Soiled Dove (22 page)

They really couldn’t afford to waste the money. He held his
breath as the man thought about it for a moment and then
slid the pouch toward Clare. She picked it up as she stood
and slipped it carefully into her pocket.

“Let’s go,” she said as she picked up her rifle and
walked past Ino. A heavy mist settled in over the town as
they wordlessly left the saloon and walked toward the
livery where their horses were stabled for the night. Clare
paid the stable boy and began saddling her horse.

“What’s the rush?” Ino asked, belching from the
drinks he’d consumed in anticipation of eventually falling
into bed with one of the saloon girls.

“Something’s come up,” Clare answered. “If you’re too
drunk to go with me I can handle it alone.”

“Naw. I’m good. Just need to take a piss is all.”

“Go out back.”

By the time Ino returned, the heavy mist had become a
steady downpour. He pulled his slicker over his head and
followed Clare into an alleyway near the saloon and
waited. It was less than an hour before the strangers left
the saloon and got back on their horses. They rode away
with Clare and Ino following at a distance.

“Where we goin’?” Ino asked when they were out of
town.

“Depends on how far they go,” Clare answered without
further explanation.

DESPITE THE MISTY, cold weather the cowboys
eventually found a shallow overhang in the foothills
outside Trinidad and started a small fire. Clare and Ino
tied their horses in a grove of trees and silently made their
way toward the campsite on foot. Ino heard the sounds of
the men’s laughter and cursing as they crept up on them.

From behind a stand of brush Clare and Ino watched the
men, although Ino still had no idea why.

“You sober enough to shoot?” Clare whispered.

“Yeah,” Ino said with a nod.

“Then go over to that clump of bushes and wait for my
signal,” she said.

As the men began to settle down, Clare stood and
brought her rifle to her shoulder. Ino stood a few feet to her
left. “Don’t move!” Clare called out.

One of the men reached for his rifle and she rapidly
fired two rounds into the ground close to him, forcing his
hand back.

“What do you want?” one of the men yelled back. “We
ain’t got nothing.”

“Where’d you get the necklace you gambled with
tonight?” Clare demanded, taking two steps closer.

“Won it in a poker game about six months ago,” he
answered.

“You’re a liar!” she screamed and fired another round
so close to his head that dirt flew up and struck his face.

“Who the fuck are you?” he hollered as he jumped back
slightly.

Rainwater streamed from Clare’s hat as she moved
closer. “You stole it from my mother after you murdered
her, my father, and my brother,” she said calmly. The
coldness in her voice sent a shiver down Ino’s spine.

“That’s impossible,” another cowboy said. “Everyone
there was…”

“Obviously not,” Clare said in a hard voice.

“So now you’re going to arrest us all?” the leader of
the group laughed.

“No,” Clare said. “Who was your leader? Tell me and
you’ll die fast.”

When no answer came, Ino asked, “Now what?”

“If it takes all night, I’ll get an answer. My parents and
brother deserve justice,” Clare spat. “Can you handle this?”

she asked when she saw Ino rub his hand over his face.

“Yeah,” he answered softly.

“Then stake them out,” she ordered. She held her rifle
on the men. When one of them reached into his jacket Clare
shot him without hesitation. Ino ran to the man’s body and
rolled him onto his back. He pulled out a pistol and tossed
it into the brush.

“Anyone else feel brave?” Clare snapped.

While she kept the remaining two covered, Ino tied
them down spread eagle on the ground.

“You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to,” she said
when he rejoined her.

“What you gonna do?”

“One of them will tell me who their leader was that day
even if I have to peel the skin from his body one strip at a
time to find out.”

“Let’s take them back into town and turn them over to
the sheriff,” Ino pleaded. “You can’t just murder them. It
won’t make you feel no better, Clare.”

“I’ll sleep like a baby. Did you take any other weapons
off them?”

“Just this pig sticker.”

She took the knife from him and anchored it in her belt.

He grabbed her arm as she started to walk away. “What if
you’re wrong and these ain’t the guys?”

“My mother’s initials were engraved on the back of the
necklace. I’m not wrong.”

“He said he won it in a poker game.”

“He said six months ago. In fact, he said it twice.

When did you find me?” When Ino didn’t answer she said,

“Four months ago.”

Without another word she strode to where the men
were staked out. She stood over the first man and looked
down at him. “I’m your judge and jury tonight. Who led
the attack against my family?”

“Go to hell, bitch!”

A single rifle shot shattered the bone below the knee of
his right leg. He screamed in pain as she chambered
another round and brought the rifle to her shoulder once
again, aiming higher on his leg. His arms strained against
the rope holding him down. “Who led the attack against
my family?” Clare repeated.

“Leave him alone!” the second man yelled. “He don’t
know nothing.”

Clare turned and fired down at the second man,
striking him in the thigh. “Shut up! It’ll be your turn soon
enough.” She swung back to the first man. “Who was it?”

“I don’t know. I only joined up with these men last
month.”

Another bullet ripped through his upper leg just above
the knee, followed by another agonized scream. Ino was
watching and beginning to feel sick to his stomach. He
came up beside her and took a deep breath. “Stop,” he said.

“Go stay with the horses,” she ordered. “This might
take a while.”

“You’re not any better than they are if you keep this
up,” Ino said through gritted teeth.

“No! They had a choice! Now go!”

She looked back down at the man who was now crying
in pain. “I can shoot you lots of places that won’t kill you
right off, but you’ll suffer. Tell me what I want to know.”

“I…I don’t know his name.” Clare chambered another
round. “I swear to God! I don’t know his name,” he
begged. “He headed out on his own afterward and we ain’t
seen him since.”

Clare turned the rifle on the other man. “What’s his
name?”

“TJ is all I know. Never knew his last name.”

“Do you regret what you did?”

“You was easy pickings. All alone out there. You were
asking for it,” he sneered defiantly.

Ino saw Clare’s face turn red with rage as she brought
the rifle to her shoulder. “My brother was only eight-years-old. All he was asking for was a chance to live.”

Without another word Clare pulled the knife from her
waist and knelt between the two men. She ripped open each
man’s shirt and drew the blade across their chests. Blood
oozed to the surface of their chests and traveled down their
sides. “I won’t kill you, but you’ll die soon enough,” she
said. She stood and looked down at the bleeding men before
she strode away without looking back. Ino followed her a
few seconds later.

“SO YOU SEE,
senorita
, Clare’s not the woman people think she is. She can be kind, but, like everyone else, she has a dark side,” Ino said with a sigh. “There are times when she can’t control her anger.”

“That’s…horrible, Ino. And you never told anyone about that night?”

“No. Someone found them, still staked out, half-eaten by vultures and coyotes, and told the sheriff.

But many days had passed. What could he do?” Ino said with a shrug.

“If they murdered her family then perhaps they deserved to die.”

“Perhaps. But it is not my place to judge. She still looks at strangers wondering if they’re the leader, TJ.

I don’t know what she’ll do if she ever does find him.

It’s all she seems to live for sometimes.”

“How did you find out that Clare liked, you know, other women?”

“By accident. Clare don’t drink much, but one night a long time ago, maybe about twelve years now, we’d had a very hard month. Almost out of money, barely payin’ the hands. About all we had left was a couple of bottles of whiskey we used mostly to clean out wounds on the cattle and horses. We was both tired and thought a few drinks would help us sleep.

Next thing we know we drank just about all that rotgut. Sometimes too much whiskey can make you feel kinda sorry for youself. Next thing I know Clare is bawlin’ like a baby about her folks, her little brother, their home in Pennsylvania, and some gal named Annalee. I wasn’t feeling much pain by then myself and didn’t think much of it. I already knew about her family and she told me a little about the farm they owned. Sounded real nice. Then she started telling me about how she was the reason her folks was dead. All because of this Annalee. Said the kiss didn’t mean nothin’, but I could tell in her eyes that it did to her. She said they was caught by Annalee’s mama doin’ something respectable girls didn’t do. Guess Annalee’s mama made a fuss and that’s when Clare’s folks up and moved west. Women who do something real shameful could be killed or at least run out of town. So I guess in Clare’s head, whatever happened between her and Annalee made her folks move. Then they were killed and she survived. Been punishin’

herself for it ever since.”

“It wasn’t her fault those men attacked her family.”

“She don’t see it that way. Don’t want nothin’ like that to ever happen again. Made me promise I would make sure she didn’t fuck up. That’s what I been doin’ ever since except when we go to town and she stays with Peg.”

“Peg?” Loretta was surprised, but remembered what the storekeeper had said about the only friends Clare had. Saloon girls and whores.

“Peg’s been here almost as long as me and Clare.

Clare likes her and I reckon Peg feels the same way about Clare. When we go to town I stay with Miss Mavis. So who am I to say anything if Clare spends time with a prostitute?” Ino shrugged. “That Peg. She can keep a secret better than anyone I know.”

Loretta frowned. Clare spent time with a prostitute and that made it all right with Ino.

“If you don’t see anything wrong with Clare spending time with Peg, a prostitute, then does that mean it’s only all right as long as the other woman is a prostitute?” Loretta fumed.

“Whorin’s a sin, being with a whore’s a sin, what Clare does is a sin, so I guess if she has to do what she does, then it might as well be with a whore.

Everybody has needs and Clare sure ain’t no damn nun. I don’t meddle in her private life.”

“As long as it’s only with a whore.”

“Peg won’t tell to save her own skin, so I don’t interfere.”

“So, if I was a prostitute, a relationship between me and Clare would be acceptable to you.”

“Yeah, but you ain’t.”

Loretta wanted to throw her head back and laugh at the irony. She thought all her problems would be solved if she left her life as a prostitute behind and started a new life.

“Clare won’t mean to hurt you, but she will,” Ino said solemnly. There was a touch of sadness in his voice. “Clare’s my friend and I would be happy to see her happy. I’ll protect her with my life, but she can shut you out in a minute and you’ll never know why.

Then she goes away for a few days and comes back and acts like the same old Clare.”

“Do you think she’ll eventually come home, knowing I’m here?”

“Can’t say. She’s damn stubborn. If she don’t want to see you or talk to you, she won’t, and there ain’t nothin’ you can do about it.”

Chapter Thirteen

ONCE BRANDING SEASON was in full swing, Clare and her men were out with the herd from dawn to dusk. When the men returned to the ranch at night they were almost too tired to eat, regardless of how wonderful the meal was. The herd was growing at a faster rate than anyone anticipated. The new fence between her property and the Garner ranch had made the herd much more manageable. That, along with using fence riders and night riders, kept the herd from being plundered.

Clare grabbed the lariat around the neck of a large calf and strode closer to the animal, then reached down and grasped its legs, lifting it slightly until it fell onto its side. She dropped her knee onto its flank and held it while Ino took the branding iron and pressed the design into its hide. Smoke rose lazily from the animal’s skin as Clare stood up and released it to rejoin the herd. She wiped her forehead with the back of her gloved hand and waited for the next calf.

“Rider comin’!” Frank called out.

Clare bent down and picked up her rifle when she saw a trail of dust moving in their direction. Her nerves kicked into high when the wagon came into sight and she saw the woman handling the reins.

“Take a break,” she ordered.

Clare grabbed the traces of the two horses pulling the ranch wagon as Loretta drew the reins back.