Mason wasn’t normally of a mind to ride when he couldn’t see more than a few yards in front of him, but he wanted to get out of Sedrich and didn’t care how he did it. After he and Simons had dealt with Garza’s body and parted ways, dawn was swiftly approaching. By the time Mason had ridden halfway along the road that would take him back to the river, streaks of dark orange and purple began to show in the sky.
As soon as there was enough light to see a better portion of the road in front of him, Mason snapped his reins to get moving even faster. He arrived at the Delta Jack and was greeted at the dock by a single overman who stepped off the boat to take the horse’s reins.
“You alone?” the overman asked.
“Yes.”
“You sure about that?”
“If you’re referring to the man Greeley sent to spy on me,” Mason replied, “I don’t know where he is. Last I saw of him, he was staring down some of the men who were trying to guard that little fellow.”
“And where is he now?”
Mason climbed down from the saddle and had to shove past him to board the Jack. “I didn’t even know he was supposed to be there! If I was supposed to be his wet nurse, then someone should have told me.” Handing the bloody little bundle of rags over, he said, “Here. That’s for Mr. Greeley.” Then Mason continued walking onto the riverboat and didn’t much care if anyone tried to stop him. Nobody attempted to get in Mason’s way during the entire walk back to his cabin. Once there, he dropped onto his bed and closed his eyes.
* * *
Mason didn’t know how long he slept, but a knock on his door rudely woke him. The light streaming in through his cabin’s window was much brighter than it had been when he arrived. It took a moment for him to shake off the disorientation that came in the first seconds of opening his eyes, and as he gathered his wits about him, another knock rattled his door on its hinges. Mason had barely heard the first series of knocks and was about to ignore these when he decided to get up and see who was out there before they came back a minute or two later.
When he opened the door, Mason saw nothing. He leaned out a ways and spotted a familiar, shapely backside. “Maggie?”
She was already walking away when she heard his voice, turned around, and ran toward him. Mason was almost knocked to the floor by her enthusiastic embrace. Although he managed to put a little distance between them just so he could get a look at her, she quickly took his face in her hands and planted a kiss on his lips that curled the toes within his boots.
“I thought you were dead,” she said.
Mason stepped backward into his cabin, which brought her along as well. After closing the door, he said, “I wasn’t gone that long.”
“Yes, but there was always the chance that you would be killed before you even got to that man on your list.”
“I still think if Greeley wanted me killed, he could do it at his leisure and he wouldn’t need to leave the comfort of his boat.”
She kissed him again. The hair hanging loosely about her face smelled of clean air and cool river water. “Let’s not talk about that. You’re here now and that’s all that matters.”
“Agreed.”
Stepping up close to him, Maggie smiled while allowing her hands to wander along his shoulders and down over his chest. She didn’t make it to his waist before stopping and saying, “I thought you’d like me to give you a proper welcome.”
“I appreciate it, Maggie. I’m just tired, is all.”
“Would you prefer it if I left you alone?”
“No.”
She smiled warmly and led him to the bed. Maggie sat at one end of the mattress with her back resting against the cabin’s wall and her legs tucked beneath her. Before Mason could say another word, she pulled him down so he was lying with his head resting in her arms. There wasn’t much space for the two of them on that bed, but neither seemed to mind.
“There,” she said quietly while running her fingers through his hair. “How’s that?”
“That,” Mason sighed, “makes me believe there is a heaven.”
“Good. We don’t have to talk about anything. We just sit here and let the world pass by for a while.”
Mason was inclined to take her up on that offer. In fact, the idea of letting the world pass by for more than just a while seemed very appealing. He closed his eyes, enjoyed the feeling of being so close to her, and listened to everything around them. Between the sounds of the boat itself and its passengers on all three decks, there was plenty to choose from. Eventually the creaking of the timber that formed the Delta Jack’s hull held his attention.
As if sensing exactly what he needed, Maggie placed her other hand on his chest and gently rubbed. Just then the entire boat came to life as the engines began to turn the paddlewheel.
“Sounds like we’re casting off,” Maggie said.
“Good. The sooner we get away from here, the better.”
“I’m curious about what happened while you were away. But if you’d rather not tell me . . . I understand.”
“It went fine,” he sighed. “Just fine.”
“Now, that’s a bald-faced lie,” Maggie said as she continued to soothe him with her touch. “Any man in your condition after the night you’ve had would not be just fine.”
“I’m looking bruised again?”
“And you smell like gunpowder.”
Mason started to get up but was held in place by the hand on his chest. He wasn’t about to fight to get away from her, so he leaned back again. “Greeley isn’t telling me all of what’s going on here,” he said.
“Now, there’s a surprise.” Maggie chuckled. “A man like that is actually lying to you?”
“I know it’s strange, but it made more sense when he told me he wanted Simons dead because of a gambling debt. I mean, he was about to kill me for the same reason and I don’t even know how many others he’s killed before me.”
“It’s just a bluff with a good amount of groundwork laid down ahead of time. Nothing new there.”
“I know that now,” Mason said. “But after I got past the bluff, I still don’t see what the purpose of it was.”
“He had to tell you something to get you to go on that job.”
“Not really. I do owe him a hell of a lot of money and I still don’t think he forced me into that predicament.”
“But he must not have wanted you poking around into what was truly going on,” she said. “He gave you a story that wouldn’t be hard to swallow so you’d just go off and do the job you were given. Speaking of which . . . did you?”
“Did I what?” Mason asked.
“Did you do the job?”
“Yes.”
Maggie sat up so quickly that she nearly threw Mason onto the floor. “What did you just say?”
“That I did the job,” Mason replied.
“You killed a man in cold blood?”
“It wasn’t cold blood. It was the job I was given.”
“Isn’t that cold blood?” she said.
Mason blinked and furrowed his brow in thought. “I don’t . . . think so.”
He let her hang for a few more seconds before letting her off the hook. “I didn’t kill him, Maggie.”
“I knew it,” she sighed. “You couldn’t fool me.”
As they both leaned back into their original positions, Mason waited until she was relaxed once again before saying, “I did cut his finger off, though.”
She patted his chest and replied, “Sure you did.”
Now that the tension had been relieved somewhat, Mason felt more like talking. After giving her a quick retelling of what had happened in Sedrich up to the last hour or two, he said, “Simons had a lot to say about his history with Greeley.”
“And do you think you can believe him?”
“Yes.”
Being no stranger to gut instinct, Maggie accepted that. “What did he tell you?”
“That he helped Greeley hire enough gunmen to get his business ventures going.”
“And why would Greeley want him dead?”
Mason thought back to his conversation with Simons. Eventually he had to admit, “We never really came up with an answer to that.”
“There’re other names on the list, right?”
“Yes. Two more of them. You think one of those other men will know why Greeley hates Simons so much?” Mason asked.
He could feel Maggie shrug behind him. “Maybe. Maybe not. I was just thinking that you might get a better idea about what the whole picture is once you got a look at more than one piece of it.”
“You’re probably right.”
“So, what happened to Simons anyway?”
“He’s headed east,” Mason said. “I’ve got a small place in New York City that I’m loaning him for a short while. I got the impression that he was just as happy to get away from his cousins as he was to get away from Greeley.”
“Family is always trouble. I never had much luck with mine.”
“I think his family is a bit more than just trouble. At least some of them are killers.”
After a slight pause, Maggie said, “My aunt Irene is a real piece of work. If I introduced her to Simons, perhaps he’d run as far as the Alaska coast.”
Mason laughed a bit but found himself distracted. More than anything, he wanted to simply lie there and enjoy as much silence as he could get before Greeley summoned him. Something was bothering him, though, and had been for a while. Like the proverbial burr under a saddle, the matter became more painful the longer it was allowed to sink in. Finally he said, “I killed a man.”
Maggie’s hand came to an abrupt stop over his heart. “What was that?”
“I said I had to kill a man. While I was in Sedrich.”
“Who was it?”
“One of the overmen,” he said.
“Good Lord. Was one of them following you?”
It was at that moment that Mason realized he hadn’t mentioned the overman when he told her about what had happened in Sedrich. Mason started talking again, retelling parts of his account only with all the key participants in place.
When he got close to the end, he said, “I put my knife to his throat just to end the fight. If I’d killed him in that instant, I think it would have been easier.”
“He meant to kill you.”
“No doubt about that.”
“And he would have killed you if you’d let him go, right?”
Mason thought about that, but not for long. “Probably. I’d say he was there to put me down if I didn’t play along like I was supposed to. Then again, if I’d done the job like I’d agreed . . .”
Shifting on the bed, Maggie situated herself so she could face him. “If you’d done the job like Greeley wanted, you would have killed an innocent man.”
“Simons wasn’t exactly innocent.”
“Neither are we, in case you haven’t noticed. That doesn’t mean we deserve to be executed.”
“Depends on which judge you ask,” Mason said. When he saw the scolding expression on Maggie’s face, he added, “But I do see your point.”
“That man was there to kill you. I don’t see your problem. Haven’t you ever had to defend yourself before?”
“I have. Usually you can feel a fight brewing,” Mason said. “You can tell it’s coming, and by the time it does, you know why it happened and where it’s headed.”
“You really do think that much about every little thing,” Maggie said as though she’d only then taken that as truth. “I’m surprised your head hasn’t torn itself apart yet.”
“You’ve been on the circuit. It’s like you just said. We’re not innocents. We both have bent the rules or broken them outright to get where we needed to go. Sometimes it’s justified and sometimes it’s just convenient. But when we get caught and there’s trouble headed our way . . .”
Maggie nodded and put her hand on his knee. Since Mason was getting flustered, she said, “When there’s trouble, we know we’ve got it coming.”
He met her eyes. “Yeah. With what happened in Sedrich . . . I knew it might happen. Even so, it just seemed so . . . cold. Does that make sense?”
Laughing just a little, she said, “You didn’t deserve the trouble that you got. That’s what’s different. You’re not used to being the innocent one in a fight. Even if it is just partly innocent.”
“I hadn’t thought about that, but I suppose you’re right.”
“You shouldn’t feel bad about what happened or what you had to do. It sounds to me like things turned out as best they could.”
Mason shook his head and sighed. “I didn’t even dislike him.”
“The man you killed?”
“He was there doing a job . . . just like me. If a man is going to put another one off this earth, it makes things a whole lot easier if he can at least hate him.”
Maggie gave him a kiss. “You’re a good man in a bad spot. That’s all.”
“Stupid man is more like it,” he groaned.
“How do you figure?”
“Making that bet on a straight to the eight. Damn, that was stupid.”
Holding him tight, she said, “Yes, it sure was.”