ONE
A single gunshot reverberated off the thin walls of the small, clapboard house. Blood quickly pooled on the floor underneath the body of an aged farmer, and his wife, tied to a nearby chair, cried out in anguish.
Three men with hats pulled down low and bandanas covering the lower half of their faces had come galloping up to their front door and burst in with guns drawn not one hour previously. Jesse Brooks tried to reach his shotgun, but he had been sitting down to eat his midday meal and never stood a chance. From the moment they heard the pounding of the horse's hooves, they had been doomed. While one of the men raved about the hypocrisy of the self-righteous and collateral damage, the other two had tied Sarah to one of the kitchen chairs and started beating Jesse. Then they'd gagged him, held him back, and forced him to watch as the first man threatened her with a knife, teasing and taunting and carrying on about revenge, and finally backhanded her. She had remained stoic, blood dripping from her nose, until the outlaws forced her husband to his knees and shot him point blank in the forehead. He died before he even hit the ground, and as his lifeless body collapsed Sarah broke down, her heart squeezing painfully in her chest, all coherent thought fleeing.
Someone cut the ropes around her wrists, and she fell to the ground at Jesse's feet. Crawling forward and pulling his body into her arms, she barely even noticed the men who destroyed her life leaving the house.
Caleb followed his younger brothers out the front door and shut it behind him, the woman's muffled cries still echoing in the silence. The sound grated on him, dredged up old memories, and he grit his teeth and forced them back. They had no place here, not now, and what was done, was done. It needed to be done.
Harley and Ben turned and waited for him to make the next move, and he yanked the bandana off his face and used it to wipe the sweat off his forehead before speaking.
"Now that's taken care of, we need to finish up here quickly and then move on into Hays." He glanced back over his shoulder toward the barn and then nodded at his baby brother, their tight timeline forcing focus back into his voice. "Ben, you make sure the horses are scared off, we don't need the woman going for help too soon. Harley, you go take care of the crops."
"Got the matches right here. Shouldn't take but a couple minutes."
"Good. Both of you get back here quick as you can. I'm going to finish with the woman, and then we'll hit up the bank just like we talked about. One last 'thank you' to this goddamn town. Then you two'll lay low while I go into Dodge to start workin' on the final piece of our plan. Got it?"
Caleb nodded shortly, dismissing his brothers, and watched as Ben and Harley set off to carry out their tasks. Securing the bandana over his face once again, his green eyes flashed viciously, determined. Just a couple more days and then Dodge. This had been a long time coming…. He stalked back into the house, yanked the grieving widow to her feet, and pulled her close, their faces inches apart.
"Now listen real close and pay attention. I've got a message for your sheriff to pass along to Matt Dillon."
By the time the dust settled and the sun had set that evening in Hays City, a bank patron was dead, two bank employees were over at the doctor's being treated for minor gunshot wounds, and over a dozen townspeople were slowly making their way back to town having finally extinguished the fire at the Brooks' farm. The entire wheat crop had been destroyed, along with the barn and most of the house.
The town doc checked Sarah Brooks into a hotel room and gave her a sedative to help her sleep, reassuring Sheriff Tucker he could get some answers from her in the morning.
It wasn't the first time the Hays City bank had been robbed. Hell, it probably wouldn't be the last, either. But as the sheriff walked back to the jail, a cold feeling settled in the pit of his stomach, promising that something was different this time and more calamity was on its way.