More than fifty bandits quickly approached Richard, shot and killed all the other men, turned the two carriages around, and drove them out of the valley, while dragging away the 28 bodies on the path.
Just over ten minutes later, the valley path returned to its usual quiet appearance, silently awaiting its next visitor.
This time, Jim volunteered to take Richard and the others to where the bandit gang kept their horses, because he was too eager to know how much money these fat sheep had.
Boss Frank was too ruthless; Jim was always the victim whenever they played cards.
It was bad enough that he was a skilled card player, but if Frank had bad luck and lost money, they had to keep playing until he won!
Upon arriving, Jim dismounted, walked up to Richard, searched him, took his Patek Philippe gold pocket watch, then approached the hardtop buggy, opened the carriage door, and said with great gentlemanly demeanor, "Ladies, we've arrived. Please disembark."
Madeline and Edith exchanged glances, able only to get out of the carriage helplessly.
Madeline was the first to descend. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she quickly walked to Richard's side and hugged his right arm.
The maid Rose also miraculously survived due to Frank's order, standing obediently behind the Richard couple.
Edith followed closely. After steadying herself, she timidly looked up, and Jim's heart immediately pounded!
She was too beautiful, wasn't she?
Jim's heart seemed to have been heavily struck by something.
With his limited vocabulary, he didn't know how to describe it; she was just beautiful! Damn beautiful!
This made his voice involuntarily soften by a dimension.
"Miss, stand firm, don't be afraid. We are not good people."
Jim's excitement was uncontrollable, completely unaware that his true nature had led him to say the opposite.
'If this family has no money, then this girl cannot be killed! I need to talk to Frank and ask for this girl. I can play cards with him until dawn every day from now on.'
Jim kept calculating in his mind how to approach Frank about it.
Edith desperately looked at the bandit, who was a meter away and thought he looked like a refined gentleman—he had a mouth full of rotten teeth, the smell of smoke could knock someone out from a distance, his coarse cloth shirt, covered in grease, was of an unknown original color, and the greed in his triangular eyes was completely undisguised, as if he wanted to swallow her whole, from head to toe, inside and out, without missing a single bit!
Richard said loudly, "Sir, we are guests of the McKinley."
Jim's triangular eyes glared fiercely at Edith before he turned to Richard and said viciously, "We are here to capture guests of the McKinley. Kid, who are you? If you're not worth anything, I'll send you to hell right now."
Richard's heart trembled, but feeling his wife's hands tightly clutching him, a surge of courage rose from within.
"I am the new head of the Mellon Family. You may state your demands."
"The Mellon Family? The one that owns the bank?" Jim asked excitedly.
"Yes, the bank is just one of our family's enterprises," Richard affirmed.
"Very good! I hope you're telling the truth. Our boss hates being lied to; those liars have all been sent to hell by him," Jim said coldly.
"We won't lie. Money is not an issue, but you must guarantee our safety," Richard demanded.
"Wait here. Our boss will come find you after he's done," Jim said, then turned to Russell, who was in charge of guarding the horses, and said, "Keep a close eye on them. Don't touch them; they are the boss's people. I still need to help the boss deal with Henry."
Russell chuckled and said, "Don't I know you? Don't worry, I'm not as lustful as you. Be careful not to get your head blown off by Henry!"
"Fuck you, shut your dog mouth. I won't blow off Henry's head, because he's worth ten thousand us dollars, so I'll chop it off with a knife!" Jim made a beheading motion with both hands, chuckled, and quickly left.
"Sir, who is Henry?" Richard asked sensitively.
Russell looked at Richard teasingly and chuckled, "You really should hate him. If it weren't for him, we wouldn't be here today, and neither would you."
"But we really don't know him. Did you capture the wrong people?" Richard held onto a glimmer of hope.
"What does it matter whether you know him or not? We were ambushing him anyway, and you just stumbled in, so aren't you happy now? You're about to witness the death of a legendary figure," Russell scoffed.
"Legendary figure?" Richard pressed.
"He's a monster! We are exorcists, hahaha," Russell was very proud of his nickname-giving ability.
"Who is he? I've never heard of him," Richard kept probing.
"A monster who single-handedly killed dozens of gunmen! But he will surely die here. You'd better think carefully about how much ransom you should pay for your lives," Russell said, then took out a rope and, with another bandit, tied Richard's hands behind his back.
"Kid, where's your wallet? Did that pervert just take it?" Russell asked unwillingly.
"It's with my male servant; their bodies were dragged away," Richard replied.
Russell sullenly spat a thick glob of phlegm at Richard's feet.
"Fuck, Jim must have taken it. Girl, are you going to hand over the wallet willingly, or do I have to do it myself?"
Edith immediately handed her small handbag, which was on her forearm, to Russell, and bravely said, "Sir, there's no money in my bag. I came out to play with my sister and brother-in-law this time, and we rarely carry cash ourselves."
Russell took the wallet and found it indeed had no money, muttering, "Shit! I thought Jim was so lust-struck he forgot to take it."
In fact, Jim had truly overlooked the wallet on Edith.
Russell handed the wallet back to Edith and continued to tie Richard. Having gained nothing, he used double the force to bind Richard tightly.
After tying Richard, Russell chuckled at Madeline and Edith and said, "I won't tie you two. Just wait obediently. After we kill Henry, we'll all leave together. If you don't behave, I can't guarantee what will happen."
Leaving two subordinates to watch the four, Russell and three of his card buddies started playing cards—who knew when Henry would arrive? Time couldn't be wasted.
At this time, Henry and his group had stopped to rest two miles from Death Valley.
It was exactly around noon, and Henry found a severely dissected hilly terrain—convenient for defense—and had the others eat something there.
Henry began to give instructions one by one.
"Pete, I'm going ahead to Death Valley to scout. You, Charles, and Owen, set up defenses and wait for me to return.
"Charles and Owen, assist Pete in setting up the team's defenses."
"If I don't return, do not advance, and do not look for me; just wait here. This scouting will not be short; if you encounter enemies, four or five hours is normal. I will be fine; you absolutely must not run around."
"Linda, you all rest well and wait for me to return. Don't worry about the night here; as long as I return, it's not an issue."
"Okay," everyone responded in agreement.
--+--
T/N: Although I'm an inexperienced Editor, I do have a Patreon account! Although it seems like I don't have many supporters right now, my webnovel will be released in full every day, and the advanced chapters will be uploaded to Patreon.
It may not be worth it now, but who knows, it might be different in the future. Who knows!
patreon.com/TripleCrown07
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