"Exactly," Lucas agreed. "What's the point?"
Boyd was shaking now and giving worried glances around the saloon. He was apparently looking for someone to help him.
No one was giving him the time of day. "I'm a white man," he protested.
Hunter smiled. "It's all the same to me," he drawled out.
Lucas nodded. "You called it, Boyd. My friend's a half-breed and therefore a savage, right?"
Boyd nodded, then shook his head. He couldn't seem to make up his mind to agree or disagree. He snorted. "You aren't going to take me anywhere. I'm staying right where I am. There are too many people in this here saloon. Witnesses," he added with a smug smile.
Five minutes later, Boyd had tears in his eyes. He was being dragged down the street between Lucas and Hunter.
They were looking for an alley. They found one two blocks later. They left Boyd there, bound and gagged and unconscious, behind a stack of wooden crates. They didn't want Boyd having second thoughts and possibly alerting the Border brothers of trouble, and as Lucas patiently pointed out to Hunter when he demanded the right to kill the son of a bitch, they might need to ask Boyd more questions if the Borders had moved the children to another location. There was also the telling fact that neither one of them was a cold-blooded murderer.
"We might want to kill him, but we won't," Lucas said.
Hunter didn't like being reminded of the truth. He growled low in his throat. "If we were in Montana Territory…"
"It would still be murder," Lucas countered. "When this is finished, we'll make certain everyone in town knows Boyd sold out his friends. That should make his life miserable."
Hunter cheered up. He fell into step beside Lucas and walked down the main street. Neither said a word for several minutes. Then Hunter broke the silence.
"So I like to skin a man alive, do I?"
Lucas grinned. "I thought it was a nice touch."
Hunter laughed. "Expectations," he said with a nod. "He expected me to behave like a savage."
"And I merely reinforced his own ignorant beliefs."
The two men put Boyd out of their minds. They found the address they were looking for twenty minutes later. They had to backtrack twice. They were in the heart of the slum of the city, surrounded by tenement buildings. Clothing hung down from broken rails, windows were broken or altogether missing, and the sound of human misery echoed all around them. Babies cried while adults shouted. The dilapidated buildings were gray. The ground surrounding the housing was covered with garbage and worse. The stench was almost unbearable.
"They're inside. I feel it in my gut, Lucas."
"I got the same feeling," Lucas said. "I'm going to have to go and get Taylor."
"Why?"
"She's the only one who will know for certain if the twins are her nieces," he said. It was a lame excuse and they both knew it.
Hunter rolled his eyes heavenward. "How many twins do you think the Borders have up there? For God's sake, Lucas, either way we're going to get those children out of there."
Lucas nodded. "I know," he agreed. "But Taylor deserves to go with us. I promised her."
Hunter quit arguing. "I'll wait here," he said. He was already moving into the shadows between the two buildings, looking for a spot where he could keep his gaze on both the front and the back doors. If the Borders decided to move the children, he wanted to know about it.
Lucas hailed a cabbie three blocks away. He had the driver wait for him in front of the hotel while he went upstairs to get Taylor.
She opened the door for him. She took one look at his dark expression and tried to brace herself for bad news.
He stopped her questions with an abrupt order. "Get your coat."
She didn't take the time to ask him where he was taking her. She ran to the wardrobe, grabbed her coat, and went running back to her husband. She patted the pocket to make certain her gun was still there.
Lucas gave her only a partial explanation of what had happened. He didn't go into any detail about Boyd. He didn't want to waste the time.
Taylor was gripping her hands together. She was tense and frightened.
"You say the little girls have an older brother with them?"
"That's what we were told."
They reached the vehicle. Lucas assisted Taylor inside. She waited until they were on their way before speaking again.
"If they have an older brother, they can't be my sister's twins."
"Do you want to go back?"
"Of course not," she cried out. "You insult me by asking such a question. We're going to get these children away from the vile animals first. Then we keep looking for my babies."
He was pleased with her answer. "I want you to stay between Hunter and me the entire time we're inside."
"Yes."
"You'll do exactly what I tell you to do. No arguments."
"No arguments," she promised.
The list of his orders continued. Taylor understood why he was being so harsh and sounding so angry. He wanted to keep her safe. Worry made his voice take on a hard edge. She found it comforting.
They were nearing the tenements when Lucas finished with his instructions. Because she looked so frightened, he decided to give her something positive to think about.
"By next week, you could be on your way to George's relatives with the twins. Think about that happy reunion, Taylor." He was offering her a glimmer of hope. He was surprised when she shook her head. She was staring out the window, taking in the godawful view, and barely paying any attention to what Lucas was saying.
The smell of boiling cabbage and human stench made her want to gag.
"Did you ever meet any of George's relatives?" he asked.
He had to repeat his question because of her inattention. "The twins' father," he said. "Did you meet any of his relatives?"
She couldn't imagine why he was asking such a strange question now.
"No, George was an orphan. He didn't have any relatives. Look, there's Hunter. He's walking toward us."
Taylor had the door opened before the vehicle came to a complete stop. Lucas paid the driver and offered the man a handsome bonus if he would wait for them. The lure of the money outweighed the cabbie's concern about the safety of the neighborhood. He pulled out a rifle from under his perch, put it across his lap, and then promised to wait as long as thirty minutes.
Taylor waited next to Hunter until Lucas crossed the street. Then she moved to his side and took hold of his hand. She put her other hand in the pocket of her coat and held onto her Colt.
They walked in silence up the rickety steps of the tenement. Lucas went inside first. Taylor followed. Hunter was right behind her.
The apartment they were looking for was on the third floor and in the very back of the building. The floorboards creaked, but there was so much noise inside, they could have pounded their way down the hallway and not been overheard.
The walls were paper thin, as were the doors. When they reached the number they wanted, Lucas motioned for Taylor to stand against the wall several feet away. If there was gunfire, he didn't want a stray bullet hitting her.
Hunter already had one of his guns out. Lucas readied his own, nodded to his friend, and then slammed his shoulder against the door and rushed inside. Hunter followed him.
A young man, around the age of twenty, had been asleep on the divan. He awakened to find Hunter's six-shooter pressed against his temple.
A woman twice his age came running into the living room from the kitchen. She wore only a sheer nightgown. She had orange-colored hair and a heavily painted face. She didn't try to cover herself. She sneered at Hunter and went running toward him with her hands out and her jagged nails ready to do injury, but she came to a quick stop when he pulled out his second gun and leveled it at her.