Desert Rage Read online

  Desert Rage

  A Western Adventure

  A.T. Butler

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Also by A.T. Butler

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  Jacob Payne, bounty hunter, had been sitting at the corner table of the San Xavier Cafe all afternoon and was on his fourth cup of coffee. He had been back from his adventure in the town of Haven for five days now, the bulk of which had been spent resting and trying to heal from his bullet wound. But even as worn and incapacitated as he was, Jacob had a hard time staying put.

  He was a man who needed action. Healing from a shot to the gut was making him antsy and he had to find a way to force himself to sit still.

  Earlier that day, he had made his way to the cafe where Bonnie Loft was waiting tables. She would be there all day and he didn’t want to miss a moment with her. Jacob wanted to believe that she’d like to see him, that she was as enamored with spending time with him as he was with her. In the few days since he had been back from his last bounty hunt, they had shared their first kiss but hadn’t had much time for anything else. Even conversation was scarce as she had been needed to work. The cafe’s other waitress had up and got married and left for the goldfields of California.

  Finally, Jacob had accepted the fact that he would need to be at the cafe as well if he wanted to see her. He could spend time with Bonnie and make himself rest at the same time. He tried to stay out of her way and not distract her from her work. Simply being in the same room as her had been a balm to his soul.

  If he had to rest, he could do it near her.

  Near her and near hot food. Better to spend the money sitting at the cafe all day than just getting restless on the porch of his boarding house by himself.

  Jacob swallowed down a big mouthful of black coffee and set his empty mug on the wooden table in front of him. Bonnie must have caught that tiny sound. She glanced at him from where she stood near the door, chatting with other patrons. When he caught he eye, she blushed slightly, smiled, and nodded. She’d be over to his table as soon as she could.

  Edwin Hogg—Jacob’s friend in Tucson and one of his regular poker-playing buddies—entered the cafe. The afternoon light cut into the space through the open door behind him. He paused briefly, looking around, before spotting Jacob and making his way to the table.

  Without waiting to be invited, Ed sat down across from Jacob, picked up his empty mug and peered in it.

  “Didn’t save me none?” he asked.

  Jacob chuckled. “I’m sure we could even get you your own mug.”

  “Wow. Living high on the hog, are we?” Ed joked. He turned in his seat to scan the room and try to get Bonnie’s attention.

  She had just cleared empty plates and silverware from two tables closest to the kitchen. Her arms were full and her focus was on taking care of the other diners, but even in her abstraction she chanced a glance back to the corner of the room. To Jacob.

  Ed had his hand raised to get her to notice him, but she looked right past him to where Jacob Payne sat, smiling softly at her.

  A wide smile broke over Bonnie’s face. Her dark, almost black straight hair was pulled back from her face in a low bun, but a strand had escaped. It hung down in front of her right eye, and since her hands were full with dirty dishes, she was helpless to move it out of her way. She blew a small breath, up and out of the side of her mouth. The strand waved a tiny bit, but then resettled in the same place, directly in front of her eye.

  Bonnie and Jacob both laughed—she at her helplessness and he at her endearing habit. She ducked her head briefly before she turned and made her way to the kitchen to drop off her burden.

  “She’ll come back,” Jacob said to his tablemate.

  “She didn’t even look at me.”

  “She looked at me, though.” Jacob wrapped his fingers around his empty mug and looked into it, averting his eyes from whatever knowledgable or mocking expression Ed might have on his face. He’d give him a chance to compose himself. When he looked back up at his friend, the other had exactly the knowing smirk Jacob had expected. “What?”

  “Nothin’.” Ed said and grinned wider. “How you been gettin’ on with that injury?”

  “Oh,” Jacob shrugged, “this? Not bad. I’ve had worse. Hurts, though.”

  He put his hand to his side where the outlaw Seamus Maloney had shot him just a few days earlier. The bullet had been removed, but the muscle was still torn and healing. It had been an intense couple days of chasing down the outlaw—the thief and murderer—and the gunshot barely scratched the surface of it. Jacob got his man, but at a steep price.

  When he had finally cornered Maloney, the outlaw had insisted he would not be taken alive. Jacob had given him every chance, but in the end he had killed Maloney in a quick draw. He had been well within his rights and within the law to do so. The bounty he had pursued very clearly allowed for the man to be taken in dead if necessary. All the same, it had been the first time Jacob had had to kill a man when bringing him to justice. That experience weighed on him even more than the bullet wound had.

  He turned his attention back to Ed. “Hurts,” he repeated. “But manageable.”

  “Anyone in particular been helping you manage it?”

  “Why don’t you just come out and say what you want to say, Ed,” Jacob challenged.

  The other man opened his mouth, but closed it again abruptly as rapid footsteps approached their table.

  “Good afternoon, gentlemen,” Bonnie said as she approached, tucking that one rebellious strand of hair behind her ear. “A refill, Jacob? And what can I get you, Mr. Hogg?”

  “Afternoon, Miss Loft,” Ed said.

  Jacob noted how his smile to greet her held none of the mocking with which he had needled Jacob. Ed liked and respected Bonnie. Heck, everyone liked and respected Bonnie. Tucson was one of the fastest growing cities in the Arizona Territory, and yet every man, woman and child who met her had only good things to say about her.

  And yet she continued to give Jacob her undivided attention. It was enough to make a man nearly burst with pride.

  “You hungry, Ed? Or just some coffee for you?” she asked.

  “Both, if you have it, Bonnie. What’s on the menu?”

  “We’ve still got some rabbit stew and I think a bit of the short ribs.”

  “The ribs’ll do. Sounds good. And coffee. And another cup for my friend here,” Ed said, gesturing to Jacob. “Maybe you’ve heard of him. Jacob Payne, famous bounty hunter.”

  “All right,” Jacob said, trying to quiet the man. No part of his job did he do for the attention, but he had been successful enough recently that word couldn’t help but spread.

  “Mrs. Everill is finishing up an apple pie right now, Jacob. Can I bring you a piece?”

  “Yes. Please.”

  “And coffee?” she asked, not taking her eyes off of him.

  “And coffee.” He nodded. “Thank you.”

  “Sure thing, gentlemen.” Bonnie rested her hand on the tabletop briefly, only an inch or less from Jacob’s hand, before turning away to return to the kitchen.

  Jacob watched her walk away and it was a full twenty seconds before he realized Ed was talking to him.

  “I’m sorry, what was that?”

  Ed laughed, loudly enough that the table next to them glanced over.

  “Nothin’, Jacob,”
he said, still chuckling. “Don’t you mind me none. I know my charms are nothing compared to Miss Loft’s.”

  “All right then,” Jacob agreed with a smile. “What’re you doing here anyway, Ed? You know you’re not gonna drag me to a game right now.”

  “No, no. Not that. Not today, anyway,” he said. “I was just wondering how long you’re gonna be in town this stretch. If you had any leads to jump on right away.”

  “Not yet,” Jacob said. “But you know I never know when something will come up. I promised myself I’d give myself a chance to rest this time. This bullet wound is only going to slow me down if I start up again too soon.”

  “So how are you filling your time?”

  “Like this,” Jacob answered. “Sitting for once. Reading the paper. Watching people. Making friends with my neighbors before I’m out on the road again.”

  “How long do you think you’ll be here?”

  “Hard to say. At the moment, I have enough saved that I don’t have to start thinking about another job for a while yet. And, of course, I’m not as young as I once was, so my healing might take a bit longer.”

  Ed laughed at that. “That reminds me of the war. We were marching for days with blisters and bullet wounds and aching muscles. But we were all twenty years old so we thought nothing of it. Remember that?”

  “Now that I’m over thirty, seems everything takes a lot longer, doesn’t it?”

  Ed laughed again and they heard delicate footsteps returning to their corner of the cafe.

  Two coffee mugs were placed gently on the table, right in between them. “Here you go, gentlemen,” Bonnie said. She had managed to carry both of their plates at the same time, and served each man in turn. Pie for Jacob; ribs for Ed. “I’ll come back and see about you in a bit.”

  “Thank you,” Jacob said softly.

  “This looks mighty tasty, Miss Loft,” Ed said. “Give my compliments to the cook.”

  “I’ll do that,” she said with a smile and one final look at Jacob, before she hurried off to greet the group of older men that had just entered the cafe.

  “Seems like you got a pretty good deal set up, Jacob,” Ed said as he picked up his fork. He nodded at the fresh, hot apple pie sitting in front of the other man. “Can’t really beat that.”

  “You’ve got that right,” Jacob said as he watched her walk away.

  Chapter Two

  The two men sat in companionable silence for several minutes, each enjoying the food in front of him. For Jacob’s part, he couldn’t recall the last time he had allowed himself such a thorough rest, and it had only been a handful of days. He had grown up helping run a large farm in Virginia; the only time he had been permitted a day off from his chores was for a couple weeks when he was twelve. And that, only because his leg was broken and his mother had found him tasks to do while sitting in short order. He had been active all throughout the war and then not long after had headed west to Arizona. At every step, Jacob had had to be on the road or be ready to act at a moment’s notice.

  Now that he had found his vocation taking short-term contracts, he realized he had more control over his time and over what was asked of him. In spite of this autonomy, Jacob had yet to actually be able to rest. Truth be told, though, part of that was his own need to keep busy and look out for other people. The last time he tried to take a break, in fact, he had found himself the leader of a posse to rescue a kidnapped girl. If he hadn’t done it, it wouldn’t have gotten done and Jacob wasn’t about to let that girl suffer.

  Now that he was actively making himself ignore the wanted posters sitting in the marshal’s office, he realized how bad he was at taking breaks. Sitting in the San Xavier Cafe eating fresh apple pie was a luxury he had not looked to have any time soon.

  As this thought passed through his mind, the door to the cafe opened again and U.S. Marshal Owen Santos entered. He paused in the doorway briefly to look around, before crossing the room and sitting at the table between Jacob and Ed.

  “Marshal,” Jacob said, nodding briefly. “You didn’t come looking for me, did you?”

  “Maybe he just heard about the fresh apple pie,” Ed said.

  “I did come looking for you, Payne,” Santos replied, ignoring Ed. “It surprised me a bit to learn you were spending your days sitting indoors and sipping coffee.”

  “And chatting up Bonnie Loft,” Ed interjected.

  “Is this a social call or business?” Jacob asked, also ignoring Ed. “Seems I only ever see you when you need my help.” He grinned.

  “Depends,” Santos said. “How’s the hole in your side?”

  “Hurts,” Jacob answered. “I’d rather not be lifting any furniture or breaking in stallions, if I can help it. But it’s healing. Why?”

  “Think you’d be up to be back-up for me and the deputies? Now, before you answer”—Santos put his hands up to forestall any protest—“just know that you’d be the fourth man in the group. I won’t ask you to lead a charge or anything, but I need another gun.”

  Jacob was saved the need to respond right away by the appearance of Bonnie at the marshal’s elbow. It was a testament to how much he had been focused on the man’s request that Jacob didn’t even realize she was coming to their side of the room.

  “Afternoon, Marshal,” Bonnie said. “You hear about the pie that Mrs. Everill cooked up? I still have a few fresh pieces.”

  “Thank you, ma’am,” Santos said. “A piece of pie sounds just about perfect.”

  She nodded, smiled at Jacob, and left the men to their discussion.

  “You didn’t come here for the pie,” Jacob said quietly.

  “No, I came here for the best bounty hunter in five territories.”

  “Only five?” Ed joked.

  As his two companions laughed together, Jacob took a long, slow breath, thinking. He had been telling the truth about the wound still hurting. But he also knew he had done far more work with far worse injuries. If the marshal needed him he would have to at least consider it. Rest or no rest.

  “Tell me what you need.”

  “We’re leaving tomorrow morning—”

  “I’m not say yes, yet, you understand, Marshal. I just want to know more about it.”

  Santos paused before he responded, as though weighing his words. “I understand. Here’s the basic information. About a day’s ride away in Olmos, there’s going to be a bank robbery.”

  “And they invited you to come?” Ed interjected.

  Santos glared at him before continuing. “I’m sure it won’t surprise you to learn it is the Slippery Stone Gang that’s planning on hitting the bank. Stone has been laying low for months, so it seems about right that we’d be hearing from them now.”

  “Where’s this information from?”

  “One of their girls. Got arrested for petty theft in Phoenix and spilled everything to try to talk her way out of it. The sheriff there tells me there is every reason to believe she’s telling the truth.”

  “And you have a plan? Do you know where they are?”

  “We’re going to draw them out. Lay a trap for them. By my estimation we should be in and out in a day or two, bringing the guilty parties to justice. But, like I said, I need another gun.”

  Footsteps again interrupted their conversation as Bonnie arrived with the marshal’s pie.

  “This is the last piece, Marshal. Mrs. Everill is starting on a second one now if you all are still here when it’s done.”

  “Thank you kindly, Miss Loft,” Santos said.

  Bonnie paused at the edge of the table, just next to Jacob. He glanced up at her and met her eyes. It was clear she had something she wanted to say, but hesitated in front of the other men.

  “I don’t mean to interrupt,” she said hesitatingly. “I just have a quick question … Jacob, do you think you’ll be able to escort me to church tomorrow?”

  Jacob smiled at her, but tore his eyes away to look at Santos. The man held his gaze, pleading almost. Today was Saturday. If Santos
wanted to leave the next day for a full days’ ride away, there’s no way Jacob would be around to go to church with her.

  He had to make a decision.

  Jacob took a deep breath and looked back to Bonnie.

  “I’m sorry,” he said softly, “but it seems like the marshal needs my help.”

  “Again?” she asked. It was more in the tone of surprise than anything else. “Oh. Okay. I understand.” She smiled brightly at him. “Try to come back from this one without any new holes in you, though.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  He appreciated her calmness and equanimity in the face of his dangerous job, especially considering how he had come home from the last one. With as much as he was on the road and in the line of fire every week, Jacob knew he would need a woman who could be a support to him. He needed a woman who would be understanding about what needed to be done, rather than anxious about what might happen. Bonnie hadn’t yet had a full test of her mettle, but with every bounty that Jacob went after, every outlaw he tried to stop, she had more and more chances to show her true colors.

  And every time she was just as calm and unruffled as Jacob himself was.

  She could be an ideal partner for him.

  Bonnie checked in with the other men at the table, making sure they had what they needed, before touching Jacob lightly on the forearm, smiling again and making her way back to the kitchen.

  “Did I hear that right, Payne?” Santos asked. “Will you be coming along with me and the boys tomorrow?”

  “I’m the fourth man, right?” he clarified. “With this injury, I can’t guarantee I’ll be any good to you at all, but I can ride a horse and hold a gun well enough. Probably even shoot straight.”

  “Fifth man, actually, if the sheriff of Olmos doesn’t have his hands full with other trouble. You have my word, Jacob. I’ll go as easy on you as I can go, but having a man of your temperament and skill along will be just the thing we need to ensure the whole thing goes off without a hitch.”