Robert Parker - Brimstone

“What’s the other option?” Virgil said.

“We gonna have to kill you and probably them,” Pike said.

“Or at least try,” Virgil said.

“I like our odds,” Pike said. “And, God’s honest truth, I think I can beat you.”

Virgil was quiet, thinking about things. I knew Virgil didn’t care if Pike thought he could beat him. Virgil paid no mind to talk.

After a time, he said, “Makes sense. I’ll take the money… long as it is commensurate.”

“And leave town?”

“And leave town,” Virgil said.

“Your word?” Pike said.

“Yep.”

Pike looked at me.

“Everett?” he said.

“I’m with Virgil,” I said.

“Wait right there,” Pike said.

He stood and went into the back of the saloon. He was gone for maybe ten minutes, and when he returned he had a leather-bound canvas satchel.

“One thousand dollars,” he said. “Legal tender notes.”

“Done,” Virgil said.

He picked up the satchel and nodded at me, and we walked out of Pike’s Palace.

“VIRGIL,” I said, as we walked up Arrow Street, “what the fuck are we doing?”

“We’re being tricky,” Virgil said.

“We never took a bribe in our life,” I said.

“Nor run away,” Virgil said.

“So…?” I said.

“We ain’t going,” Virgil said.

“We’re not?”

“Nope.”

“We’re going to double-cross Pike?”

“We are,” Virgil said.

“What about the bribe?”

“Laurel needs money,” Virgil said. “Pike don’t.”

“You think Pike will see it that way?” I said.

“No.”

“We gonna pretend to go?” I said.

“Yep.”

“What about the women,” I said.

“It was only Allie,” Virgil said. “Maybe I say she’s a grown woman. She cast her lot with me. She knows what I do… But the kid didn’t get to cast her lot at all. It got cast for her… And she ain’t got no one else.”

“And Pike would use them against us.”

“ ’Course he would,” Virgil said. “You heard him.”

I nodded.

“As I recall,” I said, “Pike told us, ‘You got them women to worry about.’ ”

“What I recall, too,” Virgil said. “We stay, we’ll be spending all our time protecting them. He needs to think they gone.”

“So where we going to hide them,” I said.

“Ain’t figured that part out yet,” Virgil said.

“What happens to them if we get killed?” I said.

“I thought ’bout that,” Virgil said.

“And?”

“I can’t worry ’bout that,” he said. “I can’t not be Virgil Cole.”

“No,” I said. “You can’t.”

Virgil grinned at me.

“ ’ Sides, we ain’t never been killed yet,” he said.

“Commensurate,” I said, “with who we are.”

“Commensurate,” Virgil said.

“What about Pony?” I said.

“I’d guess he’ll be with us,” Virgil said.

“Maybe he could take the ladies someplace,” I said.

Virgil nodded. We turned off of Arrow Street and walked toward where we’d been staying. Pony was on a bench on the front porch with Laurel beside him, and Allie was in a rocker, trying to sew a button on one of Virgil’s shirts.

Virgil set the canvas satchel down and took a seat. I remained standing, leaning against one of the porch pillars. Virgil opened the satchel.

“Best thing I got to tell you is we got some money,” he said.

EVERYONE WAS QUIET while Virgil explained the situation.

When he was through, Allie said, “So why don’t we all go? Find another town? Start over?”

“Can’t do that,” Virgil said.

“Why not? Not even you and Everett can fight Pike by yourselves. I mean, my God, he must have fifty men.”

“Twenty-five,” Virgil said.

“You want to stay and fight twenty-five men by yourself?”

“Me and Everett,” Virgil said.

“Why? I mean, I know that you’re Virgil Cole and all that. But why risk all our lives for it.”

Virgil shook his head and didn’t say anything.

“He run away,” Pony said. “He man who run away.”

Allie frowned, staring at Pony, then at Virgil, as if she were working on a puzzle. Then she nodded slowly.

“Yes,” she said.

“Here’s what I been thinking,” Virgil said. “We go down to the station in the morning. The four of us, and get on the train to Del Rio. We get out from town maybe five miles, that straight patch of the river where the train runs right along the bank. Pony’s there with an extra horse. I get the train to stop. Me and Everett get off. Pony gets on. We ride back into town, sorta light-footed. Pony goes on to Del Rio. I’ll write you a letter to give to Dave Morrissey down there, help you get settled. Then me and Everett will take care of business and come on down to join you.”

“No,” Allie said.

Virgil looked startled, which was an amazing thing to see, because Virgil never looked startled.

“No?” he said.

“Absolutely not,” Allie said. “I won’t leave you, and neither will Laurel.”

Virgil looked at Laurel.

Laurel shook her head.

“Why not?” Virgil said.

“I won’t,” Allie said.

“Why not?” Virgil said.

“I’m a mess,” Allie said. “I been a mess long as you’ve known me. But I got this child to think ’bout now, and I can’t keep being a mess.”

Virgil looked at her and didn’t answer. Virgil never looked puzzled, any more than he ever looked startled, but if he had he would have looked puzzled now.

“What kind of woman would leave her man at a time like this, to go hide, while he risked his life?”

Virgil shrugged and looked at me. I shrugged.

“That’s right,” she said, as if we had answered. “And I will not be that kind of woman anymore, not ever, anymore. I cannot be that kind of woman and be with this child… or you.”

Virgil looked at me again.

“Sounds right to me,” I said.

Virgil nodded.

“And I don’t want Pony taking care of us,” Allie said. “I want Pony to be with you.”

“Who looks out for you and Laurel?” Virgil said.

“Me,” Allie said.

“You?”

“I have a gun; I know how to shoot,” Allie said. “You taught me.”

Laurel stepped to Virgil’s chair and whispered to him. He listened. He nodded.

“Okay,” he said. “We don’t go to Del Rio.”

“We can pretend to,” I said.

“And where do Allie and Laurel go?” Virgil said. “Ain’t good tactics to leave them out for Pike.”

“No,” I said. “We need to hide them.”

“Where?” Virgil said.

No one spoke for a moment, and then I said, “Lemme go talk to my friend Frisco.”

“The whore?”

“Yes,” I said.

“In Pike’s Palace?” Virgil said.

“Where would he be less likely to look?” I said.

“I’ll be back in an hour or so,” I said.

“Take you that long?” Virgil said.

“No,” I said. “But I might have to wait my turn.”

Allie smiled at me.

“Not if I was Frisco,” she said.

I said, “Thank you, Allie.”

And I stood and walked back up toward Pike’s Palace.

FRISCO’S ROOM AND PLACE of employment was on the second floor at Pike’s. But I went boldly in. I had till morning to leave town.

“Come for a good-bye poke,” Frisco said when she let me in.

“Good-bye?” I said.

Frisco closed the door and locked it. We sat on her bed together.

“Heard you was leaving town tomorrow,” she said.

“Word gets around,” I said.

“Pike’s telling everybody he run you and Virgil Cole out of town,” she said.