The Five Dollar Mail (Book 1: The Green & Book 2: Lynch's Boys)

120: Leap

Cover painting by Angela Taratuta. Chapter artwork of Lily made of found images by me. All graphics by me.

Lily was watching Bender's arm turn some pretty unsettling colors as they sat in the small back room of the Rocks Saloon. Of her three escorts, he'd probably taken the worst injury in the fight.  He had his shirtsleeve rolled up and was flexing his fingers. Every time he winced...and he's wincing a lot...so did she.

"Is it broken?" she asked cautiously, guilt gnawing at her. They wouldn't even be here if not for me...

"Naw," he grunted. "Bruised. Still works." He shot a disgusted look at Jesse.

Jesse was holding a dirty bandana to his bleeding lip, scowling. "What did you want me to do, Bender? You saw who..."

Saint was sitting on the edge of the small desk, and Lily was not happy at the sweating pallor of his face. He lifted his head and glared. "To think for once?" he croaked angrily, his voice thin and weak. "Damn you, Jesse, you didn't have to..."

Lily put a hand on Saint's shoulder. The thought of his lungs closing up in this place terrified her. While it made her feel better to have Mr. Bender around to take care of them if they got hurt, it was Wash who knew best how to take care of Saint's 'Collier's lung', as Mr. Bender called it. "Hush, Pete, just breathe." It took some effort to steady the tremor in her voice. "You need to lie down?"

He shook his head, taking in a deep, unsteady breath and giving her hand on his shoulder a rough, comforting squeeze. "No. It's passing."

"Jesse." Bender was rolling down his sleeve and buttoning the cuff. "There's three of us and Miss Lil. It could turn bad on us at any moment, mate, we have to be careful, yeah? This ain't the Green, nobody's got our backs here."

Jesse roached back his hair and paced, agitated. "It was...him. I wanted to break him in half! What the hell's he doing here, anyways?"

"Well, it makes sense," Lily shrugged. "Whoever wants us to sell is probably around here somewhere. And that's who sent him to Green River."

Jesse stopped pacing and looked right at her, his face twisting in rage. "What if he's the one who burned the kitchen, Lily? He could be the one who almost killed you!"

Lily took a deep breath, her mind going back to the details of that morning. She'd thought about it a lot, turning it over and over in her mind since then. She remembered clawing at the arm around her, trying to get free. It had been unnervingly cool, like reptile skin, and gnarled like an old, wind-tormented tree. The voice in her ear had been scoured and hoarse, the inhuman quality of it adding to her panic. Her nose had burned with the sharp, unhealthy scent of sickness and stale smoke that had emanated from her attacker. She shook her head. "No," she said, probably more sure of this than anything else in her life right now. "It wasn't him."

"No doubt he had something to do with it, though," Bender agreed. "But still, we don't need this kind of attention."

The door opened and the bartender who'd broken up the fight came in holding a coffee cup. Her pale eyes looked around at each of them as she closed the door behind herself. She walked over to Saint and handed him the cup. "There. You owe me. And you..." her attention shifted to Bender. "You need someone to look at that arm?"

Bender shook his head, standing. "No, ma'am. Thanks, though."

She nodded, and then Lily found herself on the receiving end of that colorless, direct gaze. "Don't get a lot of ladies in here," the woman said. "You alright, honey?"

Lily tried to smile, relief rushing over her. "Yes, ma'am." This woman was clearly in charge, and was dealing with them a lot more kindly and gently than she had the regulars in the saloon. If she hadn't stopped the brawl when she did, no telling what might have happened. "Thank you for stepping in when you did."

The bartender nodded again. "Alright, Blondie," she said, an amused smirk playing about her handsome face, "what happened between you and Galloway?"

"Look...ma'am..." Jesse's cheeks flushed pink. "I'm sorry about that, we...I didn't mean to get your saloon all busted up."

"It isn't the first time that's happened," she said, sitting down in the chair behind her desk. "Don't worry about that. Oh, no, don't get up," she said when Saint started to rise from where he was seated on her desk. "You stay right there." The woman's eyes lingered appreciatively on his backside and Lily felt heat rush to her cheeks.

"We...well..." Jesse gave Bender a helpless look.

"We've met him before," Bender said, crossing his arms over his chest and rubbing his bruised elbow. He glanced at Lily, and gave her a shrug. "It didn't end well."

"Well," The woman said. "I'm sorry about that, and I'm sorry this happened in my place. Galloway can be an ass. There's a lot of that here." She stuck out her hand. "Hester Loveless. What brings you four out here? You're here for a reason, this isn't the sort of place folks come to sight-see."

Lily took a deep breath, locking eyes with Bender. Galloway's here. He knows who we are. It's not like we're in hiding. And it's going to come out; it's got to come out. We can't sneak around forever, we're going to have to start asking questions. "I own some land out here," she blurted. At some point, we're going to have to trust someone. "I want to see it so I can decide what to do with it. I'm Lily McMillian." Saying it out loud to a stranger made her shake inside, with fear, and also with relief. "This is Jesse Hanson, Pete Bari, and Jon Hungerford."

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