Leaving Epitaph: The Sons of Daniel Shaye

68

There was still enough of summer in the air that it didn’t grow cold at night. This made keeping James warm easier. Shaye, although committed to sleeping, did not sleep well. He was too worried about James, and about the fire. Consequently, when James awoke that morning, Shaye had breakfast ready for him.

“Pa,” James said as Shaye handed him a plate of beans and beef jerky, “this is holdin’ us up. Langer is gettin’ farther and farther away.”

“Maybe not.”

“What do you mean?”

“Morales wasn’t dead when I found him,” Shaye said. “He told me Aaron was waiting for him in Red Cloud, Nebraska, just across the border.”

“You think he’s really gonna be there? Why would Morales believe that?”

“I don’t know,” Shaye said. “He’s dead and we can’t ask him, but it’s due north of here, so that’s where I’m going.”

“You?” James asked. “You mean we.”

“No,” Shaye said, “I’ll travel faster without you, James.”

“You’re wounded too.”

“My wound won’t make sitting a saddle hard,” Shaye said. “Look, if Aaron is in Red Cloud, I’ve got to get there fast. You’ll have to stay here until I come back for you.”

“Pa—”

“If I don’t come back,” Shaye went on, “head back to the last town we passed. What was it—”

“You’ll come back,” James said. “I know you will.”

“If I don’t, just head back to that last town and see a doctor,” Shaye said. “Then find your brothers. Understand?”

“I understand, Pa,” James said. “But you’ll be back.”

“I think so too, son,” Shaye said. “I think so too.”

Later, Shaye saddled his horse and left all his supplies with James.

“Don’t try to leave here too soon,” he warned his son. “You open that wound and I’m not here to help you, you could bleed to death. I come back and find you dead, I’m going to be real angry with you.”

“Don’t worry, Pa,” James said. “I’ll be fine.”

“Keep your gun close, keep the fire high at night.”

“Do you really think Langer will wait for Morales?” James asked. “After all, he has both their shares of money.”

“They’ve been riding together for a long time,” Shaye said. “I just have to hope that means something to Aaron.”

“Then get goin’, Pa,” James said. “You’re wastin’ valuable time.”

“I’ll see you in a few days, at most.”

“Good luck.”

“You too, son.”

He hated to do it, but Shaye finally gave his horse his heels and left camp at a gallop.

Aaron Langer was sitting in a saloon in Red Cloud, a small town about twenty miles inside of Nebraska. Beneath his chair were the saddlebags filled with money. Aaron was a big enough, mean enough looking man that no one in the saloon wanted to give him a second look. He sat alone with a bottle of whiskey and a deadly glare. Some of the men in the saloon even knew who he was and didn’t want any part of him.

Aaron wasn’t sure why he was waiting in Red Cloud for Morales. He had all the money, didn’t he? He didn’t need anybody, did he? Hadn’t he just cut his own brother loose?

But when it came right down to it, Morales was closer to him than Ethan ever was. And riding alone…well, that just wasn’t something he had ever really done. There was a time in his life when he thought his partner for life might be Danny Shaye, but that didn’t happen. Shaye got religion. Oh, not the way his brother Vincent had, but he got married, and sometimes that was even worse than getting religion.

So then he hooked up with Morales, and that partnership actually worked, and lasted. Not that Aaron ever told Morales he considered him his partner. They both seemed to have settled into their roles, though, and both had profited by it.

Like now, with the money that was under his chair.

Of course, if Morales never showed up, that would be okay too. The money would more than make up for it, and he could always find a new partner, couldn’t he? He’d give the Mexican until tomorrow morning, and then he’d be on his way.

He looked up as a big brunette in a low-cut blue dress approached him. She had a hard-looking face but a big, soft-looking body.

“Hello, handsome,” she said. “Lookin’ for company?”

“Company’s just what I could use, honey.”

“Down here,” she asked, “or upstairs?”

He grinned, forgetting Morales and Shaye. He grabbed his bottle and his saddlebags and said, “Upstairs sounds just fine.”