Night fell and darkened the subdued town of Paradise. Ethan and other men stood watch over the hotel a distance away.

"Ethan my baby's in there."

Scotty just walked away and pulled his glasses off as tears threatened. Damn he'd just gotten his baby back and already faced losing him. A man's life could change in an instant both for the better and for the worse…he didn't want to face the latter. He wanted to raise Huckleberry with Mary and watch him grow up, hitting all the milestones.

Being a father had been the best of all rewards. The thought it might be snatched away from him by a pack of brutal thugs…left him angry and scared. Ethan watched him knowing how he felt…as he'd just gotten the children and damn it if they hadn't grown on him, wheedled their way into his heart. They gave him his life back and something to live for besides killing.

Claire held the baby as she walked back and forth soothing him. Moses sat by his ailing brother as John Taylor tended to him using folk remedies that curled his hair…and when John Taylor calmly labeled the ingredients in his brand of medicine, Moses didn't want to hear it. He just wanted his brother better and fit to travel by morning.

"Warned you didn't I?"

Moses turned to the stout outlaw.

"Get yourself a drink…"

Then he turned his attention to John Taylor.

"Why did you tell me my brother couldn't be moved? Kept your mouth shut, we'd be long gone. Hostages would be free."

John Taylor shrugged.

"I guess that's because I'm a better doctor than I am a liar."

Moses gently caressed his brother's cheek.

Amelia sat at the table watching Claire play a game with George involving coffee cups. He'd been so good at keeping calm taking his uncle's words to heart.

Langston spoke up from behind her.

"Ah I'm hungry. Hey Banker Lady…I'm hungry. You cook?"

Claire spoke up.

"I can cook."

The outlaw sneered.

"I wasn't talking to you was I?"

Amelia turned to face him forcing calm into her voice.

"Yes."

Langston leered at her.

"What else can you do?"

The other outlaw had his own priorities.

"Get in there and fix us something to eat…and you can help her little missy."

He hammered his glass on the table.

"Let's go…"

Amelia got up followed by Claire. She headed to the kitchen while Claire went behind the bar. The younger girl took out the plates and called George over to help her when she saw an outlaw approach him.

"Don't talk to him George."

"I remind him of his little boy."

"Stay away from him all right?"

George nodded.

Amelia prepared the meal in the kitchen by herself away from the other hostages. Cooking had never been a strongpoint of hers as Pierce loved to tease but she could throw a meal together…make a passable bread pudding in a pinch. She'd been raised out in the wilderness of the Outback miles away from a tiny town that passed for civilization.

She got out a pot but she picked out other items as well. She knew that she'd just separated herself from the other hostages…and outlaws which made her vulnerable. She kept herself busy cooking to not remember that she was a young woman surrounded by outlaw men…including one who'd been watching her every movement since it started. She knew he was watching and waiting like a predator and he'd show his true colors before long.

Her hands shook and she hated being afraid, even more showing it to others. Showing fear made a person look weak and a woman living by herself and running a bank in a rustic town built on mining just couldn't afford that. It made her an oddity to most people around her but not to Ethan…he might have noticed her tendency to put walls around her but he didn't judge her for it.

At least not most of the time. But letting another man get that close to her…a part of her fought it even as she embraced it. He'd made more than hints that he wanted a more physical relationship but he didn't push it. She wanted that and yet…and thinking about him right now wasn't going to help her with what she knew was coming up.

One of the outlaws was going to walk into the kitchen to take advantage of her isolation and she knew which one. So when she heard the door finally open and the footsteps of well-worn boots approach her she didn't even turn around.

He put his hands on her waist and started sniffing her like as if he knew her well.

"Need a hand?"

She shook her head trying to move away before panic hit her. He began stroking her hair.

"You sure? I'm good with my hands."

She turned on him in a flash, welding a knife in her hands. Oh she'd been ready all right. It's not like she'd never been in this situation before.

"So am I…"

He grabbed her more tightly, trying to knock the knife out of her hand to the floor and she struggled against him.

"That's all right. A little fight makes it more interesting."

They wrestled and she felt powerless in his grip, the knife falling out of her hand to the floor. He then moved to kiss her and she struggled to resist.

Just then another outlaw arrived in the kitchen.

"Leave her alone."

Langston paid him no mind, keeping his hands on Amelia.

"Just having a little fun."

The outlaw pointed his gun at Langston.

"I said leave her alone…"

Amelia watched the interplay between the two of them. Not that she believed for one second the outlaw holding the gun and issuing the orders intended to help her. No, this was some dynamic between the two that existed long before they showed up in Paradise.

Langston released her.

"Anything you say partner."

The outlaw turned to Amelia.

"Have dinner about ready lady?"

Her heart beat so quickly, her breathing she could barely control but she just stared at Langston.

"Yes…"

Then she grabbed the pot by the handle and walked out of the kitchen leaving the two men alone.

The men gathered in the store to plan out to get their money back. They didn't know that Ben hid nearby listening to every word.

"How about fire? Burn them out."

Baxter spoke up.

"What about the hostages?"

Hobbs didn't seem to care much.

"We're probably doing the hostages a favor. Chance is the gang's going to kill them all anyway."

Baxter brightened up.

"That's right. We're probably their only chance."

Then he saw movement out of the corner of his eye.

"Hey wait a minute…what's that."

All the men looked to where Ben had been hiding. The little boy ran for it but Axelrod brought him kicking and screaming to the group of them.

"What will we do with him?"

Axelrod grimaced.

"We can't let him go. He'll run straight to his uncle."

Hobbs thought fast.

"We'll have to keep him here. Got some rope?"

Axelrod nodded.

"It's in the back."

Hobbs gestured to Baxter.

"You stay with him here until we're finished."

He turned to Ben.

"Sorry to do this boy but I don't have a choice…"

Then he gagged him.

Ethan broke sticks and paced in his frustration outside the hotel. He was so close to his family in there and unable to help them. Joseph stood nearby and Ethan knew the younger boy mirrored his own frustration. Joseph had a fearlessness inside of him to help others even at a cost to himself and Ethan feared it, knowing it'd just get his nephew killed.

Joseph stared at his uncle.

"I hate this. I feel so helpless."

Ethan knew all about that…he'd been pacing for the past hour or so after sundown unable to think of anything but what the children and Amelia faced inside the hotel.

"Can't we do something? Anything?"

Ethan leaned over a railing listening to the same words that ran inside his own head. God he hated not doing anything being a man of action.

"We can sit here and wait."

And hate every moment of that though he didn't say it. The answer did little to appease Joseph.

"That's it? Just sit here?"

"Look Joseph there are times that no matter how much you want to jump into something, the only thing you can do is wait. Right now all I want to do is go in there and save our people but I can't do that."

Joseph looked at him silently.

"Because I know that anything I do is going to be riskier than doing nothing…and I'm no good at doing nothing."

He stopped pacing.

"So I got to stand here and be patient and so do you."

Then he realized he was dealing with a young boy who didn't know the realities of his line of work.

"Look Joseph I'm sorry…"

"I know…"

"Where's Ben?"

"He's around…I don't know."

"Go find him for me."

Ethan went back to breaking sticks…hating that he had to stand and wait but not willing to risk the alternative. There'd be a time to act and then he'd be more than ready.

Moses went to check in on his ailing brother, saying he looked better. John Taylor was checking his wraps.

"He is…"

Moses stroked his brother's head.

"Just hang in there Zack. You can do this…"

John Taylor watched him.

"Be careful…man in your line of work…feelings can get in the way."

Moses' face hardened again.

"You just heal my brother Indian. Don't try and save my soul."

In the other room, Claire tended to the baby who'd settled down in his bassinet. Amelia walked over to her.

"Did you see what happened in the kitchen?

"Yes."

"Have you ever heard the expression, divide and conquer?"

"Yes Ma'am."

Amelia hugged her.

"Remember it."

"Right…"

Then the stout outlaw yelled from the back of the room.

"Hey get us another bottle."

Amelia reached to pick up Huckleberry.

"Get it yourself."

Langston spoke up.

"You know…you and me got unfinished business."

Amelia struggled to remain calm, focusing on the baby in her arms.

"I don't do business with ungrammatical outlaws."

The stout outlaw chuckled and Langston just looked puzzled.

"What'd she say?"

Langston got up and headed towards her and was quickly blocked by two of the outlaws.

"Back off," one of them said, "Just sit down, back up."

Amelia watched them carefully still holding onto the baby. Claire cleaned the bar and then looked down to see a handgun tucked away on top of a towel.

"Don't just stand there bring it on over."

So Claire did that, thinking about the hidden gun. Amelia watched the two outlaws feuding with Langston even as they sat down with a fresh bottle of whisky.

She began to come up with a plan.

Ben struggled to get away from where he'd been tied up by the businessmen. He had to get loose and tell Ethan what they had planned.

Baxter paced back and forth keeping an eye on him. Suddenly he heard a voice.

"Ben!"

It was Joseph and he tried to answer but he was gagged so it came out muffled.

"Ben…Ben where are you?"

Baxter told the younger boy to hush up.

"Quiet…"
Then his brother's voice grew fainter and as Baxter resumed his pacing, he began to struggle to get untied again.

Scotty and Ethan were in an office with Charlie.

"We're going to organize a posse to follow them as soon as they leave town."

Ethan looked at Scotty who'd made the suggestion.

"You can't chase a man who knows he's being followed Scotty you got to get ahead of him."

"How?"

"When they leave town they can only go east or west…we put men on both trails. Take a lot of men."

"And I'm not sure we can find that many volunteers."

A man came in and handed a wire to them.

"You're right Ethan…it's the notorious Henderson gang. They're wanted only in Texas."

Not any more according to the man, they'd tried to rob a train in Reno and it went bad, people died including two children.

Ethan's heart fell into the pit of his stomach and he remembered his ultimatum. Men like these wouldn't abide by it if they'd already killed children. But he meant what he said too, he'd kill them if they broke it even if it cost him his own life.

Charlie kept reading.

"It says here they got about a dozen Union Pacific detectives on their trail. Been after them for three weeks."

Ethan looked back at him.

"That means that those detectives are less than a day's ride away."

Charlie sighed.

"You might get to set up your ambush after all."

But Ethan still didn't like it. He knew the Henderson gang was no doubt smart enough to figure out a way to avoid it…and it might involve hostages.