The Outlaw

by Lily Graison

  Sarah watched the men talk, saw others join their little group and realized how close-nit this community was. Willow Creek was small but the people who lived in it cared about their neighbors. She didn’t think she could say the same about her own town. It was large, boasting three saloons, a bank, several dress shops and a number of other businesses. The people were friendly enough but everyone pretty much minded their own business. Here, everything that happened was everyone’s business. The survival of the community depended on them helping each other, of knowing what was going on.

  “Abigail! You need to be inside.”

  Sarah heard Abigail groan and saw her duck her head. A heavy-set woman was walking toward them, her arms burdened with blankets.

  Abigail sighed. “I knew I wouldn’t be able to escape her.”

  “Who is it?” Sarah asked.

  “Edna Pierce.” Abigail plastered a smile onto her face as Edna approached. “I’m fine, Edna. I’d rather be here than home alone.”

  “I’ll go sit with you. You shouldn’t be out in this cool air. Morgan should have his hide tanned for allowing it. Where is he?” Edna turned in a circle looking for him. “I’ll go have a word with him myself. Of all the reckless...”

  “Edna,” Abigail said, standing. “I’m fine. I’m not going home. I’m perfectly fine here.”

  Sarah watched the exchange, amused at the woman’s antics until she turned her head to look at her. Edna looked her over, her lip curling a bit before she sniffed. “Who are you?”

  Abigail intervened and Sarah was glad for it. “This is Sarah, a friend of Colt’s.”

  Edna gasped at the name, her hand rising to cover her chest. “Colt? Colton Avery?” She turned widened eyes to Sarah. “Why in the world would you befriend that man? He’s an outlaw, you know. You’d be best to steer clear of him, dear.”

  Sarah opened her mouth to respond but Abigail touched her shoulder and gave a light squeeze.

  “I’ll be sure she knows all about him, Edna.” Abigail smiled again, the motion causing lines to bracket her mouth. “I do believe Mrs. Jenkins was asking for you earlier.”

  Edna’s chin lifted and she sniffed in a haughty manner before nodding her head. “I’m sure she is. Lord knows this town would fall to pieces if I weren’t here to make sure it ran smoothly.” She turned on her heel and walked away, barking out orders that carried over the entire schoolyard.

  When she was nowhere in sight, Abigail sighed and sat back down. “That woman means well but she’s such a tyrant.”

  Sarah grinned. “I got that impression.”

  They sat quietly for long minutes until Morgan walked over and asked Abigail to go home. She tried to protest but Morgan was having none of it. He asked Sarah to see she made it there and told them both he and Colt would join them soon.

  Sarah nodded, agreeing to see Abigail home, and kept one eye on Colt as she walked his new sister-in-law back to her house. She followed Abigail in, let her guide them toward the kitchen and demanded the woman sit when she started to gather things to make tea. Sarah took over, seeing the exhaustion on Abigail’s face and sat quietly with her in the early morning hours waiting for Colt and Morgan to return.

  The question of what happened now repeated itself in her head. The stagecoach was due today at noon. Did she get on it and return home or did she stay? Her heart told her to plant her feet in the fertile Willow Creek soil but her head reminded her of how ornery Colt was. If he wanted her to stay, he would have said so by now, wouldn’t he have?

  * * * *

  By the time the sun rose over the mountains and began to warm the ground, half the town was destroyed. The hotel was still burning, the marshal’s office in ashes but thankfully, the Mercantile survived, with only half the store gone. It was salvageable, as was with the telegraph office next door to it. It only suffered minor damage to one exterior wall.

  Everyone from miles around made their way to what was left of the town, their wagons filled with blankets and food, buckets of water and compassionate, soothing words. Sarah was sitting on the front porch of Morgan and Abigail’s house, wrapped in blankets. Abigail had been trying to get her to come inside for well over an hour but the thoughts of it caused Sarah’s pulse to race. She needed wide-open spaces, the feel of cool air on her face. She needed to be able to see Colt as he walked the town with Morgan, accessing the damage.

  When both men started back to the house, Sarah stood and wrapped the blanket tighter around her shoulders. She called in to Abigail that they were returning and both women waited patiently for the men to join them. When Colt was close enough to see clearly, the look on his face confused her. He looked angry, thin lines bracketing his mouth as he walked up the walkway to the porch. “What’s wrong?”

  “Virgil.”

  Sarah’s eyes widened at his one word answer. “He’s here?”

  Colt nodded. “He was.” He climbed the steps and came to her, wrapping his arms around her. “There’s no proof he started the fires but I’d bet everything I own, they’re the cause of all this.”

  Morgan kissed Abigail’s cheek and wrapped his arm around her. “Vernon said a group of men came into the saloon late last night, bragging about a bank robbery and killing a few US Marshals. Said they were pretty drunk by the time they’d spent their money and that’s when one of the girls over there overheard one of them mention Colt’s name. They left after that and it wasn’t long, Vernon said, that he saw the fire over at the jail.”

  Sarah scrunched her brow. “Why would they set the town on fire though?”

  “Because they knew this is where I live.” He ran his hand through his hair. “They followed us, just like I feared they would. That and this is what they do. They wreak havoc everywhere they go. It’s why I spent the last year getting to know them all. Setting up that bank robbery so we could catch them.”

  “Catch them?” Sarah stared at him, confused. At his nod, old conversations flooded her mind. The things he told her while drunk on her hotel room floor screeching though her head. “Wait a minute. You mean that whole story of you being a US Marshal was true?”

  Colt laughed and pulled her closer to his side. “I told you I wasn’t a bad man.”

  A jumble of thoughts flashed through her head, the most prevalent, Colt wasn’t an outlaw. Not really.

  Morgan took Abigail inside the house and when they were alone, Sarah turned to Colt. “Why didn’t you tell me this on the first day?”

  He smiled. “Because the less you knew the better off you’d be. Besides, I intended on dropping you off at the first town I came to.”

  “Then why didn’t you?”

  The look in his eyes caused her heart to race. His hand raised, his fingers tunneling into her hair. “Because it only took a day for me to want to keep you.”

  He wanted to keep her? Then or now? She was so confused. She was sure it was from being awoken in the middle of the night in a burning building, the adrenaline rush of almost being burnt alive and the lack of oxygen must have killed off what common sense she had. Was he saying he wanted her to stay? “Keep me for what, exactly?”

  Morgan joined them and the questions Sarah had would have to wait. “I’m ready when you are,” Morgan said.

  “Ready for what?” Sarah asked, looking from Morgan to Colt. “You’re leaving?”

  “We’ll be back as soon as we can.” Colt pushed her hair back and tucked it behind her ear. “Stay with Abigail. She needs to rest and Morgan doesn’t want her to be alone. His only other option is leaving her with Edna and he’d rather chew his own arm off than do that.”

  Sarah’s chest tightened with the knowledge he was leaving but nodded her head anyway. “All right.” He kissed her, uncaring if anyone saw and smiled at her before walking away. When she turned and saw Abigail at the doorway smiling, she raised one eyebrow. “What?”

  “If you think you’re getting on the stagecoach when it pulls into town, you’re sadly mistaken.”

  “Why do you say that?�
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  Abigail laughed. “Because I know how those Avery’s think. I’ve never met Colt before today but I’d bet money he’s as pig-headed and ornery as his brothers. If he intends to keep you, he will, and you’ll have no say in the matter.”

  Sarah wanted to argue about that but she was too tired. All she wanted to do was sleep for a week and think of nothing. Thinking led to questions she had no answers for and come noon, she had a decision to make. Did she get onto that stagecoach and leave or did she stay and hope Colt loved her enough to want to marry her.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Colt could think of a dozen things he’d rather be doing than chasing after Virgil’s sorry hide and almost all of them required Sarah naked.

  He couldn’t seem to get her out of his thoughts. Ever since he left the clearing the day before, knowing she was upset with him about something, she’d consumed his thoughts. He’d been ready to leave, to go as far as his horse would take him and hoped that given time, he’d forget about her.

  Finding out the hotel was burning, and she was in it, caused something inside him to snap. He’d never known fear like that and knew to his bones he never wanted to live without her. If that required doing the unthinkable, and asking her to marry him, then so be it. He’d crawl to her on bended knee and beg her if he had to. One way or the other, he’d keep her, even if he had to kidnap her again and hold her hostage until she was old and gray.

  Morgan slapped him with his hat and Colt turned to glare at him. “What the hell was that for?”

  His brother laughed and repositioned his hat. “I’ve been saying your name for the last five minutes. Stop thinking about that girl and help me track these outlaws of yours. She’ll be right where you left her when you get back.”

  Colt sneered and tried to clear his head, focusing on their task instead. The prints Virgil and the others’ horse’s made showed they’d lit out of Willow Creek in a hurry, which left a trail easy to see. They tracked them for a good portion of the morning and finally slowed when they saw smoke up ahead in the trees.

  “That them, you reckon?” Morgan asked.

  Colt nodded. “Probably. They’re a bit too stupid to know any better. They’re probably sitting around the fire, filling their belly's and deciding what hell to cause next. They’ll not have sense enough to think we’re looking for them.”

  Morgan motioned him to the left of the road, into the forest, and Colt followed. They dismounted, hobbled the horses and checked their guns before making their way further into the brush.

  They came up behind them and counted heads. Only five, which meant they’d lost three since the last time Colt had seen them. “There’s three missing.”

  “The three you saw setting fire to the jail, you think?”

  Colt shrugged. “Possible.”

  They crawled closer, making sure they stayed low to the ground.

  “How you want to go about this?” Colt asked.

  Morgan tipped the front of his hat up with the barrel of his pistol. “I say we just shoot them but I think the US Marshals want them charged for their crimes.”

  Colt grinned. “They do but they shot three of my men. I don’t think anyone would cry if I turned these in dead.”

  A branch cracked behind them and Colt turned, getting a boot to the face for his trouble. A gun was pressed to Morgan’s head and the three missing outlaws stood grinning down at them.

  “I think my momma would cry if I was dead.” He spit out a stream of tobacco juice. “Yours, on the other hand, aint here to cry.”

  “Hey Virgil! Look what we found.”

  Colt and Morgan were disarmed and pulled from the ground and pushed in the direction of the outlaw’s small camp. Everyone was accounted for, Colt saw, as he counted heads.

  “You think I was just going to let you go, Colt?” Virgil looked at the others and laughed. “We been searching high and low for your sorry hide and finding that piss-ass little town was just dumb luck. Who’da thought we’d end up right where we needed to be?”

  Morgan dropped to his knees when someone kicked him in the back of the leg and Colt bit his tongue. This was why he preferred to work alone. The less people around him he cared for, the less vulnerable he was. When they forced him to his knees, Colt look up at Virgil and grinned. “You do know I’m going to turn you in, right?”

  Virgil laughed. “How you plan on doing that?”

  Colt didn’t answer, just stared the man in the eye and smiled. He knew Virgil to be a coward at heart. The man acted cocky and would do and say anything as long as those guns were strapped to his hip but when it came right down to it, he’d piss himself and beg for his life. He just hoped he got a chance to prove his point.

  The gang was careless at the best of times and staging the bank robbery had been all Colt’s idea. The others would have ridden into town and gotten killed trying to escape if it hadn’t been for him and he knew, capturing him hadn’t been thought out. They had him now but they were still just standing around gawking. If they had any sort of plan, they would have acted upon it by now.

  A single shot from a gun echoed in the distance and everyone turned to look. Colt used their distraction to his advantage. He reached for Virgil’s holster, pulled his pistol before standing, grabbing Virgil around the neck and forcing the gun into his cheek. “Tell them to not move, Virgil, or I’ll blow your head off.”

  Virgil struggled and Colt tightened the hold around his neck. After several long moments, Virgil stuttered out a, “Do what he says.”

  Morgan stood, disarmed the man who kicked him, and punched him in the face before aiming the gun at him. “What now?”

  Colt grinned. “We truss ‘em up really pretty and take them back to town, what else?”

  They made them all sit, Colt holding two guns on them as Morgan ran back to get their horses. He looked at Virgil. The man was seething, his face red with anger. “What did you think, Virgil? That I’d eventually just let you go?”

  He didn’t answer, choosing to spit at his feet instead. Morgan returned and dug a length of rope from his saddlebags and once everyone was tied, they began marching them back to town.

  “This was way too easy, Colt. Are all the outlaws you catch so easy to take down?”

  Colt laughed. “Not usually, but there’s always an exception to the rule, especially when you have a bunch this stupid."

  Morgan grinned. "Must be your lucky day, then.”

  "After the day I've had, a bit of luck would be nice."

  * * * *

  By the time Colt saw the lingering smoke wafting from the trees, he was ready to make Virgil and the others run. Willow Creek was still smoldering and he had half a mind to chain their sorry hides together and make them clear out every scrap of burned wood before turning them over to US Marshals.

  They entered the town proper, the acrid scent of burning embers thick in the air. Colt saw the stagecoach and something twisted in his gut. Sarah’s ride was there and he sighed in relief that he’d made it back to town before it left. Before she left.

  Eight men trussed together and being marched into town was enough to draw the attention of everyone on the street. Morgan, with the help of Percy Goins, one of the livery stable hands, secured a stall in the barn to keep Virgil and the others in until they talked Vern over at the saloon into handing over his stock room. It was the only place in town, now, that had a door that locked.

  When everyone was settled, and word had been sent to Vern, Colt and Morgan rode to the other end of town toward Morgan’s house. Colt’s palms started sweating the moment he saw Abigail step out onto the porch.