Derrick and Higgins sat cleaning their guns, while Dean Taylor stood a few feet away practicing his draw, which seemed to be all he ever did. Amanda couldn’t believe a man that young could be a part of such a grotesque gang of men.
She knew all their names now, including the older one, Wade Gillette. At first she’d thought that Gillette might try to help her, as he didn’t seem too crazy about bringing her along. But she quickly realized that none of them—no matter how good with a gun or how ruthless he was—dared to go up against Rand Barker. Barker was in full control. And what he said was never questioned.
Amanda opened her eyes with renewed hope when a strange man stepped into the firelight. In an instant, nine guns were aimed at him. The man stood stock-still, his eyes resting on Barker.
“Rand,” he said, with a nod. The man was tall and rangy.
“Well. Lonnie Drake. How you doing, Lonnie?”
“Pretty good. Word’s been passed down the line you robbed a train up by Bear River City.”
“You and your men fixin’ do to a little robbin’ of your own, Drake?” Barker asked, rising. “Like maybe takin’ our loot?”
“Nope. I just come down here to see who it was.” The man looked around, his eyes resting on Amanda. Then they shifted back to Barker. “Hear tell you took a woman from that train.”
“What’s that to you?”
The man looked long and hard at Barker.
“Men like you, they give us honest outlaws a bad name, Barker,” the man replied. “Out in these parts a good woman is somethin’ to be honored. We might rob and kill, but we don’t bring no harm to the ladies. How come you went and disobeyed the code of honor, Barker?”
“That’s my business. I don’t live by no code but my own, Drake. Get your butt out of my camp.”
Drake looked at Amanda again.
“She looks sick.”
Rand Barker shifted. “Look, Drake, I took the lady ’cause she was itchin’ for some excitement. She wasn’t no virgin or nothin’ and she’s been havin’ a good time with us. Hell, you wouldn’t turn away a hot one, would you?”
Drake’s eyes moved to Amanda’s again.
“That ain’t the way I heard it. Heard she was a nice lady.”
“Well, you heard wrong. Now you get goin’ and mind your own business, Drake. You know I can outgun you any day.”
Drake looked at Barker. “I’m leaving,” he replied, “but you overstepped yourself this time, Barker. Takin’ a woman don’t set good. You’ve got the army after you, and I hear tell Moss Tucker’s after you.”
Amanda’s heart almost stopped beating. Moss! Was he really alive then? Her eyes teared at the thought of it.
“Tucker’s dead,” Barker replied, sounding apprehensive.
“I hear tell he ain’t,” Drake retorted. “And I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes, Barker. Havin’ the army after you ain’t nearly as bad as havin’ Moss Tucker after you.”
“I can take Moss Tucker any day.”
“Can you?”
“There’s nine of us and only one of him.”
“That don’t mean a whole lot with Moss Tucker. You’d best be watchin’ over your shoulder good, Barker, if that there is Tucker’s woman. I hear tell he’s sweet on her. He ain’t gonna be likin’ it much, you takin’ her like that.”
“Shut up, Drake, and get out of my camp before I blow your head off!” Barker snapped. Drake just grinned.
“Just a warning, Barker. You get out of Brown’s Park. The men around here might not be no churchgoers, but they don’t cotton to hurtin’ innocent women. You know the code, Barker. You get out of Brown’s Park—and you’d best not stop off at Robber’s Roost, neither. It ain’t good to get your own kind mad at you, Barker. It so happens there ain’t enough of us here to take you right now, but there’ll be others waiting, Barker.”
Amanda wanted to talk to the man called Drake, but she knew she didn’t dare. It was enough to know that Moss Tucker was alive, and he was coming for her. Moss was coming for her! Barker’s obvious anxiousness pleased her greatly. Drake left, and Barker was upset. He began pacing.
“Hey, Rand, we didn’t count on this,” Weber spoke up.
“Shut up!”
“But he said even our own kind is mad at us! We don’t need that, Rand!” Weber argued.
“Look, kid, I’ll do the thinking!” Barker shot back. He came over and stood beside Amanda. “You’ve brought me some bad luck, lady!”
Sweat dampened her hair, even though she was shivering.
“Moss Tucker…will find you,” she said weakly.
Barker laughed nervously. “Let him!” he spit out. “I’ll tie him down and then we’ll all rob you of that precious virginity of yours right in front of him. That’ll rile him right good—us takin’ what he intends to take for himself.”
“I say we get rid of her!” Wade Gillette spoke up. “She’s bad luck, Rand.”
The older man seemed to be the only one who could speak up to Rand Barker without getting his head bit off. Barker looked over at the man.
“We dump her, and we’ll get a lot of people off our backs, Rand,” Gillette went on. “It’s like Drake said. There’s a certain code out here. We can rustle cattle and rob banks. But we don’t mess with good women. Everybody knows a woman can ride into any one of these places and not be touched. It’s the law of the land, Barker. I say we let her go and get the hell down to Mexico.”
Amanda’s heart filled with hope. Perhaps there was a God after all, and He had sent Lonnie Drake and Wade Gillette to talk Barker into letting her go.
“I’ll think on it,” Barker replied. “She rides out of here with us early in the morning. I need another twenty-four hours to think about it.”
“You let her go, I want my share of her,” Duke Sage spoke up. “I’ll not turn that woman loose without gettin’ a piece of her.”
“You’ll keep your hands off her!” Barker snapped. “You violate her and it’ll just bring our own kind down on us! If I let her go, she stays untouched—understand?”
Sage glowered at the man. “That ain’t fair!”
“Those are the orders, Sage!”
“Why don’t we leave her right here?” another spoke up.
“Because I’ll not have Lonnie Drake know I gave up that easy!” Barker snarled. “If I let her go it’ll be someplace where she won’t be found right away. I’ll not have Drake thinkin’ he scared me into givin’ up that easy.”
“You sayin’ you’re scared, Rand?” Sage sneered. In a flash, Barker’s gun was out, and Sage’s eyes widened. Barker stepped up and laid the end of the barrel against Sage’s cheek.
“Rand Barker ain’t scared of nothing!” the man growled. He backhanded Sage, and as the man went down he kicked him in the privates. “Don’t you never say that again, Sage, or I’ll blow your brains out!” He looked at the others. “Everybody get some shut-eye. We move out early. Apparently we ain’t welcome at Brown’s Park this time. Let’s get the hell down to Mexico and spend our money.”
“I’ll keep watch,” Wade Gillette spoke up. He walked away to check the horses, and Rand Barker came over and stood next to Amanda.
“So, your lover is still alive,” he growled. “You’d better hope he don’t find us, lady. ’Cause he won’t live through another meetin’ with me.”
He opened up another blanket and crawled in beside her, pulling her close and cupping a hand over her breast.
“Sleep tight, baby,” he told her.
Amanda was so sick and cold that she actually pressed closer to him for more warmth, not caring about anything but to live long enough to see Moss Tucker once more. She smiled to herself. It was obvious Rand Barker was worried about running into Moss Tucker again. He sounded confident, but she knew that on the inside he was feeling quite the opposite. From the way Lonnie Drake had talked, Moss Tucker was a man to be feared. And she knew that now, with Moss after them, Rand Barker would probably not molest her any further.
So even outlaws had a code of ethics. How strange. Everything about this land was strange and wild and crazy. She never dreamed that she would get this kind of view of the West: the West at its worst, its ugliest. It was an untamed land, full of untamed men. But there were those, like Lonnie Drake, with whom she would not have to fear for her person. She closed her eyes. Moss would come; she was sure of it. Moss would come. The night was silent. In the distance a coyote howled, and moments later one further off howled in reply. Soon several were yipping and howling. She wondered if the West would ever become civilized, or if it would remain a wild land full of wild animals and wild men. The sheltered orphanage in New York seemed a lifetime away now—a world that no longer truly existed. She remembered how frightened she’d been of its streets and alleys. Yet this uncivilized West was just as bad or worse. Evil lurked everywhere. The coyotes howled again, and she wondered where Moss Tucker was at that very moment. She fell asleep while trying to piece together the small bits of information she had about Moss’s past, trying to decipher how and why he had ended up an outlaw.
Chapter Fourteen
In spite of pain and weakness, Moss trailed Rand Barker and his men relentlessly. He knew the route the men would take through outlaw territory: the long, rocky road to Mexico through canyons, along riverbeds, winding along the vast foothills of the Rockies, and the jigsaw maze of buttes, mesas, and valleys that held hiding places known only to men like Rand Barker and Moss Tucker. It would be a difficult trip for someone like Amanda. It was hard on even the strongest of men, who were accustomed to riding and the outdoors. But for someone like Amanda, if Rand and his men didn’t kill her, the elements would.
He turned up his collar against a stinging wind that howled its lonely wail through the cracks and crevices in the vast wasteland of northeastern Utah. This land would probably never be inhabited or used by anyone—except men who wished to hide.
His horse’s hooves clattered over ground of pure rock; never had Moss felt more alone. He grasped his side as the pain shot through him again, but he kept going steadily onward. He knew that at first Rand and his men would ride hard and fast—at least to Brown’s Park. But eventually they would have to slow up. No animal could take day after day of hard riding. And Moss knew there was one more thing in his favor. Once word got out that Rand Barker had taken an innocent woman, the gang’s flight would become even more difficult. Because not only would Moss and the army be searching for them, but also some outlaws. Most men in the West felt it was cowardly and unmanly to abuse a helpless woman. Anyone who did was considered a yellowbelly, and became as unwelcome in outlaw territory as the law itself. What Rand had done would only make his escape more difficult.
Moss slept little and ate little, neither of which helped his recovery. But he was too worked up over finding Amanda to allow his condition to stop him or even slow him down. There would be time enough to rest after he found Amanda. He survived on coffee—which he brewed strong enough to float a rock—and on jerky, and a paste he made with flour and cooked into a flat tasting pancake. He camped in hollows or among trees—places where the smoke from his fire would not be noticed—when they could be found. A man couldn’t be sure just who to trust in this country. With his thoughts of Amanda, and what might be happening to her, it was difficult to sleep at night. Usually he kept going well after dark, picking his way carefully on foot to lead his horse away from crevices and boulders.
Moss knew that with a two-day or more lag, his only hope of coming near Rand Barker was to keep a steady pace, with few stops for food or rest. In half the time it should have taken, he reached Brown’s Park. He halted Red at the top of a red clay mesa and looked down into the valley. The outlaws often brought stolen horses and cattle here, ranching until they decided what to do with the animals. Rustling was a way of life for these men, just as other men had legitimate jobs. Out here in this wild, savage country, a man could do just about anything he wanted. Yet, in spite of being nothing more than thieves, a lot of these men were not at all bad, and they mixed and mingled in a strange comradeship with a code of ethics understood by all. Still, a man always had to be careful.
Moss squinted with pain and nudged Red down the mesa. It took him over a half hour to get to the bottom. In this country something could appear to be very close, when actually miles away. It was nearly a mile to the valley, and man and horse seemed very small against the vastness of red rock walls that surrounded him. He remembered trying to describe this land to people in Chicago, but he knew a person simply had to see it for himself to truly grasp its endless horizons and immensity.
He headed his horse toward a cabin where smoke curled out of the chimney. He knew that there were probably already guns being leveled at him cautiously from behind rocks and the windows of the cabin. A herd of horses grazed behind the building—most likely stolen horses. He got within about twenty yards of the cabin when the door opened, and a man exited, holding a rifle.
“Speak your peace, mister, and be quick,” the man told Moss. “And don’t try nothin’ fancy. There’s about ten more guns on you.”
“Moss Tucker. I’m lookin’ for Rand Barker,” Moss replied.
The man lowered his rifle. “Come on inside.”
Moss moved Red forward, then dismounted and tied him. He walked up the steps of the cabin, and the occupant motioned for him to go in. When Moss entered, four men stood inside with guns in their hands, eyeing him carefully.
“Hey, Moss!” one of them finally said, breaking into a smile. “It is you! We’d heard you’d been killed, then that you hadn’t. Wasn’t sure just which it was.”
“Lonnie.” Moss shook hands with Lonnie Drake. “Haven’t seen you in years.”
“You ready to come back and round up more strays and take them to Abilene?”
Moss smiled sadly. “I’m hopin’ them days are over, Lonnie, if I find the woman I’m lookin’ for all in one piece. If I don’t, I reckon I’ll join up again, ’cause I’m not gonna care much about anything then.”
“If you’re talkin’ about that Amanda Boone that Rand Barker and them took, I’ve seen her, Moss. Come on over here and sit down and I’ll fetch you some stew.”
Moss’s heart pounded with a mixture of fear and relief.
“When?” he asked anxiously, not moving.
“Sit down, Moss. Come on now. Sit down. I’ve seen men in pain before, and you sure as hell look like you’re in pain. Now sit down.”
Moss grabbed a chair and sank into it.
“You’ll be no help to her in that condition, Moss,” Lonnie told him.
“I’m all right. This job’s mine, Lonnie. I’m gonna find them and kill them all!”
“I don’t blame you there, Moss. I’d have done it for you when they came through here two days ago, but there was only a couple of us here at the time, and you know Barker. We’re rustlers, Moss. But we ain’t gunmen like Barker and them men he had along. If the rest of the boys had been here, we’d have tried. But with that girl right in the middle—well, I just figured you’d be comin’ along soon ’cause I’d heard you had an interest. You know how word travels through these parts. And her bein’ kind of special and all—and you havin’ the reputation you’ve got—well, when Barker got here, we knew. I paid him a visit, but he was equipped like a goddamned army, Moss. There was nothin’ I could do. Then when the rest of these men showed up yesterday, I figured we’d give you a day or two to get here and see what you intended to do. You’re the gunfighter, Moss. You know how to handle Rand Barker. As far as the girl goes, I figured Barker was savin’ her for Mexico.”
“How’d she look, Lonnie?” Moss asked, his eyes full of pain and sorrow.
“Fact is, she looked sick, Moss. Real sick. The condition she was in, and the way I threatened Barker—about him takin’ a woman and all—I’ve got a feelin’ he’ll let her go soon, Moss. I really do. He knows a lot of us are pissed about the whole thing. Once he lets her go, it’s easy pickings. We’d like to help you find them
all, Moss. You should not try to do it alone.”
Moss’s eyes teared. “She was alive then?”
“Sure she was. Barker knows he don’t dare kill her now, or even rape her.” Lonnie spooned up some stew. “You in love with her, Moss?”
Moss removed his hat and ran a hand through his hair.
“I reckon so,” he said quietly, surprised that he could admit it so freely in front of these men. But these were all men who understood, men who appreciated a good woman and would like one for themselves, if they could find one. “She’s pretty damned special,” he went on. “Probably too special for the likes of me. I don’t know how that part of it will turn out. I only know I’ve got to get her away from Rand Barker. Duke Sage is with them.”
Lonnie sighed. “I saw him. I’m goddamned sorry, Moss. But at the time there wasn’t nothin’ I could do. I went over there to kind of check on the woman, you know? They was leavin’ her alone, lettin’ her sleep. But her face was bruised and, like I say, she looked sick. So I warned him. If it’s any consolation, I don’t think they’ll mess with her any more, Moss. And she had lots of blankets around her to keep her warm. But if you hadn’t come when you did, we was fixin’ on goin’ out tomorrow ourselves—now that we’ve got enough men together—and huntin’ them down and takin’ the girl. We’ve already sent a messenger ahead to Robber’s Roost to be on the lookout. If Barker rides into that place, he won’t ride out, Moss.”
“I’m obliged, Lonnie.” He took out the small bottle of laudanum and drank some before diving into the stew.
“You stay here someplace warm for the night, Moss, and we’ll all leave in the morning.”
“I’ve got to get started right away,” Moss replied.
“You do and you’ll kill yourself. Now I already told you word’s out. Barker ain’t gonna do nothin’ to that girl now. He’s more afraid of us than he is of the law. Between her bein’ sick, and men along the trail lying in wait, he ain’t gonna get far. You rest here the night and we’ll get a clean start in the morning.”
Lawless Love Page 11
