Hitched to the Gunslinger by Michelle McLean

Chapter Twenty

Gray waited until the women excused themselves to deal with matters in the kitchen. Mercy offered to help, as he’d known she would.

The moment she was out of the room, he stood. “Come with me,” he said to the men. And God bless them, not one of them hesitated.

When they were on the porch, Gray turned to them. “Where’s the body?”

“In the shed behind the church,” Preacher said.

Gray nodded and headed in that direction, though he sent Jason to get Birdie from the blacksmith’s.

When they reached the shed, Gray had the men help him drag the body out. None of them asked what he intended to do. And none looked surprised when he asked, “Where is Josiah’s place?”

“Ride southeast. Josiah’s ranch is about six miles out, through the gully and just past the end of Mercy’s orchard.”

Gray nodded, looking up as Jason walked over to the group with Birdie in tow. Jason glanced down at the body.

“You’re taking him to Josiah’s?” he asked.

Gray led Birdie closer to the body. “Yes.”

The men all exchanged a glance but didn’t argue with him. They all knew damn well Josiah was behind it, no matter how much they muttered about other possibilities. So Gray was going to take Josiah’s gunman back to him and get some answers. Or at the very least issue a few threats of his own.

Except Birdie was having none of it.

Every time Gray tried to bring her closer to the body, she balked. He finally stood right in front of her and wagged his finger in her face. “Listen here, you spoiled nag, you either hold still and behave or there will be no more apples for you.”

She snorted in his face and flipped her head up, knocking off his hat. Disrespectful creature.

“I’ll go with you,” Preacher said. He’d gone to fetch his own horse during Gray’s tussle with Birdie and now brought it over to stand beside the body. “Annie here is used to being around the dead.”

Gray didn’t know what to make of that quiet statement. Of everyone he’d met in town so far, Preacher was the most closed off, the most private. Of course, in his line of work, he probably dealt with the dead frequently, as he’d been the one presiding over their burials. And their deaths often enough if he attended people during their last moments. Whatever his, or his horse’s, experience, Gray was grateful for it. He needed to get the body loaded and gone before Mercy came looking for him.

Jason and Doc started helping him load the body on the back of Preacher’s horse.

“That’s a proper horse,” Gray said to Birdie, pointing at Preacher’s mare.

Jason smiled, coming toward them while the other two men finished securing the body. He reached in his pocket and pulled out an apple, which Birdie snatched from his hand before Gray could object.

“Stop spoiling her,” he said. “She already won’t listen to a word I say.”

“Ah, she’s a good girl,” Jason said, patting her snout.

Preacher mounted his horse and waited for Gray, who nodded at him. But first he turned to Jason.

“Don’t let Mercy follow me,” he said.

Jason’s humor immediately disappeared. They both knew she was going to try.

“I don’t care what you have to do,” Gray continued. “But she doesn’t leave your side. Tie her up if you have to.”

Jason nodded. “I’ll keep her here. And safe.”

Gray nodded, then muttered a curse as the sound of women’s voices floated to them from the front of the church. He quickly mounted as Mercy and Mrs. DuVere rounded the corner and came into sight.

“Gray?” Mercy asked.

“Let’s go,” he said to Preacher.

“Samuel?” Mrs. DuVere said, stepping up to Preacher’s horse.

“It’ll be okay, Jade,” he said, his voice so quiet Gray almost didn’t hear him. They exchanged a long look that Gray would have to ponder more at a later time. For the moment, he needed to get out of there before his wife pitched a massive, unholy fit right there in the churchyard.

He gave one last significant nod to Jason and kicked Birdie’s flanks.

“Gray, what are you doing?” Mercy asked, hitching up her skirts to run at them.

“Stay with Sunshine,” he said as they passed her.

“Gray.” She spun on her heels and started after him. “Get back here. You can’t go out there alone, with no one but the reverend. He’ll kill you, Gray. Gray!”

She tried running after them, but before Mercy got to the fence surrounding the church, Sunshine wrapped an arm around her waist and lifted her off the ground.

“No!” Mercy kicked against Jason, getting him good enough he nearly let go. Doc came over to help him hold her back. “Gray!” she screamed.

The sound tore into his heart, shredding it into pieces. But he didn’t stop.

He needed to know what they were up against, and he wasn’t going to sit around waiting for someone else to come take a shot at him that he could question. A shot that could kill someone near him. Even Mercy.

Instead of waiting, he was going to find out what Josiah had planned and stop it now. He’d always found it better to ask forgiveness than permission. Though Mercy didn’t seem the type to easily forgive. She might be angry at him for the rest of their lives.

But at least she’d be alive. His life meant nothing. But hers…

He gripped the reins tighter and rode southeast, for the first time in his life seeking out a fight.

…

Jason and Doc had managed to wrestle Mercy, kicking and screaming, into the church. She’d fought them every step of the way, until the church doors closed, blocking out the sight of the road.

The terror and anger that had fueled her seemed to evaporate, and she slumped to the floor. The men didn’t seem to know what to do. They definitely didn’t trust her not to go running off after Gray. She couldn’t blame them. Every fiber of her being screamed to chase him down and drag him back home. But even through the fear that clouded her mind, she knew doing so would be futile. Gray was every bit as stubborn as she was. More so, maybe.

The fool was going to get himself killed, and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it.

“Stand down, gentlemen,” Mrs. DuVere said. “She’s not going to go running off after him. And I promise I won’t let her hurt you.” They chuckled, though the sound was still a bit uneasy.

“We’ll be right outside the door if you need us,” Jason said before bowing out, letting Mrs. DuVere take over. She tucked her skirts around her and sat beside Mercy.

They sat in silence for a minute while Mercy mopped up her face and got her breathing under control. She finally took a long, tremulous breath and sat back against one of the pews.

“Sorry about that,” she said, more than a little embarrassed at how she’d reacted.

Mrs. DuVere gave her a wry smile. “Men have a tendency to bring out the best in us, don’t they?”

Mercy’s laugh ended on a little hiccup, and Mrs. DuVere chuckled.

“He’ll be fine, you know,” she said. “Samuel is with him. People get a little squeamish over killing preachers.”

Mercy raised her brows. “Really?”

“Oh, sure. Even the worst of them are afraid of God. And that man of yours isn’t exactly defenseless, you know.”

Mercy let out a long sigh. “I know. My head knows. I know he could probably take out Josiah and half a dozen of his men before anyone else had even pulled their guns.”

“Then what is all this about?” Mrs. DuVere said, waving at her.

“What if there’s another dozen men waiting? Gray acts like he’s invincible, but he’s not.”

Mrs. DuVere chuckled. “Ah, give him some credit. Our new sheriff does seem a little too confident for his own good, though even you have to admit, he’s got good reason to be. But he’s a smart man. And he’s obviously good at keeping himself alive or he wouldn’t be here at all. He wouldn’t go marching into a situation he didn’t think he could get himself out of.”

“True,” Mercy begrudgingly admitted. “Plus, he’s just too damn stubborn not to prove me right and get himself killed.”

“Well, there you go,” Mrs. DuVere said, patting Mercy’s hand.

“That doesn’t mean I won’t worry,” she said quietly.

Mrs. DuVere gave her a gentle, knowing smile. “Of course not. That’s what you do when you love someone.”

Mercy’s eyes shot to hers. Love? “But I…I don’t think…”

Mrs. DuVere smiled again. “Don’t think about it too hard. It’ll just make your head ache.”

Mercy chuckled and Mrs. DuVere stood, holding out her hands to help Mercy up. “Come on, you can wait with me for a while. It’ll be several hours yet before they get back. No point in both of us being alone and worried when we could be worried together.”

Mercy didn’t question her about her worry for the preacher. She’d thought she’d seen something between them on more than one occasion. But they had never said anything publicly. Went out of their way, in fact, to avoid being too near each other much of the time. Which meant, whatever was between them, if anything, it wasn’t something they wanted to discuss. And that was respected in Desolation. Even if the curiosity was eating her alive.

“All right,” she said, getting to her feet. “I could do with a bit of company. Though I want to be home before he gets there. So I can kill him in private.”

Mrs. DuVere’s laughter rang out. “That’s my girl. Come on.”

She took Mercy’s hand and they walked past Doc and Jason Sunshine coming out of the church. Mercy didn’t acknowledge either of them. She probably owed them an apology. She was pretty sure she’d given Jason that swollen lip he was sporting. But at the moment, she was angry and worried, and they had kept her from following her husband. So, until he got back, safe and sound, in one living, breathing piece, she wasn’t speaking to either of them.

The men in this town were out of her good graces and would stay that way until she had Gray back.

…

Gray and Preacher rode up to Josiah’s sprawling ranch house, on the alert for any danger. But though there were several men about the yard and property, working with the horses or on other chores, none seemed to give them more than a curious glance or two. Still, Gray didn’t let down his guard.

They rode into the courtyard of the house and pulled their horses to a stop. Two men, a short, lean man with a handlebar mustache and a slightly taller and decidedly more portly man with a scar on his cheek, got out of their porch chairs and came to the steps.

“What are you doing here?” Scarface asked.

“We came to talk to your boss,” Gray said. “And give him back the man he’s missing.”

Scarface and Mustache exchanged a glance but didn’t respond to Gray’s unsubtle accusation.

“Wait here,” Mustache said before turning to go inside.

Gray didn’t wait to see if Josiah would see them. He knew he would. Instead, he dismounted and moved to Preacher’s horse to untie the body. Preacher dismounted and helped lift it down, then laid it on the barren ground for lack of a better place to put it.

Gray glanced around at the property and started to get an inkling of what might be driving Josiah’s attacks. There was a clump of dying cottonwood trees along the sides of a creek beside the house—a creek with barely enough water to flow. Mercy had mentioned her land had plenty of water. And it looked like Josiah’s did not.

Many a neighbor had been killed for their water rights. Same story, different villain, he supposed. Well, that wasn’t his or Mercy’s problem. Not unless Josiah kept making it Gray’s problem, and then he’d make him wish he hadn’t.

Footsteps clapped on the floorboards and Gray moved back to Birdie’s side, ready to ride off quickly if need be. He’d been keeping a side eye on the rest of the men in the yard as well. Most had continued to go about their business. A few were watching the scene unfold a little more closely than Gray would have liked.

Still, he didn’t think Josiah would gun them down out in the open like this. Not on his own property. No. Josiah wasn’t a man who liked to get his hands dirty. Aside from the anonymous hiring of who knew how many assassins, his threats and previous attacks had all been on Mercy’s property. Without witnesses, and without a direct tie to Josiah should there be anyone who saw. Josiah always left before the shooting started. Except the once. A fact he’d be reminded of every time he looked at the scar that would mar his hand.

“Mr. Woodson,” Josiah said, “to what do I owe the honor?”

His words were civil enough, but his eyes burned holes in Gray’s head.

“We thought you might want your man back,” Gray said, nodding at the body at his feet.

Josiah raised a brow. “I wasn’t aware I was missing a man.”

“No?” Gray bent over and whipped back the covering from the man’s face.

Being dead several hours and riding like a sack of flour over a horse’s hind end for another had not improved the man’s appearance.

Josiah’s lips drew up in distaste. “I have never seen that man before in my life. Your handiwork?”

Gray lifted a shoulder in a slight shrug. “It tends to happen when someone walks into my town and attempts to kill me.”

Josiah smirked. “I’m sure there must be a long line of men wanting to kill you, Sheriff. You can’t possibly mean to lay them all at my door.”

“Of course not, Banff. Just the ones who come to town already knowing I’m there.”

Josiah’s face hardened. “You can’t blame me for someone trying to kill a known gunslinger.”

“Sure I can. No one in town is particularly interested in telling people where to find me. No one but you.”

Josiah lifted his weak chin in the air. “I’m sorry for your troubles, Sheriff. But you have no proof I had anything to do with this attack.”

“Don’t need any.” Gray gave him a cold smile. “And you can stop right now thinking you’ll ever get access to Mercy’s water rights. Best you find another way, or I’ll end this here and now.”

“What are you going to do? Gun me down on my own front porch? With all these witnesses?” Josiah said, gesturing at the men who had started to close in. “Even a lawman can’t get away with cold-blooded murder. What would that spirited little wife of yours do if she were left all on her own because you were hanged for murder?”

The mention of Mercy made Gray’s vision bleed red. Preacher laid a hand on his arm and Gray glanced down at it, confused for a moment. He hadn’t even noticed the man getting closer to him. He was letting Josiah get to him, goad him into reacting. That was a good way to get killed. Something that never would have happened before he’d met Mercy, but just the thought of the evil bastard in front of him getting his hands on her…

Gray forced himself to take a deep breath and focused on Josiah, gratified to see the man had paled in the face of Gray’s rage.

“I won’t bother trying to put the fear of God into you,” Gray said, his voice deadly quiet. “If you believed in God, you wouldn’t be such a prick.”

Josiah straightened, his eyes flashing with anger at the insult.

“But I did come to warn you. Stay out of my town. Stay away from my wife. Call off the bounty and forget you’ve ever even seen me. Or there will be hell to pay.”

Josiah smiled, though his eyes stayed dead and flat. “And you think you’re the man to best me?”

Gray returned the smile, his adrenaline surging as Josiah blanched. “Step foot in Desolation again, and you’ll find out.”

He swung back into his saddle and wheeled about, Preacher right on his heels. He needed to get away from Josiah. If he stayed in that man’s presence for one second longer, one of them was going to end up dead.