Never Alone

Chapter Eleven

*TISSUE WARNING: I DID fight (and I mean FIGHT) to keep this from happening…just ask my beta reader. When I do that, fight the muse that is, I win half the time and I lose half the time. This time, I lost.

Any outsider overlooking the McKinley ranch would never have known anything unusual was going to happen that day. The horses in the corral ran around in the normal manner, the two dogs occupied the place ran back and forth playing with each other and, if they listened, they'd have heard someone working in the stalls. That's the picture that was painted, but unseen eyes dotted the land. The men watching did not have long to wait for, off in the distance, Mr. Anderson's men were seen riding over the still, somewhat, wet ground. Thinking they had the upper hand, the cruel, unkind, hard hearted men rode fast and hard. These men had only one goal in mind, kill anyone on the land and destroy whatever evidence they could find.

"Let's get this over with men!" Mr. Ackerman, who Mr. Anderson had put in charge once again, hollered as they hit the ranch. "Finish this off, burn everything in sight if you have to". Ackerman went to set the house on fire only to be surprised when a bullet whizzed out of the upper window and hit him in the shoulder, knocking him off his horse. Before the other riders that worked for Anderson knew it, they were diving behind anything that would give them cover as men seemed to appear from nowhere in particular.

Heath flew down stairs and into the front room where he joined Julies. When two of Anderson's men, a dark headed, heavy set man and a young blonde one headed for the house, they saw the living room windows break and two rifles pointed at them. Both the men cursed, dropped to the ground and rolled behind a wagon only to have one of Nick's bullets come at them from the barn loft door. It missed the blonde haired gunman by a mere inch.

The blonde haired man whirled around and aimed his gun at Nick. He would have fired only Jarrod let off a round of fire from the side of the barn; his bullet hit Nick's would be attacker from the side. The young man turned his head, looked at Jarrod as he stiffened, and then fell to the ground dead. Bullets continued flying as men dove for cover, hid behind crates or whatever they could find. One by one Anderson's men were being taken down.

Even though they succeeded in killing, or wounding, a few of the men fighting for the Widow McKinley, the hired henchmen were starting to see that they were losing and started to turn and retreat only to be stopped by the sheriff and the men who had just arrived with him… the sheriff had grown leery when no one had contacted him and decided to round up what men he could and rid out to the McKinley ranch. Nick pin dropped from the hay loft doors into the pile of hay below him, rolled and shot at one of Anderson's men who was unwilling to surrender. The man fell to the ground. Once the shooting stopped, Nick stood up and looked around. Satisfied the shootout was indeed over, he joined the sheriff and Heath.

While the deputies and a few men were rounding up the last of Anderson's men who had not fallen, the men from the side of the house helped their wounded men inside. The Widow McKinley, who had been hiding in the house, grabbed the evidence, exited the house and handed the box to the sheriff.

Seeing how he also thought the shooting was over, Jarrod headed towards the sheriff, his brothers and Widow McKinley. However, before he got more than two feet, he caught movement from the corner of his eye. It appeared Ackerman and another one of Anderson's men had different ideas; they had their guns pointed in the direction of the lawman, his brothers and the Widow McKinley. Jarrod didn't know who the men intended on shooting, but he wasn't going to take the time to find out either.

"Get down!" Jarrod yelled as he whipped his pistol out from its holster and, flung himself in between the gunman and their intended targets. His bullet killed Ackerman before the man had a chance to fire; alas, the man with him was able to get a shot off before Nick's bullet hit him. Jarrod fell to the ground.

Nick felt shock waves hit him and his heart stopped. "JARROD!" He cried out in anguish and ran to where Heath, who had been closer to Jarrod when he was shot, knelt with Jarrod cradled in one of his arms and pressing a bandana against his brother's wound. Heath didn't fight Nick taking Jarrod into his arms.

"Jarrod!" Nick cried again as Heath continued pressing the bandana to the gaping wound in Jarrod's side. At such short range the impact of the bullet made was severe. This couldn't be happening, thought Nick, as his blonde haired brother tried to stop the flow of blood. Jarrod had been shot before and always survived. This time couldn't be any different. Please, God he has to survive was the thought that raced through his mind, as well as Heath's. "Jarrod Stay still, stay still." Nick said as Jarrod tried to move.

Jarrod slowly opened his eyes and smiled up at his brothers. How he loved them and wished he could do something for them, but he couldn't. "Didn't see Ackerman…too late." He stiffened slightly as pain shot through him and perspiration rolled off his forehead. "If I don't make it…Whispering Pines… keep her safe… Anderson, he'll try to have her killed before… she can testify against him."

"Shhh, shhhh, Jarrod, we'll take care of her… you'll take care of her. Stay with us. If we can stop the bleeding, now stay still, damn it!" Nick tried to give his brother an order, but it was one that was spiked with a plea and desperation.

"No, Nick…Heath… Listen…they'll send her back to the reservation if someone doesn't take her in." He didn't want that for her, not after all her father had done for him.

Desperate to get Jarrod to relax, desperate to give his brother a chance to reserve his strength to fight the battle he would need to survive, Heath hurried to ease his brother's mind. "Don't worry about the girl. I'll stay in Lodi until Anderson's trial. I'll watch over her. Afterwards, I'm sure it will be all right with mother if we take Whispering Pines back to the ranch. I give you my word."

Jarrod could see the pain and fear in his brothers' eyes and he wished with all his heart he could make their pain go away, but he couldn't. "Anderson… We won the battle…need to win the war." he looked at Nick who, like Heath, did his best to quiet his brother's fears.

"Anderson is through. Most of his men have been killed, the rest are being taken away and the evidence is in the hands of the law. He'll definitely go to trial." Nick answered, though he choked on the words and fought to keep back the range of emotions that had started raging inside him. For in that moment he couldn't deny, even though he wanted to, he could see a familiar look start to creep across his brother's face. He'd seen it before, many times actually, only the last time he'd seen it to the point where it shook him to the core was the day he watched his father pass away. Still, he begged him to stay. "You can't leave us, Pappy!"

Jarrod smiled the best he could and said, barely above a whisper, *"You're never alone. I'll be in every beat of your heart. This isn't goodbye. My love will follow you; you're never alone." Jarrod then relaxed. The trouble outside Lodi was over; Anderson was through, his brothers were alive and his niece would be taken care of. As he closed his eyes, Jarrod heard his father calling his name.

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There is a video on you tube called "The Barkley Family-Never Alone". That is where Jarrod's words come from.

* Greater love hath no man than this…that he lay down his life for his friend.