Trail to Shasta (9781101622049) by J. R. Roberts Page B

them.”
    â€œWhy’d you warn me that they were going through my wagon?”
    The clerk shrugged.
    â€œSeemed like the right thing to do.”
    Clint reached out and grabbed the young man’s wrist.
    â€œI’m going to need a better reason than that.”
    â€œOkay, okay,” the clerk said. Clint released him. “I was hopin’ you’d kill ’em.”
    â€œWhy?”
    The clerk hesitated, then said, “They’re my brothers.”
    â€œAnd you want me to kill them?”
    â€œI came here to get away from them,” the clerk said. “They found me, and ever since they been here, they’ve been—well, they killed the sheriff. That ought to tell you the kind of men they are.”
    â€œAnd you want them dead?”
    â€œI’d like them to leave town,” the young man said, “but if that can’t happen, yeah. I want them dead. I want them out of my life. There’s something wrong with them.”
    â€œOkay,” Clint said, “say I believe you. What will they do next?”
    â€œThey’re gonna try to figure out a way to kill you, and to have your women.”
    â€œWill they come during the night?”
    â€œMaybe.”
    â€œOkay,” Clint said, “I want two new rooms, but I don’t want you to change the room numbers on the register.”
    â€œO-Okay.”
    Clint collected the two new keys.
    â€œIf you tell them what room I’m in,” Clint said, “or the ladies are in, I’ll come for you when I’m done with them. Do you understand?”
    â€œY-Yessir,” the clerk said. “I understand.”
    â€œWhat’s your name?”
    â€œLeo.”
    â€œOkay, Leo,” Clint said. “I don’t want to kill your brothers, but with no law in town, if they come for me, I will.”
    Clint went upstairs to move the girls and himself to new rooms.
    * * * 
    Leo breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn’t wanted the Gunsmith to know he was brother to Zack and Ben, but his plan might still work. And if he did manage to get Adams to kill his brothers, the whole town would owe him a debt of gratitude.

THIRTY-THREE
    It wasn’t dark yet.
    Bridget and Bride moved into their new room, and Bridget lay down on her bed to rest. Before long she was breathing evenly and deeply asleep.
    Bride walked to the window and looked out. The street was busy. Council Bluffs was not the kind of town Saint Joe had been. And it certainly wasn’t what Saint Louis had been. Both of those were places she wished she’d had a chance to look at.
    It seemed to her that everybody was getting to do what they wanted to do but her. She was just supposed to travel to Shasta County and marry a man forty years older than she was. If she was going to do that, she’d like to have a good time somewhere along the way first.
    She looked at Bridget again. She was still fast asleep. And she was pretty sure Clint was in his room.
    She went to the door, listened to see if anyone was in the hall, then opened it and slipped out.
    * * * 
    Bridget came awake slowly. She was surprised she had fallen asleep, and now she was groggy as she woke.
    â€œWow,” she said, “I really fell asleep. Bride?”
    She turned in her bed, expecting to see her sister in the other. There was only one place she could think her sister might have gone.
    She got up, went across the hall, and knocked on Clint’s door. It never occurred to her that her sister and Clint might be doing what she and Clint had been doing when they were interrupted in Saint Joseph. She simply could not think of anyplace else Bride could be.
    Clint opened the door, smiled when he saw Bridget.
    â€œIs Bride here?” Bridget asked immediately.
    â€œNo, she’s not.”
    â€œHave you seen her in the past hour or so?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œShe’s gone, Clint,” she said. “I don’t know where she