The Matchmaker's Match

{Chapter} 31

Mark’s fingers twitched with the urge to shoot every one of them down… He deserved the money that he rightfully stole for himself.

“Good. Very good,” he said in spite of his feelings.

“What’s your plan?” Joe asked.

“To get that document and kill anyone who tries to stop me. I don’t care if it’s a woman or my kin either,” Mark proclaimed.

“What do we do?” Brant asked. “All I ask is that you leave that deputy to me.”

“No, he’s mine!” Alex objected.

“I’m gonna kill ‘im!” Marshall stood to his feet.

“I don’t care who kills him as long as he’s dead by the time we ride out!” Mark said above their bickering voices.

“What time do we ambush them?” Joe asked.

“First thing in the morning,” Mark said, rubbing his hands together. “I’m gonna enjoy every second of it.”

**********

Adam and Katie were the only ones awake late that night. Rawhide and Gringo had retired early, and Tiny was asleep flat on his back nearby. Erik was asleep with his back against a tree and his hat over his eyes with Toni sleeping on his shoulder and the baby between them.

Katie stared into the crackling fire and leaned against Adam, who wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer.

“Katie?” Adam’s voice took on that nervous tone that he had when he had something important to talk about with her.

“Yeah, Adam?”

“I’ve been thinking. You know, life is so short. So short that I can’t let time go by just out of tradition. Just waste it. I was wondering how you’d feel if I wrote to your father asking for your hand…” Adam ended his sentence on a lingering note.

“Y-You mean… Marriage?” Katie stilled.

What was he asking? She froze with the realization that marriage to Adam for the rest of her life was exactly what she wanted.

“Well, do you really want to wait out of tradition? Why go through all that trouble when we know we love each other and know each other well enough to get married now?” Adam asked.

Katie thought a moment. This was a big decision.

“You make a good point,” She admitted.

Adam let her go and turned to face her, sitting on his knees. “Kate, there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think of all the years that I lost with you. I don’t want to lose any more time. Did it ever occur to you that maybe all those years we were just waiting for love? Maybe our hearts knew something that our minds didn’t?”

Katie continued thinking.

“What are you thinking, honey?” Adam asked

“Adam, I know that I love you. I know that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I just… I just…”

“Just what?”

“I just don’t know if I’m what you need,” Katie blurted.

It had been bothering her all day.

“What I need? Kate, I don’t understand.”

“You’re a lawman. You don’t need someone like me holding you down.”

Adam took her by the shoulders, as if willing her to listen to him. “That’s exactly what I need. I need you, love. I need you.”

“How can you be sure?”

“Because I’ve never been so sure about anything before like I am about this. You and I are meant to be. We’re matches, Kate.”

Katie sighed.

“If I didn’t need you,” Adam went on, “Then why would I feel like God has put you right here for me to have? The love we have doesn’t come everyday. We’d be fools not to take advantage of it.”

Katie looked into his eyes and saw his sincerity. “Yes,” she breathed. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”

Adam smiled and hugged her tight, loosening his grip after a time to a more tender hold. Suddenly, a thought hit Katie. She pulled back.

“What if my father says no? He might just do it out of spite.”

“Then we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Katie smiled. Adam was always keeping an optimistic lookout on things.

**********

The MC was out of bed early that next morning, switching between planning and pacing the camp.

“What if one of us gets injured? That money isn’t as important as someone else’s life,” Toni spoke up.

“Then we try to get out of there as soon as possible,” Adam replied. “Another thing. When we get in there, even though it’s family to some of us, we shoot to kill. An injured outlaw is a terrible thing to face should he live and the two of you meet again. I repeat, shoot to kill.”

The way he stressed the last words sent shivers up Toni’s spine. She couldn’t imagine shooting her uncle, even though he wasn’t worth a grain of sand in a desert.

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t remember one time Mark had treated her like family. To him, she was just another cowhand, just another person he could make do work.

It was high time he suffered for that.

Suddenly, the sound of a gunshot pierced the air and Toni heard a bullet whiz past her head and hit the tree beside her.

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