Rogue Gunslinger & Hunting Down the Horseman

by B. J Daniels

  “It’s all right,” one nurse had said when TJ had been startled by her, making one of the machines go off. “You’re safe here. It’s all right.”

  She was in and out of consciousness so much that she hadn’t known what was real and what wasn’t. At one point there was a doctor standing over her. He was talking to someone. Silas. She’d felt his hand take hers and when she woke again it was still dark and she could hear Chloe arguing with the nurse outside her door.

  Or maybe she’d dreamed it all. When she finally did surface in the daylight, TJ thought all of it had been a bad dream. But she was groggy from the drugs, lying in a hospital bed, so she knew that at least getting shot had been real.

  Silas sat beside her bed—just as she had sat beside his. He rose when he saw she was awake. “How are you?”

  She tried to speak but her mouth was so dry. He poured her some water and helped her with the straw. The doctor came in then and told Silas he needed to check his patient.

  “I’ll be right outside in the hallway,” Silas said, and left.

  “You were lucky, young lady,” the doctor said after checking her wound. “I was able to get the bullet out. No major organs were involved. It should heal nicely. Any questions?”

  She shook her head because she had way too many questions. Some of her ordeal had come back, but the last part had happened so quickly...

  The doctor hadn’t been gone long when her sisters came in. She heard the nurse warn them that they couldn’t stay long. One on each side of the bed, they looked at her with concern.

  “I’m fine,” she said, the words coming out in a hoarse whisper.

  “That crazy old woman,” Chloe said. “Who would have thought she was the one?”

  “As mean as she was to me in English class?” Annabelle said. “I was scared of her.”

  “She was sick,” TJ managed to say.

  “Aren’t they all,” Chloe said. “She could have killed you. Almost did. If Silas...” She seemed to catch herself. “But you’re safe here and it’s all behind you.”

  “The doctor said you might be out before Christmas,” Annabelle said. “But if you aren’t, we’re going to hold Christmas until you are.”

  “She doesn’t care about Christmas right now,” Chloe scolded their youngest sister. “Look at her. She’s drugged up and probably in pain. Are you in pain?”

  TJ was, but she shook her head anyway.

  “If you’re in pain, you just push this button,” Annabelle said. “They told you that, right?”

  Maybe they had. TJ couldn’t remember. She struggled to keep her eyes open.

  “Okay, that’s long enough,” a female nurse said from the doorway, and her sisters were shooed out.

  TJ closed her eyes. A few moments later she heard the door to her room open and close softly. She knew who it was before he took her hand. She kept her eyes closed, feeling herself drawn back into the darkness. With her hand in his, she slept.

  * * *

  THE DOCTOR FINALLY insisted Silas go home and get some sleep. He knew he needed a shower, a shave and clean clothes. He also needed sleep. He hadn’t had much since the dance.

  But when he closed his eyes, he kept reliving the scene at Ester Brown’s house. The sound of the gunfire, seeing that one bare foot and high heel shoe lying next to it. The scene was the kind nightmares were made of.

  Even when he told himself that she was going to be all right, he still couldn’t sleep. He’d never been so afraid. Even Mad Dog hadn’t terrified him the way Ester had because he’d looked into her eyes and he’d known that she had nothing to lose. She would have killed them both that night. As it was, she’d almost killed TJ.

  “So you don’t know when you’re coming back to the city?” Cal had said when he’d called him.

  “No. Honestly, I’m not sure I am. Things are too up in the air right now.”

  “Are you worried that the cops you fingered will hire someone else to come after you?” his friend had asked.

  “No, Kenny ‘Mad Dog’ Harrington did me a favor,” Silas had said with a chuckle. “He taped their conversations, including when my former NYPD partner paid him for his services. Mad Dog wasn’t as stupid as they thought he was. He was worried that he’d take care of me and then they would turn on him to insure that he wouldn’t rat them out some day when he got picked up for another crime. Mad Dog would have sold them out for a lesser sentence and they knew it. He was right. They would have had him killed to tie up the loose ends.”

  “Why haven’t I heard about these tapes?” Cal asked.

  “Could be because he made copies and made sure I had one. He left it for me in my cabin. I didn’t see it until after he was dead. Apparently he wanted me to know who’d hired him before he killed me. So now, if they ever make a move on me, the tapes will surface.”

  “Tapes?”

  “He made copies. Now the copies are being held in several safe places as...insurance. There’s one on its way to you,” Silas said. “My former...associates have been notified. They don’t want any more years behind bars, or, in my ex-partner’s case, he doesn’t want to go straight to prison.”

  “So,” Cal said. “This has to be about a woman.”

  Silas laughed. “Isn’t it always? Only this woman, well, she’s a keeper. That is if she’ll have me.”

  * * *

  THE NEXT TIME TJ WOKE, she found Sheriff McCall Crawford next to her bed. “The doctor said I could ask you some questions if you’re up to it.”

  She nodded. “Ester?” The moment she saw McCall’s expression she knew.

  “Ester had another stroke,” the sheriff said. “She didn’t make it.”

  TJ felt a well of sadness. Yes, the woman had terrorized her and almost killed her, but she felt sorry for her too. “She felt she was never appreciated. She gave up her dream to be a teacher—at least that’s the way she saw it.”

  The sheriff pulled out her notebook and recorder. “Why don’t you tell me what happened.”

  She did, finishing with, “I don’t remember all that much after I was shot.”

  McCall closed her notebook and shut off the recorder. “We found the typewriter and paper downstairs. She was definitely the person who’d been sending you the threatening letters.”

  TJ nodded. “There were other typewritten papers down there. Is there any chance I could have them?”

  The sheriff hesitated. “It would be up to her relatives. I’ve been trying to find out if there are any. So far I’ve had no luck.”

  “What Ester wanted more than anything was to publish,” TJ said. “I don’t know if she even finished the book she was working on, but if there is any way it is publishable... I’d like to do that for her.”

  McCall smiled. “I’ll make sure you get whatever there is.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  TJ made it home for Christmas. She was still sore and had been forced to assure the doctor that she would take it easy. But Christmas Eve she was with family. Annabelle had always been like a kid in a candy store at Christmas. She’d baked and her future mother-in-law had brought over more food than they could eat in a month.

  “Willie’s teaching me to cook,” Annabelle had said. “But we both think I have a way to go before I serve it to humans. The pigs out at the ranch love my cooking though,” she added, making them laugh.

  “Wait,” TJ said as she remembered. “Belle, you were going to get married on Christmas!”

  Her sister shook her head. “It just didn’t work out. I couldn’t get married without you there.”

  “I don’t want to be the reason you didn’t get married,” she said. “I know how anxious you and Dawson are to tie the knot.”

  “It’s not that big of a deal. We’re thinking New Year’s Day. It’s just going to be a few people, nothing extravagant. Willie is insistent that it be
held at the ranch and we let her take care of everything. I have the coolest mother-in-law-to-be ever.” They agreed she did.

  They ate, opened presents and sat around talking. TJ hated the months they’d been estranged and swore she was never going to let it happen again. “I wish Grandmother was here.”

  “Me too. I would love to ask her some questions,” Annabelle said.

  Chloe got up to adjust one of the ornaments on the tree. “It just goes to show that you never really know a person. Grandmother. Ester. Who knows what secrets everyone in this town has?”

  “You’re talking about how I make a living,” TJ said. “If you assume everyone has a secret, well, it makes a good story.”

  “Have you read Ester’s novel?” Chloe asked.

  She nodded. “The sheriff said that no relatives have come forward. Once Ester’s estate is settled, I’m going to self-publish it under her name.”

  “Is it any good?” Annabelle asked.

  TJ hesitated, making Chloe laugh.

  “You can tell us if it’s awful,” her sister said.

  “After all, she tried to kill you,” Annabelle added, and was quickly chastised by Chloe for bringing that up on Christmas Eve. “Come on, it’s like the elephant in the room. If it hadn’t been for Silas, TJ would be—”

  “The book isn’t very good, but it was Ester’s first,” TJ interrupted.

  “And last,” Chloe said.

  She nodded. “I know it probably seems silly to publish it.”

  “No,” Annabelle said. “It’s sweet and more than the old bat deserves.” She mugged a face at Chloe.

  “So does this mean you’re ready to go back to writing soon?” Chloe asked her.

  “In a while.”

  Annabelle grinned. “She has other things on her mind.”

  “Speaking of Silas,” Chloe said. “I hope the two of you are going to give it some time before you do anything rash.”

  TJ laughed. “Anything rash?”

  “Leave her alone,” Annabelle said. “Let her do whatever she wants to. It’s her life and Silas is...”

  “At the door,” TJ said after there was a knock and he put his head in.

  “I don’t want to interrupt.”

  “You’re not,” Annabelle said, getting to her feet and motioning for Chloe to do the same. “We were just leaving.” She ushered Chloe up the stairs, the two arguing all the way.

  “I didn’t mean to run them off,” Silas said.

  “It’s fine. We just finished opening our presents. The two of them were starting to argue over me.”

  “Good thing I showed up, then,” he said with a grin. “How are you?”

  “Still sore, but the doctor said I am healing well.”

  “What about mentally? You’ve been through some traumatic holidays,” he reminded her.

  As if she needed to be reminded. “It hasn’t been dull, that’s for sure. But there won’t be any more True Fan letters. There’s no reason I can’t get back to work. I have a deadline looming... What about you?”

  Silas sat down across from her and took both of her hands in his. “Are you well enough that you still want to come up to the cabin with me?”

  She smiled. “It’s just what I need. You’re just what I need. That and your homemade bread.”

  “You’ve got it. I’ll pick you up tomorrow. Say, nine? Will your sisters be all right with it?”

  “I don’t need their permission.”

  “How about their blessing?” he asked. “I want them to like me because if I have my way...” He shrugged.

  “I’ll see you in the morning.”

  She went to the window and waved as he drove away, wondering if she would be able to sleep tonight. She was excited about returning to the cabin, but even more about spending the next few days with him up in the mountains away from everyone.

  “You can come back down now,” she called up the stairs to her sisters. She knew they hadn’t gone far and had been listening to everything she and Silas had said. Annabelle because she was nosy. Chloe because she was worried.

  They both came down the stairs, Annabelle all starry-eyed. “He wants us to like him because he’s going to ask you to marry him,” she said in a singsong fashion.

  “And live in that one-room cabin?” Chloe demanded.

  TJ shook her head. “You’re both way ahead of yourselves. Slow the roll,” she said, something she hadn’t said since high school. Both sisters laughed.

  “Then why are your cheeks flushed?” Annabelle asked. “You’re in love with him and he’s crazy about you. Just make sure that you’re back for my wedding on New Year’s Day.”

  “I wouldn’t miss it for anything,” TJ said.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  TJ almost didn’t recognize Silas. He’d shaved off his beard and trimmed his hair. He no longer looked like a mountain man when he came to pick her up.

  “Are you leaving?” she asked, thinking he’d done this because he had been called back to his job in New York City.

  He shook his head. “I thought you might want to see what I really looked like.”

  She laughed, amazed that the man could be even more handsome without the full beard. She reached out and cupped his cheek, his strong jaw covered in designer stubble. “I’d take you either way.”

  He grinned as he stepped closer. “That’s what I wanted to hear.” He pulled her to him. “Ready to spend a few days at the cabin?”

  TJ had never been more ready for anything. Silas drove through the snowy landscape toward the Little Rockies. It was one of those incredible winter days in Montana, not a cloud in a robin-egg blue sky, the sun making the new snow shine like fields of diamonds.

  She felt herself relax. She’d come home to hide out from True Fan and make up with her sisters. Instead True Fan had been here waiting for her. The sheriff had told her that Ester used former students who’d moved away to mail the letters for her, including one now living in New York City.

  “I suspect she was the one who took the photograph of your apartment,” McCall had told her. “They just thought Ester was a fan.”

  She felt only sadness when she thought of Mrs. Brown. All those years when Ester was teaching, she had yearned to write, not realizing the only thing that had held her back was her own fear, her own misgivings about her talent.

  “It is so heartbreaking,” she’d said. “And yet what I told her was true. She helped me become a writer. She felt she’d wasted her life and it just wasn’t true. I’m just sorry that I never thanked her for what she did do for me. Not until it was too late.”

  “But you got to tell her,” McCall had said. “I’m thankful it ended without either of you being killed. The doctor said a lot of her behavior was due to the strokes she’d been having for some time. I don’t think she realized what she was doing.”

  TJ looked out at the passing snowy foothills and reminded herself that it was over. She’d had a wonderful Christmas and felt closer to her sisters than she had in years. Glancing at Silas, she had to smile to herself. Annabelle was right. She was in love.

  “I don’t think I’m going back to New York,” he said, and glanced over at her. “I don’t need the job financially or emotionally or mentally. To tell you the truth I don’t want to leave Montana.”

  She chuckled, as she’d been thinking the same thing since her return. “I love being here. And as you said, I can write anywhere. I was thinking earlier that I would let my New York apartment go. Chloe will be going back home to work and Annabelle will be getting married New Year’s Day and moving in with Dawson, so the house will be empty. There’s no reason I can’t stay.”

  He grinned over at her. “I can’t tell you how much I was hoping you would say that.” He sounded relieved. “I want to spend as much time as I can at the cabin, but eventually either build a l
arger place or buy one.”

  “You wouldn’t sell the cabin though, right?” she asked.

  “No. Never. It’s even more special to me since I got to share it with you.”

  As Silas pulled up in front of the cabin, she saw that the woodstove was going. Smoke curled up into the snow-filled pines. She couldn’t wait to get inside, but he had other plans. As she started to open her pickup door, he stopped her.

  “There’s something I want to do first,” he said, and reached into the pocket of his sheepskin coat to pull out a small jewelry box.

  TJ felt her heart leap as she looked from it to his blue-eyed gaze.

  “I know this is silly, but once we get into that cabin with that bed right at the center of the room, I’m going to want to make love to you. And maybe it’s old-fashioned, but I want to do this right.” He shifted in the seat and found a way even in the cab of the pickup to get down on one knee.

  Sunlight poured through the window. Outside the fresh snow gleamed. In the warm cab of the pickup, Silas said, “Tessa Jane Clementine, will you marry me?”

  She broke into a wide smile as tears filled her eyes. “Yes. Oh yes.”

  Silas slipped the ring on her finger. The pear-shaped diamond shone like the snow outside the windows. The ring fit perfectly.

  TJ threw herself into his arms. The kiss was a promise of what was to come. Years cuddled up in that cabin. Late-night card games. Homemade baked bread. Best friends forever.

  But for tonight, all TJ wanted was to spend it in this man’s arms listening to the wind in the tall pines and the crackle of the fire in the woodstove. She was home.

  * * *

  SILAS FELT LIKE a man who’d won the lottery. He turned off the pickup engine, ran around and pulled TJ out and into his arms.

  “I believe you’re supposed to do this after we’re married,” she said, laughing as he carried her up the porch steps and over the threshold into the cabin.

  “I feel as if our lives are starting now,” he said as he put her down. He looked into her blue eyes. “Beautiful and smart and talented. How did I get so lucky?”