Everett Brooks and the Dodge City Renegade: Part 1
Return to Heaven's Hollow.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
Teddy Freeman leaned on the railing of the jailhouse porch, sipping his morning coffee and shifting uneasily under the Indian’s piercing gaze. “He got some kind of problem?”
The white man mounted next to the Indian, wearing a sergeant’s tunic and a patch over his left eye, flashed a grin that Teddy guessed was meant to be friendly, but came across as shifty and unpleasant. “Oh, don’t you worry about Red Knife here. He’s just never seen a darkie sheriff before. Matter of fact, neither have I.”
“Yeah, well…that’s just the way it is around here.”
“And I’m sure you’re doing a fine job.”
Teddy grunted noncommittally. “So what is it I can help you gentlemen with?”
“Lookin’ for a fella named Everett Brooks. You know where I can find him?”
“Well, that depends. What you want him for?"
“I’m just an old friend passin’ through. Heard he settled in the area recently.”
“Everett Brooks is friends with a cavalry first shirt?” Teddy was skeptical. The cavalryman’s face darkened. The Indian, who Teddy judged to be Comanche, moved his hand slowly towards his pistol.
“You callin’ me a liar, Sheriff Darkie?” the one-eyed horse soldier spat through gritted teeth.
“No, I certainly ain’t said that.” Teddy was nonplussed, but he could see the situation was on the verge of escalating into unnecessary violence. “If you say you’re a friend of Everett’s, maybe you are. I’ll let him be the judge of that.”
The sergeant and his Indian companion visibly relaxed. “Wise move, friend. Now, if you’ll just tell me where to find him, we’ll be on our way.”
Teddy hesitated momentarily. He was fairly certain that the two men in front him were not actually friends of Everett Brooks.
“Well? You gonna point us in the right direction or not?”
Teddy Freeman sighed. “Follow the road east out of town. When you cross the creek on the other side of the foothills, you’ll see a wagon track headin’ south. That’ll take you to the MacTavish ranch, where Everett and his woman got a small homestead.”
“His woman?” the cavalryman and the Indian exchanged surprised glances. “Didn’t know he had a woman.”
“Well, he does. And he’s mighty fond of her, so you boys best be who you say you are. Otherwise, there’s gonna be hell to pay.”
“Don’t you worry about that, friend.” the one-eyed soldier smiled his disingenuous smirk once more and tipped his hat at Teddy. “Don’t you worry about that.”
The recently appointed sheriff of Heaven’s Hollow watched the two strangers ride off through town, an ominous notion in the pit of his stomach telling him he’d just made a horrible mistake.
As she so often did in her moments of quiet solitude, Caroline stood in the doorway of the home she shared with Everett Brooks, gazing out at the endless prairie stretching for miles in every direction, and reflected on just how drastically her life had changed in the last seven months.
She and Everett were living a quiet, idyllic life in a modest cabin on land that Duncan MacTavish had granted them out of his vast holdings. After the shootout with the Midnight Riders, the town of Heaven’s Hollow tried to make Everett the new sheriff, but he wanted to quit the gunslinger’s life. He had insisted that Teddy Freeman take the job instead. Now, he managed the ranch with the Scotsman during the day, and loved Caroline fiercely at night. They were due to be married soon.
Caroline heard the distant whinnying of a horse and turned to see a group of riders approaching from the northeast. There were four of them, and they were still a ways off, but she instinctively knew that Everett Brooks and Duncan MacTavish were not among them. She reached for the gun belt hanging on a peg just inside the door, and buckled it around her shapely hips.
As the strangers got closer, a feeling of unsettling dread fell over Caroline. One of the riders was an Indian with a savage and violent bearing; two were disheveled and wild-eyed gunhands who looked almost exactly alike; and the last a man Caroline was shocked to discover she knew intimately.
“Randall Gibson, is that you?!”
“Sweet Caroline Bigsby?!” Randall Gibson exclaimed, equally astonished. “Fancy runnin’ into you all the way out here. Wait a damn minute; you’re Everett Brooks’ woman?”
Caroline’s blood ran cold at the mention of her paramour. “You’re out here looking for Everett? What do you want him for?”
“Red Knife” -Randall addressed the Comanche warrior, ignoring her query- “you remember Sweet Caroline don’t you? From Moxie’s place in Dodge City.”
Red Knife glowered and nodded coolly. The twins leered at Caroline with lecherous smirks. Randall Gibson did the same. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a fistful of coins.
“What do you say we go in your cozy little cabin there and have us a go? For old time’s sake? I’m sure old Everett wouldn’t mind, seeing as that’s just what you do.”
“I don’t do that anymore,” Caroline said with quiet fury. “I’m with Everett now.”
“Aw, come on, darlin.” Randall jingled the money in his hand condescendingly. “I’ll make it worth your while.”
“The answer’s no,” Caroline stated flatly. “I’m not that woman anymore. Now, y’all best leave before Everett gets back and whips your asses.”
All trace of amusement left Randall Gibson’s face. “So, you’re lover boy’s not around, is he? Well, we’ll deal with him soon enough, you best believe that. But I suppose we’re gonna have to make him come to us. Earl” -the cavalryman twisted in his saddle to address one of the twins- “be so good as to wrangle the little lady.”
“Be my pleasure.” Earl’s leering grin widened as he dismounted and approached Caroline with outstretched hands. She hastily drew the Remington from her gun belt and fired off a poorly aimed shot. Nevertheless, Earl howled in pain when the thumb on his right hand disappeared.
“She shot my damn finger off!” he whimpered. No sooner did he get the words out than his head exploded in a gory mist of blood and brains as the report of a gunshot thundered across the rolling plains. Caroline’s would-be captors turned in astonishment to see Teddy Freeman behind them, the barrel of his Colt .45 smoking from the bullet that killed Earl. The sheriff’s suspicions had gotten the better of him.
The surviving twin snarled and reached for his pistol. Teddy swiveled his sights, blowing several holes in the man’s stomach. A pair of bloody craters erupted in the sheriff’s chest, and he pitched backwards out of his saddle, a look of shock etched onto his face. Teddy Freeman was dead before he hit the ground.
Randall Gibson wordlessly holstered his revolver. Caroline screamed in horror and despair. Red Knife grabbed her roughly by the arm, bound her hands with rope, and lifted her onto one of the riderless horses.
The one-eyed cavalryman took the lead of Caroline’s mount and pulled her close to him. “We’ve got a score to settle with your man, so we’re gonna use you to get his attention. Now, I always liked you Caroline. We had some good times together.”
“Good for you, maybe,” Caroline spat scornfully. “I was always faking it.”
Randall Gibson’s face twisted in anger at the insult to his manhood, and he slapped her hard with the back of his hand. Caroline’s lip bled, and her cheek was bruised, but the contemptuous look on her face remained.
“As I was sayin’; I always liked you, so you got nothin’ to fear from me. And Red Knife here won’t touch you less I say so. It’s Everett Brooks we want. But you don’t cooperate, or control that mouth of yours, he’s gonna be finding pieces of you from here to Mexico.”
With that ominous threat hanging in the air, Randall Gibson grabbed the reins of Caroline’s horse once more. The three of them rode away from the grisly spectacle that had played out in front of her home, and Caroline finally allowed herself to cry.
Afterword: To enhance the impact of this story, listen to the song below after you read.
Click below to read more about Everett Brooks and Sweet Caroline.
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This has the just the right amount of grit! I love how you balance action and dialogue. This was immersive and compelling read. Can’t wait to see what’s next!
Ace. Explosive, pulpy, and polished to a fine sheen. Excellent work, can't wait to see how Everett deals with these renegades.