by Jake Logan
He was at her side in an instant. Getting on his knees, he set the rifle aside and asked her, “Are you all right?”
“I think so.” She blinked her wet eyes and shook her head. “Sorry I couldn’t warn you that they were here.”
“Who are they?” he asked.
“I never saw them before.” She went inside to get a brush for her hair. She returned, pulling out the tangles with long strokes.
He knelt by the first man. He wasn’t breathing. Slocum went through his pockets, finding thirty pesos and a note in pencil that read:
He lives with a woman named Consuelo. Her place is south of the road that goes to Pecos. She has no children and lives alone. Except he stays there. She has no house address and is in those junipers. Kill him and I don’t care what you do with her, but she doesn’t need to be able to talk about it. Savvy? I will have your money tonight for his demise. Meet me at my warehouse. I will be there about eight o’clock, but if I am late, wait for me. I will pay you a hundred dollars when the job is done.
Proctor
“What did it say?” she asked.
“Proctor told this man he’d pay him a hundred dollars to kill me, and to hurt you, too.”
She frowned at him, shaking her head. “That bastard hasn’t learned a damn thing, has he?”
“No, he hasn’t.”
He turned his attention to the other man, who was trying to talk. “I got a—wife in Laredo. Her name is Sally Raines. Tell—tell her I died in a horse wreck trying to get back to her—tell her . . .”
“Why tell her anything?” Consuelo asked in disgust.
“I doubt I will. Guess he simply wanted one thing in his life done right.”
The man had ten dollars on him and a worn-out letter to Jake Raines from his wife, Sally, showing on the envelope that it had been forwarded six times. In badly scribbled writing, Slocum could only read she wanted him to come home.
She shook her head. “Well, he isn’t going to.”
“I need to meet Proctor tonight at the warehouse.”
“Take me with you.” She shuddered, hugging her arms. “I don’t want to be here alone, without you, after today.”
“They didn’t rape you, did they?”
“No, but they planned to do it. That was all they could talk about besides getting you. I almost told them I had the clap so they wouldn’t. But then I figured they’d kill me instead.”
He hugged her in his arms. “I’m sorry.”
He rocked her back and forth, and she laughed, looking up at him. “What will we do with their bodies?”
“I guess after we settle with Proctor tonight, take them to the sheriff.”
“Won’t he ask lots of questions?”
“What else can we tell him? They kidnapped you, threatened to rape you, then shot at me.”
“Do you have someone we can trust and that will tell him we are being truthful? You can’t haul dead bodies into town and not draw attention.”
“You’re right. And it’s our word against theirs. If we leave them somewhere after midnight, the only ones who’ll see us will be old drunks.”
He raised her chin up and kissed her. Her arms went around his neck as she stood on her toes. “This will be a lot better than taking their bodies to town,” she said, smiling.
Then he swept her up in his arms and carried her inside. When he put her on her feet, she began to undress. “Lots better.”
It was after sundown when they left the two horses with the bodies bound over them hitched in a deserted alley. They hurried over to the dark warehouse, their saddle horses hitched at the rack so Proctor would think they belonged to his two hired killers. The two of them waited in the shadows. Still no Proctor came. Someone must have warned him, Slocum decided, or he took a powder, not wanting to pay.
After he didn’t show up, they took the blanket-covered outlaws’ bodies, still tied over their saddles, downtown, hitched the two ponies in the middle of a horse-crowded hitch rail, and slipped out. Consuelo had led their horses around the corner to wait. When Slocum joined her and swung into his own saddle, they rode slowly up the dark street. Then when they were farther out from the square, they trotted their mounts back to her place.
Where was Proctor? Why hadn’t he shown up to pay the killers? Maybe he was covering his ass in case those boys slipped up. No telling. They’d learn more in the morning.
After the horses were unsaddled and in the pen and fed, Slocum swept Consuelo up in his arms.
“Now I like that kinda warning,” she said.
“What’s that?”
“Well, every time you pick me up in your arms, you take me to bed and we have fun. But at least I am warned. My old man use to come up behind me, then whisper in my ear, ‘Bitch, get your clothes off. I’m gonna fuck you.’”
“Where did you find him?”
“Oh, in a cantina one night. I was sixteen, and he was twenty-five, he said. Told me he had a big ranch and had never been married. It turned out he was almost forty, he’d been married four times, and had plenty of mistresses besides. His little bastards were all over New Mexico. He had a fake priest marry us and we had a honeymoon that night in this jacal. I thought I was married to a wonderful man, but when the sun came up, I decided I was the biggest fool in the territory. There was no going back. I was already a ruined woman and then all I could do was become a puta. When I finally left him, I tried that and they fired me. I was too dumb to even become a whore. He told me this, too, when we were in bed. If I had not found you, I might have hung myself.”
“No, no. You are a good lover. You’ll find yourself a good man when I have to leave.”
“Soon?”
“When I get McKee’s money from Proctor, I need to go back.”
“Oh. When do you expect him to pay you?”
“As soon as I find him, I hope. Then I have one more thing I must do.”
“What is that?”
“Find the man who murdered McKee’s men.”
“And you will. Now hurry and undress,” she said, anxious to have him in bed with her again.
“I am. I am.”
“What will I do without you, hombre?”
He slipped between her raised knees and sank his erection into her. She was sweet, so sweet.
* * *
Slocum was back in town the next morning. The newspaper boy was hawking a headline news story on the square, shouting. “Extra! Extra! Wanted outlaws found dead! Texas highwaymen found tied over their horses on the square!”
Hell, Slocum swore to himself. Those bastards had bounties on their head and he was worried about the local law raising hell about him shooting them. Consuelo would laugh about that when he told her.
He reached Proctor’s large mercantile store and went inside. A man in a suit stopped him with a pad of paper and a pencil. “We aren’t open today. We’re taking inventory for the new owner.”
“He’s all right,” a woman said, coming around the counter. It was Camilla, dressed in a new green outfit that showed off her ample bustline and trim hips. Her blond hair was pinned up, and she looked very appealing for a woman in her early forties.
“Hello, ma’am,” Slocum said, tipping his hat. “It’s a surprise to see you here.”
“The judge ruled that this business was mine as well as Harvey’s, and that he had not done me right and had, obviously, broken the law. He left yesterday before they could serve him with a warrant for his arrest.”
“He hired two men to kill me at the place I was staying. They tried yesterday.”
She nodded. “And their horses carried them back up on the square last night?”
“Yes, they did. Do you know where he’ll go?”
“I have no idea. He did not clean out this safe. I’ve had guards her
e since the judge gave his orders to stop any attempt for him to do that.”
“He must have had other places where he kept money.”
“No doubt. But there is plenty here for me to keep the business going. I am in your debt, sir. I understand that he owes you a thousand dollars for the return of the girls.”
“He owes it to Colonel Gill McKee. I brought the girls and came to collect it for him.”
“He’s a very lucky man to have you. No one would have succeeded at getting that money from my husband. I am prepared to pay it for the safe return of my girls. Come with me.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
“Oh, and my younger daughter is coming home. Her son is at my house now. I am so pleased about that—I hope this will help her find her voice. And Golden is going to marry Elania, who sends you her thanks.”
“You’ve been very busy,” he said, following her into the office.
She turned and smiled. “Yes, and I know I’d not be here today except for one man’s assistance. Yours.”
“No, you had friends.”
She went back and closed the door with the frosted window, obviously for more privacy. Then sitting down on a corner of the desk, she looked appraisingly at him. “I’m going to be quite frank with you.”
“Go ahead.”
“I need eight weeks to line up this business and get it to where Elania and her new husband can handle it. Then I want to meet you somewhere. I’d like to spend a few months with you. They say it is cool down on the Gulf, like in Galveston, in the summer. What if we spent, say, six weeks down there—you and me. I have no intention of getting anything from you except fun and pleasure.”
“Two months from now in Galveston, huh?”
“Yes. Can you be there?” She was squatting down in front of the safe and counting out money. “I’ve already paid Diego the money you borrowed. There is another five hundred in this for you to get down there on and, of course, the colonel’s ransom money.”
Slocum looked into the safe and exclaimed, “That son of a bitch. Hell, woman, this is enough money to choke a horse. He had plenty of cash yet he ran the three of you off?”
“Thank goodness Harvey wasn’t smart enough to hide all of it, was he?”
Slocum swept her up in his arms and kissed her. Her blue eyes looked shocked then she shut them while he kissed her long and hard. No doubt about it. She was vulnerable as hell to his affections after her long term in the institution. The dress rustled like falling leaves when he took it off her. The corset had to be unlaced in the back, and his hands slid in from behind it to cup her firm breasts.
She was panting by then. Throwing her restraining undergarment aside, she turned to hug him. “Don’t look at me.”
“Why not? You’re lovely.”
She sucked in her breath again and hugged him hard. “I feel like a teenage girl again.”
“Be one then.” And she did.
After their tryst, he helped her replace her girdle, and she kissed him.
“I’m really serious about Galveston,” she said.
“If I am not there to meet you, I’ll be coming.”
“I’ll be staying at the Bressler Hotel.”
“I can remember that.” He pulled the lacing tight and she held her breath until he tied it off. Then he spanked her playfully and drew laughter from her.
“If you can’t come, I’ll understand.”
“I’ll be out of touch most of the time until then, but I’ll be there.”
Her hand smoothed his beard stubble. “I do feel like a woman again.”
“I need to gather my things and get back to Texas.”
“I understand.”
He went by to talk to Deveroe. They met in a back booth.
“Can you find me several tough men in a day?”
“How many do you need?”
“Three. I’ll pay them a hundred a man for about a month’s work. “
“Where’re you going?”
“Texas.”
“There’s not a lot of work here. I think I can find them.”
“We can meet here tonight. Leave in the morning.”
“So you’re going back?”
Slocum nodded. “There’s an outlaw out there, murdered some of McKee’s men. I intend to find him and his henchmen. Do you know where Proctor went?”
Deveroe shook his head. “He hightailed it. But I really liked the mystery of the two dead killers.”
“The law got the rewards.”
“Sorry, or I’d have warned you. I had no idea how he got hold of them. He really wanted you gone.”
“His stupidity cost him a fortune.” Slocum shook his head. “The women now have control of his business and money. He’s nowhere to be found, they say.”
“Really brazen, how he had his wife declared insane.” Deveroe was still shocked at the thought. “I’ll have those men here at seven tonight.”
“Good.” He left Deveroe and rode out to Consuelo’s. She rushed out to greet him. “You find Proctor?”
“No, he left. No one knows where he went. I’m going back to Cap Rock and end the problems out there with King and his gang.”
“You told me about him.” She held his arm possessively against her breast as they went inside. “I want you if this is my last chance.”
“I have something for you.”
“Oh,” she said.
“Three hundred dollars.”
She frowned in disbelief. “Why for me?”
“So you can dress better and find yourself a serious man.”
“Oh, you don’t need to do that.”
“Yes, I want you to find a good man. You deserve one.”
“You are so sweet.” Tears began to spill down her face. “I will do as you say.”
“Good.”
They spent the day in her bed making love and he left her dizzy-headed to meet his new men.
In the cantina, Deveroe introduced him to the three. Jim Davis, a muscular, hard-eyed Texan in his thirties. He’d planned to return to his home state anyway, and this gave him a chance to make good money along the way. Yeager Taylor was dark, stout, and worked with explosives, he said. Temple Green had little to say but he understood they were going after some killers. Green was a thin, wiry man in his late twenties. They were to meet at the Pecos turnoff at dawn.
Slocum went back to Consuelo’s place for the last night, and they were up before dawn, loading his packhorses and getting ready to ride. He hugged her, kissed her tears, and told her she was pretty. Then he rode out. He had the men he needed and they could move swiftly back to the fort. Aside from a few thunderstorms that passed quickly, they reached the fort in a week. Everyone was worn out upon their arrival, and Slocum called for a couple days’ rest for men and beasts.
McKee was tickled to see them and agreed to pay his hired men. He poured the whiskey and they raised their glasses to him. Slocum’s back ached some from the pressing ride, but he wasn’t in a whiskey-drinking mood. In the kitchen, Willow told him to go to his old cabin and get some rest. The fire had been built up, the room was already heated, there was hot bathwater, and she leaned over to whisper, “Butter Fly is there.”
He nodded. Who the hell was she? He thanked her and walked over to the jacal.
When he walked through the door, a tall Indian woman in her twenties dressed in buckskins smiled at him and stood up.
“Butter Fly?” he asked.
She nodded. “You met me before. I was at the lodges when you came by and told us to come here. You did not see me then but I saw you. The man I was with died after we came here. He was ill. Willow told me all you have done for them, and I am to show you a good time.” Her words came one at a time as if she needed to be proper and be sure she used
the right ones.
“I guess a bath would suit me.”
“That is the way of the white man?” she asked.
“I guess. To be clean and to shave.”
“Do you kiss your women?”
“Have you ever been kissed by a man?”
“No.”
He took her in his arms and kissed her. She smiled when he stopped. “I see why she likes you.”
He shed his coat. “What will you do without your man?”
“When the thaw comes, I will go back to my people at the reservation and find a man to live with. Living out here is too hard. There are less buffalo left than we thought. In our lifetime they have gone from many to so few.”
He nodded, undressed, and stepped into the half barrel of bathwater. She removed her fringe shirt and put it carefully aside. Then she began to wash him. Her pear-shaped breasts swung with her efforts, and they stopped to kiss a few times. Nothing wild, but when he got out, she got in and bathed, too, as he dried himself off.
With the shaving cup, he used the hog bristle brush and applied the lather to his face. Then he used his folded blade razor to carefully scrape his face of the beard stubble. Butter Fly was out drying herself when he finished and rinsed the blade off.
After he rinsed his face, he dried it, and she came over to stand naked before him. Her copper brown skin looked flawless. On the slender side, she looked beautiful in the candlelight.
He had to have her. This time her mouth came to life and they soon were deep in passion’s spell, which led them to bed and more intimacy. With his dick in her firm vagina, they rode to the top of the world in a whirlpool of fever and need until he exploded inside her. She fainted away, and he stiffened his arms to support his weight so he wouldn’t crush her.
“Come back,” she murmured. “Your body feels so good on top of me. I have been a long time without a man. Even a longer time away from a strong one—and the white man’s kissing is fun.”