Give My All to Jessie (Third in Outlaw Series)

Chapter Two

"No not me. I'm a rover." Jeremiah replied with a grin.

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"Where the hell are you two going?" Hawkins demanded with a smile as he walked over to Jeremiah and Langly's camp the next morning and folded his hands on his big belly. Langly and Jeremiah were nearly all packed up and ready to head out.

"Gonna roam around for a while but we'll be back." Langly replied as he wiped his shirt sleeve across his sweaty brow.

"Maybe." Jeremiah countered with a grunt as he hoisted his heavy saddlebags up onto his horse.

"I guess that means you ain't interested in the job I was fixing to go do." Hawkins said with a click of his tongue. Jeremiah's head perked up and he turned to the man.

"What kind of job?"

"Bank job." Hawkins replied in a whisper.

"Big bank?" Jeremiah asked.

"Small." Hawkins amended.

"Hold on just one minute, please." Langly countered as he came in between the two men. "Are we talking about a bank robbery?" he demanded with disbelief.

"Of course not!" Hawkins replied with a snort.

"Wouldn't dream of it." Jeremiah added with a wave of his hand. "Where's the town?"

"Five hours hard ride to the south. It's a small town, small bank, and just one tiny lawman for miles and miles." Hawkins had a predatory glint in his dark eyes and Langly knew he'd just been lied to about this not being a bank robbery.

"Not much money to be made…" Jeremiah said with a frown and Hawkins shrugged.

"Plenty of money when you figure in the fact that we have almost no chance of running into any trouble." Jeremiah seemed to think hard for a moment while Langly wondered if his dear old uncle had lost his mind. Bank robbery! Langly had definitely not signed up for being a bank robber.

"Let's do it." Jeremiah finally replied.

"Have you lost your mind?" Langly exclaimed. Jeremiah rolled his eyes and growled as he turned to face him.

"No I haven't caught the crazy just yet and I happen to think this is a good idea." he replied and then he turned to Hawkins. "We'll come. When you heading out?"

"Ten minutes." Hawkins replied as he eyed Langly with curiosity. "Is he gonna be a problem?" Jeremiah turned his eyes to Langly who was standing slack jawed and wide eyed, staring at them.

"No, he'll be just fine." he reassured Hawkins. Hawkins nodded and walked away.

"You have caught the crazy, uncle Jeremiah. You for sure have! Bank robbing? I don't think I have what it takes to be a bank robber!"

"Sure you do, you're Marston's kid after all! He's robbed more than one bank in his life. Besides you can be the outside man." Jeremiah said reassuringly as he patted Langly on the back.

"Outside man?"

"Sure the man that waits outside with the horses while the rest of us go in." Jeremiah turned away then and quickly finished getting their things around. Langly remained silent as he followed his uncle through the tents and fires and then found himself part of a six man group heading out of camp.

What the heck was he doing? Bank robbing? He didn't want to rob banks! He wanted to play poker, ride the range, be his own man….. Somehow riding with a gang of dirty men while he robbed hardworking people of their hard earned money didn't seem like the kind of thing the man he wanted to be would do.

Then again Jeremiah had said he could wait outside so he wouldn't actually be robbing anyone… He would just be an observer. There wasn't anything wrong with that…. Was there?

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"Alright, you wait out here with the horses, Langly, and we'll be back out in a few minutes." Jeremiah said as he and the five other men jumped down from their horses. They were in an alley between the bank and the mercantile of this small town. Langly nodded, still feeling sick at his stomach over what was about to happen. He looked around this quiet town. The sun was shining bright, the air was warm and the streets were pretty much empty save for the occasional woman walking from shop to shop or a man or two lounging in front of the shops smoking while their women spent their money.

"What if trouble comes?" Langly asked and Jeremiah shrugged.

"You whistle, warn us and then we'll all make a run for it. Don't worry, kid, I'll make sure you make it out of here just fine." he assured his nephew with a wink.

"Aren't you gonna hitch your horses?" Langly asked and Jeremiah shook his head.

"No, that'll make it take longer to get away. Just wait out here for us and we'll be back." he said sternly and then he followed the other men around the bank.

Langly sat there on his black gelding with his leg twitching and his hands twisting the reins…. He was full of too much nervous energy to make holding still be a possibility. He clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth and wondered what was going on inside that bank.

He hated not knowing but then again he knew there was no way he actually wanted to be in there! Robbing a bank? He might be a grown man but his mama would tan his hide if he took part in something like that. He jumped off his horse and walked over to the wall of the bank and stuck his ear against it though what he hoped to hear through the brick wall he wasn't sure.

Suddenly, without warning, screams rang out, shattering the peace of the afternoon. Langly's horse spooked and took off for main street. Langly ran for it as his uncle and the other men came out of the bank.

"Come on, Langly!" Jeremiah yelled as he and the other men all whistled and their horses came running. Chaos ensued as a man with a badge ran out of a small jail house waving his gun and shouting. Langly was still struggling to catch his gelding when a shot rang out and he felt a burning pain sear his leg.

"Jeremiah!" he yelled. His eyes locked with his uncles as Langly fell to his knees. For a moment he thought Jeremiah was going to come for him but then his uncles golden eyes turned cold and he jumped on his horse and rode away with the rest of the men.

"Put your hands in the air!" the lawman shouted at Langly. Langly was in a state of shock as he obeyed the order. Jeremiah was long gone having disappeared over a small rise. How could his uncle have abandoned him like that? How could he have just left him shot and bleeding in the middle of the street at the mercy of some law man.

"What's your name?" The lawman demanded as he walked over and kept his gun trained on Langly.

"L… Langly Jacobs." Langly replied shakily as he looked up at the aging lawman for the first time. "Sir, I didn't do anything."

"You were keeping an eye on their horses in that alley, you knew those men and you're the one I was able to catch. That's good enough for me."

The lawman jerked Langly to his feet and cuffed his wrists together behind his back. Hatred burned his gut and turned his stomach sour as the thought about his uncle and Hawkins and the other men he had been starting to trust as friends. It should be them that had been shot and were now getting thrown in jail, not him…. Realization dawned on him and he felt one hundreds kinds of a fool… Outside man his ass. He hadn't been anything but a fall guy.

A/N: And that would be why he can't trust Jeremiah. Hope you enjoyed the chapter