Matt stood stunned but for only a second. Instantly, he ripped his gaze from Kitty and back to Dunn. He was still standing and his gun was still out, his finger hard on the trigger.
"Dillon!" He screamed as he pointed the gun directly at Matt's chest and began to squeeze the trigger.
But even in his dazed condition, Matt was still the better and faster man and in an instant, Dunn went down with a bullet in his chest. Matt gave him no further attention as he swiftly holstered his gun and ran over to Kitty. Doc had just arrived at her side and had gently taken her wrist to check her pulse. "Doc?" Matt swallowed hard.
"Get her upstairs, Matt." Doc said solemnly. "Hurry."
Matt reached down and gingerly pulled her into his arms, trying hard not to add hurt to the damage that was already done. Getting quickly back to his feet, he practically ran down to Doc's stairs, her slight weight not even registering to him in his desire to get up to the office so Doc could help her.
The following few hours were anxious and puzzling ones for the mighty, yet grief and gulit stricken US Marshal as he waited for Doc to give him some word of Kitty's condition and tried to figure out how and why she ended up in the middle of a gunfight. He knew she loved him and would do anything to protect him. But would she run in front of a bullet to save him?
Answers finally came but they held no comfort.
"Matthew!" Festus urgently called as he hastily made his way down the street to where Matt sat at the bottom of the Doc's stairs. Doc had thrown him out of his office while he operated on Kitty. "How's Miz Kitty?"
"I don't know yet." Matt asked. "You get Dunn taken care of?"
Festus nodded. "Yeah, he's over ta Percy's. He had five hundred dollars in his pocket. I had Sam lock it up in Miz Kitty's safe."
Matt nodded but didn't answer. He didn't care how much money the dead gunman had. The only thing he cared about right then was up in Doc's office, fighting for her life.
Festus understood but he had an idea what he had to tell Matthew next would matter. "Matthew, ya need to look at this here poster." Festus shoved a curling piece of paper under his nose.
Matt frowned as he took the poster from Festus' hand and looked down at the image of Dolph Payback, bank robber and murderer. "Payback?" He looked up at Festus. "What's he got to do with anything?"
"He's the feller what pushed Miz Kitty inta the street." Festus answered him. "Leastways, he looks a powerful lot like him."
"How'd you figure this out?" Matt asked.
"Harry Tillman." Festus answered as though the answer was simple. "He heard all the rookus whilst you was a facing down that Dunn feller and come a running. He got there jes as you all fired and saw this feller, or someone what shore looks like him, push Miz Kitty inta the street in front of ya. I took him over ta the jail house and had him look at them posters ya got and he picked this here feller out. Don't ya see?"
Matt looked back down at the poster with a grim nod of his head. "Yeah, Festus, I see. And this makes sense."
"Ya know that feller, do ya?" Festus squinted an eye at him before looking up at Doc's still closed door.
"Yeah, I know him." Matt answered. "I killed his little brother in a bank holdup a few years ago." Matt looked at Festus, noticing the direction he was looking in. "Doc's still operating on her, Festus. He said he'd call me if... when... He'll call me." His tone was sad and practically defeated.
"Oh." Festus sighed.
Just then the door to Doc's office opened and Doc stepped out onto the landing.
Matt looked up at Doc's grim and saddened face and his heart fell. He took two steps up and then stopped, not sure he could go any further if… "Doc?"
"She's alive, Matt." Doc answered. "But she's in pretty bad shape."
Matt finished the climb to the top and pushed past Doc and into the office. Kitty was lying on the exam table, her ghostly pale complexion barely darker than the white sheet covering her. Her breathing was so shallow that he could barely make out the slight rise and fall of the cover on her chest.
Reaching down, he took her hand and brought it to his lips for a sweet and tender kiss before looking over at Doc as he shuffled over to his side. "Bad or not." Matt locked eyes with the elderly physician. "She going to make it?"
Doc took a scrub of his mustache, stuffed his hands in his pockets and turned away. "I don't know, Matt." He shrugged slightly. "The bullet hit her in the chest, and though it missed her vital organs, it did tear her up pretty bad. The one in the back did less damage but it wasn't good. She's lost a lot of blood. She's pretty weak." He took a deep breath. "I just don't know."
Matt nodded and heedless of Doc's presence, bent down and placed a kiss on her lips. Dolph Payback. The name reverberated in his head like a gong. He was the man who had pushed her into Matt's bullet and Matt wanted him. Bad.
Finally placing her hand back down, he gave her one more glance and then turned for the door. "Do the best you can, Doc." He sighed.
Doc nodded then frowned at the lawman as he headed for the door. "Well, just where are you going?"
"I'm going to find the man that made me kill her." Matt answered as he headed for the door.
"But, Matt, you didn't kill her." Doc protested. "She's not dead. Besides, you weren't the only one that shot her."
Matt turned hooded eyes on Doc, his gaze softenly only for a split second when he glanced at Kitty. "Doesn't matter, Doc." He pulled his hat down a little lower on his forehead and opened the door. "Nothing much matters anymore, other than getting Payback."
TBC
