The Dynasty Continues Grady's Story (Harper Family series #3)

CHAPTER 1

Grady Harper was tired. He and his fellow U.S.

Marshal, Tim Collins, had been following the same gang of cut throats for over five months.

They had followed them up into Canada and all through the Montana Territory.

They had to cross over the Rocky Mountains twice and into California and Oregon.

He loved the country, but he was damned if he’d cross those damned mountains again.

They set his teeth on edge just thinking about it.

There was a reason why his father decided to stay in the Wyoming territory and make his ranch of over three thousand acres.

He had the entire Rocky Mountains to look at, and he didn’t have to try and lose his life trying to cross it.

The Gambelli Gang was being charged with robbery, murder, rape, taking hostages, kidnapping, and arson.

They had started out in Illinois and branched out to Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, and into the Montana Territory.

They had tried to get away from U.S. Marshals and escaped across the United States border into Canada, only Tim and Grady followed them much to their surprise.

The Gambelli Gang was made up of four of the most dangerous men they had ever tried to capture.

Lou, Sonny, Vinney, and Dominic had no scruples at killing any survivors and no one to point the fingers at them…

man, woman, or child. To date, they had stollen over a million dollars and weren’t planning on stopping any time soon.

After Canada, they had made a big loop and headed back into the United States.

At the present, they were in Colorado, just outside of Laramie.

They were holed up in a rundown shack, and Tim and Grady sure hoped they had them in a place they couldn’t escape from.

Grady had just received a telegram from his father telling him that his little sister, Marley, had just given birth to triplets!

He couldn’t believe it…to him Marley would always be someone who tagged behind him wanting to do whatever he was doing…

learning to ride a horse, learning to shoot a slingshot, a bow and arrow, use a knife, shoot a gun…

in Marley’s mind she wasn’t six years old…

she was just as big as he was and she could do anything he could do.

And on top of that, Kyra their mother was also teaching their neighbor kids, aged eleven, nine, and seven how to survive in the west, too.

Marley didn’t think they were any older than she was.

The problem was, she proved she was every bit as good as they were in using a slingshot, bows and arrows, a knife, and a gun.

She learned to ride in one day and she was good, better than good.

And she proved to be a better shot than everyone else.

She kept their smoke house filled for as long as he could remember.

She always stayed little and petite like his mother, but she proved she was every bit the tracker that his mother, a full-blooded Navaho Indian was.

There wasn’t anything she couldn’t do and do well.

She was also taught everything that she needed to know about taking care of the house…

cooking, cleaning, washing, sewing, and especially taking care of the garden.

But to deliver three babies at once! He just couldn’t imagine her pregnant at all.

He had known that she married their childhood neighbor Cooper Thatcher over a year ago.

When Cooper had come back to visit his folks, it seems that he took one look at Marley and sparks flew between them.

He gave up being a U.S. Marshal for her and settled down to be a deputy in Sheridan.

Now that was love! Grady knew that, but to give birth to triplets? Holy cow!

Nimrod also told him that she named them Charles Harper Thatcher and was calling him Charlie.

Cassidy Garrison Thatcher and was calling him Cass.

And Lyra Abigail Thatcher after both Kyra and Abby.

Charlie, Cass, and Lyra. Grady had to admit; he liked the names for his nephews and niece a lot.

He’d have to think about what to get for them the next time he came through Sheridan…

if he ever captured these damn Gambelli fugitives.

Tim motioned him that the Gambelli’s were about to make a move.

He put the telegram away for now…he took aim.

As the Gambelli men came out of the shack…

they started shooting at Tim and Grady…they shot back.

It was over in minutes…finally over for good.

All four of the Gambelli men were dead. Tim had been grazed in the shoulder and Grady had taken a bullet in the leg.

He had tied it off with his bandana. They had work to do in taking their weapons, collecting whatever money they had in the shack, and getting the bodies on their horses and taking them back to Laramie.

The sooner they turned them in, the sooner they could head back to Denver for reassignment.

Grady was already thinking about getting the bullet out of his leg and wondering how long that the recovery was going to take him.

As they started picking up the dead men, they found a surprise inside the shack. They hadn’t been alone. They had two hostages…one was only a child, the other was a young woman. They had used her to slake their needs on. They were both in very bad shape.

The child was the younger brother of the woman.

His name was Mattie, Matthew really, but he was so small that his sister called him Mattie.

He looked to be about three or four years old.

His sister looked to be about sixteen or seventeen.

She had been beaten severely…there wasn’t a place on her that wasn’t black and blue.

But she was no match against four grown men who had no moral guidelines for raping a girl in front of her little brother.

She could barely stand. Her name was Marta.

Grady thought even with all the bruises she was very pretty.

She was crying she was so glad that the four men were dead and couldn’t hurt her anymore.

“Give us some time to get these men on their horses, and we’ll take you to Laramie to get you cleaned up and taken care of. Do you have a family to take you back to?” Grady asked them quietly.

“No, these men killed our mother and father when they took us as hostages. They burned our home and all our belongings. We have nothing to go back to, but I thank you for killing them…they were very bad men…they talked about when they were going to kill my little brother and myself in the very near future. They didn’t mind killing children or women…

we were nothing to them.” Marta told them softly.

She held her little brother against her.

He was crying softly in her arms. “It’s all right Mattie.

These kind men will not let anyone hurt us again. ”

Grady’s mind was thinking about what to do with the two hostages.

They had nowhere to go and no one to look after them.

His immediate thought was his own mother and father, they had the room and they loved kids.

His mother could sure use the help with the garden without Marley there to help her and even Mattie could help and they still had the sand box they had built so many years ago.

He’d have to send a telegram as soon as they arrived in Laramie.

It would sure help out Marta and Mattie.

Tim and Grady finished with the four men, packed up the money inside the shack, and then picked up Marta and put her in front of Grady to ride into Laramie.

He took Mattie with him. He figured he’d move around a lot as they rode to Laramie, Marta not so much.

He took the four reins of the horses. He knew that Grady’s leg had to be hurting like a son-of-a-bitch, yet he hadn’t complained, and he had helped him with the four men, the two hostages, and getting all the money the four Gambelli Gang members had been in the possession of. He was a hell of a partner to have.

They finally headed toward Laramie. Marta felt funny riding in front of such a handsome man.

He wasn’t being handsy at all, he was being a gentleman.

She appreciated that even with knowing that she had been raped by the four men.

She wanted to take a very hot bath and wash their touch from her body and hopefully wash them from her mind as well.

She knew that she was going to remember them for the rest of her life…

what life? What was going to happen to Mattie and her now?

They had no money and no where to live or go…

after being raped, no honest family would want her in their homes.

Silent tears began to fall down her face.

Grady began talking then and telling Marta about his family.

He talked in a quiet voice to help keep Marta calm.

“I was an orphan when they started bringing railroad cars of us from New York out west to try and find us families to adopt us. They didn’t care who adopted us, they just needed to find us homes.

The orphanages were filled to overflowing with kids.

They had over thirty or forty kids to a room sleeping on the floor.

I ended up in a town called Sheridan with these two other kids.

We weren’t wanted by anyone…everyone else they had brought with them had been taken and adopted.

We stood there feeling pretty bad that nobody wanted us.

Then this man pulled up in a wagon filled with supplies he was taking to his ranch.

His name was Nimrod Harper…what kind of a name is Nimrod?

But he told the orphanage people that he’d take all three of the orphans that were left.

He said that he had a big cabin and a wife.

He’d make sure that we had warm clothes, enough food to eat, and we’d be warm.

It sounded good to me, Marley and Brody.

And the orphanage people couldn’t agree fast enough.

” Grady paused to see if Marta was listening to him.

She was and she had stopped crying. “Nimrod turned his wagon around and went to the resale store in town and bought me a hatchet with a belt that I could wear around my waist, keep in mind I was only seven at the time…he bought a doll for Marley, and a stuffed bear for Brody. He also bought some blocks for us to play with and a ball. We had never had any toys in our life. He also bought some sand to make a sand box…we didn’t even know what a sand box was.

Then, he headed for home. Home to Nimrod was a three-thousand-acre ranch.

He had built a cabin that was two stories tall.

Three bedrooms on the second story, a big kitchen, a bedroom, and an office on the first story.

He had a cellar, a smoke house, and several barns.

He had valleys of grass, woods, streams, and wherever you looked…

you saw Nimrod’s land. It was beautiful. ”

“Nimrod was married to Kyra. Kyra was a Navaho princess with hair so black as to look blue in the sunlight. She was beautiful. She was surprised to see three children with Nimrod, but she smiled and welcomed us with open arms. She had a sewing machine and one of the things that was in the wagon of supplies were bolts of cloth. Twill, cotton, wool…in days she had made us all shirts, pants, little dresses and pinafores for Marley, underwear…she made Nimrod go back to town and get us shoes, so our toes weren’t coming out the ends of them, long underwear to wear under our clothes she was making for us.

We had more than the clothes on our backs.

She taught us how to plant a garden; we had enough food to eat and could go back for more.

Nimrod made us each a bed to sleep in. Kyra made us mattresses and stuffed them with fresh grass and clover.

We were warm as we slept each night in beds…

we had never slept in beds before, always on the floor.

She hugged us and kissed our foreheads, telling us without words how much she loved us.

We learned how to plant a garden, we made a sand box, swings, even a tree house and learned how to play for the first time.

Then, she taught us how to survive in the west. First with a slingshot, then a knife, a bow and arrow, and a gun.

We learned how to track and get meat for our smoke house.

We skinned and cut up meat. We helped with the chickens and in milking the cow.

We learned how to take care of all the animals in the barn and on the ranch.

There were no boy jobs and girl jobs…we learned how to cook, wash, clean, and can all the vegetables in the garden.

Kyra was our life saver. She and Nimrod loved us and taught us that to survive in the west was a challenge, and we met that challenge and loved it.

I’m going to telegraph my parents to see if you and Mattie can go and live with them.

I think that the two of you need to learn how to live in the west, too. What do you think?”