Brenda sat serenely in the lobby. She stiffened when Sammy walked in, her smug look faltering slightly, but relaxed when Sammy walked over to her.
"I want to talk to you in private," Sammy said.
"We have nothing to discuss, private or otherwise," she answered, smoothing the skirt of the expensive Paris day gown.
Instead of reminding Sammy of how inferior she was, it made Sammy mad. Her voice turned cold. "We do. It's up to you who hears it."
"I'm sure nothing you can say will—"
"Pierce is beaten. He'll never get the deeds for those claims."
"He is getting the deeds right now," Brenda said smugly.
"He cain't prove up on them, I saw to that." There was a flicker of alarm in Brenda's eyes, so Sammy pressed the point. "It was my house, my fences, and my barns. Same with all those claims. I burned them down. His claim will be in default for not maintaining the structures for the required time, and someone else will file on it."
"I don't believe you."
"Believe it. I knew I couldn't fight him, but I also knew I could keep him from winning."
"You haven't stopped Pierce," she said with a wicked smile. "This is only the beginning, Mrs. Taylor." She said the name like it was something nasty, twisting it to sound vile. "Should I give you my condolences? Marrying him, hoping he would die so you would inherit that miserable little piece of land." She made a tsk-tsk sound. "Someone should have warned you that he has remarkable recuperative powers." Dumbfounded, Sammy stared at her "They're all saying it. The poor man was too weak to even say 'I do.' "
Sammy had expected gossip, just not that it would take that particular turn. The unfairness of it caught her off guard, rendering her at a loss for a moment.
Brenda leaned forward and hissed, "Did he give you a bastard, the same way he did me? Is that why you forced him into marriage?" She flicked her fingers towards Sammy's belly. "Do you have another little Gabe bastard in there? Are you going to give it away just like he did his son when he deserts you like he did me?"
Several things went through Sammy's mind, one being that Brenda didn't know yet that Danny was back. She was grateful for that. Had she known, Brenda could use the baby as a weapon. "I know you're lying," she said, starting slowly. "I hadn't just arrived when you heard my horse. I'd been standing there the whole time. I heard everything you said."
Brenda considered that for a moment before she started laughing. "And who do you think people will believe? Why would a man like Gabe marry a dredge like you unless he was forced into it? You don't even have a ranch anymore to buy him with."
Sammy gave herself a shake, returning to why she was there and setting the rest aside. "It's over," she told Brenda. "Gabe can and will fight Pierce, anyway he chooses, but he cain't fight you. He couldn't fight a woman the way he would a man. Even if it was face to face, which you won't do, he couldn't kill you. You know that, and you used it, but it won't protect you anymore."
"If you're trying to frighten me by suggesting that Angel would hurt me…" She ended with another laugh.
Sammy let her finish the laugh before she said quietly, "Not him. He cain't fight you. A man wouldn't hit or kill a woman, but I'm not a man. If you don't call Pierce off, stop this before it gets any worse, woman to woman, I'll kill you."
"You still don't frighten me, Mrs. Taylor," she said, giving the name the same twist as she stood and gathered her skirts in her hand. "Angel will do the same thing he did before—run—and I will have all that was once yours."
"If he'd run the way you say, you couldn't have had him shot down in the street," Sammy said in a cold fury that made her hands tremble she wanted to strike her so bad.
"He didn't come back afterwards, did he? Not to face me or the men that did that to him. He's afraid of me, Mrs. Taylor. He knows what I can do to him, and as you said, he knows he can't fight me. Oh, he can fight Pierce, I've no doubt that he will, but if Pierce doesn't kill him, the next one will, wherever he runs to get away from me, I'll follow. I will have my revenge, Mrs. Taylor."
Sammy's hand dropped to her pocket. She had her fingers curled around the butt of the small pistol when a hand closed on her wrist. Sammy twisted to stare at Tracks.
"No offense meant, ma'am," Tracks said softly, pulling her hand away from the gun. "Could be if you give her time to think on it, she'll leave peaceful like."
Shaking her head, Sammy told him, "She needs killing. She's no better than a slobbering at the mouth mad dog."
Brenda took advantage of the interruption, laughing softly as she climbed the hotel stairs.
* * *
Pierce raged at Hedges. "You're crazy," he shouted. "There's a house, barns, sheds, and fences there, more than enough to prove up, and you know it."
"There's nothing left, Pierce. I was out there yesterday, knowing you'd be here today. Verifying claims is part of my job as land agent."
"You damned fool!" Pierce screamed. "Everyone knows there's buildings there!"
"Everyone knows there used to be. Everything is gone. Had a hell of a fire. Oughtn't leave a place like that unlooked after. Things happen, cinders fall out of the fireplace."
"No trouble in here," the sheriff warned quietly. "If you're through with your business, Pierce, move on."
"No—no, I ain't done," he said desperately, then turned back at Hedges with a threat. "And that part of it ain't over." He told the sheriff, "I'm waiting on my men," nodding for the three behind him to come forward.
"This won't take long," Hedges said, taking the papers each man held out. "You boys didn't prove up. These claims is default, same as Pierce's."
They turned to look at Pierce. He stood there, shaking his head, and came out of it, pushing his way by them. "You're lying," he raged at Hedges.
"Go see for yourself. I rode over all that ground. Ain't no improvements."
"You sure, Hedges?" the sheriff asked quietly. "Little Sam had shacks and fences built on all of them."
Hedges shrugged. "Ain't there now," he said indifferently. "Go see for yourself."
Pierce, thinking fast, or in desperation, declared, "I'll re-claim."
"Cain't. You done used up all your homestead rights."
"Go get some of the boys," he shouted, shoving frantically at the men behind him. "Move it. Tell them to get back here on the double."
As soon as the traitors to Rocking M ran out, Gabe and the loyal hands, filed in. Pierce's hand dropped to his sidearm.
"The time will have to wait for that, Pierce," Gabe said quietly, holding up his bandaged hands.
"He ain't armed, Pierce," the sheriff warned. "You better back off."
Pierce let go of the gun and swung his fist instead. Gabe ducked the blow, but before he could get set to swing back, he was shoved roughly to the side, falling into Morey who held him. Bob took over with the rest of Sammy's crew behind him. Pierce was hauled out bodily and tossed into the street.
"When his hands heal from what you did to him, he can have you. Till then you just wait and sweat," Bob told Pierce, then they turned as a unit, going back inside.
"What is there to what he said about your hands?" the sheriff asked a surprised Gabe.
"Didn't hear what he said," Gabe said, grinning at Bob and the others.
"Come on, Gabe, get this done. It's making me nervous," Hedges said, filling out papers feverishly.
"What are you doing?" the sheriff asked.
"Using my rights of homesteading…" Gabe said, taking the pen Hedges held out, "…to file on what Pierce just lost."
"Did you have anything to do with them improvements burning up?"
"Me?" Gabe said, feigning astonishment. "How could I, Sheriff? I've been sick."
Gabe made a chore of signing his name, not hiding how hard it was to hold the pen, but pretending he didn't know he was being watched closely. He knew he still had the look of a sick man, and if Sammy was right, the preacher told everyone how bad off he'd been when he married them.
"Congratulations,"
the sheriff said, watching Gabe closely.
"Thanks. It's a nice piece of land," Gabe remarked without interest or bothering to look up.
"I meant marrying Little Sam," he said, watching Gabe intently.
Gabe looked up then, grinning sheepishly. "Oh, yeah, thanks," he said with embarrassment. Morey and Hedges chuckled while the rest of the men grinned.
"Prettiest little bride you ever did see," Hedges paused to wink broadly. "Groom looked a might puny though."
"Hush, Hedges," Gabe said, handing him the pen quickly. He hadn't taken near the ribbing he'd expected from his friends, and the little bit he was publicly getting, he didn't like.
"Sudden like," the sheriff went on. "Had folks wondering some."
"Sammy made up her mind," Hedges said with a chuckle. "Got him while he couldn't protect himself."
Gabe took offense, even though the others chuckled with him. "She ain't like that, and you shouldn't be saying such things, even joking, Hedges."
The sheriff asked to sober them all up quickly. "She the one that burnt her place down?"
"Her place," Morey said. "Do what she wants to it."
"I reckon. Just wondered if it was her or someone else."
"Took dynamite to it. Said if she couldn't have it, Pierce couldn't. She figured she was gonna lose it, but she wouldn't let him have it, either."
The sheriff nodded, accepting that and told Gabe, "So you're getting the land back for her."
"Makes a dang nice wedding present," Hedges said.
"Glad she had you to take over," the sheriff said, sticking to the subject. "She could get hurt trying to fight in a man's war."
"Won't be any, lessen he pushes it," Gabe answered, awkwardly folding the papers he had just signed and slipping them into his pocket.
"If he does any pushing, you tell me," the sheriff warned sternly.
Gabe looked at him without comment.
"I stand for the law around here. Any pushing he does won't be legal now."
"Well, it's kinda like my hands, Sheriff. I figure Pierce is the one what did it, but I cain't prove it. What's your law do about that?"
"Find proof and arrest him."
"You do that, but while you're doing it, remember this, I ain't gonna be pushed nor leaned on no more without doing some back. They come at me again, I'll meet them with guns."
"Just so you're pushing back and don't do any pushing of your own."
"Hell, Sheriff, we ain't hunting no fight," Morey said, folding his set of papers, made out while Gabe talked to the sheriff. "Just you go tell them to leave us be."
"You're gonna get your chance right now," Bob said as he and the others turned to block the door.
"Get out of my way," someone growled.
"Wait your turn," Bob growled back.
"We're supposed to meet our boss here."
"Pierce? Some boss."
With some pushing and shoving that threatened to get out of hand, the sheriff managed to work his way to the front, shouting, "Pierce isn't here!"
"Where is he?" one of them demanded.
"Ain't seen him since we threw him out of here," Bob tossed back. "Try the hotel. We hear that's where your real boss is."
The man drew back his fist to plant it in Bob's face just as the sheriff bellowed, "Get out of here before I arrest you for disturbing the peace."
"Yeah, go on back to the hotel and shine your boots on that woman's skirts," Bob taunted.
"You'll get yours," the man promised, jerking his thumb for the others to follow him.
A few minutes later, Bob slipped up beside Gabe. "Boss," he whispered, "they're up to something. A whole pack of them just rode out. Maybe we ought to get back out to the house."
"It's safe," Gabe said.
"Is that why—?" Gabe nodded quickly to shut his words off. Bob looked embarrassed for a moment, and then he grinned suddenly. "Some surprise when they get there, huh?"
"If that's where they're going. Look to me like they were headed the other way."
"So it's over then?" he asked in relief.
Gabe looked toward the hotel. "I hope so, for Sammy's sake."
* * *
Seeing Sammy sitting in the lobby, Pierce started toward her, his bully mentality seeing an easy target for his anger, frustration and worry. What he figured would be an easy target. He thought she was alone, only suddenly there was a man standing close behind her, his hand resting in a quiet threat on his holstered gun.
"You back off, Mister," Tracks warned quietly, Sammy twisting to look at him in surprise.
"Ain't your business," Pierce growled.
"No one accosts a lady in my care. Back off or I'll blow your head off," Tracks said, his voice growing quieter as it hardened.
Pierce snorted. "Lady? She don't even know how to be a woman let alone a lady."
Only Sammy's raised hand stopped the man from going after Pierce right then. He did some swift reevaluation even before listening to their brief conversation.
"Ma'am, I can't stand by while someone talks to a lady like that," Tracks told her.
Sammy smiled at the words and looked straight at Pierce when she answered. "This is the person Gabe already has issue with and plans to deal with privately."
"I'll hold off then," he told her, looking Pierce up and down, "as long as he goes on his way."
Sammy told Pierce, "Go tell your lady you failed. See how long she stays with you."
Pierce no longer had an easy target, but sneered at Sammy. "She'll stick, and this ain't over, not yet," he promised as he left them, but he betrayed his act of bravado by rubbing a sweaty palm on his thigh before he entered the room he shared with Brenda.
"What are you doing?" he asked, looking at the pile of his clothes on the floor.
"Re-packing," Brenda said coldly. "My things in my case and your things..." She pointed to a heap she was throwing thoughtlessly on the floor. "I'm leaving."
"Little Sam must have told you the claim ain't no good, but it ain't the end. We'll still have it all, just like we planned."
"You fool. Do you really think you can beat Angel Taylor?"
"Angel?" he asked in confusion. "What are you calling him Angel for?"
"Gabriel, like the angel—Angel is what they call him, and it isn't just because of his name they call him that. He's so good and pure. Wouldn't lie, cheat, steal, or touch another man's wife. I didn't believe it. I knew he watched me when others couldn't see. I knew he wanted me, the same as all of them."
"Any man that ever saw you would," he said, trying to embrace her.
She pushed his hands away, moving out of his reach. "I was going to the line camp that day where I knew he was. I was going to tell him I was lost. I made sure it'd be dark, and I'd have to stay the night, then I'd have him."
"No, Brenda," he said, shaking his head, trying again to put his arms around her. "Don't talk like that."
"Yes," she said, shoving him away. "But we met on the way. I told him I was running away, begged him to help me. He refused, so I faked a fall from my horse. Are you listening to this, darling?"
He winced when she twisted the endearment, making it sound ugly. He couldn't move then, not toward her or away from her, not able to do more than listening while she destroyed his world.
"You really want to know why I hate him? He turned his back on me. I was naked beside him, coaxing him to wake up, and he turned his back on me. He said it wasn't proper and turned away. I wanted to make him suffer for that moment, and I did. I told him he'd forced me that night. I told him it was his baby I carried, not my husband's, and he suffered, his poor conscience, and it came in so handy. He was going to get all that land for me and more. I wanted more, all there was to have, and I needed him to get it, telling him it was for his son."
She whirled around, pacing the room in the rage the memories stirred. "He could have had me then. I was there, wanting him, and he knew it, but Angel said it was wrong. He said what I was doing was wrong, and he walked out on me. ME
! Do you hear, Pierce, he walked out on me!"
"You stop it now. Stop lying to me. That ain't so. He raped you like you said."
"He wouldn't have me! The only man I ever wanted, and I wasn't good enough for him."
"Now, Brenda, don't say them things. They ain't true."
"You," she said, looking at him in disgust. "How I've loathed the touch of you, pawing at me like an animal. Get out of here! You're no use to me now."
"Brenda, you know I love you." He stumbled toward her with his arms open. "I'll get him for you and all that land."
"You aren't man enough. Get out of here. You make me sick looking at you."
She turned her back on him to finish packing. "Brenda, please," he pleaded, touching her on the arm. She jerked away then slapped him in the face. He caught her arm. "Don't."
"You sniveling, crawling…"
She swung at him with the other hand. Pierce caught it and pulled her up against him. "Don't say them things, don't," he begged, putting one hand over her mouth.
He just wanted to stop her from saying those things, those awful things about him and herself. She kept fighting him, kicking and twisting, clawing at his eyes. He just put his hand over her mouth and held her around the back of the head only to hold her still, to keep her from saying those things.
Brenda was so fragile, like a little flower. He held her up against his chest until she stopped fighting, and when he realized why she went limp, wished he could take it back, wished he hadn't held her so tight. Her head hang lifelessly on her tiny, broken, fragile, little neck.
He cried then, knowing he'd never again be able to make love to her, hearing her say all those sweet things to him. He laid her down, ever so gently, not wanting to break her anymore. She was his little flower, so delicate, and them things she was saying, they were lies. They had to be lies. She wasn't like that. She was sweet and beautiful, and she loved him. She'd told him that, over and over again, told him how much she loved him, but couldn't marry him till the man who'd soiled her had paid for what he'd done.
He looked up then, away from Brenda, tears streaming down his ugly cheeks, streaming from his eyes still dark from the last broken nose Gabe had given him. His nose still hurt when he sniffed, and he had to keep sniffing.
Little Sam's Angel Page 20