Wild Country (The World of the Others #2)- Anne Bishop Page 0,183

I would hear from you,” Parlan said, struggling to strip any hint of impatience or anger from his voice. No one scolded Judd McCall.

“Had things to do today,” Judd replied. “Found a reliable source that confirmed the law consists of two Wolves and a female deputy. One of the Wolves was injured in a fight not too long ago and is still gimpy. And most of the human residents think the female deputy is a joke, but my source didn’t like the deputy, so that opinion might be skewed.”

“So we have the three cops of sorts and six Sanguinati.” That tallied with what he’d observed.

“There’s also a Panther and a feral boy who might join the fight. And a Wolf runs the bookstore.”

And there was that creature running the saloon. “You think the Panther and bookworm Wolf will be a problem?”

“I think they’ll need to be eliminated to make sure you stay in power,” Judd replied. “Most of the people living here have never handled a gun, let alone know how to use one. If they didn’t object to a bloodsucker running the town, they won’t rebel against you.”

“Well, I know you’ll keep everyone in line, Sheriff McCall.”

“That I will. When do we go?”

“Tomorrow. Lawry is here with my boy, staying out of sight in one of the abandoned houses. And the Bonney boys are here and looking to inflict some hurt on anything that gets in their way.”

“Who else came in?”

“Sleight-of-Hand Slim and Durango Jones have taken rooms at the hotel. William and Wallace Parker are also here. Jones brought some of his men. They’re gathered north of town. The Parkers were supposed to meet up with their men, but the men never showed.”

“Parkers’ men may not have shown up, but there are plenty of others who have, and they’ll join us. Settling down for a while is looking better and better for most of these boys. So the numbers are in our favor.”

The numbers were in their favor. So why did he feel like someone else was dealing the cards? Nothing he could do except play the hand he was dealt.

“We’re going to treat this like a human election with a lot of chest beating and bluster, only nobody gets to vote. The Others wave their weapons; we show ours; they back down because they’ve learned what guns can do—and we take the pot.”

Judd snorted. “They aren’t going to yield.”

“Probably not. But we’ll be seen as issuing a fair challenge and giving the Others a chance to leave town. Whatever happens after that is their fault, not ours.”

“Well then. Sounds like we’ll be sleeping in our own town tomorrow night.”

“Yes, we will.”

* * *

* * *

Abigail left the office building with the rest of the cleaning crew. After seeing her father at the hotel, she’d heeded Jana’s advice to stay away from the town square, but she didn’t like cleaning the houses, and there weren’t that many open businesses that weren’t on the square or on the streets just off the square. Since she didn’t want everyone knowing she was Parlan Blackstone’s daughter, she couldn’t explain why she couldn’t work in the buildings she’d specifically asked for when she’d joined the cleaning company. The woman who ran the company was an Intuit and had started giving her funny looks, as if the sweet Abigail persona was starting to unravel.

She’d spent the past few days cleansing and renewing her protection stones and prosperity stones until they were strong again. Until she felt shielded again from all dissonance.

Today she’d reported for work and gave vague answers about what she’d been doing, implying that the injury Barb Debany had received when she’d been accosted by that man had been more serious than she’d let on, and she’d needed a great deal more help than anyone had realized. Being her friend, Abigail had, of course, stepped in to help.

That might have satisfied Abigail’s boss for a day or two longer if Barb hadn’t been seen riding Rowan around the town square yesterday. So Abigail was back to work with the usual crew, holding her breath every time a door opened.

At quitting time, she walked out of the office building with the rest of the men and women—and almost walked right into her father as he dodged two women who were too busy gossiping to get out of the way.

He looked her right in the eyes, touched two fingers to the brim of his black hat, said, “Ma’am,” and kept going.

Abigail stood rooted