CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“So it was a trap,” Shawn O’Brien said. “I should’ve known as much.”
“I’ve never seen you before,” the woman said.
“I’ve been around.”
“Are you one of Hank’s men?”
“Hell, no.”
“Then who are you?” She corrected herself. “What are you?”
“Do you really care who or what I am? Call Cobb and get it over with.”
“I’m not your enemy,” the woman said.
She was beautiful in a dark, flashing, Mexican way. Her eyes were as black as midnight, her glossy hair even darker, if that were possible. But her skin was creamy white and her voluptuous figure was the kind that keeps a man awake o’ nights, remembering.
“If you’re not my enemy, are you my friend?” Shawn asked.
“Maybe.”
The shotgun still pointed at Shawn’s belly and he knew he was only a finger twitch from getting cut in half.
“My name is Shawn O’Brien, out of the Glorieta Mesa country in the New Mexico Territory,” he said. “How’s that for starters?”
“You killed a man tonight, didn’t you?”
“Yes. One of Cobb’s men.”
“Why?”
“Because he wanted to kill me. Hank Cobb is my enemy and I aim to see that he pays for his crimes.” Then, almost as an afterthought, “And I’ll make this town pay as well.”
“And he’s also my enemy,” the woman said. “And this town is my enemy.”
“So maybe we can be allies,” Shawn said. Then, smiling, “You know my name but you didn’t give out yours.”
“My mother’s name was Rodriguez. My father was Irish but my mother never said his name aloud. He left us when I was three, went to the goldfields and never came back.”
“So what do you call yourself? Rodriquez?” Shawn said.
“Ruby La Monde. At least that’s what I called myself when I met Hank. I was working the line in Dodge before he brought me to Holy Rood.”
The woman propped up the shotgun in a corner.
The cabin was tiny, barely large enough to accommodate a brass bed, an armchair by the potbellied stove, a small dresser and a clothes closet.
“I wouldn’t have shot you,” she said.
“That’s good to know.”
“Would you like a drink?”
“I could sure use one.”
Shawn glanced out the open window, but saw only a rectangle of blackness.
“Will Cobb look for me here?” he said.
“Maybe. But I doubt it,” Ruby said.
She poured whiskey into glasses and handed one to Shawn. Then she picked up the makings from the table and held them up where he could see.
“Smoke?”
“Yes, thank you.”
Ruby tossed Shawn the makings and said, “Back in the day, I learned the habit from the Texas cowboys who came up the trail.”
“And they learned it from the vaqueros who are much addicted to tobacco,” Shawn said. He smiled. “As I am.”
He built a cigarette and Ruby thumbed a match into flame and lit it for him.
“Those punchers taught you a lot, huh?” he said. “I’ve only seen a man light a match like that.”
Ruby nodded. “They taught me stuff, all right. Both good and bad. I was a prize package back then.”
“You still are, Ruby,” Shawn said, meaning it.
The shouts of men echoed loud in the darkness and the glow of lanterns danced in the street like fireflies.
The woman closed the window and pulled its ragged curtain closed.
“I only have one chair, but you’re welcome to sit in it,” she said.
“I reckon I’ll stand,” Shawn said.
Ruby understood the implications of that statement and said, “Once the search dies down, you can get away from here.”
“Cobb still visit you?” Shawn said.
“Now and again. He says a man has his needs.”
“I understand there were other girls in Holy Rood,” Shawn said.
“Whores like me, you mean?”
She saw Shawn fumble for the right words and let him off the hook. “Yes, there were. The miners used to come in and a few cowboys. But then Hank got his brilliant idea to drain this town dry and he killed all the girls or forced them out of town. Killed a fair number of their clients too. Now nobody visits Holy Rood and I don’t know how the town survives.”
“Buy and sell among themselves, I guess,” Shawn said. “Cobb didn’t kill you? Why not?”
“Only because I was his property, bought and paid for. A man like Hank doesn’t destroy something he owns.”
Ruby took the makings from Shawn and expertly rolled a cigarette. After she lit it, she said, “When I saw what was happening, I tried to escape. But Hank came after me and brought me back.”
Her cigarette trailed blue smoke as Ruby pulled back her hair and revealed a white, twisted scar where her left ear had been.
“He took my ear as a punishment and told me that if I tried to run again, he’d cut off the other one.”
She let the hair fall back in place. “I’m Hank’s prisoner and he’ll kill me soon, I think.”
“You better come with me,” Shawn said. “I have a camp near here and there’s another woman with us.”
“Your wife?”
“No. Sally Bailey is just another of Cobb’s victims.”
“I haven’t been out of this cabin in months,” Ruby said. “The sky might fall on me.”
“The sky will fall on you for sure if you don’t get out of this town,” Shawn said. “Cobb is fixing to leave.”
“And he won’t take me with him?”
“What do you think?”
“As I said, I think he’ll kill me. Tie up all his loose ends before he rides out.”
Shawn said nothing. Now it was up to the woman.
It didn’t take long for Ruby to make up her mind.
“I’ll come with you,” she said. “I can’t stay locked up in this town any longer.”
Ruby blew out the candle and plunged the shack into darkness.
“You ever watch a woman get dressed from the skin out before?” she said.
“I was married once,” Shawn said.
“Well, you weren’t married to me, so turn around anyway.”
“I’ll stand at the door,” Shawn said, grinning.
Then, as though she felt he was due an explanation, Ruby said, “I was a modest whore.”
“I never met one of them,” Shawn said.
After Ruby rummaged in her closet, she dressed hurriedly and the result, even in the gloom of the cabin, was pleasing.
She wore a tan canvas skirt, split for riding, a white shirt and over that a vest the same color as her skirt. She wore boots and a flat-brimmed, low-crowned black hat tied under her chin.
“So how do I look?” she said.
Shawn smiled. Even facing mortal danger, it was a question only a woman would ask.
“Real purty,” Shawn said. “Like an English lady.”
“I’ve never seen an English lady. Or any other kind of a lady, come to that.”
“If you ever did, she’d look you up and down and then eat her heart out with envy.”
It wasn’t the most elegant of compliments, Shawn decided, but he meant every word of it.
Ruby smiled and opened her mouth to speak, but as footsteps shuffled outside Shawn put a forefinger to his lips and drew his gun.
The steps stopped at the door. Then after a few moments a man whispered, “Ruby, darlin’, you awake?”
Shawn recognized the voice. It was Shel Shannon.
The woman stepped closer to him, her eyes wide with apprehension.
Shawn put his finger on Ruby’s mouth, and then pointed to the bed.
She caught on quickly and said, “Shel, I’m in bed, half asleep. All the shooting kept wakening me.”
“In bed is where I was hoping I’d find you, darlin’,” Shannon said. “I’m coming in and we’ll talk, maybe have us a drink or two, huh?”
Shawn moved behind the door and at his nod, Ruby opened it wide.
Shannon grinned his words, “Want it as bad as me, huh, little gal?”
“Come in, Shel,” Ruby said. “Quickly.”
Laughing, Shannon stepped into the dark cabin . . . and then his voice became a growl. “What the hell, Ruby? Why are you dressed like that? You maybe planning to—”
Shawn swung his Colt. He hit the gunman on the right side of his head, just under his hat, and Shannon fell to his knees. But a buffaloed man with a thick skull can drop from the blow yet still hold on to consciousness.
Shannon cursed and groggily reached out for Ruby and Shawn hit him with the heavy Colt again.
This time Shannon fell on his face and lay still, but the O’Brien brothers had not been raised in the ways of trusting men.
Shawn’s booted toe kicked Shannon’s head hard and when the man groaned, he kicked him again, harder.
When he was satisfied that Shannon wasn’t going to get up again, he jerked the gun from the unconscious man’s holster and tucked it into his waistband. He grabbed Shannon’s ankles, dragged him into the cabin and told Ruby to shut the door.
Shawn let Shannon’s ankles drop, then stepped to the window.
He pulled back the curtain an inch and stared outside. He saw only darkness and a bobbing lantern in the distance as the crowds of townspeople thinned.
“I don’t think anybody saw Shannon come to your door,” he said.
“What are you going to do with him?” Ruby said.
“I want to kill him, but I won’t. At least, not yet. If Jasper Wolfden’s been captured by Cobb, maybe I can trade Shannon for him.”
“We can’t stay here much longer,” the woman said. “There’s only a couple of hours left until sunup.”
“I know. We’re getting out of here and good ol’ Shel is going with us. Any of those Texas cowboys you entertained leave you a rope?”
“No, only money,” Ruby said. There was strange hurt in her eyes.
“Sorry,” Shawn said. “I shouldn’t have said that.” Then, because he felt his apology was inadequate, “I’m on edge, I guess.”
“And me too,” Ruby said. “I guess.” She motioned to the bed. “Tear up my sheets for a rope. I won’t have any use for them again.”
It was only the work of minutes for Shawn to rip the sheets into strips and knot them together to fashion a rope, except for two pieces he used to gag Shannon and tie his hands behind his back.
The gunman stirred, cursed, and made a grab for Shawn. He again got thumped on the head for his trouble and flopped like a rag doll into unconsciousness.
Shawn held up his revolver for Ruby to see. “Full factory-engraved Colt, the barrel cut back to four inches and the action tuned by Hermann Ulrich, the El Paso gunsmith, and I’m bending it over the head of this idiot. It would make a grown man cry.”
The woman seemed unimpressed by the Colt’s pedigree or Shawn’s grief over its abuse.
“We’d better get to your horse,” she said. “Shannon’s a tough man and he could give us trouble when he recovers.”
Shawn nodded. “Now’s as good a time as any, I reckon.”
He coiled the sheet rope and looped it over his left shoulder. Then, a strong, well-muscled man, he effortlessly hauled Shannon to his feet and grabbed the gunman by the back of his shirt.
Shannon’s eyes rolled in his head, still out of it.
“Let’s go,” Shawn said.
He held Shannon’s collar in his left fist, his Colt in the right.
Ruby opened the door and together they walked outside into the star-bright night.