EUREKA

End of a Long Road

Seriously, you're still here? Well, hotdog!! Last chapter reader!

When able, I went carefully back among the bodies, looking for one I could use. It was Dash I found. He'd fallen with three bullets in his chest, two through the heart. I couldn't recall shooting him, but there was no pity in me.

Pulling his clothes off, I dressed right there in the open, disgusted at the way my ribs jutted out from my gaunt stomach, the bony line of my hips hard beneath my fingers. Angry, relieved, still in shock, I dug about for a knife, cutting clean sections from his long johns into strips to bind my hands and feet. Shoving into his boots was painful, but I did it and then stood up, putting his hat over my head.

"You sure chose wrong," I told Dash quietly. Bending to take his gun belt and pistol, I thumbed fresh cartridges into the chamber before holstering it. Now I felt ready to eat something and then wash and care properly for my wounds.

From the scattering of dead bodies, I collected what things I might need for the trip home. Right then a chill snaked up my back. Turning suddenly, my hand dropped to the butt of my pistol but froze.

"You're tough, missy, I'll give you that. It surprised me. But in the end- a waste."

Lee Cagney stood there, partly framed in silver light, less than ten feet from me. Blood stained his shirt front, a bandana wrapped around his arm but he had me dead to rights. His gun was out and aimed dead center on my chest. A wicked, smug grin creased his lips at knowing he'd gotten the upper hand.

"I never figured to go girl killin', let alone a white one, but," his free hand gestured at the tall trees of the canyon walls. "Who's gonna tell, huh? Reckon if I get shut of this place, no one will know I had anythin' to do with it...if they ever stumble through here."

"Well," my mind was churning like a duck's feet underwater. "Since you got the drop on me, you tell me somethin'?"

"What."

"What's this all about? Did Al steal gold from this Brady fella and Hiram?"

"You expect me to tarnish a dead man's name?" His grin was ugly, blood staining his teeth black. I gestured at the terrain around us.

"Whose gonna know?" I echoed. "I'm about to die, Cagney. A good Christian grants a last request."

He studied me blankly for a moment, then shrugged.

"Why not? Al didn't steal nothin'. He won that mine in a poker game, but the fella that lost refused to pay, claimin' Al cheated. Al called him out and shot him. Turns out no one knew where the man's mine was, but they all said he had a partner, some fella named Rivers. Al went to hunt him down, but this fella refused to honor the bet."

"You back his play, Lee? Sounds like Al got what was comin' to him, huntin' trouble with Hiram."

The pistol lifted to look me in the eye, a deep, black hole staring straight at me.

"He was my brother. I don't reckon to let some no-account stranger kill him an' ride away free."

"You should have." My fingertips were brushing the handle of my pistol as I spoke. "I got kin too. When they find out what happened here, they'll come. You can run, Lee, an' you can try at hidin', but they'll find you."

"I'll take my chances," he sneered.

"My grey horse," I added, watching his eyes darken. "I'd like to know what become of him. Before I end up like them."

My free hand lifted, gesturing back toward the dead bodies dotting the slope. Lee's eyes followed my movement for an instant, and I took the chance. Both guns belched thunder at the same time and I fell back, hitting the ground hard enough to knock the breath from my lungs with a wheeze.