New West by BA Tortuga Page B

on. Now. I’m talking with the boss.” Cy’s voice snapped harder than any bullwhip.
    Gavin’s mouth set, his chin jutting, but against Cyrus and Ez, the man just couldn’t keep it up. He stalked off, muttering.
    Ez was fixin’ to lose it, just go into a jibbering hysterical fit.
    Cyrus met his eyes, serious as a heart attack. “I’ll get the herd to auction, Boss. Kansas City if I have to. Get your momma the money. You need to get him healed. It’s important.”
    Ez wasn’t sure, exactly, what Cyrus saw in Jesse, but he knew what he did. He was just grateful Cy didn’t agree with the rest of the boys. “We’ll need just enough provisions to get to the tribes. I won’t leave y’all in the lurch.”
    “He won’t need much and, if y’all don’t find the Tribes, it won’t matter.”
    “Okay.” Ezrah couldn’t believe how fucking out of control everything was. He was just handing off his herd to Cyrus and going off into the badlands.
    He had no idea if Momma was okay, if the ranch was still there. If anything was how it had been. All he knew was he had to get Jesse fixed. He felt the urgency of that in his bones, and he thought Cyrus did, too.
    He set to making a travois, something where Jess could be safe, if not comfortable. They’d head southwest, toward the Tribes, toward the Diné.
    “I’ll cull you a couple of horses,” Cyrus said. “Get you some supplies.”
    “You’re a good man, Cyrus.”
    Cyrus looked at him, lips quirking. “I am. You remember me in your prayers and that’s enough for me.”
    “I’ll see you back at the ranch.” The ranch would be there, damn it. Momma would fry chicken, make them a pie.
    “I’ll be there, holding things down. You have my word, Ezrah.”
    They shook on it, and both got busy, time passing with him giving Jess sips of water and Cookie bringing him a pack of provisions.
    Cyrus helped get Jess tied into the travois. Heat poured off the man’s skin, and there was the beginning of an odor—one that said they needed to hurry. He gagged, but swallowed it down.
    “Make sure the boys get paid,” he told Cookie. “Cy is a good foreman.”
    Cookie nodded and spat on the ground. “We’ll do you proud, Boss.”
    “You will. I’ll see you back at the ranch. Godspeed, y’all.”
    He was the one to leave. The herd would take hours to get moving, and Ez didn’t even know if Dooley was back from his exploratory search. He just knew he had to get moving.
    Jesse was dying, and he’d done lost enough for one year. He wasn’t about to lose Jesse, too.
    Not so soon after finding him again.

 
    Chapter Twelve
     
     
     
    The sun burned into his skin, drove into his eyes, even through the cloth Ezrah had covered them with. Burning. He was burning alive, like Denver.
    “Nonsense. You were just too stupid to unplug your damn fool self in time.”
    Oh. Oh, Emmett. That was Emmett talking to him. Jesse laughed, called out. “Em! Em, Ezrah though you were dead and gone!”
    He got a grin, playful and wicked. “Does he now? Poor Ez. He works hard.”
    “He does. Oh, Em. Em, I’m so glad. They’re moving the cattle. Another quake came, did you feel it? It shook the world.”
    Em just snorted, so familiar. “You need to forget the cattle for now, Jess.”
    “Yeah. I forget a lot these days, Em. I’m a little scrambled, and it hurts. I told Ez to go on without me. Oh, he’ll be so glad to see you.”
    Emmett's face swam before his poor burned eyes. “He won’t see me, Jess.”
    “Sure he will. Ez loves you, man. He won’t be mad. I promise. Ez…Ez is the best of us. Always has been.” That’s why Jesse loved him.
    “I miss him. Tell him for me.”
    “Oh, don’t go yet, Em. Em, please. Ez needs you, so much more than he needs me.” Ez’s life was better with Emmett. Jesse knew it.
    “I can’t stay, Jess. You have to be there for him. Okay? Promise me.”
    “I’ll always have his back. Always. Em, please. I’ll go instead so there’s