The Weird Wild West (The Weird and Wild Series)

by Faith Hunter

  “You got room for one more?” He asked, and that sandpaper voice crawled down Audrey’s spine like a spider, sending another shiver through her.

  Crack! Spence’s palm slapped her on the butt, hard. “Woman, I told you to sit still or get gone. Now what’s it going to be?”

  Audrey shrank in on herself, becoming very small and still on Rich’s lap. “I just want to sit here with you, Rich, baby. That’s all. I’ll be good, I promise.”

  Rich smiled, an oily grin that never reached his empty blue eyes. “You do that, honey, you be good and we won’t have any problems. But you keep that tight little ass still or I’ll have to teach you how to be still. Now you don’t want any lessons tonight, do you, sweetheart?”

  “No, Rich. I don’t want any lessons, please. I’ll sit still.”

  “Good.” Rich turned his attention to the stranger, who stood motionless over the table, his hat obscuring his eyes and the upper part of his face from the table. “Now, stranger, you want to play some poker? I believe we might be able to accommodate you. What do you think, boys?” Rich unleashed a wide grin on the table that made him seem like the affable gambling buddy instead of the man who’d been cheating them out of their very livelihood for the past six hours.

  The miners both nodded and scooted their chairs over, while the trapper stood up and said “You can have my seat, friend, but watch his hands when he deals.” The trapper pushed past the stranger and headed for the door, his last few dollars clenched tight in his fist. The newcomer pulled Matthias’ abandoned chair out from the table and sat, every motion smooth as glass, almost like he didn’t have any bones in his body whatsoever.

  “Matthias?” Spence called from his seat.

  The trapper stopped. He slowly turned to face the gambler. “What, Spence?”

  “Tip your hat to a lady when you leave the table, you mannerless cur.” Spence’s voice was cold and low, but it cut through the bustle and music of the bar like the crack of a whip.

  The man called Matthias stiffened at the insult, but he nodded to Audrey and tipped his coonskin cap. She gave him a polite nod, and Matthias turned to go.

  “Matthias?” Spence called again.

  Matthias turned to find Spence standing beside his chair, Audrey staggering back from being dumped off the man’s lap. Spence’s coat was brushed back over his hip to show off the mother-of-pearl grips on his Peacemaker. Matthias looked down at the gun, and at Spence’s hand dangling beside it.

  “W-what you want now, Spence?” The trapper asked.

  “It seems to me that you might have felt that I wasn’t dealing fairly as we played cards. That hurts my feelings, Matthias, to think that you would accuse me of being a cheat. And to do so right here in the Grin, where I do most of my work. Why, that might be considered in some circles as downright insulting. And I don’t appreciate being insulted.”

  “I didn’t mean nothin’ by it, Spence. I’s just mad on account of I lost and now I got to go back up in the hills and git more pelts instead of spending some time with Miss Audrey’s girls like I had planned to do this winter.”

  “But is that my fault, Matthias? Is it my fault you gambled with money you couldn’t afford to lose? Is it my fault you aren’t the poker player you thought you were? Is it my fault you are too stupid to quit before you are flat damn broke?” The gambler had taken a step forward with every sentence until he was right on top of Matthias.

  The trapper looked up at the tall man, his eyes darting about for an exit. “No, Spence, that ain’t your fault!” His words tumbled out quickly, like a stream babbling over stones and skipping over syllables.

  “Then why in the world would you call me a cheat?” Spence’s hand rested on the butt of his forty-five.

  Matthias looked around the bar as if for help, but all the other patrons were very studiously not looking at him or Spence. Just as he drew a breath and steeled himself to clear leather on the gambler, a voice came from the table.

  “You gonna play cards, or you gonna kill that man? Whatever it is, I wish you’d get on with it. I’m bored.” The grating sound of the stranger’s voice cut the silence like a bullet through flesh.

  Spence cocked his head to one side and turned, very slowly, to face the stranger. His hand never left the butt of his gun. He looked at the stranger like a dog examining a bumblebee, trying to figure out where the noise was coming from. “Did you... say something, stranger?”

  “I told you to get on with whatever you were about. I came here to play cards, not to watch a floor show. And if I’m going to watch a couple of jackasses dance around a saloon, I hope at least one of them has better tits than y’all.”

  Spence stared at the man, now seated at the table with a stack of gold coins in front of him. He stood there unmoving as a statue, eyes locked on the stranger’s own grey orbs. Neither man blinked for a long time, then Spence threw back his head and laughed. It was a big laugh that broke the room free of its stillness. “God-dammit that is the funniest thing I’ve heard in a coon’s age! Bill, you grinnin’ idiot, bring us another bottle! We got a gambler in the house tonight!” He stomped back over to his seat at the table, swept his coat over the back of the chair with a flourish that both drew attention to his fine clothes and let him keep his gun swinging free, and sat down.

  “Matthias!” Spence called, patting his knee for Audrey to sit.

  The trapper turned. He was almost at the door and hadn’t looked back since the stranger spoke. “Y-yeah, Spence?”

  “You watch your goddamn mouth next time. You ever call me a cheat again and I’ll shoot you right here at my poker table.”

  The trapper nodded, turned, and half stumbled, half ran out the swinging doors. Spence turned his attention to the new arrival.

  “Well, howdy, stranger.” Spence stuck out a hand. The pale man just stared at it and after a long moment Spence dropped his arm. “My name’s Spence. Richard Spence. You got a name?”

  “Yup.”

  “You care to share it with the table?”

  “Let’s play cards.”

  “Well, I like that!” Spence said, slapping his leg. “Come on over here, Audrey. Don’t you like a man who gets right down to business?”

  “I do, Rich. I like that.” Audrey sat down on his leg, but her eyes never left the newcomer. She couldn’t see his eyes under the wide brim of his black hat, but she thought that she could feel his gaze on her, measuring, judging somehow and finding her wanting. She didn’t enjoy that feeling, that sense of not being quite good enough for this smooth-walking stranger with the gravelly voice, but she wasn’t quite sure why it bothered her so.

  “Let’s play cards, he says.” Rich grinned as he reached for the deck. “Let’s play cards indeed.”

  The pale man’s hand flashed out, quick as a blink, and he snatched the deck out from under Rich’s grasp. “She deals,” he said, never looking up.

  “You don’t trust my dealing, stranger?” Rich glared at him.

  “I don’t trust anybody,” the man replied. “She deals, and she sits there.” He pointed to a chair exactly between himself and Spence, a chair currently occupied by the smaller of the two miners, a man called Morris who fidgeted like his chair had bugs, or he did.

  “Morris is sitting there,” Spence said.

  “Morris has lost enough for one night,” the man said. “Right, Morris?”

  Morris looked from Spence to the new man and back again. Audrey could almost see the moment when he decided his money had a better use somewhere else. He gathered up his last few gold nuggets and a couple of loose coins and shuffled off over to the bar, where he ordered a whiskey in a shaky voice and very quickly commenced to forgetting all about the pale man in the back corner.

  Spence turned his attention to Jeremiah, the last remaining gambler from his original game. “What about you, Jer? You decided I’ve taken enough of your money for one night, or you gonna throw down the deed to that claim you been fiddling with for the last half hour?”

&
nbsp; Jeremiah opened his mouth, but a ten-dollar golden eagle flew across the table and spun down in front of him. “Jeremiah is going to join his friend at the bar and drink until he’s blind while we get down to business. Isn’t he, Jeremiah?”

  Jeremiah glared at the stranger and opened his mouth to speak, but then he caught sight of the man’s eyes. The big miner blanched pale and grabbed the coin, along with three nuggets and a depleted sack of gold dust. He stood up, shoved his gold in his pockets, and tipped his hat to Audrey. “I think it’s about time for a drink. You two have fun.” He turned and headed over to the bar. Smilin’ Bill set a shot glass down in front of him and filled it to the rim with amber liquid. After the fourth shot Jeremiah stopped seeing the pale man’s eyes.

  “Now we got that all settled, we can play cards,” The pale man said.

  “You ran all the easy money off the table, mister. How do you plan on making a profit now?” Spence grinned around a cigarette.

  “Since you done took everything they got, I figure now I’ll just take everything you got.” A slow smile crept across the man’s face as he slid the deck across the felt to Audrey.

  “Stud poker, nothing wild. How’s that grab you?” Spence asked, tossing a dollar coin into the center of the table. “Ante’s a dollar.”

  The pale man didn’t speak, just nodded to Audrey and tossed a dollar to clink against Spence’s. Audrey dealt a card to each man facedown. Spence peeled up the corner to see his card, the ten of clubs. He looked across the table at the stranger, but there was nothing to see. The man gave nothing away, no hint of whether he had an ace or a three. Audrey dealt the first face-up card, a Jack of spades to Spence and an eight of diamonds to the stranger.

  “Jack bets,” Audrey said, with the calm manner of a woman who has sat at many card tables.

  Spence threw out a dollar. “Just a dollar,” he said. A little feeler bet, to see if the old boy liked his cards or was going to be pushed around. The stranger barely took time to breathe before he tossed a dollar back out, calling the bet.

  Audrey dealt out the next card, a nine of spades to Spence and a five of hearts to the stranger. “Jack is still high,” she said, motioning for Spence to bet or check. He tapped the table, indicating he checked. The stranger checked behind, giving nothing away. Spence chewed the inside of his lip a little—this one wasn’t going to make it easy on him. The fourth card came down, a ten of spades for Spence to show a possible straight and possible flush, but really giving him a pair of tens.

  “Jack bets,” Audrey said, motioning to Spence, who already had money in his outstretched hand.

  “Five dollars,” he said, dropping the coins onto the table one at a time with a clink.

  “Call,” said the other man, tossing a single coin into the pile. Spence studied his opponent but still saw nothing. He nodded to Audrey, who dealt the last card face-up. Spence showed the Queen of spades, filling the flush if he had a buried spade, filling the straight if he had a King or an eight underneath, but leaving him with just a pair of tens. The stranger caught a five to pair his board, and the action went to the high hand.

  “Pair of fives bets,” Audrey said, motioning to the newcomer.

  The pale man tossed out another five-dollar coin, and Spence looked hard at him.

  Spence stared at his unmoving opponent. What was he holding? There were a lot of hands that beat him here. A five in the hole made trips, but would he have stayed on every street fishing for trips? Did he catch two pair on the river to sink him? What did he have under there, and was it worth a call to find out? Spence’s head went back to something his Granddaddy told him when he was a little boy learning the game at his knee. “The worst thing you can ever do, tadpole, is call a bet. You want to play poker, you bet or you raise. But men don’t ever call.”

  Spence grabbed up five five-dollar coins and shoved them forward. “Gone cost you more than that to bluff me, stranger,” Spence said with a grin as he leaned back in his chair.

  “I never bluff,” the stranger said as he slid four golden coins into the center of the table. He turned over a five of spades for trips and leaned forward, looking dead at Spence.

  Spence took his cards, turned them all facedown, and flung them over to Audrey. “You got it, stranger. Good hand.” He tapped the table in a show of respect and anted up a dollar for a new hand. The stranger raked in the pot and slid a dollar into the middle, then flung a dollar to Audrey.

  “That’s for you, dealer,” he said, with one corner of his mouth tweaking up just a hair. Audrey caught the dollar in midair and slid it into the purse on her hip. She smiled and nodded at the stranger, then dealt the cards. The men played poker for hours, neither gaining a significant advantage over the other. Some hands the stranger would come out ahead, some hands Spence would find himself raking in double handfuls of golden dollars. They had long since foregone using chips to keep track of their bets, preferring the jingle of real currency and the pain of real loss on their opponent’s face.

  The sun was peeking over the low horizon when Smilin’ Bill wandered over to the table. “You boys going to finish up anytime soon? I’m thinking I might shut her down for a few hours before we have to go again tonight.”

  “Bill Evans if you don’t get away from this table right this second I swear to God I will shoot you in the face,” Spence growled. “Can’t you see we got us a pot here?” There was indeed a sizable pot building, and quite the run of cards. Spence had a three, four, and a five showing, with a deuce in the hole for an open-ended straight draw. The stranger had three spades up, with one of them the King for a high flush draw. The bet was on Spence, and his once-mighty stack of coins and bills had dwindled over the course of the night until he was sitting behind less than a hundred dollars in cash and the small sack of gold he took off Jeremiah so many hours before.

  “I reckon I’m gonna bet it all, stranger,” Spence said as he shoved the rest of his money and gold into the middle of the table.

  Audrey took a minute to count it all out. “One hundred six dollars and three ounces of gold, comes to one hundred sixty-six dollars.”

  The stranger stacked his coins and slid them into the middle of the table. “That’s one hundred fifty dollars,” he said. Then he twisted the wedding band off his pale left hand and placed it atop the tallest stack of coins. “There’s almost an ounce of gold in that ring, so if you’ll agree, we can call that even.”

  Spence looked at the pile of coins and gold in the middle of the table, more money than he’d ever seen at one time, and nodded at the stranger. “That’ll be good, partner. Audrey, deal the river.”

  Audrey flipped over the last card for each man and slid it to him. Spence’s card was the Ace of spades, making his straight. The stranger’s card was also a spade, this one an eight for a flush if he had a spade buried.

  “Well, friend, it seems like this was not your lucky night,” Spence said, flipping over his deuce to show the five-high straight.

  “I reckon it wasn’t at that, but it wasn’t yours, either,” the stranger said as he turned over his hole card. Spence’s eyes went big and he flew out of his chair as he saw the card, the Ace of spades.

  “What the hell is going on here, son?” Spence shouted. “How long you been cheating me?” He pointed to the table, where two Aces of spades lay next to each other.

  “I ain’t never cheated you, Richard Spence. Not like you’ve done so many men for so many years, but I ain’t cheated you. I ain’t the one dealin’ the cards.” He picked up the deck of cards and flipped them over one at a time. Ace, Ace, Ace, every card was an Ace of Spades. Every card was Death.

  Spence turned to Audrey, who was on her feet and backing up. “What is this, Audrey? Is this some kinda trick? Who is this man? What are you playing at?”

  “I swear I don’t know, Spence! I ain’t never seen him before…” Her voice trailed off as her own eyes went wide and all the blood drained from her face. She stood, staring at the stranger, who was on his feet a
nd for the first time since he walked into the bar, not wearing his hat. His cold blue eyes were set deep in his brow, and his dark hair was cropped close to his head. But it was the scar that ran through his left eyebrow that held Audrey’s eyes. The scar he got when…

  “Ashley?” She whispered.

  “It’s me, darling,” the stranger rasped.

  “But they killed you,” She said, her voice quavering.

  “I got better,” he replied. “You know me now, Richard Spence? You recognize the scar you gave me when you shot me? You recognize the man you cheated at cards, then murdered him and forced his wife to run with you and steal from these poor dumb bastards all over California?” He ran his fingers along the puckered line of flesh that crept through one eyebrow and arced back over his head to disappear into his hairline.

  “What do you want?” Spence asked, his hand brushing the handle of his pistol. “I killed you once, you son of a bitch, I can do it again.”

  “This ain’t about you, Spence. You can go to hell for all I care. I’m here for Audrey. It’s time to go, darling.”

  “She don’t go anywhere without me, and you don’t go anywhere with my money, you cheating bastard!” Spence’s hand dropped to his gun, but he staggered backward before it ever cleared leather. The stranger drew and fanned the hammer twice quicker than lightning. Liquid red roses bloomed across Spence’s vest. He collapsed into the chair behind him, and stared up at the newcomer with dying eyes.

  “Ashley!” Audrey ran to the pale man, who staggered as she wrapped her arms around him. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine, honey, but you have to go now.”

  “What do you mean, go?” Audrey bit her lower lip and her jaw quivered a little. “Can’t I stay here with you?”

  “No, darling, because I’m not staying. Spence is gone, and this place is going soon. We have to go. Do you trust me?” His voice lost some of the rasp and when Audrey looked up into his eyes he was almost the man she married again.

  “I trust you,” she said, her eyes brimming with tears. “I’m so sorry, Ashley. I never…he tried to make me, but I wouldn’t…I only ever loved you.”