Bannerman the Enforcer 37 by Kirk Hamilton

Author:Kirk Hamilton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: action hero, piccadilly publishing, jt edson, western fiction ebook, stories of the wild west, keith hamilton, lawmen and gunfighters, western action hero
Publisher: Piccadilly

Six – Luck

The girl called Lucky slowly eased the sheet away from her sweating, naked body and, glancing down at the snoring cowboy in the bed beside her, swung her feet softly to the floor of the darkened room.

The cowboy rolled onto his back and flung out his left arm across the warm space she had just vacated. Lucky froze, standing beside the bed, still holding one edge of the sheet, a dark silhouette against the window, back-lit by lamps down in Oro Street below. But the cowboy didn’t waken, he merely settled himself more comfortably, munched his lips and was soon snoring gently again, mouth open.

Lucky moved silently and swiftly, with the ease of long practice. She pulled on her clothes with a minimum of rustling and slipped her feet into her shoes even as she did up the buttons on the back of her blouse. She kept her cool gaze on the cowboy’s dark shape all the time, not wanting him to waken now and maybe get amorous again. He had paid for her company all night and would not take kindly to her trying to slip away at this tolerably early hour.

She paused on her way to the door, looking at his worn and dusty pants draped over the back of a chair. Her teeth tugged lightly at her bottom lip and then she reached out and felt in the pocket. Some coins jingled dully and she froze. He stirred, but did not waken. Her fingers closed over the coins and she drew them out swiftly, held them towards the dull glow coming in the window and saw that two of them were gold.

Lucky smiled. She was living up to her name. She slipped the coins down the front of her bodice, a bonus, and slid over to the door. She went out into the passage without a sound and closed it behind her. There was still some activity in the saloon below though it had quietened considerably since the gunfight. Many of the drinkers had gone home. There were still gambling games in process and there were drinkers at the bar, girls working the late shift.

But Lucky avoided the main bar by turning to a small door at one side of the stairs’ foot. It led her to a short passage that came out near the wash bench behind the saloon. A couple of cowboys were standing there, smoking, talking, and they called a few ribald remarks after her as she made her way across the yard and through the gate into the alley.

Lucky was unafraid to be abroad alone at this time of night. The hours of darkness were her working hours. Her job occasionally required her to accompany a client to his hotel room or rented cabin and she had had to walk back to the saloon and her own room in the early hours on many an occasion.

She kept to the back streets, hurrying, holding her skirts up out of the mud and dust, and came out behind the jail.

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