Montana Sky

enough.”
    “And she’d been raped. They said repeatedly, and sodomized. And she was . . . she was two months pregnant. She was pregnant and she was sixteen and she was from Kansas.”
    “That’s enough,” Tess said again. There were tears spilling out of her eyes as she wrapped her arms around Willa.
    They swayed there, on the step, weeping and holding tight and hardly aware of it. A hawk screamed overhead. The clouds bundled up to block the sun and threaten snow. They stood together, clutched by the fear and grief only women fully understand.
    “What are we going to do?” Tess shuddered out a breath. “Oh, God, what are we going to do?”
    “I don’t know. I just don’t know anymore.” Willa didn’t pull away. Even as she realized they were holding tight to each other in the rising wind, she stayed where she was. “I can run this place. Even with all this I can do it. But I don’t know if I can stand thinking about that girl.”
    “It doesn’t do any good to think about it. We can think about why, why he brought her here. We can think about that. But not about her. And we can think about us.” She eased back, scrubbed the tears from her face. “We’d better start thinking about us. I think Lily and I need lessons in how to handle a gun.”
    Willa stared at her a moment, began to see more than the glossy Hollywood façade. “I’ll teach you.” She took a steadying breath, slipped her hat back into place. “We’ll get started now,”
     
    “I T ’ S A WORRISOME THING .” HAM COMMENTED OVER HIS midday bowl of chili.
    Jim helped himself to a second bowl and winked at Billy. “What’s that, Ham?”
    The answer waited, and the sound of gunfire echoed. “A woman with a gun,” Ham said in his slow, dry voice. “More worrisome is three women with three guns.”
    “Tell you the truth”—Jim dumped a biscuit into his bowl and took a hefty bite—“that Tess looks mighty sexy with a rifle on her shoulder.”
    Ham eyed him pityingly. “Boy, you ain’t got enough work to occupy you.”
    “No amount of work ought to keep a man from looking at a pretty woman. Right, Billy?”
    “Right.”
    Though, for himself, Billy hadn’t given women much thought since the night of the New Year’s party. Bouncing on Mary Anne in the rig had been just fine and dandy. But the awful experience of finding the body with her had put a pall over the entire event.
    “Scary, though,” he said with his mouth full. “They’ve been at it better than a week, and I ain’t seen Tess hit atarget yet. Makes a man leery of going out of doors while the shooting’s going on.”
    “Tell you what I think.” Jim thumped a burp out of his chest and rose. “I think what they need is a man to show them how it’s done. I got a few minutes.”
    “Nobody needs to show Will what to do with a gun.” Quick pride peppered Ham’s voice. After all, he’d been the one to teach her how to shoot. “She can outshoot you or anybody else in Montana with one eye closed. Why don’t you leave those women alone?”
    “I ain’t going to touch.” Jim shrugged into his coat. “Unless I get the chance.”
    He stepped outside, and spotted Jesse climbing out of a rig. “Hey, J C.” Grinning, he threw up a hand. “Haven’t seen you for a couple weeks.”
    “Been busy.” He knew he was taking a chance, a big one, coming over to Mercy in the daylight hours. He visited there as often as he could at night, in the shadows. Often enough to know that his whore-bitch of a wife was spreading her legs for Wolfchild.
    But that could wait.
    “I was down at Ennis picking up some parts. You had an order come in.” He tossed a package at Jim, then skimmed a finger over his moustache. He was beginning to like the feel of it. “Brought it by for you.”
    “Appreciate it.” Jim set the package on the rail. “ ’Bout time for poker, I’d say.”
    “I’m up for it. Why don’t you and your boys come around to Three Rocks tonight?” He grinned charmingly. “I’ll send you back lighter in the pocket.”
    “Might just do that.” He glanced over at the sound of gunshots, chuckled. “We got us three females at target practice. I was about to give them some pointers.”
    “Women ought to stay away from guns.” Jesse took out a pack of cigarettes, shook one out, offered it.
    “They’re spooked. You’d have heard about the trouble here.”
    “Sure.” Jesse blew out smoke, wondered if he could riska glimpse of Lily in the