The Hope the Lawman Needed

Prologue

Dodge City, Kansas

Hope stared at her older brother, who was sprawled in a chair, his meal practically untouched, while his lips found the little flask he carried every few minutes. She knew that the scabbing slash across his cheek and the bruising around his eye meant he was in trouble again.

“Did you take the money from the pot on the bookshelf?” Hope demanded.

Daniel groaned as he forced himself into an upright position, golden liquid spilling from his flask and onto his shirt.

“Aw, Hope, I’ll pay you back,” Daniel said with a sigh.

“We can’t go on like this,” Hope said quietly, her hands gripping the back of another chair.

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s been ten years since Pa died, and things are only getting worse,” Hope said, tears forming in her eyes. “I don’t know how to help you.”

“I don’t need your help, Hope!” he snapped. “I’m the one protecting you. You don’t know what I have to do to keep us steady!”

His words stung, and she looked down at the floor and swiped tears from her cheeks. The hours at the boardinghouse were long and her back ached from cooking all day. She tried to visit every second night to make sure he was eating, but it was becoming too much to bear.

Daniel opened his mouth to say something else when a loud thump sounded against the front door. Daniel slid his feet off the table and crouched down slightly as he walked to the window. He ducked suddenly, dropping to the floor and signaling with his hand for her to hide.

Hope’s heart pounded in her chest as she clambered inside the empty pantry cupboard. Angry voices shouted for Daniel to come out, and suddenly she heard the crack of wood as the cabin door was kicked in.

“I told you if you didn’t pay up, you’d be done for,” a gruff voice told Daniel.

“Hold up, Will,” Daniel spluttered, “I just need some more time.”

“I’ve heard that before,” Will laughed coldly. “Now we’re here to take what’s ours.”

Hope clamped a hand over her mouth to stop herself from shrieking at the shatter of glass and the crash of what sounded like a chair breaking apart.

She tightened her grip, feeling the tremble in her fingers.

Not even seeing the life fade from her Ma’s eyes or hearing the deathly rasp in her Pa’s voice had filled her with as much fear as worrying for her brother’s life did.

“You’re making a mess, Will,” Daniel complained. “You know I can make double what I owe you in a night.”

There were some loud guffaws, followed by a thump and a grunt from her brother. Then more laughing followed, and Hope pressed her ear to the pantry door. She swore she could hear the door of the cast iron stove squeak open and the scrape of a poker against the floor.

“No!” she breathed to herself, her heart thrumming with fear.

She knew her brother wanted her to stay safe, but she also believed without a doubt that she couldn’t rely on him to protect her, not when he needed saving himself. She could either stay in hiding, waiting for Daniel to change, or she could stand up and take control of her own life.

“Stop!” she shouted, bursting out of the pantry, the door nearly coming off of its hinges from the force.

“Hope!” Daniel shouted as he wrestled against the two men holding him down. “No!”

“And who is this?” one of the large men asked, lurching towards her. He indeed had a red-hot poker gripped in one hand.

“She’s pretty,” the other man said with a laugh. “Is she your little sister?”

“Don’t touch her!” Daniel ordered, blood gushing from his nose. His shirt was stained with it, and his light brown hair hung limply in his eyes.

It was just as she had feared. The only person left on the earth to protect her could do nothing to save them. All she had was herself to rely on. The man with the poker reached out a hand towards her, but she held her ground.

“Touch me and you’ll never get your money,” Hope growled, thrusting her chin into the air.

“Defiant, aren’t you?” the man snorted. “How much you got?”

“What does my brother owe you?” she demanded.

“Twenty dollars to clear his gambling debt with me,” the man stated.

She refused to let her shock over the amount show on her face. A moment later, she threw twenty dollars on the kitchen table, the sum total of everything her Ma had left her, along with her own savings from the boardinghouse.

“My brother’s debt is paid,” Hope declared, refusing to let her voice betray the fear she really felt. “Now, get out!”

“For now,” the man muttered under his breath as he dropped the poker and pocketed the cash.

By the time Daniel regained consciousness, Hope had cleaned him up and made him coffee. As soon as he was coherent, she explained plainly that she would not be visiting again.

“I’ll come back home when you can promise you’ve changed,” Hope told him on the way out, biting back tears.