Slocum 419 by Jake Logan

Author:Jake Logan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group, USA
Published: 2013-12-30T16:00:00+00:00

19

Jimmy John Grimes puffed on his quirley. He had rolled it moments before and was pretty proud that he had done it in the dark. It was boring out there in the back of the saloon. He would rather have been inside, having a beer or maybe a shot of red-eye.

The smoke stung his eyes and he batted the wisps away.

Slocum stood up a few feet away from the gunman. He held his knife out of sight behind his right leg.

Jimmy John was not looking in his direction.

Slocum took another step until he was within five feet of his quarry.

“Hey, Jimmy John,” he said in a voice pitched low and disguised somewhat by his left hand covering his mouth.

“Yo,” Jimmy John replied and turned around. “That you, Jake?”

“Yeah,” Slocum grunted, and rushed Jimmy John with a single stride straight at him.

“You ain’t—” Jimmy John said as he saw the dark figure emerge from the shadows. His cigarette fell from his hand and spewed golden sparks as it touched the boards of the landing.

Slocum brought up the knife. Its blade was just a glimmer in the darkness, but Jimmy John clawed for the pistol hanging from his hip.

Slocum slashed downward, slicing into Jimmy John’s wrist. Grimes’s hand never reached the butt of his pistol.

He started to yell out in pain, but Slocum smashed him in the mouth with his left fist. Jimmy John staggered backward, off balance.

“Who in hell are you?” Jimmy John muttered.

“Someone you don’t want to know,” Slocum said and stepped in close as Jimmy John balled his fists. He swung at Slocum.

Slocum threw up his left arm and warded off a roundhouse right. Jimmy John grappled with him, slamming his left fist into Slocum’s head just above his ear.

The blow to Slocum’s head brought a shower of stars exploding in his brain. Everything went black for a second or two. Jimmy John was stronger than he looked. And a fighter. He felt one of the outlaw’s hands groping for his wrist. The hand closed around Slocum’s wrist, the one attached to the hand in which he held the knife.

The two men wrestled for possession of Slocum’s knife. They rocked back and forth, with neither gaining the advantage. Jimmy John’s breath blew hot in Slocum’s ear, and Slocum felt the muscular arms of the man as they grappled.

Slocum drove his left fist into Jimmy John’s gut. The man had a solar plexus of iron or leather, but it knocked the breath out of Jimmy John and he loosened his hold on Slocum’s wrist. Then, Jimmy John chopped Slocum across the bridge of his nose with the edge of his flat hand. Slocum saw stars once again and struggled to keep his knees from buckling under him. He drew his knife backward to deliver a killing stab to Jimmy John’s midsection, but the man danced away, out of range. Slocum held the knife steady and circled in a half arc to Jimmy John’s left.

Jimmy John doubled up both fists and spread his legs.

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