Little Sam's Angel (17 page)

Sammy shook her head in confusion. Why would she use a gun on Gabe? Who did he want?

"It won't do you any good to protect him," Gabe went on. "There ain't anything I can do to you, but he's going to die for what he did."

Sammy stared at him. Gabe wasn't hiding his hatred of her anymore, only now there was more than there had been before. This was a Gabe she'd never seen. There was no gentleness in him, and no rage. He was calm, self-possessed, and deadly.

"Gabe, I don't—"

"No more lies," he told her sharply. "You got part of what you wanted. I signed the deed over. I cleared your house, and I won't be taking any money for it, but I'm going to kill Pierce."

He backed his horse, and she screamed, lunging at him to hold him, finding only his leg and the saddle horn to hold on to. Gabe shoved her loose. She hit the ground on her backside with a resounding thump.

"Looks like you honestly feel something for him, anyway," he told her hatefully, backing the horse away again.

"He'll kill you," she cried, scrambling back to her feet.

"Likely," he said, pausing, "but I'll kill him, too. You want to stop it, use that gun. Do some of your own dirty work."

"You think I sent him," she sobbed, taking the gun from her hip. "I ought to kill you for that. You think I'm the same as her." A look of doubt crossed Gabe's face as the gun, held steady in both of her hands, raised slowly. "I'm going to use it, Gabe. I'm going to stop you. You aren't going to get killed fighting because of me."

"Sammy, don't!" he yelled, kicking his feet free of the stirrups.

The gun bellowed, and the horse, not Gabe, jerked from the impact. Its knees folded, and it went down, slowly at first then gaining momentum. Gabe barely jumped free to keep himself from being pinned as the horse rolled to its side.

He tried to protect his ribs, but the combination of falling and the sudden movement made his chest muscles contract, pushing all the air out of his lungs. He slid to the ground, gasping for breath, but forced himself up on one elbow so he could see her.

She backed away slowly, going to her own horse, the gun hanging limply at her side and twin furrows of clean paths through the soot on her cheeks from the tears falling from her eyes. She couldn't stand seeing him look at her, not with what he thought she'd done. She spun around, running to get away from him. Jerking like she'd been knifed when he called out to her, she didn't stop.

"Sammy, I need some help," he yelled.

"I'll send someone," she called back. She reached for the trailing reins on her horse then jerked back when the roar of a pistol sounded and a spot of dust exploded in front of her. The horse reared and backed off. The boom of a second shot rang in her ears, but Gabe's voice came through it.

"I'm not killing another good horse, but I'm not letting you ride out of here," Gabe told her, back on his feet and slipping closer.

She reached for the reins again, only to have another shot roar out, this time passing close to her leg.

"Kinda…" Morey said, standing off to the side with a gun in his hand. Both of them spun around, aiming their guns at him. "…chancy shooting with your hand like it is." He finished without blinking an eye, seemingly unaware of the twin bores pointed at him or the high strung state of the people holding them.

"Damned bad on a man's nerves, Morey." Gabe gasped out, then sucked in a painful chest full of air and blew it out, saying, "Keep her here."

"No, Morey, stop him," she screamed, running past Gabe on the way to her horse, waving her arms to spook it away from Gabe's reach.

"Neither of you is going anywhere till you tell me what's going on."

"He's going after Pierce," Sammy cried.

Still fighting to breath normally Gabe said, "She's gonna get hurt."

Morey chose to listen to him. "He the one that jumped you?" he asked Gabe. Gabe stared back, refusing to answer. "You tried telling us when we first found you. Why'd you change your mind?"

"He thought I sent him," she snapped and then pleading, "Stop him, Morey."

"You stay there till I get the straight of this," he told her curtly, staring hard Gabe. "Why would you think that?"

"Because that's what Brenda would do," she retorted, stinging from the insult now that the shock of it was over.

"Let him answer for himself," Morey shouted at her. "Well?"

"He wanted the deed," Gabe answered stiffly.

"For himself. He's getting married," Sammy shouted.

"Pierce?" Morey asked in surprise.

Gabe asked at the same time, "To who?"

"I didn't ask, but he did mention Brenda's name, and he told me some very interesting things about how Danny came to be yours," Sammy said spitefully.

Gabe turned beet red and muttered, "She left."

"She's back, in Tree Town," Morey said.

"Tree Town?" As bad as he already looked, Gabe looked like someone had just punched him in the gut. "Danny," he exclaimed, running for the horse. Sammy ran after him, and so did Morey.

"Gabe, what is it?" she cried, grabbing him by the arm as he tried to mount the dancing horse.

"Sammy, I'm sorry." He held onto the reins, one arm pressed to his side. "I shouldn't'a thought what I did, and there's things I want to tell you, but not now. Them folks that took Danny came from Tree Town. Brenda will take him back."

"But…but…she didn't want him."

"Not unless she could hurt someone by taking him," he said bitterly. He started to mount again.

This time Morey stopped him. "I'll go after the boy. You take Sammy back to the house."

"They won't let you have him," Gabe argued.

"No more than they would you, only I don't plan on asking any more than you. I'll bring him back, Gabe. You take care of Sammy and take care of yourself."

"It ain't my place to care for her," Gabe said solemnly.

"Damn you and your places, man. Be reasonable," Morey shouted. "You ain't up to a ride like that. I am, and I cain't be in two places at once."

Since Gabe could barely stand up straight, he knew he had to give in. "All right, Morey. I'll take her back to the house."

"And stay there."

"I got something to do."

"And you ain't in shape for that, either. You cain't face him, yet. Look at your hands."

"Didn't figure to fist fight him."

"You cain't get a gun out with any speed."

"I ain't some dumb kid trying for a name. When I go after a man with a gun, I have it in my hand," Gabe snapped.

"Even then, you couldn't work fast enough to keep him from killing you, and he won't be alone, neither."

Gabe knew that. He hadn't figured on coming out of it alive. That was why he'd let those people take Danny. He turned to Sammy. "Ma'am, if needs be, would you take Danny? I know you care for him and wouldn't let Brenda have him."

"What about Sammy?" Morey demanded. "You gonna leave her with no one but me to protect her from Pierce?"

"Pierce is gonna be dead, Morey."

"If he ain't? If he gets you first?"

"Stop it!" Sammy shouted, holding her hands to her ears. "I don't want any killing. Just let Pierce have it all. Go away, Gabe. Go away so you won't be hurt."

"I cain't. I figured you'd understand that after what he did."

She looked at him, her eyes dry now, but the misery was in them to see. She threw her hands up in hopelessness. Morey's eyes met Gabe's over her head, and Gabe nodded. It was settled. He had two reasons for going after Pierce now, and he had Morey to back him when the time came.

"We better be getting back now," Gabe told her softly as Morey left to do his part.

"Gabe, please," she implored, holding tight to his arm. "Please leave here. As soon as he brings Danny back to you, please leave."

Looking down at her hand, he said, "Once bit, twice shy." Then he looked up at her. "Sorry, for what I thought, Sammy. Hedges warned me about putting the wrong brand on you."

A simple, sincere apology and it brought tears to her eyes again.

"Sammy, don't cry. Lord knows I didn't want to hurt you."

The tears only came faster, and she dropped her head to hide them. He reached out to tip her head back up, but pulled his hand away when he saw the blood soaked bandages.

She caught his wrist, holding it and cupping her other hand around his. Holding it like it was a fragile cup that might break without tender care, she whispered, "I love you, Gabe."

He jerked his hand back, she figured so he could walk away from her, ashamed by her lack of decency. He didn't though.

"I couldn't hate you," he told her thickly. "Thinking what I did about you nearly killed me, but I couldn't do nothing about loving you."

Without a thought of what was or wasn't proper, Sammy threw her arms around his neck. Gabe stiffened for a split second then he did what he'd wanted to do nearly from the first time he met her. He folded his arms around her, pulled her against him full length, and kissed her.

* * *

"He's gone," Sally screamed, running into the kitchen, waving her arms wildly. "He's gone off to die alone."

Hedges ran by her to see for himself that Gabe was no longer in the bedroom, Sally at his heels. Hedges looked around, seeing more than she did. "He ain't fixing to let himself die," he snorted. "That dang fool is fixing to get killed."

"He's gone," she sobbed. "He's gonna die; he's gonna die with no one to help him."

"Figures he don't need help," he said, pushing by her roughly, rambling to himself. "Dang fool don't want no help. Don't need no one."

Sally stared at him in shock as he fumbled with an old rifle he'd brought from town with him.

"Thinks he's gonna do it alone. I'll show him," Hedges went on.

"Hedges, what—"

"He went after them," he shouted at her. "He's been lying to us, same as Morey said. He knows who it was, and he went after them."

"Oh, Merciful Lord," she groaned, sinking into a chair. "He'll get killed for sure."

"Sure he will. Why else do you think he gave that boy away? He plans on it, but he ain't gonna do it. I'm going after him."

He ran out the door, colliding with the cowboy that was coming up.

"Dang it, Bob, what do you want?"

Bob looked at Hedges, down at the rifle, then back up to Hedges. "Riders coming in," he said dryly. "Guess you knew it."

"I did not. Get the boys up here," Hedges snapped.

"Already got them stationed," he said with a slight grin. He turned to stand beside Hedges and face the riders coming in.

Dust covered, with scrawny beards and mean looking, they were a bunch of faces never seen in the valley before. As they pulled up in front of the house, the man in the lead said, "Looking for Angel."

"No one here by that name," Hedges said quickly, eyeing the unruly head of curls sticking out from under the man's hat.

The speaker turned to the men on his right, who shrugged and said, "Heard he was here. Like to see him."

"No one called Angel here. I told you that," Hedges snapped.

"Look, Mister, we come a long way. Angel's got more trouble than he knows," the man said in a calm, reasonable manner.

"Could be they're part of it," another man said, and Bob, still beside Hedges, shifted his weight for a better position.

"Hold it," a man in the back of the pack said, nudging his horse forward. "You're Hedges, ain't you?"

"I am."

"Then you're looking at this all wrong. Angel is a friend of ours."

"Who the hell is Angel?" Bob asked.

The men on horseback looked at each other. The man who'd taken over the talking, in confusion, said, "Ollie told us—"

"You come from Ollie?" Hedges asked excitedly.

"By way of. He told us Angel was maybe gonna get tromped again."

"You didn't do much to help him last time."

"We weren't there," the man snapped at Hedges, and then told the first speaker, "Damn it, Curly, this don't make sense. Is Angel here or not?"

"Angel ain't," Hedges said. "Gabe is."

"Gabe Taylor is Angel Taylor?" Bob exclaimed.

The man beside Curly chuckled. "He never did care for the tag we gave him," he told them with twinkling brown eyes.

"He is Angel Taylor?" Bob asked again.

"Sounds like you heard of him," Curly said in appreciation.

"Hell, yes, I've heard of him." He turned on Hedges. "How come you never told us this before?"

"Weren't no reason to," Hedges grumbled.

"You got a problem with him being Angel?" Curly asked.

"I…" Bob considered that a moment before he shook his head. "Nope, but I got a feeling Pierce would have liked to know that before he started with him."

"Don't like the sound of that," one of the men mumbled.

"Me neither, Tracks. Mind if we step down now?" he asked, but his tone said he was going to anyway. "Anxious to talk with him."