Trip to Murder 9

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Kitty held her tongue as Matt ushered her out of the house and down the street. She knew Matt Dillon pretty well by now and she was sure there was something he wasn't saying. Once they had reached a safe distance from Flannery's house, she stopped and placed a hand on Matt's arm. "Okay, Cowboy, what is it?" She asked.

Matt frowned. "What is what?"

"You know what I'm talking about." Kitty told him. "Why do you suddenly want to just cut trail and run. You normally charge into something like this, regardless of whether you have jurisdiction or not. And I can't remember too many times you actually caring about whether it was dangerous or not."

Matt shrugged. "Normally you're not with me when I walk into something dangerous. I'm willing to take chances my self but not with you. Besides, I'm not going home tomorrow. You are."

"What?" She stared at him. "Are you crazy? I'm not going anywhere tomorrow, or the day after. In case you've forgotten, I came here to do business for my saloon and I'm not leaving until I've done that. Besides…."

Matt looked up and took a deep breath. He knew she would argue this with him but still he had to try. What Flannery had told them tonight changed everything. "Kitty, it's not safe for you here now." He interrupted her. "If Flannery is to be believed, these people mean business. They wouldn't hesitate to kill you and I'm not going to risk it."

"You have no say in this, Marshal." Kitty snapped at him. "Remember this isn't your jurisdiction. Besides, as I started to say, I have to stay here. I'm the one who saw the murderer and the dead man. I need to be here in order to identify them."

For just a moment blue eyed glare met blue eyed glare and neither man nor woman budged. But finally, Matt dropped his head and nodded. Kitty was right and he knew it. As much as he wanted to send her home for her safety, he couldn't. "Well, alright. But you are not going anywhere alone from now on. You, Miss Russell, can consider yourself in my custody from now on until this is all over."

Kitty suddenly grinned. "That, Mr. Dillon, is something I have wanted for a long time."

Matt rolled his eyes and shook his head, but an echoing grin formed before he could stop it. "Come on, Red, let's go back to the hotel and get some rest. Something tells me we're gonna have a long day tomorrow."

Kitty's brow arched and her grin broadened. "Is that all you intend to do? Rest?"

Matt wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close for a kiss. "Among other things." He murmured.

As the Dodge City couple reached the deserted street outside their hotel, neither one noticed the man standing tight within the shadows across the street and neither one saw the gun he had aimed at them.

Both of them, however, heard the report of rifle fire and Matt felt the sting of the bullet as it grazed his left arm.

"Get down, Kitty!" Matt yelled as he pushed her down and back into the thick bushes beside the building. Two more shots echoed in the night then all was suddenly silent.

"Matt?" Kitty whispered breathlessly.

"Just stay down," Matt warned. Giving it another few moments, Matt cautiously raised his head scanning the area. Across the street, he saw a figure rapidly retreating down an alley, disappearing completely from sight. For a second he thought to chase after him, but he had Kitty to think of. "You okay?" He asked her anxiously.

Kitty nodded. "I'm... I'm okay." Just then she saw his arm. "Matt!" She exclaimed. "Your arm!"

Matt gave it glance but shook his head. "It's alright, honey. Just a scratch. Come on. Let's get inside before anyone else can take a pot shot at us."

As they entered the hotel they saw the desk clerk running in their direction. "What was that noise? What happened?" He noticed the big man's torn jacket and the rapidly spreading blood stain. "Oh my! Oh my! Your…. Your arm!"

Matt nodded as he held on tightly to Kitty and pushed his way past the clerk. "That's right, it's my arm. Have a good night." Quickly as they could, Matt and Kitty ascended the stairs and made their way swiftly to Kitty's room.

"Get that jacket off, Matt, and sit down." Kitty told him once they were inside and the door closed. "Let me look at that arm."

Matt complied, wincing as he did so. Sitting down on the side of the bed he sat stoically while Kitty looked at his wound.

"Scratch, my foot." Kitty mumbled. Grabbing a towel and the pitcher of water on the dresser, she gently cleaned it and wrapped it tightly with another towel. "Well, it's not too bad, but you should have a couple of stitches in it." She said as she finished.

Matt shook his head. "Well, Doc's not here right now so I think it'll be alright."

"What about that Dr. Sheridan?" Kitty asked. "He said if you needed anything else…"

"Un huh." Matt shook his head again. "I don't want to involve anyone I don't have to. Which means, we're gonna have to get out of here."

"Why?" Kitty looked at him curiously. "We're safe up here."

Matt arched a brow. "Are we? Kitty we were just shot at outside of this hotel. They obviously know where we are. Now unless you want to hunker down in this room until we can catch a train out of here, and I still think you should, we need to leave."

Kitty sighed and sat down beside him on the bed. "I guess you're right. But can it wait till tomorrow? I'm awful tired and besides where could we go? Other than Sean, we don't really know anyone here well enough that we can just show up on their doorstep in the middle of the night. And we don't really know Sean."

"I know," Matt said. "I guess we can stay tonight but tomorrow morning, first light, we leave." He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close for a moment. "We can find something then, I'm sure." For several moments they sat side by side when he suddenly remembered the room he had rented the night before. "My hotel room." He said.

Kitty looked at him a little strangely. "It's right next door, Matt. I doubt it's much safer than this one."

"No, honey. The one I rented last night. It ain't much but it'd be better than walking the streets."

Wearily Kitty shook her head. "Won't they be able to find us there too?"

"Maybe," Matt shrugged, "but at least not right away. I figure we leave a couple hours before daylight and we sneak down there and get inside before anyone sees us. We can hole up in there until night and then look for something better."

"Well, you know better than I do about this sort of thing, so I'll do whatever you say." Kitty told him as she rose. "But right now, I'm going to wash up and go to bed."

Just as Kitty passed the window, she bent to grab her valise on the floor and a bullet came through the window. Shattered glass flew inward, striking her and falling in a small shower on the floor.

For the second time that night, Matt swiftly grabbed her and pushed her down. "Stay down." He whispered. Crawling to the window, he hazarded a glance outside. He saw nothing, but wasn't about to take a chance.

Quickly as he could, he made his way over to the low table where the lamp still burned brightly. Snuffing it out, he turned to Kitty. In the pale moonlight coming through the window, he could barely make her out. "We're leaving here tonight."

Trembling, Kitty brushed pieces of the broken window off of her and inspected, as best she could in the dark, several small cuts from the flying shards of glass. She realized she was lucky.

"You okay?" Matt asked as he took her arm, helping her up.

"Yeah," Kitty answered. She paused then looked up at Matt. "They're really trying to kill us, aren't they?"

"Yeah," Matt answered, as he pulled her close. "But they're not going to succeed. That, I will promise you."

TBC