Give My Love to Rose(1st in Outlaw Series)

Chapter Two

"Deal me in." Marston said as he sat down on the rickety, hard chair and crossed his arms on the table. The dealer, an eldery gentleman employed by the saloon, nodded and when he dealt the next hand of five card draw he included Marston.

Marston won the first hand he was dealt and earned himself an angry look from one of the other three players at the table. When Marston won the second and third hands as well the man grew angry and threw down his cards.

"How do you keep winning?" he demanded. Marston shrugged and used his cards to scratch at his beard before tossing them down.

"I guess cuz you keep folding." he replied. The man's eyes flashed with anger as he threw back his chair and stood. Marston noticed that he wobbled a little on his legs and knew that liquor was to blame.

"I say it's cuz you're a cheat!" the man exclaimed. Marston felt his own temper rise.

"You don't call a man a cheat unless you're willing to die for it." he warned as he stood much more slowly than the other man had and unbuttoned the holster on his gun belt. The first mans eyes flew to the gun and then back at Marston's face and he swallowed hard.

"A man shouldn't cheat at poker unless he's willing to die." he replied, with a shakiness in his voice that hadn't been there before.

"Is that so?" Marston asked as a smile curved his mouth. The man didn't reply, instead he lowered his hand toward his own revolver. The men surrounding them quickly scattered to the left and right, out of the path of flying bullets.

"You say when." Marston said, the smile never leaving his face. He had been told once that it was the smile he kept on his face, even during life threatening situations that made everyone fear him so much. He had been told it was unnerving to have a man smiling at you as you threatened to end his life.

Marston could hear the dead silence of the crowd. His saw the twitching in the other mans hand as he rested it just above the handle of his revolver. He watched the mans throat bob up and down as he swallowed hard. Marston saw the muscles in the mans shoulder tense as he went for his gun and Marston didn't give him a chance to clear leather before he put a hole straight through his chest.

He holstered his gun as the man fell and his blood pooled around him, soaking into the dirty, dry wooden boards. Marston shook his head, gathered his winnings from the poker table and then downed the last of the dead mans whiskey. He gave a wave to the dealer, tipped his hat to a whore and then walked out into the night.

There wasn't any law in this town. Marston never played poker in towns that had lawmen on hand. He was walking toward his hitched horses when an angry voice called out behind him.

"He was drunk you know! You didn't have to kill him!"

"I beg to differ with you." Marston replied, without turning around.

"My brother didn't know what he was doing! You could have just walked away!" the man exclaimed. Marston rolled his eyes as he unhitched the gray and climbed up in the saddle. Still he didn't glance at the angry brother of the dead man.

"Your brother wanted to die or else he never would have called me a cheat." he replied calmly. He heard the sound of the metallic gun rubbing against the leather of its holster and knew the man was drawing on him, and hoping to shoot him in the back. He sighed and pulled his own gun before turning in his saddle and firing a single shot that caused the man to meet the same fate as his brother.

Marston rode out of town before any more family could show up. It wasn't that he liked killing people. As a matter of fact he didn't enjoy it and avoided doing it whenever possible but sometimes a man had to do what he had to do. And in those times when he was forced to take another mans life he didn't waste time feeling remorse or guilt. Those things would only serve to get him killed the next time someone attempted to pull a gun on him.