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Mercy’s lips tugged into a smile. “Got another one of those?”
Mrs. DuVere chuckled. “No. But you can help keep a lookout. As long as you stay away from the windows when the shooting starts. And don’t tell your husband.”
“Deal,” she said. It was better than sitting around doing nothing or hiding away with the rest of the women. “How much longer do you think—”
The faint sound of shattering glass had her frozen in place, ears straining for other sounds.
“Did you hear that?” she whispered to Mrs. DuVere, who nodded, holding her finger to her lips.
She crept closer to the door, quietly leaning against it so she could put her ear to the wood to listen. Her forehead creased, whether in a frown or because she was concentrating, Mercy wasn’t sure. She was about to creep closer herself when the door burst open in an explosion of splintering wood.
Both women screamed as Mrs. DuVere fell, knocked backward by the blow. The shotgun went off, firing into the ceiling.
Mercy didn’t know where to look. Mrs. DuVere lay unmoving on the floor, a trickle of blood coming from her head. She was still breathing, though that was small comfort, because two men were pushing their way through the remnants of the door, shoving Mrs. DuVere’s body aside.
One of them had the presence of mind to grab her shotgun as he passed. The other stalked toward Mercy, his face a mask of evil intent.
“The boss wants a word with you,” he said.
Mercy backed up, her eyes darting about the room for anything she could use as a weapon.
“Your boss needs to learn how to take no for an answer,” she said.
She lunged for the heavy lamp on the end table just as the man lunged for her. Her fingers wrapped around it, but his arms were about her waist, lifting her off the ground before she could hit him. She tried to bring it down on his head anyway but only succeeded in hitting his arm.
It was enough, however, to make him howl in pain and release her. She swung the lamp around again and hit him in the side of the head as hard as she could. He staggered and went down, and she grinned in triumph.
And didn’t see the fist of the other man swinging toward her face until it was too late.
…
Too many things happened all at once. Gray and Doc were standing in the front room of the clinic, trying to come up with some semblance of a plan when a shotgun went off across the street. But as they ran outside to see what had happened, Frank and his son raced into town, their horses’ chests heaving.
“Banff and his men are nearly here, Sheriff!” Frank said. “They must have circled around and come in from the south. We was watching the road and didn’t catch sight of them until they’d nearly passed us.”
Gray’s heart hammered in his chest. Banff was nearly on top of them. But that gunshot…
He looked back toward the tavern but didn’t take two steps before Banff and his men arrived in a cloud of dust.
Gray glanced at Doc, who shook his head. Jed might have been able to round up a few men, but some lived farther out of town. And the ones who were nearby hadn’t shown their faces. His heart sank. Perhaps the night before had just been a show. Or perhaps they’d meant what they said at the time. But they’d only been faced with one assailant. It was a different matter when faced with the man who’d terrorized them all for so long, along with an armed posse of his men.
Banff dismounted in the middle of the street and jerked his head at some of his men. Then he fixed Gray with a cold, arrogant stare as Sunshine and Preacher were brought forward, their hands bound in front of them. A ridiculous way to tie a prisoner, but they’d probably been allowed to ride their own horses and needed to be able to hang on. A necessity. And one that left them with some amount of mobility. Thank heaven for a tiny stroke of luck.
Gray fixed them each with a stare. Their faces were swollen and bloody, but their eyes were twin flames of fury. His gut twisted with rage, his heart anguished over what they’d obviously suffered. But their spirits hadn’t been broken. They’d watch for an opportunity. Gray just had to give them one.
He straightened his back and fixed his attention on Josiah. It was time to end this.
Then Josiah smiled, his bug eyes turning to Mrs. DuVere’s.
The door opened…and a man exited, his hand wrapped around the back of Mercy’s neck as he pushed her forward. A gag had been shoved in her mouth and wrapped around the back of her head, and her hands were bound behind her back. As the man shoved her again, she stumbled, falling to her knees in the dirt beside Sunshine.
Gray’s vision filled with red as he took in Preacher, Sunshine, and his Mercy, on their knees in front of Josiah and his men. Each with a gun pressed to their head.
“Even you aren’t fast enough to save them all,” Josiah said, each smug word dripping like acid in Gray’s ears.
He ground his teeth together so hard, he wouldn’t have been surprised if they’d cracked.
“Now that I have your attention, Sheriff,” Josiah said, sneering on the last word, “you and I are going to come to a little arrangement.”
