After a few minutes Rose and Little Joe joined them at a table in the lobby. Rose had explained to Joe what had happened. He wasn’t too thrilled with Jed and the others, neither was Adam. Both Adam and Joe were pretty protective of Hazel and Rose. Rose and Hazel, for the most part, could take care of and fend for themselves.
“So who exactly are these Jenkins sisters?” Rose asked as they all sat down.
“Helga and Rhonda Jenkins are two of the most notorious bank robbin’, thievin’ pair of murderers to ever ride a horse or carry a gun,” Hazel said. “Ben and I saw a wanted poster in Virginia City the other day; they’re all anyone in the saloon is talking about.”
“Yes, we hung their brother about two and a half weeks ago for bank robbery and murder. They swore that they would come back and kill anyone involved in his hanging,” John said.
“They’re not going to kill anyone here; we’re going to make sure of that,” Hazel said.
“Oh, really now?” came a hard voice from the doorway. Everybody turned to see Helga and Rhonda Jenkins standing in the doorway. Rose, Joe, Adam, and Hazel immediately stood up, their hands going to their guns. Jed and the rest cringed in fear at the sight of them.
“Don’t think that just because you look like us you can bring us down,” Helga said as she walked over and stood in front of Hazel. Rhonda did the same to Rose. Standing next to the Jennings, the Jenkins looked huge. Both girls were big and meaty.
“We don’t care if you’re three times our size or how many men you’ve murdered; your reign of terror ends here,” Rose replied boldly.
“Oh, Helga, hold me; I’m shakin’ in my boots!” Rhonda said mockingly, clutching onto Helga as if she were a frightened little girl. She let go and laughed in their faces manically.
“Okay, you wanna play? Meet us in the street in two hours, no guns, just fists and brute strength,” Helga said as she stepped forward and stood over Hazel like a bear over a fox.
“Okay, two hours, no guns,” Hazel replied, looking up at Helga. Helga and Rhonda nodded and stalked out.
“Are you crazy?” Mark said after the Jenkins left. “They’ll tear you two to pieces! Didn’t you see their size? It’ll be like a rabbit trying to fight a bear.”
“Yes,” Rose replied calmly. “But their size slows them down.”
“We’ll wear them out, and then they’ll be no threat,” Hazel added. “We aren’t exactly the slowest girls around.”
“I’m gonna go and check on Cocoa; she seemed a little skittish earlier,” Rose said, changing the subject.
“I’m coming with you. I wanna make sure that Jewel’s got her blanket; it’s gonna be cold tonight,” Hazel said as the two girls stood up.
“Okay, we’ll meet you two back here in ten or twenty minutes,” Little Joe said.
“Where are y’all goin’?” Hazel asked.
“We’re goin’ over to the saloon for a quick drink,” Adam said as the two boys walked out.
~ ~ ~
“Dang, it’s dark; we shoulda brought a lantern or something,” Hazel said as they walked over to the stable. All of a sudden a fist flew out of the darkness and hit Hazel square in the face.
“Hazel!” Rose cried as she knelt down to see if her sister was okay.
“Did I run into somethin’?” Hazel asked as she put her hand to her head. She could feel the blood starting to stream out of her nose.
“Yeah, you ran into my fist,” a voice said from in front of them. Rose and Hazel whipped out their guns. “Now, that was mighty rude; you should apologize.” Rose and Hazel shielded their eyes as a lantern light suddenly flared up, temporarily blinding them. They blinked a couple times. Hazel could barely make out two large figures standing over them.
“The Jenkins,” Rose said after her eyes grew accustomed to the light.
“What do ya want?” Hazel said with a hint of steel in her voice.
“We got bored so we came to go ahead and beat y’all up so we can go ahead and leave,” Helga said as Rose and Hazel stood up. Rhonda took a swing at Rose. Rose, having amazing reflexes, ducked quickly, though the swing from Rhonda knocked the hat off of her head. Next to her, Helga had attempted to knock the wind out of Hazel, though Hazel, however, had dodged it by jumping to the left.
“Whoa, now,” Rose said as she and Hazel pointed their guns at the Jenkins.
“I thought the agreement was no guns,” Rhonda said smugly.
“We’ll toss ours away, but you toss yours away first,” Hazel said.
“How do we know that you’ll toss your guns away after we’ve tossed ours? How can we trust ya?” Helga asked.
“Well, let’s see,” Hazel said. “We haven’t done anything to prove ourselves untrustworthy. Who are the criminals here? You are, so it’s us who shouldn’t be trustin’ you.”
The Jenkins tossed their guns to the left and, immediately following, the Jennings tossed theirs to the right. The fight resumed immediately with Helga taking Hazel by surprise and punching her in the face. Rose retorted by punching Helga and ducking another swing from Rhonda. Hazel was on her feet again, making eye contact with Rose. They proceeded to wear the Jenkins out by swiftly dodging their punches. It was working until a man stepped out of the shadows and into the light cast by the lantern. He had a gun pointed at Rose and Hazel.
“I thought that we agreed on no guns!” Hazel said, looking at the man.
“Now, you didn’t except us the play fair, now did ya?” Rhonda asked. “We’re outlaws, remember?”
The Jenkins took advantage of the fact that both the Jennings had their eyes on the man with the gun. They attacked, Rhonda punching Rose in the stomach and Helga hitting Hazel in the face. They fell backwards from the incredible, sudden force of the blows. The Jenkins picked the Jennings up and continued to beat them until Hazel had blood coming out of the sides of the mouth and forehead and Rose was almost doubled over in pain. The Jenkins each pulled out a knife.
“We never said anything about using knives,” Helga said with venom in her voice. She went to stab Hazel. Hazel, however, pulled out her boot knife and ducked under Helga, driving her knife into Helga’s chest. Rhonda went at Rose’s neck as Rose dodged and pulled out her own boot knife, spinning around to go at Rhonda. Rhonda, however, came at her, Rose stabbing her just as she reached her. Rhonda fell to the ground beside the lifeless form of Helga.
“You killed them; you killed my loves,” the man cried. He raised his gun to shoot them, but suddenly there was a shot and the man fell to the ground. Little Joe came running to their sides, Adam only a few steps behind. Adam and Joe caught Rose and Hazel as they fell; passing out from exhaustion and the beating they had received.
“It’s amazing that they were still able to beat the Jenkins, even after the beating they took,” Adam said as he picked up the motionless form of Hazel.
“I’m not really surprised,” Little Joe said as he and Adam carried Rose and Hazel over to the hotel. “They’re two of the strongest girls I’ve ever known. I mean, I remember when those idiots kidnapped them to try and get to me. Rose held me up even after being shot, and Hazel held her up with blood coming out of her neck, and she still managed to keep a hold of Rose and you.” They laid the girls down on their beds to treat their wounds.
“How could I ever forget?” Adam said. They treated their wounds and let them sleep.
~ ~ ~
When Rose and Hazel woke up Adam and Little Joe had fallen asleep in the chairs that they had been sitting in.
“They must have brought us up here,” Hazel said.
“Yeah, they must not have wanted to leave us alone,” Rose said, smirking.
“Should we wake them up? That looks a little uncomfortable,” Hazel asked.
“Oh, you know that you’re enjoying them being in here,” Rose said playfully, looking at her sister.
“Maybe,” Hazel said, avoiding eye contact with Rose.
“You do, and you will tell me what happened with you and Adam yesterday,” Rose said as she started to get up and make her way over to Hazel. Hazel was saved from answering because Adam woke up at that very moment.
“Hey, how do y’all feel?” he asked as he walked over to Hazel’s bed where Rose had just seated herself on the end of it.
“We’re okay, just a little sore,” Rose answered.
“What happened?” Hazel asked. “The last thing that I remember was that there was a shot, and that guy with the gun was falling.”
“That was me,” Little Joe said as he yawned and walked over.
“I had a feeling it was you,” Rose said, smiling as he embraced her.
“Who was that guy anyway?” Hazel asked.
“He was one of the Jenkins hired guns. From what Jed said, he would carry out their every whim,” Adam said. “It’s kind of sad though because they would have ended up killing him when they got tired of him.”
“They’re not going to kill anyone ever again,” Rose said quietly.
“Ya know, there was a one thousand dollar reward for them,” Little Joe said. “The sheriff told us about it last night.”
“We don’t want it,” Rose said immediately. “We need money, but not blood money.” Hazel nodded in agreement.
“Give it to Jed and the rest; they need it more than we do,” Hazel said in agreement.
~ ~ ~
They talked a little while longer, then checked out of the hotel. On their way over to the stable they saw Jed and the stable keeper that had groveled at their feet when they had first arrived.
“Hey, hey, Jed!” Little Joe called.
“Well, good day to y’all,” Jed said. “Jim, will ya go and get these good people’s horses?” Jim nodded and then scurried over to the stable.
“I’m really sorry about this whole mix-up, again,” Jed said.
“Yeah, what gets me is that if we really were the Jenkins do ya really think that we would have let ya get that far?” Rose asked.
“Yeah, if we were the Jenkins girls we probably would have shot you on the spot,” Hazel added as Jim walked out of the stable leading their horses.
“Like I said, we weren’t thinking; we were scared and just trying to protect ourselves and our families,” Jed replied in his defense while Jim nodded vigorously in agreement.
“Well, we’ll see y’all in Virginia City in two weeks when you bring in those cattle for auction,” Adam said. With that they rode off.
~ ~ ~
On their way back, Hazel and Rose rode a little behind Adam and Joe so they could talk.
“Okay, now you have to tell me what happened with you and Adam earlier,” Rose said, looking at Hazel.
“Fine, fine,” Hazel said. “It started with just a kiss on my hand, and then he started to go up my arm and eventually got to my lips.” She smiled and blushed furiously.
“Hey, you guys comin’ or not?” Little Joe called. He and Adam had stopped to wait on the girls.
“Yeah!” Rose called as they kicked their horses to catch up with them.
“Hey, Adam, next time we ask to come with ya to buy cattle, don’t let us,” Hazel said as they all laughed.