California Crackdown tt-324 Read online

  Peering over the gold-rimmed glasses that had slid down his pointed nose, Hodges constantly rubbed his fingers against a bald pate and sniffed as if he was coming down with a cold. He sat in a room that rivaled a small library in number of books. In addition to a massive globe, an equally massive lantern, and a relatively modest pipe rack, the hardwood floor shone and the mullioned windows gleamed with daylight.

  Fargo was used to hanging judges who swilled whiskey and befouled the room with the smoke of cheap cigars as they made their rash and often mistaken rulings.

  Fargo had told the judge why the people named on the list he handed over should become the official owners in equal parts of the mine. The judge offered neither word nor even expression. He lowered his head and began his seemingly endless consideration of the appeal.

  Fargo and Walt and Jim exchanged many useless glances as they stood before his desk. Once, Jim sighed deeply. The judge peered up over his glasses and frowned. “Are you in a hurry, young man?”

  It was like being back in a schoolhouse when the teacher decided to pick on you and make your life hell. “No, sir,” Jim said, his face red.

  “Good. Because I’m not either.”

  A well-polished grandfather clock in one corner ticked off the long minutes. The judge had a law book open on the right side of his desk. He consulted it frequently.

  Then came the surprise. The judge looked up and said, “I’m granting your request. The people on your list will become equal owners of the mine.” He pushed his glasses up on his nose and called for his court clerk to come into the office. He spent a minute having his clerk read the will and the list of names into the court record, then said simply: “Good day, gentlemen.”

  Outside the county courthouse, Fargo stood with Hank, Walt, and Jim. The sun had gone behind the mountains, casting the valley and the town into shadows. It was still hot, but there was the promise of a cool evening in the air.

  “That judge was a right friendly gent,” Jim said. “Figured he’d invite us all for a drink.”

  “Yeah.” Walt laughed. “With poison in it.”

  Fargo laughed too, but then got right back to work.

  “Get everyone ready and guards posted,” Fargo said to them. “When Brant and his daughter hear about this, they may try a full-out attack on the mine. If they can blow up the mine opening or shut you down in some way, then they can tunnel into the vein and claim it as theirs. Be ready. Both aboveground and below. For the first time, we’re ahead of them, and they’re not going to like that.”

  “Let them come,” Hank said. “Thanks to your idea, every man working the mine has a real reason to fight. I doubt Brant’s men do. And that’s going to make a difference.”

  “I have no doubt about that,” Fargo said.

  “What are you going to do?” Walt asked.

  “Get a good night’s sleep, first off,” Fargo said, smiling. “Don’t worry—I’ll be around. I’m going to be like a kid with a stick poking at a beehive when it comes to Brant. I have a score to settle.”

  “If you need any help, you know where we’ll be,” Hank said. “And as long as you’re here helping us, we’ll keep paying you the same price Cain was paying you.”

  “No need,” Fargo said. “Save your money. You have to split it a lot of ways. And besides, I tend to work alone. But thanks.”

  “Thank you,” Hank said. He shook Fargo’s hand and then the three of them headed back to their mine.

  Fargo turned and headed for the Wallace Hotel. Anne had gone back ahead of him after the judge had declared the will official. This time he went in the hotel entrance, nodding at the desk clerk before climbing the stairs to his room. Before he could put the key in the door, a soft voice came from down the hall.

  “Where do you think you’re going, mister?” Anne poked her head out her door and smiled at him.

  “I was hoping to get cleaned up, then a little dinner with a beautiful woman, a short love-making session, and a long night’s sleep. Do you know anyone who might want to help me with all that?”

  Anne laughed. “I sure do. This way.” She stuck her arm out the door and gestured that he should come to her.

  She swung open the door as he neared, showing him that she was standing there completely naked.

  The sight took his breath away. She was one of the most beautiful women he had ever known.

  He stopped for a moment just to stare, then stepped inside, afraid to even try a comment.

  She pointed to the large tub in the corner. “I just happened to be getting ready for a bath and figured you might want to join me.”

  “I could use a bath, but you probably hadn’t noticed,” he said.

  She laughed. “Now that you mention it—” She looked into his lake blue eyes for a moment, then kissed him solidly on the lips.

  He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her close, feeling her breasts push into him. It felt really good being back here with her.

  She pushed him away and then slowly worked to take off his shirt. When she saw his bandages, she gasped.

  “Are you sure you’re all right?”

  “Let’s check,” he said. “I could use your help trimming some of the stitches the doc used on me.”

  Carefully, with her help, he pulled off the bandage on his shoulder. Under it, the hole where the bullet had gone in looked red, but not swollen with any infection. It looked like the doctor had done a good job on that one.

  She turned him around and carefully pulled off the bandage in back. That hole was slightly larger from what the doc had told him. Exit wounds usually were.

  “How’s it look?” he asked her.

  “Painful,” she said. “But healing. Trimming the ends of the stitching won’t hurt you, and a bath might even help them a little, make sure they’re clean. Do you have a fresh shirt to wear?”

  “One,” he said.

  “We’ll send the rest of your things to the laundry tomorrow. You need to keep clean shirts on these wounds until they finish healing.”

  “Thank you, nurse,” he said, turning around and kissing her. “Anyone ever tell you that you have a great bedside manner?”

  “And I thought it was just the uniform,” she said.

  He laughed. “That helps, I have to admit.”

  She helped him out of his boots and trousers, then into the tub.

  It took him a moment to settle in to the hot water, but once he was in, he could feel the aches and tiredness in his muscles slowly draining away. There was sure something to be said about hot baths. At least after a few days like he had just had.

  She scrubbed him down with a rough sponge like he was a horse, being careful around his wounds and then using only her soft hands on his private parts.

  He tried to wash her as well, especially those hidden areas between her legs, but she kept moving his hands away, telling him to wait his turn.

  Finally, when she was done scrubbing off a layer of his skin, she told him to lie back and enjoy the moment.

  She moved to the other end of the large, narrow tub and sat up on the end, her feet still touching his, her legs open so that he could see her most intimate parts. If this wasn’t heaven, he didn’t know what could beat it.

  Slowly, not missing an inch, she used the sponge to wash herself. She started with her neck, then worked down her arms, bending down every so often to dip the sponge in the water.

  He watched her breasts move as she moved. He watched the soapy water run down her body, over her breasts, down her stomach, and through the fine brown hair between her legs. He was mesmerized following the water, staring at her every movement.

  He was as hard as he ever remembered being, and it took every ounce of willpower he had not to take her right then.

  She seemed to spend extra time on her breasts, moving them around, soaping them again, rubbing them.

  Never, in all his life, had he felt so aroused by simply watching a woman. He never wanted the moment to end.

  Sh
e had the look of intense lust that he had come to recognize. Her eyes were slits, not really seeing anything, her face filled with a smile of contentment.

  She let out a low moan and looked at him.

  He reached for her and she slipped down into the water, moving quickly to impale herself on his thick rod. As her warm slickness settled over him, she sighed and then shuddered, reaching a peak all on her own, without him even having to move.

  He held her for a moment as her shuddering eased. Then he started moving under her, sloshing the water slowly back and forth in long, rolling waves.

  She joined in his movements perfectly, holding him while being careful to not touch his wounds.

  Faster and faster they went, the waves on the water becoming like those on an angry lake in a violent storm.

  After a moment, Fargo knew he couldn’t hold on any longer and he pushed up into her, emptying himself as she again reached another peak and shuddered with him.

  They lay there, she in his arms, he still inside her, letting the waves calm.

  All he could think about was how good this felt. How good she felt.

  Finally, as he softened and started to slip out of her, she looked up at him and smiled, her green eyes alive and glowing. “You sure know how to make a girl hungry. I think the chef has a couple of special steaks in the kitchen cut just for us.”

  He laughed and kissed her. “Woman, I think that fits in to my evening plans perfectly.”

  She was right. The steaks were perfect, thick and juicy. And the conversation was even better. Not one word about Sarah or Henry Brant or Cain or Daniel.

  They made love again slowly in her feather bed after dinner and the next thing he knew, the sun was coming up again and she was gone. How she managed to get up, get dressed, and leave without waking him was beyond his imagination. Yet somehow she had managed it.

  In his own room, he put on his last clean shirt, gently pulling it over his now exposed wounds. Then he left the rest of his clothes in a pile on his bed for Anne’s laundry service to take and clean. After getting shot, he needed a new shirt as well.

  With his Colt tied to his hip, he went looking for Anne. He found her happily doing paperwork in her office.

  “Morning,” she said. “I was just about to wake you to join me for breakfast.”

  “Timing is everything,” he said. “You missed the chance to see me without my britches on again.”

  Her eyes twinkled and she smiled slyly. “Oh, I took a look before I left.”

  He opened his mouth to say something back and found nothing to say as the image of her standing over him looking at his manhood flashed through his mind.

  She laughed and came around the desk, taking him by the arm and escorting him to the dining room.

  Over breakfast, the conversation turned to what they had both avoided the night before. And he started it.

  “You know, being seen with me could be dangerous for you.”

  She nodded. “I know that. It’s a chance I’m willing to take.”

  “But I’m not,” he said.

  She frowned. “I don’t like the sound of that, Fargo.”

  “I was wondering if you would do me a very big favor.”

  “I’m listening,” she said, but not agreeing to anything yet.

  “I ruined a shirt with two bullet holes. It was a favorite shirt of mine.”

  “I can imagine it was,” she said, looking puzzled.

  “If I escorted you to the train station in Sacramento, would you be so kind as to go into San Francisco for a few days, maybe a week, to find me a new one? It was a very special shirt.”

  She laughed and leaned forward and kissed him. “Why would you think I would do that? I’m not really into running away from a fight, you know.”

  “I know that about you,” he said. “It’s one of the many things I admire about you more than I can tell you. However, look around.”

  He swept his arm around at the beautiful dining room and hotel before she could say anything. “You have an investment and people here to protect. Reg, for one. Just being known to be close to me will put you and them in danger, especially with what I plan on doing very shortly.”

  He took her hands in his across the tablecloth as she stared into his eyes. “I’ve lost one friend this week to these people. I can’t imagine losing you as well, and if you stay here, I’ll be more worried about protecting you than doing what I need to do.”

  She stared at him for the longest time, never letting her gaze waver from his eyes. Finally, she said softly, “What color?”

  It was his turn now to look puzzled.

  “If you’re sending me all the way to San Francisco to shop for a shirt for you, I should at least know what color you want.”

  7

  An hour later, he and Anne were headed down the road. For the first time since he had seen her in Colorado, she had her riding clothes on. She looked just as good in them as she did in a dress. Maybe better, if that was possible. And she was an expert on a horse, riding smoothly with the animal’s motions, clearly comfortable. There wasn’t much about this woman that Fargo didn’t like. In fact, he couldn’t think of one thing.

  Since no one knew she was leaving with him except Reg, and she had told him just a few minutes before she left, Fargo wasn’t too worried about being attacked on their ride. He let himself enjoy it, while at the same time keeping an eye out ahead for any problems.

  Along the way, they talked about various things. She outlined a few problems in the hotel business in general, and her fear that Placerville was about to take a turn for the worse. He told her of some of the troubles at Sharon’s Dream. It was a good conversation with a beautiful companion on a clear, warm day. He wished it could have gone on longer, but in what seemed like no time, they had her horse stabled and were at the station, standing in front of the train that was about to depart for San Francisco. She’d earlier stopped and changed into a dress.

  “I’ll wire you at the hotel in San Francisco when this thing is over and meet you here when you come back.”

  She nodded. “Just be careful.”

  “I always am,” he said. “Thanks for doing this for me.”

  “It’s a lot to go through for one shirt,” she said, smiling up at him. Then she kissed him full on the lips, pulling him down against her. After a moment she let him go, turned, and without another word climbed on to the waiting train.

  He stepped back, the feel of her kiss still on his lips. He was going to miss her, but he felt better with her out of the way. As dirty and nasty as this fight had gotten so far, he had no doubt it was about to get worse. And Anne didn’t deserve to be in the way of it all.

  By that evening, he had checked out of the Wallace Hotel. Just in case anyone was looking or would come asking, he made a public show of telling people where he was going.

  He moved into a guest room on the second floor of the big house at Sharon’s Dream. He figured there, anyone from the Brant ranch would have the most trouble getting close to him or his horse. And since he was going to make himself the target very soon in this fight, being as protected at night as possible was the best idea.

  He had purposely missed Cain and Daniel’s funeral that morning. And neither Hank nor Jim nor Walt had asked him about it. Fargo had never been much for funerals.

  No one had moved into the big house besides him. Fargo guessed that none of them felt right doing so, and that was just fine. He felt odd himself, to tell the truth, wandering around in all of Cain’s things, but right now this worked for a place to stay better than anywhere else he could think of.

  He asked Hank, Jim, and Walt to join him for dinner to plan the next moves and to make sure the mine was set up with their security measures.

  After an hour of talking over a rich beef stew, it was clear to Fargo that the new owners of Sharon’s Dream felt they were ready for just about anything anyone could throw at them. The problem was, they didn’t really understand what was headed their way. They
were mostly miners, solid men who didn’t mind a fight, but who also weren’t trained day after day in the business of fighting.

  Brant had hired a lot of professionals, and chances were he would be hiring even more before this started. One thing Fargo was convinced of, no matter how prepared they were, the miners of Sharon’s Dream were outmatched in a direct fight against professional trailsmen who were willing to kill to collect their day’s pay.

  Fargo was going to try to make sure that fight never got to them.

  “Now,” Fargo said, “I need to ask you one favor. I need a room in the stable secured on all sides and reinforced to hold someone. A prison cell. Can you do that? Make something easy to guard and escape proof?”

  Jim looked at Hank, who was nodding. Finally Hank said, “Sure, when do you need it ready?”

  “Tomorrow sometime, but it may not get used for a few days. It depends on how soon I can track down our future guest.”

  “Can I ask who that might be?” Hank said.

  “No,” Fargo replied. “I’ll make it a surprise.”

  Fargo smiled. The stage was set. Now all he had to do was what he did best—track down his future prisoner, Sarah Brant.

  Anne couldn’t enjoy the train trip. She was worried about Fargo. She knew that he was in a battle he might lose. And pay for with his life. Friendship mattered to Fargo. Nothing would stop him.

  The train offered the convenience of speed and the inconvenience of noisy children and irritating drummers who thought that their dubious charms just might get them a little fun when nighttime came and trysts were possible in certain parts of the passenger cars.

  A man with a ginger mustache that extended at least an inch from both sides of his upper lip abruptly sat down next to her without permission or warning. His checkered suit and cheap cigar marked him as one of the standard-issue peddlers who roamed the West in pursuit of modest fortunes and immodest moments with as many women as they could get their hands on.

  He looked over at her and smiled his cold rattle-snake smile and said, “Mind if I sit down?”

  “Looks like you already have.”

  “Well, I guess I have at that.” He tipped his derby. “Gil Fairbain. At your service. Very nice to meet you.”