Chapter 38

Three days passed by with no activity around the Cooper house that Clint could see from his view on the top of Almighty. Clint found himself getting anxious. Joe and Abel wouldn't just up and leave without getting the money. They were too stubborn for that. They couldn't have come out in the night and dug up the money, because the directions on the map that Clint had handed over to them suggested that the money was somewhere near Cassidy's grave and the ground around it was undisturbed.

It struck him as odd that his old boss had known so much about Arizona and the Dottie Belle Ranch. Could she have known the Coopers, or even been related to them at one point in time?

That would be a twisted coincidence.

The fire crackled in front of Clint as he leaned against his saddle that he had been using as a pillow for the past three nights, and pulled the Bible that Grace had given him out of his saddlebag. The book looked nearly brand new, as if it had never been used. He began flipping through the pages, noticing that several verses were underlined here and there.

In Psalms, Be still and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. In Proverbs, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not onto thine own understanding.

Several more verses had been underlined in the two books of the Bible, but one stuck with Clint in particular.

For his anger endureth but a moment: in his favor is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning

.

Clint leaned back and looked up at the sky. Stars scattered across it like stitches in a thick blanket, coving the sky with twinkling lights. He smiled. God knew exactly what he was doing in his life and in the Coopers'. He may not feel like it at the moment, but deep down he knew that God would never forsake him like Bliss so ardently believed.

God was faithful.

After all, he had waited twenty-six years for Clint to come around to him. That was an awful long time to wait for one person.

Be still and know that I am God.

The words had stuck with Clint when he read them. That was the problem with the world. They didn't be still enough. Everyone was in such a hurry these days that they passed moments with God right by. Not a day went by that he wasn't thankful that he had slowed down just enough to recognize that moment a few weeks ago.

Taking a deep breath, Clint whispered into the thin air, "I know you've got a great scheme going on here, God. I'm ready and willing whenever you want me to move. You might make it a while, but I'd appreciate it if you made it soon. I'm getting kind of anxious. If not, then I'll trust you with this. Whatever happens, I know that you can help me bear the weight."

*****

Bliss twisted the knob on the door to Clint's old room and stepped inside. She hadn't been in here since her first night alone. The room was still as empty as she remembered. The bed remained perfectly made, the window tightly shut with the curtains pulled together, and the floor cleanly swept. It hadn't been touched since Grace cleaned it the day after Clint left. She ran her fingers over the back of the chair where Clint had kept his gun belt slung over the back and his dark vest over it. Next, she walked over to the bed and sat on the edge of it, placing her hand on the pillow that Clint had slept on for many nights.

She would do almost anything to get him back if he wasn't all the way across the country. Thinking about what she had done, Bliss grabbed the pillow and threw it across the room in anger. She was the stupidest person to ever walk the earth!

A book caught her eye where the pillow had been. She looked over at it and recognized the old family Bible. She hadn't seen the thing in years.

Picking it up and placing it in her lap, she cracked open the cover and remembered how Daddy used to keep the book on the coffee table in the parlor and how Momma read it to her every night. Such a light behind her eyes when she told the old stories.

A tear strolled down Bliss' cheek.

"I wished you still cared about me," she whispered into the thin air. "God, I wish you still put a life in my heart and a sparkle in my eyes."

She shut the book and put her head in her hands. "I wish you hadn't given up on me."

For a moment, she could feel her heart aching for the love she had once known, but was now impossible to find. God had proved over and over again that he only sent bad luck her way, not a blessing one in ten years.

Except for a roof over her head, and maybe that broad smile on Daddy's face when she had turned sixteen. Possibly even allowing her to get away from Seth...er... Joe was a blessing from God, but other than that, he hadn't given her a solid thing.

Well, there was that day when Grace had come to work for them right after Momma died. That was a blessing, too. Then there was that day nearly two months ago when Clint had ridden up to their property in all his hardened, stoic glory.

Reality had never been so clear to her.

God had never really forgotten about her, he had just let her wander on her own for a while. For ten years, to be exact. Things had happened in her life that only the Lord could instigate.

She had been so bullheaded and so caught up in her hurting that she hadn't given her blessings a single thought. And when Colt wanted to help, she had shoved him away, convincing herself that she didn't need his explanations about God.

She opened the book again, straight to Psalms thirty and her eyes landed on verse five.

For his anger endureth but a moment: in his favor is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

She could be healed, and she could move on with her life. She could be able to let go and move on.

The only question remaining was, would she be willing to do what it took? To put her hurt behind her and live again?

She could be truly happy again if she were just willing to reach out and meet God halfway.

*****

Clint woke up the next morning with his fore completely burnt out and his fingers chilled to the bone. The clear blue sky overhead looked warm enough, but his limbs begged to differ. Jumping up and pulling on his warm leather gloves, he stacked a few more sticks of firewood onto the campfire and lit one of his matches to light it afire.

Once his fire was lit and his coffee pot set on it, he emptied the water that was left in his canteen into it. Groaning to himself, he rose up to go back down and get some water from a watering hole about half a mile from the mesa. He hated to be away from the warm fire, but he needed to hurry and get the task done. Slamming his hat tightly on his head, he walked over to the pulley and prepared to lower himself down the side of Almighty. The job usually took him about fifteen minutes to accomplish once he got used to it, but even that time grew tiring after a while. He settled onto the ground and then went to check on his horse, which he kept under and nearby outcropping out of sight and the weather.

When he was satisfied that his still unnamed horse was well, cared for, he set off toward the watering hole at a brisk walk.

The watering hole was small and nearly dried up, but supplied enough water for him and his horse. He wished that one of those new fangled windmills was nearby so that he could get water from that, but the only one he knew of on Cooper property was miles away. He filled his canteen and then jogged back to where his pulley and ropes sat on the side of the mesa, ready to transport him back up. As he neared the mesa, he heard muffled voices coming from nearby. He rushed to hide against the side of Almighty before the owners of the voices could see him, and set his full canteen on the ground. Sneaking slowly around the side of the mesa with his back pressed up against the mesa wall, Clint silently listened to recognize the voices carrying over to him. He finally got close enough to overhear their conversation.

"I told you, Abel. Once we killed her horse, she knew we meant business. Neither she nor that high-and-mighty brother of ours will be brave enough to stand up against us even if they do end up catching us," Joe's voice said condescendingly.

Clint's spine stiffened and his hands balled into fists. Joe was really behind all of this. He'd had his doubts before, but now they were all made abundantly clear.

Little did Joe know that he was wrong.

Dead wrong.

"I still don't think it was right or you shooting the girl's horse like that. It was a fine animal," Abel said.

"If you hadn't chickened out, I wouldn't have had to. You're getting too soft for this stuff, Abel. You better harden up," Joe said as the sound of a shovel piercing the earth accompanied his words.

Clint took a step closer.

"Maybe I don't want to do this anymore, you know Joe? I think it's time we settle down," Abel commented honestly.

"Settle down? This is just the beginning, Abel. Once I get this money, I'll buy me some fancy duds, get cleaned up and come back here. Once Bliss Cooper belongs to me again, we'll have this whole spread to ourselves. We'll have money up to our ears," a laugh paired with Joe's words and made Clint's muscles tighten even more.

There was no way he was going to allow his brothers to hurt Bliss again. They had done enough of that three years ago.

"Why can't we just leave these people alone? We've taken too much from them already," Abel told Joe, remorse hinting in his voice.

Joe groaned. "You really feel bad for them, Abel? Have you forgotten that the boss threatened to cut us out of our share of this here money when she quit the gang? Said she was gonna return it. Humph!"

Clint inched closer to hear his brothers' words better.

"We're taking what we've earned, and that's the truth. If you want out, then you can cut out now and be done with it. I can do it myself," Joe said as the sound of a shovel being put to work accompanied his voice again.

"Answer me this, Joe," Abel said. "What if this Bliss doesn't want you back in spite of your efforts? What then?"

Clint held his breath.

"There are quite a few ways of getting a woman, Abel. If there's one thing her daddy won't stand, its impropriety. If things were to get... er... questionable between us and something were to happen, say, rumors about a baby? Well, then her daddy wouldn't have a choice but to marry her off to me. Then we'll get rid of the old man. It's as easy as it comes."

Joe's words lit a fuse inside of Clint. He drew his gun and pulled the hammer back, stepping away from the protection of the mesa wall and right into view of his brothers. He pointed the gun straight at Joe, feeling a fury building up inside if him that he hadn't felt before. It was almost enough to make him pull the trigger.

Joe froze and his hands shot straight up in the air. Clint clenched his teeth at his brother's villainy.

"Who do you think you are?" Clint growled out.

"I think I should be asking you the same question," Joe responded, swallowing hard.

"I thought that I made it abundantly clear that you were to stay off of Cooper property," Clint said, not taking his weapon or his gaze off Joe.

"And I thought that I made it clear that I was getting to this money. It's ours, we stole it fair and square," Joe replied.

"Nothing is fair and square about you, Joe. Nothing. Don't you think you've hurt Miss Cooper enough by making her marriage a failure? How could you hurt her further, even with a heart as sullied and vile as yours?" Clint squeezed the handle on his gun harder in anger.

"Hey, don't start throwing blame around, Clint. The divorce was her daddy's doing," Joe defended.

"You act like he as a choice. You better be thankful he didn't cut you down where you stood. It was more than you deserved," Clint found himself spitting out replies like Joe was the scum of the earth.

"Hey now, little brother. Watch your language. You act as if I want the little lady. She was fun for the first few weeks, but she got old after a while," Joe put his hands down as he spoke. "Who's to blame a man if he needed a real woman every once in a while? She was just a little kid, you know."
Clint clenched his teeth went after his brother, slamming him into the mesa wall. He braced his forearm against Joe's throat, threatening to choke him to death.

"Don't you ever, and I mean ever talk about Bliss like that again. Like she's to be lumped with the trash you pick up in a saloon." Clint pressed harder on his brother's throat. "She will be respected, and I will enforce it. If you ever so much as look at her crossways again, I swear I'll kill you where you stand. Do you hear me?"

"Clint, you're killing him!" Abel cautioned.

Clint realized how blue Joe's face was becoming and let him loose. Joe fell to the ground, rubbing his throat and taking deep, wanting breaths.

"You... act like she deserves more than I've given her," he managed to say through his gasps.

Clint hauled off and gave the man a swift kick in the ribs to make sure he'd never utter that phrase again. Joe fell from his hands and knees down to his side on the ground.

"What's wrong with you?" Clint asked him. "I don't know what's happened to you over these years. Used to you'd never speak like that about a lady."

Abel stepped forward. "A lot has happened since those days, Clint."

Clint looked down at Joe, who sat up and leaned against the mesa wall, holding his side.

Abel looked at the grave, only a few feet away from where they had been digging a hole in the ground, and Clint followed his gaze. Suddenly, it all became abundantly clear to him. He saw through the whole façade.

"Why'd you kill her, Joe?" he asked.

Joe snapped his head up, panic in his eyes. "What?"
"Why'd you kill the Boss?" Clint repeated.

"I didn't kill 'er," Joe said, his eyes darting to the ground.

"Oh, yes you did. I see right through you. I bet I know the whole story. You see, Boss had a little girl back in Arizona, didn't she? She wanted to get out of the gang so that she could enjoy her family like a normal woman would while she had the chance. You didn't like that, did you? No, because she was the brains of the outfit, wasn't she?" Clint began to pace the ground in front of Joe. "She hid the money so that you'd never find it without her help, and that didn't settle well with you, did it? And since she wasn't going to give you your share willingly, you decided that you would just take it, right?" Joe's eyes began to dart back and forth. "Only you were scared of what her husband might do if he caught you trying to persuade her, so you'd have to get her alone. Well, you finally did, didn't you? Right there on the top of this mesa. She wouldn't be very compliant to your wishes, and maybe she threw a few failures back up in your face. That didn't suit your fancy none too well. So instead of waiting for her to come around, you thought a threat would make her change her mind. You never expected to actually follow through with it, did you? You never expected to tighten that belt around her throat so hard that you actually killed her did you? No, so you threw her dead body over the edge to make it look like a stinkin' accident!"

Clint found himself growing angry as his brother's arms flew up to cover his head.

"Stop it! Stop it!" he pleaded like a child.

"You didn't stop, did you? No, you had to do more and more. You felt so bad about killing Bliss' mother that you actually thought marrying her daughter would set things to rights. That worked out real well for you didn't it? You can't hide from it anymore, Joe. The secret's out now. You've gotta face up to the fact that you're a murderer. That you took the mother away from a ten year old girl," Clint told him, squatting down in front of him.

Joe sat there and cried like a baby in front of him. "I didn't mean it. I swear that I didn't mean it."

"You may not have meant it, but you did it. You're lucky I don't shoot you square between the eyes." Clint stood on his feet and glared down at the man.

Joe looked up at him with terrified eyes.

"But I won't," Clint said. "That's just because we're brothers."

He pulled his gun out of its holster again and pointed it in Abel's general direction. "Move over there with Joe, Abel."

　So, there are only a few more chapters left! :O! I'm so sad and happy at the same time! Hope this was a good chapter for you guys!