Page 22 of Charlotte's Reckoning
He whistled for the others. “Let’s head out.”
They’d been waiting and moved on horseback into the clearing.
“Where’s Ike?”Seth asked, seeing only Thorn and Stan.
“He stuck with the original plan,”Stan replied. “Said he’d meet us in St. Louis to divvy up the money.”
“Since he has half of our half, he sure as hell better,”Thorn muttered as he spurred his horse and led them back onto the trail.
Seth fell in behind them, Judd’s horse in tow. The pace was fast, and he soon had a crick in his neck from looking over his shoulder every other minute to check on his brother.
How he stayed conscious, he’d never know, but each time they stopped to change horses, piss, or refill their canteens, pain ravaged Judd’s expression. He’d grunt or nod if any of the men asked how he was doing, keeping his words to a bare minimum. Seth figured that was a good thing; he needed to preserve his strength if he was going to make it.
About midway, as dawn broke in the eastern sky, Seth was re-dressing his wounds with another ripped-up shirt from his saddlebags. The bullet holes still seeped blood at a rate more rapid than he liked. As he retied the saturated strips—he’d rather have clean ones, but he worked with what he had—a shadow fell over them.
Thorn stood over them, staring at Judd’s sweat-beaded face, unable to miss the shiver that swept through him every few moments.
“He’s fevered,”he said, stating the obvious. “If you can’t get some water down him, he ain’t gonna make it.”
What did he think he was? An idiot? At every stop, he tried coaxing him to take a few sips before Judd pushed the canteen away. But his concern for his brother overshadowed his desire to spar with Thorn.
“He’ll die if I don’t get him to a doctor. Maybe I should double back to that town we passed. The one with the vineyard. Hermann, I think it was.”
“Deputized citizens out for blood are bound to be hot on our back trail,”Stan advised. “Best press on to St. Louis as quickly as possible and get him to a hospital.”
“They’ll have wired every sheriff and police department between here and the Mississippi about the robbery. What am I supposed to do, walk up to a hospital as pretty as you please? I’ll do it to save him, but Judd won’t thank me for it.”
“Judd sure as fuck won’t,”his brother chimed in, his voice reed thin and raspy.
“I know of a place,”Thorn stated.
He was instantly suspicious. The outlaw had a hard time taking orders from a younger man and didn’t bother to hide it. If Judd died, there was one less man to split the money with and to challenge him. Seth’s voice had an edge to it when he asked, “What place?”
“It’s called the Pleasure Palace,”Thorn said with a broadening grin. “An old friend of mine runs it.”
“You want me to take him to a whorehouse?”Seth asked, incredulous. “That’s not the care he needs.”
“This ain’t no ordinary whorehouse,”a still-grinning Thorn advised. “They cater to special tastes and sometimes things get out of hand, so the madam keeps a physician on retainer.”
“You think she’ll just call him up for a bunch of dusty outlaws who arrive on her doorstep?”
“For a price, she’ll do anything,”he said with a nod before his eyes narrowed. “But it comes out of your share.”
He glanced at Judd, who nodded in agreement.
“Lead the way,”Seth urged.
They mounted up, ready to head out in seconds. No one helped as he hoisted his brother, not light by any means, into his saddle. Instead of leading Lightning, Seth swung up behind Judd. Without support, he’d never make it through two more hours of hard riding.
Chapter 6
A Predilection for Pain
Noah was kind to her in the beginning. Since he was her jailer, “sympathetic”might be more appropriate. Now, his face twisted into a scowl every time he saw her. Five escape attempts probably made him feel justified in his anger. But Rowie didn’t care. She refused to be complicit in her downward spiral into the gutter and rejected his suggestion to give in.
Heloise hadn’t exaggerated; the Palace was very well guarded. Only twice had she made it off the floor. Once, getting as far as the kitchen, where she’d hidden in the refuse bin. It smelled rancid, and so had she when the cook discovered her and pulled her out. With each failure, she was marched back to her room. In due time, Heloise would arrive to chew her out and order more restrictions as punishment. She also awarded the guard an IOU for an hour of her time—a sample, she’d called it. She’d passed out three, two less than it should have been, but the cook was a woman, and Noah had vehemently declined. But none of the eager guards could collect until after Friday night.
“Word would get out. You can’t keep a secret in the Palace,”the madam had declared. “And I won’t have the auction ruined.”
