by Abbie Adams
The atmosphere at the table had taken a much more serious turn than the kidding going on previously. That was until Sapphire came in with Della, who was holding her baby in her arms, the marshal, trailing behind them. Delaney's face heated so much she looked down, afraid others would notice her reaction to the lawman.
"Sweet Jesus, Nettie we could smell your bacon from down by the dry goods. Please tell me you have enough for us," Sapphire said, while steering herself to the table as if by following a waft of smoked pork.
"Uhh, if there is enough that is?" Della asked timidly.
"Laws, child. I should whoop your skinny butt for even insinuating I wouldn't be prepared for all of my gems to eat." She gave Della a gentle whack on her backside through her skirt and ushered her into a chair. "Sit right here and pile some food on your plate. You need to fatten up…" She turned back to Tripp, then used her spoon to point to the empty seat next to Delaney. "You sit down and get yourself a plate too, Marshal. You don't have much meat to spare on your thick hide either."
"Sorry, Nettie, I don't have time for a bite. I just escorted the ladies down here. I'll take you up on that next time though, ma'am." He turned to Gabe. "You got a minute, Gabe? We wanted to see if you'd come down to the office. The sheriff wanted to plan."
"He ain't finished his breakfast. Ya'll can both just sit down and eat. You boys need some food in your bellies 'afore you go out fighting them outlaws." Nettie steered him to a chair anyway.
Tripp rested his hat on his lap and dragged his fingers through his hair. "I already ate at the boarding house, Ms. Nettie, although I believe Mrs. Emory said it was your recipe. I wouldn't turn down your cooking for nothing, but I'm just plain stuffed."
The big mulatto woman grinned with pride, coming back to pat the man on the shoulder before finally leaving him alone and heading back to pile both Sapphire's and Della's plates full and then took baby Anson from his ma and began to hum softly as she patted him on his back.
"I'm almost done, Tripp. Just let me finish up. I for one, know better than to leave a crumb on my plate." Gabe soaked up some of his egg yolk with the last of his biscuit. "I'd like John to come with us. He came in last night with some interesting news."
Tripp nodded but then leaned toward Delaney. Her face warmed even more when his attention was on her. Thankfully the rest of the room continued their conversations, although, she was sure they would all be focused on the marshal's words to her.
"How are you feeling today, ladybug?"
Her chin dropped a little further. "Fine, sir."
"Very good. I trust you slept well?" He cleared his throat awkwardly, maybe he wasn't as confident as he seemed. She glanced his way only a moment before gripping her cup and pulling it close to her lips.
"Yes, sir," she mumbled into her mug.
"I put out some telegrams to the surrounding towns looking for more information on Damaris." His statement surprised her. She stopped herself from throwing her arms around his neck in gratitude.
"Thank you, sir."
"I'll let you know if I hear anything."
"Ready if you are, Marshal, John." Gabe stood, kissed Jewel on the lips and pushed his chair in. John did the same with Opal. Tripp followed behind him, giving Delaney a small smile before he left the room. She wondered briefly at the idea of him kissing her before he left. What would it be like to belong to a man like him?
***
"Sorry to disrupt your morning, Gabe." Jeb offered when the men entered the county jail building.
"No. Don't worry. I was headed down soon as I was through eating anyway." Gabe nodded toward John. "John came in last night from our claim. He had an interesting visitor last night. We don't want him to leave our men out there for long, but wanted to let you guys know about the incident."
"That's good. We need to know any and everything that might lead us to catch them. We have to get to them before they kill someone else. We have to put a stop to them." Jeb nodded at Tripp. "Tripp got some more information from Delaney. Go ahead, Marshal, fill us in."
Tripp spoke from where he was leaning against the wall next to the cast iron stove. "I think it's a fact that Delaney's sister is the woman with the gang. I learned that her name is Damaris Donahue. Seems her saint of a father, bartered her in some poker game. The last Delaney knew, she was in San Francisco, working for a man named Tompkins…"
"Fuck," Gabe interrupted.
"Exactly," Tripp agreed. "Anyway, from what I've learned from my telegrams, someone bought her contract. I'm not saying it was Slick… I actually can't imagine him parting with any money for a woman but… I can easily see him killing whoever did buy out her contract and taking her for himself. The good news is that I don't believe she is in any way working with the gang. The bad news is that, if she isn't dead already, I fear she will be soon."
Jeb nodded when Tripp finished filling them in and turned to John. "Thanks for coming into town, John. I hope you got to spend some time with Opal while you were here?" The sheriff clapped John on the shoulder and gestured to a chair. "Tell me about your visitor."
John took the seat and leaned back. "Looking for horses is what he said. Came riding in on a ragged looking paint yesterday. Said his younger brothers were staying with their mother in a wagon over near the pass. Seemed really shifty and nervous though."
"What'd he look like?" Jeb gestured to Tripp and he went to the board he'd just updated with the wanted posters he had from the gang.
"Look anything like these fellows?" He handed a stack of papers to John and watched him as he shuffled through them.
"No, he was a young guy, just a kid really. I'd be guessing but I'd say maybe twenty." He went back through the stack again, more slowly. "He was scared of something and I asked him what but he said he just wanted to get back to his family. He kept eyeing our horses though. I think if we hadn't been up at the camp for dinner he mighta tried to help himself to them."
"Did he give you a name? Anything else you can think of? Scars, a limp, an accent? Did you see what way he went when he left?" Tripp couldn't help but feel like they were too far behind the gang once again. Would they never find them and take them down? How many more people had to die?
"Scraggly and slight, stiff wind coulda blew the kid over. Said his name was Joe. His hair was maybe straw-colored, but real dirty. He's missing some teeth, had some bruising near his eye that was probably old. I thought about following him off but Carlos and I thought it was better we stayed together and with the horses. Sam wandered around after the kid went off and found some tracks. He thinks someone was riding with the kid, but stayed out of sight." John scratched his chin. "After thinking about it, I figured it was best I passed the information on. I'm glad I did now that I came to town and heard about the gang. I'm not a lawman, but I had a bad feeling in my gut. I think this has to be related."
"I tend to agree, John, and appreciate you acting on your instincts. Velma over at Miss Patty's told me the day before, that someone had been in her place and cleaned her outta canned beans and some other staples." Jeb continued, "And Theresa at the laundry said clothes from the clothesline were missing too."
"I've heard they get new younger men randomly and use them for a while. They send them to town, use them as their front men. It's why it's so hard to find them. Slick and Frog are never seen in town. And the men that do come don't stay around too long in town or walking this Earth." This came from Deputy Slade who'd been quiet so far.
Gabe smacked his hat on his thigh and said to John, "I think you should get back out there, alert the men and stay on guard. I don't like this at all."
They needed to act, now, before the men got away or killed someone again. Tripp told them so. "I don't know. I think you should go get your men and horses and come back to town. The sheriff and deputy were talking about sending out a wider spread posse. Your boys can ride together with us. Maybe we'll get them this time, now that we got a clue." He shook his head in disgust. "Can't tell you how many times I've gotten a t
ip like this and headed right out only to find them gone again, and dead bodies in their wake."
"The marshal is right. We need to move. I'm not willing to let them slip away again. If they're looking for horses, they are on the move." Slade stood and scratched his head. "How long does it take to get out to your mine and back? Maybe we should all ride that way together. We can break up once we get there."
"'Bout four hours, three if we push it. But I don't want to wait around. I'm not feeling very good about any of this." John got up and moved to the door as if he wasn't waiting a minute longer than necessary.
Gabe got up and went to his side. "We'll ride out there together. Jeb, Crawford, when we get there, we'll nose around until you guys make it out. I know you need to round your men up."
"I can ride with them. I'm ready to go." Tripp brought his hat down on his head hard in determination. He wasn't going to miss another chance to put Slick in the ground.
"That's good, Tripp. I don't like the idea of any of the men being alone. And we won't be far behind you. Slade, get our extra rifles down and make sure we have extra ammunition. Tey, you stay in town." Jebidiah was already on his feet. "Tripp if you can have the livery boys saddle our horses, I'll start rounding up the men. Oh, and Ben will ride with us. Let him know we're riding out when you get there."
"I don't like the idea of you riding out there, Gabe. These men have killed many skilled lawmen." Jewel looked up into Gabe's eyes and Tripp couldn't help but feel a deep desire to have that kind of love. The woman's eyes were red-rimmed and glossy from holding back tears.
"Querida, I've ridden with a posse before. I can take care of myself, but we all gotta do our part. Your part is to keep the gems in the saloon. We're not coming back until we bring them down." Gabe cocked his head to gesture to Tripp and John, but John had his arms wrapped around his own woman.
Tripp was the odd man out. He cleared his throat instead of thinking about Delaney looking up at him in love like that. Maybe she was the one for him? He couldn't think about that now. That's why he had gone back to the boarding house the night before. He had to keep his mind on his job right now.
"Don't mean to rush ya'll but we need to ride." He didn't care if he was rude—he didn't mean to be, but the fact was, they needed to move. He wouldn't rest until he knew Shotgun Slick and his gang were six-feet deep, and that was only after they swung in the breeze with a rope around their neck.
Once they were on the trail, he couldn't help but think of Delaney again. She was so innocently flushed that morning at the table. He knew the gems were giving her a hard time and he should have felt sorry for her. But there was great deal of pride in owning the reason the woman sat so tenderly. It wasn't a secret from the world, but it was an intimate thing between them. Thinking of her was the last thing he should be doing while riding hard the way they were. His cock was painfully swollen in his pants and there hadn't been that much room in them previously. Not believing it was possible, it swelled even more when he thought about the startled sound she'd made when he'd first pushed his finger in her ass and the way she squealed and pleaded when he'd inserted another beside the first. Despite the very tight fit and the wiggling of her sweet, red little ass, she'd squeezed down on those digits, her sounds of embarrassed protest turning into the softest of moans which almost caused him to shoot in his pants. Damn if he hadn't lain awake the night before thinking of fucking her in that secret hole.
He shook his head as if to shake her from his thoughts. He couldn't help it; he still wished she'd been there seeing him off. He wondered what she was doing. He hadn't seen her when they'd gone back to the saloon on the way to the livery.
"Hey, I was just thinking. What about Old Man Tin Can? His place is just to the west of us. We should ride over there and see if he's seen anything strange. The man doesn't go to town but two or three times a year. He wouldn't have heard anything about the gang's activity in these parts." John had slowed his gelding and came closer. "I say we ride over there now. It's not far out of the way and we'll still have some time to get to the mine before the posse."
"Did the posse go over there yesterday when they were riding?" Gabe asked, reining his horse in next to them.
"I don't know. I was headed out the other way, after Diamond." Tripp leaned back and pulled out his canteen while they were moving slow enough.
"No, I don't think they did come this way, they didn't come out to the mine at all." John took off his hat and wiped his bandana across his sweaty brow. "If you guys are worried, we can split up so someone gets to the mine sooner. I can ride over to the old man's place and check on him really quick."
"No, let's just go on together. If it's not far out of the way and you think it's better to do it on the way instead of sending a group there once the men get to the camp, I trust you." Gabe nodded in agreement with Tripp's statement and they all picked up the pace again.
Chapter Nine
The boy hadn't made it through the night. Damaris' silent tears ran freely as she washed her face at the edge of the muddy river. She told herself it was a good thing he had gone on, but she couldn't make herself believe it. She wanted to be sick when she remembered the devil, Slick going over there and kicking the poor kid to see if he was alive. If he had been alive, the kick would have hurt his already battered ribs. Yes, it was probably better the boy was gone. If only it had been Slick or Rufus though… Death was never good but for them, death couldn't come soon enough. If ever there were men who deserved it more she couldn't imagine who. She'd sure seen more than enough senseless death in the time she'd been with them.
"Get your water and get on out of there, ya hear?" Hank barked at her from the porch. The rest of his words were lower, but she could still hear enough. "I've about had enough of that woman, Rufus. We ain't gonna wanna watch her after when we take off. She'll slow us down. You're smart, you tell him."
"I don't know. Slick don't listen to none of us but Frog anyway. You tell him that and see what he does. I don't really mind having her here. In fact, I don't mind at all." His cackle was nothing but sinister.
Damaris didn't even want to walk by the vile men, but had no choice. The water sloshed out of the bucket as she made her way up the steps to go into the cabin. Slick came out the door right in her way. She sidestepped fast to keep her water from spilling on him. She ducked, dodging the blow when he pulled back his arm to cuff her.
"What are you two yammering about? I hear ya talking about me." He kicked the bench that Hank was sitting on.
"He thinks you should take care of the woman before we leave here." Rufus cackled again. "Maybe he's afraid of her. She did clout him good before Frog helped hold her down."
"You need to stop worrying about what I should do and worry about yourself. Why don't you ride on over to that claim where you saw them horses and bring them back with you this time? Stupid to come back without them the first time. We coulda been long gone by now if you hadn't listened to the damn kid."
Damaris watched the men through the window. She didn't know where Frog was. She assumed, no hoped, he was at the outhouse. She wanted to try to hide the big knife over by the bed. Slick tied her to the bed post overnight, but let her free during the day. She didn't have many chances to hide anything because someone had always been in the cabin with her before. She tried to walk past the door with a purpose toward the bedroom, as if she wasn't doing anything wrong. If she was caught she'd tell them that she'd seen a rat. She wouldn't be able to sleep with a rat running loose… the knife, why it was to kill the rat of course.
"Me and Rufus?"
"No, you stupid ninny. Just you. You had the kid yesterday, and didn't bother to finish the job. I sent you to be sure the kid didn't chicken out and bail like he did in town and you were stupid enough to come back without the horses, so now you can get them by yourself." Slick sat on a barrel, his back to the window and lifted a bottle of whiskey to his lips.
Delaney tip-toed past the window, made it to the bedstead, and looked hurrie
dly for a place to hide the knife. She wedged the blade into the wall just behind the bedpost on her side. It was plain to see if anyone went to that side of the bed. But she couldn't remember anyone doing so previously. If it wasn't close enough, she wouldn't be able to reach it from the bed.
After Hank strode off toward the horses they had, Rufus asked, "You don't think he'll try to run away and leave us behind once he has a good horse? I don't trust him myself. You think one of us should go with him?"
"Naw, he wants to get to Mexico just like us." Slick said with a shrug.
Feeling braver when Slick moved to the spot Hank had been sitting in, Delaney made another trip to the bedroom a minute later. This time she had a small oil lamp and two more pieces of rope, with a slip knot tied in the end of each one. She hoped to tie them to the bedstead and drop the loops over Slick's arm while he slept. When he jumped up, it would cinch tight and slow him down from coming after her. With a quick glance out the window, she dashed around the room, pouring the lamp oil over the old miner's small pile of furs, and other rags. She'd already been pouring it around the rest of the cabin every chance she got.
***
If she'd had time to think about it, Delaney might have realized that bouncing across the range all day in a saddle on her bruised bum the day after a severe spanking would be hell. Of course, even if she'd had time to think about it first, it was just as likely she would have made the same decision. Oh, she knew that she was going to regret her actions at some point, most likely when Gabe or Tripp realized what she'd done. Hadn't she just promised the marshal that she would behave and come to think of it, she'd promised Gabe the same. With a shudder, she knew that, yes, she'd regret it for sure, or at least her backside would but she didn't turn back.