“Don’t talk ‘bout my Jimmy like that. He saved me from that man. I owe him my life.”
“He’s taken your life again and again, honey. You can’t tell me every time he sells your private pleasures for the night, and you know that he knows what those men are doing to you, that you don’t die a little bit inside?”
“How do you know about that?” Purity’s voice cracked as she issued the sharp demand.
“I’m not your cloistered little sister anymore.”
For a long drawn out moment, they sat in silence. Purity took the rest of Justice’s drink and downed it. Purity set the glass down and looked at her with a broken, wild-eyed expression. It made the terrible memories come rushing back and hit Justice in the pit of her stomach.
****
They ran. Justice towed Purity along behind her, knowing that her ankle could be broken, but not allowing her to stop. They had to keep running. It had been a mistake for them to go on foot without protection and now they were pursued by drunken Union deserters.
They had left the convent only days before, their sisters buried, their old lives over, and their only option to journey to a new town and new lives. When a group of noble soldiers had offered to escort the sisters, they had naively accepted. It was only later that they had found out what nefarious intentions the men had held. When one of the men had tried to rape poor, traumatized Grace, the sisters had run. Purity had fought Grace’s attacker like a wildcat, but when he’d kicked her she had fallen and broken her ankle.
Hindered by their cumbersome dresses, the sisters were no match for the deserters. They began to catch up, coming close enough for one of them to grab Purity by the skirt and swing her to face him, hitting her in the face. Justice skidded to a stop, turning back to Purity.
“That’s what you get, whore. Don’t you ever attack me again,” spat the man who had tried to rape Grace.
Justice lashed out. Her knee pounded into their attacker’s groin and he collapsed, groaning. She heaved Purity’s arm over her shoulder again and tried to run, but Purity’s limp had gotten worse. Justice couldn’t allow her to stop, better to be lame for life than dead or raped. Grace was nowhere to be seen.
A gunshot startled her and Justice turned. Two rough looking cowboys appeared over the horizon, riding up behind the soldiers, guns drawn, bullets flying. It happened quickly. Justice watched the soldiers fall from their horses like stones, unable to even call out before they were dead in the sand. The sisters finally stopped running. Justice helped Purity sit and began to assess the damage to her ankle.
The cowboys rode up beside them. Justice began to gush her thanks, but the words she heard cut her thanks short.
“Okay, Heath which one of them gals you want? We split the heist money, let’s split these little beauties too.”
Hugh’s friend looked uncertain. “I don’t know Hugh, seems wrong to just pick ‘em up and take ‘em with us.”
“I want the damaged one with the nice hair. It’ll be easier to keep her. I’m going south, Heath, you go north. You do what you want with the other.”
Justice tried to fight Hugh off her sister. He pounced before they even had the chance to run. He grabbed the hysterical Purity, pulling her across his horse, and galloping off. Justice didn’t even have a chance against his strength and his horse. Screaming, she tried to run after her sister and her captor. It was at least a mile before she realized how impossible it was to catch the horse. With lack of food and water taking a higher toll than grief, her body collapsed, unconscious in the sand.
****
Purity turned away which helped Justice clear the cobwebs of bad memories. She helped her drunken sister up and together they found the dressing room. Daisy, one of the newer, younger girls was getting ready for her turn on stage. She gave Justice a dirty look. Justice’s short temper snapped and she slammed her fist down on the vanity table where the woman was applying the last of her abundant cosmetics.
“You got a problem?” Justice demanded.
“I don’t like lesbians and drunks in here while I’m getting ready.”
“I don’t see any lesbians or drunks here, bitch, so I think you need to apologize!”
“You might be in a corset, but you act like a man.” Daisy sneered. “No straight girl would want to scare away men like you do and it ain’t right, you robbing places and gun slinging like you do.”
“I’ll show you how fast I can draw these guns if you don’t apologize for your filthy mind and mouth!”
“I’m ain’t goin’ to.”
As Justice raised her fist to give Daisy a lovely shiner and ruin her made up face, a loud, barking shout made her turn. Jimmy and a very well built companion stood in the doorway, blocking the light from the hallway with their imposing bodies, darkening the room. Jimmy spoke directly to Justice, but she noticed that both Purity and Daisy cowered.
“Don’t you dare mess up my product. Daisy needs that pretty li'l face to bring in the money, don't you, doll? Get out there and shake that money maker.”
Daisy scurried to the door. Jimmy smacked her ass loudly as she rushed past them and Daisy gave a startled yelp. Jimmy laughed, a deep, crass belly laugh, but his companion didn’t seem to find it funny. Justice stared the pimp down, hard. She had little tolerance for those that preyed upon the weak and downtrodden and Jimmy’s entire business was built on the pain of others.
“What you want ‘round here, Justice? I know you’ve done right by me in the past when there’s been trouble here, but if you lay a finger on my girls I’ll kill you myself.”
“I didn’t stop the Grover Brothers for you. I did it for my sister. My business with her is a family matter. If you ever try to kill me, Jimmy, you’ll find out how quick you can die.”
Jimmy didn’t say a word, but he backed down like the coward he was, no longer grinning. The other man watched the exchange impartially. Justice wasn’t sure what it was about his level gaze that irritated her.
“Let’s go,” Jimmy said to his companion. As the two men walked into the hall, Justice heard him add— “That’s the one I was telling you about, the girl with steel balls.”
Justice scowled. She was as feminine as any other woman- she just used a gun better than most men did. Unfortunately, her skills tended to emasculate every man in her general vicinity.
“What do you want, Justice?” Purity demanded, drunkenly.
“It’s Grace. I think I might have found her.”
Purity sat up a little straighter. The news infiltrated her drunken haze, sobering her momentarily. “Where is she?”
“I think she’s in Santa Fe. I want you to come with me to look for her. If we can find her I think we should all be together.”
“I don’t care what happened to that little coward. If she’d stayed to fight, maybe we could have fought them off. We’d have at least had a chance.”
“Do you remember how scared and tore up her mind was? She wouldn’t have been any help. God works in all things. I might not be a nun anymore, but I haven’t forgotten Him. I’m just not worthy of Him anymore.”
“Bullshit, after everything, can you really be telling me to have faith? Get real, Sis. And get out of my face.”
“Please, Purity, let’s just go.”
“I don’t associate with gun slingers. Go be a hero somewhere else. I can’t stand to look at you!”
Hurt, too tired to fight any longer, Justice left her irate sister. She knew Purity blamed her for not saving her from Hugh. Because of Hugh, Purity was living such a different life than she had ever dreamed of living. It had taken her an entire year for Justice to find Purity and by then the damage seemed done. Justice could do nothing except try and reach out to the suffering woman. If only Hugh had taken her instead of Purity, she would at least have one sister left in her life. Finding Grace was her obsession. Missing the girl left a dull ache in her heart, a constant reminder that no one was safe in Texas.
Someday, Purity would come around and understand. Jus
tice just hoped it happened before Purity lay dying of a social disease. If Jimmy’s temper didn’t kill her first, her lifestyle would certainly finish her off. Not that Justice was one to talk— her own life would certainly end in a hail of bullets. It hadn’t taken her long to come to terms with death—life was what worried her. She knew she lived with the welcome mat out for Death and that knowledge made her even more intent on finding Grace. She had let her sisters down, but hope for making amends kept her going each day.
As Justice walked down the dark hallway toward the back exit, a hand shot out of the darkness and grabbed her arm. She yelped, but she had her gun pointed into the shadows before the sound of her fear died away.
She cleared her throat. “You’d better come into the light and state your intent,” she said harshly. “I don’t kill for nothing, but if I feel threatened that’s not nothing to me, buddy.”
A masculine chuckle, sinfully sexy, emerged from the darkness.
“I’d put that down. I don’t kill women, but I hear you’re as tough as any man is and you kill just as quick.” When he spoke, his voice was rich like warm brandy and soft as velvet. It made Justice suddenly very aware that she was a woman. “I guess I could make an exception for you, but it’d be a helluva waste, Beauty, so let’s put our weapons down.”
“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” Justice replied, hand on her gun. “I can’t see you in the darkness. How can I trust you?”
He chuckled again. She hadn’t imagined it, the man sounded like sex. Justice was still a virgin, but she had certainly heard and seen enough, running with her rough crowd, to understand the complex mechanics of the act. If done right, it could be a very nice time. She just hadn’t found a man who could touch her heart. She had held that part of herself apart from who she had become. She had also held out the hope that if she died pure of body, it might balance out the unclean life she lead.
The voice stepped forward, and Justice had to back up. Close up, the man was even taller then she had thought when he had stood next to Jimmy. Life hadn’t been soft for him, his body was a machine made of sinew and muscle and he didn’t have an ounce of fat to spare.
“Why did you grab me?” Justice demanded. Her voice sounded soft and uncertain to her own ears.
His bright blue eyes crinkled charmingly and his row of white teeth was bright in the darkness. His smile was wicked, but it made his face even more handsome. Justice was tempted to move the lock of thick dark brown hair out of his face, but she managed to restrain herself.
“I have a very profitable proposition for you. I’d like you to help me rob a train. Just the two of us, less people to split the profits with, are you in?”
“How do you think the two of us can pull it off?” Justice balked. “I’ve never been involved in a robbery with less than four people!”
“You, little lady, will be able to walk right up to the gold. We won’t even have to draw our guns.”
“You’re crazy.”
“I’m not crazy. I’ll even buy your train ticket.”
“I’m a wanted woman. I can’t very well stroll onto a train. There are wanted posters everywhere, with my picture all over them.”
“I’ve seen those pictures, sweetness. You in that lovely hat and that lovely trench coat, with your hair up under your hat? You look like a young man in the posters, not a woman. You could easily board a train in a respectable dress and loose hair. Not a single passenger would suspect you. I’ll even buy you a nice dress. What do you say?”
“You’re not a lawman, right?”
His laugh was loud and honest.
“Honey, I’ve been called a lot of things but ‘lawman’ isn’t one of them. You’d know who I am if you went north to Montana. My wanted posters out number yours two to one. I’m not exactly a law abiding citizen.”
“I need to think about this. I’m no coward, but I’m no fool and it’s a ballsy plan,” Justice told him. “I’ll be at the boarding house down the street until Friday. Come see me Friday morning and I’ll give you my answer.” She ended with a curt nod. As she left the alley she realized she had never even asked Sexy his name. It made her grit her teeth at her own stupidity. How was she supposed to investigate a nameless man?
****
When she arrived at Lucy’s boarding house, the matronly woman gave a quick cry and rushed over to her.
“Child, I’ve missed you something fierce!” Lucy cried, hugging Justice as though she were a long lost daughter, “You look like you need a good meal and a bath. Come in. I’ve got a nice room just waiting for you.”
Justice had saved Lucy’s son’s life when he had found himself indebted to some thugs. The men had taken him out into the wilderness to kill him. Justice had brought the young man back home alive.
Lucy had taken more than one bullet out of Justice and had lovingly nurtured her through her recovery on those occasions. Coming back to Lucy’s was as close as she ever got to a homecoming.
Justice hugged the woman back and followed her inside. Exhausted and ready for the promised comforts, Justice inhaled the clean lavender scent of the boarding house as they walked inside. It felt good to be home.
Chapter Three
Where was she? She couldn’t remember what she had been doing before she had gone to sleep. She could feel the hard ground underneath her thin bedroll. A canvas tent was over her, dark in the dusk. Memory came flooding back in terrible, painful flashes. Her sisters were gone. She was alone. Her eye caught a strange weapon, different from any she had ever seen before, but a gun was a gun. She grabbed it off the ground just as heavy footsteps sounded outside the tent and a head popped into the flap. Shaking, Justice pointed the weapon at the interloper. She had killed the man at the rectory and she would kill this one too if necessary.
“Hey there, little lady.” His voice was shaky, as if scared, and youthful. “I’m not like Hugh. You were lying in the sand and I thought about just leaving you, but well, my mama taught me better than that. You’re safe here. I ain’t a dirty rapist.”
Justice didn’t lower the weapon, but she stopped shaking.
“Where is my sister?” she questioned him accusingly. “Why didn’t you go after her?”
“I’m no fool either,” the man answered, “Hugh woulda killed me as soon as look at me if I went and followed him. We left the rest of the gang for a reason. We’ve traveled together too long. It was time we went in many directions so the law couldn’t follow. Now, I’m no saint, but I’d never hurt a woman. I’m sorry but I can’t help your sister.”
“I have to get her back!” Justice cried.
Heath had the courtesy to look a little ashamed. “There ain’t a thing we can do about it. Hugh’d shoot us both if we tried to help her. He’s never killed a woman, so at least that’s something.”
It was little comfort to Justice.
“I assume you are a thief,” Justice said. “I guess I can’t judge you. I used to be a nun, kind of still might be one.”
“You’re a nun? Jesus!” He looked horrified. “Oh Goddamn! Oh, I’m so sorry for my mouth.”
She couldn’t help her short bark of laughter, as awful as things were it was either laugh or cry and she had never been much of a crier.
“It’s alright. You’re Heath, right?”
“Yeah, I’m Heath. I can take you back to your convent right away.”
“No, I can’t go back there.” She hefted the gun again. “Heath, there is something that you can do for me.”She extended the weapon. “I want you to teach me how to use this, properly.”
Heath’s eyes grew large and round and she heard him mutter, “Jesus” under his breath.
****
Justice shook herself from her reverie and strapped her guns on before tossing the last of her possessions in her suitcase and snapping it shut. She had tried to speak to Purity again, but gotten nowhere. Love and hate were too close kin. It made it harder for her sister to see that she wasn’t a monster.
Lucy
was waiting for her by the door when she had finally finished packing and was ready to leave the safe, loving comfort of the boarding house. Tears filled Lucy’s eyes when she saw Justice walk down the stairs. Justice’s boots and trench coat were fresh after a loving cleaning by the matron and Justice wore a new corset and black leather britches. Her hat sat proudly on her head. She knew that Lucy would love to see her in a sweet calico dress and high button boots, but that part of her had died a long time ago. Justice was much more herself in her current ensemble. Hugging Lucy briefly, Justice shoved an envelope in her hands and whispered, “Don’t open that until I’m long gone, okay, Lucy?”
The boarding house owner looked confused, but she nodded. Justice gave her a small smile. Three hundred dollars in small bills would go a long way for the woman and Justice owed her every penny for all the times in the last few years Lucy had bandaged and sheltered her. Not that she had ever asked for repayment.
Blinking into the hot, bright, morning sunlight, Justice dropped her pack and took her sun goggles out of her bag. She took off her hat, slipped the leather strap over her head and tucked her hat into her pack for safekeeping.
She patted a big stallion on the rump as she walked past a line of horses at a trough. He whinnied and snorted. He would be very unhappy in a moment when she started up her motorcycle. Fast, steam powered, gleaming, and beautiful, she tied her bag onto the back seat of her most prized possession and flicked a speck of dust from the seat. Justice hated leaving it out in the open like this. She would have to find a nice barn to hunker down in so she could clean all the sand and grit out of its parts.
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