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Owen was still talking, the boy chattering away about one thing or another and Jesse looked his way before interrupting. “Where’s Ben?”
“Down at the saloon last I saw.”
“Go get him and round up any others you see. We need to get moving. We have a lot of miles to cover before we make camp for the night.”
Owen nodded and rode back toward town. Jesse watched him go, then shook his head. The kid was a handful but he did his job better than most. At least he didn’t give him any trouble. With as much as he’d already had, that was a godsend.
“You sure sending Alex away was the best thing?”
Jesse turned toward Isaac when he mumbled something under his breath. “You think keeping her around was a better idea?”
Isaac shrugged. “She can be a hand full, sure, but she does know what she’s doing.”
“I know she does.” Jesse hefted the last bag of beans onto the wagon and slid it on top of the others. “Her being able to do her job has nothing to do with my decision. I don’t trust half the men on this drive and I certainly don’t trust them around her.”
“She can take care of herself.”
Jesse looked up to where Isaac stood. “You sound like her now.”
He laughed. “She’s a right pain in the ass, always has been, but she makes half these cowboys look like more of a girl than she is.”
Isaac had a point. Jesse didn’t agree with him about letting her stay, though. As much as he hated sending her away, she was safer away from this bunch.
They finished loading the supplies and both leaned back against the wagon to rest when Ben and Owen came riding back into camp. One look at Ben’s face and Jesse knew something was wrong. Dread settled like a hard stone in his stomach before the man had even jumped from his horse.
“What is it?” he asked. “And please tell me it doesn’t have anything to do with Lewis and his bunch.”
“It doesn’t.” Ben caught his breath and shook his head. “I was having a drink over in the saloon and overheard a conversation that would probably get a bullet in my back if they knew I’d heard them.”
“What did you hear?”
“A couple guys bragging about robbing a stagecoach. Apparently, there’s someone of importance on it and a trunk full of money strapped to the top.”
“Did you tell the marshal?”
“I tried to but he wasn’t in his office. No one knows where he went.”
Jesse pushed off the wagon and stretched out his aching back muscles. “No deputy in town?”
Ben shook his head.
“Then there’s not much you can do,” Jesse said. “We’ll inform the marshal in the next town over. You can tell him what they looked like.”
Ben scratched the side of his neck. “Well, that I can do but I don’t think this can wait.”
“Why’s that?”
“Well, the stagecoach they’re robbing is the one you just put Alex on.”
Twelve
Gunfire. Alex swore under her breath when she heard it and looked out the window. The thundering boom that echoed across the valley as another round was fired drew a sharp breath from her lungs.
She ducked when a stray bullet hit the side of the stagecoach, the dull thud of metal against wood causing the other passengers to fill the carriage with shrill screams before they hit the floor, hands over their heads.
Cowering on the floor like some simpering woman wasn’t in her blood. No Avery alive would be so fretful, and idiotic or not, she slumped down just enough to put her head out of view of the window.
The driver and the man who sat up front with him were yelling. The horses bolted, the carriage rocking as they raced across the prairie. Sitting back up, she peered out the window. Three men on horseback were riding a few feet away, revolvers in each of their hands. They were yelling while gunfire continued to ring out in loud pops.
