by Jenna Brandt
“Certainly,” he said, shuffling over to the light switch by the door and flicking it off.
The only light left was from the soft glow of the lamp on the table by the bed. Naomi knew she needed to turn it out, but when she did, she wouldn’t be able to make out Emmett’s figure any longer. Part of her hated the idea of not seeing him anymore.
“Do you need the light still?” she inquired, part of her hoping he would say yes.
He laid back on the hotel floor, and she watched him place his arms behind his head before he said, “No, I’m ready to turn in for the night.”
Naomi forced herself to reach up and turn the light out, glancing a final time at Emmett before committing to the action. In the darkness, she wondered what he was doing and thinking. Her mind was racing with many thoughts about what happened through the day and what it meant for her future. Yet, even though she was facing many unknowns and should be focused on dealing with them, Emmett continued to drift to the forefront of her thoughts. No matter how hard she tried, the rugged Texas Ranger kept captivating her attention.
“Goodnight, Naomi,” she heard Emmett’s deep voice say from out of the darkness.
“Goodnight, Emmett,” she whispered, as she closed her eyes and tried to silently pray for God to help her with all that was going on in her uncertain life.
Eleven
Everyone had their assignments and knew exactly what they were supposed to do. Still, Emmett knew that any good operation could go terribly wrong even with the best of information.
Emmett had to force himself not to fidget or draw attention to himself as he sat in one of the seats towards the front of the train. The anxiety in the pit of his stomach was higher than normal because of his previous failure. He didn’t want that to happen again.
“You ready for this, boss?” Moses leaned forward from the seat behind Emmett and asked in a whisper.
“Yes, we’ll catch them this time,” Emmett stated, trying to assure himself as much as Moses.
“I’m still surprised you brought her along,” Moses said, gesturing to Naomi on the other side of Emmett.
“Her presence might cause them to make a mistake which could give us valuable time to stop them,” Emmett explained, avoiding adding the part that he didn’t want to let Naomi out of his sight. Not only for professional reasons because a small part of him wondered if she would try to escape, but because a much larger part enjoyed keeping her near him.
“Whatever you say, boss. You’re runnin’ things around here,” Moses conceded with a shrug. “I’m mighty glad though we have two deputies with us this time around. Not that the rest of the posse wasn’t great, but Jake and Levi really seem to know how to handle themselves.”
“Agreed,” Emmett stated with a nod. “They are a huge asset to the team. I feel completely comfortable having them cover the other two sections of the train with Jesse and Gunder.”
“What if they don’t show, boss?” Moses inquired with concern. “What do we do then?”
Emmett had been wondering the same thing himself. This was his first assignment being in charge. The idea of not resolving it favorably for the rangers didn’t set well with Emmett.
“We’ll do whatever it takes to get the job done,” Emmett vowed.
Just then, the train shuddered and quickly stopped. There were murmurs and grumbling around them as the passengers complained that this would delay arrival times.
“I think I hear something,” Naomi whispered, glancing from side to side with a worried look on her face.
“What is it, Naomi?” Emmett asked, slowly looking around the train car to see if anything looked amiss.
“There, there it is again,” she said in a more frantic tone. “I definitely heard it this time. It sounds like a stampede.”
Emmett leaned across Naomi and pulled up the shade that covered the window. Sure enough, outside there were tons of cows and horses rushing around the entire train.
“What on earth was going on?” Emmett wondered out loud.
Moses peered out his own window. “Are those animals from the pens at the end of the train?”
“I think so,” Emmett confirmed, “But what are they doing out? And more importantly, who let them out?”
Naomi’s eyes narrowed. “I think this might be a distraction from what’s really going on. I think the Beckett Gang might be robbing the train as we speak. With all this noise and chaos, no one would know it was happening.”
“Is this something they did before and you’re remembering it?” Emmett probed.
“No, I’m not basing this off memory, but it makes the most sense,” Naomi stated with certainty. “We best make our way to the area where they are holding the deposits, if it’s not already too late.”
Emmett nodded, then stood to his feet, pulling Naomi up beside him. The group moved down the center of the train, each of them keeping their eyes peeled for commotion or anything out of place.
As they reached the third train car, yelling could be heard from the other side of the door. Emmett ducked down, keeping his presence secret as he peered over the edge of the window frame into the other car.
Inside, the other four members of their posse were yelling at three men who fit the descriptions of members from the Beckett Gang. The entire group had their guns drawn and pointed at each other. It was obvious they were at a standoff.
Emmett debated what to do. If he burst in, he could create a firestorm, but if he did nothing, the bandits stood a chance of getting away. Neither of the options appealed to Emmett.
Before he could decide, Naomi pulled free from his grasp and pushed past him, then through the door into the other train car.
Twelve
All the men’s guns turned and pointed at Naomi.
“Whoa, what’s going on here?” Naomi asked in pretend- naïveté.
When she had dashed onto the other train car, her intention was to help Emmett. Now, as she stared down the barrel of several guns, she was regretting her hasty decision.
“What in blazes are you doing here, Naomi?” one of the men yelled at her. “We thought you were dead.”
“Well, I’m not, but if you don’t all lower those guns of yours, I might end up that way really quickly,” she chastised.
“Are you working with these lawmen now?” the man asked with visible anger on his face. “It’s bad enough, I found out you’re a bounty hunter, but I wouldn’t think you would sink low enough to work with their type.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she snapped, crossing her arms with her own anger rising to the surface. “Thanks to whatever happened on the train yesterday, I lost my memory.”
“Is that right? Well, maybe there is some justice in this world after all,” the man stated with a wicked grin. “If only I could wipe my memory of you that easily. Did you convince them not to throw your backside in jail the same way you convinced me to let you tag along on one of our jobs before you met the main boss?” the man jabbed at her. “As I remember correctly, you’re very, very good at convincing men to do what you want, Naomi.”
As the man said her name, a sudden rush of memories came tumbling back, slamming into her mind like a pile of bricks. The man standing in front of her was Gus Thurlow, and they had been romantically involved. Her name wasn’t Naomi Rutherford; that was the name she used with the Beckett Gang while working at the Lucky Shoe Saloon. Her real name was Sue Forester, and she was part of a bounty hunter partnership with her uncle, Clyde Forester. He had taken her under his wing when her parents died a year ago, promising that she could make a life for herself bounty hunting.
Without warning, the memory from the previous day on the train pulled her back into the past.
Sue was nervous. She wasn’t sure how she let her uncle talk her into going along with the gang on the robbery. Actually, that wasn’t true. She knew exactly how he convinced her. With a promise of money; enough money that she could quit bounty hunting and open a dress shop of her own—the drea
m she had since she was a little girl.
The payday to apprehend and turn Bill Beckett over for his bounty was high enough to grant Sue her biggest dreams. The one hiccup, no one had ever gotten close enough to collect the bounty. The man trusted no one, let alone new people. He made potential gang members prove themselves before they were deemed deserving of meeting the head of the gang.
Once she did this one job with them, they would take her to Beckett and she would have his location. Her uncle insisted this was the only way for them to get the bounty.
“When we get on that train, Naomi, act natural. You’re simply there to be our eyes and ears,” Gus Thurlow stated with a charming smile. “We’ve done this dozens of times, so this will be a piece of cake.”
Not feeling the same ease the seasoned outlaw was showing, Sue asked “What if something goes wrong?”
“Sweetie pie, you worry too much. Let ol’ Gus do all the thinking for you. I’ve got this,” he said with a wink. “Oh, here, and take this.”
“What’s in it?” Sue probed, glancing down at the small tapestry travel bag he had thrust into her hands.
He patted her hands one final time before they both boarded the train. “It’s insurance, just in case,” he whispered as he showed her to her seat and took off for another part of the train.
The plan was for Gus to let the rest of the gang on the train once they stopped it further down the tracks. There was nothing worthy of the gang’s attention in the passenger area; they were focused on the mining deposit that was on board. They robbed trains quickly, by focusing on one big payday rather than what each individual on the train possessed. There was far less chance of getting caught that way. Bill was the one who not only came up with the strategy but also had acquired inside men at the train depots who told him when deposits were being delivered. It was a shrewd and calculated system, which made the Beckett Gang one of the best train robbery gangs in the West.
Casually as she could, Sue glanced around the train. Though she wasn’t really working for the gang, she didn’t want Gus to think she wasn’t doing what he told her. At any point, if he got suspicious of her, he could end their contact, or worse hurt her. She would be left in the lurch without the payday this bounty promised. She had compromised too much by working at the saloon and being with Gus to not get the money she needed to stop doing the work she hated.
A handsome, well-built man with blondish brown hair that came to the bottom of his neck was staring at her. His penetrating green eyes made her want to flinch under the scrutiny, but she knew better. He seemed to inspect her, almost as if he recognized her in some way. Quickly, she averted her eyes, not wanting him to see the worry in them.
Did he know she was a bounty hunter? Worse, did he suspect she was part of the Beckett Gang? She wasn’t sure how he would know since she had only been spending time with the gang for a few weeks. Still something was definitely amiss with the stranger.
Suddenly, the train brakes squealed, and the train shuddered to a stop. Sue instantly knew that the robbery was about to take place, and she forced herself to remain calm. Getting frantic wouldn’t do her any good. She needed to stay aware of what was going on around her.
The handsome man went sprinting by her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something metal glinting from his chest, and dread took root in her heart as she realized what she noticed was a Texas Ranger silver star. The man who had been eye-balling her was a lawman.
Her uncle had trained her to avoid all lawmen. Bounty hunters and the law mostly stayed clear of one another. The most effective bounty hunters didn’t exactly work within the black and white of the world, but operated in the shades of grey almost exclusively. It was one reason she hated bounty hunting so much. Her parents had raised her to be a law-abiding, God-fearing woman, and the life her uncle lived was the exact opposite of that. He did whatever it took to capture a bounty, dead or alive, and to collect his payday. She wanted this to be her last job, so she could start a life her parents could be proud of her having.
Shouting could be heard from further down the train, and Naomi debated what to do. Should she get involved? Stay quiet? Try to help them so she didn’t lose her chance to find out where Bill Beckett was located?
Perhaps something in the bag could help her decide what to do. She pulled open the top and looked inside. Immediately, she gasped at what she saw. Dynamite and charging caps were inside; enough to bring the whole train down if Gus wanted. Even if it meant losing her bounty, there was no way she would let him get away with setting this off on the train. She couldn’t endanger the hundreds of innocent people on the train.
Sue jumped to her feet and rushed down the aisle. She needed to find the train conductor and explain what was going on. Hopefully, he would know what to do.
As she moved through the train, the shouting got louder. Just as she was entering the train car where four yelling men had guns pulled on each other, the handsome man from earlier brushed past her. He looked at her for a moment and their eyes locked. She inhaled sharply, expecting him to arrest her on the spot. Instead, he waffled for a moment, then continued on his way.
She let out the breath she had been holding, relieved she wouldn’t be detained from warning the train conductor what the gang had planned. Even if she turned herself in and gave the dynamite to the Ranger, there was no guarantee Gus didn’t have more stashed with one of the other gang members. It was more important she tell the conductor, and figure out a way to get the passengers off the train.
Sue reached the front of the train. The engine room was locked, but it didn’t keep her from pounding on the outside. “Hello, is anyone in there? This is an emergency. I must talk to the conductor immediately.”
There was only silence from the other side. Had he fled the area? Was he hurt? Not wanting to give up, she pounded some more, yelling, “We need to get all the passengers off right now. The gang plans to blow up this train with dynamite.”
A man with a worried expression came into view. He moved forward and asked through the door, “How do you know all of this?”
“I’m a bounty hunter, and I’ve been working to take the gang into custody. Trust me, I know what I’m talking about,” Sue assured the man. “There’s also Texas Rangers on the train. I think they’re here to capture the gang as well.”
“How do I know you’re telling the truth about the dynamite?” the man asked from the other side of the door.
“I can show you. I have some of the dynamite in this bag,” Sue stated, lifting it up so he could see it through the window.
A few seconds later, the door clicked, and he opened it. “I’ve had my train robbed before, but never encountered robbers willing to use dynamite on innocent people.”
Sue nodded. “I had no idea they would do such a thing either. It’s why I’m coming to you to figure out what we can do. Even though I could lose my bounty over this, I can’t let innocent people die for it.”
“That makes you a good person, miss,” he said with gratitude in his eyes. Then glancing down at the bag, he suggested, “If that’s all the dynamite, we could get rid of it before they have a chance to use it.”
“That’s the problem, I’m not sure if this is all of it.”
“Oh, it is, Naomi, I assure you,” she heard Gus say from behind her. “And I’ll be taking it right now.”
He grabbed the bag from her, his eyes narrowed into angry slits. “I thought we had something special. Now I come to find out you’re nothin’ but a downright dirty bounty hunter, no better than a stinkin’ lawman.”
Though he was trying to insult her, he was doing the opposite. She was glad he didn’t like what she was doing. If he approved, what would it speak of her character?
The look of rage in his eyes scared her though. She could tell he wanted to throttle her, and there was no way she was sticking around to let that happen. Trying to get away from him, she rushed towards the door that led back towards the passenger cars.
“No, you d
on’t, you’re not getting away from me that easy,” Gus said with a menacing tone, as he chased after her and grabbed her by the arm.
He spun her around, stopping her just shy of the door. Trying to distract him, she glanced down and noticed his other hand wasn’t empty.
“I can see by the bags in your hand, you got your deposit. You have what you came for, why don’t you be on your way then,” Sue suggested.
“You can bet your sweet, little bottom we will be, but we need a distraction first. This dynamite will create just enough distraction to let us all slip away. Now that I know we have not only Texas Rangers on our trail, but bounty hunters as well, we need all the help we can get.” Pointing his gun directly at her, Gus added, “But you won’t be around to see any of it.”
“Oh, no you don’t,” she heard the train conductor yell as he tried to knock the gun from Gus’ hand. “You won’t be shooting a woman in my presence.”
Gus and the conductor fought over the gun for a few minutes, but Gus was younger and in better shape. He came out still holding the gun, and the conductor received a bullet for his trouble. The conductor slumped to the ground, moaning.
Sue’s shocked eyes darted to the man on the ground, then over at Gus. “Why did you have to go and do that? He didn’t deserve that.”
“Anyone who would defend a tramp like you deserves far worse,” he whispered, reaching out and pulling her towards him. “I honestly thought we had something pretty special, Naomi.”
This time, her eyes narrowed into angry slits as she stared up at him. “You’re rather mistaken if you think that. That’s not even my real name,” she spat out, just as she slammed her knee into his groin, causing him to drop his gun and double over in pain.
She jumped back, then tried to dart away from him. Even amidst his pain, he reached out and grabbed her leg, stopping her from fleeing.
“You’ll regret that,” he said with seething rage. “In fact, you’ll regret every decision you ever made when it comes to me.”