The Matchmaker's Match

{Chapter} 31

{Chapter 31}

They started out again the next morning, bright and early. The three men went on ahead as they had before. Adam was expecting the same outcome as the day before when they came across a very interesting discovery.

“Is that a barn?” Wade asked.

“Looks like it,” Erik told him. “Think we should go check it out?”

Adam held his hand up. “Wait. We’ll dismount here and sneak up there. If Mark and his gang are in there, then we sure can’t let them know we’re here before we’re ready for them.”

Erik and Wade nodded.

They dismounted their horses and led them behind a small bunch of quaking aspens to hide. Then, as silently as possible, they made their way down the small slope that led to the back of the barn. Adam went first, his hand hovering over his gun. Once the three of them were all lined up against the back wall of the barn, Adam held his hand up.

“You two wait here,” he whispered. “I’m gonna go look through the window. Be as quiet as a dead man.”

Wade and Erik nodded, pulling their guns from their holsters.

Adam sneaked ahead with slow, still steps until he reached the window on the side of the barn. A window with no glass and a splintering pane. Adam took off his hat and barely raised his head until he could faintly see into the barn.

Mark was there alright.

Alex, Joe, and Marshall were sitting on the floor playing cards while Brant and Mark paced the floor. Adam ducked his head back down and resisted the urge to breathe deep. He looked back at Erik and Wade and nodded.

They silently walked back up to their horses. Adam had no plan or any idea of how he was going to take them, but he knew that he was going to take Mark if it was the last thing he did… and he wasn’t planning on it being his last act.

　

The others came riding up shortly after the three men returned.

“What is it? Why are you stopped?” Katie asked, swinging from her horse before Adam had a chance to assist her.

“We found ‘em,” Wade answered.

Toni hopped off her horse. “You did? Let me at the theivin’, connivin’ scoundrels.”

“No, we’re not gonna do anything,” Adam held his hand up. “It’ll be getting dark soon and we won’t be able to see. We’ll wait until morning and storm them. We’ve got them outnumbered by three, but of course Katie won’t be shooting, so make that two…

“Who says I won’t be shootin’?” Katie interrupted.

“Baby, you can’t shoot a gun to hit the broad side of a barn, let alone a moving man,” Adam reasoned.

“I can sure try!”

Adam rolled his eyes. “I’m not letting you near the gunfire and that’s final.”

Katie huffed and crossed her arms in resignation. Adam breathed a sigh of relief. For a moment there, he thought she had a streak of Toni running through her, and he wouldn’t have been any match for that.

“Okay, so we’ll move back a little bit more and make camp,” Adam said. “It’s gonna be a long night.”

**********

Mark turned as Alex reentered the barn late that night.

“They’re here. Sittin’ as perty as they please beside a warm fire like they don’t gotta care in the world,” Alex explained with a grin.