Chapter Twenty-Five
Pete squeezed his eyes closed tight and waited for the pain. But it never came. Instead he heard a grunt, the sickening sound of a bullet striking flesh and a body crashing to the boardwalk.
He opened his eyes to see Marston lying at his feet with a hole in the right side of his chest. Frank was preparing to fire another shot at Pete but Pete went for his revolver and fired a shot just as Marston pulled his derringer and fired one as well.
Frank slumped to the boardwalk with two holes. One his chest, the other in his head. Pete dropped to his knees beside Marston as the man collapsed onto his back.
"Dammit, Marston, what the hell were you thinking?" Pete demanded.
The lines on Marston's face grew deeper with his grimace. "I was thinking that you were about to be killed."
"What? And you just thought it would be better if you got killed instead?" Pete roared, trying to pull Marston's coat away to examine his wound by finding his hand swatted away.
Marston growled. "I don't plan on dying anytime soon."
"I thought there was no playing hero," Pete reminded him. "No taking bullets for each other? What the hell were you thinking?"
"I was thinking that Kaitlyn is rather fond of you," Marston grumbled. "Now help me up."
"Yeah, well there's a few people that are fond of you too." Pete put Marston's big arm around his shoulders and helped the big man to his feet. "Jeremiah's right," he grunted. "You are one big bastard."
Marston grabbed the livery wall to steady himself once he was standing and he laid his hand over his blood covered chest. "I think my goddamned rib is broke."
"Well, be glad your rib caught the bullet or else you wouldn't be alive to complain about it."
Marston chuckled but then drew in a sharp breath between his clenched teeth and grimaced. "Duke? Duke was hit.. is he okay?"
Pete stood in shock when Marston took off across the street at a pace pretty damn close to a run. How the man managed to run when he had a bullet lodged in his rib was a mystery to Pete.
Pete made his way across the street as well as townsfolk began to come out of their hiding places and survey the damage. Broken windows, holes in walls and leaking water troughs were among some of the damage done.
"I'm fine!" Duke's voice snapped from inside the mercantile. "That damn bastard just shot me in the damn shooting shoulder is all."
Pete stepped into the mercantile to find Jeremiah helping Duke tie his arm in place with a tablecloth that had been for sale. "You paying for that?" Pete asked.
Duke shook his head. "Nope. I'm not paying for this either," he added as he held up the tiny angel figurine in his hand.
Pete frowned. "Carol's present?"
"Why the hell would she want that?" Jeremiah asked.
Duke shrugged. "She'll like it."
The four men started toward the door and Marston turned at the last minute and grabbed a handful of cinnamon candy. He stuck it deep in his pocket as if daring Pete to say anything. Given the fact that Marston had just saved his life, Pete knew there was no way he could say anything to the man for stealing some candy for Lucy.
"What was all that about?" Saloon owner, Edmund Rayne demanded as he approached Pete on the street.
"It's just some old business that wasn't settled," Marston replied. "It's settled now." Duke, Jeremiah and Marston started toward their horses. "You coming?" Marston asked Pete.
Pete shook his head. "I need to stay here in town and help with the bodies and the clean-up. I am the law around here after all."
"Damn lawman in the family..." Jeremiah grumbled. "It's almost enough to make me wish I could be disowned."
"I could do that for you," Marston replied dryly.
"Hey, you know what?" Jeremiah exclaimed brightly. "I'm the only one that didn't get shot today! Y'all are getting to slow. I don't have a mark on me."
Marston growled, pulled his knife and sliced it cleanly through Jeremiah's sleeve and the skin of his upper arm. Jeremiah let out a hiss of pain and grabbed at his bleeding arm. "What the hell, Marston?!"
Marston grinned. "I didn't want you to feel left out."
Pete shook his head as he watched the three of them mount up. It was clear that Marston and Duke were having trouble. Marston was bleeding very heavily and Duke had no use of his right arm but neither man asked for help.
Pete decided that outlaw pride was a pretty serious thing.
"Is it safe to let my children come out?" a woman asked as she poked her head from a window in the hotel.
"The bad men are gone," Pete assured her gently. "Give me a bit of time to clear the bodies and it'll be fit for your children to come out."
Pete smiled reassuringly at the woman and then got to work putting his town back together.
***
"Mama, I gotta pee!" Lucy repeated for what had to be the thirtieth time.
"You'll have to wait until your pa gets back," Rose replied with a touch more irritation than she'd shown on the twenty-eight and twenty-ninth times.
"But mama, I got to go now!" she insisted, bouncing up and down.
Langley pushed himself away from the wall. "I'll take her, mama."
"Your pa wanted all of us to stay in here," Rose argued.
Langley sighed. "It's been hours and she has to go. I have my gun. I'll just take her straight there and bring her straight back."
Rose nodded with defeat. "Fine, but take this," she insisted, handing him her rifle.
"Are there rats in the outhouse too?" Lucy asked.
Rose nodded. "There might be. You all keep an eye out for them."
"Okay mama," Lucy replied, bouncing out of the cellar when Langley opened the door.
"Why do we have to stay in the cellar so long?" Lucy asked her brother as he led her through the house.
"Because pa wants us to."
Langley led Lucy outside and he waited near the porch while she went to the outhouse. Langley stared up at the clear blue sky and marveled at the peace of the day. No one would know that half his family could die today by looking up at that sky.
Langley looked at his sister running toward the outhouse and then he noticed the bloody footprints in the snow in that direction. Langley yelled out a warning but it was too late.
A Mexican man with torn ropes around his wrists and blood covering his left pants leg came around the building and grabbed Lucy. She tried to let out a scream but the man clamped his hand over her mouth.
"Let her go!" Langely exclaimed.
The man shook her head. "Not until I am safely away from here. Your pa and those other men will kill me when they return and if they lose the fight then Vincent and Frank will kill me. I have to leave."
"You're hurt bad," Langley noted when he saw the sheen of sweat covering the man's skin despite the cold. "Why don't you just put her down and we'll get the doc inside to tend to you?"
"No!" the man exclaimed as Lucy began to fight against him. The man held her tighter and Langley saw pain fill Lucy's eyes.
"Don't hurt my sister!" Langley warned. He was afraid to take a shot with the gun in his hand. What if he missed and shot his sister? He would never forgive himself.
"Give me a horse and a weapon and I will let her go once I'm safely away."
"No, I won't let you take her anywhere," Langley argued with a quick shake of his head.
The Mexican wrapped one arm around her neck and smiled. "Then I'll break her neck amigo."
Lucy's eyes filled with anger and Langley saw a spark in them that reminded him of pa. She kicked her foot back and caught the man right between his legs. He screamed in pain and released his hold on her. Langley was firing his shot the instant she was safely on the ground.
The man fell dead to the ground and Lucy ran into Langley's arms. "What's going on?" Rose exclaimed as she ran from the house with Kaitlyn, Carol and Doctor Rankin behind her.
Her eyes went to the dead man and then back to her children. "He was hiding behind the outhouse, mama," Langley informed her.
"I kicked him, mama," Lucy added. "And Langley shot him."
"He's dead," the doctor assured them after checking the body for a pulse.
"Thank God you're both okay," Rose breathed out in relief, hugging both her women close.
Kaitlyn wrapped her arms tight around herself. "Let's get back inside."
"Wait Kaitlyn. Get your weapons ready." Langley warned, squinting into the distance and handing Lucy to Rose. "There's horses coming."