Chapter 20

Romance: Another country heard from:20.

"If I'm going ... let's go," Sultry said.

"We can't," said Jack.

"Why not?"

"Our spies aren't back yet," Jack said.

"Spies? Jack? We don't have spies."

"We do now."

"Jack? Who did you send?" Sultry asked. "Wait. Don't answer that." Who is missing? She mumbled and fumbled for a minute. "Jack? You sent Two and One?"

Jack grinned.

"You didn't!" Sultry said, "Jack ... Two is always looking for trouble and One is usually responsible for it." She rolled her eyes and looked at the sky, "Why?"

"One ... they can't be hurt. Two ... if they're caught they can't be hurt. No matter what ... they can't be hurt."

"Eat your porridge, Jack," Seven said.

I hate pea soup ... gives me gas. He chuckled.

"What's so funny?" Seven asked.

"You'll find out," Jack laughed.

That night a green fog joined the grey one.

"Oh, God, Jack ... what is that smell? Did they build a tannery over night?"

"Pea soup, Sultry. Pea soup. I told Seven. You just found out."

Sultry went out to sleep in the backhouse.

The next three days were profitable, exciting, messy, infuriating.

"Profit's up," said Art. "Changing the evening decor has paid off big."

"Great," said Jack. "How about your end, Six?"

"Mostly with the club but sometimes guys won't take no for an answer. You gotta put more clothes on your wife."

"Besides that?"

"Three killings this week. Two bled out on the floor and one broken neck. Sultry's really good with her Bo."

"Who is the big guy who keeps coming back?"

"Raises cattle about six miles west of town, thinks he ought to be running the town."

"We been getting our beef from him?"

"No," said Trudy. "He's great for heavy watering just before the sale. Generally, his cows are thirty or forty pounds light after the first piss. And the beef is stringy. Tastes funny, too."

"Fishy?"

"Yeah."

"You have any idea what kind of grass the animal was fed? Sweet Timothy or alfalfa fed will taste different from prairie-grass, scrub or weeds. I wonder if he has shallow ponds with edible weeds?"

"Why don't you ask him, he just walked in the door."

"Howdy," Jack said. "I'm Jack ... this is my Inn. What'll you have?"

"Howdy, you are using my beef here from now on. That's not a suggestion."

"No," said Jack.

"No?" The big guy asked. "Mister, I didn't give you a choice. You'll be using my beef or I'll know the reason why?"

From behind the big guy, a female voice ... admittedly the sexiest female voice he had ever heard, said, "You'll be dead. The reason won't matter one little bit to you."

"That's about the sexiest voice I ever heard ... I might just make you part of the deal."

"Jack? May I, please?"

Jack nodded.

The big guy heard the whistle of the Bo staff and stuck a beefy leather clad arm up. He was expecting a love tap ... she was a girl. What he got was a broken arm. The bone sorta formed around the inch and a half diameter six foot long heartwood red oak staff ... splintering and shattering the bone as it snapped back.