The Incident at Last Home

The two women stilled, as if they might hear the truth through the door. Any sound from outside was drowned out by Trigger and Hugo singing downstairs and the ruckus of the others keeping some other girls busy down the hall.

"I made pretty clear to Walt that I ain't interested none in setting up shop here," Riley said in some attempt at reassurance, "so we should be back on the trail come afternoon."

Virginia Alice did not look relieved. "So quick? I thought you'd be here at least a night with that haul Walt's flashin' around downstairs."

"Naw." Riley sat back in the tub, the cooling water slightly less pleasant though the sensation of it on her unbound skin was still heavenly. "I told 'em I weren't keen to stayin' around. Then Hugo thought I was takin' off and begged me to stay, Walt cuffed him an' said I's just being cautious 'cause I seen some Pinkertons tryin' to track us. Trigger and Tector got in a fight about whether I was scared or smart. In the end they agreed we best keep moving, given my grave warning about our pursuers."

The smile was back, the one that pulled on Riley's lips to do the same. "They ain't nearly as smart as they are mean, huh?"

Riley broke and returned it, smile widening into a grin the longer it lingered on her lips. "That they ain't."

"It's gotta be tough travelin' with the like of 'em." There was caution in her tone, and Riley tried to tamp down her suspicions.

"Well, like I said, I ain't got much choice in the matter if I'm gonna find the man I'm after."

Virginia Alice nodded slowly, then started, as though just remembering where she was, and took Riley's other foot out of the bath for a thorough cleaning. The practiced, luxuriant motion was back, and Riley settled again.

"Could be better on your own, though." Virginia Alice spoke softly, and again Riley found herself agreeing before the meaning sunk in, and by then the other woman was on another thought. "And seein' as Walt has a bigger mouth than the Snake River, he might not even know your man, or mayhap they hate each other an' he was just usin' a name at cards." Riley sat up, all thoughts to her bath gone. Virginia Alice's eyes danced though, and she smiled like she'd just given Riley a prize pig. "Mayhap you'd rather travel with someone you don't have to hide yerself from."

Riley jerked her foot away and charged out of the water, taking a great deal of it with her onto the floor. She didn't care that she'd splashed the girl, or that she'd left shock and fear where that smile used to be.

"You shut your mouth!" Riley hissed, careful to keep her voice low. "I have come too far, done too much, to keep that louse alive so he can bring me where I need to go. I told you why, and it ain't no empty headed gold rush I'm after. I ain't tradin' nothin', and no one, 'til I find 'im. Do you understand?"

Virginia Alice looked up at the fuming woman, mouth agape as she nodded mutely. Riley jerked away from her, intent on the clothing she'd abandoned so recently, and kept her back to the girl, even when she heard her start to mess with the water again. Never trust anyone just lendin' an ear, she thought. There's always a cost in the end.

Her breeches went on first but when she turned to grab the bandages to bind up her chest, she found Virginia Alice, calm as a summer sky, washing the browned cloth in what was left of the water.

"It ain't gonna take but a minute," Virginia Alice offered with a small voice that made Riley want to kick herself. She pulled her shirt on over her shoulders and settled on the bed again, grateful to have something softer than a saddle beneath her.

From her vantage point she watched Virginia Alice lean over the rim of the bath, swirling the cloth around before raising it up to scrub it between her fists and wring out before repeating the movement. Her dress dipped down in the front every time she leaned over and Riley's eyes followed the line of her neck, past the wet tendrils of hair stuck to the skin there, to freckled skin displayed by the cut of the blouse and into the darkness pressed between her breasts. Virginia Alice was not a thick girl by any stretch, but there was a roundness to some of her parts that she herself lacked.

Riley jerked her head as though she'd been hit and turned her stare out the window instead. Praying for some bit of sense to return to her. "I ain't usually one for gettin' so mad," she suggested. "I don't mean to keep scaring you."

Virginia Alice made a sound in her throat. "Every man that come in here is one whiskey drink from hollerin' and beatin' on us for his, uh, weak constitution. You ain't half as scary as them downstairs."

Riley looked back at the girl but didn't see anything that suggested Virginia Alice was trying to sway her again. If anything she looked as she had before; resigned but determined.

"You been savin' your money?" Riley asked. It was too little, and she felt ashamed. She should just leave it if she wasn't really going to help.

"Anythin' extra I get for listenin' to them dither on about whatever they like after they finish in me. The Tatums only give the paid girls their shares. I ain't never seen a dime from them."

Riley nodded. "You know about walkin' in the water to throw the dog's smell off you?"

Virginia Alice looked from wringing out the bandages. "I never heard that."

"Your Injin friend never mentioned it?"

"Avasa don't speak much English. I tried, but the Tatums don't like her to know more than what them and the customers say."

"Well, best to leave when the earth's dry or hard so you don't leave footprints. The biggest city is at least a few days ride, so you looking at a long walk unless you figure out a way to learn something about tackin' up a horse."

"You still got an hour at least up here," Virginia Alice said eagerly. "I'll wash that shirt too if... if you don't mind tellin' me a thing or two more."

Riley planted her arms behind her on the bed and blew out a long breath, but immediately leaned forward again when she realized how much of the middle of her chest was exposed when she did. Virginia Alice blushed and looked back down at her hands as she continued to clean the binding inch by inch.

"To tell truth, most of ridin' is confidence. Horse already knows how to walk. They don't need you to tell 'em how to put one hoof in front a' the other. You don't even need tack if'n yer just runnin'. A saddle is a comfort thing. What you need, to control a horse, is confidence, and I can't talk you into confidence."

"I see," Virginia Alice said, voice shaking.

"Looks plenty clean," Riley said, looking down. "If it's all the same, I think we can just wring that out and go. Wrap myself up tonight while the others are sleepin'."

"Please don't go," Virginia Alice said hurriedly. "Not yet. I can-I can... I can... dust off yer boots."

"Five minutes of ridin' and they'll be dusty again."

"I can clean yer shirt, too!"

Riley pulled the shirt shut, so that none of her upper body below the neck showed through, and shook her head.

"We don't have to do anything," she pleaded. "Can we just talk more?"

"Not sure what more words are gonna do," Riley said quietly. "If'n I don't get down there soon and start 'em movin, we'll-"

"Buy me," Virginia Alice said abruptly. "Please."

"Buy you?"

"Please," she said, touching her throat. "I can't take this much more."

"How much do you cost?"

"I don't know," she moaned. "I don't know! Maybe not that much, but... but you could ask!"

"And do what with ya?"

"I can't stay here." Virginia Alice covered her mouth to quiet her whimpers, but there was no hiding the way her shoulders shook. Her voice came out muffled behind her hand, panic and pain obvious in every waver. "It won't happen all at once, but those men're gonna kill me!"

Riley furrowed her brow and stared hard at a knot in the floorboard beneath her foot. "I can't help you."

"Please," she wept, sliding onto her knees in front of Riley. "Please. You know how to kill men. Please. Please!"

Riley just shook her head. "I have my own task. Those boys down there are friend to my men. If I go killin' folks that's friend to them, I'll be right back where I started or worse."

"Please," she sobbed. The little blonde collapsed further and further, knees spread out beside her. A crumpled heap of a woman.

"I'm sorry." Riley buttoned up her shirt, stepped into her boots, and walked out without looking back.

***

Riley stared ahead without seeing much of the trail. Her mare was an experienced trail horse that kept pace with the others without needing a lot of guidance, and that left Riley free to think. Her behind pressed into the familiar saddle, though the memory of Virginia Alice's soft bed made it ache worse than normal. Usually, Riley was up and down in her seat, looking back and checking their trail, or looking for any excuse to ride back to relieve herself before rejoining the others. Now she sat heavily, eyes forward but mind back, the smell of soap lingering in her nose.

The far-off rumble of hundreds of hooves beating the ground came up from the basin below their trail as a herd of wild mustangs raced across open land. The others didn't so much as pause, but Riley craned her neck to watch as their number thundered into a wooded area.

"Oh yeah," Tector said loudly, leaning his head back to let his voice be heard all around rather than just in front of him. "Oh, this is much better. Another night under a rock."

"Oh!" Trigger said excitedly. "I could... I coulda... I coulda..." He licked his lips, eyes darting. "I coulda... slept on a pillow... w-um... with a pillow in my mouth."

Walt and Black Rob turned around to stare in consternation at him. Hugo said nothing, and Tector seemed too mad to acknowledge anything but his own frustration with Riley.

"Get it?"

"No," Walt said, one eye narrowed near to closing.

"Like a breast, I mean," Trigger said, cupping his hands in front of him. "Like a big one."

"Just one big one?" Hugo asked.

"Naw, naw. It's onna-them... double-on-top-of's, 'r somethin'."

Walt cleared his throat roughly and spat. "How about it, Smiley? You lookin' awful serious for a man just put his'self deep inside a pretty little thing."

Riley grunted, her normal response to any of them.

Crazy Walt Higgins sneered. "What you thinking 'bout so hard?"

Riley cast her eye over him and spoke up, her voice low and gruff. "You know a man named Ellis Hodges?"

"I surely do," Walt said, resting his elbow on the back of his saddle to face her properly. "Ellis and I used to run together. Fer a good long time."

Riley nodded and turned her eyes back to the trail. She'd long since learned to let Walt talk if she wanted him to say more.

"I used to think he was a good 'un. True to the bone, y' know? He was mean with his gun, too hot at cards, but he was one of us. Then that man shot a good friend a' mine, took my share and my horse, and left me deep in Cheyenne country. Hightailed it back East."

Riley met Walt's look and the man grinned, blackened teeth on full display.

Hugo shook his head sadly. "That ain't no way... no way to be."

A break in the trees gave Riley another glimpse of the horses racing below them, slipping past her view like water out of a glass.

Trigger spat on the ground. "He's a right cocksucker, too. You heard what happened to them fellers who held up that bank with him back in Missouri. He's the gravedigger best friend-"

"You fixin' to kill Ellis Hodges?" Walt asked Riley, cutting Trigger off.

Riley didn't take her eyes from the space where the herd had been, though all that was left was the churned earth and dust.

"We gonna kill Ellis Hodges?" Hugo asked.

"Not we," Riley said tersely. "I wanna kill 'im. Ya'll gonna help me?"

Walt spat. His eyes hadn't left Riley for nearly minute straight. "I can get you close enough to kill him, and I'll laugh when he hits the ground."

"Shit," Hugo whispered. "Are we really gonna kill Ellis Hodges?"

"I ain't no deputy mule," Tector snarled.

"A'course we ain't doin it fer the reward!" Walt snapped. "You protect the man yer with. Ever'body knows that. And men who turn on their company deserve worse than what Smilin' Riley here has in store for High-Tailin'-Hodges."

"Damn straight," Hugo muttered.

"And I got somethin' in store for his lady," Walt grumbled, talking over Hugo as he drew up his horse and turned to face the others. He looked each of them in the eye as he stroked his beard. "Everybody knows Ellis Hodges got all his stash secreted away. Some place real secret-like. Only other soul that knows that spot is his best girl, Mae. We ain't gonna get him to tell us where it is, but if Mae hears Ellis Hodges been shot and kilt, she'll go runnin'. All we gotta do is follow her, an' she'll lead us right to the biggest pay we ever seen."

Everyone nodded except Riley.

"You good with that, Smiley?"

"Yeah," Riley said, scratching at her scar. "Yeah. I'll take first watch tonight."

***

"Where is it?" Riley shouted, under the gray light of dawn. Trigger hopped down from his perch in the lowest branches in the tree stand near their campsite. The others groaned as they were jerked from their sleep. "Where is it?!"

Walt had his hand on his pistol as he looked around. "Where's what, son?"

Riley held up her empty saddle bag with a vicious twist to her lips. "My cut!"

Everyone started looking to everyone else.

"Shoulda known ya'll didn' buy me no girl for no favor. Who took it?!"

"Now hang on," Walt said, getting to his feet. His palm still resting on the grip. "Let's not be hasty."

Riley's head whipped toward Tector, and the gunslinger crawled backwards through the dirt when she charged him. "You worthless sack a-"

"Cut it out!" Walt cried, his voice echoing through the sloping valley. "Everybody check their bags."

"Oh shit," Trigger moaned, as he flipped up the bag on his gelding's hip. "Mine's gone too."

Tector hadn't dared to move, transfixed by the furious Smilin' Riley, and Walt groaned as he went to do it himself. "Which side, Tector?"

"Ri-right side," he stammered. "No! Left!"

Walt unfastened the strap and knocked around the few ends therein. "Nothin'." Then he stormed back to his bedroll and tipped his boot upside down. "Hugo?"

"Mine's gone, too!" the big man whined.

Black Rob quietly shook his head.

"Alright, alright!" Walt stepped in between Riley and Tector, arms spread to his sides, and looked around. "When was the last time ya'll checked yer money."

"When we's at Last Home," Hugo said. "When I was wantin' to lay down with that little brunette."

"Any a' ya'll checked yer bags since we left Last Home?"

"No," Trigger said, and the rest of them shook their heads.

"Trigger, you see anything last night? Anything at all?"

Trigger shook his head, his face pale as a sheet.

"Riley?"

"Nothin'," Riley muttered, still staring angrily at Tector.

"I known Jesse Tatum a long time," Walt said. "He ain't like to rob folk like us."

"And Emit?" Riley asked.

"Emit Tatum." Walt stroked his beard and looked through the dirt around their makeshift campsite. "Emit Tatum."

Black Rob hauled Tector to his feet, though both of them were still wary of Riley's menacing glare.

Walt cleared his throat before he spoke. "Like I said, I known Jesse Tatum a good long while. Jesse and his pa run Last Home for many years now. Hugo, you remember Pa Tatum?"

"Yessum," Hugo said, politely.

"Emit... though. Emit was gone East for a stretch of years." Several of them spit. "That don't make him a thief, though."

Trigger jumped in eagerly, "My girl said he was a pederast."

"Even if that were true, " Walt said carefully, "that don't make him a thief, neither."

"What's a pederast?" Hugo asked.

"Means he fucks little boys," Trigger said with no small amount of relish.

"Oh hell no," Hugo said, rising to his full height. "Walt. Walt, we gots to go back."

"Now ya'll are talkin' about stringin' up a man," Walt said, holding his palms out defensively, "who given us shelter. Who taken us in."

" 'Course he wanted to take us in," Trigger said excitedly, "so he can take all our hard-earned money!"

"Who else could it 'ave been?"

"-didn't see no one else near the horses!"

"Sons of bitches."

"What kind of ingrate-"

"- think hangin's too good fer-"

"-lousy cheat-"

"Enough!" Walt screamed.

Everyone froze but Riley, as she walked up next to him and spoke low. "I kept my eye on our horses, and Emit's the only one I saw that weren't one of us."

Walt narrowed his eyes at her. She shrugged and looked back at the rest.

Walt barked at the others, "You sure you fuckers didn't see nuthin' the whole day?"

Hugo and Black Rob shook their heads. Trigger bounced on his feet.

"Alright, listen up." Walt stood tall, neck extended and back straight. "We're gonna ride back there, and we're gonna talk. Jesse Tatum'll be straight with me."

"And what do we do when we find our money?" Black Rob asked coldly.

"Well..." Walt hitched up his belt with a sour expression. "We'll cross that bridge when it come up. Ya'll mount up now." He cast an eye on Trigger's face. "And you stay outside and watch our backs when we get there." The wiry man deflated a bit but nodded anyway.

Riley brushed some dirt from the cuff of her shirt as she went back to her mare. They were looking at a three to four hour ride back, less if the party was rushing, and all her companions looked urgent as they packed up the camp.

"By the time we get there," Walt said, as he swung into the saddle, "the other two brothers are like to be back from Meeteetse. Jesse said he was expecting em last night or this mornin'."

"Still good odds," Tector said, and the rest of them nodded grimly. Hugo continued to mutter under his breath for quite some time in muted incessance.

***

Last Home consisted of three main buildings with an assortment of sheds. Like so many other tiny waypoints sprung up along the trails, it could only dream of being called a town, but that hadn't stopped someone from posting markers down the road that led from the mines. Riley hadn't paid attention to it when they'd ridden in the first time, when she'd spent nearly all of her time checking their tail, and she hadn't been able to bring herself to glance back at it when their party had moved out either. Coming up on it from above this time, the two other buildings look dwarfed, satellites around the bulging building in their crosshairs. She gripped her reins in sweat-slick palms and took a long breath, hoping it would keep her heart from leaping out of her throat and fleeing into the hills.

On the right side of the trail, as they rode into town from the west, was the general store and the saloon. On the left side, in a building larger than the other two combined, was the brothel from which the town took its name. Last Home itself was a ramshackle collection of add-ons and attachments, with new rooms having been added haphazardly and continually for well over a decade, and that mismatched asymmetrical sprawl put a chill in Riley's spine.

The path through the center of town was broad enough to be counted as a street, even though it only ran for a hundred yards before narrowing into a grassless stretch as wide as the ruts of a wagon heading eastward. There was no one on the road besides them as Crazy Walt and his gang rode slowly down the hill. No one out behind their buildings. If Riley hadn't known better she'd have thought her group had been seen coming, but her sharp eyes had been forward-facing this time.