Page 84 of At Love’s Command

Matt rolled onto his back and fed cartridges into his Winchester repeater. He’d need all fifteen shots for what he had in mind.

“Time to get you to your sister, Charlie.” Matt slapped the kid’s back, then flipped onto his stomach and crawled out from under the wagon. Staying low, he crouched behind the wagon with his rifle at the ready.

One.

Matt braced his shoulder against the wagon’s side.

Two.

He listened. Charlie’s scraping. Guns firing. Men yelling. The gunfire seemed thickest to the west, but Taggart was to the north, and the lead outlaw’s position would present the clearest shot on Matt and Charlie. Plan formed, Matt turned his body north and braced for the charge.

Three!

He stood. Shot at the house window. Levered a new cartridge into the chamber. “Phin!” He added a whistle to his call as he shot at an outlaw taking cover behind a trough.

Undaunted by the gunfire, Phineas answered his master’s call.

“Mount up, Charlie!” Matt yelled in a voice that left no room for question.

He continued firing. At the barn. Then the house. Then at a man running between the two. The man grabbed his right leg, hobbled to the house porch, and crawled beneath it.

Wallace rode up, offering Charlie additional cover in mounting Phineas. “I’m going for Brooks,” Wallace yelled. “We’ll get him to his mount and put an end to this once and for all.”

“Good!”

Matt spotted a new man on horseback in the paddock. He took aim, then hesitated. The outlaw made no move for the gate. In fact, he seemed to be building up speed to . . . Matt dropped his finger from the trigger as the rider jumped the fence on the far side of the paddock where the top rail had fallen down.

“Looks like some are turnin’ tail.”

And after one broke ranks, others were sure to follow.

“I’ll cover your retreat, Captain,” Wallace said as he raised his pistol and fired toward the barn. “Get him out of here.”

Matt didn’t waste time debating. In one smooth motion, he mounted behind Charlie. “Follow the path Preach took,” he instructed, keeping his gun hands free while Charlie took the reins. “Don’t stop until you see your sister.”

Charlie obeyed.

Using nothing but knee strength, balance, and his familiarity with Phineas’s gait to keep him on his horse, Matt focused his firepower on the house, keeping Taggart occupied with self-preservation so he couldn’t return fire until they presented a more distant target.

Once they’d covered enough ground that Matt could no longer contort his body to fire at the house without falling off the horse, he leaned tight against Charlie’s back and urged Phineas to greater speed. A hot sting sizzled across his left upper arm, but he ignored it. All his attention centered on delivering Charlie and getting back to the battle to support his men and take down Taggart.

That attention disintegrated the moment he saw Josie.

“Charlie!” She called her brother’s name, slid off Percival’s back, and ran to greet them despite Preach’s growled order to remain mounted.

Man, she looked good. Healthy. Whole. Her sea-green eyes glowing with relief. Her chin tilted in that no-nonsense way he loved. He couldn’t look away. Or catch a full breath.

Charlie separated himself and awkwardly lifted his right leg over Phineas’s neck to dismount. Matt dodged to the side to give the kid room to maneuver. That was when Josie saw him.

“Matthew.”

His name sounded like a prayer, and the near reverence in her tone made his heart swell to twice its normal size. She halted mid-step, her gaze locked on his.

He wanted nothing more than to drop to the ground and sweep her into his arms. To hold her close and breathe her in. To claim her mouth and tell her everything that was in his heart. But a war raged behind him. A war he couldn’t afford to neglect.

Charlie was saying something, but his voice was little more than a dull drone in Matt’s ears. Josie seemed unbothered by it as well, her attention never leaving Matt’s face.

He raised himself up over the cantle to sit properly in the saddle, then collected Phineas’s reins with his left hand, his rifle still clutched in his right. “I have to go.”