Snowed In(manxman)

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Five

Waiting until dark had been hard for Turner--as a matter of fact it had been one of the most difficult things he had ever done. Knowing that Will was in that brothel, that men could be forcing him even as Turner sat hidden in the woods and waited, was nearly more than he could bear…

But even his considerable temper hadn’t overridden his good sense. Turner was good at killing but Thompson knew he was coming and coming at them in broad daylight probably wouldn’t have ended well for Turner. Plus now Thompson and his men would be more on edge, more apt to panic and make mistakes. They’d seen Fred and Vince and the more time went by with nothing happening, the more time they had to think and wonder about just what Turner was going to do to them. 

The answer was simple. Turner was going to kill them. All of them. Every last man who had had the nerve to ride up on that mountain today was going to die at his hands. Thompson Caudill’s reign was over. 

Turner left Bernice in the woods. He didn’t worry about tying her up because he knew she wouldn’t move. She would stay right in that spot until he came or she heard him whistle. 

Slipping quietly as a shadow, Turner went around the back of town, staying low and out of sight. He took cover behind a watering trough when he saw the sheriff walk out of a nearby home, “You just keep an eye out for him, sir and ma’am. He’s a dangerous man and we need him off our streets and made to pay for what he did to those innocent men,” the sheriff warned as he stood in the glow of their kerosene lamps. 

Turner growled low in his throat and clenched his fists. Innocent men his ass. Those men had been prepared to stab him in the back--there wasn’t a damn thing innocent or honorable about a man who would do that. Turner might be a lot of things but he’d never killed a man without looking in his eyes first. 

The sheriff made his way down the road and out of sight and Turner continued on his path toward the brothel. It was his hope that he wouldn’t have to kill the lawmen in order to save Will but if it came to that then Turner would do what had to be done…. They weren’t any kind of lawmen that anyone would come avenging--hell Turner didn’t think they were even legal law men. Simply a shield for Thompson to hide behind.

Turner stopped and bent down when he saw the two men standing guard at the back door of the brothel. No doubt there were more around front and inside. As a matter of fact, Turner had no way of knowing how many men Thompson had lying in wait for him. 

What he needed was a distraction. 

***

“Thompson! The goddamn saloon is on fire!” 

Thompson leapt from his desk has Jasper ran into the office, “What the hell are you talking about?” he demanded. Thompson raced to his window and looked outside. Sure enough flames were shooting out of the windows of his beloved saloon. 

Cries rang out as people tried to collect buckets of water and save the surrounding buildings. Thompson clenched his fists, “How?!”