Renegades and Pretty Women

Chapter Twenty-One

"The right time, the right place, the right body, the right face. Timber I'm fallin' in love.... You're the only one I'm dreaming of. I can't beleive that I'm fallin' in love." Patty Loveless 'Timber, I'm fallin in love'

“I ain’t never been in this… town.” Joe said as they rode onto the dusty street of a town that had nothing other than a ramshackle saloon, a mercantile that didn’t look as if it could survive the wind from a hummingbird migration, a blacksmith with a couple of drunks passed out on the benches in front of it and several other buildings with such faded and peeling signs that it was impossible to tell what types of businesses they were.

“Two days of traveling to come here?” Jonah asked Reb and Reb shrugged.

“They like these here run down places.” he stated defensively. “We can show their pictures ‘round and maybe somebody here knows ‘em and might just be able to point us in whichever direction they might have taken.”

“That and the women in that saloon over there call themselves ‘Soiled Doves’ and they’ll take up on the balcony and give you all kinds of loving… They don’t even close the curtains first.” Bart stated.

“’Less of course yer one of them shy ones.” Reb added and the two men snorted with laughter.

“So are you all riding with me to help find these two or to get your peckers played with?” Jonah demanded and Joe chuckled quietly.

“Well I figure since you’re getting yours played with we….” Bart’s words were cut off when both Jonah and Joe slammed a fist into his gut.

Joe looked at Jonah with shock, wondering why he’d punched his friend. Joe had punched him because he’d been acting like an ass toward her ever since they’d left Barbadine and Joe was tired of it. She also figured he needed to be reminded that she was more than just some whore playing with a mans pecker and she didn’t like to be compared to one.

Bart took several steps back as Reb chuckled, rocked back on his heels and his blue eye sparkled with amusement.

“What..the hell?” Bart gasped, his face drawn with pain and his skin pale as he held his stomach.

“You’ll watch what you say.” Jonah warned and, without saying anything else or looking at Joe, he turned and stormed toward the building that Joe assumed was a hotel, leading Copper by the reins as he went.

“What the hell is y’alls problem?” Bart grumbled.

“I ain’t a whore and I don’t wanna be compared to one.” Joe snapped. “That’s my problem, I reckon, as far as Jonah goes, I don’t rightly know why he hit you.”

“I wasn’t trying to compare you to no whore, Joe.” Bart assured the woman.

“At times Bart’s mouth gets goin’ just a bit quicker than what his brain can keep up with.” Reb agreed.