by Ric Beard
Nina mounted the box seat, and Mathilda stepped up with equal ease, grabbing the reins.
She yanked them. “Pull this way to turn left, pull this way to turn right, pull back to stop, and wag it with both hands, like so, to get ‘er going.” She handed Nina the reins, stepped down off the cart, and pointed toward the foothills in the distance. “Ride East, young lady.”
Mathilda set off, back in the direction of town.
“Thanks,” was all Nina could think to say, but Matilda’s back was already turned as the middle-aged, pear-shaped woman with the premature gray hair who’d watched over her the night before strolled away from the nuisance that might cost her one of her darlings.
Nina’s head jerked up, surprised as Mathilda spoke without looking over her shoulder.
“Good luck! Don’t come back!”
I’m ruining everything. I can’t help Jenna and Scruff, these people are going to suffer because of me, and now I have to take one of their horses to rub lemon into the wound. Screw this world. I should have stayed in the city.
Chapter Forty-Five
LET MAMA KNOW
45
Lexi blinked a few times, twisted in the bed so her back faced the window, and pulled the plush, feather pillow atop her head. A groan escaped her lips as a clattering from somewhere else in the house pulled her fully into consciousness. Her Tab trilled. It was probably Jenna, giving her the weekly update, and she decided it was okay to stay beneath the warm blanket, snuggling in the darkness of the pillow.
Today is Friday. Jenna isn’t due to report until tomorrow.
The pillow flipped off and tumbled to the floor on the other side of the bed as Lexi grabbed the Tab and propped herself on one elbow. Flicking the screen with her thumb, she found an encrypted message from Lucian. She tapped the screen.
Where the shit are you? Drone keeps coming back dry. Jenna and Scruff abducted. Nina escaped, but is in the wind.
Lexi found more of his unread messages underneath the latest and frowned.
Shit!
Jumping out of the bed, she crossed the room and got dressed before swinging the door open and trudging down the steps. The hallway at the bottom of the polished stairs led to a half wall on the right that separated the living area from the kitchen. Sasha sat in the nook at a square table with rounded edges, forking scrambled eggs into her mouth. She had her hair back in the same clip, but had opted for a gray button shirt. Ella labored over a cast iron skillet, smoke rising from what smelled like a ham steak.
“Morning, Lexi!”
Her voice was chipper, the kind Lexi needed coffee to withstand.
Sasha stopped chewing and her eyes widened.
“What uf ut”?” she asked through a mouthful of eggs. She swallowed. “I don’t like that look.”
“My friends have been swiped. Nina’s disappeared. I need to go help them.”
“Who is Nina?”
Someone Sasha doesn’t know. How about that!
“Let’s saddle up!” Sasha dropped the fork, and Lexi wondered where she might have heard the Old Western term. “Where?”
“Huh?”
“Where are they being held, Lexi? Where do we need to go?”
“Oh. Um.” Distress visited in the form of an empty void in her chest as she realized she didn’t know. “Shit.”
Lexi had now commanded Ella’s undivided attention, too, as evidenced by the spatula set on the stovetop and the ham having stopped smoking. Her youthful eyes were suddenly inquisitive, her arms folded across her chest.
“If you have friends in trouble? We should let Mama know!”
Frustration manifested itself in Lexi’s response. “What can Lucinda do about it?”
But to her credit, Ella simply grinned. “You don’t know Mama.” Her tone brimmed with confidence.
“Did you call me, sweetheart?” Lucinda appeared in the hallway behind Lexi and eased into the kitchen with long strides. She fussed with her hair, though not a strand of her golden locks seemed out of place.
“Lexi’s friends are in trouble.” Ella pointed at Lexi. “We should do something.”
“What friends?”
Lexi pushed out her bottom lip. “You don’t know them. They were up north, detoxing addicts.”
“Not Jenna?” Lucinda asked.
Lexi’s forehead crinkled. “You know Jenna?”
“Well, no, of course not, but Moss has told me about her.”
“Exactly how do you and Moss know each other, Lucinda?”
“Well, I could tell you, but wouldn’t you rather find your friends?”
Lexi sighed, and Lucinda nodded at her answer.
“Where were they last?”
Lexi snapped her fingers. “A town called Ripley!”
“Hm,” Lucinda said. “I know that little place. Up north. How do you know they’re in trouble? What kind of trouble?”
Lucinda’s perfect hair was forgotten, her eyes gleaming with investment in this latest predicament.
“My friend messaged me, said they’d been abducted. I have another friend who evidently wasn’t taken but vanished. I don’t know the whole story. Shit, I don’t really know anything.”
“Then we start with Ripley. Sasha?”
Sasha looked up and Lexi saw she’d retrieved her fork and cleared the plate. She chewed her last bite with a purpose.
“Hm?”
“Where’s Jacob?”
“He’s around somewhere. I can get him. Why?”
“Well, we need to get a team up to Ripley. If they were taken by Sampson’s men, which I assume is the case, then the lawkeeper might have an inkling of where they’d be taken.”
“Lexi and I can handle Ripley. Jacob’s orders are to stay with you.”
“Stay with me?” Lucinda asked. “Why in the world would he need to stay with me?”
“Because Sampson hates you.”
“I’m surrounded by a town of armed people.”
“And it only takes one of those people to take you out.”
Lucinda placed a hand on her chest, looked around at each person in turn, and dropped the hand with a half-shrug.
“I see your point, but I do have Cage.”
Sasha gave a mocking look around the room. “And where is Cage now?”
“Well, you don’t know where Jacob is, either. I don’t see the difference.”
“The difference is that I lied.”
“Well, why would you—”
“My people are under some scrutiny in the region. People think we’ve been killing lawkeepers. It makes sense to keep our whereabouts, our comings and goings, on the low down.”
“It’s down low,” Lexi said with an absent smile.
“Whatever. You get the point.”
“Why hide his whereabouts from me?”
“I wasn’t.”
“Young lady, you are really starting to prick at my nerves with your contradictory answers.”
“I see I’m being vague and elusive. It’s my way. It’s how Moss taught me.”
“I fucking believe it,” Lexi muttered under her breath.
“What’s that?” Sasha asked.
“I said you have it down to an art.”
“Thank you.”
Lexi rolled her eyes in Lucinda’s direction. Lucinda matched the gesture and turned up one side of her lips.
“I didn’t tell you where Jacob is because you never know who is listening.”
Lucinda’s head moved in the same slow motion as she seemed to take in every corner of the room, from the olive-painted kitchen cabinets, to the restored, manufactured countertop that might have been older than Lexi.
“You mean, listening devices?”
“Bugs,” Lexi nodded. “Now I see.”
Sasha shook her head as if both of them were the last ones across the finish line.
“Well.” Lucinda clapped her hands in front of her. “Let’s hope no one is listening.”
Sasha stood. “I don’t like the idea
of Moss finding out Jenna is missing while I sit on my ass in this lovely house. So, if we’re going to do something about it, I suggest we get to doing.” She looked at Lucinda. “Jacob will be around.”
“Understood,” Lucinda said with the southern flare that drew out the last syllable. “We’ll be around, too.”
“I need to get a message up,” Lexi said. “Then we can go.”
“Lucian?” Sasha asked.
Lexi mused as to whether Sasha’s interest in Lucian went further than mere wonderment. She seemed to light up on the few occasions they talked about him. Maybe she’d prod on the road to Ripley.
“Yes, Lucian. Can we get out of here?”
Once Lexi had her bag packed and swung over her shoulder, Lucinda and Ella saw them to the door. When Lucinda opened the door and let daylight in, Lexi stepped back and her jaw dropped.
The man on the other side of the threshold wore a black billed cap, a flannel shirt, and jeans. Two men stood further back, guns leveled the same direction—at Lexi. She threw her hands up.
“What the hell?”
“I’m the town marshal, Wheat Jeffers.”
Lexi spotted a fourth man standing by the fence surrounding the house, holding his gun much lower. Kneeling on the ground, his hands clasped behind his head, with the barrel of the last man’s gun pointed at his neck, was Jacob.
“What’s this about?” Lucinda said, stepping into the doorway. “You let that man up, right now!”
“It’s about your fostering wanted criminals, Miss Proctor. I’m afraid you and that one standing in the back there,” he indicated Sasha with a nod, “need to come with us.”
“Excuse me,” Lexi said. Her eyes traced the barrel of the pistol. “Am I wanted for something?”
The man’s eyes traced the height of Lexi’s body.
“Not yet,” he said through a thick, salt and pepper mustache. “If you want to get in my way, young lady, I could accommodate.”
Young lady.
Lexi smiled.
“Something funny?” Jeffers asked.
Lexi shrugged and allowed the bag to slide slowly off her shoulder to the floor.
“It’s funny I’m not wanted for anything, yet you’re pointing your weapon at me.”
“Maybe you’re one of them,” he said. “You don’t seem too upset about having a weapon pointed at you. It’s almost like you’re used to it.”
“Oh, so guilt-by-association?”
The marshal’s eyes danced over to Lucinda and then to Sasha before returning to Lexi.
“Lucinda, I’m gonna need you and that little one over there to step outside, please. Citizens have identified her and this one behind me as Black Ghosts. You’re harboring wanted criminals.”
Lucinda flashed Wheaton a sideways smile, one hand rising to her hip.
“So, Sampson finally got to you, hon? You one of his lawkeepers, now? How do you think it’s going to play when you walk me through town, in front of my people?”
“They’re my people, too, Lucinda. I take your assertion as an insult. I’m afraid you’ve become lax as to the sentiment of our citizens.”
Lexi’s internal lie detector buzzed when Jeffers’s eyes ticked up and to one side.
So, Sampson finally made his move. How delightfully subtle. I thought for sure enforcers would’ve been involved. Pretty savvy, bringing the town’s own to the door.
“Oh? And what sentiment is that, Wheat?”
“We’re the only town that’s held out on Sampson. The people ‘round here are nervous that, sooner or later, there’s going to be a toll to pay for you sending him away like you did, and when he finds out you’ve been harboring the very people who’ve been killing his lawkeepers, he’s going to come for you. He’ll bring his people with him.”
“Well, aren’t you an ungrateful bunch!” Lucinda said. “I turned this town into a trade center! I armed you all to the teeth, so you could be independent. Now you turn the same gun I put in your holster on me?”
“It’s actually pointed at me,” Lexi said. “I’m growing a little impatient about it.”
Lucinda didn’t so much as bat an eye.
“Well, isn’t this just so nice.”
Lexi’s eyes caught movement coming around from the side of the house as a massive man stepped behind what she figured was a deputized citizen who held the gun on Jacob. From the opposite side, Ella appeared wielding a double-barrel shotgun.
Shit is about to get ugly. Dammit. Why can’t I ever avoid—
“Drop your weapons!” Cage yelled, shoving the barrel of his oversized hand cannon into the back of the closest deputy.
All heads turned toward the new arrival, except Lexi’s. Hers were still trained on the weapon the Marshal held in her general direction as his head swiveled away.
Ella raised the shotgun on one of the other deputies. “Drop it, Harley!”
Since he complied, Lexi assumed Harley was the skinny one on the left with the patchy beard and tattered cowboy hat.
Lexi stepped forward just as Jeffers turned back in Lucinda’s direction. She shoved her finger tips into his wrist and caused his finger to loose from the trigger guard. Grabbing the barrel of the weapon, she turned it so it bent his wrist backward until he had to let go and flipped open the ammunition chamber, dumping the rounds on the ground. Then she offered it back to him.
His eyes went wide as she held the gun out, butt first.
“It’s not my intent to get involved in your politics, marshal, but I don’t like it when people point weapons at me without cause. Take your gun.”
He scowled as he ripped the gun from her grasp, looked down at it in wonder, and shoved it into his holster.
“Lucinda, would you like to come with us?” Sasha asked, stepping past Jeffers and into the sunlight. Lexi noted that she hadn’t bothered drawing a weapon from her bag.
Jacob stood and walked toward Sasha.
“No, Sasha,” Lucinda said with a sigh. “I’m going to go with the marshal.”
Ella’s head jerked toward her mother. “The hell you say, mama!”
“Of course, I will, Ella.” Lucinda gave the same easy smile, as if she were welcoming Jeffers to a cookout. “If there’s to be law and order in our town, we have to set an example by following it.”
“This isn’t law!” Ella said. “This isn’t order!”
“Marshal, I assume if I go with you, there’ll be no trouble for anyone remaining behind?” Jeffers looked around at Sasha and Jacob.
“What about them?”
Lexi spied Sasha whispering something into Jacob’s ear. One hand grasped the shoulder of his chambray shirt. The slightly taller man was nodding.
“They don’t look too keen on sticking around, to me. You think you can change their minds?”
“I’ll go with her,” Jacob said. “I’m one of The Black. I admit it. Promise me I’ll be with Lucinda, and I’ll go with you.”
“No!” Ella yelled. “Jacob, you aren’t going anywhere! Neither is mama!”
Lexi looked at the young woman, then at Jacob.
Uh oh. Wonder what’s been going on there…
Lucinda’s expression hardened. “Ella Proctor! You lower that gun right now!” She shot a finger toward Cage on the other side. “You, too, boy. Holster that gun while you still can. Show some damn sense!”
Cage slammed his cannon into its holster. A crowd was beginning to gather around, and Ella peered around at them. Lowering her weapon so it faced the ground, she held a determined grip as her face changed from pink to a deeper shade of red.
Jeffers took a final look at Sasha, then at Jacob, and nodded. He held out a hand and Lucinda stepped forward, so he could grip her arm.
“Secure that one,” he said, pointing at Jacob. “The rest can go.” As the men merged at the fence with Jacob and Lucinda in tow, the marshal stopped. “Ella, Cage, if I see either one of you near the jail, I’m going to shoot you first and ask why after. You get me?”
He did
n’t wait for an answer before setting off across the gravel, kicking up dirt and dragging Jacob and Ella along. The crowd parted as they passed. Ella and Cage walked into the house as Sasha took up space on Lexi’s right.
“I’m gonna kill that asshole,” Ella said as she stomped past Lexi.
Lexi believed her. “Why would Jacob go with her?”
“You haven’t been listening, Shaw,” Sasha said. “His orders are to protect Lucinda. He can’t protect her if he isn’t with her.”
The two women watched as Jacob and Lucinda disappeared into the crowd that merged back together in a wave behind Jeffers and his crew.
“What about you?”
“What about me?”
“What are your orders?”
Sasha turned and looked up at Lexi. “I’m following my orders.”
“Which are?”
“To protect you.”
Chapter Forty-Six
WHAT WOULD LEXI DO?
46
The horse’s hooves clicked and clacked as it trotted along the major artery running parallel to the ridge, winding south. From the elevated perspective, Nina hoped she’d be able to hear the reports of any oncoming trucks echoing off the ridge before coming into view, so she’d be able to pull the horse to the other side and hide.
If they hadn’t passed her yet, the men hadn’t realized their comrade was missing, but it was just a matter of time. She’d counted ten men on the back of the troop carrier; the one she killed would’ve made eleven. Nina couldn’t imagine what scenario would’ve delayed them, but she'd started to hold out hope that some ill fate fell upon them, and that was why they hadn’t returned sooner. You’re not dealing with intellectuals. Maybe he was just the quiet type and they didn’t notice his absence, but the way your luck has been? They’re going to go back to that town.
If there were more towns in the area, it was possible they thought they’d lost him elsewhere.
Stop. It’s all bull shit. They’ll go back.
A sigh escaped her lips as she thought of Lexi, the one the Herald had called “The Heroine of Triangle City.” The awe she felt when she’d first met Lexi returned in full force as she remembered that day. People with faith in Nina had put her with Lexi, who gave her a gift no one else could ever match. Though the side effects had finally appeared, and she was suffering as she starved out here, that gift had to be repaid. She could live forever.
