Slocum and the Tonto Basin War

by Jake Logan

  For a few heartbeats, they stayed like that, neither stirring, both reveling in the building sensations. Then Mrs. Graham began moving up and down, twisting from side to side and tensing her strong inner muscles against Slocum’s meaty spire. Slocum felt the surge of pleasure jolt throughout his body and wanted even more. He rocked up and buried his face between her ample breasts, then twisted, throwing her over onto the bed while they were still intimately connected. Her legs came up as she opened herself to him fully.

  Slocum began stroking faster and faster. The carnal friction burned away at his control, but he wasn’t about to give in to such pleasure yet. Reaching under the woman’s body, he grasped her fleshy buttocks and lifted. He kneaded them as he had her breasts, and continued to build up speed. Every stroke took him deeper, gave them both more excitement. And then she cried out, turning and squirming with ecstatic release under him. It felt as if a pile driver crushed his buried organ.

  And then he rushed to completion. Slocum might have chalked such a lack of control up to his blood loss, but he knew the real reason. Mrs. Graham was a sexy, knowing, experienced woman who gave as good as she got. He rode out the winds of passion and then settled down atop her. Faces only inches apart, he said, “We ought to have done this sooner.”

  She looked at him in surprise, then laughed.

  “I do declare. You are full of surprises. Maybe that’s why I’m so drawn to you.”

  Slocum studied her face up close and then kissed her to shut up the flow of words. He didn’t care to think too much about such things since it always got him into trouble. As it had with Lydia Tewksbury.

  After satisfyingly kissing her, Slocum rolled away and got to his feet. She watched as he buttoned himself up.

  “You going now?”

  Slocum had started to answer when he heard horses in the yard outside. He went to the window and peered through the curtains, squinting into the morning sun.

  “Cooper and three of his cronies,” Slocum said. He reached for his gunbelt, but the Colt was still missing.

  “I’ll get it. You better think on how to get away,” Mrs. Graham said. “Take any of the horses in the barn.”

  “What happened to Murphy and the rest of your husband’s cowhands?”

  She snorted in contempt. “They all lit out when they heard Tom was dead.”

  She rushed to the front door, grabbed Slocum’s six-gun and tossed it to him just as the door opened and Cooper came in without knocking. Slocum closed the bedroom door until he had a crack to peer through. He felt the familiar heft of his Colt Navy and knew he could take care of Andy Cooper with a single shot. But the other three? That would take a powerful lot of luck, and he wasn’t sure how many rounds he had left.

  “Smelled the food. Feed us, woman,” Cooper said, grabbing Mrs. Graham’s arm and shoving her toward the kitchen. “You musta been expecting us, to fix up so much.”

  “I’m getting ready to leave. There’s nothing keeping me on this ranch.”

  “You’re right. I’m taking it all. If you’re real good to us, I might even let you go.”

  “After, Andy? She kin go after?”

  Slocum poked the barrel of his six-gun through the door and sighted in on Cooper’s head.

  “There might be time for fun later,” Cooper said.

  “Later?” Mrs. Graham jerked free from his grip and went to the kitchen to take down plates and put them on the table. Slocum was glad he hadn’t eaten there. She would have had to explain the extra plate. “What comes first?”

  “Food, then we got to get the rest of my boys together to ride over to the Tewksbury spread. I burn him out and run him off, or maybe I string him up. I wouldn’t be averse to seein’ John Tewksbury dancing in the air, a rope round his scrawny neck.”

  “Then you promised, Andy,” said another. “You promised we could have the girl.”

  “Why not?” Cooper said. “I’m done with her. The stupid bitch thinks I’m in love with her. All I want is to know I’m not riding into a trap.”

  “Belt and suspenders, Andy. That’s you. Never take an unnecessary risk.”

  “I don’t know,” Cooper said, stroking over Mrs. Graham’s hand as she put food on his plate. “This one looks like she’d be mighty dangerous. I like that.”

  Slocum opened the door a little more to see Mrs. Graham stab him in the hand with a fork. Cooper yelped and backhanded her.

  “Don’t ever do a thing like that again,” Cooper warned.

  “You’re just like my husband,” she said. “My dead husband.”

  “We ain’t got time, Andy,” said another of his men, uneasily looking at Mrs. Graham and seeing the fight in her. “I’m hungry.”

  “Eat,” Cooper said.

  Slocum saw that the threat to the woman had passed, and he closed the bedroom door. He got on his boots, rummaged in a wardrobe and found a shirt, probably Tom Graham’s, and slipped into it. He was stiff and sore, but Mrs. Graham had sewn him up well. Dressed, Slocum went out the bedroom window and dropped to the ground in a crouch. He walked in a squat under the windows to the front of the house, where Cooper had left their horses.

  Slocum’s eyes widened when he saw Cooper’s horse. Star. Whether Lydia had given him her prized horse or he had simply taken it hardly mattered. The horse was strong, rested and capable of getting Slocum to the Tewksbury spread fast.

  With a quick hop, he swung into the saddle, grabbed up the reins of the other horses and led them away. It wouldn’t take Cooper long to find the horses in the Graham barn, but slowing him by even a minute or two might give Tewksbury time to prepare for the attack.

  There wasn’t any way in hell the rancher could lose a third battle and come out alive. This time it would be more than his life at stake. Lydia and everyone who wasn’t backing Cooper would find their lives forfeited, too.

  17

  Lydia’s horse was everything she had claimed. It had heart and galloped farther than Slocum would have thought possible. Even as he was beginning to feel the effect of the hard ride, Star still raced on until the road leading to the Tewksbury house flashed past. Slocum tugged at the reins and turned the horse’s wild ride toward the house. The sun was hot on his back as he neared.

  Slocum slowed and then stopped to study the house. He had expected to see Caleb on the roof, keeping watch—if Caleb had even survived the debacle at the ravine. There should have been men running around doing chores, getting bunkers ready to ward off an attack Tewksbury must know would follow his last defeat. But he saw nothing. The place was deserted.

  He rode closer, then called, “It’s me, Slocum. Don’t shoot!”

  A single rifle barrel had poked out a broken window and pointed directly at him.

  “John?”

  Slocum sagged. Of all the people he wanted to talk to, Lydia Tewksbury was not one. He looked up when she came from the front door, the rifle clutched in her hands.

  She stared at him for a moment, dropped the rifle and rushed out to throw her arms around Star’s neck. The woman hugged her horse hard, causing the tired animal to shy away. She followed, refusing to let the horse go.

  “I didn’t think I’d see you again. He took you, he took you, Star.” Lydia turned her bright eyes up at Slocum and smiled winningly. “Thank you for bringing Star back. Cooper stole—”

  “You gave the horse to Cooper,” Slocum said flatly. He dismounted and walked around to look down at Lydia. “You and Cooper are lovers. And you gave him the horse and he’s the one I stole the horse from.”

  “There’s a dearth of real men around here, John,” she said. “You didn’t think I was a virgin, did you?”

  “I didn’t think you were a whore.”

  Slocum stopped her hand as she tried to slap him.

  “Where’s your pa? Cooper’s getting his men together for an attack.” He stared at the flushed, angry woman and couldn’t keep from adding, “Cooper’s decided to let you pleasure his men. All of them. Seems he got tired of you mighty fast.�
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  “You can’t say things like that. You’re insulting! You—” She tried to slap him again, and again he stopped her.

  “Raped and then murdered,” Slocum said savagely. “Those are in your future if Cooper wins. Where’s your pa?”

  “He . . . he and the men lit out before dawn. They’re looking to attack the Blevins ranch and catch Cooper unawares.”

  “But Cooper believes he has to attack here. You didn’t tell him what your pa had in mind, did you? Were you going to welcome Cooper here and help him set fire to your house, your barn, everything?”

  “No!”

  For once Slocum believed Lydia. It made no sense that Cooper would come here, thinking he was meeting what was left of Tewksbury’s allies, if he could lure them to the Blevins ranch and kill them there. Slocum had no doubt Tewksbury would have led his men into another ambush, especially if he was being gulled by his own daughter.

  “Are you alone?”

  “No, there are a few wounded inside.”

  “Can they be moved?”

  “They are all too badly hurt to move,” Lydia said. “Andy wouldn’t kill men who are laid up like that. He—”

  “He would. He will. The man kills by shooting his betters in the back. He’ll see killing everyone in your house as reducing the number who’ll heal up and keep fighting him. He’ll burn your house and claim all this land as his. He’s out to own the entire Tonto Basin.”

  “I know that,” Lydia said in a choked voice. “Andy’s got a lot of ambition, but he never said he’d kill everyone.”

  “If we can’t get them to safety, are they able to fight for their lives?” Slocum didn’t wait for Lydia to reply. He pushed past her and went into the house. He counted more than a dozen men inside, most of them in a bad way. He walked around, judging how gravely they were hurt.

  “You here to give us news on how Tewksbury’s doing?” asked a man with both legs splinted.

  “He’s made a third, bad mistake,” Slocum said. “How many of these men can be moved?”

  The man with the broken legs laughed ruefully and pointed. “You can see I’m not up to sticking my tail between my legs and running. I can shoot, though, and there’re enough rifles around for a small fight.”

  “It’s going to be a big fight.” Slocum had awakened the men around him. To his delight most of them looked able to use a six-gun or rifle, even if they weren’t up to riding.

  “Tewksbury was going to stop Cooper. What went wrong?”

  “He doesn’t think like a back-shooting son of a bitch,” Slocum said. “He thought you’d be safe, and Cooper would fight straight on, man-to-man. Turns out, Cooper wants to kill the wounded and then run Tewksbury out of the Basin, if Tewksbury doesn’t get himself ventilated first.”

  “Jist like John,” another said. “Ain’t got brains enough fer an itty-bitty li’l bird.”

  Lydia raged. “Don’t say that about my father!” She stood near the door, listening to everything Slocum said. “He’s a good man!”

  “You’ll be dead men if you don’t prepare for the battle,” Slocum said. “Those of you who can, get to the windows. Set up the ammo where you can get to it without running around.” He looked hard at the man with both legs splinted.

  “You do what you have to elsewhere, Slocum,” the man said, levering himself up with obvious pain and moving toward a window. “We’ll do just fine defending ourselves.”

  “What are you planning, John?” Lydia asked.

  “Not much I can do. What road did your pa take to get to the Blevins spread? I might chase him down and get him to return, but there’s not much time for that.”

  “I don’t know how he was going. He and Caleb were chuckling over a secret way to get there. I don’t know what they were talking about since the whole Basin is nothing but rolling hills and meadows. How can there be a secret way?”

  “Just Tewksbury’s way of ginning up support for his crackbrained scheme,” Slocum said. “He’ll do something stupid like a frontal attack, but it won’t be so stupid this time since Cooper’s not there. He’ll be here burning the house to the ground.”

  “Quit saying that, John. Please,” pleaded Lydia. “Andy’s not as bad as you make out. And I . . . I don’t believe what you said about him.”

  “Why don’t you get on Star and go find your pa?”

  “I don’t know where he is!” Lydia almost whined, and tears poured down her cheeks. She looked at Slocum and asked in a choked voice, “Andy said he was going to let his men use me?”

  Slocum didn’t say a word, because she already knew the answer.

  “I’ll help everyone get ready for the fight,” she said.

  “Good. It’s not going to be easy.”

  “You don’t have to stay, John. This isn’t your fight.”

  Slocum looked around at the wounded men struggling to sit up. All of them had their hands on their weapons, ready to fight to the death. There wasn’t any way he could run out on bravery like this. He picked up a rifle and began sliding cartridges into the magazine by way of an answer.

  Lydia nodded once, then went to the door and opened it. She froze, then slammed it with a cry.

  “They’re here! That’s Cooper riding in front. There’re dozens of ’em!”

  Lydia’s words were almost drowned out by the sharp reports of the attackers’ rifles. Hot lead bored through the walls and door and smashed what few shards of glass remained in the windows. Slocum guessed Tewksbury had been proud of those plate-glass windows. It might have cost as much putting real glass in as building the house. Now there were only small fragments to grind under foot.

  Slocum took three quick steps and got to the door, held it partly open with the toe of his boot and thrust the rifle out. He squeezed off a shot and sent a rider sprawling, but Slocum usually had a gut instinct about how good a shot he’d just made. This slug had missed. He lowered the muzzle and waited for the man to pop up again at the edge of the porch. Slocum wasn’t disappointed. Cooper’s henchman thrust his head up like a prairie dog looking for intruders.

  Slocum squeezed off the round. This time his gut told him he had made a killing shot.

  He didn’t have time to savor the skill of his shot or how he had outwitted the man. Too many bullets ripped through the wood around him, forcing him to close the door. He looked around the room and saw that those who had been wounded acquitted themselves well—those who had lived through the first assault on the Tewksbury house.

  “We turned the bastards back,” crowed the man with both legs in splints. “We’ll keep do—”

  The man had grown careless and moved so that he presented a clear target from outside. The bullet slashed through his head and killed him instantly.

  “Oh, no,” Lydia said, watching him slide to the floor. “No, no, this isn’t right.”

  Slocum was too slow grabbing for her. She ran to the door and flung it open, screaming, “Andy, Andy, don’t shoot!”

  Slocum tackled her in time to keep her from being filled with lead. Lydia struggled under him as he pulled her back into the house. Using the rifle stock, he knocked her back, then got off three quick shots that did nothing, but made him feel better.

  “He was going to kill me.”

  “That’s better than what I heard him say he’d do.”

  “You’re horrible!” Lydia curled up and began crying hysterically.

  Slocum ignored her and went to the window where the broken-legged man had been posted, in time to shoot at a rider galloping forward with a torch in his hand. Slocum kept firing even after the man fell dead to the ground. The torch the cowboy had intended for the roof of the Tewksbury house landed on his chest and set fire to his shirt. In a few seconds the man’s corpse was ablaze. This caused those with Cooper to jump up to give voice to their fury. Slocum winged two more of them before Cooper urged them to get their heads down.

  “That you inside, Slocum?” Cooper shouted. “It’s got to be. Who else would shoot a dead man?”r />
  “It wasn’t you, Cooper, since he didn’t catch the lead in the back.” Slocum hoped to flush Cooper with the taunt, but the killer didn’t rise to the bait.

  “If you surrender, Slocum, I’ll let you go. You and ever’one else in there. All we want to do is level the house and barn.”

  “And steal the horses and cattle.”

  “You can have the damned sheep.”

  This produced scattered laughter among Cooper’s followers. Slocum waited for another one to poke up his head from hiding, but they had turned cautious now.

  “H-he’s going to kill us,” Lydia said.

  “Probably,” Slocum allowed, “but the idea is to make him work for it. If he gets careless and I get a good shot, that’ll end it. His men don’t care squat about the house or even the people in it. Cooper’s what’s driving them.”

  “He can starve us out. We don’t have much food.”

  Slocum looked around at the few remaining fighters. They wouldn’t need much food if Cooper decided to lay siege to the house, but Slocum knew it would never come to that. Cooper was an impatient man, and not finding Tewksbury here would send him on his way fast, no matter how many of his own men he lost destroying the house.

  Slocum opened the door a crack and called out, “If we send Tewksbury out, is that good enough for you to let the rest of us go free?”

  “Tewksbury’s there?”

  “Is it a deal?”

  “Slocum, what are you doing? Pa’s not here!”

  “So? If it buys us a few more minutes, good. We’re playing to stay alive, and every second we’re not dead, all the better.”

  “You just want to taunt him.”

  “That entered my head,” Slocum said with a slight grin.

  “No deal, Slocum. I want you, too. You and Tewksbury both. Or we’ll burn the place down.”

  “You want to do that, anyway,” Slocum called. “Tewksbury’s wounded something fierce. He might not last much longer. I reckon you want to kill him yourself.”