“Well, well, new blood,” a woman said, approaching them. She was in her thirties, heavily made up, with lips as red as blood and hair as black as night. She was wearing a black nightgown that left little to a man’s imagination.
“Hello, boys, my name is Louise. I run this place. I can see you’re impressed, and this is just the downstairs. You should see what happens upstairs.”
Jubal was dumbstruck. He’d been in whorehousesbefore, but he’d never seen a place like this. Evan had, but only in Portsmouth Square, in San Francisco.
“You boys want to start with a drink?”
“Uh, sure,” Evan said.
“Well, come on then,” she said, linking her arms in theirs. “The whiskey is included in the price.”
She took them into the sitting room and turned them over to two girls. One was a tall, lank blonde with small breasts, the other a slightly chubby redhead with a very pretty face. They gave each man a drink and sat with them on a sofa. Evan and Jubal were between the two women, who were pressing their thighs tightly against the brothers’.
Jubal looked up and saw John Burkett and two of his friends pushing past the big man at the door.
“Uh-oh,” the blonde said. “Looks like trouble.”
Evan and Jubal watched as the big bouncer tried to bar the three men from entering.
“Look, fat boy,” they heard John Burkett say, “if you want to keep your job you’ll get out of the way.”
“You are not allowed in here,” the big man said.
“If you don’t move,” Burkett said, “we’re gonna move you.”
At that moment Louise appeared with another big man in tow. The second man joined the first man in blocking the door.
“Please, John,” Louise said, pleading, “you know your father doesn’t want you in here.”
“Tell these two to step aside, Louise,” John Burkett said.
“John—”
She didn’t get any further before John Burkett threw a punch at one of the men. The big man caught the punch easily and pushed it aside.
“Don’t hurt him,” Louise said loudly.
“Move on, cowboy,” the bouncer said.
“To hell with you,” Burkett said, and threw another punch. This one bounced off the man’s nose, angering him. He drew back a massive fist.
“Don’t hurt him!” Louise shouted, but the man was beyond hearing her.
John Burkett ducked and the punch hit the man behind him, knocking him out. The third man with Burkett turned to leave, but the second bouncer caught him by the collar, turned him around, and knocked him to the floor with one punch.
“Now’s your chance,” Evan said to Jubal.
“For what?”
“Get in there,” Evan said, pushing Jubal up off the sofa.
The girls moved so that they were sandwiching Evan between them, and he threw an arm around each of them and settled back to watch.
Both bouncers had now cornered John Burkett, and there was no way he was going to be able to duck a punch this time.
As one of the bouncers drew back his fist Jubal launched himself and landed on the man’s back. Burkett, seeing a reprieve, lowered his head and drove it into the other man’s belly, staggering him back. As the man straightened up Burkett hit him with a punch. The man rocked back on his heels, but refused to go down.
Meanwhile, Jubal was riding the other man like he was a bucking bronco, holding on for dear life as the people in Louise’s came to life and began shouting encouragement to the two young men.
Jubal slid his forearm down across the man’s throat and began to throttle him. Meanwhile, Burkett had hit his opponent again, and then fell back a step and launched a kick that landed right between the big man’s legs. Thebouncer gagged and slowly fell to his knees. From that position it was easy for Burkett to kick him in the chin, finally felling the man like a huge tree.
Jubal’s man was blue in the face by this time and had gone to his knees. This allowed Jubal to plant his feet on the floor for better leverage, and before long the big man was unconscious. Jubal released his hold before he killed him, and the bigger man fell to the floor.
The place went crazy, cheering and yelling and stomping their feet.
Burkett and Jubal, both huffing and puffing, looked at each other across the two fallen men, and John Burkett smiled.
“Much obliged for the help,” he said.
“Couldn’t see letting them pound on you. Two-to-one odds just ain’t fair.”
“You two better get out of here,” Louise said.
Jubal looked at Burkett, raising his eyebrows.
“Now that you’re in, what do you want to do?”
“I proved my point,” John Burkett said. “How about I buy you a drink someplace else, by way of thanks?”
“Sure.”
They started for the door and Louise said, “What about them?” She was pointing to the two men who had come in with Burkett.
“When they wake up, tell them to meet me at the saloon,” Burkett said. “I’ll be buying my friend a drink.”
Burkett went out the door and before following him Jubal looked over at Evan and smiled.
Evan pulled the two girls to him tightly and said, “Now, which one of you ladies is going to offer to show me the upstairs?”
The blonde leaned over, put her tongue in his ear, and said huskily, “Why not both of us?”
Evan smiled and said, “Sure, why not?”
Chapter Thirteen
Sam was awakened by an insistent pounding on the door. He got out of bed and staggered naked to answer it. When he swung it open he saw his brothers standing in the hallway.
“Jesus,” Evan said, “is that the way you always answer the door?”
“When I’m awakened at an ungodly hour, yes,” Sam said. “What the hell is it?”
“We want to have coffee in the hotel dining room,” Evan said.
“Coffee here?” Sam said. “But we’re gonna have breakfast at Serena’s.”
“We won’t ruin our breakfast,” Evan said. “There are some things we have to talk about without Serena listening.”
Sam ran his hand over his face and said wearily, “What things?”
“Get dressed and we’ll talk downstairs. We’ll wait for you there.”
“All right, all right,” Sam said. “Just gimme five minutes.”
He closed the door, splashed some water on his face, got dressed, and strapped on his gun. He couldn’t imagine what his brothers had found out that they wouldn’t want Serena to hear. But if they were so eager to talk to him about it that they’d awakened him early, it must have been important.
He left his room and went down to the dining room.
“It’s not so much what we found out that we don’t want Serena to hear,” Evan said, “but where.”
Jubal laughed.
“We followed John Burkett to the whorehouse last night,” he said. “I made friends with him by keeping him from getting his head bashed in. I left and went to the saloon with him for a drink, and Evan stayed at the whorehouse. That’s what he doesn’t want Serena to find out about.”
Amused, Sam looked at his middle brother.
Evan shrugged and said, “It would have been impolite for both of us to leave.”
“Of course,” Sam said. “John Burkett is Lincoln’s son, right? Why would he talk to you, Jube?”
“He’s never seen me. In fact, I’d never seen him before last night. A couple of bouncers were going to take him apart at the whorehouse. I helped him.”
“And became his friend.”
“Right.”
“Why?”
“To see what I could find out from him.”
“And? Did you find out anythin’?”
Jubal looked at Evan, and then back at Sam.
“Yes, I did. John and three other men were sent to town to await the arrival of another man, a man his father has been waiting impatiently for for over three months, since he first sent for him. The man’s name is Jason Cord.”