Red Water Read online

  “You don’t order me around,” Harvey growled. His hackles stayed up for a few heartbeats before he shrugged and said, “I’ll go get the horse, since that’s why we was here in the first place.”

  THREE

  As soon as Clint heard the youngest of the three men mention stealing Eclipse, he didn’t mind being disturbed in the midst of his relaxing day. On the contrary, watching the trio scatter and sneak around while he threw rocks at them and made noises to draw them off was more than enough entertainment to keep Clint occupied.

  Eclipse had thrown things off a bit by wandering a little too far in the wrong direction, but that wasn’t anything Clint couldn’t handle. All he needed to do was wait for the men to get close enough to the Darley Arabian before he made a move of his own. Crawling on his belly through one of the many patches of tall weeds surrounding his camp, Clint stuck his head up just enough to get a look at what the men were doing.

  The kid was making a line straight for Eclipse while the older one circled to the right. Clint had a harder time keeping track of Samuel, but he figured that the black man was somewhere off to the left. Holding his hat against one cheek to throw his voice in another direction, Clint shouted, “Leave now before someone gets hurt.”

  Harvey spun on the balls of his feet toward the sound of Clint’s voice. Then he shifted toward the direction of Clint’s words drifting in, thanks to the wind and a well-placed hat brim. “Only one to be hurt will be you if’n you try to step up. You’d be wise to scat if you knew what was good for you!”

  Clint could hear the nervousness in Harvey’s voice. It made him sound even more like a kid than anyone who had any business with a gun in his hand. But the guns were still out, so Clint wasn’t about to take any chances. He pressed his belly against the ground and crawled toward Chris. Once he was in a good spot not too far from his original camp, Clint stretched his neck up to get a look at the others.

  When he heard the rustle of movement behind him, it was too late for Clint to do anything about it. When he felt the touch of sharpened steel against his throat, Clint knew it was time to make the move he’d been planning.

  Clint’s arms snapped up and out in a blur of motion. If Samuel meant to say anything before cutting Clint’s throat, he didn’t get the chance since his knife was forced back from its target. Having locked one hand around Samuel’s wrist to push the blade away from his throat, Clint sent his other elbow straight back and into the man’s gut.

  The moment he felt the impact of his elbow against tensed muscle, Clint pulled it back and delivered another blow hot on the heels of the first. That made it a lot easier for him to twist around and pull Samuel’s knife hand along for the ride. With a bit of torque in the proper spot and some muscle applied at the proper time, Clint was able to lift Samuel off his feet, heft him over one shoulder, and drop him onto the ground.

  Samuel landed with a pained grunt and immediately scrambled to his feet. Before he could get there, one of Clint’s boots knocked into him with just enough force to send him rolling onto his side. Samuel’s second landing was much more awkward than the first, so recovering from it wasn’t nearly as easy.

  Now that he’d put Samuel down, Clint ended up with the man’s knife in his possession. He threw the blade into the grass and looked around for the other two would-be horse thieves. Just as he’d suspected, Harvey and Chris were coming straight at him. Before either of them could get a shot off, Clint let out a sharp whistle.

  Behind Harvey and Chris, Eclipse snapped his head around to look at Clint as his hooves began churning up some dirt. The stallion reacted to the signal out of sheer reflex and knew Clint needed him right away. Eclipse wasn’t about to slow down until he got to Clint’s side and he sure as hell wasn’t about to politely ask either of the two men in front of him to clear a path.

  “Jesus!” Chris yelped as he dove to one side before Eclipse could trample him.

  Harvey fired a quick shot that hissed well above Clint’s head. After that, he was more than happy to follow his partner’s lead.

  Even if Clint could have delivered orders to the stallion, he couldn’t have asked for a better showing from Eclipse. Even though the Darley Arabian was careful to jump over the two men, his massive frame hurdled Harvey and Chris with just enough clearance to force both of them to hug the ground and pray to live through the experience. In a matter of seconds, Eclipse was within Clint’s reach.

  Clint reached out to grab on to the saddle horn so he could pull himself onto Eclipse’s back. The moment he was settled, Clint snapped the reins to get Eclipse moving again.

  “Shoot him!” Chris hollered.

  Before either of the would-be horse thieves could reply to that, Clint gave a response of his own. He drew his modified Colt and fired a pair of shots into the ground within a few feet of both men. Now that he was higher off the ground, Clint was also able to pick out where Samuel had gone to.

  The muscular man in the formal coat had gotten to within a few yards of Clint. Now that he’d been spotted, he dropped to one knee and lifted his gun.

  Clint shifted his aim and was forced to make a quick decision. In the blink of an eye, he had to decide whether or not to kill the man at the other end of his Colt’s barrel. Samuel had his gun drawn and he surely intended to shoot, but the fight was almost over anyhow. In the end, Samuel’s life was saved by the fact that Clint was still feeling the effects of the last few relaxing days. Rather than put a bullet through Samuel’s heart, Clint adjusted his aim and fired.

  The modified Colt barked once more and sent a piece of hot lead whizzing past Samuel’s temple. The near-miss brought an angry scowl of astonishment and fear to his face.

  Clint tapped his heels against Eclipse’s sides, which got the stallion charging once more. Leaning forward, Clint fired his last few rounds toward Harvey and Chris. Those shots were too quick to be very accurate, but they served their purpose well enough when they caused both targets to dive for cover before returning fire.

  In a matter of seconds, Eclipse had run past the two men and headed for another set of targets. These targets were the horses the trio had ridden to Clint’s camp. Although Clint wasn’t about to become a horse thief himself, he wasn’t about to make it easy for the trio to follow him.

  Waving his empty pistol over his head, Clint hooted and hollered like a crazy man as he thundered toward the horses. The animals weren’t spooked by gunfire, but they sure as hell were rattled at what was thundering toward them now. The three horses cleared a path for Eclipse to charge by on his first pass.

  On Eclipse’s second pass, the three horses got moving even faster.

  After Eclipse took a third run at them, the horses bolted in different directions.

  Satisfied that the horses wouldn’t get back to their riders anytime soon, Clint pointed Eclipse’s nose to the west and snapped the reins. The horse thieves fired shots at his back, but their aim was off and Clint was quickly out of their range.

  Clint spent the next several miles of his ride letting Eclipse run to his heart’s content and doubling back every now and then to make sure he wasn’t being followed. Not only had he shaken the three thieves, but Clint had broken camp with a smile on his face.

  “Now that,” Clint chuckled to himself, “was fun.”

  FOUR

  When Clint arrived at the town of Red Water, he was greeted by everything short of a parade. Banners were hung from nearly every post and brightly colored streamers flowed from most of the windows. There was even a band playing loudly to the cheers of an appreciative crowd. Of course, that band consisted of two banjos and a harmonica, but the crowd was cheering all the same.

  Clint rode down Sales Street, taking in the sights and shaking his head at it all. A confused smile had taken residence upon his face and wasn’t about to drift away so long as the hectic music continued to fill the air around him. His gaze was captured by a woman in her late thirties wearing a pale blue dress and matching ribbons in her chestnut-colored hair.<
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  “You here for Founder’s Day?” she asked.

  “Founder’s Day?” Clint replied. “You mean this commotion isn’t to welcome me into town?”

  The woman laughed and playfully smacked Clint’s leg. “No, silly,” she told him with just a hint of a drunken slur in her voice. “It’s Founder’s Day. If you like, I can welcome you into town, though.”

  “I think I would like that.”

  “Well, then,” she said as she dipped into a quick curtsey, “welcome to town.”

  “Thanks for that,” Clint replied with a tip of his hat. “I’m Clint Adams. Who might you be?”

  Just as the woman was about to answer him, another woman dashed up to her and tugged at her arm. The second woman was a little younger, but also had a little more meat on her bones. The smile on her face, however, was just as infectious as she said, “Come on, Allie! They’re judging the cakes!”

  “Did I bake a cake for the contest?” Allie asked with a bit more of the slur showing through in her voice.

  “Yes, you did, now come on!” With that, the younger woman dragged Allie away.

  All Clint could do was watch her go. Not only had the younger woman inadvertently answered his question, but she also showed him where the festivities were being held. He rode along behind the two women, allowing himself to be led to a long row of tables covered with food of all kinds. He swung down from his saddle to tie Eclipse to a post before the stallion got too close to any of the groups of children playing around the noisy band.

  The sun was halfway down, which bathed the town in a dull glow befitting its name. Red Water was anything but tired, however, and the party just seemed to grow wilder with every step Clint took. Kegs were set up near the food tables and punch bowls were either being filled or had already been completely overturned.

  Clint hopped onto the boardwalk running along a row of storefronts to allow a group of dancing couples to spin past him. Watching them go, it was all Clint could do to keep from laughing. But since nobody else around him was restraining themselves so much, he just gave in and laughed.

  “What’s so funny?” someone asked from Clint’s left.

  Hearing that question reminded him of the conversation he’d overheard between the three horse thieves not too long ago. Unlike those thieves, however, this question was asked in a tone that was anything but threatening. The voice doing the talking was a whole lot sweeter, too.

  Clint looked over to find the younger woman who’d dragged Allie away. Allie was nowhere to be seen, leaving Clint to get a good look at Allie’s friend. She was definitely younger and just a bit heavier than Allie. She wasn’t fat, by any means, and looked even better now that Clint had a moment to take in the sight of her. Large, round breasts were wrapped in a dark green dress that hung nicely over a set of equally rounded hips. At the moment, the young woman placed her hands on her hips and fixed Clint with an intense glare.

  “You were laughing,” she scolded.

  “Isn’t that allowed?”

  “Only if you tell me the joke.”

  Clint opened his arms to motion to everything around him. “Just taking it all in. Trying to, anyway.”

  Quickly, she nodded. “That’s as good a reason as any. Are you hungry?”

  “Starving.”

  “Then come along,” she said as she looped her arm around Clint’s and dragged him almost as forcefully as she’d dragged Allie. “There’s not a lot left, but there should be enough to fill you up.” Suddenly, she stopped. “Wait a second. It’s not a good idea to socialize with strange men.”

  Clint only had to look at the sly grin on her face to know she wasn’t seriously thinking twice about anything.

  “What’s your name?” she asked.

  “Clint Adams.”

  Letting go of his arm so she could hop in front of him, she held out a hand and waited for him to shake it. “Gwendolyn Price,” she told him. After that, she hopped back to her previous spot beside Clint and took hold of his arm again. “Now we’re not strangers. Let’s get something to eat.”

  Now that he was closer to her, Clint tacked on a few more years to his original estimate of Gwendolyn’s age. Even so, that was only a reflection of a few lines around her eyes and a confidence in her voice that young girls simply didn’t have. Gwendolyn was somewhere in her late twenties, but had a spring in her step that would always make her seem younger. That spring was echoed in her curly, dark blond locks of hair, which bounced against her shoulders with every step.

  “Since we’re not strangers, why don’t I call you Gwen?” Clint asked.

  “If you want to be that familiar, you might as well dance with me after you eat.”

  “I’ve got no problem with that whatsoever.”

  FIVE

  Even after he’d stuffed himself on scraps of ham, cold potato salad, and a sliver of leftover pie, Clint had no idea who’d founded Red Water. Judging by the commotion that went on well past sunset, Clint figured that the founders were very well liked.

  A few fireworks crackled overhead as soon as it was dark enough to see them. Once they were spent, some of the rowdier drunks fired some shots into the air before staggering to one of the nearby saloons. That left only the band to make noise in the street, which they did impressively well. Despite the fact that the musicians only seemed to know four songs, they didn’t show any signs of tiring.

  The band members weren’t the only ones with so much stamina. Once Gwen’s feet got moving, Clint couldn’t find any way to stop her. Of course, since Gwen’s dancing kept her pressed against him as she bounced to the beat of the music, Clint didn’t exactly want to stop her. He just hung on and enjoyed the ride.

  When he heard the band start into the third of their four songs, Clint launched into the steps he’d been practicing the other dozen or so times it had been played. His feet barely started to gain momentum before Gwen latched on to his arm and pulled him away from the street.

  “Do you pull everyone around like that?” Clint asked.

  “Only when they need to be somewhere quick,” Gwen replied.

  “I don’t need to be anywhere else at the moment.”

  Wheeling around to face him as she continued to backpedal in the direction she’d been taking him, Gwen cocked her eyebrow and asked, “Is that so?”

  There was only a half-moon out, but it was bright enough to cast her face in a cool, pale glow. Clint didn’t hide the fact that his eyes wandered along the front of her body as he said, “Yeah. That’s so. Where are you taking me?”

  “Over there,” she replied as she took his hand and spun back around to see where she was going.

  “Is that a corral?”

  “Uh huh.”

  “You’re taking me to a corral?”

  “No,” Gwen told him. “I’m taking you to the lot behind the corral.” With that, she turned to face Clint once again and then fell backward onto the lumpy remains of some hay bales.

  Unable and unwilling to shake loose of Gwen’s grip, Clint allowed himself to be pulled down as well. Even though Gwen cushioned his fall more than the hay, there was enough spread out on the ground beneath her to make them both comfortable. The moment he was off his feet, Clint wrapped an arm around Gwen’s waist and pulled her close. He’d been holding on to her throughout all the dancing, but it was a whole lot better with her beneath him.

  “God, I’ve been waiting for this all night.” She sighed.

  “I would’ve started in sooner, but the band was watching.”

  Anxiously working Clint’s belt buckle, Gwen pulled it open and then got to work on his jeans. “Well, nobody’s watching now apart from a few horses.”

  “Right about now, I don’t even care if the rest of the town’s looking over my shoulder,” Clint said as he felt Gwen’s fingers wrap around his stiffening cock.

  Gwen laughed and opened her legs so Clint could settle between them. Shifting her backside within the hay, she made it as easy as possible for him to gather her skir
ts up and pull her bloomers down. Once that baggy material was out of the way, Clint could feel nothing but the soft, warm skin of her thigh. Moving his hand a bit higher, he quickly found the tuft of curly hair between her legs.

  “The rest of the town’s got plenty to do.” Gwen sighed. “And you’ve got me to keep you busy.”

  “I’ll drink to that.”

  Clint only needed to run his fingers up and down a few times along the lips of her pussy to get her nice and wet. When he took his hand away, Gwen grabbed hold of the front of his shirt and pulled him on top of her as her legs wrapped around him. She shifted her hips until she felt Clint’s erection rubbing against her and then smiled contentedly as he pushed it inside.

  A stray breeze sent a chill down Clint’s spine as a few drunks got into a fight no more than fifty yards away. Being out in the open, Clint could hear almost every sound in town but he didn’t pay any mind to it. All he cared about were the little noises Gwen made as he thrust in and out of her. His hands rustled through the hay when he reached around to grab the inviting curve of her backside. Once he had a good grip, Clint pulled her to him and buried his rigid cock in her.

  Gwen arched her back and moaned. Her arms tightened around him and her fingernails dug all the way through Clint’s shirt. When he began sliding in and out again, she matched his rhythm with her own movements until their bodies dug a deep trench in the tussled straw.

  Clint felt his knees start to slip as the hay shifted beneath him. He managed to keep from tumbling over, but still wound up on his side next to Gwen. Rather than wait for him to get situated again, she shifted onto her side so her plump buttocks were against Clint’s stomach. After draping one leg up and over him, she reached down to guide him back to the wet lips of her pussy.

  Clint entered her from behind while both of them lay on their sides. It would have been difficult to do on a proper mattress, but the hay conformed to them no matter how they angled their bodies. Since Clint was already inside of her, he started pumping again. He could tell that he was hitting a good spot inside of Gwen because she tensed against him and reached back to grab at his arm.