Hitched to the Gunslinger by Michelle McLean

Chapter Two

Mercy Douglas calculated her odds of escaping a hanging if she did the world a favor and rid it of Josiah Banff.

Since the sheriff stood right behind him, watching their disagreement unfold, probably slim to none. Blast.

Josiah, the biggest landowner in the area who’d been an aggravating thorn in her side since the day he’d seen her—and her land—nodded his head at the grave beneath the nearby tree. “It’s just not right, Miss Douglas. A beautiful woman like you, all alone in the world.”

Mercy raised an eyebrow. No one had ever referred to her as beautiful before. Sturdy, maybe. She’d heard robust a few times. And Frank Revis, the town drunk, had once told her she had a strong countenance and ample backside, which seemed to be a compliment to him. Her lack of beauty usually didn’t bother her much. A quick mind and strong body were much more useful to her than a pretty face.

So, she had no doubt any man laying on the flattery that thick was doing nothing but blowing smoke up her ass and telling her it was rainbows.

She gave him a tight smile. “You shouldn’t concern yourself, Mr. Banff, with my circumstances. I’m perfectly happy as I am.”

One of his men snickered, and Josiah looked skeptical. “There’s no need to spin tales for me, Miss Douglas. You must be absolutely bereft.”

She gritted her teeth, hating to admit he was right. She’d give anything if her father were alive again. She’d be willing to bet that the unfortunate accident that had killed him hadn’t been an accident at all. But she had no proof of anything. No proof Josiah had murdered her father, though she knew deep in her bones he had. And she was done playing nice. Even if that meant provoking the loathsome man. Anything was better than this nauseating dance she’d been doing with him since the day she and her father had arrived in Desolation and taken over a distant relative’s abandoned homestead.

Mercy took a deep breath and steeled her resolve. Grief clenched her heart as she stared down at her father’s grave. She’d never been one to wish her circumstances were other than what they were. There was no point in doing that. But right at that moment she wished more than anything that her father was still there to stand with her against Josiah. Because no one else would.

“You’re right, Josiah. I am absolutely bereft.”

He perked up at that, his already slightly bug-like eyes widening hopefully, but his optimism was short-lived.

“You’ve been sniffing around my land since the day my father inherited it, and I’m heartily sick of it.”

Josiah’s mouth dropped, but she was just getting started.

“You seem utterly hell-bent on buying, stealing, or marrying my land right out from under me. Why you are so keen to get your hands on it, I have no idea. Don’t care much, either. The fact that I have repeatedly and vehemently answered no to every proposal of every kind that you’ve delivered doesn’t seem to mean anything to you. You want this land and you’re determined to get it, no matter my opinion on the subject.”

“Now see here, Miss Douglas—” he started, anger burning away the pleasant facade he usually donned when speaking to her and making what might have been a semi-handsome face plain unpleasant.

“No, you see here, Mr. Banff,” she interrupted. “I wanted just a few days of peace to mourn my father. I see now I was foolish to hope you’d show some common decency. You’re nothing if not persistent, I’ll give you that. But I’m going to tell you the same thing I told you yesterday when you showed up at my home only an hour after my father’s funeral, offering to solve all my problems with money or marriage if I’d just part with my property. The answer is no. The answer is always going to be no. It doesn’t matter how many times you show up with the sheriff and your cronies in tow. Though ambushing me at my father’s gravesite is particularly loathsome, even for you.”

The sheriff at least had the grace to look sheepish at their intrusion, though the rest of Banff’s men surrounding them didn’t have the same decency. Even if they didn’t like what he was doing, it wouldn’t stop any of them from following Josiah’s lead. Which was apparently to aggravate her into giving in.

It wouldn’t work. He hadn’t even seen stubborn yet.

The sheriff stepped up after a glare from Josiah. “Now, Miss Douglas, it wouldn’t hurt to just hear him out.” Her glare had him scurrying back like the spineless creature he was.

She returned her attention to Josiah. “I don’t need to hear you out again. I’ve heard more than I ever care to hear from you in a lifetime.”

“Like it or not, missy, things are different now that your father is dead. A woman alone is—”

He waved toward her homestead with an impatient gesture. “What are you going to do out here all on your own? Take care of all this land by yourself? It’s going to waste without the money and resources to make it truly profitable. Now, if you’d just see reason… I’m offering well more than what the land is worth, and you know it. You could take the money and move back east.”

“Why should I move when I’m perfectly happy where I am?”

He got that glint in his eye that she detested. “Then marry me. I’ll take care of you. I’d even let you continue to rent out your little bungalow like you’ve been doing and keep the money for yourself.”

He’d let her. She opened her mouth and pressed her hand to her chest, as though she were overcome by his generosity.

“You mean you’d let me continue to do something I’m already doing and keep my own money to boot, instead of handing it over to you? Why, sir, you are generous to a fault.” She batted her lashes at him a few times with a sickly-sweet smile. When Josiah smiled in return, she rolled her eyes. He couldn’t possibly think she’d been serious.

“What are you playing at?” he asked.

“Oh, for the love of God, it’s called sarcasm, Josiah! I’d rather sleep in a pit full of vipers than spend one moment as your wife.”

One or two of his men not-so-casually rested their hands on their guns, their eyes flashing indignation. But a few of his men gasped, their eyes darting between one another and their boss. Apparently, they weren’t used to anyone speaking to him that way. Well, they’d better get used to it, because she was just getting started. And she wasn’t afraid of anyone.

Josiah sucked in a deep breath and his chest puffed out far enough he was in danger of losing a few buttons. It would have been comical…if not for the rage burning behind his eyes. His hand edged toward his gun, his men echoing his movements, and she instinctively took a step back.

Still, Josiah needed to get it through his thick head that she wasn’t going to cave to his demands. The sooner he accepted that and moved on, the better.

She stepped forward again, though she kept one eye on his trigger finger, and opened her mouth to tell him what he could go do with himself—

A soft snuffling sound followed by horse hooves thumping the ground interrupted her, and they all turned and stared as a horse wandered into the clearing. Mercy froze as it came right up to her, breathed in her face, and then nuzzled at the pocket of her skirt.

She choked out a laugh and pulled out the apple she’d dropped in there earlier.

“All the apples in the orchard and you want the one in my pocket?” she said with a smile, momentarily distracted from her other unwanted visitors.

“Who does that horse belong to?” Josiah asked, frowning.

“She’s mine,” a man said, strolling toward them. He glanced around at all of them, his brow furrowing slightly as they continued to stare at him, open-mouthed. “Don’t get many visitors here, eh?” he said, reaching over almost leisurely to take the horse’s reins.

He dodged a poorly aimed nip from the horse and gathered her reins more tightly, scowling at her. “I saw that,” he muttered.

“Were you thrown?” Mercy asked, though she should have probably been polite enough to introduce herself first.

The man frowned. “No. Why?”

Her cheeks flushed. “Oh…no reason…I…” She stammered to a stop, looking him over again. Maybe it had been a rude question, but what else was she to think? The man looked as though he’d rolled in several bushes and been dragged a few dozen yards. His hair was cut short but still managed to stick out in odd places from beneath his hat, and his clothing was rumpled, though upon closer inspection, not dirty exactly. Not clean, either.

Her eyes met his and her cheeks flushed hotter when his eyebrows rose a notch. Then his gaze very obviously roamed over her. She sucked in a scandalized breath and stepped back. He rose one mocking eyebrow and shrugged.

Well, she could hardly berate him for doing the same thing she’d done. Though she was sorely tempted. His perusal had been borderline salacious. She, on the other hand, had merely been curious. He was handsome. If she looked closely enough. Tall enough to be a commanding presence without being so tall she’d get a crick in her neck from looking up at him. Muscles that spoke of years in the saddle…though they were perhaps blurring a bit at the edges. Toffee-colored eyes lined with long, dark lashes that many a woman would kill for. By far his most attractive feature. Behind the silver-sprinkled scruff of his whiskers, the lines of his face weren’t quite as deeply etched as she’d first thought.

She knocked a few years off his age to late thirties. Then added a few back on when he let out a grunt as he bent to retrieve something that had fallen from one of his bags.

Josiah glanced at him with annoyance. “Is there something you needed, stranger?”

Mercy started at the question. She’d almost forgotten Josiah was even there. Something he’d certainly noticed and did not appreciate if his glare were any indication. That was a definite mark in the stranger’s favor.

“Nope, just retrieving my horse and I’ll be on my way,” the man said.

But a gasp from one of Josiah’s men drew all their attention. The disheveled man sighed as Josiah’s man whispered something in his ear.

“Here we go,” the stranger muttered.

Josiah’s eyes widened and looked at the stranger with much more interest. And a flash of fear. Mercy frowned a little. What was going on?

Josiah drew himself up to his full height and squared his shoulders as he faced the stranger.

“Now, see here, Mr. Woodson, we don’t want none of your kind of trouble.”

The sheriff’s face drained of color so quickly that Mercy thought for a moment he might faint. “Quick Shot Woodson?”

The stranger grimaced. “My mama called me Gray.” Then he turned to Josiah. “You have a problem with me bein’ here, take it up with ol’ Birdie. She’s the one who decided to interrupt your little discussion.”

He bent to pick up an apple from the ground and waved it in the direction of his horse, who studiously ignored him. He didn’t seem to care at all about the armed men in his midst.

Mercy raised a brow. So, this was the infamous Quick Shot. Her father had told her ol’ Quick Shot had once taken out four men in El Paso before any of them even had a chance to aim. Hard to believe, looking at the man in front of her. He didn’t look like he could dispose of the apple in his hand.

Then again, Josiah and his men were already behaving much better with him here. Most of them had taken a step or three back, and Josiah hadn’t looked in her direction once since old—emphasis on the old—Quick Shot showed up.

Maybe he could be useful after all.

It wasn’t like she had many other options. Or any other options, really.

Before she could change her mind, she blurted out, “Plans can change, though, can’t they, sweetheart. Depending on the circumstances.” She ignored the shock on Quick Shot’s face and turned back to Josiah. “I see you men have heard of my fiancé. Good, that’ll save me the introductions. And the warning.”

She glanced at her new “fiancé” and said, “Supper will be ready in an hour, dear.”

Then she turned and headed down the hill to her house, not caring how any of the men were reacting to her declaration.

If Quick Shot refuted her claim, and frankly she fully expected him to, then at the very least she’d bought herself a few minutes to get away from Josiah and back into the safety of her locked house. If he didn’t refute it, if he actually went along with the outrageous lie she’d just announced, then… Hell, she had no idea what she’d do.

But she’d better figure it out quick. Before the most infamous gunslinger in the country followed her home.