by JR Roberts
“How do you know?”
“’cause he’s gonna wanna talk first.”
“And how do you know that?”
Lomax looked at him.
“They always wanna talk.”
He started his horse forward.
~*~
Clint watched as the column of men stopped, then a man he assumed was Frank Lomax continued toward him.
Here we go, he thought.
Forty
“You’re Adams?”
“I am,” Clint said. “You’re Frank Lomax?”
“That’s right.”
“So,” Clint said, “here we are.”
“Where are my brothers’ wives?”
“They’re inside,” Clint said.
Lomax studied the front of the house, both the downstairs and the upstairs.
“At the windows,” he said, “with rifles?”
“They’re ready to fight, if they have to.”
“And you?” Lomax asked. “Are you ready to fight?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Why?” Lomax asked. “What’s in it for you?”
“Just helping some women defend themselves against an army of gunmen. It doesn’t seem like a very fair fight, does it?”
“And my brothers?” Lomax asked. “Did they have a fair chance?”
“I don’t know anything about that,” Clint said. “I didn’t know your brothers, and I don’t know what happened to them. Do you?”
“These bitches killed them.”
“What makes you think they didn’t just ride away?” Clint asked.
“Because I know my brothers,” Lomax said. “I knew my brothers. The only reason they wouldn’t be here when I got here is because they’re dead. And if they’re dead, these women killed them.”
“Really?” Clint asked. “You really think three women killed your brothers? Three grown men?”
“I also know the weaknesses my brothers had,” Lomax said, “and at the top of the list was women. I’d be willin’ to bet they was naked when they were killed.”
Clint was impressed with Lomax’s deductions. But it was going to make it even harder to talk the man out of killing the women.
“Why are you out here, Adams?” Lomax asked. “You think you’re gonna talk me outta this?”
“I was hopin’ I would,” Clint admitted.
“Forget it,” Lomax said. “You got any brothers?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Then you wouldn’t understand how I feel,” Lomax said. “I have no choice here but to kill them—and you, if you get in my way.”
“Well,” Clint said, “that’s my back-up plan, Lomax. To get in your way.”
“Then you better have more than six bullets in that gun on your hip, because you’re gonna need ’em.”
“I’ve got one very special bullet,” Clint said. “It’s got your name on it. See, no matter what happens here, you’re not going to live to see how it ends. I’m going to kill you first.”
“That’s fine with me,” Lomax said. “My men know what I want them to do. If I fall, they’ll do it, anyway.”
“You sure of that?” Clint asked. “They can’t have the same passion to kill three women that you do.”
“They work for money,” Lomax said. “I’m payin’ them to kill these women.”
“And if you die, how do they get paid?”
“It’s already taken care of,” Lomax said. “Now you and me, we can get things started right here and now. Or one of these women can shoot me down from a window. But my men are gonna finish what I start.”
“You have a lot of faith in them.”
“Money’s money,” Lomax said. “I got a lot of faith in that.”
“What if we gave you one woman,” Clint said. “Just one, instead of all three?”
“What?” Lomax frowned.
“Yeah,” Clint said, “see, one of these women tells the other two what to do. If you think they killed your brothers, it was probably her idea. Why kill all three?”
Lomax pointed at Clint. “You’re tellin’ me you’d give up one of these women?”
“To save the other two,” Clint said. “It’s just a suggestion. I wanted to see how you felt about it.”
“How do they feel about it?” Lomax asked. “Did you run it by them?”
“Actually, no, I didn’t.”
Lomax stared at Clint for a few moments, then started to laugh.
“You know what?” he said. “This is interestin’. I’d kinda like to see how this plan would play out. So let’s say I go for it. Would it be Loretta? The oldest one? She was married to my brother Eddie.”
“I’d have to talk with them,” Clint said. “She is the oldest, but who knows if a plan to kill all three husbands was hers or not.”
“I tell you what,” Lomax said, still chuckling. I’m gonna give you time to go to them with this. I wanna see how they react to this great idea. You got ... half an hour.”
“Good,” Clint said. “I’ll be back out here in half an hour.”
Lomax nodded, turned his horse and walked it back to his men.
Clint turned and went back into the house.
Forty-One
As Clint re-entered the house both women turned from their windows to look at him.
“What happened?” Loretta asked.
“What did he say?” Teresa asked.
“I bought us some time,” Clint explained.
“To do what?” Loretta asked.
“I don’t know,” Clint said. “Maybe just think of something.”
“Like what?” Teresa asked. “What can we do in half an hour?”
“I don’t know,” Clint said, again.
“What’s goin’ on?” Belinda called from upstairs.
“Just stay at your window!” Clint yelled.
“How did you get him to hold off for a half hour?” Loretta asked.
“Well,” Clint said, “I told him I’d discuss an idea I had with you girls.”
“What idea?”
“Turning one of you over to them to save the other two.”
“What?” Loretta asked.
“Which one?” Teresa asked.
“Whichever one came up with the idea to kill your husbands,” he said.
“First,” Loretta said, “we’re not about to admit to Frank Lomax that we killed his brothers.”
“And we’re not givin’ them one of us,” Teresa said.
“I know that,” Clint said. “I just said that to buy us the time.”
“Now wait ...” Loretta said.
“What?” Teresa asked.
The two girls looked at each other from across the room.
“Maybe it’s not such a bad idea,” the older sister said.
“Loretta ...” Teresa said.
“Just hear me out,” Loretta said. “Belinda needs to be able to live her life, and she’ll need you to do it. If Lomax will take me and leave the two of you alone—”
“No!” Teresa said. “I’m not even gonna consider that, and I know Belinda won’t, either.”
Loretta looked at Clint.
“Do you think he’d really go for it?”
“I don’t know,” Clint said. “He thought it was kind of funny. Maybe he was just stringing us along.”
“So even if you said we’d go for it, he wouldn’t do it,” Loretta said.
“Probably not.”
“Good,” Teresa said. “Now let’s come up with something else.”
“What else did you tell him?” Loretta asked.
“That I was going to kill him first.”
“How did he react to that?”
“He didn’t care,” Clint said, “or he’d like me to believe that. He said his men would go ahead with his plan, whether he was dead or not, because he was paying them.”
“But how could he pay them if he’s dead?’ Teresa asked.
“He said he’d already taken care of that.”
“His brother
s did say he was the smart one,” Loretta pointed out.
“So what do we do?” Teresa asked, again.
“Just stay at your windows,” Clint said. “I’ll think of something.”
~*~
Lomax rode back to his men, aligned his horse with Skinner’s.
“What happened?” Skinner asked. “What did he say?”
“That he was gonna kill me first if we started shootin’.”
“So you’ll just stay in the back,” Skinner said. “No problem.”
“I ain’t stayin’ in the back,” Lomax said. “Don’t worry about that.”
“What else did you say to him?”
“Get this,” Lomax said, and explained what Clint had offered him.
“What?” Skinner said. “He’s gonna give you one of the women?”
“That’s what he says,” Lomax said. “but we ain’t takin’ one when we could get all three. I just gave him a half an hour to present it to the women.”
“So you’re just makin’ them think they have an out.”
“That’s right,” Lomax said. “I’m playin’ with them, because that’s me, I’m a playful sonofabitch.”
“So what do we do in the meantime?”
“You ride back and tell the men to get ready,” Lomax said. “I’m gonna give them the whole half hour, and then we’re goin’ in.”
“Gotcha, boss.”
As Skinner turned his horse and rode back, Lomax stared at the house. It was all coming down to this, and in less than 30 minutes he was going to kill the three women who killed his brothers, and he was going to kill the Gunsmith.
After this was over, Frank Lomax would be a name known across the West.
A legend.
Forty-Two
Clint thought he should go upstairs and talk to Belinda for a moment, fill her in.
She turned as Clint entered the room.
“I’m lookin’ out the window,” she said.
“I know.”
“What happened down there?”
“That’s what I came up to tell you.”
He ran it down for her, everything he and Lomax had talked about, and then the conversation he had with Loretta and Teresa.
“Teresa’s right,” Belinda said, “Loretta’s not goin’ out there. I should be the one to go out. I was the first one to kill my husband.”
“Nobody’s going out,” Clint said. “I just said that to Lomax to buy us some time to think.”
“And what are you thinkin’ about?”
“I’m thinkin’ if I can kill Lomax and his Segundo quick enough, it might affect the others.”
“What’s a Segundo?” she asked.
“His second in command,” Clint said. “After all, he’s got an army.”
Belinda shook her head and looked away from the window at Clint.
“How do we defeat an army?”
He pointed at the window and she turned her head back.
“Well,” he said, “one way is to demoralize them. Make them think they can’t win.”
“And how do we do that?”
“That’s a good question.”
“How have you defeated gangs before?” she asked.
“None of that helps,” Clint said. “I’ve never faced one this size with only three women to back me up.”
“Oh.”
“There have been times I’ve been able to talk men out of fighting, or demoralized them into backing off, but Lomax doesn’t seem to be one of those men.”
“No,” she said, “my husband used to say how smart Frank was, and stubborn.”
“Smart and stubborn,” Clint repeated. “That’s not going to be helpful. What else did he used to say?”
Belinda started to talk, relating to Clint everything she ever heard her husband say about his family, his brothers, especially his older brother, Frank.
Clint listened intently, hoping for guidance.
~*~
When he came downstairs, Teresa asked, “Is she all right?”
“She’s fine,” Clint said. “And she was very helpful.”
“How?” Loretta asked.
“She told me some stories about the Lomax boys,” Clint said. “Stories her husband told her.”
“Denver talked to her about his family?” Loretta said. “Eddie never talked to me about things like that.”
“Neither did Ralph,” Teresa said.
“Well,” Clint said, “we’re lucky that Belinda’s husband did.”
“Why?” Loretta asked.
“Because it gave me an idea,” he said. “But it’s dangerous.”
“What happens if it works?” Teresa asked.
“We all walk away.”
“And if it doesn’t work?” Loretta asked.
“We all die,” Clint said, “probably.”
Loretta and Teresa exchanged a glance.
“Did Belinda already agree to it?” Teresa asked.
“Yes,” Belinda said, coming down the stairs, “I did.”
“Okay, so what’s the idea?” Loretta asked. “What do we have to do?”
Clint hesitated a moment, then said, “We all have to step outside.”
~*~
“The half hour is almost up,” Skinner said, riding up alongside Lomax, who was still watching the house.
“I can tell time,” Lomax said.
“So what do we do?” Skinner asked. “Start shootin’ as soon as Adams steps outside?”
“No,” Lomax said.
“Then what?”
“I want him to sweat.”
“I thought this was about the women,” Skinner said. “Your brothers’ widows.”
“Yeah, it is about them,” Lomax said, “but the Gunsmith stepped into the picture. He obviously thought his presence would change things. I want him to know that it won’t. Not one bit.”
“You want him to sweat.”
“That’s right.”
“Frank,” Skinner said, “the Gunsmith has never sweated in his life.”
Lomax looked at Skinner and said, “There’s a first time for everything.”
Forty-Three
“This is even crazier than your last idea when you went out there alone,” Loretta said.
“I’ll do it,” Belinda said.
“I’ll do it, too,” Teresa said.
“What?”
“He’s riskin’ his life to save ours,” Teresa said. “The least we owe him is to do the same.”
“Yeah,” Belinda said.
“This is only going to work if we’re all together in this, Loretta,” Clint said. “It’s the only way.”
“Oh, and one more thing,” she said.
“Yes,” Clint said, “you’ll have to prove you can shoot.”
Normally, Clint would never have gone into this kind of situation without first finding out if the people he was standing with could shoot. In this instance he had to take their word for it. But Lomax and his men would not do that. They were going to have to see it.
“You’re the best shot, Loretta,” Teresa said. “We can’t do this without you.”
Loretta hesitated, then said, “Oh crap, let’s do it.”
~*~
“He’s comin’ out,” Skinner said.
“I see,” Lomax said.
The front door of the house opened and Clint Adams stepped out.
“What the—” Lomax said, when the door didn’t close. Instead, Loretta came out, then Teresa, and then Belinda, all three women holding rifles.
Clint stood in the center of the porch, while the women spread out behind him.
“What are they doin?” Skinner asked.
While they watched, the women adopted very casual attitudes. Loretta actually sat down in a wicker chair, her rifle across her thighs. Teresa leaned against a post and Belinda perched a hip on a porch railing.
“They look relaxed,” Skinner said.
“Yeah,” Lomax said, “too relaxed.”
“Adams sure don’t look
like he’s sweatuin’.”
“Let’s ride up and see what’s happenin’,” Lomax said. “You’re with me, tell the others to stay where they are, but be ready.”
“Right.”
Lomax waited, wondering what was on Clint Adams’ mind, while Skinner turned and rode back to the others.
~*~
When Skinner reached the other men he saw that they were whispering among themselves.
“Just stay here and stay ready,” he said.
“What’s goin’ on?” Holby asked. “What’re them women doin’ with rifles?”
“Lomax and me are gonna ride up and find out.”
“Can them women shoot?” Miller asked. “Nobody said nothin’ about the women bein’ able to shoot. Bad enough we gotta face the Gunsmith.”
“Just take it easy,” Skinner said. “Don’t overreact.”
He turned to go back to Lomax, aware that the men were once again whispering among themselves. And he was aware of something else, as well. Clint Adams may not have been sweating, but he was.
~*~
“What are they gonna do?” Loretta asked.
“Let’s wait and see,” Clint said. “Just relax—or look relaxed.”
“It ain’t easy,” Teresa said.
“I know. Okay, something’s happening.”
The other man rode up alongside Lomax, and then the two of them approached the house on horseback.
“Here we go,” Clint said.
~*~
Lomax rode up to the house, stopped a few yards away with Skinner on his left. He looked at Adams, then at the three women, who all stared back at him in a relaxed, seemingly unconcerned manner.
“What are you playin’ at, Adams?” he demanded.
“I’m not playing, Lomax,” Clint said. “I presented my idea to the ladies, but they didn’t like it. They decided to just come on out with me.”
“To do what?” Lomax asked.
“Well,” Clint said, apparently you were wrong about the way they took care of your brothers.”
“You mean they admit they killed ’em?”
“Sure, they admit it,” Clint said. “But they didn’t use their feminine wiles, as you suggested. They just,” Clint added a shrug, “outshot them.”
“They didn’t,” Lomax said. “They couldn’t’ve.”
“Well,” Clint said, “they’re here and your brothers aren’t.”
Lomax looked over at Loretta, who smiled at him. He had never met any of these women, but had heard from his brothers about their wives, and was able to pick out each one.