Wolf Dreams
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Chapter Five
~~ Scars ~~
Sarah had taken the reins again and Stranger studied her profile while he bided his time. When the town had disappeared from view behind the hill again he asked her, "Who's Parker?"
She gave him a quick glance before turning her eyes back to the road again.
"I saw you meet him," she said. "I'm surprised he didn't tell you. Usually you can't shut him up when he starts talking about himself."
Stranger grinned fleetingly, "I got that impression. Take it you don't care much for him?"
She suddenly pulled hard on the reins and the horses came to a stop. "I'd like to see him dead," she said. Her voice was very soft, as if she couldn't speak of it aloud.
"What did he do to you, Sarah?" Stranger asked in the same tone of voice.
"He's the one who killed-" her voice suddenly broke and this time she couldn't hold back the tears. She put her hands over her mouth to keep the sobs from slipping out but it was useless.
Stranger felt completely out of his depth. He put a hesitant arm around her shoulders and held on without saying anything. It cut him like sharp slivers of glass, that sound she made as she cried out her pain. He was angry at himself for having spoken at all. To his relief she stopped as suddenly as she had started and took a long trembling breath.
"I'm sorry," she said, looking shocked and exhausted. "I don't know what came over me."
"It's all right," Stranger said quietly as he took the reins and got them moving again.
They were both tired when they got back to the house and neither of them felt like talking more. Instead they ate their supper in silence before they said good night to each other.
The next morning Stranger got up just as the sun rose. Fully awake and dressed he walked into the kitchen and found a pot of hot coffee waiting for him on the stove. He poured himself a cup and went in search of Sarah.
He found her sitting on a stone near the corral, nursing a cup of her own. She smiled when she saw him and looked completely at peace with the world. He smiled in return and sat down beside her.
"The desert outside town," she said as she looked out at her own green grasslands, "-it didn't use to be this large. It's taking over more and more. The wild is creeping closer and closer to town every year."
"Drought?" Stranger asked. She nodded.
"Seven long years of it. Reverend Jordan left us after two years of it, he was convinced that the town had been cursed by God in a biblical way. Maybe he was right, since Parker showed up right about when it all began."
"I'm sorry I upset you yesterday," Stranger said.
"It wasn't your fault," she said. "You have nothing to be sorry about, Stranger."
"Still... I'm sorry," he said and looked down into his coffee to avoid her eyes. But she only sounded resigned, not upset, when she said, "You're gonna ask me about Parker again, aren't you?"
"I think I have to. He made me an offer."
He could feel her body tense beside him. "What did you tell him?"
"That I wasn't interested."
She sighed. "Maybe you'd better listen to him."
"No," Stranger said. "He's got nothing to say that I'd want to hear. I want you to tell me everything you can about him. He wanted you to sign some papers. Why?"
"It's about the river. All the land between here and town get their water from it and the small streams feeding on it. Parker's land is on the other side of town, as far away from here as you can get. The source is somewhere up in the mountains, no one really knows, but this is the land closest to it. "
Stranger understood most of it now. "You own the water rights to this piece of land," he said.
"And Parker can't do a thing about it," she added with some satisfaction. "He's tried, ever since he first came here. He started out with the small holding where his house is now. There were a lot of small farms and homesteads here then. He'd buy the land and water rights to the land bordering his and if someone wouldn't sell he'd go on and try with the next in line. Old man Finn died and his son got so drunk at the funeral that he signed over the water rights for practically nothing. The second Parker got control of it he diverted the stream to go across another piece of his land and cut off the supply to the one remaining piece bordering his land that he hadn't gotten yet. It was just a few days but the cattle needed water and there were newborn calves so both Finn and Lindy had no choice at all but to sell since he controlled the water for both their lands. It was all legal, or so they said. No one could do anything about it. Parker kept on working that way until finally there was just a few of us left. I own both this land and the water rights. He's tried to buy out the people holding lands bordering mine but he can't cut off the water supply anywhere along the way without hurting his own lands since he's at the end of the line. The others all know I'd never do anything to deprive them of water. As long as I'm here they won't sell to him."
"Where did he get all the money to do this?"
"No one's really sure. I think he inherited it. Heard he had an uncle with a gold mine near the coast but that could be just talk."
Stranger sat back and thought about it. Why would someone who had money come out here and start buying up land? There couldn't be much value in it. Did Parker know something no one else did? Future plans for the area? Gold? Something else? He didn't know the man well enough to say yet. Another worrying thought took hold of him.
"So Parker wants you to sign over the water rights to him."
"Something I'll never do. He knows it, but he won't give up. It's a matter of pride now. He starts off charming and polite, but if you don't do what he wants then he starts to pressure you. A little more each time. He owns the land where the town is now, nearly all the houses too."
"Gives him a powerful reason for getting rid of you, Sarah."
"He won't do more than try to talk me into it. Parker is-" she stopped abruptly.
"He's what?"
"He's afraid of me." She looked uncomfortable all of a sudden. "Nearly all of them are, back in town. Except for Doc and a few others. They shun me if they can."
"Why?" Stranger asked, taken by surprise. It was the last thing he had expected to hear.
"I have...," she paused and frowned, as if she didn't know quite how to put it into words. "I have a ... I can see things. I can see when something is about to happen. People have stopped talking to me. I think they're afraid I will look at them and see the way they're going to die. But I can't. It doesn't work that way. It always comes unbidden and I don't even know what I've said to them half the time."
Stranger had a thoughtful look on his face. "Could you always do that?"
There was pain in her voice when she told him, "No. If I had known I would never have let them go that day. We had a cabin up on the mountain then and John wanted to take Benjamin with him and show him some of the things you can find there. I should have gone with them but I didn't. I don't even remember why that was. He promised they'd be back early next morning but they never came. I waited and waited but they never came. I didn't know what to do. When it got to be around noon I went up there and I found- I found-"
She had been speaking rapidly, hardly even drawing breath but her voice was starting to break and he could see her steele herself to continue.
"You don't have to-" Stranger said but she closed her eyes and pressed the words out, almost feverishly.
"I found them. John was dead on the ground. He'd been shot and the cabin was burnt almost to the ground. Inside - inside, there was ... there was no roof and the beams were burning still. Small, dying flames. I saw my baby there. I tried to pull away the timber from my boy and I burned my hands. It didn't hurt at first. I couldn't feel it, not for a long time. But one day my hands suddenly felt as if they were burning still, even though they were healed by then. It's been hurting me ever since."
Her voice died out. He could see tears on her cheeks but it was nothing like the desperate crying he'd seen the day before. Now he thought he knew why it had seemed as if he knew her from the first moment. They were like mirror images where both could see the loss in the other. Her pain was like his own. That recognition and understanding tied them together.
"How old was your boy?" he asked quietly.
"Five years and three months." She smiled through tears. "Months are so important at that age."
"I know," Stranger said. He gently squeezed her right hand, needing to hold on to something living if he was going to be able to tell her anything at all about Adam and Sarah. He needed to tell her, needed to remember them.
"My boy was around the same age when he died. The day I first held him in my arms, I've never been so proud in my life. It was a good life. I used to have a small ranch, it was a bit like this place. Horses. Some cattle. For a time I was happier there than I'd ever been anywhere else. But I made an enemy too, that I didn't know about. And one night I went away to do something and when I came back, all I could find was ashes and death."
"How long ago was this?"
"Nearly five years ago," he said without thinking about it.
Five years. A lifetime. Adam's lifetime.
"Five years is an awful long time, isn't it?" she said. "I lost mine five years ago too."
"Doesn't feel like that long," Stranger said. "Time moves differently when you've lost someone."
"Yes," she agreed. "Yes, it does."
In silence they watched a large crow that was sailing on the wind high above them.
"I never figured myself for a marrying man until I met Sarah," Stranger said.
"What was her last name?" Sarah McKay quickly asked.
"It was -" he broke off. Damn, it was there, just on the tip of his tongue! He shook his head, saying, "I don't know." It was like hearing a whisper he just couldn't quite make out.
She patted his shoulder comfortingly. "You're real close to it now, aren't you?
"Sometimes I think so."
"Tell me more about her. Maybe it'll come to you. Who was she?"
Stranger started to tell her and the words came to him so easy now. He told her things that Sarah had said to him, dreams they'd shared for their son. Things came to him that he hadn't thought about in years and Sarah wasn't just a dream to him any longer, she felt real now. He could see her face clearly in his mind's eye once again and felt ashamed that he could ever have forgotten her.
"Sarah had a light within. It burned strong and calm and it touched everyone who came to know her. I used to call her Sunrise because of it. She made me into a better man, just by letting me be with her. I was a wild one but she gentled me. We fought sometimes but I never doubted that she loved me and I always loved her. I would have done anything for her, I would have died for them. Instead-"
"-they were the ones who died," Sarah McKay finished the sentence when he couldn't. Stranger closed his eyes for a moment, almost overcome by his endless longing for what was gone.
"John was the light of *my* life," she almost whispered. "When he held me sorrow couldn't touch me. But when he was gone I drowned in it. Doc Webster and my sister tried to help me. As soon as she found out she came all the way from Denver to help me when I couldn't use my hands, and she stayed for months but it made no difference. When my son died I died too. There was nothing but sorrow and I couldn't live like that. I waited for day they had died to come again and on that day I went out into the desert, as far as I could go. Then I sat down and waited to be taken home to my family."
It was a strong image, her sitting out there in the sand while the tumbleweeds rolled by and the sun burned, waiting to die. Stranger knew what it was like to wake up in the mornings and have nothing to live for. For every shovel full of dirt he'd dug out of Sarah's and Adam's graves he'd sworn he'd find the one that killed them. For years that had been all he'd lived for.
"What happened?" he asked. What was it that had made her change her mind?
"I fell asleep and when I woke it was near sundown and there was a wolf just sitting there. I waited for it to kill me. I was never afraid, I welcomed it but it just sat there looking at me."
"A wolf? Was it Silver?"
"I thought so at first, it looked something like him, but it was older and bigger and -"
"And?" he encouraged her.
"You're not going to believe me," she said.
"You can tell me," Stranger said. After everything she had told him already he couldn't understand her hesitation.
"It spoke to me," she said slowly and then looked at him closely to gauge his reaction. He got a look of intense concentration on his face like he always did when he tried to recapture a half-remembered memory.
"It spoke to you?" he repeated in a distant voice.
"Yes."
"How?"
"I'm not really sure. It looked at me and I knew what it was saying."
"What did it tell you?"
"That all my tears wouldn't ever bring them back to me again. I should hold them back for my life wasn't over. "
She had to stop and swallow hard before she continued. "The next morning I woke up in the grass near the river. For weeks afterwards I thought it had just been a dream but then I started to see things. I thought it was just daydreams and I seldom could remember quite what they were about until one day I told little Megan to look out for the snakes hiding in the shed. I had seen it so clearly when I looked at her and she was nearly bitten the next day, my warning saved her life. I realized I had gained something the day I met the wolf. It frightened me. It still does.""I spoke to a wolf once," Stranger said. "Up on a mountain in a valley far away. Maybe it was the same one."
"What did it say?" she asked, hanging on his every word.
"Well, that I can't remember." His smile was bitter. "It's hard to piece a life together like this. I want to remember them but most of the time I just see them dead and then I try to forget. They both deserve better than that. They lived. They deserve to be remembered."
"Memories only matter for the living, not the dead," she said. "But that's no comfort."
Silence fell between them again and Stranger thought about his family. Ever since they'd died all he had lived for had been to find the killers. It was the only thing he could think of that might make the guilt he felt disappear. He should have been there. He should have protected them.
He'd thought they'd be safe. Wouldn't make that mistake again. No place was safe.
Stranger looked at Sarah. He thought she was wrong when she said Parker wouldn't do anything. Parker was trouble, he felt it in his bones. "You said Parker was the one that killed your family."
"I think he was behind it but I can't prove it," she said. "I don't know if it was a mistake or not, if he expected it to go that far. Reese is supposed to be his foreman now but he had a different one back then. Henry Wilkins handled all of Parker's business except for the signing of contracts. Parker said he'd been with him up at the house the whole time and the law - well, there's never been much of it out here. Sheriff did nothing. I think Wilkins did it. But I'll never know for sure. He died years ago."
"Died of what?"
"Wilkins went missing one evening and the next day when the sun rose he was found dead right in the middle of Main Street. It was a few days after John died. His throat had been ripped out. Some said it had to be a bear, others said they'd heard wolves howling that night. The story just grew. I was living at Doc's then but I never saw anything of it. He gave me a powder to help me sleep that night. I never even dreamed. At least, not that I can remember."
"Does it feel easier?" he asked. "Knowing that the one who did it is dead?"
"Some," she said somberly. "But not much. What about your family? Do you know who did it?"
"I'm not sure," Stranger said.
He'd seen it in dreams but he hadn't been able to make sense of all the images. There had been a fire, not the one that had killed his family, a different fire. He'd been chasing a black fox, it had lead him to something hidden. Searching, ever searching. Then a fight to the death. And a sense of satisfaction entwined with despair.
Nothing more came to him. "It feels unfinished to me," he said.
A cool wind ruffled through the grass and he turned his face into it, breathing in silence and peace. He could see Sarah do the same beside him. She rubbed away the tear tracks from her skin.
"I haven't cried since the day the wolf talked to me," she said, "not until I met you. You're the first one I've ever told the whole story to."
"I'm honored," Stranger said and it was no lie.
She gave him such a searching and intense look then that it almost made him uneasy.
"When I first met you I thought you were one of Parker's men. But Silver would never have accepted you if that was so. A wolf is a good judge of character. I knew you had to have a good heart."
He looked away. "My heart was buried with Adam," he said quietly.
But she shook her head as she laid her hand lightly against his chest and said to him quite seriously, "No. It's still there."
She took her hand away but he could still feel the warmth of it lingering on his skin. Sarah stood up and picked up the two empty cups. She squinted up at the sun.
"It's past midday, I'd better get us something to eat. I'm going in to town tomorrow morning to get some supplies. Should I get you anything?"
"No. Thank you," Stranger said.
"You're welcome," she said and smiled at him before she left him with just his thoughts for company.
He felt tired. Funny how the wounds on his body hadn't made him feel even half as tired as just talking did. But then he guessed they were different kinds of wounds.
Hearts were always harder to heal. Sometimes they never did.
__________
Parker looked up Main Street and immediately spotted Sarah McKay's wagon, empty and waiting right outside Bell's General Store. So she was back again. And today Stranger wasn't with her.
Parker had waited the whole day before to find out if Stranger would do the smart thing but he obviously didn't know what was good for him. Too much like her. It would be a pleasure to see them both get what they deserved.
Parker strolled over onto the boardwalk and stopped just short of going into the store, choosing instead to just watch through the open door. That McKay woman was standing before the counter and her agitated voice carried out to the street where he could hear it quite clearly.
"But why?" she was saying to the store manager. "I can't pay you right now, you know that. My credit has always been good before."
"Mrs McKay-" the man began gently but then he caught sight of Parker just outside the door and his voice hardened slightly. "Times have changed. I can't afford-"
He never had to finish that sentence for she suddenly realized that he was looking at something behind her and turned around so she could see what it was. When she saw Parker her face paled while her eyes sparkled with anger. She turned her back on him and tried to reason with the store manager one final time.
"Please," she said softly. "I'm asking you. Just one more week."
"I'm sorry, Mrs McKay," the store manager said and she could see a measure of compassion in his eyes but that only made her feel even more humiliated and alone, not less.
Swallowing hard she turned on her heel and walked out of the store, passing by without looking at Parker as if he simply wasn't there.
When she had just settled in the buckboard she found that he had followed her and was standing right beside her now. Before she could do anything he grabbed hold of her reins to keep her from leaving.
"Let go, Parker," she said with disgust seeping into her voice. Parker smiled.
"Now that's a good idea - for you, that is," he said. "You should sign over the water rights and then leave and never come back."
"You'll never get that water," she said with quiet conviction.
"You'd better get out, Mrs McKay, before-" Parker was going to continue but he broke off when he saw her eyes suddenly change and go all strange as if she was no longer quite all there. And then she looked at him and it was as if she could see right through him, down to his very bones. It had to be some trick of the light but her hazel eyes seemed to have taken on a strange amber color and no longer looked human at all, instead they reminded him of wolf-eyes.
Cunning. Ancient. Merciless.
They were watching him now, weighing all that he was against some unknown source of knowledge. Finding him wanting.
"When I leave this town you'll already be lying in your grave," she softly told him. "You'd better get your affairs in order, Mr Parker. You've not got long on this earth."
For a moment he was frozen by the statement and her gaze and the reins slid through his nerveless fingers as he reflexively let go of them. Then she blinked and her eyes looked just as they always had. He blinked too and took an involuntary step backwards as she swiftly commanded the horses to start moving and drove off.
Parker stood in the middle of the street for a while and watched her disappear as he tried to fight down the shivers that wanted to run up and down his spine.
The worst thing about Sarah McKay was that she was nearly always right in her predictions.
But not this time. She couldn't be.
The morning sun had just started to get hot but a cloud seemed to darken the sunlight for a moment and he shivered again. Damn the woman for unsettling him so!
He walked into the saloon, bypassing a thirsty newcomer on the way. Parker gave him a brief glance and a pair of blue eyes glared back at him. The stranger had long hair and he was wearing a strange coat, made of - what was that - some type of skin? Had to be a trapper. Parker instantly dismissed him as no one of importance and sat down at his customary table in the back. Without being asked the barkeep brought over a bottle of the finest and most expensive whiskey to be found for many miles around and poured him a glass.
"Leave the bottle," Parker said without looking up and the barkeep silently went back behind the disk again. Parker's eyes sought out Reese among the few men in the saloon at this time of the day and a plan took form in his mind. He'd been holding back for far too long on account of her being a woman but now the time had come to finally get rid of Sarah McKay. They even had someone to blame it all on. Stranger was the key, he'd have to be dealt with first. The rest would be easy.
The hired gun ambled up to Parker's table as if sensing his thoughts and stood silently, chewing on his toothpick and waiting for orders. Parker finally looked up.
"I need you to get rid of Stranger," he said.
Reese nodded and his toothpick tipped over into the left corner of his mouth as he grinned. His thumb briefly caressed the ten notches carved into the butt of his gun. Ten easy kills, soon to be eleven.
"Consider it done," Reese replied without a doubt in his mind.
Chapter Six
~~ Noon ~~
"I need to finish this," Stranger said as he gave Sarah McKay a careful look. She hadn't been able to fully hide how upset the encounter at the store had made her and he'd drawn the story out of her soon after her unexpectedly early return.
"Stranger-" she started to say but he interrupted her, already knowing what she was about to say.
"It ain't just for you," Stranger assured her, although it mostly was. He knew her well enough by now to be sure that she wouldn't like it if this battle was fought just for her sake. She was gentle and kind and he feared what would happen to her if he had to go away.
There was a new urgency in his soul now. Something was coming, he was sure of that, but he didn't know what it was. Could be good, could be bad, but something was about to change. If, for some reason, he was to leave soon then he needed to be sure that she was cared for. The only way to ensure that was to bring Parker down.
"I don't want to see you hurt again, not over this," she said. He brought his hand up to her brow and rubbed gently with his thumb at the worry lines there until they became smooth and disappeared.
"I can take Reese," Stranger said with confidence. There was no doubt in his mind that he could.
"But it's not just him," Sarah protested. "You're alone against five of Parker's men."
"With Reese gone they'll fold like a house of cards. They're all holding on to his reputation, thinking it'll protect them, but it won't. I've seen him. He's good, but not good enough. And he needs to be gone."
"Just be careful," she told him. "I couldn't bear it if-"
"Sarah," he said gently and embraced her. On an impulse he raised her chin so he could kiss her.
Their lips barely touched but it was the sweetest of kisses. Brief, soft and gentle. It was meant to comfort and it did. Sarah lowered her head so she could rest it against Stranger's chest and listen to his steadily beating heart.
"Don't make promises," she whispered. They both knew how empty those could be.
"I'll be careful," he said, regardless.
"Just be who you are, Stranger," she told him as she let go.
Watching from the window she could see him sit straight in the saddle. It was written in every proud line of the back that was turned towards her, he would never give in, no matter what the consequences to himself. She closed her eyes as soon as he disappeared from view and told herself that he would be all right.
Sarah breathed in deeply and opened her senses, trying to see what would happen. She'd never done that deliberately before, never tried to see for herself, never called on her unwanted gift. But she did it now.
At first it was all just a grey mist that wouldn't scatter but then she could see movement and there was the figure of a man walking towards her in the distance. She couldn't see him clearly but she was sure that she had never seen him before. He seemed young, with long brown hair that moved around his head as the wind twisted it, obscuring his face. All she had time to see was a flash of blue eyes, then the man blinked out of existence and instead she was looking at a pack of howling wolves that were running straight at her. The image splintered into a thousand gleaming shards of unbearably white light and with a desperate effort she wrenched herself free from the vision.
Sarah sank down to the floor and curled in on herself. Her head was pounding and she could see nothing more. But she still felt it, in the pit of her stomach, a small knot of apprehension that was growing with every minute. Something was about to change. For the better or for worse, she couldn't tell. It centered on Stranger, that much she was sure of.
There was so much she didn't know about him but she had learned that he was sharp and quick and that he had a good, strong heart.
She just hoped that it would be enough to see him through what was to come.
**********
Stranger tied his horse to the rail outside the store and walked in. He stopped just inside the door to let his eyes adjust to the half-light within. The manager looked pale and worn. He tried to look calm but his shaking hands betrayed him as Stranger faced him with just the counter separating them.
"I want Mrs McKay's credit restored," Stranger said without any preamble.
"Mr Parker-"
"What he has to say about it won't matter for much longer. Are we clear on that?"
"Yes," the store manager's voice was so low that it was nearly a whisper. "Mrs McKay's debt-"
"-will be paid in full," Stranger answered. "How much does she owe?"
The man took a look in his ledger and answered, "Seventeen dollars and Thirty-three cents." He looked up to find Stranger staring at him.
"You would ruin the life of a good woman for Seventeen dollars?" Strangers voice was deathly quiet. The manager looked as if he had a hard time breathing now, he was shaking so hard.
"Mister, I have a family," he explained desperately. "There was nothing I could do."
No, there probably wasn't, Stranger thought as he watched the man sweat. There was nothing a man like him could put up against men like Reese, not if he wanted to keep living. The manager wouldn't stand a chance. Oddly enough Stranger didn't despise him for it. Having a family made you vulnerable in so many ways and Stranger put all the blame on Parker in this case. He gave the man twenty dollars and told him to keep the change, then he left the store.
Stranger thought about Sarah and Doc Webster and Ben and Ben's father. They shouldn't have to live like this. The whole encounter had made him more determined than ever to get rid of Parker and his ilk. It didn't matter to Stranger any longer why Parker had taken over the town. He probably just did it because he could. It didn't matter.
The man was like a sickness, spoiling all with his touch. He needed to be gone.
The question was how to do it. Stranger had a strong feeling that he needn't go far to look for trouble. He just had to stay still in one spot for long enough and it would find him.
He walked down Main Street that lay deserted in the midday heat. When he was just outside the saloon he stopped. The perfect spot, if ever he'd seen one. Stranger went inside and the small crowd in the saloon parted quickly to give him free way up to the bardisk.
"Whiskey," he said as he flipped a coin onto the polished wooden surface. A glass swiftly appeared in front of him. Having filled the glass to the rim the barkeep gave him a searching look and muttered under his breath, "The mirror is brand new. Don't start anything in here."
Stranger merely looked at him and swallowed his drink in a single long swallow. "Leave the bottle," was his only answer. The barkeep sighed resignedly as he moved away.
Stranger had a bored look on his face as he watched in the mirror what was going on behind his back. Parker didn't seem to be in today but he recognized several of Parker's hired hands from the previous day. The conversation had died as Stranger stepped inside but now it started up again. The piano-player had started a new tune and he listened as he waited for trouble to seek him out. He could see a man get up from one of the poker tables and start moving in his direction. It was Reese.
The hired gun walked up to him and stood beside Stranger, staring at him as he carefully poured more whiskey into his glass.
"Your money's no good in here," Reese said.
Stranger turned towards him and said, "That's mighty generous of you."
"What?" Reese was thrown totally off track by the unexpected reply.
"Offering to pay for my drink," Stranger said. "That was what you meant. Wasn't it?"
Reese chewed furiously on his toothpick and even with the dim lights it wasn't hard to see that his face had just turned a deep shade of red.
"What I meant was that we don't want you or your money in here," he said sharply.
"You calling me out?" Stranger said with just the barest hint of disbelief in his voice.
Reese's eyes narrowed as he heard what sounded like hidden laughter behind Stranger's words and his quickly rising anger made him forget his carefully thought-up plan.
"Reckon so," he responded, and realized in that same moment that he'd just made a serious mistake. Stranger was supposed to call him out, not the other way around.
Then Stranger did something that few in town had seen him do before. He smiled. It was quite a grim smile that lasted barely an instant but it lit up his green eyes in an eerie way.
"Then let's take this outside," he suggested.
They walked out into the street and faced each other right outside the saloon. Through his easy stance Stranger made it clear that he had all the time in the world to stand there and wait for Reese to make the next move. Not being the most innovative of men Reese was forced to go back to his original plan and try to goad Stranger into action.
"You a hard man?" the hired gun spoke up. "Are you quick on the draw?"
"Maybe," Stranger replied.
Reese must have heard something in Stranger's voice for that statement made him hesitate and he asked more carefully, "Would I know you?"
"Depends on where you're from." Stranger let him draw his own conclusions as to that.
For a while Reese stopped chewing on his toothpick and looked almost thoughtful but he was too full of himself to hold back for very long.
"Pity you haven't told us your real name," he taunted Stranger. "I'd hate to let a man die without a name on his grave."
Stranger smiled coldly. "Why don't you just call me Cowboy?" he said in a whisper-soft voice that would have held a note of warning for a more perceptive man. Reese was oblivious. He was eager for the kill and wouldn't hold back calling Stranger out for anything.
They both knew it. One of them would die today.
"Well now," Reese said in a mocking tone. "I think this town ain't big enough for the two of us, Cowboy."
They stared at each other across the dusty street for many long minutes. Reese's hand was beginning to twitch where it hovered just above the handle of his gun. He could see Stranger's eyes coolly watching him from under the brim of his black hat. The man hardly blinked, just kept up that unnerving stare while Reese felt the sweat running down his face in the murdering midday sun and sting his eyes. The hired gun suddenly found that he could wait no longer. To hell with the law, he was the only law that counted in this town. Reese spat out his toothpick and went for it.
He'd just gotten his gun up and aimed it right at Stranger when something hit him square in the chest and he stumbled back a few steps. In disbelief he watched the thin curl of smoke coming from the barrel of Stranger's gun as his own gun dropped from suddenly numb fingers. Reese knew without a doubt that he'd drawn first but he still hadn't been fast enough to beat Stranger. Hell, he hadn't even managed to squeeze the trigger.
His strength deserting him completely Reese fell to his knees and then dropped to the side. Stranger walked over and looked down at the hired gun as the man coughed once and then died.
"Think you're right," he said quietly. "Just ain't big enough."
********
Vin Tanner watched from the shadows of a side alley as the hired gun called out Chris Larabee. He didn't want to walk right into the gunfight so he kept still and just waited, ready to step in if Chris needed help. Couldn't quite hear what they were saying to each other from that far away but it didn't look like nothing that Chris couldn't take care of. It was just the one guy, although there were some others waiting outside the saloon. They didn't look like much trouble either, at least nothing that Vin couldn't handle.
He had been in town for little more than a day, resting up in a small boarding house at the outskirts of the town. Strangest thing was that he had no idea really how he'd gotten all the way across the desert to this town, he could hardly remember a thing about it. There were just some snatches of memory left, of talking to someone and having an odd dream, of nearly dying and hurting and finally of being healed.
Then he'd just woken up one morning near a small spring up on a mountain and seen the town in the distance. To walk to it had taken him the rest of the day but it hadn't been hard work getting there at all. In fact, he hadn't felt this good in years. Vin knew something quite out of the ordinary had happened but he didn't waste much time thinking about it. Whoever it was that had been watching over him, it was someone that was clearly on his side.
Now he had to see to the matter of finding Chris Larabee.
After he'd slept and eaten and taken a much needed bath, he'd gone to the saloon where he'd been drinking quietly and listening to the loudmouths telling him all he wanted to know without him even having to ask anything. Hadn't taken Vin long to find out that Parker thought he was the big man in town and that there was some feud involving him and a woman named McKay. For some reason nearly everyone spoke her name in a hushed voice as if they were afraid of her. Mrs McKay also had a man staying out at her place some ways outside town, a man that was simply referred to as Stranger and nothing else.
He'd figured out right away that the one called Stranger might be Chris Larabee, sure sounded like it when they talked about him. They described in detail a man with blond hair and piercing green eyes who dressed mostly in black. If that wasn't Chris then it had to be a twin brother that Vin had never heard about.
One thing worried him some. He had no idea why Chris wouldn't use his own name if it truly was him. Maybe he didn't want them to know about his reputation?
Well, they'd all know soon enough. Vin had been on his way to the livery stable to get a horse when he'd seen Chris standing in the street, just as the man was being called out. Now Reese had made his move and he hadn't been near fast enough, just as Vin had predicted. He watched as Chris walked over and looked down at the dead man. It looked as if he was saying something to the body.
Vin stepped out of the alley and started to cross the street to where Chris was standing. He stopped for a while when he spotted movement in the corner of his eye. There was a growing dust cloud out on the road leading in to town and out of it emerged four riders and he knew them all well. A wild grin spread over his face for a second as new hope flooded his heart. The riders still had some distance to cover as Vin resumed his walk towards Chris with new determination.
They'd been found. He knew things would be all right now.
********
Stranger looked around and saw the rest of Parker's men all frozen with shock on the boardwalk outside the saloon. They cowered as he looked at them and scattered quickly when he seemed as if he was about to take a step in their direction.
He'd known it would be that way. Just money didn't buy much loyalty, at least not for long, only mutual trust could do that. Now there was just Parker left and Stranger had to make sure that he didn't hire someone else. Someone better and meaner than Reese. Someone better than Stranger himself.
Had to get Parker. Now was the time to do it.
He was about to start up towards that big house on the rise when a voice suddenly spoke up nearby. Stranger slowly turned towards the speaker, thinking it was another one of Parker's men.
"Chris Larabee," a man said as he stepped out into the street. He looked like a wild one with his hide coat and long hair sticking out underneath his hat. Stranger hadn't seen him in town before but there was something vaguely familiar about him all the same. That name sounded familiar too. Was Larabee the man standing in front of him or someone else?
"I don't care who you are," Stranger said and watched in wonder at the impact his words had on the other man. He had stopped his advance and stood stock still now, his blue eyes narrowing with uncertainty.
"Tell me your name," the newcomer urged him.
"What's it to you?" Stranger said, but he wavered nearly imperceptibly. He was starting to feel as if there was a terrible pressure in his mind, as if all those locked down memories were about to be unleashed all at once. He didn't know if he could handle that. Wasn't even sure if he still wanted it.
The man's next words sent a shockwave through Stranger's whole body.
"I know your name," the outsider said.
"That don't matter to me none," Stranger said stubbornly, desperate not to show any weakness. This town was his now, no one was going to take it away from him. He had to make it safe for Sarah.
"You sure about that?" The man sounded even more insistent when he said, "Don't you know me?"
"Should I?" Stranger replied.
"Yeah," the familiar man said. "You should."
He could see the man's eyes shift to something beside him and then back to his face for the barest fraction of a second. Damn! There had to be someone else behind his back. This was an ambush!
A thousand thoughts flowed through his mind between one heartbeat and the next. Stranger couldn't figure out what they were waiting for, they could have finished him off by now. Something was going on. Maybe he could use that as a distraction to even things out.
The draw was so smooth and fast that it was barely visible. Just like magic, the gun was there in his hand. There was no conscious thought now, it was all instinct and reaction.
He could hear voices around him calling that name again, the one he felt that he almost knew. Chris! No! Don't! they were calling.
It didn't matter to him, none of it. He was surrounded and he knew he was going to die. There was only one thing on his mind right now, to take at least one of them with him in death. He squeezed the trigger and saw the man in front of him tumble and fall while the sound of the shot still echoed along the dusty street.
The scene looked oddly familiar as if he could see into another time, another place where he'd seen that long-haired man tumble and fall just as he was doing now. He couldn't break free, the scene kept repeating itself in his mind. Stranger felt something happening in his head. An ice cold thread of pain seemed to cut right through his brain, dispersing the fog in his mind, and he suddenly knew exactly who he was and what he was doing.
"No," he whispered in denial of what he'd just done and it was echoed by another anguished voice behind him, a voice he recognized immediately. Buck! It was Buck, and the man he'd shot, it was- No! Chris was just about to turn around and say something when he was hit by a tremendous blow on the back of his head. Stunned he fell to the ground.
Laying there Chris could feel the dark creeping up on him. His eyes went to where his friends were running towards Vin who now lay sprawled on his back in the dusty street. He couldn't stand it, he had to turn his eyes away but then he just saw Buck's face as he looked down at Chris with agony in his eyes. It was all too much for Chris and he closed his eyes, finally giving in to the darkness.
He didn't want to know any more and fleetingly wished that this was the end for him even though he felt it probably wasn't. There would be a day of reckoning.
He'd just shot one of the best friends he'd ever had.
Death was too good for someone like him.