Chapter Thirty-One #2
Cash still didn’t know his plan. He wasn’t even sure if the man had a plan. Maybe this was it. Maybe Pierce was spiraling. Maybe he knew he wasn’t going to win. But the question was, would anyone win this? He still had Josie.
Cash held his breath as Josie momentarily slipped from the man’s grasp, almost free—but not. The gun hovered in front of her, one touch away from death. She stepped toward his horse.
Cash stepped forward, as did Beau and Hank—and immediately Pierce grabbed her arm and twisted it viciously behind her back until she gasped in pain. “Don’t do anything stupid, or I’ll shoot her dead right here!” he barked at Cash.
Josie gave a squeal of pain as he yanked her against the horse’s side. “Get on the horse, girl!”
The sound of her cry drove daggers into Cash’s chest; he pulled the rifle up to his eye, desperately looking for a clear shot.
Please. Please, let it fire true.
He was ready to end it.
No clear shot. No clear shot!
And time was running out.
Pierce mounted his horse behind Josie, still aiming at her. She let out a gasp of pain as he held her arm behind her back again, the gun pressed to the back of her head now.
“Last chance,” he barked. “Samuel, or she’s dead before we hit the road.”
Cash’s heart was pounding, deafening. The seconds stretched by, unbearably long. If he so much as moved wrong, Josie was dead. If they hesitated too long, Pierce would be gone with her.
Or would he?
He has to know we’ll kill him dead. There was no chance they’d let him live long enough to see his son—
And then a gunshot shattered the air.
The echo cracked like thunder, freezing Cash’s blood in his veins. “No!” His body went completely limp, and he fell to his knees.
Beau and Hank screamed simultaneously, both lunging toward the horse in a rush of fury.
For a horrifying second, Cash thought Pierce had pulled the trigger—that Josie was gone. But as he watched, a strange expression came over Pierce’s face just before Beau and Hank got to him.
“He’s been hit!” Hank shouted in shock. Sure enough—a red stain appeared on the man’s chest, and he toppled sideways from the saddle, falling to the ground with a sickening thud.
Josie remained in the saddle, shocked but alive, a strangled sob escaping her as her captor bled out in the dirt beneath her.
“From over there!” Beau yelled, pointing off toward the barn.
Cash whipped toward the barn—and the world turned on its head. For a moment, he half-wondered if he was in some kind of fever dream.
Remington.
Here, on the ranch. Just past the barn. Gun drawn, barrel smoking.
Grayson Remington had just saved Josie’s life.
The irony wasn't lost on Cash. The man who’d shot him, who’d threatened his family’s land, who’d been willing to sell Josie out to Pierce for personal gain—that same man had just killed Pierce in cold blood.
Why would he help us? What angle was he playing? Cash had seen enough of the man to know he never made a move without some advantage for himself. And yet, as Remington sauntered forward with that cold smile on his face, Cash couldn’t suppress a brief spark of gratitude.
Whatever the man’s motives, Josie was alive.
That was all that mattered in that moment.
That fact alone was all that kept Cash’s gun from being aimed at the new threat. Remington himself.
He dared a glance at Josie. She was staggering down to the ground, stumbling over herself, gasping heavily as she tried to catch her footing… trying not to trip over Pierce’s limp form. Her eyes were wide, and her face had gone sheet white.
Cash lurched forward, the searing pain in his leg forgotten. Even Remington’s smoking gun didn’t matter. All he could see was Josie as she stumbled away from the horse, legs nearly giving out beneath her.
“Josie!” His voice came out hoarse. He wanted to run to her, to gather her up in his arms, but his wounded leg betrayed him. Stumbling with a surge of desperate strength, he half-limped, half-dragged himself toward her, using his rifle as a cane.
She went to his arms as if drawn by a magnet, and he gripped her tightly, clinging to her, dizzy with relief. She looked up at through thick lashes, her eyes wide with shock, trembling all over. Blood still trickled from her split lip. The bruises on her face were dark and large now.
Rage stoked all over again, and Cash curled a furious lip at Pierce, even as he lay dead in the dirt. Josie’s knees buckled, but he caught her, just barely, falling with her. Her heart was racing against his chest.
“I’ve got ya,” he assured her in a breathy whisper against her sweaty hair. “I’ve got ya…”
He glanced over her shoulder at the crumpled figure on the ground. Pierce’s glassy eyes were staring up at the sky—but they weren’t seeing anything.
He was dead.
Cash’s breath caught in his throat as he looked back toward the barn. Remington’s horse was wandering into view beyond the barn, clearly abandoned momentarily for the ambush of Pierce.
Remington himself still stood there. Just a few yards away. His gun still smoking, his face nonchalant. His lips curled into a wicked smile, as though he’d enjoyed taking a life.
“Remington?” Hank sputtered. Beau was grim and tight-lipped. They looked just as stunned as Cash felt.
Remington spat in the dirt. “No one betrays me and gets to boast about it while he’s still alive. I’m the only one who does the betraying.”
Cash swallowed hard, his muscles still tense. He was in no shape for a fight. But a fight they might have. Even if Grayson Remington had just saved Josie’s life.