"Let's get you out of here, sweetheart."
I nodded and practically ran out into the sunshine, squinting.
Wiley and Miss Carter followed.
"Are you hurt?" he asked, looking me over, running a hand over my hair. It had long since fallen from the pins and hung wild down my back.
I shook my head, but wiggled my hands as best I could. He gave a pointed look at the sour faced Miss Carter as he pulled a knife from a sheath attached to his belt. With deft hands, he cut through the binding and I rubbed at my chafed wrists. Feeling came back painfully, but it didn't matter. Nothing mattered but Wiley being alive.
"Should I kill her?" he asked me, his expression murderous. If I said yes, he'd have shot her then and there, I had no doubt.
I looked to Miss Carter. She was not as meticulously dressed as the previous night. Her blue dress was now wrinkled, her hair in disarray and her expression much less confident.
"Why did you accept the job to find her?" I prompted.
He narrowed his gaze and the hand holding his gun tightened. "To bring my father's killers to justice."
Miss Carter's eyes widened at this. "I didn't know—" she sputtered.
"You didn't know what?" Wiley growled. "The people you killed were real? That they had families? Friends? Lives? My father was all I had, and you took him from me. You took loved ones from others, too."
I remembered Wiley's bitterness toward his mother and could only imagine the bond he shared with his father after her departure. Perhaps he took up the profession of a bounty hunter because he needed to make bad people accountable for their actions. He couldn't punish his mother for all the hurt she'd caused, but helping others receive even a small measure of justice slowly healed, or at least soothed, his own measure of anger.
"Will killing her bring you the revenge you're looking for?" I asked. I went to stand beside him, my hand once again on his arm.
He cocked the gun and Miss Carter's cheeks paled. She took a step back but there was nowhere for her to go. She couldn't outrun a bullet or a man set on vengeance.
"No, but it would certainly be sweet justice."
I shook my head. "You're better than this. Better than she is, than my family. Take her to town. Let her stand before the judge. Let her pay for the crimes so the other victims will know justice has been served." My words were soft, soothing. "It's over, Wiley. It's over."
For a full minute he just glared at Miss Carter, then he lowered the gun and looked down at me, his eyes full of...love? Hope? "No, sweetheart, it's just beginning."
WILEY
Piper had been right. Handing Miss Carter off to the sheriff of Carey felt good, felt final. I knew the man would keep a close and vigilant eye on her until the circuit judge came around. She'd get the trial she deserved and the conviction warranted. Everyone in Carey and the rest of the Montana Territory would know those who'd robbed the first set of stage coaches and train had been brought to justice.
As I led Piper to the hotel, she asked, "Will you leave to track down the men who helped Miss Carter with the most recent stage robbery?" I could hear the fear and worry lacing her words.
&n
bsp; I stopped on the boardwalk and took her hand. Her eyes lifted to mine. They were so green, with the longest pale lashes. "No. I'm done. As I told you before, it's time to be a rancher now. I've got my spread, I've got my cattle and I've got myself a bride."
She smiled brilliantly, and I knew I'd made the right decision. I left the past with the sheriff, handing off not only a prisoner, but my life as a bounty hunter as well.
I started walking again, pulling her along with me. "I'm sick of hotels. This will be the last one we stay in. Tomorrow, we ride for the ranch where I will claim you in my bed. Our bed. Is there anything you want, sweetheart, while we're still in town? I don't plan to come this way again anytime soon."
Piper pulled on my arm and I stopped once again. A tremulous smile formed on her lips. "I...I was wondering something."
"Oh?" I asked, brushing her hair back from her face. I couldn't stop touching her. I needed the contact, craved it.
"There's one thing that only you can do for me. To give me something I've always wanted."
"Really?" I asked, intrigued.
She nodded and bit her lip before speaking. "A baby."
My heart flipped, then settled, as if it had been upside down my entire life and now, with Piper, it was in the perfect place. The idea of her growing big with my seed—that we'd make a beautiful little girl with wheat colored hair—had me realizing that my entire life was standing before me.