“I’ll stay up and watch him while you sleep.”
“You can’t stay up all night. We have a three-day journey; you could never make it that long without sleeping. I can help. I’ll stay up part of the night. You can give me your pistol to guard him.”
Ronan raised his eyebrows. Her offer, more her demand, surprised him. Elise was a caregiver. He could tell that she always worried about others and wanted them to be all right, even if that meant that she wouldn’t be.
“Okay, but not too long, all right? You can watch him for a couple of hours, but I’ll watch him the rest of the time.”
“I’ll watch him first tonight,” Elise said confidently.
“I can watch him first.” Ronan didn’t want her to have the first shift. After the day they’d had, she needed rest.
“No, I will watch him first because if I go to sleep, I am almost certain that you won’t wake me up again. You’ll just push through the night.” Elise gave him a knowing grin.
“Fine, but only if you promise to wake me up after a couple of hours.” Ronan was worried about the same thing. Elise had done it with the wagon when he had rested. She had let him sleep for much too long.
“I will wake you when I get tired.” Elise smiled knowingly and put another bite of food into her mouth.
“We need to put out the fire. It’s dark now, and we don’t want any unwanted attention.”
“All right.” Elise stood and gathered the plates while Ronan put out the fire and got the things ready to sleep. Before he laid down, Ronan checked Hank’s ropes one more time.
Elise set herself up cross-legged by a tree. She looked tired but determined. Ronan took out his pistol and laid it in her small hands. “Do you know how to shoot this?”
“I’ve seen my father do it a few times. It’s like this, right?” Elise placed her finger over the trigger and nearly pulled it while aiming at Ronan’s foot.
“Whoa, whoa. Slow down. That is the way you do it, but make sure it is pointed in the right direction when you fire it. Keep it pointed at Hank.”
Elise nodded, a mischievous glint in her eyes. Then her face turned serious. “Thank you, Ronan.”
“For what? You say that way too much.” Ronan shook his head.
“For everything, and for caring that I know how to defend myself.”
Ronan grinned and reached out; he put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently. “I just want you to be safe.”
Elise nodded, her eyes filled with so much more that he knew she wouldn’t say.
Ronan turned back and settled down with his blanket on the ground. As soon as he allowed himself to relax, exhaustion swept over him. He was more tired than he had let on or even suspected. It didn’t take long for his eyes to droop and darkness to take over.
***
When Elise timidly tapped Ronan’s shoulder in the middle of the night, he knew she had been up for more than a couple of hours. The moon was past its position; it had been at least four hours.
“Elise, you should have woken me sooner,” Ronan chided.
“You were tired.” Elise had dark circles under her eyes and looked like she was swaying slightly.
Ronan jumped up and reached out to steady her. “Are you all right?”
“I’m just tired. I am fine.” Elise looked anything but fine. Ronan moved over and then helped her lay down. He waited until she pulled the blankets up around her shoulders before he walked over to Hank, his pistol safely in his hand.
Checking on Hank as often as he had been probably wasn’t necessary, but he wanted to be safe rather than sorry.
“You know, you are awfully paranoid.” Hank looked up at him, a slight sneer on his face. “I had quite the conversation with your lady friend. She is quite kind, don’t you think?”
Ronan clenched his jaw. He knew the likelihood of anything Hank was saying being true was minimal. Hank was just trying to get a rise out of him.
“I am not paranoid; I am just making sure that you don’t get free. It is my duty to put you behind bars, and believe me, this time it will happen.”
“You know, you are very confident for someone who lost me before and almost died. Have you forgotten?”
“No. Unfortunately, I have not forgotten our previous meeting.”
“Does Elise know about that meeting?”
“Don’t you say her name. Don’t talk to her. Don’t even look at her. You do not deserve to know someone like her.” Ronan tried to push his anger back, but it was there, hot and running through his veins.
Hank chuckled. “It’s sweet, you know? I always pegged you as someone to work alone. Never thought you would let yourself be tied down by a woman.”
“Does it look like I am tied down? I am taking her somewhere, and that is it.”
“California, right?” Hank chuckled again, and Ronan was fairly certain he’d looked slightly shocked that Hank knew where they were going.
“Don’t look so surprised. You and Elise talk a lot. I just listen. It’s not hard to pick up on little things, like how you feel about one another.”
“That is ridiculous. Now, I suggest you try to get some rest and focus a little less on trying to talk to me. There is nothing you can say that will make me let you go or that is going to change my mind about taking you to jail where you belong.
“I’m not trying to convince you, but if you think that I am going to allow you to take me to some sheriff’s office, then you are wrong.”
Ronan chuckled. “It doesn’t look like you have a choice in the matter, now does it?”
The anger on Hank’s face was clear, and Ronan felt a bit of contentment. When he’d been in the middle of nowhere, tied up and beaten, Hank hadn’t given him an ounce of mercy. In fact, he was even crueler than that. He had left Ronan to die with no help in sight.
Ronan did not feel pity for him. Hank deserved to go to jail for everything he’d done. The fact he would receive a bounty from turning him in was a simple bonus.
Ronan left Hank where he was and walked back to the tree where he was going to watch him from. He felt surprisingly well rested after not getting many hours of sleep.
He rested his head against the back of the tree and thought back to the night he’d left Mr. Herrin’s ranch, starting his life as a bounty hunter.
Ronan winced as the floor creaked beneath him. He didn’t want Mr. Herrin or Elise to hear him as he left. They would think he was ungrateful and that he was the thief everyone thought he was, but he had his reasons for leaving.
He couldn’t make Mr. Herrin responsible for his life. He’d heard what the man said to Mr. Herrin earlier. It was time for him to go out into the world and make a man of himself, then maybe he could come back, and he would be worthy of the love and trust that Mr. Herrin had given him.
As Ronan slipped out into the night, he took in a deep breath of fresh air. He was shaking because he was so nervous. He looked toward the barn. If he took a horse, he would get to his destination faster, but he didn’t want to take anything more from the Herrins.
He was taking the clothes they had given him as well as the money he had saved up from the sparse wage that Mr. Herrin paid him. He considered those things his, but even so, it felt kind of bad to take it.
The further he got from the Herrins’ ranch, the worse he felt. When it was about to disappear from view, he looked back. There was a small shimmer of light in the window that led to Elise’s room. He looked closely. Maybe he had seen something move. He wasn’t sure. He hated to think that Elise or her father had watched him walk away. But it was too late to turn back now. He needed to find his way in life, regardless of the implications.
Ronan kept walking, ignoring the growing ache in his feet. He would be able to get to the next town with the supplies he had in his rucksack. After that, he would find a job and earn money for the next place and so on. He started thinking of ways to make money. Maybe there was something he could do that wouldn’t depend on others. Maybe, just maybe, he could do
something that would make Mr. Herrin proud of him.
Ronan brought himself back to the present. He had never expected to find an experienced bounty hunter in that new town who explained to him the ins and outs of finding criminals and getting them to a sheriff’s office to collect the bounty. He never expected to make it his full-time profession. But he had done both of those things and slowly become more experienced. But even though he became more experienced and more successful, he always wanted more.
He never felt quite satisfied enough to go back to Mr. Herrin and show him what he’d made of himself. He would tell himself, just a little more, just a couple more jobs, and I will be proud of who I am. That moment hadn’t arrived before the news that Mr. Herrin had passed away, and for that, Ronan would always be sorry.
***
Ronan scanned the area. It was late in the afternoon of their second day, and he was eager to find a place to stop for the night. Elise was clearly exhausted. She’d only gotten a few hours of sleep the night before, and then it was time for them to keep going.
Ronan made a mental note to go first when it was time to watch during the night. Elise needed the extra sleep. She liked to help, and he knew that she thought she could do more than she was capable of. He didn’t want her to hurt herself because she was worried about him.
The sun was already ducking down in the sky. Ronan liked to imagine they would be arriving in Las Cruces by the next day around this time. That was still only a small portion of their journey. Getting to California would take considerably longer, but they would have completed a large section of it.
“We’ll camp here,” Ronan announced, pulling the horses over in the direction of the clearing.
“I could help you set up camp if you would untie me.” Hank gave a grin as the horses all stopped.
“I’m sure I will manage just fine.” Ronan hated conversing with Hank. It felt like he was giving Hank something he wanted every single time he answered.
“Fine, have it your way.” Hank didn’t struggle as Ronan led him over to a tree. His calmness bothered Ronan. Why wasn’t he a little more worried about his predicament or the fact they were almost to his next stop, which would hopefully be one of his last, jail.
Ronan finished tying up Hank without another word and then went to find Elise. If he had anything to say about it, they were going to finish their training. Elise needed more practice if she was going to get away in a bad situation.
***
Ronan wasn’t sure what woke him up. The first thing he noticed was that the sky was a pale grey. It was nearly sunrise. The next thing he noticed was that Hank was standing up.
Ronan fumbled with his pistol, trying to get his bearings. To his embarrassment, he had fallen asleep during his turn watching. He’d made a terrible mistake. Hank was getting out of the last of his ropes.
Elise sat up from her blanket, a sleepy look on her face.
“What’s going on?”
Ronan lifted his pistol, aiming it at Hank, but not before Hank managed to run across the short space, right up to Elise. In the split-second Ronan had looked at Elise, Hank had finished freeing himself from the bonds.
Hank grabbed Elise by the arm, pulling her from her blanket. She screamed out, startling Ronan.
“I would put your pistol down if I were you, Ronan, or Elise here is going to find out exactly what sort of criminal I am.”
Ronan watched the situation unfold as if he were in a nightmare. Elise’s eyes were wide with fear, but she couldn’t move or do anything. He knew she was probably disoriented since she had just woken up a few minutes ago.
“I am not putting my pistol down. If I did, you would just take Elise and the pistol, and I have no guarantee you would keep your word.” Ronan forced his hand to keep from shaking on the pistol.
“Well, you are smart tonight, aren’t you? Come on, now … you can’t win in this situation, Ronan.”
“I can win, and I will. Let Elise go, or I will shoot you.”
“No. At the very least, I am going to leave this camp with one of the horses, alive. Throw your pistol, and you can come to get Elise.” Hank moved his hands to push Elise slightly forward. One of his arms was around her shoulders just above her chin. His other hand was gripping her arm. He was using her as a shield in case Ronan tried to shoot.
“I- I can’t do that.” Ronan tried to calculate the time it would take him to get to Elise. If he threw the pistol as far as he thought Hank would be comfortable and got Elise, the time he took to retrieve the pistol would give Hank plenty of time to get away on one of the horses.
As if sensing his thoughts, Hank pulled Elise towards the horses. “I am leaving this clearing, Ronan, with or without your permission. Right now, you can’t shoot me without hitting her. If you throw the pistol, I will let you have her; you don’t even have to throw it to me. Throw it in the other direction.”
Ronan didn’t have to think about it any longer. He needed to get Elise away from Hank. He wasn’t going to sacrifice her over keeping Hank. He threw his pistol as hard as he could behind him and then rushed towards Hank and Elise.
Hank didn’t release Elise until Ronan almost reached them. When he did let Elise go, he shoved her at Ronan. Elise hit him with force and then hit the ground, letting out a small cry of pain. Ronan fell over with her, and the two were there, on the ground. Ronan pushed himself off the ground, trying his best to reach Hank before he could take off, but he was too late.
Hank had managed to get one of the horses loose and mount bareback and was already riding away. Ronan looked to where his pistol had landed; it was too far away to reach even if he ran for it. By the time he got it, Hank would be lost in the trees.
Ronan turned to Elise. He reached out and helped her to her feet, placing one hand on her arm and the other on her waist. She winced as she stood up.
“Are you all right? I’m so sorry. I fell asleep; I don’t know how it happened.” Ronan stopped talking, searching Elise for any sign of injury. She looked like she was ready to cry.
“It’s not your fault, but he got away now. I’m fine; I’m just glad he didn’t hurt either of us.”
Ronan nodded, feeling the severity of the situation. If Hank had managed to get loose when they were both asleep, neither of them might be alive right then.
“I’m sorry he threw you.” Ronan clenched his jaw. He hated to see Elise treated that way.
“It’s all right.” Elise’s voice was soft, and she looked down at the ground. Ronan couldn’t resist; he reached out and brushed his thumb over her cheek.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” he asked.
“I’m fine. it just … scared me.”
Ronan nodded in understanding. After a minute, he pulled back. As much as he liked being that close to Elise, it wasn’t proper. Goodness, what was he thinking? It seemed that lately, he couldn’t stop thinking about Elise.
“We should get going. I don’t know if Hank has any friends in the area, but he might, and I don’t want to risk it. We need to try and make it to Las Cruces as soon as possible.”
Elise smiled slightly, though it didn’t look like it reached her eyes. He wanted to apologize again or promise that their troubles and difficult situations were over, but he couldn’t. He had no idea what lay ahead of them, and the only one he had to blame was himself. He had fallen asleep, and that could have cost them their lives. He needed to make up for it by getting Elise to California safely.
A Long Way to Love: A Historical Western Romance Book Page 21