Sully sat up straighter, interested by the money and by whatever his father had in mind. Sully had no clue what that might be, since Butler was dead and Culp had proven useless.
“Call Gibbs and three other men who can fight. Saddle up and bring your rifles. You ride tonight.”
Sully’s guts turned to water. He shot to his feet. “Sir, we can’t attack Bentley. He’ll be ready for us. You don’t understand. He’s?—”
“Shut up, coward!” Mr. Weatherspoon shouted with such fury that Sully dropped once more into his seat. “Do you think I’m stupid?”
“No, sir.”
“This is our real weapon,” Sully’s father said, patting the stacked greenbacks. “Money. But like any weapon, you must aim it carefully to ensure maximum damage. I wouldn’t trust you to finish the job. But I will trust you to deliver this money to the one man who can. Where you’re going, however, you’ll need Gibbs and the others to protect you along the way.”
CHAPTER 40
The next week was quiet for Will and Maggie. Quiet but not calm, because their lives crackled with expectation.
Attack was imminent. They could both feel it, as could Mama and Rose and Rufus.
Candy, who had quit her job with the Weatherspoons and moved into the bunkhouse after a hurried marriage to Rufus, said things on the plantation had also been tense and quiet.
Mr. Weatherspoon had been staying mostly behind closed doors, and Sully had disappeared altogether.
No one seemed to know where he’d gone.
“Something’s cooking over there,” Candy said. “I don’t know what it is, but it ain’t good.”
Will had seen no sign of Sully in town. Not that Will had gone in much since the fight with Butler.
When he had visited, he kept his eyes open, took care of the day’s business, and didn’t loiter.
Sully wouldn’t send another man like Butler to face him again. Next time, Sully would either attack with overwhelming force or maybe have somebody shoot him in the back.
So Will was careful, during his few trips to town, to avoid any pattern that might allow someone to arrange such a trap, and he avoided the saloon other than the day he stopped in and hired three men—Jake Stahl, Ted LaVoy, and the young but tough Farley Farleigh—to come out to the ranch.
Officially, they were hands, and they did help manage the longhorns, but everyone knew why he’d hired three fighting men.
If Sully came out here with a pack of shooters, Will would be ready for him.
Jake, Ted, and Farley spent their days around the ranch but stayed over at Maggie’s old bunkhouse, where they enjoyed suppers prepared by the new Mrs. Twill, who had cooked for the Weatherspoons before being liberated by Rufus and the promise of his cattle money.
Will had also talked again to his neighbors and worked out a plan that would help protect him without putting them at any real risk.
As always, they were happy to help.
Except Braintree, of course. Whenever he saw Will, the carpetbagger quickly looked the other way and stumped inside as fast as his bad leg could carry him.
The weather shifted, going from cool to hot, leapfrogging the spring weather every Texan cherishes.
They’d had just enough rain to germinate the crops, which broke through the dark, rich soil, unperturbed by the human drama brewing.
The night trouble finally came, Will and Maggie made love then lounged in the darkness of their room, talking.
They had opened a window, hoping for a breeze, but the air was hot and listless. Through it, they heard the lowing of the herd, which Jake was currently watching over, and which Will had been recently keeping in the pasture closest to the house.He was edgy. Not impatient, exactly—he knew how to wait—but eager for action. Yearning for it, in fact, now that things had been set in motion.
“I can’t believe the judge actually gave Pew life in prison,” Maggie said.
“I can. Pew had probably been paying him off for years. But it sounds like Pew’s employees—his former slaves, most of them—robbed him blind as soon as they hauled him off to jail. With no money to bribe the judge, Pew finally received justice.”
“Is it justice, though, Will? Pew didn’t hire Butler. Sully did. You said you were certain of that.”
