Devils Unto Dust(88)

“Willie?” Elsie’s eyes widen when she sees me, and she runs out from behind the bar to take my face in her hands. “Sakes alive, you look like death warmed over. I expected you days ago, I was that worried. I told McAllister, I told him—”

“I’m fine, Elsie,” I tell her as she examines my face. “The Garretts took good care of me.”

“Thank you,” she says, looking at Ben and Curtis. “For bringing her home safe. She means a lot to me.”

“I’d never want to disappoint you, Miss Elsie,” Curtis says, taking his hat off.

“You,” Elsie says, pointing her finger at Sam. “You best get home, and quick. Your pa is fit to be tied.”

“I’m going soon, I promise,” Sam says, holding his hands up in surrender.

“Mm-hmm,” Elsie mutters, and takes me by the shoulder. “Let’s get some food in you, you look thin as a barber’s cat.”

“Some other time, Elsie,” I say. “I got things to do first.”

I scan the room, and it doesn’t take long to spot McAllister; he’s sitting at the Judge’s table. The sight of the two of them sets my teeth grinding, and I don’t even attempt to hide my disgust.

“Ready?” Sam asks quietly, and I nod.

I march over, my blood rising up with each step I take. They see me coming and McAllister looks shocked to see me alive and walking; the Judge looks like he always does, bored and inhuman. There are two other hunters sitting with them, but I take no notice of them.

“Miss Wilcox,” the Judge says, nodding to us as I approach the table. “Garretts. And Samuel Kincaid, is it? I believe your pa is looking for you.”

“So I hear,” Sam says.

“Didn’t expect to see you back,” McAllister says, schooling the surprise off his face and crossing his arms.

“I got held up,” I tell him. “But I’m here now, so you can go ahead and call off the bounty.”

He sniffs. “Not unless you got something for me.”

“Call off the bounty,” I say, my voice too loud.

McAllister starts to smile, and I reach into my pocket and slam down Micah’s pocket watch and the crumpled bills Pa gave me.

“My pa’s dead,” I say. “And that’s all that’s left of your money.”

He picks up the bills, smoothing them out on the table, while the Judge slowly flips the pocket watch over to reveal Pa’s initials.

“He’s dead,” I say again. “You want the rest of your money back, you can take it up with the devil himself.”

The Judge looks past me to Curtis.

“You saw this?” he asks.

“Yessir,” Curtis lies. “We did.”

Ben clears his throat. “What the girl says is true.”

McAllister balls the money into his fist and bangs it on the table, swearing harshly.

“Enough,” the Judge orders. “Call off the bounty, the man’s dead. Make your peace with it, McAllister.”

McAllister glares at me, his hand still clenching the money. “We’re square,” he spits out.

“We’re not square,” I tell him. “We’ll never be square, and don’t you forget it. If you ever step one foot on my land again, I’ll kill you. I don’t care what your friends do to me after, it’s enough to me that you’ll be dead.”

“You don’t scare me,” McAllister says with a laugh.

“Don’t matter. The brave die just as easily as the scared,” I tell him. I pick up Micah’s pocket watch from the table and tuck it away. “Either way, I’ll bury you.”

I turn my back on him and ignore the name he swears at me as I walk away. He can call me whatever he likes, but I meant what I said. He comes near me or mine again, I’ll be more than happy to kill him.

“Miss Wilcox,” the Judge calls after me. I steel myself and turn back to face him.

“Yessir?”

“My condolences on the loss of your father,” he says, his pale eyes roving over my face.

“Thank you,” I manage to say.

“You should get some rest. You don’t look . . . well.” He smiles thinly at me.

I nod stiffly and turn away. It’s enough to tell me he thinks I’m lying. How much he suspects, I can only guess, but my insides are crawling with doubt.

“That went as well as it could, I reckon,” Curtis offers as we march out of the Homestead.

I shade my face with my hand so I can look up at him. “Thanks for saying what you said. Both of you.”

Ben shrugs. “I’ll take any chance to lie to the Judge.”

I wince slightly, hoping the Garretts at least are safe from his grasp. We head slowly back down the road. The brothers are staying at the Homestead, so they’ll just have to turn right around, but I can’t bring myself to tell them they don’t need to come with us. We’ve been walking together so long, it just feels right. I didn’t even know them two weeks ago, and now it pains me to think I’ll wake up tomorrow and they won’t be there. I won’t have Curtis to give me orders I don’t want to follow, and I won’t have Ben to—well, I won’t have Ben.

The fork in the road comes sooner than I want. Ben reaches it first, but he waits for the rest of us to catch up, and we gather in a small circle.