Mí amor: A Javier Escuella story

The plan

The sun was high in the sky. Bill, Dutch, Charles and I were outside the bank in Valentine trying to scrounge up a plan. "I'll go in and distract them. You wait out here until I give the signal." I said to the boys. I wasn't wearing my usual attire. Instead I had on a floor length dark green dress and my long, russet hair was twisted up into a bun. "That could work." Said Dutch. "How are you going to distract them?" That was the part that had me stumped. "We could use 'get help," I suggested. "No." Replied Dutch.
"But 'get help' always works."
"No it doesn't."
"Please?"
"We're not doing 'get help.'" I frowned at Dutch. "You're no fun." I whined. Dutch looked at me with a stern expression. "This work isn't meant to be fun. This is serious."
"So is 'get help.'"
"Just listen to me and do as I say. Charles, Bill. You two stand on that side of the door. Victoria. You go in and act drunk." Dutch said with authority. I groaned in protest but Dutch gave me a look that made me shut up. The men got into position. Now was my time to shine.

I pushed open the door to the bank and stumbled up to the man out front. "'scuse me sir." I slurred. " would you happen to have a sink i could borrow"? I mentally slapped myself but kept my composure. "Ma'am, this is a bank." The clerk replied with a confused look on his face. I leaned over the counter, "and?" The clerk started to look annoyed and moved along the counter and gestured to one of the people waiting to store their money. That didn't stop me though. I leaned against the counter. "Sir... how do I put this. You're very attractive." I mumbled with my eyes half closed. I then smiled and laughed. "I'm just kidding! You are one ugly bastard!" I exclaimed, tears in my eyes from laughing. I could almost hear Dutch facepalm outside. I just needed to keep this act up for a little while longer. "Ma'am I am a very busy per-" I cut him off by saying; "I'm not squiffy! You're - wait what was i saying?" I noticed that a few people had left. I decided to make my move. "Oh yeah I remember what I was saying. It was... down on the ground, THIS IS A ROBBERY!" I shouted while pulling my cattleman revolver out of a hidden holster and aiming it at the clerk. I heard the doors burst open behind me. Dutch passed me and told me to bring the clerk to the back. I did as he said and followed him to the vaults, my revolver against the side of the clerks head. "Open it!" I said through gritted teeth. "I-i can't! Only the manager has keys!" He stuttered with fear lacing his voice. I sighed and motioned to Dutch take over from my job. He held one of his Schofield revolvers to the clerks forehead. I sauntered over to the vaults an started to crack them. After I had opened the last vault and taken the money, Dutch hit the clerk over his head knocking him out. We walked back to the front. Suddenly the doors burst open and the law aimed their guns at us. We acted quickly and shot them down. "Fuck! Now we're really in trouble. We need to get out of here." I shouted to the others. We can out the bank and towards our horses, all while avoiding gunshots and firing back when we could. We mounted our horses and galloped away from town. It didn't matter how many turns we took, the law followed us still. " we should split up to try and shake them off!" Dutch yelled back to us. I veered to the left Android my surprise, they stopped following the others and honed on me. I urged my horse on and he galloped even faster.

I had been riding hard for a good ten minutes before the law finally decided to let me go. I decided to ride even further and to not go back to camp for a while to avoid luring the law to the gang. I headed towards Rhodes to stay at the inn. I hitched my horse outside the inn, walked up the stairs and opened the door. "Hello miss. Would you like a room? Or just a nice, not bath?" The innkeeper asked politely. I smiled politely. "A room please." The innkeeper pulled out a ledger and opened it. "I'll need to take down your name." He told me. I quickly thought of a fake name to use. "Vivienne Alpache." I replied. He wrote down my name and handed me a key. "It's number 4!" The innkeeper call after me as I walked down the hallway. I unlocked the door and dropped my bag onto the bed. The room was small but comfortable and warm. I was still in my dress so I quickly changed into my night clothes, that I had packed just in case, and crawled under the blankets. I had trouble falling asleep because my mind kept wandering to Javier. What would be do? Would be try to find me? As my mind was swimming with scenarios, I drifted into a restless sleep.