Clash of Mountains

by Chloe Garner

  “Thomas reckons, he wanted to take you out, from Pythagoras’ shoes, he’d stick a dagger in your back at Granger’s.”

  Jimmy sighed.

  “More elegant than Petey, and how a fighting man thinks,” Jimmy said. “But not how a gaming man works. You take me out without beating me, I don’t live to see my own loss.”

  “They hunted you plenty, at Intec,” Sarah said.

  “They thought I was the one with the secret in my head,” Jimmy said. “Kill me, secret dies, game over. They know better by now, I wager.”

  He put his hand out and she took another draw on the cigarette, handing it back to him.

  “All right, Jimmy Lawson,” she said, setting aside the drawl, “then what’s the play?”

  “We spent too much of the last three months on the back foot,” he said. “Running. I needed the time to get our financial house in order, and now it is, but it’s time to make a push back.”

  Sarah settled lower into the couch, taking out another paper and starting a new cigarette.

  Took a breath, looking at her own cigarette, then let it lay across her knee.

  “Tell me about Pythagoras,” she said, accent gone. Jimmy nodded.

  “He and Descartes aren’t all that different,” he said. “They’re competitive at everything, they don’t think much of laws or rules. Family matters, but only right up until it doesn’t.” He paused, finishing his cigarette and putting it into an ash tray at the end of the couch. He wove his fingers together behind his head, looking over at the desk without seeing it. “If Yip had fallen for one of Pythagoras’ daughters instead of Cassandra, we’d be on the other side in this fight, and nothing would have changed.” He ran his tongue along the inside of his cheek, then looked at Sarah again. Held out his fingers, and she handed him the new cigarette, getting out her bag of gremlin again. “Pythagoras isn’t as thin as Descartes. There are rumors…” Jimmy shook his head, drawing his cigarette again. “If Descartes is a shark, Pythagoras is a bull. They’re both smart, and they’re both good at the game, but Descartes is a little more subtle, and he takes his time a little bit more.”

  Sarah put her cigarette to her lips and nodded.

  “So how do you deal with that?” she asked. “I’m going to find out how they knew where the mine was, but it probably doesn’t matter anymore.”

  Jimmy shook his head.

  “I can’t set a line of defense around it. Apex and Thor are going to have to find their own way, up there.”

  Sarah shook her head.

  “Not good enough,” she said. “They’re paying protection money, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

  Jimmy looked over at her, pale blue eyes veiled by long lashes as he watched her for several long moments.

  “You think that this is going to be about force,” he said.

  “Lived that way a long time,” Sarah said. “If you think it’s something else, you’re going to have to give me a clue.”

  He pointed at her with two fingers, cigarette between them.

  “This isn’t about us using force,” he said. “It’s about us using Descartes.”

  “Don’t see what good Descartes is going to do Apex and Thor,” she said. He shook his head, looking away.

  “Your loyalty is not to this town any more, Sarah,” he said.

  “It is,” she answered. “Always has been, always will be.”

  He shook his head, a small motion, and one that said that it wasn’t true no matter what she thought, but he wasn’t going to argue with her any more about it.

  “We can’t save all of them,” he said. “We will uphold our contracts, but if it isn’t claim jumpers trying to overrun a claim, that’s not what we’re here for.”

  “You’re wrong,” Sarah said. “Your job is to protect the claims. Apex and Thor need to hire the guns to keep the last guy out, but we need to be the ones patrolling and keeping people out of the mountains who don’t belong up there.”

  Jimmy snorted softly.

  “You know the map better than I do,” he said.

  “We have controlled entrance,” Sarah said. We know where and when every single man is going to arrive at Lawrence. No one rides down the range, and no one rides across the flats.”

  “What are you suggesting?” Jimmy asked.

  There was a twinkle to him, one that didn’t even show up physically, just a… way about him that only Sarah would have noticed. He was leading her.

  “Dammit, Jimmy,” she said. He snorted and stood, going back to his desk.

  “It’s you standing up for Lawrence,” he said. “Say it.”

  “We have to strip ‘em,” Sarah said, shaking her head as she sat back on the couch once more.

  He nodded, his eyes down on his papers again.

  “We do.”

  It was like saying that Lawrence wasn’t allowed to be Lawrence, anymore.

  And he’d gotten her to say it. He glanced up, just taking in what he would see from her, then went back to writing.

  “No,” Sarah said. “There has to be another way. What, are you going to take knives next? Make it into a prison camp? They can get guns anywhere, here.”

  He continued working.

  She watched him writing, imagining going and standing on the platform at the train station and insisting everyone turned over their guns as they got off. Going through bags? Crates? Everything? Not allowing Granger to sell guns?

  “It wouldn’t work, Lawson,” she said. “The ones who are coming to kill you will catch wind and they’ll just hide them.”

  He looked through his eyelashes at her and smiled, then went on.

  “It’s our job to protect the claims,” she said. “My job.”

  He moved the top paper off to the side and sat back in his chair, crossing his ankle across the other knee and reading with his head tipped back.

  “So how is the reservoir going, then?” Sarah asked.

  He tipped his head to the side and dropped an eyelid, then returned to his paper. She smiled. Point, Sarah.

  “I told you it wasn’t going to be easy,” she said. “Any hole you dig out here is just going to fill in, again.”

  “Just because no one has managed it yet doesn’t mean it isn’t going to happen,” he answered, not looking at her.

  “I’m going to have to go ride the range,” she said.

  “We will station men in cabins along the water line and we will put in sensors to detect people in transit, and when someone is in their section of the range, they will intercept and verify that they should be there,” Jimmy said without looking up.

  “You already got all this figured out, why are you sitting there listening to me puzzle it?” Sarah asked. His nostril twitched. Humor. Just enough to get her blood pressure up.

  “Because sometimes your thoughts arrive at a different destination than mine, and I like yours better,” he said, putting down the paper and folding his hands on it. She hated him at that desk. It was still Peter Lawson’s desk, and he knew that’s how she saw it. “I have to say, you were disappointing, today. You need to think bigger. Think like you did at school in Oxala.”

  She swallowed, letting that settle.

  “Cars,” she said. “You’ve got stuff going on in there that you aren’t telling me about.”

  He sighed.

  “Things you’re just going to fight me on.”

  “What I’m supposed to do,” she said and he tipped his head to the side, agreeing.

  “Maybe I’m tired,” he said. She frowned.

  “Jimmy Lawson doesn’t get tired.”

  He shifted lower in his chair and motioned with his hand at the papers on his desk.

  “You did the quick-build on the investor town,” he said. “This is what it takes to get permanent housing built for the rest of the brothers, to get the reservoir moving again after the… setbacks there, and what it’s taking to get the repairs here done. It’s not so simple as picking out a bitch and having her shipped out here.” />
  “I never said it was,” Sarah said coolly.

  He rubbed his eyes with his thumb and middle finger, pinching his nose.

  “I still have to deal with Lise.”

  Sarah lifted her head.

  “I thought you weren’t going to do anything about that.”

  He opened his eyes to look at her, stony.

  “If that baby is mine…”

  She shook her head.

  “That baby is Lise’s,” she said. “I won’t have it here.”

  He tipped his head toward her.

  “That baby is going to be the eldest Lawson. Would you prefer it be my heir or Petey’s?”

  “Didn’t matter, the first time,” Sarah said. “Why should it matter, this time?”

  “Because it matters,” Jimmy said. “You think that it was ever easy between Petey and me?”

  “No,” Sarah said. “I grew up here. Nothing was ever easy between you and anyone.”

  He closed his eyes with a quiet snort, pinching his nose again and letting his hand fall.

  “I’ve spoken with Sid. He could get a DNA sample now, or he can wait until it’s born. I’ve waited until the last minute, because I don’t want Lise having any more time to prepare than absolutely necessary. She thinks she has a chip on me.”

  “She does,” Sarah said. “The second you try to lay claim to that baby.”

  “If it’s a girl, I won’t do anything,” Jimmy said.

  “Like hell,” Sarah said. “Like hell. Jimmy, you ever say anything like that again, I’ll have your tongue by way of your chin.”

  He raised his eyebrows.

  “You want me to go nuclear on my own family if that child is a girl?”

  “If she’s your daughter, I expect you to do the exact same as you would if she were your son,” Sarah said. “Should leave well enough alone, either way, but the idea that you’d go chasing after a boy and leave a girl…” She shook her head, the passion of her response surprising her. Jimmy too, apparently. He sat back in his seat and crossed his arms.

  “What is this about?” he asked. “Is this about you?”

  Brutal.

  The man was brutal.

  She took a moment to master her temper before she even thought about an answer. It came quickly after that, and she shook her head.

  “It’s about your mother,” she said.

  Jimmy nodded slowly, turning his head to the side.

  “She has an appointment tonight. I’d hoped you’d be up in the mountains for it, but as long as you’re here, there’s no point keeping it secret.”

  “Jimmy,” Sarah said slowly, standing and walking, one foot in front of the other, even, very slow, coming to put two fists very gently and very firmly on his desk. “You fail to tell me something like that again, just because you’re trying to avoid my temper, they are never going to find your grave.”

  He looked at her and met her eye for several very long seconds.

  It had been a lot of years since they’d fought, and they’d only done it a couple of times. She had him on simple mass, and she didn’t know which of them had done more fighting in the intervening years, but she did know that he had her on the type of brutal, physical fight that men had to communicate dominance in the world he’d lived in, on the coast. He was sharp and he was fast and he didn’t have a history of losing.

  They measured each other up, him thinking the same thoughts as her. She’d threatened his life any number of times even in the last few months, but she couldn’t think of a time she’d been closer to meaning it.

  “You’re right,” he finally said. “You’re right.”

  She held her stance and he uncrossed his arms, standing, leaning out over his desk on flat palms until his face was just inches from hers.

  “I will never hurt you,” he said, then shook his head slowly. “Not with my hands. Not with a gun. Never.”

  She breathed, feeling that out. It was true. It had been true before he’d said it. He’d once made her that promise in the bedroom, not here, but it had always been true everywhere.

  “I know,” she said finally. He gave her one low nod, then picked up his hat, a soft-cloth hat that only served to keep the sun out of his eyes, and put it on. He looked strange in a cowboy hat. Big-eared. Always had.

  “I know you don’t like what happened between Lise and me. You think this is self-inflicted conflict, and maybe you’re right. I had my reasons, and I’m not going to discuss them with you, now or ever. You can come with me, tonight, or you can stay. Tomorrow, we’ll talk about how to protect the claims.”

  “We need to talk about the flood,” Sarah said.

  “I know,” he said.

  “They’re going to wash away and die,” Sarah said. “We can’t just stash them all away like we did last time.”

  “I know,” he said again, walking around the desk to stand next to her. “What are you doing with Lise?”

  She scratched the back of her neck and twisted her mouth to the side. He was unforgiving. She’d made it a big deal, and he wasn’t going to let it pass until she engaged it, now. Own it or back down.

  “I’m coming,” she said. He nodded.

  “We’ll take the buckboard,” he said.

  “Like hell,” she said. “I ain’t turnin’ up at her place in that thing.”

  He blinked once, still stony cool.

  She raised her eyebrows, not backing down.

  “Why?” she finally asked.

  “Because you are my wife and you are with me,” he said. She drew her head back, thinking it out. Any other time, she was Sarah Todd first and Jimmy’s wife second, but for this… She wouldn’t have gone but for being his wife.

  “All right,” she said. “But we ain’t takin’ the pretty little mare.”

  Kayla’s favorite horse, if she had one. She had dainty little feet and a pretty, well-turned head, and she looked handsome pulling the cart.

  “You think Flower would be a better choice?” Jimmy asked.

  “He trained to it?” Sarah asked.

  Jimmy sighed.

  “Yes.”

  “Flower it is,” she said with a mirthless smile. He shook his head.

  They walked, shoulder-by-shoulder, out to the barn, where he instructed the stable boy to harness Flower to the cart.

  “He’s too tall,” the kid argued.

  “Make it work,” Jimmy said.

  They waited as the kid jerry-rigged the gear for the much, much bigger stallion then hitched him in. The sun was behind the mountains and the sky was giving way to stars as they set out behind the blinding white phantom of a horse. He put a hole in the world, he was such a white. Jimmy’d outdone himself when he’d found him.

  Flower put up a good pace into town, where they stopped at Doc’s shop. Jimmy went in, leaving Sarah feelin’ conspicuous in the cart, then Jimmy and Sid came back out with a box a couple feet wide and a foot across and deep. Jimmy put it in the back, then got in to drive again, and Sid looked at ‘em.

  “Right. I guess… I’ll just ride in the back,” he said, hoppin’ in behind Sarah and settlin’ down like he ain’t never been in the back of a buckboard in his life.

  “So what’s Lise got comin’, tonight?” Sarah asked.

  “I don’t talk about patient treatment,” Sid said. “Not with anyone but the patient.”

  “Even when it’s Jimmy what’s payin’ for it?” Sarah asked.

  “Even then,” Sid said evenly, jostlin’ in the back like a load ‘a grain. She looked at Jimmy, who shrugged.

  “Doc’s got a code,” he said. “I’m not going to fault him for that.”

  “Sid ain’t Doc,” Sarah answered, turning forward. They got to the investor village and Jimmy checked up Flower. Sarah vaulted out, unhitchin’ the horse and settin’ him loose. Jimmy watched with an eyebrow’s commentary, but kept the rest of it to hisself.

  Sid worked his way to the ground, pullin’ his box after him and goin’ to knock on the door. Jimmy’s young
doctor had a knock like askin’ permission. Sarah shook her head, watching’ Flower make his way round to Thomas’ house and the horses there, then she walked up to Little Peter’s house with Jimmy as Little Peter opened the door.

  “Brought her, huh?” the eldest Lawson boy asked.

  “We have business in town,” Jimmy said.

  “You don’t have to be here,” Peter said.

  “This is the first Lawson baby,” Jimmy said. “I’m going to be here.”

  Sid watched with sharp eyes as the two men looked each other down, then Little Peter moved out of the way, letting the three of them in.

  Sarah hadn’t been in the house since the investors had gone, and she didn’t know whether she were impressed or disgusted at the extravagance on display there.

  The predominant color in the house was ivory, thick carpet, curtains, cloth furniture. What weren’t white were a black wood Sarah’d never seen before.

  “Gotta take your boots off,” Little Peter said.

  “Frog’s teeth,” Sarah said. Peter shrugged.

  “Lady’s rules,” he said. “You do it or you don’t come in.”

  Jimmy waited, and she looked down at his shoes.

  “I’m not wearing boots,” he said quietly, an even expression not giving away anything. “These are house shoes.”

  Sarah looked over at Peter, who said nothing. Sid was obediently stripping his shoes.

  She pushed her boots off with her toes, holdin’ Peter’s eye the entire time, then Peter led the way through to a bedroom where Lise was layin’ on a bed.

  “I don’t want her here,” Lise said.

  “Don’t reckon I care,” Sarah answered.

  “I can’t proceed unless she consents,” Sid said.

  Sarah looked around the room, settlin’ on Jimmy, readin’ what there was there to read.

  “Jimmy invited me,” Sarah said finally. “’S ‘tween you and him.”

  He moved his level gaze over to Lise, who lifted her chin.

  “Why?” she finally asked.

  “Because I said,” Jimmy answered.

  Law, to Lawsons.

  Jimmy’s word.

  Here, they’d find out if Lise bought in.

  The woman’d long thought she was the power in the family, workin’ Peter and Jimmy at the same time, but things were diff’rent now, and Sarah hadn’t rightly seen if Lise was in on it.