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His mind kept wandering back to that Mormon community. There was something suspicious about the way that one Mormon took over and spoke for the rest of the group. The fellow had said that no young woman had come there. But while that man had been talking, Sam had studied the faces of the women who appeared at the doors of their homes, or in the large garden, in the midst of their autumn harvest.
He had most certainly not seen Nicole among those women. But if she had been there, she might have gone quickly into hiding.
Had he been lied to?
He went and sat down on a blanket before the fire, his mind made up. “I’ve got to go back there,” he blurted out, drawing all eyes to him.
“Where?” Ace asked.
“To that damn Mormon community, that’s where,” Sam said, his voice filled with anger that Nicole had eluded him so successfully thus far.
“Why on earth would you go back there and pester those innocent people?” Tom asked, his eyes narrowing angrily. “Sam, I have understood this thing about Nicole, and I’ve been willing to help you find her, but why must you go back to that community? They’ve never done anything to you. Let ’em be, Sam. Let ’em be.”
“I don’t believe they are all so innocent,” Sam growled out. “I remember something in that man’s eyes when he told me he’d not seen Nicole. It was the look of a man who is lying. That’s what I seen. I’ve got to go back there and figure out just what he was lying about. Then we’ll make ’em all pay for what he’s done.”
“I don’t want no part of it,” Ace said, scrambling to his feet. “I don’t want no part of any of this anymore. I’m itchin’ to play poker. Sam, let’s just go on to St. Louis and find us a game. Let Nicole be. Don’t you know that sooner or later you’ll run across her again? Get your vengeance then. Not now. Let’s go, Sam, tomorrow, to St. Louis.”
“If that’s what you want, no one is stoppin’ you,” Sam said tightly. “Go on. Git. But don’t expect me ever to loan you any more money once you’ve lost all of your own gambling.”
“Oh, Sam, why can’t you listen to reason?” Ace whined. He sat back down, lowering his eyes. “I’m stayin’. Whatever you feel you need to do, I’ll help.”
“That’s more like it,” Sam said, reaching over and patting Ace on the shoulder.
He laughed throatily. “I think that meat is ready to eat,” he said. “Ace, git me a piece and don’t be slow about it.”
He stretched his long, lean legs out before him as he took the chunk of meat from Ace, bit off a huge hunk and started chewing it.
“Yep, tomorrow I’ll pay those Mormon people another visit,” he said, while chewing. He looked around at his men. “None of you have to play a role in this. You’ll stay hidden whilst I do the dirty work.”
“You’re not going to harm any of them if you don’t get the answers you want?” Tom asked, chewing on his own meat.
“We’ll just have to wait and see ’bout that, won’t we?” Sam said, idly shrugging.
He laughed, almost choking on the meat in his mouth.
He then gazed slowly around at his men. “I’ve got to fess up,” he said, his eyes dancing with teasing. “I lied to you moments ago. You see, I ain’t going to that place alone at all. You are going with me. It’ll take more than me to search that place to make certain Nicole ain’t there.”
He laughed again as the men groaned and moaned after learning what was expected of them.
Tom didn’t groan or moan. He just stared angrily at Sam, who ignored him, apparently lost in thought about tomorrow.
“Sam, surely you don’t mean what you just said,” Tom finally blurted out. “Tell us you are just joshin’ us. I don’t want to do it, Sam. I’m sure the rest don’t neither.”
“If’n you ever want to be with me again at a poker table, draggin’ in the coins like we always do, you’d best not say another thing against what I plan to do,” Sam warned. “Do I make myself clear enough?”
Tom didn’t respond. He just yanked off another bite of meat and chewed on it, his eyes now gazing into the flames of the fire, somehow seeing the redheaded wench there, smiling flirtatiously at him.
Suddenly it didn’t seem all that wrong, what Sam had planned for that wench, for Tom would surely have a part of ’er, too, before killin’ her.
He smiled at the thought of touching her soft, pink flesh, then rolling her beneath him and doing what he had not done for so long.
Yep, he’d go with Sam after all, if it meant having a piece of that young thing as he had himself a piece of this meat he was still chewin’ on.
Chapter Twenty-three
The moon seemed to be the only light left in the Mormon community as Nicole looked from her window, checking to see if she saw any lamplight in any o
f the other windows. She sighed when she saw none.
