Ukushi didn´t even need to be led in the right direction; she headed toward their home all by herself. Kame usually let her stay in the stalls behind the saloon, but he built up a small cozy shed for her right next to their house as well.
He finally freed the noble mare of the saddle and let her rest there, hidden from the growing rain, which was beating on the roof harder with each passed minute. Kame fled into the house, escaping the unpleasant weather and the thought about Jin crossed his mind. The gunslinger had to be quite cold by this time...
The awesome scent of a freshly baked bread welcomed him right behind the door. Kame entered the kitchen with a surprised expression; Lena never baked the bread, she always whined it was too difficult to make the right dough. It became clear to him right away – the person occupying the space near the stove wasn´t Lena, it was his mother.
Hearing his steps, Rosie turned her gray head and a happy smile made her pale face beautiful at that moment.
"Kazuya, you´re home!" she welcomed her frowning son and squeezed his hand. "Are you hungry? I will slice off a piece of bread for you."
"How come you´re not in bed, Mother?" he asked, not paying any attention to her offer.
"I feel good today," Rosie assured him and caressed Kazuya´s face lovingly. "You don´t have to be so worried about me all the time."
Kame took the soft hand into his and placed a gentle kiss on it: "I do," he insisted. "You should..."
"No excuses this time," his mother interrupted him firmly. "We will have a dinner together and then I will rest."
Rosie pulled his hand a little to make her son sit at the table, but she didn´t have the strength to force him to it. She was so weak...
"All right, we will," Kame agreed, giving up on the argument for the moment. "But I will check the saloon first. I feel a little bad for leaving it without any supervision for so long."
His mother´s expression changed into a worried one right away.
"Oh, that´s true, you should. The sheriff´s deputy was looking for you because of it."
Kame froze on the spot hearing the words.
"Grenet was here?" he managed to ask through the suddenly anxiously tight throat. "Why? What happened?"
"Nothing serious, dear. He was just upset that the bar was closed. I suppose that he wanted to drink for a whole night," Rosie added with an obvious disagreement all over her face.
"Upset?" Kame repeated slowly. "Was he rude?"
"Don´t worry about it," Rosie shook her head a little. "His behavior wasn´t any worse than usual..."
That means the deputy behaved as a cunt, Kame assumed, feeling a hint of anger deep inside. Grenet could annoy him, but he shouldn´t bother his mother. Who knows, maybe he was even cocky enough to break into the saloon without permission.
"Thanks for telling me, Mum. I´ll be back soon," Kame promised and his mother nodded with a smile again.
"I will wait for you."
*
Fortunately, when Kame got to the place, everything seemed fine. The stalls were closed and the locks and wooden crossbars untouched on both saloon´s entrances. Calmed down, but still worried about Grenet being ready to do anything for a stupid drink, he turned away from the front door, prepared to rush back to his mother to eat something, before Jin would appear in the town too, when a quite angry voice stopped his steps on the veranda.
"So... Our pretty face is back finally, huh?"
Kame followed the direction from where the voice was coming and not surprised spotted Grenet in the dark blue coat coming through the heavy rain right to the saloon, accompanied by four of his gunmen. The man didn´t look like he wanted to welcome Kame back at all. Otherwise, the street was empty; the rain kept the citizens inside their homes.
The group reached the veranda quickly and came up to Kame before he could have even reacted, blocking his way.
"Good evening," Kame said coldly. "What do you want?"
"What do I want?" the sheriff´s deputy repeated sardonically. "I want some drink, you dumbass. And I didn´t have it for almost a week already, so being in your shoes, I´d rather hurry up and open the bar."
Kame was quite tired after the journey from the woods, still pissed off and wasn´t in the mood for Grenet´s wishes.
"I´m pretty sure that you can read, Grenet," he reacted provocatively. "And because of that you might have noticed the lettering behind me. It says the bar is closed."
The man stepped closer to the young bartender. So close that it felt uncomfortable, but Kame didn´t intend to step back.
"I did notice that," Grenet hissed. "But I guess you can make an exception, right?" he said with an obvious warning in his voice.
"Closed means, that the saloon is closed for everyone," Kame explained in a tone which he would have used for a five-year-old kid.
"I´ve just given you a friendly piece of advice, pretty face, but unfortunately, you don´t get it."
Kame noticed the other four men stepping around, so that they blocked his way away completely. But it didn´t scare him.
"I´m just following my superior´s orders," he informed the smirking deputy.
"I´m sure our dear Harada would have let me in," Grenet objected imperiously.
Kame had quite enough of that stupid conversation already.
"And I´m sure he told me not to let anyone inside. You´re nobody special, Grenet," he spat out scornfully.
The deputy grabbed the bartender for the shoulders roughly and swiped with him towards the wall. He pressed him there painfully and leant with his face so close, that Kame could feel the deputy´s breath stinking after many cigarettes.
"I think you´ve became quite haughty, baby boy. I´m telling you for the last time - open the bar for us."
Kame looked into the eyes shining with anger and felt disgusted. It would have been better for him to obey as always or to explain Grenet that there was almost no alcohol inside anyway, but after that week in the forest, he couldn´t do it anymore. Not after what was said between Jin and himself. This was the last straw for Kame. It was enough, he wasn´t Grenet´s servant and he was determined not to behave like one.
"No," he stated fearlessly. "And now let me go."
Grenet´s eyes narrowed in a dangerous way: "You want to go back to your poor sick Mamma? I don´t think so..."
Right in the next moment, Kame was hit into the stomach roughly, which stole his breath away, making him bend. A short wave of darkness came across his vision.
At first, when he noticed the fast move of Grenet´s hand, he wanted to defend himself. He knew that he was able to. He didn´t spend long hours of physical training with other young men from the Blackfeet Tribe for nothing. But the cruel knowledge of the fact, that if he had done it, everything would have been even worse, made him stay motionless and defenseless. That one sentence, in which the deputy mentioned his mother on purpose, forced Kame to do nothing. He couldn´t have brought that fucker´s anger on his mother.
"You should learn how to behave, baby boy," Kame heard Grenet´s voice and the next hard hit on the back of his neck made him fall down on his knees. His ankle screamed in protest for such a treatment and his hat disappeared somewhere under the boots of Grenet´s men.
The deputy grabbed the bartender by the hair and pushed his head up, bringing tears of pain to Kame´s eyes.
"You´re too young to be so cocky, you know," Grenet lectured him arrogantly. "It seems to me, that you were missing the man´s hand during your childhood. Isn´t that right, boys? We will teach him a lesson, right?"
Kame reached up his hands and tried to relieve himself from the painful grip, but he was rewarded only with another pain, when Grenet kicked him hard into the stomach again.
This time, Kame really couldn´t catch his breath again, he couldn´t even see, the pain was too binding.
"You little asshole... Let´s see how much you will hold on. Maybe we should refine that cute face of yours a little. What do you say?"
Kame said nothing, still blinded by the lack of air. Therefore, he didn´t notice who arrived by the saloon at that moment, just as he didn´t see what caused the unexpected loud thud on the veranda.
"Hey, what the fuck!?" the voice of one of Grenet´s gunmen was heard.
The grip in his hair loosened then and Grenet let him go. Kame leant on his hands, trying to get his senses together.
"Well, well, well, who do we have here?" the deputy turned to welcome the new figure on the scene.
Kame raised his head and he looked between the legs of the standing men down to the street. Through the blurred vision, he recognized the horse, which was standing there, right away.
"What the hell is this, Akanishi?" Grenet asked pointing out at the huge sac, which landed right next to them and interrupted Kame´s ´lesson´.
The newcomer dismounted from his horse, coming closer.
"Why don´t you check it up yourself, Grenet?" Jin proposed.
The young gunslinger was standing there, the wet drops dripping from the hem of his hat, boots and trousers dirty from the mud, but he seemed not to care about the ugly weather at all. Jin looked calm, but Kame noticed the forcefully restrained anger in his voice.
He sat up carefully, while Grenet gestured to one of his companions to lift the bag up and check the inside of it. He caught the glance from Jin, who checked on him shortly. The older one´s hands were hidden in the deep pockets of his coat, and the dangerous shine in his eyes was telling Kame that Jin was trying hard to keep on his self-control.
With a painful exhale, Kame leant back to the wall, not able to get up on his feet yet. Jin came back right into the scene he didn´t want him to see... All of their cover and efforts would have been wasted, if the older one lost it and attacked Grenet.
"Holy crap!" the man holding the heavy bag almost let it go. "Boss, look!"
Grenet checked the thing, which his companion presented him and his eyes went wide, seeing the huge muzzle of a grizzly bear...
*
When Jin spotted the scene at the saloon´s veranda, the sudden anger almost took over the control of his actions. He forgot about everything for a while. About being cold and tired, about his revenge and everything he had done to achieve it so far. Seeing Kame in pain and not doing anything to prevent him from it; that was an unbearable idea.
Only in the last second, Jin prevented himself from pulling his revolver out and putting a proper bullet into that fucker´s head. Instead, he did the first thing, which he thought about. He grabbed the sac, which was attached to the saddle behind him, and threw it toward the group on the veranda, as soon as it was in his reach.
Maybe it wasn´t the best idea of all, he could have caused some damage to the so dangerously achieved head, but he couldn´t care less. And it fulfilled its purpose. It caught the sheriff´s deputy attention and stopped him from hurting the young bartender.
Now, Kuro was stalling nervously, feeling his master´s anger. Jin was clenching his palms into firm fists, hidden from the looks of everyone in the pockets. He watched the surprised faces of Grenet and his underlings, waiting for their reaction, and at the same time, he was very aware of Kame sitting behind them on the wooden board, breathing heavily.
Finally, Grenet pierced Jin with his eyes, not being able to cover his surprise from the thing, which the man on his right was holding.
"That was fast," he said with an awful smirk. "Did you find it already dead?"
"No," Jin said sharply. "I shot it down yesterday."
"Is that so?" Grenet reacted in a very offensive way.
"Yes," he confirmed, not allowing himself to react much more rudely, as he would like to.
"It´s huge..." one of the capers huffed obviously impressed, showing the head to the others.
"That´s quite impressive for a greenhorn," the deputy stated still grinning.
Jin said absolutely nothing and just repaid the gaze of the deputy.
"So... I guess you´d like to hand it over soon," Grenet spoke after a few seconds.
"Of course," Jin confirmed coldly.
"Fine. Tomorrow morning, in front of the sheriff´s office. Be there," Grenet ordered. "I guess it´s about time to introduce you... Give it back to him," he added, looking at his man.
The man obeyed and brought the sac back to Jin, who didn´t even glance at him. He was paying all the attention to Grenet, who turned back to Kame and crouched down. Jin was watching his every move, when the deputy caught Kame´s chin into his hand roughly.
"As for you, baby boy, take this as a warning. Do not try to piss me off, get it?"
Kame kept silent, but he wasn´t looking at Grenet. Jin had a good idea of why not. In his eyes, it could have been seen clearly, that he was not scared. But Grenet understood it in the opposite way and let the bartender go finally, got up and gestured his companions.
"Let´s go," he ordered. "I think that our dear sheriff has at least one or two bottles of whiskey in his secret stash."
His men agreed willingly and left the veranda, one after another.
"Wanna go with us, Akanishi?" Grenet stopped by him, moving his hat more into his face.
Jin was lacing the sac with the bear´s head very carefully, focused on the task, pushing away the urge to spit into that fucker´s face. He just shook his head.
"I´m quite tired, I´ll go to get some rest."
"All right, I´m sure that our baby boy up there will let you in now," the deputy informed him with an arrogant smile and left the scene, with his capers following him as a group of chickens.
Jin eased up only when they disappeared from his sight. He patted Kuro and stepped up onto the veranda at the very moment, when Kame was getting up. He reached out to help him, but Kame refused it.
"I´m fine," he said with his head lowered.
Jin observed the younger one carefully, still fighting with anger: "Are you sure?" he asked worried.
"Yeah... Let´s go, I will open the stalls for you," Kame left the support of the wooden wall, evaded Jin and left the veranda. But Jin noticed how carefully he walked, and Kame´s pose was revealing that he was still in pain, and limping again, as well. Forcing himself not to say anything, Jin led Kuro to the same stable as before, put the saddle away, and then he followed Kame to the back entrance of the saloon.
"I´ll leave the key with you," the younger one said, when they stepped inside the dark corridor. "Lock the door before you go to sleep."
Jin put his stuff under the stairway first, before going after him.
"Because of Grenet?" he asked looking at Kame´s back, as they walked to the bar counter, where was placed the shelf with the small box, hiding the keys from the rooms.
"Yes," Kame confirmed quietly and took one of the chairs to step onto it, as the shelter was quite high. Jin pushed him away from it gently.
"I´ll do it," he said in the voice, which didn´t leave any space for arguments.
Kame just nodded and with the hand across his stomach, he led Jin to the wall and pointed at one box: "That one..."
Jin went up with the help of the chair, took the box and going down again, he caught up Kame making a painful expression and leaning over the counter.
"Why did that bastard do this to you?" he asked. "Just because you didn´t want to let him in?"
Kame focused his eyes at Jin.
"Yes, exactly because of that," he spat out hatefully. "He was even at our house before, bothering my mother with that."
"Son of a bitch," Jin stated. "One beautiful day I will kick his ass, really."
"You have no idea how much I´d like to join you..." Kame breathed out, and he sounded quite depressed. He approached closer then and opened the box, which the older one put on the counter.
Jin looked at his disheveled hair and remembered the hand, which squeezed them so hard only minutes ago and an urge to prevent anything like that from happening again in the future flooded him from head to toes.
"Is there anything I can do for you?" he asked quietly. "Will you make it home yourself?"
"Don´t worry, Jin," Kame managed to smile a little. "I´ll be fine, really. Just make sure the back door is locked," he reached out his hand with the key. "This one belongs to your room."
Jin caught it with a thankful nod, touching Kame´s fingers slightly. And he almost flinched back surprised from the electrifying feeling it brought to him. Kame moved his eyes away hastily, closed the box again and went to the chair, before Jin could have prevented him from doing that.
"Wait, Kazuya! You don´t have to..."
With obvious problems, Kame already stepped onto it and put the box back on the place. Going down again, he stepped hard on his sprinkled ankle, lost his balance and staggered. Jin reacted fast and caught the younger one firmly around the waist with one arm, giving him his support. Kame leant onto Jin´s chest.
"I´ve told you I´ll do it, you just don´t listen," Jin reproached to him softly.
Kame felt completely safe in the older one´s hold and at the same time nervous as hell. His heart was beating heavily and his throat was narrow, when he looked up and their eyes met again.
"Thanks," he managed to get across his lips, the whole body tense.
"You´re welcome," Jin´s voice wasn´t completely calm either.
So close to each other, it felt like they could leave the rest of the world somewhere outside of their own... Neither of them moved for a long moment, practically immobilized by this feeling.
It was Kame, who came back into the reality first. He straightened himself and created distance between them, so Jin pulled his hand back. He put both of them in the pockets again, not wanting Kame to notice that they were shaking.
"Next time he touches you, I will rip his head off," he murmured deeply and turned away.
An unexpected statement surprised Kame a lot. And he felt that he should say something too. He caught Jin for an arm, stopping him from going away.
"I appreciate that," he stated seriously. "But promise me that you´ll be careful tomorrow, Jin... You will be going right into the snake´s nest. Karnaka can be even more dangerous than a grizzly."
The handsome face turned serious, as the older one nodded: "I know... I will be."
"Fine," Kame reacted.
But it was not fine at all. Kame felt bad about letting Jin go alone to Karnaka. Nevertheless, there was nothing he could do to prevent it, or to make sure about his safety. He released his grip around the firm elbow.
"Good luck and... See you later."
"Yeah," Jin just nodded. "And you... Take care of yourself."
Then the older one went away to pick up his stuff together with the head, which almost cost them more than just the bullets; while Kame headed out of the building to return home finally. The way through the pouring rain took him twice as much time than usually.
***
Quite early in the next morning, Kame got surprised by a knocking at the door and an unexpected visitor behind them. The small boy raised his healthy hand for a greeting, accompanied with a wide smile.
"Mike? What are you doing here?"
"Mr. Harada sent me for you," the boy explained. "He asks you if you can come and help him with the supplies we brought."
"Of course, right away," Kame nodded and took his coat from the hook.
Following Mike to the street, which was again full of mud, he looked at the boy questioningly.
"But what are you doing here so early? I expected you sometimes in the afternoon. Did you ride during the night?"
"No," the boy shook his head. "We just broke the wheel right in front of Livingston and we had to stay there overnight. Otherwise, we would have been back yesterday."
"Oh, that´s how it is..." Kame reacted, thinking that if not for something so trivial; he could spare some troubles the previous day.
When they reached the saloon, Harada had already prepared the narrow cart for moving the barrels with beer and the thick boxes with various alcohols inside to the cellar. Kame handed over the key from the front door to its owner, greeting him politely.
They were in the middle of unloading, during which Kame had a hard time to cover the pain he felt in his stomach muscles, when the loud sound of many hooves reached them.
"Isn´t this a great morning!"
It wasn´t a voice which Kame would be happy to hear. He stopped moving the barrel and looked up from the carriage he was standing in. In all his majesty, Grenet on his horse was talking to Harada, who was giving some fresh water to the horses, which had to wait for them being done with storing all supplies.
"One of the most important men of our city is back!" the sheriff´s deputy continued, while five other gunmen and a certain black-haired gunslinger reached the place too.
So, they were already setting off... Kame tore his eyes from them and continued his task.
Harada observed the whole group: "That´s nice of you to welcome me like this, Grenet," he said calmly. "How did I deserve this?"
"Well, you don´t have to deserve it. Simply the fact that we finally have something to drink is enough," Grenet laughed loudly, but changed his expression right away. "But unfortunately, I have to say that Mr. Karnaka won´t be pleased by my report this time, Harada."
"And why is that?" the saloon´s owner asked, still composed.
"Your bartender was very impolite to me yesterday. I think I´ll have to make a complaint," Grenet informed him.
Kame pretended not hearing it. Harada raised his eyebrows.
"What happened? If he didn´t want to let you into the saloon, it was because I told him not to do it."
"It´s not only that," the deputy reacted pompously. "He was rude; you should talk with him about his behavior to your regular customers, Harada."
"Oh, really? I will then."
"Good. Have a good day," Grenet wished him so falsely, that it made Kame sick.
He also felt Grenet´s gaze at himself, but he didn´t care; he had a lot to do with focusing on his job.
"Let´s go! I want to be there before lunch!" the deputy stated and buried his heels into the horse´s flanks.
Kame looked up again only when Grenet turned the corner of the street, his men following him. At the same moment, somebody led his black horse to the carriage. He turned his head and ended up looking into the warm dark eyes.
"Hi," Jin greeted him quietly. "Here you go," he threw something small at him, and catching it, Kame found out it was the key from the back door. "Thanks for borrowing."
Kame just nodded. They were looking at each other for mere three seconds, before Jin incited his Kuro gently and rode off behind the group. Kame followed the older one´s figure with his eyes, until it disappeared behind the post office and then he turned to Mr. Harada, who was watching him closely.
"Sir, what Grenet said is..."
"You will explain everything to me later, Kame," his employer said calmly. "Now, we have to finish this."
*
The group of horse riders left Bozeman City and headed to the north first, but after that, their way changed almost directly to the east. Jin knew that Karnaka´s mansion was situated on the foot of the Bridger Canyon, so the Rocky Mountains stayed behind their backs, while they were approaching much lower and smaller in range, although not less impressive mountains.
It took them only two hours of slow trot to get into the area full of fields, which were definitely treated by a human hand. Jin saw some wheat fields, already empty, a lot of corn ones, which were so wide, it felt like you couldn´t see the end of it, and to his surprise even some sunflowers, although it was already after their main season.
And there was also one thing, which made Jin frown in disapproval. He spotted some black figures on those fields – the slaves.
It was already many years ago, when the slavery was abolished. The States reached this important point in their history after a very bloody conflict. And yet... There were still the people who didn´t respect that.
It was said that the negros are staying at Karnaka´s lands voluntarily and that they are being paid a salary. It was even checked by the government soldiers. Naturally, Jin didn´t believe it.
Raynold Karnaka had enough money to corrupt anyone. When it came to the black people, the white ones always prioritized some convenient income before of their welfare.
Very soon, Jin had to push the useless thoughts about poor black nation away, because a huge white mansion appeared at the end of their way. They reached their goal - Karnaka´s mansion. Jin took a deep breath, when they slowed down and approached the guards in front of the massive gate.
It was a way too late to step back now. He had to keep going forward, no matter what expected him behind those walls. He had to face the man he hated, the man who brought a lot of misery in his and also Kazuya´s life.
At least, there was something, what made Jin feel a little better. It was a knowledge that Kame was waiting for him to come back...