THE BOUNTY: Twentieth in a Series of Jess Williams Westerns (A Jess Williams Western Book 20)

by Robert J. Thomas

  “Know what you want?” the girl asked after a few seconds.

  “I need ten pieces of fried chicken and some fried potatoes,” he told her. “And I need to take it to the hotel.”

  “You’ve got a healthy appetite,” she said smiling.

  “Yes I do.”

  Jess sat there sipping a coffee while waiting for the chicken. He kept looking out the window for any unusual activity, but everything seemed normal and quiet. The girl came out with two bags of food and sat it down on the counter. He paid her and left a very nice tip and walked out of the little eatery and back to the hotel. He rapped on the door.

  “You hungry?” he asked softly. The door opened slowly and Jane stepped back holding the shotgun up. He walked in and closed the door and locked it. He handed the bags of food to her and she put the shotgun down on the bed and opened the bags up.

  “This smells absolutely wonderful,” she said as she pulled a chicken leg out of the one bag. Jess propped one of the chairs under the doorknob and took his back sling off and laid it on the long dresser in the room. When they finished eating, he took some time to clean all his weapons while Jane enjoyed lying on the bed. When he finished, he peeked out the window and saw several people walking around.

  “A peaceful little town for one with no law in it,” he observed quietly.

  “How do you know they don’t have any law?”

  “The first things I look for when I ride into any town are the jail, saloons and the livery.”

  “Well, I thank you for this room,” she said warmly. “This bed is so much more comfortable than the cold hard ground.”

  “Enjoy it because it might be the last one you get to sleep on for a while.” She gave him a curious look while chewing her food and swallowing it.

  “I’ll share the bed with you as long as you promise to stay on your side,” she offered.

  “I can sleep on the floor,” he told her, biting into a piece of chicken. “I’m used to it.”

  “Okay, but the offer is still open if you change your mind,” she said cautiously. Jess removed his shotguns and lifted up his shirt and checked his bullet crease. The white cloth was stuck to it from the dried blood.

  “Here, let me help you with that,” she said. She walked over and quickly ripped the cloth off in one quick movement and he jerked and winced from the pain.

  “Did you have to rip it off like that?” he protested.

  “It’s less painful that way.”

  “I’ll remember that if you get shot.”

  She took a cloth and dipped it in the water from the washbasin on the dresser and cleaned the wound up as best as she could. Jess took a small bottle of alcohol out of his saddlebags and she took it and dabbed the wound with some of it. Then she took some of the gauze that she had used to wrap her breasts up and wrapped it around his ribcage and tucked the end into the wrapping and admired her handiwork.

  “There, that should do it,” she said smiling.

  “Thanks,” he said. “Let’s turn in and get an early start tomorrow.”

  In the morning, Jess woke up and shook the bed to wake Jane and she slowly stirred and stretched her arms up in the air and yawned. Jess splashed some water on his face and was wiping it off with a towel when a rock came crashing through the window, startling both of them as they heard a deep loud voice outside.

  “We want the woman!”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Jess snatched his Winchester up from the corner of the room and used the barrel to move the curtains enough to see four men standing below the window in the middle of the street. Three of them had rifles and one had a sawed off double-barrel across his left arm. Jess recognized the man with the shotgun as a bounty hunter he had run into a few times.

  “Is that Buster Sexton down there?” Jess asked from the window.

  “That’s right, and if you don’t give us the woman, we’ll come in and take her!” Buster hollered up at the window.

  “Buster, you know me well enough to know I won’t give her up without a fight!” Buster looked up at the window and tried to focus, but he couldn’t see anyone.

  “Who in the hell is that up there?” demanded Buster.

  “It’s Jess Williams up here!” Buster’s shoulders slumped as if the air was suddenly let out of him like a balloon that had been pricked by a needle.

  “Aw hell,” exclaimed Buster, shaking his head. The man standing to the right of Buster, Bob Hardy, looked at him and frowned.

  “What do you mean, ‘aw hell’?” asked Hardy skeptically.

  “You mean you don’t recognize that name?” Buster asked slowly and directly.

  “No, should I?” asked Hardy.

  “He’s the best damn bounty hunter I know of and worse, he’s the best man killer I know,” clarified Buster. “He carries enough guns on him to start a small war and he knows how to use every one of them. I ain’t goin’ up against the likes of that one.” The other two men with Hardy, Butch Stockwell and Pete Heinz looked at one another, but neither one of them recognized the name either.”

  “But there’s four of us and only one of him,” complained Hardy.

  “It wouldn’t matter to me if we had ten men,” snapped Buster. “I still wouldn’t go up against him, especially since I’d be the first one going down.”

  “What makes you think that?” asked Hardy.

  “Because that’s how he thinks. He’ll take the best man down with his first shot,” explained Buster knowingly. “And I’m the best man out of the four of us, so that means I’m going down first. Did you forget about the part when I told you he was the best man killer I know of?”

  “So you’re gonna let twenty-five thousand dollars slip through your fingers?” Hardy asked angrily.

  “I heard they don’t take money in hell,” groused Buster. He looked back up at the window.

  “Mr. Williams, I’m backing out of this fight, just so you know!” hollered Buster.

  “Good, now tell your friends they’d be smart to do the same!” barked Jess from the window.

  “They won’t listen to me. We just met this morning when we found out about the woman being in town!” Buster hollered out. “Don’t come lookin’ for me ‘cause I’m riding out right now!” Jess stood back from the window a few feet and saw Buster quickly walking away from the other three men. Stockwell gave Hardy a nervous look.

  “Maybe we shouldn’t try this,” pondered Stockwell.

  “You, too?” glowered Hardy.

  “Well Buster was the best out of the four of us,” observed Stockwell. “If he won’t go up against this Williams feller, then maybe we shouldn’t either.” Hardy kicked some dirt with the tip of his boot in anger.

  “We’re talking about twenty-five thousand dollars here,” argued Hardy. Stockwell didn’t respond; he just hung his head a little. Hardy didn’t wait for him to make a decision on the matter. Instead, he looked back up at the window.

  “Give us the woman or we’re comin’ in to get her!” hollered Hardy. Jess quickly threw one of his cut-down shotguns on the bed.

  “When I leave the room, you know what to do right?” he said to her.

  “Yes, stay down low in the corner and watch the door and the window,” she answered.

  Jess racked a shell into his rifle and peeked around the edge of the window and as soon as his head showed, Hardy fired his rifle, tearing a chunk of wood from the frame. Jess ducked down low against the wall as several slugs slammed into the wall and the window opening, breaking what glass was left in the window. There was a slight pause in the gunfire and Hardy hollered up to the window again.

  “Are you ready to give us the woman now!” demanded Hardy almost sarcastically.

  Jess stood up and quickly moved past the window in one fluid motion and without stopping, he snapped off a shot at one of the men. Jess was already on the other side of the window as the slug hit Stockwell in his left leg. He went down on one knee screaming in pain.

  Hardy ran for a water barre
l on the boardwalk across the street and Heinz ducked behind a wagon tied up in front of the general store across the street from the hotel. Stockwell crawled his way up onto the boardwalk in front of the hotel and sat on his ass leaning against the wall to the right of the door. Jess quickly fired three more shots, each time passing by the window and snap-aiming his shots. One slug punched a hole in the water barrel Hardy was hiding behind and one slug slammed into the seat of the wagon, barely missing Heinz hiding behind it. The third one kicked up some said under the wagon.

  Jess quickly moved back away from the window and crouched low and reloaded the spent shells in his rifle. Slugs started to pepper the front wall of the hotel, a few of them busting through the wall, but the slugs ended up in the ceiling or upper wall of the room because of the upward angle.

  “Stay back against that wall with the bed in between you and the gunfire,” barked Jess. He quickly put the back sling on with his large bore shotgun and tucked the other cut-down double-barrel into the back of his holster while slugs continued to slam into the wall and the window frame. Then he tucked his Colt Peacemaker into the front of his holster. “I’m going out there now.” Jane nodded and he could see the fear in her eyes.

  “Anyone comes in here; you pull those triggers one at a time and then use your rifle and whatever you do, don’t leave this room. You safest place is right where you are now.” Jane didn’t respond, she just nodded her head and gripped the cut-down shotgun tightly in her hands as more slugs punched through the window.

  “Lock the door behind me and then get back in that corner,” ordered Jess, as he slowly opened the door and stuck his rifle out to see if he drew any fire. He didn’t, so he carefully walked out of the room, all of his senses on high alert. The hallway was empty. All of a sudden a door behind him creaked open and Jess quickly swung around with the rifle and saw a woman peeking out of her door. She quickly slammed the door and locked it.

  He slowly made his way to the stairs and looked down the steps, but saw nothing. He walked slowly down the stairs and when he got halfway down, he saw movement by the counter in the lobby and he pointed the rifle at the counter and two trembling hands slowly rose up in the air. The hotel clerk slowly raised up until his head was slightly above the counter. Jess gave him a harsh look and motioned with his left hand for him to get back down. The clerk obliged, but not before he pointed to the left side of the front door of the hotel. Jess nodded as if he understood and the clerk disappeared again behind the counter.

  Jess quietly made his way to the bottom of the steps and crouched low until he could look out of one of the front windows. He was scanning the glass windows across the street and then he found what he was looking for. He saw the reflection of a man who was sitting on the boardwalk of the hotel with his back against the wall to the one side of the door. He couldn’t see the other two men so he had to assume that they were still in the same positions they had been before. Shots were still being fired up at the hotel room, but the rate of fire had slowed somewhat.

  Jess leaned his rifle up against the clerk’s counter and pulled his large bore shotgun out of his back sling and aimed at the wall where Stockwell was sitting on the other side. He was less than ten feet away from him when he pulled the one trigger on the large bore shotgun; it blew a large hole in the wall of the saloon as well as blowing a lot of smaller holes into the man’s head. Stockwell’s upper body flew forward from the blast and then flew backward again and his head slammed against the wall and actually got stuck in the hole that the shotgun had created. Some of the blood from his wounds started trickling down the inside wall of the hotel. Jess quickly reloaded the spent shell with another ten-gauge shotgun shell, not taking the time to stuff more .45 caliber slugs into the barrel. He slid the shotgun back into his back sling and picked up his rifle just as slugs started hitting the front door and the inside lobby including the counter the clerk was hiding behind.

  Jess quickly ran behind the counter and between shots, he peeked out of the front door and he saw Hardy racking another shell into his rifle. Jess fired a shot at him, punching another hole in the water barrel. Hardy began firing back into the hotel lobby, but Jess was already making his way to the back door of the hotel.

  When he reached the screen door, he pushed the door open with his rifle to see if he’d draw any fire. After nothing happened, he made his way outside and placed his back up against the back wall of the hotel. He gave a quick glance around and saw no one.

  He carefully worked his way down two buildings watching every rooftop and every corner of every building. When he got to where he wanted to be, he slowly worked his way between two buildings until he got close to the front. He slowly peeked out from the edge of the building and he saw Hardy behind the water barrel. He was still firing his rifle into the hotel lobby, but from this angle, Hardy’s body was now partially exposed, which is exactly what Jess had hoped for. Jess braced his rifle against the corner of the building and carefully aimed his Winchester and pulled back on the trigger and when the rifle barked, Hardy flew sideways, his rifle flying out of his hands. By the time he fell onto the boardwalk, Jess was already moving to the rear of the two buildings he was behind. His plan was simple, but effective. Shoot and then quickly change his position.

  Heinz saw Hardy go down, but he couldn’t tell where the shot came from. He kept stealing glances around as he fired up at the hotel room, not knowing for certain whether Jess had left the hotel or not. Jess made his way past the rear of the hotel again and worked his way down along several more buildings until he got far enough to be able to get a decent shot at the man behind the wagon. He rounded another building toward the end of the street and he slowly walked up the steps to the rooftop.

  When he got to the front of the building’s rooftop, he slowly peeked over the edge and saw the man behind the wagon still firing up at the hotel room. Jess took his hat off and slowly slid his rifle up onto the edge of the front wall and took careful aim at the man and when the man stuck his head up again to fire, Jess pulled back on the trigger and the rifle jumped again.

  The man’s head exploded when the slug entered his head just above his right ear and exited out the left side of his head. The man slumped to the ground, dead before he hit the dirt. Jess waited for a moment and there were no more shots being fired. He put his hat back on and carefully made his way down the steps and walked around the building until he got to the front. He peered along the street, but no one was outside except for him and the three men he shot. It was eerily silent and the smell of gunpowder wafted heavily in the air.

  Jess ran across the street and up on the boardwalk and slowly walked toward the man who had been behind the wagon and the man who had been firing from behind the water barrel. When he reached them, he saw that the one behind the wagon was dead. The top half of his head had been blown away. He heard the other man let out a low moan and he kept the rifle high in his hands as he walked over to him. He looked down at Hardy and saw that the bullet had hit him in his left lung and hadn’t exited anywhere. Hardy was lying on his back with his eyes darting back and forth quickly. He finally saw Jess come into view, standing over him and holding a rifle in his hands. Hardy turned his head a little.

  “You done killed Heinz and Stockwell, and now you’ve done killed me,” blurted out Hardy, choking on the words and the blood in his mouth.

  “You should’ve listened to Buster and left this alone,” submitted Jess.

  “I guess Buster was right about you being a man killer and all.”

  “He did try to warn you and so did I.”

  “Yeah, but twenty-five thousand dollars was just too much money to pass up.”

  “I know, but wouldn’t have been able to spend one dollar of it where you’re going anyway.”

  Jess looked up to see two men slowly walking toward him and he swung the rifle and pointed it straight at them and they both stopped in their tracks and held their hands up in the air.

  “We ain’t armed,” one of the men
said, both of them lifting their shirts up and turning around in a full circle to prove they weren’t wearing any guns. “We just came for the bodies.”

  “Alright, but you’d better not be pulling out any boot guns,” warned Jess. The two men reached Hardy just as he let out his death rattle.

  “I tried to talk old Hardy out of this, but he wouldn’t listen,” exclaimed the one man.

  “Well, he’s not listening now either,” observed Jess, as he headed across the street and back to the hotel, watching all the rooftops and building for anyone else who might try to join in on the fight. When he got to the hotel, he looked at the dead body of Stockwell. His head was still stuck in the hole of the front wall of the hotel and it was somewhat of a gruesome scene. His eyes were still open and it looked like he was looking up to the heavens, but that probably wasn’t where his soul was headed.

  Jess walked into the lobby and found the clerk nervously standing behind the counter. He ignored the clerk and walked upstairs and used his rifle to rap on the door to the room just in case Jane accidentally jerked the trigger out of fear.

  “Jane, it’s me, you can open the door now.” Jess heard the lock click and the door opened slightly. Jess pushed the door open with his rifle and found Jane standing in the corner, gripping the short shotgun tightly, tears in her eyes and fear washing over her face.

  “Is it over?” she asked in a broken voice. He forced a smile looking at her.

  “I think this one is over with, but it’s surely not the end of it.”

  “Why can’t my life just get back to normal again,” she groaned as she gently placed the cut-down shotgun on the bed. Jess picked it up and tucked it back into the back of his holster.

  “Grab your gear, we’ve got to leave this town and the quicker the better,” he ordered.

  The two of them picked up their things and headed down the steps. Jess stopped at the counter and handed the clerk a hundred dollars for the damages. The clerk forced a nervous smile as he took the money.