Originally posted as a challenge response for the ASJ forums. The themes were reunion and a day (too) early. I do not own the boys and do this for fun, not profit.
Heyes glanced around the dingy saloon. The sawdust was littered with cigar butts as well as vomit, stale beer, and tobacco juice. He could smell all of the above, piss, and horse dung. It was definitely putting off both his appetite and his thirst. Too bad there wasn't another saloon in the town. Supposedly poker and faro games started up at 6:00 PM. He glanced at his pocket watch. He had 30 minutes.
"Joshua Smith? Is that you?" a woman's voice exclaimed.
Heyes looked to see a brunette saloon girl bustling over to his table. When she got close enough, he recognized her as Miss Lydia Love. She'd been a dance hall girl in a town he and the Kid had stayed in while completing a job for Lom. He remembered the conversation they'd had about pseudonyms, as she'd asked why he hadn't taken one having such a plain name.
"Miss Love, nice to see you again," Heyes said, standing and pulling out a grimy chair. She smiled at him as she sat and he recalled that she knew him as an ex locksmith turned temporary deputy thanks to a lie he'd spun to excuse certain talents. She looked around the saloon hopefully and he remembered that she and the Kid had gotten along rather well.
"Call me Lydia. It's great to see a friendly face!" She looked around once more as if his partner might materialize. "Isn't Thaddeus with you?"
"Unfortunately not. You'll have to make do with my company instead," Heyes said with a charming grin.
Lydia laughed. "It isn't that, I just hoped to see him again. He owes me a dance, remember."
"As long as it isn't a jig," Heyes said with a grin and she laughed, partly in on the joke.
"You teased him about that, but he was a fine dance partner," she said. "He won't be meeting you at all?"
Her eyes were sad despite the smile and he wondered how she'd ended up in this piss pot of a bar. Heyes briefly debated what to tell her. She only knew them as Smith and Jones and she was fond of the Kid. He didn't sense ill intent, but something made him hesitate. You're getting paranoid, he told himself. "Thaddeus will be in tomorrow afternoon. I'm sure we can stop by again."
Lydia beamed. "I'd appreciate it. Or I could come see you, as I'm off in the afternoon. You at the Twisted Briar?"
He nodded. It was the most economical yet clean hotel in town.
"Then I'll head to their dining room tomorrow! Do you mind buying me a drink? Terrence will raise cane in a minute if I'm not working."
Hannibal Heyes raised his finger and the bartender brought over drinks. As soon as he left, they clinked glasses.
"Cheers. Lydia, don't take this wrong, but…"
She laughed again, wryly this time. "How'd a classy gal end up in this cheap place? I started heading further west not long after you two left and only made it as far as here. I needed to work again to get back on the trail. I mean to make it to California and if I have to walk in piss drenched sawdust to do it, I will."
"I admire a woman with determination," Heyes said. He bought her another drink and idled by the time with her until 6:00 PM.
Not much long after that, a crowd of men did pile in and divide up into faro and poker. Heyes went to the poker table, noting the fact that the crowd seemed like they'd be at home in Devil's Hole. They were all rough and distinctly unwashed, though that wasn't unusual with cowboys or outlaws. Heyes couldn't decide whether the air of menace or halitosis they exuded was worse.
"I'm Jethro Jackson," the largest and ugliest of the bunch said. "That's Sol, Lefty, Bart, and Ned."
They each nodded in turn.
"Joshua Smith," Heyes said.
Lydia brought their drinks and squeaked as the leader pinched her behind. "Jethro, if you want that kind of thing, go to Louella's down the street." She batted his hand off of her. "You can buy me a drink, though. I might even let you walk me home."
Heyes relaxed; she handled him just fine.
Jethro smiled at her. "I might take you up on that."
The poker game proceeded with very little chit chat. They drank and smoked and that was it. Unfortunately the seriousness didn't translate to a satisfying game.
Jethro was what Heyes thought of as an erratic player. He played every hand, bet more than anyone else, and raised and raised without thought. Heyes played the long game and won, but not too much. No point in rushing. Sometimes Jethro had a decent hand, but it was clear to him that most of the time he didn't, including just then.
Heyes glanced at his three kings. "I'll see your twenty and raise you twenty," he said.
Jethro frowned and Heyes tried not to smirk as the rest folded and the two went into the kind of showdown he always won at—poker. He displayed his kings and Jethro looked and then tossed down two pair.
"Good guess," Jethro said as Heyes took the pot.
Hannibal Heyes had definitely not guessed, but he didn't push his luck and explain. Not without the Kid here to back him up.
"Need some refills?" Lydia asked, bringing over a bottle.
"So what do you do, Mr. Smith?" Jethro asked, sneering. Of course, his face sort of naturally did that so Heyes didn't take offense. "Other than play cards."
"He's a locksmith," Lydia replied. "And a good one."
Heyes wished she hadn't said that when he saw Jethro's sudden interest. "Retired, alas."
"That's a shame since you can make good money if you pick the right locks," Lefty said.
They all laughed. Heyes smiled; his unease only in his eyes. "I wouldn't know about that, but I do know a good deal about poker. How about we get back to the game?"
And so they did.
Later that night, Hannibal Heyes smiled at the men easily despite feeling trapped. Four of the five from the poker game had circled him and the girl and this time they all had weapons out. Unfortunately, they'd taken his own.
"Can I help you, gentleman?" Heyes asked pleasantly, although his eyes were cold. They were alone outside the Twisted Briar Hotel.
"You'll have to if you don't want a world of hurt," the leader, Jethro, said with a grin that highlighted missing teeth.
Lydia let out a frightened noise and Heyes stepped in front of her protectively, although he didn't trust her much more than the men surrounding them. She'd arrived with them, after all. He had the sinking feeling this had something to do with the fact she'd said he was a locksmith.
"You're a picklock?" Jethro asked, cementing his fear.
"A locksmith," Heyes corrected. "There's a difference. As I said earlier, I haven't plied my trade in years. Why are you here?"
Lydia moved next to him and bit her lip. "As soon as you left, they were saying they wished they'd asked you to open a lock for them. They…they insisted I take them to you."
Heyes noticed the grouping of fingerprints on her arm that would no doubt bruise and frowned.
Jethro grinned. "We need a 'locksmith' to work for us. We got ourselves a couple of fancy locks we can't pick."
"We cain't blast 'em either," Ned, the shortest of the group, piped up.
I see this gang has a Kyle, Heyes thought.
"Can't destroy the whatsits inside and pick 'em neither."
"Mechanisms," Heyes said. "If you wanted to hire me for a legitimate job, you didn't need to surround me in the dark. Besides, I've retired. If you need a locksmith, I bet there is a perfectly good one in town."
"We don't want to use the one in town," Jethro said menacingly. "We want one that ain't from around here that will keep his mouth shut. We'll pay you well."
"I'm sorry, I have another appointment tomorrow," Heyes said, remaining pleasant. He was calm and hoping that would help Lydia, who was terrified.
"We ain't askin' you, we're tellin' you," Jethro said, levelling the short barreled shotgun at him.
Lydia gasped and clutched his vest from behind as if she might like to hide under it.
"Ah." Heyes weighed his options. Why did they have to come a day too early for the Kid to be around to help? Heyes would try to be long out of trouble by the time Kid got to town but if he couldn't manage it, Kid would find him. At that thought, he paused. He'd told Lydia that Thaddeus was coming tomorrow. Careless. "If I decline your generous offer?"
"Then we take it out on the girl," Bart said.
The thin, silent member of the gang took that as an invitation to paw at her hips. Heyes knocked the man's hands off of her and would have hit him, but the man's six-gun was suddenly in his face.
"Sol," Jethro said, stopping the man. He looked at Heyes and continued, "Go down the alley and get in our supply wagon."
"Please don't hurt him," Lydia said, hesitantly putting a hand on Jethro's arm.
"Oh don't you worry, sweetheart, you'll be coming along," the man replied.
Lydia staggered back, hitting Heyes who steadied her. "What?" she asked.
"Walk!"
And Jethro gave them both a little shove and they started the walk down the narrow alleyway beside the hotel. Two men were on either side of them, one was in front, and Jethro was behind. Boxed in. If he'd been with the Kid, Heyes would have risked a move as the alley was tight for their adversaries as well as them, but Lydia wasn't going to give him any backup.
A door on the side opened and everyone froze, but the maid standing there just dumped a pail of refuse into a ditch by the hotel. She was short, had coffee colored skin, and pretty eyes; she made accidental eye contact with Heyes, and froze a moment, startled, before looking down. A tense moment passed and she closed the door.
"That girl saw us," Lefty said. "Want me to go in after her?"
Jethro paused. "No. Nobody's gonna believe anythin' she says."
My partner will, Heyes thought. At least he'll know how many there were.
The group finally came out of the alley behind the hotel where there was a wagon waiting with a powerful farm horse hitched to it and the last poker player from the game in the box seat. There were also four horses.
"Gentleman," Heyes began, but Jethro hit him from behind with his pistol and he fell, unconscious.
Lydia cried out and two of the men hauled him into the back of the supply wagon and tied him up.
Jethro laughed at her distress. "Get in there with him afore I make you. Don't want to miss the fun."
"You don't need to take me with you and you know that Terrence will notice my being gone!" Lydia tried. "He has people who will miss him, too!"
"Then let's hope you both do everythin' I say so you get back safe. Get in the wagon, Lydia," Jethro said. He said it in a way that made her not want to make him repeat it.
She got in the wagon and they tied her up and put her down by Joshua, who was still unconscious. Lydia began to sob as the wagon started to move. How had it gone so wrong? She had been looking forward to reuniting with Thaddeus but then she'd mentioned Joshua was a locksmith and it had gone south.
Lydia Love had followed Mr. Smith at their insistence and stopped him so that the men could surround them. She hated her part in it but she was terrified of Sol. If she could get away, she would, with or without Joshua. Hopefully with, but Lydia had seen the way the men were looking at her. She'd do anything to escape.