Or had that been a test as well?
Nick had batted that thought around more than once, but it had been pushed aside in favor of everything else that had happened since then. Showing himself in Rock Springs could have been a fatal mistake or it could have been a piece of some other plan. Nick didn’t like to bet on mistakes. Instead, he kept his thoughts churning as he and Kinman gathered up speed and rode toward Hackett.
Kinman only allowed himself half a smirk at Nick’s expense. Even though he was pretty sure the other man couldn’t see his face from behind him, Kinman didn’t want to muck up whatever knots were being tied within Nick’s brain.
Crossing Nick’s path in Rock Springs had been a mistake. If he’d had his say in the matter, Kinman would have preferred to go after Graves the way he went after all of his targets: after some careful scouting and preparation. But sometimes a man had to play the cards he was dealt and Kinman was pretty happy with the way this game was going.
So far, Kinman had gotten Nick to change his mind half a dozen times on whether he should trust him or not. Considering the confusion that had surrounded their first run-in, Kinman figured that maintaining that confusion was his best bet.
Nick was going to take his shot and was simply waiting for his chance to come. Kinman knew well enough that any move he made toward his own gun would be met by a storm of lead from that Schofield Nick carried. It was only a question of timing. One fraction of a second either way would decide whether Nick or Kinman would wind up dead.
Kinman took a look behind him to find Nick right where he should be. The deck was stacked in Kinman’s favor and all was right with the world. There was even more money waiting for him once he caught up with Lester and his no-good cousins. Hopefully, those boys had a wagon on that spread of theirs, because Kinman would need one to haul all of those bodies in to claim the rewards.
To make matters even better, Kinman had seen Nick in action back in Rock Springs. For that, alone, running into Graves was worth tipping his hand a little early. The gunman Kinman had heard so much about would have given him a run for his money in shooting those Chinamen for such an easy payoff. After seeing the way Nick had faltered when it came time to earning some of Hale’s money, Kinman was more inclined to believe the stories he’d heard about how badly those Montana vigilantes had torn Graves apart.
Kinman rode ahead of Nick without much concern. Nick may have been a threat in his younger days, but he wasn’t anything that Kinman couldn’t handle now. In fact, Lester and his cousins might just do Kinman’s job for him once they got to Hackett. Either way, Kinman figured this might be the last job he would need to complete before retiring to a nice little spread of his own.
TWENTY-FIVE
Someone knocked on the door and Lester didn’t make a move to answer it. He was still half asleep and in a strange room, so he didn’t think someone could be trying to summon him. When the knock came again, it snapped him out of his daze and got him to his feet. Lester walked across the small, cozy room and pulled open the door.
“You still in there?” Pat grunted. “Wesley’s getting ready to head into town. You’re still going with him, right?”
Lester nodded. “Yeah. I’m still going. I was just trying to…just freshening up a bit.”
Pat’s eyes moved down and up to take stock of the man in front of him. “You’re barely even dressed.”
“It’s been a long couple of days. I suppose it’s all just catching up to me.”
“Well I can bring you some fresh water to splash on your face. Maybe you can get a bath when you’re in town.” Leaning forward and sniffing the air surrounding Lester, Pat added, “Definitely get a bath in town. There’s a good spot where a friendly redhead will wash your back real thorough, like. Know what I mean?”
A blind man would have known what Pat meant, but Lester nodded as if to play along with the other man’s attempt at subtlety.
“I’ll let Wesley know you’re pulling yourself together,” Pat said. “I’ll bet some coffee will help speed things along.”
“That would be fine.”
“All right, Cousin. I’m just going to get some things situated in the barn. Know what I mean?”
“Yeah I know what you mean.”
After a quick nod, Pat turned and walked away from the door. Lester closed it and sat down on the edge of the little bed. The room was decorated sparsely and had nothing to cover the warped wooden slats of the floor. A small table stood in one corner next to the creaky bed. Actually, it leaned in that corner, since one of the table’s legs was an inch shorter than the others.
Lester placed his head in his hands and closed his eyes. The room wasn’t on the side of the house that caught much sunlight, so pressing his face against his palms brought complete darkness. It wasn’t much of a comfort, however, since Lester’s thoughts were still rushing through his mind like whitewater flowing over jagged rocks.
One of the things that bothered him the most was the set of rumors that had nothing at all to do with outlaws or the Reaper’s Fee. They’d circulated among Lester’s own family regarding another cousin of his that had gone missing shortly after Pat and Wesley had taken up their guns and stepped onto the wrong side of the law.
Lester hadn’t known his cousin Matt too well. What he did know was the kid had always been a hell-raiser since the day he could walk. Word had it that Matt was in on the first job that Wesley and Pat ever pulled. Supposedly Matt got greedy and was killed for it. Matt was then buried quietly and nobody in the family talked about him much anymore.
Lester really hadn’t thought about Matt until now. Something in Wesley’s eyes had bothered him ever since Wesley had shown him those jewels, though. Now Lester wondered if that had been the same look Matt had seen when his time on earth was drawing to an end.
Thoughts like that were just another set of teeth gnawing at the inside of Lester’s gut. With all the other worries he had, Lester was surprised he still had any guts left. Suddenly, one of his thoughts popped to the surface and made him snap his head up with his eyes wide open. Instead of another problem, Lester had actually come up with a solution. In fact, the more he thought about it, his solution might actually clear up some of the other problems that had been nagging at him.
“Oh my God,” Lester whispered to himself.
Unlike some of his other ideas, this one actually stood up to a second glance. It even stood up to a third and fourth glance.
Lester hopped to his feet with renewed vigor. He looked around his room, but only found the same sparse furnishings that had been there before. As he turned toward the door and reached for the handle, someone knocked on it. Lester nearly cleared the floor, but managed to control his shock so he could open the door.
“Pat, do you have…”
Lester stopped when he saw who was out there. Instead of Pat, it was Pat’s wife, Stephanie. She was a pretty young thing with short dark brown hair. Her face was a little plumper than it had looked the night before, but that could simply have been because she was looking straight at him now rather than down at the knitting upon her lap.
Stephanie smiled warmly at him and held up a basin brimming with water. “Pat said you’d need some water,” she said. “Mind if I come in?”
“Oh sure,” Lester said as he opened the door all the way.
Moving with smooth, easy steps, Stephanie walked past him to the small table in the corner. Her hips swayed beneath her loose-fitting skirt, which was just thin enough for Lester to be fairly certain she wasn’t wearing much of anything else beneath.