North of Laramie. William W. Johnstone

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ of the way.

      Somewhere in his mind, he could hear Lilly calling his name as he picked up a chair and brought it down hard on the fallen Bowman’s back. The chair splintered into pieces. A leg landed nearby.

      Trammel picked up the leg and dropped to his knees, straddling the prone man. He brought the chair leg over his head like a club, intending on bringing it down on Tyler again and again until Lilly’s kind face filled his vision. The same face that graced the sign that hung over the front door, though this one bore more lines and was not as soft.

      “No, Buck!” He felt her hands on his shoulders. “That’s enough. Stop, please!”

      Trammel let the chair leg fall behind him as his senses returned and time began to become normal. He remembered the other Bowman boy. William.

      Trammel rocked back and got to his feet in one motion, remembering he had thrown him aside right after Tyler had hit him with the bottle.

      Some of the patrons had gathered around the place where Will had landed, trading glances amongst themselves. They knew what Trammel could see just by looking at Bowman’s neck. The twisted, unnatural angle against a broken chair only meant one thing.

      “He’s dead,” one of the customers said. “His neck broke when he hit the chair.”

      “Did you see how he flew?” another said. “Hell, I only ever saw a man fly like that when he was bucked off a horse.”

      A cry from Lilly made Trammel look down. Her delicate fingers were pressed against Tyler’s neck, as if the Bowman boy’s vacant stare wasn’t proof enough for her. “He’s dead, too, Buck. You’ve killed both of them.”

      “And with his bare hands, too,” said someone in the saloon. “Not a hog leg or a blade on him. Killed ’em both by touch alone. Lord have mercy.”

      Trammel looked up when he heard the sound of clapping. It was coming from the poker table. It was Adam Hagen applauding him from behind his pile of money. “Bravo, Mr. Trammel. The citizens of Wichita salute you for the public service you’ve done here tonight, for the world is a far better place with two fewer Bowman boys slithering around in it.”

      Trammel’s knuckles popped as he felt his fists ball up. Two dead men was nothing to clap about, even if it was two Bowman boys. “Someone get him out of here.”

      Hagen tried to sit upright in his chair. “But I live here, sir, and my luck has changed for the better.” He gestured grandly at the empty chairs at the table. “Anyone care to play? We appear to have two vacancies at the moment.”

      Trammel started for him, but Lilly scrambled to block his way. “Someone get him up to his room before Buck kills him, too.”

      Three customers pulled Hagen to his feet, but not before the drunkard stuffed his winnings into his pockets. Gold and greenbacks bulged from the pockets of his coat and pants and vest.

      Two men threw his arms over their shoulders as another cleared a path for them to the stairs and the rooms above. “Such service!” Hagen laughed. “Will one of you be so kind as to draw me a bath, as well?”

      The man who had his right arm said, “The only thing you’ll be drawing is blood if you don’t keep that damned drunken mouth of yours shut.”

      Trammel’s rage ebbed once more as he watched the men take Hagen upstairs and he realized Lilly was still holding on to him. He placed his large hands on her slender shoulders and gently eased her away. “I’m okay now, Lilly. I promise.”

      Lilly didn’t take her eyes off him as she yelled, “Show’s over, boys. Sorry for the trouble. Drinks are on the house, courtesy of your Aunt Lilly.”

      The patrons cheered and quickly went back to their respective games. The trouble and the dead men on the floor seemingly forgot by everyone except Trammel and Lilly.

      “You’re hurt, Buck.” Lilly popped up on her toes to reach the wound on his head. “You’re bleeding.”

      Trammel had nearly forgotten about the whiskey bottle that Tyler had broken over his head. He felt at the back of his head and found a shard of glass just behind his ear. He winced as he pulled it out and let it drop to the floor. He flicked other bits of glass from the wound, too, some of them falling down his collar. “It’s not the first time someone’s busted a bottle over my head. Doubt it’ll be the last.”

      Lilly stepped away from him and looked at destruction all around her. “This is bad, Buck.”

      “No, it isn’t. I’ll live.” He checked his hand and was surprised there wasn’t more blood. “I’ve been through worse.”

      “I don’t just mean you. I mean the Bowman boys. Their people won’t take kindly to you killing two of their kin, even if they had it coming.”

      Trammel looked down at the men on the floor. The two men he had just killed. He waited to feel something. He waited to feel anything at all. All he felt was tired. “Like I said. I’ve been through worse.”

      CHAPTER 2

      About an hour after closing time, Trammel sat in a chair while Lilly tended to his wounds. He winced when she dabbed a rag in whiskey and put it to his cuts.

      “Well, would you look at that?” She held out the bloody rag for him to see. “Looks like you’re flesh and blood after all. Not some demon like some of the boys suggested. From the Old Testament, no less.”

      He looked back at the two dead Bowman boys on the floor. Someone had placed tablecloths over their faces, and Trammel found himself wondering where someone had found tablecloths. Must’ve been from another place in town. The Gilded Lilly wasn’t exactly known for fine dining. “As human as the next man, I suppose. Maybe even more so.”

      “You just killed two men with your bare hands, Buck. That’s not a human act.”

      “You didn’t hire me to show Christian charity, Lilly. You hired me to keep things around here to a dull roar. Those boys were going to cut that drunk Hagen to pieces. If you’d wanted me to let that go, you should’ve said something.”

      “I don’t care about them.” She found a clean spot on the rag and dipped it into the whiskey. It stung less this time when she touched his wound. “I care about you.” She stroked his black hair. “You know that.”

      “I’ll be fine. It was a fair fight. Everyone in the place saw it. I’m sure Marshal Meagher will see it that way, too.”

      “I’m not worried about how he sees it,” Lilly said. “I worry about how the Bowman family will see it.”

      “They knew what these boys were like,” Trammel said. “They won’t be happy about it, but I’m sure they’ll accept it once the marshal explains it to them. He’s always known how to handle them before.”

      Lilly threw the rag on the bar. “Damn it, Buck. How long is it going to take for you to understand that not everyone is a reasonable man? Reason might’ve played into it back when you were a Pinkerton man, but you ain’t a Pinkerton man anymore. This ain’t New York City, neither, and reason don’t always apply out here, especially to people like the Bowman family. They listen to Meagher because he’s got a tin star СКАЧАТЬ