by Jake Logan
“Are those the men you used to ride with? The ones from Amarillo?”
“Let go of me, Mia. This is my fight. Not yours.”
“How much do you owe?” When she was unable to get her answer, she asked a different question. “Do you even know how much they want or were you too drunk to remember?”
“I know,” he said through gritted teeth. “It’s a lot.”
“Oh my God. You don’t know. What is the matter with you, Adam? Ever since you were told that—”
He pulled away from her as if he were breaking an iron grip and almost pulled them both from their saddles in the process. “I’m through with saying I’m sorry and I’m through with listening to lectures. That should save us both some trouble.”
“You don’t even know what you owe those men,” she said. “What do you intend on doing to appease them now? Talk to them? The only thing you’ve been able to talk yourself into anymore is a beating.”
“Maybe that’s what I need.”
“Maybe it is! But if you haven’t had any sense beaten into you yet, then I don’t know how much good it’s going to do now.”
“And what good do you intend on doing?” he asked. “You think throwing me onto the back of a horse and dragging my sorry hide all the way to that shack in the Louisiana swamp is going to cure what ails me? Ain’t nothing in Louisiana can do that and you know it.”
“You’ve always been good to me, Adam. These last several months notwithstanding, you’ve always been a good brother. Can you keep that up for just a little while longer? As a favor to me? If we get far enough away from Amarillo, maybe this will all just blow over.”
Adam’s face remained twisted into an ugly scowl, but his eyes showed a hint of softening around the edges. A subtle twitch in one cheek made it even more apparent that he was struggling to keep his stern façade in place. No matter what his eyes were saying, however, his mouth was quicker on the draw.
“I already owe you more favors than I could ever repay,” he told her. “Tacking one more on to that won’t do either of us any good.”
“Maybe you don’t know what’s good for either of us right now. Maybe it’s time you stopped charging blindly through your life and let someone guide you for a little while. Isn’t that what family is for?”
“You’ve had the job for too long.” Adam lowered his head, placed his hand to his mouth, and cleared his throat. Before too long, he started hacking with enough force to shake his shoulders and almost crumple him over in his saddle. Mia reached out to place a hand on his back, but he swatted it away before she could do the first bit of comforting.
When she looked at the houses again, all three porches were empty. “Adam, I think we should get what we came for.”
He looked up as well and asked, “Where’d they go?”
“I don’t care. Let’s just pick up that money.”
“I’d go get it for you, but you never told me where you stashed it.”
“Can you blame me?” When her brother merely shrugged, she added, “Just come along with me and stay outside. I won’t be a moment, so let me know if someone comes along.”
“Someone’s coming along,” he said almost immediately.
Just as Mia was about to scold him for wasting time with bad jokes, she saw the horses galloping around the Samson house. She couldn’t be certain, but the men in the saddles looked an awful lot like the ones that had been sitting outside only a few moments ago. “Don’t say a word,” she said. “Maybe they’re headed back to town.”
There were three riders in all. One of them split off to the north and the other two came straight at Mia and Adam.
“There’s another one coming up behind us,” Adam said as he drew the old .44 that had been hanging at his side since his days in the Army.
“Put that gun away,” Mia hissed. “You’ll only start more trouble.”
“Too late for that.”
The first shot was announced by a sharp crack and a puff of smoke from one of the riders charging directly at the siblings. Having never been in the line of fire before, Mia was too shocked to even snap her reins. The bullet kicked up a mound of dirt a few yards away, which caused her horse to nervously sidestep from the point of impact.
“Son of a bitch!” Adam shouted while straightening his arm and sighting along the top of his pistol.
Both of the other horses fanned out and came to a halt. The third had circled around to Adam’s right. “We’re just after the money you owe us,” shouted the rider who’d already pulled his trigger. “That was a warning shot. Unless you settle your debt, the next one will hurt a whole lot more.”
“You want me, Paul? Come and get me!” Adam replied while squinting at the men in front of him. “Just leave my sister out of it.”
Mia took in the scene with wide eyes, twisting around in her saddle to see as much of what was happening as she could. That movement, along with the shot that had already been fired, caused her horse to fidget from one hoof to another. She spotted a fourth rider behind them. He was a little farther away than the other three and was sitting like a statue to watch what was going on.
“Drop that shooting iron or we’ll drop both of you!” Paul shouted back.
“You make one move in that direction and I’ll make you pay for it!”
As much as she hated the direction the conversation was taking, Mia didn’t know what to do about it. She wasn’t experienced in gunfights, but she did know when she was in a bad spot and having armed men almost completely surrounding her was one of the worst she could imagine. Unfortunately, her brother seemed intent on making it even worse.
“You there as well, Cale?” Adam asked.
“You know I am.”
“In that case, I’ll talk to you up close like a man. Since you’re too yellow to come within pistol range, I’ll come to you.” He rode toward the two men, either ignoring his sister’s pleas to stay put or not hearing them through the rush of blood through his ears. Adam shifted in his saddle, flicked his reins, and held his pistol in a wavering hand. After closing the distance to within forty yards, he shouted, “This good enough or should I get closer?”
Cale wore a wide-brimmed hat that was the same shade of black as the long, greasy hair that flowed past his shoulders. A mustache hung beneath his nose like a stringy collection of horse mane that had been glued to his upper lip. Even though Adam was close enough to hit him using the 44 and apparently more than willing to do so, Cale sat easily in his saddle with his pistol resting across one knee. “You got the money you owe us or not?” he asked.
“We’ve got money!” Mia said.
Without taking his eyes off Cale, Adam pointed his gun at the other man and said, “Shut up, Mia! We don’t have enough.”
“I’ll take whatever you got,” Cale replied in his easygoing manner. “And if it ain’t enough, I’m sure me and your sister can work something out.” The smile that slid onto his face caused both ends of his mustache to curve upward. The lurid expression was matched by both of the men on either side of him.
“The hell you will,” Adam said. “You’ll deal with me and no one else.”
“Afraid it’s a bit late for that. We warned you it would come to this, Weyland. Now it’s time to pay the piper.” With that, Cale brought up his pistol to aim at Adam. “If you don’t got the money you owe . . . and I know you don’t . . . maybe the deed to your property and this house will suffice.”
When the next shot cracked through the air, Mia jumped and screamed her brother’s name as if that was to be the last thing he would ever hear her say. But no smoke plumed from Cale’s pistol. None came from the guns held by any of the other men or even her brother. Instead, Cale reeled back in his saddle and grabbed his head. While he wavered back and forth on the verge of toppling to the ground, the distinct ratcheting sound of a rifle lever being worked came from behind Mia’s horse. The fourth man may have been standing with the sun to his back, but Mia could tell he had a rifle to his shoulder and was t
aking aim.
“What’s the meaning of this?” the former statue asked.
Those words were enough for Mia to recognize the voice as Slocum’s. She looked at him with renewed hope that she and Adam might live to see another sunrise.
When she saw Cale slip from his saddle and drop to the ground, Mia felt a touch of relief. Unfortunately, when the two other men that had been riding with Cale saw that, all hell broke loose.
5
Paul pulled his horse around while drawing his pistol to fire a few quick shots. Since he was more concerned with not trampling his fallen partner, he wasn’t focusing on placing his shots well enough to hit their intended target. Adam responded to that by firing a shot of his own, sending his bullets through the air too hastily to draw any blood. The moment a shot blazed in from his right, he shifted his aim toward the rider that had circled around to flank him.
Slocum fired his rifle, levered in another round, and shouted, “Mia, get down!”
That warning finally cut through the panic that gripped her like a cold iron fist. She leaned down to press her face against her horse’s neck and prayed for the storm to pass over her head.
Now that he had a clear line of fire, Slocum aimed carefully and squeezed his trigger. The Winchester bucked against his shoulder and sent its round toward the rider that had circled around the house to flank the Weylands. Hitting him at the same time he took his shot. The rider jerked back and yelped in pain or surprise before snapping his reins to get his horse moving. Since Slocum wasn’t looking to put anyone into their grave just yet, he allowed the man to run away and shifted his attention to Paul.
Knowing exactly how many rounds were left in his Winchester, Slocum fired them at a steady pace. He aimed at both Adam and the other rider, doing his best to get close without hitting either one of them. As soon as his rifle ran dry, he dropped it back into the saddle boot, drew his Colt Navy, and rode over to where Mia was waiting.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
She was still hugging her horse’s neck and wasn’t about to let go. “I think so,” she replied shakily. “How’s Adam?”
“That’s what I’m about to find out,” Slocum said before snapping his reins to approach the two men closest to him.
Cale lay on the ground, writhing in pain and kicking his heels against the dirt while pressing both hands against his head. Blood seeped from between his fingers, which wasn’t a surprise since even the smallest head wounds bled terribly. If Cale was still moving and squawking, Slocum figured the wound wasn’t so bad at all.
“Who the hell are you?” Paul asked.
“Just a concerned bystander,” Slocum said. “Looks to me like you were about to harm this man and his sister.”
“Do you know what this asshole did to bring us here?”
Looking over to Adam, Slocum replied, “I think I have a good idea.”
“Then you should also know he’s into us for over five thousand dollars.”
“Gambling debt?”
“Hell no! He rode with us on a string of robberies outside of Amarillo. The cowardly little shit didn’t have the sand to kill a few stagecoach drivers and cost us the whole job.”
“So you’re guessing about that money?”
“He didn’t just cause that job to go up in smoke,” Cale said from his spot on the ground. “When he skinned out on us, he took most of the money we’d rounded up along the way. He was always going on about helping pay off his debts, a patch of land, and that there house.”
Mia straightened up to glare at her brother even harder than any of the gunmen. “Is that true? Did the one decent contribution you made to this family come from blood money?”
Adam didn’t have much of anything to say to that, so he just shrugged and kept his eyes focused on anything but his sister.
Finally flopping over so he could sit upright, Cale looked at Slocum. Before his chin even lifted halfway to where it needed to be, he was swaying like a thin weed in a stiff breeze. “Why isn’t anyone shooting this son of a bitch?”
“Because,” Slocum said while locking eyes with Paul, “he knows better.”
“Do you know who I am? I’m Cale Terrigan! Nobody steals from me and gets away with it.” Clenching his eyes shut after another attempt at looking up, he added, “And nobody steals from me without paying the price.”
“How much are you owed?” Slocum asked.
“Five thousand and thirty-eight dollars.”
“How much of that is interest?”
Finally, Cale had collected himself enough to open his eyes and point them at Slocum without getting too dizzy to stay upright. “That ain’t no business of yours.”
“Adam, how much money do you have in your house?”
“I don’t know.”
“I do,” Mia said. “But there’s not even a quarter of that inside.”
“Well, get what you’ve got,” Slocum said. “That’s only fair. Right, Cale?”
Still rubbing his head, Cale struggled to pull himself to his feet. Even though he needed Slocum’s help to stand, he jerked his arm away angrily the moment he was up. He placed a hand gingerly upon his head where his stringy hair was plastered down by a thick layer of blood. For the moment, the flow seemed to have stopped, but it still made an impressive mess on his hand. After scooping up his hat, he said, “You shot me, mister. I don’t take kindly to that.”
“Well, that’s between you and me. Certainly not you and her.”
“At least give me your name.”
“John Slocum.”
Cale nodded. “Go get my fucking money.”
“Since she’s the only one who knows where it is, I’ll be accompanying her,” Slocum said. “And if Adam happens to get shot, stabbed, punched, or otherwise harmed while I’m gone, I’ll just assume you mean to pick a fight with me as well. Trust me when I tell you the shot to knock you off your horse was a lot harder than the one it would have taken to kill you.”
“I hear you.” Despite the fact that it obviously hurt like a bear, Cale put his hat back on. “Just don’t count on that threat lasting for too long.”
Slocum nodded and motioned for Mia to lead the way to her house. She did so and was quick about it. Apart from the collection of horses and riders that had done the shooting, the only other signs of life in the area were a few nervous faces peeking out from behind the curtains of the house on the far left. Either the people in the house where Cale had been waiting weren’t home or they were too scared to step foot outside.
When Mia climbed down from her saddle and approached her door, Slocum leaned over and whispered, “Bring me half of what you’ve got stashed and slip me the other half.”
“But they said—”
“No time to argue. Just do what I say.”
She nodded and hurried inside.
Slocum turned his horse around so he could watch the front door from the corner of his eye while also keeping track of what Cale and his men were doing. The one who’d flanked Mia and Adam had not only returned, but circled back around to join his partners. At least, he tried to join them before Slocum shouted, “That’s close enough!”
When the other man looked to Cale for instructions, all he got was a hasty nod and a dismissive wave. The flanker held his ground and pointed his gun at Adam.
True to her word, Mia emerged from the house in no time at all. She stopped and pretended to fuss with the front door as she whispered, “I’ve got it, but there’s less than I thought. I forgot I had to pay for food and supplies last week.”
“Just cut it in half and tuck one portion under my knee.”
She already had the money sectioned into two pieces and leaned over as if to look past Slocum’s horse at Cale and the others. Her right hand slipped behind Slocum’s knee to tuck a small bundle of bills between it and the horse’s side.
“Come on now,” Cale hollered. “I won’t hurt you. Least, not yet anyway.”
As Mia climbed into her saddle, Slocum watched caref
ully for any sign that Cale or his men were going to step out of line. When she nervously flicked her reins to ride toward the group of men, he reached down to snatch the money that he’d been holding in place with his knee. Slocum stuck the money into a pocket under his jacket and covered the movement by flipping the jacket open to retrieve some fresh rounds from his gun belt.
“Hand it over,” Cale demanded.
Slocum nodded to her and Mia rode just close enough to the gunman to flip a bundle of cash at him.
Cale caught it after the money bounced off his chest and spread the bills apart between his thumb and forefinger. “Ain’t much here,” he grunted.
“That’s what I told you,” she said.
“A long ways from what you promised, even.”
“We had bills to pay. Food to buy. You can get the rest later.”
“No. I think I’ll take the rest out of your pretty little ass right now.”
By the time Cale’s men closed in around Mia and Adam, Slocum had reloaded his Colt. He snapped it shut and aimed from the hip while saying, “That’s what you get now. You’ll get the rest later. I won’t tell you again.”
“You,” Cale said while stabbing a finger at Slocum. “Shut the fuck up. This bitch is comin’ with us to pay what she owes.”
The man who’d had the flanking position earlier was now close enough to lunge forward to try and grab Mia. Unfortunately for him, he was close enough to her brother to catch the full brunt of Adam’s blow when he slammed the side of his pistol into his nose. The gunman howled in pain as he pressed a hand against his face to stanch the blood that had started to flow. While he was still reeling, his gun was taken away from him by the same man who’d just surprised him with the vicious blow.
After one barked command from Cale, Paul raised his pistol and glared at Slocum.
“Take the bitch!” Cale said.
Slocum only had time to warn him with a simple, “Don’t.”
But Paul’s loyalty to Cale was stronger than his fear of Slocum because he twisted around to reach for her while taking aim with his gun. Slocum waited for the moment when Paul was distracted between his two tasks before taking quick aim and squeezing his trigger. The instant the Colt Navy sent its round through the air, Slocum could tell he was on the money.
