by Chloe Carley
He was lying in the middle of the street, his lifeless body a testament to what had already transpired.
Men were trying to remove the contents of the stagecoach and place them in the back of a wagon, but the men on top of the building were making that task nearly impossible.
Several other bodies lay scattered around the main street and Riley sent up a silent prayer that none of them were members of the town. She didn’t wish anyone dead, but the townsfolk had done nothing wrong. No one deserved to lose their lives over this.
She had the pistol in her hand as she hid behind a cart across the street from the mercantile. She could see the next man, several buildings up, hiding behind a large whiskey barrel.
He most definitely belonged to her brother’s gang, given his state of dress and scraggly beard.
Riley was debating the wisdom of trying to sneak up on him and … well, she wasn’t sure she could actually shoot him if he wasn’t trying to shoot her first, but there had to be some way she could disarm him and give the town one less outlaw to fight. She didn’t have to worry about it a moment later when she watched Jace do the sneaking, taking the man out by hitting him over the head with the butt of his rifle.
Jace made short work of hogtying the man with a piece of rope. Jace picked up the man’s weapons and disappeared just as quickly as he’d appeared. Riley frowned and crept in that direction.
The jail was still five buildings away. That was her destination because that was where Sara Jane was, and Riley knew that was ultimately where Gideon would wind up. Where Roy would wind up.
A showdown was destined to occur this day; she only hoped it wasn’t between Gideon and her brother.
She kept her eyes peeled for movements, surprised when she’d made it all the way down to the jail building without encountering any more outlaws.
It seemed they were all engaged in getting rid of the men shooting at them from the rooftops. There was no way she could get into the jail without drawing attention to herself. There was one door, in the front, only a few dozen feet away from the men trying to empty the stagecoach.
Riley was second guessing her decision to come into town as the fighting increased. The sounds of men groaning in pain as bullets entered their bodies, and the sight of a man falling from the roof of the saloon, created a panicked feeling.
Without realizing what she’d done, she backed up, keeping her eyes on the others as if they were going to come after her. She was so focused on what was taking place in front of her she wasn’t looking behind her. When large, hard hands grabbed her shoulders, she screamed and tried to spin around to confront her attacker.
She slipped on her feet, her attacker’s hands dropped off her shoulders, and Riley scrambled backward, dropping the pistol in the process. She kept going backward, scraping her palms on the rough boardwalk, but she couldn’t stop.
The ugliest, evilest looking outlaw was coming after her. His large hands were filthy, his graying beard and shaggy hair made him look half mad, but it was his eyes that terrified her. They lacked any sign of human compassion. When he smiled, Riley cringed at the stained and missing teeth.
“This is a pleasant surprise. I thought we left you tied up and otherwise occupied, and yet, here you are.”
Riley immediately recognized the voice belonging to her brother’s second in command. Ollie something or other. Gideon had said this man was more dangerous than her brother. Looking at him now and remembering his whispered conversation with her brother when she’d been tied up, she could easily believe it. She needed to find her brother.
“Where is Roy?”
“Roy? I don’t know anyone named Roy.”
“My brother. Where is he?” Riley asked again.
Ollie shrugged, “Can’t rightly say. He was working on unloading things from the jail a little while ago.”
The jail? That’s where Sara Jane is. “He’s been inside the jail?”
“We both have. Funny thing, this town. They thought a little gal could protect all that money.” He laughed and it was like her schoolteacher’s nail scraping along the blackboard. Horrible and it immediately sent shivers, not the good kind, up her spine.
“Her name is Sara Jane and she’s a better shot than most of the men in this region,” Riley said, wishing Sara Jane would show up right about now.
“What do I care what her name is or how well she can shoot? She should have been dead like all the others, but no … Tseena seems to have gotten a conscience since you showed up. He said all of the men, and that gal, are to be tied up in that circle thing in the middle of town. We don’t gets to kill none of them.” Ollie looked very upset by that, but then he grinned and cackled evilly. “We still gets to burn everything. In a way, it’ll be better knowing that you and this town are watching everything they’ve built go up in flames and there won’t be anything they can do to stop it.”
Riley watched the man, realizing that there was something definitely not quite right about him. He seemed to be taking great joy in the knowledge that he was going to cause so much destruction and pain to others. He belonged locked up somewhere.
“Stand up. I think we’ll go find your brother and see what he has to say about you now.” Ollie jabbed a rifle in her direction.
Riley didn’t trust the man not to shoot her and scrambled to her feet. She went to take a step, and her ankle twisted painfully, and she stumbled. That gave Ollie enough time to close the distance between them and he grabbed her upper arm in a bruising grip.
“Ow!”
“Move.”
Riley gritted her teeth against the pain of walking and allowed Ollie to guide her toward the center of the town.
Some of the men were still trying to deal with the fire, while others were still engaged in a gunfight between the saloon and the jail. The stagecoach had been tipped over on its side with the outlaws taking refuge behind it. Ollie stopped them a few buildings away from where the shooting was happening, shoving her hard and causing her to stumble once again.
She tried to keep her footing, but her ankle was sore, and she landed on the ground, hard. Her already sore palms hit the ground as she tried to keep from hitting her face, but she didn’t have to time to think about that because a hand dug into her hair and scalp, jerking her back upright.
Ollie held her in front of him and called out for her brother, “Tseena! I have something you need to see.”
Riley’s eyes were tearing up from the pressure on her scalp. She tried to clear them with the back of her hand, but all that did was let her see the damage done to her palms. They were streaked with blood, and had small rocks and a few slivers deeply embedded.
“Ollie, what are you doing?” Her brother’s voice sounded so different. Hard. Menacing. Furious.
Riley blinked and saw Roy stalking toward their location, and Ollie’s hand tightened in her hair, making her cry out. That only seemed to fuel the intent in her brother’s eyes.
“Someone’s angry.”
“At you,” Riley said.
Ollie laughed, “Wishful thinking, girly. Your brother’s furious that you didn’t stay put.”
Riley disagreed, but looking at Roy’s face as he stopped twenty feet away, she began to doubt herself.
“Ollie, we don’t have time for whatever it is you think you’re doing. The wagon’s loaded up and we need to get out of here.”
“You’ve got a loose end that needs tied up,” Ollie fired back.
“Just leave her be. There’s nothing she can do. She’s not even armed. Riley, you should have stayed where I put you.”
“Roy—”
“Roy,” Ollie mimicked her.
“Be quiet, Riley,” her brother said.
“Why don’t we bring her with us?” Ollie suggested.
“No. Now let her go.”
Ollie was silent for a moment before she felt him shake his head. “I don’t think I like that suggestion. How about we change things up a bit? A couple of the boys and I were talking, and we
’re not quite ready to give up being notorious outlaws. I’ll take over the Johnston gang and you can wander off to Missouri or wherever, just as long as you never come back this way again.”
“The Johnston gang is finished,” Roy fired back.
“I say it’s not,” Ollie replied.
Riley was starting to panic. When her brother raised his gun and pointed it at them, she felt fear grip her.
She tried to turn her head, the motion causing pain to rocket through her scalp. She managed to see a little bit of what was happening. She cringed as Shawn and Jace came forward, their guns raised and aimed, one at Roy and the other at Ollie.
“Let her go,” Shawn called out. “Riley, you okay?”
Before she could answer, the tables turned and instead of Ollie pointing his gun at one of the townsfolk, or even her brother, he was now pointing it at her head.
“I’ll tell you what, I’m declaring myself the new leader of the Johnston gang. Boys, get that wagon hitched up and bring it this direction,” he hollered out.
Riley saw two of the outlaws jump to do his bidding, but the others just stood there looking confused. Ollie must have seen the same thing because he suddenly changed the direction of his gun and fired twice, taking two of them down with shots to their chests.
It was as if the air stood still. Riley saw Sara Jane out of the corner of her eye, her rifle aimed at Ollie’s head. At the same time, Riley saw Gideon arrive, his rifle pointed at Roy. Gunshots echoed through the street and Riley screamed as pain surged through her skull. She felt herself falling, but it was as if in slow motion.
She heard someone shouting her name and then everything went back to normal speed and she was landing on the ground with a thud. Seconds later, the heavy body of Ollie landed atop her, knocking the breath clean from her lungs. She tried to move him, but he was too heavy. She tried to take a breath, but the weight of his body was crushing her.
Then she felt the weight lifted and heard Gideon and Sara Jane calling her name. She lifted her eyes up and saw Gideon. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Everything went black, tunneling down like a vortex and taking her with it.
Chapter 25
“Is she shot?” Gideon asked frantically when Riley passed out. He cradled her in his arms, unable to believe the scene he’d walked up on a few moments earlier. He’d helped get the outlaws pinned down behind the stagecoach, and he’d made his presence behind them known, and currently three of them were nursing minor injuries behind the bars of the jail.
Sheriff Parmele had regained consciousness and was acting very contrite for not having taken the threat against the town more seriously.
He had a knot on the back of his head, and had been very dizzy when Gideon found him, but he’d been more than ready to confine several of the outlaws behind the bars of his jail. Since the money had already been removed from the cell, there were no worries on that front.
Gideon had counted a total of twelve outlaws. Roy and Ollie were the only ones who hadn’t been either shot or subdued, and Gideon and the others had started combing the town for both men.
The doctor was tending to several wounded men, but thankfully none of the townsfolk had been killed. The same couldn’t be said for the stagecoach driver and his outriders, or the three outlaws currently being hauled off to the undertakers.
“She’s bleeding from her head, but it looks like something hit her, not like she’s been shot,” Shawn said.
“She’s lucky she didn’t catch a stray bullet,” James Lawson told his sons. “If either you or Sara Jane had missed …”
“Pa, you know I never miss,” Sara Jane reminded him softly.
James said in a scolding tone, “That was a risk that wasn’t yours to take.”
“I didn’t see Sara Jane. All I could see was Ollie threatening to shoot Riley, and Roy threatening to shoot both of them.”
Riley heard those last words and tried to open her eyes, but her head felt so heavy and her eyelids felt like they were stitched down. “Not right.”
“Riley? Riley, open your eyes.” Gideon peered down into her face.
“Not right. Roy wouldn’t shoot me.” Riley opened her eyes and squinted up into his handsome face, etched with concern.
“There you are. How are you feeling?”
“My head hurts.”
“I bet it does.” James patted her hand. “You look like you’ve had more than your fair share of bumps to it today.”
“What happened?” Riley asked, searching Gideon’s face and seeing the resigned sorrow there.
“I thought Roy was going to shoot both you and Ollie. I didn’t realize Sara Jane had her rifle pointed at Ollie or I might not have fired. Something hit you in the head …”
“Ollie’s gun kicked back when he fired it one handed. The rifle hit me hard.”
“That would explain it,” James murmured.
“Is Ollie…”
“Dead?” Sara Jane finished for her. When Riley nodded, Sara Jane did the same. “No loss to the human race if you ask me.”
“Sara Jane,” James cautioned his daughter, but Sara Jane didn’t look the least bit contrite.
“I’m sure God would agree that a man like that got his just rewards,” she argued back.
“That may be, but the Good Book reminds us to let God mete out justice.”
“So today I was God’s hands in action,” Sara Jane argued. “I’m going to go round up our horses.”
Riley watched her leave and looked at Gideon again. “Where is Roy?”
“Ollie’s shot got him. He died almost instantly. I’m so sorry, Riley,” Gideon told her.
Riley heard his words and for a moment felt immense sorrow, but it dissipated fairly quickly. “He’s dead.” It was a statement, not a question.
Gideon bent to whisper in her ear, “I’m so sorry. If I could …”
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Riley whispered back. “Roy made his decision; he didn’t have to go through with this today.” She felt a few tears spill over on her cheeks, but they were minimal. Somewhere between the time Roy had left her tied up in the abandoned cabin, and when she’d confronted him face to face shortly before his death, she’d come to terms with the choices he’d made.
His choices. No one had forced him to become a hardened criminal. No one had forced him to make sure there were no witnesses left behind. Roy had made those choices and today he’d paid the ultimate price for doing so.
“Is anyone else hurt?” she whispered, silently praying that God had answered her prayers and protected everyone.
“No townsfolk got killed.”
“Good. Oh! The mercantile is on fire,” she suddenly remembered.
“The men from town are working on containing it.”
They were in fact doing their best to dismantle part of the telegraph office. As the building closest to the mercantile, it had caught on fire, but the men had immediately started beating back the flames.
Riley sighed and closed her eyes as the throbbing in her head intensified. This had been a horrible day and she just wanted to go to sleep and forget all about it.
God, please…
