I couldn’t sleep that night. How could anyone? I had taken over a dead man’s identity to kill the head of a family and possibly blown my cover with Annette. Whatever deal Otto and her had, I had completely destroyed. I didn’t have time. I had to find Hector and kill him or else Dusty would find me and make sure I didn’t live to see another day.
If I was going to live to see tomorrow, I had to kill Hector Loya today.
I gathered my belongings as strapped my gun-belt to my waist. A farmstead as big as the Loyas had to have guards watching the perimeter. If I was to walk into the main house unnoticed, I had to use the shadows to my advantage.
I crept from the guest house using a barrel beside the doorway as cover. The moon was hidden behind clouds and for that I was thankful. With hand on my iron, I slid across the sand careful to not make excessive noise in the wake of my footfalls. I saw two shadows atop an archway overlooking a small plaza but they had their backs turned to me. They would not bother me tonight.
Then, I saw the main house. It was a two story building made of adobe colored in elegant intertwining white lines at the top. I crept under a terrace and drew my revolver. I couldn’t remember the last time I had fired my gun. It was mainly just a way to tell others to leave me alone. Of course, how do you intimidate people with a gun, when they have guns too?
Savage land, indeed.
I heard nothing behind the ornately carved door, so I set a hand on it. It was slightly ajar so I pushed it open to find a row of gunmen with rifles aimed at the door.
My heart leapt into my throat as I felt a hand snatch the revolver from my hand and push me inside. I turned to see Annette close the door behind me. She shook her head.
‘Should have stayed in bed, Otto. But that’s not your real name is it?’
A man sat in a chair just a few feet behind the row of gunmen. His skin was pale and he was hunched over with a blanket over his shoulders. He looked about to keel over but there was still a look in his eye like a ember of a dying fire.
‘Hector Loya,’ I gasped unable to comprehend my poor luck.
‘Dusty sent you, didn’t she?’
I was had. Yet, for some reason, I didn’t feel fear. If anything, I was angry.
‘You had me framed. That woman in the street that saw me and accused me was sent by you. Blaming me for killing that shopkeeper kept Dusty from getting back at you,’ I said.
‘Of course, she figured it out and sent you, did she?’
‘I’m done being a pawn. I’m going back home and leaving this cesspool behind,’ I said, turning my back to face Annette.
‘If only it were so easy,’ she said. She aimed the revolver at my head but then Hector Loya stood up and leaned on his cane.
‘Tell me, did you meet with her?’ he asked.
‘Yes.’
Annette let her weapon down. ‘What are you thinking papa?’
‘Dr. Listrum might be the ace in the deck we never knew we had.’
– Dr. Marcus Listrum
Author J.M. Topp 