by Lisa Rae
Tommy had been Clayton’s saloonkeeper for the past twelve years. Ever since he took a .45 round in his right hip leaving him partially crippled. Now he walks with a cane and can no longer ride with the gang like he use to.
“So how have you been Angel?”
“I’ve been staying busy down in Colorado City. Mainly at the Wolf’s Den Saloon playing poker,” Angel told Barry.
“I hope you aren’t taking those boys for too much money. They can get right unfriendly when they get unhappy.”
“Oh I let them win a hand here and there,” Angel replied laughing with a beautiful smile. She wasn’t about to tell Barry the truth that she purposely lost most of the time just so she was welcomed in the poker games, and could listen in on the town gossip.
That beautiful smile melted Barry’s heart. Now that Angel wasn’t Gabriel’s woman anymore, she was spending most of her time with him while she was in the outlaw camp, and he looked forward to it!
“How long are you staying this time?” Barry asked hoping she wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon. He wanted a chance to spend more time with her.
“I’m afraid I have to leave out in the morning.”
“But you just got here!” Barry exclaimed.
“I Know, but I have some things I need to go do down in Canon City. I thought I’d stop by on my way there and see how you was doing.” Angel lied on the first part, but she honestly meant the latter.
Touched by Angel’s words, Barry bravely asked, “Would you like to go for a moonlit walk with me?”
Unable to speak as bashfulness overcame Angel, she nodded her head yes, and followed Barry out through the batwings of the camp’s saloon. Once outside they silently walked side-by-side through the camp towards the narrow trail, that went up a canyon ridge to an lookout over the vast canyon below.
Angel led the way up the narrow trail. Once they arrived at the top, Barry took hold of Angel’s left hand turning her towards him. For a while they just stood staring into each other’s eyes, until finally Barry took the bit and leaned down and kissed Angel gently.
Barry didn’t want to push his luck and scare her off, so he suggested, “Maybe we should head back to camp so you can get some sleep.”
Reluctantly Angel nodded her head yes, as shyness overtook her again.
Barry turned them towards the narrow trail and she lead the way back down. Once they reached the bottom of the canyon they shyly held hands as they walked to his cook’s shack. Inside Angel saw that Barry had already made up a cot for her to sleep.
“Thank you Barry. I had a wonderful evening,” Angel said shyly with a beautiful smile.
“My pleasure Angel. I hope you will be back soon?”
“Yes, I should be back later this week.”
Smiling, Barry gently kissed Angel on the lips again and then headed to his small room in the back of the cook’s shack, where his little cot was, and went to bed.
Dreamily Angel laid on her cot thinking about Barry and the evening she just spent with him. She couldn’t believe she had become bashful around him. She had never been bashful around anyone before …
*
Having awakened before daybreak, Gabriel laid in bed while Julianna slept peacefully in his strong arms. He hated not telling her the whole truth, but he had felt she was safer not knowing. She already knows about Angel now, and she will soon be meeting Roark probably later this week.
Should he go ahead and tell her everything? He also wondered how mad she would be when she found out what he was not telling her. After arguing with himself the pros and cons, Gabriel finally decided to tell Julianna the truth later today when they had time to talk. What he was doing was very dangerous and she had the right to know as it could affect her life, and the right to change her mind about being with him if she so chose.
With his decision made, Gabriel quietly climbed out of the small bed, dressed, and headed outside to take care of his chores for the day. The sun was just rising above the canyon walls when he finished putting the last horseshoe on his big bay stallion. His horse had thrown a couple shoes in the mud during their last hurried escape from the stagecoach robbery, and Gabriel had been lucky that his horse didn’t go lame from the rough ride.
*
When Angel woke at daybreak in the Phantom outlaw gang’s camp, she hurried to head out of camp before others woke up. On her way out of camp she saw Gabriel at the blacksmith’s shop shoeing his horse and stopped for a moment.
“So did Julianna skin you alive last night after I left your shack?” Angel asked laughing.
Smiling Gabriel said, “I thought she was goin’ to, till I told her who you really was.”
“Before I go, anything else you want me to pass along?” Angel asked Gabriel.
“No, nothing I can think of. I just hope you can get the message to him in time.”
“Me too Gabriel, me too,” Angel said as she rode off out of the Phantom gang’s camp, headed for Beaver Creek.
*
The Phantom outlaw gang had a blacksmith in the camp to shoe the outlaw’s horses, but Gabriel never let anyone touch his bay stallion but himself. As Gabriel was putting the shoeing tools away at the blacksmith shop, he saw Levi headed his way after having stopped at a couple shacks, before heading towards him. Gabriel wondered what was up?
“Mornin’ Gabriel.”
“Mornin’ Levi. Who’s got you playin’ messenger boy this mornin’?”
“Clayton wants us all to meet at his place in ‘bout ten minutes,” Levi answered.
“I’ll head that way as soon as I put my horse out to graze.”
Nodding his head, Levi turned and headed to go tell the rest of the gang about the meeting. While Gabriel headed with his horse towards the canyon meadow, that was full of buffalo grass, to turn the big boy loose to eat.
Walking into Clayton’s shack, Gabriel saw most of the Phantom gang was already there waiting. He walked over by Alex and idly chatted with her while they waited for the meeting to start.
Of all the Phantom outlaw gang members he rode with, Gabriel liked Alexandra the best. It was probably because deep down she was a good hearted woman who tried to do her best, and make the best of a bad situation.
She never wanted to become a whore, but she had no choice after her husband died and left her penniless. With hard work and smarts she became a madam, and was doing well for herself until the night one of her girls was getting badly beaten up. Alex wasn’t about to stand by and just let it happen, so she shot the man after he refused to stop abusing her girl.
It turned out the man was a well known businessman in Denver, and the city was not about to let the crime go unpunished. When it came to the law, whores had very little legal rights. So when the sheriff came knocking on her front door to arrest her, Alex was running out the back door to a horse she had already saddled up and ready to go.
Whispering to Gabriel Alex asked, “Do you think Clayton has gone loco wanting to go rob that bank with the Calvary so close?”
“Yes, he’s going to get us killed if we don’t watch it.”
Alex nodded her head in agreement with Gabriel as Clayton walked into the room and said, “Quiet down boys so we can get this meetin’ started.”
The room in Clayton’s shack hushed to a couple whispers, then silence just before Clayton began to speak again. “Tomorrow mornin’ we head out right after an early breakfast. We will stop in Colorado City for the night, and leave early the next mornin’ for the Wells Fargo bank in Colorado Springs. I want to get there when they first open up, so that they will still have the safe unlocked and opened while they are filling their cash drawers.
“Levi, Alex, and Chet, I want you three to keep watch outside the bank. Chet, you stay with the horses,” Clayton ordered as he continued on.
“When the rest of us leave for Colorado Springs, Victor I want you and Tate to get the supplies we need from the Owens Mercantile loaded on our pack horses, and go ahead and start headed back towards camp. By the tim
e the rest of us head back, after we rob the bank, we should catch up with you around Rosemont.”
“Any questions?” Clayton then asked.
“Does this mean we get to have some fun while we are in Colorado City?” Chet asked excitedly.
“Yes, but take it easy on the whiskey. We got to be up early the next mornin’.”
*
Leaving Clayton’s shack, Gabriel headed to the cook’s shack for a late breakfast. Inside he found Julianna washing dishes from the morning’s breakfast meal, and walked up to her and gave her a kiss on her cheek, before going to sit in his usual spot at the table in the back corner.
Barry brought Gabriel a cup of steaming hot coffee, and told him he’d have him some breakfast ready in a few minutes. Soon Barry was back with a plateful of scrambled eggs, sausage, fried potatoes, and biscuits. Then he came back to refill Gabriel’s cup.
When Julianna had finished with the dishes she grabbed herself a plateful of food and joined Gabriel to eat. They ate in silence for a while, then Julianna asked him, “Where have you been all morning? When I woke up at daybreak you was already gone.”
“I had to re-shoe my horse, then I had a meeting over at Clayton’s about the Wells Fargo job we’re getting ready to do.”
“Then I take it you still plan to go on that job?” Julianna asked Gabriel sadly.
“Jules, you know I don’t have a choice in the matter.”
“Yes you do!” Julianna said with anger and tears in her emerald eyes, as she stood up and stormed out the cook’s shack door.
Gabriel started to follow her, but then thought maybe it’s best if he let her calm down first. Besides it was almost time for him to go do his duty of standing guard in one of the small canyons, that led into the outlaw camp.
Julianna hurried off to their shack and once inside, plopped down on the small bed and turned the waterworks on full force. She cried till the well went dry and she couldn’t cry anymore.
She just couldn’t understand why Gabriel had to risk his life right now when the Calvary was watching so closely. The Phantom outlaw gang barely escaped last time, only to find out they had been tricked with bags of lead. If he is so determined to kill Victor, Clayton, and Ted, why don’t he just do it, so Gabriel and her could get out of this outlaw camp?
Julianna couldn’t believe what she was just thinking. She actually wanted Gabriel to kill those awful men just so this nightmare would be over! Had she been living in this outlaw camp long enough, that now she was starting to think like an outlaw?
*
The Colorado sun was setting as Angel dropped down out of the Pikes Peak mountain range into the Upper Beaver Creek area. Within a couple hours she was hoping to reach the Glendale Stagecoach Inn, that was further down along the creek, to stay for the night.
The Glendale Stagecoach Inn was a two story stone house on the stagecoach route between Canon City and Colorado Springs.
It wasn’t long before she spotted a couple Calvary scouts patrolling the area. Once she got closer she saw that the Calvary was camped out along the Upper Beaver Creek. About this time one of the Calvary scouts spotted Angel and they headed her way. Angel thought the timing couldn’t be more perfect and headed towards them too.
When they met up Angel asked, “Is Governor Whitaker in camp?”
With the governor’s daughter already kidnapped, the scouts were a bit leery in answering that question. What if this was a trap to kidnap the governor?
Instead of answering her question, they escorted her back to their Colonel where Angel again asked the question, ” Colonel, Is Governor Whitaker in camp?”
He stood there staring at Angel for a while before he answered, “My name is Colonel Finley. Why do you want to know about the governor’s whereabouts?”
“I need to speak to him right away about his daughter.”
“The governor is not here right now, so you tell me about his daughter,” the Colonel ordered Angel.
“No. I will only speak to the governor. When will he be returning?”
Colonel Finley stared at Angel again. She was dressed nicely, but wore a six-gun and had a Sharps .50 in her saddle scabbard which concerned him. He had no reason to trust her, but his gut told him she wasn’t trying to pull any tricks. “What is your name Miss?”
“My name is Angela Savage.”
Having heard of that name before, Colonel Finley knew it was safe to tell her the governor’s whereabouts and said, “He left today for Canon City to go visit the Territorial Prison and won’t be back for a few days.”
“May I camp here tonight Colonel? I would like to get a early start in the morning for Canon City.”
“Most certainly Miss Savage. I will have a lieutenant make a tent available for you right away.”
“Thank you Colonel.”
*
One of the outlaws from a different gang came and relieved Gabriel from sentry duty at midnight. Gabriel was tired but he knew he needed to have a talk with Julianna tonight, if she was awake when he returned to their shack.
As he walked back to his shack Gabriel was thinking about what he was going to tell Julianna. She now already knows Angel is his sister. Roark will be coming into camp soon so he might as well tell her who he is. The question was … does he tell her the real reason why they are all there?
Ten years ago Gabriel lost the first love of his life, Dora Jean Summers. Shot dead in a stagecoach robbery. She was the only daughter to the local widowed Doctor. Gabriel blamed the Doc for putting Dora on that stagecoach, and of course the Doc blamed Gabriel, because he would have never put her on that stagecoach if it wasn’t for him.
For the past nine years, Gabriel spent it searching for the three outlaws the stagecoach driver had described to him. When he finally spotted Victor one day in the Wolf’s Den Saloon playing poker with two men that looked like they could be brothers. Gabriel knew it couldn’t be a coincidence and asked to join the poker game. He didn’t want to ask too many questions in the beginning and scare them off, but he did ask enough to learn that they came to the Wolf’s Den Saloon often.
Now knowing that the Wolf’s Den Saloon was a local hangout for these men, Gabriel got himself a room in the O’Connor Hotel and Cafe’, and took up residence in the Wolf’s Den pretending to be a bad outlaw.
He even took the train up to Denver, and talked to the writer of a penny dreadful about concocting a story about him robbing a bank in Cheyenne. After arguing that the stories the man wrote were only half truths … at most. The author finally agreed to write the story for Gabriel.
It took a couple months for Gabriel to convince Clayton and his Phantom gang to allow him to ride with them. And another six months of being blindfolded every time he was taken in and out from the Phantom gang’s hideout, before he had their full trust.
Early on Gabriel introduced Angel, a poker playing card shark, as his woman. She had to go through the same thing of being blindfolded for many months, before she was allowed to travel in and out to the Phantom hideout by herself.
Getting Roark into the outlaw gang’s hideout wasn’t as easy, since Clayton was not looking to add anymore outlaws to his gang at that time. Luckily another local gang just recently lost a man in a robbery, and was looking to replace him.
Now that Gabriel had spent enough time in the Phantom outlaw gang’s hideout, and worked closely with Clayton, he knew all there was to know about the place and the men in there. He knew where all the sentries were standing guard, what time of day they changed, where all the extra ammunition was stored, and all the routes in and out of the Phantom hideout.
It was finally time to move to the next part of his plan … To take over the Phantom hideout and personally kill Clayton, Ted, and Victor in cold blood to revenge Dora’s death. At least that was his plan till he kidnapped Julianna and fell in love with her …
Now he had to rethink that last part. Gabriel knew if he killed those men then he would be no good to Julianna. Killing in self-defense was one
thing, but to kill in cold blood would send his soul to a dark place that he could never return from.
Up until now he didn’t care because the revenge for Dora’s death consumed him. But now that he had fallen in love again, he wasn’t sure he could commit cold blooded murder.
When Gabriel reached his shack he found Julianna sound asleep. She was sleeping so peacefully that he didn’t want to disturb her after the stressful day he had caused her. Gabriel figured he could skip breakfast early in the morning with the Phantom gang, and spend that time telling Julianna the whole truth.
*
When Gabriel woke early the next morning Julianna was already gone. Barry must have told her about the Phantom gang eating early before they were to leave, and she went to help Barry.
After Gabriel dressed and saddled his horse to be ready to go, he headed to the cook’s shack to find Julianna. He found her waiting on Clayton and Ted at a table by a window. Not wanting to draw their suspicion, he went to his favorite table in the back corner and sat and waited for Julianna to come to him.
She brought him a plateful of food but didn’t look him in the eyes until Gabriel reached for one of her hands, and wouldn’t let go. When she did look, Gabriel saw the fresh pain in her emerald green eyes and said, “We need to talk before I go. I need to tell you something.”
Julianna jerked her hand back out of his grasp, looked deep into Gabriel’s slate blue eyes, and replied sadly, “There’s nothing to talk about.” And with that she walked away to go back to work.
She never gave Gabriel another chance to talk to her before Clayton said, “Let’s ride.”
*
Waking just before daybreak as Angel usually did, she hurriedly dressed, saddled up her red roan gelding, and headed out for the Territorial Prison in Canon City. The rolling desert terrain of scrub oaks, sagebrush, and prickly pear cactus would be fairly easy traveling, and she expected to make good time getting there.
When she finally arrived at the Territorial Prison that afternoon, she rode right up to the front gate and told the guard, “Please tell the governor that Angela Savage is here and needs to speak to him right away.”
