Only Killers and Thieves(62)

He shoved her out of camp, the opposite direction from that which Noone had taken the men, back toward where the horses were tethered and a shallow cave they’d passed coming in. The woman struggled briefly but soon relented, and the last Tommy saw of them was the revolver pinned to her spine and Sullivan’s hand clamped on her bare backside, the fingers pressed hard into the skin.

They were alone. Tommy and Billy, Rabbit and the girl, not one of them yet adult. Locke snored as he slept. The fresh wood crackled on the fire. Lightning flashed silently: no rain, no thunder, a white pulse in the darkness and that was all. Tommy watched it fading, the sky seeping to black, and noticed the girl watching it too. She was shivering. Rabbit sat beside her now, cross-legged beneath the ledge, studying his fingernails. Again the lightning flashed. A volley of laughter carried faintly along the canyon and all of them looked up.

“Them buggers get it now,” Rabbit said absently.

“Look at her shivering,” Tommy whispered, but his brother was elsewhere, scowling hard into the fire, cheeks drawn, chewing on his lip. “Billy—the girl. We should bring her over here.”

“What for?”

“She’s not got any clothes on. Be warmer by the fire.”

He looked at her. “She’s got a coat, hasn’t she? Why d’you even care?”

“You’re thinking on it, aren’t you? Doing what he said?”

Billy’s hind teeth clenched. He wouldn’t meet Tommy’s eye.

“Have you not got a mind of your own? There’s him with a wife at home and look how he carries on—that’s how you want to be?”

“You don’t know nothing about it.”

“What would Daddy say? Or Ma? Bad enough we’re even out here but—”

“Daddy wouldn’t say a bloody thing,” Billy snapped. “He was weak, Tommy; it’s time you saw him for what he was. He spent his whole life with his back turned and his head down, and look what he became. Poor and half-starved and dead on his own front porch. I don’t aim to end up the same.”

“You’re a fucking mongrel. Here,” Tommy called to the girl, “come and get warm.”

“I said no.”

“I ain’t asking.”

Tommy waved the girl forward. Her big eyes watched him but she stayed where she was. First Tommy stood, then Billy, blocking his path.

“Reckon you’re the boss now?” Tommy said.

“I’d say so. My little brother plus two blacks puts me in charge of camp.”

“You ain’t the boss of me. Or him even.” Tommy pointed at Rabbit, still sitting on the ground with his long legs crossed. “She’s not but Mary’s age, Billy. Look at her shivering. What harm would it do?”

Billy glanced between them, then threw up his hands. “Ah, fuck it. Do what you want and answer for it. I’m not stopping around.”

He went to leave but Tommy grabbed him. “Don’t. Not that.”

“Not what? I’m checking on the horses, if that’s alright by you.”

“You’re checking on the horses?”

“Aye, the horses.” He shook off Tommy’s grip but wouldn’t look at him.

“You’re not going to find them? Sullivan?”

“I just told you, didn’t I?”

“It ain’t right. Being with a woman like that.”

“What would you know about being with a woman?”

“I know it ain’t right that way. I know that much.”

“Well, what I know is I can’t stand listening to you whining like a bloody pup anymore. It’s time you grew up, Tommy. See things for what they are. Glendale’s gone. Ma, Daddy, Mary—all of them are gone. So now we have to choose. Either we roll over like he did or face the world front on, bollocks first, like men.”

There was a silence. Tommy said quietly, “That Sullivan’s speech or yours?”

Billy didn’t answer. He shrugged past his brother and marched along the ravine, and for a while Tommy stood watching helplessly, then hung his head and looked at the others again. Rabbit on his feet now, guarding the girl.

“Just . . . come over here. Both of you.”

“Watch girl, Marmy says.”

The word was lost on him. He had never heard the troopers call Noone by that name before. “You can still sit with her,” Tommy said. “But he already gave her his coat—he won’t be happy if she’s cold.”

Rabbit stood thinking, then pulled the girl roughly from the ledge. The coat slid from her shoulders and her nakedness was all the more shocking to Tommy for having been so long concealed.

“Cover her,” he said, averting his eyes. “Bring the bloody coat.”

They seated themselves self-consciously around the fire—Tommy opposite the girl, Rabbit between them—and for a while said nothing at all. Rabbit held his hands to the flames and the girl let go three great shivers as the warmth worked its way to her bones. Tommy watched her furtively. Watched the flames cast their shadows on her cheeks. He had not been so close to her before and wondered if he’d misjudged her age. There was a sadness in her face that made her seem much older than eleven. Older than himself, even. Or maybe she was only scared.

“Tell her . . .” Tommy said, then faltered. “Tell her that she’s safe, that we won’t do what they’re doing to her friend.”