In the event, at first all went fairly smoothly during the daytime. Vin spent much of his time in the saloon where he could see Ezra, but was careful not to crowd him, opting for a table in a back corner. Aware of the tracker's scrutiny, the gambler kept a surreptitious eye on him, making sure that if anyone went near Vin that he hurriedly joined them, both to support Vin and ready to intervene if anything untoward was said to the tracker.Vin retired both nights before the gambler and was in his bedroll feigning sleep when Standish entered his room. Ezra was all too well aware that it was only pretence and Vin could not manage to sleep until he was there. Unfortunately, on both nights, Vin roused the gambler by crying and talking in his sleep, clearly revealing, by his anguished words, that he was a long way from full recovery from Hudson's brutal attack.
On both occasions, Ezra got out of bed and gently shook him awake. The first time he was more than somewhat disconcerted when a sleep-befuddled tracker called him "Chris" and clung to him. Wondering how best to handle the situation, he opted to sit on the floor by Vin's bedroll, murmuring words of reassurance while stroking the tracker's hair. Vin had fallen back to sleep with his head on Ezra's lap. Then he had gingerly extricated himself from beneath the tracker.
The second time, he was more wary and the result was actually worse. He evaded Vin's grasp, and finding himself apparently abandoned, the tracker woke fully and in a distressed state. Fearful that Vin's sobbing and pleas for Chris would arouse those in the neighbouring rooms, Ezra cuddled him to him, and finding the floor uncomfortable, ended up lifting him onto his bed.
Vin was restless, and every time Ezra tried to ease the tracker out of his arms, he roused. The gambler lay there and wondered how Chris Larabee would react if he was to walk in. Worse, he worried because Vin felt so right in his arms. He had never been attracted to a man before, but could not deny that he felt differently about Vin to anyone else. Sure he frequently had the tracker on about his dress and other things, but he had always had a soft spot for the man who was so different from him in so many ways. However, he had never in his wildest dreams imagined bedding the sharpshooter and he was now, he acknowledged guiltily, having all sorts of thoughts along that line. 'Oh God, why on earth do I have to feel this way about Mr Larabee's paramour?' he wondered. 'I must have a death wish.' However, in spite of his troubled thoughts, sleep finally claimed him.
He was awakened the next morning as Vin tried to wriggle out of his grasp. The tracker blushed enchantingly and was apologetic for causing Ezra problems.
The gambler told him to forget it and was silently grateful that the lithe tracker was unaware just what a problem he had unwittingly created for Ezra in the form of his newfound feelings.
"I won't forget it, Ez. It was real kind of ya," Vin insisted.
'Kind? If only you knew,' Ezra thought guiltily.
However, apart from that, all seemed to be going smoothly, but that was not to last.
Late in the afternoon of the third day, Vin was coming out of the livery stable, after grooming Peso, when Billy Travis approached him. "Hi, Billy, what do ya want?"
"Hello, Vin," the boy replied, smiling. "I wondered if you would like to go fishing tomorrow. Mr Larabee was going to take me, but of course he's away now."
Vin hesitated. He liked children and was usually prepared to join in activities if they asked, but fishing meant going out of town and he was not ready for that, not without Chris anyway. "I-I'm sorry, Billy, but I'm not really feelin' up to ridin' much yet. Maybe Buck or JD would …"
He started at Mary Travis' sudden shrill cry, "Get away from my son!"
"I was just asking Vin about fishing," Billy said hurriedly.
"I don't want you talking to him. Go home! Now!"
"But, Ma …"
"You heard me! Home!"
He scurried off and Mary then went on the attack. "You keep away from him! I don't want you near him."
Vin stared at her in honest confusion. "We were just talkin'," he explained.
"I don't want a pervert near my child."
Vin had known that Mary was mad at him because he had taken up Chris' time and that she considered their exceptionally close friendship was laying them open to question about the nature of their relationship, but he did not think Larabee would have admitted to her that there was any basis for such ideas. Anyway, her jealous suspicions surely it did not justify this. "I'd never hurt Billy."
"You've already hurt both of us by what you've done. I don't know how you've managed to trap Chris, but don't think you'll keep him."
Just then Josiah appeared. Since Chris' departure, Vin had seen nothing of him and the reason was soon all too apparent. The disapproving preacher had been avoiding him and a visit from Mrs Travis early that same morning had increased his righteous anger. Indeed, perplexed as to what his best course of action was, Josiah had been hitting the bottle rather heavily and this over-indulgence and related loss of judgement was now to play a big part in his subsequent loss of control. "Having trouble, Mrs Travis?" he queried.
"Yes, Mr Sanchez, I most certainly am!" She gestured at Vin. "I don't want him near my Billy. It's bad enough that he's throwing himself at Chris and trying to corrupt him into his filthy ways, but he's not to be near my boy."
"Of course not." He turned to Vin. "Stop making trouble. Leave her and Billy alone, Tanner," he ordered.
"Josiah, I wasn't doin' nothin' wrong. I was just talkin' to Billy," Vin protested, taken aback by both the preacher's words and his aggressive tone.
"Perhaps you and I had better have a little talk, Tanner." He towered menacingly over the slender tracker and Vin could smell the alcohol on his breath.
"I ain't got nothin' to say to ya, Josiah," Vin said, starting to edge away.
"Maybe, but someone should say something to you." He shot out a large hand and clutched Vin's good arm, twisting him around, and forcing it painfully up his back. "C'mon!" he said, pushing Vin ahead of him.
Ignoring the pain in his captured arm, Vin tried to struggle free, but could not match the preacher's strength. "Damn you, Josiah, let go!"
However, his captor ignored his protests, shoving him back into the livery stable. He dragged Vin's gun from its holster and flung it aside, as he kicked the door shut behind them. He then released Vin's arm and shoved him back hard against a stall.
"Since nobody else appears to be going to say anything to you about your behaviour, I figure it's my duty."
Still confused by the way Josiah was acting, Vin tried to explain, "I was only talkin' to the kid."
"I'm not interested in him. I'm talking about you and Chris."
"What do ya mean?"
"You throwing yourself at him."
"I didn't throw myself at him," Vin protested.
"You're not going to try to tell me he chased you? I'm not stupid, Tanner. He was a happily married man and probably would be again if it wasn't for you."
"What Chris and I do ain't got nothin' to do with ya, Josiah."
"It's got something to do with every right thinking person in our community. I know you lived among the Indians, and that sort of thing might be acceptable there, but not among God-fearing, civilized people."
"Ya don't know what the hell yer talkin' about."
"I should have realized sooner what you were like. Those pretty curls should have warned me." As he spoke, he contemptuously flicked Vin's hair.
Vin flinched away from him. "Don't touch me!" Hudson had also made comments about Vin's hair and his gloating face was clear in the tracker's mind.
"Why? I thought you kept your hair like that to attract men?" Again, he reached out a hand towards Vin's hair.
Panicking, Vin kicked out catching him a painful blow on the knee. Caught off-guard, Sanchez staggered back and Vin tried to make a run for it. However, he was not fast enough. A large hand grabbed him by the nape of the neck and shook him like a dog with a rat.
Vin drove a boot-heel back into one of Josiah's calves. Josiah gasped in pain, swung him around and backhanded him viciously across the face.
Vin cried out and fell to his knees.
Josiah seized him by the hair, pulled him back to his feet and then hit him repeatedly before flinging him sprawling to the floor. "You keep away from Chris Larabee. He's had enough trouble in his life without you corrupting him and trying to introduce him to your filthy, heathen practices." With that he put a boot into Vin's ribs and stalked off.
Vin lay semi-conscious on the stable floor for some minutes. Finally, he roused. His ribs were aching, his left eye was swollen shut, his face badly bruised and he could taste blood from a split lip.
In pain and feeling dizzy and sick, he did not know what to do. Normally Chris dragged him off to see Nathan after he was hurt, but the gunslinger was away and anyway Vin did not know how he could explain his injuries. Chris had told him they had to keep their relationship secret and Nathan would be sure to ask who had attacked him and why. What could he possibly say in response?
Of course, he could say he did not know why and not name Josiah, but then Nathan would tell Buck and JD and they would start pestering him to describe the man and Vin was not up to their questions.
No, it was better to avoid Nathan. There was really only one person he could go to – Ezra. However, he needed to wait until late lest the others spotted him en route and forced him to go to Nathan's clinic.
Decision made, he crawled into Peso's stall and lay in a corner, hoping his temperamental stead would keep his hooves to himself. At least, he knew nobody else would be foolhardy enough to enter that stall and so he would not be found.
He lay there longing for Chris and wondering why Josiah was so furious with him. He still could not see that it was any of the big man's business. And his accusations were so damned unfair. Hell, he had not even had the guts to let Chris take him and Sanchez clearly thought he had seduced the gunslinger. 'Probably even thinks I forced him,' he thought, managing a wry grin at the impossible thought of him managing to make Chris Larabee do anything against his will, let alone that.
Then it struck him. How would Chris react if Josiah said anything to him? He would think that Vin had given their secret away. He would feel embarrassed and betrayed. Maybe he would be mad enough not to want Vin any more. He began to sob quietly, holding his good hand to his mouth to try to stifle the noise. Finally, he cried himself into an exhausted sleep.
When he awoke all was cold and dark. Vin always had a good sense of time and knew it was well after midnight. It was time to move.
He clambered awkwardly to his feet, clutching his protesting ribs and made his way outside. The street was in darkness. He moved slowly along to the boarding–house, willing himself to keep upright and shivering in the winter's chill.
He staggered up the stairs and knocked softly on the gambler's door.
Ezra had already retired to bed, but was only dozing and immediately roused. He knew who it would be as he fumbled to light the lamp. "Coming."
The gambler had had an exceptionally profitable night at the tables, and engrossed in the rapidly growing pile of notes and coins in front of him, had not kept his usual eye out for Vin. When he did give him a thought, he assumed he was probably with Buck and JD.
He had finally entered his room expecting to find Vin already there, as on the other two nights, and had been more than somewhat disconcerted to see the empty bedroll. He knew he should look for the tracker, as Larabee would expect it, but he was tired and had no idea where to start. Further, he was extremely reluctant to either leave his newly gained fortune unattended in his room or to risk carrying it through the dark streets. So, in the event, he had decided to go to bed.
Hearing the knock, he felt commingled annoyance at being disturbed and relief that Vin was okay, until he opened the door that was. Then his mouth dropped open as he saw the battered figure before him.
"Ezra, I-I need …"
"Vin!" Ezra darted forward and grabbed him as he collapsed. He lifted the slight form into his arms and carried him to the bed, cursing under his breath as he saw the tracker's face.
Vin groaned and his eyes fluttered open. The gambler hurriedly poured a glass of water from the bedside pitcher and held it to the bloody lips. Vin gulped it gratefully.
"I'll get Nathan," Standish said, reaching for his trousers.
"N-No, don't! I'm fine."
The gambler smiled as he heard Vin's catch phrase. He had never met anyone with such an aversion for doctors. Not that Vin had anything against Nathan as a man, and if he had to have a doctor he would trust him above a man trained in the finest medical school in Europe, but given a choice he would put up with anything rather than seek medical help.
"You are the worst looking 'fine' I have seen in a long time, Mr Tanner," the gambler retorted, "and since Mr Larabee is absent I am in the position of loco parentis so it's my duty to secure medical assistance for you."
"Did ya say it would be a loco idea to get Nathan?" Vin asked hopefully.
Standish could not suppress a smile. "No, I most certainly did not. I must fetch Mr Jackson or our esteemed leader will have no hesitation in arranging my expeditious termination."
Vin reached out and clutched his arm. "Please don't get Nathan," he begged. "It'll make more trouble. He'll want to know how it happened and … and I can't tell him."
"Why not?"
"Chris'll get mad at me."
Standish blinked in surprise. "Why on earth would Mr Larabee do that?" he questioned. "I find it difficult to imagine that you were the aggressor with one arm incapacitated."
"He'll think I told people."
"About what?"
"Me and him. He says what we do ain't legal and I'm not s'posed to let people know I love him."
"And did you impart the information to your assailant?"
"Do ya mean did I tell him? Course I didn't."
"Then why should Mr Larabee blame you?"
"He might not believe me 'cos of whom it was."
"Tell me who did it," the gambler persisted. "I promise I will support you if Mr Larabee doubts your word, but I assure you he will not."
In a voice little more than a whisper, Vin asked, "Even if it was one of us?"
That jolted Ezra, but he managed to say, "Even if. Please tell me, Vin."
Vin nodded. "Okay, it was … it was Josiah."
Standish was shocked by the revelation. If he had been asked to wager on whom had attacked Vin, he would never have bet on the preacher. "What? Why did he do this?"
"He thinks … He said … that … that… Hell, he reckons that I'm corruptin' Chris."
Standish laughed scornfully. "You? Corrupting Mr Larabee? He was probably beyond redemption before you were born."
"Huh?"
"I mean that I cannot believe you are the first man with whom Mr Larabee has had sexual intercourse."
Before he could stop himself, Vin blurted, "Chris hasn't fucked me."
Stunned, Ezra found himself stammering, "But … But … Forgive me if I have misread the situation, but I had gained the impression that you and Mr Larabee had become lovers."
"Yeah … well, sorta, but we ain't … He hasn't … ah … um … taken me."
"Why on earth not?"
Vin blushed fiery red and hung his head. "I'm too scared," he admitted, with a sob in his voice.
The gambler's heart contracted, "But, Vin, Chris would not hurt you."
"I-I know, but I just … I just ... I keep seein' Hudson. I can't get rid of him. When Josiah touched my hair and said … and said stuff and … and it was like Hudson was there."
Ezra drew the slighter man into his arms and held him close. "But he is dead, Vin, and you know that. He hurt you, but he cannot do so again … unless you let him."
"I know, it's just … I do try, Ez, but … but at night I …"
"At night you have Mr Larabee and the devil himself would not be foolhardy enough to challenge that glare."
"I s'pose not, but he's not here now and I need him."
"Vin, you are not alone. I am here and I will not allow anyone, man or spirit to hurt you."
The tracker looked up, surprised at the calm certainty and sincerity in the gambler's voice. "Please can I … can I … Would ya mind sleepin' me with ya again, Ez?" he asked. When Standish hesitated, he hurriedly apologised. "I-I'm sorry, Ez. I shouldn't have asked. I know ya don't want me in yer bed."
Having been slow to respond from a concern about Chris' possible reaction rather than from a dislike of the suggestion, Ezra quickly responded, "I have no objection at all, Vin, provided you promise not to snore or to appropriate the blankets."
"I promise! Thank ya, Ez! Ya are kind to me." As he spoke, he hurriedly stripped and slipped into Ezra's bed, but not before the gambler had noticed the ugly bruising on his side.
He peeled the covers back and ran his hand down Vin's side. The tracker sucked his breath in. "Tender?"
"A bit," Vin admitted, which translated into 'very sore' as Ezra well knew.
"They might be broken, Vin. I should get Nathan."
"No, please don't, Ez," Vin appealed.
Ezra looked into the pleading blue eyes and was lost. "It is against my better judgement, but …"
"Thanks, Ez," Vin responded hurriedly.
Wondering whether he had made the right decision, and fairly certain that he had not as far as his own peace of mind was concerned, Ezra joined him. Vin immediately snuggled trustingly up against him. "This is real nice, Ez, you're lovely and warm. And ya always smell purty too."
There was only the thin lawn of the gambler's nightshirt between the pair and so Ezra could have certainly agreed it was warm … actually hot would have been a more accurate description of how he was feeling. Who would have thought that, in spite of his rough, outdoor life, the tracker would have satin skin and the softest curls the gambler had ever had tickle his chest? And did he have to mention smell? His own musky scent was almost overwhelming Standish with a desire to taste the delectable body pressed against him. It was going to be another long night.
Sighing inwardly at his own folly, the gambler wrapped a comforting arm around the lithe tracker and allowed Vin to settle his head on his shoulder.
Early the following afternoon, J.D Dunne was sitting in the sheriff's office, feet on the desk, dozing. He awoke with a considerable start when the door was suddenly flung wide. "Mr Dunne, Billy's missing!" Mrs Travis cried.
"Wh-What? When?" he babbled, trying to collect his wits.
"I found a note in his room that said he'd gone fishing."
JD visibly relaxed. "Nothing to worry about then," he said reassuringly. "The fish are probably biting good and Billy's forgotten the time."
"But Billy knows he's not to go out of town alone. Normally Mr Larabee takes him. You've got to look for him."
Privately JD thought the whole fuss a waste of time, but there was no way that he was going to convince the near hysterical woman of that. Still, he had no prisoners in the jailhouse and things were pretty quiet, so he supposed a leisurely ride to the river to pick up the boy would not hurt him. "Okay, Mrs Travis, I'll go and see if I can get one of the guys to take over here and then I'll go out to the river and have a look for him."
"Just you? But you must organize a search party."
"Please, Mrs Travis, I'd looked damned … I-I mean I'd look stupid if I took a whole heap of men from their work and we found Billy sitting fishing, wouldn't I?"
"And you'd look even more stupid if something's happened to him. If Mr Larabee was here …"
Wishing like hell Mr Larabee was, JD interrupted, "If it'll make you happy I'll take a couple of the boys with me. Buck'll come and I'll get Vin and …"
"Not Mr Tanner! I don't want him near Billy."
JD stared at her in honest bewilderment. "But if he's wandered off, Vin's the best person to find him."
"No!" She put her hand to her mouth as the thought occurred. "My God! No!"
"What is it?"
"He was talking to Billy. He knew Billy wanted to go fishing. He's taken my boy."
Not comprehending, JD smiled. "That's fine then. If he's with Vin he'll be safe."
"How can you say that? Don't you know what he's like? I've always thought you were too young to be sheriff and this proves it. I'll go to Mr Sanchez. He understands the problem."
She stormed off, leaving a confused and insulted J.D. He knew he ought to call out to her that she was wasting her time because Josiah had ridden out of town to call on a recently bereaved parishioner, but he was just pleased that she had gone.
Instead, he set off in search of Buck and was soon telling Wilmington what the hysterical woman had said, concluding, "I don't understand why she's so mad with Vin, have you got any idea?"
"Some, kid." He realized JD was about to ask for elucidation and so quickly added, "But we ain't got time to stand here jawin'."
"What do you think we should do?"
"We'll have to go and look for the boy, so we'd better get Ezra to keep an eye on the jail. I guess he's in his room as I ain't seen him in the saloon today."
"He isn't sick, is he?" J.D asked, concerned. For the gambler not to be at his table, something was surely amiss.
"Hope not. Anyway, Nathan woulda said iffen he was."
They clattered up the stairs and knocked loudly on Standish's door.
The gambler opened it, hair dishevelled and dressed in a flowing sky-blue robe, having slept very late after the disruptions of the previous night. Instead of inviting them in, he slipped out into the passage, pulling the door to behind him. "How may I be of assistance to you two gentlemen?" he inquired, stifling a yawn.
"Mary Travis has got her knickers in a knot as young Billy's not back from fishin' and she thinks somethin' has happened to him. We're gonna take a look and need ya to keep an eye on the jail," Buck explained.
"Oh … um …" For once the erudite gambler seemed lost for words. "C-Could you not ask Nathan or Josiah? I am … I am slightly … ah … preoccupied at present." In truth, he did not like to leave the tracker, who was uncharacteristically still abed.
Buck had not missed the way Standish's eyes had flickered nervously towards his room. "Have ya got a woman in there?" he questioned, with a lascivious grin. He had not infrequently dallied in bed all day himself, but none of the others seemed to indulge in that.
"N-No."
"Liar!" Buck said cheerfully and gave the door a hard shove. Normally he would have considered the gambler's privacy, but the impulse to catch him out in a lie was too strong.
His jaw dropped when he saw that the bed was indeed occupied, but not by a pretty saloon-girl.
However, J.D gave an exclamation of relief. "Hey, look, Buck, it's Vin! Just who we need." He surged into the room.
Buck caught Ezra's eye, the former misinterpreting the situation and the latter knowing exactly what he must be thinking, and they shared a wince at the youth's innocence.
As he hurried across the room, the kid immediately launched into an explanation for their presence. "Vin, Billy Travis has not come back from fishing and his mother's real worried and …" he broke off as he took in the bruising on the tracker's face, the worst of which was on the side away from the door. "What happened to you?" he asked.
"N-Nothin' much. A … A slight difference of opinion with … with someone."
"Hell, I'd hate to see the other guy," J.D said, knowing the tracker's fighting abilities and temporarily forgetting the man had one arm out of action. "I was gonna ask for your help, but …" He stopped quickly aware that he had been about to say Mrs Travis didn't want Vin involved.
However, Vin took it that he meant because he was injured. "I'm okay, I'll come. I can't lie here with the kid missin'."
J.D glanced at Buck for help. However, Wilmington just nodded and said, "We'll get the horses."
"Be careful with Peso," Vin warned.
"Don't worry, I know that hell-bred beast of old. I'll lead him out, but I won't try and throw a saddle on him till ya get there."
J.D and Buck clattered off down the stairs. "Why did you say that, Buck? Mrs Travis will be mad if he comes."
"And I'll be mad if he doesn't. If the boy's wandered off, Vin'll track him in no time. I don't wanna waste hours on a wild goose chase."
"But he didn't look too good. Nathan will be angry if he hears Vin went out when he was injured."
"I don't think Nate even knows he has been hurt."
"Why do you say that?"
"Nate woulda told us iffen he was treatin' Vin and he'd be at the clinic, not in Ezra's room."
"Yeah, that was odd. Why do ya think he was there? Ezra's always gettin' at him over being scruffy. I didn't think he'd let Vin use his bed even if he was feeling poorly. He might get the sheets dirty. Did you see those sheets? Satin! Wow!"
Buck listened in growing amazement at the youth's naiveté. 'Was I ever that innocent?' he wondered. 'Probably not,' he concluded, considering there were some advantages in growing up in a whorehouse.
He had already decided why Vin Tanner was in Ezra Standish's bed. Normally that would not have worried him at all. He was very much one for believing people should live as they liked. However, this was different. In his mind, Tanner was Chris Larabee's property and he did not like the thought of him cheating on the gunslinger.
Chris had been his best friend for many years, so one might have expected he would feel resentment towards the young man who had ousted him so easily. In truth, he had had a few moments of that, but more often he felt gratitude for the tracker, who was responsible for the gunslinger's return to being at least part of the man he had been before the tragic loss of his wife and child. Buck had tried, but he had been unable to breach the wall of black depression that Larabee had constructed around himself. While Buck had watched helplessly, he had hit the bottle, picked fights against seemingly impossible odds and had taken foolish risks, apparently tempting death. Then a slender youth, with long brown curls, dressed incongruously in a large apron and carrying a broom, had sauntered into the gunslinger's life. Cold, green eyes had met beautiful sky-blue and suddenly Larabee had a reason to live once more.
So Buck had been far more welcoming to the tracker than he might have been and had grown to like Vin. However, in his mind, Chris was still first. No matter how much he liked Vin, if it ever came to the crunch, he would go with Larabee right or wrong. He hoped that time was not upon them.
Although he was nothing if not a ladies' man, Buck had been struck by the tracker's prettiness right from the start. He had suspected that the stubble Vin habitually affected was a not particularly successful attempt to conceal those looks as well as a more effective endeavour to look older. With the life he had led, such precautions were probably essential. Indeed, Buck marveled that the boy had survived at all and wondered just how many horrors he had endured that not even Larabee was privy to.
He had long wondered whether the attraction between the gunslinger and the tracker was sexual, and if that was the case, whether they had realized it or acted upon it. He had never known Chris to show an interest in another man, but there was something protective in his manner towards Vin. Sure the gunslinger could be a bit of a mother hen with all his group, though he would have vehemently denied the description had anyone been game enough to make the suggestion, but there was something different in his concern for Vin.
Of course, Buck knew it might be like his feelings for J.D. At times he felt quite fatherly towards him, or at least like an uncle, but could honestly say he had never felt any sexual impulses towards the boy. And he had had one or two enjoyable little interludes with males in the past so he knew he was capable of enjoying taking a man, although the hard planes of a man's body would never seriously rival a woman's soft curves in his opinion. However, he felt Chris' feelings for Vin were quite different to his for J.D.
Then there was Vin himself. Buck did not think he had ever seen a man so tongue-tied around the ladies. They clearly liked him, but he was scared of them, with the odd exception of old Nettie Wells, who was capable of frightening everyone else but Vin. However, he had never seen Vin show any interest in men either. Indeed, he had seen him deck a few that made advances to him. He seemed to have no sexual interests of any kind. Indeed, on one occasion, when feeling uncharacteristically malicious, Buck recalled joking that the tracker probably had an aversion to undressing in company lest people discover he had no sex organs at all.
However, the incident with Hudson though seemed to have thrown everything off balance. There was clearly more to that than had been said. Chris, Ezra and Nathan had been damned close-lipped over the details of what had gone on and Buck had been very suspicious. Then he had seen Vin clinging to Chris on the roof, the gunslinger caressing his back. That was it! He finally knew that that was indeed how Vin had gained Chris' affections. Having no desire to play what he had always seen as the woman's role, and correctly believing that Larabee would not want that part either, Buck had seen and accepted that his long held suspicions were right and that did not worry him in the slightest.
However, this business with Ezra did. An unhappy Larabee affected all of them adversely and 'unhappy' was euphemistic in the extreme, as far as what his reaction would be, if he found Vin had betrayed him. Buck feared he would go ballistic and be damned to anyone who got in his way. The result could be the end of 'The Magnificent Seven' and Buck could not bear to contemplate the loss of his family.
No, he could not just stand by and let that happen. However, he would need to think about his best course of action. As yet, all he knew was that he needed to get the situation sorted out before the gunslinger returned and all hell broke loose.