Chapter Twenty-seven
Before John Henry could say anything, Della lifted herself slightly on her toes, which brought her mouth within reach of his. She pressed her lips to his and let her body mold itself warmly against him.
Della’s eyes were closed in passion, but John Henry’s were still wide open. He looked past the saloon girl’s honey-blond head and saw Sophie standing against the wall behind the door, looking equally surprised.
But then Sophie’s eyes started to narrow, and she began looking more angry than surprised. John Henry tried to shake his head in a signal for her to be quiet, but that was hard to do with Della kissing him so passionately.
It became even more difficult when she cupped one of her hands against the back of his head to hold him still as the kiss grew even more urgent.
Sophie said in a loud, clear voice, “John Henry, who in the hell is this?”
At the sound of the other woman’s voice, Della jumped back a few inches and gasped. She let go of John Henry so she could whirl around and confront Sophie. They glared at each other with open hostility, blonde versus brunette.
“Now I understand why you kept turning me down, John Henry,” Della said when she had recovered enough from her surprise to speak. “You already had a floozy of your very own stashed here in your hotel room.”
“Floozy?” Sophie repeated, her voice rising with anger. “You’re a fine one to talk, dear, dressed—or should I say undressed—the way you are. Don’t you ever get cold with all that hanging out like it is?”
“You can’t talk to me that way—” Della began.
“I’ll talk to you any way I please. You’re the one who’s intruding.”
Della tossed her hair defiantly.
“I’ll bet I have just as much right to be here as you do,” she said.
Sophie smiled coldly and said, “I doubt that. You see, John Henry is my husband.”
There she went with that lie again, John Henry thought. He wasn’t in any mood to let Sophie get away with it.
“I’m not her husband,” he said to Della. “I swear we’re not married.”
“We might as well be,” Sophie insisted, “considering all the things that have gone on between us. Or have you forgotten about all that, John Henry?”
He knew she was talking about the gold and their supposed partnership to steal it, although Della would probably take the statement to mean something else. He said, “I haven’t forgotten about anything.”
“So there is something between the two of you?” Della demanded.
“Nothing romantic—”
“Call it whatever you want,” Sophie broke in. “If that’s how little I mean to you, maybe we’d better just forget it.”
“Now, hold on,” John Henry said. He wasn’t sure what to do about this. He was more accustomed to dealing with situations that required guns or knives or at least fists. He didn’t want Sophie to get mad over nothing, though, and jeopardize his plans.
“I won’t bother you anymore,” Della said as she took a step toward the doorway. She paused, looked at him, and added, “Unless you’d rather get rid of this woman and spend some time with me instead. I can promise you wouldn’t regret it, John Henry.”
“You just get out of here right now,” Sophie said furiously.
“I think John Henry should be the one to decide that,” Della responded. “It’s his room, after all.”
“Ladies—” John Henry began.
Sophie stepped forward and grabbed Della’s arm. She shoved Della toward the door as she said, “I told you to get out!”
“Oh!” Della cried. “Let go of me, you . . . you . . .”
Evidently, she couldn’t find a word bad enough to describe the way she felt about Sophie. So instead she balled up a fist and swung it at Sophie’s head.
Sophie saw the blow coming and jerked aside with a startled yell. She launched a blow of her own and slapped Della across the face.
That was a mistake. The hard life Della had led had made her quick to defend herself. She shoved Sophie back, then went after her, slapping and clawing.
John Henry moved toward them, intending to break up the fight. That might be more difficult than it sounded. As a lawman back in Indian Territory, he had gotten in the middle of plenty of ruckuses, but they were always between men so he didn’t have to worry about being too careful with them. He could wallop a few heads with his gun barrel if he couldn’t make the combatants listen to reason any other way.
He couldn’t do that with Sophie and Della. He had to try to stop them from hurting each other without inflicting any damage on them himself.
Before he could manage to get between them, Sophie lowered her head and tackled Della around the waist, forcing her to stagger backwards. The back of Della’s knees hit the edge of the bed. She fell across the mattress, and Sophie sprawled on top of her, striking at her with both hands.
John Henry got hold of Sophie’s waist and dragged her off the other young woman. He turned so that his body was between them, and when Della came up off the bed with fire in her eyes and tried to get to Sophie again, John Henry fended her off with one arm while he kept the other arm looped tightly around Sophie. She was struggling to get loose from his grip so that she could resume the battle.
“You two just stop it right now!” John Henry commanded. His voice was loud with exasperation. “Neither one of you has any reason to be acting like this.”
“I don’t like her!” Della said. “She’s a nasty, stuck-up bitch!”
“At least I’m not a two-bit tramp like you!” Sophie shot back at the blonde.
“You’re probably not worth two bits! No man in his right mind would pay that for you. She’s a cold fish, John Henry. You can tell that by looking at her.”
John Henry didn’t think any such thing was true, but he didn’t figure saying that would help the situation. So instead he said, “Just be quiet, both of you. You’re going to disturb the other folks in the hotel. This ruckus has gone on long enough.”
“It was just getting started,” Sophie said through clenched teeth.
“Well, it’s over now,” John Henry insisted. “Della, I think you should go.”
She stared at him coldly.
“So you’re picking her over me?”
“I’m not picking either of you,” John Henry said. “I just don’t want both of you leaving at the same time and starting this fight all over again out in the hall.”
“You’re going to make me leave, too?” Sophie demanded.
“I think we’ve said everything to each other that we have to say right now.”
“Maybe for good, if that’s the way you feel,” Sophie threatened.
John Henry still didn’t want that, but he couldn’t have the two women trying to kill each other in his hotel room, either.
Della said, “Fine. I’m not going to stay where I’m not wanted.”
“You’re not wanted here, I can promise you that,” Sophie said. “John Henry, let go of me, damn it!”
“In a minute,” he told her. “Della, you go on now. I’ll see you sometime at the Silver Spur.”
Della stalked out of the room, throwing one last murderous glance over her shoulder. John Henry used a foot to nudge the door closed behind her. Only when the door was firmly shut between Sophie and Della did he let go of Sophie.
She straightened her dress, pushed back some of the rich brown hair that had fallen in front of her eyes, and glowered at him.
“I thought you had better taste than that, John Henry, I really did.”
“You’ve got it all wrong, Sophie. There’s nothing going on between Della and me.”
“Not for lack of her trying, I’ll bet,” Sophie snapped.
John Henry shrugged. It was true that Della had made it abundantly clear from their first meeting that she was interested in him. That didn’t mean he returned the interest in anything other than a friendly way.
“This doesn’t have to have any effect on matters between us,” he said.
“I’m not so sure about that,” she replied coolly. “If we’re going to work together, we have to trust each other, and I’m not sure I trust you anymore.”
“Just because some saloon girl set her cap for me?” he asked in amazement as he spread his hands. “How is that my fault? I don’t have any control over that.”
“You could have told me about her.”
“I didn’t see any point in it. It just didn’t seem important. It doesn’t have anything to do with us.”
Sophie regarded him with narrow eyes.
“I’m not sure there is any ‘us’ anymore,” she said. “I’m going to have to think about it.”
“Don’t think too long,” John Henry said bluntly. “They’re bringing the gold down from the mountains the day after tomorrow.”
Her breath seemed to catch in her throat.
“How do you know that?” she asked.
“I’ve got sources,” he said, not wanting to admit just yet that Jason True had told him.
“You’re sure of the information?”
“Pretty sure.”
“Then we really don’t have much time, do we?”
“That gold will be here before you know it,” John Henry said.
“And the gold is the important thing.” Sophie nodded slowly, as much to herself as to him. “All right. I guess I just lost my head there for a minute. It’s none of my business what you do with women like that.”
“I haven’t done anything,” John Henry said.
“You don’t have to lie. I really don’t care anymore.”
“I’m not—” John Henry stopped. Let her think whatever she wanted, he told himself. Like she said, it didn’t really matter. “Was there anything else we need to talk about?”
“I suppose not. Not right now, anyway. The three of us will have to get together tomorrow to discuss our plans.”
“You mean you, me, and Doc?”
Sophie sniffed and said, “I certainly didn’t mean you, me, and . . . what was that creature’s name? Della? The three of us are not going to be doing anything together, John Henry. You might as well get that thought out of your head right now.”
“It was never in there,” John Henry promised her. His only thoughts were of how to protect that gold bullion until it was in those armored, well-guarded Wells Fargo wagons and on its way to Lordsburg.
That was plenty as far as he was concerned.