The Copper City by Chris Scott Wilson Read Free Book Online Page B

you?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œWhat then?”
    â€œJust be one of my guards.”
    â€œThat’s what I said. You want me to kill a few men for you.”
    Harley shook his head. “No killing. Just be a guard. You know how to use a gun. You’ve proved that, and everybody in town knows about it, how you came up against two hardened gunfighters and got the drop on them. You won’t need to use it again.”
    â€œWhy me?”
    Harley shrugged under Quantro’s scrutiny. “I like you. You look like an honest man.”
    â€œAn honest man who’s good with a gun?”
    Harley’s face hardened momentarily. “I don’t like backshooters. You do it straight. I admire that.” He paused, but when Quantro failed to fill the gap, he continued. “There’s some men figure Apache girls should be on reservations with the rest of their tribe. Me, I think if a man wants an Indian girl for his woman, then that’s his business. It isn’t my nature to interfere, but…” His voice trailed away.
    Quantro snorted. How many kinds of blackmail did this man need? But if need be, you’d see a word was said in the right ear…
    Harley smiled. “Quantro, you’re a smart man. But you’re a dead one too if you don’t take up my offer.”
    Quantro tried to roll a cigarette from the last few strands of tobacco from his sack. “One thing, my partner, Pete, needs a job too. Take him on and you’ve got me.”
    Harley showed off his white teeth again, flashing them as he fished a cigar from his inside pocket and flipped it through the bars.
    â€œHe’s already on the payroll. He started at sun-up today.”
    ***
    Pete was sitting on the bench outside the little clapboard house on Capote Hill when Quantro walked up the street. He was whittling at a stick. When he heard the footsteps he looked up with a lopsided grin. “See you got your hardware back.”
    Quantro touched the butt of his Colt. “News to you, I suppose.”
    Pete grinned, then sliced another hunk from the stick to join the pile growing by his boots. “No, I figured you’d work it out once Harley put it to you.”
    â€œDidn’t have much choice.”
    â€œHis boss, Green, owns damn near all the town, law and all, so what Harley wants, Harley gets.”
    â€œI started seeing it that way too,” Quantro’s nostrils twitched as they detected cooking. “White-Wing. Is she okay?”
    Pete nodded.
    Quantro patted his stomach. “I’m as hungry as hell. All they got down there is tortillas and beans.”
    â€œShe’s cooking fatback.”
    â€œSmells good.”
    Pete inspected the blade of his knife. Scowling, he began to slice at the wood. “You get on in, I’ve already eaten.”
    â€œThink I will.” He stood up and pushed open the door. She had her back to him, standing over a spitting skillet on the pot-bellied stove. At the sound of his boot heels she turned, dark flashing eyes that lit up as she saw him.
    She looked good, he had to admit. He almost couldn’t blame those two drifters for wanting to sample her favors. The truth was he didn’t know why he had waited so long himself. Maybe it was the thought that if he left her alone she would go back to her people. Now, he was glad she hadn’t. She’d nursed him twice when he’d been in a bad way. What he had done yesterday wouldn’t even begin to repay what she had done for him.
    He stood there, staring into her bronze face, wondering at her resilience. He could detect no trace of yesterday in her serene face. She looked solidly back at him, knowing he was about to kiss her. She had waited a long time. Just as he was about to close the gap between them, his belly rumbled loudly.
    He stopped, frozen. She burst out laughing. After a second he joined her when he realized how ridiculous it was. The moment had