“Oh, sure boss.” Branch came over.
“Aaron and I are goin’ to a room upstairs to talk,” Ethan said. “Keep the men here.”
“Right. Gonna do the tally upstairs?”
Ethan ignored the question. “Just keep everyone here.”
“Okay, boss.”
Aaron and Ethan picked up their saddlebags and went upstairs to look over the rooms.
“First,” Shaye said to Holcomb, “do you have any more deputy badges?”
“Two more.”
“Give them to two of my sons,” Shaye said.
“What for?”
“Cover,” Shaye said, “in case they’re seen. I don’t want them walking around with Texas badges on.”
Holcomb handed two of his badges to James and Matthew, who removed theirs and replaced them with the local ones. They put their own badges in their shirt pockets. Thomas had removed his earlier, and Shaye removed his now.
“Now what?” Holcomb asked.
“We should make a move while they’re all in one place,” Shaye said. “If we do this right, we should be able to get the drop on them and surround them.”
“The seven of us,” Holcomb asked, “surround nineteen men?”
“It can be done,” Shaye said. “We just have to time it right. Have your deputies used their guns?”
“Yes.”
“On other men?”
“A time or two, yes,” Holcomb said.
“Killed anyone?”
“No.”
“Okay,” Shaye said, “my boys haven’t either, so this might be a first for them.”
“Not for me,” the sheriff said, “or you either.”
“No.”
They both looked at the other young men in the room.
“Is everybody ready for this?” Holcomb asked.
“I’m ready,” Will said.
“Me too,” Ray echoed.
“Your boys?” Holcomb asked Shaye.
“I don’t have to ask them,” Shaye said. “They’re ready.”
“So how do we go about this?”
“Tell me about the saloon,” Shaye said. “You already told me about the back door. What other ways in and out…”
When they chose a room with a couple of poker tables instead of beds, Ethan closed the door, turned and walked into his brother’s right fist. He went flying over one of the tables, his saddlebags of cash falling to the floor. Aaron picked them up and tossed them onto the other table with his bags, then walked over to his fallen brother.
“Wha—” Ethan said, but Aaron didn’t let him get the question out. He hauled him to his feet and held him there a moment.
“That was for pickin’ Vincent over me,” he said.
“Aaron—”
His brother silenced him by hitting him again, but he held the front of his shirt with his other hand to keep him from falling.
“That’s for killin’ that woman when you didn’t have to,” he said. “You’ll probably bring a posse down on us for that.”
“I didn’t—”
Aaron hit him again, and let him fall. When Ethan hit the floor, he lay still, but was still conscious.
“And that’s for bein’ a damned baby about killin’ the woman and havin’ bad dreams about it,” Aaron said, leaning over Ethan. “I should hit you twice for that, but I’m lumpin’ them together.”
Ethan’s eyes fluttered but stayed open. Eventually he focused on Aaron’s face.
“Did you hear me?” Aaron asked.
“I heard you,” Ethan said. He extended his arm. “Help me up, damn it.”
Aaron reached down, grabbed his brother’s hand, and pulled him to his feet. As Ethan came up, he balled up his left fist and hit Aaron in the face with it.
Downstairs, the men heard the commotion above them, and looked at Morales and Branch to see if they should do anything. Both men simply stood at the bar drinking their beer.
“Think Ethan is fightin’ back?” Branch asked.
Morales swallowed the last of his beer before answering, put the mug on the bar for the bartender to refill. “If he is, it’ll be the first time in his life.”
“Would Aaron kill him for that?”
Morales accepted the full mug from the barman and drank a third of it before answering.
“He would probably respect him for it,” he said, “and that would also be a first.”
52
The seven men left the sheriff’s office by the back door. Shaye and his sons were armed with rifles they’d removed from their saddles. The local lawmen had shotguns from the office gun rack. Thomas went with Sheriff Holcomb to take care of the two men who were still sitting out in front of the saloon. Deputy Ray Winston paired up with Matthew to go around to the back door and get into the saloon that way. Deputy Will Strunk and James were going to go around to one side of the saloon and get in through a window, while Shaye went alone to the other side to do the same.
Thomas had to go completely around the building to come at the two men in front of the saloon without being seen by them. The sheriff, who would approach them more directly, gave him five minutes to do that. Thomas actually passed his brother and Will Strunk while they were working on a first floor window.
When he got to his assigned spot, he was able to see the sheriff approaching from the other side. The men there were supposed to be on watch, but they weren’t watching very well. From what Thomas could hear, they were bitching that they’d had to sit inside or outside this saloon all day long, and what the hell was the matter with those two damned brothers?
The sheriff sidled up on them before they knew it and spoke to them, getting their attention.
“Nice night to be sittin’ outside, ain’t it?”
Both men, startled, began to go for their guns.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Thomas said from behind them.
Both men froze. Thomas already had his gun out, and now Holcomb produced his.
“You fellas don’t know what you’re doin’,” one of the men said.
“Hopefully,” Holcomb said, “we’ll figure it out along the way. Right now I’m just gonna take your guns, so stand easy so my friend there doesn’t have to shoot you.”
It was the first time Thomas had ever held his gun on another man.
James and Will Strunk got the window open and slipped quietly inside the saloon. They found themselves in an office. Outside the office door, they could hear men talking.
Now they just had to wait.
Meanwhile, Matthew and Ray Winston slipped the back door open and entered. They found themselves in a hallway that led to a curtained doorway. Beyond that doorway was the saloon.
Aaron shook off the punch from Ethan, which didn’t have much sting behind it, but as Morales had predicted, brought forth a look of respect.
