Hired Gun
Page 16
Sykes looked her over in appreciation, but answered, “There ain’t nothing more exciting than winning a big hand at poker, darling.”
“You want to bet?” she purred. She wanted to lure him upstairs and get her hands on some of his money.
“Yes, that’s why I’m not leaving this table right now, but if you want to stay here with me and bring me even more luck, we’ll see what we can do later on.”
“I can do that,” she said, leaning down to give him a hot, wet kiss right there in front of everybody.
The other men hooted loudly at her passionate display.
Ruby just smiled and sat as close to him as she could. He was not as young as the other cowboys, but that was all right with her. Because he was older, she believed he wouldn’t be as mean or rough as the young ones were when they went upstairs with her.
Encouraged by her attention, Sykes took some of the money he’d just won and shoved it in her bodice right between her breasts.
“Keep that safe for me, darling.”
“I will,” she promised in delight.
He gave her a lewd smile before turning back to the poker game. While he was gambling, he kept an eye out for Cal Harris from the stage line. He hoped the man would show up at the saloon. He wanted to follow him home and find out where he lived, but as the night progressed Harris never appeared.
Several hours passed before Sykes finally quit gambling and took Ruby up on her offer of a good time upstairs. They went to her room, and once they were inside she locked the door behind them.
“Did I ever tell you I just love winners?” she purred, eyeing him up and down as she stood with her back to the door.
Sykes turned away from looking at the bed to look at her. “Well, you got yourself one tonight, darlin’.”
Ruby gave him a decidedly wicked smile. “Want to come and get the money I’ve been keeping for you?”
“Oh, yeah.”
Enticingly, Ruby reached up and pushed the straps of her gown down off her shoulders, giving him an even better view of her breasts.
He smiled and went to her, not needing any more of an invitation. It had been a while since he’d enjoyed himself with a woman, and he decided to take full advantage of what she was offering. His need was hot within him, so he didn’t waste any time stripping off her clothing. He retrieved the money from her bodice, then picked her up, and threw her on the bed. He took off his gun belt and put it aside before lifting her skirts.
“You in a hurry?”
“When I see something I want, I take it.”
And it didn’t take him long to get what he wanted right then. Unconcerned about her pleasure, he collapsed back on the bed, satisfied.
“You were mighty fast on the draw, big guy,” she told him in a sensuous tone, wanting to arouse him again.
“I don’t believe in wasting time,” Sykes replied, reaching over to paw at her breasts.
“Neither do I.”
And they didn’t. They quickly stripped off their clothes and enjoyed themselves again.
It was after midnight when he finally left her. They were both smiling. Ruby had her money, and Sykes was ready to go after Cal Harris.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
As Sykes left Ruby’s room he could hear the noise of the rowdy drunks below. He figured it was safe for him to just disappear, so he left by the back way, completely avoiding the crowded saloon area. No one from the ranch saw him, and he was glad. Where he was headed was nobody’s business but his own.
Slipping off down the dark alley, he stayed in the shadows as he made his way toward the stage office. He wasn’t sure what he was going to find there, but it was the best place to start looking for Cal Harris.
Cal didn’t like working late, especially on a Friday night, but tonight he had no choice. The work had to get done, and he was the only one who could do it. He was concentrating intensely as he pored over the stage line’s books. He’d pulled down the shades on the office windows, but hadn’t bothered to lock the door. He figured there would be no one around this time of night, since no stages were scheduled to arrive in town until the following afternoon.
Cal was surprised when the office door opened. He looked up quickly, startled by the interruption, and he watched as a stranger came in and closed the door behind him.
“Good evening,” Cal said, wondering what the man was after.
“Evening,” Sykes responded as he looked around. He wanted to make sure they were all alone.
“We are closed right now,” Cal began.
“Oh, sorry—I know the shades were drawn, but I saw the light and thought you might be in here. I wanted to speak with you.” He walked over toward where Harris was sitting at the desk.
“Well, it’s late now, and there are no stagecoaches due until tomorrow.” He got up to face the stranger.
“So things are quiet for you tonight, are they?”
“Right now, yes, but it’ll be real busy tomorrow. What can I help you with?” Cal was in no mood to make conversation with a man who had obviously been drinking. He just wanted to get his work done and call it a night. He came around the desk, intending to usher the other man out of the office.
“You’re Cal Harris, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I’m Cal Harris.”
Sykes’s manner was deceptively genial as he reached out to shake hands with him. “It’s good to finally get to meet you face-to-face.”
“It is?” Cal was growing even more puzzled by the stranger’s behavior as they shook hands.
“That’s right.” Sykes smiled.
When Cal tried to pull his hand away and the stranger wouldn’t release his grip, he realized the man was more than just an ordinary drunk wandering the streets of town. This man meant trouble.
“What’s this all about?” Cal demanded. “If you’re thinking of robbing the place, there’s no money kept here.”
“I’m not here to rob you. Let me introduce myself. My name is Sykes—Ward Sykes.”
Cal went completely still when he heard the stranger’s last name.
Sykes saw the change in his expression and knew he had the stagecoach man right where he wanted him. “And you’re the one who had my boy killed.”
Before Cal could react to that statement, Sykes drew his knife from where he wore it in his belt and stabbed him violently. He stepped back and watched the man collapse and lie unmoving on the floor. After a moment, he checked to make certain the man was dead, then wiped the blood off the knife and stood back up to look around the office. The lamp burning on the desk was just what he needed to conclude this transaction.
Sykes locked the front door and then used the lamp to set the office on fire. He wanted to make Harris’s death look like an accident. Once he was certain the blaze was not going to go out, Sykes made his escape out the back. He ran silently down the alleyway, wanting to distance himself from the fire as quickly as he could.
Cal Harris was dead.
He felt some satisfaction in claiming this part of his revenge, but Trent Marshall was still out there alive somewhere. Sykes wasn’t going to rest until the hired gun was dead, too.
Sykes emerged from the alley some distance away from the stage office. He kept his head down and staggered a little, acting like a drunken cowboy as a carriage passed by. He made his way to the hotel. It was so late, there was no one at the desk when he went in. He hurried on up to his room, glad that he’d been able to move about the town undetected.
Sykes had just locked himself in his room when he heard the first shouts in the streets about the fire. Looking out the window, he could see the eerie glow of the blaze in the distance. He made no effort to go help fight the fire. The longer it burned, the better. He didn’t want anyone to discover that Harris had already been dead when it had started.
Larissa and her father had just reached their stable when they heard someone yelling, “Fire!”
“Where is it?” Dr. Murray asked the man who was running by, spreading the word.<
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“The stage office!” he shouted back as he continued on, wanting to rouse the townfolk and make them aware of the danger.
“Let’s go see if we can help,” her father said.
He led the way from their stable to join the people running toward the fire. They began to line up so they could pass buckets of water from the watering troughs to fight the blaze.
The sheriff and his deputies joined in.
“Where’s Cal Harris?” Sheriff Fike was asking.
“Nobody’s seen him around anywhere,” someone called back.
“Then send somebody over to his house to get him. He needs to know about the fire!” the lawman ordered.
One man ran off to do as the sheriff had ordered, while the rest stayed there and continued to battle the fire. Their efforts proved herculean as they struggled to prevent the flames from spreading through the town.
The man who’d gone to get Cal returned quickly with Cal’s wife, Sarah.
“Sheriff Fike! Cal was working late tonight at the office—he hadn’t come home yet.” Sarah Harris was frantic as she stared at the burning building. “He wasn’t trapped inside, was he?”
The lawman stopped for a moment to speak with her. “I don’t know. We’ve been looking for him, but no one’s seen him.”
Sarah Harris was numb with fear for her husband’s safety as she joined in to help.
It wasn’t easy, but they finally put the fire out. Sheriff Fike and his deputies went to take a look through the ruins to see if they could find any clues to the cause of the blaze.
“Did anyone ever find my husband?” Sarah was asking as she wandered around in a tortured daze. “Has anyone seen Cal?”
“Oh, God . . .” One of the deputies had been sifting through what was left of the building and found what appeared to be the remains of a body buried under the rubble.
“What is it?” Sarah demanded, starting to rush to the place where he was standing.
The deputy reacted quickly, though, and blocked her view.
She went still as horror filled her. When her gaze met his, she knew what he’d found, and she began to sob.
One of the ladies from town hurried to her side and put an arm around Sarah’s shoulders to guide her away from the scene.
Sheriff Fike came over to join his deputy, and together they began to examine the remains. It wasn’t pretty. Finally the sheriff stood up and looked around at those who’d helped to extinguish the fire.
“It’s Cal,” the lawman told them sadly. “Somebody go get the undertaker.”
“How did this happen?” one of the men asked. He was puzzled by how Cal could have been trapped in his own office this way.
“I don’t know,” Sheriff Fike answered. Then he ordered his deputies, “Start talking to everybody who was here helping tonight. Find out if anyone saw or heard anything unusual right before the fire was discovered.”
“You think the fire was set intentionally?” one deputy asked, shocked at the notion.
“Cal was too smart a man to get caught in his own office like this.”
His men moved off to start asking questions.
When Dr. Murray heard that a body had been found, he went to speak with the sheriff. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“No. I’ve sent for the undertaker.”
Their mood was grim.
“Were you out at all tonight?” Sheriff Fike asked him.
“As a matter of fact, Larissa and I had just gotten back from making a call when we heard the shouting about the fire.”
“Did you notice anything unusual on your drive back in?”
He thought back over their return trip to the house. “You know, the only thing we saw was a drunken cowboy staggering down the street, and there’s nothing unusual about that on a payday weekend.”
“Was the man anywhere close to the stage office?”
“He was a block or so away, I think.” The physician frowned, trying to remember more.
“Do you know who it was? Would you recognize him again if you saw him?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure, but Larissa might. I’ll ask her if she remembers who it was.”
“I’d appreciate any help you could give me. I’m going to find out how this happened if it’s the last thing I do.”
Dr. Murray moved away. There was nothing more he could do to help. Larissa had already gone home and was probably in bed. First thing in the morning, he was going to check with her to see if she remembered anything about the man they’d seen on the streets. Perhaps she would recall something that might help the sheriff identify him.
Sykes had been enjoying himself in his hotel room. From the window he had been able to see the glow of the fire in the distance and had known his plan had succeeded. If anyone bothered to question him, his alibi for the night was good. He hadn’t been seen near the area except by the two people who’d driven by in the carriage, and it had been so dark, he seriously doubted they would be able to identify him even if they did remember seeing someone on the streets.
Turning away from the now-dark view of the town, Sykes stretched out on the bed. His thoughts turned to Trent Marshall, and he began to plan how he was going to get his revenge on the hired gun, now that he’d taken care of Harris. Eventually Marshall would return to the Lazy R. When he did, Sykes knew it was going to be hard for him not to just pull his gun and shoot the man down the first time he set eyes on him. He hoped to come up with a better plan than that before the day came, but for right now, he was satisfied to know he would be ready whenever Marshall showed up.
Vengeance was going to be his.
As Sykes closed his eyes and tried to get some sleep, he wondered just where Trent Marshall was and how soon he’d be back.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The following days on the trail were torturous. The heat grew ever more intense and the terrain more desolate. With Trent leading the way, they covered seemingly endless miles until darkness claimed the land each night and they were forced to stop. At the first light of dawn they were mounted up again and riding out.
It was on the third day that Trent’s mood grew tense.
“Don’t build a fire tonight,” he ordered when they started to make camp.
“So we’re that close?” Jake asked. He had noticed how serious Trent had become with each passing mile that day and had suspected that they were closing in.
“Yes. With any luck at all, we’ll be able to spot their campfire tonight,” Trent told them.
“And if we do?” John asked.
“If they’re within range, we’ll go after them.”
“Tonight?” Faith asked excitedly.
“Tonight,” he confirmed.
Any exhaustion she’d been feeling vanished at his answer. She was ready.
Trent was glad to have good news for the group, but he had mixed emotions about what was to come. He’d been in dangerous situations like this before and knew things didn’t always turn out the way he hoped. No matter how they approached the raiding party’s campsite, there was going to be a shoot-out, and the captives were going to be caught right in the middle of it.
“What do we need to do to get ready?” Hank asked, on edge.
“For right now, let’s just get some rest and stay quiet. Sound travels out here, and we don’t want them to know anyone is after them. If and when I spot the campfire, I’ll figure out what we’re going to do next.”
They tried to stay calm as they settled in, but they all were anxious. The moment they’d been waiting for was almost upon them. They were going to do whatever was necessary to rescue the women.
They would get no second chance.
Trent moved off into the night to keep watch.
Jake sat down by Faith to share some of their meager fare.
“We could have Abbie back with us by morning,” Jake told her. The long days of imagining what Abbie might be suffering at the hands of her captors had left him angry and eager to take action.
“I know.” She looked over at him, the hope she was feeling shining in her eyes. “I can’t wait to see her again.”
“It won’t be long now. We were really lucky Trent was in town when she was abducted. He knows what he’s doing.”
“Yes, he does.”
They fell silent, intent on controlling their excitement. The enemy they were up against was fierce and deadly. It wasn’t going to be easy freeing the women, but they would find a way.
After a time, Faith got up and went to seek out Trent. She found him a short distance off, staring out across the land.
“Did you see anything yet?” she asked quietly as she joined him.
“Nothing yet.” Trent cast a quick glance her way. He knew he couldn’t relax his vigil, but he was glad to have a moment alone with her. They hadn’t had any private time together since the night of the storm.
“Thank you,” she told him sincerely.
“For what?” He frowned, puzzled.
“For never giving up on finding Abbie. You could have turned back any number of times when we ran into dead ends, but you didn’t, and now we’ve almost freed her.”
“We haven’t rescued her yet.”
“Not yet, but we will. I know it.” Faith put her hand on his arm and looked up at him. When Trent turned to her, she moved closer and kissed him. It was a soft, cherishing exchange.
Trent would have liked nothing more than to lose himself in her embrace, but he couldn’t. Faith was a temptation he could ill afford right then. He had no time to think of anything but saving the captives. He reluctantly put her from him. “When the time comes and we do go after them, I want you to stay with Hank. I don’t want to be worrying about your safety while I’m trying to free Abbie and the other women.”
“All right,” she answered, ready to do whatever was necessary to help out.
She agreed to his order so quickly, he had to grin. “That’s a first.”
“What is?”
“Your being willing to do what I tell you without an argument.”
She was about to say more when she noticed Trent suddenly go still as he looked off in the distance.