For a long moment Lilah and Kevin stared at each other, equally appalled. Joss walked in behind her, said something, saw Kevin, and froze. Kevin didn't even glance at him. His attention was riveted on Lilah. Slowly he placed her shoes beside him on the cot, reached over, struck flint on steel, and lighted the lantern. By its yellow light he looked across at her again. Stunned speechless, Lilah had not moved. Behind her, Joss recovered enough presence of mind to close the door so that their confrontation, whatever came of it, would be private. He leaned against the door, palms flattened back against the wood, eyes watchful.
"Kevin…" Lilah said at last, her throat so dry that his name emerged as little more than a croak. The expression on his face was indescribable.
"You… little… slut," he said, and stood up. Lilah saw that he was fully dressed down to his boots. The only thing missing was his cravat; the throat of his shirt was open. In the tiny room he looked massive. Behind her Lilah felt Joss straighten, tense.
"No," she said, gesturing to Joss to stay where he was. Every protective instinct that she possessed warned her that Joss would be the primary target of Kevin's fury. Joss moved anyway, taking a step forward so that he stood just slightly behind her. However much she pro- tested, the feel of his solid strength at her back was comforting. Disaster had struck, and her mind raced in crazy circles as she tried to think of a way out for them.
Kevin fumbled at the waistband of his tobacco-brown breeches. When he withdrew his hand seconds later, Lilah was horrified to see that he was holding a pistol.
"No!" she said again, holding up a hand to ward him off. "Kevin, please! I… I know how it must look to you, but-"
Joss quickly gripped Lilah's shoulders and tried to shift her to one side, out from between his body and the pistol. Heart pounding, Lilah refused to budge.
Kevin laughed, the sound harsh, bitter. "You should move, Lilah. This is for him."
Naked hate was in his voice on the last word.
"Kevin." Her blood thudded in her ears as she sought for a way to placate him. "Kevin, you… you're wrong in what you're thinking. I… we-"
"Don't insult his intelligence, sweetheart." Joss's voice was cool and insolent as he seemingly addressed her but looked at Kevin. She winced at the blatant provocation in Joss's words and voice. "Since he's discovered our secret, you might as well admit that you've been sleeping with me for months."
The noise Kevin made sounded like something that might have come from an enraged bull. Dark color rushed to his face, turning the blunt features an ugly shade of puce. His mouth twisted into a snarl. His hazel eyes burned as they fixed on Lilah's face.
"You… you… how could you?" Kevin sputtered, his chest heaving as he drew in a great draught of air. Then he continued in a strangled voice: "How could you let him put his hands on you? Any other man would be bad enough, but him-for God's sake, he's not even white!"
"You don't have to be lily-white to bed a lady and make her like it. Boss Man."
The deliberately jeering note in Joss's voice terrified Lilah. Why was he saying such things, goading Kevin so? She did not believe that he would be deliberately reckless so he must have some sort of plan.
"Did you hear him, Lilah? Did you hear what he thinks of you? He's gloating, gloating because you let him touch you! He's probably bragged about it to all the other bucks-God, it makes me sick! You'd be better off dead than defiled by the likes of him!" Kevin was babbling now, his voice rising in pitch, his eyes moving from her face finally to rest on Joss's above her.
"I'm going to blow a great bloody hole right through the middle of your pretty face, boy," Kevin said to Joss, as if he relished the thought. Then his eyes shifted to Lilah again, and he made a sideways gesture with the pistol. "Get out of the way. It's always possible that I might miss.
"Move aside, Lilah, " Joss said in her ear, too low for Kevin to hear.
"No!" Lilah was frantic. She knew Kevin well enough to know that he truly meant to shoot Joss in cold blood where he stood. Pressing back against Joss, she shielded him as best she could with her body, clutching the fabric of his trousers in both hands so that he could not shift her aside. "Kevin, don't do this! Don't kill him! Please, I-"
"You have approximately one second to move."
Kevin lifted the gun. Joss's hands tightened until they were almost painful on her shoulders.
Without warning the pistol boomed. Joss flung Lilah aside with such violence that she crashed into the opposite wall before falling, dazed, to the floor. Scrambling to her knees, her stomach churning with horror, she looked up in time to see Joss knock Kevin to the ground with a flying leap. Apparendy he had gone for Kevin in a low, fast dive just as the pistol went off, just after he had shoved her out of the way. Kevin went down with a grunt and a curse, throwing punches with vicious intent. Joss slugged him in the stomach, in the back, the blows landing with sickening thuds. Then the two were rolling around in the dirt, scrabbling for supremacy as they fought like savage dogs.
The battle seemed fairly equal, with both men meting out and absorbing a tremendous amount of punishment. Lilah gasped as Kevin locked his fingers around Joss's throat. She looked around for a weapon to come to Joss's aid.
The pistol had fallen beside the cot. Fired once, it was now useless.
Wildly she sought some other weapon-the lantern! She would blow it out, and smash it over Kevin's head.
As she started for it, edging around the room close to the wall so as to stay well away from the men, Joss brought his feet up under him, heaved, and sent Kevin sprawling over his head. Then he straddled Kevin, held him with one hand digging viciously into his throat, and punched him in the face with ferocious power. Kevin grunted, quivered. His hands clawed impotently at Joss's thighs. Joss reached for the useless pistol, closed his hand around the barrel, and brought the mother-of-pearl handle crashing down on the side of Kevin's head.
As he repeated the blow, the door crashed back on its hinges.