The words grabbed Jake and Lloyd’s attention. “Yeah, I have a nice family. Why would that interest you?” Jake folded his hand.
“Oh, I just thought news about them might be something you’d pay for. And I have some news.”
A man came from the back room then, his shirt open and his boots and guns in his hand. He glanced at the fat man being dragged out and then at Jake and the still-smoking gun on the table in front of him. He hurried out the door.
Trudy leaned over and ran her hands down Jake’s chest, under his gun belts, and into his pants. “Would you like to know what I heard about your family?”
Jake grabbed his gun and shoved it into its holster. “Trudy, when a man has a woman’s hands in his pants, he doesn’t generally feel like talking about his family,” he told her.
She smiled. “I’ve always heard you’re real familiar with women like me, Jake Harkner. Why don’t you come into that back room and show me just how familiar? Your wife is far, far away. She’ll never know.”
Far away? What did this woman know? Jake felt alarm building. He grasped her wrists and yanked her hands out of his pants, then stood up, winking at the other players. “You boys go on without me. Enjoy my whiskey if you want.” He scooped up his money and shoved it into his pocket, glancing at Lloyd. “I’ll be back in a bit.” He followed Trudy into the back room.
Lloyd glanced at the other men. “Nothing like blowing a man’s guts out and then screwing a whore afterward. Pa can go from one to the other without a second thought.”
One of the men grinned, and another one appeared uncomfortable.
Once behind the curtain, Trudy pulled Jake to a very messy bed and told him to sit down. She stood in front of him and began removing her clothes. “I’ll make a trade with you, Marshal,” she told him. “You screw me so I can say I got laid by Jake Harkner, and I’ll tell you what I know about your family.”
“Fine with me.” Jake watched her undress, thinking how different she was compared to Dixie, who would give him any information he needed out of the goodness of her heart. The whore in front of him was the kind he had little use for. He waited until she was completely naked and had climbed onto the bed before acting.
He rolled on top of her then. She smiled, reaching out to unbuckle his gun belt, but Jake forced all his weight on her and grasped her hair almost painfully. “Now you listen and listen good,” he seethed. “I’ve never hurt a woman in my life. Don’t make me start with you! I’ve known whores from Texas to Montana, and none I was ever with would do what you’re doing! We’re talking about my family here! You’re going to tell me what you know, and I’m not going to have to fuck you to find out! Understand?”
She tried in vain to pull his hand away.
“Understand?” he repeated.
“Yes!” she hissed. Her eyes teared, and Jake let go of her hair but stayed on top of her.
“You’ve seen Marty Bryant?”
“I’ve seen him, all right. He paid me good money to bait you if you came here. He said you like whores and it would be easy to get you in here. I just figured I’d get the famous Jake Harkner in my bed before I told him what I know.”
“You figured wrong.” Jake rolled off of her. “For the first time in my life, I want to hit a woman, and the state I’m in, I’d advise you to answer my questions.”
Trudy scooted away and pulled a filthy blanket over her nakedness. “What do you want to know?”
“All of it! How many men does Marty have?”
“I don’t know for sure. Maybe ten…twelve…could be even more by now. He left here with two more—said he had just about enough to bring you down.”
“Where did he go?”
“Back to his place near Guthrie. He talked about making you come to him by getting to…your family because you killed half of his.”
Jake rubbed at his temples. “Jesus,” he muttered. “Did he mention a specific plan of some kind?”
She didn’t answer right away. Jake turned and got to his knees on the bed, grasping her face in his hands. “I asked you a question!”
“Are you going to kill me?”
“Don’t tempt me!” Jake could hardly believe he’d just spoken the words. Desperation was turning him into something worse than he’d ever been. He let go of her and got off the bed. “Jesus, Trudy, this is my family. How could you not have told me right away? How could you be so rotten as to try to get me in your bed when every second counts? Of all the women I’ve known, you’re the worst kind.” He faced her, wanting to feel sorry for the tears in her eyes, hating the fact that for one quick moment, his father came out of him and raged against a woman. Maybe he hadn’t completely beaten the devil out of himself after all. “I’m asking you again. Did Marty Bryant mention a specific plan?”