Chapter Two
I was free! I rode long and hard for three days switching off and on from between the two horses. Any pursuit of me including the mysterious government man was long gone.
I began to relax and with that came the need to once again experience the finer pleasure of a game of cards, with as much whiskey as I wanted, along with the willing body of a woman to keep me warm all night. Yes, it was time to go to town.
Just ahead lay Winthrop. It was a large town. Heck, it was almost a city.
It had a pretty strict law presence, but I always behaved myself here and did my shady dealings elsewhere. Winthrop was a fallback for me. Sort of a vacation spot from my life of crime.
I came here as often as I could and when the money ran out, well then it was time to hit the trail and scare some more of it up with which to feed my addictions.
*****
I rode boldly down the street. The Marshal of Winthrop and I had a long-standing agreement. I didn’t start any trouble and he chose to ignore the poorly rendered billboard of my face that lay in a pile at his office.
It also helped out to lose judiciously at cards with him from time to time as well. Rounding a corner I saw him on the boardwalk and I waved.
He lifted an arm as well and then glancing around he then gestured me closer. Pulling up near the boardwalk I heard him say, “I heard you bought it down Mexico way.”
I shrugged and gestured widely to myself, “I’m here.”
Glancing around again he said, “There’s been a lot about who’ve been asking of you. What have you been up to other than the usual?”
“Who’s been asking?” I said, as I went cold inside.
“Don’t know them. I only know there the serious type and that I wouldn’t be wanting to wake up on their bad side. How about you skipping out of town and bedding down somewhere else for a while?”
The last comment really hadn’t been a request so much as it had been a thinly veiled order. The only problem was that I didn’t take orders anymore, “I ain’t going nowhere Marshal! Now if you have a problem with that you let me know. In the meantime I’m getting cleaned up and outfitted and then I’ll be at Mary’s place. You come by later if you want to try your luck.”
The Marshal decidedly grey-looking beneath the tan of his face stepped back, as I spurred my horse forward and away from him. In anger I rode on down the street as the knowledge that my safe haven may not be so safe anymore became a reality to me.
Whoever was hunting me had a lot to answer for and I wasn’t in a charitable mood about it either.
*****
The town just wasn’t the same for me. Word seemed to have spread that I was a marked man and there were few who wanted anything to do with me as a result and I felt more alone than usual because of it. I was hoping that some time at Mary’s would help ease away the knot of tension I felt rising up in me like a figurative noose about my neck. I shivered at the thought and quickly dispelled the feeling by stepping into Mary’s.
Mary looked up from the front desk and I thought her eyes tightened for a brief moment at the sight of me before she seemed to be as always, “Well well if it ain’t the hardest of the rowdy bunch come to pay my girls a visit. How have ya been Logan? You look well, if a bit thin.”
“Oh I’m man enough Mary, as to how I’ve been I have to say I’ve been without a woman for far too long.”
Mary laughed raucously and grinning I gripped a hold of a pretty brunette’s arm standing nearby and started for the stairs.
“Now you take it easy on that one Logan. She’s new from back East and she ain’t quite used to how lusty you Western men can be.”
“I make no promises Mary.” I call out behind me.
Reaching the upper level of the brothel I began walking down the row of doors knocking as I went and listening for noise in general. Finally I found a door with no answering inquiry or animated noise from within.
I turned the knob and slung the brunette into the room. She spun away to come up against one of the bedposts hard.
She was breathing hard, but instead of excitement or even fear in her eyes I detected a barely leased hostility. Strange.
Women usually welcomed the opportunity of being with me. Then again I had to remind myself that she was from back East. Maybe she was just frightened. Yeah that was it probably.
I closed and locked the door and going to a chair I pulled my boots off and let them fall loudly to the floor. Standing up I pulled my one gun free and laid it aside and then I undid my belt gun and tossed my hat aside.
“All right honey, time to lose that lace your wearing. I’m not known for being rough, but right now I am a mite impatient to get things started.”
I stepped toward her, when she remained still and to my surprise she brought up a funny looking little gun from behind her back and in horror I watched her pull the trigger. Instead of a muzzle blast though it shot off wires at me.
It all happened so fast that I had only begun to think to dodge out of the way, when the wires penetrated my chest. I jolted in complete agony as what felt like a direct strike of lightning streaked through my whole body with mindnumbing completeness.
I fell to the floor and tried to crawl away from the witch, but the ability to think or move was gone from me. All I could do was take the pain as it came in ever abundant supply.
The lightning jolts stopped and I felt able to breathe once more. I’d rather be horsewhipped any day then suffer this!
Looking up I had no time to react as sluggish as I was from the just caused pain as the woman began to rain down heavy hitting blows upon me from some wand like device in her hand. The pain of the hits quickly helped to jar my body’s paralyzed senses to life and kicking out I caught the woman with a foot and sent her careening away into a dresser.
Sitting up stiffly I managed to pull one wire free of my chest, but then in horror I saw her stoop to pick up the gun-like device and press the trigger again. The jolting pain hit me again, but I was angry!
I yanked and the other wire came free. I wasn’t fast enough then though to avoid what came next. She’d stepped close and she now kicked me right between the legs where it hurt most.
Gasping I fell over onto my side and curled into a fetal position as she began to rain down savage blow after savage blow on my head and upper back with her stick thingy. This woman had a serious problem!
“That’s enough Claire. I think you’ve avenged your injured pride enough.”
The hits just kept coming though and I felt consciousness start to slip away from me.
“That’s enough!!! I need him alive you fool!”
“I hate men like him! They should all be castrated!”
“Claire your opinions on men are well documented and your preference for women duly excepted within the ranks of our society, but you are failing to perform your job in the occupational quality that I expect of an agent of your rank! He nearly got the drop on you!”
“It won’t happen again Sir!”
“It had better not or you’re through for good and you know what happens then don’t you?”
“Yes sir.” Came the shaken reply.
The second voice spoke again, “All right you, you, and you pick him up and take him to my railcar. Get dressed Claire, unless that is, if you want to stay and entertain more male guests.”
I heard laughter dimly then from other sources in the room, as I felt myself picked up and carried from the room. It would appear that I was once again a prisoner.
What on Earth had she shot me with? And just who were they and why were they interested in me of all people?
I didn’t know, but I hated them. That I did know.
As if apart from reality I saw Mary’s heavily painted face blanched in horror along with some of the other girls as I was carted past them and out the door. Everyone within the town had betrayed me somehow.
I didn’t know much more about my current predicament other than the fact that I was alone and without help, while being at the mercy of people who seemed to have none.