Saddle Dust

Part 3 Chapter 1

"Stagecoaches."
Anita looks at Casey, surprised. "You mean...fencing them?"
"Not just that. Robbing them, throwing out the passengers, then yes, fencing them. I still have a few names from years ago when me and the rest of the gang would sell things that weren't exactly ours. I'm sure we can find someone to buy." 
Anita is silent for a while, considering. Then she asks apprehensively:
"Where were you thinking we would go?"
"I'm not sure exactly, but I have some ideas. Definitely not in the area around here, and preferably out of California. Once you get a warrant for capture in one place, you can't ever go back. We'll also need to be somewhere there's not a lot of activity except for long-distance coaches and riders and wagons. We'll need to be somewhere that's close enough to a city for high value takes, but far enough away that we don't risk getting caught in the act."
Anita nods. "The upper western states have that. The ones by the Mississippi."
"That's not bad. I've got a few safe saloons up in Minneapolis, if you know where that is, that have let me keep my address there. I'm thinking that we take a train all the way over to St. Louis and those territories, rob a few coaches, and then make a run for it North to the safe places for a little bit while things blow over, and then we'll be in the clear to take the train back to California."
Casey looks out into the dark yard, and waits anxiously for Anita's response. Anita hesitates for a moment before cautiously asking a question that's been in the back of her mind since Casey posed the idea of robbery.
"Why do you want to go back to that life? You've got everything you could ever want here. We've got plenty of business, there's good food, no one seems to mind you being around, and...we've got each other here." Casey looks back at Anita, and there is hurt in her eyes.
"Because it's how I was raised. I've come to like traveling around and I can't keep my feet off the road. I like the risk of stealing and the gamble that every place I rob could be the last time I ever take a breath in this life." She looks away from Anita and down at her boots, embarrassed now.
"It's true, I have more than everything I could ever want here, I've got you, most of all, but it's just in my nature to move." Casey looks back up at Anita and renewed pleading fills her next words.
"That's why I was thinking— hoping that you just might be willing to go with me. Just on two or three holdups." Anita sees Casey's eyes searching her own desperately. She sees the childlike hope filling them and is reminded of the night when she first helped Casey walk up the stairs.
"I...are you sure you know what you're doing?"
"Have I got caught yet?" Anita sighs, her argument worn out.
"Alright, I'll go. But you'd better not bring either of us into something we can't finish within reason, fair?" Casey grins, and her whole being seems to tremble with excitement.
"I swear on my own neck you'll come to no harm." Anita raises her eyebrows.
"What about you?" Anita can't help but notice that Casey's jaw tenses, almost like she was hoping that Anita wouldn't worry about her own safety.
"I've done this before. I'll be alright." Anita knows this is the best answer she'll ever get and tells herself that it will have to do.
"Fine. But we'll have to make preparations first. Does leaving in five weeks sound alright?" Casey perks up immediately.
"That sounds just fine. I'll write one of my favorite saloons in the North, and tell them to have a room ready for...four months from now. It will take half that long for them to get the letter. I'll also ask if they have any tips on coaches southwards. They always keep a list of names that'll talk. For now, I'll look over the route and try to get a better idea of everything. It's been such a long time since I've robbed in that area and I want a better feel for how close we're getting to the cities."
Anita finds herself looking forward to their trip east. She tries to bat down her excitement, but she finds herself sharing the same mischievous and eager grin that Casey has on her own face now.
"What should I work on now?"
"Get us some train tickets. And a coach ticket to the cities up north. I think San Francisco'll do for the station. San Francisco to St. Louis. That's our route. Also..." Casey looks Anita up and down.
"You're going to want clothes that no one has seen you in before. It doesn't have to be cowpoke, like what I've got on, but at least something no one's seen you in just in case we're got and they want someone to identify the...the bodies." Casey finishes quietly. The hesitation on Anita's face dissipates some and is replaced by a sort of humored disbelief.
"So. We're really gonna do this, ain't we?"
"Yep. Well, I am at least. Depends on if you feel up to it, because I don't think I can help it if I go or not. Think you can keep up?" Casey jokingly shoots an expression of hubris to Anita who rolls her eyes and stands up, brushing her skirts out as she does so.
"Casey, you know you ought not to talk about yourself that way. I think you'll keep up just fine." Anita laughs at Casey's mock look of hurt.
"Come on. It's late." Anita takes on a heavy accent that could have been from anywhere between Georgia to Britain. 
"We've got ourselves sum coaches to rob." Casey stands.
"That's not how I talk."
"Oh sure it is. You just can't hear yourself when you're mad or talking about a bank robbery or whatnot." The two turn and walk towards the back door of the saloon.
"Is not." Casey says quietly, a smile barely kept from her voice. Anita takes Casey's hand as they enter through the kitchen door, leaving the crickets to carry on a nighttime conversation without them.
"Yes it is."
Casey climbs the stairs to her room and Anita folds her bed in the kitchen out for the night. It takes a long time for them both to fall asleep. For Casey, excitement over the days and weeks to come keeps her awake for the early part of the night. For Anita, apprehension keeps her lying awake for most of the night. She is worried about not just her own safety, but about Casey's. For not the first time and not the last, Anita knows that she would give anything to make sure Casey was safe. Anita runs her fingers through her hair, gently tugging several knots loose. I guess I'm just worried that Casey cares too much about me and doesn't leave any for herself. Anita gives a small snort. I guess I'm just the same. She turns over onto her side, and lies awake for a little while longer. When Anita finally begins to drift off, she dreams of the law catching up with them after robbing a stagecoach, and ignoring her pleas as they drag an injured and listless Casey away to be hanged. She calls out that it was her, that she robbed the coach and not Casey, but the lawmen don't believe her and push her aside.
She wakes often and sleeps poorly.