Falls Church, Nebraska Territory - Early March 1861

Jane watched in amazement as her father created the intricate detail on the back of someone’s pocket watch and wondered if she’d ever be able to do something similar. Then she sighed before letting him know she was off to meet her friend for lunch at the Hotel.

“That’s fine dear,” he replied without looking up. “Have a good time.”

She shook her head with a smile as she headed out the door thinking that her father would never change. But, oh well, he was the only father she had and the only family. Her mother had passed on several years ago after a bad snow storm and she’d almost lost her father too, but he was a stubborn man and hung on to life so he could take care of his only child. He made her proud to be his daughter and she hoped she has made him proud as well.

“Afternoon Jane.”

She had been lost in her thoughts that she didn’t even notice Chester had come from the saloon with his own agenda for the day (which included getting Jane to say “yes” to his marriage proposal).

“Chester.”

“Would you care to join me for lunch?”

“Can’t today, I’ve already made plans to meet with Lauralei for lunch.”

“Then dinner?” he asked hopefully.

“I don’t think so,” she replied as she kept on walking around him. Then she hissed, “don’t touch me,” and jerked away when he grabbed her arm to spin her back toward him.

Chester was getting furious. So he grabbed for her arm again and held tight while asking, in a voice of barely contained anger, why she didn’t want to share a meal with him.

“Just don’t feel like it, that’s all,” she answered as she again yanked her arm free. “Now leave me alone.”

With that, she walked away muttering under her breath at what a rotten, low-life scumbag Chester Farmington was.

Chester was steaming…to the boiling point. 

“Just you wait Jane,” he thought to himself as he headed for the saloon to get a stiff drink, “just you wait.”

Several nights later, after a quiet dinner with her father, Jane gave her dad a goodnight kiss and hug then headed to her room for some much-needed sleep, especially after another encounter with Chester. As she changed into her nightdress she smiled. She was working on a design for a lady’s locket and from what she managed to do, she was pretty well pleased with herself. Her father also gave her an early birthday gift. He was going to make her a partner in the business when she reached her 20th birthday, which was still 3 years away. That way, if anything were to happen to him, at least she would still have a source of income. She didn’t like to think of her father not being around, she wanted him to live forever so she wouldn’t be without any family.

It felt like she’d only been asleep for a few moments when the sound of shattering glass woke her up. When she opened her eyes, they immediately began to sting and she started to cough from the smoke that was creeping under the door.

“Daddy?”

He didn’t answer.

“Daddy?” she choked as she grabbed her robe and headed towards the front of the building that held his workshop. When she pulled back the curtains, she screamed. On the floor, lay her father’s lifeless body as flames licked at everything on his desk. She screamed again…and again till someone came running in and escorted her outside so that others could put the fire out and tend to her father.

“Jane?”

She heard Mrs. Starkweather’s voice but it seemed to be coming from a far away place. Then she was at the Marshall’s office, sitting in one of the chairs with a blanked wrapped around her trembling shoulders and a warm cup of coffee in her shaking hands. 

“Jane?” Marshall Starkweather began. “Jane, did you see who did this?”

Her blood-shot eyes lifted to the concerned face of the town’s Marshall and she barely nodded.

“Who was it?”

“Emery Pike,” she whispered.

Randy Starkweather let out a groan. He and his deputies have been after the Pike brothers for a couple of months, but they never could catch up to them. The Pike’s were sneaky characters…they could charm most anything wearing a skirt, hell; they could probably even charm the rattler out of its rattle.

“All right, we’ll start tracking him in the morning, meanwhile you go on home with the Missus and we’ll tend to your father’s funeral arrangement tomorrow too.”

“Thanks, but I’d like to stay at my place.”

“Now dear,” Mrs. Starkweather admonished, “it wouldn’t do you any good to be staying there right now.”

“But I need…”

“We’ll find you something to wear,” she replied as she helped Jane from the chair, “I’m sure Lauralei wont’ mind.” Then she turned to her husband saying, “I’ll see that she gets some rest.”

The next morning with the smell of smoke still lingering in the air, the townspeople of Falls Church gathered at their small cemetery to pay their respects to a fine member of the community. Afterwards, dressed in a borrowed riding outfit from Lauralei, Jane made her way back to her home… what was left of it. As she stepped over the thresh-hold, she felt the tears stinging her eyes again. Barely 17 and she was now alone in the world. She went to her room, gathered a carpet bag, placed some clothing into it then headed to the stable to saddle up her horse. She needed to get away from this place for a while and thought about heading in the direction of Benton. Maybe she could start a new life there.

After a few days out on the open land, Jane felt as though she had an entire mountain on her shoulders and desperately wanted to soak in a nice warm bath. So she headed for Benton’s hotel, checked in and asked for a bath to be sent up. 

She sighed gratefully as she slowly sank into the bubble filled tub…her muscles aching and groaning as they settled in the warm water. An hour or so must’ve passed because when she finally managed to pull herself from the tub, the water was cold and the bubbles had dissipated. Then she just 
wrapped a towel around her and collapsed onto the bed, immediately falling asleep.

“That’s him!” she yelled as she walked beside Marshall Dooley. “He’s the one who killed my father.”

“Emery Pike, you’re under arrest.”

So with Emery in handcuffs, the Marshall walked him over to the jail with Jane following right behind them. After Emery was locked behind the bars, he just sat there and grinned like the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland and when Jane saw this, she stepped closer to the cell then whispered, “I’d shoot that smirk off of your face if I had my gun with me.”

“Now Jane…don’t you want me to have a fair trial?”

“Why? You’re guilty and you know it,” she sassed.

“Jane, get away from there and come answer these questions.”

She looked over her shoulder at the Marshall and sighed, “All right, but I still think you should let me shoot him already.”

“No can do, you know that. Now…about what time was it when…”

Jane answered all of Marshall Dooley’s questions, thanked him for his concern about her having a place to stay, but said she was fine staying at the hotel. She took one last look at Pike before heading out the door…he was still grinning that stupid grin and it grated on her nerves. So she started to head back over to the cell when the Marshall gave her a fatherly look that had her 
sighing again as she turned and exited the office.
 

Hanging Day

Jane could tell that the people of Benton were riled up about Pike. He had stolen the town’s gold and hurt some people in the process, so it wasn’t only her that was seeking justice. She waited just outside the hotel as Marshall Dooley and Deputy Wilkens came outside with Pike securely between them, his hands bound with rope. All of a sudden the people rushed toward the three men yelling that they couldn’t hang Pike till he told them where the gold was.

They must’ve gotten the Marshall mad because he aimed his gun in the air and fired.

“Enough,” he yelled. “We got to go by the law and the law says he hangs, that is unless you want me to shoot him right here.”

“But he still hasn’t said where he hid the gold,” complained one of the people.

“Don’t you think I know that? But he’s still got to hang for killin’ Mr. Donavan over in Falls Church.”

As he and the crowd continued to argue, a loud explosion rent through the air, causing those arguing to suddenly become quiet as Church mice. Everyone just stood there, open-mouthed and wide-eyed, watching as the gallows were blown to smithereens.

Jane couldn’t believe what she was seeing then she looked over at Pike. There he was, amidst a mob of people, with that stupid smile on his face again. She just wanted to scream at the unfairness of it all. Then she walked over to where everyone was just in time to hear Emery say; “See…I told you there weren’t no way I was goin’ to hang.”
 

Chapter 1

Some 20 miles west of Ft. Laramie

Buck, Noah, Jimmy and Hack were escorting one Emery Pike to Ft. Laramie for hanging when Jimmy decided to stop for the afternoon. As they sat around the campfire Jimmy asked Hack where he was from.

“Sydney. Sydney, Australia.”

“Is that still a penal colony?” asked Noah.

“No. We’ve become respectable, just like the United States.”

Then Hack began to tell them about his homeland, of how he lost his mother at a young age and the loss of his father a year earlier.

“Yeah…of rope burn,” Pike sneered.

Hack jumped to his feet, his gun drawn and grabbed a fistful of Pike’s shirt.

“I ought to kill you right now, save us the trip to Ft. Laramie.”

“Don’t do it Hack,” replied Jimmy.

“Nah, go ahead Hack…pull the trigger,” said Pike, “better you hang than me.”

“Hack,” Noah jumped in, “he ain’t worth the led.”

“Yeah,” answered Jimmy, “besides whose turn is it to ride point?” No one said anything, then he continued, “Hack?”

Hack sighed as he slowly put his gun away. “Guess it’s my turn,” he replied and began walking away when suddenly sniper fire came from the hillside above them.

Everyone scrambled for cover from the sniper fire, which seemed to be coming from all directions. Noah and Jimmy look at each other, from the far side of the buckboard with the same question in their eyes.

“Sounds like 3 or 4 of them,” questioned Noah.

“At least two”, replied Jimmy. 

Buck was shaking his head as his friends argued then softly replied; “It’s only one”.

“One of Pike’s men by my guess”, Jimmy said.

 “If it was, he knows we have Emery,” Noah responded.

“He gets back and tells the gang, Teaspoon’ll find himself in a trap.”

“I’ll track him”, came Buck’s response as he made his way from underneath the buckboard. 

Buck quietly made his way around the camp, up an incline and into the dense woods to go after the would-be sniper. About half an hour later he sees the glow of a campfire in the distance. He slows his footsteps to where they’re barely making a sound…like that of a panther’s grace when stalking its prey. Then slowly taking out his knife, he attacks the guy from behind. 

His mind was stunned and his heart seemed to stop as he gazed into the frightened doe-brown eyesof the girl pinned beneath him. He continued to watch her eyes. They were the windows to all her emotions that were “flying” across them. Then he watched as the fright that was so prevalent change into anger and disappointment.

Jane struggled to push the stranger away from her, but he seemed to be made of solid rock and he just kept starring at her with a surprised look on his face.

“Will—you—get—off—me”, she hissed angrily.

He still didn’t budge.

“GET—OFF—of me, you…you…Tarzan!”

Buck’s lips lifted in a half-smile as her anger finally penetrated his fog-filled brain and he rocked back on his heals while re-sheathing his knife.

 “What?” she questioned, “you never seen a girl before?”

He just smiled a little more, knowing that his heart would never be the same after today. He was enjoying the way her eyes shimmered with the golden specks of her anger and he wondered how they would sparkle if he was to make love with her.

“Make love?” he thought to himself. “As in have sex? Geesh Buck…get a grip on your hormones, she barely looks 16.”

Jane watched as a complex of emotions crossed the stranger’s face and decided to take a better look at him while his thoughts were off in Never, Never Land.

He was part Indian, she could tell, but that didn’t matter because she’d befriended several of them in the years her family lived in Buckskin Crossing and then after they moved to Falls Church. 

Just thinking about her home now caused her pain. First her mother died not long after they’d moved there and now Emery Pike had killed her father. When she looked up again, her eyes came in contact with those of the stranger. His were similar to hers, but more creamy brown…like that of brown sugar and all her coherent thoughts decided to take a walk when his eyes bored into hers. She wanted to tell him to go away…to disappear. She wanted to yell at him for sneaking up on her, she wanted to…to…dear Lord, not that. How could she even be thinking of things like that? Then she notices the arch of his eyebrow.

“What?”

“I’m not going to hurt you,” Buck replied.

“Then why’d you creep up on me with that knife?”

“You were shooting at us,” he said as he tossed her his coat.

“I wasn’t shooting at you, I was shooting at Pike…I’m not really that good with a gun.”

“You one of the people he stole money from?” he asked as twirled a twig between his fingers.

Jane pursed her lips together in a frown, wondering if she could trust anyone, let alone this handsome stranger sitting in front of her.

“Well?”

“No,” she finally said. “He killed my father and I aim to make sure he pays for it.”

Buck had to silently smile because of the way she answered his question. He knew he shouldn’t laugh, but when she said ‘aim’, it just seemed funny since she also said she wasn’t good with a gun. Then he looked back at her. 

“I’m sorry about your father.”

“Are you?”

“We’re on the same side Jane. The law…”

“The law already tried to hang him once and it didn’t do any good, “ she bit back.

“Laramie’s different.”

“Why,” she snapped, “cause it’s filled with soldiers? There’s a war coming and they got better things to worry about than hanging Emery Pike. Seems like no one else cares to see him hang ‘cept me.”

“And me,” Buck replied quietly. 

“What did he do to you?”

“His brother is holding a friend of ours hostage.”

Jane was silent for a few minutes while she absorbed what Buck had said then she took a deep breath and replied, “I’m sorry. I hope I’m not getting in the way of his rescue.”

“You’re not getting in the way. Besides, we’re not even sure how she’s involved.”

“She?” Jane questioned. “You mean Frank Pike is holding a girl hostage?”

“Amanda,” Buck answered with a nod. “Teaspoon’s kind of adopted her as his own…much liked he’s done with us.”

“But h…” Jane began. 

Buck held up his hand saying, “Try to get some rest…we still got a long way to go before reaching the fort.”

She wasn’t really tired, but she decided to lie down anyway.

“So,” she began, “your friends just took off with Pike while you decided to stalk after me?”

“I wasn’t exactly stalking you...you were the one taking pot shots at us.”

“Told you I wasn’t that good with a gun”, she grumbled.

He had to smile. At least she “tried” to get Pike, but then she would’ve been the one to end up in jail and most likely at the end of a hangman’s noose.

“Go to sleep Jane.”

“Aren’t you going to sleep?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

Buck rolled his eyes, “Because.”

“Suit yourself Tarzan“.

The next morning, they were up with the sun and Jane couldn’t resist calling Buck Tarzan instead of using his actual name. She knew it irritated him, but then, he had irritated her by insisting on rushing them through breakfast and getting their horses saddled. He was now making sure the cinch on Diamond Girl’s saddle was tight enough while she smothered the rest of the campfire with the surrounding dirt. Then she stood, dusted her hands free of the soot and dirt and gazed at him through lowered lashes.

“What is it about him that makes my heart flutter?” she wondered to herself.

“All set?” he asked, intruding on her thoughts.

“I guess.”

“All right, mount up.”
 

Chapter Two

Fort Laramie

Jimmy, Noah, Hack and their prisoner Emery Pike rode into the Fort, each thinking that finally they were here. Emery, of course, was thinking that he’d not hang here either because he wasn’t going to hang…not if he could help it.

“Ok,” he thought as the soldier locked him up, “how do I get out of this?”

“Like to thank you boys for what you’ve done,” the soldier said. “I know it was dangerous and couldn’t have been easy.”

“Not the stuff they write books about,” responded Hack.

“You haven’t seen a Marshall Teaspoon Hunter around have you?” Jimmy asked as the soldier sat down.

“No, ‘fraid I haven’t. You expecting him?”

“Yeah…kind of.”

“Well, he’d better hurry up and get here if he’s going to catch the hanging. It’s scheduled for tomorrow.”

Jimmy was perplexed, as were the others. Then Jimmy asked, “What are you talking about? I thought Pike was supposed to hang next week.”

“Orders from the Governor himself. Pike hangs at noon…no ifs, ands or buts about it.” 

“And why is that?”

“I guess they don’t want the same trouble here like they had over in Benton.”

Jimmy just nodded his head then, with the other two men, walked out of the office.

Meanwhile, about 3 miles from the Fort, Buck was rolling his eyes skyward for the umpteenth time, pleading with the Gods to make this woman/child quit calling him that ridiculous name she’d bestowed on him the other day.

“Jane?”

“Hm?”

“How many times I got to tell you that my name is Buck Cross and not Tarzan?”

She just gave him a sideways look then innocently said, “Always.”

“Aarrrg…don’t you ever keep that sassy mouth of yours out of trouble?”

“Most times. But I’ve been told many times that my mother gave people nicknames and papa said mama even gave him one that almost caused his ears to fall off. Said I definitely got her spunk and…”

“Yeah…and her mouth too”, Buck mumbled.

Jane lunged at him before he knew what was happening and they’re suddenly flying off their horses. Now he was lying flat on his back on the hard ground with a very angry Jane sitting across his chest, poking a finger in his face.

“Don’t you ever speak that way about my mama. You apologize right now or we’re not going to…”

“We’re not going to do what?” he asks as he pins her down in a move so fast that she was left breathless. Slowly he leaned in closer till their noses barely touched and then whispered, “I’d like to kiss that sassy mouth of yours. Say yes Buck…I’d like for you to kiss me.”

“Y-ye-es…Tar-zan,” she managed to say before his lips touched to hers in the softest butterfly kiss she’s ever had.

She wanted more…of what? She didn’t understand why or what was happening, but she wrapped her arms around him to bring him closer, her lips parting slightly and sighed.

“Gods,” Buck thought, “I have died and gone to heaven. I apologize for wanting her to be quiet…although this is definitely a good way to keep her quiet”.

Then he heard a soft moan escaping from Jane’s throat and lifted his head.

“Jane?”

“Hmmmm?” she breathed.

“Look at me Jane”, he replied. She slowly opened her eyes again and he was completely lost. “Uhm…we should…uhm…we…oh hell”. 

He kissed her again, swift and hard then got up and pulled her to her feet. When they reach the horses, he sets her firmly back onto Diamond Girl then gets up on his own saying, “Come on…you do want to see Pike hang for killing your father, don’t you?”

All she could do was nod her head and follow him on to Fort Laramie.

Jimmy was wondering how they were going to let Teaspoon know about the change of plans when Noah interrupted his thoughts.

“What are we going to do now?”

Jimmy shook his head as Hack said, “Don’t know about you, but I’m heading out.” 

“After going though all that trouble to get Pike here?” asked Jimmy.

“I don’t want to see him hang…seen enough hanging. Nothing but bad memories dangling at the end of a rope.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean.”

“Yeah? Guess you do,” Hack responded to Noah’s statement. “Well, see you around. Then he turned to Jimmy, “And maybe I’ll read about you.”

“Don’t count on it,” Jimmy replied with a smile.

“Don’t be too sure,” Hack answered as he began walking away, “You never know when something exciting is going to happen.”

“Come on Hickok,” Noah said after Hack left, “there’s no way we could’ve known the governor would move up the hanging. We did what we were supposed to do.”

Before Jimmy could answer, both he and Noah look towards the sound of someone calling out their names and see that Buck and a young girl were walking towards them.

“Don’t tell me that’s the sharpshooter?” asked Noah.

“The shooter…yes. Uh, sharpshooter?” 

Jane looked up just in time to see Buck’s eyebrow do that arch thing again and secretly smiled. She loved the way he did that, but then she punched him in the arm for teasing her about her shooting skills.

“I told you I wasn’t that good with a gun,” she said as she smacked him again. “So don’t be bragging about it to everyone.”

Then she stomped off to the hotel as the laughter of the boys’ voices rang in her ears.

“Who is she?” asked Jimmy.

“Jane Donovan.”

“Definitely not one of Pike’s ‘men’,” laughed Noah.

“No,” replied Buck, “but she does want to see Pike hang.” 

“She from Benton?”

“Church Falls,” Buck answered. “Pike killed her father. Guess we just wait for Teaspoon now…at least we still have a few days till the hanging.”

“Afraid not”, replied Jimmy, “they moved the hanging up for tomorrow noon.”
 

Hanging Day (Again?)

Emery Pike stared a the clock with a smirk on his face, thinking that there was no way he was going to hang…that somehow he’d get out of this one too. Then as the clock struck 12, the soldiers came to lead him out to the gallows. On their way there, he noticed Jane standing next to the Deputies of Sweet Water and smirked again.

“Ain’t going to hang,” he thought.

Buck noticed the fear and anger in Jane’s eyes as Pike was led past them to the gallows and wrapped his arm around her small shoulders.

“He’s not going to hurt you,” he whispered with a re-assuring hug.

When Pike reaches the platform; he looks over at Jane with the smirk still on his face causing her to scoot behind Buck and grip at his shirt. Although she continues to watch as Pike is escorted up the stairs to the platform and as the hangman places the black hood over his face. While she’s thinking of the justice that’s about to be done for her father and the people of Benton, Jimmy starts walking towards the gallows.

“Hickok?” Noah calls out as Jimmy takes a few steps forward.

“Can’t let this happen”, Jimmy replied as he continued walking.

“Jimmy…”

Jimmy ignored his friend and just as he got to the stairs a soldier told him to stand back.

Meanwhile Jane was still clutching at Buck’s shirt, trembling with the fear that something would go wrong and then peeked around his well-muscled arm to focus her attention back onto Pike. When the trap door swung open with a thud; Pike goes swinging and Jane jumps.

Buck felt every little tremble emanating from Jane’s being, then turned and wrapped her securely in his arms saying, “Everything’s going to be ok now.”

“Son,” the soldier said to Jimmy, “It’s already done.”

Jimmy walked back to the others, his head hung low and his thoughts on Amanda. Now that Emery was dead she would surely be killed once Frank found out about his brother.

“Well,” said Noah, “that does it for Pike.”

“And Amanda too,” replied Jimmy.
 

Chapter Three

Sweet Water Station

“Either your eyes or that letter are going to wear out if you don’t give one of them a rest,” Rachel scolded.

“Guess worrying about things don’t make it any easier.”

“I don’t think you need to be worrying Lou, you know they’re going to be fine.

“Still…they shouldn’t have left me behind,” she complained. “We’re family and whatever they’re going through, I should be going through with them. Kid probably talked them into leaving without me.”

Rachel shook her head with a smile and replied, “I assure you he did no such thing.”

“But he practically says it here right in this letter. The first half says that he’s glad I’m not with them then…” she sighs, “then the next half says how much he still cares for me. How can someone be so special and be so infuriating at the same time?

“Some people just have the knack for it?”

“I guess.”

“You know the funny thing is, the only ones you really care about can get to you like this.”

“But they’re all like that,” Lou said quietly. Then with the fiery determination that was all Louise, she looked back at Rachel and replies, “Rachel…I…I got to go after them.”

“I know. Ike said the same thing when he rode in this evening. Said he’d be waiting for you.”

So Lou, with the letter from Kid securely tucked into her shirt, ran out to the barn to saddle up Lightning. When she got there she saw that Ike had already saddled her horse and another one for him and was standing near the doors with a knowing smile on his face. Then the two of them began their journey to Ft. Laramie to be with the others.

Bored out of her skull in her stuffy hotel room, Jane wanders downstairs and into the parlor. When she notices the boys sitting at a table drinking their sarsaparillas and discussing whatever they were talking about, she decided to go outside for a quiet walk to gather her thoughts about returning 
home. When she looked up from the ground several minutes later, she found that her walk led her to the graveyard so she hid behind a clump of bushes to watch the gravediggers getting ready to put Pike’s casket in the hole. As she waits patiently for them to be done with their job, one of the men asks if he could pay his last respects to his friend. Then she jumps just a bit as the man slams the lid back down on the casket and storms away. When she looked back at the box, she noticed sand coming from one corner and began to tremble all over again.

“Damn, damn, double damn,” she thought angrily, “even the soldiers couldn’t hang him’.

Jane stayed where she was for a few more minutes, fuming at what she’d seen and when the other fellow left too, she ran all the way back to the hotel. When she reaches the hotel, she noticed the 
boys were now outside lounging in the afternoon sun and stormed up to them full of undeniable fury.

“Pike’s not dead,” she stated angrily.

“What do you mean Pike ain’t dead?” asked Noah.

“I saw the gravediggers with Pike’s casket. There was sand leaking out of it.”

“But what does that prove?”

She wanted to stomp her foot in frustration, but she maintained her anger till she could get a hold of Pike herself. 

“Are you sure about this?”

“Yes Jimmy…I ain’t blind.”

“But Jane,” Buck insisted, “we all saw Pike hung.”

“I don’t care what we saw…Pike’s alive.”

The boys looked at each other before Jimmy said; “Well I guess there’s only one way to solve this.”

When nightfall came, the four of them went to the graveyard to confirm what Jane had told them. 

“Jane,” Buck said before he started digging, “I really wish you’d stayed at the hotel. This is no place for a young lady.”

“Leave me be Tarzan. I ain’t scared of dead things.”

Noah and Jimmy just look at each other with silly grins on their faces, then towards Buck as he was shoveling out some of the dirt.

“Tarzan?” they say simultaneously then start to laugh. 

“Lay off guys…I’m sure she could come up with some names for you,” then as his shovel hit the casket he scrambled out and stood at the edge of the grave.

“Why didn’t you open it up while you were down there? Jimmy snickered as he jumped down to open the lid, “Scared of the dead…Tarzan?” 

“No, just bad medicine,” Buck replied as he clutched his medicine bag. Then he walked over to Jane and whispered in her ear.

Jane was still upset with the boys(especially Buck) and she took a couple of steps away from him before replying to his words.

“I am staying right here till you see that I am telling the truth.”

Then Jane, Buck and Noah all look down at Jimmy when he muttered an oath.

“See,” she snapped at Buck. “I never should’ve listened to you.”

With that, she took off in the direction of the Fort to get away from those who didn’t believe that her father’s killer had escaped justice once again. As she ran, she ignored Buck who was calling out her name while tears of anger and frustration slid down her cheeks.

“Let her go Buck,” Jimmy said. “We got other things to worry about.”

“How do we find out who did this?” he asked.

“I know who did it…a rat named Sydney,” Jimmy replied.

The three boys head back to the hotel to get some sleep before talking with the hangman in the morning.

“Doing my job makes you kind of numb after awhile,” the hangman began.  Besides, I felt real sorry for him when he told me Pike wiped out his entire family. Was the saddest story I ever heard.”

“Yeah, sounds pretty sad to me too,” Noah quipped. 

“Who could blame him for wanting to hang the man himself?”

“You let Hack hang Pike?” questioned Jimmy.

“Lent him my hood…it was the least I could do. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some work needing to be finished.”

As the hangman walked away, Buck said; “So now what?”

“We go after Pike and Hack,” Jimmy answered. “And when we find them…”

He’d left the rest unsaid, as the three of them walked toward the livery stable to get their horses, because he was furious that Hack would even pull a stunt like he did when he had told them, that first day, he’d seen enough hangings. When they reached the stable he began to ask the proprietor several questions.

“Hack? Hack. Naw, don’t think I ever met him.”

“What about the Kangaroo Kid?” questioned Noah.

“Yeah I remember him. Gave me one of his books…even signed it for me.”

“That’s nice,” Jimmy said, “real special.”

“Well I thought it was.”

Jimmy was barely hanging onto his anger when he asked; “Would you mind telling us when was the last time you saw him?”

“Came in yesterday before the hanging. Picked up his wagon along with the pretty little bay your lady friend was riding.”

“Jane,” Buck whispered then said, “He took Jane’s horse?”

“Yeah. She was kind of upset when she came in,” he replied as he looked back to Jimmy, “then she decided to take yours…said you owed it to her.”

“She’s headed after Pike,” Noah said quietly.

Jimmy nodded in agreement as he asked the proprietor to saddle up another horse for them.

“Sure thing,” he answered as he stepped toward the coral. “Oh, by the way, would you mind doing me a favor when you catch up to that friend of yours?”

“What’s that?”

“Ask him how the back-brace worked out.” 

The boys looked at each other, perplexed as to why Hack would want a back-brace and when Noah questioned about it, the proprietor explained why Hack needed it.

“Well, yeah…we will,” Jimmy replied as the man continued on into the coral. “No problem. So that’s how he did it.”

“He’s got imagination,” said Noah.

“He’s got Pike too.”

As the boys continue to talk amongst themselves, they notice Ike and Lou walking through the stable then Noah asked, “Who’s minding the store?”

“When the house is on fire, you don’t worry about the belongings,” Lou quipped with a smile on her pert face.

Jimmy smiled back at her.

“Glad you both made it.”

“You shouldn’t have left me.”

“Wasn’t my idea.”

“Didn’t think so,” she said. “So…where’re we headed?”

“After Pike.”

She was confused and began to question the boys, “But I thought…”

“So did we,” answered Buck.

“We’re going to need some extra powder and shot,” Jimmy spoke, and maybe some hard tack too.”

Lou smiled again as she replied, “I’ll get it.” Then she began walking back the way she’d come before turning around saying, “I sure missed you boys.”

After she was out of earshot, Jimmy turned to face the others again as Noah was saying, “Jimmy, I think you’re making a big mistake telling her that she can come along.”

“Why, cause it’ll make the Kid angry?”

“No…cause of where we’re going and the odds that we’ll make it out of there alive.”

“Well she’s family, she can hold her own.”

“Family or not,” Noah argued, “I still say she stays.”

“I say she goes,” Jimmy argued back.

Buck decided to jump in before the two friends came to blows with each other and said, “You’re right Jimmy, Lou is family but I think we owe it to ourselves that at least one of us survives this. I got to side with Noah in this case.”
 

Chapter Four

Somewhere outside Fort Laramie

“What am I going to do?” she thought to herself as she set to making a campfire for the night. Then as Chester’s face floated in front of her face, she gasped. “Dear Lord…with pa dead, Chester will…” She didn’t want to even think about the man because there was no way on God’s green earth she would ever marry someone like Chester.  “I refuse to marry a man who is so…so…uhg”.

Then she focuses her attention back on getting dinner cooked. As she started to spoon some beans onto her plate a few minutes later, she hears a noise and looks up to see a bloody Pike stumbling into her camp. She dropped her plate and made a hasty retreat away from him.

“Don’t mean to scare you”, he managed to say as he crumpled to his knees by the log that she had just been sitting on. “Food looks good. May…maybe if I could eat some, I’d get my strength back.”

Hesitantly Jane steps closer to pick up the plate. She hands it to him then runs to stand behind a tree. She could feel her anger reaching the boiling point as her body begins to shake with little tremors, not understanding how this man could escape justice twice for the murder of her father.

“You know,” Pike began, “when I first came up here I…I didn’t recognize you as a girl.” He paused to take a labored breath then continued to talk. “What a surprise. What do you say Jane…you like surprises?”

That evening as Pike lay sleeping on the opposite side of the fire, Jane was wide-awake. She then silently made her way over to her gun, slowly released it from its holster and carefully aimed it at Pike’s head.

‘Checkmate’.

Pike and Jane eyed each other carefully as they held their guns on each other then he said, “Guess you don’t like surprises after all…just like your daddy.”

“Why’d you have to kill him?”

“Seemed like a good thing at the time”, he answered as he struggled to sit up a little more.

“You’re the only person I wanted to see die and I hate you for that.”

“Oh I got some news for you Jane…you’re going to get your wish. The only question is, how comfortable are you going to make me before I go?”

While she was debating on whether or not she would make him “comfortable” or pull the trigger on her gun and end his miserable life, Buck came sprinting from around another tree.

“Don’t move Pike.”

Pike, of course, didn’t move. How could he? He was gut shot and bleeding to death and pretty much pissed off at the whole thing.

“You…and your friends sure are a dedicated bunch of boys.”

Buck silently agreed as he took Pike’s gun from him and placed it in his own gun belt. Then, keeping an eye on the prisoner, he walked to where Jane was.

“Why don’t you give me the gun Jane.”

“This has gone on long enough,” she replied with a shake of her head. “Benton couldn’t kill him, Ft. Laramie couldn’t kill him…now it’s time for me to give it a try.”

“I’m not going to tell you he doesn’t deserve to die…”

“Good.”

“But I am going to tell you that if you kill him, you’ll also be killing the person his brother is holding hostage. Now if you can live with that…go ahead, pull the trigger, but I think enough innocent people have died.”

Jane looked from Buck to Pike then back to Buck again before slowly lowering her gun. She lets Buck take it. As he does, he wraps his arms around her, pulling her close while the tears begin their trek down her face as they have done so many times in the past few days.

While Buck held a trembling Jane in his arms, he thought about how he was going to miss their sparring matches when he sent her home. Then, with a smile on his face, he whispered; “Probably would’ve missed him anyway.”

A day or so later they met up with Ike, Jimmy and Noah. Then Jimmy tells them to stay there while rides out a ways to see if he could spot any sign of Teaspoon, Kid and Cody. When he spots them on the horizon, he spurs the horse into a gallop then completely stops in front of the three men.

“I thought I told you to take Pike to Laramie,” Teaspoon said before Jimmy’s horse halted beside him.

“We did.”

“Is this going to be a long story?”

“Yeah,” Jimmy sighed, “and Hack’s in the middle of it.”

The four men then went back the way Jimmy had come so that they could figure out a plan to rescue Amanda from Frank Pike’s clutches. After Jimmy introduce Jane to everyone else and informed Teaspoon why she was with there, they hunkered down around the campfire to discuss the situation not knowing that Lou has already infiltrated Pike’s camp with a plan of her own.

“Jane,” Teaspoon began, “we’re going to have to get you back to the Fort so’s you can catch the next stage home.”

“I’m not going,” she stated firmly, crossing her arms.

His eyes widened a little then he looked over at Buck. When Buck shrugged his shoulders and his eyebrow arched, Teaspoon knew that he’d have a fight on his hands if he made Jane leave. But with what they were up against, he also knew that she had to leave for her own safety. So when it was 
dark enough, he and Buck had placed her on the back of a horse, her fighting them all the way, and then Buck swung up behind her after looping her horse’s reigns around the saddle horn.

“You know we’re only thinking about your safety,” Buck whispered as he wrapped an arm firmly around her stomach.

She made a snorting sound as she tried, in vain, to peel his arm away from her body then she gave up as they began their way back to Ft. Laramie. When they were on the outskirts of town, she began trying again to get away from this man who made her thoughts travel down a dangerous path…a path that she had no right to be on since they were not lovers. Her body must’ve betrayed her struggle to control her emotions because Buck had leaned closer to her ear and placed a gentle nibble on the lobe.

“Oh Lord,” she thought, “make him stop.”

Buck smiled inwardly, knowing this would not be the last time he and this spit-fire, sassy-mouthed woman would see each other then he whispered, “One day you will be mine”, as he placed another kiss along her neck. 

“Zeke…make sure Miss Donavan gets back to Falls Church safely.”

“Sure, but I got to tell ya, she don’t look none too happy ‘bout going.”

Buck looked at Jane, who was sitting reluctantly inside the stagecoach and sighed, “Yeah, I know.”