by Chloe Carley
Maybe. She had to try. One. Last. Time.
Chapter 11
The next day…
Gideon wasn’t sure why he’d volunteered to make a supply run into Rio Arriba so soon after taking Riley there, but here he was, just after midday, heading back from the small town in the buckboard.
His Ma had given him a large list of supplies she needed, and Shawn had added another dozen things to the list. It had taken him nearly two hours to load everything into the wagon. Now he was finally heading back home.
He’d kept his eyes open for signs of Riley, but there had not been any mention of her until he’d met up with the sheriff outside the livery.
“Morning, Sheriff.”
“Morning, Gideon.” Sheriff Parmele had been suspicious of Gideon ever since he’d come back home. Gideon had wondered if at first the man hadn’t recognized some part of him from the wanted posters that had been posted outside the telegraph office in town. He’d made sure those posters disappeared the very first time he’d seen them. He’d even burned them so that there wouldn’t be any evidence for anyone to find.
“Sheriff, I was wondering if a young lady came to see you a few days ago?”
“As a matter of fact, one did. What do you know about her? She was spouting some nonsense about an outlaw gang heading this way.”
“Really?” Gideon questioned, her thoughts on outlaws coming to his mind. “I found her on our property, and she stated she needed a ride to town, but she didn’t elaborate.” Gideon also didn’t elaborate on how he’d found her. It was plain to see the sheriff hadn’t been impressed with whatever Riley had told him.
“Well, consider yourselves lucky. I think the chit is a little touched in the head.”
“Why do you say that?”
“She was convinced that she’d heard an outlaw gang talking about coming here and stealing the funds for the bank that’s getting ready to open. She wouldn’t tell me how she’d heard that information. In fact, she seemed rather upset that I wasn’t going to form a group of townsfolk to go out and hunt these outlaws down. The outlaws she mentioned aren’t even from these parts. For all I know, she was just trying to get everyone out of town so that she could rob us.”
“She didn’t strike me as the criminal type,” Gideon informed the man.
“Well, I think I’m probably a better judge of character on that front, don’t you?” Sheriff Parmele asked, puffing his chest out in self-importance.
“Of course,” Gideon agreed. You couldn’t judge a badger from kid’s dog. I hope you’re right and whatever Riley was talking about really is just nonsense.
“If you see that girl again, you keep your distance from her. I heard she was also seen talking to a couple of the whores later, right on the boardwalk in plain view of anyone who happened along. We don’t need more people like that coming to Rio Arriba. It’s best if she just moves along and finds another town to spread her lies in.”
Gideon eyed the sheriff and pasted on a fake smile. “I’ll pass that information along to Ma and Pa when I return to the ranch. Have a nice day.” It bothered him to hear the sheriff talking about Riley so unkindly. His parents had both been impressed with her and his ma had been sad that she’d been in such a hurry to leave.
He’d finished loading up the wagon and was heading out of town. The fact that no one seemed to have seen the new girl in town gave Gideon a very bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.
He decided to take the long way back, going to the shallow crossing instead of risking the contents of the wagon to the ever-changing eddies in the deeper part of the river. It would take him an extra hour, but that was worth not having to explain why half of the provisions he’d been sent to procure were now water-logged. His ma’s biscuits were worth the extra time and effort.
He headed for the three large rock formations that guided one to the shallow crossing. The sun was high overhead, the large fluffy clouds the only thing providing shade to the gorgeous terrain.
In the far distance, Gideon could see the majestic snow-capped mountains rising into the sky, their bases a myriad of colors from whites to deep reds as the land changed. It had rained a bit during the night and the world around him seemed fresh and clean. The greens of the bushes and small trees seemed brighter.
The yellow and red flowering bushes around him were abuzz with bees trying to gather the last of the summer’s pollen. In the distance he could see a herd of deer grazing on the grasses and berries.
Gideon kept his eyes peeled for signs of predators along the way. Jace had reported seeing mountain lion tracks walking along the ridgeline of the ranch late yesterday. With a large range, a mountain lion could be hiding anywhere. Gideon did not want an encounter with a large cat today.
He allowed his eyes to feast on the beautiful earth God had created, but his mind was still trying to decide if he should be concerned for Riley’s safety.
It concerned him that the sheriff hadn’t given her warnings any credence. And Gideon was sure that if Riley had allowed herself to be seen talking in the open with the women from the whorehouse, she must have been getting desperate to find anyone willing to listen to her.
He rounded a small bend. If for the cry of an eagle circling overhead, he might have ridden right past the object of his current thoughts.
He started to call out to her when something about her posture on top of the center rock stopped him cold. Sitting there, still as a statue, Riley looked terrified even from this distance. He drew nearer, wondering why she hadn’t even lifted her head to acknowledge his arrival, when the reason for her frozen state became apparent.
She had a blanket wrapped partway around her shoulders, and there was what appeared to be a pillow on the rock, but that wasn’t what caught his attention.
It was the very large, very angry diamondback rattler that was positioned no more than five feet away from her. It was eyeing her, the rattles on its tail sticking straight up and beating out a rhythm no cowboy ever wanted to hear.
It was only a matter of time before it was going to strike and, in her current position, Riley didn’t stand a chance of getting away from it in time to save herself.
A rattler that big would deliver enough venom to kill a large man and Riley was anything but large. If the snake bit her… well, Gideon didn’t even want to think about that.
He’d watched a man die from rattlesnake bite once as a young boy on the trail moving cattle. It had been an agonizing death and Gideon didn’t think he could stand watching that fate befall Riley. Not when he possessed the skills to save her.
God, let my aim be true.
He felt an urgency to do whatever he could to protect her. Gideon normally had protective instincts where his ma and sister were concerned, but they had never before included someone like Riley. He couldn’t really put his finger on it, but he’d done nothing but think about her since dropping her off in town.
He slipped from the buckboard, withdrawing his six shooter as he walked slowly toward her.
He whispered softly up to her, “Riley, it’s Gideon. Don’t move a muscle. I’m going to kill the snake. Just don’t move. Blink if you can hear me.”
He watched her face, relieved when she blinked, and two big fat tears rolled down her cheeks. He could see the fine tremors that wracked her small frame and he sensed that she was almost at her breaking point. Time to end this standoff now.
Gideon carefully crawled up behind the boulders to her left, making no sound and sending up a silent prayer for some divine intervention.
God, please let me kill the snake in time.
He peeked over the boulder. The snake was about eight feet in front of him and in a perfect position to shoot. Gideon raised his right arm and carefully took aim before pulling the trigger. The crack of the gunshot echoed off the rocks at the same time Riley screamed and started scrambling backwards, her legs and arms tangled in the quilt.
Gideon watched the snake’s head separate from its body, the writhing mass cont
inuing to move for long moments after its death. He holstered his gun and turned, realizing that Riley still wasn’t out of danger. She’d scrambled backward and was now slowly sliding down the back of the rock formation. She tried to use her hands to stop her downward momentum, but she kept getting tangled in fabric.
Gideon lunged for her, grabbing her arm at the last moment and hauling her roughly back onto the top of the boulder where she was safer. He kept pulling until she was seated next to him, the sight of her tears twisting his insides into knots. “Hush, don’t cry.”
“That snake …”
“Is no longer a threat.”
“I thought I was going to fall …”
“But you didn’t,” he reminded her. He pulled her into his arms, sitting her across his thighs and couldn’t resist acknowledging how nice she felt right there. She was small, but a perfect armful. She was soft in all the right places and yet had an inner strength that was very much like that of his own mother.
“Hush now,” he whispered, gently rocking her back and forth for a few moments. After a while, she gained control of herself and he let her body relax against his chest. They sat that way for a long time, just letting their emotions and the tension the snake had created dissipate. Gideon watched the landscape, trying not to think about how much he was enjoying having Riley in his arms.
He’d just returned home. He had amends to make and didn’t have time for any romance in his life right now. Unfortunately, his body, heart, and mind weren’t in agreement.
“You okay now?” he asked, needing to put some distance between them before he forgot his resolve to focus on making a place for himself on the ranch once more.
She answered by scooting off his lap with a muttered thank you.
“What are you doing all the way out here?” Gideon asked as she straightened and smoothed her skirt.
“Sleeping,” she fired back.
Gideon hid the smirk her affronted tone elicited. “I can see that, but why? I thought you were going to stay at the boarding house in town?”
“Too noisy and no one in Rio Arriba wants me there.”
“That can’t be true. You’re a lovely young woman they just don’t know yet.”
“They don’t want to know me,” Riley said. “They don’t want to listen to my warning and … well, I got frustrated and mad. It doesn’t matter now anyway. I’m sure I’m too late and I can’t stay here and watch what I know is going to happen.”
Gideon was once more confused, as he’d been when speaking with the sheriff earlier. “Riley, maybe you should back up and tell me what you’re talking about. Exactly.”
“I came to Rio Arriba to warn the town that my brother and his gang are headed here to steal the bank money and burn the town.”
Gideon frowned. “Wait! Back up a minute. You came to Rio Arriba to warn people?”
“I did. Roy put me on a train back in El Paso, but I overheard him talking to his second in command about coming here. I pretended to go along with his plan, and when the train stopped the first time, I got off.”
“Just like that? You just walked away from the train in the middle of nowhere?” Gideon was a little shocked at how impulsive she seemed to be. He’d never met a woman who would risk her own safety so easily, just to try and save a town of people she didn’t even know. Even his own reckless sister wouldn’t have acted so impulsively.
Riley nodded. “I got lucky because there was a wagon train heading to Santa Fe, and they let me tag along for a while. I had to watch the little children and Peter, but they fed me, and I didn’t have to walk all of those miles by myself.”
Gideon opened his mouth to respond. But then her words registered, and he closed it. Walked? She joined a wagon train and walked? Gideon felt anger rise inside his chest on her behalf.
He couldn’t have held back the question if he’d tried. “You walked and didn’t ride in a wagon?” Gideon asked, wondering what kind of people had allowed a young woman to walk alongside a wagon instead of insisting that she ride inside of it.
“Mrs. Young is a rather large woman and convinced her husband there was only room on the seat for one person if she was going to have to be controlling the team of horses.”
“Mrs. Young is ...?” he asked, trying to piece together this jumbled story.
“Peter’s mother.”
“Ah. The infamous Peter comes back to the story.”
Riley nodded glumly. “He never listened, and he left the safety of the wagons and I had to find him before they left.”
“That’s how you came to be in the river,” Gideon added.
“Yes. Anyway, I shouldn’t have come here. I’ll never find Roy and convince him to turn over a new leaf.”
“Roy is your brother?”
“Yes. I came to El Paso to live with him on his ranch … I didn’t realize he had lied to me. To our parents. To everyone.”
“Your brother has his own gang?” Gideon inquired. It wasn’t an uncommon occurrence; even he’d been the leader of his own gang of misfits. Most of them hadn’t started out as outlaws but had turned to a life of crime just to survive. If he had to do it over again, he probably would have never left home.
“Do you believe me?” Riley asked him.
“About your brother coming here?” When she nodded, he did the same. “Why wouldn’t I believe something like that?”
“Do you believe that he means to harm the town?”
“If you heard him talking about it, then I have no reason to doubt you.”
Riley looked at the ground for a long moment before meeting his eyes once more. “That’s not the attitude the sheriff had. He treated me like I was a dimwit and didn’t seem overly concerned at all. No one but the whores believed me.”
Gideon’s eyebrows rose. He held onto the temper that was slowly rising as she’d talked about the various people she’d tried to talk to.
She’d gone into the saloon, and now she was telling him she’d talked with the whores and told them her story. The sheriff had mentioned she’d been seen conversing with two of the women from there. He hadn’t asked the sheriff, but now he was wishing he had. Surely she didn’t visit the whorehouse herself.
“When did you meet them?” He was hoping she was going to say she ran into them on the boardwalk. Not that she’d gone into the house with them to discuss anything. Nothing was going to destroy her reputation in the town quicker than consorting with the wrong individuals.
“They came out and met me. We had a very nice chat.”
“On the boardwalk? You talked to them where other people could see you?” Gideon asked for clarification. He’d already been informed of that fact, but he was interested in whether or not Riley saw anything wrong with her actions. Based upon her current expression and the confusion on her face at his questioning, he was guessing not.
“They seemed like very nice women. One of them knew my brother from a year ago. She believed me when I told her what he was planning for the town. They were going to pack up their bags and leave for a while. I think that was very smart on their part, don’t you agree?”
Gideon closed his eyes for a moment. He blew out a breath before he told her, “Riley, I’m trying to understand here, and not lose my temper.”
“Why would you be mad at me?” she asked, standing up and putting her hands on her hips.
