Slocum #396 : Slocum and the Scavenger Trail (9781101554371) (14 page)

“Strip her down, mister. Git her nekkid!”

Melissa stepped forward, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. He reached out and ran his fingers down the lapels of the robe, drawing it open to reveal creamy flesh. Slocum tried not to gawk but couldn’t help himself. When they had been together before, she had remained dressed. This was the first time he had seen her considerable charms.

Her naked, lovely charms.

He pulled off the sash and carefully laid it to one side, then pushed back the robe off her shoulders. The silk robe fell to the ground, leaving her bare to the waist. Her firm breasts trembled as he cupped them, weighed them like melons, then squeezed down until he elicited a soft moan from her and a loud cheer from their audience.

Stepping closer, he pulled her to him and kissed her. She fought for a moment, then melted into his arms and returned the kiss. He worked from her lips to her ear and whispered, “I don’t want to do it like this, but there’s no other way.”

“The gunmen, I know,” she said as she kissed his neck and ear. “They’re killers. Killed one man since I’ve been here.”

He ran his hands around her bare back, traced out each bone in her spine, and then worked lower. He cupped the firm, round buttocks and pulled her even harder against him. In spite of the situation, Slocum felt himself getting harder by the instant. She was a beautiful woman and he wasn’t able to restrain himself, no matter the situation.

With deliberate moves, he pulled up the frilly undergarment hiding her lower body. With every inch he got new cries of encouragement from the crowd. The roar was deafening when Melissa grabbed the cloth and ripped it off.

“Do it, mister, do it!”

He pressed her back onto the sofa. She dropped to the edge, then reached out and began unfastening the buttons on his fly. When his hardness exploded outward, she took him in her mouth. The road of blood rushing in his ears drowned out the encouragement from the crowd. Slocum was in a world separate from them and shared only by Melissa.

She worked his jeans down as she continued to work her mouth all over him. The tip of his manhood felt as if it was dipped in acid every time her tongue flicked out and touched it before raking along the sensitive underside.

Then she was leaning back on the sofa, knees parted, open for him.

He dropped onto her and wanted to tell her everything would be all right, but the words wouldn’t come because it might be a lie if he said that. But what he knew was that he wanted her. In spite of the circumstances, he wanted her.

He moved forward between her spread thighs. She reached down and caught his shaft and guided it to her pinkly scalloped nether lips. The heat and wetness boiling from within took away the last of his inhibitions. He sank into her, an inch at first, then deeper, much deeper.

She gasped. Or was that the watching crowd? He withdrew so that only the head of his manhood remained within her. Then he stroked back in. She arched up off the sofa and ground her crotch to his with every inward thrust. She gasped and sobbed as he withdrew, only to cry out in true desire as he entered her again and again.

The watching men began chanting, and Slocum unconsciously fell into the rhythm of their roar. Deeper, harder, he moved with all the passion locked within his body. And he released Melissa’s before he exploded within her. Locked together, they continued to move even after Slocum started to fade.

“Keep them occupied,” he whispered in her ear.

She gasped and thrashed about, exposing herself wantonly to draw everyone’s attention. Slocum backed away, took up the silk sash he had placed within easy reach, and then spun about, using it like a lasso. The loop dropped around Sally’s neck and tightened.

“Call off the men with the rifles,” he grated. “Do it or I’ll snap your neck.”

“You won’t get away with this,” she said. Any further threat was lost in a gurgle as Slocum tightened the silken noose around her neck. He released it when she began to turn red in the face. “Go on, get out. Show’s over.”

“The riflemen, too.”

“All of you. Take a break. Go on.”

Ross herded the audience out, then came over with the bills he had taken from them.

“You put on a real good show, mister.” He handed the greenbacks to Sally. “I’ll be back for my pay.” The man sighed and looked at the naked Melissa sprawled back on the sofa, her legs still spread to keep attention away from Slocum. “Wish I could get a piece of that, but I know I’ll have to be satisfied with Roxanne or Mara.”

Sally waved him off. Slocum released a bit of the pressure around her neck.

“Get dressed. Really dressed,” he said to Melissa. “We’re clearing out of here.”

“Trueheart will kill you. He’s part Sioux. He’ll cut your damned heart out and eat it!”

“I don’t know where the clothes are kept.”

Slocum tightened the sash and forced Sally to point out the wardrobe where the soiled doves’ clothing was stored. He watched as Melissa dressed, wishing he could have her again. This had been terrible—and it had been good at the same time. She was lovely and knew how to keep both of them alive, no matter what it took.

“He won’t rest until you’re dead and he hands her over to every damned miner in this town,” Sally went on. “She’ll die and it won’t be pretty. But you, he’ll let you live until you beg for death.”

“And then he’ll eat my heart,” Slocum said sarcastically. He jerked on the sash and pulled her along to the first room. A frightened Cyprian huddled in one corner. She bolted when Slocum motioned for her to leave.

He shoved Sally facedown on the bed and quickly tied her with ropes already fastened to the brass bedstead.

“What are we going to do, John?” Melissa pressed close behind him.

“I should have known you knew her. You’re both gonna
die!”

He secured the silk sash around Sally’s mouth, gagging her. She continued to kick and make a fuss. When Melissa handed him his gun belt, he considered buffaloing the madam.

“No need. The girls have all hightailed it,” Melissa said. “I told them she was giving them to Trueheart. That scared the daylights out of them.”

This caused Sally to jerk about and struggle even more. Trueheart was likely to blame her for the defection.

“That ought to keep everyone in town occupied for a while.”

“Do we—”

He pushed her from the room and closed the door to keep Sally from overhearing his escape plan.

Whatever it might be.

“There’s a corral up on the side of the hill. We get to it, we can scare off the mules and horses and get a head start down the back road.”

“Back road?”

“You’ll find out. Right now we have to hurry before word gets out.”

Slocum swung Melissa around to his left side when she tried to cling to his right arm. She gripped him tightly and cried, her hot tears soaked up by his coat.

“It was terrible, John. You can never know.”

He could imagine. He had seen every form of torture as he roamed the West. The Apache and Navajo weren’t the only ones capable of intense cruelty.

He drew his six-shooter and went down the stairs ahead of her. The lower level was deserted. He opened the door and stepped onto the porch lit by the blue light in the window.

“Come on. Looks like we’re in the clear.”

He hoped it stayed that way. In any shoot-out, he could only lose. He wanted to take back streets, but first he had to get around Trueheart’s huge warehouse.

“This way,” he said, choosing to be bold and walk past it as if they belonged, but Melissa stood stock-still. “I said, come on. What’s wrong?”

“There. Look, John. Look there!”

He saw three men come from Trueheart’s headquarters. He didn’t know two of them. The third was Melissa’s father.

Clem Baransky was alive and Trueheart’s prisoner.

“Papa!”

Slocum grabbed her arm and stopped her from attracting the attention of Clem Baransky’s guards. The men stood close on either side, herding him as they might a calf to branding. All they needed to make the picture exact was a lasso and a branding iron. From the way Baransky shuffled along, he had already been branded and didn’t like it.

“Let go!” Melissa yanked hard, but Slocum held on tight enough to keep her from doing anything foolish.

“They’ll kill you and your pa,” Slocum said harshly. “We’ve got to get out of town before she gets loose.” He tilted his head back in the direction of the brothel, though Melissa had to know whom he meant.

“I went through hell to find him. I’m not about to let him slip away now.” She jerked, again trying to get free.

“Then use your head. We need a way to rescue him and not get killed ourselves. Trueheart has some scheme that he wanted your pa for. His men killed the other three in the party of prospectors I was leading over the pass. Why would Trueheart keep your pa alive?”

“He wanted to make a fortune in the goldfields just like all the others,” she said. Her eyes fixed on her father. The two guards moved him away from the warehouse. Slocum relaxed his grip enough to let Melissa go in the same direction, but not fast enough to overtake them. They ran a big enough risk being seen. If Ross happened upon them, all hell would be out for lunch.

Even worse would happen when Sally freed herself.

“Trueheart must have found out that he wasn’t just another prospector.”

“He has a family. Mama died. That’s why he came out here, to get enough money to take her to Europe. There is a surgeon there who can—who could—oh, damn! They’ve disappeared!”

Slocum eased his grip even more on her and hurried along to the corner of the building. Melissa almost bolted when she saw her pa and Trueheart’s men a couple blocks away, still walking, not bothering to hurry. If they didn’t mount up and ride away, Slocum knew they would be easily followed. The danger lay in being spotted by some woman-hungry miner who’d draw attention to them because he spotted Melissa.

“Pull up your coat collar,” Slocum said. “Hide your face as much as you can. And pull down your hat.”

She protested when he yanked it down over her ears. It wasn’t stylish, but it hid her long hair. From a distance no one would confuse Melissa with a man, but all Slocum wanted was to hide her lovely face. She might have only been in town a few days, but he suspected she was as notorious in her way as the dancer at the Nubile Nugget Saloon. Sally would be discreet in advertising the newcomer to her brothel to get the most she could for her, at least initially. Slocum had found out firsthand how that could be done. From the way Melissa had acted, this wasn’t the first public performance she had been forced into.

“Your ma died,” Slocum said harshly.

“But Papa didn’t know that. Our doctor in Philadelphia said she would linger for months, but she up and died right after Papa left.”

“Why did a gentleman from Philadelphia think he could make money in the goldfields?” Slocum knew the answer. The lure of gold was an addictive drug. Simply thinking about the gold piling up, being pulled from the ground by double handfuls, built on itself until it seemed a certainty. Others got rich. So why not me?

“He’s not the gentleman you think,” she said, pulling Slocum along now. He let her as he kept an eye peeled for any trouble brewing. So far, Trueheart’s men took Baransky through deserted back ways.

“He needed me to guide him and provide along the trail.”

“Oh, he’s not
that
kind. He’s an engineer. He worked in the coal mines throughout Pennsylvania. When the Welsh miners came over, he made a special point of learning all he could from them to add to his college education. He made ever so much money for the mine owners by finding the most profitable veins and the best, cheapest ways of extracting the coal.”

“You said he was a geologist.”

“He knows minerals. All kinds. With his skill, he was certain to find gold.”

“And if he didn’t, he could hire out to prospectors who had already struck it rich. There isn’t a mine in these parts that doesn’t have to be blasted and tunneled.”

“He’s quite expert with explosives,” she said. She stopped and pointed. “What are we going to do?”

Slocum hunted for an answer. The two guards loaded Baransky into the rear of a buggy while both of them climbed onto the driver’s seat. As the carriage lurched away, Baransky looked up and saw Melissa. He sat upright and waved.

“His hands are tied!”

“Shackled,” Slocum said, but how he was bound didn’t
matter. Slocum swung his arm around Melissa’s waist and slammed her against the wall of a shop fronting on the main street. She tried to look around him, but he kept his body interposed. After she stopped fighting him, he chanced a look. The guards hadn’t noticed Baransky’s reaction and drove away without so much as a look back.

“They’re taking him away!”

“Must be some distance or they’d’ve walked,” Slocum said, running over everything he knew in his head. “Why would they bother bringing him into town when the mine
he’s working is somewhere in the hills to the east of here?”

“I don’t know, John. We have to get him before they take him into the mine. We’d never be able to rescue him then.”

What she said was true, but Slocum still thought on the reason to bring him into town. Into the warehouse.

“Supplies. He was pointing out what he needed to extend the mineshaft.”

“Who cares?”

“We can’t follow him directly, but whatever he wanted has to be shipped over. It’ll be in a heavy freight wagon.”

“And we can follow the wagon and rescue Papa!” Melissa threw her arms around his neck and gave him a big kiss. “You’re wonderful|”

“We’re not out of this mess by a long shot,” he said. Slocum’s mind raced as he tried to decide what the best plan might be. He was methodical and had proven that repeatedly during the war when, as a sniper for the CSA, he would sit in the crook of a tree for long hours waiting for a single shot at a Federal officer. A flash of sunlight off gold braid, even at several hundred yards, his careful shot, the enemy lacked a commander. More than one battle had turned in the Rebs’ direction because of Slocum’s accuracy and patience.

But patience was not always a virtue when decisions had to be made quick—and right.