Blood Gold (7 page)

With Patrick cared for and now resting, Gideon took a wander around the raised platform.

From under lowered brows, the guards, Strang and Don, watched him approach with apparent lack of concern. As he passed, they nodded to him and when he’d reached the corner of the platform Gideon chanced to glance back, but they weren’t looking his way.

Even with their seeming trust that he wouldn’t leave the fort, Gideon didn’t dare try to sneak out during daylight hours. So he had to continue hoping that Salvador would be patient for the rest of the day.

Directly behind the powder magazine, he climbed down a ladder to ground-level. He crept past the pile of rotting timber that littered the corner of the fort, perhaps the remnants of a bastion, and faced the back of the powder magazine. From his casual consideration of the formidable building, he saw no way to get into it other than through the main door.

He turned and stalked to the timber pile. There, he sat, hunched his knees to his chin, and wondered
yet again how he might escape with Hannah when the shooting started.

‘Gideon,’ someone whispered.

Gideon glanced around, but, on seeing no one, he shook his head and stood.

‘Gideon.’ The voice was more insistent now.

Gideon peered around until his gaze fell on the timber pile. With his brow furrowed, he climbed on to a large log and gazed across the tangle of rotting timber.

Half-way to the stockade, a face was peering at him through a gap between two logs. A hand was
beckoning
him to approach.

He clambered over logs until, with his hands on his knees, he could peer into the shadow-filled hole. The man was Rusty.

‘How did you get in?’ Gideon asked, hunkering down beside the hole.

‘Easy,’ Rusty whispered. ‘I was the miner in my partnership with Patrick. Show me a secure place and I’ll find a way to get in.’

Gideon sighed and glanced around, but from his limited view of the parade ground, he couldn’t see either of the guards.

‘Assume you know about Patrick.’

Rusty hung his head for a moment.

‘Tell me the worst.’

‘He’s alive, but when he tried to reclaim the gold, Jack caught him and beat him.’ Gideon shook his head. ‘He won’t be trying any more damn fool missions like last night’s for a while.’

‘Where is he?’

‘In the officers’ quarters.’ Gideon pointed to the parade ground where the edge of the building was just visible beside the gate.

‘I’ll get him out.’

‘Don’t risk that.’

‘I ain’t as bull-headed as Patrick is. I’ll be careful.’

‘But why? He has no interest in working with you.’

Rusty glared at the logs below him and rolled on to his side. He hurled a stone down the timber heap, then took a long breath and turned back to face Gideon.

‘He’s my friend.’ Rusty lowered his head and rubbed the back of his neck. ‘I have to try.’

Gideon leaned down to the hole and patted Rusty’s shoulder.

‘You’re a good man. I wish Patrick had a tenth of the decency you have.’

‘He ain’t that bad.’ Rusty frowned. ‘So, will you help me?’

Gideon hung his head a moment, then glanced over his shoulder. Still, he could see nobody in the parade ground and the guards on the raised
platform
were out of his view. But the guards’ steady patrol had to reach this spot before too much longer.

‘Sure.’ Gideon watched Rusty smile, but then raised a hand. ‘But that help’s on one condition – you help me get Hannah out.’

Rusty nodded and held out a hand from his hole.

‘Deal.’

Gideon shook the hand. ‘So how are we—’

‘What you doing?’ someone yelled from behind him.

As Rusty rolled into the shadows, Gideon swirled round to face Strang, who stood at the bottom of the timber pile and was glaring at him with his hands on his hips.

‘You were being quiet to sneak to up on me,’ Gideon said, smiling.

‘You weren’t. Who were you talking to?’

‘Myself.’ Gideon shrugged and sauntered three paces down the timber pile. ‘Nobody else talks to me much so I have to talk to myself.’

Strang peered around, but Rusty had disappeared into his bolthole. Still, Strang stalked up the timber pile.

With his brow knotted, Strang ran his gaze over the logs, then settled on a hole, but not the one from which Rusty had emerged. He hunkered down to stare into it, but then shook his head and stood to face Gideon.

‘And did that nobody head off down this hole?’

‘You must have heard me rooting around. The hole doesn’t go anywhere.’ Gideon considered Strang’s sneer. ‘It’s far too cramped in there, but if you don’t believe me, try getting into it yourself.’

‘Quiet.’ Strang grabbed Gideon’s arm and dragged him a pace towards the powder magazine. ‘I reckon I’ll let Jack ask you that question.’

Strang dragged Gideon into the powder magazine and pushed him forward to face Jack. Hannah wasn’t there.

‘What was he doing?’ Jack grunted as he looked up.

‘He was talking to someone from outside the fort,’ Strang muttered.

Jack winced. ‘Who?’

‘Don’t know. Don and Brady are scouting around, but I reckon he’s long gone. But Gideon was talking to someone.’ Strang kicked Gideon forward a pace and grinned. ‘And I reckon you might enjoy asking him who.’

‘I would.’ Jack turned his cold, one-eyed gaze on Gideon. ‘Who were you talking to?’

Gideon hung his head for a moment. Any detailed examination of the collapsed building was sure to find the hole Rusty had used to get in. And from Gideon’s experience of the inevitable logic of the likes of Jack Wolf, this discovery would only lead to one result.

‘Salvador Milano,’ he said, settling for a lie that wouldn’t cause trouble for Patrick and Rusty.

Jack nodded. ‘He was that uppity varmint in Destitution. Why is he here?’

Gideon rubbed his jaw.

‘This will take some explaining.’

‘Take your time.’ Jack licked his lips, then fingered his gunbelt. ‘You got the rest of your life.’

Gideon took a deep breath.

‘Back in Destitution, Salvador overheard Hannah and me talking about the gold you’d just got. He waylaid me. He told me he’d kill us both unless I helped him get the gold from you.’

Jack’s only eye twitched.

‘You and Hannah are betraying me.’

‘Not Hannah. She knows nothing of my deal with Salvador.’

Jack snorted, his hand drifting down to his holster.

‘You know what happens to people who
double-cross
me?’

‘I can guess, but I haven’t double-crossed you.’ Gideon glanced away from Jack a moment, then sighed. ‘And I reckon you have feelings for Hannah and she won’t return those feelings to you if you kill her brother.’

For long moments Jack glared at Gideon, then pointed a firm finger at Strang.

‘Fetch Hannah,’ he grunted.

As Strang scurried outside, Gideon sauntered to the side wall and leaned against it, trying to appear
nonchalant and to hide the fact that his palms were sweating and his heart was pounding. But even when he’d leaned against the wall, Jack was still glaring at him.

‘Don’t be angry with her,’ Gideon said. ‘She knows nothing about any of this.’

‘I ain’t angry with
her
.’

A minute later, Strang paced back into the powder magazine with Hannah in tow. She glanced at Jack, then at Gideon.

‘What’s happened?’ she asked.

Jack flashed Gideon a harsh glare, then folded his arms.

‘Your brother was talking to someone who’d sneaked into the fort.’

A strangulated cry escaped Hannah’s lips before she threw her hand to her mouth, but through her fingers a screeched word still emerged.

‘Who?’

Gideon pushed from the wall. ‘She knows—’

‘Quiet!’ Jack roared. ‘You ain’t prompting her. I want Hannah to tell me what she knows.’

Hannah kneaded her brow, then held her hands wide and stared at the ground before Jack’s feet.

‘I have no idea,’ she whispered, ‘about anything that Gideon has done to double-cross you. But he doesn’t know anyone around here but me.’

‘Not even Salvador Milano?’

Hannah’s mouth fell open. She winced and flashed a glare at Gideon, then turned back to Jack.

‘I don’t …’ A single tear escaped her right eye
and rolled down her cheek. She brushed it away, then snuffled.

‘You don’t cry,’ Jack muttered. ‘But as you are, I can see that you didn’t know what a double-crossing piece of scum your brother is.’

Gideon took a deep breath and pushed from the wall.

‘I’m sorry, Hannah,’ he said. ‘Salvador made me help him.’ Gideon placed his hands together and held them out to Jack. ‘If you want to blame
someone
, blame me.’

‘I do,’ Jack grunted.

With his gaze set on Gideon, Jack ripped a random card from his top pocket and held it high, then swirled it round.

The card was the ten of hearts.

Gideon gulped.

‘Does that card say I live or die?’

Jack thrust the card into his pocket. His hand strayed towards his holster, then lifted to rub his chin.

‘It says you get a chance to live.’

Using the route he’d found the previous night, Gideon sneaked from the fort, this time under the watchful gaze of Strang and Don. Once in the forest, he leaned against a tree and took long deep breaths, calming his nerves after his lucky escape.

Then he edged through the trees until he reached Salvador’s camp. He relayed the news that Strang had found a stash of whiskey in the fort and that
Jack’s men were planning to drink a good quantity of it that afternoon.

Without question, Salvador accepted this news and he readily decided on the choice, popular with his followers, of attacking at sundown.

Gideon then hurried back to the fort. He relayed news of the success of his mission to Strang, who grunted his displeasure at Gideon’s continued survival, then moseyed into the powder magazine to see Jack.

Left on his own, Gideon glanced around the parade ground. Hannah was sitting huddled under her blanket by the stable wall. Gideon wavered for a moment, then joined her.

For long moments he stood before her, but when she continued to stare at the ground, pointedly ignoring his presence, he sat beside her. Still, she didn’t look at him.

‘I’m sorry,’ he whispered.

‘Me too,’ she murmured. She turned her cold gaze on Gideon. ‘You followed me here to save me, but you’re determined to get me killed.’

‘Like I said, I’m sorry. I was just trying to help.’

Hannah shook her head, but her stern expression softened and she shuffled a foot closer to Gideon.

‘Accepted.’ She lowered her voice. ‘But just let me do the talking from now on and we’ll both survive Salvador’s ambush.’

Gideon nodded, but he took a deep breath.

‘I have to ask this – are you planning to survive the ambush with Jack or without him?’

Hannah glanced away, biting her lip.

‘I don’t know.’

Gideon drew his legs to his chest.

‘You could do better than him.’

‘In my life, I don’t meet men that are any better than Jack.’

‘Then change your life.’

‘You mean be a doctor?’

‘It’s a caring profession. And you care about people.’

‘I don’t reckon I care as much as you do.’

Gideon sighed and laid a hand on her arm for a moment.

‘Then do whatever you want to do, but hanging on to a man like Jack isn’t the answer.’

Hannah rubbed at her arm as she breathed deeply through her nostrils. Then she flared her eyes and opened her mouth to utter a sharp retort, but Strang was now sauntering across the parade ground and Gideon raised a hand, silencing her.

Strang pointed to the powder magazine and grinned at Hannah.

‘Jack wants you,’ he grunted, then leered at her as he licked his lips.

Hannah stood. She looked down at Gideon as she smoothed her skirt.

‘I’ll determine that myself, Gideon.’ Hannah turned and walked away after Strang, her skirts swinging.

‘Be careful,’ Gideon said, but Hannah kept her gaze set forward and strode across the parade ground.

In the doorway to the powder magazine Hannah waited until Strang wandered off, then paced inside.

Jack was in the second room, sitting against the wall in a rectangle of light, the bags of gold at his back, the pack of cards held loosely in his right hand.

‘What do you want?’ she asked.

‘I want an answer.’ He looked up, his one eye cold. ‘Who is Gideon?’

‘My brother.’

‘He doesn’t look like you, and neither does he look at you like a sister.’

Hannah gulped. ‘He hasn’t seen me for a while, perhaps he ain’t used to seeing me all grown up.’

Jack tossed the pack of cards to his left hand.

‘Perhaps.’

Hannah cocked her head to one side and lowered her voice to its softest tone.

‘Did Amber burn the trust from your heart? Did Amber hurt you so badly that you don’t want to touch me? Did Amber stop you making decisions? Did Amber force you ask the cards about
everything
?’

Jack patted a firm finger on the top of the cards.

‘I decide my own fate.’

‘The cards decide your fate.’ Hannah edged another pace closer to Jack. ‘Did Wilton Knox force you to avoid making decisions?’

‘It wasn’t him.’ Jack hung his head for a moment. For some time he contemplated the cards in his
hand, then looked up, his one eye glazed and
possibly
no longer seeing this room.

‘It was me.’

Hannah knelt beside Jack. She lifted his right hand and cradled it in both her hands.

‘Just tell me. You can trust me.’ She smiled. ‘The cards say you can.’

Jack looked at her, a line of moisture brimming his eye.

‘I got into a poker-game with Wilton Knox in Black Rock. On one hand, the stakes got higher and higher. Neither of us would back down. I bet every last cent I had, plus a few that I didn’t, but Wilton matched me. To call him, I had to risk the most precious thing in the world.’ Jack slipped his hand from Hannah’s grasp. ‘My woman.’

‘You bet a person on a hand of poker?’ Hannah stared at Jack, seeing him nod. ‘And you lost?’

‘Sure did. But that ain’t the worst of it. She went through with the deal.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘Amber and me were a team. We planned to steal the money I lost that night. She was going to lead Wilton on, then when his guard was down, kill him. But she didn’t. She stayed. She said she could only love a winner.’ Jack rubbed his ruined orbit. ‘So I killed her.’

For long moments Hannah sat in silence. Then she rolled to her feet and edged across the room to look through the door into the other room.

‘I’m sorry for you,’ she whispered. She turned
back and folded her arms. ‘But I don’t see why you still ask the cards.’

Jack held up the pack of cards and fanned them out.

‘I have to prove that I’m still a winner, because the moment the cards turn against me again, I’ll lose everything.’

Hannah stalked across the room and pushed his hand down. She closed her small hand over his, crushing the cards into a solid deck.

‘Trust people, not the cards.’ She held her other hand to her heart. ‘Trust me, not the cards.’

‘I can’t.’ Jack’s one eye darted up to appraise her. ‘I keep wondering why you’re here.’

‘You know why.’

‘I don’t. Are you here for the gold? Is Gideon here for the gold? Is Gideon working with Salvador to get the gold?’

‘That’s a lot of questions. Why not ask the cards?’ She snorted and lifted her hand. ‘You trust them more than you trust me.’

‘Perhaps I will.’ Jack fanned out his cards and extracted one. He moved to turn it over, but Hannah grabbed his hand.

‘But after this one time, don’t ask them again.’

Jack nodded and turned the card over. He flashed a smile.

‘The two of diamonds.’

‘And what did you ask them?’

‘I asked whether I should trust you.’

‘And the answer?’

For long moments Jack stared at Hannah, then shrugged.

‘Leave me now,’ he whispered. ‘I’m sure your brother needs help tending Patrick’s wounds.’