by Kurt Barker
Chapter 21
Poloma's large dark eyes flashed as she looked Blackshot up and down. “Who are you supposed to be?” she sneered.
“Sorry, your friend out there was going to introduce me, but he had to go spit something out,” Blackshot replied. “So how did you fit out of the window? The woman whose clothes you stole wants to know.”
Poloma gave an angry snort, but before she could respond, Reuben cut in. “Look here, sheriff- or whoever you are, this doesn't concern you! This is a personal matter between me and my wife!”
Blackshot put hands on his hips and smiled broadly. “Hey, I just came out here to attend the funeral,” he said. “You two go right ahead and continue your little personal matter; it looks like the preacher's fixing to be late anyway.”
There was a stunned silence as the men on either side of the door looked hesitantly at each other and then at Reuben, who glared at Blackshot bitterly, sweat beading on his forehead.
“Say, that wasn't the preacher that just came out the door, was it?” Blackshot continued. “Goodness, I might have committed a serious social faux pas!”
“He wants to kill me,” Poloma said flatly, gesturing to Reuben.
“Shut up!” Reuben hissed through gritted teeth.
“I wouldn't worry about that if I were you,” Blackshot said. “If he tries he'll probably miss. He missed when he tried to shoot me.”
Reuben's eyes grew as wide as dinner plates and he stammered when he spoke. “I was helping you- I told you-”
“Oh, it worked out well enough for you anyway,” Blackshot replied. “You were afraid that I'd take one of those Comanche thugs alive, and that he'd say something that would put you in a tight spot. One of us had to die; you tried for me, but you got him instead.”
“Bullshit! You're making up nonsense in your mind! How can you think I had anything to do with those men?”
“Ask your Comanche wife.”
Poloma's body stiffened and she eyed Blackshot with a mixture of anger and doubt showing on her face. All the color had drained from Reuben's face, but he spoke in a low and even voice. “You don't know anything; you're just guessing. Now get out of here and keep your nose out of my business or you'll end up in a sheet like that old busybody out there.”
Blackshot laughed heartily. “I like your sense of humor, kid! And just who's going to put me in that sheet? If you're counting on these two no-account saddle bums to do that kind of work, you're dumber than I thought! If they had half a brain between them they'd run out of here and ride as fast and as far as they could.”
The two men looked as if they were considering it, but they didn't move from where they stood with Blackshot between them. He continued, “Or maybe you're figuring to do it yourself? Sure, you might not miss this time; even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Here, let me help you.” He turned his broad back to Reuben. “There, that's how you like to do it, right?”
Reuben was sweating profusely now, and he nervously tightened his grip on the pistol, which he still held on Poloma. “I'll kill the girl,” he said hoarsely. “If you say a word to anyone about-”
“Why don't you quit fooling yourself, boy,” Blackshot interrupted. “Whatever harebrained scheme you've cooked up here is going to blow up in your face. You don't even know how far in over your head you are; do you really think a tenderfoot kid like you can match wits with a man like Sun Wolf?”
At the mention of that name, the girl gasped and Reuben staggered backward in shock. “You leave me no choice,” he cried. He turned the big silver revolver toward Blackshot's back and pulled the trigger.
Chapter 22
There was a loud bang, and a flash of fire illuminated the dim room, but it did not come from the muzzle of the pistol. Reuben cried out and stumbled backward, the gun slipping from his fingers and clattering to the floor as he clutched at his face. Blood streamed from a gash on his cheek and flecked his leather coat with red.
“I told you that if you'd left it in your holster you wouldn't have any more trouble with me,” Blackshot said. “I may have forgotten to mention that I filled the barrel with paste before I gave it back to you, but anybody but a greenhorn dude like you would have checked his gun and found out, so I can't blame myself too much for the oversight.”
“Kill him! Kill him!” Reuben wailed as he lurched toward the back door, holding his wounded cheek.
The hands of the two men flew to the butts of their guns, but they looked to be moving in slow motion compared to the speed of Blackshot's draw. Both Colts flashed from their holsters and sped up toward the men's heads, pumping lead into their bodies at point blank range all the way up. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, Blackshot had put three slugs apiece in his opponents. Their blood speckled his boots and pants legs as they both reeled backward and slumped against the walls of the cabin, one with his pistol still half in the holster.
The two men slid almost in unison to the floor, leaving dark red streaks on the walls in their wake. Light from the bullet holes in the thin boards filtered in through the smoky air in the shack. Blackshot turned around and saw the back door standing open and creaking in the wind, but not only Reuben was gone; Poloma had disappeared as well.
Quickly reloading his pistols, Blackshot stepped out into the bright morning light. There was no one in sight and the air was quiet. He saw a sprinkling of red drops on the white snow leading away behind the shack, and he followed them up the hill and into the trees.
About a dozen yards ahead a body lay crumpled on the ground between two oaks. As Blackshot approached he saw that it was Reuben; his throat was gashed open and blood streamed onto the snow around his head, running in little rivulets between the gnarled roots of the trees. Poloma stood over him, a thick-bladed knife in her hand. The shaft was soaked red, and dots of blood stained the front of her skirt.
“Seems like a messy way to end things, but I suppose it's cheaper than a divorce,” Blackshot mused.
At the sight of him Poloma sprang away from Reuben's body and ran into the woods. Blackshot hurdled the fallen man and sped after her; so far everyone that could answer his questions was either dead or in hiding, and he wasn't about to let his only lead disappear again! His long strides quickly overtook her, and he snatched a handful of her hair and dragged her to the ground.
The knife flashed upward in Poloma's hand toward Blackshot's arm, but he was ready for such a move and sent it flying from her fingers with a sharp chop of the wrist. He jerked her up against the trunk of a tree and held her there by her hair. She fought hard to free herself from his grip, twisting and turning, but he held firm.
“Why don't you rest for a minute?” he growled. “It doesn't seem to me like you've got any place left to run anyway.”
Poloma glowered sullenly at him. “Are you on his side?” she demanded, jerking her head toward the fallen form of Reuben.
“Don't play dumb with me.”
“If you're not on his side, then whose side are you on?”
“I'm on the side of the only person I know I can trust, and that's me,” Blackshot replied. “And seeing as I've saved your life twice now, you ought to trust me, too.”
“Not twice,” Poloma retorted defiantly. “I wasn't scared of that boy and his playmates.” She struggled again to free herself from Blackshot's control, but to no avail.
“And I suppose you usually stroll through the snow in the evening, naked and bleeding, just for fun, eh?”
The anger in Poloma's eyes was mixed with uncertainty now and the ample copper breasts that bulged from the gap in her shirtfront heaved with her ragged breathing as she struggled with her course of action. “Okay! Have it your way!” she burst out finally. “But if I have to trust you, then you have to help me!”
“Not so fast,” Blackshot snapped. “You haven't told me whose side you're on yet!”
“I'm on the side of his father and brother,” Poloma hissed, jabbing a finger at Reuben's body. “They'll be as dead as he is by nightfall if we
don't do something to stop Sun Wolf!”
Chapter 23
“You'd better explain yourself,” Blackshot said. He released his grip on her hair and stood up, still watching her closely in case she decided to run again.
The idea of running seemed to have passed from Poloma's mind, though, and she sat against the tree, the tension still evident in her body. “The way you talked back there it seems like you already know everything,” she grunted at Blackshot.
“Most of that was guesswork and I'm tired of guessing about you,” he shot back. “Let's start from the beginning; were you really married to Reuben?”
“Him? Never!” she sneered. “I only ever fucked him once.”
“Practically strangers, then.”
“Don't laugh at me! This is a serious problem! Are you going to help me or not?”
Blackshot smiled. “You're Sun Wolf's girl, aren't you?”
Poloma eyed him suspiciously. “How do you know about him?”
“The last fool who you convinced to help you said Sun Wolf's name right before he died.”
“Don't blame me for what happened to that old buzzard! I told him not to go into town and make a big stink while those guys were still out hunting for me! He wouldn't listen to a damn thing I said!”
“I don't doubt it, but that doesn't change the fact that you're a risky girl to help,” Blackshot countered. “I don't plan to sign up for that duty unless I know what I'm jumping into!”
Poloma crossed her arms and sighed. “Yes, I'm Sun Wolf's girl. He was sick of the tribe and life in the camp and the whole damn thing, so he decided to get together his own gang and go away and make a name for himself. I was sick of it all too, so I asked him to let me come with him. He said if I gave him sex and he liked it well enough, he'd take me along to service the gang.”
“And that seemed like a good deal to you?”
Poloma laughed sharply. “I knew what I was doing; after I got through with him that first night, he wouldn't let the gang touch me! He kept me just for himself! I'd fuck his closest friends every now and then if Sun Wolf thought they'd earned it, but the younger guys never got to lay a finger on me.”
“So how did Reuben Schenker come into the picture?”
“I guess he heard about us and the big things we did. Remember a few months back when Sun Wolf stole those cannon from that fort and the soldiers didn't even know they were gone until the next day?”
“Sure, I heard about that. Sun Wolf made sure everybody heard about it; he hauled the cannon into the nearest town and fired them off in the street!”
Poloma's eyes glittered with excitement. “The sheriff was too scared to even come outside to say a word to us!” she crowed. “Sun Wolf sent me to call him out, but the coward locked his door and hid! I could see his boots sticking out from behind his desk! And when the soldiers came for us, fifty of them on horses, they found their cannon but they didn't find us because we were back at the fort taking their money and guns! Oh, everyone was talking about us after that! It was only a little after that that Reuben came along.”
“And what did he want with Sun Wolf?” Blackshot asked.
“He wanted Sun Wolf to kill his father and his brother.”
“Oh, is that all? Any particular reason that he wanted his family wiped out?”
Poloma shrugged. “The usual reason.”
“Money.”
“Yeah, I guess he'd burned through what he had and his father has loads of it but wouldn't give him very much. The old man was keeping the purse strings tight to make Reuben shape up, but Reuben was getting tired of toeing the line just to get a few dollars, so he wanted him put out of the way, and the brother, too. His brother was the older one, so Reuben couldn't get his hands on the money if the brother was still alive, he told us.”
“Well, that's a new take on the Prodigal Son,” Blackshot said. “So why did Reuben seek out a man like Sun Wolf for a job like that? Those clowns that tagged along with him probably would have have been glad to do the job for a few dollars.”
“No, they wouldn't have stood a chance with a guy like Old Man Schenker,” Poloma replied. “Reuben's father has his house all built up like a fort, with guards and dogs and anything you could think of. Hell, the army hasn't got a thing that could match it!”
“Just the sort of challenge Sun Wolf likes to take on.”
“Yes, he didn't let on to Reuben, but I could tell he was excited about it; and once he got a look at the place he said he didn't think there was another man alive that could pull off the job.”
“So what went wrong?”
Poloma sighed. “Me.”
Chapter 24
“You seem to make a habit of ruining plans,” Blackshot said.
“So? I won't shed any tears for Sun Wolf, or for you either,” Poloma bristled. “I do what I want, and I don't care what happens!”
“That attitude almost got you killed, in case you've forgotten.”
“It might still get me killed, but that doesn't bother me. I made up my mind and I'm not going back on it no matter what!”
“And just what did you make your mind up about that caused all this mess?” Blackshot asked.
“Sun Wolf came up with the idea that I would pose as Reuben's wife,” Poloma explained. “He had been away from home and the old boy hadn't heard from him for a while, so the story could work. Anyway, the idea was that Reuben would take me to stay with him and his father and brother at the big house, and I would be able to spy out the layout of the rooms and the routines of the guards and report back to Sun Wolf so he could come up with a plan.”
“So what went wrong? Did you quarrel with the father or the brother? Reuben said that they didn't exactly welcome you into the family with open arms.”
“Reuben said that?” Poloma looked surprised.
“Wasn't it true?”
“I wish it was! Then everything would have been okay....” Her voice trailed off and she was silent for a moment. When she spoke again it was in a low and wistful voice. “He told me I could call him Papa.”
“Reuben's father?”
“Yes, he was the sweetest old man I ever met. No one's ever been that nice to me before. And the brother, Hans, was the same; so kind and friendly even though he didn't know me at all. His wife is dead and he's got a little girl....” Poloma's voice trailed off again.
“And murdering nice people and a little kid in cold blood isn't quite the same kind of fun as firing off cannons in the street, is it?” Blackshot said.
“That's not it! I'm not afraid to kill!” Poloma snapped vehemently. “You saw how I dealt with Reuben, and if it suited me to kill them all I would have done it-- only it didn't suit me!”
She set her chin defiantly and glared at Blackshot, as if daring him to challenge her assertion that she was a heartless killer. The challenge came in the form of a broad grin spreading across his face, and when she saw it she jumped to her feet with an angry growl. “Fuck off! I told you not to laugh at me!” she cried. “I don't need your help if you're going to keep laughing like a fucking idiot!”
“Take it easy,” Blackshot chuckled. “So you're a soulless monster who eats babies with her afternoon tea, I get it. Now tell me what happened.”
Poloma put her hands on her hips and tossed her hair dismissively. “I wouldn't expect somebody like you to understand,” she sneered. “The fact is, the family did everything they could to make me feel at home, and it worked. I did feel at home; I felt like I wanted to forget the trail and the raids and the plans, and keep right on living with them and have them for a family.”
“Sure, I can understand that. I can also understand that your epiphany wasn't likely to go over very well with Sun Wolf.”
“Of course not. He went into a rage; he hates it when anyone disobeys him. He thought he could force me to change me mind and tell him what I found out about the house, but I don't change my mind like that. So he tried to beat the information out of me, and when that didn't work he tied
me to a tree and tried to whip it out of me, but I wouldn't say a word. Finally the others made him stop whipping me when they thought I was dead, but I got the last laugh! After they left me I worked my hands free and got away.”
“That's quite the last laugh,” Blackshot said. “They weren't too far wrong in thinking you were dead, you know.”
“So what? It would have served them right!” Poloma scoffed. “Let them find another girl like me! Do you think they'll find one that'll get up early every morning and hunt squirrels or rabbits for their breakfast after getting fucked all night? Let them look!”
Blackshot stood back and regarded the girl, remembering the impression he had of her when he had carried her in his arms. She still looked small and pretty, and now that the bruising had diminished from her eyes her features seemed more delicate than ever, but the steel that he had sensed in her makeup was plain to see now. She stood before him as imperious as a princess; a savage, untamed princess with almost as much in common with a wildcat as with a woman.
What was clear now though, that Blackshot had not seen before, was that underneath it all was a heart that, while no less wild, was full of pity for the innocent and dreams for the future. He sighed heavily.
“I'll help you,” he said. “I may be sorry I did, but I'll help you.”
Chapter 25
“Finally! I thought you were going to do nothing but talk!” Poloma snorted. “So, go call your gang or deputies or whatever you have, and get a posse together quickly! We've got to strike before they know we're coming or we might as well not bother!”
“Sorry, I'm fresh out of gangsters and deputies,” Blackshot replied. “I said I'd help you, and that's who you get: me.”
“What good is that going to do?!” Poloma cried. “You can't fight the whole gang by yourself!”
“So far I've done a better job of killing them than they have of killing me.”
