Read Online Slocum 421 by Jake Logan - Free Book Online Page B

not to, we voted with her.”
    â€œYou guys are lucky. She’s a great lady.”
    â€œWe know that. Where are you headed?”
    â€œOh, somewhere.”
    â€œYou ever get tired of riding all over?” Tom asked.
    â€œNot really.”
    â€œTomorrow, we can feed them and then you can give us some tips on these horses we’re breaking,” Vance said.
    â€œWhatever you guys have to do is fine with me.”
    In the house and washed up, he could smell the various foods Jenny was cooking in the kitchen.
    â€œHey, we’re glad you came,” Tom whispered. “We’ll really get some great food.”
    The boys and Slocum were all laughing.
    â€œWhat’s so funny?” Jenny asked.
    Slocum hugged her shoulder where she stood over the cooking range. “You don’t want to hear it.”
    He and the boys laughed some more about it.
    Â * * * 
    After the meal, they played cards for matches. Vance won big-time in draw poker. Finally the boys went upstairs to bed after banking the stove. Slocum and Jenny sat on the couch and kissed until she led him off to her bedroom. They undressed and she put on a knee-length nightgown, He wore a nightshirt she had for him. Under the covers, they soon were busy making love. Different than his last, giggling partner, her body meshed with his, and they soon reached a high that fell off into more kissing. He slept until she woke him before dawn.
    â€œTonight,” she whispered in his ear and kissed him sweetly. “You never lose your touch to arouse me. I know that you are on the run again. But thanks, Cowboy, for stopping—you really please me when you do.”
    Then she quickly dressed in the darkness and went to start breakfast. He got up and dressed, then went outside in the cold and pissed. Spring must not be coming this year. Many years they had broken the garden and planted potatoes and cabbage by this time.
    Â * * * 
    Jenny went to town later in the week and returned upset. “They don’t look like you, but they have reward posters in the post office and even one nailed on the Collins store, out front. I tried to ignore them, but they have a five-hundred-dollar reward on them for you, dead or alive.”
    â€œThat’s the most valuable I have ever been. Anyone talking to you about me?”
    She shook her head. “I don’t think anyone has put you and me together much in the past five years. Your visits since then have all been sweet but short.”
    â€œI don’t want to bring you any harm. I’ll shoe my animals tomorrow and ride on.”
    â€œWe can help you do that,” Vance said. “I hate for that to happen, but I am concerned someone may connect you to us. Five hundred dollars is lots of money today, and someone could rush out here to get you.”
    â€œI agree. Well it has been a nice visit with you, Jenny, and both you guys. You really are growing up into men.”
    â€œSlocum, we may have been little, but I recall what you did for Mom after they shot Pa. We’d not be living on this ranch and having what we have if you hadn’t cleaned up that bunch of outlaws that ran over this country back then.”
    Tom nodded. “That Jim Blocker shot Pa in the back to get her for himself. But she wasn’t taking him on a bet. And I can recall being scared enough I pissed in my pants. You don’t ever forget that. And you’ve come by many times, to help and teach me and Vance how to do things. Hell, we’d hide you in the storm cellar if we had to.”
    â€œThat congressman lost a prodigal son, and he blames all that on me. They didn’t want me to have a fair trial. It was all set up to railroad me into a hanging. I may never clear my name from this frame-up, but there’s not much I can do but keep them shagging my tail till they get tired of it.”
    â€œIt’s damn shame though,” Vance said between bites of his pancakes