turned his back to Nick was proof that the bounty hunter thought he could take Nick down whenever he saw fit to do so.
As he watched Kinman snap his reins and get moving, Nick shifted his hand toward his pistol. He could put a bullet through that arrogant fool before Kinman even heard the shot that killed him. Nick could even dig a hole and plant Kinman in it without losing much time in his pursuit of Lester Peterson.
But of all the things Kinman was, he sure as hell wasn’t a fool.
Nick thought about that as his fingers brushed against the specially tooled leather of his holster. It was strapped across his belly, as it was whenever he was expecting a fight. Nick could draw a fraction of a second quicker that way.
Kinman may or may not have known that Nick had caught on to the trick he’d pulled with the shoe of Lester’s horse. Letting the name of that town drop, on the other hand, was something the bounty hunter had done on purpose. Any man would know that the name of the town closest to the spot they were after was a valuable piece of information. To a tracker, it would have been twice as valuable.
Perhaps Kinman was seeing if Nick would try to attack him and go on alone now that he had something to work with.
Then again, there was always the chance that Kinman was tired and had made a slip of the tongue.
No, Nick thought. That wasn’t a possibility.
“We’ve wasted enough time already,” Kinman shouted over his shoulder. “Stop lagging behind and let’s get moving.”
“No need to worry,” Nick shouted back. “I know where Hackett is and we should be able to get there around noon or so if we keep a good pace.”
Watching for Kinman’s reaction, Nick kept his hand over his holstered pistol. The tips of his fingers might have been mostly numb, but he could feel the smooth, curved iron well enough.
Kinman stopped.
For the next few seconds, he sat upon his horse while slowly cocking his head to one side. Finally, he turned and looked back at Nick and Kazys. “The best pace in the world won’t help us if we don’t leave this spot. Is something wrong with your horse, or are you content to let that asshole and his cousins live like kings off of them jewels?”
“I’m just making sure I didn’t leave anything behind,” Nick said, still keeping his hand on his gun.
Kinman started riding, but slowly enough so he could hear what was going on behind him. Nick recognized the cautious way Kinman flicked his reins as well as the way the bounty hunter kept his ears pricked for any sound he could pick up. When Nick began to follow, he saw Kinman’s posture relax a bit as both horses fell into a quick step.
There had to be something that Kinman was holding back. The more Nick thought about it, the more certain he became. A man didn’t get a reputation like Kinman’s by making slips of the tongue to men he clearly didn’t trust. Then again, Kinman had made the mistake of showing himself back in Rock Springs.
Or had that been a test as well?
Nick had batted that thought around more than once, but it had been pushed aside in favor of everything else that had happened since then. Showing himself in Rock Springs could have been a fatal mistake or it could have been a piece of some other plan. Nick didn’t like to bet on mistakes. Instead, he kept his thoughts churning as he and Kinman gathered up speed and rode toward Hackett.
Kinman only allowed himself half a smirk at Nick’s expense. Even though he was pretty sure the other man couldn’t see his face from behind him, Kinman didn’t want to muck up whatever knots were being tied within Nick’s brain.
Crossing Nick’s path in Rock Springs had been a mistake. If he’d had his say in the matter, Kinman would have preferred to go after Graves the way he went after all of his targets: after some careful scouting and preparation. But sometimes a man had to play the cards he was dealt and Kinman was pretty happy with the way this game was going.
So far, Kinman had gotten Nick to change his mind half a dozen times on whether he should trust him or not. Considering the confusion that had surrounded their first run-in, Kinman figured that maintaining that confusion was his best bet.
Nick was going to take his shot and was simply waiting for his chance to come. Kinman knew well enough that any move he made toward his own gun would be met by a storm of lead from that Schofield Nick carried. It was only a question of timing. One fraction of a second either way would decide whether Nick or Kinman would wind up dead.
Kinman took a look behind him to find Nick right where he should be. The deck was stacked in Kinman’s favor and all was right with the world. There was even more money waiting for him once he caught up with Lester and his no-good cousins. Hopefully, those boys had a wagon on that spread of theirs, because Kinman would need one to haul all of those bodies in to claim the rewards.
To make matters even better, Kinman had seen Nick in action back in Rock Springs. For that, alone, running into Graves was worth tipping his hand a little early. The gunman Kinman had heard so much about would have given him a run for his money in shooting those Chinamen for such an easy payoff. After seeing the way Nick had faltered when it came time to earning some of Hale’s money, Kinman was more inclined to believe the stories he’d heard about how badly those Montana vigilantes had torn Graves apart.
Kinman rode ahead of Nick without much concern. Nick may have been a threat in his younger days, but he wasn’t anything that Kinman couldn’t handle now. In fact, Lester and his cousins might just do Kinman’s job for him once they got to Hackett. Either way, Kinman figured this might be the last job he would need to complete before retiring to a nice little spread of his own.
TWENTY-FIVE
Someone knocked on the door and Lester didn’t make a move to answer it. He was still half asleep and in a strange room, so he didn’t think someone could be trying to summon him. When the knock came again, it snapped him out of his daze and got him to his feet. Lester walked across the small, cozy room and pulled open the door.
“You still in there?” Pat grunted. “Wesley’s getting ready to head into town. You’re still going with him, right?”
Lester nodded. “Yeah. I’m still going. I was just trying to…just freshening up a bit.”
Pat’s eyes moved down and up to take stock of the man in front of him. “You’re barely even dressed.”
“It’s been a long couple of days. I suppose it’s all just catching up to me.”
“Well I can bring you some fresh water to splash on your face. Maybe you can get a bath when you’re in town.” Leaning forward and sniffing the air surrounding Lester, Pat added, “Definitely get a bath in town. There’s a good spot where a friendly redhead will wash your back real thorough, like. Know what I mean?”
A blind man would have known what Pat meant, but Lester nodded as if to play along with the other man’s attempt at subtlety.
“I’ll let Wesley know you’re pulling yourself together,” Pat said. “I’ll bet some coffee will help speed things along.”
“That would be fine.”
“All right, Cousin. I’m just going to get some things situated in the barn. Know what I mean?”
“Yeah I know what you mean.”
After a quick nod, Pat turned and walked away from the door. Lester closed it and sat down on the edge of the little bed. The room was decorated sparsely and had nothing to cover the warped wooden slats of the floor. A small table stood in one corner next to the creaky bed. Actually, it leaned in that corner, since one of the table’s legs was an inch shorter than the others.
Lester placed his head in his hands and closed his eyes. The room wasn’t on the side of the house that
