The two men looked at Burkett one more time, then shrugged and followed Conners.
“A wise move, Conners,” Evan said.
“Your time will come, McCall,” Conners said to Evan. “You and your brothers.”
“Better get junior out of here before he does something rash.”
“If he was going to do it, he would have done it by now,” Conners said. “Just between you and me, I don’t think he’s got the cojones for it.” He walked out, followed closely by the other two men.
That left John Burkett in the room alone to face Evan and Jubal, and he was starting to realize that. His eyes suddenly acquired a hunted look.
“Come on, John,” Jubal said, “Forget it. I’ll buy you a drink.”
Burkett looked at Jubal and said, “Keep your damned drink. The next time you get in my way, nobody’ll stop me. I’ll kill you.”
Jubal picked up his beer from the bar and raised the glass to Burkett, who stormed across the room past Evan, and then out.
Evan holstered his gun and joined his brother at the bar.
“Can’t leave you alone for a minute, can I?” he said, leaning his elbows against the bar so he could continue to watch the room. Now that it was clear there would be no shooting, men were reclaiming their seats and going back to what they were doing. Evan, though, cautiously continued to survey the room.
Jubal wiped the blood from his lip with the back of his hand and said to the bartender, “Two more beers.” He looked at his brother and said, “You got here just in time.”
Evan smiled and said, “It’s the old McCall timing. We all have it”
Chapter Seventeen
In the morning Evan and Jubal told Sam about the incident as they walked to the Miller house for breakfast.
“Well, it sounds like we won’t be gettin’ any information from Johnny Burkett in the future,” Sam observed.
“I guess not,” Jubal said.
“Evan,” Sam said, “you get the feelin’ that we might all be targets now, instead of just me?”
“From what Jubal told me, John Burkett was just upset that he’d been fooled. I don’t think he and the other men came to town looking for one of us.”
Sam nodded. He felt the same way, but wanted to see how Evan felt.
“Jube?” He spoke to Jubal as an afterthought, not wanting to offend him by not asking his opinion. He had long since stopped thinking of his younger brother as just a boy.
“I agree, Sam.”
“Then we’re all agreed.”
When Serena admitted them to the house she frowned at Jubal and said, “What happened to your lip?”
The three brothers exchanged glances and then decided to tell her about the incident.
“Where’s your father?” Sam asked.
“In the kitchen.”
“Let’s go in there.”
Sam didn’t want to have to explain it to her and then repeat it to Dude Miller.
They had been able to smell breakfast cooking as soonas they entered. In the kitchen the smell of frying food was stronger still, and they all experienced hunger pangs of one degree or another.
“You could have been seriously hurt,” she said to Jubal afterward.
“Evan got there in plenty of time.”
Evan could tell from the look on her face what she was thinking. If not for two kisses, he might have been there before Jubal could be hurt, at all.
“Everything turned out all right,” Sam said. “Let’s talk about something else.”
“You have something in mind?” Evan asked as they seated themselves at the table.
“Yeah,” Sam said. “I’m goin’ out to see Lincoln Burkett today.”
“What?” Jubal said.
“That’s madness!” Serena said.
“Do you think that’s wise?” Dude Miller asked.
Evan looked at his older brother and said, “Do you want me to go with you?”
“No,” Sam said, “I’ll go alone.”
“Why go at all?” Serena asked.
To the room at large Sam said, “I’m tired of being shot at and chased. If Burkett wants me dead I figure to give him a chance to do it himself.”
“And if he tries?” Serena asked.
Nobody answered and Jubal finally said, “Sam will defend himself.”
“And if he doesn’t try?”
This time Sam answered.
“Maybe it’ll force his hand.”
“Meaning what?” she asked. “That he’ll finally send Coffin after you?”
“Maybe.”
“That’s what you want, isn’t it?” she said to Sam, angrily.
“You want to stand out there in the street with Coffin and see who’s best!”
“I want to get this over with,” Sam said. “I want to find out once and for all if Burkett killed our folks for what was on their land.”
“What’s on their land?” Dude Miller asked.
The McCalls had not yet confided to the Millers what they had discovered.
“We think there’s oil on the land, Dude,” Evan said.
“Oil?”
Sam told Miller about what he found, and about the geologist.
“Lord almighty,” Miller said, “no wonder Burkett wanted that land—but your father couldn’t have known, else why would he have given it up?”
“That’s something we still have to find out,” Sam said.
“And what happens if you find out that Burkett didn’t kill your parents?” Serena asked.
“That would mean someone else did,” Sam said.
“And we’d have to find whoever did,” Evan added.
“And what about Burkett?” Serena asked. “Does that mean you’d forget about him? I mean, if it turns out he didn’t kill them, and he didn’t force the land from them, would that be the end of things with him?”
The brother exchanged glances and then Evan said, “We don’t know, Serena.”
“Serena,” Dude Miller said, “if Burkett didn’t kill their folks, then they don’t have any business with him.”
“The town—”
“We’d be back where we started, honey,” Miller said.
“Us against Burkett.”
“And we’ll lose,” Serena said, twisting a dish towel in her hands. “I’d rather just pick up and leave than go on fighting, Papa.”
“Why don’t we wait and see what happens before you decide to leave?” Evan said.
“Sure,” Serena said, throwing her towel down to the floor, “wait until one, or two, or all of you are dead. That’s when it will be over.”
She stalked out of the room then, leaving the four men speechless.
“I’ll get that food off the stove before it burns,” Dude Miller said.
Jubal walked Sam to the livery, while Evan stayed at the house with Serena. Dude Miller walked with them as far as his store.
“Don’t be too hard on Serena, Sam,” he said before they parted company. “She’s grown very fond of the three of you, and she doesn’t want to see anything happen to you.”
“I don’t hold that against her, Dude,” Sam said. “I just hope she understands what we have to do, and why we can’t walk away from it.”
“I guess we’ll just have to wait and see about that,”
Miller said, and entered his store.
Sam and Jubal proceeded to the livery, where Swede brought out Sam’s coyote dun.
“I wish you’d let me ride with you,” Jubal said as Sam mounted up, “at least part of the way.”
“I’ll do this alone, Jubal,” Sam said.
“Why do you have to do it alone?”
“Because this is what I do, Jube,” Sam said. “This is what I do.”
Coffin was looking out his window when Sam rode by, heading out of town. He had a feeling he knew where Sam McCall was going. Hell, if he was in McCall’s shoeshe might not have waited this long to confront Lincoln Burkett. Evan McCall’s visit to Burkett hadn’t accomplished anything. Maybe Sam McCall’s visit would stir things up some.