Chapter Six

Jess couldn't even blink as he stared. Somewhere a door closed. Somewhere even further steps were retreating. Yet those two details had to be dismissed. The only thing that was allowed to penetrate into his core was Slim. And he was alive.

The stairs must have been uneven by the way Jess struggled to climb them. Maybe it wasn't entirely the structure's fault, as the sensation that made Jess' hands tremble had wiggled all the way down to his feet. While each step upward threatened to put him back to the lower level, there was one part of his body that was no longer sinking to the depths. Somewhere during his climb, Jess' heart that had taken a devastating fall returned to its rightful position in his chest.

Barely inside of the light from the curtained window to his rear, Slim sat on the landing, latched so tightly to a chair he couldn't move. Even though Jess was quickly approaching, his head called out his partner's name on repeat, just as he had done the moment the black boots pushed through the main doorway. Slim had wanted Jess to hear him, see him and feel him from that first moment, but there was too much against him to make the connection before the gun exploded.

Now only a step in front of him, Slim locked eyes with Jess, unable to make a sound behind all of the barriers that held him captive, but in that shared glance was an author's lifetime supply of words.

"You ain't dead," Jess said, the incredulous tone so strong it hurt.

Slim shook his head.

"You ain't dead," Jess repeated, untying the bandana that covered Slim's mouth. But that wasn't the only gag. Inside Slim's mouth was a larger wad, and the removing pull needed such a hard tug that even Jess gasped through the shared discomfort when it landed at Slim's feet.

Slim had to stretch his jaw to the point of it popping before he could make a sound. "No."

"How? I mean…" Jess' eyes followed every inch of Slim's body. Not a drop of blood could be found. There was relief in that thought, but that single breath couldn't remain a part of his system when confusion put stammer against his tongue. "You ain't even shot."

Slim shook his head. "I haven't sprung any leaks larger than a nosebleed."

"I don't understand. The sheriff outta Carson found your wallet on a dead man that wore a very close resemblance to you. He even had your horse, your papers, everything."

"I know, Jess, and I'm sorry. I couldn't do anything to warn you, to tell you. Lex might not have shot me, but I looked into his barrel so often I can still see the black hole in front of my face."

Jess' knife paused against the tight rope at Slim's waist. "Lex?"

"Jack Lexington. The worst kinds always shave their names down to something everyone can remember."

"I reckon that's why I was given a short name to begin with. Jess. How many ain't forgetting that one?"

"No, Jess. You don't run with that type. Ever."

Jess frowned. After all he had done, Jess was no longer sure he could agree.

The rest of his binds falling to the floor, Slim took a deep dose of air into his lungs. "I've been trussed for so long, it feels mighty good to finally breathe."

Jess smiled, but true relief was so far away that Jess didn't even feel the corners lift. "Slim, with you here, who was the man that was killed?"

"Oh, yeah. I nearly forgot about him. Lex was running with two men when I first caught up with him. He shot one of them. You know, I never knew his name. He was tall, lean, but muscular, and his hair wasn't much lighter than mine. I suppose with his mustache shaved, he could've passed for my description, all right."

"But why would Lex kill one of his own men?"

"Being evil should be reason enough, but it goes further than that. Lex wanted to challenge you."

"Me?"

"I told him that my partner would be coming after him, no matter how long it took. He knew your name, Jess, your reputation, and the more I talked about you, what you'd do when you caught up to him, it struck fear into him."

Jess looked over his shoulder to see the puddle of blood, stilled, like how the life beside it had gone permanently quiet. "He sure did, why he musta squirmed more than a…"

"Jess…"

"…Than a worm come fishing time when I came in. Well, go ahead and breathe deeper, Slim. It's finally over, for the both of us."

"Jess, wait, it's not…"

"Yeah it is, Slim. I got Lex, the man that did this to you. Didn't you see him? He's dead."

"Jess, listen to me. You didn't get him. That man you shot isn't Jack Lexington."

The stammer returned to his tongue, but the feeling was so close to spreading Jess stabilized his hand against the stair's railing. "His partner?"

"Not his partner, either."

It seemed that Jess' heart could wallop his chest harder than when he thought Slim was dead. "Then who's the man I killed?"

"His name's Sam Saks."

Even the littlest details didn't go by Jess without getting pressed into his mind. There at the woman's house, Hal Martin had mentioned that name. Martin was going to borrow a horse from him as he lived a short span down the road. He was only a neighbor, maybe even a friend.

Jess shut his eyes. He killed the wrong man.

"Jess?"

Guilt, darker and heavier than his sin, crushed against his shoulders. "Slim."

"Jess I know what you're thinking, but Saks touched his gun first. I saw him."

"After all I put him through, anyone woulda slapped leather." Jess' eyes, darkened by the cloud that surrounded him, turned a shade deeper as his head whipped toward his partner. "Slim, if you knew, then why didn't you warn me? I know you were hogtied and then some, but couldn't you have tried?"

"Beamer, that's the partner, was right behind me. I couldn't even make a grunt without getting my head full of holes, not to mention what he would've done to you."

"He left when I shot Saks, huh?" Jess watched Slim nod. "I reckon I did hear someone hightail it off, but I was so shocked to see you I let it go. I reckon I let everything important go."

Slim put his hand on Jess' shoulder, the touch barely getting the proper response of Jess connecting his blue with Slim's. "Jess, don't bury yourself underneath a hangman's noose. No matter which way anyone looks at this, you shot in self-defense."

"But I provoked him to do it."

"He was provoked long before you caught up with him. Lex saw to that."

"No one's gonna blame a man that ain't here," Jess said, his argument strong, as was the sound of his voice. "It was all my doing, Slim. All my doing."

"It was Lex."

Hand still clinging to the railing, Jess sunk to the top stair, his head so low Slim could no longer find his eyes. "Please start at the top, Slim. There ain't no other way I'm gonna lose the cinched feeling around my throat. Or maybe it'll still be there when you're through. That man down there, he ain't gonna jump back up when you're done talking."

Although his bones were stiff from sitting for more hours than Slim was willing to count, he took the position next to his partner's side. His sigh was long, as was the air that was drawn back in, needed for as much lost time as Slim was about to cover.

"I was on my way home from Avery's when I found Sheriff Ratcliff wounded on the trail. I think he knew then that he wasn't going to make it. Well, he knew of me through Mort Cory, and since I wore a badge before in Laramie, Ratcliff figured I'd do well wearing one for him. I remembered passing a homestead, and so I took Ratcliff there to get some help. There was a woman there, and her son. Whitman, I think was the name. Since I promised Ratcliff I'd go after the man that shot him, I wasn't there long. I searched for the rest of that day and into the night, but nothing. When I went back to check on the sheriff, I realized I should have never left. All three of them were dead, murdered by Jack Lexington."

"There were four graves there, Slim. One was marked with a deputy's star."

He slowly nodded. "Mustache, remember?"

"Yeah, go on, Slim."

"I admit I didn't bury them. I was so angry about what had happened that I started the hunt right at that moment. I figured if I didn't make a catch I'd come back at dark and give them their proper rest, but it was only a couple of hours later when I rode right into Lex's henchmen. Mustache and Beamer. They dragged me here and put me in front of Lex. He said he was going to kill me, firing squad style. That's when I told him about you."

As Slim's voice faded into silence, Jess followed his partner's gaze to the nothingness that was in front of them. Up until this part of Slim's story, Jess had read everything that Slim had lived through nearly word for word by putting all of the loose pieces together in his own mind. Now he had turned to an open page, and the its title, written in its boldest print, was his name.

The blank space there before him, Jess figured that meant he needed to take pen and ink in hand. "So you making Lex think the notorious Jess Harper was gonna gun him down made him change his mind."

"Yes. I know he had every intention to kill me, star on my chest or not. He was going to kill me."

"That's when I came in, huh?"

Slim nodded. "I didn't know it had made an impact though. He had the two men put me in front of that rock wall outside, started to call out the orders, you know, ready and aim, but when he said, 'Fire' he turned his gun on Mustache. Shot him right in the heart, and then as if that wasn't good enough, hit him in the ribs and again in the leg."

"Where'd the other bullets go? Beamer and Mustache were firing too, weren't they?"

"Apparently they received an order I never heard. They weren't meant to kill me. Only Lex. I saw Beamer shoot into the air, but Mustache never had a chance to pull the trigger."

"Dad-gum. And to make it the right kinda package, he shaved his mustache, stuck your deputy's badge to his vest and dumped him at the Whitman's house, all to find out if I'd come breathing down his neck."

"Yeah, Jess. He did. But there was one more thing. He stepped over Mustache's body and walked up to me, putting the smoldering iron close enough to my face I could feel its heat. He said, 'We're going to find out how good your partner really is, and if you're right, if Jess Harper makes it here with me as his target, you're going to watch your partner die.'"

Anger, not fear, made Jess rise and throw a finger to the body on the ground. "Then why go through all of this with Saks? Lex coulda just shot me cold when I rode in."

"I suspect he wanted to know how fast your draw really is without being the one to face it."

"And Beamer ran outta here with the news. Dad-gum, how could I have been so blind? I saw everything else on the trail, why didn't I see this?"

"Because everything else was out there on the trail. Being in front of the man you thought killed me put you at the end."

"Yeah, the end of my revenge. Slim, I've been so sick with vengeance, I didn't know anything else."

"You still knew one thing, Jess. How to fight for a friend."

Slim was right, Jess couldn't deny that. He would have fought all the way to his death for Slim's sake. And even though he had said that Slim sharing his side of things would take away the rope's sensation around his neck, he was wrong. Jess couldn't shake the thought that he would still be fighting all the way to his grave for Slim. After all, the man responsible for all of this hell was still alive.

Vengeance once more starting to take shape, Jess' hand reformed its tight fist and bounced it off of his thigh. "Where's Lex now?"

"I don't know. I doubt he's far. He tied me here sometime before dawn and left Beamer at my back. Then Lex came in with Saks about an hour ago, demanding he not move one inch from this house or get shot. At that point he obviously knew you were going to reach this place, so he left you Saks as bait."

"And dad-gum did I ever take a mouthful."

"You didn't know, Jess."

"But I shoulda. I shoulda known just by the way my skin was crawling when I was back along that creek. He musta been watching me since I left the woman's house."

"He was watching you long before that. A few days ago he stole your horse when he thought you were getting too close. But like I told him. He doesn't know Jess Harper like I do. Did he really think taking your mount was going to slow you down?"

"It sure didn't," Jess answered, thinking of the wheels that carried him and his pistol that had been the real reason they had turned. Picturing the woman, Jess looked down, for the way the heat suddenly lit his cheeks, Jess expected that there was color to match. Fortunately it merely passed for his revenge.

Slim rubbed at the rope marks on his wrists. "I'm trying to think if I left anything out, but I think you know as much as I do at this point."

"Except for what comes next. What do you wanna do, Slim?"

He sighed, the sound trying to turn into a groan as Slim's stiff muscles protested upon standing. "Saks needs to be tended to. Under normal circumstances I'd say bury him here, but I think we should take his body to the law."

"The closest lawman's in Carson."

"Yeah but Ridgewood is only ten miles from here."

"Ridgewood's kind of a rough place, Slim."

"I've been there before," Slim answered, both eyebrows high. "And ridden right out. But there'll be a telegraph there, maybe a doc or an undertaker."

"I guarantee you there'll be an undertaker. Staying in a town like that probably whittles a man's lifetime down to a coupla months."

"Still our best choice when we have to carry a dead man along. And if you have no objections, let's get to it. I'd finally like to put this place behind me. For good."

"You and me both, Pard."

The stairs descent completed, Jess walked toward the window, letting the tip of his iron lift the curtain back far enough that he could see what was on its other side. "If Lex ain't far like you say, do you think we can get outta here alive?"

"I don't know, but we can try. Might have to go out firing if shooting's what Lex has in mind."

"That was what I was wondering, but at least we got another iron to fight with," Jess said, lifting Saks' gun from where it had fallen, but then he felt his mouth grow slack. "Slim. This gun's empty."

"I guess Lex really wanted to make sure that you killed him. Sounds a bit more like he's the guilty one, don't you think?"

"I see his role, sure. But I didn't have to come in here like I did, either."

"You can't go backward Jess, only what lies ahead. And right now that forward march is getting out of this place without you or I springing any leaks. So load up that iron and let's go."

The sidearm full, Jess put it into Slim's clasp and then took out his own. "Who's gonna peek their nose out first?"

"I will," Slim answered, not surprised when Jess' eyes flashed in return. "He threatened you, remember?"

"And you. But I ain't gonna argue. Go ahead, I won't be far behind."

The door at a crack, Slim's eyes followed the entire area beyond, and then as the rest of his face went into the open, he pulled in a long draft of air. No scent, no visual. But that might not have been the full answer. "I don't see anything. Is he watching or is he gone?"

"My skin bumps could go either way."

"I'll go all the way out, cover me."

"Only if you're covering me."

Hands outstretched with guns before them, Slim and Jess stepped out of the house, backs straight, muscles stiff, attentions alert. But if Lex and Beamer could see the sight that the two partner's made, they weren't showing it.

"I don't like it, Slim. It's too quiet."

"Yeah." Slim nodded, his eyes digging into every shadow and crevice, determined to pull Lex out of the one he was hiding in. But he couldn't find a single leaf bent the wrong way. "Our horses are in a creek-flanked corral. I caught a glimpse of them yesterday. It's possible that's where Lex would wait."

"Well I'm game to find out. I'd kinda like to meet this fellow you keep talking about."

"You don't really, Jess. He's not your type at all."

Jess' thumb rubbed against the hammer of his gun. "I'll decide that for myself."

"All right, Jess. You lead. Head over to that draw on the other side of that maple tree."

Their walk was slow, allowing for their instincts to leap ahead of them to make sure their next step wasn't going to have a bullet to go with it. When they reached the horses they found them saddled and untied as if they had been readied for a fast escape.

Slim slowly released the air he had been holding. "He's got to be close. It's like I can feel his eyes boring into me."

"I can feel something too," Jess said, his head starting to bend to the right. "But it's more than that. I can hear something. It's…"

His pause to pinpoint the sound was unnecessary, for coming from a path that neither of them had tread before was a roar of hooves, and the wild call from the men that rode them.

Slim's jaw jumped with the rest of his body. "That a posse?"

"I don't think a regular posse would be screaming over the ground like that, but an angry mob would. And I reckon I know who they're after."

"Lex, Jess, not you. They're after Lex."

"I don't believe that, Slim." Jess' tongue was moving as fast as his frame, the aim for his horse's back. "And I reckon neither do you."

He caught Jess' arm before the hop put him into leather. "Don't run, Jess. You'll get shot down cold."

"Ain't a grave where I'm bound anyway?"

Slim put the type of grip into Jess' flesh that was unwavering. "We don't know that."

Jess' chest heaved. He did.

And so did Slim. Hearing the shouts, the angry bursts, all with the precise tone of Jess' name, suddenly Slim knew exactly how Lex's plan was going to unfold.

You're going to watch your partner die.