Outlaw Hearts(85)

“I don’t owe you any explanations, you little sonofabitch! Why don’t you tell everybody how she trusted you and that preacher uncle of yours, how she was a widow woman trying to get here all the way from Kansas just to find her brother. Tell them how you attacked her and tried to rape her, and how your good Christian uncle left her to die after she got snakebit!”

Clarence began to redden a little. He didn’t like being embarrassed this way in front of men who knew him, especially not in front of his boss and Mellie. He hadn’t wanted any of them to know his uncle was a preacher. God, he’d like to kill this man! It would make him look big, really big. And it would leave Mrs. Hayes or Mrs. Turner or whatever she called herself a widow again, alone in a town where all kinds of things could happen to a woman like her.

He backed up a little, and men began moving out of the way. Was this man really fast with a gun, or just a big bluff? He’d gotten pretty good himself, had been practicing. “Your wife lied to you, mister. It wasn’t that way at all. I never tried to rape her. She was a widow woman hungry for a man, and I accommodated her. When my uncle caught us, she cried rape, but my uncle knew what she really was. She was a troublemaker! That’s why my uncle left her at that trading post. She was too much a temptation for me and his brothers. He was afraid we’d all end up fighting over the slut.”

The whole room quieted at the words, and Jake moved to face Clarence more squarely. “You’re a cocky, lying little rapist, Gaylord! You’re itching to draw on me, so go ahead. I’d like nothing better than to blow your privates clear down the mountain! I tried to warn you, but you’re too fucking stupid to know when to quit! I’d advise you to take back your words and tell these people the truth.”

“I believe your side, mister,” Mellie put in. “You’d better apologize, Clarence. You’ve got yourself in too deep already.”

“That’s right.” Jake seethed. “Only it’s too late for an apology.” He pushed his jacket behind his guns. “Go ahead, boy. Show Mellie here what a big man you are!”

Clarence swallowed, his whole body suddenly bathed in perspiration. What had he gotten himself into? He’d started this. Now he had to finish it. Maybe, just maybe, he was faster than this man. He went for his gun, but he had barely touched the handle to pull it out when one of Jake’s guns was already out and aimed directly under his nose.

“You dumb sonofabitch,” Jake snarled. He came closer, grabbed Clarence’s gun from its holster and tossed it aside. Quickly his booted foot came up between Clarence’s legs, making the boy cry out and bend over. Before he went all the way down, Jake brought his knee into his face, and the sound of his nose breaking could be heard all over the room. No one made a move to interfere, most astounded at the speed with which Jake had drawn the gun.

Clarence crumpled to the floor, gasping for breath and holding his privates. Jake was on him then, shoving him onto his back and forcing the barrel of his ivory-handled .45 into the boy’s mouth. Blood poured from Clarence’s nose across his cheeks and into his ears, and he stared wide-eyed at Jake, making little whimpering sounds as terror engulfed him. Jake shoved a knee against the boy’s chest to pin him down, and he cocked the gun.

“You know what happens when you stick a gun in a man’s mouth and pull the trigger, boy?” he growled. “It’s not a pretty sight! Now you listen up good. If you were a grown man, I’d splatter your brains all over this room! You’re getting a break because you’re a stupid, goddamn kid! But if I ever see you anywhere near my wife, or if you give her or me any trouble at all, I won’t be so accommodating next time! You picked the wrong man to prove yourself, you little bastard!”

Clarence began to choke at the feel of the end of the gun barrel against his throat, the taste of metal. He had never known such terror in his life, nor such humiliation. Jake finally yanked the gun out of his mouth, and he rolled over and threw up, grunting with fear when Jake yanked at his shirt to grab a piece of it to wipe off his gun.

“You’ve had your warning, kid.” Jake shoved the gun back into its holster. “Pay attention to it and thank God you’re still alive!” He stepped back to the bar and glanced around the room, seeing no one who looked willing to give him any trouble. He looked at Mellie then. “Will you come with me and tell my wife what you know about her brother? She might have questions only you could answer.”

Mellie looked down at herself. “If she won’t mind talking to a…to somebody like me. Let me change clothes first. I’ll be right back.”