And there it was.
Eli’s eyes came open the rest of the way as the thing he’d been waiting for finally arrived. Lunging at the keys in her hand in one moment of weakness had been an animal’s instinct, as well as one of the most shameful moments of his life. It had given him a good look at the man he’d become. Eli hated that man. Although it was too late to keep him from being seen, that man could be changed. The fact that Lyssa had seen fit to speak to him after that sorrowful display told him it wasn’t too late for that.
There was still time for him to make a choice that involved action instead of reaction. Time to travel a path that required him to walk on his own steam instead of being dragged by someone else’s.
It wouldn’t have been an easy choice to make under the best of circumstances, and these were terrible no matter how he looked at them. Sure, he had a horse and open ground in front of him, but that was no longer good enough. Even if he’d given up on holding himself accountable for anything, he now knew there was someone else out there worthy of answering to.
Finding her hadn’t been easy. Eli even wondered if it had been a miracle. Having never bought in to such blindly optimistic talk, he honestly didn’t know how a true miracle could be defined. His heart told him he wasn’t using that word lightly, which was enough for his head to agree. Once that was settled, there was only the question of where he should go from there.
After being sidetracked by some bad decisions made by the outlaw part of Eli’s soul, he’d been granted a quiet moment where he was both honored and punished to see who he was and what he needed to do.
Helping Saunders had been the right thing to do.
Allowing his fate to be decided by the likes of Zack and Eddie wasn’t even close.
Getting a glimpse of Lyssa had been a blessing.
Winning her favor, a pursuit worth living for.
Throwing away the chance to feel her hand in his was nothing short of a sin. Eli had heard about sins and sinners from folks who tossed those words about with ease, but to one who’d sinned, they meant more. To one who’d walked in the darkness, the shadows were that much deeper. Preachers called swearing in the wrong company or kissing the wrong girl a sin. They called children and misguided drunks sinners.
Eli knew sin and he’d stood beside sinners. Neither of those things was something he took lightly, which was why allowing himself to be anyone other than a person who could look Lyssa Beihn in the eye cut him right to the quick. Now that Eli knew exactly where he’d so recently strayed, why he had to find his way back, and what he needed to do to get there, he just needed to see it through. That was no small thing.
After sinking his fingers a little deeper into the ground, Eli slowly curled them to feel dirt slide beneath his nails and cool pockets of dampness ease against his skin. Eventually, he made a fist. Closing it as tightly as he could, he brought it up and opened it to allow the mush to spatter back against the overturned grass.
Insects that had settled upon his shoulders and arm now scattered as if surprised by the fact that their perch could move on its own. Even his horse shifted uneasily when Eli returned to place his hand on its side. He stroked its brown and black mane until it calmed and nuzzled his arm.
Looking up and toward the ground that had been in front of him, Eli took hold of the reins in his dirty hand and brought the horse around to face the path he’d left behind. Plenty of hurt lay in that direction, but it was the way he needed to go. Riding anywhere else would have just given him something to regret later on.
“Aw, hell,” he grumbled while climbing into the saddle. “I better do this before I realize how stupid it is.”
Chapter 16
The robbers stopped and started again more times than an engine with a broken piston. If they weren’t riding at full speed amid the thunder of hooves, they were drawing to a halt so they could cluster together and whisper among themselves. The most consistent element of the group was Robert. His bulky frame and whisker-covered face was never far from Saunders. Despite the shotgun in the large man’s hands, the sheriff took some comfort in the fact that he could at least count on one thing to remain the same.
“What is it now?” Saunders asked after the horses had been reined in for what felt like the tenth time.
Also consistent was Robert’s commitment to remaining quiet unless one of the other bandits addressed him. When Saunders spoke to him, which was often, he stood still without so much as looking in the lawman’s direction.
“Come on, now,” Saunders groused. “The least you could do is let me know what all the deliberation is about. After all, it’s probably my life hanging in the balance.”
“No, it isn’t.”
Saunders couldn’t help letting out a surprised chuckle when he heard the voice rustle from beneath Robert’s thick carpet of a beard. “You’re telling me my life isn’t hanging in the balance?”
“No,” Robert said as he shifted his eyes to look over at the lawman. “I’m telling you it ain’t the least I could do. The least I could do would be to pound this shotgun against your skull to keep you quiet.”
“Or wrap a bandanna around my mouth. That’d work and that’s even less effort than constantly ringing my bell.”
Saunders couldn’t be certain, but he thought he might have seen a hint of a smirk beneath the big man’s whiskers. “Yeah,” he grunted. “I suppose that’d be the least I could do.”
“So, what are they talking about?”
Surprising Saunders yet again, Robert said, “Which way we should head into Seedley. Or what we might find when we get there. If you got anything to say in that regard, now’s the time to speak up.”
Saunders nodded, but didn’t make a sound.
“Wanna know what’s the least you could do?” Robert asked. “You could tell us how to get to the rest of that money before Zack asks again. If you see Eddie comin’ your way, you’d be wise to start talking even faster. He’s getting real impatient and that’s when things get ugly.”
“Like this isn’t ugly enough?”
This time, the lawman’s jovial tone had no effect on Robert. He shifted his head to look at him directly and growled, “No. This ain’t even close to how much uglier things could be.”
Any lawman worth his salt would hear plenty of threats throughout his career. Most of the time, they weren’t even empty ones. While no lawman could be frozen by threats like those, he had to know when to be concerned. At that moment, Saunders was concerned. Either he’d been holding on to one last bit of hope or he simply hadn’t allowed himself to look at the entire picture, but he’d been able to keep a relatively level head. Rather than allow that one slim advantage to slip away, he steeled himself and said, “Things aren’t about to be ugly for just me, you know. I’m a sheriff. A lawman.”
“I know. Saw the badge.”
“Then you should know it’s more than just a decoration pinned to my shirt. It means there are consequences for not listening to what I say and a price to pay for raising a hand against me.”
When Robert chuckled this time, it could very well have been a tremor before the earth opened up. “We done a lot more than raise a hand.”
“That’s right. And before things get worse, you should think about saving yourself.”
“Only man that needs to be saved around here is you.”
“And once word gets out that you’ve held me this way or done anything worse, you and the rest of this gang will be wanted men.”
“Already are,” Robert sighed as if he was stating the color of the sky.
“You must not have killed any lawmen,” Saunders replied with an equal amount of certainty. “Otherwise, I would’ve heard about it. Once a lawman is gunned down anywhere within a week’s ride of here, word spreads like wildfire and that’s way out here where the grass grows tall. You go anywhere closer to a town of any size, and word will spread even faster.”
“Ain’t such a bad thing for word to spread about us. Makes the next job easier.
”
“I’m not talking about a reputation. I’m talking about a death sentence.” From the corner of his eye, Saunders could see the rest of the robbers were starting to break out of their group. The other four were still talking, but it wouldn’t be long before they were ready to ride again. “Lawmen don’t like being the hunted ones,” he said in a rush. “You see, we’ve got a reputation too. It doesn’t do us a lick of good for it to be known we can be gunned down so easily. Before you know it, every outlaw in the territory will be running free, thinking they can do as they please.”
Robert let out a single, huffing laugh that ruffled the edge of his mustache that hung closest to his upper lip. “We been doin’ what we please so far.”
“Right. Because you’re not in anyone’s sights. You men become known as killers with no fear of the law or any man who stands behind it, and that will most certainly change. The prices on your heads will triple. Not only will bounty hunters be looking for a payday, but any other lawman will want to make it known that the law is something to be respected. They’ll make an example out of you,” the sheriff added in a conspiratorial whisper. “That means you’ll be shot full of holes, propped up in a box, and put on display as a warning to any other foolish souls who think they can tear through these parts like a plague. They’ll take pictures of your bodies and post them as a message to more would-be gunmen. You ever seen pictures like those? In order for them to do their job, the men in them have to be messed up. Real bad.”
Saunders couldn’t tell if that registered with the bigger man or not. Robert only budged when Zack came along to pat him on the back and tell him it was time to get moving. Once everyone else was in their saddles, Zack approached Saunders and said, “We’re going to Seedley and you’re riding up front with me and Eddie.”
“If you think I’m going to help you do anything, you’re mistaken,” the lawman told him. “There isn’t even anything for you to take once we get there. I don’t know where Eli came up with that nonsense about money lying around.”
“See, that’s just the thing. Not all of us are convinced of that either. On one hand, I know for a fact that he rode with Jake Welles. I heard about a skinny dude with a baby face riding with him and Hank, and he sure fits the bill. He said some things that no one else would say unless they were part of that gang or at least rode with men who were, and since one of us even heard of a man named Eli riding with Jake Welles, I’d say there was something to that story of his.
“On the other hand, Eddie’s been to Seedley and he knows it’s got a vigilante problem, which adds even more credence to what Eli said. We got its sheriff under our thumb, which should count for something. At the very least, someone there should be willing to pay some sort of ransom to get you back. We even came up with the idea of using you to walk into the little bank they got in that town and help ourselves. If nothin’ else,” Zack continued, “you’ll make a fine shield if any deputy or hotheaded citizen decides to take a stand against us. Whatever we get from that combined with what we already took from you should make this a pretty valuable little venture. Whatever hand we decide to play, it works out pretty well for us.”
“What about me?” Saunders asked.
“Could work out well enough to keep you alive, depending on how you cooperate.”
“Me cooperating with you doesn’t make me much of a sheriff. My name would be mud in this whole territory.”
“But you’d be alive.”
Narrowing his eyes and screwing his face into a contemplative grimace, Saunders looked as if he was truly weighing his options. After a few seconds, he shook his head once and said, “Think I’ll pass on the offer, but I’ve got a good one for you. How about you set me loose before you and your boys get in too deep for you to ever get out again?”
When Zack looked to him for backup, Robert said, “He thinks every man wearing a badge will hunt us like dogs if we harm a hair on his pretty little head.”
“I never went so far as to call myself pretty,” Saunders replied, “but I appreciate the compliment.”
Zack wasn’t amused. Approaching the lawman and grabbing his neck as if he meant to either lift him onto his horse or throttle him right then and there, he snarled, “If you think you can talk your way outta this, you’re sadly mistaken! And if you think we’re gonna believe a word you say or be threatened by you just because of a title slapped on you by some mud hole of a town, you’re mistaken again.”
“Then I suppose I should keep my mouth shut.”
“Good idea, lawman! You do what you’re told, walk where you’re pointed, and keep your manners in line and we should get along just fine. You don’t and I’ll drop you with one shot to the gut so my boys can finish you off in ways you don’t even want to contemplate.”
Saunders didn’t waver as he stared at the outlaw. Keeping his composure wasn’t a very difficult task. All he needed to do was think about one particular thing to draw his entire being into one focused point. He wasn’t certain if he would actually make it to Seedley or what would happen once he got there. All he knew was that, if he didn’t do something about it, he was a dead man.
“You understand me, Sheriff?” Zack asked, spitting that last word out like a piece of gristle.
Saunders nodded once, causing the outlaw to beam proudly.
“Very good. We’re gonna load you back onto that horse and then we’re riding back to your town. This goes right and nobody has to get hurt. Not even you. Things start going wrong…well, they’ll go wrong for everyone. Us, you, and anyone within range of our guns.”
As promised, the sheriff was dumped across the back of a horse and the outlaws started riding again. Saunders didn’t bother himself with any more details than that. He had bigger problems to solve, no tools at his disposal, and precious little time to get anything done.
He wanted to think he’d been in tougher situations, but that would have been a bald-faced lie.
Chapter 17
Saunders had never been very good at poker. That single fact had never really bothered him until now. Mostly, what he wanted was the ability to make his face unreadable by his opponents. As he was carried back along the trail he’d covered what seemed like a lifetime ago, he was certain his rage was pouring out of him like steam from a teakettle. The outlaws were treating him differently, watching him closer, even keeping their guns drawn and ready to fire. Whether that was because of any changes in him or due to their closer proximity to their destination was anyone’s guess. Since they still had a ways to go before arriving in Seedley, Saunders could only assume some of the bandits were beginning to grow weary of their unwilling travel companion.
When the entire group slowed to a stop, Saunders felt his heart skip a beat. They hadn’t been riding for very long, and after all of Zack’s big talk about his plans, he figured they’d be riding well into the night to get back to Seedley that much quicker. There was always the possibility that they’d just needed some time to reconsider their options and see the error of their ways. Then again, that seemed almost as likely as a twister coming along to sweep away the bandits and leave Saunders with his ropes untied.
“Who is that?” Eddie asked.
Since he was draped across the back of a horse, Saunders couldn’t see whom he was referring to. Zack rode past him and took a moment to dig for something in his saddlebags. The sheriff could only guess it was field glasses or a telescope, because the outlaw’s voice was heavy with concentration when he said, “Looks like that friend of ours changed his mind about joining us.”
Eddie hacked up something and spat it onto the ground. “Yeah, well, if he thinks he can just swoop in and get an equal share, he’s mistaken.”
“There’s more riding on this than money. It’s a shot at trading up into some bigger jobs.”
“With Jake Welles and his bunch? Think I’d rather take my chances when I’m not in the sights of so many lawmen.”
“You don’t know anything,” Zack said amid the distinct clatter of
a telescope being collapsed. “Just being able to count a man like Jake or Hank among our friends could mean a lot. Go see what he wants.”
“No need. He’s coming to us.”
“Go meet him, I said!” Zack snapped. “See what he wants before we let him get up close.”
Eddie’s muttering wasn’t clear enough to distinguish every word, but Saunders could tell that it wasn’t favorable.
As Eddie’s horse broke away from the group, another drew closer. Saunders closed his eyes and listened to the two rhythms of hooves beating against the dry ground to meet somewhere nearby after only a few seconds. Once again, Eddie’s voice could be heard along with Eli’s. No matter how hard Saunders concentrated on the discussion going on nearby, he couldn’t make out more than a few words. Eddie still seemed perturbed, but Eli was as cool and unwavering as polished steel.
“This is taking too long,” Robert grunted in a voice that would only be heard by the few men in his immediate vicinity.
Being one of those men, Zack replied, “Give it another moment. Eddie’s probably just sticking his foot in his mouth again.”
“He does that a lot.”
“Yes, indeed.”
“Too much,” Robert snarled.
In that moment, Saunders decided the big man with the bigger beard was more than just a set of able hands and a shotgun. Because Zack didn’t correct him with the speed in which he frequently scolded Eddie, Robert could very well be one of the leaders of this pack instead of just another follower. The sheriff stowed that away for future use as a horse rumbled up to settle beside Zack.
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