Zooey Pinkerton- a Daughter's Right (7 page)

The sound of music and
debauchery could be heard through the open windows of the ranch
house. Joshua shook his head. “Sounds under control, for now.” A
brief flash amongst the trees caught Joshua's attention. He
crouched low in the shadows and motioned for the men behind him to
do the same.

“Sheriff?”

Joshua breathed a sigh of relief
when he heard Franklin's voice. “Any news, Franklin?”

The deputies came out from their
hiding places and crouched next to Joshua. “From what we can see,
there are two armed men out front, and one at each entrance and
exit. The rest of the fools sound like they are living it up
inside. I'm assuming Brennan and the boss are inside as well.”

“So that means at least five
armed men are visible. Notice any scouts along the way?”

Franklin shook his head. “None
that we could see, but that doesn't mean that they aren’t
there.”

“True enough,” Joshua agreed.
“But, we can't wait out here all night. The sun will be up in
another hour or so. We have to do this now or risk the men
escaping. The odds may not be in our favour once those men know
we’re here. I'd understand if there was anyone who wanted to high
tail it out of here. Brennan is not a forgiving man.”

Silence was all the
acknowledgement that Joshua needed. His men were behind him, even
if it meant endangering their lives. This was not just for Zooey
Pinkerton. Every man there had known someone whose life had been
affected by one of these outlaws. It was time to take their town
and their county back from the lawbreakers.

Joshua stood up and gathered his
men around him in a semi circle. “Franklin, take five men with you
and handle the guards at the entrance and the exits. Do what you
need to do to ensure they’re quiet. The rest of you will come with
me. We'll scout the path leading up to the house, then make our
presence known. We have to take these animals down once and for
all.”

“Agreed, let's go men!” Franklin
took off into the darkness, with his men silently shadowing his
every move.

Joshua moved stealthily down the
trail, checking every nook and cranny along the way. So far, there
didn’t seem to be any scouts. “Cocky bastards really thought I'd
stay away tonight. That will be their downfall.”

“It's the price of arrogance and
too much power,” a young deputy replied. “Too much power corrupts
the mind
and
the soul.”

“These men have proven they have
no soul,” replied Joshua.

Once he was sure there were no
men waiting out in the trees that surrounded the ranch, Joshua
slowly took off to the main road leading to the property. It was
eerily quiet, except for the odd holler of a drunken man or a
high-pitched squeal from one of the prostitutes inside.

Joshua squinted his eyes and
caught sight of Franklin waving his arm at the front door. “Good
man,” he whispered. After directing two of his own men to assist at
the side and back entrances, Joshua moved across the gravel road as
silently as he could. Then a snapping sound behind him froze his
blood.

As if in slow motion, Joshua
sped around and drew his rifle, watching as a black figure on a
horse loomed out of the shadows. “Halt! I'm the Sheriff and I have
a weapon pointed directly at you!”

“Josh? Thank goodness it's
you!”

“Zooey? What the hell....get off
that horse and get over here as quietly as you can.”

Joshua watched in amazement as
Zooey dismounted. She walked Gypsy to where he stood, rifle at the
ready.

“I could have killed you! Are
you crazy? What are you doing out here? I told you to wait at the
house.”

Zooey huffed, but stood her
ground. “No, I'm not crazy. I couldn't sleep and I have every right
to be here. I need to face the man who killed my father. Besides,
Charlie said you may need me.”

Joshua looked down at Zooey,
dressed in his old patched up shirt, and wrapped up in a coat that
was too big for her. She looked like a little girl playing cowboy.
On another day, he would find it charming. Tonight, he knew the
fire of revenge burned deep in her heart.

“You have every right to be
angry, but this is not a safe place for you.”

“Why? Because I'm a woman? I
grew up in this place and learned from my Pops
and
some of
the greatest cowboys and wranglers around. I can handle
myself!”

Joshua sighed heavily. “It's not
that you can't take care of yourself, Zooey. I can't take the
chance that you’ll get hurt, or worse, killed out here. You'd be no
better off than your father.”

“This is
my
ranch,
Joshua. Pops had no sons and I'll be damned if these outlaws take
my birthright from me.”

In silence, Joshua tethered
Gypsy to a tree and walked Zooey over to Franklin. “Do you still
have that spare rifle?”

“Always,” answered Franklin as
he unhitched it from a strap across his back.

“Take this, Zooey, and stay
behind me at all times. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“Good. We still have the element
of surprise. Franklin, go around back and tell the men to get
ready. In exactly five minutes we’ll head inside. Hopefully the men
are too drunk to react and we can take Brennan and his boss as
quietly as possible.”

“What's happened to all of Pop's
men?”

Joshua shrugged his shoulders.
“My best bet is that they left or went over to the dark side. They
had their lives and families to think about.”

“So much for loyalty,” Zooey
said. “Pops took care of those men and they left him here to die,
alone.” She wiped a tear away from her cheek and held the rifle
tight in her hands. “Let's get this over with.”

Amongst all the drunken
revellers, Tom Brennan stood alone, watching. He had only allowed
himself two fingers of whiskey. Not enough to get drunk on but
enough to fire the hate in his belly toward Jack Duncan and Sarah
Sweet.

“Bloody woman. I should have
snapped your neck when I had the chance.” Tom grumbled while he
paced back and forth in front of the parlour door. It was almost
time to check on the men standing guard. So far, everything was
quiet, but something was gnawing at him; something felt out of
sorts.

“Tom, old boy! Relax. You look
like a panther just waiting to strike. Look around you man! There
are plenty of things to enjoy tonight.”

Tom watched in disgust as Jack
kissed the side of Sarah's neck and wrapped his hands around her
tiny waist.

Jack laughed as Tom stormed out
of the parlour and headed for the front door.

“The poor man is always so riled
up. Such a shame, isn’t it my dear?” Jack asked while nibbling on
Sarah's exposed neck and tender flesh. She moaned and nodded in
agreement. At the moment, she didn’t have a care in the world.

Meanwhile, Tom's well-worn
cowboy boots pounded against the floor as he stomped his way to the
front door. The hall was empty, as most of the bedrooms were taken
up by men and women in various states of undress. He stood for a
moment and looked around him. The ranch house was extensive and
well set up. Tom knew if he had a chance, he could take it over and
make a killing on those horses.

“I give Andrew some credit for
running a tight ship around here. Shame about his gambling
problems, though. If he'd been smart, we could have worked together
and taken old Jack for all of it,” Tom said aloud.

“But you made damn sure Andrew
Pinkerton wouldn’t work for anything or anyone again, didn't you,
Tom?” Joshua said.

Both Joshua and Franklin stood
in the doorway with their weapons trained on Tom's chest and head.
It was satisfying for the Sheriff to see the look of confusion
flash across Tom's face. Josh stepped aside and allowed Zooey to
walk around him, her borrowed rifle aimed well.

“Nice to see you again, little
one,” Tom grinned. “So, I see my gut was right about it being too
quiet out here tonight. We are surrounded I assume, Sheriff?”

Joshua nodded.

“Not so smart after all, are
you, Mr. Brennan?”

Tom stared down at Zooey.
Instead of being intimidated, she stared right back at him with her
head high and her shoulders back.

“I underestimated you when we
first met. Your father certainly raised his girl to act more like a
man then most of the idiots here.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere
sir. You still murdered my father.”

“That I did child, but it was
business. You must understand it was nothing personal.”

“How about Marta?” Zooey asked
while angrily shaking the gun in his direction. “Was that
personal?”

A deep sigh escaped the big
outlaws curled lips and he nodded. “It wasn’t personal for me. Now,
I can't say that of my men. I would have preferred to keep the old
woman busy in the kitchen, but when you have men who have not seen
hide nor hair of a woman for months...well you must understand that
things can happen.”

“You disgust me,” Zooey
spat.

“Alright Zooey, you've had your
say, now let us do our job.”

Just as Zooey shifted to allow
the Sheriff a closer view of Tom, the man lunged forward with a
pistol in hand.

Shots rang out and Tom and Zooey
hit the floor simultaneously.

“Zooey!” Joshua shouted as he
turned to grab her as she fell. The rifle dropped from her hands
and she crumbled into Joshua's arms. Franklin trained his rifle on
Tom who was still unmoving on the floor, a pool of blood spreading
beneath his left side.

“He’s been shot, Sheriff. I
doubt the tough bugger is dead though. May have knocked him
silly.”

“Keep an eye on him, Franklin,”
Joshua said as he cradled Zooey to his chest. He checked for a
wound and he found that Zooey had been shot in the arm. The bullet
had gone clean through, from one side to the other. “You've been
shot, but it's not bad. The wound is clean.”

Zooey moaned as she came too.
“Is he dead?”

“No,” Joshua said. “But you got
him pretty good.”

As Zooey tried to sit, a half
dozen of Joshua’s men came in through the back and side door.
“Round up whoever you can find and make sure their weapons are
confiscated. And find the boss! He's got to be here somewhere!”
Joshua shouted while tearing the bottom of Zooey's shirt. He
hastily tied up her wounded arm. “You'll be okay, Zooey. I
promise.”

”I’ve been waiting for you,
Joshua,” a rough voice broke in. Joshua looked up to see a tall,
older man dressed all in black. At the same moment, the woman
standing next to him let out a scream.

“Tommy! What did you do to
Tommy?”

“Shut up!” Jack shouted as he
slapped Sarah across the cheek. “Ungrateful whore! I bring you here
with me and you scream about a man who would beat you to
death?”

Stunned, Sarah grabbed her cheek
and ran back into the parlour, leaving the men behind.

Jack focused his attention back
on the Sheriff. “What?” Jack raised his hands in an innocent
gesture. “Not happy to see your old Pa, Joshua?”

The air was thick with tension
as Joshua got his feet and faced the man.

“Josh?” Everything finally made
sense to Zooey. “This man is your father?”

Joshua took a deep breath and
looked Jack straight in the eyes. “This man may look like my
father, but he’s not. My father is dead to me.”

“And here I thought we would
have a sweet reunion, son. Pity about your mother, though. She was
a lovely woman. She just couldn’t keep that mouth of hers
shut.”

Joshua balled his fists in
anger. “You still drinking?”

“Barely. The drink causes too
many problems. Obviously the men chosen to protect this ranch were
substandard. I always knew Tom was substandard, but I guess that's
why it took a woman to finally best him.”

“Shut up!” Joshua yelled at
Jack. “I'm taking you in, Josh….or is it Jack now? You ran away
from your family and changed your identity too?”

Jack Duncan laughed. “Jack it
is, my boy. Old Josh Duncan is gone with the wind. Jack Duncan, on
the other hand, is a very powerful man. Do you really think once
you have me in custody, I’ll stay there?”

“If I have my way, you
will.”

Jack made a “tisk tisk” sound in
his throat and grinned. “So much defiance - and so much like your
mother that way. But we all know how her defiance ended.”

“She wasn't killed by robbers or
Indians, was she?” Joshua asked quietly, already knowing the
answer.

“No, she wasn't, but it gave me
a chance to get away and start fresh. Gave me a chance to become
someone important…someone with power! Look at all this, Joshua.
Look at how easy it was to take this from someone.”

“You had no right!” Zooey said,
unable to stay quiet. Her anger took away any pain she felt in her
arm. She even managed to stand up and face the real man responsible
for her father's death.

“I had every right child. Your
father owed me money and a debt is always paid.”

“You had no right to his
life!”

Joshua placed on hand on Zooey's
good shoulder. “Enough, Zooey. He's not worth your breath. Let the
law deal with him.”

While Jack, Joshua and Zooey
talked, Tom opened his eyes and listened. He was not as badly
wounded as he had led them all to believe. Instead, he lay there,
formulating a plan to kill two birds with one stone. If he shot
Jack, then Tom figured he would have all the power. If he were
quick enough to shoot the Sheriff as well, then his men would be
distracted long enough for him to escape… and perhaps take Zooey
with him. He slowly moved his hand to his side, where his pistol
was sheathed. Carefully, Tom scanned the men in front of him.
Franklin was watching Jack and Joshua. Even though his weapon was
on Tom, his attention was elsewhere.

Zooey blinked. A slight movement
had caught her attention. She was sitting back down now, holding
her wounded arm.
I thought you were unconscious?