“I’ll go,” Matthew said right away.
“No, I’ll go,” James said. “You’re too unsure about this, Matthew. Besides, you’re so big they’d notice you right away. I can blend in better.”
“I’ll go,” Thomas said.
“Why you?” James demanded.
“I’m the oldest.”
“That’s got nothin’ to do with it,” James said, then looked at Shaye and asked, “Does it, Pa?”
“I said I was letting you three decide.”
“James’s argument about you is a good one, Matthew,” Thomas said. “You’re too noticeable.”
“And what about me?” James asked.
“You’re too young.”
“You can’t pull that on me, Thomas,” James said. “I got just as much right to go in as you have. We can both blend in.”
“I’m better with a gun, James,” Thomas said. “Somethin’ might happen, and I’m better equipped to handle it than you.”
James opened his mouth to argue, but his argument got trapped in his throat. He looked down at the gun in his holster. He knew he couldn’t best Thomas with a gun.
“Sounds like you boys have made up your mind,” Shaye said. “Thomas, your brothers and I will camp outside of Salina tomorrow night. You go in, get a hotel room, and have a look around. If the gang—both parts of it—are there, they won’t be hard to see.” Shaye leaned forward and stared directly at his oldest son. “This is important—do not engage them. Do you understand?”
“I’m not that foolish, Pa,” Thomas said. “I wouldn’t try to take them alone.”
“That’s good,” Shaye said, “because it’s going to be hard enough for just the four of us to do it.”
“Don’t worry,” Thomas said. “If they’re in Salina, I’ll come back and tell you.”
“All right, then,” Shaye said. “It’s settled.”
“What if they’re not there, Pa?” James asked.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, James. Let’s just take it one step at a time.”
Shaye set the watches and gave Matthew the first. While Thomas and James turned in, though, he went and sat next to Matthew.
“Mind if I have a last cup of coffee with you?” he asked.
“Sure, Pa. I’ll get it for ya.”
Matthew poured a cup full and handed it to his father, then poured one for himself.
“You don’t really want coffee, do ya, Pa?”
“No, Matthew,” Shaye said. “Pretty smart of you to know that.”
“I’m not as smart as Thomas and James, Pa, or you,” Matthew said, “but I ain’t dumb.”
“I never thought you were, Matthew. You have something you want to ask me, son?”
“Why ain’t I as sure about this as you and Thomas and James, Pa?” Matthew said.
“What part of it is bothering you?”
“Well…the God part. You and Thomas are actin’ like there ain’t no God, and James don’t seem so sure anymore.”
“And you are?” Shaye asked. “Sure, I mean, about there being a God?”
“If there ain’t no God, Pa,” Matthew said, “then Ma was lyin’ to us all them years that she was takin’ us to church.”
“And you don’t want to think of your mother as a liar, do you, Matthew?”
“No, I don’t,” Matthew said, “but there’s more to it than that. I mean, if what you say about us maybe committin’ murder, then it’s gonna be a sin.”
“A big sin, Matthew.”
“And that don’t seem to bother you and James and Thomas.”
“It bothers you?”
“It’s like the biggest mortal sin of all, Pa!”
“I know, son.”
“We’ll all go to Hell!”
“You have to understand something, Matthew,” Shaye said. “I would chase these men through the fires of Hell and out again to get them for what they did to your ma. I don’t care if I spend the rest of eternity in Hell, as long as they pay.”
Matthew stared at his father with his mouth open. “Wow. Do you think James and Thomas feel that way, Pa?”
Shaye stole a look at his two sleeping sons and said, “Yeah, I think they do.”
“Then I should too.”
“You don’t have to feel that way, Matthew.”
“But if I don’t, then it means I didn’t love her as much as the three of you did.”
“It doesn’t mean that at all,” Shaye said. “It just means you’re not ready to give up on God.”
“So I gotta choose between Ma and God?”
“You have to choose what’s right for you, Matthew,” Shaye said. “Nobody else matters.”
Matthew looked surprised again. “God don’t matter?”
“Not this time, Matthew,” Shaye said, putting his hand on his son’s shoulder. “Right now the most important is you. All you’ve got to do is give it some thought, and the answer will come to you.”
Shaye dumped the remnants of the coffee into the fire and stood up. “Wake James for the second watch in two hours.”
“Yes, Pa.”
“Good night, son.”
“’Night, Pa.”
Shaye went to his bedroll totally unsure about whether he’d said the right thing to Matthew. These were the times, he knew, when he was going to miss Mary the most.
43
Twenty miles north of Salina, Aaron Langer sat at his campfire while his eleven men sat around their own. Even his longtime segundo, Esteban Morales, was not allowed at his fire without an invitation. Next to him he had the saddlebags with the money from the Pierre bank. The ride here from the Bad River in South Dakota had been uneventful for him and his gang, and unlike his brother, he had no trouble sleeping. Killing did not haunt Aaron Langer, it didn’t matter if it was man, woman, child, or dog. If they got in his way, they deserved killing.
He turned and looked over his shoulder at the men around the other fire. That was all the signal Morales needed to stand up and come walking over, carrying his plate of beans and bacon.
“Hunker down, Esteban,” Aaron said.
“Gracias, Jefe.”
“We’ll be ridin’ into Salina tomorrow.”
“All of us, Jefe?”
“Yeah, all of us,” Aaron said. “With a show of force like we got, nobody’s gonna bother us, not even the local law. And once Ethan arrives, we’ll have the town under our thumb, if we want it.”
“And do we want it?”
“I don’t know yet,” Aaron said. “We’ll have a look around. If the bank looks good, maybe we’ll take it.”
“We don’ usually do that when we meet Ethan in a town,” Morales pointed out.
“I know that,” Aaron said. “Maybe it’s time we did. It would add to our take.”
Morales shrugged. Whatever his boss wanted to do was all right with him. Morales had a lot of money put away in a bank in Sonora because he never argued with Aaron Langer. He was also still alive because he never argued.
“Sí, Jefe,” he said. “Whatever you say.”
“Damn right,” Aaron said. “Damn right.”
Even his stupid younger brother would never argue with him. Morales had the feeling that if Ethan ever did argue, Aaron wouldn’t hesitate to kill his own brother. Chinga, for two brothers who had a priest for a third brother, they were both crazy!
“Go on back, Esteban,” Aaron said. “I want to be alone to think about tomorrow.”
“Bueno,” Morales said, and returned to the other fire.
“What’d he have to say, Esteban?” Greg Walters asked.
“Yeah,” John Diehl said, “what’s the crazy bastard up to now?”
“If he ever heard you call him that, he would kill you,” Morales said. “In fact, if I ever hear you call him that again, I will kill you myself.”