Protection

Chapter 39

Chapter 39

“What are you doing, Clint?” Abel’s eyes reflected pure horror.

“I’m gonna tie you both up. Now do as I say,” Clint waved his gun in the direction that he wanted Abel to go.

Abel walked to where Joe was still leaned up against the mesa wall and sat down beside him. Clint put his fingers in his mouth and let out a shrill whistle. His horse came running up to him and Clint grabbed the rope from his pommel and walked toward his brothers, gun in hand.

“What are you going to do with us?” Joe asked as Clint began to tie their hands together.

“I’m gonna send you to Plateau. I’m sure the local sheriff will be plenty happy to see you,” Clint explained.

“You’d do that to your own brothers?” Joe yanked against the roped. “Slades stick together, Clint.”

“No, you’re wrong. You two might stick together, but I don’t. I stick with the people who care about me and mine. That excludes any blood kin I ever had,” Clint tied off the roped binding his brothers.

“Let me guess, you like those people down there on that ranch?” Joe rolled his eyes.

Clint pressed his lips into a thin line and took his time answering, sitting back on his heels.

“They might not be blood, but they treated me a whole lot better than any of you ever have,” he told them.

Joe rolled his eyes. “How were we supposed to take care of you when we didn’t know where you were?”

“I’m Clint Slade, I’m not hard to find,” Clint stood up and walked back to his horse.

“We were busy too, ya know. We had a life to get on with,” Joe defended.

“Yeah, you were real busy ruining Bliss’ life, weren’t you?” Clint put his foot into the stirrup of his saddle and mounted his horse. “Get up, you two.”

“What? Are you gonna make up walk all the way back to the Dottie Belle?” Abel’s eyes widened.

“Bliss and I did it in the mud. You can do it now.”

His brothers struggled to their feet with their hands tied behind their backs. He directed his gun at them.

“Start walking, and don’t even think about trying anything. I’ve killed men for a lot less than what you’ve done.”

His brothers started walking toward the ranch, and Clint decided to get a few more answers out of them while he had them where he wanted them.

“So, I think you two have some explaining to do about Damian Jeremiah?” he said plainly.

Joe looked back at him with a grin. “Quite a skittish little man, ain’t he?”

“Why did you hire him to get information out of me?” Clint pressed.

“Like I was going to march into the Dottie Belle and demand where my money was? Sherman would’a blowed me away,” Joe twisted slightly to look at him while still walking forward.

“Then why Damian? You could have easily bribed one of the cowboys,” Clint asked.

“Damian was the only one we could find dumb enough to trust us to really give him a third of that money. We were never really going to give it to him. Guess that little lady running him off kinda saved his life,” Joe explained.

Clint gripped the reins harder. His brother had turned into truly heartless men… just like he had used to be.

“You boys know that you can turn back now, don’t you?” Clint asked them.