Page 11

Not Long for this World

Jefferson City, Missouri

After Deadeye Bill’s death, the gang laid low and grieved his loss. No one felt like discussing how they’d move forward without Deadeye Bill leading them. And they hadn’t felt like discussing their next job either, let alone planning it. That had always been Pa’s job.

Judd hung around for about a week before he got restless. Then he headed out looking for liquor and women. Instead of staggering home near sunup, as was his habit, he’d walked into the cabin after supper, sober as a judge, three men following on his heels. Seth had seen none of them before.

One man was tall and gangly, not much older than him.

Another, about Ike’s age, sported a thick, wiry handlebar mustache, perhaps compensating for his lack of hair on top, which was revealed when he removed his hat and rubbed his head.

The last man Seth took an instant dislike to.

He had dark, greasy hair, a thick, coarse beard that did little to mask the contempt twisting his lips, and beady eyes that flicked over each of them with icy disdain, finding them lacking.

“We’re back in business, men. This is Stan, Hoyt, and Thorn,”he announced, pointing to each man in turn. “They’ll be joining us on our next job.”

Rousing from Pa’s chair by the fire where he’d been nursing a whiskey bottle for the past week, Ike asked, “What job?”

“A bank job in Jefferson City. We’ve just come from casing it. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m tired of us sitting around on our asses acting like someone just shot our horse.”

Judd’s callous comment ran all over Seth, who knocked over his chair as he sprang to his feet.

“Not our horse, our father. To the rest of us, a brother or a friend. I see nothing wrong with taking a few weeks to regroup, not to mention burying him and reflecting on his memory. Or are you saying he didn’t earn that respect? ”

Judd raised his hands defensively, clearly surprised by his vehemence. “Easy, kid. I wasn’t saying that at all. I miss him, too, but sitting around dwelling on it doesn’t make the pain of his loss any easier. At least not for me.”

A few of the others murmured their agreement.

“Why are we listening to this whiney-ass pretty boy?”Thorn, one of the newcomers asked. “Just find him a wet nurse. She can rock him and change his nappies while the rest of us go about business like men.”

The man was goading him, but Seth was tired of being called a kid and, worse, being treated like one.

He charged at him. It wasn’t very smart.

Thorn had thirty pounds on him, most of it in his belly, and he didn’t know him or how he reacted when threatened.

But after losing his father, the emotions, especially the anger, simmering inside him needed an outlet, and a fight would do him good.

Before he could land the first punch, Ike and the other men jumped in to hold him back.

The man laughed as he struggled to get free, revealing missing and rotting teeth and subjecting him to a blast of the worst-smelling breath he’d ever had the misfortune to encounter.

“Fucking bastard,” Seth growled.

“Enough!”Judd ordered sharply. “Either shut the fuck up, Thorn, or the deal is off, and you can haul your ass outta here.”

“I was just teasing the kid. Sheesh,”the disgustingson of a bitchreplied, but his laughter ended. He glanced at Seth. “No harm, no foul, right, son?”

“I’m not a kid, asshole,”he replied angrily. “And I sure as hell am not your son.”He threw off the hands restraining him and turned to face his brother. “Who is this guy, and what deal did you make with him?”

“That same deal as everyone else who joins up with us—an even split of the haul.”

Far from convinced, Seth persisted, “You trust a bunch of strangers to have our backs?”

“Your pa trusted me,”Thorn stated, drawing several surprised looks. “We’re friends from way back.”

“How come I don’t know you, then?”Ike asked, his skeptical gaze sizing up the other man.

“You were off fighting,”he explained with a shrug. “Me and Deadeye did a few jobs together. We made a good team.”

“Got a last name?” Ike persisted, still staring at the man as if trying to place him.

“Thorn is my last name, and all you need to know,” he snapped then rounded on Judd. “What’s with the interrogation?”

“They’re just cautious.” His brother glared at him and Ike.

“Back off, you two. Our numbers were getting low. You know most of our jobs call for at least six. This will be a trial run. We can go our separate ways if it isn’t to our liking.

”Judd strode toward the table, big enough for ten, as if the matter of the new men joining up with them had been settled. “What’s to eat? I’m starving.”

“There’s stew keeping warm on the fire,”Ike grumbled, not looking happy about the newcomers, either.

“Help yourselves,”Judd told the others as he ladled hot beef stew into a bowl.

Seth moved beside his brother and reiterated his opinion, not bothering to keep his voice down. “I don’t like the looks of him. We can do this with five if you let me do something other than stand as a lookout.”

Judd shot him a glare. “As leader, it’s my call, and I won’t put up with any lip outta you.”

“Is this how it’s gonna go? You calling all the shots with no one else having a say? Including Ike?”

“That’s lip, little brother,”he warned, pulling out a chair and having a seat. “And I’m just following in Pa’s footsteps.”

“He earned the respect of the men because he knew what he was doing,”Seth challenged.

His brother shot to his feet and leaned in, bumping him in the chest. To meet his gaze, he had to tip his head back and look up at his little brother, which was a fact that always galled him.

“You don’t have to hang around if you don’t like it,”Judd ground out between his teeth. “But if you do, it goes how I say. You got that? It’s how Pa wanted it.”

Judd had it wrong. His father always welcomed a different opinion. He didn’t always agree, but he let every man have his say. Seth didn’t argue further, however. The room had gone quiet, every eye upon the two brothers. He held his tongue, too, but he also grabbed his hat and left.

He was halfway across the yard when the door slammed, his uncle Ike following.

***

Lounging with one hip propped against the hitching rail, Seth tried to appear as though he didn’t have a care in the world on this near-perfect summer day.

But pulling off an air of nonchalance was a tall order when inside, he was a twisted coil of tension.

Mainly because of what was happening behind the double-hung set of doors less than fifty feet away, but also because a week had passed and things remained strained between him and his brother.

The new men gave him a wide berth, except for Thorn. Seth felt his eyes on him whenever he was around, always with a sense of mockery. Things would have to change, or as Judd had suggested, he wouldn’t be hanging around.

Facing the world alone for the first time was a daunting decision—but one for later. Right now, he had a job to do, his first job without Deadeye Bill.

He straightened, dropping his pretense of indifference as the bank doors burst open and boots thundered on the boardwalk.

As lookout, responsible for spotting trouble—especially the badge-wearing, gun-toting kind—he also minded the horses.

Quickly, he loosened the reins, leaving them dangling, ready for a swift mount.

It wasn’t a surprise when someone shouted and raised the alarm. “Those men just robbed the bank. Stop them!”

They expected the gunfire that followed. Seth and the others bent low over their horses’ necks, urging them faster. The dust kicked up by the pounding hooves that had them shooting blind was all part of the plan. What wasn’t, weeks without rain that made the dirt cloud thicker, but it helped.

They took the main road, hightailing it at a full gallop.

When they came to the fork about a mile out of town, they split into two groups to slow down the posse that would inevitably follow.

Seth, Judd, and Hoyt took the southern fork.

Ike, Thorn, and Stan went north and would cross the river in about ten miles.

By stopping briefly at pre-arranged locations to change horses, they intended to make it to St. Louis, usually a four-day trip, in a little over twenty-four hours.

Once they arrived at the rendezvous site, a house on the outskirts of the city—chosen carefully by Judd, who knew the owner—they’d divvy up the cash then scatter, lying low for a few weeks before meeting up again to plan their next job.

Stop number one came early. Bonnet’s Mill was a small community on the banks of the Missouri River, only ten miles out of town.

They exchanged their lathered horses, pushed harder than they ordinarily would have to get out ahead of the law.

On fresh mounts with their saddlebags filled with provisions, they were off again with the sun setting at their backs.

They didn’t stop for another four hours until the horses needed water.

Seth dismounted, eager to stretch his legs, while Hoyt walked off in search of a tree.

He glanced at his brother, still in the saddle, chin to chest, with his hat low on his forehead.

Seth shook his head. The man could sleep anywhere.

“You better get down and answer the call.”He added a warning. “Next stop isn’t until we change horses again, at dawn.”

When his brother didn’t respond but just sat there, his head dropped forward, Seth moved closer. Laying a hand on his boot, he shook it. “Judd?”

Whether from the concern in his voice or because he sensed something wasn’t quite right, Lightning, his brother’s horse, tossed his head and stamped nervously, pulling the reins from his rider’s gloved hand.

Still, Judd, the new leader of the Hartigan Gang, who was supposed to set a standard for the others, didn’t budge.