Miss Morgan

Thirty-Eight

June 1899
-John-

I stumble backwards when the man holding me by the neck drops to the ground. As I fall to my ass in mud, I draw my revolver and put a hole in the man's skull who was holding Ivy by her neck. Arthur and Dutch shoot down the group of Cornwall's men surrounding us while Ivy and I jump to our feet and duck into cover behind the house across the street from the saloon.

We draw our guns and fire back at the crowd before making our way into town, heading straight for the main drag. Cornwall's men shoot at us from balconies and storefronts, lawmen come sprinting from the sheriff's office to shoot at us, and I watch as Ivy is running ahead of me toward the main drag, a wagon with four more of Cornwall's men comes rolling toward us from the north side.

The town is blaring with gunfire. Bullets rain into the mud around us. Cornwall's men jump off the wagon and join in shooting at us. As Ivy sprints toward them, firing revolvers in both hands, another bullet blasts through the air and kicks her foot out from under her. She falls to the mud with a yelp and tries to jump back to her feet.

I shoot the men down that came in from the wagon and I duck down to pick her up. "I'm fine, it's just a graze." She argues, trying to swat my hands away.

"Let me help anyway." I bark at her before yanking her up into my arms.

"Put her in the back of that abandoned wagon, we can push her through town. Arthur you can use it for cover while you keep shooting at them!" Dutch calls out and I quickly set Ivy in the back of the wagon.

The mud makes pushing the wagon difficult and getting it down the main road is a slow process as Dutch and I push it as hard as we can. Ivy shoots men down from the balconies and rooftops above while Arthur shoots men down in the street.

"Can you go one day without gettin' yourselves injured?" Arthur shouts at us.

"Can you go one day where you shut the hell up?" Ivy yells back at her brother.

"Enough, you two!" Dutch yells at both of them.

We push the wagon to the end of the road where our horses are all waiting, snorting and stamping their hooves in the mud. I pull Ivy back into my arms while Dutch and Arthur shoot down the rest of Cornwall's men. As I'm running toward the horses, Ivy reaches her arms around my neck and I think she's hugging me. Her scent consumes me again like it did when we robbed that train the other night. Then a loud blast of her revolver by my head makes my ears ring and I realize she shooting the men down behind me while I run.

"Better be careful John, you keep holdin' me like this and I'm gonna start thinkin' you're still in love with me." She runs her smart mouth.

"Shut up." I chuckle as I throw her up on Old'Boy's back and mount up in front of her, knowing she's god damn right. I never fell out of love with her.

She wraps her arms around my waist from behind while Old Boy dances around under us. Something about the contact sparks a light inside of me.

"You make sure nobody's following us." Dutch tells Arthur. "We'll get back to camp. We're gonna gather the troops and get 'em to start packing up." He climbs up on The Count's back.

"Sure." Arthur grumbles. "We can't stick around after this."

"Let's go." Dutch bellows out a laugh as we kick the horses into a gallop away from that mess while Arthur leads the crowd of lawmen off our tail.

Ivy's grip tightens around me as we ride and I know she's in pain. "You still with us?" I ask her over my shoulder.

"I'm good." She answers calmly. "Where are we movin' to now, Dutch?"