Chapter 20 #3
Sonny Bluejacket, the rancher who lived south of Crossroads, was feeding horses when he had one of his visions.
He could see the robbers entering the bank and the getaway driver out front.
And then he saw Gunner Kingston arriving on the scene and knew it was going to get dicey before the sheriff had time to arrive.
He dropped what he was doing, snagged a handful of bungee cords, ran into the house long enough to tell his wife, Maggie, what was happening, then grabbed his rifle and took off running toward his truck.
* * *
The getaway driver, Jackie Rankin, was completely focused on the front door of the bank when the door against which he was leaning suddenly opened.
He reached for the steering wheel to catch himself from falling when someone grabbed him by the collar, yanked him backward, and shoved the barrel of a gun so hard into his ear he felt it pop.
The voice of the man behind him was a shock.
“Don’t move. I will shoot you where you sit. How many are inside the bank?”
Jackie’s life suddenly flashed before his eyes. He was twenty-four years old. There was a man he couldn’t see holding a gun in his ear, and he’d just swallowed his chew and peed his pants. He didn’t feel obliged to be a hero.
“Two… There’s two. Don’t kill me, mister. Don’t kill me!”
“Thanks for the info,” Gunner said, then knocked him out cold with the gun butt, dragged him out of the car, and popped the trunk before tossing him inside, then pocketed the keys and headed for the bank.
He had two choices. Go inside and possibly cause a gunfight, or wait for them to come out, but as he reached the bank, the decision was made for him.
He caught a glimpse of two men running for the exit and stepped to the side of the bank.
No sooner had they come flying out the door than Gunner stepped out behind them.
“Freeze. Drop the guns! Hands in the air, or I’ll shoot you where you stand! Your driver is indisposed, and I have the keys to your car.”
They looked at each other and turned in unison, firing wildly.
Gunner hit the ground belly first and shot one in the knee and the other one in the shoulder.
Seconds later, he had confiscated both weapons and the money bags and was standing over them with his gun, calling the sheriff’s office.
The one with the shoulder wound was cursing and moaning, and the one with the shattered knee was screaming like a woman giving birth.
Fred Wilson, the vice president of the bank, came out holding a handkerchief to his nose to slow the bleeding from the sucker punch he hadn’t seen coming. Customers who’d been inside were coming out in hysterics, as well as the tellers who’d been on duty.
“Everybody okay in there?” Gunner asked.
“Yes! Oh my God, you caught them!” Wilson said.
“You all need to stay to give statements to Sheriff Reddick. Go back inside where it’s cool and take a seat.
Somebody make up an ice pack and put it on the back of Mr. Wilson’s neck.
It will slow the bleeding. You’re safe now,” Gunner said, and then he heard the roar of a big engine coming in from the south and saw a red pickup truck coming toward them on the fly.
The truck slid sideways before coming to a stop, and Sonny Bluejacket emerged in one leap. He had a rifle in one hand and a bunch of bungee cords in the other and came running toward Gunner.
“You’re good. Damn good, Kingston. I saw it happening. Got here as fast as I could,” Sonny said. “Didn’t have any handcuffs. Thought these might work.”
Gunner relaxed. Backup had arrived. “Good to see your face, Sonny. If you don’t mind, bungee up their ankles for me. Without the badge and the cuffs, I am no longer an official officer of the law. We’re waiting on Sheriff Reddick’s men to show.”
“They’re five minutes away,” Sonny said and knelt down beside the one with the shoulder wound who was lying on his back moaning and cursing, and trussed his ankles up tight, then moved to the other one.
“I’m going to wrap this above your knee to slow down the bleeding, and you need to stop screaming.
If you were man enough to pull a gun on people and rob them, you are man enough to take the pain. ”
But when Sonny began wrapping the bungee cord around his leg, just above the place where he’d been shot, the thief let out a shriek and passed out, leaving Sonny to finish the job in peace.
They were standing together when cars from the sheriff’s department came flying past the Tumbleweed and the Yellow Rose and took a skidding turn south up the street to the bank.
Moments later, an ambulance rolled up behind them. Sheriff Reddick got out, as did a half-dozen deputies, saw the scene, and waved in the EMTs.
Gunner handed over his weapon. “I had the drop on them when they came out of the bank. They weren’t inclined to give up, and both started firing first. I think you will find enough cartridges around where they are lying to back that up, along with some bullet holes in the side of the bank behind me.
The getaway driver is in the trunk of the car,” Gunner said, then remembered the car keys he’d confiscated.
“Oh…and here are the keys to said car. All of the witnesses to the robbery are in the bank. I sent them back to wait where it was cool. The only injury is Mr. Wilson’s broken nose. ”
Reddick glanced at Sonny. “And how, pray tell my psychic friend, did you come to be involved in all this?”
“I was at the ranch when I saw it happening. Unfortunately, I got here too late to assist, but I did furnish the bungee cords,” Sonny said.
Reddick shook his head. “Dang psychic and a one-man army. You two would make quite a team.”
“No, thanks. Maggie and horses are my world. Am I good here?” Sonny asked.
“Give one of the deputies your contact information for the record, and say hello to Maggie for me,” Reddick said and reached out to shake Gunner’s hand.
“It is good you came back to Crossroads. They need a man like you here. You’ll get your weapon back soon.
You know the drill. It just needs to be processed. ” Then he went inside the bank.
“Thanks for the backup, Sonny,” Gunner said. “It’s my good fortune you aren’t at the Dillon Ranch today with some of your horses.”
“Some of my horses are there with Chris Jackson, my foreman. Maggie isn’t well. Morning sickness. We are having twins.”
Gunner beamed. “Congratulations, man! That’s wonderful.”
“Maggie told Pearl this morning. Likely you will be hearing all about it tonight.” And then he tipped his hat, ran back to the truck with his long hair flying, and drove away.
Gunner gave his contact info to a deputy. “I’ll email a written statement to the sheriff’s office by the end of the day,” he added, then got in his car and drove back to the Rose.
Dale Curry saw him enter and stood up, pale and shaky as he awaited the verdict.
“Crisis averted. Three thieves in custody. Mr. Wilson probably has a broken nose. Everyone else is okay, and the money is back in the bank.”
“Thank the lord!” Dale said. “What did you do?”
“Stopped them. You can go back to the bank now. The sheriff is on-site,” Gunner said and then looked at the table where he’d been sitting. “Did someone eat my breakfast?”
When Pearl heard his voice, she came flying out of the kitchen.
“Are you hurt again?”
Gunner grinned. “No, ma’am.”
“Then sit. I put your food in the warmer,” she said.
By the time he sat, she was on her way out with his eggs and bacon and a basket of fresh biscuits hot from the oven.
She put them down at his place and then hugged his neck.
“I said a prayer,” she whispered, then patted the top of his head like he was six and went back into the kitchen.
Gunner grinned at the customers watching their moment. “I’m not in too much trouble. She brought hot biscuits.”
The customers laughed, and the temperament in the room went back to normal. As he was eating, it occurred to him that gossip might be spreading faster than the butter melting on his biscuit, and he sent Holly a text.
There was an attempted robbery at the bank. The thieves were caught. No one got hurt. I’m fine. Hope you’re having a good day.
He was just finishing his meal when he got a text back from Holly.
Last-rooster-standing-at-the-cockfight fine, or really, truly fine?
He grinned, turned the phone around and took a selfie, then sent it to her.
Might be some butter and jelly on my face, but no blood. I swear.
He got an LOL and a heart emoji. Between Pearl and Holly’s reactions, it was like getting a blessing from the pope.
What he didn’t know was that his knee-jerk reaction to danger, and the way he’d stepped up to the plate for a town without any law, had started people thinking—wondering—hoping—talking…that the Kingston who’d come home might be the answer to their prayers.
* * *
Reddick returned Gunner’s weapon a few weeks later, and one month spilled into another and another.
Gunner and Holly took all the stolen moments they could find to be together, until finally, the house was only days from completion, and they’d taken early residence inside.
The contractor was still waiting for the chandelier that went over the dining table, and there were two big area rugs to be delivered. It was none too soon.
It was the first of October. The days were already cold, and the ever-present wind sharper than ever.
The furniture from their storage unit in Dallas arrived the day before.
The furniture was in place. The massive bed was in the primary bedroom, but they were digging through boxes, looking for linens and towels, and unpacking flatware and dishes, and pots and pans, and stocking the kitchen and the refrigerator and new freezer with food.
It was like playing house, furnishing rooms with the things they’d kept and adding the new pieces they’d picked out.
The wedding was still pending, and the big bed still had not been made. They couldn’t find the oversize sheets that fit it.
“I remember packing them. I remember loading up the U-Haul and unloading that box at the storage unit. They have to be here somewhere,” he muttered, then realized Holly was no longer in the room and went to look for her, but she was nowhere in the house.
“Holly! Where are you?” he shouted.
Then he heard her shouting from the garage. “Gunner! In here! I’m in here!” He walked in just in time to see her climbing up a stack of boxes that had been lined up against a wall, and he ran. “Holly! Stop! You’re gonna fall and break your pretty neck.”
“I found the box with your linens. It says linens on the side, and that’s your writing. It got mixed up with the boxes from my stuff. Is there anything breakable in this box, or is it all linens?”
“It’s all linens, but lord, girl. You don’t want to hurt yourself over a pair of sheets,” he said and then stood back as she gave it a shove off the stack, then walked the floor beside her as she made her way down.
As soon as she was standing on the lowest box, he swooped her off and into his arms. “Don’t ever fuss at me again for putting myself in danger,” he muttered.
She wrapped her arms around his neck. “Don’t be mad. This is important. We have to sleep in that bed together on our wedding night…with the sheets on and the covers ready to be pulled up against the cold. I dream about it in my sleep.”
He sighed. “Heard. But I’m carrying the box in the house, and I will pull every one of these boxes down to single level before we leave this garage, so sit and wait.”
“Heard,” she echoed and plopped down on the box she’d knocked down.
A few minutes later, they were on their way inside and going down the hall to the primary. Together, they unpacked the sheets, and together, they made up the bed.
“Are you satisfied now?” Gunner asked.
“Maybe we should take a test drive,” she said.
His eyes narrowed. “Test drive?”
She nodded.
“How far do you want to go?” he asked.
She put her hand in the middle of his chest, feeling the heart pounding beneath her hand. “As far as the ride will take us.”
He pulled the sweater she was wearing over her head and stripped her down to the skin. “How fast do you want me to drive?”
She closed her eyes, already locked into the blood rush. “You’re the roadrunner. Fast is the only gear you have. Just start the engine and gun it.”
He took her at her word.
It was the fastest ride she’d ever taken, and the farthest away she’d been. But it was the fall back into his arms she would never forget—or the words he had whispered in her ear.