“Goddamn it.” Jake grunts, knowing the situation is hopeless. Your eyes widen in horror as his head rocks back in a shower of blood. He slumps onto his back, sightless eyes gazing up into the vast, cloudless sky.
“I’m sorry Jake.” You sob, crawling towards him and reaching out before another gunshot rings out and you join him in oblivion.
THE END
Go back a few moments and rethink your actions
Knowing that you’ll be no good to Jake if you get yourself shot too, you keep firing. You curse as your third, fourth and fifth shots miss their targets. As the two outlaws bear down on you, you feel vulnerable and exposed, though as you pull the trigger for a sixth time, the same is true for your attackers. Your final bullet finds its mark, one of the outlaws snatched from his saddle. Your revolver is empty, but the remaining outlaw doesn’t know that. You swing the gun in his direction and hear his revolver click empty. He quickly turns his horse around and rides hard for the mountains, abandoning his dead companion.
“Why didn’t you shoot him when you had the chance?” Jake grimaces as you rush to his side. You raise the revolver and pull the trigger. Jake grins at the sound of the impotent click. “Girl, you’ve got guts, I’ll give you that!” He chuckles before wincing with the pain.
“How bad is it?” You ask as he climbs to his feet.
“Just a scratch.” He replies. “It went straight through. Reckon I’ll live.” Despite his bravado, you’re not so certain.
“Hey!” Jake objects as you rip the arm from his shirt. “That’s my favorite shirt!” You ignore his protestations and tear it into a makeshift bandage before wrapping it around the wound.
“Here, try to keep pressure on the wound.” You tell him. He nods, looking pale and clammy. You glance down towards the railroad, but the train has now continued its journey and is nowhere to be seen. “We need to get you to the nearest town, find a doctor and get you properly patched up.”
“There’s no time for that.” Jake replies. “We need to keep on going before those bastards get clean away.”
“You’ve got a hole through you, Jake.” You tell him. “If you go on, you’ll bleed out. You’re no good to me dead.” He slowly nods, knowing you speak the truth.
“Okay, I’ll head back.” He growls. “But I don’t need a goddamn nursemaid. You keep on those sons of bitches.” He pulls his rifle from the pack behind his saddle, grunting in pain at the effort. He holds it out to you. “Here, take this. You’re a damn good shot for a woman. Reckon you could pick ‘em off from a distance.”
Insist you accompany Jake
Continue your pursuit of the Kane gang
“I’ll do my best.” You tell Jake. He seems less than convinced by your response, but shrugs and draws his pistol.
“Good luck.” He replies gruffly, spurring his horse on towards the rapidly approaching outlaws. The crack of a gunshot booms out and you see a puff of gun smoke from Jake’s pistol. The distant outlaws return fire, shooting wildly at Jake as he rides off on a tangent. Ignoring you, they both take the bait, pursuing Jake. Smiling grimly, you ride after them and draw your revolver. You close on the outlaws quickly, both of them seemingly oblivious to your presence as they continue to take potshots at the fleeing Jake.
“Whoa!” You call out to your horse, pulling back on the reins. She obediently slows to a halt and you take steady aim with your pistol. Squeezing the trigger, the pistol kicks in your hand, the gunshot startling your horse. The nearer of the two outlaws is snatched out of his saddle. His companion, realizing that he is now outnumbered, turns and rides hard in pursuit of the gold cart. You squeeze off another couple of shots, but they fly wide of the mark. You ride towards Jake, who has climbed from his horse and is standing over the fallen outlaw.
“Dead before he hit the ground.” He grins at you as you join him. “You’re one hell of a shot!”
“Shame I missed the other one.” You reply, climbing down from your horse.
“He was probably out of range.” Jake shrugs before wincing and clutching his side. With alarm, you notice blood seeping through his fingers.
“Oh my God, you’re wounded!” You gasp, running towards him.
“You’re a sharp one alright.” He replies dryly. “Good to know that once you’ve avenged your father, you’ll be well suited in a career working for the Pinkerton’s detective agency.” He flashes you a grin which swiftly becomes a grimace.
“Let me see.” You tell him, ignoring his bravado. He reluctantly pulls his hand away and lifts his shirt.
“The bullet’s gone right through.” You murmur, your stomach churning at the sight of the blood oozing from the entry and exit wounds. “Looks like it’s missed anything too important. You’re lucky.”
“Oh, I sure feel blessed, darlin’.” He replies through gritted teeth. You rip the arm off his shirt, tear it into a makeshift bandage and dress the wound as best you can.
“Here, try to keep pressure on the wound.” You tell him. He nods, looking pale and clammy. You glance down the mountainside towards the railroad, but the train has now continued its journey and is nowhere to be seen. “We need to get you to the nearest town, find a doctor and get you properly patched up.”
“There’s no time for that.” Jake replies. “We need to keep on going before those bastards get clean away.”
“You’ve got a hole through you, Jake.” You tell him. “If you go on, you’ll bleed out. You’re no good to me dead.” He slowly nods, knowing you speak the truth.
“Okay, I’ll head back.” He growls. “But I don’t need a goddamn nursemaid. You keep on those sons of bitches.” He pulls his rifle from the pack behind his saddle, grunting in pain at the effort. He holds it out to you. “Here, take this. You’re a damn good shot for a woman. Reckon you could pick ‘em off from a distance.”
Insist you accompany Jake
Continue your pursuit of the Kane gang
“I guess I’d sooner go looking for them than spend an hour sweltering in the midday sun.” You reply. Jake nods in reply.
“If they are in there drinkin’, gamblin’ or screwin’, then we stand a better chance of catchin’ ‘em unawares too.”
“Literally catch them with their breaches down?” You smile.
“Wouldn’t be the first time or even the second.” Jake chuckles. You trot through the busy streets before dismounting outside the saloon. Despite the early hour, you can still hear the raucous atmosphere within spilling out through the shutters. Subconsciously, your hand rests on your revolver. Jake leads the way, striding through the swing doors while you try your best to bury your anxiety as you follow him inside. While saloons are hardly refined at the best of times, this one looks rougher than most. The floorboards are stained and sticky, the furniture battered and the bartender corpulent, unshaven and unwashed. The handful of occupants look up as you both enter, throwing a cursory glance at Jake before their gazes linger lecherously on you.
“Mornin’.” Jake growls, his tone somehow making the greeting sound like a threat. The men turn away while he moves to the bar, leaning with his back against it as he sweeps his gaze around the room.
“Well?” You whisper, joining him at the bar.
“They ain’t here.” He murmurs.
“Can I fix you folks a drink?” The bartender asks jovially. Jake glances at you and shrugs.
Go to the station
Stay for a drink
“I guess it wouldn’t hurt.” You nod. “It’s hot as hell out there.”
“Okay.” Jake grins, turning to the bartender. “A whiskey for me.”
“And for the lady?” The bartender asks.
“I’ll have a whiskey too.” You reply.
“Yes, ma’am.” He grins, slamming two glasses on the bar and pouring two generous measures of the brown liquid. Jake raises his glass to you before knocking it back in one go, gulping the contents down and sighing with satisfaction.
“Nothin’ like a whiskey to calm the nerves.”
He tells you, leaning in conspiratorially.
“I guess so.” You nod before drinking your own whiskey, grimacing and wondering if you will ever get used to the harsh taste.
“What do you figure on doin’ once all this is over?” Jake asks you.
“Haven’t given it too much thought.” You reply. “I’m used to working a farm, but I don’t know if that’s where my future lies.”
“Got a taste for adventure, eh?” Jake chuckles.
“A little, perhaps.” You admit with a wry smile. “I feel my eyes have been opened these past few days. My head is spinning from the things I’ve seen… from the things I’ve done.”
“Oh?” Jake cocks an eyebrow and grins broadly. You feel your face flush.
“What about you?” You ask, swiftly changing the subject.
“On to the next bounty.” He shrugs. “There’s always more scum to track down. You know, you seem to have a certain gift for bounty hunting yourself. Might be somethin’ worth considerin’.” You nod, drinking the last of your whiskey.
“Another?” Jake asks, raising an eyebrow.
Why not
You need to get to the train station
“You trying to get me drunk?” You smile, pushing your glass towards the bartender.
“I’d wager you’d make an adorable drunk.” Jake grins as the bartender pours you both a glass of whiskey. You blush and pick up your glass, drinking it down.
“Good stuff.” You wince. Jake chuckles and tips up his own glass, gulping the whiskey down with an exaggerated sigh of satisfaction before nodding at the bartender who pours some more.
By the forth glass, you can feel the effects and giggle girlishly at Jake’s vulgar jokes. As you drink down the fifth, the room seems to be swimming a little.
“I think I might beeee… a liddle… drunk…” You smirk.
“Sister, I reckon you might be.” Jake guffaws. Your snorting snickers make him laugh even harder. You both barely register the distant shrill whistle of the approaching train.
“Ain’t that your train?” The bartender asks. Jake’s smile vanishes as he instantly sobers up.
“Goddamn it!” He cries out, reaching into his pocket and slamming a fistful of coins onto the bar. “C’mon.” He grasps your arm and you stagger out of the saloon in his wake, oblivious to the laughter of the remaining denizens within.
The exercise sobers you up a little as you both run through the streets towards the train station. Just as you near it, you hear a loud, shrill whistle swiftly followed by the labored sound of the locomotive engine building up steam. When you reach the platform, you can see the green painted cars of the train disappearing into the distance.
“Fuck!” Jake snarls, violently throwing his hat to the ground. “We’ll never catch ‘em now.” You sigh, furious with yourself for allowing your focus to slip at a critical moment.
“What now?” You ask him, the only remaining sign of the departed train, a rapidly dissipating puff of smoke on the horizon.
“Unless you’ve got any better ideas, I say we go back to that saloon and get stinkin’ drunk.” Jake replies.
“Stinkin’ drunk sounds good.” You reply, echoing his own drawling delivery. He nods and you retrace your steps back through the streets of Lonely Peak to the saloon.
THE END
Go back a few moments and rethink your actions
“I’m coming with you.” You tell him, ignoring the rifle. “The state you’re in, you’ll pass out and fall out of the saddle before you go half a mile.”
“Don’t worry about me.” Jake shrugs. “I’ve had worse wounds than this. Listen, the Kane gang know we’re after them now. If you give ‘em a head start, they’ll move on out of the territory and you’ll never find ‘em again. Now, take this rifle and hunt those animals down. Avenge your father.” Again, he holds out the rifle.
Abandon your quest for vengeance and get Jake to a doctor
Continue to pursue the Kane gang
“No.” You insist. “It’s not worth your life.”
“Goddamn it, Grace.” Jake grimaces. “You’ll regret it if you don’t finish this!”
“No.” You reply. “I’ll regret it if I have to pay for my revenge with your life. The scum aren’t worth it. Not by a long shot.” He nods and sighs, knowing he is not going to be able to persuade you otherwise. You help him up into his saddle, Jake crying out in agony and clutching his wound. Climbing back into your own saddle, you trot forlornly back towards civilization, hoping you’ll reach a doctor before it’s too late.
When you finally arrive at a nearby town, Jake is pale, weak and burning up with a fever. The local doctor stitches up the wounds and after an anxious two days at his bedside, watching him shiver and rant with delirium, the fever finally breaks. For another few days, he convalesces, his color returning as he gradually becomes his old self and with the wound healing, he is soon back on his feet.
A few days later, you both ride back out into the desert in pursuit of the Kane gang, but as he had predicted, they are long gone, the only sign the remnants of an abandoned camp deep in a canyon.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart.” He tells you, his horse chomping impatiently at the bit.
“I’m not.” You reply, scanning the horizon. “The Kane gang are due a reckoning. It might not be at my hand, but if not by another, they’ll be judged in the hereafter.”
“What will you do now?” He asks. “Go back to Lennox Creek?”
“There’s nothing there for me now.” You reply. “Truth is, I have no idea what to do next.”
“Why don’t you stick around?” Jake murmurs. “You seem pretty good in a fight.”
“Your partner?” You ask, raising an eyebrow.
“Sure.” He grins, before swiftly adding: “Not the wedded kind. I ain’t proposin’ here.” You chuckle, turning away and gazing out at the endless desert for a moment, mulling it over.
“Okay.” You grin, your eyes meeting his. He smiles back at you for a moment before it quickly vanishes as his usual persona returns.
“Okay.” He shrugs. “Let’s hunt some outlaws.”
You find yourself surprisingly well suited to the life of a bounty hunter, becoming quite a marksman with Jake’s rifle. Over the next few months, you successfully bring scores of outlaws and rogues to justice, dead or alive. Despite his initial protestations, six months later, Jake makes an honest woman of you. Your prolific record combined with your unique circumstance of being man and wife makes you both quite famous, at least in the territories in which you operate. While the Kane gang are never to be seen in those parts again, you feel you have at least honored your father’s memory by ridding the world of many equally vile criminals. While you would dearly loved to have avenged him directly, you can take some comfort in that.
THE END
Go back a few moments and rethink your actions
“Goddamn it!” You curse, turning your horse around and retracing your steps. Perhaps sensing your anxiety, she seems to find new reserves of energy and trots quickly back towards where you parted ways.
The sun is low in the sky when you pass the point where you parted. You can make out the tracks of his horses hooves in the dust and follow them, hoping the light will hold out.
Another hour later, you see his horse in the distance, standing next to a prone figure at his feet.
“No!” You shout, urging your horse on. She reluctantly gallops the last couple of hundred yards to where Jake lies and you clamber down from the saddle and drop to your knees next to him. He lies very still, his eyes closed, his face deathly pale and his cracked lips parted. “Jake!” Your anguished cry echoes off the desolate landscape around you. You feel tears rolling down your cheeks, trickling onto his face as you clutch his inert body to you.
“Don’t cry darlin’.” You hear a barely audible whisper.
“Jake!” You look down into his face, his blue eyes gazing up into yours. He smiles weakly.
“Guess you couldn’t
stay away, eh?” He murmurs. “You get those sons of bitches?”
“Don’t you worry about that now.” You tell him. “We need to get you to a doctor.”
“It was touch and go there for a while.” The Doctor tells you, washing dried blood off his hands. “But he should pull through.”
“Thank you doctor.” You reply. He nods and glances across his surgery towards the bed where Jake lies fast asleep.
“I’ve given him morphine for the pain, so best to let him sleep it off.” He tells you. You nod and take a seat next to him.
“Grace?” A voice croaks, waking you from your slumber. Jerking up in your chair, you see that Jake is awake in the bed next to you. You are relieved to find that the color has returned to his face and though still gravely ill, he looks a little more like his old self.
“Jake!” You smile. “How are you feeling?”
“Like a man who got shot, fell off his horse and laid in the dirt for a good many hours.” He deadpans. “Reckon I wouldn’t have lasted much longer, so guess I owe you my life.”
“Reckon you do.” You chuckle, getting to your feet and examining the bandages wrapped around his naked torso. There is a small dark stain of blood seeping through from the wound. “Looks like these bandages need changing.” You murmur before squealing as Jake pulls you to him, his lips finding yours. He kisses you passionately and you kiss him back just as enthusiastically before gently pulling away. “Easy cowboy, you’ll tear your stitches.” You smile, feeling your face flush. “But we’ll pick this up again once you’re all healed up.”
“Now, that’s the kind of bedside manner to get a man back on his feet in no time.” Jake chuckles.
Jake makes a full recovery from his wounds and you decide to make your bounty hunting partnership with him a permanent one. You find yourself surprisingly well suited to the profession and become quite a marksman with Jake’s rifle. Over the next few months, you successfully bring scores of outlaws and rogues to justice, dead or alive. The initial attraction swiftly becomes something more and six months later, Jake makes an honest woman of you. Your prolific record combined with your unique circumstance of being man and wife makes you both quite famous, at least in the territories in which you operate. While the Kane gang are never to be seen in those parts again, you feel you have at least honored your father’s memory by ridding the world of many equally vile criminals. While you would dearly loved to have avenged him directly, you can take some comfort in that.
The Rancher's Daughter's Revenge Page 19
