Chapter 21 #2
Ever since leaving the main road, they’d been riding single file.
Lately, however, Wendell had been getting increasingly annoyed when Dodger would fall behind, often out of sight.
As far as Sheila was concerned, those were the preferred moments.
She would not have lost a wink of sleep if the vile creature had fallen into a ravine or been eaten by wolves.
At the bottom of a grassy knoll, Wendell reined in to wait for his partner to catch up. She heard him cursing under his breath as he looked back along the trail. A moment later, Dodger appeared and rode up to them.
“They know I’ve gone missing,” she said to Wendell before they could start off again. “They’ll come after me.”
“Who knows you’ve gone missing?” he scoffed. “Your own pa didn’t have no idea you was there.”
“Since I arrived, my father’s housekeeper comes every day to check on me. She’ll know right away. You can have little doubt she’ll notify the sheriff.”
She didn’t mention Caleb Marlowe, though she wasn’t sure why. Perhaps because the thought of him searching for her felt too fragile to speak aloud. Perhaps because she didn’t want these men thinking of him at all.
Wendell didn’t seem bothered at all by the threat, but Dodger wheeled his horse and rode back toward the top of the hill, ignoring the call for him to stop.
“Look what you done,” Wendell snapped. “Now he’ll be dragging behind twice as bad as afore.”
She shrugged and directed an accusing look at the man. “Everything you told me back in Elkhorn was a lie, wasn’t it?”
“You’re as green as can be, missy.” He kept his eye on the trail behind them. “Don’t know what it’s like where you come from. But you’ll learn soon enough that, out here, you can’t trust everything you hear.”
“So you intend to let me live? I’ll actually have a chance to learn the ways of the West?”
The hawk eyes flicked toward her and then back in the direction Dodger had disappeared. “Don’t you fret about that. If Doc does what he’s s’posed to do, the two of you will be heading back to Elkhorn in no time.”
“Is this another lie?”
“There you go.” The hint of a grin tugged at his face. “You’re already learning. But this here is the truth.”
The last time he’d lied to her, she was pointing a shotgun at his chest. Now, she was his prisoner. Sheila wanted to think the man had no reason to lie.
“I’d like to trust you, Mr. Wendell. But that friend of yours…” She tipped her chin in the direction of Dodger. “I don’t care for him at all.”
“Yeah. I get it.” He shrugged. “And it’s just Wendell. Not Mr. Wendell.”
The sound of Dodger’s horse approaching drew her attention.
“Ain’t nobody coming,” the younger man said when he rode up to them.
“Of course, no one’s coming, you dang fool. Now let’s git.” Wendell turned his mount and started off again.
The trail was wide enough here for two to ride abreast, and Dodger kicked his horse and rode up alongside Wendell.
“Who you calling a fool, old man?”
Sheila was right behind them, and she could hear every word passing between them.
“A fool is as a fool does. Ain’t that the old saying?”
“What do you mean?”
She could hear the note of danger in Dodger’s words, but Wendell was ignoring it.
“You answer me this,” he said sharply. “Back in Elkhorn there, why’d it take you so godawful long to bring back a horse for her?”
Dodger took a moment before he answered. When he did, the threat in his tone was gone. “Didn’t you say, don’t make no trouble?”
“Was there trouble?”
“If you’re asking if I shot somebody, I didn’t.” Dodger raised his voice a little, and Sheila sensed he was speaking for her to hear as well. “And I didn’t do no stabbing or throat cutting or head bashing, neither.”
“Well, that’s a nice change.”
Sarcasm dripped from Wendell’s words, but Sheila shuddered. She had a strong feeling he meant it. She was now more fearful of Dodger than ever.
“You got a problem with how I do my job?” His voice was again low and threatening.
Wendell was clearly unimpressed. “Your job is to follow orders. It ain’t to go off half-cocked and acting like a dang hothead. It ain’t your job to spill blood any time you imagine someone is looking cross-eyed at you.”
Dodger stared straight ahead, and she didn’t know how he was taking this.
“What is it about your gang?” he said finally, scoffing. “You have a good thing going here. You rack up loot real steady, hitting them stagecoaches. But you ain’t the cutthroats and thieves that folks think you are. All you do is take the cut you’re given without a whimper and take orders from—”
“That’s enough.” Wendell reined in his horse sharply. His hand was on the pistol at his hip. “You keep on talking. Keep on disrespecting the boss. Cuz one more word and I’ll shoot you dead, right now. You got it?”
Sheila hadn’t seen Wendell this angry before.
Dodger’s manner changed immediately. The threat was gone from his voice, replaced by a fake, almost joking tone. “Hell, I don’t mean nothing by it. But a man can ask questions, can’t he?”
“Not about that.”
When Dodger shrugged and nodded, Wendell nudged his horse, and they all started off again.
“You’re hearing me wrong,” Dodger continued, not letting it go.
“I got respect for the boss. It’s just that I’m new to your gang.
I ain’t never seen a group of gunslingers so good at getting a job done.
How can I not respect you all? You been doing this a dog’s age without the law catching up to you. ”
“And the reason for that is cuz we don’t cause no trouble where we don’t need to,” Wendell said, still angry. “In five years, for all the stagecoaches we done robbed, we ain’t never killed a driver or a guard. Not till you come along.”
“You told me yourself you had a man killed just afore I signed on.”
“It ain’t your job to avenge nothing, if that’s what you’re saying.”
“I had no choice when we hit that stage,” Dodger muttered. “They was shooting at us.”
“Not afore you started shooting.”
“They saw my face. I ain’t having no WANTED flyer out with my face on it.”
Wendell stared at the younger man. “And what about the miner?”
“I thought that was the plan all along.”
“It weren’t.”
“But he saw us.”
“Men like that feller are common as rocks out here. They come and go and mind their own business. As we mind ours. The same goes for that old codger who wandered into camp the other night. You had no call to kill him neither.”
Cold sweat trickled down Sheila’s back. Suddenly, she was afraid they’d never let her go back with her father after hearing everything Dodger had done.
“I’m learning.” The killer simply grinned in response to Wendell’s reprimand. “When I fetched that horse for her ladyship here, I found a kid sound asleep in a little office they got in that livery there. I could’ve cut his throat and made sure he wouldn’t raise no fuss, but I let him sleep.”
Wendell shook his head. “That was mighty big of you. Imagine. Not killing a kid.”
Sheila’s stomach turned. These men were brutes. If that boy Dodger saw sleeping was the same one who’d helped her when she went out to Marlowe’s ranch, he was a good lad. She prayed he was still safe and asleep, untouched by Dodger’s cruelty.
The trail narrowed as they entered a grove of firs, and the older man moved ahead. Dodger reined in his horse and stared at Sheila as she passed him. She didn’t look at him or give any indication she’d heard even a word. A moment later, she glanced over her shoulder. He was again lagging behind.
“So you’re not the boss then,” she said to Wendell.
“Nope. And don’t wanna be.”
“Is the boss more like you or like him?”
“The boss ain’t like nobody.” Wendell sent her a cross look. “And you’re asking way too many questions.”
“I only want to know if I’ll live to see Elkhorn again,” she persisted. “That Dodger is dangerous.”
“Don’t mind him, miss.” He frowned and shook his head. “He ain’t nothing but a hired hand. Gunslicks like him are common as rats on a riverboat. He takes one more step out of line, and I’ll put a bullet in him, just to put him out of his misery. You’re safe with us.”
Sheila turned in the saddle and found Dodger had dropped back so far that he was again out of sight. She certainly hoped Wendell was right.
She imagined, though, that in the world of pirates and outlaws, the whip was always wielded by the most ruthless villain of all.