“If it’s Boze we’re not as concerned,” Pace further explained, speaking for both of us. “But some of the others. They’ll do anything to collect that bounty on our heads.”
“Bounty…” Becca pondered.
“Birkin in particular.” I added. “He might have a bit of a personal grudge. To me especially.”
“We need to protect you,” Pace continued, “just for a little while until we need to go. Out of the Great Plains. For good. We know that’s inevitable now. Someday after we’re gone, you’ll be safe again. We’ll be out of sight, out of mind. We’ll be forgotten. And life will move on.”
Becca started to tear up. I could tell her emotions were right on the edge. She’d been thinking of this for some time. “Not for me.”
Pace and I looked at each other. We’d talked about this. How we’d handle it, what we’d say. But it’s easier when you rehearse it. Harder in the moment, even for someone who talks so much like Pace. But I was painfully aware of something. This was likely our last chance with Becca. I had to make it count. As I’d learned, you have to take your shots when you have the opportunity.
“I’ll tell you what,” I said. “Pick one of us to be with. Either one. Then the three of us can run off together. You pick Pace, I won’t like it but I’ll live with it.”
“Me too,” Pace jumped in. “Vice versa. Ash is a great guy. You pick him, how can I argue?”
“Either way we can all be together, in some way,” I added. “And we can leave the Great Plains together.”
Becca laughed at us both, and then she looked at us with grave seriousness. “I can’t choose to be with just one of you,” she said with regret. I was so sure she’d pick Pace – that she’d picked him already – that I wasn’t sure I understood what she said. But it sure sounded like she said she liked us both. I was in heaven in that very moment.
“So maybe you don’t have to choose one,” Pace said glibly, maybe covering up for his hurt feelings. “Maybe we can work out some kind of an arrangement.”
Becca raised a hand to slap him, then busted out laughing. Can’t hurt to ask, I suppose.
“Eff him,” I said, “come with us anyway Becca.”
“I can’t Ash. I didn’t choose your way of life. I don’t approve of it. I can’t be party to it, no matter how I feel.” She looked at us all kinda sad.
“Then I don’t know how to keep you safe,” I admitted. “I’m guessing we’ll have to just keep watch on you and face those Nuggets dead on.”
“No!” Becca protested forcefully. “I appreciate you boys wanting to protect me, but I can handle myself.”
“This isn’t kid stuff anymore Becca,” Pace interjected. “The Nuggets mean business.”
“I don’t care! I just can’t keep living in fear of what’s going to happen to you. I’ve got enough fear in my life! Do you want to make me happy? Find a way to be safe. However you need to do that, you just need to do it.”
Becca got choked up. Wasn’t sure what to say next. I had no idea what to say. She wasn’t gonna let us protect her. She wanted us to not even try. I couldn’t think of any way to change her mind.
Eventually Becca spoke again. “I should go.”
We all kinda looked at each other for a minute.
“So this is it?” I asked.
“No,” Becca whispered. It was hard to hear her over the roar of the waterfall. “I know we’ll see each other again. I have to have faith.” She took my hand. “You need anything, Asher? Before you go?”
“Salt,” I replied.
“Salt?” She seemed surprised. “Sure, I can get you some salt.”
“There’s no time,” Pace interrupted. “If we’re going, we gotta go.”
All I wanted was some salt. Was that too much to ask for? I didn’t get the girl. Couldn’t I at least get some effing salt!
Becca turned to go.
Pace opened his mouth. “Meet us at the top of the Empire State Building?” Her hand went up to shush him. I don’t think she could bear to say anything more. Then she turned away from us again.
“Not so fast,” Pace pleaded. “Are you sure you can’t choose just one of us?”
Becca turned and walked back over to Pace. She kissed him. I remember thinking she’d made her decision. Eff both of them. But then she pulled away from Pace and turned to me. She took my scruffy face in both of her warm hands. She looked at me for an eternity. Then she closed her eyes and kissed me. It wasn’t just a kiss though. I’d had those before. This was a real kiss. A real kiss from Becca. I swear to you my whole world changed in that moment. If I close my eyes I’m still kissing her right now. I’m not sure she was ever gonna pull away from that kiss either. But I’ll never know…
“Ahem.”
Next thing I knew Becca’s lips were gone. I looked at Pace. That “ahem” hadn’t come from him in some jealous attempt to separate us. We all turned in unison in the direction the “ahem” had come from. There stood Boze and three of his Nuggets. Four shotguns aimed directly at our skulls. It felt worse than a punch to the gut.
“Damn it!” Pace exclaimed.
I raised my hands in the air. But Pace did no such thing. Instead he stormed about, kicking the dirt up with his boot. He seemed pretty worked up. Didn’t want him overplaying our hand.
Boze seemed impatient. “Pace, don’t you suspect you should be raising your hands right about now?”
Pace looked at Boze like he’d been insulted. But then, slowly, realization set in. He raised his hands. “Right. That’s how this goes, isn’t it?”
“We could just drop ‘em now,” Birkin said through a mean grin.
“How’s your head feelin’ right about now?” I said.
Course that just got Birkin’s shotgun pointed at me. “Shut the eff up!” he hissed.
“I don’t appreciate your threatening Becca,” I said. “You’ll get yours.”
Birkin pressed his shotgun directly against my cheek. “Gonna shoot you in the head, Ash. Gonna make you feel hurt first!”
“Leave him alone!” Becca shouted, coming to my defense. More powerful than a shotgun, that woman is.
“No one’s killing no one,” Boze said. I was surprised to see him act somewhat honorably. Or maybe he was just showing off in front of Becca. “But tempting.”
“I appreciate your courtesy,” Pace said.
Boze calmly gave us some orders. “Let’s have your weapon.”
I pulled my beautiful pearl-handled ten-shooter out from my holster. I reluctantly handed it over to one of the Nuggets, sad if I’d never see it again.
“You too Pace,” Boze instructed. But Pace didn’t seem to want to hand over his weapon.
“There’s four of ‘em, Pace. Four. Four shotgun blasts, and we only have one heart apiece. That’s not fair odds. You hearin’ me? And Becca’s right here. In the crossfire.”
Pace heard me all right, but that didn’t stop him from laughing. I could tell, Birkin was getting nervous with his trigger finger. But Pace paid him no mind. Instead he just started talking. “Boze, I’ve got to say, I’m impressed. I always figured there was a reason why you were our lawman. Now I know. You’re a tracker.”
But Boze didn’t seem to want to take the compliment. “Your weapon, Pace.”
“Seriously Boze, how’d you track us? Hoofprints?”
He didn’t seem to want to, but Boze found himself engaging in conversation with Pace. “Yeah, hoofprints. And been keeping my eye on Becca. Figured what Birkin said would flush you out.”
That pissed Becca off. She punched Boze hard as she could in the chest. “Boze, I can’t believe you’d use me like that! God, I am so glad I broke up with you!”
Boze seemed remorseful. “Apologies, Becca. Didn’t intend for you to come to any harm in this.”
“I did,” Birkin muttered. Effing Birkin.
Pace turned to Birkin. He was still handing out compliments. “And you, Birkin, you just threw out that path of breadcrumbs for us to follow, didn�
�t you? Very clever.”
“Nope,” Birkin replied coldly. “That was a real threat. Still is.” He aimed his shotgun right at Becca. I wasn’t gonna abide that but Boze beat me to it, moving the muzzle away from Becca and back toward my head. Thanks Boze. I looked over at Becca. She was getting worked up.
“Let them go Boze,” Becca pleaded, taking hold of his arm. “What’s it to you anyway?”
“I am the only law we got in Great Falls,” he explained.
Becca knew that didn’t matter. So she just kept going, hoping she’d find a way to reach him. “They did you a favor! Getting rid of those things, whatever they were! Isn’t that worth something?”
“We did leave lots of robot damage in our wake, didn’t we?” Pace added.
“You still haven’t handed over your weapon, Pace,” Boze reminded him.
Pace slowly went to pull his weapon from out of his holster. I didn’t like the way he was going for it, thought. He wasn’t going to pull it out gingerly with two fingers. He was going full hand for the handle. I really didn’t want him trying anything stupid.
“Four shotguns,” I reiterated.
Pace shot me an annoyed look. He went for his gun again, and then hesitated. “You know, we’ve got all this gold. And if you bring us back in you’ll have to turn it all in. It’s all accounted for, you know. Every coin. I should know. I used to account for them myself. Bad ankle or not, Frank’ll total ‘em up. And if you’ve let’s say misappropriated any of the funds, well, we’ll be seeing you in prison, won’t we?”
“See?” Birkin chimed in. “That’s why we should shoot ‘em down. Dump their bodies in the falls. It’s perfect.”
“Perfect, sure,” Pace replied, not seeming too concerned about getting shot down cold. “But murder is a heavy burden to carry. What say our bodies wash up down by Colter Falls. Like Ash’s mom did. Apologies, Ash.” I was a little offended actually, but I wanted to hear where Pace was going with this. “I think we’re all aware of the punishment for murder around these parts.”
Boze eased up on his trigger, and pushed the nose of Birkin’s shotgun to the ground.
“There’s no need for this talk,” Boze said. “No one’s getting shot down today. Not unless you run.”
“I would never run,” he replied. “I’d walk, though.” He stepped over to his horse and pulled down two shoulder bags off the mount and threw them to the ground. They landed with a thud. He reached in and pulled out a handful of gold. “That’s everything we stole from Great Falls. Over ten thousand, give or take. Double the bounty on our heads. That’s twenty-five hundred apiece if my math is correct. That is, Boze, unless you take a bigger cut. Being the leader, of course.”
Boze and his Nuggets exchanged puzzled glances for a second.
All right, so here’s what we were up to. We’d figured out four scenarios to take care of Becca. One was we’d convince Becca to run away with us before Boze tracked us down. Not likely but always the best scenario. Two was they’d arrest us, the judge would have a quick trial, and then Pace and I would spend the rest of our lives doing hard labor. That would be fine. It would keep Becca safe. Keep me close to her. Visitation and all. Three was they’d skip the trial and just shoot us dead. Not really good for us but she would be safe after that. And four, the option we were playing out, was a bribe – a peaceful way to hopefully settle the matter. Pace filled two saddlebags with the same amount of gold we robbed from the Great Falls bank. A small price to pay for Becca’s safety.
“Go on, take it,” Pace said. “And in exchange, you guarantee Rebecca’s safety for the rest of her natural life.”
Becca interrupted, taking great offense. “I don’t need anyone to buy my safety. I can take care of myself!”
“Just hear me out,” Pace urged. “Guarantee her safety, then me and my partner just ride on out of here. We’ll disappear, no doubt about that. You’ll never see us again. And since our decomposing bodies won’t be washing up on any shores anytime soon, no one will be the wiser.”
“Why don’t we just take it and shoot ‘em anyway?” Birkin asked. Boy that guy was annoying. “Then we’ll get the reward money too.”
“Think this through,” Pace chided. “To get the reward you’ll need to turn in our gold. And if you don’t, if it goes ‘missing,’ all eyes will be looking at you. Plus you’ll have a witness to our murder.” Pace put his hands on Becca’s shoulders. She squirmed uncomfortably. “What would you be doing about that?”
“I got no problem with that,” Birkin replied, spitting on the ground.
“See?” Pace said to Becca. “We do need to buy your safety.”
“How ‘bout all your other money you stole from the other banks?” Lister asked. “Can we have that too?” A reasonable if greedy question I suppose.
“Come on now,” Pace scolded. “You’ll need us to leave the Great Plains as much as we do, and we can’t leave empty handed. We kept just enough so we could afford to get out of here.” Then Pace tossed a gold coin over to Boze, who caught it. “Any more questions?”
Boze examined the gold coin make sure it was real. Which of course it was. Then he swung his rifle upright and handed it to one of the other Nuggets named Priestly. Not much Priest-ly about that guy. Boze walked over to Pace, staring at him warily. He stopped, looking down at the shoulder bag. He looked up at Pace… and what happened next really surprised me. Boze extended his hand to Pace. And Pace took it.
“This gives us both a bit of a clean start,” Boze said.
Pace agreed. “We’ll be out of your hair right now.” He quickly stepped over to Becca and tried to give her a hug, but she was in shock or whatever. She couldn’t hug back.
I held out my hand for my revolver. Boze emptied out the bullets, but then returned it to me just the same. Even let me keep the bullets.
I stared intently at Boze. “You’ll keep up your end of the bargain, right? You’ll watch after her?”
Boze looked at me for a second. Then he slowly nodded. “If she’ll let me.”
I knew she wouldn’t, but I knew he’d keep her safe anyway. And she’d hate that. I tipped my hat to show my appreciation, for the first time thankful that Boze was around.
Pace saddled up on his horse. “Boze… gentlemen… pleasure doing business with you. Let’s go, Ash.”
I went to mount my horse but Becca rushed over and pulled on my leg.
“So that’s it?” she cried. “You’re leaving? You’re really leaving for good?”
I’m not gonna lie in this moment, my heart was just bleeding. But what could I do.
“You okay if I take a moment?” I asked Boze. He nodded reluctantly, and turned around to give us a little privacy. Then I took Becca in my arms. “Last chance,” I whispered. “You wanna come with us or not?”
“Oh Asher,” Becca moaned. “I can’t…”
“Now Ash,” Pace urged me. “Let’s get going now!”
“One second,” I said. I couldn’t help it. If this was it for me and Becca, I needed to savor the moment. I leaned in and gave Becca the biggest hug I could muster. Would’a kissed her too but she wasn’t having it. Probably couldn’t reach her lips through all those tears anyway.
If I was paying attention I woulda heard something. Rummaging. It was Lister. The dumb one. He was opening up one of the saddlebags of gold. Greedy shit.
“Ash!” Pace said with urgency. “Right now!”
“What the eff!” I replied, wanting to have my moment. But I didn’t know what was coming next.
“Ain’t no gold in here!” Lister said like he’d discovered gold. “Just rocks!”
Everybody froze in that second. I managed a look at Pace who kinda gave me a smirking shrug. That effer. He took on the job of filling those saddlebags with the gold. And he was about to get us all killed.
All the shotguns that had been laid to the side were now back in action. Pace drew his weapon too. And me, the most capable in this situation, I just had Becca in my hands.
I had to do something, before we all died right in the same spot my mother died. I owed her to at least die somewhere else.
My revolver was emptied of bullets of course, but I had my spare I kept in my boot. They never asked me for my spare. I pulled it out and instead of pointing it at the Nuggets I held it close against Becca’s temple.
“Back off or I’ll shoot her!” I shouted.
Couldn’t see Becca’s eyes in that moment but I can only imagine. I was doing the fake hostage thing. Learned that trick in Augusta. Course I would never harm Becca. But did Boze know that?
“He’s bluffing,” Birkin scoffed. “Let’s gun ‘em all down.”
I stared at Boze. The Nuggets would follow his orders. He was in control of this situation as much as I was.
“I’m never seeing her again anyway,” I yelled. “And I’m desperate. Sorry Becca but if this is my end it’s yours too. Kinda romantic, right?”
“Just shoot her, Ash!” Pace taunted. He knew what I was up to. He was raising the stakes.
Poor Becca. I could only imagine what was goin’ through her head.
“I can take a shot without hurting her,” Priestly told Boze.
“You could,” Pace interjected, aiming his pistols back and forth between Boze and Birkin and Lister and Priestly. But I’ll get two of you. The only question is which two?”
“What’s your call?” I asked Boze. The bastard turned kinda pale. He’s never been much under pressure, like when those Mankins came to town. Then he did what I thought he’d do. He folded.
“Weapons down!” he called out.
“Hell no!” Birkin countered.
Boze grabbed hold of Birkin’s shotgun and cracked him in the jaw. “I said weapons down!”
The other Nuggets complied, not wanting to get cracked in the jaw themselves.
I didn’t wait around to find out they planned on staying obedient. I backed up, still holding my gun up to Becca’s head, until I reached Charon. “Cover me,” I told Pace. Then I turned, hopped up on Charon, and pulled Becca right up into my saddle behind me. “Hold on tight,” I uttered. I felt her arms embrace my stomach. And we were off.
I turned around and saw Boze and his Nuggets were still disoriented. There was a lot of yelling though. I looked back at Pace who was riding right behind us.
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