“Do you always carry around broken guns?” she asked.
“Hmmm?” He looked over at her, then at his gun. “Oh, that.” He held it up. “A quarter of a second can sometimes mean a man’s life. Sometimes a trigger guard gets in the way. If you don’t know your business, it’s pretty risky usin’ a gun without one. But I prefer mine this way. Gives me that much more speed in a pinch.”
“I see,” she replied, her eyes roving his body. Moss just scowled at her deliberately provocative look and turned his horse, ignoring the old feelings she sometimes managed to stir, and angry at her and at himself for feeling anything at all. “I want to say something to all the men before we head out, Moss,” she was telling him.
The train belched and grunted; its wheels created sparks as the big engine groaned to get under way. The men talked gently to skittish horses. Moss waited until the train chugged past them heading on into Rock Springs, then ordered the men to stay put while Etta had her say. Some of the men lit up cigarettes and cigars, and all leaned forward to listen to Etta, none of them minding the opportunity to study her voluptuous figure more closely.
“The ranch is about a day’s ride from here,” she told them. “I have five thousand acres.” Moss had not expected quite that much. The others looked at each other.
“Ma’am, uh, that’s a lot of territory to cover, if you don’t mind me sayin’ so,” Bullit spoke up.
“I know that. But we’ll round up most of the cattle and bring them in closer to the house and buildings so you won’t be scattered all over the place. The first thing I want you to know is that I appreciate what you’re doing. I should pay you more, but my funds are dwindling, thanks to my ex-husband.” Her eyes hardened. “But you’ll have a good bunkhouse to sleep in, and there will always be plenty of food. I also have water—plenty of it. The name of the ranch is the E.G. And besides the money I’m paying you to help me protect it until this thing is straightened out, I’ll pay you regular ranch-hand wages to help me catch up on the regular work. I have fences that need mending, cattle that need branding, things I haven’t been able to keep up with because I’ve lost so many men. Those I have left have been so busy just guarding the place that the work has fallen far behind. Will you help me?”
“For a few extra bucks and good food, why not?” Hank Stemm replied. “That’s more than we’ve got most of the time.”
They all chuckled, and Etta smiled.
“When it comes to protection and going after my husband and his hired killers, Moss is in full command. As far as work around the ranch goes, my own man, Lloyd Duncan, will be in charge.” She turned to Moss. “Is that all right?”
“Good idea. I won’t have time for both. And Lloyd knows the place, knows what’s needed.” He looked over at Duncan, who had not spoken to him since the day of their fight, before the group left. “Agreed?” he asked the man.
“Sure,” the man grumbled. “Anything you say, boss.”
Moss turned his horse and walked it over closer to Duncan.
“I’m not tryin’ to take over the ranch, Duncan. That’s your territory, and I have no intentions of movin’ in on it. Why don’t you just relax and let bygones be bygones?”
Duncan looked from Moss to Etta. His own manliness had been challenged in front of her, and he’d lost—to a one-armed man. He could not forgive that. Nor could he help but see the way Etta Landers looked at Moses Tucker. Lloyd Duncan was out of her life now, and he didn’t like it one bit. He loved her, even though he felt like beating her to death. She was no more than a whore as far as he was concerned, but he loved her, nonetheless. And he could hardly believe Moss Tucker hadn’t already been under her skirts. If not, it wouldn’t be long before he was. He looked at Moss again.
“I’ll do my job and you do yours,” he grumbled. “And we’ll just try to stay out of each other’s way.” He reined his horse and trotted it to the back of the group. Moss turned to Etta.
“You through?”
“I guess so,” she replied.
“All right, men, pay attention,” Moss told them. “It’s likely the ranch is already overrun with Ralph Landers’s men. We’re gonna go in from the back side and make our way real slow: spread out and keep your eyes and ears open. We’ll work our way in real careful. Sooner, you stay back and keep Etta with you. As we move in we’ll signal you to bring her on up. I want her out of the line of fire till we know it’s safe. When we get close to the main house and buildings, we’ll have to be extra careful, ’cause that’s where most of them will be waitin’ for us. Far as I know, they don’t know we’re comin’. But we can’t be sure of that.” He took a drag on a cigarette. “Everybody ready to ride?”
They all nodded.
“Let’s get the hell going,” Max Cornell growled. “I don’t like the name Ralph Landers, and I don’t like a man tryin’ to destroy a woman who’s helpless against him. If she was my wife, I’d sure not be fightin’ against her.”
They all laughed, itching now for some action. Etta grinned, aroused by the look Cornell gave her.
“Thank you—thank you all,” she told them. “Let’s go home! I’m tired and want a bath.”
A round of whoops and whistles came from the group, and heels dug into horses and they were off, moving at a slow gallop and pulling the extra horses, packed with extra supplies, along behind. Moses Tucker and his men were headed for the E.G., and woe to any man who was there and would try to stop them from coming in.
Chapter Thirty-Four
They spread out—a line of hard men—rifles drawn, and resting on thighs, their barrels pointing upward and glinting in the sun. Five thousand acres was a lot of land, and Moss was not concerned about any men who might be lurking in the outer perimeter. They could be cleaned out later. For now they would ride straight through the middle in pairs, spaced about fifty yards apart.
The E.G. lay in a vast, green valley, surrounded by towering, icy summits. The sturdy mounts the men rode crushed daisies and buttercups as they made their way steadily across Etta Landers’s land toward her home, which was not yet even in sight. No one spoke. The only sound was a soft breeze that smelled of fragrant flowers and the song of the bluebirds that flitted among pine trees in the surrounding hills.
All eyes and ears were alert for any sound, any movement that was out of the ordinary. Etta and Sooner hung back a few hundred yards, and Etta’s heart pounded with fear. Then several men made themselves seen, men just as rugged looking and threatening as Moss and those with him. They suddenly appeared from behind rocks and trees like ghosts, moving together and riding toward Moss and the others. Sooner stopped his horse and reached over and grasped Etta’s bridle.
“Come on,” he said quietly. He led her horse across the valley to a grouping of large boulders. “Get down,” he told her, keeping his own eyes on the confrontation about to take place ahead of them. He crawled up to the top of the rocks and lay down flat, cocking his rifle. Etta slid off her horse and crouched behind the rocks, now afraid for Moss. She strained to hear the voices in the distance.
“Hold it right there!” the apparent leader of Ralph Landers’s men spoke up. There were about fifteen, and they formed a solid line across Moss’s pathway. “You’re trespassing, mister.”
Moss sat straight and unflinching, not even holding the reins of his horse, as his good arm held his rifle.
“We work for the owner,” he replied calmly.
“The owner left. This place has been claimed by Ralph Landers.”
Moss scanned the group with his eyes.
“Is Landers here now?” he asked.
“He don’t stay here. He lives in town and conducts his business from there. We watch the place for him.”
“Well, Ralph Landers don’t own this place, and you know it same as me,” Moss replied. “The owner just took a little trip. She’s back now; you can tell Landers that. And she’s back to stay.”
The other man’s eyes narrowed.
“What’s your name, cripple?�
�� he asked.
Moss just grinned. “Name’s Moses Tucker. You tell Ralph Landers that Moses Tucker is here—and be sure Miles Randall knows it, too. Fact is, I expect I’ll be ridin’ into town soon to pay them both a friendly visit.”
“You won’t be ridin’ no place. Except back where you came from.”
“Mister, I’ll tell you just once. These here men are a pretty rowdy bunch. Most of them have killed men, and they’re just itchin’ to do it again. Now we’ve been hired by Etta Landers to keep her goddamned ex-husband off this property, and that’s what we’re gonna do! So you just take your men and you ride off this property, ’cause as of now you’re officially trespassers. We shoot trespassers. That’s the rules of the E.G. You’ve had your warning.”
The man swallowed, not sure how to handle the unexpected situation. When dealing with strangers, it was difficult to tell when a man was bluffing. But Moses Tucker struck him as being totally serious and not easily backed down.
“Ralph Landers ain’t gonna like this one bit, mister!” the man snarled.
Moss grinned. “Good. Anything he wants to do about it is fine with me. I’ll be waitin’.”
The other man reddened with anger and frustration. “Mister, there’s guns on you—not just these men here, but more in the hills,” he told Moss. “If you don’t ride out right now, you’re a dead man!”
Moss slowly lowered his rifle so that it pointed at the man’s belly.
“That could be,” he replied. “But you just remember this: if you give the signal for men to commence shooting, the first thing I’ll do is pull this trigger, and the only thing left in your saddle will be your own guts. Could be your men will get every one of us. But the fact will still remain that you will be a dead man. And when you consider that, it makes you wonder if it’s worth it, don’t it?”
Beads of sweat broke out on the man’s forehead. He fingered his reins nervously.
“Make up your mind, mister,” Moss told him. “Back off now or confess your sins.”
The man swallowed and moved his horse sideways. Moss kept the rifle barrel aimed straight at his middle.
“Let them through, men!” the leader growled.
“First off we’ll take them rifles and guns you’re toting,” Moss told the man. “Could be you’ve got some back shooters among you.”
The man hesitated, and Moss pulled back the hammer of his Winchester.
“Hand them your weapons, men!” the leader spoke up.
“But, boss—”
“Do like I say!” the man barked.
The others grudgingly unbuckled, handing over side arms and rifles to Moss’s men, who received them with grins and nods.
“Now, I doubt there’s more men in them hills,” Moss told the leader of Landers’s men. “It strikes me you just said that to try to get the better of us. If they’d been there, they’d have shot at us by now. And you’d not have given up them guns so easily. I want to know where the rest are.”
“They’re all at the house—about twenty more,” the man replied.
“You yellow bastard!” one of his men shouted. He reached into his jacket, and Hank Stemm fired his rifle without hesitation. A large red hole instantly appeared in the middle of the man’s chest. He sat rigid on his horse for a moment, then slid off with a thud, a .45 revolver spilling from his jacket.
“Sooner! Sooner, what happened?” Etta asked from their hiding place several yards back.
“It’s okay, ma’am. Hank just shot one that put up a fuss. Ole Moss already had the rest of them talked into givin’ up their arms.”
Etta breathed a sigh of relief, then smiled.
“I knew he could do it.”
“Well, we ain’t all the way to the house yet, ma’am. One step at a time.”
“The rest of you pick up your friend and get the hell off this land,” Moss said calmly. “At the moment I don’t have anything in particular against you—not unless you come back. Consider this your lucky day.”
Two of Landers’s men got down and picked up the dead body of their comrade, slinging it over the man’s saddle and securing it with rope. No one spoke. But the glare in the men’s eyes told Moss they would be back in full force.
“Move it,” Moss said coolly.
“You haven’t heard the last of Ralph Landers!” the leader spoke up.
“I’m countin’ on that,” Moss told him. The Landers men rode out around Moss’s men and headed out.
“Spread out a little more, boys, and keep a watch behind,” Moss told his men. They obeyed without speaking. “Sooner!” Moss yelled out.
“Yes, sir!”
“Wait till they’re out of sight. Then bring her forward real careful!”
“Right!” Sooner looked down at Etta. “Stay down there, ma’am. Landers’s men are ridin’ by us. Soon as they’re gone we’ll head farther in.”
She nodded, now trembling. She breathed deeply and put a hand to her throat.
“I’m so scared,” she whispered.
Sooner grinned. “You’ve got nothin’ to be scared of, ma’am. It’s gonna be okay.”
“I can’t thank all of you enough. If you hadn’t come I’d never have been able to come back here.”
Sooner remained on top of the rock, now looking out at Moss and the others again. He watched the Landers men ride by, remaining still until they were out of sight.
“Let’s go, ma’am,” he spoke up, sliding down off the rock.
They rode forward, fourteen hard-bellied men with cold, steel guns, the fifteenth coming from behind with the woman. Again there was near silence. Moss noticed with envy some fat, sleek, black beef cattle grazing calmly in the distance. He wondered just how many head of cattle Etta owned. This was a grand place, the kind of place men like Moss dreamed about owning. He could have owned a place like this, if Miles Randall hadn’t cheated him out of the fortune he’d made from the little gold mine he sold so many years ago.
It was a cool, crisp day, and colors burst around them: an array of wild flowers mixed with the deep green of the pasture, framed by purple mountains, with white caps that in turn were set against a vivid blue sky. He thought about how much Amanda would like a place like this. And he wondered at how ironic it was that a place of such beauty could actually be almost a battleground.
It had taken all day to reach the ranch, and by the time they reached the rise that looked down on the house and buildings at the center of the property, the sun had nearly set. Moss motioned for all of them to stop and dismount. He waved his hat, telling Sooner to catch up with Etta.
“Get the horses down into that clump of trees and out of sight,” he told the men quietly. “We’ve got some plannin’ to do. It’s gettin’ dark, and I don’t intend to spend the whole, cold night out here. We’re gonna root out the rest of them men and sleep in real beds tonight. How about it?”
“Sounds good to me, boss,” Max replied with a grin. “Besides, we sort of promised Mrs. Landers she’d be able to take a bath tonight and sleep under a roof.”
“That’s just what she’ll do,” Moss told him. “No campfires, men, and don’t light no cigarettes till you’re down in them trees.”
They moved quickly and quietly, talking softly to their animals to keep them from whinnying. Sooner caught up and led Etta into the circle of men.
“What’s up, boss?”
“It’s gettin’ dark, but we’re gonna move in anyway, Sooner. There’s no sense in lettin’ Landers’s men have all the comforts of home. They’ve had their turn. I brought Etta home, and she’s goin’ in there tonight.”
Sooner helped Etta down from her horse.
“I need to know the layout,” Moss told her quickly.
“Directly below this rise is a long storage shed, usually full of cattle feed. I doubt any men would be in there,” she replied in a near whisper. “To the right of that is a huge barn, and in front of that two more sheds for tool and supply storage. Over on the left side of the feed shed are two l
ong bunkhouses, and in the center is the main house. It’s big, Moss. I have six bedrooms upstairs and downstairs is a kitchen, parlor, sewing room, dining room and living room, with a large veranda across the front. You can walk out onto the roof of the veranda from the upstairs bedrooms, so it’s possible men could be up there, too.”
“How particular is Ralph Landers about his belongings?”
“What do you mean?”
“Would he let men stay at the house, or would he most likely not want it messed up?”
She frowned and put a hand to her lips. Then she looked up at him, trying to ignore how handsome he looked in the dusky moonlight.
“I think he’d try to keep the house decent. It’s possible he’d have one or two men in there, maybe a cleaning lady. Once he’s sure the place is his, he’ll move in. He’s a coward, Moss. My guess is the only reason he isn’t out here now is because he was afraid something like this might happen. In the meantime, my guess is he’d have most of the men stay inside the bunkhouses.”
“I’m figurin’ the same.” Moss turned to Sooner. “We’re gonna spread out. Me and you, Hank, Max, Tom, Brad…”
“Yeah, boss?”
“All of us will hit the bunkhouses, hard and fast—no hesitation. Duncan, I want you to come with us. You know the layout.”
Lawless Love Page 31
