LOST AND FOUND - PART 1

SHOWDOWN

CHAPTER 8

The four men who had knocked them out and kidnapped them were standing, two on either side of the man who had ordered Bob's murder, the man who had sat in the middle of the first row at the funeral. Hoss was still unconscious and Ben was just starting to come out of it. Joe, however, was wide-awake. His eyes kept scanning the almost empty warehouse, looking for any opportunity, anything he could use to his advantage as he struggled against the ropes. Ben had just opened his eyes when they all heard footsteps coming up the wooden stairs and someone whistling. The footsteps weren't particularly hurried or heavy, they sounded calm and purposeful. Joe and Ben recognized both the whistle and the song - there was no doubt that Adam was coming.

The door opened and Adam walked in. He kept walking to the center of the room without breaking stride or glancing at his family. He was heading for a chair that had been placed precisely in the center of the room facing the five standing men. Hoss still slept, but Ben was now sitting up.

Adam sat down, stretched his legs out in front of him, pulled out a narrow cigar and then lit it with a match. He crossed his arms and lounged back in the chair, his narrowed eyes looking intently at the man directly in front of him, still flanked by the four hired guns.

"So Jackson," he said with a dangerous smile, "as you can see I received your invitation."

Jackson showed his annoyance, "Who told you that you could light up a cigar?"

"Oh, pardon me for being rude," Adam said mockingly as he reached into his pocket and pulled out another cigar, "care for one?"

"No," Jackson's eyes went to the door; Adam put the cigar back in his breast pocket.

"If you're looking for that goon you sent after me, I can assure he won't be showing up," Adam said. He lifted the cigar to his mouth again and Joe noticed some blood dripping down his hand; the knuckles were a raw, bloody mess.

Jackson's eyes returned to the man sitting in front of him and his mouth opened, but Adam interrupted him.

"I just have one question for you Jackson. . . were you born this stupid or is it something you have to actually work at?" he said in a serious tone.

The other man's mouth dropped open, "You must not understand the situation here with an arrogant attitude like that."

Adam raised his eyes toward the ceiling. "No. Wrong again. You're the one who doesn't understand." He pinched the cigar out with his fingers, and then said, "Gentlemen, would you please enlighten Mr. Jackson?"

The four henchmen immediately turned their guns on the man in the middle and four hammers clicked back. The two closest to Jackson each grabbed one of his arms when he tried to reach for his weapon, a third took the gun off of him, and the fourth pulled a wooden chair away from the wall and shoved it under the man as he was forcefully pushed down into it.

Adam still lounged back in his chair, but was now shaking his head. "You idiot, did you really think I was just going to sit back and let you do this? You don't understand who you're dealing with. I've had people inside your organization for the past year. And as for these four, didn't you stop to think for one minute about why four well-qualified criminals just showed up on your doorstep looking for employment?"

Jackson did not respond, he just sat there with his mouth still hanging open.

"I was betting your gigantic pride would get in the way of seeing anything clearly, and I was right. You had no idea, did you?" The other man shook his head, bewildered.

"I didn't think so," Adam continued, and turned his head to look at his family for the first time. He gave a sideways nod in their direction saying, "Nate, would you mind untying my family please?"

The tallest hired gun, blond and blue-eyed said, "Sure, should have thought of that myself," as he hurried over and pulled a knife out to cut the ropes instead of untying them. In a few minutes Ben, Hoss, and Joe were free, but Hoss was still sleeping peacefully. Adam addressed the two that were awake. "Pa, Joe, these four men are very good friends of mine, Pinkerton's best," he smiled, "why don't you fellows introduce yourselves?"

The most muscular one identified himself as Mike and the average-looking one in the bunch said his name was John. The last was a tall, older man with iron gray hair and cool gray eyes; his name was Jerry. They already knew the fourth man's name.

Jackson finally spoke, "So what now?" he said keeping his eyes on the floor.

"Well, the original plan was to just take you in, but that changed when you made that one fatal error in dealing with me."

"Fatal error?"

Still looking intently at Jackson Adam said, "Tell him what my one rule is, boys."

All four hired guns spoke together, "Business is business, but never touch my family," and they all grinned.

"Right."

"But I didn't kidnap them," Jackson nodded at the men up against the sidewall. "Your friends brought them in."

"I know," Adam said, "I asked them to, it was the only way I could think of to keep them safe. I couldn't be sure you wouldn't send someone besides these four after them." He stood, walked slowly up to Jackson and leaned down to look him right in the eye.

"You tried to take my children, you son-of-a-bitch," he ground out as his arm shot forward and he seized the other man by the throat. He lifted until Jackson's toes almost left the ground. He let him hang there, struggling for breath for a few moments then abruptly let go when Nate said, "Adam," in a warning tone.

The other man fell back onto the wooden chair. Adam turned and paced a few feet away, cracking his knuckles and rolling his shoulders as Jackson bent over retching and trying to breathe.

"No one, NO ONE, ever touches my children," Adam shouted as he turned back to Jackson. "You are the worst kind of coward - trying to get at me through my people. If you have a problem with me, you come to ME. If you hate my guts, tell me to my face. You want to hurt me, come take a shot at ME, not my family." He moved a little closer, "We are going to settle this grudge you have against me right now - I'm going to give you the chance to have a free shot," he put his hands on his hips and stuck out his chin. "Come on, show me what you've got, you piss poor excuse for a man."

Jackson didn't move.

"Come on," Adam said in a soft tone as he moved forward again until he was almost right on top of the seated man, "you can't pass up this chance. You'll never be offered it again, and I swear to you my family and friends will not interfere, they understand that this is personal."

Jackson still didn't move.

Adam leaned over him, "JUST DO IT!" he shouted in the other man's face, and stood his ground when Jackson popped up out of his chair and put everything he had into an uppercut.

Everyone else in the room flinched at the sound, but then looked on in shock to see that Adam had not been moved at all. Even a couple of his friends shuddered when they saw the way he smiled into Jackson's eyes.

"I do believe you are in deep trouble now," Adam said with a smile, "my wife hits harder than that."

The other man tried to back up, but the chair was in the way, and when Adam's fist connected with his chin he fell into it, over it, and went rolling across the floor to stop in front of Nate.

As the tall man knelt down to look at Jackson, Adam asked, "Is he down for the count?"

Nate nodded, "Yep, I think you broke his jaw."

"Hell," Adam complained, "I was looking forward to beating the crap out of him." He shook his head, "Theadora!" he shouted and she came hurrying in followed by a short, red-haired man.

She came up to her husband and said, "You bellowed?" He nodded toward Nate, kneeling at the unconscious man's side. "Oh dear Lord," she sighed as she moved forward to kneel on the other side of the unconscious man.

"Nate, help me turn him over or he's going to drown in his own blood." As they were turning him she said, "I am not going to be the one to set THIS jaw. I'd be too tempted to set it badly so he'd talk funny for the rest of his life."

When she stood up and looked at Adam he said, "I swear to you I pulled the punch. I just don't understand why there seems to be a connection between a swelled head and a glass jaw."

As she just looked at him skeptically he laughed and tried to distract her. "Isn't Hoss awake yet?" As usual, it worked.

She turned toward the family group, saw Hoss on the floor still sleeping peacefully, and rushed over to examine him. Adam caught his father's eye, winked, and the two men grinned at each other over Adam's tactics.

After looking Hoss over, Thea sat back on her heels. "He's fine, I can't see why he hasn't woken up yet. Maybe he just doesn't want to," she stood, "but I think it would be a good idea to get him home as soon as possible."

"I agree," Adam turned to the red-haired man. "Bob, would you please drive my family home? I have to stay for a while."

"Sure, Mr. Eden...I mean Cartwright."

"Bob isn't dead?" Joe said, confused.

"Of course he isn't dead, Nate talked Jackson into letting him do the killing." Adam looked at Nate, "Personally, I think we did an excellent job faking the murder and the funeral."

"Ah, a well thought out plan is a thing of beauty!" Nate said and he laughed with the other three detectives, as Adam looked disgusted. He turned to Joe and his father, "They're having a good time making fun of me. I only said that once, but they refuse to let me forget it." He came over to where Hoss was still lying on the floor and signaled the detectives over to help. "Just give me a hand lifting him."

They draped Hoss over Adam's shoulders and he stood, walked up to the door, opened it, and went down the steps.

Ben looked at Joe and they stared at each other in disbelief. Thea laughed, "You keep forgetting Adam is a man in his prime right now, he's the strongest he's ever been."

The detectives were standing around Jackson as Thea, Ben, Joe, and Bob left. When the four of them reached the bottom of the steps Adam had already put Hoss in the wagon and he lifted Thea into the back, too. She immediately went to Hoss and sat down, putting his head in her lap. She looked up at her husband, "I don't want his head to get banged around during the drive home." She looked down at the sleeping man, pushed up an eyelid and bent down to look. "I think he just might be starting to come out of it."

"Good," her husband said as he looked over the side of the wagon. "If he's not awake by the time you get him home, just wave a steak under his nose. That'll wake him up."

Joe and Ben laughed a little as they climbed up on the seat next to Bob. They were still a little shaky.

"How long do you think you'll be?" Thea asked.

"Probably only a couple of hours. Jackson is the last one to be taken in, we've already gotten the rest." He started back up the steps as the wagon began to move. "See you at home when I'm finished."

"Tell the boys they have to come home with you," she called and he waved in acknowledgement from the top of the stairs as he opened the door and went in.