XxXxX

3

Adam

Joe! He’s…. Oh God, he’s lying dead at my feet…in a pool of blood so vast I could almost drown in it. And Pa…Pa’s looking at me like he knows. He knows it was my fault.

“I tried, Pa! I tried! I…I couldn’t stop it! I just…couldn’t.”

But Pa knows the truth. He knows all of it. He knows about Nick Healey. He knows about all those banks. He knows everything. He’s scowling at me. He’s…glaring at me…with distrust…disappointment…hatred.

I did everything wrong. Everything. I led Joe into a trap back at that cabin. And now…now this. I should have known. I should have—

“Aaa-dammm….” Where’s that woman’s voice coming from? “Time to wake up, darling!” She’s singing her words. It sounds inviting…playful…wrong.

It’s a lie. Everything about her is a lie. Everything about this…all of it.

Even Joe?

Is that Joe lying at my feet or…or Nick Healey? I…can’t tell. The face keeps changing.

“Aaa-dammm!” she sings again. “Come now. You really must wake up.”

Wake up? From what? And where? Where am I? We’re not at the senator’s anymore, are we? No. That had been…days ago. Or…or weeks. I’m in a bed somewhere. But…where?

“You should be eager to wake up, darling. You’re finally home, after all. Or near enough, anyway.”

Home?

Wait…. We were in…in Folsom. At the hotel. Eating dinner, and…. The wine…. Doc put something into my wine, didn’t he?

“Oh, there you are, Adam. I can see you’re almost awake now.” The woman—Ruby—giggles beside me. “All this time, all you’ve been able to think about is home and that precious family of yours. Yes, yes, yes, I know. Well, I’ll tell you what, dearest. You just have one more job to do. Then it will all be over. There won’t be anything or anyone else for you to worry about. And you’re going to do that job right here in Virginia City.”

Virginia City? I blink until the light stops dazzling my eyes, and then…. Maybe. Maybe this could be Virginia City. I don’t know. All I can tell is this isn’t the hotel in Folsom. But I’m still trapped. Still caught in the grip of a nightmare with Ruby, aren’t I? With Ruby and Mac…and their gang of cutthroats.

“There you are! Good morning, my sweet!” She smiles at me as a lover might, as though she’d shared my bed.

The thought sickens me. I have to hold my eyes closed for a moment, fight the nausea.

“I suppose I should say, ‘good afternoon.’ It’s quite late, actually. Very nearly the end of the business day. Oh, come now. Let me look at those gorgeous eyes of yours.” Her audible sigh makes me envision a pout on her face. “Well then, fine. You ought to be excited about being back in Virginia City. We arrived last night. You wouldn’t have liked the travel arrangements, I’m afraid. That’s why we had Doc drug you for the trip. We did the whole pioneer thing, covered wagon and all. You’re probably still a little stiff and sore from that trunk the boys had to carry you in. We couldn’t let anyone see you too soon.”

They smuggled me into Virginia City? Why?

“Ah, yes!” She’s smiling at me again. “I always did love those eyes, Adam Cartwright. Just imagine all the trouble you could have avoided if you’d turned those eyes my way back when it mattered, back when I was still a naïve little mouse who didn’t even know how to dream up anything grander than the idea of settling down with you and having your children.”

Her smile has gone cold. I’m not surprised. This is the Ruby I’ve come to know.

“Oh, but I’m not that mouse anymore, am I?” She’s still talking.

I need to pull my thoughts together, to clear the fog from my head…and my vision.

“Maybe I should actually thank you, Adam. Or…or reward you for helping me to see how much more exciting life could be. Yes!” Her cold smile is growing broader, colder. “I believe I shall reward you. Here’s what your reward shall be. If you do exactly as you’re told this one last time, you won’t end up like Rachel Henderson or Marjorie Simmons.”

“What?” My voice is rough; my throat, dry. “What did you do to them?”

“I had them driven out of town, for starters!” Rage. That’s what’s reflected in the narrowing of her eyes, the pull of her brow. “This is the Simmons’ home you’re in right now. Or it was, anyway. Mister Simmons had to sell it when his dear daughter was forced to leave in humiliation. Her hard earned reputation was quite horrifically and irreparably sullied when word got out about the pregnancy she’d aborted.” In an instant, rage gives way to…glee. “It’s simply astounding what well placed rumors can do.” Now she’s angry again, her eyes are darkening. “Even poorly placed ones. Do you know Marjorie laughed at me, last summer? She and Rachel, both. They drove me out of town with that laughter and gossip of theirs.”

“You….” I have to clear my throat to chase away the dryness. “You drove yourself out of town, and you know it.”

“I know no such thing! No. They did it, right along with you and that miserable little brother of yours. You….” She’s pacing now, her arms crossed rigidly beneath her bosom. “You turned me away! That was bad enough, but Little Joe? Everyone knows Little Joe Cartwright would never refuse a dance with a pretty girl. But he did refuse me, didn’t he? He not only refused to dance with me, he pushed me away like I was poison. That was all the women in this town needed to get them to start spreading a poison of their own.” She stops pacing to glare at me, her arms still crossed. “That little brother of yours made a mockery of me—and I never even wanted him to begin with! I wanted you, Adam. All I wanted to do was make you jealous enough to give me another look. But you couldn’t be bothered! And then Little Joe just made everything worse.”

I’m awake enough now to pull myself to the side of the bed. Thank God! I’m still wearing the clothes I’d had on before that dinner in Folsom. Perhaps Ruby’s…interest…is finally waning.

I can feel that stiffness she mentioned. I’m stiff and weak. I wonder how long it’s been since I’ve eaten. And…for how long did they keep me drugged? Not for as long as they’d drugged Joe, certainly. But then again, I don’t have a concussion to make things worse. At least…I don’t think I do. My head’s sure pounding. “Is that what all this is about?” Maybe I should check. Run a hand through my hair. “Revenge for your own bad behavior?” No, there are no lumps or sore spots. But my hair sure is long. Far too long. And my face…. Lord, do I need a shave.

“Now, here’s what you’re going to do, Adam Cartwright.” Her glare rivals what I’d received from Pa in my dream. “You are going to pretend to rob the Virginia City bank.”

“Pretend?”

“Yes. Pretend. We’ll be there, too, of course. But…as customers. Innocent victims of Adam Cartwright’s rampage. Everyone will be so focused on you and this gun, they’ll pay no notice to us.” She’s over at the bureau, grabbing something from the top. An ivory handled revolver. What’s this? She’s walking toward me with it. Is that…? “Go ahead and take it. It’s empty, of course; and it’s going to stay that way.”

It is Joe’s. Damn them! What have they done? “Where did you get this?” I can barely speak. My stomach is churning with acid; my heart is pounding in my throat so heavily I wish I could vomit to force it out. “How…did you get it?”

I grip the gun in an iron fist and turn my glare to Ruby.

Her own glare is gone, but there’s a devil in its place. “Sam’s partner took it. He pulled it right out of Little Joe’s holster—which Little Joe was indeed wearing at the time.”

“No.” I can’t believe it. Please, God; please don’t force me to believe it. “You wouldn’t. What reason would I have to do this one last job for you if you’ve already had my brother killed?”

“Oh, he’s hurt. Your knife did a fair amount of damage, I’m sure. But he’s not quite dead. Not yet. Of course, it will be a simple matter to finish the job, if you don’t do as we say.”

“Joe was stabbed? With my knife?” I can see Nick Healey again…and then Joe, in my dream.

“Appropriate, don’t you think?

I have to unclench my jaw to answer her. “I can think of many words for the things you do, Ruby; but ‘appropriate’ is certainly not one of them.”

“Well I don’t happen to care what you think. What matters is the job. Your brother has been rendered helpless yet again, and there is no one with him at the moment to guard his safety. He’s been left alone with Doctor Martin. We can and will kill him if you refuse our demands.”

“No.” I jumped to my feet a little too quickly…have to fight the dizzying spin of the room. “You’ve just proved you’re lying.” There. I’ve regained enough balance to point an accusatory finger at the tip of her nose. I can feel my glare deepening, darkening…matching my father’s in the dream. “If Joe had been hurt, either my father or Hoss would stay with him. They would not leave him alone, especially after all that has happened.”

“Not even to save you?”

I feel her words like a punch to my stomach, pressing the breath from my lungs…nearly toppling me back to the bed. “What?”

“They’re scouring this town looking for you right now—your pa, Hoss, Sheriff Coffee, and every friend and enemy you’ve ever had. Even strangers are looking for you.”

Strangers? “Why?”

She’s returning to the bureau, reaching for something else. A piece of paper? A wanted poster…. My wanted poster. “Because of these.”

So…it’s true. I knew I’d heard my name called out back at the senator’s estate. But why…why has it taken so long for this? I’ve seen the newspaper stories. Mac has made it a point to read everything he can find on the crimes they’ve been…we’ve been committing. Nothing was ever written about me…about my involvement, neither at the senator’s, nor anywhere else. I don’t understand. I don’t—

“The posters arrived on yesterday’s stage. I’ve been so looking forward to seeing them!”

“You already knew?” How?

She ignores my question. “Sheriff Coffee tried to keep it quiet for a while, at least until he could warn your family. But after what happened to Little Joe, well…the whole town’s talking about it now.”

And suddenly the poster doesn’t matter anymore. “What happened?” My words are a whisper. I have no strength to speak louder. “What happened to Little Joe? Tell me.”

“The only thing you need to know is that he’s still alive. And if you want to keep him that way, you will pretend to rob that bank, using Little Joe’s gun. No one is going to know it’s not loaded. All they’ll know is that Adam Cartwright is no longer the man they remember. They won’t trust you. They’ll even fear you. And they’ll be so focused on saving themselves, they won’t notice a couple of innocent customers trying to take cover near the safe and money drawers.”

“You’re mad.” What’s worse is that she doesn’t even care.

She shrugs off the insult. “Maybe so. But according to everyone in this town right now, it’s you who is mad.”

What can I say? What can I do to stop a mad woman? I shake my head, bewildered as much by the drugs still swimming through my thoughts as by the madness of her words. I feel…defeated. Finally and thoroughly defeated. “I can’t possibly survive this, you know. After seeing that poster, there will be a dozen men aiming to gun me down the minute I walk out of that bank. I’ll never make it to the jail.”

She’s shrugging again, clearly unconcerned about my wellbeing—or my brother’s. “If you don’t do it, you already know what’ll happen to Joe. It’s you or him, just like it’s been since we started all this.”

I close my eyes and try to fill my lungs; but the air is stale, musty…and thick with her sickening perfume. “All right,” I concede. “I’ll do it. But…not until I can see Joe.”

“Mac figured you’d say as much. Here.” She’s pulling an oversized hat and long duster from a stand by the door. “Put these on. There’s no sense letting anyone recognize you before we’re ready.”

I feel as though I’m borrowing Hoss’s clothes. Hoss…. I can’t help but feel an all-too-familiar ache. I wish I could have time to explain, time to…apologize.

But…too much time has passed already. No, there is no time left.

By tonight, one way or another, this nightmare is coming to an end.

XxXxX

Joe

“Joe?”

That’s Adam. He’s here? Adam! Why can’t I answer?

Nothing makes sense. I can’t talk, can’t even open my eyes. And I’m sure Adam is sitting on the floor, on the other side of the cabin; but I’m also sure that’s his hand on my arm.

“Joe? Listen to me, Joe.”

Wait…. This isn’t the cabin, is it? There’s a mattress under me. And it’s warm here, not cold. But…Doc…. He gave me something. He must have. I can’t wake up. I know I need to wake up, but….

“You are not to blame, Joe. Do you hear me? Not for any of it.”

Adam? Don’t go, Adam. Don’t go with them.

I’ve got to wake up. Got to…got to tell Adam we can fight them. I’ve got to help Adam fight them.

“The only ones to blame are Ruby, Mac and the others.”

“That’s enough, Adam.” Ruby? Yes. Ruby’s here, too. Of course, she is. “You can see he’s alive. Now get moving. The bank will be closing in less than an hour.”

Bank? What bank? We’re still in the cabin, aren’t we?

“I’ll go,” Adam answers, “when your men do.”

“That wasn’t the plan.” Ruby’s angry. I don’t think I’ve heard her angry before. She was always laughing…or…or giggling.

“It is now.” Adam…. He’s why she’s angry. “If this is my last job, I’ve got one last chance to keep my brother safe. And I intend to use that chance.”

What’s going on, Adam? What job? I’ve got to wake up, got to—

“You can keep him safe by doing as you’re told!” Ruby’s shouts are helping. She’s helping to pull me awake. “Now move!”

But Adam doesn’t need to yell. He can hold his ground just fine without yelling. Better than fine. “I’m not going anywhere unless I know you’ll keep your part of the bargain. That means no one touches Joe. And that means there’s no reason for these hired killers of yours to stay here with him.”

Adam? I’m breathing harder now…getting closer. I can almost call out to him. Almost….

“I’m a bounty hunter, mister. I ain’t no killer.”

That man’s voice…. I know that voice.

“Killer’s a word they use for men like you, not me.”

The alley….. I remember now. I heard that voice in the alley. He had Adam’s knife. And…the poster. Adam! I remember! Like Hell, he’s no killer! He stabbed me, Adam!

I need to wake up. Damn it! I told Pa and Doc Martin…. I told them I didn’t want to take any medicine. I told them I couldn’t.

“If you’re not a killer,” Adam says, “then what’s your business here, threatening an innocent man?”

“To get to you.”

“Well here I am. Now what?”

“Admm….” You have to run, Adam! Don’t let him…. Don’t—

“Joe?” Adam’s hand is on my arm again. “Easy Joe. Everything’s going to work out just fine.”

How can it? How can it work out just fine? He’ll kill you, Adam! You know he’ll kill you!

“No, no, no, no, no!” Ruby’s really mad, now. “You’re all messing up the plan! You, Pete! Your job is outside the bank. Sam? You stay here, and—”

“No one stays here!” Adam shouts back at her. “Now send these men away!”

“No one sends me nowhere.” That’s the bounty hunter talking…the man who stabbed me. “I go where I choose to go.”

“Is that right?” Adam answers in that calm voice of his again. “Then why is it you’ve been working for Ruby and Mac for at least two months, now?”

“The money was good,” the bounty hunter tells him. “But now those wanted posters tell me the money for turnin’ you in is better.”

“Why you little—” Ruby’s spittin’ nails about now.

I don’t much care what she’s got to say to that bounty hunter. I’ve got to reach my brother. “Adam!” I force my eyes open and try to catch my breath. Why do I feel like I’ve just run all the way from the Ponderosa? It doesn’t matter. I need to help Adam.

But…the man next to me…. It’s not Adam. I thought I’d see Adam, but…. This man is the bounty hunter, isn’t he? He’s wearing a long coat, just like…like the man in the alley. And…my gun! My gun is in his belt.

“Adam!” I have to grab my gun…have to…have to take it back. Damn it! I’m too clumsy…and too slow. He’s trying to hold me down…to keep me from my gun. “Adam!” I’ve got to reach my gun. “Adam!” But—

“Joe! It’s me, Joe!” The voice is Adam’s. But it’s not Adam…is it? “Settle down! I’m right here!”

“Adam?” No, this isn’t the man in the alley…not the bounty hunter. His hair is different. His beard is darker, thicker. And he sounds like Adam, but…the coat…my gun…. No. How could it be?

“I know I haven’t shaved in a while,” Adam’s voice tells me, “but do I really look so different?” He’s talking like…like there’s nothing to worry about. Like it’s some kind of joke. And…he’s taking off his hat.

I can finally see his eyes.

His eyes….

“Adam!”

He’s smiling like there’s nothing to worry about, too. I can’t help but smile back. But there is something to worry about, isn’t there? Ruby’s here, and the bounty hunter, and—

I hear a familiar click near my ear. Someone’s got a gun…and is ready to shoot it.

Adam’s eyes look past me. He won’t let go of my arm, won’t let me turn to see who’s there. I don’t have the strength to fight him. I don’t want to fight him.

“Sorry, Pete.” The man behind me…his voice is familiar, too. But not from the alley. Had he been at the cabin? “The bounty’s easy money; but the bank’s better money. I vote for stickin’ with the plan.”

Adam’s lips are thin, his words, hissed. “Killing my brother after I’ve already agreed to go with you is not in the plan.”

“Agreeing and doin’ are two different things. Prove you’re gonna do it, and I’ll let your brother go. But if you’re just gonna stay here and bicker about it, then I’m gonna blow his sorry brains all over that borrowed coat of yours.”

Adam’s not gonna let that happen. I can see it in his eyes. I trust what I see in my brother’s eyes far more than whatever that hired gun has to say. “If you pull that trigger now, the only job any of you will have left to do is to run as fast and as far as you can. They will hear you. And they will catch you.”

“Damn you, Adam!” Ruby’s looking at the man behind me now. “All right, Sam, put that thing away. We don’t have time for all this nonsense. We have to go now!”

Adam’s pressing something into my hand…something thin…steel…a surgical knife?

A weapon.

They must not have seen him. He waited to give it to me, waited until they were looking at each other instead of him.

Our eyes meet. He’s giving me a small nod. He’s ready to fight. I nod back to show him I’m ready, too. I’ll slip the knife under my blanket. I don’t know how much good I’ll do. I’m still lightheaded…clumsy…and this wound is hurting like the devil. It’s sure to slow me down. But I’m not gonna just lay back and let Adam go. No, not this time. Not ever again.

XxXxX

Adam

Joe was afraid of me.

When I saw him open his eyes, I was relieved…but only for an instant—until I saw that he was afraid of me.

Of me.

For that moment, I thought he actually believed those posters. Where I had hoped to see an understanding I lacked in myself, I saw fear. He knew what I’d done. He knew what was true—just like my father in the dream. For that moment, that brief, horrific moment, I thought Little Joe saw me as a killer, a murderer…a stranger. But it was the strangeness of my appearance that caused his fear, not the wanted poster. Yes. The coat, the hat…even the new beard had made me a stranger to Joe.

The beard…. I can’t help but figure that’s also part of Ruby’s grand plan, to make me appear even less like the Adam Cartwright the good people of Virginia City have come to know. Ruby and her men had allowed me to shave until last week. I’d thought maybe they’d simply stopped trusting me with a razor, but not anymore. Not now. Even my own brother had found it hard to recognize me.

Thank God, Joe’s fear melted away once he knew it really was me standing over him; but the fact that it had been there for even a moment disturbs me. Little Joe is prone to react more with anger than with fear. Whatever happened that had led to Joe being stabbed, that was the cause of the fear I witnessed a moment ago. And it was the bounty hunter, Pete, who had brought it about. I know that now. If Sam had stabbed Joe, he would have made it count. Sam would have killed my brother. Sam would have seen to it that Joe was dead.

Yes. Pete’s the one who did this.

Pete…. I recognize him. He’s the drifter who’d asked for a job weeks before anyone would be ready to hire for spring roundup. There’d been something about him, something unsettling in the way he’d looked at everything—the barn, the house, the corral, even the bunkhouse. I’d been glad to turn him away and to watch him leave. But he hadn’t gone far, had he? He’d merely been getting his bearings. And I’d let him.

I’d let him get close.

By following Ruby’s—and Mac’s—demands, I’d given this…bounty hunter… free rein to Joe. And now, today…. Today he stabbed my brother with my knife.

Good Lord. I feel sick and angry and…despondent.

I can’t give in. I can’t let them win. Not anymore. All this time, everything I’ve done has been to protect Joe. And now look at him. He’s certainly in no shape to put up a fight. Forcing him into one could still kill him. Nor am I at my best. But we don’t have a choice.

Ruby agreed to bring me here to show me that the threat to Joe was real…to show me that my family had left him alone, vulnerable. My family’s absence had made it easy for her gang to take over Paul Martin’s office. Ruby brought me here not because I had demanded it, but only to prove to me that Joe is now at the mercy of both the man who’d stabbed him and the man who I know for a fact would not hesitate to kill him. She wanted to force my hand, to make me willingly give up my life so she could empty the Virginia City bank.

Instead, she has proved to me that, whether or not I do as I’m told, Joe will be killed. Sam’s presence here makes that very clear.

I am not leaving my brother in the hands of that…that cutthroat. No. I’m not leaving him at all. I made that mistake once already.

But how do I turn this to our favor? The scalpel I’d managed to take from the tray beside me will be useless against a gun. And even if it gives Joe an extra minute or two, it won’t stop Sam from doing what he’s wanted to do all along. Somehow, I have to be the one to stop that monster. I must disarm them both…both Sam and Pete.

“Do it, Sam!” Ruby orders. “Put down your gun.”

There. He’s giving in to Ruby’s demands for now. But he’s keeping his hand close. He’s ready to mutiny. He’s changed in recent weeks. I’ve seen his manner beginning to shift—as has Ruby’s. The more comfortable she’s grown with giving orders, the less so he’s become with following them. Mac, too…. He’s been spending more time away.

With Pete, it’s different. He hasn’t been subjected to Ruby’s constant demands. He hasn’t been riding with us, living with us, planning with us. And while Sam is ready to kill Joe, Pete’s attention is focused on me. He wants the bounty offered in that poster.

As for Ruby, she’s the least of my troubles in this room. Look at her. She’s biting the side of her finger. She’s nervous this time. I’ve never seen her so anxious, so worried. “Pete!” she hollers. “Grab Adam and drag him outside if you have to!”

Doesn’t she realize Pete’s not interested in her bank job anymore? The only place he’s going to drag me to is the jail. I might even survive the journey, if there’s no one else in the street to take notice. But Joe won’t survive once I’m gone. No. I can’t let Pete come any closer.

I’ve got to take advantage of Ruby’s nervousness. “You’d better think twice about that order, Ruby.” Still, I can’t take my eyes from the bounty hunter. “If he does as you say, it won’t be to go to the bank.”

Her eyes widen…then narrow. “You know better than that, Pete. Mac will—”

“Why worry about Mac and Ruby,” I say to Pete, “when you can go your own way?”

Pete’s lip is curling into a grimace…or a snarl. “Why don’t you mind your own business?”

“If you’re thinking about turning me in for that bounty, I’d say that’s very much my business.”

How long has it been since Pa and Hoss were here? Even if they did find it necessary to leave Joe alone, surely they would plan to check on him frequently. And Paul…. Where is Paul? I have to assume he’s here, somewhere. I also have to assume they’ve done something to keep him out of the way. Does that mean Doc—the man they call ‘Doc,’—is here, too?

“Just move!” Ruby’s starting to get frantic. “We’ve been here too long as it is.”

Things aren’t looking good—not for them, or for Joe and me. I need to put myself between him and these men. “Your plan doesn’t seem to be working very well, Ruby. Where’s Mac? It might be a good idea to get his help.”

Joe’s tensing. He sees me moving away. Good. That means he’s paying attention. He’s aware of what’s happening. He’ll be as ready as he can be for whatever is going to happen next.

I only hope I’m ready.

Please, Pa…Hoss…now would be an ideal time for you to come back, to check on Joe.

I know my family wouldn’t abandon Joe for long. They must be planning to check on him soon. It would have taken Ruby’s men time to break in here, and then to do—whatever they did—to Paul. Enough time must have passed to suggest theirs is running out. Someone is bound to come by and interrupt them at any moment.

And if someone is close, perhaps already en route, the shouting we’ve been doing would issue a proper warning.

Yes, there is reason to hope. Even so, I can’t expect any help in this. I have to assume—

Wait. What’s that? The back door was nudged open, just a fraction. And there…I caught a glimpse of something—the barrel of a gun, perhaps.

“I don’t need Mac’s help!” Ruby is still shouting. “These men know I’m the one who gives the orders. I’m the—”

“Shut your mouth, woman!” Sam hollers back. “I’ve had enough of your cackling to last a lifetime. I don’t take orders from anyone, no more than Pete does.”

Ruby isn’t losing control, no. She’s already lost it. “How dare you! Both of you! You can’t back out now. You can’t—”

Sam’s got his gun out again, but it’s not aimed at me. He’s pointing it at Ruby.

And Pete’s attention has turned from me to them. There’s a gleam in his eye, the start of a smile. He’s enjoying the show.

No one else has noticed the figure at the door. That could mean they know who’s there, but I doubt it. It can’t be Mac—he’d have taken charge by now. Maybe it’s either Doc or Gabe…or both. If Paul Martin’s door had been locked—and, with Joe here, I assume it had—Gabe would have been the man to provide Sam and Pete with access. I’ve never seen Doc or Gabe in a fight before. I wouldn’t know what to expect from either of them—but I can’t bring myself to expect much. Both strike me as the type to avoid a fight rather than barge into one.

“What are you doing?” Ruby’s frightened now. She has good reason to be.

I’m frightened, too, but certainly not for her. I’m also ready. Whoever’s at that back door, I can only pray he’s friend rather than foe—because I won’t find a better time to act.

XxXxX

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