The Vigilante's Bride (15 page)

“No. Miss McCarthy needed a few things and rode along. I came in today to see Sheriff Tucker.”

“About your barn, I guess.”

“Good news travels fast, I see,” Luke said dryly.

“The whole town’s heard. A bunch of us’ll be out to New Hope next weekend to start raising you a new barn.” Baxter shook his head. “Sure hate to see this start up again. Too much like the old days. You know who did it, I guess?”

“Not really. That’s the sheriff ’s job.”

Baxter leaned closer. “If one of Axel’s men did it, you’re wasting your time with the sheriff. Sam Tucker’s a good man, but he can’t do nothing about Axel. Sometimes I think . . . well, you know what I think about Axel.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Luke caught a flicker of movement. The cowboy at the end of the counter raised his head. From under his hat, small, deep-set eyes stared fixedly at Baxter.

“But I don’t,” the stranger said. “S’pose you tell me what you think ’bout Mr. Axel.” In one fast movement, he swung his elbow onto the counter and leveled a gun barrel at Will Baxter’s stomach.

Leaning forward, arms folded, Luke looked down the counter. “No call for that. Put the gun away, mister. This conversation doesn’t concern you.”

“You’re wrong. It does. Directly. I just hired on at the X-Bar-L and that’s my new boss he’s talking about.” His eyes glittered at Luke. “And this doesn’t concern you, neither. So keep your nose out of it.”

The four cardplayers interchanged glances, laid down their cards, and stood up. Single-file they followed each other out the front door.

Luke straightened, the back of his left hand easing a bowl of peanuts aside. “I said to put the gun away.” His voice was a monotone.

“Big talk for a man who ain’t drawn yet.”

“If I draw, I use it. And I’d rather not.”

The man’s eyes flicked to Luke’s right hand resting on the counter, fingers widespread, relaxed. Ready.

When Luke first slid onto a stool at the counter, the quick pat down he’d given his Colt had got him a hard stare from this man. The stranger was aware of Luke’s automatic gun check. Luke checked other men himself – looked for it, in fact. It was a dead giveaway to a fast draw. Luke tensed inside, his senses alerted.

Takes one to know one.

Who was he?

He spoke better than some cowboys, but he wasn’t a rancher. His eyes were wrong.

“You shoot Mr. Baxter, it’s murder,” Luke said, quietly. “I shoot you, it’s not. And I will.”

Axel’s new man shrugged. “It ain’t your fight,” he said, then flipped a dollar onto the counter. “I got no quarrel with you.” He slipped his six-gun into its holster and pushed away from the counter. Spurs jingling, he moved toward the door. Holding it open, he looked over his shoulder at Luke. “Name’s Haldane. Kid Haldane. What’s yours, mister?”

“Sullivan. Luke Sullivan.”

“I’ll remember that.”

“Good idea.”

With a curt nod, Kid Haldane turned and pushed his way outside.

Will Baxter wiped a sleeve across his forehead and leaned weakly on the counter. “Much obliged. I owe you.” His voice wavered.

Luke leaned over and squeezed his shoulder. “No, you don’t. You’d do it for me.” He put his hat on and walked out.

He went up the wooden sidewalk, his boots rapping the planks. The gunfight jitters that always hit him afterward closed like a hand around his throat. He walked faster, wanting to find Emily and then get out of town.

Down the street in Bobbins Store, the bell above the door jangled as Luke stepped inside. “You about ready to go?”

She looked at his face and snapped her purse closed. “I’m ready.”

Silently he collected her packages and carried them out to the buggy. As he stowed them behind the seat, he noticed the spotted Appaloosa belonging to Haldane still tied to the rail in front of Will Baxter’s place, its owner nowhere in sight.

Luke looked across the street at the café where he’d planned to take Emily for lunch and shook his head. Food was the last thing he wanted. He was too churned up inside to eat.

She laid her hand on his forearm and looked up at him.

“You’re upset.”

He glanced at the black and white horse again and then back to Emily. “I look it, huh?”

“I guess you don’t want to stop for lunch, then.” Her mouth pulled down at the corners.

He gave her a lopsided smile and pretended everything was fine. They didn’t get to town often, and she was disappointed.

“I didn’t say that. You want to get something to eat?”

“I kind of hoped we would.”

Luke looked down at her. In the sunlight, her hair shone like a new copper penny.

“Then that’s what we do,” he said, keeping his voice casual. He could manage to get down a cup of coffee.

He took her arm and tucked her close to his left side, keeping his gun hand free. Eyes checking every face in the crowd on the sidewalk, he walked her across the street and into the little café.

About halfway home, he turned the buggy off the road onto a sandy trail.

“Where’re we going?” she asked.

“Someplace private so we can talk.” He looked over at her. “We’ve got a lot of fighting to make up for.”

They crossed a covered bridge, its board sides plastered with notices and bright circus posters. The buggy rolled over a small rise, then turned off into the protection of a line of trees and stopped. For several minutes, Luke looked straight ahead, not speaking.

Emily shifted around in her seat. “What happened in town?”

“Looks like Bart went and hired himself a gun. Name’s Kid Haldane. He butted into a conversation Will Baxter and I were having, and he pulled a gun on Will for no reason. I threatened to pull mine to keep him from shooting Will.”

She swallowed. Her face went dead white.

He stared into the trees, not wanting to say the rest. “Will Baxter’s got three little kids. He’s a family man, a churchman. If Haldane had shot Will, I would have killed him, Em.”

“And Haldane might’ve killed you.”

“Not likely.”

“You’re that good?”

He nodded.

She looked dazed. He stared into the cool, green depths of her eyes. Worry for him, mixed with disapproval of what he’d done, moved in the back of them.

He took her hand in both of his. “I know how you feel about me and guns, and I know it upsets you, but I didn’t shoot. I didn’t want to shoot. Instead, I talked him out of it.”

As he said it, an odd feeling of satisfaction welled up. Exhilaration. That piece of him he thought he’d never lose – the part that could so easily destroy another – didn’t surface. He hadn’t wanted to kill Haldane.

She looked at him as if she’d never seen him before. “And Will’s alive because of what you
said
.”

He let out a long sigh. “And because I had a gun to back it up.”

She smiled, as if the sun had come out behind her face. “A gun you didn’t use. I’m so proud of you.”

Eyes closed, she began praying for him, thanking the Lord and asking Him to show them both the right way.

Luke looked down at her hand in his, surprised and moved. He squirmed, a little embarrassed. Being prayed over in a buggy with a pretty girl holding his hand was a new experience. He closed his eyes to block her out and listened to her words asking forgiveness and comfort for him.

No one had ever prayed for him before.

Then something odd happened.

For the first time in years he knew God was listening. To Emily, yes, but waiting for him, Luke Sullivan, to open his mouth and say something.

He wanted to pray. Oh, how he wanted to pray. But he didn’t know how to begin. He screwed his eyes shut and tried to form the words in his mind.

He felt . . . different . . . surrounded by a faith so fierce he nearly went down on his knees.

God was waiting.

Lord, help me. I don’t know what to say . . .

His plea went winging upward, hanging on to her prayer like the tail on a kite.

A soft feeling of peace wrapped around him.

Emily spread her hand and wound her fingers through his. He squeezed her hand tight. The next time she paused for breath, he added a strong “Amen” out loud, hoping God understood that sometimes a man gets other things on his mind.

He untied the ribbon under her chin holding her hat in place and slipped it off her head. He pulled her to him and looked at her for a long moment. “You know I love you, don’t you?” His voice was quiet.

A small smile lit her face. “I do now.”

Soft, warm arms wrapped around his neck. As soon as she touched her lips to his, he gathered her close and kissed her long and hard.

Haldane stayed hidden in the trees, watching the couple in the buggy. When he’d seen enough, he headed the Appaloosa for the X-Bar-L.

“What do you mean you’ve already met him?” Axel demanded of the tall, light-haired cowboy standing in front of his desk.

“In town, at the pool hall,” Haldane answered, omitting a few details of his meeting with Luke Sullivan. “We chatted a little, you might say. By the way, I don’t like him.”

Axel leaned back in the chair, his face hard. “That makes two of us. He’s an ex-vigilante from Lewistown and more trouble than a nest of snakes.”

Haldane’s eyebrows lifted a fraction. “Lewistown?”

“Stuart’s group.”

“He’s bad news.”

“Sullivan quit them. You’ll never see them.”

Haldane was quiet for a moment, then looked up. He nodded. “You’re paying me a lot of money, Mr. Axel. Who – and how you want this handled?”

“There’s an old man who knows too much.” Bart leaned forward and studied the wiry blond man across the desk. “Unless I can head it off, I’m going to have a range war on my hands, one I’ll lose. I’ve got a boundary dispute with an orphanage coming up.”

“An orphanage? You serious?”

“Place is called New Hope, about five miles from here.

Sullivan runs their herd now.”

Haldane gave a quiet whistle of surprise. Hitching a pant leg up, he sat on the corner of the desk.

Axel swiveled his chair around and stared through his office window at the hot July afternoon and his barn beyond.

“Sullivan’s taking New Hope’s deed and Jupiter Jackson, an old guy with a long memory, into the land office in Billings next Tuesday,” Axel said. “I don’t want either the old man or the deed to get there.”