Chapter Fifteen
Roscoe heard Jack riding up. It was well past midnight. Most of the guns with him were asleep. He was sitting beside a pitiful fire, sipping down some whiskey from a silver flask. “Where ya been?”
“Found Bonnie,” Jack answered, dismounting his horse.
Roscoe took a hit from his flask and then closed it up. “How far?”
“About six hours northeast of here.” Jack plopped down on a log across from Roscoe. “She’s riding a small herd. Four men are tending the herd. One of them is Dallas.”
“You sure?”
“I chased after Bonnie. Almost caught her, but I got turned back.” Roscoe watched Jack reach out to the fire and warm his hands, even though the night was hot—at least to Roscoe. “I came up on Bonnie doing her business.”
“You watch her?”
“Nah. Bonnie thinks I want to have my way with her, Roscoe. Ain’t so. You know I got it bad for that saloon gal. Besides, she’s your woman. I ain’t wanting to cause a bad way between us.”
Roscoe stared at Jack. His best man was real slippery—clever in how he spoke his thoughts. That was okay. He trusted Jack. The man was loyal.
“What’d you do when you got turned back?”
“Went and spied on the herd some,” Jack explained. “Waited till it was almost dark and took a good look. Herd is small. Has to be the one Ace Carter is running.”
Roscoe heard movement. Lucien was getting up. Yeah, he would get up, that no good. “This conversation ain’t for you, boy.”
“I say we run up to that herd and get Bonnie and be done with this nonsense,” Lucien griped.
“You do, do you?” Roscoe almost went for his gun.
“Lucien is right,” Jack told Roscoe. “We can take ’em. They won’t stand a chance against our guns.”
Roscoe figured Jack was right. Ace Carter and his men were outnumbered.
Still, something about the way Bonnie had tagged up with the man bothered him something awful.
Bonnie was real clever, just like Jack. Was she riding out some sort of plan?
And then, there was Dallas. What were the chances of Dallas and Bonnie both ending up riding with Ace?
Had that been their plan all along? If so, surely Ace knew Roscoe would come for his wife.
“Ever think they could be setting us up to ride into an ambush?” Roscoe growled. The whiskey was taking effect, but not enough to make his blood feel hot. “Bonnie and Dallas are riding with Ace Carter, Jack! What are the chances, huh?”
Jack didn’t answer.
“Ace Carter has to know I’ll be coming for Bonnie, you fools!” Roscoe stood up. He kicked at the fire. “Man is running a small herd up the trail with my wife. All he’s got is three other guns with him. That ain’t setting right with me.”
“Think he’s got more guns in the bushes?” Lucien asked.
Roscoe locked his eyes on Lucien. “Yeah, boy, it’s possible. If you had any brains, you’d know Ace Carter probably stopped at Fort Arrow!”
“Then let’s grab one of the hands riding with Ace Carter and make him talk,” Jack told Roscoe. “We need to make sure they ain’t in with the army.”
Roscoe rubbed his chin. Jack made a good point. Yeah, we could grab one of the hands and find out what Ace Carter is up to. Might be worth the trouble before we ride in with our guns blazing. “Okay, Jack, let’s ride. Lucien, you stay here and watch the camp.”
Andy and Jim stood up and walked to the fire. Ed stayed down on his trail blanket. So did Matt.
“Roscoe, we’re gonna ride back to Caldwell. We’ll meet up with you at your ranch.”
“You boys turning yellow on me?” Roscoe sneered.
Jim shook his head. “If Ace Carer is up to something, we don’t want no part of it. Army is around these parts in a way we don’t like.”
“You mean Fort Reno?” Lucien asked. Roscoe saw him slap a dusty holster. “You boys afraid of some uniforms?”
“Shut up!” Roscoe snapped. Lucien frowned.
“Just ain’t wanting to go back to prison,” Andy told Roscoe. “You do what you need to do. We’ll be waiting for you back in Caldwell.”
Roscoe didn’t fume. Andy and Jim liked to keep their doings south. The army was bad news. “Ed, you’re riding off, huh?”
Ed leaned up. “Come morning,” he told Roscoe. “These boys are right. I ain’t wanting to deal with the army. But I ain’t riding back to your spread, Roscoe. Heading west.”
“Then ride on,” Roscoe ordered.
The army was bad news. Ed, Jim, and Andy wasn’t wanting to get in bad with a bunch of soldiers.
The army had a long arm. Outlaws didn’t.
At first, all three men had agreed to stick with him, but after a while, when a fella had time to think, he came to see that maybe running into the army wasn’t such a good idea.
“Like you were saying after Jack rode off,” Ed told Roscoe, “Ace Carter has got to know you’re after Bonnie. Don’t make sense for Bonnie to be riding with him. She should be all the way to Wichita by now. Carter has to be up to something.”
“That’s our thinking,” Andy told Roscoe. “Now that we heard what Jack saw, just don’t seem right that Bonnie would be riding with a herd.”
“Bet she made a deal with the army,” Jim finished for his brother. “She’s bait. Army is waiting for us to ride in. Seen it before. Besides, we already found a pile of bodies. Gut ain’t sitting good about this trail.”
Andy and Jim tied their trail blankets to their saddles and mounted up. They nodded at Ed and rode off into the night.
“Reckon I best not wait till morning light either.” Ed changed his mind and rode off without saying another word.
Roscoe let all three men go without a fight. Why draw guns? Ed, Andy, and Jim were fast on the draw.
They ain’t worth the blood. Besides, I ain’t wanting to risk getting shot up. I’m gonna get Bonnie back and make her suffer for all this trouble. But I got to be careful. What if Bonnie did make a deal with the army to lure me into a trap somehow?
“Jack, let’s ride. Lucien, you take Matt and get back to Caldwell. I ain’t wanting you around no more, you hear me?”
“Yeah, I hear you?—?”
“Now wait a minute,” Jack objected. “What if Ace ain’t running a trap?”
“What do you mean?” Roscoe demanded.
“Those bodies we found back a ways—one of those boys was Dylan Grunton.”
“Yeah, so?” Roscoe grunted. “Dylan was a hothead. I was glad to get shed of him.”
“Yeah, but Dylan was smart, Roscoe. You gotta give him that. Army wouldn’t have left the bodies out in the open the way we found them.”
“You saying Carter killed them?” Lucien asked in a way that made Roscoe want to shoot him.
“Could be.” Jack nodded his head. “Maybe Carter left the bodies out in the open to warn us off. Can’t say for sure.”
Roscoe watched as Jack began tapping his gun. He’s a slippery snake. Hard to make heads or tails of him sometimes. He’s loyal to me, though. That’s what matters. “Let’s ride, Jack.”
“Maybe Lucien and Matt should come with us. Carter’s got four guns,” Jack told Roscoe.
Jack’s suggestion didn’t sit well with Roscoe. He stared into Jack’s face the way a rattler stares at another rattler before a vicious fight breaks out. Well, I’ll be… If that snake didn’t outsmart me right out and use his brains to spook Andy, Jim, and Ed.
“Let’s ride… all of us.”
“Put the fire out,” Jack told Lucien. “Matt, get up! I know you’re awake!”
“Yeah, I’m awake,” Matt grumbled.
Roscoe went to saddle his horse. What was Jack up to? Did the fella want Bonnie for himself? He’d known Lucien was wanting to take over the gang—but what if Jack wanted the same thing, too?
I can’t be sure.
He mounted up and waited for his men to join him. “Let’s ride.”
***
A few hours later, after the sun had risen, they came up on a sleepy river, staying to the trees.
“Well, will you look at that,” Roscoe said. “I figured they’d move the herd into the trees. I was right.”
The herd was near the trees, too, close to the river. Roscoe was pleased that Jack had been right—but still mighty upset that his best man was up to no good. He searched up and down the trees, keeping his horse behind a tree on the opposite bank.
Just then, a man showed up—likely one of Carter’s cowhands—and Roscoe watched as he began filling four canteens.
Before he could give an order, Jack kicked his horse and started across the river like fire. The cowhand shot his head up and then went for his gun, but Jack had the draw on him.
“If you want to live, boy, you best not!”
Roscoe watched the cowhand slowly lower his hand. “Get him across the river,” he called out in a low voice. “Be fast and quiet about it.”
Jack motioned for the cowhand to walk across the river with his gun. When they got across the river, Roscoe kicked him forward. “Walk!”
“What’s this all about?” the man asked, obviously trying to play dumb.
“You got my wife!” Roscoe hissed.
“Wife? Mister, I’m running a herd, is all,” the cowhand insisted, keeping his hands in the clear. “Ain’t no woman riding with the herd. Name’s Finn, by the way.”
Roscoe glanced at Jack, who was checking the river to make sure no riders were coming up. Lucien and Matt were riding beside Finn with their guns drawn.
“Yeah, you keep lying, boy. You’re just making your death a lot harder.”
“Mister, I ain’t lying!”
Roscoe lifted his leg and kicked him in the back so hard, the poor man stumbled forward and crashed down against a large rock, hitting his head.
“Get up!”
Finn struggled to stand up, but Lucien kicked him right back down. “And you best not lie again!”
I’ll say this for Lucien, he’s got my meanness in him. But it ain’t like the old days. Land ain’t what it used to be. Guns are leaning more toward the law now. Lucien is likely to get himself shot dead before he has time to grow into a man.
Jack rode up. “We’re in the clear, Roscoe. Let’s get this varmint and ride. Lucien, tie his hands up.”
“Why do I?—?“
“Do it,” Roscoe growled.
Lucien grunted but didn’t object further.
After their captive had been bound, Jack put him on the back of a spare horse. “Let’s go, Roscoe.”
Roscoe checked the river. So far, the coast was clear. Best not chance it, though.
“I’ll be back for you, Bonnie,” he growled. “You ain’t never gonna escape me. You best not go thinking you’re safe.”