Dance With A Gunfighter (40 page)

"Oh, Thorn!" she cried in dismay. She found him,
showed him the birds, scolded him, and did all she could to show her anger, but
he romped about devil-may-care.

When it happened a second time, she scolded him
forcefully. Thorn lowered his belly and scurried away, looking like the coyote
he was. Gabe felt terrible, but then she saw Manolo scowling fiercely at the
pup. He glanced at her, shook his head and stomped away.

She was sewing a dress for Kaiya’s daughter one evening
when she heard a sudden screeching and banging. The screeches turned to squawks
and soon Manolo’s shouts of fury rang out. The hen house!

Putting on her wrapper, and boots, she picked up her
shotgun and ran outside. There was Thorn, leaping about inside the coop, a bird
in his mouth, jerking his head from side to side until the bird lay lifeless.
He’d broken through every barrier and obstacle they’d built to keep him away
from the hens. Manolo chased him out of the coop.

But it was too late. All her hens lay dead.

She fired her shotgun into the air, making Manolo and
Thorn both stop and stare at her. Her heart felt torn in two as she realized
what she had to do. She picked up a rock and threw it at the coyote, watching
it land just before his feet. He sprang back a few steps.

"Get out of here!" she cried, throwing another
rock. "Go! There’s no taming you. And you won’t listen."

He scampered out of reach, looking more like a dog than a
wild thing. "No taming you," she told him. "I can’t keep you
penned up, living the way I want you to, anymore than I could I let someone do
that to me."

She threw another small rock, hitting him in the rump. He
lowered his head, his pale eyes cold, and then he turned and ran away. She
watched Thorn’s silhouette against the red morning sunrise, until he
disappeared into the shadows in the distance.

"We have to say good-bye," she whispered, her
mind filled with another time, another place. Then she walked back to her house
alone.

Chapter 31

The monsoon rains of late summer came hard that year,
washing away the garden of corn, squash, melons, pumpkins and beans that Gabe
and Kaiya had planted, and half the garden top soil as well. Thorn never came
back. Gabe’s weekly letters from Chad told her he was doing well in law school.
She had always said he had most of the brains in the family.

Once a week, she went into Jackson City to pick up the
mail and buy supplies. Whenever she saw a stranger in town, she would introduce
herself, then quickly ask if he knew the whereabouts of Jess McLowry or Will
Tanner.

A couple of times one such passerby told her Jess McLowry
were dead. The first time it happened, the news devastated her until she realized
it was the old rumor that Apaches had killed Jess. Tanner, as well, seemed to
have dropped off the earth. As the months passed, fewer and fewer people knew
of or cared about the two men any longer. No one but her.

A foolish hope grew in her that when her birthday came,
Jess might contact her. On that morning, she put on a dress, and with it the
necklace he had given her the year before. Throughout the day she kept her eye
on the road, on the old flappy-tongued saguaro. But he didn’t come to see her;
he didn’t send even a note. That was when she knew it was truly over between
them.

The one bright spot in her day was the time she spent with
Kaiya’s children. The baby was growing fast, and the little girl was
intelligent and curious, quickly learning English from Gabe. Gabe would tell
her many stories. Some were from the Bible, and others from Greek
mythology--stories Gabe remembered from her mother’s book. The book had been
destroyed in the fire, and one day in town, Gabe found a copy in a catalogue and
ordered it. It gave her something to look forward to.

One afternoon, after a quick thunderstorm passed over the
land, leaving it green and fresh, Gabe rode out to check the cattle. As she went,
she took the time to enjoy the beautiful country that belonged to her. She
might have nothing else, but this land was hers. As Jess had once said, it was
worth fighting for.

When she returned to the stables, the quiet of the area
made her suddenly uneasy. The house and barn and everything around them looked
the same as when she left that morning.

Of course it was quiet, she told herself. Manolo had left
early that morning to hunt a mountain lion that had been killing livestock and
Kaiya had taken the children to gather blackberries on the hillside above the
arroyo.

Still, something felt wrong.

Gabe led Maggie to her stall and began to unsaddle her.

"Well, there, little lady. It’s about time we
met." A slow, South Carolina drawl, so much like Jess’s, made her heart
catch for a moment. She spun around.

Will Tanner leaned against the door just inside the barn,
sucking on a piece of hay. He was tall and broad-shouldered. A black hat worn
low on his brow shaded his eyes. In the shadows, something about the shape of
his face struck her as oddly familiar. Long, blond hair fell to his shoulders,
and a thick mustache curved down around the side of his mouth and fell nearly
to his chin. His black shirt was unbuttoned down to his stomach and gaped open,
and a black bandanna was tied loose on his neck. His trousers were black, and
his spurs long and fierce.

He dropped the straw and swaggered toward her. Ice blue
eyes, flat and ugly as death, bored into her as he approached.

Gabe backed toward Maggie, her eyes searching for a
weapon--any weapon. Her rifle was in the scabbard, but she’d never be able to
pull it free before Tanner shot her. "What do you want, Tanner?"

"Ah, so you do recognize me. I thought that brother
of mine had driven all other thoughts from your pretty head. He used to have
that effect on the ladies. Guess he’s slipping."

Her heart began to pound. "Brother?"

"My baby brother, Jess." He stared at her, then
slowly began to laugh. "You mean, he didn’t tell you? Hah! And to think,
he used to be so proud of me."

It was a lie, she thought. It had to be a lie.

"He’s no kin of yours!" she shouted.

"No?" Tanner lifted an eyebrow. She’d seen that
same gesture from Jess. The color of the eyes. The shape of their bodies.
Memories swirled around her--the strange reaction she’d had from Jess when she
told him Tanner had killed her family...his reluctance to go after the
man...and the dream she’d once had where Tanner turned into Jess. As she
thought of hounding Jess to go after his own brother, she felt sick. "But
your names," she said, all but pleading with him to say he’d lied.
"You can’t be--"

"It’s easy to change a name. Especially when Will
McLowry was wanted by the whole Union government. They wanted me for murdering
the bastard carpetbaggers who raped and killed my wife, and blew off my baby’s
head with a rifle. They taught me how to live like an animal in that Union
prison. They also taught me to kill like one."

She blanched at his words and remembered the one time Jess
had talked about traveling with a group of Confederates--some were family, he’d
said. And then the gang went bad, and he’d left them. "But why my
family?" she asked. "We’d done nothing to you."

He shrugged. "Why not? There you were, in your snug
little house, with your snug little family, all so very, very
good
, so
very, very
happy
." He laughed. "For all the good it did
you."

As she turned pale, he chuckled.

"I’m not alone, you know," she said, willing
herself to stand up straight and defiant. "There are plenty of others on
the ranch. It’s not like the last time you were here...with only a man, his two
sons, and a daughter too young and too frightened to do anything but
hide."

"Too bad we missed you, girl. I would have enjoyed
having you before my brother did." He stroked his jaw. "Much as I can
remember, there was only an old man, a couple fellas and a scrawny young boy
hiding in the house."

"You saw a boy?"

"Window curtain was back, so we saw him. Would have
shot him if he’d grabbed a gun, but I guess he was too scared. After we killed
the others, we decided to smoke him out, then have some fun before we killed
him, too. But then the whole damn place caught fire. He must have burned up.
So, we took off before the neighbors came snooping around."

Gabe’s skin turned cold and she began to shake.

As if in a nightmare, she saw again Henry’s expression
when he heard a noise outside, near the barn. She watched as he got up from the
dinner table and picked up his rifle to go out to inspect. She was screaming
for him not to go, for Pa and Chad not to follow him, but none of them heard
her. Her voice made no sound.

Chad had said the intruders were saddle tramps. He wasn’t
worried. Pa not only let drifters sleep in the barn, he'd often give them some
baked bread and jerky besides.

She saw herself at the window, madder than hell because
supper was getting cold. Five men charged out of the barn, hooting and yelling.
They were drunk, wild and crazy. A mean-looking, tall one with long, yellow
hair raised his six-shooter and fired.

The nightmare slowed. The back of her father’s shirt
shredded open, forming a black, gaping hole. Droplets of blood sprayed the air.
He fell hard to the ground, bouncing from the impact, then lay still, sprawled
in the way of a rag doll, not a man. Blood darkened the front of his shirt.

She tried to help, to grab her rifle. But her legs were
rooted to the floor. No matter how hard she struggled, she couldn’t move.

Chad and Henry fired back. Henry was hit, over and over, twisting
and turning with each blow. The front door crashed open, and Chad stood before
her. He tossed back the knotted rag rug and lifted the trap door to the root
cellar. She begged him to hide himself, but he grabbed her and shoved her
inside. She landed hard, the wind knocked out of her as he slammed the trap
door shut and left her alone in the darkness.

She heard the door to the house bang open, then shots
fired on and on and on, and then a loud roar, and finally, blackness.

All this time she’d believed Tanner hadn’t seen her, that
she could have grabbed a gun and stopped him, that she could have saved her
father and Henry. The thought had eaten away at her, day and night. But he
had
seen her.

He’d been waiting, and if she’d tried to kill him, she,
too, would be dead now.

Tanner rubbed his chin, closely watching her reaction.
"That was you at the window, wasn’t it? When you was poking around
Tombstone and Dry Springs I’d heard that your hair was pretty short for a
girl’s. It would a been even shorter back when we raided this place."

She couldn’t speak, could scarcely think.

"God damn!" He spit on the ground. "If we
had found you that day, you would have been like manna from heaven." His
frown turned into a leer that turned her stomach.

"You aren’t human," she whispered.

He laughed. "Why don’t we go up to your bedroom and
I’ll show you how human I am? I’ve never had a woman my baby brother knew--in
the Biblical sense, that is. I’ll be interested in how you compare us."

"Go to hell!"

He chuckled. "Wouldn’t it be rich if he showed up
while we were in your bed? He never did like to share." He licked his
lower lip. "He’s an hour or two behind me. Been dogging me all over three
territories, and I’m damned sick of it. I decided to play it out right here. To
finally let him catch up with me, and end his sorry life."

His words told her, again, what a monster he was. She
forced her thoughts to what she had to do to save herself and Jess. Slowly, she
lifted her hand from the stall door and stepped away from Maggie.

If she left the stable, Kaiya or Manolo might return and
see Tanner and realize she needed help. But what if he killed them, or, God
forbid, their children? She had to stop Tanner herself--somehow. She had to, or
die trying. She couldn’t let him harm anyone else.

Tanner waved his gun toward the entrance, and she hurried
past him, careful not to get close enough for him to touch her. She had to find
a way to stall him, to stop the confrontation he wanted, and she feared. She
stepped out of the door into the bright sunlight.

The air was hazy with heat. As Gabe looked over her
shoulder for Manolo or Kaiya, she nearly lost her step. Darting out from around
the back of the barn, his gun drawn, was Jess. He put his finger to his lips,
telling her not to make a sound. She quickly faced forward again and edged
sideways toward the water barrels.

Tanner stepped from the barn onto the sun-bleached ground.

"Stop right there, Will. Put your hands up."

Tanner froze, his gun still pointing toward Gabe as he
slowly turned his head. Jess was to the side and a little behind him. As soon
as she saw Tanner’s attention turn away from her, Gabe hurled herself behind a
big barrel.

Tanner’s eyes darted for a second in her direction. He
swore, then squared his shoulders as he kept his back to Jess.

"You got the drop on me, baby brother. I’m easing my
gun back into my holster, see? Now, if you shoot me, it’ll be murder, pure and
simple. You’ve been a hired gun--and that makes me proud, Jess--but I also know
you aren’t one to go around murdering kin. Let’s just forget about all this,
with you dogging me everywhere I go. I don’t want to hurt you, Jess, and I know
you don’t want to hurt me."

"It’s too late for that, Will."

"Now that’s a mite unfriendly attitude, Jess."

Gabe watched the exchange with confusion, not
understanding why Jess allowed Tanner to holster his gun. Why not just tell him
to drop it on the ground?

"You want a chance, Will?" Jess asked.

"That’s what I’m asking you for. Kin to kin."

An inkling of what Jess planned struck Gabe with horror.
"Don’t listen to him, Jess," she cried. "We need to tie him up
and take him to the sheriff."