“I have to go after those bastards,” Joseph said. “Anything less would disgrace the memory of my Anne and Laurie.”
“What about your Sam?”
“This is for him, too.”
“All right, then. If you want to ride into a meat grinder, than you’ll be leading me there, too.”
“I’m not asking you to come,” Joseph told him. “So don’t try to appeal to my sense of guilt. Where this matter is concerned, I don’t have any guilt left in me.” With that, he put his ranch behind him and snapped the reins.
After riding a few paces, Joseph stopped and turned back around.
Nick was surprised to see the sudden bout of remorse in the man’s face. He was even more surprised to see the gun in his hand.
“I have a feeling you could outdraw me,” Joseph said. “But I should be able to pull my trigger before you make a move.”
“What the hell is this about?” Nick asked.
“You don’t want to come along with me, but you don’t think you have a choice. I appreciate the trouble, Nick, but I’ll take this choice out of your hands. Whatever you think you’ve seen or done, it doesn’t hold a candle to what happened to my family. Go take care of Sam for me until I get back. If I don’t come back, at least he’ll know his father died trying to set things straight.”
Nick let out a discouraged breath and shook his head. The muscles in his arm were twitching to draw his gun, but he kept his arm still.
“Toss the gun and get off that horse,” Joseph demanded.
Holding his gun in a loose grip, Nick tossed it a couple yards away. He then climbed down from his saddle and stood next to Kazys.
“Sorry, Nick, but I need to do this.” With that, Joseph sighted along the top of his barrel and pulled his trigger.
The gun in Joseph’s hand barked. Joseph’s horse hopped off his front legs at the sound and shifted nervously from one hoof to another as Joseph struggled to keep control. Even as the bullet kicked up a mound of dirt a few inches from where Kazys was standing, that horse didn’t even flinch.
Nick had yet to change his expression.
Scowling, Joseph thumbed back the hammer and aimed again. Because his horse was still fretting beneath him, he couldn’t level his arm before Nick could collect his Schofield and walk right up to him.
Nick stopped a few inches shy of butting into Joseph’s barrel. “You know what the problem is?”
Joseph cursed under his breath while calming his horse and trying to steady his pistol.
Nick’s hand flashed up and around in a quick arc. The back of his left hand smacked against the side of Joseph’s gun, knocking it to one side. The gun went off as Joseph’s finger awkwardly hit the trigger, propelling its second round into the ground well away from the two men and their horses.
Even though his eyes didn’t leave Nick, Joseph didn’t see him raise his modified Schofield until it was pointed directly at his face.
“The problem,” Nick said calmly, “is that my horse has seen more gunfights than you have.”
Looking over toward Kazys, Joseph saw the animal calmly nibbling at a patch of grass while his own horse was still shaking its head and wriggling nervously.
“You’re a good man,” Nick said. “I know you’ve been through a lot. I’d like to help you. But don’t ever point a gun at me again. You understand?”
“I just wanted to spook your horse so—”
“Do…you…under…stand?”
Feeling like a kid that was being scolded after breaking a window, Joseph swallowed his pride and nodded.
“Good,” Nick replied as he holstered his gun. “What you’re feeling right now is the sting of being outclassed in a fight. Consider yourself lucky because, for most men, it’s the last thing they feel before getting their brains blown out the back of their skull. The men you want to hunt down will kill you without blinking, and they’ll take pleasure in doing it.”
“I know that,” Joseph said coldly.
“If I know you like I think I do, you’re also feeling a cold knot in the bottom of your stomach after shooting that man back at your house. That knot’s gonna be there forever.” Nick nodded solemnly. “I went through all this trouble to try and spare you them demons, but it’s too late now. The demons will come, and the more you kill, the louder their voices will get.
“But that’s not the only thing you started here by firing that shot. Whoever this Dutch is, he’ll know the man you killed is missing. Some of those others may have been replaceable, but that man was meant to bring back the strongbox you’re carrying, which means he’s got a whole gang anxiously awaiting his return. When he doesn’t come home, that whole gang will have one hell of a burr under their saddle.”
Joseph paused to let that sink in. After pulling in a breath, he lifted his gun and wedged it under his waistband. “They’re not the only ones who are upset about a few things.”
Nick walked over to Kazys and climbed into the saddle.
“If you think this is a fool’s mission, maybe you shouldn’t come along,” Joseph added.
“In case you forgot, my wife is looking after your son. When those men find out who killed their friend…and they will find out sooner or later…they’ll come after your boy and anyone who’s there with him when they arrive. They’ll do it out of principle, no matter what we decide to do from here on out.”
“How can you be so certain?”
“Because,” Nick said calmly, “it’s what I would have done.”
EIGHTEEN
Virginia City, Montana
1866
Nick was in his early twenties and barely more than a kid. He’d tried to make amends for the hell he’d raised, but found himself with a group of vigilantes who were worse than any gang Nick had ever joined.
One of those men stood over him after beating Nick within an inch of his life. His name was Red Parks and he’d just finished slicing off several pieces from Nick’s hands. The smile on his face was just as wide now as it had been when he’d done the cutting.
“Your days as a bad man are over, all right. I promise you that,” Red told him.
The next thing Nick heard was a quick series of pops.
Each pop was a shot from Red’s gun.
Each bullet blew off the mutilated remains of Nick’s middle and ring fingers like bottles being shot off a fence.
Once those shots died away, the men who’d called themselves the Vigilance Committee watched Nick squirm until he finally passed out. Their eyes were still glaring down at the young man when a sound from outside the old barn caught their attention.
“Someone’s coming,” said one of the men.
Red reached behind him to find a burlap sack that had been tucked under his belt at the small of his back. Pulling the sack over his head, he adjusted it until two holes cut in the rough material lined up with his eyes. The rest of the men in the barn followed suit.
“Let’s go,” Red told his men. “We’ve done plenty for one night.”
Most of the hooded men nodded and filed out the door like a parade of scarecrows. Two of them lingered over the bloody kid curled up on the floor. Their eyes glared down at Nick through the holes in those burlap sacks and seemed unable to look anywhere else.
“What about him?” one of the masked men asked.
Red looked over as if to admire his handiwork one more time. “Leave him. He’ll probably never even wake up.”
“And what if he does?”
“Then he’ll serve as a warning, just like I said before. He’ll show all his murderous friends what happens to their kind if they come near Virginia City.” Red walked out of the barn to address the locals who’d gathered outside.