bertram’s face. “That bitch wife of his was mighty fine,” he said in a slow, breathy manner. “I wouldn’t have minded fucking her even after we sliced her up.”
Dutch’s eyes shifted in their sockets and fixed upon Bertram. When that wasn’t enough to dim the smile on Bertram’s face, Dutch barked, “Shut your damn mouth!”
“What’s the matter, Dutch? Jealous because we got to have the fun? That herd must be sold off by now. Maybe you can buy yourself some pussy.” Licking his lips, Bertram added, “That younger girl at that ranch, though…she was the kind of sweet meat that you can’t even buy. At least, not without looking real hard for it.”
Dutch looked down for a second, snapped his eyes back up and then grabbed Bertram underneath his chin. Pinching Bertram’s throat between his fingers, Dutch pulled the other man forward and said, “I put up with a lot of your shit because you get results. You fucked up at that ranch and it may have cost us money.”
“Them bitches didn’t have any money. I searched ’em real good.”
“The rancher did, but he was shot before he could tell us the rest of what we needed. Seeing as how we haven’t heard from the man I left behind, the rest of that money is probably gone for good.”
“We can always go back.”
Dutch’s grip tightened around Bertram’s throat. His eyes narrowed a bit more and his lips curled back to reveal a set of perfectly straight teeth. “Now you’re just talking like a goddamn fool and I don’t tolerate fools.”
