“Oh, but I do, beloved.”
“If you truly love me, as you say, you’ll spare them both.”
He gives her a puzzled look. “I will?”
She nods. “It would please me greatly.”
He says, “Really! Hmm. Well, in that case I suppose I don’t love you as much as I thought, since I absolutely intend to kill one of them in three minutes.”
“Please!”
“Choose.”
“I-I can’t. Please don’t make me. Please don’t.”
“I’ll kill them both. You know I will.”
“Gentry!” I holler. “Save Scarlett Rose.”
She looks at me. “I can’t live without you, Emmett. I just can’t.”
“I’ve lived a long, happy life, and I got to see you one last time. I can die happy.” I point to Scarlett Rose. “That’s our baby! She’s got a right to a long, happy life, too. Please, Gentry, it ain’t a hard decision at all.”
I look at the guy holdin’ a rifle. “Are you Hank?”
He looks at Wilkins. Wilkins looks amused. “Yes, that’s Hank. What of it?”
“Hank, if you’ve got an ounce of decency you’ll shoot me right now. Give the order, Wilkins, I’m eager to go.”
Hank looks at his boss again.
Wilkins says, “Two minutes.” Then adds, “Emmett, if Gentry chooses the baby, Hank will shoot your feet and hands first, then your crotch. Then Gentry, Scarlett, and I will watch you bleed to death.”
“No!” Gentry says.
Wilkins produces a coin from his pocket.
“Shall I flip a coin, then?”
Gentry falls to her knees, clasps her hands in front of her chest. “Please,” she says. “Don’t do this, David.”
“Tell me I’ve won,” he says.
“You’ve won.”
“Tell me I’m better than him.”
She pauses.
“Say it!” Wilkins shouts.
“You’re better than him,” Gentry says. “You’re better than all of us. Please, David, show mercy. Let Emmett go.”
“Kiss my foot,” Wilkins says.
She lays her full body on on the barn floor and kisses his boot.
“Lick it.”
She does.
“What will you do if I agree to spare your precious Emmett?”
“Anything.”
“You’re a lying whore!” he says, spitting the words.
“I’m not lying! I’ll do anything.”
“Will you eat a horse turd?”
“Yes.”
He laughs. “Of course you would. And so would I. It’d be an improvement on your cooking.”
Despite the terrible situation we’re in, I have to agree with Wilkins on that point, havin’ tasted Gentry’s cookin’ in the past. I’d a’ thought after all this time she’d have gotten better at it, but I suppose good cookin’ ain’t a skill that comes natural to all women.
“Time’s up,” Wilkins says.
“Please!” Gentry shrieks.
“Heads, baby lives. Tales, Emmett.”
“No!”
He flips the coin in the air…
45.
THE COIN GOES up about three feet, spinnin’ all the while, then stops in mid air. I mean, it’s still spinnin’, but it ain’t fallin’. It’s just suspended in the air, spinnin’ around and around.
Everyone’s fixated on it, except Gentry, who pulls a derringer from her garter belt and shoots Hank with one barrel, and Wilkins with the other. Both men fall to the floor. Neither is dead, but Wilkins is worse. Hank sees his rifle six feet away, and starts slidin’ across the floor, tryin’ to retrieve it.
I holler, “Gentry!” and point at Hank.
Gentry removes Wilkins’s gun from its holster and casually walks over and puts a bullet into Hank’s head. Then she picks up his rifle, brings it to me, and fishes it through the bars of my cage.
I’m tryin’ to speak, but Gentry puts a finger over her lips and says, “Be right back.”
She walks over to Wilkins, who’s writhin’ on the hard-packed dirt floor.
“Are you in pain, love?” she says, lookin’ at his bloody crotch.
He’s gaspin’ for air, while moanin’ low, like a wounded animal. He nods. Yep, he’s in pain.
“Good,” Gentry says. Then adds, “We’re going to play a little game, love.”
The coin is still spinnin’ in the air, so I say a silent thank you to Rose. As if respondin’, the door of the cage slides open. I jump out and rush past Gentry, to the door, ready to shoot however many cowboys might be headin’ our way.
But there ain’t none.
I mean, there are more than a dozen cowboys in the yard, racin’ toward the barn, it’s just that they’re frozen like statues. I walk over to Scarlett Rose’s cage and tug on the door and it opens easily. I put the rifle down and scoop my baby in my arms and hold her close to my cheek, which makes her cry. Probably my whiskers from not havin’ shaved since the night May Gray pulled my pecker. I mean, gave me a shave and haircut.
I lower the baby and cradle her in my arms and rock her while hearin’ Gentry say, “Kiss my foot.”
I don’t want to imply Gentry has a cruel streak, nor will I interrupt her, since she’s got six months of abuse to settle with Wilkins. I move past her with the baby, into the open area that surrounds the barn.
“Now lick it,” Gentry says to Wilkins, as I carry Scarlett Rose across the yard toward the house, where I expect to find enough money to rebuild the town of Dodge City, Kansas.
With the new mayor’s approval, I’d like to relocate the town ten miles north, which would put us a scant two miles from the east-west trail.
A single shot rings out from the direction of the barn.
I can’t think of anyone who’d object to movin’ their home ten miles north, ’cept possibly May Gray, who loves her house and garden more than any woman I ever met. Of course, when Gentry hears about the kind of shave and haircuts May Gray offers, ten miles is probably a smart distance to keep between ’em.
We’re in the upstairs bedroom. I set Scarlett Rose on the floor and find her a toy to play with. What I’m lookin’ for is a safe, but what I find is an enormous wooden box built into the wall behind a huge paintin’. I pull the paintin’ from the wall and prop it against the night stand. When I open the box, I gasp at the riches that lay within. As I start removin’ sacks of gold coins from the box, I look up and see Gentry standin’ in the doorway, wearin’ a smile as big as Texas.
I smile back.
“You don’t have to steal his money,” she says, holdin’ up her hand.
At first, I don’t understand. Then she wiggles her fingers till I see the sparkle comin’ off her wedding ring.
“This is all ours now,” she says.
I point at the box.
She nods.
I point at the room, and outside the window.
She nods again. “As far as the eye can see, all ours.”
She removes the wedding ring and places it in the drawer of a narrow table by the door. Then starts unbuttonin’ her dress. “And this,” she says…
I point to her.
She nods, and darts behind the dressin’ curtain.
Within seconds it looks like a cyclone hit a clothin’ store as all sorts of duds come flyin’ out from behind it, includin’ frilly underthin’s. Lots and lots of frilly underthin’s.
Then a pause, and one final frilly underthin’.
Then her left leg kicks out from behind the dressin’ curtain. Then her right hand appears over the top and her finger beckons me to come.
“This is all yours, Emmett!”
Not that I mind bein’ wealthy, but I’d give up everythin’ that’s in the box for what’s behind the curtain.
THE END
About the Author
The New York Times best-selling author John Locke is the 8th author in history to sell more than 1 million eBooks. He is the international best-selling author of
seven Donovan Creed novels, all of which have made the Amazon/Kindle Top 20 Best Seller's List! Saving Rachel held the #1 spot for more than three weeks and remains one of the all-time best selling eBooks in history! Locke has had four books in the Top 10 at the same time, and six in the Top 20! His first Emmett Love western held the #1 spot until it was displaced by the sequel! John lives in Kentucky, where he is working on his third Emmett Love western, Emmett & Gentry.
John Locke has sold more than 1,400,000 eBooks by word of mouth!
John Locke
The New York Times Best Selling Author
#1 Best Selling Author on Amazon Kindle
Donovan Creed Series:
Lethal People
Lethal Experiment
Saving Rachel
Now & Then
Wish List
A Girl Like You
Vegas Moon
The Love You Crave
Emmett Love Series:
Follow the Stone
Don’t Poke the Bear
Emmett & Gentry
And:
How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months!
The New York Times Best Selling Author
John Locke has sold
more than 1,400,000 eBooks
…by word of mouth!
Thank you!
To learn more about John Locke,
visit his website:
http://www.DonovanCreed.com
If you’re a major Donovan Creed fan, and want to know what OOU means, go to this link and ask someone on the discussion thread: http://tinyurl.com/4mlbwzg
John Locke, Emmett & Gentry (an Emmett Love Western)
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