Chapter 16
“Will, come here. I need your help. I want you to run and give your new Papa this message. It’s very important. And as soon as you give it to him, you come right back home to me. Do you understand what Mama wants you to do?” Angie asked him.
“Yes, Mama. You want me to find my Papa and give him this message and then come back home. Can I take Zeus with me? He can find Papa really quick.” Will asked her as he put on his coat, scarf, hat and gloves.
“No, not this time. He might run into the street and get hurt by a horse or wagon.” Angie told him as she wrote on a piece of paper telling Travis that Nash Bridger had arrived and was with two other men. She saw him come into Angel Falls and go by her home.
She gave the piece of paper to Will and saw him run on the boardwalk on the path that Travis had just traveled.
She prayed that she had done the right thing in sending her son to give the message to her husband.
But she wanted to warn him. She watched Will until he was out of sight, and then she prayed until she saw him return.
He was out of breath from running the entire way.
“I found him, Mama. He read the note and said to come home right away. He kissed me on the forehead. And told me that I was very brave, and that he loved me.” Will was so proud of what he had done for his mother.
He took off his coat, gloves, and scarf and hung them up.
He considered himself a big boy for being able to carry a note for his mother to his father.
Angie stood there listening for gunshots and praying that Travis and everyone else that Nash was seeking would be all right.
Travis took the note and ran to the mercantile to give Sam and Tate a heads up that Nash was in town.
Sam stayed calm. She had her kids go inside the store and upstairs to their home.
Chris and Cam were to keep them in their room and behind the closed door.
She and Tate were armed and had Jill go upstairs and out of range of the bullets, too.
Mike chose to stay and take the shotgun to help them shoot it out.
Tate sent him to the back of the warehouse just in case they came in from the back of the store.
Travis, Tate, and Sam were at the front. Red was covering the store from the roof. They were glad they had the heads up that they were in town, but they sure didn’t like the waiting game of when they were going to make their move on the store.
They didn’t have to wait long. Nash came riding up to the front door and started shooting as if they didn’t have U.
S. Marshals in a posse on their tails from breaking out of the territorial prison.
They acted as if they had all the time in the world to take Sam down and all she held dear.
As soon as the first shot rang out from Nash and his men, Sam, Tate, Travis, and Red shot back.
Nash wasn’t prepared for them to know he was even in town.
Nor was he ready for the amount of gunfire that reigned down on him and his two men.
It seemed to come from every direction while his men and himself seemed ineffective in placing their own bullets.
In minutes it was over. Nash, Turk, and Ed lay dead on the steps of the mercantile.
Mike came running with the shotgun to see if he was too late to help.
He wasn’t prepared for the sight of the three men lying dead in a pool of blood.
He turned away at the sight. Red just patted his shoulder and asked him to go and get the undertaker, that would help them out a lot.
Mike nodded gave him the shotgun, threw up, and then took off running.
Tate, Travis, and Sam all breathed a sigh of relief that the Nash Bridger problem was over and done with.
They didn’t have to worry about him coming after Sam ever again.
With three bodies to carry to the morgue, Travis helped him.
It took two people to carry the gurney. He and the undertaker had to make three trips.
Sam and Tate were scrubbing the blood off the steps so that it wouldn’t upset their customers.
Mike went into the store. He didn’t like seeing the dead men or all the blood.
He had thought he was a grown man, but maybe he wasn’t as grown up as he thought he was.
Seeing dead…bloody men was more than he could handle.
He was very pale as he stood behind the counter.
Sam came up to him after they had washed off the steps.
“Mike, you all right? It takes some getting used to seeing death right before you when only seconds before you they were alive, but when you know that they were coming to kill you or your loved ones. You have to make a choice…are you going to let them kill you or your husband or your brother or are you going to fight for what you love and believe in. In the past, I chose to fight for my life and for those I love. I don’t like killing, but I refuse to let anyone hurt the ones I love.
Think it over, Mike. Would you let anyone hurt Jill?
Or would you fight?” She patted Mike’s shoulder gently, but it did make him think about the entire battle a little differently.
He knew the kind of men they were. They were wanted for murder, theft, rape…
if they had gotten their hands on his sister…
they would have all taken a turn with her.
Rage filled his mind at the thought. Yes, he thought, I would have killed them.
I would have fought for Jill, or even Sam and Tate and their children.
He stood up and went back to work. He no longer felt so weak in the knees at the sight of the dead men.
They had gotten exactly what they deserved after all.
As soon as he had helped carry all three men to the morgue, Travis walked home almost in a trot to tell Angie that he was all right. She was almost in tears waiting to hear from him. She ran into his arms crying.
“Oh, Trav! I hated hearing the gunshots…there were so many of them, and then total silence. It was the silence that was the worst. I was imagining all sorts of things…you lying in a pool of blood, you needing medical attention and no one there to help you, you needing me and I wasn’t there to help you…
it was the not knowing that was killing me.
Thank you for coming to tell me that all was all right.
And thank God that no one was hurt on our side.
As soon as I saw them riding in, I knew who they were.
I’m so glad that Will found you and that you were prepared in time.
” Angie told him and held him and covered his face in kisses.
“Thank God you did. We had time to send the children upstairs to safety and Jill, too. Red was on the roof, Sam, Tate, and I were in the front of the store hunkered down behind some good blockage, Jill was upstairs with the children, and Mike was at the back of the store, just in case they came in from the back. To say they were surprised, was an understatement. They didn’t have a chance.
The only reason I wasn’t here sooner was that I had to carry the bodies to the morgue with the undertaker.
Tate and Sam were washing the blood off the steps of the mercantile so that it wouldn’t distress their customers, Red was sending a telegram to the U.S.
Marshals about their deaths. Jill had the children to control with Mike.
They heard the shots and were worried about their parents and wanted to make sure they were still alive.
I came as soon as I could. I love you Angie and will always come as soon as I can to reassure you that I am well and safe.
” Travis told her and kissed her over and over again.
He was ready to take her to the bedroom then and there. But he had to get back to work.
He did call Will to him and thank him for getting the message to him.
“It’s because of getting that message that we were able to capture three really bad men.
You are a hero in my book, Will. Thank you!
” He gave him a huge hug before he went back to work.
For Will, it was like getting a gold star from his new Pa.
Red could breathe easier now that Nash Bridger and his gang was taken care of.
He was just glad that no one was hurt on their side.
Thank heavens they got that message that they were in Angel Falls when they did.
It gave them time to get in position and get ready to meet him before he started shooting at Sam and her family.
If not, he would have shot Sam and her children without feeling any guilt at all.
Knowing Sam, she would have shot Nash and probably one of his men before they shot her and killed her.
But they would have killed several of her children with her.
It would have been a bloodbath. They were able to avoid that.
He thanked God for that over and over again.
Nash Bridger and his two men were buried in the cemetery without any fanfare the same day they died. The U.S. Marshals sent a telegram thanking the lawmen for a job well done. They were glad the wanted men were where they belonged…in hell.
Travis was finally off duty, and he could go home where he had wished he had been all day.
He walked into a home that smelled so good it made his mouth water.
Angie had made his favorite meal to celebrate their marriage.
Will and Bobby were thrilled that they now had a father again.
They all ate until they couldn’t eat anymore.
Travis started doing dishes while Angie gave the boys a bath and put them to bed.
He kissed both boys as they ran past him in their nightshirts.
Then, she took a bath and walked into the bedroom.
Travis wasted no time in jumping in the tub and taking a bath, too.
He pulled the plug, dried off, and walked into the bedroom with only a towel around his waist.
“Angie…I’ve been thinking about this all day, hell I’ve been thinking about making love to you for the last three months! I can’t believe that we’re married and I finally get to live out my fantasy and actually make love to my beautiful wife.” He told her as he walked toward her.
She was standing there in a white embroidered nightgown that only made her look even prettier.
Her hair fell to almost her waist and the look in her eyes made Travis feel like he was the only person in the world.
“I love you Travis…I have fantasies about you, too…in each of my fantasies you are wrapped around me, and I lose myself in you, and you in me. There’s no you and me…
we are one.” Angie told him and Travis felt like he was going to explode if he didn’t get to be inside her very soon.
He reached for her and brought her toward him; they began kissing and touching each other.
They didn’t have to stop tonight. The towel fell and the nightgown came off…
it felt heavenly to be able to touch her skin at last…
to touch his skin against her bare skin was ecstasy to her.
How could it be better than this? And then he took her breast into his hands…
his mouth, and she moaned. Her legs threatened to collapse.
He picked her up and lay her on the bed and laid down beside her.
Her hands roamed over his arms, his chest, and to his manhood.
This time, he moaned. He looked into her eyes and knew she felt like he did. It was time to make her his woman.
He raised himself between her thighs, and she placed his manhood to where she was most a woman.
He finally was able to thrust into her; they both gasped at the pleasure it gave them.
They made love far into the night over and over again.
Angie loved how gentle Travis was with her, yet he took her to heights she had never been to in their lovemaking.
Travis couldn’t believe his gentle wife was so demanding with him and loved it.
Their spark did indeed light a dynamite blast of love to explode for them that night.
They finally fell asleep only to wake up to make love again before they began the day.