Pete forgot about buttoning up his pants. His smile and the whistle died at the same time. “Hello,” he said, eyes flicking back and forth between the four hard-cases. “Can I help you boys?”
“We think so,” Kane said, marching forward and stopping before the man. “We’re looking for Marshal Custis Long.”
“Can’t help you. Sorry.”
Kane’s big fist shot out and he grabbed Pete by the shirtfront. “Think again, you randy old bastard. Where is the marshal and that medicine wagon?”
“I … I don’t know what …”
Kane doubled up his fist and drove it into Pete’s nose, breaking it with a pop.
“Oww!” the blacksmith shouted, trying unsuccessfully to break loose and run.
Kane’s knee slammed into Pete’s testicles, and the blacksmith howled and collapsed to his knees. Kane pulled a long knife out of his boot top. “All right,” he said, grabbing Pete by the hair and exposing his throat. “For the last time, where is the marshal and his prisoner?”
“The prisoner got away!” Pete swore. “Everyone on the street saw that!”
“That’s right,” Kane said, “but what they didn’t see was what happened in here when Ford and a couple of his friends came in here to get his handcuffs removed. Now, what did happen?”
Pete’s eyes fixed on the knife being held at his throat. “I’ll tell you,” he cried. “Don’t kill me! Please, I’ll tell you everything.” Kane dragged Pete erect. “Start talking.”
“The marshal killed them other ones,” Pete stammered.
“All of them?” Gus asked. “We heard that three of Ford’s friends just disappeared.”
“That’s right! They had a big shootout and Marshal Long killed all three.”
“And Ford?”
“He was still handcuffed and didn’t have a chance. The marshal knocked him out cold.”
“Where are all the bodies?” Willard asked.
“We stuffed ‘em in the wagon,” Pete answered. “The marshal lit out for Elko on the eastbound road. It’s the only one going that way and you can’t miss it.”
The four men exchanged glances. Then Kane turned back to Pete and said, “How were they?”
He blinked. “Who?”
“Sophie and Molly, dammit!”
“Oh, those two.” Pete gulped, his throat dry as desert sand. “Not bad. We just talked and …”
“You’re a damned liar,” Big Willard said. “Ain’t he lyin’ to us, brother?”
“He sure as hell is,” Kane agreed. “He screwed ‘em both, I’d bet on it. How were they?”
Pete was pouring with sweat and the blow to his testicles had left him feeling as if he needed to vomit. “All right,” he choked. “They were good. Real good.”
The four men chuckled and exchanged grins. “We’re fixin’to find out real soon,” Kane announced. “But first, we got some unfinished business with you.”
Pete tried to break free and run. He took a wild swing at Kane, but Big Willard was already stepping in behind him and clamping both of his huge hands on the sides of Pete’s face. An instant later, Pete felt a stab of pain at the base of his skull, and then he heard a loud, popping sound as his neck was snapped. After that, he heard nothing.
“Let’s see if he’s got anything worth stealing,” Kane said as his brother dropped the twitching man to the ground, “and then let’s ride after Marshal Long and them two women.”
“Why don’t we just take the women now,” Willard said, smiling down at the man whose neck he’d just broken with such ease.
“Because,” Kane said, “I want us to get them all at the same damned time and have us a big get-together party.”
“Yeah,” Willard said. “That makes good sense.”
Willard giggled and knelt to clean out Pete’s pockets, but then he jack-knifed up and stared at his hands. “Oh, damn you!” he cussed.
“What’s wrong?” Deke asked.
“That lyin’ old goat just pissed all over hisself!”
Willard swore with indignation as he wiped his hand on his dirty pants. Now it was Deke’s turn to finally giggle.
Chapter 14
Molly Bean drew her horse up sharply and dismounted. She bent and picked up the animal’s front foot and pretended to inspect it for a rock.
“What are you doing?” Sophie asked. “I didn’t notice him limping.”
“Don’t turn around,” Molly warned. “I think we are being followed.”
“Followed?” Sophie was so surprised that she forgot the warning and started to turn, but Molly cried, “I said don’t turn around!”
“All right, all right,” Sophie said, looking somewhat shaken. “I won’t turn around! But who-“
“It must be some of Ford’s gang that have followed us all the way from Gold Mountain,” Molly said. “Probably those terrible Kane brothers. Maybe Deke and Gus and Floyd. I know.”
“Oh, damn!” Sophie cussed. “I’m afraid you’re right. They’d have returned to Gold Mountain after discovering that the Elko-bound stage wasn’t carrying Ford. They’d have started snooping around.”
“And learned that we rented these horses and didn’t return them,” Molly said. “Red Kane and his brother are certainly idiots, but even they could figure it out and come looking for us.”
Sophie was visiblly paler. “If it is them, what are we going to do?”
“I don’t know,” Molly said. “I don’t see that there’s much we can do but try and loose them. At least we are riding fast horses.”
“Yes, but …”
“If we’re leading those outlaws to Marshal Long, we’ve got a responsibility to get rid of them,” Molly insisted. “So I say let’s wait until we go around another bend where they can’t see us. Then let’s see if these horses really can run.”
Sophie shook her head. “But then they’ll know that we’re onto their game.”
“So?” Molly climbed back on her horse. “We just lead them off on a wild-goose chase through the forest and maybe we can shake them off our trail.”
“You really think we could?”
Molly nodded. “We’re both good horsewomen and I know a thing or two about tracking.”
“You do?”
“Of course!” Molly said. “I once had a brief fling with a mustanger who brought me up here and we hunted wild horses. Only we didn’t get out of the bedroll very often and we never saw a single mustang.”
Molly sighed. “And to think how romantic that smooth-talkin liar made the thrill of the chase sound before he tricked me into that awful week of rutting in the dust.”
“That just figures, knowing you,” Sophie said, managing a nervous smile.
“You’re a fine one to talk,” Molly replied, remounting her horse. “There’s a bend in the road up ahead. Let’s get around it and then strike out for virgin ground. I just know that we can shake those murdering fools.”
“I hope you’re right,” Sophie said. “If we don’t, and if they catch us trying to outrun them, we’re in a bad, bad fix. You know what those Kane brothers are like.”
Molly smiled bravely. “Yes, I do,” she said, feeling her own palms begin to sweat with nervousness.
When they rounded a bend, Molly took a deep breath and looked to both sides of the road. “Well,” she said, spying a rocky place where their tracks would be difficult, if not impossible, to detect when they left the road and headed up through the trees toward the top of a heavily forested mountain. “Follow me and hang on for your life!”
Molly was an exceptional horsewoman, better than Sophie, and she put her boot heels to her horse and shot up the trail. The air was thin but their horses were in excellent shape, and she found a game trail and followed it at a run, occasionally ducking low-hanging branches as her mount flew up the trail, dodging trees and rocks.
“Slow down!” Sophie cried, hanging onto her saddlehorn. “Dammit, I was almost beheaded back there by a limb!”
But Molly kept urging her horse on up the mountain trail until it could not climb anymore and was blowing like a steam engine.