Chapter 18

The man dressed in black took off running toward his horse, and Clint ran after him.

What are you doing? Shoot him where it counts, you idiot.

The man mounted his horse and Clint had the knob at the end of his pistol was set at the back of his head. He squeezed the trigger, the slight recoil of the gun jolting his hand but nothing more.

The man’s hat flew from his head and Clint snarled at himself.

What’s wrong with you?

Just like that, the man was rode out of sight.

With a groan, Clint holstered his gun. He should have had that man. What had stopped him? He sees a pair of green eyes and freezes as if the man in front of him were his own… brother.

Clint swallowed and shoved the thoughts of his dead brothers out of his mind. He was over their death. He was tired of feeling guilty over that incident all those years ago. He was fifteen and stupid. That was all there was to it.

He walked to the back door to snatch the note from the doorframe and shove it into his pocket before Bliss had a chance to see it. He didn’t feel good about hiding more secrets from her, but he wasn’t getting paid to feel good.

Opening the door, Clint met Miss Cooper just as she was about to exit the house. She nearly bumped into him, but backed up a few steps when he entered.

“What was that about?” She asked, fear in her eyes.

“Some shady character was lurking around out there,” Clint replied.

“Did you get a sight of his face?” Miss Cooper asked, looking out of the window.

Clint paused before answering. “He was wearing a bandanna.”

She sighed. “We were so close! Did you hit him at least?”

Clint shook his head.

“What do we pay you for?” Miss Cooper rolled her eyes.

“I got his hat. Let me go get it,” Clint said, opening the door and sending her a look that told her never to talk to him like that again.

He had his reasons for not hitting that man. He didn’t know what they were, but he had some.

Clint mumbled to himself as he walked toward where the man’s hat had fallen off.

Whatever the man was up to, he had crossed those green eyes before. Could it have been from one of the failed jobs?

Now that he had seen Clint, would he come gunning for him before Clint had the chance to get to him first?

Well, no one would have to worry about him missing again. He was just not expecting to see something familiar. He would get the man next time.

Bending low to pick up the hat, Clint let out a sigh and examined the bullet hole through the front and back.

His first mistake in years.

He reentered the house just as Sherman came charging through the front door.

“I heard gunfire,” he said.

Sherman’s eyes sought out his daughter and when they landed on her he rushed to wrap her in his arms. “Thank goodness you’re okay,” he said, squeezing his daughter tight.

“Those shots were me. I found someone outside,” Clint explained.

“Did you recognize him?”
Clint swallowed. “Never seen him before.”

“Did you get him?” Sherman asked.

Clint shook his head. “No, but I got his hat.” He held up the leather hat.

“Is there a name on that hat, by any chance?” Sherman asked, releasing his daughter and staring at Clint.

Clint looked the hat over. “Nope.”

“Exactly. You’ve gotta do better than that, Slade,” Sherman said, yanking the hat from him.

There were two things the people who hired Clint Slade had to accept. Clint’s word was law, and they treated him with the respect he had earned over the years.

Sherman needed taught that lesson now.

“You think I planned to miss that guy? If you hired me looking for perfection, you’re gonna be disappointed. My job is to protect that princess of yours, and she’s standing there right as rain. If this is how it’s gonna be from now on, I’ll go in that room back there and pack my gear right now.” Clint pointed down the hall.

Sherman gulped as Clint pinned him with a glare. Sherman Cooper was a man who had aged well and he was muscular enough, but he was no match for Clint, who was about six inches taller and quite a bit broader.

“As long as Bliss wasn’t harmed, then I don’t suppose I have any complaint,” Sherman said.

“Good,” Clint said. “Now, I need to speak with you in private.”

Sherman nodded and the two headed out onto the back stoop.

Clint withdrew the note and handed it to him. “The man left this behind.”

Sherman took the note and opened it.

“It’s the same thing. Her initials with a red line through them and Seth’s signature,” he crumpled up the note and threw it toward the barn.

Clint sighed. “What did she do to him to make him threaten her?”

Sherman looked him in the eye. “She didn’t do anything.”

With that, he stomped inside the house and left Clint there alone, frustrated and confused.

*****

Bliss felt a nagging guilt inside of her. She shouldn’t have snapped at Clint like that. A man with a reputation like Clint didn’t get it by missing, but that was no excuse for her harsh words. She walked down the hall just before going to bed that night and stopped in front of Clint’s door. She still owed him an apology, as much as she dreaded facing him this late at night. She hoped that he hadn’t went to sleep yet.

Raising her hand, she took a deep breath and softly knocked on his door.

The ten seconds that it took him to open the door were torturous ones that seemed to stretch on for eternity. The door swung open and Clint appeared, fully dressed with the first two buttons on his shirt undone and a slightly annoyed look on his face. Bliss had to tear her eyes away from the triangle of bronzed chest that his shirt revealed and looked into his steely grey eyes.

“Somethin’ wrong?” he asked, his voice a deep vibrating grumble as he rubbed his eyes.

“No, not really.” Bliss gulped. “I just wanted to apologize for my behavior earlier today.”

“Behavior?” Clint squinted.

“For snapping at you. It was out of line and I’m sorry. You did keep me safe, after all,” Bliss ducked her head.

There was a brief moment of silence before she felt a finger tilt her face up by her chin. That single touch, that simple contact, sent a shiver through her before the owner shoved it back into his pocket. She made her eyes look at his face and found them the same as always - void of emotion and feeling.

“It’s fine,” he mumbled.

“I-it will never happen again,” Bliss stated.

Clint shook his head slightly. “Don’t worry about it.”

Bliss nodded. “Goodnight.”

“G’night,” Clint said, ducking his head and shutting the door just as Bliss turned away.

She took a deep breath to calm er rapidly beating heart as she entered her room and shut the door, leaning back against it. The lamp lit on her bedside table illuminated the room with a warm and inviting glow as she made her way to her bed. She reached under her pillow and withdrew the dime novel she had read a mere few pages of the night before and looked over the cover. It was a simple, colorless drawing of a man with a gun, pointing it at a man down the main street of an old town. The pencil of the man who had drawn the cover captured the hard planes of Clint’s face perfectly except for the more exaggerated cheekbones. She could see the hardened thoughts of the man from merely looking at the scene. Maybe it was just because she knew the man personally.

Pulling back the quilt on her bed, she crawled under them and leaned back against the fluffy pillows, opening the book to where she had dog-eared the page she had last read.

Soon she was fully enveloped in the story. Clint Slade was rummaging through the desk at the sheriff’s office, trying to find something, some sort of report of any way he could get to Hickory Hayes. The man hadn’t been seen in town for three months, and yet the man who had hired him had sent him to this very place. She read on about Clint’s confusion and hard work until her eyes drifted closed and she woke herself back up long enough to dog-ear the page and blow out the lamp before falling back to sleep.

*****

Clint couldn’t sleep that night. He couldn’t get Miss Cooper’s apology out of his mind. The way she ducked her head when she spoke to him had evoke some emotion in him he couldn’t understand and he couldn’t stand to watch her lower herself in his presence. He had done the reasonable thing and mad her look up, but he wished there could have been a way to do it that didn’t involve him touching her. Though it was only his fingertip, he knew that touching led to familiarity, and that was certainly something he couldn’t abide by.

Why did he have to constantly be on his guard around that woman? He had never had trouble keeping himself distanced in the past. What was it about Bliss Cooper that threatened his walls? It had taken him years and years to build those walls, how could a little over a week around someone threaten to pull them down?

You’re losing your edge, Slade. Don’t let a woman take that away from you.

Sometimes he didn’t understand himself. He thought that there was no other thing as confusing as one’s own mind.

*****

Colt rested his head against the wall of the loft, the gentle glow of the barn lantern lighting the pages of his journal, the one place that he could voice his thoughts and no one judge him. He found that writing them down made them easier to understand somehow. He couldn’t explain it, but it relieved his stress somehow.

Looking down at the empty page, he put his small pencil to it and began to write.

She was gone most of the morning with Clint Slade today. I don’t know where they go, but I have this nagging feeling that I need to find out. Where did Bliss go for all these years of her morning rides? Why haven’t I ever wondered about this before? Am I jealous? Yes, of course I’m jealous. I’ve been summoning up all of my courage to witness to her over the past few months and I still haven’t summoned enough of it, while Clint comes in here and stays for a week and she’s already taking a shining to him. At least I think she is. Maybe I’m losing my mind or convincing myself of something that isn’t really true. Bliss is probably just trying to get to know him since he is going to be her shadow and all for the next little while. Who knows how long Clint Slade will be around before we finally catch these crooks? For a nickel I’d ride out and investigate the whole thing myself, but I have no idea where to start. We are all sitting ducks around here because we have no idea who these notes are coming from or where they are. We’re all on edge, but I hope that we catch these people soon before they try to do more than just threaten Bliss.

He closed his journal and hid it and his pencil under a small stash of hay in the corner where he always hid them and laid back on his pillow. He prayed for courage from the Lord to finally bring God up to Bliss. He hoped she didn’t blame the Savior for her mother’s death. That would make it even harder to get through to her. Yet he knew that with God, all things were possible.

There we go! What do we think? So Clint might not technically know the man who was around the ranch:)

I had so much fun with this chapter! :D Thank you guys for reading and tell me what you think about that split-second "moment" with Clint and Bliss:)