Free Man From Boot Hill by Marcus Galloway Page A

falls on your shoulders.”
    He nodded but didn’t look at her.
    “They found what they were after and left,” Catherine said. “They almost killed him with that shot to his head, so there’s no reason for them to come back.”
    “You’re right. Joseph and his boy are both damn lucky to have survived that night. After that, they should be able to pull through just about anything.”
    “So would you mind if I brought the doctor over here tomorrow?”
    “Give it a few more days,” Nick replied. “Something tells me we should wait until we know those men are long gone. I’ll feel much better once I go and have a word with the sheriff. After that, I should be able to figure out if he knew about what was headed for that ranch.”
    “Why would Sheriff Stilson be in on a thing like that?”
    Nick laughed under his breath. “You’d be surprised. I don’t know how, but things could get worse if we’re not careful.”
    “You’re worrying so much,” Catherine whispered into his ear. “I haven’t even seen you for more than an hour or two at a stretch since you brought those two back here. Little Sammy even missed you.”
    That brought a grin to Nick’s face. “You should have seen how he latched onto me when I found him. I thought he might tear my leg off.” His grin quickly faded as his eyes narrowed into fiery slits. “I should have stopped this before that boy lost his mother and sister. Before Joseph lost his daughter and wife.”
    Catherine glared at him with an intensity in her eyes that brought Nick back from the dark place he was headed. “You did the best you could, Nick. You risked your life to save those two. What happened wasn’t your fault, so stop griping about it. In fact, you did more than anyone else around here.”
    “I only hope it was enough.”

ELEVEN
    Nick rode into town the next day earlier than usual. The sky was still dark, but it was so close to dawn that he could feel it in the air. After arriving at his shop, he unhitched Kazys and filled the horse’s trough. From there, it was a series of little tasks that were so engrained in him that he barely even had to think to do them. That was a good thing, because there were plenty of other matters to occupy his mind.
    First and foremost, he struggled with the notion of opening his parlor while wearing a gun under his long black jacket. The holster was as weathered as his own skin and moved like a part of his body with every step. And even though he’d worn that gun for the last several years, he felt its weight now more than ever.
    Oddly enough, Catherine hadn’t been the one to get him to stop wearing the gun during business hours. After everything they’d been through together, she took comfort from knowing he wasn’t at anyone’s mercy just on account of pleasing a fewcustomers. Nick saw the move to California as a fresh start in more ways than one. Earnestly plying his trade instead of hiding behind it was just the beginning.
    Nick pulled open the curtains of his front window, straightened his display and took a vase from its small stand. He placed fresh flowers in it as usual and put it back in its normal spot behind the samples of his carving and masonry work. At that moment, having the gun at his side seemed almost ridiculous.
    Nick looked around the small parlor and made sure it was ready to open. There wasn’t a service planned, so the chairs in the largest of the rooms were not set up and the large rectangular table at the back of the room was empty, apart from a clean white cloth.
    A smaller room filled with glass-topped counters was close to the front entranceway. Nick went in there to dust off the counters and take a quick count of the merchandise inside them. Beneath the glass was a wide variety of wares ranging from picture frames and samples of invitations to small Bibles, each roughly the size of a cigarette case. Nick walked behind a counter, opened it up and removed one of them. He tucked it into an inner pocket