Love of a Bounty (Sequal to Unexpected Romance but can stand alone)

Love of a Bounty

Richard Helms looked out over the rocky landscape from where he sat perched on the canyons edge. He took a sip of his bitter coffee, crunched the undisolved grounds between his teeth and sat his tin cup on the rock beside him.

His bounty target was just down inside the canyon and around the bend of the nearly dried up river. He could hear the sound of laughter as the gang made camp. He was only interested in one man and that was Shade Bardlow and the five hundred dollar dead or alive bounty on his head.

He knew, of course, that the five other men riding with Shade would not just let him walk in and take Shade Bardlow. He would have to kill them all more than likely to get to Shade and that was just fine with Richard. Every one of these men were nothing but rapists, murderers and horse thieves.

Richard knew he needed to wait for the cover of darkness so he had about three more hours to sit up on this rock and wait before making his move. The moon should be bright enough for him to get down this rough canyon without trouble and if not then he'd fall and die. He really didn't care anymore.

Richard thought back over the last year he had spent running from town to town chasing bounties. After leaving Catherine standing in the dust of his stallions flying hooves he had gone to town, thrown down his badge and rode like a bat out of hell to anyplace that wasn't there.

He knew Catherine had not wanted to hurt him. She was a good woman and he had loved her enough to see that Emmett made her happier than he ever could and so he had simply rode away and left her to that happiness. He however had given up on ever finding the kind of happiness that Emmett had given Catherine. Twice now he had thought he'd found it and twice now it had been ripped away from him.

True, neither woman had had a choice. His Sarah certainly had not had a say in her own death and Richard had known the moment he'd seen Catherine's face the morning Emmett had returned that she had no choice but to go to him.

Which left Richard alone with nobody but his black stallion who he had lovingly named Horse for company. Richard looked over at Horse as a horrible smell assaulted his nostrils.

"You damn nasty critter! If you're going to pass gas could you please move your ass downwind of me first?" he demanded. Horse looked over at him, flicked his tail and then lowered his head back to the sagebrush he'd been eating.

"Might as well get a few hours of shut eye before dark." Richard said aloud. He knew people would think he had lost his mind if they heard him having conversations with a horse but it wasn't like he had anyone else to talk to and a man could easily go crazy out here alone if he didn't speak to something.

Richard stretched out on the rock using his hands for a pillow. He pulled his hat over his face and fell into an alert sleep. Though he rested, his trained ears still heard every sound. The first rule that every bounty hunter learned was to never allow themselves to become unaware of their surroundings. Bounty hunters who did that ended up with a bullet in their back.

As darkness began to settle Richard stood up and dusted himself off. He checked the cylinders of both his Colt revolvers even though he already knew they were both loaded. He loaded his few belongings he'd taken out back into his saddlebags, grabbed Horse's reins and led the big stallion down into the canyon.

The path was narrow and steep and more than once Richard thought the big stallion was going to lose his balance and fall over the edge and tumble down the sheer cliff but somehow they made it safely to the bottom. Richard looped Horse's reins around a rock down in the canyon.

"You gotta stay here, pal." he whispered as he stroked the stallion's head. "Can't have your big hooves letting the whole damn gang know I'm coming." Horse nudged him in the back as he turned away and Richard sighed.