by Cora Brent
Maddox struggled to open his eyes but something was sealing them shut. He tried to move his hands and couldn’t, being that they were tied together behind his back. But whoever had made the knot had been careless and after a few moments of struggle he managed to shake his right hand free. He immediately felt his face but there was no mask or tape covering his skin. The reason he couldn’t open his eyes was due to the sheer volume of dried blood which had pooled from his head wound. He clawed his eyes free and blinked repeatedly, trying to clear his vision as his head screamed in agony.
It was dark, he knew that. There was a pervasive musty smell mixed with the sharp odor of chemicals, causing his stomach to heave. Gingerly he reached out a hand and his fingertips made contact with a smooth wall. As he shifted position his foot found another wall. The dimensions of the room were small, very small. Maddox figured he was somewhere in the depths of the Scorpion Grill. He recalled the way Bryce had suckered him over the head and felt a growl rising in his throat. Mad had been caught unawares once. It wouldn’t happen twice.
He carefully sat up, not wishing to make an excess of noise. Once they realized he was conscious they would come back. If they’d been of a mind to kill him they would have done so already. Desperate men were often foolishly violent.
“Call the cop,” Bryce had said.
Perhaps they needed to talk to Jensen first. Maybe they knew Jensen was the only one who had the balls to coldly plug him.
Was that how Chaz had met his end? Maddox didn’t know how or when but those men – Jensen, Bryce, Alan and Chaz - had obviously discovered a long lost cache of gold smuggled out of the old Scorpion mine. Children liked to chant the words “Finders, keepers,” yet it was rarely that simple. But something which hadn’t been found would never be missed. If they cashed in the gold nuggets carefully and quietly, no one would be the wiser.
However, something had gone wrong with their little system and it had cost a man his life. Maddox exhaled grimly and clenched his fists. He damn well wouldn’t be the next to die.
Maddox quietly felt around in the dark for something which could be used as a weapon. After making contact with an object he finally identified as a plastic dustpan he shoved it away in disgust. He had a flash of hope when he remembered his cell phone. But even before he grabbed for the back pocket where it normally lived he remembered how he’d left it in Miguel’s hands.
He could hear the soft murmur of voices on the other side of the wall. Men’s voices. Really, he had little defense against Jensen’s gun. But he’d sure as shit refuse to cower meekly and beg for his life.
Open your eyes. Your brother’s here.
Indeed, when Maddox strained he could make out the low, clear tones of Jensen’s voice mixed in with the nasal quality of the other two.
“My brother,” he said through clenched teeth. The throb in his head grew with each pulse of rage.
That man in there was no brother of his. His only real brothers were hundreds of miles away, deep in the Mojave Desert. He should be with them now.
And Gaby.
His heart hurt at the thought of Gabriela. Whatever she was to be told wouldn’t be truth. Even now they must have taken his bike from the front parking lot hidden it somewhere it wouldn’t be found. She would believe he had abandoned her.
Mad McLeod had enough. He drew up both his knees and with a grunt of fury kicked out as hard as he could against the wall. His left foot went straight through the drywall and the voices on the other side stopped.
“He’s awake,” Jensen said with a sigh.
Maddox tried to stand as he heard the shuffling footsteps come closer. The knock on the other side of the door was polite, almost mocking.
“Mad?”
“Hey, Jen,” Maddox called, his heart pounding. “You mind letting me the hell out of here?”
He heard whispers on the other side and then Jensen’s voice clearly telling someone “Piss off.”
“Maddox, I’ve got my piece trained on the door. It’s gonna be that way until we get this sorted out.”
Maddox laughed. “So you can shoot me and not have to look at my face? Fuck you, Jensen. FUCK YOU!”
When the door swung open it was unexpected. Mad scuttled backwards, swearing as a bright light was shone inside the room. Between the abrupt change from utter darkness and the blossom of torture from his likely concussion, Maddox was just about blind.
Someone flipped on a switch and the bare bulb of the overhead light showed Jensen McLeod’s impassive face. Below his bleak expression was the muzzle of a gun. Jensen pointed the weapon directly at Maddox, the meaning clear. Maddox could discern the shapes of the other two men as they waited behind Jensen.
“Maddox,” Jensen tsked softly. “What the hell did you do?”
Maddox considered trying to bluff his way out but one look at Jensen’s grim face told him of the futility. Jensen seemed to be waiting for him to answer. Maddox figured he ought to, while he still could.
“So this is who you really are? Not a standup lawman or a staid family guy. Sure as hell not a decent father.”
Jensen flinched at that one. “Watch your mouth, asshole.”
“Why? We all know it won’t make a fucking difference.”
Bryce spoke from behind Jensen. “That’s right,” he agreed. “It won’t.”
Maddox licked his parched lips and tried to rise. “So Chaz got greedy, maybe wanted more than his share and you figured it would be easier to split the take three ways instead of four?”
Jensen frowned, apparently disconcerted. Maddox figured underneath he still might be the kid who hated lying to his mother about where he’d been.
“Is that right, Jensen?” he prodded. “Is it?”
His brother smiled. It was terrible. “So what if that were true?”
“So what? So what do you think your son would say if he saw you now?”
The smile disappeared. Jensen raised the gun ever so slightly.
Maddox swayed, dizzy and sick from the concussion. Who knew what Sanders, that rat bastard, had hit him with? Whatever it was had made a deep cut just above his right temple. He felt the blood dripping down the side of his face.
“Maybe,” Maddox said recklessly, “you’ll shut him up too. And Gaby. Then you can be alone with your gold. And these fuckers too.”
“Don’t,” Jensen snarled, “say another word about my son. I don’t owe you any fucking answers.” He coughed. “Family doesn’t mean shit to you. I’d kill to protect my boy.”
Chaz threatened the kid.
Alan had said that and by that point he didn’t have much reason to lie. It didn’t change the fact that Jensen held a gun on him.
Bryce slid to Jensen’s side like a snake. Maddox saw with some alarm that he held a gun of his own. He didn’t even look at Maddox. He spoke only to Jensen.
“No way out of this, McLeod. He’s not going to be satisfied just walking away. And what are you going to do when he brings those gorillas in leather out here? They’ll slaughter you, rape your wife, cut your kid’s throat.”
Maddox laughed out loud. “You watch too much goddamn television, asshole.”
Nonetheless, he could see that Jensen wasn’t going to dispute Bryce’s words. Alan crept beside his cousin.
“Do it,” he urged in the plaintive tones of a puppy. “Just do it and be done.”
“Jensen,” said Maddox and it was more than a word. It was a final plea to his brother. “Just don’t let Gaby think I took off on her. Make sure she knows how much I love her. How much I’ve always loved her.”
Jensen took a few steps back and turned to the wall. He looked at the ceiling.
“Hey Mad,” he said in a strangled voice. “You remember that time we got lost out there in the hills after dark?”
“Sure I do,” Maddox said slowly, remembering a night long ago. “We were what, six and eight?”
“I think so,” answered Jensen. “Six and eight. We were looking for buried treasure. We dug about
a dozen random holes. Thing about holes, Maddox, is you keep digging them, and eventually you’ll find something. God, it was dark out there. No lights, coyotes howling from every corner. You thought they were wolves.”
Maddox thought he heard a sob in his brother’s voice. It meant he had qualms over what he was doing. It also meant he was likely to do it just the same.
“I remember,” he swallowed. “And I remember how you said to hush my crying and we sang that old Johnny Cash song over and over again until daylight.”
“Shit, was Priest pissed.”
“And every right to be.”
Jensen turned around then. His face was different than it had been a few moments earlier.
“Get out of the way, Townsend.”
Bryce nodded eagerly. “That’s right, man, just finish it. We’ve got our story straight. He’ll never even be found.”
Jensen cocked his head. He appeared to be listening to something. After a few seconds he smiled.
“You’ve forgotten something, Mr. Mayor,” he said, his gun still at his side.
Bryce tensed. “What?”
“The gorillas.”
Bryce scoffed. “A bunch of biker gangbangers? They’ll never even know where to look.”
“They will,” Jensen said vaguely, holstering his gun. “Because I called them.”
“No.” Bryce wouldn’t believe it, shaking his head. He looked around wildly, centering his gaze on Jensen. “You fucking wouldn’t.”
“I did.”
Maddox didn’t dare breathe. In the battle of wills between Jensen and Bryce, he had forgotten all about Alan. Evidently Jensen had forgotten about Alan as well.
He stepped forward and opened his mouth as if he was going to say something to Bryce when Alan let out a cry and dove for an object beyond the doorway. Evidently it was an alarming object because Jensen reached for his gun. And he was a whole lot quicker than the haphazard Alan.
“Put it down,” he told Alan sternly.
Alan raised the rifle and pointed it at Jensen. Maddox could see how the barrel shook.
“Alan,” said Jensen with even more finality. Both of his hands were now on his weapon. He would shoot if he needed to.
“Fucked this up,” Alan sniffed. “It’s all fucked up and I gotta unfuck it.” He’d begun to cry though. He lowered the rifle with a moan. Maddox saw Jensen relax slightly and turn to Bryce. His instincts must have been rusty from years of desk work. Maddox didn’t even have time to shout a warning before Alan Townsend jerked the rifle back to his shoulder and blew a hole in his brother’s chest.
Jensen sank to his knees, the red hole in the center of his chest growing larger as blood began to leak out of it.
“Shit!” yelled Bryce. “You dumb fuck,” he punched his cousin as Jensen stared down in disbelief at the bullet wound. Maddox watched in horror as his brother came to realization that the wound was bad, likely fatal.
Bryce Sanders began to pace, cursing to himself. A dead biker would have been tough enough to cover up. A dead local cop would be nearly impossible to hide.
Finally he stopped and stared dispassionately at Jensen.
“Finish it,” he ordered Alan. “Goddammit, I said finish it!”
Alan raised the rifle. But his hesitation had cost him as Jensen was still conscious. He lifted his own weapon and fired it, hitting Alan right between his eyes.
Maddox saw the blood spurt and heard the gurgle of the doomed man as he fell. Bryce cursed again but seemed to have forgotten that he also held a gun. He kicked at his cousin’s corpse and shouted a series of obscenities. Maddox had always figured him as the sort who didn’t fight fair. But he was even less than that. He enlisted others do perform his evil. He didn’t know how to get his hands dirty.
Bryce didn’t even look up as Maddox crawled to his brother’s side. Jensen still breathed, but Maddox could hear how he struggled with each gasp. Jensen opened one eye and smiled as blood continued to ooze out of his chest.
“You,” he wheezed, “look like hell.” He grimaced as Maddox tried to apply pressure to the chest wound.
“I know,” Maddox said softly, remembering the day he’d returned to Contention City, how he’d told Jensen he looked like hell when he saw him for the first time in a decade. Maddox’s chest felt tight as he saw how the blood flowed no matter how much he tried to stop it. It was already leaking into Jensen’s chest cavity, bubbling up into his throat and spilling out of his mouth.
Maddox tried to gather his brother in his arms. “Come on,” he said hoarsely. “You’re gonna be fine, Jen.”
He had forgotten about the last threat remaining in the room until he heard the click at his back. He shook his head. “It’s over, Sanders,” he whispered. Looking down he saw how Jensen watched him through scarcely open eyes. His brother gave him a barely perceptible nod.
“It will be,” Bryce Sanders agreed but his voice shook. Maddox knew he would allow no witnesses. And history was written by the survivors.
The gun was still firmly in Jensen’s hand. If Maddox were to grab for it Bryce would surely shoot first. He had to trust that Jensen still had a few ounces of strength left.
Slowly, so slowly, Maddox raised his arms and held them behind his head. Then he lurched to the right, clearing the way for Jensen to raise his arm and shoot. Office McLeod didn’t miss, catching Bryce right in the forehead. The mayor of Contention City went glassy eyed and blind as he keeled over, already dead with a bullet lodged in his brain.
Jensen dropped the gun and grimaced as more blood spilled from his mouth. Maddox felt his body go limp and heavy as he tried to lift him. With a painful grunt he summoned every last reservoir of strength and carried his brother. As he staggered through the restaurant, he had to briefly set Jensen down so he could open the door. That’s when he heard what Jensen had smiled at when he cocked his head only a few moments earlier.
They were riding down Contention Way and never was there was a more beautiful sight than this pack of men. Bikers, hoods, outlaws, whatever the world wanted to call them, they were there for him.
Orion Jackson, in the lead as always, saw him first and wasted no time coasting over, followed by the rest of them. Grayson. Casper. Abel. Brandon. Even Teague and a few boys from Quartzsite proper were along.
“Jesus, Mad,” Orion said with alarm as he hopped off his bike. Maddox immediately saw he was packing and motioned for him to hide it. Already the sirens were wailing from every direction.
Maddox must have looked even worse than he thought. All the men stared at him with faces of shock. But he had no time to worry about his own injuries. Maddox reached into the building and hauled his brother out. Jensen’s head lolled like a doll’s. The red stain covered his entire shirt.
“Boys,” Maddox said softly, “meet my brother, Jensen.”
He crouched down, knowing they were all behind him, the men who’d ridden like the wind when they heard he needed them. It comforted him, even as he held his fading brother in his arms. The men of Defiant circled around the McLeod brothers as the sirens grew louder. There was nothing to say. Maddox felt a strong hand on his back, trying to comfort him, as he bent his head and cried.
***
Jensen woke up once before he died. Maddox wanted to ask him if he’d been in the gray fog, if he’d seen their father. But Jensen had a purpose in his last gasps. He knew he’d done wrong. He’d taken something that wasn’t his and been seduced by it. The other men had too. They’d already paid the ultimate price. Soon he would pay his.
There were details which Maddox knew would never be clear. It didn’t matter. Jensen reserved the last of himself for Miguel. He clutched Mad’s hand and looked him in the eye with intense clarity.
“Take care of my boy,” he rasped.
Maddox squeezed Jensen’s hand. It was already growing cold.
“You’ll take care of him yourself,” he said.
But Jensen only smiled and shook his head, turning away as the machinery gauging wh
at remained of his life began to wail an alarm.
People rushed in and Maddox was pushed aside. He didn’t cry as they frantically wheeled his brother off to surgery. He was done crying. He already knew it wouldn’t help.
“Say hi to Priest,” Maddox whispered.
When Gaby burst wildly onto the scene she let out a shriek and leapt into his arms. She touched his face and exclaimed over the damage. Miguel followed quietly, his face pale and worried as he looked around. Maddox led them out to where the Defiant men waited.
“So they did come,” Gaby said with wonder in her voice. She nodded at each of them in turn and sat beside Maddox, her hands all over him as if she needed reassurance he was still solid. The men tried to make cheerful small talk with Miguel while Gabriela explained what she knew.
“Jensen came racing over, told me if I didn’t hear from him within an hour to pack up Miguel and get somewhere far away. He noticed that Miguel had your phone. I didn’t understand why he grabbed it. It was like he was frantically looking for something. He asked if I knew who you would call for help if you needed it. All I could remember was Orion’s name. God, Maddox, I was so terrified. I heard him make the call and I didn’t know what the hell to think.” Gaby broke a little, crying and pushing her knees up to her chest. “Jensen kissed Miguel on the forehead and told him he was the best thing in his life. Mad, it was like he was saying goodbye.”
Maddox closed his eyes painfully. “He was,” he said. He knew he still needed his head wound tended. It would require stitches. It was likely a concussion. He knew he would live though.
Eventually Casey, Jensen’s wife, showed up. She eyed Orion with interest until he flipped her off. Then she turned her attention to her phone with a bored look on her face.
Maddox waited with Gabriela’s hand in his until the doctor came to tell them what Maddox already knew. His brother was gone.
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
Contention City, Arizona Territory
1890
Annika refused to bury James in the Contention City cemetery. Swilling was to be buried there and she couldn’t stomach the hypocrisy of it. The look of the town had changed in her eyes. Everything had. There were no more good folks and bad folks, not in the way she had always supposed. Everyone was painted with a gray brush. She could have stayed in Contention City, silently enduring the scorn of the locals as she passed time waiting for some word from Mercer. But she could not stand remaining there for long. Como had offered to see her to the wild Black Hills.
