Cassidy remained quiet. Tommy lapsed into a catatonic state. He withdrew from his brothers and trudged over to a nearby tree. His back plastered against the trunk, he slowly dropped to the ground where he curled up into a ball, arms tightly clasped around his bent knees. He began rocking back and forth.

“What about you, boy? Johnny chastised his terrorized sibling, booting him in the leg. “ To think your name is also Tom.”

“Leave him be, Johnny.” Cassidy glanced at his brother’s corpse sprawled on the ground. “You had no cause to do that, Johnny. He was your brother.”

“Apparently not.” He paused. “If it’ll make you feel better, we’ll give him a nice burial.”

“I think Andy was right. We’d better forget the whole thing.”

“Now don’t you get skittish on me too. We’re here to do a job and I intend to finish it. Now, you’re either with me or you’re not.”

Cassidy pondered for a moment. “I’m with you,” he replied disquietly.

Johnny turned to face his victims. He winked at Cassidy. “Want to have some fun?”

“What do you have in mind?”

“How long has it been since Colette?”

“Too long.”

Johnny slid his gun back into his holster and grabbed Audra by her arm, yanking her to her feet.

“You’re hurting me!” she bellowed.

Her daughter’s deafening cry assailed Victoria. She gently pillowed Heath’s head on the blanket and pounced on Johnny like a hawk on its prey, ready to gouge his eyes out. The irked man reacted by thrusting her aside. Victoria came crashing against a tree with a vengeful force, thumping her head. She collapsed to the ground.

A sudden adrenalin rush, triggered by the barbaric treatment inflicted upon of his loved ones, overcame Heath. Crippled and weak, he tottered to his feet and with his right arm elbowed Johnny in the stomach. Heath reached for Johnny’s gun belt and with lightening speed pulled out the revolver from its holster. A burning fever clouding his reasoning and consumed by an implacable rage, Heath imperviously pulled the trigger, barely grazing Johnny in the temple as a result of his quivering aim.

Johnny fell to the ground. Tiny black spots began dancing before his eyes. He tried to blink them away, shaking his head. He looked up and saw Heath doddering towards him, gun drawn.

“Shoot him!” he commanded Cassidy.

His finger on the trigger, Cassidy hesitated. “No violence,” Andy’s warning kept resounding in his mind.

“Cassidy, dammit!”

Finally, Cassidy pumped a bullet in Heath’s lower back. The deliriously possessed man barely cringed. Johnny reached for a dead tree branch lying on the ground. He got up and brandished it at Heath before smashing it against his chest.

“No, stop!” cried Audra, imploring a stop to this butchery.

Heath thrashed to the ground, coiling into a fetal position, grasping for air.

Johnny picked up a large stone and with it, crushed Heath’s lower legs. The agonizing man’s blood-curdling screams ripped through the night.

Back at the ranch, everything was quiet. Nick was enjoying a restful sleep, the first in awhile. Comfortably snuggled underneath the blankets, wearing a Cheshire-cat grin, he reminisced about a certain lady he was smitten with. He was escorting her out of a posh restaurant in San Francisco. She also appeared very taken with him. Outside, they clinched each other and he whispered sweet words in her ears. He closed his eyes and as he was about to lean and kiss her, she vanished. He opened his eyes surprised to see that he was out on the range, eating grubs in front of a crackling fire with Heath. The dream had shifted abruptly.

Nick briefly lowered his eyes to take a bite and when he set them back on his brother sitting across him, he saw a giant paw take a swing at Heath, hurling him to the ground. Blood was spattering. Nick sat there, horror-stricken, pinned to the ground, unable to dash to his brother’s aid. He helplessly witnessed the horrific sight of his sibling being mauled by this furry beast. When the bear turned to face him, Nick discerned the features of a man, grinning, visibly basking in Heath’s martyr. Nick tried vainly to move. Finally, he saw the paw thwack his brother one last time.

At that moment, Nick jolted out of sleep, panting. Sweat poured out of him. He perched himself on the edge of the mattress and buried his hands in his face, trying to catch his breath. He rubbed his eyes and wiped the drowsiness off his face before slouching to the dresser to splash water onto his haggard expression. He stared into the moonlit mirror, unable to shake the terrifying feeling that a tragedy had befallen his baby brother. Was it just a nightmare or a foreboding?

Although Heath and Nick hadn’t shared a childhood, they were both endowed with a deep-rooted, shatterproof bond that reached far distances. An intangible sixth sense that defied explanation and baffled the mind. The brothers had learned to accept that gift that a higher power had bestowed upon them.

Nick shut his eyes as the haunting images unfolded before him. He had to make certain. He reached for his pants draped over the back of a chair and quickly slipped them on.

Awoken by a nightmare of a different kind, Jarrod got up and sauntered down the hall. He glanced inside Nick’s room and was surprised to see him donning his clothes.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going to look for them, Jarrod,” Nick informed, frantically tucking the edges of his unbuttoned shirt in his trousers.

“What’s wrong?”

“They’re in trouble. Heath’s hurt.”

“I’ll go with you,” Jarrod acknowledged. In the short time that Heath has lived under their roof, the family had learned not to question this powerful connection between the two brothers.

“I’ll hitch up the wagon and meet you out front.”

“Wagon? It’s that bad?”

“I think so,” Nick answered dejectedly.

Jarrod quickened the pace to his room while Nick dashed downstairs.

Victoria was slowly emerging from unconsciousness. Her eyes fluttered to establish focus at the blurred figure hovering over her. A repentant Tommy was bathing her soiled forehead with a clean rag, carefully avoiding her left eyebrow where a scab had formed over a deep gash. Oblivious of her own pain, she crawled over to her agonizing son.

“My God, Heath! What have they done to you?”

Heath appeared like a fish out of the water. Still in a fetal position, bathing in a pool of blood and vomit, he drew in sharp, wheezy gasps at a sporadic rate, his body jerking with each breath. His glassy eyes were fixed, unaware of his mother’s presence. He was knocking at death’s door.

Audra hadn’t budged from her brother’s side, tending to him by slightly sponging the sweat off his face. She was frightened as to what to do to alleviate his torment. She dared not touch him further, afraid she might add to his suffering.

Victoria leaned over Heath, coaxing him to respond to her voice. She felt his forehead. The heat radiating burned right through her hand. She agonized watching his death throes. Her darling boy was gradually rendering up his soul on a cold blanket of cankered leaves. Tears welled up in her eyes. Desperation invaded her.

The grief-stricken mother got up and shuffled over to Johnny. She stretched out her arm and unfolded an entreating hand.

“Give me your gun.”

“What for, Lady?”

“I want to do this myself...please,” she gulped in a quavering, though stern voice.

The fortitude in her tone prompted Johnny to succumb to her plea. He handed her his gun. Nearby, Cassidy braced himself to prepare for any contingencies.

Victoria walked back to her dying son, clenching the gun in her hand dangling alongside her weary body. She stopped, staring blankly at the blood-covered battered shell curled up on the ground, clinging to dear life.

She pulled the notch on the half-cock gun and aimed it at Heath’s head. The pricking sound sent chills up her spine. She closed her eyes in a last-ditch attempt to summon up enough courage to pull the trigger.

“Lady, what...,” Johnny’s voice tailed off as he stepped up to her in complete shock.

Audra was equally shellshock at this hideous sight. “Mother, what are you doing?” she asked nauseatingly, grabbing Victoria’s arm.

Victoria gently pushed her distraught daughter aside. Her finger stroking the trigger, she twirled around and bullseyed Johnny in the heart.

Irate, Cassidy rushed up to her, cocking his gun. Before he could shoot Victoria, he reacted to a speeding bullet entering his back. He slumped lifeless to the ground.

Both Victoria and Audra were puzzled as to the origin of the shot. A few endless seconds elapsed before two shadowy figures emerged from the bushes. Victoria let her guard down when the faces of her two sons came into view. They were a sight for sore eyes. She threw herself in Nick’s arms.

“Are you alright, Mother?” Nick asked, flinging one arm around her and vigilantly keeping his gun drawn in the other.

“I’m fine, but your brother’s gravely injured.”

Nick hurried to Heath. Victoria hugged Jarrod.

“How did you know?”

“Nick. He started out of sleep with the ghastly notion that you were in jeopardy.”

“Thank God for that sixth sense of his,” she praised.

“His suspicions were founded when he went to hitch up the team and saw your two horses by the barn door,” Jarrod further explained. “Mother, what happened?”

“I’ll tell you all about it later but now, we must get your brother home and fetch the doctor.”

A woebegone Tommy who had witnessed the brutal demises of his brothers slowly reached for his gun. He stood up and aimed it at Nick’s back.

“Nick, look out!” Jarrod shouted at his brother.

Squatted by Heath’s side, Nick swirled his leg to adopt a firing position. A shot resounded. Nick fumbled himself thinking Tommy had shot him. He glanced over at Audra, standing nearby. She held a gun at arms length, transfixed by rage, a merciless expression stamped on her face. Her blazing eyes spiked a stunned Tommy’s crumbling to his knees.

She dropped the gun, her cataleptic arms not moving an inch. Her pent-up emotions all came flooding to the surface and she burst into tears in Jarrod’s consoling arms.

Nick quickly removed his gloves and groped Heath’s neck, searching for a faint pulse.

“Mother, he’s not breathing.”

“What?

Nick began shaking Heath, slapping him in the face. “Come on, you little runt, breathe dammit!” he lashed out at his lifeless brother. “Come on!”

His bullying having failed to produce any result, Nick hurriedly draped Heath’s flabby body over his bent knee, tightly wrapping his arm around his waist.

“Careful of his fractured ribs,” warned Victoria.

“Can’t worry about that now. The main thing is to make him breathe.”

In a desperate attempt to revive Heath, Nick clenched his fist and repeatedly pounced it against his brother’s back between the shoulder blades.

Kneeling on the ground, Jarrod looked up at Heath’s cyanotic face, dangling over Nick’s knee. “Nick... he’s dead,” he dolefully informed.

“No!” Nick howled, his stubbornness dominating. He continued to slam his fist into Heath’s back.

A wave of relief swept over their bereavement when Heath yelped out a cough and drew a long shuddering breath.

“Thank you, God,” Nick suspired, resting his head against his brother’s back and rubbing it up and down. He felt the life slowly streaming back into Heath’s body as his chest rose with each intake of air. His respiration was ragged, his fever dangerously high and the veil of unconsciousness was still enfolding him, but he was alive.

Jarrod held Heath’s shoulders allowing Nick to slide his numbed knee away from underneath. The two brothers gently rolled their younger sibling onto his back. Jarrod put his arms underneath Heath’s and Nick draped the upper legs over his arms, leaving his crushed lower limbs dangling. They gingerly hoisted him up.

Nick instructed Audra to walk ahead of them in order to lay a blanket at the back of the wagon for Heath.

Victoria cast a last somber look at the hecatomb. With her feet, she swept dirt over the fading fire to douse the flames. She bent over to pick up Heath’s saddlebag. Lost in the moment, she stroked the leather band, afraid to unlatch it and reach inside for the velvet box.

“If anything should happen...see that she gets it,” Heath’s words pounded at Victoria’s mind like Nick’s fist against his back.

She joined her children believing the nightmare was over. Little did she know, it was only beginning.

...Continued