Even though she knew it was dangerous, she hadn’t been able to tear her eyes away from the spectacle as the battle raged in the street outside the hotel. She had crouched down so that she could peer over the bottom of the window. That was her only concession to caution.
Her hope was that Hamish would be killed in the confusion. That would save her a great deal of trouble later on, and given the circumstances, there was no way anyone could blame her for his death.
But after a few minutes, he had come stumbling out of the melee, seemingly unharmed. As he staggered toward the hotel, Jessica had seen the large dark stain on the front of his trousers, and her nose had wrinkled in distaste. He was such a coward that he had pissed his pants in his fear. How could she have let such a man even touch her, let along some of the things she had allowed him to do to her?
Money, of course. That was the reason. As it always was and always would be. Hamish had the money, and she wanted it.
But she was tired of waiting for it.
She stood up and drew back into the shadows as he came in to the hotel. He never even saw her as he started up the stairs, obviously heading for their suite. She let him go without calling out to him. She had to decide what to do now.
Hammersmith’s arrival had helped her make up her mind. Munro could still die. Hammersmith could kill him and bring his body back downstairs. In all the chaos, if Munro’s body was found in the hotel lobby or out on the boardwalk, no one would ever question that he had been killing in the fighting.
So as Jessica clutched Hammersmith’s arm, she broke through his stunned reverie by saying in an urgent voice, “Gunther, listen to me. It’s time.”
“Time?” Hammersmith repeated. “Time for what?”
“Time to kill Hamish, so that the two of us can be together from now on, truly together as we were meant to be.”
That got through to him, all right. The confusion went out of his eyes as they lit up with lust and avarice.
Jessica reinforced those feelings by saying, “I’ll be all yours, Gunther. And we’ll have Hamish’s money. We can go anywhere we want and always be together, just you and me.”
Of course, the time would come when she would have to find a way to get rid of Hammersmith too, because she would tire of him and he would know too much, but she could deal with that when it became necessary. For now, right at this moment, Hammersmith was the most important man in her life.
“Kill Munro?” he muttered.
Jessica nodded. “That’s right. He just went upstairs. We can do it, Gunther. We can have everything we ever wanted.”
Slowly, Hammersmith nodded too. “Yeah,” he said in a heavy voice. “Yeah.”
He started for the stairs. Jessica let him go.
But she followed closely behind him, so she would be there if he changed his mind. As long as he could see her and hear her voice, she was confident that he would do whatever she wanted him to. They reached the second floor and started toward the suite.
A shot blasted behind the door before they got there.
Jessica’s blue eyes widened in surprise. Had Hamish fired a gun? She couldn’t think of any reason why he would. He never handled guns. He always paid other people to do things like that.
Maybe he had killed himself…. No, Jessica decided, she couldn’t be that lucky.
Hammersmith had stopped at the sound of the shot. He muttered, “What the hell?”
“Get in there, Gunther,” Jessica said. “We have to find out what happened.”
Hammersmith didn’t hesitate. He smashed his shoulder into the door and knocked it open. The crash of the door blended with the sound of gunshots still coming from the street.
Hammersmith went in first, but Jessica was close enough behind him to peer around him and see Nathan Evers whirling around from where Munro’s body lay on the floor. Jessica gasped as she saw the bloody ruin that was the back of Munro’s head. He had to be dead.
And the smoke curling from the barrel of the gun in Evers’s hand made it clear who had killed him.
Evers lifted the gun toward Hammersmith. “Stay back!” he said in a panicky voice.
“Nathan!” Jessica said. “You’ve killed Hamish!”
She didn’t have a chance to tell him that was all right before his lip curled in a sneer and he thrust the gun toward her. “That’s right!” he snapped. “And I’ll kill you too if you get in my way, you bitch!”
Thunderstruck, Jessica could only stare at him. Beside her, Hammersmith growled as he stood there with his hands balled into malletlike fists.
“Always parading yourself around,” Evers went on in a voice trembling with rage and hate. “Munro never saw you for the slut you really are. He was a fool, a blind fool, but not for that reason alone. He never had any idea that I’ve been bleeding his fortune away from him for years!”
That brought another gasp of horror from Jessica. “You…you stole from him?”
“Thousands and thousands of dollars,” Evers gloated, “and he never knew. Now he never will. He’s dead, and you and Hammersmith soon will be too. All I’ll have to do is say that some of those crazy gunmen broke in here and shot the three of you, and no one will ever suspect otherwise. This is the perfect opportunity for me. I can finally stop groveling!”
“You’re the one who’s crazy,” Hammersmith said. “Put that gun down.”
Evers shook his head as he swung the pistol back toward Hammersmith. “No. You first, and then the slut.”
With a roar of rage, Hammersmith threw himself toward Evers. The gun in the treacherous secretary’s hand blasted again and again as Evers jerked the trigger and screamed. Hammersmith stumbled a little as the bullets thudded into him, but they didn’t really slow him down. Evers was cut off in mid-shriek as Hammersmith crashed into him and drove him over backward. Hammersmith’s sausagelike fingers closed around Evers’s neck and twisted hard as both men fell. Jessica heard a loud cracking sound, and then the crash as the two men hit the floor.
A shudder ran through Hammersmith, and then he lay still as he sprawled on top of Evers. Jessica stood there motionless as she stared at them for a long moment. Then, carefully, she moved closer, bending over to take a look at them. Evers had dropped the gun, which was probably empty now anyway. His eyes were open and blankly staring. His head was twisted at an impossible angle on his shoulders. Hammersmith had broken his neck.
Jessica couldn’t see the wounds in Hammersmith’s chest, but she saw the pool of blood creeping out onto the rug around the two men. Blood ran from Hammersmith’s mouth too, and his eyes were as empty and lifeless as Evers’s were. Jessica straightened, confident that both men were dead, as was Hamish Munro. She was alone in the hotel room with three corpses.
And as the full implications of that sunk in on her, she began to smile.
Frank knew he couldn’t stop all the outlaws who were charging his position behind the water trough, but he gripped the Colt tightly and steeled himself to take as many of them with him as he could.
At that moment, a shotgun boomed and several shots blasted from a handgun, and as Frank raised himself into firing position, he saw that a couple of the outlaws’ horses were now riderless. As a bullet ripped past his head, he triggered the Peacemaker and sent slugs pounding into the other two desperadoes. They somersaulted backward off their mounts.
Tip Woodford and Garrett Claiborne ran toward Frank, reloading as they came. Tip had the scattergun, while Claiborne clutched a Colt revolver in his good hand. As the two men came up to Frank, Tip shouted, “We got to get folks organized! Who the hell are those raiders?”