Tabor Evans (18 page)

Outside, the air was cool in the early, moonless night. Lamplight from the door spilled out as they found places. Belle and Floyd took the remaining bench; Longarm, with Dolly doing her duty by clinging to him, stood in a corner of the porch, where he could see the other four in the best light. He wasn't looking for trouble, but knew by instinct that getting a good position in a chancy situation could be the difference between winning and losing. Steed and Bobby settled down on the step; their faces were the only ones that caught the lamplight. Those of the others were vague, whitish blurs in the dark.

Belle said, "I'm glad you finally made up your mind, Windy. Of course, if you hadn't decided to come in, Sam and I would have gone along. But now that-"

"Wait a minute," Steed broke in. "If we're going to talk about the job, what about the girl there?"

"What about her?" Longarm asked. "She's with me."

"I'm sure all of us noticed that," Belle said acidly.

"You know what we decided," Steed went on. "No talking except amongst us, Belle. No outsiders."

"I'm not an outsider," Dolly said. "Lonnie was coming here to join up with you, and he wouldn't have brought me if he hadn't thought it was all right."

"Taylor's one thing," Steed insisted. "Me and Floyd knew him. We don't know a damn thing about Windy."

Longarm didn't see much point in setting everybody's temper on edge with an argument at the very beginning. He said, "All right. She's not going to be here long, anyhow, but if you don't want her around while we're talking, I guess she won't mind going back to the cabin."

"I'll go if you say so, Windy." There was sugar in Dolly's voice, and she leaned back to look sweetly at Longarm.

"If Floyd and Steed don't want her around, she'd better go," Belle said. "What we've got to talk about won't take long."

"Go on, then, Dolly," Longarm nodded. "I'll be along after while."

"Now, then," Belle began when Dolly had flounced off, "I guess we're all glad that Windy's going to ride with us."

"He is?" Bobby asked. "I didn't know that."

"I just hadn't had time to pass the word to you," Floyd told him. "Go on, Belle. Windy still ain't sure. Says he wants to know more about how much we figure the take's going to be and where we're expecting to get it." Longarm said curtly, "I don't buy a pig in a poke, Belle. I made that plain to Floyd when we talked before supper."

"Don't worry," Belle replied confidently. "There'll be a good split. Crops are coming in at this time of the year, you know, and all the banks keep a lot of cash on hand. Farmers pay back what they've borrowed, and the factors that buy the big crops need money to operate with. There's not a bank across the Arkansas line that won't be good for ten to fifteen thousand if it's hit inside of the next month."

"Sounds reasonable," Longarm said, "provided you know which bank to pick out. And if you're damn sure which one's going to be the easiest to take."

"I told you not to worry," Belle retorted. "I know which of the banks in Fort Smith-"

"Fort Smith?" Longarm interrupted. "That sounds awful damned risky. A lot of town marshals there. Sheriff's deputies too, and a whole big bunch of federal marshals. At least that's the way I heard it."

"I explained to him how you've got strings out on a lot of the law, Belle," Floyd said quickly. "But Windy still ain't satisfied. Maybe you can tell him more than I could."

"I'm sure I could, but I don't intend to," Belle said tartly. She swiveled on the bench to face Longarm. "I just wanted to see what you'd say when I mentioned Fort Smith, Windy, but I'm like you--I wouldn't look at that place twice. No, we won't be taking one of the banks there, not with just four men. We'll go to one of the little places. There's three or four towns a little way over the Arkansas line where there's only one bank, but it'll have close to twenty thousand in the safe for the next month. And it's in the little towns where I've got the marshals hogtied."

"I like that better," Longarm told her. "Now, when will we be riding?"

"Not for a few days." Belle frowned. "Maybe a week. I've got to hear from my friends across the line before I'll know when the right time will be."

Longarm nodded. "That suits me fine. I've got a little business of my own that I need to take care of. I can tend to it and get back in plenty of time."

"What kind of business?" Floyd asked; suspicion dripped from his words.

"Not anything real important. I promised Dolly I'd take her to the train so she can go home." He dropped into a deprecating tone and added, "She's getting to bother me. I can't afford to have a woman like her hanging on me, you men know that."

"Yeah," Floyd replied. He seemed relieved. "well, I don't see anything wrong with that. Do you, Belle?"

"No. I'll be as glad as Windy will be to get her away from here. Taylor made a mistake in bringing her along with him in the first place." Steed asked Longarm, "It's all settled, then?"

"If you men and Belle are satisfied, so am I." He turned to Belle. "We'll be coming back here to Younger's Bend to hole up after the job, I expect? I don't feel like I want to go back on the prod right away."

"That's something else you won't have to worry about, Windy," Belle said. "You make a clean getaway without any federal marshals chasing you into the Nation, and you'll be safe from the law here as long as you feel like staying."

"All right. It's settled as far as I'm concerned, then." Longarm stood up. "Now I'll go down to the cabin and tell the girl to get ready to ride into Fort Smith tomorrow. And as soon as I get her on the train to Kansas, I'll be back."

"You guarantee we can count on that?" Floyd asked.

"You damn sure can, Floyd," Longarm said feelingly. "This is one job I don't intend to miss out on!"

An excited, sparkling-eyed Dolly greeted Longarm at the door of the cabin. She said, her words tumbling out all over each other, "Come look what I've found, Windy!"

She took Longarm's hand and led him to the table. A pile of currency rose from its center. Around the edges were a half-dozen items: a sheath knife, a pile of pistol cartridges, two pairs of socks, several bandannas, a tin cup, three battered cigars with split wrappers, a block of matches, a bag of ground coffee, and some scraggy scraps of jerky. The heap of greenbacks dominated everything, however.

"Looks like there's quite a wad there," Longarm said.

"Nearly a thousand dollars. I counted it."

"It's out of Taylor's saddlebags, ain't it?" Longarm asked.

"Yes. I wanted to bathe, and looked in them for some soap. And there it was, all that money."

"Must be what he got when he left you in that cave."

"Of course. I'm sure it is. He held up a bank, I guess. I don't know where, or anything about it. Lonnie didn't tell me. But that doesn't matter, Windy. I want you to have it. You've been so good to me."

Longarm looked at the money thoughtfully. If he took it, he'd see that it got back somehow to the place Taylor had stolen it from. He'd just hand it over to Gower and let him see to returning it. But he couldn't tell Dolly that, and felt he ought to press her to keep it. A false step now might endanger the image he'd created with Belle and the outlaws.

He said, "I don't need a dead man's money, Dolly. You're entitled to it. You'll need it. We're going out tomorrow to Fort Smith, and I'll see you on a train for wherever you feel like heading."

"No. It'd remind me of Lonnie and Susanna Mudgett. I want to forget both of them."

"All right. If you're sure you don't want it, I'll keep it, and I thank you most kindly."

"You said we were going out tomorrow? That's something else I have to thank you for."

Dolly threw her arms around Longarm and raised herself on tiptoe to kiss him. He bent to meet her, expecting the kiss to be only a friendly one. It turned into something more. Dolly's tongue pushed his lips apart, and Longarm responded as any man would. He caught Dolly up in his arms and pulled her to him. Her hips pushed against his groin and he felt himself getting hard.

Dolly broke the kiss to whisper, "It's getting late, and if we're going to start traveling tomorrow, we'll need to rest tonight, Windy. Don't you think it's about time you blew out the lamp so we can go to bed?"

"If you want to," Longarm replied. Then, as an afterthought, he asked, "This ain't something more like the money, is it? You ain't asking me just because you feel like you owe me something?"

"No. I wanted you to come to bed with me when I woke up this morning and saw you looking at me. I've wanted all day for you to grab me up and hold me and kiss me, but you never did make a move to."

Longarm blew out the lamp before he said, "I guess I figured it was too soon after-"

"After Lonnie?" she finished for him. "I guess it would be, for Susanna. But I'm Dolly now, remember?"

Side by side in the sudden darkness, they groped along the cabin wall until they reached one of the bunks. Longarm heard the soft rustling of cloth as Dolly drew her dress over her head. She pushed against him and the delicate fragrance of freshly soaped woman-skin wafted to his nostrils. He felt her fingers find his as he unbuckled his gunbelt and laid it beside the bunk, then she was working at the buttons of his trousers as he undid his shirt. He stepped out of his pants and stripped off his balbriggans. Then Dolly's flesh pressed against his.

The hard nipples of her round, soft breasts brushed across his chest, and her hands ran down his lean hips and found his growing erection. She guided it between her thighs and closed her legs. Pulling his head down, Dolly found Longarm's lips while she moved her hips gently back and forth.

Longarm was hard now, but Dolly seemed in no hurry, and he was contented to let her set the timing. He cupped his hand around her breast. His calloused fingers moved back and forth between their close-pressed bodies, rubbing a nipple almost as hard, now, as his fingertips.

Dolly changed the motion and rhythm of her hips. She began rotating them while still rocking back and forth. Longarm lifted her and eased her to the narrow bunk, lowering himself on top of her.

"No, Not yet," Dolly said. She squeezed her thighs tightly together and whispered, "Here. Let me show you."

Longarm felt her hands at his hips, raising them. He let her guide him, and she pulled his hips forward. He crawled on his knees until his spread legs straddled her waist. Dolly's hands moved from his hips to grasp his erection, and she arched her back, setting herself below him. Soft warmth surrounded him and he realized that she'd tucked his hard length between her breasts and was pushing them together. Her knee came up and prodded his back. Longarm began to move back and forth in the valley between her breasts. "I like to feel a man on me for a while first," Dolly said huskily. She bent her head forward, and each time Longarm reached the end of one of his strokes, her tongue darted out in a gently rasping caress. As Longarm continued his steady stroking, he came to expect the moist, wet contact on his tender, distended tip. He tried to speed up, to experience it more often, but Dolly turned her head aside and squeezed her breasts harder together to narrow the passage between them and slow him down.

"Slow," she told him. "Don't hurry things."

"If that's how you want it," he replied.

There was a hypnotic effect to the measured rhythm he was keeping. Longarm lost track of time, but it seemed to him that he'd been straddling Dolly for hours when she suddenly released the pressure on her breasts and turned beneath him to lie on her side. Longarm felt abandoned without the caresses he'd been enjoying. He put a hand on her shoulder to turn her on her back again.

"Lie down behind me," she told him. "We'll rest awhile."

Longarm was more than ready to move on to more conventional caresses, but he did as she told him. Dolly raised her leg and trapped him between her thighs once more. For a long while she did not move, and as the cool air touched his shaft, he felt his erection beginning to fade. Dolly must have felt him softening too, for she began to caress him with her fingers, softly circling him at first, then suddenly curling her fingertip to bring a fingernail into play. The sensation mingled pain and pleasure. Longarm wasn't sure he enjoyed it, but his erection returned very quickly, and with it, his desire to go into Dolly deeply and fully.

"Let's stop playing games, Dolly," he said. "I know you're doing your best to pleasure me, but I'm ready for the real thing now."

Wordlessly,Dolly spread her thighs and pushed him inside her. Longarm lunged, intending to bury himself in her with a single, hard thrust. But to his surprise, Dolly was not moist, and her fingernail caresses had made him so tender that he was forced to stop. He refused to give up. He pushed slowly and patiently, and, little by little, felt her growing moist and opening to accept him.

Now Longarm could thrust. He drew his hips back and plunged full-length, and Dolly quivered and sighed. Again and again he drove in, feeling her respond with quick backward jerks of her hips as he reached the greatest depth of his penetration. The long preliminaries had their effect. Longarm felt himself building sooner than usual, but the narrow bunk bothered him; he felt as though he was going to tumble to the floor each time he drew back to make a full penetration.