Love's Last Gift (on hold)

Chapter 12

 Family is not an important thing. It's everything.

Michael J. Fox 

The trip down the mountain was both terrifying and amazing at the same time.  Evie was fine as long as she kept her eyes on the expanse of countryside she could see from their lofty position on the side of the mountain.  But if she looked down, she couldn't help but almost panic.  The ledge they traveled on was so narrow that one wrong step would send horse and rider tumbling over the edge.  She rode bareback on the mare with Heyes riding Odin in the lead and Kid was astride Rusty at the rear.  They had all worried that she might refuse to walk the narrow rocky pathway, but it was becoming quickly apparent that Delilah, as Evie now called her, would follow Odin anywhere he wanted to lead her.   Evie could not help but think how like herself Delilah was.  For she too would follow the man riding the magnificent beast in front of her anywhere he wanted to take her.  Just like Heyes and the Kid had always been, she and Hannibal were a package deal. 

"You alright back there, Evie?"  Heyes said in a steady calm voice without turning to look.  There could be no sudden moves or loud noises that might cause the horses the make a misstep.  He had instructed Evie to remain silent, except to answer his periodic questions, and then she should answer in a level tone of voice.

"Good so far," she replied in almost whisper, not wanting to risk anything louder.

"How about you, Kid?"  When there was no reply he asked again, slightly louder, "Kid?"

Kid had heard his partner's voice but it had not really penetrated the troubled thoughts in his head so that his brain could tell him to answer.  When Heyes had said his name the second time, it took a moment but his brain finally acknowledged that he was being spoken to and that he should answer. "Sorry.  What did you say?"

"Are you alright back there?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."  But he wasn't fine.  He was feeling things he rarely, if ever, felt.  They were feelings he wasn't sure how to deal with because he had never had to deal with them before.  And the biggest and strongest was fear.  The only thing he had ever really feared since he was eighteen years old was losing his best friend and partner.  The fear he felt now had nothing to do with the treacherous walk down this narrow passage – he had done this many times before.  It had nothing to do with the risky trip they were making over the next few days it would take to get to Riverton.  He wasn't really afraid of being captured and going to prison or even of being hanged.  His biggest fear was never being able to see his daughter or her mother again. 

He missed Livvy and their baby so much it made his insides ache.  How Heyes had endured being separated from Evie while they were in prison he did not know.  He had thought of Livvy everyday while he was in prison himself, but he had not thought he was in love with her.  He hadn't really known what real love was he supposed.  But the first time he watched Livvy with his child at her breast, he knew that he had never known real love until that moment.  He knew that he would take a bullet for either of them.  He knew that he would risk any danger to protect them.  And being apart from them and not knowing what was happening to them made him feel frightened, angry and helpless.   He couldn't sleep at night.  He never thought he'd see the day when he would lose sleep over anything, especially a woman.  His whole life had changed the day he found out that he and Livvy had created a child together.  And it was a change he had been looking forward to getting used to.  Now it seemed like his whole world was falling apart right in front of his face and there was nothing he could do about it.

Most of his life, Kid Curry had been in control of every situation.  The day he and Hannibal had decided to leave the orphanage when he was not quite fifteen years old, was the day he had also decided that he would not let anyone or anything else be in control of what mattered most to him.  He had become the best he could be with his gun.  If everyone else was afraid of him then he had nothing to be afraid of.  If he had his partner and his gun beside him then there was nothing he couldn't handle.  Even with both of those things right here with him, he still felt helpless, like he had no control over his own life.  And he didn't like that feeling.  And he knew it wouldn't go away until he found Livvy and Gabbie.  And he couldn't find them until they took care of Clayton Ramsey once and for all.  And doing that meant making this trip to Riverton.