Dying Wish

by J. R. Roberts

  Olivia narrowed her eyes as if she were mentally sifting through every last thing she’d said since she’d first stuck her head out that connecting door. Finally, she rolled her eyes and let out a breath. “There may be more than one of them.”

  “How many?”

  “Just one other.”

  “So you know them?” Clint asked.

  Suddenly, Olivia’s frown disappeared and she began pulling Clint toward the ramp where the horses were being led from the train. “Look! There she is now,” Olivia said, referring to her mare.

  Olivia tried to walk away as if she were simply strolling through a field of daisies, but Clint tightened his grip around her arm just enough to hold her back. When she turned to show him a surprised set of wide eyes, he wasn’t having any of it.

  “Who are they?” he asked. The tone in his voice was more than enough to convince Olivia to be quick about a response.

  “I thought I recognized the one in the dining car,” she explained. “I could have been wrong.”

  Clint scowled at her without saying a word.

  “All right,” she said. “I did recognize him once I saw you dragging him out on his heels.”

  “And how come you didn’t mention that until now? I believe it was still a pretty good bit of a ride between then and here.”

  “Did I mention how wonderful it was that you dragged him away like that?” she asked innocently. “I must say, it made me feel—”

  “Like being quiet and eating another sandwich?” Clint asked. “Yeah. I noticed that much.”

  Since the horse tenders were looking for someone to claim Olivia’s tan mare, Clint led her over toward the ramp. Once she claimed the horse as her own, Olivia turned to Clint and said, “I’ve known the Nagle brothers since I was small. I guess when I saw what happened, it took me a little while to figure out what to do.”

  “Great,” Clint sighed. “I was already feeling badly enough for dropping that fellow off a moving train. Now I find out he was a childhood friend of yours.”

  Olivia laughed a few times and shook her head. “I said I knew the Nagle brothers. I sure wasn’t friendly with them. They were always rotten little jackasses and the last time I saw them, they were rotten big jackasses.”

  Keeping his eyes on the slow procession of horses being led from the train, Clint asked, “You saw two of them on that train?”

  “Not exactly. It’s just that I never knew Boris or Wilson to draw a breath unless they were close enough to see the other one doing it.”

  “Boris and Wilson Nagle, huh? Which one did I meet?”

  “That would have been Boris.”

  The more he thought about it, the more Clint felt the knot in his stomach tighten. “Shit,” he muttered. “For all I know, he was sneaking up on you to ask what you’ve been doing since the last time you met.”

  “No, Clint. He wasn’t.”

  “Are you sure? What did he say to you?”

  “It’s not what he said. It’s…” She sighed and took the reins that were finally handed over to her by the young handler. After smiling and paying the railroad worker, Olivia rubbed her horse’s nose and said, “The last time I saw Boris Nagle, he was about to force himself on me.”

  Clint chewed on the inside of his cheek and nodded. “All right. I don’t feel bad about him anymore.”

  “And you shouldn’t. I think you also saved my life, because he swore to kill me the next time he saw me.”

  “He was out to kill you?”

  Olivia nodded. “The last time I saw him, he was about to force himself upon me, but he didn’t get too far. When he tried to grab me, I beat the tar out of him with a shovel and turned his balls into mush with my heel. What’s so funny?”

  Smirking and holding back his laughter, Clint held up his hands. “Did he do any more than just grab at you?”

  “No! He wanted to do more. He told me so! What’s so goddamned funny?”

  “Nothing, it’s just that pitching him off a train seems kind of light by comparison. I’m not laughing at you, Olivia. You just took me by surprise is all. I’ve heard of grown men putting up less of a fight when they’re cornered.”

  The defensive scowl slowly faded from Olivia’s face. Soon, she cracked a smile of her own. “Boris always had some lewd comment or other for me, and then he started bragging about what he’d do if he got me alone. That time, we were alone and he made a move. I stood up for myself before he could get the chance he was after.”

  “And you saw to it that he wouldn’t be much use to a woman after that day, by the sound of it.”

  Now, Olivia did start to laugh. “He stopped saying lewd things to me for a good, long while. Of course, that’s when his brother Wilson threatened to kill me.”

  “What?”

  She nodded. “Boris may be a piece of horse shit, but I could handle him before he did much of anything. Wilson, on the other hand, scares the living hell out of me.”

  Clint believed her when she told him that. In fact, he hadn’t seen that much fear in her eyes when the lead had been flying in Labyrinth.

  “If Boris was here, Wilson can’t be far away,” Olivia said. “And he won’t be too happy when he finds out what happened to his brother.”

  SIXTEEN

  Boris Nagle rode into Dallas on a horse, covered in blood. His clothes were tattered and filthier than normal, but his eyes were burning with enough rage to divert any comments that folks might have wanted to make when they saw him.

  He didn’t even bother going to the train station. It was well past dark and the train from Amarillo had already been loaded up and sent on its way a long time ago. Instead, Boris rode to Thompson’s Varieties on the corner of Market and Main Streets.

  Once he was in the saloon district, folks stopped glancing at him twice for looking like he’d been thrown off a train. In fact, Boris wasn’t even the most raggedy person in sight. Some of the drunks littering the street looked more like animals than human beings. Boris kicked one of the sleeping old drunks out of his way as he walked into the crowded saloon.

  Boris had barely made it through the front door before he was pulled aside by a tall man with angular features and a narrow frame wrapped up in taut layers of muscle. Boris started to fight back, but stopped that real quickly when he saw who it was who had practically snatched him off the street.

  “Wil?” Boris said as he squinted at the lean face that stared directly at him. “I nearly—”

  “Save it,” Wilson Nagle growled. “And shut your mouth.”

  Boris still had his arm cocked back to throw a punch, but eased it down as he looked around cautiously. “Is someone watching us?”

  Wilson had already turned his back and was walking toward a table situated against the wall. Although the saloon was full of people in various states of drunkenness, Wilson walked through them as if they weren’t even there. The ones who didn’t step aside were shoved aside and forgotten. None of them was anxious to do much more than toss a few mumbled insults at Wilson’s back.

  When he arrived at the table, Wilson stopped and glared down at the man sitting there. “You’re in my seat.”

  The man looked up at Wilson and didn’t seem impressed by the tall, slender figure in front of him. “It was empty when I got here, so it’s mine now.”

  Without another word, Wilson took the mug from the man’s hand, dumped it on his head, and smacked him across his face with it so hard that the man toppled from his chair and hit the floor. Wilson sat down and motioned for Boris to take the other chair.

  “Hey!” the man hollered.

  Wilson stood up, picked up his chair, and then slammed the legs down onto the man’s back. After dropping the man to his belly, Wilson set his chair down so one of the legs was resting on the back of the man’s hand and then sat back down again.

  The man let out a pained scream that lasted until Wilson placed his heel on the man’s head and ground his face into the floor like he was putting out a cigarette.

 
; “Take a seat,” Wilson said with a cordial wave of his hand.

  A few of the others at the nearby tables gave Wilson some shocked glances, but Boris wasn’t surprised. He just shook his head and sat down.

  “So why all the urgency?” Boris asked. “Does someone know you’re here?”

  “I don’t know,” Wilson replied. “I was just sick of waiting for you. Why the hell weren’t you on that train?”

  “Because I fell off it, that’s why!”

  Wilson nodded and said, “I guess that’s why you look like shit smeared on a shingle.”

  Glancing at the people at the nearby tables who had already been examining him and his brother, Boris leaned forward and lowered his voice. “Olivia McKay was on that train and…what’s so funny?”

  When Wilson grinned, it was almost a frightening sight. His pointed chin, narrow cheekbones, and long nose made him look more like a ghoul than a man. When he started to laugh, he didn’t make a sound. “Isn’t she the one who beat you down with a shovel?” he asked.

  Reluctantly, Boris said, “Yeah.”

  “And then she pounded you in the—”

  “Yes! I said that’s her, all right?”

  Wilson nodded and forced himself to stop laughing. The smile faded a bit, but still lingered like a stain upon soiled sheets. Rocking a bit on his chair, he listened to the sounds of the man screaming on the floor. When the man tried to get up, Wilson slammed his boot against the top of the man’s head. “So she threw you off the train?”

  “No. She didn’t throw me anywhere. She had some other fellow with her.”

  “Who was it?”

  “I don’t know,” Boris snapped. “But I almost killed him. He just got lucky when I tripped over the rail.”

  “That’s pretty damn lucky,” Wilson pointed out. “How is it they even wound up on the same train as you? Weren’t you supposed to do your business in Labyrinth and then come back as soon as you could? Weren’t you supposed to ride back instead of on some train?”

  Boris pulled open the front of his shirt so the top two buttons came loose. That way, his brother could see the blood-soaked bandages looped around his shoulder. “There’s more just like ’em around my ribs. Things went to hell real quick with that courier and I nearly got killed along the way. I wasn’t in no condition to ride back here, so I headed for Amarillo and caught the train there. At least I was able to get a message to you.”

  “Yeah,” Wilson scoffed. “But I didn’t need no telegram to tell me my brother’s a goddamn woman who can’t handle a simple job or the ride after it’s done.”

  “Look, I wound up on that train and got a closer look at that son of a bitch who tried to shoot me. He’s probably just some gunfighter that Olivia hired to protect her when she got that letter.”

  Wilson’s eyes narrowed as he leaned forward. The man under his chair grunted, but stayed in his place without putting up too much more of a fuss. “She wasn’t supposed to get that letter, Boris.”

  “I know.”

  “You told me you had some friends that would see to it that that letter wound up burned. You promised.”

  “I know what I promised. I followed that damn courier through West Texas, but his damn horse was fast enough to keep ahead of me.”

  Shaking his head and sifting his finger through long, knotted hair, Wilson said, “All couriers have fast horses. That’s why they’re couriers.”

  “I caught up with him and Olivia in Labyrinth, shot the courier dead, but was almost killed by that asshole who threw me off the train.”

  “He was in Labyrinth with Olivia?”

  “Yeah,” Boris said.

  “So he is staying close to her,” Wilson mused. “Which means he’ll be here as well.”

  “At least we know where Olivia will be headed now that she’s here.”

  “Do you know this man’s name?”

  Boris shook his head once. “No. I barely got a look at him in Labyrinth since he was shooting at us and all.”

  “And on the train?” Wilson asked.

  Grinding his teeth together, Boris let out an angry breath and shook his head again. “We didn’t exactly get to introduce ourselves before he was dragging me away from Olivia.”

  “And what were you doing with Olivia? Are you still sweet on that bitch?”

  Boris jumped up and started to lunge across the table at his brother. Wilson merely watched and grinned when Boris backed down before laying a finger on him.

  “I see you still are,” Wilson said. “That ain’t good. If we’re to get our hands on that inheritance, you gotta be able to cut that shit loose.”

  After sitting back down again, Boris forced a smile onto his face. “I did get some things done on that train before it all went sour. I gave that gunfighter’s horse a little present.”

  “And how the hell do you know it was his horse?”

  “I saw him loading it onto the train when him and Olivia got on.”

  “You always did have a good eye for horses, brother.”

  “Yeah. I can make ’em run or I can make ’em gimp. This horse won’t be running too much farther once he starts walking around a bit.”

  Wilson nodded. “That is good news. And I am glad to have the chance to meet this hired gun myself. Come on,” he said as he got up. “We’ve got a social call to make.”

  The man under Wilson’s chair stayed down until he was certain both brothers were gone.

  SEVENTEEN

  Eclipse was one of the only things Clint could always count on. Apart from a handful of people scattered throughout the world, that horse was one of the only living creatures that Clint could trust with his life. At the moment, however, he wasn’t so willing to be so forgiving.

  “Jesus,” Clint grunted as he tightened his grip on the reins and tried to hold Eclipse back without hurting him. “You really didn’t like being cooped up on that train!”

  The Darley Arabian waggled his head and snuffed angrily. So far, he had yet to stand still for more than a second. His hooves scraped or stomped against the dirt and he fought to pull the reins from Clint’s hand. It was one of the first times since Clint had first laid eyes on the stallion that he was reluctant to climb into the saddle.

  “He probably just wants to be ridden,” Olivia pointed out. “Maybe you should stretch his legs a bit.”

  “Sure, and maybe you’d like to take your chances?”

  As soon as Clint asked that question, Eclipse reared up a bit and churned his front legs in the air before dropping down again.

  “What is wrong with you, boy?” Clint asked.

  “It couldn’t have been anything in that train car,” Olivia said. “Zel’s fine.”

  Clint looked over at her and then looked at the tan mare Olivia was leading down the street. The mare simply blinked back at him as if to make herself an even bigger contrast to the fit Eclipse was throwing. “What kind of name is that for a horse anyway?” Clint grunted.

  Olivia almost started in on that story, but was cut short by another angry whinny from Eclipse. She hopped to the side a bit and said, “There’s something wrong with him and it’s more than just being anxious from the train ride.”

  “Yeah,” Clint replied as he pulled on the reins and tried to calm the stallion down.

  “Do you think he’s hurt?”

  “I think he’s not his normal self, that’s for sure. Just help me get him somewhere safe so I can figure out the rest.”

  “What do you want me to do?” she asked cautiously.

  Eclipse’s eyes were frantic and every time his front hooves touched the ground, his entire front half sprang back up again. Each time that happened, he pumped his legs more violently than the last.

  Wrapping the reins around one hand, Clint tightened his grip around the leather as he reached out to place his other hand on Eclipse’s neck. “Just keep clear and make sure nobody gets in front of us,” he said. Once Eclipse snapped a hind leg out in a quick kick, he added, “Or behind us.”


  “I don’t think that’s going to be a problem,” Olivia said as she took a look around.

  There were plenty of other people along the street and on either side, but none of them seemed interested in coming within a mile of the bucking Darley Arabian. In fact, most of them looked as if they were trying to get as far away as possible.

  “Do you know where I can take him?” Clint asked. “A stable or blacksmith or anyplace will do, just so long as it’s close.”

  “There’s a stable down on Lamar. It’s close to a man who really knows his way around—”

  “Sounds great,” Clint said as he struggled to keep Eclipse from bucking any more. “Lead the way.”

  Clint let Olivia get ahead of him a ways before pulling on Eclipse’s reins. The Darley Arabian responded instinctively, but was still very agitated. As they moved slowly down the street, Clint patted Eclipse’s neck and spoke soothingly to him. Although he didn’t expect the stallion to understand any of the words, Clint could tell his voice was calming Eclipse down. At the very least, the stallion had something else to focus on instead of whatever was causing him to fret so much.

  Before Clint rounded the next corner, he already had a good idea of what was causing Eclipse to throw such a fit. Fortunately, Olivia didn’t waste any time in bringing him to a small blacksmith’s shop connected to a narrow stable that was just big enough to hold two horses.

  “Whoa, there!” a burly man with a pudgy, clean-shaven face hollered. He wore a thick cotton shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a heavy apron marking him as a blacksmith.

  “Do you own this place?” Clint asked.

  “Sure I do, but there’s a stable right across the street.”

  “My horse doesn’t need a stable. Right now, he needs to get something taken out of his hoof.”

  All the blacksmith had to do was watch Eclipse take a few steps before he waved toward one of the empty stalls. “Take him in there, but you’ll be the one to keep him still while I have a look.”

  “I doubt it’d work any other way.”

  EIGHTEEN