Chapter 1

Hannibal Heyes found himself filled with relief when the farming community of Chino, California, finally came into view. Taking a quick glance at his partner and life-long best friend riding alongside him, Heyes broke out in a big grin when he saw his relief mirrored on Kid Curry's face. It had been a long, hard ride through the California desert and over the San Gabriel Mountains and both of them – and their horses – were bone-tired and filthy and could use a nice long rest, not to mention a bath and a good meal.

Heyes pushed his tired mount into a canter, not wanting the ride into town to take a minute longer than necessary. As expected, the Kid followed suit. As they made their way in and along the main street, Heyes checked the usual landmarks off in his mind as he passed them. Church. School. Livery stable. Sheriff's office (the sight of which always made his heart skip a beat or two). Decent looking saloon. Decent looking hotel.

As they approached the hotel, Heyes slowed his pony to a walk, saying to the Kid, "Let's get settled in, then head over to the saloon later." He took off his hat and slapped it against his knee several times, trying to get some of the dust off. "You know, Kid, I'd give all the money we made on our last ten jobs put together for a bath right about now."

Kid chuckled, then nodded his head towards the Sheriff's office. "Shouldn't we find out who the law is around here first, Heyes?"

Heyes shook his head briefly. "That can wait a bit." He looked Kid up and down. "I gotta tell ya, partner, you're in sore need of a bath, yourself."

Kid gave him a mock glare. "Is that so?"

After a moment, they both broke out laughing as they dismounted their horses.

A few hours later and feeling much better – all clean and refreshed – the two reformed outlaws made their way to the saloon intent on getting a couple of beers for themselves. Once they were in hand, Heyes took a nice long sip and shared a smile with the Kid. That really hit the spot and cleared his throat of all the dust he'd been eating for the last few days. He quickly drained it.

Sipping his second beer, Heyes sighed with contentment, then turned and leaned back against the bar, casting his discerning eye around the saloon. It was pretty lively for a night in the middle of the week. He could see blackjack tables in the corner, empty now. His experience told him that chances were they were only in use on Saturday nights. Maybe Fridays, too. There were also a couple of tables of poker going. Heyes studied the players carefully for a few moments. It didn't look as if there were any professionals at the tables, just your typical small town amateurs. Heyes smiled to himself. Just our kind of place.

"Hey, you, Kid! I'm talkin' ta you! Doncha ignore me, now!"

Heyes froze and tensed up when he heard those words yelled over the din of the saloon. He could feel his partner beside him do the same thing. And this was looking like such a nice town, too. Just their luck that somebody would recognize Kid Curry right off. Now they might just have to shoot their way out of this place. Heyes clenched his jaw and held his breath. He hated this part.

"Yeah, yeah, AJ, I'm comin'. Hold your horses."

Heyes relaxed when he heard that response, coming from one of the poker tables. Sounded like a young voice, maybe a teenage boy. After sharing a look of relief with the Kid, Heyes rolled his eyes. One of the dangers of being a wanted man with a common nickname. And thank god that's all it was.

"Git a move on, kid! I ain't got all night! Go git yer Ma – it's her turn! Now! And ya got yer own chores to do, too!"

At the sound of a chair being pushed back, Heyes looked over in curiosity to see who had answered the bartender (for that's whose voice it was doing the yelling). It was indeed a teenage boy, maybe fourteen years old – or fifteen if he was a little small for his age – with blond hair and blue eyes. Heyes hadn't noticed him earlier when he was watching the poker tables, maybe his view of him had been blocked by a larger player.

As Heyes watched, the boy gathered up his winnings (he seemed to have been doing pretty well, actually) and hurried over to the stairs that led up to the second floor of the saloon, getting yelled at by the rough-looking bartender the entire way. Heyes could really feel for the kid. A few minutes later, he reappeared with a blonde saloon girl in tow. Well, "girl" wasn't quite right. She was well older than your standard saloon girl, and looked kind of used-up. Sad, really. Must be the boy's mother.

But Heyes didn't have time to stand there and think on the boy and his aging saloon girl mother any longer, as a couple of places had opened up at the poker tables and he and the Kid headed over there to clean out the local townsfolk of their hard-earned paychecks. Yes.

Over the next days, as was their usual routine, Kid and Heyes spent most of their days and nights at the saloon, playing poker, drinking beer, and flirting with the saloon girls. Although Kid made it a point to avoid the boy's mother, as it was a rather disconcerting thought to be flirting with the mother of a teenage boy, even if she wasn't that much older than he and Heyes were.

Hanging out at the saloon, Kid had quickly learned that the boy's name was Ryan, although most of the customers and the bartender called him "kid" or "boy" most of the time, and his mother (Dawn) called him "Ry". Kid made an effort to train himself to not react every time he heard the word "kid", although it was tough, having responded to that nickname almost his entire life. And in recent years having his stomach clench and his breath catch every time he heard it unexpectedly, thinking that he might just be getting recognized and arrested at last. Although Kid figured, if he could get used to responding to the name "Thaddeus Jones" and calling Heyes "Joshua Smith", he could do this, too.

Kid had found himself watching Ryan a lot as he sat at the tables playing poker. He obviously worked at the saloon and lived upstairs along with his mother. He seemed like a real bright kid, though. Sometimes, when he wasn't working, he sat down at the poker tables and actually did pretty well, in spite of his young age. In fact, he kind of reminded him of Heyes, back when they were teenagers.

When Saturday night came along, Heyes turned out to be right. They got the blackjack tables going, much to Heyes' delight. He rubbed his hands together in anticipation and headed right over. Kid decided to stick with poker, since he was winning at the moment. As the night wore on, Kid was not at all surprised to see Ryan head over to the blackjack tables himself. He decided to quit playing poker for a while to watch him play alongside Heyes. After some study of the boy's strategy, it looked to Kid like he was trying to use the card-counting trick that Heyes used, but he hadn't quite mastered it. Not just yet, anyway.

Afterwards, Kid made a point of catching up to the boy. He called him over. "Hey, kid."

"Yes, sir? Can I get you something?" Kid smiled at that. Polite as always.

"A beer, please, and one for my partner." He indicated Heyes, who was just finishing up his last hand of blackjack.

Ryan nodded then hurried off and got the beers, returning promptly with them. "There you go, sir. That'll be twenty cents."

Kid gave him two-bits. "Keep the change."

Ryan looked pleasantly surprised. "Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."

Before Ryan could scurry off, Kid stopped him. "Um, kid – Ryan, isn't it?"

"Yes, sir, Mister..."

Kid offered his and Heyes' aliases. "Jones. Thaddeus Jones. And my partner's Joshua Smith."

Ryan nodded, a little confused. "Mr. Jones. Was there something else you wanted?"

Kid gave him a reassuring smile. "I just wanted to talk to you for a minute, Ryan." He nodded towards the blackjack tables. "I noticed you playing blackjack, and poker earlier. You're pretty good. You know, my partner's the best around at cards, I'm sure he'd be glad to give you some pointers, if you wanted."

Ryan's eyebrows shot up. Apparently, he wasn't used to people offering to help him, with anything. "Um... Um..." He stammered, looking a little uncomfortable. "That's real nice of you, Mr. Jones –" At that point, Ryan was interrupted by his boss yelling at him to get back to work.

So Kid offered, "Well, you think about it."

Ryan nodded and gave Kid a pleased smile. "Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."

Kid watched Ryan as he got back to work. He was really getting rather fond of the boy.

A few nights later, Heyes and Kid were in the saloon, as usual, playing poker and drinking beer, when Kid's attention was caught by the sound of a shrill woman's voice.

"What are you lookin' at? Get over here, Ry, and help me! Put those blasted drinks down! Get over here and help your mother! What kind of son are you? Help me up, God damn it!"

Kid looked up to see Ryan rushing over and struggling to get a clearly very drunk Dawn up the stairs, presumably to bed. As Kid watched, Ryan's mother wasn't exactly making it easy for him, berating him at every step.

"Not so fast! Can't you do anything right? Stop pushing me! You know what, just let me go! I can do it myself! God, you're useless!"

Kid shook his head in disbelief. She was obviously your standard mean drunk (and she did drink a lot, he had noticed over the last few days). Ryan obviously ended up taking care of her much of the time, instead of the other way around. Kid could really feel for the boy.

Once Ryan came back downstairs to continue working after putting his mother to bed (clearly in a very bad mood because of it), Kid made an extra effort to be nice to him, making sure to tip him well when he brought him and Heyes a new round of drinks. Unfortunately, many of the other customers didn't feel the same way. He had observed that Ryan was often a convenient target for the frustration of losing poker players, and tonight was no different. Although Kid had to smile when it looked like the favorable attention from the saloon girls might make up for it. They all seemed to adore Ryan, and he took care of them as much as he could.

Which is why Kid wasn't surprised when a confrontation arose between Ryan and a couple of customers over one of the girls a little bit later.

"Hey, leave her alone!"

At the sound of Ryan's voice, Kid looked over to see what was going on. What he saw was Ryan trying to face off against two men who had their hands on one of the saloon girls (Penny, Kid thought her name was). She was struggling to get away from them. Kid held his breath and stood up, stepping away from the table and getting his gun ready to draw, just in case Ryan needed backup. He hated to see men abusing a defenseless girl.

One of the men (the smaller and younger of the two) growled at Ryan, "Git outta here, boy. This ain't none a yer business!"

As the man turned back towards the girl, Kid watched – rather surprised actually – as Ryan grabbed the young man, pulled him away from Penny and proceeded to punch him several times, knocking him onto a poker table, and from there onto the floor. For a small guy, Ryan sure could pack a punch. The boy just raised Kid's respect for him another notch.

But then there was the other man to deal with. "You're gonna pay for that, boy!"

Unfortunately, this one had a gun and as he threatened Ryan, he reached for it. Kid didn't hesitate. He drew his gun as fast as he was capable, pointing the gun at the man and pulling back the hammer before the other even had time to clear his holster. Kid ignored the usual whistles of appreciation for his fastdraw, and addressed the man, putting a hard edge on his voice, so he would know that he meant business.

"Get your friend and get out. Now."

After the man recovered from his shock, he quickly grabbed his friend and hurried out of the saloon. Kid breathed a sigh of relief that it was over, and he hadn't had to fire his gun. He twirled his pistol, in his usual way, and holstered it. He turned back to Ryan and the girl to see if they were okay, and found that Ryan was already comforting the crying Penny. He then proceeded to assist her across the room and up the stairs.

Kid sat back down in his seat at the poker table and watched them go. Ryan seemed to be doing a good job of calming the girl down. He really was quite a kid. Just before they went out of sight up the stairs, Ryan paused and looked back, finding Kid in the crowd and making eye contact. Ryan gave him a nod. Kid smiled and nodded back. Ryan really reminded him of himself in some ways.

To be continued in chapter 2