Post by catgirl63 on Nov 19, 2010 11:36:58 GMT -4
Chapter 98
The low voice trembling with a barely controlled anger raised the hair on the back of Gil’s neck and he raised his eyes, seeing the glacial blue orbs of his former cellmate on the other side of the counter. Molding his lips into a smile, he removed his right hand from the counter and stepped back, creating an opening for Audra to scurry through. The man who made his life in the echoes of the hoot owl watched his peer place the gun and holder he carried on the counter before rounding the end and stopping before the young woman.
“Audra, you alright?” queried Heath at the girl who melded into his side, her doelike eyes brimming with water as she trembled and nodded. Giving her a gentle squeeze, he pulled away and directed her to the stairs. “Go back to your room now…go on.”
As Audra turned to go, Anders remarked, “Ah hell we was just having some a conversation, Thomson…it t’weren’t nothing.”
The spark created when he had come upon the scene after being disturbed from sleep by a foreign sound from the lobby which crept through the cracked door of his room gathered oxygen and burst into a flame inside. The tenderness in his eyes as he checked on Audra was no longer evident as he slowly turned.
Gil swallowed a moment of cowardice flaring up at the tyrannizing look on the other man’s face, his stomach clenching suddenly before he brought himself back under control. “I was just looking for a diversion…kill some time you know.”
“Audra’s not a diversion for the likes of you Gil,” snapped the blond, his flame slowly giving way to an inferno.
“Careful Thomson, you’re the same as me….you and I ride the same trails, drink the same water….don’t get any damn fool notions you are anything more than that.” Warned Anders, his brown eyes narrowing with a flame of anger.
“Get on your horse and git, Gil,” ordered Heath, the muscle in his jaw twitched as the command was hissed through a face stern with fury.
“You owe me, Thomson….don’t forget it was me saving your life in that desert. Ya’d have died from the heat or Yaquis if I didn’t help your sorry ass.”
“Now!” Heath snapped, his voice echoing in the lower level of the hotel, strong with righteousness and the protective geyser hurtling upward inside.
The holier-than-thou emotion in the harsh command raised the ire and stubbornness inside the thinner man. While he had always been cautious of the volcanic temperament of the younger man, in his mind he had always assessed his own strengths and hard learned skills at survival gave him an edge over the man who outweighed him by a good twenty pounds. He didn’t like to be ordered around like a whipped dog and he formed his lips into a sneer.
“You’d turn me out for the likes of her….I’m not the one prancing around half-dressed in the middle of the night.”
The hidden slander shattered any semblance of control and Heath snarled, “That’s my sister you’re talking about you sonofa….!”
The quick move of the blond was met with two hands grabbing onto his blue shirt before their momentum took them over the settee. The sofa crashed over as the lobby filled with the sound of Audra’s scream. Gil released his hold on the blue cloth when his body jarred against the hard wooden floor, getting to his knees and shooting a quick jab on the tanned face of the man who had been plummeted into the wall and was climbing to his knees. The blow knocked Heath onto his side and he rolled, climbing to his feet.
Gil didn’t hear the sounds of the others in the hotel rushing towards the lobby, all he saw was the man who was willing to cast him aside as if he were nothing for those in a level of society above him. Rolling to his feet a blink of an eye quicker than Heath, he lashed out with his right fist, the blow catching the wild-eyed blond on the cheek and leaving its mark. The strike caused the blond to stagger a few steps before he lunged again, ducking under a wild swing and wrapping his arms around Anders’ waist. Pushing forward, they catapulted through the plate glass window of the hotel, the wood snapping and the glass showering around the two combatants went unnoticed.
Hitting hard both men rolled off the edge of the boardwalk and into the dirt of the street. Heath grabbed the incoming boot of the man who sprung to his feet as if they were on fire, twisting it and turning Gil off balance. Anders fell to the side and rolled upward, his face met a solid fist that made him fall against the shaky hitching rail. Shaking his head, he wiped the stream of blood trickling from inside his mouth as he pivoted in time to dodge the blond whose hands had nearly reached him.
Missing his grab, Heath’s unprotected back was the ex-con’s target and the blond grunted in pain from the jab to his nearest kidney, catching himself and stopping his fall to his knees. The red curtain haze of fury hadn’t diminished and he turned, quick as a cat who had touched a cactus spine, blocking the incoming fist with his right arm and launching his own attack at the other’s unprotected abdomen with his left.
The blow to his stomach stole the breath from Anders and he turned a sickly pallor, unable to protect himself from the fist that met his chin before he found himself on his back. Dazed brown eyes looked up at the blond who was standing over him and gasping for air, ready to continue if needed in the cool night air.
Heath wiped a trickle of blood making its way into the corner of his eye with the back of his hand as he watched his former cell-mate’s body relax in defeat after Gil’s hand found his holster empty and realized his gun had fallen out in the foray. He startled when his uncle appeared at his side.
“Heath, you alright boy?” asked Matt, taking in his battered and bruised nephew.
“Saddle his horse and put his stuff on it,” commanded Heath, his eyes not leaving the man who was slowly pushing himself to a sitting position. “Get his guns but take out all the bullets first and see if he has any in his saddlebags too.”
“I’ll get the horse saddled, Mr. Simmons,” offered Nick from the boardwalk receiving a quiet thank you from the blond whose eyes didn’t turn his way before he headed towards the livery.
“Yeah you sure are a bastard, Thomson,” hissed Anders wiping a sleeve across his bloody face as the elderly man scurried off to do his nephew’s bidding.
“I don’t wanna see you again Anders….got it?” said Heath firmly gesturing for his former celly to get onto his feet and stepping back to provide a little distance between them.
Glaring at the blond as he moved to sit on the edge of the boardwalk, Gil threatened, “Oh, you won’t see me next time, Thomson. You can count on that.”
“Don’t Gil, don’t try it caused I’d hate to have to kill you.” Heath answered in a low voice, glancing into the eyes of Jarrod who was watching from in front of the destroyed window. “Audra?”
“She’s fine…just shaken up a bit…the ladies are with her and Joy.” assured Jarrod softly as he studied the two men before shaking his head, his light eyes twinkling with pride. “You’re a mess…Brother Heath.”
Studying the man wearing a hastily buttoned shirt with shirttails hanging down, black hair awkwardly styled from his rush to the lobby and a pistol ready in his right hand; he saw a man who looked a far cry from the prominent lawyer he portrayed himself to be. Recalling the protective catlike reflexes of Jarrod when he had attacked him the foyer of the grand house long ago, Heath acknowledged the man’s readiness with a lop-sided grin, “I reckon I probably do look like I had set to with a wild cat.”
Snorting with disgust at the two men, Gil muttered sarcastically, “Brother Heath…don’t think Thomson’s a saint Barkley….if you do, you’ll be sadly mistaken cause he’s as far from it as you can get.”
Jarrod watched a flush of red creep across Heath’s face at the veiled references and the frigidness in the blond’s body whose hands clenched into fists. The sound of hooves were heard before Nick appeared from the night leading Anders’ horse and Matt Simmons appeared from the hotel with the man’s saddlebags, rifle and pistol. Watching as Heath stepped back and motioned Gil to the horse, he waited until the other was mounted before saying, “Well, Mr. Anders, we know all we need to about your rustling partner and we’re damn proud to have him as a brother…anyway we can get him.”
Nick watched Heath’s head snap up and his stunned eyes moved between him and Jarrod. The rancher smirked at the disbelief in the blue orbs before handing over the reins to the man who had made unwanted advances to their sister. “Now git like our little brother told ya’ to or I will finish what he started.”
