by Merry Farmer
She only had a heartbeat to marvel at the speed with which the stampeding cattle calmed themselves. Shots rang out from the vast, torn up plain they had just galloped across. She tugged her mount to a stop and lifted in her saddle, pushing her hat off so that she could see more clearly. About a quarter of the herd had dashed off in a dozen different directions and now dotted the landscape as they continued to run. The men on horseback, however, were converging in a spot fifty yards behind the bulk of the herd.
Shots rang out. Smoke rose up from rifles on both sides. Eden wiped her face with the back of her sleeve, panting and coughing as she scanned the unfolding scene. Brent rode in the center, behind the others. Braden charged ahead, firing as his horse galloped. Fool. His aim was terrible when he tried that trick. She swallowed at the thought. All the better. Bert hung back by Brent’s side. Her cousins fanned out, slowing their horses to a stop and firing.
Eden was almost ready to sit steady in her saddle to wait things out when a cry split the air and Mason fell from his saddle.
“No!” Cody shouted. He jerked his horse around and charged toward his brother. Eden didn’t hear the gunshot, but she saw him jerk as he too was hit. Billy and Luke saw and shouted with enough ferocity that Eden felt it across the distance.
Without hesitation, Eden raised her Winchester and took aim. “Arms, legs, miss the horse.” Her old mantra echoed in her head as she let out a breath, squinted down the barrel of her rifle, and fired at one of her cousins, Blane. The crack and jolt of the shot, the smoke and the spent cartridge flying was so familiar it calmed her. Blane jerked to the side, dropping his rifle as he clapped a hand on his arm, twisting and falling off his horse.
“One,” she said, voice little more than a croak, and stood in her stirrups.
She swung her rifle around, aiming at another cousin, her Uncle Bo’s oldest, Butch. Her muscles tensed, she held her breath. “Arms, legs, miss the horse.” Again her rifle banged as the shot released. Butch lurched to the side, clawing at his thigh and spilling from his horse.
Like lightning, Eden picked out another cousin, Ted, the black sheep. Her courage faltered and she let out a whimper. Ted used to say he wanted to be a schoolteacher, that the only person who had ever treated him nice was the wizened old booby who they’d made fun of every day back in their one-room schoolhouse in Missouri. Ted had been sweet on a girl who had tried over and over to be Eden’s friend. She’d been too scared to accept that friendship, and eventually the girl moved out West with her family. The flood of memories hit her in the blink of an eye. Ted hadn’t wanted this any more than she had. She couldn’t shoot him, she couldn’t shoot him, she couldn’t—
A crack sounded, and Ted tumbled off his horse. Eden screamed. Frantically, she searched for which of her new friends had shot him. But no, Billy was too far away, Mason and Cody were on the ground. Oscar was close to Ted, but he was turned in the wrong direction. In the wrong direction?
She clenched her jaw, whipping to pick Brent out of the mass of confusion. Her brother had just pulled his revolver up, as if he’d fired a shot. He was looking straight at Ted. Ted must have hesitated, not killed Oscar when he could. A surge of pride in her cousin filled Eden.
It died a heartbeat later as Brent shifted to face Luke and fired without a second thought. Luke jerked to the side.
“No!”
Orders be damned. Eden kicked her horse into a flat run, darting straight toward the heart of the conflict, straight toward Brent. Even the stray, confused cattle that wandered into her path couldn’t stop her from charging. If Luke was hurt—or worse—she wouldn’t be responsible for what she did.
“Brent,” she cried out as she drew close to the heart of the conflict.
Butch and Blane rolled in the dirt, clutching the limbs that Eden had shot. Ted lay face up not far to the side, grimacing in pain. Eden thanked God that he wasn’t dead. Mason lay motionless several yards beyond, Cody crouched over him, blocking Eden’s view. She couldn’t tell if he was dead or not. Braden and Bert continued to shoot at Oscar, Billy, and now Travis, who had galloped up to the scene on her heels. Was he protecting her?
She didn’t have time to wonder. Luke had righted himself in his saddle, though dark red stained his left sleeve. Brent raised his revolver to fire at him again. The shot missed, but Eden screamed anyhow.
“Eden, get back!” Luke ordered.
He took his eyes off of Brent. With a sneer, Brent took aim a third time.
Eden pulled her horse to a stop and raised her rifle. “Arms, legs, miss the horse,” she whispered, took aim, and fired.
Brent dodged to the side, deliberately or by luck it was hard to tell. It didn’t matter; his attention veered away from Luke and landed straight on her.
“Bitsy Briscoe,” he shouted.
Oscar and Billy stopped fighting and whipped toward her. Braden and Bert lowered their weapons. The whole, chaotic scene went still.
“Bitsy Briscoe,” Brent repeated. “Who the hell do you think you are?”
Eden gasped for breath, her Winchester still raised and pointed at her brother. She could fire, but she had a bad feeling she’d shot the last bullet in her rifle’s magazine. Her arms shook too hard for her to get a good shot off anyhow.
Luke wheeled his horse around and drew a revolver from his belt. He aimed and cocked it at Brent, fury scarring his dirty face. A half second later, Braden and Bert’s guns clicked to ready. More snaps and clicks followed as everyone raised and pointed their weapons.
“No,” Eden shouted. “This is between me and my brother.”
Confused glances snapped to her from both sides. She did her best to ignore them. Her attention was focused completely on Brent, on his wicked sneer, his grubby face—a face that could have been handsome, if it wasn’t filled with so much hate. Even when he looked at her, his kin.
“Itsy Bitsy,” he laughed, the sound a sick grumble. He shook his head. “What do you think you’re doing? Don’t you know, sweet little sister, that no one walks away from me?”
“I told you then and I’m telling you now—I don’t want any part of this gang or this family anymore.” She cursed her voice for shaking as she made her declaration.
Brent continued to chuckle as he settled into a seemingly relaxed posture on his horse. “You can’t escape blood,” he said, opening his arms. “You can run all you like and change your name as many times as suits you. Hell, you can marry as many dummies as you want and even pop out a few kids of your own. But you’ll always be mine, my blood, my kin.” He cocked his head to the side. “Come to think of it, any kids you have will be my blood too.”
“No.” She shook her head, Winchester still aimed in spite of her fear. “My babies will be Luke’s babies. I’m his now. I never was yours.”
Brent shook his head. He gestured to Luke, who tensed like a tiger, hand flexing on the handle of his gun. “See that blood on his sleeve?” Brent said. “It’ll be all over the rest of him, and all I have to do is lift a hand. One of the boys will shoot your sweet husband dead before he can so much as blink. And you know why?”
Eden ignored his question. “You do and I’ll shoot.”
“Because they’re mine too,” he answered as if her threat meant nothing. “Bert?”
To Brent’s side, Bert shifted his already cocked revolver to point at Luke’s head.
“You wouldn’t,” Eden sobbed.
Bert squirmed in his saddle, eyes darting between Eden and Brent, face pinched in panic.
“Only a coward threatens women,” Luke snarled, keeping his gun aimed squarely at Brent. Fury rippled off of him, but so did strength. He leaned toward Eden, unable to run to her or draw her to him. “Only a demon threatens his sister.”
“Yeah?” Brent shrugged. “Only a fool crosses a Briscoe.”
“Then call me a fool,” Luke said, “Because I will die ten times over and take you down with me if you so much as sniff in her direction.”
Brent’s chuckle sent shivers down
Eden’s back. “You think you stand a chance against me?”
“Yep,” Luke answered. “I think I stand more of a chance. Because I love this woman.”
Eden gasped, her rifle lowering as her arms went weak.
“I love her like I’ve never loved anyone before,” Luke went on. “She was brave enough to come out here and marry me without knowing a thing about me. She married a restless boy, and made me into a man. And men protect the women they love. They shelter them from harm, give them reason to wake up and try for the best every day. They keep them safe, even if it means losing their own life. So don’t you go telling me that Eden is yours, because you wouldn’t know the meaning of real love if it was written across the sky in flames.”
Brent’s smug grin melted into a deadly sneer. His hand flexed around his gun, and even though he kept it lowered, Eden knew he was ready to fire at any second. Her lips trembled as she scrambled to figure out how to tell Luke, but Luke spoke on.
“Eden tells me you shot her brother, Branch, in cold blood because he wanted out like she did.”
From the ground where they were watching, Eden’s cousins flinched. Braden’s expression hardened to bitterness, but Bert’s contorted to misery. All in the blink of an eye.
“You can threaten us all you like, but Eden has a new life, a new purpose,” Luke went on. “End of story. I’ll give you ten seconds to put away your guns and walk away for good, or else I’ll do what I have to to make sure my wife is free of her past forever.” He paused, then said in a loud voice, “One. Two. Thr—”
It happened in the blink of an eye. Just as Eden had feared, Brent raised his gun and fired. A flurry of other gunshots sounded at the same time. Eden flinched, dropping her rifle as gun smoke swirled into the air around her.
A heartbeat later, Brent curled over his horse, dropping to the ground. Braden flinched to the side, dropping as well.
Eden screamed and jerked toward Luke, but to her surprise, he still sat tall and strong atop his horse, no smoke curling up from his gun. It took her frantic mind a moment to grasp who had fired—Bert, Butch, and Ted. Braden writhed in pain in the dirt. Brent was still, a pool of blood forming under him.
Eden gaped, her stomach turning. At the same time, an odd lightness filled her chest. Free. The word repeated itself over and over in her head. Free, free, free. Her glance darted up to meet Bert’s eyes, only to find the feeling reflected there. Bert’s tormented grimace was gone, replaced by pale, wide-eyed shock. That shock softened to regret so deep it lined Bert’s eyes with red. Eden felt tears sting at her own eyes.
“Go on and live your life…Eden,” Bert all but whispered. “Go be happy.”
Beyond words, all Eden could do was nod as tears drew lines through the dirt on her cheeks. She couldn’t swallow the lump in her throat. But for once, it wasn’t fear and sorrow choking her, it was joy—the joy of putting the darkness of her past behind her forever.
Bert turned to their cousins, still on the ground. “Can you ride?”
The three of them grunted and groaned, but pushed themselves to their feet. Now that he was up, Eden could see that Ted had been hit in his shoulder. All three of her cousins managed to limp and drag themselves to their horses. Butch hauled a still-groaning Braden up over the back of one of their horses, and Ted and Blane managed to load Brent’s body over his mount.
“Wait, they shot Mason and Cody,” Billy argued. “They should face the law.”
He lunged forward, gun still drawn.
“No.” Travis stopped him. Billy was so used to following orders from Travis that he froze in his path and turned to Travis in confusion. Travis shook his head. “If Eden says they go, then they go.”
“But…but they’re outlaws,” Billy protested.
Her cousins had all made it to their horses. Bert gave Eden one last nod before they nudged their horses into as fast a retreat as they could manage in their beat up state. As relieved as she was to wash her hands of the Briscoe Boys forever, her heart ached for the family she’d lost. The trouble was, she’d lost them a long time ago.
“Let them go,” she said with a sniffle. “They’ve suffered enough already, and chances are they have a lot more suffering ahead of them.” It was bad enough that she had to live with the part she’d played in Brent’s schemes, but the rest of the boys had killed men, hurt people. It was far harder for a man with goodness buried at his core to live with himself knowing that, living free, than to face it locked up in a cell somewhere.
She said a quick, final prayer for her kin, then turned away, squeezing her eyes shut. Bitsy Briscoe was dead for good. She opened her eyes as Eden Chance, now and forever, and looked to Luke.
Luke watched her with a mix of love and pride and sadness that filled her heart to bursting. He didn’t have to say anything, she knew every good, kind word she’d ever wanted a man to say to her was in him through the force of the love in his eyes alone.
“Think we could go home and get started on those babies now?” she asked, weak, weepy, but so desperate to do just that that her heart was nearly bursting.
“Sure, sweetheart,” he answered, his voice like a caress. “Anything you want.”
He nudged his horse to walk closer to her, close enough that he could reach out and brush the tears away from her dirty face with his thumb. Then he leaned across to kiss her, so full of power and emotion that Eden could only close her eyes and consign her heart to him forever.
Chapter Eleven
Luke had never been so happy to ride under the iron arch welcoming folks home to Paradise Ranch as he was when he and Eden and the boys passed under it a week later.
“Who ever thought that this old place would be such a sight for sore eyes,” Cody said, rubbing the bandage under his shirt where the bullet had grazed his side.
“I dunno,” Lawson hummed, removing his hat to wipe his brow with his sleeve. “I always liked it. Never wanted to be anywhere else.”
“It’s Paradise,” Eden sighed. Her smile was worn and exhausted, but few things had ever filled Luke with so much satisfaction.
Eden had been quiet after her brothers and cousins rode off, keeping her thoughts to herself as they set to work gathering the stray cows that had wandered away from the herd and fitting things back together. Mason was too injured to help, and even though Cody had been shot too, he concentrated solely on getting his brother into the chuck wagon and making sure he was as comfortable as he could be. They’d had to camp right there where the fight had taken place that night, but after a few hours of travel the next day, they made it to the stockyard in Culpepper.
Fortunately for them all, Culpepper had a doctor who knew his trade. He pulled a bullet out of Mason’s leg and managed to stave off infection in the process. At least so far. Mason was still resting out in Culpepper with Oscar to keep him company until the doctor said he was out of danger. The rest of them had completed the transaction with Howard’s herd, tucked into a hotel for the night, and set out to bring the horses back the next day. Without the cattle to slow them down, the journey home took far less time.
Eden had kept her eyes open, scanning the land around them and the horizon across every mile.
“You looking for them?” Luke had asked her at one point.
She replied with a nod and a wistful sigh. “Don’t know if I want to find a trace of them or not.”
Luke understood. He thought he understood the bittersweet way she’d cried in his arms last night when they were close enough to Paradise Ranch to know that they weren’t going to find a single sign of her kin. That was it. That part of her life was truly over. Luke tried to show respect and not feel too smug over the fact that her life was now completely his.
No, she wasn’t his, they were each other’s.
A rider charging toward them from the path leading to Howard’s house shook him out of his thoughts. “Whoa.” He motioned for Eden and the others to stop so he could make out who the rider was.
His brow flew up when he saw
it was Franklin Haskell. It always struck him as uncanny how nimble Franklin was atop a horse when his legs were broken and encased in braces.
“You’re back,” Franklin hollered once he was within earshot. “Thank God, you’re back.”
Luke exchanged a confused look with Eden, then glanced past her to Travis. Travis shrugged.
“A little late, but at least we made it back in one piece, more or less,” Travis answered Franklin.
Franklin pulled his horse up and slowed until he was breathless and dancing in front of them. “We received a telegram from Culpepper, from a Dr. Xavier Fellowes, a bill for his services.”
Luke snorted and shook his head, a wry grin on his face. Eden chuckled along with him.
“Figures,” she said. “No doctor that good was ever going to let us get away with a smile and a handshake.”
“Especially when he found out who we work for,” Luke agreed.
Franklin gaped at the two of them. “What’s this I hear about a shoot-out? Mason is going to be fine, but are the rest of you all right? Was it Bonneville’s men?” His expression darkened.
“It wasn’t Bonneville,” Travis said, holding up his hands.
A curious look came over Franklin. “There was another man poking around the ranch right after you left. A drifter named…named ‘B’ something. Did he have anything to do with—”
“It was some other gang.” Luke rushed in with a sidelong glance to Eden. “Some bandits who must’ve thought they could rustle some of the cattle and make a quick buck.”
He checked to see if she approved. Since the moment Bert and the others walked off, even though they were asked several times in Culpepper what had happened, an unspoken agreement had sprung up between them all that no one would ever mention who had attacked them or Eden’s connection to them.
Eden glanced off at the horizon, eyes troubled. Her hand moved toward her Winchester, strapped to her saddle. Luke wasn’t sure if she was aware of the movement or not.
