behind her head. Upon hearing her husband’s voice, one of her hands reflexively drifted up to her neck.
Lester’s eyes fixed upon the glittering necklace resting against her smooth skin. Lunging forward to reach for the necklace with both hands, he asked, “Where’d you get that?”
Pat’s hand snapped down to clamp around Lester’s wrist before Lester even realized his cousin had gotten so close. The grip tightened painfully as Pat shoved Lester’s arm to one side.
“You know damn well where it came from,” Pat hissed.
“You two really dug up that grave in the Badlands,” Lester whispered.
Wesley rocked on his heels and smiled proudly. “We sure as hell did. I told you all about how we were supposed to be working for Cobb, didn’t I?”
“A bit.”
“When was that, Pat? A year ago?”
“Closer to three years,” Pat replied.
“Whichever, it was one of the times that Barrett Cobb called on us to back him up on one of his schemes. Usually we just pick off anyone trying to follow him and his men on their way out of some town or another and this time wasn’t supposed to be any different. Well, Barrett never showed. We went to meet him and found one of his men carrying ol’ Barrett away. Cobb was dead as a doornail.”
The door swung open again and Ann came out with two more glasses. Wesley and Pat each took one and then Ann walked back into the house. Stephanie was reluctant to follow her, but moved quickly once Pat nodded for her to get going.
Once his wife was inside, Pat said, “We thought Cobb was being brought to us, since the man carrying him was headed this way. But we followed him into the Badlands instead and he planted Cobb up there. We never got our cut and nobody ever found the jewels, so we thought they were probably buried there, too.”
“And you let them set there for three years?” Lester asked.
“We didn’t know for sure where them jewels were. Besides, you wouldn’t be so quick to dig up a grave,” Wesley snapped. “Not if you saw the man who dug it. He looked like death warmed over and he was one of Barrett’s gunmen. Those fellas ain’t to be trifled with.”
“I’ve been hearing about those jewels for a while now,” Lester said. Lowering his voice and looking around, he added, “Were you spreading them rumors?”
Pat shrugged. “We may have done some talking after things settled from that robbery. It ain’t as if anyone can know we was really there.”
Wesley sipped his lemonade and wiped away what he’d splashed onto his beard. He looked as if he would bust if he didn’t spit out what he wanted to say next. “It was my idea to head back up there. I figured if nobody went to claim them jewels, they were rightfully ours, since we never got our share.”
Pat corrected him. “You started talking about that a few months after the robbery. Just like you kept talking about it every couple of months after that. Just like clockwork.”
Glaring at the younger man, Wesley said, “You could’a gone up there any time you wanted. Hell, I bet Stephanie would’ve gone up there on her own if she knew where to dig.”
“Shut your damn mouth, Wes. I swear I’ll—”
“You’ll what?”
Pat took a swing at Wesley that clipped him on the chin. The older man’s beard seemed to have absorbed most of the blow, since Wesley wasted no time in lunging at his cousin and knocking him off the porch. Both men, covered in spilled lemonade, landed on the ground, a pile of thrashing arms and legs. In no time at all, they were kicking up enough dirt to form a small cloud.
Setting down his glass, Lester jumped off the porch and waded into the brawl between his two cousins. He caught a few glancing blows for his trouble, but managed to get between the two men and pull them apart.
“You were right to stay out of there,” Lester said just before Wesley’s elbow buried itself in his gut. Doubling over, Lester lashed out with one foot and caught Wesley in the shin.
Although both cousins still had plenty of fight left in them, they pulled themselves back simply because Lester was in their way.
Hacking painfully, Lester said, “You were right. You hear me? You were right to keep your distance from there.”
“See?” Wesley sneered. “I told you so!”
Before he could stop himself, Lester turned and smacked his older cousin across the face. Wesley looked more shocked than hurt by the blow and stared at him with his mouth hanging open. It was the only time that Lester had ever seen the man speechless.
“And you were wrong for going after it at all,” Lester said. “I don’t know about the rest of the men Cobb worked with, but one of them is a killer like I’ve never seen. You heard of Nick Graves?”
Pat nodded. “Yeah. Cobb used to mention him.”
“Well I’ve heard plenty about Graves and I think all of it’s true. I’ve seen Graves and he’d gun you down just as soon as he’d look at you.”
Shoving Lester back as a way to regain his posture, Wesley asked, “When have you ever seen Nick Graves?”
“Maybe a day ago and he was in the Badlands at Cobb’s grave.”
Now, both of Lester’s cousins were speechless. Pat turned white as a sheet and then squatted with his hands on his knees. Wesley ran his fingers over his head and then sifted through the tangled mess of his beard.
“Nick Graves is here?” Pat asked breathlessly.
“He was in the Badlands,” Lester repeated. “At Cobb’s grave. He’s the one who buried him there.”
“And you were there, too?”
Wesley’s eyes snapped toward Lester. He lunged toward his cousin and grabbed him by the front of his shirt with both hands. “Are you working with Graves? You stupid son of a bitch, he’ll kill all of us to get them jewels!”
To his credit, Lester tried his best to smack Wesley’s hands away. Unfortunately, his best wasn’t quite strong enough to do the job. After a few more attempts, Lester wound up simply grabbing Wesley’s wrists. “I wasn’t working with him,” he said while tugging at his cousin’s wrists. “He…he forced me to take him to the grave.”
“But he already knew where it was.”
“Not Graves. I mean another man forced me to take him there. A bounty hunter named Alan Kinman.”
“So Kinman’s here and not Graves?” Pat asked.
Lester squirmed at the end of Wesley’s fists like a worm on a fishing line. “Actually, they’re both here.”
Wesley nodded slowly and ran his tongue over cracked lips. “You sure about that?”
“Yeah. I barely got away.”
“Did they follow you here?”
“I don’t…think so.”
Wesley’s fist slammed into Lester’s chin hard enough to snap his head back like a rag doll. The impact wasn’t enough to knock Lester out, but it sure took away plenty of his steam.
“You don’t think so?” Wesley growled. “What kind of damned fool’s answer is that? What the hell were you thinking, coming here with a couple of killers on your tail? And one of ’em’s a bounty hunter? I should kill you right now, God dammit!”
Although Lester’s jaw wasn’t broken, he wasn’t anxious to move it any more than he had to. “You’re my family,” he blubbered. “I thought I could…I thought…”
“You
Suddenly, Lester’s eyes cleared and the fear vanished from his face. “I thought I could warn you,” he said calmly. “I heard all the talk you’ve been spreading all the way out in Oregon.”
“We’re not the only ones that have been talking about them jewels. It’s been in the newspaper, for Christ’s sake.”
“You’re the one that called it the Reaper’s Fee,” Pat pointed out.”
Wesley grinned proudly and puffed out his chest. “I might’ve had something to do with that.”
“Exactly,” Lester said. “And now that folks have had enough time to spread their rumors, tell their own stories, Graves caught wind of it. Kinman’s heard about it, too, and both of them are after that Reaper’s Fee.” Lester wasn’t about to tell his cousins that he’d offered to bring Kinman this far to save his own neck and was
