Chapter 27
The wind howled through the cracked windows of the saloon where Austin and his men were huddled together.
To his right sat Maxwell, who appeared to be just as worried as he was.
They had pulled a couple of tables together.
All in all, there were twelve of them. It was a sizable number, but Austin would have preferred it if it were bigger.
Austin sat hunched over a battered map, his wide-brimmed hat casting shadows over his eyes. There were eight Xs marked on the map, one for each of his men who had been murdered. Some had died from a single gunshot, others from wounds inflicted by blades.
“They are coming for me,” Austin stated.
“For all of us. But they’re leaving me for last.” These masked men knew who he was.
They knew he was the leader of the gang.
Austin just had no idea how they knew that.
He had always been extra careful to cover his crimes.
They never left evidence or witnesses. Nobody should know, but somehow they did.
“They are hunting us,” Maxwell added as he stood up and walked over to the window, his hand resting on his pistol.
Austin looked back at the map and traced a line with his finger, connecting the dots. They were getting closer. “These masked men want us to know that they are coming. They’re not even trying to hide what they are doing.”
Maxwell came back to the table and took his seat next to Austin. He poured himself a drink and then pulled the map closer. “So what’s the plan?”
That was the problem. Austin didn’t know what to do. “We could flee,” he suggested. “Go to Mexico and start new lives. We’ve got enough money to do it, but I don’t know if it will help. If they’ve found us once, they could find us again.”
“You want to stay and fight?” one of his men asked.
Austin took a sip of his drink. “I don’t think we have much of a choice.”
“Who do you think they are?” Maxwell asked.
It was the first time in all the years that Austin had known him that he sounded scared.
Austin shrugged. “I have no idea. They haven’t left any clues, but what I do know is that they are trained killers.”
“You think it is the same two men who killed all of them?” the young man sitting across from Austin asked.
“I do. The murders all took place weeks apart. They are traveling from place to place and killing us along the way.”
“So we stick together,” Maxwell said. “And make a stand. We let them come to us, and then we put an end to their killing streak.”
There was a murmur of agreement around the table.
***
Jace’s heart fluttered at the sight of Millie smiling at him. She was sitting on a blanket next to her vegetable garden. She had always brought a small blanket to sit on, just big enough for her, but for the last couple of days, she had been bringing a bigger one so that he could sit with her.
As he sat down, she pulled her basket closer and started unpacking its contents. Yesterday, for the first time since they had met, she had given him a note. It wasn’t an elaborate letter, just a simple request:
Don’t pack a midday meal tomorrow. I’ll bring food for both of us.
As instructed, Jace didn’t bring any dinner and was delighted to see that she had packed a whole picnic for them. It was a welcome surprise, especially after what had happened the other day.
Jace could still remember it as if it had just happened.
He had come to the garden to have a midday meal with Millie, but she hadn’t been there.
He immediately knew that something was wrong and had sprinted to Margaret’s house.
The door to the kitchen had been left open, and the sight that had greeted him terrified him.
Millie had been sitting on the kitchen floor, crying and sobbing as she rocked back and forth.
Blade had run over to her and crouched down beside her.
In his panic, he had reached out and touched her arm, wanting to comfort her.
The scream that had escaped her throat as she recoiled from him still haunted his dreams.
Dr. Masterson and Blade had warned him about her episodes, and he had quickly figured out that she was having one.
It had taken a while, but eventually, Jace had managed to calm her down.
It was one of the worst moments of his life.
In that moment, he had felt completely useless.
He had wanted to help her so badly, but there wasn’t much that he could do except try to calm her down.
“This”—Jace gestured at the spread between them—“looks delicious.”
Millie graced him with another one of her beautiful smiles. He lived for them and could easily get lost in them.
She touched her hand to her heart, a gesture he had learned meant thank you.
“It’s the truth,” he told her, eyeing the food.
His stomach chose that moment to rumble, and he watched as Millie laughed silently.
She hadn’t made any sound since he met her, except for that horrible scream.
It meant that her voice still existed, but maybe she could only use it while having an episode, when she wasn’t aware of what she was doing.
He was trying hard to figure it out, desperate to come up with an answer.
Against his better judgment, Jace had allowed himself to fall for Millie.
He knew it wasn’t a clever thing to do, but he simply couldn’t stop it from happening.
She was perfect in every way. Jace knew that it was likely she would never return his feelings and that all he would ever get from her was friendship.
He wanted more, but he would settle for whatever she was willing to offer him.
Millie’s happiness and well-being had become the most important thing to him.
As they ate, he wondered if she would ever talk again.
It didn’t matter to him personally. He would learn her and Blade’s sign language and write her letters, but it would make her life so much easier and better.
That was what he wanted for her: a happy life where she could thrive and enjoy everything the world had to offer.
After Millie had snapped out of her episode that day in the kitchen, she had been scared and tired.
Jace knew better than to try to get her to eat or do anything else, for that matter.
Instead, he made her tea and told her to go to bed and rest. She closed her bedroom door behind her, and he sat on the couch for hours, waiting until she emerged from her room again.
Once he was sure that she was all right, he left. The next day, she was waiting to eat dinner with him in the garden again. He hadn’t mentioned what had happened, scared to upset her, but there was something he needed her to know.
His stomach clenched with nerves as he focused his attention on her. “I like to believe that we are friends,” he said. “And I want you to know that I think you are absolutely amazing just the way you are.”
Millie’s eyes lit up, and her cheeks turned a pale shade of red. She touched her heart again. Thank you, she signed.
“I also want you to know that I am perfectly okay with it if you never talk again, but if you ever decide that you want to try, I am here to help you.”
The expression on Millie’s face changed, and for a second, Jace felt like kicking himself. He shouldn’t have said anything about it to her. Dr. Masterson had warned him that it was a sensitive subject.
Millie looked down at her hands, and when she looked up again, tears filled her eyes, but she smiled.
“Oh no,” Jace whispered. “Please don’t cry.” He had no idea what to do.
Millie shook her head and touched her heart for the third time since he sat down. She thanked him for wanting to help.
“You’re most welcome,” he told her. “Whatever you need, I’m here for you.”