Bart was in trouble. He had messed up royally. Seems ‘His Royal Mess-up’ is what his whore of a mama should have named him.
Bart had only meant to help. He had thought that if he came around the backside of the fort where he could better see the tiny exit from the cellars then he might be able to help Joe and Clayton if they came out this way. Or possibly even figure out how to get in and help from the inside.
He had been tired of simply standing around and being in the way. He had been tired of the angry glares and the annoyed sighs whenever he tried to speak. He had been desperate to redeem himself and in doing so he might very well have just signed the death certificates of those that he loved… because he did love Clayton and Joe. He loved them something fierce.
He had had the best of intentions. They had been true and pure and good… But then his mission to be helpful had been interrupted by the butt of a rifle cracking against the back of his head and now he was drifting in and out of consciousness as two men dragged him by the arms into the fort. At least he knew now that there were only three unaccounted for men in the mansion instead of five. Of course the mansion seemed to be directly where these two bastards were taking him.
Bart was dragged inside, his feet trying desperately to gain traction and his legs fighting to stand on their own as they crossed the marble foyer and then passed down a hall before entering a large dining room.
The table was vast and laid out with breakfast for those seated there. Bart’s eyes were fighting to close, not wanting to remain open any longer, but somehow he made them as he looked around the table and when his eyes fell on Joe and he saw the shock, dread and anger on her face, he knew he in a whole hell of a lot of trouble.
***
“This breakfast is positively delicious.” Joe said as she wiped at the corners of her lips with her napkin. They had been in here for what had to be close to two hours and she was growing tired of the act. Tired of forcing this politeness toward the woman who had been so cruel to her son.
Scarlett smiled before sipping at her tea. “I have two of the best cooks in this country in my kitchens. My late husband left me with a small fortune when he was murdered and I have made the most of it.”
“Murdered?” Joe gasped, feigning shock. “How dreadful.”
Scarlett nodded, her big brown eyes filling with a mixture of sadness, rage and what could only be described as insanity. It became very clear to Joe then that Scarlett had changed in one very important way in the last five years. She had, quite literally, lost her mind.
“My Harmon was a good man. A loving and kind man who saw to my every need. And then one night he was kidnapped and murdered by a vile woman who was only angry that he did not want her.” Joe wanted to offer a snide remark but she felt a pain in her shin when the Sheriff kicked her under the table and stopped her from doing so. “I do not wish to talk about that woman though.” Scarlett stated. “I prefer to remember the amazing man my husband was.”
“Forgive me for asking, ma’am, but is there a reason why lady such as yourself would need an entire fort?” Sheriff Phillip’s asked and Scarlett shrugged one dainty shoulder as she leaned to the left and let her hand caress his forearm. Joe saw the bumps cover his skin and she rolled her eyes. Even the good Sheriff was attracted to the devil woman. Candied clit. That had to be the secret.
“I like to have my privacy, Jackson.” She practically purred. Joe cleared her throat delicately and laid her napkin back across her lap.
“Jackson, my love, you should not ask such personal, and potentially offensive, questions of the woman who was kind enough to open her home to us.”
“Of course I opened my house to you.” Scarlett stated with a wave of her hand. “It seems so nice to actually meet those with good breeding out in this wasteland. Most around here are backwoods mountain hicks with no real brains to speak of and even less social class.”
Joe nodded and smiled with understanding while in her mind she had killed Scarlett ten different ways in the time it took the woman to speak those few sentences.
Joe let her eyes go back to Clayton. The boy had cleaned himself up while she and Sheriff Phillips had been cleaning up and now he was sitting beside Bear and picking at his food. Joe noticed that his eyes kept being drawn to her own.
Oh how she wished she could just pull her gun, shoot Scarlett, Bear and that man lounging beside the dining room door and carry her son out of this place. It could be easily done if not for all those armed men outside.
“Sir…” Joe asked as she motioned toward Bear and the big man seemed surprised. He quickly swallowed the ham he’d been chewing and his eyes widened when he looked at her.
“Yes, ma’am?”
Joe offered a sultry smile and leaned toward him, placing her cleavage on nice display. “May I ask what happened to your head? That is quite the lump you have!”
Bear grumbled loudly and Joe saw his fists clench. “I fell.” He growled, sitting up a little straighter and rolling his massive shoulders.
Clayton giggled quietly as he rolled his fork around in his eggs. “Yeah. Old Mister Bear Bear’s clumsy.”
Bear grabbed Clayton by the collar of his shirt and raised his hand as if to hit the boy. Joe slid her hand over the knife beside her plate, fully prepared to lunge and drive it through Bear’s temple before she let him hit her child when a sudden commotion at the dining room door drew everyone’s attention.
Joe stared in shock as two guards entered, dragging a man with them. They were holding him beneath his arms and his long, stingy black hair hung over his face. His shaking legs seemed to be struggling to stand.
The man raised his head and his eyes met hers and Joe damn near swallowed her tongue. She’d kill him if Scarlett’s men didn’t! What was Bart doing! What had he done! Where was Jonah and Reb?
Before anyone could react Clayton jumped to his feet. “Uncle Bart!” he exclaimed as he ran toward the man. “Ya get yer damned hands off my uncle you giant horses asses!”
Joe saw Bear make a move toward her son and she ‘accidently’ swung out her hand and caught his coffee cup, spilling the scalding liquid across his lap and causing the big man to howl and forget all about chasing Clayton.
“Clayton, come sit down!” Scarlett ordered in a clipped tone as she rose to her feet and tossed her napkin onto the table. Clayton looked as if he wanted to argue and his eyes once again met Joe’s. Joe tipped her head toward his chair, though she masked the movement as if she was simply moving a few strands of her dark hair from her eyes.
Clayton sighed and went back to his seat, his boots dragging. Joe wondered if maybe the boy did recognize her but was pretending not to. Maybe he’d gotten her talent for acting.
“Bart! It has been so long since I’ve seen you! How nice of you to come by and pay me a visit.” Scarlett exclaimed with false sweetness as she breezed across the room and came to stand in front of the skinny man.
“Should we be concerned by this turn of events?” Sheriff Phillips asked as he stood. Scarlett turned and shook her head.
“No, of course not. It’s nothing for you to concern yourselves over. Remember those visitors I told you I was expecting? He is one of them.”
“I can see why ya were dreading their arrival.” Joe muttered and then she remembered that she was supposed to be a proper lady and she quickly cleared her throat. “He seems positively dreadful!”
“Yes he is.” Scarlett replied, her face becoming a mask that was unreadable as she studied Joe closely. Joe gripped the knife harder in her palm. She had a feeling that hell was quite possibly about to break loose.
“What are you doing here, Bart?” Scarlett asked, turning her attention back to the barely conscious man. “Where are Jonah, Joe and Reb? I’m sure they are around somewhere.”
“No… they aren’t.” Bart replied weakly. “I don’t ride with them no more. I messed up and so I came after you to try to earn their friendship back. I figured I could rescue their boy and be back in their good graces.”
“Is that right?” Scarlett asked and Bear laughed.
“Didn’t go the way you expected, I reckon.” He said as he grabbed hold of Clayton’s shoulder and squeezed. Joe saw her son bite his tongue to keep from crying out in pain as his gray eyes filled with dread. She looked at Sheriff Phillips but he just gave a barely perceptible shake of his head.
Joe felt lost and confused. She didn’t know what she should do. Risk her son to save Bart or let Bart face whatever came and get her son out safely?
“Kill him.” Scarlett said to Bear. The big man nodded, released his hold on Clayton and pulled his gun as he stood and walked toward Bart. Bart struggled against the men holding him but it was in vain as a gunshot filled the air and a bullet tore through Bart’s head.
“Uncle Bart!” Clayton screamed and Joe felt her heart stop beating as she stared at Bart’s now dead body. He was slumped between the two guards holding him, their shirts were sprayed with his blood and the floor behind him was covered in the gore.
Clayton rushed forward, his fists raised and a knife held in his right hand. He jumped for Bear’s back.
“Clayton!” Joe screamed for him just as Bear turned and swatted at the boy, sending him flying through the air as if he were nothing and crashing into the wall with a thud.
Joe stared in shock at her son but he didn’t move.
It was in that exact moment that hell broke loose.
Everyone went for a gun at once and dove for cover when they realized everyone was armed. Then the sound of gunshots came from outside.
Joe was firing at the guards when she saw Scarlett hoisting Clayton into her arms. She fired at the woman but her shot was wide given her awkward position behind the chair.
She saw the Sheriff pinned down behind a dining cart only about six feet away and then she realized that Scarlett was running down the hall to the kitchens and cellars with Clayton in her arms and Bear behind her providing cover fire.
Joe screamed with a mixture of rage and desperation when she realized she was out of bullets. The hadn’t planned for a firefight! More guards were coming in now and it would only be moments before they reached her and filled her full of holes.
Joe could still hear gunshots blasting outside and she wondered where Jonah was…. She gripped the knife in her hand tightly as she tossed her useless gun away. She looked back at the sheriff and saw him reach in his pocket and pull out a stick of dynamite. His movements hidden from the guards by the cart he was behind.
“What are ya doin’?” she demanded.
“I couldn’t save my family, Joe. I’m gonna do what I can to save yours.”
“No!” Joe exclaimed when she realized what he was going to do and the sheriff just smiled and nodded. “I’ve been wanting to see them again for a long long time. I figure this is pretty damn noble excuse to get it done.” He pulled out his matches and lit the stick of dynamite. Joe watched the wick burning down and then he winked at her.
“I’d get out of this room now if I were you.” He urged. At the same time they stood and, while Joe made a quick escape to the hallway with bullets whizzing all around her and yet somehow missing their marks, she was aware of the sheriff running at the door the guards were all gathered around.
Joe took cover behind the wall and watched Sheriff Phillip’s. She felt tears fill her eyes as she watched bullet after bullet rip through his body but still the man ran. The guards sent up calls of alarm when they noticed the dynamite the man held firmly in his blood covered hand.
Joe threw herself onto her stomach and covered her ears just before that red stick blew. The force of the explosion rocked her, shaking her clear down to her bones as blood, wood, stone and debris rained down upon the dining room.
Joe couldn’t see through the smoke to see what was happening inside that room and she knew it was probably good. She didn’t want to see what was left of the brave man who had just sacrificed himself to help a family and save a boy that he didn’t really know.
Joe scrambled to her feet and ran down the hall with that knife still clutched tight. She heard Clayton cry out for her before Scarlett hissed for him to shut his mouth. Joe ran faster, following the sound and then quite suddenly an arm shot out from a doorway and caught her in the neck, stealing her breath and knocking her to ground.
As she struggled to catch her bearings and fight off the pain, she looked up just in time to see Bear smiling before his boot connected hard with her temple and she fell into unconsciousness.
***
“Goddammit!” Jonah roared with rage as a bullet grazed his shoulder. “I’ll kill that skinny fucking Mexican bastard if he ain’t already dead!” Jonah wasn’t sure who he was talking to since Reb was currently thirty yards away behind a set of barrels firing at the guards who were taking cover behind the cart that Joe and Sheriff Phillips had ridden in on.
The moment Reb and told Jonah Scarlett had Bart, Jonah had known the plan was a thing of the past. They had quickly run for the fort and then they’d heard the gunshot from inside.
Jonah’s heart had stopped beating and he’d quit drawing breaths after that shot sounded and as far as he could tell nothing in him had beaten or breathed since.
Killing the watchtower guards had been easy. He and Reb had each picked one, taken aim with carbines and killed them at the same time. Then they’d used dynamite to blast their way through the gate.
It had been a blur of gunfire since.
The sound of a dynamite blast suddenly rocketed from inside the mansion and Jonah lost all control of himself and all patience for this bullshit. He wanted his family and he wanted them NOW! Pulling five sticks of dynamite from his pocket, Jonah lit them all quickly and then waited for the wicks to burn down to almost nothing before standing and running at the cart.
He felt another bullet graze his leg but he didn’t stop and the guards quickly stopped shooting and started scattering when he threw those sticks of dynamite and then dove behind the stone gargoyle statue.
He saw Reb hightailing it as well just before the dynamite blew and blasted the cart, and most of the guards straight to hell.
While the few remaining guards were still recovering from the shock of the blast, Jonah reloaded his two revolvers; the .45 he’d always carried and a .38 he’d stolen off the guard he’d killed in the woods the day before. Jonah picked up his carbine which still had several shots left and then ran into the mansion, praying like hell he wouldn’t find his family among the dead bodies littering the floor.