“You might want to put that gun away,” Carlo said as he was shoved down a narrow street with nobody else on it and only a few shabby buildings on either side. The way he kept looking around, he might have been expecting a parade to march down it at any second.
“Why?” Luke asked. “You worried about upsetting the rats?”
The street narrowed to a dirt path. On one side, a slow trickle of sewage made its way to a small, stinking pool behind them. Rodents and a few mangy dogs stared at them from the shadows, none of them willing to budge from the territory they’d staked out unless absolutely necessary.
“I’m just saying we did well to avoid the law before,” Carlo said. “No need to draw attention now.”
“Just tell us where we’re headed and let us sort out the rest,” Red said as he shoved Carlo along.
The three of them formed a strange procession as they moved toward a corner that emptied onto a much larger street. A few more people were walking there, but nobody displayed any panic arising from the disturbance in the stable. Red walked beside Carlo, and Luke was behind them, holding the Colt.
Turning to look at both men as he continued walking at his leisurely pace, Carlo said, “I’m not exactly sure where, but I know who.”
“What are you taking about?” Red asked.
“The money I owed to Stormy—”
“Still owe to Stormy,” Luke corrected.
Carlo rolled his eyes. “You’re a real stickler. I bet you were a lot of fun in school.”
“You have no idea,” Red chuckled.
Jabbing the pistol into Carlo’s spine, Luke snapped, “Get on with it.”
“That money I owe,” Carlo said, “it wasn’t just to Stormy. It was to a few other folks in this town and a few others besides. I’ve been paying them off as best I can, but it’s been slow going. Times are hard with the war and all. When it comes to paying folks back, a man’s gotta pick and choose.”
“You mean Stormy’s behind someone else in the chow line,” Red said.
Carlo stopped and turned around. “And here I thought he was the smart one,” he said while nodding toward Luke.
Making sure the Colt was front and center, Luke said, “You sure aren’t very smart if you think you’re calling the shots here.”
“I told you to put the gun away, boy. There’s no reason to wave it about.”
“I can come up with plenty of good reasons.”
“It’s just going to get you into trouble,” Carlo warned. “Seems to me like it already has.”
“I’m not going to let you walk about free as you please.”
Carlo looked as if he was genuinely amused by that. While turning to look at Red, he snapped one hand out to grab hold of the Colt around the gun’s middle. With a twist and a pull, he’d forced Luke to let go of the pistol and taken it clean away from him. The entire process was over in less than two seconds.
“There, now,” Carlo said as he spun the Colt around so he could slip his finger beneath the trigger guard. “See what I mean about this gun getting you into trouble?”
“Give it back to him,” Red warned. His gun was in hand and pointed at Carlo.
The older man didn’t move as he asked, “Do you honestly think I can’t put a bullet into you if I choose?”
“Maybe,” Red said. “But not before I put one through you. This time I’ll hit something more vital than your ear.”
Carlo’s only response to that was a skeptically raised eyebrow.
“So you can come and go as you please,” Luke said. “We’ve established that. What now?”
“Now I’ll see about getting Stormy’s money for you,” Carlo said.
“You’ll help us? Why?”
“Because I said I would. Besides,” Carlo added, “that money isn’t in my pockets now and it won’t be in my pockets if Stormy has it. I’m served better by settling things here and moving on to somewhere else that I can work without so many so-called bounty hunters nipping at my heels.”
“We won’t get much farther if we stand here pointing our guns at one another.”
In another series of motions that was almost too quick for Luke or Red to see, Carlo spun the pistol around so it dangled from his finger instead of being aimed at anyone. “I was right,” he said. “You are the smart one.” When Red tried to take the gun away from him, Carlo spun it again and dropped it into his holster. “Why don’t I keep this for now? That is, unless you want to trade me for my own firearm.”
“Might as well,” Luke said.
Red looked over at him and asked, “What is wrong with you?”
“He’s got a gun now,” Luke replied. “Doesn’t much matter which it is. Just give it to him as a show of good faith. If he doesn’t give us what we’re after, we can go back to threatening each other.”
By the time Red had retrieved Carlo’s pistol, Carlo offered the gun he’d taken in an open hand. The exchange wasn’t as quick as Carlo’s draw, but was over swiftly and all three of them were soon walking toward the busier street.
“So, where are you leading us?” Luke asked.
“The man I came to town to pay is named Jordan Bickle. I met up with him at a saloon and don’t rightly know where to find him again, but I do know someone who should be able to point us in the right direction. He’s got that money you’re after.”
“And you’re willing to get it back for us?” Luke asked suspiciously.
“Let’s just say it doesn’t serve my purpose for anyone to know I had that money to begin with. Since you two, Stormy, and God only knows how many others know about it, I’d rather he be cut out altogether. Besides,” he added with a wry smirk, “you two got the drop on me and are calling all the shots.”
“There’s more to it than that.”
“All right,” Carlo replied. “I paid this man more than I owed to Stormy. We get that money back, you take her share back, I take the rest, and we go our separate ways. Sound good?”
Luke looked over to Red, got a noncommittal shrug, and said, “Sounds fine to me.”
When they reached the corner, it was as if they’d stepped out of a dreary tunnel and back into the aboveground world. There were people to be seen instead of just rats and dogs. The buildings weren’t as close to falling over, and most of the windows in sight weren’t busted.
Carlo had just found his stride when he realized he was walking all by himself. “What’s the matter?” he asked. “If you think I’m doing all this walking alone, you’re mistaken.”
“Jordan Bickle,” Red repeated. “Why does that name sound familiar?”
Luke was thinking as well but arrived at his conclusion in no time at all. “He’s the owner of the Eastern Trading Company.”
Red snapped his fingers. “That’s where I heard it! That fella watching our horses mentioned it!”
“The Eastern Trading Company? Are you sure?” Carlo asked.
“That’s what we were told,” Luke said. “We’ll start there.”
Carlo blinked a few times, glanced around at the rest of the street, and then shrugged. “Let’s go and see if that information you got was accurate or not.”
“Why would an old stable hand lie about something like that?” Red asked.
“If I need to answer that question,” Carlo replied, “then you need all the help you can get.”