Her eyes dashed back to where she’d seen the weapon. There, half hidden behind rocks and brush, was Victor. His weapon was raised, but unlike the men around her who were aiming at nothing, his aim was trained on one person, the one whose past five years was spent in pursuit of him.
“Quinn!” Zoe cried, as unthinkingly, she lurched her horse and body in the way of Victor’s gun as another shot rang out.
She heard the crack of the bullet as it whizzed past her, sending her and her horse hurtling to the ground, and Quinn with them. She screamed as the earth rushed up to meet her. Quinn cried out in pain as he fell from his saddle, but it was only a moment. The next the second he was crawling on his belly to her side.
“Zoe!” he called, as he looked down at her. “Are you all right?”
She raised a trembling hand to her face. She looked at her fingers and the smear of blood she found there. He’d hit her. Victor’s bullet had hit her?
Zoe’s heart thundered so loudly she almost couldn’t hear the exchange of gunfire around her.
“Stay here,” Quinn demanded, as he forced himself to his feet and grabbed hold of the shotgun that had fallen to the ground with him. Zoe was dazzled and startled as she watched him raise it and bring it to his eye.
It happened so quickly that she didn’t have a second to understand what was transpiring. One moment the gun was raised. The next she saw the spark of the gunpowder as it ignited in the chamber and sent a single bullet flying to its target. The mountain became eerily silent after that.
Zoe pushed herself up from the earth as the men of the party ran toward the place where Victor was. There was no sign of him.
Slowly, Zoe helped herself to her feet as one of the deputies helped Quinn. She looked at him in a daze as his eyes peered past her to the spot where the men were gathering. Her heart sank and her hearing became hollow as she heard their exclamations.
“He’s dead!”
“Woot! Yah got ‘im!”
“He’s stone cold dead, Sheriff!”
Quinn’s eyes turned and met hers. They looked at each other for a long time, not a word exchanged between them. Zoe was snapped out of the moment sometime later when the men dropped Victor’s body at Quinn’s feet.
“There yah go,” one man said, with a grin so large it took up half his face. “Yer one helluva of a shot.”
“Thanks,” Quinn answered, as he looked down at Victor in disbelief.
Zoe stepped toward Victor’s body. The large man was so still. She did not think that a man such as him, even in death, could be so still. It seemed unnatural for him. Still, no one could escape death forever. Today was Victor’s day.
Quinn’s shot was true, straight to the neck. Blood saturated the front of Victor’s clothes.
It was the first time Zoe saw a corpse, let alone that of someone she knew. She didn’t feel when the tear fell from her eye. She was hardly aware of her own feelings at all at that moment.
“Miss Ferguson, you’re crying,” the Sheriff commented.
“What?” she replied as she looked at the man. It was then she realized that the eyes of the entire group were on her, each giving her a speculative look.
“Miss Zoe, are you crying over this here criminal?” one man asked. “He kidnapped you.”
Quinn remained silent, but his eyes were fixed relentlessly upon her.
“Yah don’t feel sorry for ‘im?” another asked. Zoe turned her head in his direction.
“Why not?” she questioned.
Everyone looked at her incredulously.
Zoe turned her gaze back to Victor. His eyes were staring open, at a clear blue sky that he would never enjoy again. She wondered if he ever had a chance to enjoy it, or was he always looking over his shoulder too much to look up. She knelt beside him and closed his eyes with her hands.
“I don’t understand,” someone said from behind her. Zoe’s head snapped up.
“You don’t have to,” she retorted. She looked back at Victor. “If you can’t see how pitiful this is, then I can’t help you. A man dying in the middle of nowhere, with nothing, and no one who cared about him…what could be more pitiful? No matter what he did, dying alone can never be a fitting end for anyone.” There was silence around her.
“Get the body up,” Sheriff Watts ordered. “You can put him on your horse, Emerson,” he instructed. “We have to take him back and bury him proper. A villain or not, the man deserves to be put to rest right,” he continued.
Zoe’s eyes rose in surprise. The Sheriff looked down at her and nodded. She nodded in return.
She remained on her knees in the dirt as the men stepped forward and lifted Victor’s body from the ground. She watched them as sadness filled her heart.
You were slated for this end, weren’t you? The world never gave you a chance to be anyone else but who you were. It made you hard, but not heartless. You had one, deep inside somewhere, where you covered it with your pain and your misery. You hid it so no one could get to it. No one saw it, but I did.
“I’m sorry, Victor,” she said softly as she got to her feet. She didn’t care what anyone thought, an unnecessary death was just that. Maybe if someone had given him a chance, maybe if someone saw more to him than what he presented to protect himself, Victor Norton’s life could’ve been different. No one did.
She turned to her horse and was met by Quinn’s steely gaze. She met his gaze and held it. “You don’t have to understand.”
“I wasn’t going to try,” he replied.
“That’s good,” Zoe answered. “It’s better that way. You never saw him as anyone but a criminal. You chased him down and never considered the path that got him to this place.”
“He killed people,” Quinn answered coldly.
Zoe looked behind her to Victor’s lifeless body. She turned her eyes back to Quinn. “So have you. You both did what was right to you at the moment when you felt threatened. In both cases, someone died. The only difference is that the law said it was okay for you to do it. No one told Victor that.”
“Are you defending him?” Quinn spat.
“No. What Victor did was wrong. It’s always easy to be the judge, jury, and executioner when you believe yourself justified.” She looked at Quinn. “He could’ve hurt me, but instead, he brought me back and told me to go home.”
Quinn’s expression softened.
“I know you think he was a monster, and maybe he was. I don’t know. I know that the man who just died, saved my life, my dignity, and let me go when he could’ve killed me, buried me, and no one would ever have found me. How was a man who could do that, be all bad?”
Tears were rolling freely down her cheeks. Quinn was clearly confused by her strange response, as were the other men. If Zoe was honest with herself, she was also.
She tried to find words to explain herself, but there were none. In her mind, Zoe kept seeing the little boy that Victor was. The boy whose father was a monster and brutalized him until he looked like him. The boy who never had anyone who stood up for him. No one who sought justice for him, but who in turn wanted to execute justice against him.
Maybe at that moment, as Zoe considered what she’d done for the sake of doing what was right, she realized that she might never be able to make up for what she’d done to Quinn. Victor’s goodness to her didn’t outweigh the hurt he brought to others. Maybe no one ever did. Maybe they were all at the mercy of the understanding of others if there was ever to be a hope for a peaceful and happy life. Maybe she was a foolish woman who had been through an ordeal and was now feeling the emotional effects of it all. She just wasn’t sure.
Zoe shook away her erratic thoughts and got herself back on her horse. She didn’t look back at Quinn, not even as she heard him groan in pain as the other men helped him back on his horse.
Victor was dead. Quinn’s time in Shaniko would soon be over. Once he was healed, he’d have no reason to stay any longer. Whatever there was between them was over. Maybe it was over from the moment he foun
d out the truth about her association with Victor. Maybe she was a fool to think there could have been more.
“Let’s head home, boys,” the Sheriff declared. A woot of approval erupted from the men around her and soon they were all headed at a clip toward Shaniko. The only person reluctant to return now was her. Once they got back to town, it would mean that Quinn’s departure would be that much closer. Her heart hurt with every stride of her horse.
Chapter Nineteen
Victor Norton was gone and still, Quinn didn’t have peace. The man’s body was put in the ground almost a fortnight ago, and still, Quinn couldn’t rest.
He lay in bed, his leg bandaged and painful. The wound reopened that day in Bone Yard Canyon, and because of it, he’d suffered another round of infection that delayed his healing. It meant Shaniko was going to be his home for a little while longer, though how much longer he still wasn’t sure. Victor was dead. His main reason for being in town was no more. However, there were too many questions that remained unanswered.
Quinn’s head fell back against the headboard of the bed as he looked out the window. He sighed deeply as the image of a silver peacock floated into his mind. He closed his eyes against the vision.
In the time since their return, Quinn had done his best to try not to think of the one thing he simply could not dismiss. The worst thing was that his nurse was the one person he was trying to escape. After his wound became infected, Doctor Martin asked Zoe to care for him. Quinn would have taken anyone else, but there was no one. Zoe was it, and because of that fact, he faced the lingering thought of what he’d learned in Victor’s cabin in Picture Gorge.
The soft knock at the door alerted Quinn to Zoe’s arrival. He’d learned the way she knocked by now. He even knew her footsteps and could distinguish when she brought up his meal and when someone else did, even when his eyes were closed.
“Come in,” he answered. She never entered unless he told her to, even though she knew there was no chance of him being in a more vulnerable position than he was at that moment.
The minute she walked into the room Quinn’s heart raced. Despite what had happened between them, the sight of her did the same thing to him every time. She was dressed in a simple dress of black and green. A white apron was tied around her waist and her hair was loose and fell around her shoulders in cascades of waves. She was a vision, as always. Her appearance didn’t surprise him, it was who was with her that did.
“Sheriff Watts,” Quinn greeted him as the man stepped into the room.
The Sheriff smiled. His Stetson was held in his one hand and a small envelope in the other. “I came to see how you were doing,” he stated as he walked further into the room. Zoe skirted around the perimeter and collected items she’d left early that morning.
“I’ll leave you in a minute,” she stated quietly.
“No need to rush, Miss Ferguson. You can hear what I have to say. In fact, I’d say you’re one person who should be here for this,” Sheriff Watts declared jovially.
“What’re you talking about, Sheriff?” Quinn questioned him as his brow wrinkled.
The Sheriff stalked across the room. “On behalf of the town of Shaniko, I wish to thank you, Mr. Mortensen, for your hard work and diligence in catching the criminal, Victor Norton, known as, The Boar.” Sheriff Watts held out the envelope to him. “Here is your reward.”
There was something about the entire scene that made Quinn uncomfortable. It felt as if he was being paid for having killed a man. That wasn’t the case. Quinn was never motivated by the thought of seeing Victor dead. It wasn’t his first thought, but it was one that he accepted might happen. Victor wasn’t going to stop and neither was he. Was he sorry that the man was dead? He couldn’t say that. He could say he preferred that it was Victor rather than himself, as the man was determined to see him to his grave. His eyes rose to Zoe.
She stood there, stoic, as the Sheriff made his presentation. Quinn took the envelope, the bounty that was on Victor’s head.
“Two thousand dollars,” the Sheriff declared suddenly. Quinn looked at him in confusion.
“What did you say?”
“Two thousand dollars,” the Sheriff repeated, with some measure of glee. “Most money I’ve ever held in my life.”
Quinn sat up further. “What’re you talking about? The bounty was five hundred.”
“No sir, it was increased. I guess you were so busy huntin’ him that you didn’t check back on what was being offered. Price went up to two thousand a few months back.”
“Congratulations,” Zoe said solemnly. He met her eye.
“I suppose you’ll be leaving us soon,” the Sheriff continued, oblivious to the silent exchange that was transpiring right before his eyes.
Was she really happy for him or was she just saying so? Did she think he wanted things to end like this? Victor was going to get someone else killed, maybe even her. Quinn did what he had to, though it brought him no joy in doing it.
“I hadn’t put my mind to that yet, Sheriff,” Quinn admitted, as he turned his attention to the man standing by his bed.
“Well, I for one, would like to offer you a job as one of my deputies,” he offered. “Someone with your experience, and with such a good aim, is a man I want on my team.”
Quinn chuckled. “Why, thank you, Sheriff. I’m really honored by the thought.”
“It’s more than a thought. It’s a bona fide offer, Mortensen.” The Sheriff looked him in the eye. “If you ever decide that you’re done with hunting men across the country, I’d welcome you as a member of the Shaniko Sheriff’s Office.”
Quinn held out his hand. “Thank you, Sheriff. If I make that decision, I will definitely consider your offer.”
The Sheriff shook his hand. “Well, that’s all I came to do. I’ll be seeing you around, Mortensen. Take care of yourself.”
“You, too, Sheriff,” Quinn answered, as the Sheriff turned from the room and closed the door behind him. Zoe stayed. She was silent, tidying the room as if he wasn’t there.
“I’ll have Weyland bring up your lunch,” she stated as she took the basin of water in her hands and headed for the door.
“Wait!”
Zoe stopped the moment the word was uttered. Quinn didn’t know why he said it. The tension between them, and watching her walk away, did something to him.
She turned to him calmly. “What is it?”
“I wanna talk to you,” Quinn answered honestly.
Zoe looked at him skeptically. “What about?”
Quinn’s lips parted but no words came out. He wanted to ask her about the brooch. Did her mother ever mention having another child, a brother? What happened that the brooch was lost? Was it lost or given away? He said nothing. Instead, he resorted to the one matter that had connected them in the first place. “Victor.”
Zoe visibly tensed as the mention of Victor’s name. “What about him?” she asked. “He’d dead. Haven’t we all had enough by now?”
“No,” Quinn responded. “I need to understand something.”
“What?” Zoe answered sharply. “I have work to do.”
He paused, watching the way the tiny muscle in her jaw flexed and how her lips pressed together so tightly that the upper one almost disappeared.
“Why did you cry for him?”
“Why shouldn’t I? I’m sure Victor never had anyone cry for him in his entire life,” Zoe responded.
“But why did you have to be the first?” he questioned. He was trying to understand, but he didn’t. Victor was a vicious person, barely fit to be called human. What did she see in him?
Zoe set the basin aside. “You came from a loving home, right Quinn? Your father raised you right, taught you everything you should know about honoring and loving. About justice?”
Quinn swallowed the lump in his throat. “Yes.”
“Victor’s taught him death,” Zoe continued. “You both grew up to be who you were taught to be. I’m sure it never occurred to you that if you’d
had Victor’s father, you would’ve turned out just like him.”
“Never!” Quinn declared. “I would never do the things Victor did.”
“Really? Are you so sure?” Zoe insisted. “How do you know?”
“It isn’t in me,” Quinn insisted.
“Was it in Victor? When he was born, did his mother look at him and see a murderer? Or did she see what your mother did, her precious child?”
Quinn wanted to answer, but he couldn’t. He doubted that Victor’s mother ever saw anything else in him but her child. His mother would’ve been the same.
A Western Tale 0f Love And Fate (Historical Western Romance) Page 16