Hunting The Gunslinger

Chapter One

Jessie eyed the man at her feet and rubbed her brow, trying to alleviate the sudden headache that had just formed. The heat from the blazing afternoon sun warmed her skin, and sweat beaded down her face, leaving a trail of dirt. She had been on the hunt for him for weeks when she”d finally caught up with him just outside of Bozeman, Montana. She’d snuck up on him while he was about to wake up and leave his camp for the day.

Billy Sawyer. Wanted for stealing cattle and for being a general pain in the ass. She’d accepted the bounty on him because she had been under the mistaken impression he wouldn’t be difficult to capture. And although he’d been easy to catch, he was proving to be difficult in other ways.

Criminals were never too difficult for her to bring in. She grew up on a ranch herself, so she had a particular disdain for those who thought they could steal cattle and sell them for profit without doing any of the hard work themselves. Many years had passed since she’d left the ranch, but some beliefs never left her.

“Let me go, you damn kid!”

Billy thrashed at her feet, trying to get out of the ties that bound his legs and hands. He bared his teeth, and his nostrils flared as he gritted the words out, spittle flying from his mouth in the process. His greasy, black hair pooled around his face, since his cowboy hat had fallen off in the scuffle and lay nearby.

Jessie covered her smile with her hand before Billy could see it. Billy appeared to be embarrassed to have been caught by a ‘kid,’ as he said. That was one downside to being a woman pretending to be a man. Everyone thought she was a young boy, probably about fourteen years of age. It did have its perks though, one of them being that most criminals didn’t think twice about her, or believe she would actually be able to bring them in.

She went by the name Kid Aaron, ever since she had to take on a new identity when she ran away from home years ago. Men were less likely to cause trouble with a boy than a woman who was on her own.

Recently, rumors had spread that Kid Aaron was the best bounty hunter around, able to bring in most anybody he set his eyes on.

It had made her job more difficult.

“You got two choices.” She kept her voice flat and emotionless. She’d found it made her work easier, and men listened to her if she kept emotions out of her voice. “You can agree to get on the horse and not run away, or I’ll shoot you in the leg and drag you behind my horse until we get into town. The wanted poster said alive or dead, so I don’t need you in one piece. The choice is yours.”

She flicked her gun from Billy to the two horses nearby, tied up to a tree. Her chestnut palomino, Willow, whinnied and stomped her hoof at the ground impatiently. She never liked being in one place too long. Something the two of them shared.

This was always the hardest part. Convincing an unwilling, dead weight of a man to go into town.

His face turned a darker shade of red, and she could see him considering his options: fight, or willingly mount the horse. Keeping her gun on him with one hand, she took her knife out and cut the bindings on his legs.

Carefully, he rose and stared her down as if he was trying to intimidate her, his bound hands curled into fists in front of him. If looks could kill, he’d have escaped by now. She raised an eyebrow, showing him she wasn’t going to be intimidated by his glares.

“Well?” she asked, growing impatient.

Snarling, he lunged at her while throwing a hand full of dirt at her face.

Keeping her gun trained on him, she raised her other arm up just in time to block the dust from hitting her straight in the eyes, relying on quick reflexes to shield herself. Thankfully it was just dirt, and not a rock.

He sprinted toward her, but she fired the gun before he could get close to her, and the bullet hit him in the thigh. He howled in pain, crumpling to the ground just a few steps from where he had been lying only seconds before.

Her stomach roiled, but she held herself together. She hated wounding people. She’d only ever had to do it a few times, but every time it happened, she hated it.

“You fucking bastard!” Billy yelled, clutching his leg as blood spewed from the wound and formed a pool in the dirt around him.

She hoped he didn’t die. The bounty actually hadn’t said “alive or dead.” That had been a bluff on her part. She grimaced as she looked at him, trying to see from a distance if she had hit anything important. She wasn’t accurate with a gun. She could hit a man from a few feet away, but it was so easy to accidentally shoot somewhere that could kill them.

“Are you going to do anything?” he yelled, looking at her with wild eyes filled with fear and rage.

Collecting herself, she masked her face with aloof indifference. If he saw that she was worried, she was done for.

“I think I’ll wait for you to lose a little more blood and then drag you into town,” she said coldly.

It wasn’t her favorite way to transport prisoners, but she’d done it before.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” he snarled. “I won’t do anything. Just take me to a doctor!”

He gritted his teeth, his eyes squeezing shut to block out what must have been excruciating pain.

“Fine. But try to escape again, and the next bullet goes between your eyes.”

After being shot once already, he would probably believe her now.

Jessie arrived in town with Billy a few hours later, having traveled at a pace so slow that frustration had mounted steadily within her. She hadn’t been able to go full speed, or she would have risked killing him. After he’d gotten shot, he chose to limp painfully behind her horse, rather than being dragged.

She needed to make her way straight to the sheriff’s station so she could be done with Billy. Now that he was in town, his eyes were shifting back and forth, as if he was searching for a way to escape.

She’d been in Bozeman, Montana, going on about six months now, far longer than anywhere else she’d ever stayed. Bozeman was growing quickly, which encouraged her to stay. The Northern Pacific Railway had arrived few years earlier, causing a large boom in settlers as well as people passing through town. With the larger crowds came trouble, and where there was trouble, there was Jessie. She went wherever there were the most bounties, so she could collect as much money as possible as she traveled further west.

While riding her horse down the dusty road to the sheriff’s station, a few of the locals she had come to know noticed her pass by.

“Kid Aaron!”

She turned to see James waving at her from across the street. He was one of the men passing through town on their way to Virginia City to mine for gold. He had only been in Bozeman a few days, but he had become interested in Jessie/Kid Aaron when he’d seen her bring in cattle thieves to the sheriff’s station for the rewards. He had stuck to her, following her around and asking her questions constantly. Whenever he saw her in town, he always came up to talk to her and see what she’d been doing. She didn’t know why bounty hunters were so interesting to some people.

He ran over to her, holding his hat so it wouldn’t blow away in the wind. He was a short, lean man, with slim shoulders and a round face. His arms didn’t match the rest of his body—they were all muscle from mining, but his gut showed how much he liked food and alcohol. He was a little too curious about her, Jessie thought. But he was a nice man, so she put up with him.

She smiled and looked down at him when he got up to her horse. “Hey, James.”

His gaze flew between her and Billy, his eyebrows shooting up as a smile formed on his face. His eyes twinkled as his eyes stayed on her.

“Can’t believe you did it again. What’s he done?”

A few others had joined James at this point; seeing him at ease with her had made others become more comfortable with her. It was probably something she shouldn’t encourage, but she wasn’t going to be around much longer anyway.

Others had started eavesdropping on the conversation, too shy to approach. They whispered loudly to one another as they pointed.

“Everyone he goes after, he gets,” a woman with blond hair said to her friend.

The friend’s green eyes went wide as she stared at Jessie, leaning intently sideways to hear what her friend was saying.

“He must be crafty. Small boy like that being able to capture fully grown men?” Green Eyes said as her face contorted into an expression of disbelief rather than admiration.

James shushed them, loudly. They flinched and scurried down the street and into a nearby building.

“Cattle thief,” Jessie said with exasperation. She leaned forward on her saddle and leaned against the pommel to stretch out the tightness in her back. Riding for hours made her body ache.

“Ain’t done nothin’!” Billy said at the same time. “Let me go! Or you’ll regret having ever come across me!” He jerked away from her, but she sat straight up again and yanked at the ropes that held him, not allowing him any opportunity to spook her horse into running.

Jessie glared at him but didn’t address him.

When she’d first become a bounty hunter, the threats she had gotten scared her, but nobody had acted on them in the eight years she’d been doing this, and she didn’t take the threats seriously anymore. Men were all talk and no substance, threatening to do her harm, but never succeeding in it.

A few additional women wandered back toward her and James. They looked up at Billy and wrinkled their noses as they whispered to one another while pointing.

“You’re Kid Aaron.” One of them met Jessie’s eyes. The woman wore a navy dress that touched the ground, a corset that made her waist look small, and a bonnet to cover her golden hair.

Jessie had never been jealous of other women growing up, and had always preferred men’s clothing to women’s, but after eight years of wearing a disguise, she found herself wishing she could wear a dress again. She always had to hide who she really was, and couldn’t let anyone get too close, or they might realize she was a woman. Eight years of hiding had started to become lonely, and her heart squeezed at the thought of meeting someone she could trust enough to tell them the truth.

She nodded but didn’t speak. Women made her uncomfortable. She was afraid they’d figure out she wasn’t a boy, so she avoided them when she could.

They giggled to one another, then left, leaving an awkward silence in their wake.

“Listen,” she said to James, shaking off the interaction with the woman. She pointed to Billy. “I have to get Billy turned in to Sheriff Williams before he leaves for the day.”

“Oh! Yes, of course. Meet me at the Deadwood afterward, and you’ll have to tell me all about it,” James said.

She nodded and tipped her hat to him as he walked away.

The sheriff’s station was in the middle of Bozeman, off a busy street that held the saloons, brothels, and other businesses. The location was probably intentional, to allow the sheriff to get to any trouble quickly, she thought, as she tied Willow up to the hitching post outside. She gave Willow a loving pat on the neck as she left to enter the sheriff’s station.

She held firmly onto Billy’s rope as she walked up the wooden steps to the worn, weathered building. When she pushed the double doors open, she was greeted by the smell of tobacco and gun oil. She associated the scent with turning in a bounty, so it had become the smell of victory to her.

Sheriff Williams sat at a sturdy looking desk, polishing one of his revolvers. The front office led into another room in the back, where the criminals were kept. It had a few barred jail cells with heavy iron doors.

“Kid Aaron.” Sheriff Williams smiled as she walked in.

He was tall and exuded an aura of authority. His sheriff’s badge was pinned on his chest with pride, and he kept his hat in pristine condition. Not an easy task for someone who spent most of his time fighting with criminals. His firm jawline kept most women in town pining after him, and made the men jealous. His revolver was holstered and on his hip, and Jessie didn’t think she’d ever seen him use it. He was young for a sheriff, good-looking, too, and he was talented at taming others before he ever had need of a gun.

“Brought in Billy Sawyer, by the looks of it. He’s been causing trouble around here for weeks.” Sheriff Williams stood up and turned around to face the board containing wanted posters. Jessie’s mouth went dry as she watched him scan the posters. Fortunately, his finger moved over the one she was always afraid it would stop at.

Next to Billy’s poster was one for Jessie Calhoun. Current age, twenty-five. Suspected to be traveling west. Armed and dangerous. An amateur drawing portrayed what they suspected she looked like eight years after she’d run away at the age of seventeen.

Her own wanted poster, back from before she was Kid Aaron.

“Yep, that’s him all right!” He took the poster of Billy off the wall and held it in the air triumphantly. She drew a deep breath through her nose to steady her nerves when he turned away from the posters.

Another day of freedom.

Billy tried to pull himself from her grasp, but she held onto him firmly enough that she reckoned his arms would be bruised in the morning.

“Here he is.” She shoved Billy toward Williams, in a hurry to get out of there. After six months of being in town, she shouldn’t be so worried that she might suddenly be recognized, but she couldn’t help it.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you,” he said to Jessie.

Williams caught Billy by the arms and walked him to the back of the building to the cell area.

“Probably have an uprising in town and be chased out by angry city dwellers.” She couldn’t help but joke with him. He was close to her age, although he didn’t know it. It made her feel closer to him, and it made her like him more, since most of the people she was around all day were either criminals or the saloon owner.

“I have a feeling that is exactly what would happen.” He chuckled as he handed her fifty bucks for the reward. Enough to have room and board at the boarding house for a few weeks, but not enough for her to survive on long term.

Williams must have seen the look of disappointment on her face because he added, “You really do make my life easier by being here. Have you ever considered turning in the bounty hunting to join me here? You’d make more money, and it’s more stable.”

And every day risk being found out? Not a chance. She pocketed the money and grinned at Williams.

“And miss all the fun? Sitting behind a desk all day seems boring.” She knew he did more than that, but she also knew he wouldn’t press the issue if she made a joke about it.

He laughed and shrugged. “Well, I’m glad you found Billy. He’s been hanging around these parts for a while, but I haven’t been able to track him down.”

“That’s what I do,” she said.

He gestured at the posters hanging on the wall behind him. “So, who’s next?”

She looked it over and saw the usual wanted men she avoided. Murderers, rapists, train robbers. Cattle thieves were safer, less dangerous, than men wanted for murder or more violent crimes. The reward was less, but she had a better chance of not dying, which she appreciated.

“Who would you suggest?” she asked.

His gaze returned to her, contemplating. “If you’re looking for a bigger reward, I’d say something other than cattle thieves.”

Damn. Williams was perceptive, she’d give him that. Almost too perceptive.

“Like who, then?”

“We have a few wanted for train robbery. Could be a good place to start. More of a reward.” He pointed at one poster before pulling it down.

She took it without looking at it, and tipped her hat to him again to show she was done with the conversation. She left and went to her favorite place in town. The saloon.

When she’d first arrived in this town, the customers at the Deadwood Saloon laughed and said she wasn’t old enough to be drinking. But after she began to bring in criminals and collect bounties, they started to accept her. Saloon owners in these towns didn’t care about underage patrons as long as the sheriff didn’t mind, or if they were paying customers.

The saloon had become her favorite place in Bozeman not just because of the beer, but because it was easily the best place to gather information about her bounties. It was difficult to escape the rumor mills in these small towns because everyone knew everyone, and they liked to gossip about it to strangers. Therefore, Jessie could pick up all sorts of useful facts about the men she aimed to capture.

She sat down at a table in the back corner, wanting to be alone. Though the regular customers knew her, it still was not a good idea to be out in the open. Most people didn’t know Kid Aaron on sight, but a few unhappy family members wanted revenge for the criminals she’d bagged, and she didn’t want to risk them recognizing her.

She observed the saloon around her. The tables were stained from countless nights of people sitting at them, drinking and spilling their drinks on them. They were battered as well, and the saloon owner probably hadn’t repaired them in years. A group of people were playing poker in the corner, and the saloon was lively with the sounds of chatter from people as they let loose from a hard day’s work.

There were the usual crew hanging out today. The town drunks who were there from morning to close, the fur traders coming in after a day of work. She didn’t see James anywhere, which she was grateful for since she didn’t want to talk to anyone quite yet. She also saw a few strangers she didn’t recognize.

One man drew her attention over the others. He was sitting at a table with a companion, and everyone else seemed to be avoiding them, staying far away from the pair. His black hat shaded his face, leaving it a mystery. The two men were chatting quietly when one of them turned, pointed in Jessie’s direction, and whispered in the other man’s ear.

Her plan to stay in the back and listen to the conversations without drawing notice to herself was not going to work today. The two men got up and walked toward her.

As the pair got closer, she was able to see the man’s face. A long, deep scar ran down the length of it, from his left eye to his chin. The cause of the scar had damaged his mouth, too, and his face appeared pulled into a perpetual sneer. It made him look ominous and set Jessie’s nerves on edge.

The one with the scar spoke, as he sat next to her at the table. “Heard you’re a bounty hunter.” Her hand reflexively went to rest on the gun at her belt, offering her a sense of comfort in case she needed it.

“Hard to believe since you are so small.” The other looked her over from head to toe as if deciding if she was actually a bounty hunter. He was young, with blond hair and green eyes. She used to hate the look of disbelief in people’s eyes when they’d say things like that. Right now, it made the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

What she hated the most was when people stared. Jessie kept her hair up in a hat, tucked away so nobody could see how long it was. She hid her breasts under layers of clothing, a shirt, and a vest so nobody could see anything to suggest she was a woman. All it would take was someone seeing she had breasts for her cover to be blown.

It hadn’t happened yet. But when she got stares, she always scrunched her shoulders forward a bit to make the shirt and vest looser, to hide her body.

“Seems like y’all know an awful lot about me,” she said. She took a drink of her beer and tried to keep her tone uninterested. She was not sure who they were or what they wanted, but she knew it couldn’t be good if they were talking to her. “Who are you?”

They laughed loudly. The one with the scar slapped his buddy on the arm playfully, but the mean glint in his eyes told Jessie he was being anything but playful. He wasn’t someone who could be trusted.

“Well. Straight to the point, I see,” the scarred man said. He was clearly the one in charge of this duo. “The name’s John. I have a request of you, but you don’t seem to play well with others.” He was trying to put her on the defensive.

“I don’t take private requests.” Her interest had already moved elsewhere. She decided not to pay attention to them any longer.

She’d learned early on not to take private requests from anyone. These jobs were almost always things she wasn’t comfortable with, like looking for kids who’d run away from home, or searching for a wife who had gone missing (perhaps with a man). She didn’t like getting wrapped up in the ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ of a situation. But she thought of her own situation, and how there was a reward out on her. She wasn’t going to take on anything that allowed chances that the person she captured was innocent. She preferred to go after known criminals because that type of work offered the safety of the fact they were guilty.

When she had first become a bounty hunter, she took a private bounty, and getting payment at the end of the job was a hassle. Other bounty hunters she came to know since had warned her that sometimes they hadn’t gotten paid at all for such requests. It wasn’t worth the risk.

“You’re not going to hear us out?” His eyes widened at her abrupt refusal. “It would be worth your time. Definitely more money than what you get bringing in cattle thieves. I thought Kid Aaron was the best in this town, but I guess you’re only good at one thing.”

He was trying to bait her by talking down at her, hoping to get a reaction out of her so she’d want to prove herself to him. People always took jabs at her skills since they thought she was a young boy; it had stopped bothering her by this point in her career. What did bother her, though, was that he was right about his job possibly paying more money than bringing in cattle thieves. Private bounties usually paid better than what the law paid. As long as they actually paid.

“Well, if you’re not interested, then I’ll just find someone else.” John and his companion stood up to leave.

Jessie clenched her hands under the table. She’d be an old lady still trying to bring in cattle thieves if she kept going at this pace, and her disguise as Kid Aaron wouldn’t last that long. She wanted to make enough to retire. Get a nice small farm in a small town, and forget about all the drama associated with criminals and having to be on the run from the law.

“I’ll hear you out,” she said reluctantly.

She didn’t look at him or attempt to see if he heard her. It irked her that he would know he got under her skin, and she couldn’t bring herself to see the smug look she was certain covered his face.

John sat in front of her, and when she finally looked at him, he grinned. She gritted her teeth, but waited for him to speak, her chest tightening in anger. The scarred side of his lips didn’t move, and the sneer made him appear arrogant.

“Glad you’re listening to reason at least,” he scolded her.

He pulled out a wanted poster from his jacket pocket and Jessie’s interest perked up. If John’s request was to find a wanted criminal, then if he tried not to pay her she could turn the criminal into the sheriff for something at least.

“This is Luke Hammond.” He jabbed at the wanted poster as he talked, then handed it over for her to look at. The sketch was in black and white, and showed two men’s bodies were facing each other, but their heads were turned toward whoever made the sketch. The men were handsome and looked like brothers or had some other type of family relationship. The one that John had pointed at must be Luke, and he had a square jaw and intense eyes that stared right at her. He wore a vest and a cowboy hat that accented his face well, bringing attention to his sharp jawline.

The other man was taller than Luke and wore an identical hat. Unlike Luke, whose hair must have been short because she couldn’t see it in the drawing, this man had long hair down to his shoulders. Jessie saw what appeared to be disapproval in his eyes as he looked at whoever drew the sketch. He was lean and muscular. Both men carried revolvers on their hips.

“The second man is his accomplice, Gray Hammond. Brothers, as I’m sure you can tell from the picture. They are wanted for murder.”

Jessie’s heart skipped a beat, but she was careful to keep her face controlled so they wouldn”t see that bringing in a murderer was something that made her nervous. Going after one man wanted for murder was one thing, but a pair?

A pair of highly muscled, wanted men. Most of the cattle thieves she brought in were older, overweight men she could easily outmaneuver. This pair of brothers were young and in shape. She’d never gone after anybody like this. The only way she would accept the job was if the money was outrageous.

“Who did they murder, and what’s it to you?” she asked. There had to be a reason why these men had come to her, and that reason would also play a role in if she would accept.

“The sheriff’s office hasn’t done shit to bring him in,” John said. “Or they don’t want to. The man killed my brother, and he needs to pay for what he’s done. Both of them are gunslingers known in the area. Luke is wanted for the murder, and I want him brought to me.”

Jessie stiffened. Gunslingers were the most dangerous to bring in. Add that to the list of reasons why she should not go after them. Hired guns were quick to draw and known for doing anything to collect their rewards, even illegal or dangerous things.

She was a bounty hunter, not a gunslinger. She never pretended to be fast with a gun, and no matter how much she practiced, she wasn’t fast or good with a gun at all. She preferred to rely on the element of surprise to bring in criminals.

She decided to get right down to the money. If the payment wasn’t high enough, there was no way she would do this. Getting involved in someone else’s personal vendetta wasn’t something she was interested in.

“You want me to go after two men, one wanted for murder, both of them known gunslingers? This reward had better be worth it.”

“Bring both to me, alive or dead, and you’ll get a $7,000 reward.”

Jessie choked on her beer. Had she heard him right? She had never seen a reward for that much money, ever, in her whole career. It was almost too good to be true.

“How do I know you won’t back out of this arrangement?” She wasn’t sure what he could say to make her believe him, but she wanted to believe him.

“Well, I didn’t say it would be easy. You’ll have competition. I’ve made this same offer to others. So if I don’t come through, I’m guessing I’ll have a lot of angry people after me, now won’t I? Take it or leave it. It makes no difference to me. I have others who are working on it.”

She grabbed the wanted poster from him and put it in the pocket of her vest. Even if he wasn’t going to come through on his end, the reward for bringing Luke Hammond to the sheriff was a thousand dollars. Still more money than she was used to having. She just wouldn’t turn over Luke to John without seeing the money, and if he tried to not pay her, she’d take him to the sheriff instead. Should be pretty low risk, except for the actual bringing-him-in part.

“Do you know where they were last seen?” she asked, confirming that she’d accepted the job.

John grinned again, and her stomach roiled.

“He was last spotted in Livingston, so it might be a rather quick turnaround for you. But I’d hurry. Lots of people are after them now.” John raised an eyebrow and took out some money to pay for his drinks. “I’ll leave my friend, Grant, in town for you. When you have the Hammonds, bring them back to the Deadwood, and Grant will let me know they’ve been captured. He will give you your reward when I have them.”

With that, they turned around and left.

Jessie chewed on the inside of her cheek, pondering what to do as she restlessly tapped the table. Livingston was only a day’s ride from Bozeman on horseback. It was at least worth heading over there to see if she could get lucky with an easy capture. With other bounty hunters and gunslingers after them, though, she was not sure this was something she could accomplish before anyone else did.

After chugging the rest of her beer, she stood from the table and left the saloon to go after the Hammond brothers.