by Nancy Howard
“Did you see him go down,” she asks?
“Yeah, I did. Hogg and his monsters had us pinned down so badly we couldn't get to him, and get him to safety. So he laid there and lost a lot of blood.”
“The sheriff?”
“Dead. He got hit at the same time Gavin went down. They also killed Henry Baker and that poor bank teller Josh, and one of the deputies. I know Bill Chatfield wasn't there, I don't know where he is. Before I got hit, me and the other deputy killed two of them, the half-breed and that Eli Demp.”
“So, there's three of them still here, alive.”
“Yes, when the shootin' stopped, I was scrambling along with some of the townsfolk to get here to the doc's office. A couple of the men grabbed Gavin at about the same time, and brought him in here.”
“Where's that other deputy? You know where he is?”
“No, Logan, I don't. Word has it he got on his horse and left town, in a hurry.”
“Did you happen to see who actually shot, Gavin.”
“It was Hogg, for sure. He's a one man killin' machine, Logan. He makes Duke Wymer look like a saint.”
Logan hears that, and she knows Wymer was no saint.
“What are you gonna do, Logan?” Catherine asks her, fearfully.
“Do what I can to stop em. I guess, I have, too.”
Then John grabs her by her arm, and pulls her up to him, “don't you go off, and get yourself killed, girl.” Catherine and I love you, you have a family now, you know.”
“I know that, I love you guys, too, and I’ll do what I can not get killed.” She says to him, squeezing his hand tightly. “And that's why I have to do this. It's this family, and town, I have to defend today.” Then she turns to Catherine who is crying, and the two women hug each other tightly.
“Don't do this, Logan. For God's sake! Please!" Catherine, pleads with her.
“I'll be okay, I know how to do this. Remember?” She says, looking at the woman who is now a mother to her.
The store keeper and several other men are there in the doorway, rifles in hand, one of the men says, “let us help you, Logan.”
“Not right now, I know what I'm doing. Besides, if I go down it'll be up to you guys to do this. There's no sense in you all getting killed right now, especially with me here. That bastard Hogg has nearly killed my Gavin, and shot John, and now I'm gonna kill him,” She says, clenching her teeth. The tears are gone now. “Do you know where they are?”
“The saloon,” one man says.
“I’ll take care of this,” She says. She kisses John and Catherine and leaves the room and the doc's office, before anyone can stop her.
“John stop her! Please!” Catherine pleads, loudly. Then she just sets back down in the chair, not knowing what to do. With her hands over her face, she starts to cry, fearing the worst, that Logan will be killed.
“Logan!” John yells after her. "Damn stubborn girl." He comments, half audible, knowing that she's just like him.
It's too late for Logan to hear him she’s already gone out the door.
After she's gone John motions the men standing in the hallway, to come in.
“What do you want us to do John,” the storekeeper asks?
“Listen I want you boys to follow her, and back her up”
“But John she said...,” one man puts in.
“I know, I heard her, and never mind what she said. Catherine and I have lost two girls in our lifetime. We don't want to lose her, too. I don't want her to get killed, if it can be avoided. So I want you boys to go out the back, go behind the buildings, and get in position in the stores behind her across from the saloon, and give her cover. Now go.”
The men quickly left, going out the back of Doc Burroughs office, and begin making their way behind the buildings to help Logan.
LOGAN EXITS THE DOCTOR's office and stops momentarily on the walkway. She looks up the street toward the saloon, before she begins her walk down Front Street to face Hogg and the remnants of his gang. Everyone in town is watching her. Over the past several months they have come to know her as Miss Logan, the young woman entrusted by John to run Sanderson’s Hill Ranch. She and Gavin Sloan, and their love affair, are an item, the talk of the town and area. The townsfolk though, seems to have all but forgotten that she's a bounty hunter, and this is what she can still do. Go after those who do harm to others, even if it means doing it alone. Even if it means getting hurt or even killed herself. This has happened today. Hogg and his gang have harmed those who mean the most to Logan. And she is putting herself in harm's way, to avenge what Hogg has done to Gavin, to John, and to the town.
She remembers as she walks the night he rode into her campsite, and they decided to go after Hogg together. She remembers telling him after he decided to take the job at Sanderson's Hill they didn't want one of them going after Hogg, alone, and get killed doing it. Logan told Gavin it was her last bounty. And now those words rings loud and true to her. She is alone, facing Hogg. Something that neither of them wanted to do.
Logan knows how difficult this will be. She knows Hogg and his gang are the worst killers she's ever faced. She must survive for Gavin, John, and Catherine. But she must also kill Bailey Hogg. As she walks, she pulls her gun out of its holster one more time, and spins the chamber checking to make sure it is fully loaded. Then she spins it back into the holster in one motion, without stopping. Logan though is totally unaware, that she is not alone in this fight, that she has help.
Approaching the area of the saloon Logan stops momentarily, and decides to look for cover from danger. She knows they see her, but haven’t started shooting at her yet, biding her time to find cover. Hogg has watched her walk toward him since she came into his view. He is peering over the swinging doors. Charlie Demp and Doak Walker, are watching her, too, from the windows of the saloon. She races to take cover behind a column next to the jail and across from the saloon.
“Who ya reckon she is, Bailey,” Charlie asks?
“Don't know. They's one way to find out.”
Hogg yells out to, Logan, “Who are ya? Woman.”
Logan is safely behind the wooden column now, and yells back, “Logan Kincaid. You, Bailey Hogg?”
“Yeah, one in the same.”
Then Doak says to Bailey, “Logan Kincaid. We hear'd that name when we was down by Lass Cruces sometimes ago. Member Bailey? She's a bounty hunter. I remember folks sayin' she's faster’n shit, with that gun she's wearin'.”
“Is zat' so,” Hogg responds, gruffly with a sneer. Then he turns his attention back to Logan. “Whatta ya want?”
“I want you and your boys to put your guns down and come out and surrender, but I know you won't do that.”
“You got that right. Now how bout I tell you somethin'? I'm gonna kill your ass, Logan Kincaid. I'm gonna blow your pretty little head clean off.” Then he looks at the other two, nods to them and raises his rifle and the three of them start shooting at her, relentlessly.
Logan tries to return their fire, but they have her badly pinned down behind the column. They're all shooting at her at the same time, bullets are flying everywhere all around her. It's all she can do to keep from getting hit and killed.
Then all of a sudden Logan hears the glass breaking in the store windows behind her. And then a barrage of rifle fire erupts from a half dozen rifles. This causes Hogg, Doak, and Charlie to stop shooting and take cover themselves. It's the towns people doing the shooting, and who have come to help Logan, per John's instructions. They're now giving Logan much needed protection.
Logan hears this and sees that Hogg, Charlie and Doak have quit shooting. She decides to move closer. She fires her gun two times as she quickly runs across the street, and gets down behind a horse trough in front of the saloon for cover.
Meanwhile, inside the saloon Hogg watches as Charlie and Doak get killed by the rifle fire from across the street. So he grabs the bags of money they stole, and readies to make a run for it.
Logan is about to charge u
p to the saloon, when the swinging doors burst open. Hogg emerges his gun firing away, as he tries to escape. Logan pops up from behind the horse trough. Surprising him. He sees her, but it's too late. She fires two quick shots. One hits him in the stomach and the other one hits him in his upper chest. He's not dead, but he's down and gravely hurt.
Logan walks slowly and carefully up onto the walkway, her gun pointed directly at Hogg. She's not sure if he's dead. All the shooting has stopped. The townspeople are now coming out on to the street, so are John and Catherine. But they all stop when they see Logan standing directly over Hogg. Her six gun pointed straight down at his head.
Laying there choking on blood, he knows he's not going to survive. So he chides Logan, “Go ahead, you fuckin’ little bitch, pull the trigger,” he says. “I'm bettin', you ain't got the guts to do it.”
“You want a fucking bet, Hogg,” she says, glaring down at him—teeth clenched. “You've nearly killed the people that I love and that mean the most to me, and now I'm gonna execute you for it, Hogg. The same way you’ve killed so many innocent people.”
Hogg lays there helpless as he hears a click and a pop, watching her squeeze the trigger, putting a bullet right between his eyes, and killing him instantly.
Seconds later Logan looks up the street and sees Catherine running toward her, as fast as she can, followed by John. They emerged from the doc’s office when they heard the shooting stop.
When she gets to Logan, she leaps into her grasp, as she and the girl embrace and hug each other tightly, “Oh thank God! Thank God! You're alright," She exclaims!
Logan manages a slight smile at her, and says, “I am. I'm okay.”
Just then John gets there and hugs Logan, too. Then they break the embrace.
Logan looks at, John, and says, "you told them to come and help me, didn't you?"
"I did. Girl I wasn't about to let you get yourself killed, if I could help it. You mean too much to me and Catherine now."
Logan shakes her head, she knows this, and says, "Thank you. I'm glad you did it."
Then Logan turns and thanks all of the townspeople for helping her, they're all now gathered around her and the Sanderson's.
Logan did this, because she figured she had to protect the town from Hogg, and defend her family. That she was the only one left to do that, or so she thought. She found that was not true today, as the townsfolk came out in force to help her. Something she is thankful for, because without their help she knows she would not have survived.
She doesn't want to be a bounty hunter ever again, and she's made that clear over the past several months. She has the life now that she has always desired. She has stability, love and respect, along with two wonderful people who are now for all intents and purposes Logan's family, and parents to her. John and Catherine Sanderson.
Now she must concentrate on Gavin. She doesn't know what she will do, if he dies, and she doesn’t even want to think about that happening.
24
A week has passed since the shooting with Hogg and his gang happened, as Folsom grapples with trying to get back to normal. Gavin has survived, but has not regained consciousness. He's still in a coma and the doc has told Logan he doesn't know when, or if, he’ll wake up. She sets patiently by his bedside this evening, something she's done every evening since the shooting.
John is at home with Catherine, and recovering and getting better.
Logan now finds herself coming and going, not getting much sleep at all. She's exhausted. She's working full time running Sanderson's Hill, then she makes the forty-five minute ride to Folsom every evening to be with Gavin. She often stays so late that she sleeps on the floor next to his bed, never going home, just as she has done last night.
She's sitting in a chair when Doc Burroughs, who lives upstairs, enters Gavin's room. He pulls the other chair in the room over to her, and sits down, “Logan I want you to know there's been no change in his condition. I just don't know.” he pauses. “I wonder now if he will ever regain consciousness, It's been more than a week.”
“What are you trying to tell me doc?” She asks, with trepidation in her voice.
“Well, what I'm saying is he may stay this way for months on end, Logan. Then he might just pass away, or again, he may still wake up. Like I said, I don't know. He's been through a hell of a lot, and right now the only thing that's keeping him alive, is he's so damn young and strong. But eventually that, too, will not be enough to keep him alive. So, what I will say to you, and you can do as you like, I know you will anyway. Go home, and if there is any change at all in his condition, in anyway. I'll find Billy Halladay and have him come out to the ranch to get you.”
Logan sets for a second, and shakes her head.
“You're tired girl. You're on empty—running the ranch and then coming in here and staying with him night after night, and not going home and getting proper rest yourself. Look dear, I know how much you love him. Hell the whole town knows that. But Bye-God I'm worried about you, too, just as John and Catherine are. They've told me several times and wanted me to talk to you. You know it ain't doing yourself, or him any good with you settin' here. And you bein' here all the time ain't gonna help one damn bit in making him wake up. Now go home and get some rest Logan, before you keel over. And I have you in here, because you've had a nervous breakdown.
Logan shakes her head okay, choosing not to argue. She’s to tired to do that anyway. She says nothing and gets up and leaves. Going out the door, and mounting Warrior for the long ride home. She knows the doc is right that’s why she didn’t argue with him. She's exhausted. Her tank is running on empty. But it doesn’t help her quell the emptiness she has inside her, that she’s never experienced before. For the first time in Logan's life, she is wrestling with the reality that she may lose someone close to her, and that she loves. She has never cared for anyone the way she does Gavin. She has always loved him, all along, even back when they first started to ride together. And now, just when the two of them seem to be ready to settle down with each other—she may lose him. He may die. He's all she can think about, as she walks to the house. It is eight o’clock in the morning.
She goes inside and John and Catherine are setting at the dining room table, as she enters and sits down.
“Hey,” she says to them softly, pouring herself a cup of coffee that she’s not interested in drinking.
They greet her back.
Catherine says, “Is there any change in, Gavin?”
Logan shakes her head no, “doc says he could stay like this for months. He told me that if there was any change that he'd send Billy out to get me. Said, that there's no use me being there like I have been. He says it ain't gonna make Gavin wake up any sooner.”
She pauses with her head down. She’s completely exhausted.
John says. “You're dog tired, girl. You're not eatin’ at all. Catherine and I are worried sick about you. You been keepin' up your duties of running this ranch, and then every night for the past eight days, you've gone into town and set with Gavin all night.”
Logan sighs. “Yeah, Doc told me to come home and get some rest. He told me that you both have told him that you're worried about me, and you wanted him to talk to me.”
”Catherine says, “We’re very worried about you, Logan. Somewhere along the line you've got to stop and take care of you. We want you to do that.”
“I will, I promise. But I have to make sure the round-up gets done, not to mention a cattle drive,” she pauses.
“Well, Brock and I will take care of driving the cows to Abilene, so you don't worry about that.”
“You sure John, cause I was planning on going myself.”
“No. You're gonna be needed here,” he says. “Sides I was planning on telling you I'm gonna do it anyway. You got enough on your plate, with Gavin and all. If you did go your mind wouldn't be out there anyway, it'd be on him. That would be very dangerous for you. You have to be alert on a cattle drive, one hundred percent of the time, cause
cows can be damned unpredictable.”
Logan chuckles slightly at what he said, she is quiet. She just stares down at her coffee, still not really interested in drinking it.
Then she looks at Catherine, starting to cry. “What am I gonna do if he dies?”
Catherine gets up and goes over to her and hugs her tightly, and John gets up and goes over to her, too. Logan is now crying.
He puts his hand on her shoulder, and says, “try not to worry. I know that's not what you want to hear right now, but it's about all you can do at this point, Missy.”
Then Catherine says, “yes Logan, and remember we're here with you.”
“I know that,” she says, as the tears subside.
Then John goes back and takes a final drink from his coffee cup and says, “not change the subject, but Cath and I are goin' into town. We got an appointment with Jordan Whiles.”
“The attorney?” Logan says wiping away left over tears.
“Yes, he's been working on the changes we're making to our wills, and some other legal papers for us. When we get back home this afternoon, we will want you to look over the legal papers, and tell us what you think and we’ll discuss them with you. That is Logan if you feel up to it.”
“I will. Anything important?”
“Yes, it is, Logan, it's very important to us,” Catherine says. “We'll fill you in when we get back.” Then both of them hug her and kiss her on the top of her head again, as they leave the room.
Catherine says, “Love you.” As she hugs Logan, once more.
“Yeah, I love you guys, too.” Logan says back, and turns around to watch them go out the door. Wondering what they're up to.
THAT AFTERNOON LOGAN is down at the barn with George and Timmins as she tries to stay busy, and keep her mind off of Gavin as best as she can. They're stocking the chuck wagon for the cattle drive. She's going over a list of provisions for the drive, which is to start on the day after tomorrow. She’s making sure that there is enough food and provisions for the trip until they reach the first stop. After that it will be John's job to make sure the cowhands are well provided for.