Chapter 10

Nick and Heath held back as Jarrod approached the card game. Jarrod had asked them to, and they wanted to have a good view and free hands if anything happened. Will didn't see Jarrod coming until the lawyer was right behind him, looking at his cards.

"Hey, fella – " Will started to object, then saw who it was.

The game stopped momentarily. The other three participants looked up Jarrod's way too.

Jarrod said, "I need a word with you, Will. You don't have anything anyway."

Will threw his cards down and jumped up. The other cardplayers considered his hand folded, but they still did not continue the game.

"What are you doing here?" Will asked.

"I came to get you home," Jarrod said.

The other cardplayers started to laugh. One of them said, "Daddy's arrived."

Will turned on that man. "This is none of your business."

"You're out of this hand," the man said. "Are you out of the game?"

"No," Will said.

"Yes," Jarrod contradicted him.

"If my father sent you – "

"Maybe he did in a roundabout way, but I'm here with my own ideas," Jarrod said. "You need to come home, right now. You're needed there, not here."

The other cardplayers closed out the hand quickly, and the one with the large mouth stood up. "Look, fella, if the boy wants to play cards, leave him be."

"Yeah, he's losing, don't break his streak," one of the others said with a laugh.

"My business is with this young man, not you," Jarrod said to the cardplayer now in his face.

"And he's telling you to get lost," the cardplayer said.

"When I've finished my business with him," Jarrod said.

The cardplayer gave Jarrod a shove.

"Hey!" the bartender yelled.

Jarrod came back at the cardplayer who shoved him, but he came back harder and the man went down when he shoved.

"Here we go," Heath said.

He and Nick headed for the card game just as everyone got up and fists started flying. "Hold it!" the bartender yelled as loud as he could.

One table went over when Nick slugged one of the other participants in the card game. Heath just kept trying to shove men out of the way but he took a punch and gave it back. Each of the Barkley brothers was punching now, and Will took a swing at Jarrod but missed.

Somebody had run for the sheriff and he came in the door. He started yelling to break it up, and the fight ended. When he asked who started things, there was a lot of "He did!" and "No, he did!" before the sheriff asked the bartender, who said, "The fella with the black hair and the blue shirt went up to the kid with the sandy hair while he was playing cards and wanted to talk to him. The guys in the card game objected to the interruption."

"I'll pay for the damage, Sheriff," Jarrod said, wiping a bloody lip.

"Just you all get out of here!" the sheriff said. "Do it right now and I won't arrest anybody."

Jarrod headed to the bar to pay for the damages, but Nick and Heath stayed with Will. The other cardplayers left the bar, and as soon as Jarrod paid off the bartender, he, his brothers and Will went out as well. The sheriff made sure all the men who had been fighting were outside before he confronted Jarrod.

"What's your business here?" he asked. He didn't know any of these men personally.

"Our name is Barkley," Jarrod said. "I'm a lawyer from Stockton. These are my brothers. This young man is from Stockton and we're encouraging him to go home. We didn't intend to start a fight."

"Go home, kid," the sheriff said.

"I'm not a kid," Will protested.

"Whatever you are, go home," the sheriff said, "because if I see you with another problem around here, you'll be going to jail instead. And you three, you Barkleys – go back to Stockton as soon as you can. I don't think those other three will be giving you trouble, but they're hard scrabble cowhands and they don't like their poker games interrupted. One more fight out of any of you tonight and you're in jail."

The sheriff marched off then, intent on finding the other men involved in the fray and giving them the same speech. The Barkley men and Will each started dabbing blood away from wounds they got in the fight. Jarrod glared hard at Will.

Heath decided to break the mood. "I don't think we've ever done that before – all three of us in the same fight."

"I don't want to ever do it again, either," Jarrod said. "Will, we wouldn't be here if it wasn't important. You have to come home. Your father needs you."

"My father needs money and you know it," Will said flatly.

"Of course I know it," Jarrod said. "I know a lot more about it than you do. He just sold us your orchard."

Will looked surprised, and alarmed.

"He's deep in debt and he's going to have to sell everything off, and he doesn't need to be as worried about you as he is," Jarrod said.

"I came here to make money," Will said. "I've signed on at a ranch breaking horses and I make good money and I make more playing cards. I sent some home to Pa just today – "

"You were losing tonight," Jarrod said, "and you'll never make enough in these penny ante games to help your father out of the difficulties he's in. He needs you, Will, a lot more than he needs whatever money you can come up with."

"Listen to him, Will," Nick said. "We're doing all we can to help your father out with his money problems. That's why we bought the orchard. But he can't get his head back on straight while he's worried about you."

Heath pitched in. "Come home with us, Will. We'll catch the train tomorrow, put your horse on it, and be home by tomorrow night. Then we can get to work on helping your father out with the rest of his problems."

"We've bought him some time," Jarrod said. "The banks won't be after him for at least another month."

"I gotta get money somehow," Will said.

"I know," Jarrod said, "but you can't do it alone. Even if you made a decent stake and took it to San Francisco to play in the big money games, you'd never make enough because gambling never works out as a money maker. It's too easy to lose it all fast."

"Where are you working?" Nick asked.

Will told him.

"Go ride out there and pick up your time tonight," Jarrod said. "We'll put you up at the hotel here tonight so we can all catch the early train tomorrow."

"Will, your father needs you beside him now," Heath said. "Not up here."

Will sighed, finally giving in. He knew they were right. The little bit he'd sent home wasn't going to save his father. He tried, but it was probably a bad idea in the first place to think he could come up with the money his father needed. "All right," he said. "But what am I gonna do – what are my father and I gonna do if he loses the ranch?"

Jarrod put an arm around Will's shoulder. "Cope," he said. "With the help of your friends, you'll cope."