The hell am I doing, getting keen on bits of him? He’s just some fella. So happens that he’s right nice for a cuddle, sure, but that don’t mean a thing. Folk do far more without batting an eye. Besides, the bat’s daft. Worse than just going along with the way of things, he’s dead set on keeping things as they are, on arresting folk like me. Not someone this bun can afford to cotton to, even if his manly parts were rather diverting to fiddle with. I think back to last night and the gropes and glances I got in the moonlight. Curse me six ways from sorry, but I have always been the curious sort…
I lift up his wing. His penis retracted at some point in the night. Turns out I was right: it does work like a stallion’s. I giggle at the thought of saddling my lawbat up for a ride.
He stirs. Those brown eyes open just a bit. He smiles at me. “Morning.”
Fur hot at being caught peeking, I touch my nose to his before I can stop myself. “Mornin’, lawbat.”
“Some’d consider it rude to laugh at a fella when he’s not decent.”
I make a show of looking down again. “Oh, you look plenty decent to me.”
He is right adorable when he blushes.
“So…” I clear my throat. “Are all fellas fitted out like you?”
“Uhh… Well, everybody’s born different, just like with everything. Based on species, of course. But yeah, they all work about the same.”
I laugh at the flustered fruit bat. He does, too, and runs a paw along my neck.
He touches the pin I keep on my vest, an old Army pin that says ‘VI.’ He looks up to me. “This why they call you ‘Six Shooter’?”
I nod. “Somebody very dear to me gave me that pin.”
The flying fox smiles. “I hope, someday, I get to hear that story.”
I meet his eyes, a little dreamy. “Hope, someday, I get to tell it.”
He pulls me in closer.
I blush at the close quarters, my body stiffening even as my brain softens with a case of the lovey-doveies. “Jordan?”
“Yeah?”
“I don’t ask this too often, but I figure tonight’s got plenty of firsts; what’s one more?”
“Okay.” Sounding uncertain, he tightens his grip on me just a little. I can feel his breath on my neck.
I pause and mull for a bit. I run my fingers through the fur of his chest. “I think I need your help.”
We lie like that for a while, soaking up each other’s warmth. I want it to last forever, but the reason I came here is building up inside me. Once I can’t take any more, I sigh to clear my mind. He makes a little noise of curiosity. Just like Daddy taught, I sort out my thoughts, then talk. “It happened three days ago. I had done some considering on what you said.”
Blake pulls me in with his wing just a bit. “About me keeping you safe?”
“About me keepin’ me safe!” I tap a paw against his chest. “I figure, sooner or later, Hayes is going to get word from his beefers we put in the clink. He’s gonna hear that some tall, scrawny bunny fella made off with his loot. Granted, there’s a mess a’ bunnies out here, but most of ‘em don’t know a pistol from a pine cone.”
“Fair to say you do.”
“Dang right it’s fair. Now hush. I decided the best way to make sure Hayes ain’t wise to me is to get wise to him. More especially, his crooked dealings. That way, if he sees fit to send trouble my way, I can send it right back.”
“Blackmail?”
“Blackmailing Hayes would buy me a bullet in the back. That lion’s yella clear through. I’m talkin’ giving him difficulties bigger than some bunny with his cash. The manner of difficulties that turn deadly if you don’t see to them directly.”
“Ah.”
“Got a tingle in my ears and started pokin’ around at the mine he bought up north of town.”
“I heard about that place.” Blake nods. “Ran dry a dozen years ago. Most folks are glad about him opening it, think it’ll bring money into the town.”
“Well, if he’s pulled a fleck of gold outta the ground, I couldn’t find it.”
He stops stroking my ears for a moment. “I’m sure you looked.”
“A bunny’s gotta live. Besides, if Hayes had his druthers, you’d be feedin’ the wildlife back where they dry-gulched us.” I adjust my ears so I’m not laying on ‘em, and just so happens that this means he can pet them better. “He’s been in there alright. Thing is, he brings in cattle with him.”
“Cattle?”
“As in calves.”
“What’s he need cows in a mine for?”
“Just what I thought. And not just one or two. He’s brought at least a dozen of ‘em down since I’ve been watchin’. Whatever he does, they don’t come back out. Just bones picked clean... Don’t you think that’s a touch odd?”
The lawbat shrugs his wings. “Lions are meat-eaters. They’re given to odd behavior sometimes.”
“Hasn’t taken in any equipment for cooking or mining either. Just a string of little calves.” “And now I start hearing rumors ‘bout folk gone missing.”
“Rumors?” His eyes question me.
“You seen that old raccoon with the sickle lately?”
“Harland Myers? No, come to think of it.”
“Neither has anybody else. Not for near on a week.”
He nods, scratching his chin with a wing thumb. “He’s always seemed a trifle odd, though; caught him staring into nothing the other day. But that doesn’t implicate Hayes at all.”
I glare on him a moment before continuing. “Or that mutt who got in a tussle with Hayes’ goons last night. He’s gone too.”
“That one’s news to me and I’ll have to look into it.” He set his muzzle in a thoughtful frown. “But folk leave town, Six.”
“Folk who don’t own a pony? And there hasn’t been a stage through in weeks.”
He swivels an ear my way. “And you think Hayes chased them off?”
“Ah don’t claim to know. All I know is they’re gone.” I shift again him, wishing he’d wrap my up in his wings a little longer. “And then there’s those carts a’ ore Hayes’ been haulin’ straight through town…”
“Ore?”
“As in rocks. No gold.”
“Why bother bringing back rocks?”
“Just what I thought. And not just one or two. He’s brought half a dozen out of there since I’ve been watching. Whatever it’s for, he hides it at that blasting powder factory of his. Don’t you think that’s a touch odd?”
The lawbat shrugs his wings. “I’ll admit it is peculiar.”
“Carts and carts of these shiny rocks just happen to keep heading to his dynamite plant. That ring true to you?”
“No, but there’s no reason to believe he’s doing anything illegal.” He looks up at me, those darling brown eyes dang near driving me to distraction.
“Look, I don’t know what I’m gettin’ at exactly, but I got a…” I close my eyes. “…feeling about this. ‘Specially so when I got close to those carts.”
He brushes his muzzle on mine ‘til I look down at him. He sits up a bit, ears up. His face is honest. “How do I play in?”
“I don’t know… I guess ya come have a look-see.”
The bat looks a touch confused. “Look, Six, I trust you, but I can’t just leave town for a few days and go trespassing on private property on account of just a feeling. If we were to head up to County Records, take this the official road…”
I look away, feeling stupid I even asked. I scoot back a little from under his wing.
He notices my backing off, but makes no move to keep me there, except with his eyes. “Hey, now…”
I wring my paws. I can shoot the cap off a longneck at twenty yards, but this is tough. “Blake, I know I sound like I’m on a bender, but I ain’t really up to my ears in frien— lawbats.”
“Tell you what, we’ll get some breakfast here and check into what you’ve heard.” He nods toward the door, then noses in against my ear with a little grin. “Disinclined as I am to have us leave where we’re at…”
I blush at that last, but take a breath, steeling up my resolve. “And what if Hayes fixes on blastin’ us all sky high? You willin’ to wait, Sheriff?”
“It’ll only take a day. At most.” His thin, serious muzzle lays against my neck. “I can’t just go traipsing over and arrest a man without cause. We’ve got no evidence yet he’s playing the game crooked. Let me talk to people—”
“Ya wanna talk? You can talk to me, either at the mine or when I get back. I’m finding out what’s this is about ‘fore Hayes decides I’m worth investin’ some bullets in.” I roll back, dropping my hind paws off the side of the bed. My bare legs and the white fur of my more personal areas gives me a touch of embarrassment, but not enough to put the brakes on this train. I’ve got myself riled, and my pride won’t let me turn back. I pull on my britches and am halfway through the left boot when he touches my back. I tense for a moment. Having a man touch me as he pleases is going to take this bunny some getting used to. At least I haven’t shot him yet. Well, except the once. My guns feel cold despite having been under the covers with us all the warm night.
His voice is soft, so is his wing against my back. “Six, you don’t have to do this alone. I’ll help you.”
This damn right boot always fights me when I’m in a hurry. Hot blood runs to my ears. My words have more bite than I mean them to: “Really? For somebody with wings, ya sure are sold on sittin’ still.”
“I give you my word of honor.”
I keep myself from turning around. I don’t care to have him see my face just now. One kind of naked is enough for today. “That don’t mean a lot out here.”
“Does to me.”
I get that right boot on with brute muscle. It hurts my hind paw, but I’m ready to walk. “I’d best be gettin’ a wiggle on.”
Blake’s still getting his long johns in order while I stand up and walk to the door. I catch him giving me a look that darn near draws me back in. I check the chambers on my guns and head out.
* * * * *
It’s noon. The sun is hot on my fur. I’ve been walking up this mountain for hours. I could get up faster, but that would mean taking the road, and I am not keen on being spotted. Don’t believe Hayes would be too hesitant to do me in, seeing as how I am far out of town. A quick draw isn’t worth a red cent if somebody else has the first shot. Luckily, there’s plenty of rock and brush to use as cover. My guns murmur, heavier than usual.
Damn Blake and his rules! That little fruit-munching flutter rat… By my Daddy’s ghost, I ought to just drag him hog-tied after me the next time. Ought to not even be a next time. Damned bat’s eager as a Lab on lunch break to shove his muzzle in my personal affairs, but then can’t even be bothered to have my back the morning after!
What’s worse, I’m not just mad at him, like I got every right to be. I’m near on sullen, getting all lovesick over this rule-toting dullard. I haven’t been this torn up since I was a teenager and Mama moved me back to the Old States. Mama ran the farm fine for years, but Daddy’s coffin wasn’t hardly covered in dirt ‘fore she had us on a train east, like the Frontier hadn’t been the only home I’d ever known. Oh, she fit in fine with the finer sorts, having tea parties and gossiping everything into a scandal. Not me. I’m more suited to kicking up a ruckus at some shindig than prattling away at some gala. If being a busybody what it takes to be a proper lady, I’ll be wearing these britches to the grave, thank you kindly.
I’m wanting for a Quirley something terrible, but a dog could smell tobacco smoke from a mile off. I content myself with some of the dried berries I lifted off the Scoria Grove general store for shortchanging me on the guns from Hayes’s men. They’re bitter. Ain’t that just the way of the world?
I make it up the rest of the way without trouble. My little crow’s nest is still here. I settle back into the little space in the rock, shaped like it was scooped out just for clever bunnies. Shaded too, which is good since I only have the water I carry up. Overlooks the mouth of the mine. Last time, I hid up here for two days without them seeing me, watching Hayes come and go with his strings of carts. Saw a few others with him, his men no doubt, but none I’d seen before.
As of this moment, there are at least three people down there, ambling near the mine entrance. Too far away to tell species as they’re unloading a small wagon of supplies all leisureful. Boss must not be around.
I figure I’ll wait ‘til nightfall, then weasel my way in. Neither of the air shafts I found are big enough to crawl through— I’ll have to go in the main way. I’ll slink around until I find just what Hayes has brewing down there, then ask him to stop real nice. I check my guns. Right in the middle of clearing the dust out of ‘em, they take to whispering again. Low and mumbly, the voices set a queer shiver along my hackles. Something’s amiss.
Something moves at the corner of my eye. I duck, still as a stone. Moving slow, I tilt my head, looking up around the brim of my hat. I make out a winged shape in the sky. Blake. Darn fool.
I wave as much as I dare. Seems he doesn’t see me. I even risk flashing my iron at him. Nothing. I consider hollering, but that’s just as likely to bring Hayes’ meat-heads up after me as it is to attract Blake. He lands near the mine entrance. I cuss. My left paw snaps the loading gate back in place on one gun as I caress the one at my hip. I start climbing down, quiet-like. If I can get to Blake before the—
Nope.
Four armed men swarm over the rocks, guns aimed at the lawbat.