by Brian Gore
Now, she saw an opportunity for her to utilize the cash in her duffle, or at least a fractional part of it. She smiled looking out at the car from where they stood in the doorway. She had unexpectedly gained an ally, and now she had the perfect opportunity to reward that new ally, and make any effort to help her, an easier task.
Amanda looked at Ben and put her hand on his arm smiling.
"What? What are you grinning about now?" He said.
"I just had the idea that you'd likely survive this year, pretty well." She replied.
"Yeah? and just what would give you that sort of an idea? What the hell does a fugitive woman from Chicago know about horses and cattle?" Ben spoke with a little frustration leaking in to his voice.
"Uh..." she laughed; "Not one damn thing! and I don't think telling you what gives me my confidence is the right way either... better to... show you." She told him, taking his hand and pulling him off the porch and leading him over to the car.
She reached inside, pulled the keys out of the ignition, and tossed them to Ben.
"Open the trunk" she commanded.
Ben's eyes revealed his confusion, as he looked from Amanda to the trunk as he unlocked and opened it.
"Your wish is my command Ma'am" he teased.
Amanda drug the blue gym bag out of the trunk, dropped it on the ground and jerked open the zipper. She stood and turned toward Ben; "Take a look and see if my confidence doesn't have a solid foundation."
Ben bent over and pulled the sides of the bag apart, to look inside.
"JESSSSUSSSSS CHRIST!" He exclaimed; "How much is in here? Must be... must be... hell, I ain't got any idea!" He stood back straight and stared at the girl, the startled look and the wide eyes on his weathered face made her laugh yet again.
"I guess that'd be sure to make 'em chase you, even if they didn't want you at all!"
"Yeah, Tyrone loves his money. But more, he doesn't like anyone, taking anything, he thinks is his property, either." Amanda said. "He wants his money back. But, I think he takes me, trying to steal myself away from him... more personally. Put that, alongside the seven hundred and fifty thousand bucks in that bag... and I guess he's pretty angry."
Ben lifted his hat and ran his fingers through his hair; "Damn... I've never seen that much cash in one place before. Damn!... but... what's that got to do with anything? That's your money, your future... how does that help me?"
He wasn't that stupid. He could imagine what she was about to say. But, Ben was a pretty old fashioned sort. His ego had difficulty with a woman, especially one he didn't even know, saving HIM.
"Listen Ben. You dove headfirst, right into the fire, to help us. You did it without thought or question. Timmy and I owe you. It's pure and simple. If you hadn't done what you did, I'd likely be on my way to my own funeral, right now... and my son would be on the way to an awful life... My future isn't going to need all that." She gestured at the bag lying at their feet. "Having an ally will be far more valuable than all that cash could ever be. Taking part of it to protect the future of a good ally... Damn it Ben... It just makes sense."
"Yeah" Ben thought; "She's a lot more than she appears." To Amanda he said; "Yeah, yeah... I don't know Amanda...I... Uh... " he was stuck. What she said made sense. It sounded right. He was simply having trouble with the idea of a beautiful young woman pulling his bacon out of a fire.
It wasn't like it was something she'd worked for... though she'd suffered plenty to earn it. He was stuck and he knew it.
"Ok Amanda... you're saying... that uh... you're saying you'll clear my mortgage for this year? and I do... what?"
"Oh that!" she said lightly; "All you have to do is just keep doing what you've been doing. Help me and Timmy... to disappear."
Speaking more solemnly, the laughter gone now from her eyes, she told him; "Ben? I don't have any choice. I shouldn't ask for or expect anything from you, but, I've never had a chance like this to escape him. It's worth every dollar it takes. Any price. And Ben? I'm afraid if I can talk you into helping me, you won't get paid what it costs you. But I know now... without you, it's only a matter of time... before they catch up again."
"Yeah well Amanda, I'm not comfortable with it. It just ain't right." He told her.
"Damn it Ben. Enough! You know it is!" she snapped back.
"Nope girl, it ain't. I've read some of those stories, and I don't remember once where the Damsel in distress up and saved the Knight in Shining Armor."
They both laughed.
Chapter 17
Terrance, Musa, and Devon sat in the waiting area of the emergency room. Terrance moved stiffly with cracked ribs and bruises from his impact with Ben's rope horse. Devon had a large knot on his forehead and the diagnosis of a light concussion. Musa looked like he'd run into a door, several times, and had a bandage over his left ear, where a surgeon had stitched up the knife cut, as well as his jaws wired shut to immobilize his broken jaw.
The doctor approached them with the news.
"Your friend has several broken ribs, and his spine is severely bruised. But, it looks like he'll recover pretty well, if he takes it easy for a while. It's a miracle his back isn't broken. There's the distinct imprint of two horse shoes right in the middle of his back. I've never seen the injuries like what you men have... come in from a dude ranch... at least not all in one day"; the Doctor looked at Terrance questioningly. With no response from Terrance, other then a casual shrug he continued; "A Normal man would likely be dead... This one, amazing... though he's not an especially pleasant patient, will be discharged shortly. He needs to take it easy for quite a while, and you'll need to settle up your bills with the business office, but otherwise, he's free to go!"
Terrance thanked the Doctor and walked into the treatment room where Jamal lay, leaving Devon and Musa in the waiting room.
"Hey mahn... you look like shit." he quipped.
"I feel like shit mahn" Jamal returned slugglishly, mumbling through the drugs he'd been given.
"They say you can go mahn... but we need to settle the hospital bill first. How I do that mahn?" Terrance wanted to know.
Jamal told him to go find out what the total was for everyone and then call Tyrone on Jamals phone and tell him, and give him the contact info for the hospital.
"Jesus mahn! You gon' make Me call Tyrone... damn mahn!" Terrance complained.
"You wanted to be one of Tyrone's soldiers din' you?" Jamal grinned. "Now you get to earn some of your pay."
An hour later, Terrance returned. Jamal asked how he liked dealing with Tryone.
"Damn mahn. He make me feel like a lil' bwoy the way he screamed at me on the phone! He wanted to know what kind of men was he paying for, if one cowboy could beat us all and cost him five thousand dollars in hospital bills."
"What did you tell him?" Jamal questioned.
Terrance looked at him and grinned; "I tol' him that the cowboy wasn't alone mahn. I told him he had help... that calmed him down some."
"Help?" the question on Jamal's face was clear.
"Yeah mahn... he had help" Terrance grinned again; "He was on a horse!"
Jamal winced and groaned when his laugh sent a sheet of pain flashing through his whole body, in spite of the drugs. "Good thinking Terrance" Jamal complimented the man. Get me out of here. We need to get a place to stay tonight and figure out what we do now.
A wheel chair was brought into the room and with much groaning, grimacing and curses from Jamal, along with the straining help from a pair of less than burly hospital orderlies, the big man was moved from the bed to the wheelchair.
There was just about as much noise as Jamal pulled himself from the chair, into the back seat of the Yukon with a lot of help from Terrance and Musa. The noise and cursing was repeated one more time as he was helped back out of the Yukon, back once again, at the Motel 6. They'd requested a pair of rooms, from the desk clerk, on the first floor since the motel had no elevator to the second. Though it was late in the tourist season, the motel was
full enough that only one remained at ground level, while the second room had to be on the second floor.
Terrance carried his and Jamal's bags into their room downstairs while Devon and Musa carried theirs to the second floor. Jamal, leaning against the wall as the pair walked away headed for the stairwell, called to them; "Come down in 'bout an hour mahn. I'll send you out to get some pizza or someting for dinner, OK?"
Devon looked over his shoulder as he walked away; "OK mahn... an hour." He turned away grimacing and cupping his hand over the knot on his forehead. "My fuckin' head feels like there's an axe buried in it. It's splitting in two mahn."
"I know mahn... I know." Musa mumbled through his mashed and swollen lips as they turned into the stairwell and slowly climbed the stairs to their room.
Tyrone's crew had seen better days. It was not in the best of physical shape after the battering it had taken that morning. Not only their bodies had been beaten, their egos were severely wounded. They'd been soundly and thoroughly bludgeoned by one, single, cowboy, no matter what help they'd told Tyrone he had.
But, that is exactly what made them more dangerous now than ever. For men whose self-perception and "status" is their most valued possession, losing face as they had, was not a tolerable situation. It would drive them to great efforts in pursuit of vengeance and retribution. They saw it as a measure of their very manhood. It was an unspoken thing. But it was the very real thought running as an endless loop in the minds of all four men.
Their job had now grown from simply rounding up Amanda Blake, Tyrone's son and a bag full of money... to include teaching an old cowboy that he'd been lucky this morning, and that his luck, would now cost him dearly.
What they didn't know was that Ben had learned a long time ago that luck was often measured by the level of a man's skill, and his efforts at preparation, before he went in to action. They also didn't know that the likelihood was great that their intention to secure vengeance might be a lot easier said then done.
Terrance stood under a long hot shower soaking his sore body while Jamal downed another pill and tried to nap on one of the beds.
An hour later Devon and Musa knocked at the door. Terrance pulled it open and gestured with his hand to come in. Jamal lay quiet on the bed, watching the television. His attempt to take a nap had failed. There was simply no position in which he could lay that didn't hurt, and hurt enough to keep him awake, drugged or not.
He handed Devon a small roll of bills, and pointed at the keys laying beside the television. "Go find something for us to eat mahn. Pizza, Chinese, I don't care. Just get enough, and some whiskey mahn. Get some whiskey. I need a drink. Musa, go wit' him."
"Be back in a little while Jamal." and the two walked out of the room to retrieve their suppers.
While they were gone, Terrance and Jamal tossed around their options. First was to just go back to Chicago and admit failure... which they immediately eliminated as a possibility.
The second and only other option they could think of was to identify that cowboy.
Terrance wondered aloud looking at Jamal; "He was on a horse and herding more horses... how far would he do that mahn?"
A grin stretched slowly across Jamal's face. "I don' know nothin' 'bout horses Terrance. But, I'm thinking he wasn't going very far... or coming from very far. I don't think we have to go very far looking. How many cowboys can there be 'round here.
"I was knocked out for a bit... Did you hear him say anything mahn?" Jamal asked Terrance.
"Uh... I'm not much better Jamal... but... just before they left, I think I heard him say some thing... like they would go to a place called Red Lodge."
"When they come back with our food, go get the map out of the car. We'll find out where this Red Lodge is. Tomorrow, we'll go there, and start looking. We find the cowboy, I think we'll find the bitch. If she gone from there, he'll know which way she went. Either way, we got to find that bastard. He and I have something to settle."
Terrance agreed with Jamal; "Jamal, he got something to settle with a couple of us!"
Devon and Musa returned a few minutes later with two large buckets of Kentucky fried, two liters of Coke and a fifth of Johnny Walker.
While everyone ate and drank, Jamal and Terrance studied the map. It only took a minute for them to locate Red Lodge.
Jamal sat quietly eating his Kentucky fried and biscuits. Washing it down with Johnny Walker... and looking at the map.
"Ok... we sleep here tonight. First thing in the morning, we go to Red Lodge, and start looking." Jamal poured another two fingers from the bottle into a cup, and took a sip. I want to finish this and find that mahn. I want to find that bitch, and I want to get the hell out of Montana and go home.
The crew, eating and drinking, nodded their heads in agreement. There were a few mumbles of "Yeah Mahn." and "The sooner the better"...
They polished off the chicken and whiskey in short order. Fed and watered, sore and battered, they all turned in for the night. Each hoping tomorrow would bring the opportunity for revenge.
They were men motivated by revenge. None had ever been beaten so soundly. Not in a one on one fight. To have been so completely crushed by a single, aging cowboy was a humiliation none of them could stomach.
Their desire to pay back that cowboy was even greater than their fear of Tyrone's rage, if they failed to find the girl.
So when the requested wake up calls rang in their rooms at six the next morning, each man was already laying awake in the dark, just waiting.
They poured paper coffee cups and loaded plates full of bagels and donuts from the motel's breakfast bar, as the other guests watched in silence, and were in the Yukon, on the road for Red Lodge by 6:30.
The fifty mile run down Hwy 78, from Columbus to Red Lodge took them nearly two hours, due to the road being closed for an hour half way between the two towns. It took some time for State troopers and a pair of tow trucks, to clean up the mess of a head on collision between a car and a pickup; when the old lady in the car, swerved to miss an Elk cow, that stepped out into road in front of her.
When they finally made Red Lodge, the first thing they did was slowly cruise down the main street and then all the side streets, looking for a Red Saturn. Another couple hours were lost to aborted runs out a variety of ranch and forest roads, hoping to stumble onto their prey. By eleven thirty their appetites were again calling for attention, so they pulled into a small cafe on the edge of town to take lunch and figure out their next move.
The waitress serving the four, big, black men, sitting around the table, couldn't help but overhear the men complaining of their aches and pains, and how they couldn't wait to pay that "Cowboy" back, and give him a few of his own aches and pains.
Eunice Tindel was not one known in the area for minding her own business. She was of the opinion that; if you're going to rattle on in a public cafe about, whatever... then, that subject was open for community participation.
"You fellas look like you ran into a grizzly with a grump on!" She told the men as she poured more coffee.
Jamal just looked at her without comment, but Musa was not so reticent. "No bear lady... it was a mahn. A mahn on a horse! and that mahn going to pay for his mistake!"
"Don't mean to stick my nose in other folks business Mr.", Eunice replied, as a few of the local patrons eavesdropping on the conversation snickered at her lie. Eunice Tindel never passed up an opportunity to stick her nose in anyone else's business. Especially not if she saw a chance for a good laugh in it, or the possibility of landing a good poke or two of her own!
"But," Eunice continued; "unless that cowboy you speak of, looks a whole lot worse'n you boys, I'm not sure was him that made the mistake!"
"Was his mistake lady, and that old cowboy gon' to get his smart mouth shut!" growled Musa.
Terrance, after a scowl from Jamal, elbowed Musa and told him; "Shut it mahn."
Musa looked angrily at him, then Jamal, and turned his eyes, sullenly to his plate.
&n
bsp; "Old Cowboy ya say?" Eunice asked standing hip shot, with the coffee pot in her hand about to pour asked; "Grey felt hat?... Making smart ass remarks? Didn't I hear one of you say something about Lodgepole creek?"
"Yeah Lady. We were at a place the sign said was Lodgepole Creek Campground." Terrance told her.
"Grumpy Old Cowboy up on Lodgepole Creek?" Eunice looked around the room; "Sounds to me like you boys ran into Ol' Ben Jensen!" she laughed. "He's got a ranch just over west of there. That's just that crazy old fool's style." Eunice leaned in to top off their cups one more time. "Wha'cha think Toby" she called to a grizzled old mountain cowboy sitting up at the counter. "You think this cowboy these boys are talkin' 'bout sounds like Ben?"
Wearing a frayed denim jacket, dirty wranglers, run over packer boots, and his own grey felt hat, so old and greasy it was nearly black; Toby MacDonald looked over his shoulder at the four men sitting at the table. "None of my business Eunice. I do my best to stay out of Ben Jensen's affairs. But if I had to guess, I'd say it sounds a lot like the man." Toby gave the men a disdainful look they missed, and turned back to his coffee cup sitting on the counter.
"You fellas tied into just about the roughest Ol' Twister around here." she went on; "You'da been better off to tie into a bear! Was me? I'd leave that Ol' two legged chainsaw alone! But, you boys, do whatever you're of a mind to. Just don't say you weren't advised of what ya'll was tyin' in to!" with a laugh she turned and carried the coffee pot back to the hot plate behind the counter.
Jamal, looking at Musa, spoke low; "I was gonna whack your ass for talkin' too much. But I guess we should thank you for runnin' off at the mouth fool!" He reached across the table and punched Musa in the shoulder.
