The Valeron Code Page 8

  ‘Figured you would show up in time to check on the horses for the night,’ Landau greeted him, holding a lamp while he unsaddled his horse.

  ‘Shane would cuss me until crows couldn’t fly if I didn’t,’ Jared replied, putting his horse in the corral. ‘He’s going to be unhappy when he finds out me and Wyatt left before he got back from the horse sale in Cheyenne.’

  As they checked their animals, Landau filled him in about what he had learned and Jared returned the favour. Once they had covered the news, Landau asked: ‘Do you and Wyatt want me to actually take a job and work from the inside? Bernie can likely get me hired over at the saloon.’

  ‘We might need you for another chore or two,’ Jared answered. ‘Best keep your distance until we learn what we’re up against. You said the banker got real testy when Gilmore called him Rudy?’

  Landau nodded. ‘I have a notion about that. It’s a story I heard when I was living in Brimstone.’ Jared cocked an eyebrow and waited, so he related the details. ‘It came from a petty thief who was passing through. He had been down Texas way and said the state’s reconstruction was finally taking hold. The new batch of elected officials were reclaiming the towns and cities. They eliminated the hold-over Yanks and disbanded the black police force, who had been in charge of law and order. Then they commenced to clamp down on corruption and crooks who had taken control of many of their towns. One group to be run out of the country was a bunch called Rudy’s Renegades. They went from one place to another, taking over a small town or settlement, and fleecing the people of everything of value, before moving on.’

  Jared snorted his understanding and contempt. ‘Rudy is Rutherford and the others are his renegades.’

  ‘My conclusion as well,’ Landau concurred.

  ‘I’ll have Wyatt send a wire or two and see if there are outstanding warrants for these gutter rats.’

  ‘Took care of it already,’ Landau said. ‘The man running the mail and telegraph office is not a fan of the new tyrants. He cooperates with them, but the new taxes are about to break him. He promised to keep any replies confidential.’

  ‘Glad you decided to tag along,’ Jared said. ‘Keep snooping, but be careful. These guys have shown their true colours – and it’s yellow, down to the bone! Wouldn’t want you getting a bullet in the back too.’

  ‘You and Wyatt are the ones taking the biggest chances.’

  ‘Yeah, but we’re protected. You’re not.’

  ‘Protected?’

  Jared laughed. ‘Sure, we’re Valerons. Who would be dumb enough to kill one of us?’

  Landau gave a shake of his head. ‘Contrary to your own opinion, everyone might not have heard of the high and mighty Valeron family. Be a shame if you were killed by some ignorant clod who didn’t know how important you are.’

  ‘You got a room and money enough for eats?’ Jared turned back to their situation.

  He gave a tip of his head. ‘I’m at the hotel . . . room seven, upstairs.’

  ‘Right. Me and Wyatt are at the jail. Only one cot, but we will sleep in shifts so long as we have prisoners.’

  ‘OK,’ Landau said, putting out the lamp. ‘I’ll be around when you need me.’

  Harvey Rutherford was seated behind his desk. An expensive cigar stuck out of the corner of his mouth, resembling a bulldog having fetched a short stick. He didn’t fit the executive type, sporting a fair amount of flab, and there was a rusty hue to his nose and cheeks from too much booze. His suit hung on him like a blanket wrapped about a flour barrel, but his shirt had been freshly laundered. As for his hatless head, it revealed a large bald spot at the crown while what hair he had was too long, actually touching his shoulders. He glowered at Wyatt and Jared with insolent agate eyes, furious at their impertinence.

  ‘I understand you have taken three of our townspeople prisoner,’ he stated piously. ‘On whose authority are you locking up innocent citizens?’

  ‘They’re only innocent until proven guilty,’ Wyatt countered. ‘And there is little chance they will be turned loose.’ He narrowed his gaze at the pompous banker. ‘You might want to give that some thought.’

  ‘Are you threatening me?’

  ‘Just stating facts. Once those fellows know they are headed for Canyon City, they are liable to start talking.’

  Rutherford frowned. ‘Canyon City?’

  Jared nudged Wyatt’s ribs with his elbow. ‘Don’t you remember, Cuz? This guy hails from Texas. He don’t know where the Colorado State prison is located.’

  The man’s look of displeasure increased. ‘Who told you I was from Texas?’

  Jared shrugged. ‘Word gets around real quick – happens when a bunch of buzzards show up to take over a town. We know you and your fellow gang members hail from down that-away.’

  ‘Yes, well, Texas was getting too crowded,’ the banker explained. ‘And there’s no law against me and a couple of my friends coming to Colorado to start our own business ventures.’

  ‘You picked a place with no lawman.’

  ‘Few towns in this part of the country have a marshal or sheriff. That’s why the mayor put a couple of local men in charge of keeping the peace.’

  ‘I’ve talked to them,’ Wyatt said. ‘Real top-notch fellows – dull enough of wit to follow about any given order.’

  Rutherford snorted. ‘What do you want from me?’

  ‘We stopped by to inform you that the law is here to stay, and whoever ordered our cousin to be shot in the back will be forever sorry.’

  ‘Sorry!’ Jared repeated the word, hedging it in ice. ‘Meaning they are going to dangle from a rope, kicking at the wind.’

  Rutherford masked total innocence. ‘Why tell me?’

  ‘Courtesy,’ Wyatt answered. ‘We intend to extend the same courtesy to everyone in town. Might even coax one or two of them to start talking.’

  ‘Everything we’ve done is legal.’

  ‘Assessing a fifteen per cent tax on every business in town, taking over loans that were granted at ten per cent and tripling the interest rate?’ Wyatt bore into the man with an accusatory gaze. ‘I know a little about the law regarding mortgages. You can’t raise a previously agreed-upon interest rate after a loan has been signed. And, as it happens, we have the vice president of a major bank in town; he’s offered to audit your records.’

  The crook sniffed importantly. ‘You can’t collect or look at my bank records without a special court order!’

  ‘Mr Colt says different!’ Jared spoke up, patting the butt of his gun. ‘We are going to place your records in a safe place until the judge arrives. That way, you won’t be able to doctor any of the figures.’

  ‘Now see here. . .’ he began testily.

  Wyatt took a step forward. ‘You can hand them over voluntarily, Rudy . . . or we can take them after my cousin leaves you lying face-down and unconscious on the floor!’

  Jared smirked. ‘Be downright fitting if we treated you the same as your thugs have been treating the local businesses and citizens.’

  Rather than get up from his desk, Rutherford made a loathing gesture toward a liquor cabinet. A row of journals were held in place by a couple bookends atop the cabinet. Wyatt picked through them and found the ones he wanted.

  ‘Rest assured, Mr Rutherford,’ he told the man. ‘We will keep your ledgers safe until the judge and bank auditor finish with them.’

  Rutherford gnashed his teeth, red-faced, with veins about to explode from his forehead, but wisely held his silence. He was used to intimidation, but from the other side of the fence. However, he knew better than to resist, restraining himself to simply glowering at the pair with a deadly-hot, molten stare.

  As they left the bank, both Jared and Wyatt knew there would be repercussions from their actions. The gauntlet had been dropped and Rutherford was not the sort of man to ignore a challenge.

  Julia carefully changed Mason’s bandage and asked about his discomfort.

  ‘I reckon I ought to be moving to another room,’
he replied. ‘You did a good job. There isn’t much pain except when I take a deep breath or flex my shoulders.’

  ‘You’ve got the most muscular back and shoulders of any man I ever treated.’

  He grinned at her. ‘Comes from beatin’ the stuffing out of punching bags . . . or rowdies who like to push people around. Never did have the good sense to walk away from a fight.’

  ‘At least you are no longer in this fight alone. I expected someone might come to watch over you, but those two Valeron boys put Lafferty and his two men in jail and reinstated me as mayor . . . all within a few hours.’

  ‘Wyatt has tamed a town or two before,’ Mason advised her. ‘He knows the steps to take and won’t be as careless as I was.’

  ‘Plus, he has a brother to back him up.’

  ‘Jared is his cousin,’ he corrected her. ‘Tell you true, you could line up the nine Valeron boys and it would be tough to tell which belonged to which of the three families. All of the Valeron fathers carry the same physical traits – passed on down to the boys and even one or two of the girls.’

  ‘Sizable family,’ she said, allowing him to button up his shirt.

  ‘You giving me the OK to move to a hotel?’

  ‘You’re supposed to be dead. Where can you go that no one will see you?’

  ‘I haven’t given it much thought, but I sure do hate putting Miss Brooks out . . . ’specially with her brother being in town. Looking after me is taking up too much of her time.’

  Julia gave him an odd look, not unlike his mother, when she was worried about him. ‘The young lady has a past,’ she said softly. ‘She confided in me once how a man had done her dirt and left her in disgrace. I don’t believe she has gotten over it.’

  Mason was surprised she would impart something so private to him. ‘She mentioned a little about it to me,’ he related. ‘And I’ve noticed she keeps a tight rein on her feelings.’

  ‘That said, I believe she is sweet on you,’ the woman told him gently. ‘I wouldn’t want to see her hurt again.’

  He blinked in shock, wondering how he could ever be responsible for bringing pain to someone as precious and special as Miss Brooks. Before he could get his brain working, Julia lightly patted his arm.

  ‘I know you have a good heart, Mason. I’m only suggesting you try and be . . . gentle and understanding. Don’t try and move too quickly.’

  ‘Like I said, the injury don’t hardly bother me.’

  She made a face. ‘Not the wound, silly – I’m talking about Lynette.’

  He leaned back in momentary confusion. ‘Well, yeah,’ he muttered inanely. ‘That much is clear to me. I’ve never been ungentle or said a rough word around a lady. As for understanding one, however, I don’t have a clue what makes you females tick.’

  Julia smiled. ‘See? You do understand us.’

  Mason remained sitting on the bed as the doctor rotated about and left the room. He paused to scratch his head. Be gentle and understanding she says . . . ’cept there’s no understanding females! Durned if I’m not more perplexed than before her advice!

  Chapter Seven

  Dealer and Baron remained silent while Rutherford stormed about the room, ranting and wildly throwing his arms in the air. ‘Me!’ he roared between vile cuss words. ‘Those two mouthy, cock-a-hoop jokers – talking sass to me!’

  ‘You say they took your record books?’ Dealer finally shattered his lengthy tirade.

  Rutherford quelled his ire long enough to heave a sigh. ‘It shows where I went through and changed all of the interest rates. A judge will see it plain as day. We have to get those journals back.’

  ‘What’s the big deal about changing the rates?’ Baron wanted to know. ‘I mean, most bankers charge whatever rate of interest they want.’

  ‘Yes, but it’s against the law to alter a binding contract without the lender agreeing to it,’ Rutherford explained patiently. ‘It’s a form of fraud, and I could end up going to prison.’

  ‘So we take back the books,’ Baron suggested. ‘There’s only two of them.’

  ‘I doubt you’ll be able to shoot both of them in the back at the same time,’ Dealer jeered. ‘And let’s not forget, these two are Valerons.’

  ‘So what?’

  ‘I asked around, after they arrested Mike and his boys. Bernie knew a little about them.’ The two waited for him to continue, so he clarified what he’d learned.

  Baron was stunned. ‘You telling us that several Valerons took on the whole murderous stronghold of Brimstone, while there were over a hundred outlaws and gunmen in town?’

  ‘That’s what Bernie said. The Valerons ended up killing a couple men, arresting a couple, and hanging three more. One of the Valeron boys is a US Marshal, and Wyatt – the one who is now wearing our sheriff’s badge – he killed the Waco Kid in a straight-up shootout.’

  Rutherford grunted his admiration. ‘I once seen the Waco Kid in action. He was about as quick as any man alive.’

  ‘Well, Wyatt Valeron was quicker.’

  ‘Any idea when the judge is due here?’ Rutherford asked Dealer.

  ‘The Brooks gal didn’t post a time frame in her latest newsletter, so I’d guess we have a few days yet.’

  ‘What about it, Baron? Got any ideas?’ Rutherford wanted to know.

  The gunman thought for a moment. ‘They likely have the books at the jail, and there is always one of them on guard. It could take a lot of firepower to do this by force.’ Even as the words were out of his mouth, he had an idea. ‘Of course, there might be another way.’

  ‘I don’t relish taking on those Valeron fellows in a head-on gunfight,’ Dealer said. ‘What have you got in mind?’

  Mason was attempting to put on one of his boots when Lynette entered the room. She had a tray with a plate of food and a cup of coffee in her hands.

  ‘What do you think you’re doing!’ It was a demand not a question.

  ‘I’ve been a burden to you long enough,’ he replied. ‘I can serve a purpose by keeping watch over the prisoners, if I move to the jail.’

  She set the food and cup down on the nearby dresser and scowled at him. ‘You aren’t up to standing guard just yet. Look at you – can’t even reach down to put your boots on!’

  ‘Miss Brooks, I am sure beholden to you for the care and kindness you’ve shown, but it isn’t right, my being in your room and having you wait on me like a servant.’

  ‘You were shot because you came here to help me. That makes you my responsibility.’

  Mason gave her a frank look. ‘It’s the man who is supposed to be responsible for the woman, not the other way around.’

  ‘That might be true in most instances, but not in this situation.’

  ‘I know you don’t trust us men, and there are a good many no woman should ever trust. I speak from experience, because my younger brother is a carousing, no-good skirt chaser. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had to save him from a beating. Truth is, he deserved a good tanning a number of times. He sees women as a conquest, and he’s never been true to a single one.’

  ‘But you’re different,’ she said critically. ‘Is that what you’re saying?’

  Mason didn’t reply right away. Instead, he let go of the boot and gingerly reclined back on the bed, not laying down, but relaxed against the propped-up pillow and headboard. Instead of answering her question, he gazed off in remembrance.

  ‘When I was a little boy, my pa brought home a pup. It was about the homeliest mutt you ever saw, but he was my dog. I loved him and he loved me. We were inseparable for better’n ten years. When he died, I cried like a baby.’ He paused, somewhat choked up at the memory. ‘One summer, when I was fourteen, I worked for a halfbreed who rounded up wild horses and broke them to ride. He paid me by allowing I could have my pick of all of the horses we tamed. I chose a little sorrel mare, and she was the best horse a man could want. She come down sick a year or so back and died. I’m not too proud to tell you, full-grown man that I am, I cri
ed over the loss.’

  Lynette’s expression displayed compassion as she murmured: ‘Why are you telling me this?’

  ‘To make a point, Miss Brooks. I’ll never have another dog like my childhood friend, and I’ll never love another horse as I did that little mare. I reckon I’m a man who invests my feelings wholly and completely when I commit to something. I figure the woman I love will be the same. One dog, one horse, one woman – it’s the way I am.’

  A curious softness infused Lynette’s aspect. She hid the momentary weakness beneath munificent dark lashes and her voice was a mere whisper. ‘I . . . I believe you mean that.’

  Taking a deep breath, Mason took the next step. ‘I’d be right proud to court you proper, Miss Brooks, though I wouldn’t want you doing so out of obligation.’

  ‘Mr Mason, I—’

  ‘I swear to you,’ he continued, ‘that I have a great respect for you, and I’m a man of honour.’

  She turned her head slowly from side to side. ‘You don’t—’

  ‘I further swear that I would never raise a hand to you.’

  ‘Mr Mason,’ Lynette spoke more firmly. ‘I’m trying to tell you, you deserve someone more worthy than I.’

  ‘Worthy?’ He would have laughed at the absurdity, but she had said it in all seriousness. ‘I’m a man with a reckless past. I’ve killed a couple other men, along with a few Indians. And there’s been times when I’ve given a man a beating instead of a warning; I’ve whupped the fellows who came looking for my brother, Cliff . . . knowing full well that he deserved the punishment. If one of us is not worthy, it’s me.’

  Her lips pressed together stubbornly. ‘But you merit someone innocent, without a sordid past. A girl can only surrender her virtue once, and that should be to the man she is going to marry.’

  ‘If people didn’t make poor choices or mistakes, we wouldn’t be human,’ he countered. ‘I’ve got my share of blame and guilt to bear. Anyone who has reached our ages is bound to have a few regrets. What I see, when I look at you, is a gal who is as pure as the first glimmer of sunshine on a spring morning, and I’m asking for the chance to court you proper.’