{Chapter 31}
They started out again the next morning, bright and early. The three men went on ahead as they had before. Adam was expecting the same outcome as the day before when they came across a very interesting discovery.
“Is that a barn?” Wade asked.
“Looks like it,” Erik told him. “Think we should go check it out?”
Adam held his hand up. “Wait. We’ll dismount here and sneak up there. If Mark and his gang are in there, then we sure can’t let them know we’re here before we’re ready for them.”
Erik and Wade nodded.
They dismounted their horses and led them behind a small bunch of quaking aspens to hide. Then, as silently as possible, they made their way down the small slope that led to the back of the barn. Adam went first, his hand hovering over his gun. Once the three of them were all lined up against the back wall of the barn, Adam held his hand up.
“You two wait here,” he whispered. “I’m gonna go look through the window. Be as quiet as a dead man.”
Wade and Erik nodded, pulling their guns from their holsters.
Adam sneaked ahead with slow, still steps until he reached the window on the side of the barn. A window with no glass and a splintering pane. Adam took off his hat and barely raised his head until he could faintly see into the barn.
Mark was there alright.
Alex, Joe, and Marshall were sitting on the floor playing cards while Brant and Mark paced the floor. Adam ducked his head back down and resisted the urge to breathe deep. He looked back at Erik and Wade and nodded.
They silently walked back up to their horses. Adam had no plan or any idea of how he was going to take them, but he knew that he was going to take Mark if it was the last thing he did… and he wasn’t planning on it being his last act.
The others came riding up shortly after the three men returned.
“What is it? Why are you stopped?” Katie asked, swinging from her horse before Adam had a chance to assist her.
“We found ‘em,” Wade answered.
Toni hopped off her horse. “You did? Let me at the theivin’, connivin’ scoundrels.”
“No, we’re not gonna do anything,” Adam held his hand up. “It’ll be getting dark soon and we won’t be able to see. We’ll wait until morning and storm them. We’ve got them outnumbered by three, but of course Katie won’t be shooting, so make that two…
“Who says I won’t be shootin’?” Katie interrupted.
“Baby, you can’t shoot a gun to hit the broad side of a barn, let alone a moving man,” Adam reasoned.
“I can sure try!”
Adam rolled his eyes. “I’m not letting you near the gunfire and that’s final.”
Katie huffed and crossed her arms in resignation. Adam breathed a sigh of relief. For a moment there, he thought she had a streak of Toni running through her, and he wouldn’t have been any match for that.
“Okay, so we’ll move back a little bit more and make camp,” Adam said. “It’s gonna be a long night.”
**********
Mark turned as Alex reentered the barn late that night.
“They’re here. Sittin’ as perty as they please beside a warm fire like they don’t gotta care in the world,” Alex explained with a grin.
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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