Nick sighed and furrowed his brow. “I can’t really say for certain. There were so many men coming through there. All I know is that I took a shot at the one who took a shot at me. I can’t really say this is him.”
“What about you?” Stilson asked J. D. “Is this the fellow who knifed you?”
J. D. looked back and forth between Nick and the sheriff as if he didn’t know what the hell to say. Eventually, he caught the scent of freedom and took the olive branch that Nick had offered. “I…can’t really say for certain.”
“Honestly, Sheriff,” Nick said as he wiped his brow in a way to be certain the lawman could see his mangled hand and missing fingers, “it’s been a while since I’ve been any good with a knife.”
“Oh, for Christ’s sake. You mean to tell me all this bullshit was for nothing?” As the sheriff looked at the two men for his answer, all he got was a few reluctant shrugs. “Get the hell out of my sight,” Stilson growled as he pulled a ring of keys from his belt. “Both of you!”
TWELVE
J. D. stepped out of the sheriff’s office with a smile on his face and steam in his stride. After a cautious look down either side of the street, he turned and walked to the corner. Every step of the way, he thought about the saloon he’d spotted when he’d been dragged into his cell. Already, he could taste the whiskey he meant to order and the woman he meant to buy. Those thoughts alone were more than enough to widen the grin on his face.
Stepping down from the boardwalk, he hurried across the street and headed for the nearest corner. There weren’t many folks near the saloons at this early hour, so nobody was there to see J. D. get pulled into an alley by the collar.
“What in the hell?” J. D. shouted as he was dragged off the street. He kicked as much as he could while trying to maintain his balance. He even balled up his fists and swung behind him, but only managed to land a few glancing blows.
“Hello,” Nick said casually as he slammed J. D. against a wall halfway down the alley. “Long time, no see.”
“Son of a bitch! I knew you wouldn’t hold up yer end of the deal.”
Nick frowned and pulled in a shocked breath. “What a horrible thing to say. I did just what I promised. You’re out and so am I.”
J. D. glared at Nick, swatting at the hand that was still holding him by the collar. Following up with a harder swing, J. D. still couldn’t get Nick to let him go.
Grinning, Nick opened his hand and clamped it over J. D.’s mouth. “It’d be better all around if you kept your voice down.”
Once Nick lowered his hand, J. D. said, “I don’t have to do a damn thing you tell me.”
The next thing J. D. felt was the barrel of Nick’s modified Schofield digging into his stomach.
“Then I’ll have to set an example by being real quiet, myself,” Nick said. “I’ll bet if I pull my trigger right now, no one will hear much of anything.”
J. D. swallowed hard and nodded. “All right,” he said in the calmest voice he could muster. “Fine. Have it your way.”
Although Nick eased back a bit, he didn’t holster the gun so J. D. was still reminded of its presence. “I want to know who raided Van Meter’s ranch.”
“Who’s Van Meter?”
Nick’s eyes narrowed into fiery slits and he shoved his gun even deeper into J. D.’s stomach. “Van Meter’s the man who lost his family and home thanks to those fucking animals you ride with. Disgrace those folks once more by acting dumb and I’ll hollow you out right now. I’m sure Mister Van Meter would be happy to see your carcass in the back of my wagon.”
“Oh, oh! Van Meter! I thought you said—” J. D. was cut short by a cautionary tilt of Nick’s head. “Yeah. I know who you’re talking about.”
“Who were you riding with?” Nick asked.
“There’s a couple dozen in all. We’ve been riding together for a little while.”
“A couple dozen?” J. D. nodded. “Give or take. Some join up and tag along for a job or two, while others drop out and lay low for a while. The law don’t know who they’re looking for that way,” he added with a smirk.
“Real good system you got there.”
“It works pretty damn well.”
“How about you smile a little wider so I can knock all your teeth out with one punch instead of two?”
Receiving Nick’s point good and clear, J. D. took the smug grin off his face and settled back against the wall. “There were about two dozen or so of us on this job.”
“Bullshit. I heard maybe a dozen and that’s being generous.”
“Half passed by that graveyard,” J. D. explained. “The other half was circling around to approach that ranch from the southeast, since that’s where most of the herd was grazing.”
“They got the herd, too?” J. D. looked as if he thought Nick was kidding. “That was the plan,” he said finally. “Half the boys were to round up them cattle after taking out whatever was left of the hands.”
“How many of Van Meter’s workers did your friends kill?”
“Not as many as we could’ve killed. That’s because Dutch made sure to get one or two of the workers working for us instead of for the rancher. That’s another system that’s been working real good.” This time, J. D. didn’t have to be warned to keep from gloating too much. “We had two workers from this place on our side. They told us the layout of the place and got the rest of the hired hands out of there when it came time for us to ride in.”
“How’d you get those workers cleared out of there?”
J. D. shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t even care. However those men we pay off do it is fine by us. Prevents a whole lot of killing that way.”
Nick tightened his grip on J. D.’s shirt and leaned on his gun a bit more. “You and your friends are real concerned about sparing lives? Where was all that concern when it came time to kill that rancher’s family?”
“I wasn’t even there,” J. D. replied. “I was bleeding in the dirt, remember?”
“And if you had been there, everything would’ve turned out so much better?”
J. D. started to say something to that but knew better than to make a sound. Nick looked too close to pulling his trigger for him to risk it.
“The leader of that gang turned that ranch into a slaughterhouse for a reason. Either him and his men are bloodthirsty animals or they were out to leave a mark of where they were.”
“We heard about a stash of money that rancher was keeping. Georgie told us about it. That’s what we were after from the start. If anyone got hurt, then they must have gotten stupid and tried to get in Dutch’s way.”
Nick gritted his teeth and felt his finger tighten around his trigger. “That family barely put up a fight,” he said.
As much as he wanted to rein in his temper before blasting a hole through J. D., Nick simply couldn’t come up with a good reason of why he should. J. D. wasn’t the least bit sorry about what his gang had done. It might have been a lifetime ago, but Nick remembered how that felt.
“Who’s this Dutch?” Nick asked in a voice that strained like a bowstring on the verge of snapping.
“Dutch Groves. Ask around about that name and you’ll know he’s not the sort of man you want to fool with.”
“Who else rides with him?”
“Bertram Dorsett is another. The rest come and go. I couldn’t tell you all their names if I wanted to. Now, are you gonna let me go or are you gonna shoot me?”
Nick nodded and let out a single, humorless laugh at the other man’s pluck. He glanced up and down the alley to find that there was nobody else in sight. The few locals who’d walked by since Nick had snagged J. D. hadn’t even bothered to glance in their direction.
Nick raised the gun so it was wedged up under J. D.’s chin. “If you put it that way…” J. D. immediately started to tremble and his eyes bulged out, straining to get a look at the gun. When he heard the metallic click of the hammer being thumbed back, J. D.’s legs wobbled until Nick’s other hand was the only thing holding him up.