The Gunsmith 420 Read online

On the bluff above the house, Lomax looked down at the grounds with Skinner. Behind him were three more men on horses. That morning he had instructed Skinner to “Get me three men who can use their guns!”

  “Okay, where is he?” Lomax asked.

  “I don’t know,” Skinner said. “Last coupla days him and that Teresa have been out doin’ chores by this time.”

  “Maybe he left before we got here,” Lomax said.

  “There’s no way we can tell—”

  “Yeah, there is,” Lomax said. “You go down there and see if his horse is still in the barn.”

  “Me?” Skinner asked. “Why not send Miller, or Holby—”

  “Because you know Adams, and I bet you know his horse.”

  “He didn’t have this same horse when I met him.”

  “But you’ve seen the horse he’s ridin’ now.”

  “Well, yeah—”

  “That’s good enough,” Lomax said. “You get down there and see if it’s in the barn. If it is, then we’ll just wait for him to come on out.”

  “Lomax, listen—”

  “You git!” Lomax snapped.

  Muttering to himself, Skinner started down from the bluff moving with care toward the barn.

  Twenty-Four

  The Perkins sisters sat together at the dining room table.

  “This isn’t right,” Belinda said.

  “Nobody asked you,” Loretta said.

  “I have a right to my opinion!” Belinda snapped.

  “No, little girl, you don’t!” Loretta snapped back.

  “Loretta,” Teresa said, “she’s just—”

  “No,” Loretta said, “this is all her fault.”

  “My fault?” Belinda asked. “How?”

  Loretta looked her right in the eyes, causing the younger girl to flinch.

  “If you hadn’t killed your husband, we wouldn’t have had to kill ours,” she said, slowly, “and we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

  “I told you,” Belinda said, “he was being horrible!”

  “They were all horrible,” Teresa said, “all three of them. After all, they were brothers.”

  “They were husbands,” Loretta said. “The best we could do at the time.”

  “I’m glad they’re dead,” Belinda said.

  “Damn it, Belinda—” Loretta started, but Teresa cut her off.

  “I’m glad they’re dead, Loretta,” she said, “and I think you are, too.”

  “And are you glad Corazon is gone?” Loretta asked.

  “How were we supposed to know Lomax would take it out on the whole town when the sheriff refused to arrest us.”

  “He had no proof!” Belinda said.

  “No, he didn’t,” Loretta said, “but Lomax doesn’t care about that.”

  “Well then, we need Clint to help us,” Teresa said.

  “What?” Loretta asked.

  “He’s the Gunsmith,” she said. “We need him for protection, not to get Belinda pregnant.”

  Loretta hesitated a moment, then said, “We need him for both.”

  “Well,” Teresa said, “how are you gonna get him to protect us while he’s locked up?”

  “I don’t know,” Loretta said, “I’ll have to figure that out.”

  “Like you figured out how to keep him here?” Belinda asked.

  “Did you have a better idea?” Loretta demanded.

  “I don’t know,” Belinda said, “you didn’t ask me.”

  “Well, well,” Loretta said, “little sister’s found herself a spine.” She stood up. “I tell you what, baby girl. You figure out how to get him to protect us, and when you do, you let me know.”

  She turned and stormed out of the dining room.

  “That’s just great!” Teresa said.

  “Come on, Teresa, we’re smart. Between us we can think of somethin’.”

  Teresa hesitated, then reached out and took her little sister’s hand. “Maybe we can.”

  ~*~

  Skinner came scrambling back up to the bluff, breathing hard when he got there.

  “What’s wrong with you?” Lomax asked. “Were you scared?”

  “Damn right I was scared,” Skinner said. “That’s the goddamned Gunsmith down there, and I’ve seen him in action. I didn’t want him seein’ me around his horse.”

  “But you saw it?” Lomax said. “His horse is still there?”

  “It’s there.”

  “Did you go up to the house, maybe look in a window?” Lomax asked. “Or was you too scared to do that, too?”

  “I was way too damn scared to do that,” Skinner admitted.

  Lomax turned and looked at his other three men, who had dismounted and were crouched down, having a conversation. Should he send one of them down to have a look? No, not a good idea. They were handy with their guns, but other than that they were stupid and clumsy.

  “All right, then,” he said to Skinner. “We’ll just stay here and watch for a while.”

  Skinner appreciated that, because he still had to catch his breath.

  ~*~

  Clint yanked on the handcuffs until his wrist hurt like it was broken. The damned bed post was rock solid, and the handcuffs were strong. They looked like the kind lawmen used, and he wondered if the girls had gotten them from the deserted jail?

  He stopped struggling to give the situation some thought. Of the three sisters, Loretta was the one who was responsible for putting him here. Of that he was sure. So there was no way he was going to get any help from her. That left Teresa and Belinda.

  Teresa seemed scared of her older sister, but maybe he could get through to her, given enough time. But he wasn’t looking forward to staying here for days or weeks, handcuffed, being used by Belinda to get pregnant all that time, no matter how pleasant that might sound.

  On the other hand, Belinda might be the one to work on. Although she was younger maybe he could get her to stand on her own two feet and face her older sister. All he had to do was convince her of how wrong this was.

  He could do that, couldn’t he?

  Twenty-Five

  During the course of the morning, Teresa went out of the house to do some chores while Loretta stayed inside—although she did watch for a bit from the porch.

  “What’s goin’ on?” Lomax said, out loud. “He ain’t comin’ out.”

  “He’s inside with the young one,” Skinner said. “Maybe—”

  “Shut up!” Lomax snapped. “Them are my brother’s widows.”

  “Lomax, I don’t understand what we’re waitin’ for,” Skinner said. “We cleared out the town, killed the lawman ’cause he wouldn’t arrest them. We could just go down there and kill those women, but we’re waitin’. What are we wait8in’ on?”

  “You’re waitin’ for me to tell you what to do,” Lomax said, “that’s what you’re waitin’ for. Ain’t that what you’re always waitin’ for, Skinner?”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “So just shut up and keep waitin’!” Lomax said. “Got it?”

  “Yeah,” Skinner said, “I got it.”

  While they continued to watch, Belinda came out of the house, stood on the porch and spoke to Loretta—but it looked like it was turning into an argument pretty quickly ...

  ~*~

  Loretta heard Belinda come out the door behind her, kept staring out at the horizon. What Clint had said about somebody watching them bothered her. She figured it had to be Lomax, which meant maybe he was ready to act,

  “Loretta, can we talk?” Belinda asked.

  “No,” Loretta said, “because I know what you’re gonna say.”

  “We can’t just keep Clint locked up,” Belinda went on, anyway. “Not if it’s my fault.”

  “It is your fault,” Loretta said, “but now we just have to deal with it.”

  “I can’t—”

  Loretta turned to face her younger sister and snapped at her. “Belinda, if you’re thinkin’ about lettin’ him free, I’m warnin’ you. Don’t go against me
or you’ll be sorry.”

  For years Belinda had been afraid of Loretta. She loved her older sister, but the fear had also been there. But now she drew herself up and stared back.

  “I don’t know where the handcuff key is, or I would let him free!” she said. “What would you do to me? Kill me?”

  “Don’t be an idiot!” Loretta said. She turned to once again look straight ahead of her, her arms folded across her chest. “Go back inside. You have work to do.”

  “You’re right,” Belinda said, “I do.”

  She turned and went back into the house, slamming the door behind her.

  ~*~

  Clint heard the quick footsteps approaching and then the door opened and Belinda marched in, almost defiantly.

  “Ooh!” she said, slamming the door. “She makes me so mad.”

  Clint instantly grasped the situation. She’d had a fight with one of her sisters, possibly Loretta.

  “Are you talking about Loretta?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she said. “I want her to take those handcuffs off of you, but she won’t.”

  “Then why don’t you take them off?” Clint asked.

  She came to the bed and stared down at him.

  “I would, but I don’t have the key.”

  “Do you have a saw?” he asked. “Anywhere in the house? Or in the barn?”

  Belinda thought a moment, then said, “Maybe. I’d have to go and look.”

  “Will you do that, Belinda?”

  “Loretta would be so mad.”

  “I thought you were the one who was mad.”

  She sat down on the bed, folded her hands into her lap and stared at him sadly.

  “If I let you go,” she said, “you’ll just leave, won’t you?”

  “Maybe not,” he said. “Maybe—”

  “Don’t lie to me Clint,” she said. “You’ll leave, won’t you?”

  “Yes,” he said, “I’ll leave.”

  She thought about that for a moment, and then her eyes brightened.

  “Would you take me with you?” she asked.

  “Belinda ... I couldn’t.”

  “But if I let you go, I won’t be able to stay here,” she said. “I won’t.”

  “Look,” he said, “we can talk about it after you get these off me.”

  “No!” She stood up quickly. “You have to promise you won’t go, or if you go, you’ll take me with you.”

  “Belinda—”

  “I’ll come back later,” she said. “You think about your answer.”

  “Belinda, don’t go—”

  But she marched to the door and left the room just as defiantly as she had entered it.

  Twenty-Six

  It was later in the day when Clint’s stomach began to gnaw at him. They hadn’t brought him anything to eat all day, and he wondered if they were planning to starve him?

  Finally, he heard somebody coming down the hall again and the door opened. He’d been waiting for Belinda to return for his answer, but when the door opened it was Teresa who entered, carrying a tray.

  “Are you hungry?” she asked.

  “Starving!”

  “I’m so sorry,” she said. “We’ve been busy, and Belinda and me, we had to convince Loretta to let us feed you.”

  She put the tray on the table next to the bed. There was a bowl of beef stew, and a tall glass of iced lemonade.

  “I’ll have to feed you,” she said. “Or you can sit up and try to lean over the tray.”

  “You can feed me,” he said. “I might as well make you work, since you’re holding me prisoner.”

  “I’ll be happy to feed you,” she said, “and we’re really not holding you prisoner.”

  “Then what do you call it?”

  She used a spoon to give him a mouthful of beef stew before answering. Damn, but all the food they’d given him had been delicious. Loretta may have been a sad woman, but she was a damn good cook.

  “We’re gonna need your help, Clint.”

  “To do what? Get your sister pregnant?” he asked.

  “No,” she said, feeding him another spoonful, “to keep us alive.”

  He stopped chewing for a moment, then finished and swallowed before speaking.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Loretta would kill me if she knew I was telling you this,” she said.

  “You’re not telling me anything, yet.”

  “We told you that our husbands died.”

  “Yes, you did.”

  “That’s not exactly true.”

  “So they’re not dead?”

  “Oh,” she said, “they’re dead.”

  “But?”

  “But they didn’t just die.” She spooned some beef stew into his mouth again, and then said, “We killed them.”

  ~*~

  “That’s it,” Lomax said, as it started to get dark, “we ain’t waitin’ anymore.”

  “Good,” Skinner said. “Are we goin’ down?”

  “No,” Lomax said, “we’re goin’ back to camp.”

  He started walking toward the other three men, and Skinner fell into step beside him.

  “So we’re gettin’ the rest of the men?” he asked. “We’re gonna need them to take the Gunsmith.”

  “You two,” he said, pointing at Holby and Miller, “you stay here and keep watch. If anythin’ happens one of you ride back to camp and tell me.”

  “Somethin’ like what?” Holby asked.

  “I don’t know,” Lomax said, “anything unusual. I wanna know what that man down there is doin’.”

  “So it don’t matter what the women do?” Miller asked.

  “No,” Lomax said, “it don’t. Just the man.”

  “Okay,” Miller said.

  “What about me?” the third man asked. “What am I supposed to do.”

  “Just get on your horse,” Lomax said. “You’re comin’ back with us.”

  “Right.”

  Lomax turned to Skinner, who was confused.

  “What are we gonna do?”

  “I’m gonna fuck Millie and think about it,” Lomax said. “You can do whatever you want. Just be ready when I make up my mind.”

  “Any idea how long that’ll be?”

  “No,” Lomax said.

  They mounted up and rode back to camp.

  ~*~

  As they rode into camp Lomax tossed Skinner his reins and said, “Have my horse taken care of. Then have somebody bring me some food.”

  “Yeah, right.”

  Lomax looked around camp, found Millie, walked up to her and grabbed her by the wrist.

  “Come on!”

  “All right!” she said.

  They entered the cabin and Lomax roughly tore Millie’s dress from her. Her big breasts bobbed into view, the nipples already hard as he pushed her down onto the bed, undid his pants, shoved them down without even removing his boots, and then mounted her and entering her roughly.

  Twenty-Seven

  Teresa paused while feeding Clint and looked at him.

  “You what?” he asked.

  “We killed them.”

  “How? Why?”

  “We told you how horrible they were,” she said. She tried to feed him another spoonful, but he turned it away. She put the bowl down on the table. “Belinda’s husband was especially horrible, brutal. One day he ... he tried to rape her in the barn.”

  “They were married,” he said. “Why did he try to rape her?”

  “He liked it rough,” Teresa said. She didn’t, so he tried to force her.”

  “And?”

  “She stabbed him with a pitchfork. She said she didn’t mean to kill him, but ... he died.”

  “What about the other two?” he asked.

  “They were huntin’,” Teresa said. “Belinda came to us, crying, her dress torn, covered with blood. She told us what happened.”

  “Then what?”

  “Loretta said we had to act fast,” she told him. “If his broth
ers found out what Belinda did, they’d kill her. So we waited for them to get back. When they asked where Henry was—that was Belinda’s husband—we said they were in the barn. Then Loretta took Eddie up to her room, and I took Ralph to mine.”

  “They thought you were going to have sex with them.”

  “Oh yes,” she said. “And when they got naked, and in bed, we both shot them. I heard the shot from Loretta’s room, otherwise I might not have been able to do it. Ralph was gettin’ off the bed when I pulled the trigger. He looked shocked.”

  “So what did you do with them afterward?” he asked. “The three bodies.”

  “We loaded them onto the buckboard, took them miles away from the house, and buried them all in one hole.”

  Clint thought that over for a moment or two before speaking.

  “Well, all right,” he said. “Belinda killed her husband in self-defense. I suppose when you and Loretta killed your husbands, it was for the same reason.”

  “Of course.”

  She picked the bowl up and offered him a spoonful. He was still hungry, so he took it.

  “But I don’t understand,” he said, after he swallowed the food down. “Why are your lives in danger if you killed all three brothers?”

  “Because,” Teresa said, “there were four brothers.”

  ~*~

  Lomax had Millie on all fours, was pounding into her from behind. He loved the way her big, pale ass looked every time he drove his big, thick cock into her. The surface of her fleshy cheeks rippled, and she increased his enjoyment by screaming every time.

  At one point he grabbed her hair and yanked her head back, held her that way while he grunted and roared and continued to brutalize her from behind.

  When he was done he withdrew from her and slapped her on one cheek hard enough to leave a red handprint. She immediately rolled over and glared at him, her big breasts heaving with every breath.

  “Let’s eat!” he said.

  The table in the room had food on it. Someone had brought it in while he was fucking her. He hadn’t noticed who. Now he walked naked to the table and sat down. Somebody had gone somewhere and stolen some chickens. He tore off a leg and bit into it.

  Millie came to the table, trying to cover herself with her torn dress. Finally, she gave up and just sat opposite him, also naked, and picked at the chicken.