Dying Wish

by J. R. Roberts

  The moment their lips met, a distant rumble drifted through the air. Both of them heard it, but neither one wanted to admit it.

  “That sounds like horses coming this way,” Clint said.

  “Yes, it does.”

  They both knew they had to see if the Nagles had caught up to them. Even so, Clint kept his arms around her and kissed Olivia deeply while leaning her slightly back.

  “Always leave them wanting more,” he whispered after ending the kiss.

  Olivia shook her head and kept her eyes closed. “I hate you.”

  THIRTY-FIVE

  While Clint rushed to his saddlebags, Olivia kicked dirt onto the fire. She also managed to kick dirt into the frying pan, which still held some of the bacon she’d been cooking. Swearing under her breath, she moved the frying pan away while putting out the last of the fire.

  Clint chuckled at the sight of Olivia’s mad scramble, but he couldn’t watch her for long. Instead, he took his spyglass from the saddlebag and made his way to the rocks that were between the camp and the sound of hooves thumping against the earth.

  “Is it them?” Olivia whispered as she kept piling dirt onto the fire.

  Stretched out on his belly with his legs hanging over the side of the rocks, Clint shifted so he wasn’t getting jabbed too badly by a jagged piece of stone. “I can’t tell yet,” he replied as he raised the spyglass to his eye.

  “What about now?” Olivia asked a few seconds later.

  It took a few seconds for Clint to get his bearings and aim his spyglass at the right spot. The moment he caught sight of the horses in the distance, he held his breath so he could get the steadiest look possible.

  “Clint? Is it them?”

  He didn’t say anything, simply because the slightest movement would have caused the spyglass to tremble enough to blur his view. With the light already fading by the second, Clint couldn’t afford to make things worse by his own hand.

  “Clint?”

  “Give me a second,” he hissed. “Just make sure there’s no smoke coming from that fire.”

  Olivia looked down at the ground, and had to squint to distinguish any wisps of smoke from the shadows that were naturally there. Finally, her eyes adjusted well enough for her to tell him, “It’s not too bad.”

  “Will anyone be able to see it from a distance?”

  “No.”

  Just to be sure, Clint took a quick look over his shoulder. “Good,” he told her before placing his eye once more against the spyglass.

  Before long, Clint could hear scraping against the rocks. A second or two later, Olivia was settling in beside him.

  “Keep your head down,” he said while reaching out to place his free hand between her shoulders. “There isn’t much light in the sky, but there could be enough for whoever’s out there to see us before we can see them.”

  Olivia flattened herself against the rock and glanced nervously over her shoulder. The sky was mostly dark, but there was still a faint purple glow to mark where the sun had been before dipping below the horizon. She winced at the way the trees stood out against that soft glow, and could only hope she and Clint didn’t stand out so well to the approaching riders.

  “Do you think they spotted us?” Olivia whispered as she wriggled in close to him.

  Clint took a moment before answering. He kept both arms propped against the rock so he could keep the spyglass as steady as possible. Every so often, he had to look away before all the different shades of black started to blend together. Finally, he said, “I don’t know, but I do know they’re headed this way.”

  The horses weren’t moving at a full gallop, but that didn’t make Clint feel any better. Although they wouldn’t get to Clint and Olivia as fast, the whole group seemed to be moving carefully and methodically in the same direction as Clint and Olivia had been going. If they didn’t know about the camp already, the riders seemed to be searching awfully hard for it.

  “They seem so far away for us to be able to hear them.”

  “That’s because there’s four of them.”

  “What?”

  Clint nodded and scooted a bit closer to the edge of the rock. “I don’t normally have trouble counting that high, but I did it twice just to be certain.”

  “This isn’t funny, Clint.”

  “I know, but I still can’t tell if those horses are being ridden by the Nagle brothers or if they’re just some other folks passing through.”

  “They might not be the Nagles?” Olivia asked hopefully.

  “Maybe not,” Clint replied. Before she could get her hopes up too high, he added, “Still, you’d better bring me my rifle.”

  THIRTY-SIX

  As the horses drew closer, the sound of their hooves grew. Soon, the horses were close enough to the camp for Clint to hear the animals’ breathing and the scrape of their shoes against the rocky ground a stone’s throw from where the campfire had been.

  “Damn,” Boris snarled in a voice that was just as distinctive to Clint as the man’s face. “How big of a lead did they get?”

  The voice that responded was dry as the desert floor and prickly as an old cactus. “Couldn’t have been too big of a lead if Adams is still trying to ride that horse of his.”

  “Who’s Adams?”

  Clint didn’t recognize that voice, but it sounded more like a belch from a frog.

  “Just one of the assholes we’re after,” the second voice replied. “That’s all you need to know.”

  Clint still couldn’t see the riders, but he could hear them coming around the rocks that he was using for cover. Actually, Clint was using an old blanket for cover. The tattered wool blanket had seen him through plenty of cold nights, but now it could mean the difference between watching the riders and trading shots with them.

  Lying on top of the rocks as flat as he could, Clint remained still and hoped the old blanket was covering his boots. The blanket was draped over his face with about an inch to spare. Clint could only hope his feet weren’t poking out the other side.

  In the daylight, he might have been a comical sight. But with the purple hue fading across the sky and the shadows at their thickest, he was just another ripple along the top of the rocks. In fact, since he’d wedged himself in between two of the largest rocks, Clint might have seemed like the mortar that made the outcropping look like one huge boulder.

  Olivia and the horses, on the other hand, were in a different sort of predicament. Although they were crouched down and hiding among a few nearby trees, they were less than fifteen yards from the original campsite. They had a blanket or two draped over them, but they had to rely mostly on natural cover.

  If the riders didn’t head for those trees or study them too carefully, they might never know anyone was there. If they let their eyes wander in that direction for too long, however, they wouldn’t have much trouble picking their targets.

  “Did they come through here?” the man with the rasping voice asked.

  Boris was quick to reply. “How the hell can I know that, Wilson? I can barely see anything anymore.”

  “There’s enough light to keep riding.”

  “But not enough to keep tracking. We should just make camp and head out at first light. For all we know, we might just lose their trail completely.”

  Clint already had his pistol in hand. His fingers tightened around the grip and he eased it toward the edge of the rocks. Although he moved his hands as slowly as possible, the sound of iron scraping against stone was a piercing shriek to his ears. By now, the sound of his own breathing seemed to echo beneath the blanket.

  “They gotta be nearby,” Wilson insisted. “They still got one lame horse among them, right?”

  “It ain’t lame, but it’s hurt,” Boris said.

  “And you know that’s one of the horses they’re using?”

  “I saw it in the livery car. I already told you that. I also saw some peculiar tracks that could have been left by a new shoe. I already told you that, too.”


  “I recall him saying that,” the belching frog said.

  Just then, one of the horses rounded the rocks and came into Clint’s line of sight. Although he couldn’t see all the details of the man’s face, Clint could make out enough angles to know it wasn’t the face of the man he’d fought on the train to Dallas.

  “I gotta listen to my brother’s smart mouth,” Wilson snapped as he drew his gun and aimed it in one swift motion, “but I sure as hell don’t gotta listen to yours.”

  Clint’s eyes narrowed as he watched Wilson take aim. The motion had been quick and smooth. The look in Wilson’s eyes left no room for doubt that he would pull his trigger if he was so inclined. The twitch at the corner of Wilson’s mouth made it seem as if he was listening to the counsel of some voices only he could hear.

  With every second that ticked by, Clint became more convinced that he would have to abandon his spot and take his chances with all four of them before they caught sight of Olivia. Fortunately, Wilson was demanding all of the attention for the moment.

  “Fine,” Boris said. “Let’s keep moving.”

  “Can you see where we need to go or not?” Wilson asked.

  “We know they’re headed to the Rio Grande and they’ve been traveling southwest to get there. We can keep going in that direction and look for a camp. We could even spread out and cover more ground. If there’s a fire lit, one of us’ll be able to see it.”

  Since Clint wasn’t about to move more than it took to breathe, he kept his eyes on Wilson. His next breath caught in the back of his throat when Wilson snapped his head around to look at Clint as if he could feel the heat from his stare.

  As Clint lay wedged between the rocks, he became certain that he’d made a big mistake.

  His gun was in hand and he could take a shot whenever he pleased, but that might not be enough to save Olivia.

  Even after he’d killed Wilson, Clint couldn’t see the others well enough to know for certain if he’d live to see the next couple of seconds after Wilson hit the ground.

  And there was always the chance that Clint might miss with his first shot and then be killed by the hailstorm of lead that was sure to follow.

  Being killed while stuffed between some rocks wasn’t exactly the best sort of death he could have imagined.

  All of that rolled through Clint’s mind in the space of a few seconds. Those thoughts weren’t silenced until Wilson finally blinked.

  “We’ll ride a little ways more,” Wilson said as he shifted his glare to one of the other three men. “If we don’t spot a fire soon, we’ll make camp and get some rest. Will you be able to pick up their tracks come morning?”

  “Yeah,” Boris said. “Now, will you put that gun away?”

  Wilson loosened his grip on the pistol so it dangled from his trigger finger. He then dropped the gun into its holster and pointed his horse toward the southwest. As soon as he flicked his reins, he was followed by the rest of the horsemen.

  “Spread out from here,” Boris ordered. “They can’t be too much farther ahead of us. I don’t even think their horses were moving that fast.”

  The four men rode away from the camp without more than a passing glance tossed toward the trees. Clint didn’t allow himself to exhale until the Nagles and their two partners were far enough away that the sounds of their horses could no longer be heard.

  Clint couldn’t get out from between the rocks fast enough. As soon as he stepped out, he saw Olivia raise her head and wave. Since he knew she and the horses were there, Clint wondered how the hell the others could have missed them.

  “Well,” Olivia said breathlessly as she walked over to Clint. “That was easy.

  “Speak for yourself.”

  THIRTY-SEVEN

  The sun’s rays hadn’t even put a dent into the inky blackness of the sky when Clint woke Olivia and started saddling Eclipse. He checked the Darley Arabian’s bandages and found only a few specks of blood. After just a few minutes, the stallion seemed ready to run.

  “Looks like that shoe’s doing the trick,” Clint said.

  Olivia yawned and dragged her feet while loading up her bedroll. “Good. Maybe we can get some more sleep.”

  “No time for that.”

  “I thought we agreed this camp was still safe since the Nagles already passed through here.”

  “I told you it should be safe,” Clint reminded her. “Not that I was certain about it.”

  “So you just let us sleep here anyway?”

  Clint let out a deep breath and rubbed his eyes. “You slept. I kept one eye open to see if those childhood friends of yours would double back.”

  Walking back over to him, Olivia took Clint’s hat from his head and tussled his hair. “Aww. That was sweet.”

  “You call it sweet. I call it not wanting to get shot in my sleep.”

  “Did you get any rest at all?”

  “Yeah,” Clint lied. “A little.”

  Judging by the way Olivia stared him down, she didn’t believe him. Still, she wasn’t about to call him on it just yet. “There’s some coffee left over from last night. Why don’t I make a little fire and heat it up for you?”

  Clint shook his head. “The whole reason for getting up before sunrise was so we could get moving before those brothers do.”

  “The way they were fighting last night, they’ll be at each other’s throats until afternoon since they haven’t found us yet. That should buy us more than enough time to have a nice breakfast.”

  After a bit of a pause, Clint asked, “Why don’t we split the difference?”

  “Which means I’ll put a fire under this kettle. If you want, you can stretch out and rest your eyes while I get this ready.”

  “I need to keep watch.”

  “You need to get a bit of rest,” Olivia insisted. “You won’t do anyone any good if you fall out of your saddle or doze off when we do get closer to those Nagles.”

  “But if—”

  “If someone comes around, I’ll see them,” Olivia told him. “I think I can manage pouring coffee and watching for horses at the same time.”

  Clint might have protested some more if he’d had enough wind in his sails. As it was, he leaned back against a rock and found it to be just as comfortable as a stack of mattresses. When he opened his eyes again, it was due to the smell of coffee directly under his nose.

  Sitting bolt upright, Clint let out a rough breath and found himself looking directly at Olivia’s smiling face. “If you offer to let me rest for a moment, the least you could do is let me rest,” he said.

  She nodded patiently and replied, “You’ve been out for almost an hour.”

  “What?”

  Despite the fact that he felt as if he’d just stretched his legs out, Clint saw enough light in the sky to verify Olivia’s claim. It would still be a while before the sun was completely up, but the rich red and orange hues didn’t do much to improve Clint’s mood.

  “Damn,” he grumbled. “I wanted to be on the trail by now.”

  “This is wide-open terrain,” Olivia said. “I would have spotted anyone if they were within a mile of us. The only movement that’s caught my eye has come from a snake or two.”

  Once he was on his feet, Clint took the coffee and drank it. Olivia had been true to her word, since the coffee barely felt warm. Even so, it was strong enough to get his eyes open a bit wider. Tossing the rest of the coffee out, Clint handed her the mug and said, “Let’s get going.”

  “Next time, I should just let you fall from your saddle.”

  “Hopefully, there won’t be a next time before we get to where we’re going. How much farther is it anyway?”

  “Even with Eclipse’s bad leg, we could make it there by nightfall. Still, we might cross paths with Boris and Wilson.”

  “What’s the name of the place again?”

  “Coldwater Rock,” Olivia replied. “I haven’t been there for a while, though, so it might have changed names.”

  “Or it might not even
be there. Small towns along a river tend to get washed away sometimes.”

  “If that’s the case, then we’ve come a long way for nothing.”

  Clint studied her as he asked, “What’s that mean? The main purpose of coming here is to scatter the ashes, right?”

  Olivia nodded, but wasn’t quick about it. “I’ve just been thinking. You know…about what we were talking about before.”

  “You mean about your uncle coming into some money?”

  “Yes! I think the word must have gotten out.”

  “There’s no other reason why these men would go through so much trouble to come after us. Perhaps they know something that we don’t. Or,” Clint added, “at least something that I don’t.”

  Meeting Clint’s gaze, Olivia told him, “I don’t know how much, but Abner had to have collected some money. He was always into some venture or other. He gambled much better than I ever could and he was smart about his money. My guess would be for it to be somewhere in his house. Or maybe he sent it to Jenny. Maybe he left a will. I don’t know, Clint.”

  “Those brothers must think we know something. Otherwise, they wouldn’t need to track us.”

  “They’d shoot their own mother in the back just to get the rings off her fingers.”

  “I haven’t known the Nagles for long,” Clint admitted, “but I’ve seen enough to believe that much.”

  “And what about the rest? Do you still believe me about the money?”

  The fact of the matter was that Olivia was smart enough to have figured out plenty of ways to get to that money on her own if she knew so much about it. One thing that spoke volumes to Clint was the way Olivia handled the clay jar containing her uncle’s ashes.

  So far, Olivia hadn’t let that urn out of her sight. She’d insisted on carrying it herself and when she handled it, she did so as if she was cradling a newborn.

  “I’ve been stabbed in the back plenty of times,” Clint said. “Mostly, it was so someone could get their hands on money.”