Free Wildfire Creek by Shirleen Davies Page B

face.
    “Good. I’m glad to hear it.” He held her gaze a couple more seconds until she smiled at him, then he turned to head home. Luke didn’t understand why a friendship with Ginny seemed so important to him, but it did. He thought of her on the ride home, glad he’d approached her and grateful for the response. Now his life could get back on track—new home, work he enjoyed, and a friendship he valued.

    “What are you thinking, Rick?” Flatnose asked as they sat on the porch, deciding their next move. They’d stolen three gold wagons over several weeks, stashing the gold in a location no one would ever find. The fact the gang had killed a couple men on the last raid didn’t bother him as much as it did Rick. His partner had warned him several times there would be no killing and to keep his bullets in his gun. He’d followed Rick’s orders the first two attacks. On the third, movement from one man triggered a deadly response. Something about sending a man to his grave was more temptation than Flatnose could resist. It sent a thrill through his body, even if it did incur Rick’s anger.
    “Another wagon is supposed to move within the week. Lansdon to Big Pine. I want to take it, then lay low awhile.” Rick lit a rolled cigarette and inhaled deeply.
    “The same guy who told us about the last shipment?”
    Rick nodded. “He mentioned it when I went to Lansdon this morning.”
    “How many men will we need?”
    “The ones here will do.” Rick flicked the end of his cigarette onto the dirt. “He expects this one to have two additional armed guards.”
    “Six?”
    “That’s what he says.” It had been a good decision to plant his own man in the mining town of Lansdon. He didn’t just hear about shipments from the local mines, but also news of other transports from camps miles away. As a precaution, he hadn’t shared the man’s identity with his partner.
    Until this morning, Rick had been thinking of laying low, maybe leaving the area until spring. They’d stashed away enough gold to make them all rich. Each man could start over someplace far away from the Montana Territory where no one would connect them to the robberies or deaths of the two guards—killings that still weighed heavily on Rick.
    He’d met a lady, a widow who lived near Big Pine. It was at least an hour’s journey, but she was worth it. The information he’d been given today had him reconsidering. One more job, then he’d get a place near Big Pine so he wouldn’t have to ride so far to see her.
    It’d been years since his wife and son were gunned down by that posse in Nebraska. The sheriff had thought Rick belonged to an outlaw group who’d terrorized the local area, stealing and killing at will. At the time, he’d been trying to carve out a living like everyone else. He knew a couple of boys in the gang, but had refused to take part.
    The ten man posse had ridden in, ignoring the commands of the sheriff to stop shooting. Rick shouted at his wife to stay put, but she’d run outside, trying to talk some sense into the sheriff’s men. His eight-year-old son had followed her. When it was over, his family lay dead and he’d been arrested.
    The trial would have been a farce, except the killing of a woman and child didn’t sit well with the inhabitants of this God-fearing town. A group of them hired a lawyer to defend him. Rick had been acquitted and released with an apology. He’d thanked his neighbors, taking their condolences with the good intentions that were meant. Yet his future had changed. It now stretched before him like the desolate, parched earth of his miserable farm. That day he made his choice and, except for a brief stint as a lawman, he’d followed a path outside the law ever since. The one man keeping him from making a final decision to move to Big Pine was the sheriff—Parker Sterling. The man had a reputation for sniffing out those who broke the law, making them pay. Rick had no intention of being one of his