Slocum 374

Slocum awoke to the rumble of hooves beneath him. The tremors rolled through the earth, shaking him from his sleep better than an insistent hand. He sat up straight and damn near hopped up to join the other riders before he remembered he was buck naked. While pulling on his clothes, he spotted Val nearby. Judging by the way she frantically tugged at her shirt and britches, she hadn’t been awake for very long either.

Slocum pulled on his boots and buckled his holster around his waist. Before leaving Val to collect her things, he swatted her on the backside and forced a surprised little yelp from her. The sound wasn’t nearly loud enough to be heard over all the other commotion, but she put a hand to her mouth and looked around anxiously.

Val’s nervousness must have rubbed off on him, because Slocum jumped when he heard his name called out as he walked by William’s wagon. It wasn’t the old man who called for him, though. The one who’d caught Slocum’s attention stood between the house and the stable with his hands propped on his hips as if he was a general proudly watching his army march into its next battle.

“Mick’s been looking for you, Johnny,” Owen said. Catching the scowl on Slocum’s face, he quickly added, “I mean John. Of course, once we all get our pay for this drive, you probably won’t mind what the hell I call you!”

“Right now, I need every available man to get a move on. Everything that’s coming with us is packed up, strapped down, and ready to go. The herd’s being rounded up, so I’ll need you riding with the rest of the guards to make sure McCree or anyone else doesn’t try to take one last run at us before we go. The men are gathered at the western fence line. Just ride that way and you won’t miss them.”

Owen prattled on about some other things, but Slocum was too busy collecting his horse to listen. The stable had already been emptied, and every animal that remained was tied to a post outside the old building. Pete’s horse stood beside Slocum’s old mare. Oddly enough, the former seemed more eager to see Slocum than the latter. He approached the younger horse and rubbed its neck while examining the ear that had been clipped during yesterday’s gunfight.

The young man was another one of the cowboys Slocum had seen at the fight with Mick. If he remembered correctly, this one had actually been rooting for him instead of the big blond fellow. After a quick glance at the horse with the bad ear, the cowboy replied, “That’s Dusty. Used to be Pete’s horse until . . . well . . .”

“I cleaned him up so Mr. Surret could replace his dun, but he don’t like the looks of him. Mr. Surret don’t, that is. He says he don’t want to ride a horse that’s been shot up like that.”

The cowboy walked up to stand a little closer to Slocum. Making sure he wasn’t being watched by the ruler of the camp, who stood in the middle of his crumbling domain, the cowboy said, “I was gonna pass Dusty along to Jimmy or one of the others that’s got seniority, but he seems to like you well enough. I barely got a nod from him when I washed off that ear.”

“How about a trade?” Slocum proposed. “I’ll take Dusty off your hands and you can have my old girl. She may look tired, but I bet she’d do just fine pulling a wagon.”

As the cowboy nodded, he got a wicked glint in his eye. “You got yer trade, but I think I’d rather try handing off that old mare to Mr. Surret just to see the look on his face.”

Despite the humorous possibilities there, Slocum thought of another possibility that he didn’t like as much. “And what if Owen doesn’t appreciate the joke? That horse carried me a long way and I don’t want her to get hurt just to play a joke on some asshole.”

Slowly, the cowboy’s smile faded. “Yeah, you got a point there.” Sticking out his hand, he added, “We can still use another good workhorse. Dusty’s all yours. After that beating you handed to Mick, I’m sure Pete would approve.”

Slocum wasn’t too sure about that last part, but didn’t let it bother him. The way Pete had gone out, he didn’t give a rat’s ass what the man would have thought about anything. He shook the cowboy’s hand and said, “You have any trouble with the old girl, just let me know.”

When Slocum untied Dusty from his post, he swore he spotted a happy glint in the horse’s eye. As if to seal the deal that much further, the old mare he’d traded looked glad to be rid of him. He buckled his saddle onto his newest acquisition, climbed onto Dusty’s back, and rode toward the western fence line.

The moment he spotted the herd, Slocum began looking for William. All he could see, however, was a whole lot of cattle. Rather than continue his search for an old man among a row of wagons, Slocum rode toward the westernmost gate. Mick, along with two other gunmen, waited there with a rifle propped against his hip.

Mick snapped his reins and pointed his horse’s nose toward the property line. “Come on,” he said. “You’re with me covering the front of the line.” Without another word or a pause to check that he was being followed, Mick galloped away.

When he snapped his reins, Slocum did so as if he was still trying to convince his old mare to get moving. Dusty wasn’t nearly as lackadaisical and responded like an arrow that had been fired from a longbow. The horse bolted forward and immediately broke into a gallop, forcing Slocum to hang on with all the strength he had. Within a second or two, he’d acclimated to the younger animal and reluctantly pulled back on the reins to keep from speeding past Mick completely.

Mick’s eyes burned for a few seconds, but he slowly turned them away from Slocum. “I can check on it later. We got work to do. Keep up with me and go where you’re told. Be ready for an ambush, because McCree’s had all night to plan one along our route.”

When Mick tapped his heels against his horse’s sides, he surged forward as if he was in a race. The bigger man held the lead for several seconds, but Slocum was able to catch up thanks to his eager new horse. A pair of riders struck out after them, but not to help Mick give Slocum any grief. That second pair rode to opposite sides after clearing the fence line. With Slocum and Mick out front and a bit closer together, the four men formed a wedge that made certain the path leading away from the ranch was clear. They found no trace of any rustlers, so the entire drive forged ahead.

Despite everything that had led up to that moment, the company he was keeping, and the source of his pay, Slocum found himself in high spirits as the day wore on. He didn’t have time to worry about Surret or any of his nonsense. He didn’t even need to worry about the movement of the herd or where any possible strays might have gone. His job was to ride ahead and scout for rustlers. If there was a trap waiting for them, he and Mick were to spring it. Even though Slocum didn’t completely trust his partners either, he kept Mick in sight at all times. As for the men behind him, they were too far back and Slocum was riding too quickly to worry about them. If one of them could pick him off when he was being carried along by a spirited horse like Dusty, that fellow could kill him anytime he wanted.

Slocum had learned long ago that it was useless to worry about things that were completely out of his hands. Some folks might have called that philosophy, but he called it keeping the worthless trash out of his head.

For that entire first day of the drive, Slocum had nothing more to worry about than finding a spot to cross a few streams. They made camp, Adelle put together one hell of a meal that tasted even better because it wasn’t cold, and then Slocum was given first patrol with Jimmy.

More than once, Slocum thought he would catch Jimmy trying to stab him in the back or put a bullet through his skull. But although Jimmy watched him with blatant suspicion, he didn’t do anything worse than that. He and Slocum simply circled the herd, watched for rustlers, and didn’t find a damn thing.

When he finally lay down on his bedroll, Slocum was too tired to hold his head up. Even so, he managed to sleep lightly enough to wake up at the sound of any twig snapping within a few yards of his spot. It made for a restless night, but he still caught a few winks and was up at the first hint of dawn. Fortunately, William’s wagon was parked within a stone’s throw of Adelle’s. There were already a few cowboys waiting for their bacon and coffee, none of whom paid much attention when Slocum drifted over to where the old man and his daughter were huddled.

“You manage to keep yourself occupied yesterday?” William asked. Judging by the smirk on his face, he knew well enough how that question would grate on Slocum’s nerves.

Val walked over to Slocum and rubbed his arm. “Let him work,” she told him. “It’ll give him something to do for a while besides give me grief. Lord knows I’ll have my fill of that today just like I did yesterday.”

She dismissed that with a roll of her eyes and waited for her father to walk away before leaning closer to Slocum and whispering, “You can pay me a visit tonight if you like. We could slip away for a bit and be back before we’re missed.”

“Right,” Slocum growled. “I’m telling you that something is gonna break and it could be dangerous. You want to bat your eyelashes and forget about what’s already happened, then fine. I stand a much better chance of coming through this without having to worry about protecting you.”

In a slightly more serious tone, she added, “My father’s been on the lookout for anything and everything. When he starts getting nervous, then I’ll know there’s a problem.”

“And,” she added as if he hadn’t even spoken, “if there’s a problem, my father won’t hesitate to make a ruckus or start shooting. If you can’t hear that sort of thing, then you wouldn’t hear any other signal.”

Slocum looked over to William. The old man was on one knee, examining each of Dusty’s shoes, one at a time. Every so often he would fidget with a nail or pick something out from where it had been lodged. Dusty merely stared straight ahead and let him work. If he felt the blacksmith’s prodding at all, it wasn’t enough to draw his attention away from whatever it was in the distance the horse was watching.

“Eyes and ears,” she assured him. “Sitting in that seat all day long, there’s not much else for me to do. With my father’s line of work, this isn’t the first time we’ve had to watch for trouble.”

“That reminds me. There was something you mentioned a while ago. You mentioned your father had done work for some prominent banks. Was that as a blacksmith?”

“Partially.” Seeing the stern glare from Slocum, Val added, “He works with iron other than just the kind a horse wears. Surely you don’t have to stretch your imagination too far to—”

“Safes,” Slocum said quickly. He took a look around to see if anyone had heard him, but most of the men in the vicinity were more concerned with getting breakfast before it was all gone. “He builds safes?”

Val nodded subtly and reached out to straighten the collar of Slocum’s shirt. “For a man whose brain is always running so fast, you can be awfully slow sometimes.”

“William built a safe for Owen,” Slocum said with a nod. “That’s why he’s here. He built a safe so Owen could transport whatever he’s skimmed from all those robbers over the past few years.”

“We don’t ask what a man like Owen uses to fill a safe or any other sort of box,” Val said. “Because if we did, a man like Owen would only lie or possibly try to kill us. Either way, my father and I still don’t know enough to be much trouble.”

Val gave Slocum’s collar one more tug, which was strong enough to tighten it around his neck like a noose. “You don’t need to know every little thing about my father, but you should know well enough by now that he’s not an outlaw. We’ve got to keep our heads down for just a little while longer and then our part in this is done. After that, we’re putting this behind us just like I told you before. If you want to help, we’d appreciate it. If you insist on poking around like a man who can’t see the forest for the trees, you’ll only cause a whole lot of bloodshed before the entire operation comes crashing down.”

Now it was Val’s turn to glance about to see what the other men were doing. When her eyes returned to Slocum, they were red and on the verge of tears. “So this is what you’re after? Money?”

“Don’t try to act like an innocent little girl. Your father is knowingly helping outlaws keep whatever blood money they stole, so it’s only fitting that he gets burned sooner or later. You ride with him and help whenever you can. My guess is you may even be the one to whisper into the ear of a few lawmen, or maybe you’re just there to give the appearance of a nice little family business. I don’t care either way, because I don’t like being led around by the nose.

“I came into this to work off a debt, but it looks like there’s plenty more money to be made. If Owen’s transporting a load of stolen cash or gold, then there’s got to be a reward for returning it. There’s got to be a reward for his scalp, while I’m at it. If there’s not, I don’t have any qualms with taking a portion of that money and putting it to good use.”

She smiled at him without showing one bit of humor. “Good use, huh? That’s fine talk coming from a hired gun. I suppose you’ll drop it all off at a church or use those ill-gotten gains to build an orphanage?”

“I know the feeling. I was under the impression that you and your father were stuck here or maybe being held somehow. It’s plain to see that you two are in over your heads, but maybe I was wrong about that too. Maybe you’re just real good at looking like a sweet little thing who needs someone to protect her. It sure as hell wouldn’t be the first time I fell for that one.”

By this time, some of the cowboys around the chuck wagon were taking notice of Slocum and Val’s conversation. For the most part, they snickered among themselves while passing along what couldn’t have been very flattering guesses as to the reason for their spat. William was noticing the argument as well, and while he surely couldn’t hear what they were whispering, he worked a little faster to finish what he was doing.

Val put on an empty smile and lightly patted Slocum’s cheeks as she told him, “I’m not my father’s only child. You want to know why he’s working for Owen? It’s to protect my sister and brother. Mr. Surret is having them watched and has promised to kill them unless my father’s work proves good enough to get the job done. If either my father or I so much as spoke of this to anyone, we could be sentencing them to death. If anyone heard me just now, it could already be too late.”

“The only reason I’m telling you this is because I know you’re not the kind of man who would only work for a man like Owen Surret to get rich. There’s more at stake here. Whatever you do to Owen, keep your suspicions about my father out of it. If you intend on taking the money that’s being transported, see to it that Owen and Jimmy are dead. Whatever you plan on doing during or after this drive, you can’t let anyone think that my father or I had anything to do with it. At least, not until we’re away from here so we can try to get to my brother and sister before anyone else does.”

Slocum nodded and put on a smile that matched hers. At least the two of them looked more like they were having a few friendly words instead of locking horns in a way that was worthy of any unwanted attention. “I stayed in this outfit because of you and your father,” he told her. “I can smell when something ain’t right, and I didn’t have to dig too deep before I found out that damn near everything about Owen and this drive wasn’t right. Where are your brother and sister?”

“I don’t think so. Owen told my father that he knows where to get to the rest of my family and will kill them if things don’t go just right on this drive. Our part in this is supposed to be done in the next day or two, but we don’t trust Mr. Surret to hold up his end of the bargain.”

“That’s smart,” Slocum said. “But it may be wiser for you and your father to stay put. If Owen thinks he’s got his hooks into you two good and deep, he won’t have any reason to get jumpy where your brother and sister are concerned. And if we can keep Owen thinking he’s got all the reins in his hands, he won’t notice that he’s not the one doing the steering until it’s too late.”