Free Slocum and the Long Ride by Jake Logan Page B

and he stopped at many cantinas, sat with his back to the wall, drank straight mescal, and talked to
putas
who wanted to take him to bed. Instead he fed them and himself and learned all they knew about this outlaw Gomez.
    At last, he arrived in what would prove to be the village closest to their hideout. He stabled his horse and took a room in a whorehouse. Business was slow, and the madam told him that for his twenty-five cents he could sleep there but got no free pussy. He went to the busiest cantina, took a place in the shadows, and ordered food and mescal. Soon a young
puta
was there like a buzzard at a cow killing.
    â€œYou are lonely back here?” she asked.
    He saw her as a skinny dumb girl in his first gaze at her. She scooted close to him and sniffed the fumes coming off his plate of meat, sweet peppers, and onions—and hot ones too.
    He handed her a flour tortilla, and she got on her knees on the bench to load it for him from the sizzling pan. Leaned back, he waited for her to get the tortilla wrapped. When she’d completed the task, she fed it to him.
    â€œYou like me?” She smiled big at him.
    â€œYou will do.”
    â€œOh, but hombre, I can care for you. You like this no?”
    â€œWhat do they call you?”
    â€œRoma.”
    â€œRoma, huh?”
    â€œ
Sí
. I would make you a wonderful companion.”
    â€œWhere would you go?”
    â€œAnywhere you like. I could comfort you at night and in the day care for you.”
    â€œWhat if I don’t need a woman?”
    â€œOh, I bet when I get through feeding you, you will need one bad.”
    â€œIs there a woman working here named Carla Miquey?”
    â€œNo, she went to Porta Dia-yamia with a man who liked her. You know her?”
    â€œNo, but a friend of mine said she thought she was here and could help me. Do you know any of Gomez’s men?”
    She curled her lip. “They are dumb
bastardos
. I hate when they come to town. Are you going to join them?”
    He shook his head and took another bite from her wrap. By this time, she had moved to sit astraddle of his lap. When she moved over, she hiked her dress above her butt, and her bare legs surrounded him. It wasn’t hard to tell she had no underwear on. But why wear any? She’d just have to take it off for the next guy. She held his tortilla in both hands for him to eat it.
    She wrinkled her nose at him. “They are dumb too.”
    â€œHow dumb?”
    â€œThey make big robberies, but his men do not get paid. He pays them like peons, not soldiers like he needs. You would not talk to them, they are so dumb.”
    â€œBut they make big raids.”
    â€œAh, like an army they have a
generale
and he leads them to their slaughter, no?”
    â€œSo all the power is in his hands, huh?”
    She gave him another bite. “More or less, huh?”
    â€œYes, of course. Where is this army headquartered at?”
    â€œOh, he has a hacienda south of here. It once was a grand place when I was a little girl. Now it is a dried-up turd.”
    â€œDried-up turd?”
    â€œYes, he didn’t irrigate the grapes and the citrus, and it all died of course.”
    â€œSo he doesn’t farm any longer?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œHow many men are out there?”
    â€œMaybe two dozen, laying around sleeping all day, and they have some old hags out there and he buys them cheap wine.”
    â€œOh, I thought he had an army.”
    She dismissed his concern with a head shake.
    He finished his meal and took her to his room in the whorehouse.
    â€œWhy do you live here?” she demanded in the street, realizing where he was taking her.
    â€œIt is cheap.”
    â€œHow cheap?”
    â€œTwenty-five cents a day.”
    â€œCheap enough.” She raised her skirt hem and crossed the ditch to sashay up the steps ahead of him.
    What a yickity-yack he had found this time. Maybe she knew more about Gomez. He would find out. And