HELL HATH NO FURY (A Jess Williams western novel) (12 page)

             
The first man opened the door and moved to the left of the door and the second man walked in and they immediately saw a man standing behind the teller window and what surprised the both of them was the fact that the man was pointing a shotgun straight at the two of them.

             
“Welcome to my bank, gentlemen. I suppose the two of you were planning on making a little withdrawal and I’m also going to take a guess that neither of you have an account here now do you?” asked Jess.

             
The first man started to lift his shotgun up and Jess let the first barrel go off and immediately emptied the second barrel into the second man’s chest even though he never even tried to raise his shotgun. The second man was actually in the process of raising his hands to surrender, but that mattered little to Jess at this point.

             
Jess ran to the front door as soon as he saw the third man, who stayed on his horse, he was headed out of town at a full gallop. Jess looked at the other two horses and he spotted a Winchester rifle in a scabbard. He pulled the Winchester out of the scabbard and he propped it up on the saddle of the one horse and took careful aim at the man who was about a hundred yards out now. Jess slowly pulled back on the trigger and the slug from the Winchester hit the man in the middle of his back and the man slumped to one side and fell off his horse. Jess quickly climbed up into the saddle of the other horse and headed straight for the third man as Sheriff Fowler came running out of the jail. Jess could hear Fowler hollering for his deputies, but Jess kept riding until he reached the third man who was lying on the ground, face up and blood seeping into the front of his shirt. He was squirming in pain as he looked up at Jess.

             
“You son-of-a-bitch! You shot me in the back like a coward!” hollered the man, blood now spitting out of his mouth as he talked.

             
“You’re the coward, not me. And since you’re complaining about me shooting you in the back, I’ll make it right by shooting you in the front, too,” replied Jess, as he put another slug from the Winchester into the man’s head, blowing his brains out of the back of his head.

             
Sheriff Fowler and his two deputies finally reached Jess and saw the man lying dead in the dirt. Jess was still sitting in the saddle, the Winchester across his lap. One of the deputies, Paul Fadden checked on the man, but he knew the man was dead even before he checked. The brain matter scattered around in the dirt and the bullet hole in the man’s forehead was a dead giveaway that he had already passed on.

             
Sheriff Fowler was looking up at Jess with a funny look. “Well, it seems like that second shot wasn’t all that necessary,” said Fowler.

             
“Well Sheriff, the man was going for his gun so I finished him off,” replied Jess, a strange smile on his face.

             
Fowler looked at the man’s pistol and it still had the hammer strap on. “He didn’t even remove his hammer strap from his pistol yet.”

             
Jess looked down at the dead man. “You know what, Sheriff? It does look like you’re right about that. I suppose that in all the commotion he must’ve forgotten to remove it. He was going to die from the first shot anyway, so the way I see it, you won’t have to bother yourself with locking him up and getting blood all over your newly remodeled jail cells,” replied Jess.

             
“Maybe I wanted to test my new cells out. Did you ever think about that?” asked Sheriff Fowler, not really too upset about what Jess had done and Jess knew it. Whenever bank robbers were successful at robbing a town’s bank, it encouraged more outlaws to rob the same bank again, so Jess had in fact did the town a huge favor—again. “I suppose so, but I’m beginning to think that you like killing men a little too much, Jess,” replied Fowler.

             
“Sheriff, if there is any bounty money on their heads, I want to file a claim for it,” said Jess.

             
“I already figured as much. I’ll check on it and let you know tomorrow,” replied Fowler.

             
Jess started to walk the horse back to the bank when he heard Sheriff Fowler hollering at him. “And don’t forget about my new desk either, Jess!” hollered Fowler.

             
“I’ll tell Mr. Jameson at the bank about it when I get back there,” Jess hollered back, without even turning his head around.

CHAPTER TWELVE

              Jess rode back up in front of the bank where Mr. Jameson was now standing on the porch. He had witnessed what Jess did to the man who tried to get away. Jess climbed down from the saddle and walked into the bank with Jameson. Before he had a chance to ask Jameson a question, Annie McCracken walked in.

             
“I can’t leave you alone for a minute without you going and killing someone. What in the hell happened?” Annie asked.

             
“It wasn’t my fault. I was sitting here talking with Mr. Jameson about the money I took off those two men I killed in Buford when three men tried to rob the bank. You know, the bank that I just deposited almost three thousand dollars in,” replied Jess.

             
“And I suppose shooting the man who was trying to escape wasn’t your fault either?” Annie asked, smartly.

             
“No, it wasn’t. That man might have killed Mr. Jameson or the teller working here. Besides, anyone who robs this bank where I have all my money will answer to me for it. That man who tried to run away got exactly what he deserved,” retorted Jess.

             
“Yes, and it reminded me of the little story you told me about killing a man trying to run out of this town once before. I wondered if you were telling the story straight, but after witnessing it for myself, I guess I don’t have to wonder about it anymore,” replied Annie.

             
“To repeat what my good friend U.S. Marshal Frank Reedy often says, I may not always tell the truth, but I never lie,” replied Jess. “Now, I have business with Mr. Jameson here and it’s kind of private.”

             
“Is that your way of telling me to get out?” asked Annie, a sharp tone to her voice.

             
“If you wouldn’t mind, yes,” replied Jess, cocking his head with a funny smile on his face now.

             
“Fine, you go ahead and take care of your business. I’ll be down talking with Jim and Sara. You make sure you come on down when you’re finished because Sara and me are cooking up a big meal for the four of us,” demanded Annie.

             
“Hey, when the hell did you become my boss anyway?”

             
“You men just don’t have a clue do you. And to answer your question it was the second you met me,” retorted Annie, smiling a knowingly smile as she left the bank, slamming the door.

             
Jess turned to Mr. Jameson who had this funny smile on his face. Jess gave him a glare that made the smile disappear from his face. He cleared his throat. “It sure seems like you have your hands full with that one,” replied Jameson.

             
“You have no idea, that woman has got a tongue that could cut a man to pieces. She’s quite a nice looking woman, too,” replied Jess.

             
“I know exactly what you’re talking about,” replied Jameson. “Now, what was the business you said you needed to discuss with me?”

             
“Well, I almost changed my mind about it a minute ago, but here is what I want you to do. I’m going to ask Annie if she wants to live here in town after we’re finished up with hunting down the other man who did those terrible things to her. If she says yes, I’m going to ask Jim if he will hire her to work at his other general store, which will give her an income. If that happens, I want you to use my money to make sure someone will build her a house here in town and then she can make whatever payments she can to repay the note.”

             
“Really, you want to do all that for a woman that just took a huge bite out of your ass?” Jameson asked with a somewhat confused look on his face.

             
“Yeah, I know, she can be a pain sometimes, but she has had a real bad time of it so far. She really is a nice person once you get past that anger she keeps bottled up inside. She needs a break in life and I’d like to be the one to give it to her,” replied Jess, his voice sounding frustrated.

             
“Well, you sure are a right nice man, Jess. As always, I’ll do whatever you say,” replied Jameson. “Thanks for saving us today, I have a lot of cash in the safe and I have a large pile of gold in there that is going to be transported out of here in the next few days, so it would have been a huge loss for both this bank and this town.”

             
Jess didn’t respond right away. Mr. Jameson could tell that Jess’ mind was somewhere else at the moment. Jess looked down at the floor and then back up. “I’ve got to go right now, Mr. Jameson. You make sure you take care of what I asked you. Oh, I almost forgot, Sheriff Fowler will be bringing you a bill for a new desk and you can pay the bill out of my account,” said Jess, as he got up and walked out of the bank and down to Jim and Sara’s original store.

             
As soon as Jess walked in, he looked straight at Annie. “Annie, get the horses ready for a short ride,” said Jess.

             
“Where are we going? Did you hear something about Cliff Hunt?”

             
“No, not yet, but I have to check on something right away,” replied Jess.

             
“Check on what?”

             
“Jess, where are you going?” asked Jim. “Sara almost has supper ready.”

             
“I’m sorry but we won’t be gone long,” replied Jess.

             
“I still want to know where we’re going,” insisted Annie.

             
Jess shot her a glare. “I’ll tell you where you’re going, you’re going to get our horses ready to ride or I swear I’ll leave you here and go without you.”

             
Annie glared at Jess. “Fine! I’ll go and get the horses ready,” she retorted, as she huffed loudly when she walked out.

             
Sara had been listening to all of this and she was smiling. “Jess, you have quite a sassy one there for a friend.”

             
“Yeah, but she kind of grows on you—like a wart.”

             
“Why do you have to leave now? I’ve got supper almost ready and we haven’t been able to talk with you yet since you got into town. What is so important that it can’t wait until tomorrow?”

             
“I can’t tell you and I’m sorry about not visiting yet. As soon as I check on something, I’ll be right back here and we can have supper and talk all you want, okay?”

             
“Alright, I guess I can stall supper a little,” replied Sara. “I’m getting quite used to it with this one here,” she said, pointing a wooden spoon at Jim.

             
“Hey, don’t start getting like that other woman,” retorted Jim. “You know how busy I’ve been down at the other store.” Sara just smiled.

             
“I thought you said you were going to hire someone to run it for you the last time I was in town, what happened?” asked Jess.

             
“That lazy bastard was robbing me blind and he wouldn’t keep the shelves stocked so I finally had to fire him. Now, I have to work that store until I can find a good replacement.”

             
“Well, don’t hire anyone yet because I might have the perfect person for you to hire.”

             
“Who do you have in mind?” asked Jim.

             
“Annie.”

             
“Oh no, I don’t know if I can take her temper,” replied Jim.

             
“She’ll calm down a lot after we hunt down the other man who raped her; at least I think she will. She has a lot of anger bottled up inside her and when she finally sees that other man dead, all that anger will be gone. I’ve already set it up with Mr. Jameson to have someone build her a house in town if she agrees to stay here,” replied Jess.

             
“Well, anything for you Jess. You’ve been too good to this town and especially to the two of us, so I’ll do whatever you ask,” replied Jim.

             
“Good and thanks Jim. Now I need two of the largest saddlebags you carry here in the store,” said Jess.

             
“Sure, let’s go into the store and get them for you,” replied Jim.

             
Annie showed up with their horses and Jess walked out of the store and removed his saddlebags on his pack horse and strapped on the two new saddlebags. He swung up into the saddle of his other horse and headed out of town at a slow gallop. Annie was following right next to him and Jess could tell that she was mad by the look on her face, still she said nothing. Jess rode out to the old abandoned mine where he and John Bodine had attacked the encampment of the outlaws who were terrorizing the town of Black Creek a while back. They rode up the hill to the old mine as far as they could and Jess jumped down out of the saddle. It finally got the best of Annie.