by Jake Logan
They both laughed.
Under the stars, he led the bay from the jail hitch rack to the stables. He woke the hostler and told him the sheriff had sent him to trade for another of his horses.
“Huh? Huh? Got a lot of nerve sending you down here in the middle of the night.” Coughing interrupted his grumbling as he made his way with a lamp back in the barn to where two stout horses stood by themselves in a tie stall. The first one turned back to look at Slocum, and he caught the look in his eye.
“This one will do.”
“High-priced dudes,” the old man mumbled. “One you brought in looks wrung out.”
“He is, but he’s not hurt.”
“Well, I’ll look him over in the daylight.”
“Fine,” Slocum said, not interested in the old man’s problems. He led the fresh horse out and quickly changed saddles. He put his kac on the chestnut horse, thanked the old man, and headed for the door.
“Wait, I’ll bring the light.”
“I’m fine,” he said, nearly outside.
“What was your name so I can tell him who got his hoss?”
He stepped in the stirrup out under the stars. “Slocum.” And he rode off.
At night, he wouldn’t make a great target for that shooter whoever he was. The new bay threatened to buck. They went sideways up the dark street for a block. The bay danced on his toes. The whole time, Slocum patted his neck and tried to talk him out of breaking in two.
Who could that shooter be? He needed to solve that, too.
Chapter 17
Dawn gilded the far sawtooth range in gold. He came off the same ridge where he’d dropped his saddle that first morning. The chestnut gelding had earned his name, Big Man, by the time Slocum reined him up at the house.
“Slocum,” Bob called out. “Coffee is on. I have some oatmeal ready. Come on in.”
He hitched Big Man at the rack, loosened the girth, and went to the porch. She stood in the doorway, cradling a cup of coffee in her hands, as he washed up.
“Well, how is it going?” he asked.
She shook her head with mischief dancing in her eyes. “I never thought you’d come back to see me ever again.”
“I’m here.” He shrugged, drying his hand on a flour-sack towel.
She looked off to the north, then stepped back. “There’s water running in the tank up there.”
“You hit it?”
She nodded, biting her lower lip. “Haney says it needs to be opened up and we’ll have lots of water.”
“Your brother is on his way home.”
“Oh, Slocum, won’t he be excited about the water?”
“I’d say so. Where’s Haney?”
“He and Dan went to Barlowville. There’s some pipe up there at an abandoned mine that they think they can make a valve for to turn the water off and on.”
She stepped back for him to enter and hung a hand on his shoulder. “I’m so glad that you came when we could be alone.”
At the table, he put his hands on her waist. “So I guess you aren’t committed to anyone.”
“Committed to anyone. You tease.” Her hands went around his neck and she kissed him.
“Do I have time to eat?”
“I may feed you.”
“Good. Sit on my lap.”
She let him sit down, then moved in. Wiggling herself in place, she filled a spoon with oatmeal. He leaned forward, hugging her, to take it off the spoon. Then chewing it slowly, he considered the buttons on her blouse. With his left hand, he reached in and unbuttoned them one at time.
With his next mouthful ready for him on the spoon, she drew in her breath. “This may be hard.”
“Hard?”
She blushed. “That, too.”
He gently massaged her firm breasts, kissed the side of her face, and savored her closeness—the sweet lilac smell of her perfume. Eating oatmeal soon took second place. She straddled his lap and leaned back so he could feast on her rock-hard nipples. The world began to swirl. Her flesh tasted sweet and the whole thing was heady enough to make him dizzy.
Filled with a strong need for her, he swept her up and carried her to the fresh-made bed.
They scrambled to undress, not wanting the fire to diminish one flicker. Then they were on the bed skin to skin. With his rising erection between her legs, they dove into kissing. Her tight breasts were between them and that reminded him of their taste and condition. As they lay side by side, his hand ran over her pubic hair, and slid downward when she parted her legs for him. His middle finger soon probed her, and she moaned as he worked her slowly but surely.
Out of breath, she gasped. “Yes. Yes.”
At her words, he moved over her and she bent her knees to give him access. His hard shaft eased into her and she clutched his forearms. With the back of her calves on his shoulders, he began to make hard thrusts in her tight pussy.
The faster he went, the louder she cried out. “Oh, yes. Oh, yes.”
Sweat began to grease his belly from his efforts. His breath came in short gulps, and then two needles speared deep in his butt and he went to the bottom of her well.
Fire spewed out the head of his dick, and they collapsed.
“Oh, Slocum. I know this will be our last time, but I won’t ever forget it. I swear I won’t.”
He put the side of his hand under her chin, raised her face, and then sipped honey from her mouth.
Then they dressed and he finished his cold oatmeal. Afterward, they rode up to the new well. Before he dismounted, he could see the liquid coming out was impressive.
“Haney says it’ll do much better than that when he gets it open all the way. If they can make a valve to shut it off when I don’t need the water.”
“It’ll be great. I come back next time, I want to smell alfalfa hay.” He hugged her shoulder when she joined him.
“You will. I wish Daddy was here to see this happening. He’d sure have loved the notion.”
“You’re carrying on a great tradition. Searle will be here soon to help you finish the project.”
“And Haney.” She shook her head in defeat. “He’s such a serious guy, but you were right—he’s much more of a man than I first thought and he’s smart.”
“You three will build an empire.”
She looked at the sky for help.
“I’m not kidding. And Harte likes the sheriff job enough, he never denied he’d run for the office when I teased him about Gloria.”
“What about Gantry? Where’s he?”
“Taking potshots at possible witnesses.” Earlier, he’d told her about the ambush.
“You think it was him?”
Slocum nodded. “You keep an eye out.”
“Oh, I will. Where are you going next?”
“Those Kansas deputies will be here in a day or so. I need to vanish. Harte can handle things with the deputy U.S. marshal and his own new crew. I figure that Gantry will show up and they’ll arrest him.”
“You know I won’t forget you. Finding those doubloons and all you’ve done for us—for me.”
“Hey, you loaned me a horse, remember?”
“Big deal.” She feigned hitting him in the chest with her gloved fist. “You better ride out and now. I can’t stand to be around you without thinking about doing it—again.”
He agreed, kissed her quickly, and headed for Big Man. Mounted, he checked the powerful horse and waved to her—then he rode off. With a heavy heart, he short-loped the gelding. Hard to leave a real woman like Bob. Damn those deputies anyway . . .
By sundown, he was at Marie’s crossroads store. In the twilight, he saw Smoothers come out on the porch with his arm in a sling.
“About time you came by,” the man said.
Undoing his cinch at the hitch rail, Slocum laughed. “Cooking must be good around here.”
“Hell, you should know, you sent me over here.”
“I didn’t figure you’d homestead.”
“Aw, you two quit arguing,” Ma
rie said from the doorway. “Me and that Chinaman’s hungry. Supper’s on.”
Slocum laughed at her as she stood in the doorway.
“Yes, ma’am, I’m coming.” He swept off his hat and bowed.
“Well, wash up and then you can tell me what’s happening,” Smoothers said.
Seated at the table over supper, he told them all about Bob’s well coming in, the new sheriff, Searle coming home, the ambush, Phelps in jail with the two rustlers, Worthington hiding out behind some lawyers in Tucson, and Gantry on the lam.
“And where are you headed?” Smoothers asked Slocum.
Marie passed Smoothers another buttered biscuit. She’d already cut up his meat for him. “Maybe he’s just tired of all the trouble we’ve been having around here,” she said.
“He probably is.”
“It’s time,” Slocum said between bites.
“What do you think about the well?”
“I think I’d like to own a share in Haney Thorpe’s well-drilling business.”
“I may become his partner,” Smoothers said.
“He could use you.”
Lo looked over at them like they were crazy. “Have sawmill, now drill rig. You buy railroad next?”
“Where’s one for sale?” Smoothers asked. They all laughed.
After the meal, he thanked Marie and shook Smoothers’s good hand. She’d told them she had a buyer for the store and that she planned to continue his recuperation at Pine Canyon.
“He may never use it again,” Slocum warned her.
“I thought about that, too.”
He left them holding each other on the porch of the store, and rode on to Harte’s place.
The moon was high when he dropped off the last ridge to the ranch. The pearly light shone on the oxbow in the line of dark cottonwoods. Big Man acted like he knew the place and was anxious to be back. The road was a switchback, and soon spilled him off on the flats and the alfalfa plots.
The night breeze stirred the cottonwoods enough to keep them spinning. He rode up to the hitch rail, looking about for Nevada and his rifle. No sign of him. Slocum dismounted, pulled down the crotch of his pants, and stood for a moment listening to the crickets.
Big Man snorted, and he unlaced the girth.
“Who’s out there?” a woman asked.
“Slocum,” he said.
“Slocum?”
“It ain’t his brother.”
Cora came down the walk in a long dress with a small lamp. “I really didn’t expect you to ever come back—”
“Surprise, surprise. Where’s Nevada?” he asked.
“You can stay?” she asked, putting her hand on his arm.
“I’m traveling through.”
“Put him in the stables.”
“Where’s Nevada?”
“He’s working some cattle. He’ll be back in the morning. I’m fine.”
He shook his head and scowled at her carelessness. “You don’t need to be alone out here. Your brother hasn’t caught Gantry yet.”
“Good, then you can stay and guard me.” She swung on his arm and the lamp waved about in her other hand, sending their shadows dancing in the night. “I feel much safer now.”
“Gantry could be vicious if he gets his hands on you.” He took the saddle off Big Man and put it on a rack. Then he turned him into a stall and slipped the bridle off.
When he hung the headstall and reins on the saddle horn, she blew out the lamp. “We don’t need that anymore.”
She set it down and then snuggled against him. “I am shocked you came back. I thought you’d never come back to me.”
With a hard squeeze, she let go and then stood on her toes to kiss him.
“Now why would you ever think that?” he asked, then kissed away her answer.
When they finished, she held him around the waist. “You want a shower?”
“I could use one, unless you like the smell of horse.”
“With you, I could stand a lot.”
“Water warm?”
“Who cares?” She twirled around and came back to him. “I have you for a night or forever.”
“Tonight.”
“You can’t tell, my web may keep you here.”
“I can.” They reached the shower area and he began to toe off his boots. She started to unbutton the dress’s small buttons down the front. When his boots and socks were off, he shed his vest and the shirt, then his pants. Under the barrels, he looked at the two ropes. “Which one do I pull?”
Shrugging the dress off her shoulders in the starlight, she shook her head. “I’m not sure. Try one.”
The cold spray felt icy on his head and he let go with a shiver.
“Sorry.”
“I’ll get even.”
Her naked form looked like pearl in the moonlight and her blond hair looked silver when she reached the ring of the shower of water. Her hands moved over his body and when she knelt before him, he released the rope, stopping the shower.
The touch of her tongue made him want to stand on his toes. He closed his eyes as she worked on him. Then she took the head in her mouth and the edge of her teeth grazed the skin and made him more excited. Acting anxious to get him off, she jacked on him harder, then slipped it back in her oral cavity and sucked on it with all her might.
When he came, he pulled the wrong rope and the cold water cascaded all over them. She fell on her butt, laughing.
“What a shocker.”
He pulled her up and kissed her hard. “Sorry.”
Then he used the other rope, and they were embraced in a warm shower as they held tight to each other, searching each other’s mouth with a deepening need. Then they wadded up their clothes and hurried to the main house.
Inside, she bolted the door and they ran upstairs in the dim candlelight to her room. She dried her hair with a furious toweling, and he held her from behind by the waist. When she finished, she nestled her butt against him and threw her head back for him to graze on her neck and throat.
In the deep feather bed, they coupled and sought each other for a long time. She came several times. Then she began to contract inside and he felt her clit like a nail on the top of his stiff dick. And a volcano blew the end off the head of his manhood.
Exhausted and limp, they slept in each other’s arms.
Chapter 18
“Señora! Señora!”
Cora bolted up in bed. “For God’s sake, Juanita, what is wrong?”
“Three men are going through the buildings. They tried the front door, but I would not answer it,” the girl said in a loud whisper from behind the door.
Cora looked over at Slocum, who was already pulling on his pants. “Who do you think it could be?”
She hustled into a robe and then let the girl inside her bedroom. “Do you know any of these men?”
“Would she recognize Gantry?” he asked.
Cora shook her head. “She’s from Mexico. Do you think it’s him?”
“Who else would be searching your buildings and trying to get in your house?” He checked the loads in his .44. “I thought he might be hiding at that abandoned place south of here where they held the Bakker girl.”
“I have no idea. I met him twice. Never liked him. He was at some political meetings that Jeff took me to.”
“You girls stay here and lock this door. You have a gun?”
Cora looked taken back. “I do.”
“Use it if they try to get in. I mean shoot through the door.”
“Can I help you?”
He shook his head. “I want you and her safe. Is there anyone else in the house?”
“The cook Maria,” Cora said in a whisper to him as he stood beside the window trying to see where the men were standing.
“Get her up here, too.”
“I’ll go get her,” Juanita said.
“No,” Slocum said, not wanting them apart. “You go together and then you all barricade yourselves in here—take your gun, too.”
“Nothing,” he said, leading the way out on the balcony. “Not if you shoot them first.”
He saw no sign of anyone in the house, and led them to the kitchen. An older woman looked up in shock when he came in the room first.
“Come, Maria,” Cora insisted, and the woman looked dismayed but obeyed, and the three went back up the stairs.
Slocum, revolver in his hand, saw a shadow pass the narrow barred kitchen window. He could hear grit grinding under the man’s soles. Then the man tried the thick back door. His boot crashed against it—then his shoulder. Nothing gave. Slocum eased the latch, and when the man hit it again, the door opened. He fell inside and Slocum bashed him over the head. The man’s pistol went spinning across the tile floor. Slocum closed and bolted the door, then tied the man’s hands behind his back with his kerchief.
The invader looked unfamiliar to him. He dragged him by the collar into a pantry, stuck a sack towel in his mouth for a gag, and then bolted the door shut. He retrieved the pistol off the floor and stuck it in his waistband. Two guns wouldn’t hurt.
Where were the others?
Suddenly, there was a rifle report and glass shattered upstairs. He turned an ear to listen.
“Surrender and come out now!”
Gantry—you sumbitch. Slocum began to breathe hard. There were only two of them left. He had to slip out and take them one at a time.
“Where’s Yodder?” the other guy asked Gantry.
“Around back.”
“No, I can’t find him.”
“He can’t just disappear—”
He’s in the pantry, stupid. Slocum slipped out the back door, taking the key ring off the wall. The door lock worked with the old key to lock position. Not as good as the bar or bolt, but at least it would stop them some if they went to beating at the door.
“Tell Yodder we need to empty our rifles in those upstairs windows.”
“How can I? I can’t find him.”
“Well, maybe he’s taking a shit.”
“No, something’s happened to him.”