Chapter 2

Bliss arrived back at the ranch and Colt ran out to meet her before she even reached the front gate.

“It’s bad now, Bliss. He found out.”

“F-Found out?” Bliss felt her heart sink. “How?”

“Another note came and he found it.”

“Another one?” Bliss dismounted and stood in front of Colt.

“Yeah. This one’s worse,” Colt shoved his hands in his pockets.

“I see. Well, I’ll go face Daddy. He’s gonna blow, isn’t he?” Bliss winced.

“Sure as the sunrise.”

Bliss groaned and gave Colt the reins to Butterfly Kisses and began walking toward the main house.

“I’d be careful, Miss Blissful,” the oldest of the cowboys, Mose, said from where he was saddling his horse.

“He’s in a pretty foul humor, huh?” Bliss stopped before entering the house.

“He’s gotta right to be, missy.” Mose cinched his saddle.

Bliss shrugged. Daddy seemed to be overprotective of her even though she was twenty-one years old. Opening the door, she walked into the front room of her home. A bear skin rug lay in the middle of the room with overstuffed chairs and a settee littered the room in a semi circle. Every part of the room screamed masculinity. Momma would surely roll over in her grave if she saw how the house looked now, but Bliss kind of liked it.

“Bliss? Honey, is that you?” Daddy’s voice rang from the kitchen.

Bliss walked into the room and saw her father sitting at the kitchen table with two notes in front of him. Grace was stirring the soup for dinner, but sent a worried glance her way.

“Did you know about these?” Daddy motioned to the notes in front of him.

Bliss walked over and sat beside him. He gave her the notes to read.

The first one, which she had memorized, read:

Watch your back.

While the second one was her initials with a line through them and a few drops of red on the page.

Bliss rolled her eyes and ignored his question. “Daddy, this is probably some dumb kid playing a joke.”

“A kid? Coming all the way out here from town to play a joke? Your life is no joke, sweetheart.”

“Sherman, she might be right,” Grace spoke up. “This could be a bad prank.”

“I’m not chancing anything.”

Bliss sighed. “So I have to stay locked up all the time? I’d go crazy.”
“No, not that necessarily. You need someone to be with you. A bodyguard so to speak” Daddy explained.

Bliss leaned back in her seat. “So basically a shadow?”

“Just until this blows over.”

Bliss swore he thought she was still a child. She had shot a gun before, and she could take care of herself. Packing a six-shooter until the notes stopped was a reasonable reaction, but this… this was infuriating. She kept her mouth shut and simply nodded, knowing that there was no way of changing her father’s mind.

“I know just who I can get, too,” Daddy said with pride, placing a newspaper in front of her and pointing to where he had circled an ad.

“This is the Denver Post, Daddy,” Bliss reminded.

“Read the add.”

Bliss bent over the newspaper.

Clint Slade - gun for hire. Will discuss rates upon reviewing job. Send replies to this advert to Lovelace, Tennessee, address to Clint Slade. Not all requests are accepted.

“Clint Slade? Daddy, do you know how much he will cost?” Bliss pushed the paper away from her.

“I’m prepared to pay as long as he protects my little girl,” Daddy replied.

“You’re willing to pay that much money for his gun when there’s a big chance he won’t even have a need for it?”

“I am.”

Bliss sighed and stood. “Fine. If this is what you want to do, then I don’t see that I have a choice. Do what you want.”

She walked out of the room, annoyed at her overprotective father. This was exactly why she didn’t need a man in her life ever again. They were way too possessive of any woman who was placed in their care.

This Clint Slade man was probably the worst heathen of them all.

*****

Clint pulled his horse to a stop in front of the little shack in the middle of the woods. When he wasn’t on a job, he called the little place his home in the middle of the Tennessee Rockies. Dusk was descending over the mountains, and the fog was thick in the air. Throwing his right leg over the saddle and sliding to the ground, Clint heaved a sigh. Opening his saddlebags, he retrieved the stack of letters he had received from the town of Lovelace down the mountain a ways. People sent their pleas for help to him and he picked the most urgent of them all.

After tending to his horse, a black stallion who had been his only companion for years, Clint went inside the cabin and shivered at the chill inside. Placing his bags and the letters on the dusty table, he retrieved some firewood from the pile out back that he had cut months ago.

With a fire started and some warmth beginning to come from it, Clint sat on the ground in front of it and pulled off his gloves. The stack of letters in front of him, he began sifting through them, mumbling to himself.

“Kansas, Texas, Nevada, Oklahoma… Mexico?” He lifted the letter to see better. What could possess a person to think he would travel over the border for a Mexican when he had perfectly good Americans where he was? They would have to pay a fine price.

Opening the letter, Clint groaned. Another female wanting him to pick off her husband. This was the second letter in a month from a new bride who found out some nasty things about her groom after the wedding. Either men were getting worse or women were getting harder to please.

The next few letters came from reporters, and he had no desire to endure their countless questions again.

“Mississippi, Louisiana, Montana, Georgia… and Arizona,” he mumbled the last words, holding the letter up. It had been a while since he had been to Arizona.

Opening the letter, he read an unusual request. A father, whose daughter had been receiving notes threatening her life for no apparent reason, was wanting him to guard her until the author of the notes were found. Clint drew his eyebrows close together. This wasn’t what he was used to. The father had expressed that he would be willing to pay good money for his services.

Clint sighed.

No, it wasn’t his job to be a nursemaid to a little girl.

*****

Bliss watched the sunset set behind her favorite mesa and smiled. It had been two weeks since her father had sent that letter to Clint Slade. Maybe he was receiving the letter and denying it at that very moment. She didn’t want to burden the man with her presence all the time. She didn’t want to burden anyone with that. She had come to accept that her father still saw her as a child, even after all that had happened with Seth Ryder.

Closing her eyes, she shut off the memory of that terrible man.

Focusing all of her thoughts back onto the sunset, her mind was suddenly plagued with thoughts of the Creator. She didn’t really know why. Sure, He existed, but she didn’t see why he would take the time to care about each and every sunset that only she and a few others saw. No, these sunsets happened by pure chance, nothing more.

Turning away from the window, she remembered a time when she believed that God paid attention to every detail of her life. She had found such comfort in knowing that He knew exactly what she was feeling. She felt so alive then, so full of love for her life. Every time she would get discouraged, she would tell herself to keep going, that someday she would give someone a reason to believe, too. She didn’t know what had happened. Maybe she wised up, but somewhere along the way she had stopped believing. She put on a front on Sundays when Grace was around and talking about God’s goodness and His love for them, but during the week she lived just like she wanted to without being concerned whether it was right or wrong by God. She just let Him worry about the people who needed it and let Him leave her alone. So far she had been getting along just fine.

Staring up at the ceiling, she tried to force her mind to think on a reasonable subject for the first time that night.

*****

Clint folded his arms behind his head and stared up at the ceiling, not being able to sleep even though it was well past midnight now. He couldn’t get that man out of his mind, mostly because it reminded him of the family he used to have. Three brothers were all he’d had in the world, and then they were taken away in the time it too to shoot a gun. Sitting up and staring into the fire, listened to the only noise that it gave and thought long and hard on Sherman Cooper. He should go and help that man and he knew it.

Why did he care, anyway? It wasn’t like he had… feelings for people.

Could he really go on a job knowing that a family might fall apart and he didn’t help them?

Clint thought a moment on that.

Yes, yes he could, because he was Clint Slade, and he didn’t care.

He paused a moment after making that decision.

Would it hurt anything to go?

Clint groaned at himself and lay back down.

Sherman Cooper would probably pay good money.

There. That was his reason for going. The money.

Sighing at his decision, Clint rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.

*****

Grace Gabrielle went about cooking breakfast the next morning with Bliss’ safety weighing heavily on her mind. It was true that Sherman was overprotective, but that was just because he loved his child. Bliss could take care of herself, but there was no telling what could happen if the attackers had the element of surprise.

She heard Sherman’s spurs jingle as he walked down the hall toward the kitchen. She turned when he entered. There was something that she just had to ask.

“When are you going to tell her, Sherman?” Grace asked.

“Good morning to you too, Grace.”

Grace put her hands on her hips. “Answer me, mister.”

Sherman sat down at the table. “Tell her what?”

“You know what. She has a right to know, Sherman,” Grace told him.

“Some things she couldn’t handle, Grace.”

“That girl rides everyday to go see her momma and you’re going to keep this away from her? She’s stronger than you think.”

Sherman sighed. “No, she isn’t.”
“She isn’t a child anymore. One would think that you would know that after Seth Ryder,” Grace mumbled, turning back to where she was frying bacon.

“I thought we decided not to mention his name anymore, Grace.”

“Not talking about things doesn’t make them disappear.”

Sherman groaned. “Maybe not for us, but what Bliss doesn’t know won’t hurt her.”

Grace sighed.

Lord, this family needs your direction. They don’t know what’s right and wrong anymore. I know that Bliss isn’t as close to you as she ought to be, and I’m starting to worry about Sherman. I love them like my own blood kin, you know. I can’t stand to watch them suffer. Help us to strengthen our faith instead of pushing it aside. Help us to look to you for everything, Lord.

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