Chapter Nine

"Sherman," Lex said, narrowing his eyes to Slim where he kneeled on the ground, and the piece that he wore. "Looks like you gained a couple of pounds at your middle since we were last together."

Slim dropped his gaze to see the handle of Saks' gun snug against his belly. "So it seems."

"Get rid of it," Lex commanded, watching Slim's every move with twisted lips, as if he would rather Slim make an attempt to pull, cock and fire. But while challenge and desire existed across from him, Slim gave the gun a toss instead. One gun gone, Lex made the shift toward Jess. "And yours."

He had yet to release his hold, but now that Lex's penetrating stare was attached to Jess' equally cold eyes, Jess felt the holster begin to give up his weapon. Even while his hand might have been performing the steps of obedience, Jess' mind was going through the opposite. Lift, spin, hammer and fire. It could have been done, if both men locked together by their expressions didn't have a partner by his side.

Jess' eyes broke the connection as he flicked his blue to Slim, and without turning to see where it would land, Jess chucked his gun behind him. "Now what?"

"That's actually a pretty good question. Harper, isn't it?"

"You know my name."

Lex laughed. "That is, after all, why we're all here."

"Oh, you think you're funny, do you?" Jess seethed, his jaw so tight it could have been more forceful than his balled-up fist. "You're a riot, wanting to challenge me, my past, my reputation. Well guess what, you've done all that and I still ain't dead!"

"That does bring us back to what you asked earlier. What comes now? Kill you, obviously."

Jess thought of Slim's description of the firing squad. "Except you like to drag things out."

Laughter's noise faded, but the smirk was still there, and spreading. "That's true. I do."

Jess' face glowed with the opposite. "More'n likely we'll still be waiting for your gun to fire when the snow's blowing."

"You know something?" Lex put a boot in Jess' chest, knocking him completely flat. "I don't like you."

Slim's anger surged and he rose along with his temperature. "Leave him alone, Lex!"

"No," Lex answered, tossing his head toward his partner.

Beamer's hand gripped into Slim's arm and pulled hard enough that Slim went backward, slapping against the rocks with the kind of force that made his rear cushion smart. With one still attached, the other hand started to reach for his collar, but wasn't going to allow the grip. Slim had already given Beamer a proper handling once, he could do it again.

He kicked Beamer in the torso and amid the flail, Slim leapt to his feet. One arm pulled back for a punch, and as the jaw became square, he let Beamer taste every knuckle. But while the man started to sputter with the blood in his throat, the other man had blood going into his cheeks. Lex was turning, rifle included.

Slim saw it coming, but because the iron was so close, there was no time to duck. Only drop at the strike against his skull, and the grunt that left Slim's lips when he melted against the rocks was the right kind of puff to put out his lights.

"Slim!" Jess shouted, trying to pull his body away from the ground, but the same foot that had put him there came back for more.

Lex's heel inched closer to Jess' throat, and the spur was given a jangle. "Now it's just the two of us."

Jess glanced at Beamer, mopping up the cut to his jaw. "Sure it is."

"My partner won't get in our way."

"Partner." Jess spit the air through his lips. "You don't even know the meaning. I bet you wouldn't even travel two miles for the likes of him."

Lex smiled. "You're probably right. But you would for Sherman. You'd crawl through every kind of flame, swim the deepest sea, go up against a fistful of bullets, and die. Wouldn't you die, Harper?"

"You bet I'd die for him."

"That's sweet and everything, but you're kind of a unique man. Hard to kill."

"You done trying?"

"No."

"Well if you're waiting for me to beg, you'll never hear it."

Lex's foot didn't budge as the man's face loomed closer. "I know you're not that kind of a man. Now a man like Avery, even Saks, they'd go to their knees in front of me. But not you."

"I understand where Saks fit in, but what'd you kill Avery for anyway?"

"You're wanted for his murder, that reason enough?"

"No. If you want me, just kill me. Don't make someone else suffer."

"You don't add up, Harper. Here you can track a trail that doesn't exist, find a man that you don't even know, come within a hair of committing murder, yet a couple of breaths later, you're a soft little lamb, worrying about somebody else."

"Those are my numbers, all right. Ain't my fault you've got trouble counting."

"If I wasn't finished talking with you, I'd slit your throat."

The spur pushed into Jess' skin, too close to his pulse to not blink. "Like I said, you drag out a man's death."

"With some. But not with Avery. Now him, I had to put a rifle slug where it counted most."

"Why?"

"Because he saw me trailing after you, and since I couldn't let him go running to the law," Lex said, his shoulders rising with the kind of nonchalance that would make a normal man's stomach churn. "I killed him. But maybe I should've let him live. After all, Avery saved my life."

Strange that Jess could be intrigued by such a man as this. "How so?"

"By telling me about your fast draw."

The grin spread up to Jess' eyes. "You know you can't take me, huh? And when Beamer saw me fire on Saks, that was the clincher. Well I'll be dadgummed. You really are scared of me."

"Scared? Not really. More like in awe. Here you are, a man that can win the dirtiest of fights but also has the rare ability to defy death. You could be the most notorious outlaw that ever rode the west, yet you stay saddled on a ranch that barely makes ends meet with a fellow that's done nothing but breathe good air his entire life. Why?"

"If you gotta ask, you'd never understand."

"Try me."

"Because I found something better than that kinda life."

Lex pointed a finger at Slim. "A partner?"

"Partner, friend, brother. Yeah. There ain't nothing wrong with clean living. Maybe you shoulda tried it before you turned up on a wanted poster."

"Nah, I'd rather live high and die fast than live low and die slow. But now that we're back on the subject, how do you want to die?"

"You already chose for me. I'm gonna die a wanted man."

"Now that's my kind of character," Lex said, his grin growing as he lined up his rifle's point to Jess' skull. "Beamer, take care of Sherman."

"No!" Jess shouted, his head striking the ground when the response was the pressure against his temple.

Oh, how failure hurt! Even worse than what Jess would feel the few seconds before he would die. He had failed Slim, failed himself, and the result would be both of their deaths. Jess closed his eyes, willing his body to writhe before Slim's unconscious frame could ascend the steps of heaven. But Lex was going to play cruelty's role all the way to the end. He was going to let Beamer pull the trigger on Slim first.

His heart taking a violent thrust by an invisible blade, Jess heard the gun's blast and he immediately stopped breathing. That wasn't the strike of a deadly bullet, but the kicking up dust kind. If this was a trick he was going to tear Lex apart with his bare hands. His hands were already rising to the leg that pinned him down, but then the next bullet skipped the rocks at Jess' feet.

Jess' eyes found the lead's direction a moment before Beamer hissed. "Lex, someone's coming!"

"Can you see who?"

"No. Badge, bounty hunter, it could be anyone."

Lex put so much pressure into his boot that Jess sputtered the little bit of air that was left inside of his lungs. "My name's too big in these parts, Harper. I can't take the risk that you're the one that's being hunted and not me. But know this, it isn't over between us. Not until you're a piece of coyote bait."

Another bullet streaked overhead, and with it went Lex and Beamer. Hearing the pound of boots coming uphill, Jess scrambled for the gun that he had released. Although he hadn't watched its landing, it couldn't be far. Rolling over, Jess spotted the handle, but as all he could do was scoot over the ground to reach it, it might take too long to do any good.

Leaping at the last second, Jess' hand froze over his iron, allowing only his eyes to follow the trail of the intruder. "Hal Martin."

"Harper." Martin swallowed a seemingly large rock by the way his throat constricted. "I don't know how you're alive, but…"

"But what do you care?"

"I don't, but wasn't that," he said, his nod toward the pair's retreat. "Wasn't that Jack Lexington?"

"It was."

"Thought so." Martin's feet shuffled against the uneven ground. "He had his gun in your head."

"I reckon he woulda killed me and my partner if it wasn't for you. Dad-gum, how can I thank a man that already tried to do me in?"

Martin looked at the mine behind Jess. "Don't try."

Jess' scrutiny was thick, making both eyebrows scrunch as he pulled himself to a seated position. "What're you doing here anyway?"

"I'm not even sure. I felt guilty, I suppose, for blowing you sky high yesterday. Or at least, I thought you flew a ways."

"I did, but not to the point where I grew wings."

Martin nodded toward Slim. "What about Sherman?"

"Got skulled by Lex's rifle. Shouldn't be anything more than a concussion when he wakes."

Guilt had grown more than Martin first thought, for it was pushing him in a direction neither man expected him to go. "I'll take you home with me. Cheryl might be able to fix you both up."

"She gonna be armed?"

"Does she need to be?"

"No."