The Badger City Gang [Bride Train 7] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Reece Butler

  Once Kate saw up close and personal that Montana Territory was full of eager men, far richer and with city manners to boot, why would she want to stay? They had five years of hard slogging ahead to make the ranch theirs, and that was just the first step. Then they had to build it up to leave something better for their children. There’d be little time for fun, for many years.

  Yep. Sure as shootin’, Kate would miss her city comforts, women friends, and everything else. How long before she got like Ma and looked for something better than a two-bit husband, his brother, cousin, and a hard-scrabble ranch?

  Kate was a lady, while he was the son of a hardworking, honest man and a smiling snake of a woman. He’d do his damndest to be as good a father as Pa, but how could he trust that a woman wouldn’t end up like Ma?

  Frustrated and angry at himself, Zach rammed his head back, hitting the square-cut logs of the jail. The pain in his skull did nothing to ease the one in his heart. He wished he hadn’t hauled Kate off that train. He should have wooed her with gentle words, like she was raised to expect. She’d think he’d shown his true character when he covered his face and pulled his gun on that carriage full of innocent brides. But how else was he supposed to find a wife out here?

  Kate was no longer innocent, and she wanted to do more than take care of her men. He’d have to learn how to cope since he couldn’t do much to stop her. After her punch and kick at Rivers, Kate believed she was invincible.

  He wanted to hold her in his arms, soothing and protecting her, but the dang woman wouldn’t let him.

  So here he was, hanging outside a jail and mooning over a woman. Pa warned him about pride coming before a fall. He’d been so proud of finding Kate. When she fit in with them so easy, he thought life was set. Ha!

  Trust a woman to make a hornet’s nest of his life.

  The sound of plodding horses approached, this time from the west. He stepped forward as Jed Adams and Clint Fortune pulled up. They weren’t competition for Kate since Jed had married Victoria a few months back. He wasn’t sure what happened, but heard it took a couple of weddings to make things official. Walt, an incurable gossip, said Jed was already boasting about a child due in the spring. Would Kate agree to marry him if she got in the family way?

  Jed looked up as a roar erupted down the street. “We must’ve missed something big. What’s happening?” he asked as he dismounted.

  Clint tilted his head toward the noise. “Sounds like there’s a party going on at Baldy’s.”

  “It started here but the sheriff told them to move on out,” said Zach.

  “We came to town to see if Barstow’s heard anything more about Smythe,” said Jed. “Is he the one locked up?”

  “We having a necktie party?” asked Clint eagerly.

  “Could’ve been if the sheriff and judge weren’t there to stop it,” said Zach. “Most folks are happy with what the posse caught today.”

  “Posse? Who’d you catch, doing what?” Jed tied off his horse. Clint was a moment behind.

  “See for yourself.” Zach opened the jail door.

  Jed peered in. He jerked his head back and Clint took a look. They looked at each other and laughed.

  “Well, isn’t that a fine how-do-you-do,” said Clint, grinning. “Orville Rivers, Mayor of Tanner’s Ford, is looking out through the bars, not in. I guess the sheriff finally got him for cattle rustling.”

  “He’s still got his hat on, like he’s just visiting or something,” said Jed.

  “It’s not for rustling,” said Zach. “Remember the posse that went to the mayor’s place to round up your cattle while back?” asked Zach. He waited for Jed and Clint’s nods. “A woman with her tongue cut out begged you to take her away.”

  “That was Grace,” said Clint. “Poor woman was terrified.”

  “She had good reason,” said Zach. “Turns out Grace took Molly food while the girl was locked in one of the mayor’s back rooms.”

  Jed blinked. He shook his head as if to clear his ears. “I don’t think I heard you right, friend.”

  “Yes, you did,” growled Zach. “Rivers is charged with kidnapping Molly Sinclair, murdering her family, then holding her captive until she was sixteen, when he raped her. He lent her to some vicious brute who used her badly. Then he took her to Bannack City and sold her to a whorehouse. The bastard refuses to name his partner.”

  Jed cursed, loud and long. He even used a few new phrases that Zach tucked away for later use. “Give Ross a few minutes with his best skinning knife and we’d find that answer pretty damn fast.”

  “How are the women doing?” asked Clint. He was as tall as Gideon, though more muscular as he was full grown. The way he looked now, he’d not be one to meet in anger, even if it was a fair fight.

  “Molly, Grace, and Sarah Frost are at staying at Doc’s tonight. Lily Thatcher and Sophie McLeod are visiting, as well as Patsy Tanner. Nevin MacDougal and Luke’s partners are guarding Doc’s place.” He hadn’t met most of the women but knew their names thanks to Walt. The old man would be swearing up and down when he came back to town and found out what he’d missed.

  “How’s Sarah?” asked Jed.

  None of them had helped rescue Molly and Sarah from the whorehouse holding them prisoner, but Zach knew the basics of it, again from Walt. Out of respect he’d never ask what happened, but he’d kill with his bare hands anyone who’d take a woman against her will. The fact Molly had just turned sixteen made it even worse.

  “Luke said he expects Sarah might get nightmares again. He expects it’ll be a while before she calms down.”

  Zach didn’t tell them Kate had also joined the hen party. The men of the J Bar C had been in the valley a while so knew Cole Taylor and his partners, but nothing about Kate. That would change mighty soon.

  “We’re just across the river from the Circle C,” said Jed. “We’ll take care of their animals so they can take care of Sarah. She’s a good woman, and Victoria wouldn’t forgive me if we didn’t help any way we could.”

  “How come you know all this?” asked Clint, narrowing his eyes at Zach. “You haven’t been in town long.”

  “My brother Gideon and cousin Rusty happened to be in the mercantile when Molly and Grace met. Lily sent Gideon to tell the sheriff. Since they were strangers, Gideon and Rusty went to the mayor’s ranch to cause a commotion. While all the attention was on them, the sheriff and his posse rode in.”

  Zach didn’t know why he held back any mention of Kate, as they’d soon learn about it. But a real man would never let his woman do something so dangerous. He sighed. How could any man hold Kate back when the three of them were having problems doing it? Not that he wanted her to be meek. The passion she showed when she attacked Rivers was the same one that made his heart race when she got that eager look in her eye just before bed. He shook out his leg, thanking God it was dark as his cock automatically responded to thoughts of Kate’s passion.

  Chapter 26

  Zach, back on guard duty a couple of hours later, wished he’d brought a knife and something to whittle, rawhide to braid, or rope to mend. Anything to help him through another couple hours guarding Orville Rivers. The sheriff had taken the man’s derringer but there was no way to stop the man flapping his gums in a verbal attack.

  “Your woman likes to act the shy virgin, but I hear she’s taking all three of you at once.”

  Zach did his best to look half asleep, feet on the desk with his chair leaning back and hat over his nose.

  “Yep. Your woman’s a natural-born whore.”

  “Kate ain’t my woman.”

  Even before the words left his mouth, he cursed himself for giving in to goading. Rivers’s snicker rubbed salt into the wound.

  “If she’s not your woman, and she’s doing all three of you, then she’s a whore.”

  Zack’s muscles hardened as he fought to hold back an answer to the taunt. Rivers was bored and getting him riled was just something to pass the time.

  “At least you’re n
ot marrying the whore, like your pa did.”

  Insulting a man’s mother was like begging to be gutshot. But Zach’s mother had lied to his father every day of their marriage. Even before his body was buried, she insulted his memory with her lover.

  “Wonder if your pa and uncle took your momma together.”

  Zach’s chair slammed to the floor as he shot to his feet. He stopped a few inches from the iron bars.

  “Don’t you say a word against my father!”

  Rivers grinned in triumph.

  “Well, isn’t that interesting.” Rivers kept his eyes on Zach as he pulled himself to a sitting position. “You took that insult to your ma just fine, but not your pa.” He waggled his jaw. A trace of purple hinted at the bruise rising thanks to Kate’s fist.

  “My father was an honorable man. Something you know nothing about.”

  Rivers snorted a laugh. He brushed jailhouse dust off his pants.

  “You think it’s honorable for three men to take a virgin without marriage? If her father was here, he’d have a shotgun pointed right at your belt, and a preacher beside him.”

  Zach scrubbed his weary face. When he planned the Bride Train robbery he expected to bring the woman to the ranch and, after a few weeks of getting to know one another, marry her. Only then would he do more than kiss her. Adding his brother and cousin to their bed would be a gradual process.

  But Kate did things her way. Not that he was complaining. He hadn’t expected an Eastern virgin woman to eagerly bed one man, much less three. He was beginning to realize that life with Kate would always be a challenge.

  It had been different with his parents. His mother had never contradicted his father. She’d met all his needs, smiling pleasantly the whole time. She’d promised to love, honor, and obey, and everything she did suggested she kept to her vows.

  But it had all been a lie.

  Zach couldn’t see Kate promising to obey anyone. She spoke her mind and demanded to be part of everything. Living with a woman like that would be…interesting. She spoke before she thought and demanded to be treated as an equal partner. But didn’t that also mean she would tell the truth? His mother put a false face to the world, one of calm acceptance.

  He couldn’t see Kate accepting anything without a fight, unless she wanted it.

  “Kate does what she wants by her own free will,” he said.

  “That’s the problem. Unless they’re guarded, women stray. They throw themselves at other men and get diseases, which they bring home to their husbands. They cannot be trusted. That’s why I prefer virgins. They are pure, clean, and uncorrupted.”

  “Until you get your hands on them.”

  Rivers shrugged. “Someone has to be their first. Why not me? I don’t do anything different than her husband would on their wedding night.”

  “Then you sell them to others, who beat them, and worse.”

  Rivers turned away as if it didn’t matter. “That’s beyond my control.”

  “What you did to Molly Sinclair should send you straight to hell.” Zach growled the words, wishing he could reach through the bars and pull the smirking man apart with his bare hands.

  “If not for me, she would have been murdered along with her family.” Rivers stood up and raised his voice. “I took her into my home, kept her safe for months, and then enjoyed her when she turned sixteen. I did not harm her.”

  “Until you gave her to a vicious bastard. Who was he?”

  Rivers waved away the demand. “If I told you his name I’d be dead within a day.” His eyes went hard. “You think I’m a monster, but what I’ve done is nothing compared to him. I like fresh, innocent girls who enjoy my touch.” His lip curled. “He needs to hear their screams before he can perform.”

  Zach glared back. “As soon as they can hold a trial, you’ll be hanging by a rope, your toes dangling above the ground. You’ll soon be dead anyway. Why don’t you do something decent for once, and give his name?”

  Rivers stood up. He stretched, and then paced to the end of his cell and back. He finally looked Zach in the eyes.

  “He goes by the name of Mr. Isaac.”

  “That’s it?”

  “He’d kill me for even saying that.”

  “Is there anyone else?”

  Rivers threw back his head and laughed. “Of course there is, dear boy! What man doesn’t wish to be the first to take a woman?” He shot his cuffs as if chatting in a parlor. “They are the only ones guaranteed to be free of the pox.”

  It seemed Rivers loved to talk, especially about himself. Zach decided to encourage him, hoping he might reveal something useful.

  “You know someone who got it?”

  “My father. Though she denied it with her last breath, he got it from my mother. She was beautiful, with long, blonde hair, and loved to dance. He should have realized that meant he shouldn’t trust her. But he was besotted and allowed her to dance with other men while he played cards. He didn’t realize she was a whore until he discovered she’d given him the pox. It was then he kept her confined. He thought he was cured, but it was already too late.” He paused. “It came back when I was thirteen.”

  “You’re afraid of catching it?”

  Rivers looked away. “Have you ever seen someone dying of syphilis?”

  “No, can’t say as I have.”

  “The doctor tried to burn out my father’s sores with a red-hot iron.” He cleared his throat. “No matter where they were on his body.”

  Zach blanched. “They branded his cock?”

  Rivers nodded, his jaw tight. “Many times. Until the headaches got so bad he begged the doctor to drill a hole into his brain.”

  “Wouldn’t that kill him?”

  “Not quickly enough. So I took care of it for him.” Rivers looked up when Zach choked in understanding. “Wouldn’t you help your father die if he was screaming in pain, his face swollen and covered with pustules?”

  Zach gulped. He’d put an animal out of its misery long before it got that bad. Of course he’d help his father escape a long and ever more painful death.

  “And your mother? You said he kept her confined.”

  “She kept to her rooms with her needlework. Once his face became disfigured, Father refused to let anyone but the doctor see him. I brought her into his room, so she could see what she’d done to him. She laughed.” Rivers straightened up and smiled serenely. “They were buried together.”

  “You killed her, as well?”

  “Of course. She murdered him,” he replied calmly. “It was her whoring that caused his death.”

  * * * *

  Orville Rivers held back a snicker at the shock on Zach’s face. He looked up when the door to the street burst open. Zach whipped around so fast his neck he almost stumbled. Barstow, the new sheriff, came in with Buford Hames. The lawman towered over the newspaperman.

  “But I represent the people of Montana Territory, Sheriff,” sputtered Hames. “It’s your duty to make sure the people who elected you hear the truth!”

  Hames was late. Supper was a couple of hours ago, and he’d expected the man to arrive shortly after. He made sure his hat was secure on his head before he brushed the dust from his suit.

  Just because he happened to be temporarily locked in this damn jail didn’t mean he couldn’t be his usual elegant self. A man was judged by what he showed the world. He dressed well and entertained lavishly. He spoke well, and made sure enough gold entered the right pockets. Though he’d admitted to McInnes about saving Molly of the long blonde hair, it wouldn’t change anything. There was nothing to link him to the others.

  Once he finished with his girls, he sold them in Virginia City. Newly broached virgins fetched a high price, especially as he was careful with them. He knew of others who broke them in using more brutal methods. After a few weeks of hard use no one would believe a thing they said.

  If Mr. Isaac hadn’t been visiting, he would have done the same to Molly. She would have been sold far away, and no one wou
ld have learned about him. Unfortunately, the man sold her in Bannack City, far too close to home. But Isaac had far too much power so he couldn’t voice his complaints.

  There was only one time he’d left a witness. He was much younger then, and cocky. He and his men had come across an Indian girl and let nature take its course. She fought like the savage she was, but it did her no good. She was dead when his partners finished with her. His partners were just as dead now, two by his orders when they threatened to talk. He got a lot of pleasuring from denying the half-breed his revenge.

  Hames continued to jabber at Barstow. Given enough time, the man could talk the stripes off a skunk. Orville loudly cleared his throat to tell Hames to shut up.

  “I say, the people have the right to the truth!”

  Barstow blew air through his moustache. “Pull in your horns! You can stand and talk as long as you stay back from the bars and the prisoner stays on his bunk.”

  The sheriff looked like he couldn’t think as fast as a mule, but Walt said he was more wily than Frank Chambers had been.

  “Zach, you’re relieved. Byron Ashcroft’s over at the hotel. Tell him to come by in an hour or so.” Barstow waited until Zach left before bringing Hames forward. “Have at it, then.” He snorted. “You two talk so much that we could keep a windmill goin’ from yer wind.”

  “Sheriff, you must step away,” sputtered Hames. “Mr. Rivers must have privacy to speak freely.”

  “Talk quiet, then.” Barstow pointed to the corner. “I’ll be sitting at that desk, and if you try anything funny, you’ll both be locked up.”

  “I’m sure Mr. Hames will cooperate,” said Orville.

  It took a few minutes until Barstow was satisfied yet they could talk without him hearing. Hames insisted they turn their backs in case the sheriff read lips.

  “Tell Emslow she’d better make sure my breakfast is hot,” said Orville. He spoke just loud enough for Barstow to hear if he had ears like a bat. But the man rested in his chair, feet on the desk and hands clasped over his belt. He watched them with lazy eyes, but didn’t react.