Chapter Seven

He picked this cave to hide in. What he never expected was to be keeping hostages there. Yet here he was. And so were they.

Hector turned his head slightly, his eyes shifting the rest of the way to land on the boy and Mrs. Cooper. Strange that he could feel their fear when his life wasn't even a part of theirs. He didn't know them, only their faces and their names. But their trepidation was so real that it was as if their emotions had jumped out of their frames to attack his own.

But he could still shrug it off of his back. All Hec needed to do was think about someone else's fear, how it must have pulsated through both beings the moments before a pair of triggers were pulled, ending the precious lives of his wife and son. Because of Jess Harper! And that's why Hec wouldn't bend because of the woman and boy that he had with him, no matter how hard their feelings poured out of them. Revenge had to take its place inside of his soul. No, in the end it wouldn't bring back his family, but he had to make Harper suffer. It was the only way. He looked again at his captives. Without a doubt, it was the only way.

"Aunt Daisy…" The whisper was soft, but not so delicate that Mike didn't receive a scowl from the man that had taken him from home.

"Shh, Mike," Daisy answered, the smile that she put in place not completely forced. She was still a woman that could comfort, even when everything else around them was completely wrong. It spread up to her eyes as she focused on Mike.

"But I just wanted to know if…" Mike cast a quick glance at Mr. Oates, or whatever his real name was. No matter, anyhow. He was a bad man, a very bad man.

"What Mike?"

"If you're all right."

Her smile faded as she glanced down at her dress, stained beyond repair with blood from her leg. The throb underneath the fabric hadn't let up any, but since there was no longer a drip running down to her shoe, Daisy figured the cut was done leaking. Her head went into a slight shake. It had been her fault, wrenching her arm free from her captor's clutch as he pulled her up the slope to this cave. Her feet going out from underneath her, she slid down the hill, getting caught by Mr. Oates and a sharp rock at nearly the same moment.

Forget how much she wanted to holler at the pain that had immediately assaulted her leg. Daisy needed to protect Mike. Bless his heart, though, for he retaliated to her injury by pounding his small fists into the man in black's chest. Fear for what he would do to him, Daisy pulled Mike away from the angry man and clutched him to her side, bravely standing up on shaking legs as she gave Mr. Oates her most defiant stare.

And because of that very look, Daisy had to walk the rest of the way uphill, unassisted, until he pushed them both into the darkest corner of the cave. Only then did she start to hobble, the pain catching up when her adrenaline started to fade as the cave's desolation sank upon her. But she could be worse off. They both could be dead. And more, they both could be sitting there in the dank air without a shred of hope. But they had that, in double force. Slim and Jess was their hope, and it lessened the pain enough that Daisy's smile returned.

"I'm fine, Mike."

"Good. But when Slim and Jess find out what he's done…"

"Shhh," she hissed it more harshly this time, but by the flash of something other than hatred on the man's face, it was obvious that he heard. Daisy's eyes rested on Mr. Oates and she wondered. What exactly would Slim and Jess do? All she wanted was to be rescued, but Mike was right, Slim and Jess wouldn't be satisfied with their freedom alone. They would do more, much more. The thought frightened her and Daisy shuddered, so hard that it must have reached the man at the cave's door, for she saw the tremor pass through his frame nearly as hard as it coursed through hers.

Hand balled into a fist, Hec gave a single pound to the rock wall. For awhile he had forgotten about Sherman. His thoughts had been so focused on getting Harper that his brain went absent on the fact that Harper had a partner. Since Sherman should've been healed from his sickness by now, both would be coming.

Hec spat. "I'm an idiot."

"I don't think so," Daisy said, afraid that she would get more than his dark stare in response. "I can see that you're hurting. Pain can cloud the mind, you know."

"Yeah." He turned toward the woman, watching as she took a rapid inhale of air, but he stopped his steps from going all the way to her side. "But do you know why my heart's screaming right now?"

The air held tight in her chest, Daisy shook her head. She could only guess what had happened, as the man had offered her nothing in response to her questions when they were pulled from the ranch. But her thoughts had never turned as far as where the ugly truth sat.

"Mona and Nate are dead."

"No!" Daisy's hand went to her mouth.

"Yes! And your, whatever he is to you, Jess Harper is to blame. And I'm going to see to it that he pays, so heavily that he'll still be feeling his agony while lying in his grave!"

"No! Oh, no!" Daisy cried, the tears so immediate that her eyelashes couldn't catch them. "You're wrong, Jess wouldn't have harmed your family. He's kind, and…"

"Shut up!" He snapped, going so far to point his iron at the woman's face. "I don't want to hear another word about Jess Harper, you understand? He is what he is, he's done what he's done, and now I'm gonna get done what I've gotta get done."

His turn was so abrupt that a cloud of dust rose off of the cave's floor, shrouding him with darkness. Hec stormed with such violence that more than dust could have been in his wake. It wouldn't have surprised anyone there if a thundercloud had formed, shooting out its lightning bolts to the ground and having the kind of thunder that was deafening.

Hec matched the brilliant jolt of nature when he slammed his hand a second time against the cave's wall, this so hard that the skin broke, and the bubbles of blood quickly fell from his knuckles onto the earthen floor.

His shout was the thunder. "Harper!"

If he had only killed Harper that first day, then none of this would have happened. His rifle's aim had been on Harper's back, in such a vital place that it likely would have torn straight through, dropping him directly into his grave. But he moved. At that last second Harper moved and Hec's bullet went into Sheriff Cory instead. The outlaw in him didn't moan too much over that mistake then. A lawman was a lawman, and one less wasn't going to hurt Hec's feelings none. Except Sheriff Cory lived and Harper took his place. That was when the reality of his error set in.

But shouldn't Harper's star only put the man in another vulnerable position to give him his permanent fall? Hec certainly had thought so. When Harper was closing in on him after his second stint at robbing, here came the opportunity he wanted. But he would have to do it a different way. The only reason why he didn't put his barrel's bulls-eye right over Harper's head when he was climbing up the cliff's side was that he would have needed to expose himself to take that kind of aim. There were other men in that posse, and they all had full hands.

The idea of setting tumbleweeds aflame had been a whim. Hec thought it was a pretty good whim, at that. There was an ample supply in that particular dip in the ridge's floor, tossed up by the wind, but unable to bounce back out. A match put in their center would turn into a roar right quick. Burning his face, hands, or all of him, might not kill Harper straight away, but it could put him there eventually. He would take an agonizingly slow death, as long as there would be a stone etched in Harper's name. Yet Harper survived the blasts from above.

Hec glared into the growing darkness. "What is that fool made of?"

Something with a far greater hide than most. And for all Hec knew, Sherman was made up of the same. Honestly, Hec never intended to kill Sherman. Otherwise he would have used something far stronger than pokeberries. All he wanted was to scare everyone else off. Stop the hunt completely. But Harper didn't scare. He had to come snooping. He had to bring those bounty hunters that were better described as killers to his door!

Hec's mouth opened wide again. "Harper!"

.:.

Jess listened to the thunder's roll until it dissipated, only for another bolt to squiggle across the far western skyline and start the air's tumult all over again. Tapping his hat harder onto his head, Jess reached for his slicker that hung just inside of the barn door to add it to his pack. He was hot enough that rain likely would have just steamed off of his frame, but he didn't want to take any chances. This could be the longest ride of his life.

Another flash outlined Slim's body and Jess startled at the sight. He was holding a headless chicken.

"This might account for the blood on Daisy's bed."

He couldn't nod or shrug, Jess could only blankly stare at the decapitated bird. "Nothing's gonna ease my insides until I see Mike and Daisy are safe."

"I know," Slim said, casting the dead chicken aside as he angled his head toward the storm. "Riding out in the dark with rain coming isn't going to get us that assurance any sooner."

"Yeah, but I ain't about to sit here and wait 'til morning. Let it storm. Not even a cyclone has the power to stop me."

Slim felt the same way. But when he gave the sky a second, even longer look, Slim figured that the two men wouldn't be riding for too many hours before they had to pull up. He was right. The watch in Slim's pocket sat at midnight when a ledge was made into their shelter. The rain pouring at a slant had a role in making that decision, but it was a lightning bolt searing through a tree not fifty yards in front of them that insisted that they find some cover.

But in or out of leather, neither man would even attempt to get a few moments of sleep. They sat together in front of a weak fire, having enough ability to gnaw on its fuel to make a single flame dance on the ledge's wall.

There was little to offer when Slim held his hands outward, yet he continued to flex them over the wisp of smoke. "Why does Davies blame you, Jess?"

"I can't figure that out, especially since I was the one that warned him about the bounty hunters in the first place."

"You what? Jess, when did you see him?"

Jess' thumb pushed his hat backward a notch. "I rode over there the day you were married to the outhouse."

"So you suspected him."

Jess nodded. "But I didn't find nothing to make that suspicion rise to the point of pulling out the badge in my pocket. He was putting on a new roof, said he got money from Mona's kin to do it. The thing is though, I wasn't sure I believed him then. Now I know it wasn't the truth."

"You must've said something to him, Jess, to make him hate you enough to do this."

"Dunno. Like I said, I can't figure that out. But he can do whatever he wants with me, as long as Daisy and Mike come outta this all right."

Slim's eyes remained on Jess, long after his words grew silent. There were times when Jess walked the scoundrel's line and let a fib roll off of his tongue, but when his partner spoke the truth, it was a guarantee that he meant it and would see those words all the way to their end. Slim could have blamed the heatless fire for his sudden shiver, but there was more to his flesh's reaction than the temperature around him. Jess fully meant what he said, and Hector Davies' "whatever" just might be Jess' death.

.:.

Drips were all that remained of the night's deluge. Leaves were still adding to the puddles on the ground, but the sky had cleared, allowing the sun to shine. Yet there was a chill that would have never existed a few months earlier. It was fall in Wyoming. A very short season, one that often saw snow before one saw November, and if Slim's experience held any kind of accuracy, they would get a foretaste of that change tonight. The clear sky would mean the ground would turn white, with frost.

Slim looked up into the brilliant blue. "We've got to find them before then."

Jess didn't need to question Slim's words. They had spoken little to each other since mounting, but his partner's seemingly out of nowhere comment didn't make his eyebrow arch. But it did put a frown in place. Slim was right. They had to find them before dark. One night of damp was bad enough, but add to it some digits below the freezing mark and they could have the kind of sniffles that would quickly take the turn for worse.

The slope above not going to hinder his determination, Jess encouraged his horse to a faster run. "Get up there, Son."

His horse closely following Jess', Slim didn't bother to look toward the ground, searching for any tracks, but as his eyes naturally rose with the animal's ascent, his brain felt like there was a match scratching against the surface and lit. "Jess, isn't there a cave on the other side of this ridge?"

"Yeah. Ain't too deep, but it could definitely attract someone that wants to hide."

"That could be it, then. I know we were in his trail before the storm hit. That cave could very well have been his destination, especially with rain at his back."

"As long as he's still in it," Jess said, suddenly making his horse shift to go around the ridge instead of riding atop of it.

He was, and Hec knew the moment that his hiding place was discovered. The thunderstorm had long since rolled away, not even leaving a remnant rumble in its place, but Hec heard the ground react as if the booms were straight overhead all over again. He looked down to the ridge's bottom the moment a group of crows flew up out of the treetops. They were coming, all right. And if Hec wasn't mistaking, Harper was in the lead.

The rifle in his hands cracked loudly with its preparation, but his lips barely made a sound. "Come and get it, Harper."

The rifle in his hands cracked loudly with its preparation, but it was a whisper in Jess' clasp compared to his shout. "Davies, I wanna know! And now, right now!"

Hec leaned around the cave's edge. He couldn't see Harper. He expected Harper couldn't see him. The same would be said for Sherman, even though he had the slight advantage of being taller. And as there was only one, narrow way up to this point, neither could come charging forward if they had caught a glimpse of his frame.

"Davies!" Harper's roar went up so many notches a mama bear ripped of her cubs would have been less intimidating.

His lip tiring of the gnaw his teeth were making, Hec changed the position of his gaze to land on a frightened set of eyes. The woman's pair were even worse, and he quickly darted away from Mrs. Cooper to rest again on the boy.

Feeling like he could sense Harper's fury from the distance without either man taking a step toward each other, Hec pulled Mike upright. The struggle that had met him every time his hand clamped onto the thin arm returned, this time even stronger. A reaction to the two men somewhere down below, most like. Hec could have made his own response a harder squeeze into the flesh, but he kept his fingers from becoming a vise, lest Harper caught wind of him manhandling his boy and land a bullet between his eyes. Even if Harper couldn't see him, Hec wouldn't put it past the hothead to make the attempt.

Hec switched the position of his grip so that it was clamped onto the kid's shoulder and then peered below for the tiniest glint of a rifle taking on sunlight. He didn't see a single flash and he swallowed the tension that had built in his throat. "All right, Harper!" Where that shout had bounced around more than one peak, the tone changed as Hec looked down upon the blonde top. "Be careful what you say to him, Kid. All he needs to know is that you're alive. Got it?"

Mike bobbed his head once, but there was more going on in its inside than just a single thought. "Jess! Slim!"

"Mike," the two men said in unison. The continuation still rang together, although barked at different pitches. "Are you all right?"

"Yes." That was all he was supposed to say, Mike knew it by the way the hand filled his shoulder's sleeve, but the way he was being held by his two father-figure's out of sight, he couldn't leave it with just that. "But Aunt Daisy's h…"

The hand clapped so hard onto Mike's mouth that it stung.

Pulse set to its most rapid throb, Jess looked at Slim. "Daisy's hurt? Was that what Mike was gonna say? She's hurt?"

"Or here, or anything else with a similar sound."

"No. My gut knows. She's hurt."

Jess dared to take one step forward. His insides would lower to the ground and die if he thought that taking that move would cause harm to Mike, or further harm to Daisy, but Jess had to make that dare. He wanted to be exposed. Not to shoot Davies' head off, although the thought had pounded in his temples long before now, but to make him vulnerable before the man. Right now he had no other choice.

"Stay behind me, Slim," Jess hissed, the sharp jab enough to keep Slim's boots from trailing up after him.

"Jess, what're you…"

"Rescuing what's mine," he answered, the lick across his mouth so dry he could have put his tongue against the desert's floor. Oh well. The rattle in his throat would only add to his urgency to get this done. "Davies! I gotta deal for you."

Hec smirked. "What's that, a bullet?"

"If I thought I could get away with killing you, I'd've done it before now."

"Then what?"

"I wanna clean swap. Me for Mike and Mrs. Cooper."

"You're crazy! Two in exchange for one?"

Strange that Slim's head could echo Davies' description of Jess. He started to put himself directly beside Jess' shadow in case utter craziness got Jess a bite of lead, but a sharp wave of Jess' hand stilled him.

"Think about what you've got there, Davies," Jess said, his boot inching slightly up hill. "A boy, ain't even half growed yet. And a woman—" Jess' eyes narrowed into slits. "—a hurt woman at that. And I'm offering all of me. I'm more'n growed, ain't hurt. Sounds fair to me. So what's it gonna be?"

"Jess." Slim's voice was as loud and deep as thunder, even though he held it in a whisper. "You can't."

"If it'll get Mike and Daisy to safety, I sure can."

"You're taking a gamble that Daisy is hurt, you know."

"Davies hasn't denied it."

The truth struck both men into ice. Blood had been on Daisy's bed, and while the dead chicken could have accounted for the smears, it also could have belonged to Daisy. She might have hailed from the east, but her time in the west had hardened her enough to fight if there was no other option. She could have fought hard enough that Davies' had to hurt her to get her to cooperate.

The thought made Jess' blood boil so hard that a teakettle with the same rapid motions on its insides wouldn't have just lost its lid, but would have exploded its contents as far and wide as it could throw it. "Davies!"

This isn't exactly what he had planned. Making Harper suffer, that was part one. Part two was seeing him die. Hec looked at Mrs. Cooper again, her hand pressed into her heart. Well, he had sort of made the man suffer. But when it settled onto the final length of that suffering, Hec wouldn't have been able to pull a trigger on the woman and boy. He knew that now. Taking the life of the innocent wasn't his thing. But Harper, now he was so far from being innocent that maybe even the Almighty would lend a hand in his death.

Hec returned his gaze to the angry swells coming from below. "All right, Harper. You've got a deal. But I won't turn either loose until I know you're not holding iron. And if I see Sherman anywhere, and I mean anywhere close to your shadow, I toss the kid downhill by his ear."

"Jess?" Slim couldn't help but take one step backward at Davies' threat. "You know what you're doing?"

"Yeah," Jess answered, his hand already released of the rifle, now he was working on removing his holstered belt. "But I wanna know is do you know what you're doing?"

A fiery retort was somewhere on Slim's tongue. He wanted to say that he was going to help Jess. But by the look in his partner's blue, none of that came forward. All he could do was shake his head.

Jess' finger went toward Slim's chest. "Slim, you've got one mission, and one mission only. Once they're outta there, get Mike and Daisy to safety."

"What about you?"

"Forget about me. You have one mission. Got it?"

Slim nodded.

Jess stood on a rock, in such full view of Davies' weapon that Jess could look into its barrel and see the bullet with his name on it. Barely giving his lips a piece of his tongue, he took his eyes away from his impending doom to find Mike and Daisy, visible enough in the cave's shadows that his heart started to throb even harder than before. There was blood on Daisy.

If two lives that were more precious to him than his own hadn't been within a madman's range, Jess would have bolted over the rest of the path. It didn't matter if he had nothing to offer other than his fists, the way he felt at that moment, they would have been enough. But Jess couldn't jump ahead, couldn't even flinch. He did flick his eyes back to Davies.

"I'm here, Hec. Let them go."

"All right, boy," Hec said, motioning with his head toward Mike. "You first. And go slow. No sudden movements."

Mike nodded, giving Aunt Daisy another glance before he inhaled all of the air his small lungs could hold. With each step down, he slowly puffed out, and when Mike was at Jess' level, there was none left. He stood still, breath held, so afraid that he would never see Jess again that he didn't even notice his body reacting to the desperate need of what was around him. Eyes starting to shimmer, Mike's body swayed, making Jess' hands instinctively rush outward.

The bullet bounced between the two sets of feet. Jess spun, his frame spewing the same kind of heat that wafted out of the rifle's barrel. And then there was Mike, being so startled that he finally remembered to breathe.

Davies' fed his rifle the next shell. "Move along, Kid."

"Do as he says, Mike," Jess said, this time keeping his feet firmly planted as he watched Mike's full retreat to where Slim waited below him. And then he focused on Daisy. "Can you make it, Daisy?"

"I'm all right, Jess," Daisy answered, trying to keep the limp out of her walk, but with both legs closer to the consistence of jelly, the shaking underneath her skirt wouldn't prevent the hobble.

"How'd that happen?" Jess tried to keep it calm, but it snapped like out-of-control flames.

Her fingers tugged at the stain on her dress. "I fell."

Jess wished his eyes could be bullets. If they were, his stare would be doing Davies in just about now. "Then he didn't do it to you?"

"Not directly, no."

His breath's release wasn't in relief, but it was something other than hatred as Daisy limped past him. Jess had to watch her descent, all the way until she disappeared into Slim's embrace, and then Jess' gaze leapt back upward.

"All right, Davies. I'm yours."

"So you are," Hec answered, the wicked grin unable to be stopped as he waved the rifle, urging Jess to rise to the cave's darkness.

Slim stood in front of Daisy and Mike, barely inching his way past the boulder that had been his shield to get a look at Jess. His heart thumped with the violence of a bullet slamming into his most vital place, for as he watched Jess' back disappear into the cave, he feared that he would never see his partner upright again.

The rifle Jess discarded now in his clasp, Slim took one more step, but at Daisy's gasp he froze. He had agreed to one mission. Get Daisy and Mike to safety. And Jess? His partner's words banged inside of his brain.

"Forget about me."

Slim looked up into the cave's mouth, his head in a defiant shake. "That's something I'll never be able to do, Pard."

Slim swallowed the growing hitch in his throat and walked away, taking Mike and Daisy to safety.