by Jodi Thomas
The lone man remaining in the car with Victoria moved along the aisle, blowing out one lamp after another until the only light made a circle around her.
Killian knew what the guard was doing. He was waiting in the darkness of the car, using her for bait should anyone want to try and take her.
“Ready?” Killian whispered.
Abe stood slowly and braced himself against the lumber. He raised his rifle. He’d offer the O’Tooles cover and, if necessary, draw fire to act as a diversion so they could get Victoria out.
Killian watched his brother move to the far end of the car. Stitch would be going in from the south door. Killian knew it was time for him to move, but he stood frozen in place. The gun felt wrong in his hand. It seemed to pull him backward in time to a day when the whole world fell into hell.
All the noise. The fires. The sounds of men dying. The sight of his dead brother.
Killian blinked. His brother wasn’t dead. Shawn was alive. He’d made it through the war. And now he might be shot if Killian didn’t act fast. He focused on his wife sitting frozen in the center of the car, as he began to run for the north door.
Just as Killian reached the door to the passenger car, a shot rang out inside. He shoved his way in yelling like a single warrior fighting the gods.
A flash of lightning blinked the car into full light, and for a second Killian saw a man standing over Shawn ready to fire another round.
Killian screamed again and threw his body at the guard.
For a moment the guard hesitated, and that was all Stitch needed. He swept his strong arm against the shooter’s legs and buckled them.
The shot went wild, and before he could fire another both O’Tooles were on top of him.
Killian hit the guard hard one time before he could rein in all his anger, and then he helped Stitch pull the man up and search him for other weapons.
“Are you hit?” he asked Shawn.
“No, but I felt the bullet fly by and part my hair.”
When Killian turned and saw Victoria’s frightened eyes, he calmed. Leaving the man to Stitch, he ran to her and knelt beside her seat. “Are you all right, Victoria?”
She shook her head. “My hands are tied to the seat,” she whispered. “They were afraid I’d warn you.” He slipped his hands down to hers and freed the rope. “I knew you’d come for me.”
“I would have come for you even if I’d had to go all the way to South America. I’d never stop looking for you. You’re a part of me.”
Killian tossed the ropes to his brother. “How about we get out of here?”
She smiled. “I’d like that.”
She stood and hugged her favorite ghost, then took Killian’s arm. As they walked off the train, Abe met them, his rifle on his shoulder.
“Good job, Killian.”
“I didn’t do much,” Killian said, thinking that fear controlled most of his actions. Not fear of dying but fear of losing his family, Shawn and Victoria.
“You saved my life, little brother,” Stitch said. “You’re a real hero.”
Killian wanted to argue, but he was too happy. He didn’t care about being a hero, he just wanted them safe.
They walked down toward the depot as the marshal and his men herded the rest of the outlaws together. The men had given up without a fight.
Victoria gripped Killian’s arm so hard she drew his full attention.
“What is it?” he asked as Stitch moved to the other side of her as if sensing he needed to protect her.
Abe voiced her fear before she could. “Myers is missing.”
Chapter 46
Duncan drifted in and out of sleep. He’d been beaten up in fights worse, he decided, as if that were the bright side. Every time he got up the strength to open his one good eye, he saw Rose sleeping in the chair like some kind of guardian angel.
Maybe she was. She always had been. He could remember a time years ago when he heard everyone else talking around him, but he couldn’t say a word. No one had ever taught him how. He didn’t know how to act or what to do. He’d been five when Travis McMurray found him in a campsite tied to a rope like a dog. For weeks people tried to make him do things he didn’t understand and all he could think about was running and hiding.
Everyone tried to tell him what to do, except Rose. She’d just walked up to him, taken him by the hand, and shown him how to act.
He grinned, then groaned in pain. She was still bossing him around half the time, but tonight when he was getting what little brains he had kicked out of him, all he could think about was that she might be hurt. No matter how many times he was hit, she was the one thing on his mind.
She was the one person he couldn’t live without. Rose McMurray was simply the center of his world, like it or not, there was nothing he could do to change that fact and he knew he wouldn’t want to even if he could.
He forced his one good eye open again and looked at her one more time before he fell asleep.
“My sweet Rose,” he whispered.
The wind from an open window brushed across his cheek as he dozed off.
In what seemed like hours later, he awoke to the sound of someone talking. On instinct, he reached for his Colt that Rose had left an inch from his hand.
It was gone.
A dry laugh came from a few feet away. Duncan forced his eye open.
Myers stood behind Rose, his hand on her shoulder keeping her still in the chair. “Good evening, Ranger. I hope you slept well. I would have been here sooner, but I had a little trouble beating your location out of the wagon driver. Finally, he decided to cooperate.”
Myers’s voice was so calm it didn’t seem to fit with what Duncan saw. He fought to clear his mind enough to think. With the broken ribs, he’d have little chance jumping forward to attack, though he might have tried it if Rose hadn’t had a gun pointed at her head.
“You’re a sound sleeper, Ranger McMurray. I got everything I need loaded in the wagon while I was waiting around to tell you good-bye. Even decided to take the two women you had in the parlor along with me. At least part of the way.” He smiled. “You see, once Victoria told me what was in her bags, I understood her father’s plan and I figured something out. I didn’t need her or the major. All I needed was the money. I thought of killing my bothersome ex-bride, but it would be a waste of effort. Better to use her as a diversion at the station while I slip away from the others. Let her new husband have her. When I get to Galveston, I’ll hire my own ship and make my own way. The major’s spent so much time rattling on about his grand plan that I know every step.”
“You can have the gold, Myers. Leave the women here.”
Myers laughed. “They’re not important to you, Ranger. They’re only a runaway and a maid. Only this one matters to you.” He tapped the barrel of his gun against the side of Rose’s head. “I’m not taking them to hurt you. I’m taking them for my own entertainment. As long as they are useful, they’ll stay alive. Once they are no longer needed, well, let’s just say I’ve found it very interesting to watch a woman die. Most don’t fight, they just cry or beg. I’m guessing the older one will beg and swear and give me hours of pleasure as she dies an inch at a time. The young one will cry. I don’t like that as much so I’ll probably kill her fast.”
Duncan couldn’t believe how Myers could have fooled so many people. His insides must be rotted to the core. “You won’t get away with it.”
Myers laughed. “I have for years. No one ever suspects a war hero. As a newspaperman, I move easily from town to town. No one connects the murders of a few worthless women with me. I don’t even bother to bury them, I just leave the bodies in the alley.”
Duncan stole a glance at Rose’s face, fearing that Myers’s words might be frightening her to death, but she only sat quietly as if waiting for the men to finish talking so she could serve tea.
Myers patted her shoulder. “Only I can’t take this one with me, much as I’d like to.” He laughed and moved the gun against her mi
dnight hair. “I’ve even been telling her about the fun we might have, but this one belongs to you and you’d never stop looking for me if you thought I had her. So, you see, I have no other choice but to kill you both.”
Duncan fought from using every bit of the energy he had left in his body to charge Myers. He might die trying, but in that moment Rose would have a chance to run. He’d give his life to give her that one chance.
“Be prepared to watch her die, Ranger. It’s the least I can do to you for causing me so much trouble. Who knows, you might find it fascinating to see how easily they die. Women are such frail creatures and they make such a show.” Myers laughed suddenly. “Or, maybe I should shoot you first and let her screams be the last thing you hear.”
Duncan closed his eyes trying to make his brain think of something, anything, fast.
“Kill me first,” Rose said simply, her words echoing around the silent room.
When Myers didn’t move, she demanded, “Kill me first, I said. I can’t bear to see him die. It would be too painful.”
Duncan wanted to stop her words. How could she tell a man who loved watching women in pain that the worst thing in the world for her would be to see him die? Myers would probably kill him and make Rose watch him bleed out.
He opened his eyes just as she wiggled in the chair, turning toward the gun. “Kill me first. I demand it.”
Myers grinned as if suddenly having fun. “You don’t demand anything. It’s not your choice. You have nothing to say.”
He raised the gun from her head to point it toward Duncan. He took his hand off her shoulder and dug his fingers into her hair. “I don’t want you to miss this. So watch close.”
A gun fired and Duncan drew in a quick breath, waiting for the pain to hit him.
Nothing.
He forced his eyes open, fearing what he would see. Rose, the center of his world, dead. The pain was far greater than any bullet could have ever caused.
Only Rose wasn’t dead. She was standing up from her chair as gracefully as ever. He saw the blood on her face and across her hand that closed around a small gun.
For a moment Myers seemed to have disappeared, but then Duncan spotted him lying against the wall with what looked like a bullet hole just beneath his chin.
“You killed him?” Duncan was having a hard time believing what he was seeing.
Rose stepped to the washbasin and began scrubbing away the blood. “I know. I had to. I thought he would never turn loose of my shoulder so I could reach the gun Uncle Travis insisted I carry in my pocket. It’s been bothersome this past week, but every morning I did what he told me. Even though I had the gun belt, I kept the other. It wouldn’t be polite not to have listened to my uncle’s advice.”
Her words were conversational, but Duncan noticed she was washing her hands over and over and over. Slowly, he forced himself to move out of bed. In a few steps he was behind her, touching her with his good arm. “It’s all right, Rose. You did what you had to do.”
She turned into him and finally stopped talking.
Someone must have heard the shot. There were shouts and men running and then Stitch came flying through the door. He rolled across the floor, then jumped to his feet, his fists balled and ready for a fight.
“Evening, Stitch,” Duncan said, without loosening his grip on Rose.
The big man relaxed slowly as he looked around.
Duncan knew what he was looking for. “She’s in the wagon all tied up. My guess is she’s going to be mighty glad to see you.”
Stitch nodded once and stepped over the door.
Duncan let Rose help him back to bed as men flooded the house. Stitch let out a yell when he found Hallie and Epley out in the wagon. Everyone was shouting and crying and laughing. When Victoria came in the room, she hugged everyone, even the deputies.
Rose, on the other hand, remained calm. She told her story exactly as it had happened. How she planned out what she’d say and just how she’d wanted to sound. How she’d waited for her chance and then pulled the trigger knowing the bullet would travel up into Myers’s brain.
The deputies removed the body and took all of Victoria’s bags into custody. She made each man promise to bring her clothes back after they’d taken out the gold.
Finally all settled down. Since no one wanted to sleep in the loft above, Killian suggested they move to the hotel for the night now that it was safe. Hallie said she would stay and help Rose with Duncan, but she had a feeling Rose could take care of him all by herself.
Epley didn’t say a word, she just walked out with Hallie. Rose might have saved her in Yancy’s bar, but Hallie had become her mother.
When all were gone, Rose made Duncan a cup of tea, which he tried his best to drink. “We’re here alone, darlin’, and I can’t even kiss you,” he complained.
“It’s all right. I’ll just sleep with you. If you don’t mind, I’m exhausted.”
As he had before, he watched her undress down to her petticoats and camisole before crawling into bed with him.
For once she didn’t want to talk. She just curled up beside him.
After a while he heard her crying softly. He rolled over and put his good arm around her, but he didn’t tell her to stop. Other women might have been hysterical if they’d gone through what she went through, but not Rose.
He gently kissed the top of her head. “You know, Rose, if you ever let yourself go, you’re going to be one wild woman.”
“You think so?”
“I’m hoping so, and when you do, I hope I’m around.”
Chapter 47
Sunday morning
Anderson Glen
The next morning Abe found Stitch down in the dining room of the small hotel, eating two breakfasts at the same time.
“Mind if I join you?”
“Wish you would. I managed to keep my hat on and my head down until I started eating. The waitress almost tossed my food at me and ran when she got her first good look. Maybe you can get her to come back and bring my coffee.”
Abe waved at a girl hiding behind the swing door that probably led to the kitchen. “Coffee,” he called. “For two.” After a few minutes, she brought it out, but she didn’t look at Stitch.
Before the coffee had cooled enough to drink, Killian and Victoria joined them. Victoria leaned down and kissed Stitch’s cheek as she passed him.
Abe didn’t miss the squeal of fright coming from the kitchen. Suddenly the scarred man became very interesting. Each time the waitress came out she braved getting a little closer to him.
Everyone at the table tried not to notice the waitress who kept circling. They no longer saw the scars on Stitch’s face. He was simply their family and friend. Killian took Victoria’s hand as he looked at his brother and Abe. “We think we’re going to head back today once we give our statements to the town marshal and collect Victoria’s things.”
“I was thinking that too.” Abe smiled. “I’ve been worried about the store. No telling what Henry has given away while I’ve been gone. What about you, Stitch? Going home or after your wagon?”
The big man shrugged. Before he could explain, Hallie and Epley came into the dining room and another table was pulled up. Everyone ordered and settled into an easy way of talking only good friends can manage.
The marshal dropped by and asked each of them to stay another day until all was settled. The Tanner brothers had already been picked up by the rangers and were on their way back to Dallas. They both claimed Myers was the brains behind all the robberies. Jeb Tanner sent Duncan a personal message that said he’d kill him if he ever got out, but the threat wasn’t taken too seriously from a man in chains.
Abe excused himself and dropped by to see Duncan at what everyone called the McMurray little house.
Abe was relieved to find him improved enough to be complaining. Rose had arranged for one of the McMurray wagons to take him back to the ranch, but Duncan didn’t want to leave town until every one of the outlaws had been put
away.
When Abe walked in the kitchen to get Duncan a cup of coffee, the ranger yelled, “Where’s your cane?”
Abe looked down, realizing he’d forgotten it. In fact, all morning he hadn’t thought about his leg at all. He’d never pushed himself as he had the past few days, and to his surprise his leg seemed stronger.
“Where’d you leave it?” Duncan asked as he nodded a thank-you for the coffee.
“I’m not sure. I think on the pile of lumber behind the train. I was so worried about Killian and Stitch being hurt, I didn’t even think about it.”
“You could have fallen.”
Abe grinned. “Yeah and I probably will. I guess if I do, I’ll just have to get up. It’s not the end of the world.”
“I don’t know, when you’re looking at the world through one bloodshot eyeball, it looks pretty near the end.” He smiled, then swore at the pain. “I think I’ll go home and recover.”
“Good,” Rose said as she walked in to join the men. “I’ll make the arrangements, but I’m afraid I won’t be going with you. Victoria has asked me to go back to Fort Worth to help set up her new place and I think it will be great fun.”
Abe grinned. The pretty little lady had just added a new level of misery to Duncan’s life.
Chapter 48
Sunday
Anderson Glen Hotel
Stitch waited for Hallie to come onto the porch of the hotel. He hadn’t been able to speak to her alone since all the trouble started.
She walked out and sat in one of the rockers as if she didn’t notice him standing there.
“When you heading home?” he asked.
“Epley and I thought we’d go when Killian and Victoria do. I’ve got my work cut out for me helping them.”
“That’s the truth,” Stitch said, taking one step toward her.
“When you going back?”
He didn’t look at her. “Whenever you are.”
