Fight for Glory (My Wounded Soldier #1) (17 page)

“Who in the hell
took him?” I yelled.

“They said…we got
us a lawman. They
was
looking for Jimmy, and the one
said, ‘let’s take this one.’”

“You didn’t see
him again?”

“No. He was so
drunk…we all were. He just went along.”

“What time?”

“Sometime this morning.
Rooster crowed shortly after seemed
like.
Nearly sun-up?”

He was lucky to
be covered in puke. I could never abide it. But I could not think of it now. I
went to Jimmy. “We go now.”

They were already
preparing to ride out. We were waiting on the paperwork Jimmy insisted on the
judge signing. I told him to hell with it. We couldn’t think of the reward
money now.

“They took
Gaylin. I don’t know who else would.” I repeated.

I told him the
how of it, and we got to it then, preparing to ride.

William, Michael
and I rode our saddle horses. Jimmy had his black. William led, walking his
mount until he picked up the trail a mile out of town, headed south. Then it
would be this way, he’d set the pace, walking, riding, walking, and we’d try to
stay out of his way.

I tried to ready
myself for coming on Gaylin, dead, and I had to let the thinking get stronger
than the dread. Way I feared it was
,
they took him as
an answer to Jimmy’s posse. Jimmy had thrown the gauntlet down and they had
answered, first with the train, then with taking his deputy from under his
nose. Stands to reason they would kill Gaylin and leave him where we could see.

“They won’t kill
him,” Jimmy insisted, though we would not talk much now. “This is a come and
get me. That’s what it is. They ain’t killed but down Mexico way. They
know if they kill a lawman ever agent within five hundred miles will come for
them.”

“Soon’s hang for
one thing than another,” I said.

“I’m telling you
they won’t kill him. Folks won’t cover for Monroe if’n he kills.”

“If they share in
the money, they’ll hide him from Jesus,” I said.

“He’d have to run
too hard.
Me
an William watched them too long. You’ll
see. He stays put most the time and sends the others out to steal. I suspect
he’s poorly.”

Most time Jimmy
was right, but like Addie said, only God had it figured out. But the more we
rode and didn’t come upon Gaylin dead, the more the red filthy rage hardened
into patience, and that took over.

I hoped Gaylin
didn’t fight. I hoped he had some submission in him, but Jimmy said I didn’t
have any, and I’d been fighting most my life. And he was like me. He was just
like me. And they’d want to hurt him. That they would do.

Michael offered
me his flask and I took it like wine to a sinner, I did. But it didn’t taste
good going in. Nothing could fix this but what would fix it.

If I had to face
them with another dead son, they’d follow after. I’d be putting my family in
the earth. Jimmy was wrong. I would have no one.

I pulled that
bandana just enough out of my pocket that I could see it there anytime, that I
could touch it if need be. I would bring us back together, all of us. And God
help the man…God help him for I would wreak retribution.

But I shoved that
bit of cloth away then. Best to lay that side of myself on the by and by until
this was over. I knew who I had to be now. Oh, I knew him.

Tom
Tanner

Chapter
Twenty-One

Lord how we rode,
dust and leather, squeak of saddle,
hee-yah
,
and
whoa-there
. Flies buzzing, trying
to bite, weeds whacking us in the face where the trail closed in, cause they
picked the old trails, the scant ones like William’s pa would have used, coming
from the north in sorrow.

Back in them days, too many children coming, six beyond William.
She wanted the south, and he liked to roam, so when they left, William stayed
behind.

First with Jimmy.
One more there and nobody cared. Ma
Leidner was dead from birthing. His pa lived in the bottle, crawled in and died
there is
all.
Then the children scattered.

The year he was
fourteen, Jimmy moved in to winter with that widow-woman. Ma nearly had a fit,
went to get him, but he wouldn’t come, wouldn’t leave her until Garrett pulled
him out.

William and
me
were closer than brothers by then. I moved in the barn so
he could breathe, be away from the smells, slip away in the night if it took
him. Out he’d go, to that tree his pa had lived in before his ma Sally wanted
more. We run dogs all night in the summer on these trails, and I could see
trace better than most, but not like him. Nobody like him
cause
he saw things silver if they were different. It couldn’t be learned.

Now I watched
William’s hat, full crown, wide brim, and the dark hair beneath, couldn’t make
its mind what it was.

My body took to
the saddle again, knowing the way of it here, though I had not been riding as
hard as them for some months. We rode in the heat, picked our ways and drank
water and something
stronger,
ate coosh, but we did
not stop. I kept my eyes on William as if he was the cure for all the troubles
in this old world.

Jimmy’s eyes
turned black from where I busted that nose, that profile he loved so much. Oh
Lord if there was love in my heart, then let this come to a goodly end. For the
fire my Addie had lit in me was spreading it seemed, like a
rash.

It was dangerous
to care so much. In battle, I had to be fierce, that was the thing. When I went
to war, it was not Lincoln’s call I thought
about, it was not ending slavery, or even the broken Union,
it was these boys and Garrett. That was why I fought like a son of a bitch.
And my own hide.
That, too.
I got
mad and I wanted to live.

But when I went
home, I wasn’t afraid of the regular thing. I knew on the one hand, farming wasn’t
enough. On the other, it was more than I could handle. Now there was the
problem.
 

While all this
rolled in my head, William stopped then. He’d seen something. I waited, but my
mind was screaming for us to come upon them at long last. If Gaylin was dead
here, I would try to be strong. What we had in our favor was this pressing on
them to keep moving. But that meant they’d just take my brother deeper in,
until they maybe got beyond us, if a body could. We’d be hard to shake now. We’d
keep coming.

Up
ahead
William watched. He was looking for something
different. He didn’t know how it might show, so we had to be still while he
figured it.

After a few
minutes, he held up his hand, waved to the side. We dismounted. I broke away
and tied my horse, as did they. We gathered then, and he led us in advance. Yonder
was a small clearing, and something was on the ground.

In the brush, his
shirt red with blood, so crumpled it was hard to tell it, was a man brought
down like some animal.

We wouldn’t
approach it straight. I touched Jimmy’s arm, and went circled right. I met
Michael halfway and we went in then, from behind. We met Jimmy and William
approaching from the other direction and so we had set a clear perimeter.

William knelt and
rolled him over. Not Gaylin. I could breathe then. I looked hard to make sure
for often you could be fooled right off, telling yourself it couldn’t be…and
then it was. But this was not him, not even close. Older man, well-fed and
clothed, shot in the neck. Had I not been so het up, I’d of noticed how
familiar.

“This here’s Doc
Tusaint,” Jimmy said. And it surely was. We stared at one another. He was
homefolk. This was no good. They’d taken more than one. They were killing them.

“Stay hopeful,”
Jimmy told me.

We looked for a
marker. Jimmy and Michael pulled him near by the boots. Mayhap we’d come for
him after.
If we lived.

Back in the saddle now.
Tusaint’s body told us exactly how
near we were to them. The gap was closing. These were the same had robbed the
train. These were the same touched Allie and Lenora.
 

“What we got,”
William said, “four mounts, one rider apiece now.
Horses
barefoot but for the one who was shod and belonged to Doc. He carried two ‘fore
this,” he motioned to Tusaint, “one of them who was small doubled up. Gaylin
rides head down. Back a ways, spilled his innards,
smelled
of drink. He’s alive.”

My heart leaped
in gratitude. He was alive and we pressed on.

Come on a time
near sunset we watered the horses and let them graze while we took a few
minutes and though I closed my eyes, I resented this. They could kill him right
now, and I’d never forgive myself this respite, but Jimmy said rest, and I saw
some sense for without horses we were sunk, and we’d had little sleep so there
must be reason.

We crossed our
first hill soon after we’d rested. Here and there were farms. We came on the
first one then. Met the man in the field and he climbed off his wagon. He’d
been eating some bread and beans. He tried to ask Jimmy more questions about
things,
who
we were, where we hailed from. He’d heard
of coloreds being deputies, but never seen one before. Was he always free?

William looked
off, like he couldn’t get on that trail fast enough, but this one here might
of
seen something, nosey as he was. There had been riders,
but they kept to themselves. Bringing in a dead one, looked like, him over the
saddle. Wondered why they couldn’t cover that body, at least. Glad his
womenfolk were in the house for they’d lost a son at Franklin.

William had been
right. Our hope was strong now. Dead or alive, Gaylin was with them.

From hill to
trail and back to hill, we followed in their tracks, we kept on it. So it went
for three days of hard riding. We stopped just long enough to feel the earth
stand still,
then
we were on it again. If horses were
powered by steam we never would have stopped, but that was the way of it. Had
we seen others as worthy as the ones we rode, mayhap we’d of forced a change at
gunpoint, but we favored our own.

Jimmy speculated
on what the railroad might pay by man for those had the pluck to rob the train.
It was all taking cattle to market, for him, least that’s how he tried to turn
it to keep us from worry over Gaylin.
 

There would be no
help. Local lawmen would resent us if they did exist, so it would be tricky how
we’d bring them in. But that was the smaller problem now when they held my
brother.

I had stopped
thinking about Addie. No particulars, though I would be assailed by the most
heart-stopping images now and again. They seemed to come out of nowhere and
slam into me, and I would feel the distance. It seemed like months instead of
days since I had the liberty to set my eyes on her. I did not know when she
would leave with Cousin. He had been my nemesis, not Monroe, and now what a shift. I did not
regret him, for I did not know my fate. And he would see to her, but even now
the notion made me grind my teeth.

On that fourth
day, we had lost them since they had gone through a town smelled no better than
my own shit. Jimmy had no wish to follow, except alone. He did not want to pick
up the curiosity of the local folk, though a dog they did not know would make
them such. He went through appearing to be a man on his own and we veered wide,
staying unseen. It was in that town he saw the first sign, “If you enter here
and you’re the law, your day of reckoning has come.”

We had officially
entered Monroe’s
country. Somewhere in me I lost my dread, and I was not tired. Somewhere in me,
I was a soldier again.

William picked up
their trail some miles out from that berg that did not welcome the likes of us.
We trailed them to a place that was a hard ride into the southernmost part of
our state. We went deep in, trying to stay out of the way. When we were
spotted, they watched us, and though we waited for ambush, we were not harmed,
but wherever he was, he was warned, no doubt, that Monroe I meant to say.

Day five, after
several interviews at gunpoint with sundry characters who lived near, we found
ourselves at a rundown cabin, trash all over the yard. They were in there, a
big red-haired one leading the horses round the back to a lean-to. One was
Tusaint’s mount, that gray and brown he’d been so proud to own.

William was far
back, securing our horses. Michael was to the north walking the
line,
Jimmy and me were together on the south, facing the
front of this place. William would walk the west outlay and see. We figured the
three, then four more in the house, more around it mayhap, the big old boy
peeing in the yard. We watched him now. “Healthy stream,” Jimmy whispered, and
I would
of
snickered but for the yelling broke out
from in the house and then a gunshot bringing it back to silence.

I wanted to storm
it and get it over with, but Jimmy would never settle for a direct charge that
would likely get us killed, so I calmed myself down. He grabbed my arm and
said, “That’s about the loot. That’s all.”

Red hair was
shaking off now. The gunshot hadn’t even made him fart.

If William came
upon any, he’d take them, same with Michael. No prisoners now, just lessening
the odds. Do it quick and quiet. That big one threw himself down on the porch,
a shotgun beside him.

We waited a bit,
cause
the sun was slowly dipping. Jimmy tapped me and showed
me what he’d do. He’d move away then, make his way in closer with all the trash
for cover.

I’d seen him like
this, sneaking around and so good at it. I stood slow and backed up a little.

I was ambushed
then. He came from behind, hand gripped my shoulder. I kicked back into his
knee and heard him grunt. When I turned, he stumbled. But he lunged now and I grabbed
that arm that had the knife. I used my body to twist that arm, and brought my
elbow full force down on his. His arm snapped. I wrapped my leg around his and
brought him down to the ground before he could yell. I drove his knife into his
neck with my weight behind it. Other than the choking sounds, it grew still.

I ran to take a
look. That red one on the porch had barely moved. But Jimmy was making goodly
progress in the yard. He crouched behind a trough made out of a log. He had a
revolver in his hand.

I hurried back to
the one who was dead, got his knife and cleaned it on his shirt. Well it felt
so good to kill him. I was gleeful for a minute and felt like I could lick the
whole gang.

But another came
from the bushes then, thinking I was his pard likely. And having that knife in
my hand was a God-send. As I stood, I brought it up into his heart. I twisted
it in and held it there for several long beats. His head opened up before me in
his disbelief, eyes and mouth wide, but I held on.

I dropped that dead
man. He fell near the other. A pile of them was like Christmas to me. I waited
for more, but it was quiet and nothing moving. So that was two. I was
breathing.

Jimmy was halfway
across the yard by now. I’d have to catch up. He couldn’t face them in the
house by himself. We were working a circle of defense, me and the boys. I
didn’t know how they fared, but hoping for the best is what we did in these
times.

I walked my line
then, slow and quiet, and I encountered no other. But one came running,
charging through brush, heedless there were more of us than the one chasing
him.

That boy had big
news for the house. I caught him by surprise. He ran into the butt of my
Enfield across his nose and lip and he went down. Hard enough hit there could
kill a man, but most times it just stunned them good. You could finish them off
before they knew. I cut his throat.

Adding to the
ghosts I was, just hoping we got them all and they didn’t have a bead now on
Jimmy. If they found him so close he was a dead man.

Michael came
busting through and saw I’d bagged this one he’d been chasing. I held up three
fingers.

He nodded and
held up one.

So that
be
four. I pointed William’s way.

He shook his
head. We went to the lookout, and I elbowed him then. He’d keep watch here,
keep cleaning the line. No telling where it would break out first. He heard it
break he’d come running. So would William.
Our back-up.

There’d been that
shot fired from in the house. I had to get close up now. I had to piss, but it
didn’t matter. Soon I’d be shitting my pants. Thank God I had fat from Ma’s
table. I had not
ate
something good since leaving
home.

This place was a
junkyard. Hominy block looked like an abandoned rotting tower, quern turned
over beside it.
Harrow and plow rotting in a pile, and more
than one wagon used for shooting practice.
Hay still piled on one, whole
thing rotting gray. A grain cradle stuck in the earth with two pair a socks
drying upon it, they so rotted now might as well been left on another season. So
I crawled through this sad story, and Red never moved.
Window
though, so dirty, like a scabby eye on me could hide the dragon for sure.