by David Archer
When he woke, the sun was well on its way down the western skies. He looked around, barely remembering the violence that had almost sent him into oblivion. He struggled to his feet, ignoring the immense pain that screamed from every part of his body. Removing the knife from the bear’s body, he wiped it clean on the fur and replaced it in its sheath. He managed to pick the rifle up off the ground and, using it as a cane, he slowly, painfully made his way back to the house.
The sun had already given way to the darkness of night before Chance reached the house, whose interior was bathed in light. With his last ounce of energy he managed to push open the door. He collapsed right in the doorway.
Gabriella and her boys were sitting at the kitchen table, almost finished with their dinner. Each of them had expressed concern over the fact that Chance was not back, and when they finally heard the outside door swing open, they all breathed a sigh of relief.
Their joy was short-lived. They caught a glimpse of the blood and torn clothing just before Chance fell face down on the floor. All three of them jumped up from the table and raced to the limp figure. Gabriella rolled him over and stared in utter shock.
“What happened?” she cried with fear in her voice, fear at the thought of losing the man she was so much in love with. At that moment all she could think of was that God had already taken away one man whom she loved, and now was about to take another.
Chance managed to open his eyes slightly and replied in a whisper, “A bear…”
Gabriella wasted no time. “Tommy, help me get Chance upstairs. Andy, you call the doctor and tell him to come right over.”
“No!” Chance yelled, grabbing onto her wrist.
Gabriella spun around, unable to believe what she thought she had heard. “What?”
“Please, no doctor.”
“But you’re badly hurt, and you’ve lost a lost of blood,” she pleaded.
“Don’t have hospital insurance,” he answered, stuttering.
“That doesn’t matter right now.”
“Please,” he whispered in a barely audible tone just before blackness closed in on him again.
They carried him upstairs to his bedroom, where Gabriella, with the boys’ help, began cleaning the bloody body and bandaging the ugly wounds.
Two days later, early Monday afternoon, Chance regained consciousness. Slowly he opened his eyes, still remembering clearly the fierce battle that he had been forced to wage. He wasn’t sure whether he was alive or dead, but he meant to find out. The first sight he saw proved to him, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he was still among the land of the living because there, sitting next to his bed, was the woman who had stolen his heart away.
“How are you feeling?” she inquired, her face lighting up with a smile.
“Just fine, and you?”
“I feel a lot better now that you’re finally awake,” she said. “And don’t give me any of that ‘just fine’ nonsense. You’re lucky you’re even alive, mister.”
He tried to raise up a bit and groaned, then sank back down onto his pillow. “How long have you been sitting there?”
“Oh, not long,” she lied.
He narrowed his eyes at her. “How long is that?”
“Well,” she hesitated, “almost two days.”
“Two days!” he repeated in amazement. “Holy crap! I’d better get up and start in on some of the chores.”
“No way! You’re staying right where you are. The boys are going to stay home for a few days and take care of the chores. You’re going to stay in bed until the doctor says you can get out.”
“Doctor! What doctor?”
“Dr. Naples. He’s the old family doctor he takes care of people out this way. We called him Saturday night after we saw all those cuts on your shoulder and across your chest, not to mention the bruises on your back. You can talk to him when he comes over tonight to examine you again. Now, how about something to eat?”
“Ya. I’ll have a nice, thick, juicy steak, if we still have one, with maybe some fried potatoes.” She smiled as she walked out of the room and returned several minutes later carrying a bowl on a tray.
“Here you go.”
“What’s this?” he asked as he painfully struggled into a sitting position.
“Beef broth.”
“Ugghh; what happened to the steak?”
“Doctor’s orders until you get some of your strength back. Liquid diet only, and don’t argue.”
“I’ll never get any stronger by eating flavored water.” Nevertheless, he accepted the meager meal.
“Now that you’re awake, how about telling me what happened out there? You kept mumbling something about a gigantic bear and that the rifle had jammed on you.”
“Yeah. Well, I was sitting in a clearing in the middle of the little stand of trees, waiting for a deer to wander by. The time just seemed to drag on and on. The peace and quiet just closed in on me, I guess, and I started to daydream. The next thing I knew, there was a bear standing about fifty feet from me. He was coming straight at me. I jumped up and got four rounds off before the gun jammed, but even with four slugs in him, the blasted thing still kept coming. I didn’t have a chance to get away so I grabbed my knife and we went at it. I’d have sworn that I was a dead man, but the good Lord must have been on my side. What I can’t understand is why the bear even attacked me in the first place, unless he was rabid.”
“No, I don’t think that he was. Jerry Johnson, our neighbor to the north, phoned me Saturday just after we got back from shopping. He said that he had caught a big grizzly messing around, scaring his stock. He took a couple of shots at him and he was pretty sure that he had hit the bear at least once. He was telling us to watch out for it, because a wounded grizzly can be pretty dangerous.”
“Okay, now I understand.”
“I only wish we had known about that before you went out hunting.”
“No sense worrying about it now. What else did I say while I was out of it?” he asked, fearing the worst.
“Well, from what I could piece together, it sounded like you’ve been a lot more worried about the cartel than you let on. You kept mumbling something about getting them to leave us alone so we can live out our lives in peace.”
“Yeah, well,” Chance said. “I guess I owe you an explanation.”
“Chance, I already know that we might be in danger from them. Is there more that you haven’t told me?”
“There is, but can we talk about it later? Right now I’m awfully tired.”
She looked at him, but her eyes were soft. “Okay. Are you finished with your broth?”
“Yes.”
She picked up the tray and started to leave the room, but he called her name, so she stopped in the doorway and looked back at him. “There is one thing I’d like to tell you before you go,” he said.
Gabriella suddenly looked nervous. “And what’s that?”
“Would you please put the tray down and come here?” he asked.
She put the tray on the dresser and then sat down beside him on the bed. “Yes?”
He reached for her hand as he tried to think of a way to phrase his words so as to convey his thoughts without any misunderstanding. He looked into those deep blue eyes of hers and realized that the wording was unimportant.
“I love you,” he said.
Gabriella’s eyes went wide, and tears started to flow down her cheeks. “I know,” she said, “and I love you too.” She bent down and kissed him gently.
“You know? How?” he asked, smiling back.
“You were delirious. Remember?”
At this point she got up and left the room. He slid back down under the covers, closed his eyes, and thought how wonderful it was to be so much in love. With these thoughts he eventually drifted off to sleep.
His dreams took an abrupt change. He saw two shadowy figures who were turned in his direction. They were continually calling out to him, but he had the distinct feeling that he needed to avoid them, not let them find him. He felt s
omething grab his leg, and he awoke with a start.
“What?” he asked, still half-asleep. He managed to open his eyes enough to see Gabriella standing beside the bed, one hand touching his leg. “Oh, it’s you.”
“I’m sorry for waking you, but the doctor’s here.”
“That’s all right. You startled me. I was right in the middle of some crazy dream.”
A man stepped into the room, and Gabriella moved aside to let him get close. “This is Dr. Naples,” she said, introducing him.
He was a short man with long sideburns and a full mustache. He stood five feet, seven inches at the most and without his light-brown suit, he weighed about one hundred and fifty pounds. In his left hand he held a small, black medical bag. This man certainly didn’t look like a doctor.
“Hello, Mr. Davidson. How are you feeling this evening?”
“Great,” he lied. “So, now, you won’t mind if I get out of bed, exercise a little and eat a half-decent meal again. Right?”
“Not so fast, young man. You got torn up pretty badly and you lost a lot of blood. I think it’s great that you want to get up and move around, but you’re in no condition to even crawl out of bed. You’re welcome to try if you want; I haven’t had a good laugh in quite a while.”
Chance sneered at him. “All right, Doc, you win. I can barely sit up, never mind trying to walk, but what I really would like is some solid food.”
“Well, we’ll see.” Turning to Gabriella he said, “Would you please wait outside while I examine him?”
“Of course, Doctor.” She stepped out of the room and closed the door behind her.
“Okay,” the doctor said as he prepared for his examination. “I understand you got yourself into a little scrape with a bear.”
“Yeah! Some scrape it was, too. The damn thing nearly killed me, even after I shot four large-caliber slugs in to him.”
“Well, you shouldn’t have let him get so close to you before you fired at him,” joked the doctor.
“Okay, I’ll remember that the next time.”
The doctor poked and prodded, got out his stethoscope and listened and thumped and did all the other things that doctors do to make us think they know what they’re up to. When he finally started putting everything away, Chance looked up at him
“Okay, Doc, what’s the verdict?” asked Chance when the painful examination was over.
“You’re pretty lucky, you know. From what I can tell without X rays, you don’t have any broken bones to contend with. You got bruised up awfully bad. Those scratches are fairly deep and they’ll take quite awhile to heal. I would suggest that you remain in bed for at least a week before you even make an attempt to get up.”
“Oh, gee, thanks,” replied Chance sarcastically.
“You don’t have to follow my advice if you don’t want to. After all, I’m only a doctor. I could be wrong, you might not drop dead from blood loss and shock, you never know.”
“Well, I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that, Doc. I’m sure Gabriella will see to it that I follow your orders right to the letter.”
“Yes, I imagine she will. She’s pretty good about things like that.” He turned and opened the door, and Gabriella almost fell inside. She had been leaning on the door to listen, and Chance had to stifle a laugh.
“So long, Doc,” called Chance as the doctor headed for the door.
“Good-bye, Mr. Davidson. Do try not to get yourself killed anytime soon. I don’t mind the house call so much, but the paperwork is a royal pain in the ass.”
Chance lay back and stared at the ceiling for half an hour before Gabriella came into his room carrying another tray.
“I sure hope that you’ve got something more solid in there than just water.”
“Oh, stop complaining and eat.”
“Tell me, how long would it be before you give in and bring me some real food if I refused to eat this?”
“About a week.”
“That’s what I figured. Okay, then, how about a trade? You bring me the steak, and I’ll give you the explanation regarding those things I said while I was delirious.”
“No deal. But I really do hope you get better fast, because I certainly don’t want such a complaining patient to care for. As for that story that you were going to tell me, it’s up to you whether you tell me or not. I’d very much like to hear what happened to you, but I won’t make any deals for that privilege.”
“You know, you’re worse than the doctor. All right, I’ll behave, even if it kills me. After I eat this… this soup, I’ll tell you the whole story.”
“Fine. I’ll be back in ten minutes.”
Chance drank the broth from the bowl and then sat back, trying to relax while his whole body throbbed with pain. A feeling of doubt made him wonder whether it was really a good idea to cover the rest of the truth or not. Part of him said to confess, while the rest shouted that it could only get him into more trouble. He was in the middle of weighing the pros and cons of this dilemma when Gabriella returned carrying another tray, this time loaded with a pot of coffee, sugar, cream, and two mugs. He decided that it was too late to turn back now. After all, he had promised to tell her.
“Okay,” he said, and took a sip of his coffee. “I’m not sure just where to begin.”
“Why not just try the beginning?”
“Okay, well—before I go that far back, I’d better start by making a confession. But you’ve got to promise me that you won’t get mad and walk out. If you want to hear what I’ve got to say, you’ll have to promise that you’ll stay right to the end, and remember one thing: that I had a very good reason for everything I did.”
“If it’s that bad, maybe I shouldn’t hear it at all.”
“Well, that’s up to you. I’ll tell you if you want, but you’ll have to promise to sit through it all.”
“Do you mean that you did something behind my back that you knew I’d get upset about?”
He chuckled. “No. I’ll tell you this much, though, if I hadn’t fallen in love with you, I wouldn’t be here now explaining things that I did before I even met you. But since I am very much in love with you, and you with me, you have a right to know, because it may affect our future together.”
“In what way?”
“You’ll have to promise first.”
“Don’t you trust me?”
“I do, but I can be just as stubborn as you if I want to be.”
Gabriella grinned. “Okay, I promise.”
Chance lay there for a moment and just looked at her. His problem now was in trying to decide how to tell his experiences without curbing the truth, and yet to make her understand that he had little choice in the actions he had taken, at least, up until the point where he had agreed to work for Baldizon. There he had had a choice, but he had convinced himself that becoming a hired killer was something he was basically destined for.
“Well?” asked Gabriella impatiently.
“Wait one more moment. Tell me again how much you love me.”
“I love you with all my heart. I don’t ever want you to leave me.” She bent over and kissed him with all the passion that was pent up inside her.
“I hope that after what I’m about to tell you, you’ll still feel the same way.”
“I will. Don’t worry. Whatever it is, we can work it out together.”
“All right. First, my name is not Chance Davidson. It’s Chance Reddick. And second, just about all the things I told you were complete lies, except for the fact that I grew up on a farm with my grandparents.”
“Okay. It’s pretty obvious that you lived and worked on a farm. Out of all the men that have worked here, you’re the best. You work harder and get more done than any of them ever did.”
“Okay, well, you already know how I came to be here. What I haven’t told you is how I ended up working for Baldizon.”
“Okay, hold on a moment. There’s one other thing I need to know before you go any further. Did you also lie to me whe
n you said that you loved me?”
“Oh, hell no. Almost from the first day that I came here, something strange started to come over me. Every time I saw you, I felt a burning desire to hold you close to me. That was why I always got up so early and started working before the sun came up, and why I always worked so late and went straight to bed. I didn’t want to fall in love with you, and I sure as hell didn’t want you to fall in love with me. I couldn’t imagine the problems that would bring, but that Saturday night, when I first kissed you, I realized just how much I was in love with you. I’ve been here over two months and nothing has happened. Maybe my going to church that day was a good thing, and God is watching out for us.”
“Watching out for us? Chance, what are you talking about?”
He let out a deep sigh. “Gabriella, you knew that Baldizon sent me out here. But I didn’t tell you what my job really was.”
“You mentioned the cartel when you were delirious. Is that who you’re running from?”
He made a face. “Yes, in a way. It’s a little worse than that, but that’s in there.”
“But what did you do? Why are they after you?”
Chance took a deep breath. “I don’t know that they’re actually after me, yet,” he said, “but they probably will be soon. You see, as far as they’re concerned, I failed to do the job they sent me out here to do.”
Her eyes went wide. “I don’t understand. What job is that?”
“Well, first you need to know some background. You see, I had this adorable younger sister. Her name was Robin, and she was dating a boy whose father was involved with the cartel. A rival faction in the cartel decided to kill that boy, but they did it while my sister was with him. She died, too—and I became the hand of justice.”
“So, what did you do?” she asked. She was suddenly finding herself excited at the story he was telling.
“To make a long story short, I managed to track down the men who did it,” he said. “And I killed them.”
Her eyes went wide. “You killed them? You killed cartel members?”
“Yes. As I said, it was a rival faction from the one Baldizon runs. He even sent one of his men to show me where to find them, but after I did it, then he was impressed with me, I guess. After it was over, he offered me a job.”