Vigilante Dawn

by Ralph Compton

  Chapter 2

  In any family, being the youngest child had its advantages. The Pekoe clan wasn’t any different. Raised on a small Iowa farm, the children were doted on by their mother and worked harder than a rented mule by their father. Jarrett’s older sister lived with her husband in Virginia, and the next one in line was Kyle, who’d died of a fever in the winter of ’78. That had left Jarrett to maintain the family name in business and Norris to provide a few more branches of the family tree. Even if Norris had only contributed a few kind words at the occasional family picnic, their mother would have put him up for sainthood.

  Surely Norris had put some small amount of thought into how he would announce himself while making his grand entrance at the Lazy J. No matter what idea he came up with, even if he’d cobbled it together in less time than it took for a nut to fall from a tree, Norris would expect it to be received with an abundance of enthusiasm from anyone within eyeshot. Jarrett took no small amount of pleasure from the thought that he was popping his brother’s bubble before it had gotten much of a chance to float. It did the baby of the family some good to be treated like the rest every now and then.

  Jarrett amused himself with these thoughts after having opened the gate and positioning himself in the middle of the road directly behind it. He’d planned to stay there, staring at his brother to let Norris know that he wasn’t the only one who could arrange a surprise. The wagon rolled toward him, but at a snail’s pace. Both of the children rode their horses at least five yards away from it on either side and were keeping their distance. There was no possible way any of them could have overlooked the fact that Jarrett was waiting for them, and yet nobody had shouted a word to him.

  Not one excited holler from Grace or Scott.

  Not a single brotherly taunt from Norris or even a wave from his brother’s wife.

  After a few more seconds of the strange silence, Jarrett started to worry. Perhaps someone was sick. Maybe there had been harsh words passed between members of the family. One of them might have been injured during the ride. The longer Jarrett considered the possibilities, the more gruesome and terrible they became. Finally he forced them out of his mind completely.

  “Enough of this,” he said as he snapped his reins. “Guess I’ll have to get a look for myself.”

  As he rode closer toward the wagon, Jarrett realized how impatient he’d gotten in a relatively short amount of time. The wagon wasn’t really moving that slow. It was just being pulled by tired horses and driven by what was most likely a tired man. Within the space of a minute, he was able to make out the faces of Norris and his wife. Even from a distance, Jarrett could tell his brother was not his normal self.

  Jarrett got such an uneasy feeling from the look on his brother’s face that he pulled back on his reins a little early so as not to draw any of the ire that was brewing on the faces of both Norris and his wife. Norris pulled his reins as well to slow the covered wagon before plowing straight over their welcoming committee.

  “Imagine my surprise!” Jarrett said cheerily. “You all are early.”

  The only responses he got were heavy breaths from the wagon’s two-horse team and the creak of the wheels as they rolled to a stop. Norris had a rounded face and cheeks that would perpetually make him look five to ten years younger than he truly was. His sandy brown hair might have been thinning a bit in front, but the rumpled way it framed his face still had a boyish quality. Whenever Jarrett thought about his brother, he pictured Norris laughing, shouting, or giving some other overly emotional display. That was a far cry from the weary visage he wore on this day.

  “How was the ride?” Jarrett asked. “Did you run into any bad weather?”

  Norris shook his head as if in response to a voice that only he could hear.

  Shifting his eyes to Norris’s left, Jarrett wasn’t surprised to find a vaguely sour expression on his sister-in-law’s face. She never did like Jarrett very much, and the only time she’d done more than simply tolerate his presence was on her wedding day. After that, she’d endured the occasional visit only slightly better than before, which Jarrett had always assumed was for the children’s benefit. She wasn’t an ugly girl. Her thick black hair was always well brushed and couldn’t be contained by the bonnet she wore. A thin face gave her something of a mousy quality, which Jarrett had never found appealing in anyone.

  “Good to see you, Jen,” Jarrett said to her. “You’re looking well.”

  She scowled silently at him, which really wasn’t much different from her usual greeting.

  “So,” Jarrett said, “did you take a shortcut or did you just whip those horses to within an inch of their lives?” Since Norris and Jen merely looked nervously at each other, he asked, “Where are the kids? Perhaps they’ll be more conversational.” Turning toward the sound of hooves beating against the dirt, he shouted, “That you, Scotty? You must’ve grown a foot since the last time I’ve seen you!”

  “Jarrett,” Norris sighed. “I . . . I . . .”

  “Well, now! He finally speaks,” Jarrett chuckled. “And here I was thinking the little woman had taken your tongue out.”

  The brothers had weathered plenty of hard times together. They’d seen each other through as many trials as triumphs, but in all those years Jarrett hadn’t seen this particular expression on his younger sibling’s face. “What is it, Norris?” he asked.

  Norris grew increasingly anxious as his children’s horses approached the back of the wagon. “I’m sorry, Jarrett. Truly I am.”

  The bottom had never fallen out of Jarrett’s stomach so quickly. Although it was his nature to assume the worst of most any situation, he rarely thought those worries would come to pass. When he got a whiff of something terrible drawing closer to him and his kin, it was all Jarrett could do to compose himself. “What’s happened, Norris? Tell me.”

  “They got to us yesterday,” Norris explained. “I tried to shake loose of them before bringing them here, but . . .”

  Twitch was getting increasingly nervous and for a change Jarrett himself couldn’t blame him. Rather than try to rein in the animal, he allowed it to back up a few steps from the wagon. That little bit of extra space allowed him to get a better look at one of the riders that had been accompanying his brother. Norris’s son and daughter had both been taller than most anyone else their age, but the person holding the reins of this approaching horse was definitely no child.

  “Who the hell are you?” Jarrett asked. “Where are Grace and Scotty?”

  The man in the saddle had a slender build, which seemed even more so owing to his slouched posture and slumped shoulders. His skin resembled starched sailcloth that had been draped on a wire frame. He gripped his reins tightly in one hand while the other hung within a few inches of a holstered pistol. Grinning beneath a mustache consisting of irregularly spaced hairs scattered unevenly on his lip, he said, “They’re just fine. Don’t you worry none about that.”

  Scowling at the stranger, Jarrett said, “You didn’t answer my first question.”

  “Don’t get yer feathers ruffled. How about we all get on the other side of that fence so we can have a word like civilized folk?”

  “Don’t give orders to me. This is my spread and these are my kin. Tell me who the hell you are before I send you away.”

  “Send me away? Now, that ain’t no way to treat a guest.”

  As those words were spoken, the second horse that had been traveling alongside Norris came around the back end of the wagon. This one had a slender build as well but made himself look even slighter by hunching over. Once he sat up fully and put on his hat, he looked to have a build similar to Jarrett’s and was at least eight years his junior. He drew his .45 without so much as a how-do-you-do.

  Calming Twitch with a few subtle gestures and a nudge from one foot, Jarrett placed his hand on the gun holstered at his side. Unbeknownst to him, Norris had climbed down from the
driver’s seat to approach him from behind.

  “No,” Norris said. “Don’t draw that pistol.”

  “I want an explanation,” Jarrett said. “Right now.”

  Chapter 3

  “Just simmer down, Jarrett,” Norris said. “Let me explain.”

  Jarrett wasn’t about to take his eyes off the two riders when he told his brother, “You’re not the one that needs to explain himself.”

  “You’d best think twice before touching that gun again,” the second rider announced. “Or this little visit is gonna get bloody.”

  “Shut up, Dave,” the first rider said.

  Even though the second rider outweighed his skinny partner by a considerable amount, he deferred to him without a struggle.

  “Where are the children?” Jarrett asked in a voice that was drawn tighter than a bowstring.

  “They’re fine,” Norris replied. “They’re both fine.”

  Finally looking away from the two strangers, Jarrett glanced at his brother when he asked, “You sure about that?”

  “Of course I am.”

  Comforted by the truth he saw in that familiar face, Jarrett shifted his focus back to the strangers. “Tell me who you are.”

  The skinnier of the two riders shifted in his saddle to place his hand a bit closer to his holstered weapon. “We,” he said, “are the men in charge of this for the time being. That makes you the folks who will listen to what we say and do what we tell you to do.”

  Because Twitch needed so much encouragement, the horse was finely attuned to a complicated set of Jarrett’s movements. All it took was a little nudge to get the horse slowly walking toward the skinny rider.

  “I don’t want any trouble,” Jarrett said.

  “Good,” the skinny man replied. “Neither do we.”

  Another nudge steered Twitch so the skinny rider was between Jarrett and the second stranger.

  “If it’s money you’re after, I’ll give it to you,” Jarrett said to him.

  Clearly the younger gunman was getting anxious. He pulled his reins one way and then another to keep a clear line of sight fixed on Jarrett. “Damn right you’ll give it to us,” he snapped. “You ain’t got a choice.”

  Turning to shoot a warning glare at his partner, the skinny gunman barked, “Dave, I told you to shut the hell up and that’s what you’ll—”

  The instant the gunman’s eyes were on Dave instead of him, Jarrett tapped a heel against Twitch’s side. The gelding lurched forward with a start, giving Jarrett a bit of added momentum as he straightened both legs in the stirrups to send him flying at the closest stranger. Jarrett stretched out both arms and grabbed whatever he could of the skinny man’s clothing. They collided in a tangle of flailing limbs.The other man’s saddle horn gouged Jarrett in the ribs and took the breath from his lungs.

  The two of them couldn’t have struggled atop that horse’s back for long, but Jarrett felt each moment stretch into an eternity. He guessed he was lying sideways across the stranger’s saddle but couldn’t be absolutely certain. It was all he could do to hang on to the other man to keep him from getting to his gun and keep himself from falling off. Jarrett lost the second battle fairly quickly but managed to win the first by dragging the stranger down with him.

  They landed hard on the ground. Jarrett hit first, but the other man didn’t drop on top of him because one of his feet was still caught in a stirrup. Scrambling to get his legs beneath him, Jarrett reached for his holster and flipped away the leather thong that had kept his Colt revolver from slipping out during the fall.

  “Drop the pistol!” Dave shouted.

  Still wobbly on his feet, Jarrett took a moment to get his bearings. His hand was still pressed against the .38 at his side and he wasn’t exactly anxious to remove it.

  Dave glowered down at him from his horse, taking aim over the top of his firearm. “I said drop it!”

  This wasn’t Jarrett’s first scrape where guns had come into play, but it had higher stakes than any other fight of which he’d taken part. For that reason alone, he steeled himself with a quick breath and dropped to a knee while making a quick grab for his Colt. Dave was either surprised by the move or reluctant to fire out of fear of hitting his partner, because Jarrett somehow managed to draw the .38 before getting burned down in the process.

  Jarrett pulled his trigger without taking a moment to aim. If he’d been an experienced gunman, he might have actually hit something. As it was, the only thing his bullet did was burn a trail into the sky.

  “Jarrett, stop!”

  That plea came from Norris, but Jarrett was too deeply invested in what he’d started to pull back now. Dave had swung down from his horse to position himself in a spot better suited to taking a clear shot. He fired once, sending a bullet whipping past Jarrett’s head toward the wagon. Terrified screams came from within the canvas cover, letting him know that the children were alive and well enough to know what was going on.

  It had been pure instinct that caused Jarrett to glance toward the wagon. He caught sight of a young girl looking out, and when he snapped his gaze forward again, he was staring straight down the barrel of Dave’s pistol.

  Jarrett’s entire world ground to a halt.

  “All of you,” the skinny gunman said through a series of heavy breaths. “Just take a breath and stop this right now.”

  Dave gritted his teeth while steadying his aim. “This one’s too much trouble, Clay. He’ll just take another run at us.”

  “No. He won’t. Ain’t that right, hero?”

  Jarrett’s heart was slamming with too much force against his battered ribs for him to form an answer.

  “Turn around,” Clay said in a voice that was already steadier than it had been a moment ago.

  As much as he didn’t want to do anything the gunmen said, Jarrett heard a muffled whimpering that convinced him otherwise. Rather than turn his back to Dave, he took a few shuffling steps so he could get a look at the wagon while keeping the younger gunman at the edge of his field of vision. He had to fight to maintain his composure when he saw that frightened little face he’d glimpsed not too long ago.

  “Grace?” Jarrett gasped. “Honey, are you all right?”

  The girl was indeed taller than the last time he’d seen her, but the terror etched into her eyes as she was held tightly by the skinny gunman made her seem small and all too vulnerable. Clay now stood behind her and slightly to one side. One of his hands was clamped over her mouth and the other held a pistol, which he pointed at her temple.

  “Let her go!” Norris demanded.

  Jen screamed from the driver’s seat, too frightened to move and now horrified by what she might find if she did.

  “Shut up!” Dave barked. “You know better than to speak ’less you’re the one that’s spoken to!”

  Jarrett didn’t have to see his brother to know what he was thinking. It was what any man would be thinking when he saw his family threatened.

  “Everyone settle in before things get worse,” Clay said. Looking to Jarrett, he asked, “When are your men going to come this way again?”

  “This is a small spread,” Jarrett explained. “I don’t have a lot of men working for me.”

  “We know you’ve got regulators riding your fence line. Either tell me when to expect them or I’ll cut my losses here, starting with this one,” Clay said while jamming the barrel of his pistol even harder against Grace’s head.

  Jarrett struggled to come up with another course of action, but he simply couldn’t find it. Reluctantly he said, “They’re repairing a section of fence south of here.”

  “How many more are there?”

  “Three, but they’re not all armed. Some are just hired hands. There’s no need to hurt anyone.”

  “They may not be armed, but you are,” Clay said. “Do what my partner kindly asked you and dr
op that pistol.”

  Every inch of Jarrett’s body wanted to let go of the Colt and do anything else that would result in Grace being released from that killer’s grasp. He knew nothing of these men, but he’d already seen enough to be certain they would have no problem doing something as cowardly as shooting an innocent child to get whatever the hell it was they wanted.

  And yet there was one thing that kept Jarrett from doing what he’d been told. “If I let go of this gun,” he said, “that just means you’ll take another prisoner to do with as you please.”

  “In case you haven’t noticed,” Clay said, “we can already do what we please.”

  “For Pete’s sake, do what they want!” Jen shouted. She must have been climbing down from the driver’s seat, because Dave took a few long steps in that direction while pointing his gun at her.

  “You wanna die?” Dave snarled.

  “You want me to believe we’ll live if I help you?” Jarrett said before he had time to stop himself.

  As Jen sobbed into her trembling hands, Norris reached out to his brother and said, “Don’t do this. It won’t help.”

  “Listen to him, hero,” Clay sneered.

  “There’s more than just these two to worry about,” Norris continued.

  Jarrett’s eyes snapped toward his brother. “How many more?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You haven’t seen them?”

  “Damn it, why won’t you ever listen to me?” Norris said with mounting urgency. “You think I’d just stand by and let these two animals hurt my family?”

  “No, but you were alone until now,” Jarrett said. “Not anymore. If we’re going to put an end to this, it’s got to be here and now before—”

  Dave thumbed back the hammer of his pistol while snarling, “I’ll end it, sure enough.”