"I ain't sayin' nothin'."

"I ain't neither."

Heyes sighed and put his hands on his hips glaring down at their belligerent captives.

"Look you boys have given me a pounding head, and that don't never put me in the best of moods. So if you're smart you'll just tell me who hired ya and get yourselves away from me."

The men just looked even more stubborn, so Heyes sighed and wagged a finger at them, unwilling to shake his head due to the fear of the stars he'd be seeing if he did. "Maybe if you tell us who's dirty work you're doing, the law might go easy on ya."

Hooknose glared at him. "You ain't never met the law around here if ya figuring on that, there ain't nothing we can do that will make 'em ease up on us. So seeing as we're covered in bruises and ain't got a chance on getting away, why should we help ya?"

The other man nodded his vehement agreement and clamped his mouth tightly shut. Heyes feeling a bit frustrated carefully moved his head to glance over at his partner, who was pale, no doubt because his arm was paining him, as much as the drumbeat in his head was bothering Heyes. He turned back to face their unhelpful prisoners, letting his irritation show, initially he'd been reluctant to draw any attention to the Kid's injured arm, but it looked like it was his best option to get this over with as quickly as possible, before he passed out or the Kid dropped his gun. So staring down at the men he said firmly. "Seeing as you've obviously heard 'bout the Kid getting' shot, you'll understand that means he ain't had much chance to practice lately. And I'm thinking you two being so unhelpful will provide him with a good opportunity to change that." He paused then turned to look at his friend before adding. "What do you think Kid, you fancy trying to improve your aim on something other than plates and bottles?"

The Kid's face flickered for a moment, then broke into a chilling smile as he caught onto exactly what he needed to do. "I sure could do with the practice right enough." He stopped then said so flatly that Heyes felt a slight chill even though he knew his partner would do no such thing. "Of course given I ain't always as accurate as I'd like no more, I can't exactly promise that I won't accidentally shoot one or even both of 'em in the head."

Heyes grinned as annoyingly as he was capable of as he turned back to the two men saying casually not quite looking at them "Well if ya do, ya do...but mebbe if you aim for the head, you might hit something else. " He paused and then looked down, pleased to note they were both looking a little pale and far less belligerent. "Either of ya got children?" They looked slightly puzzled at the question, but nodded, maybe hoping their answer might somehow work in their favour. Heyes gave them a small smile, before looking back over at his partner as he said. "Well you heard that Kid, it don't matter if ya hit 'em a bit south of their belly, they've already bred. Might be a but messy of course, but they should have time to tell us who hired 'em before they pass out from the blood loss."

When Heyes turned back to them, Hooknose's companion had gone even paler and he looked about to keel over in a dead faint as he glanced frantically between them all, before saying hoarsely "This is the first time I ever done anythin' like this! But my wife is expecting our third and I needed the money real bad. But I ain't ever gonna do it again..."

Before he could say anything else, much to Heyes' disgust as his head was really beginning to hurt and stars were creeping at the edges of his vision, Hooknose interrupted him. "Shut up Charlie, they ain't gonna do nothing like that. Curry over there ain't no murderer and far as I've heard neither is his partner."

Heyes sighed, thinking he was going to have to try another angle, but before he could try, the Kid cleared his throat loudly before saying coldly. "Well ya know Hooknose, a lot of time has passed since we crossed paths. And I gotta tell ya,close on ten years of robbing banks and then another few years spent broke, running and at the mercy of any jackass bounty hunter, lawman or chancer fancying a twenty thousand dollar payday, gives a man a new perspective on what he needs to do in order to survive." He paused then added casually. "Not too long ago I shot and killed one man out in Matherville, and came close to making it two in West Bend, 'cos some joker pushed me a bit far. So I don't figure accidentally killing you two is gonna make me lose much sleep."

Charlie took a breath and looked over at Hooknose. "And remember Matt, we both done heard about him killing that young girl out in Longplains."

Heyes wondered for a moment at the familiarity between the two men, before glancing over at the Kid and catching a fleeting expression of pain cross his features, which was quickly replaced by his best poker face, which still didn't quite hide the pain in his eyes from his partner. Heyes gave him a quick squeeze on his good arm before turning back to the men against the wall. "So I'm gonna ask you again, who hired ya?"

After another quick exchange of looks, Hooknose took a deep breath, nodded and his face softened as resignation entered his eyes after another glance over at Charlie. At this point Heyes was certain there was more between the men than just co-conspirators doing a dirty job, which he was sure would only work in their favour. A feeling that was quickly confirmed when Hooknose smiled slightly, before finally replying ."It don't make no odds to me, as like I said the law here ain't exactly soft on folk like me, so I'm likely gonna hang anyways, but if Charlie wants to tell ya I ain't in no position to stop him now am I?"

Charlie with a grateful glance over at his companion swallowed hard. "George Oldroyd hired us. He wants to marry Mrs Hanley, figures combining their two ranches would finish off the competition for at least fifty miles. But she ain't interested, so he was figuring on scaring her into getting wed to him by making it seem like she was some kinda target cos she was a woman on her own."

Heyes bit down on a snort of amusement as he glanced over at the Kid who had a small smile on his face and he knew he was thinking exactly the same thing he was. This Oldroyd must be as stupid as he was greedy. Sarah Hanley was not the kind of lady who would be intimidated into marrying anyone she didn't want to.