TWENTY-ONE

There was enough moonlight to give Caitlyn a clear view of the road. She wished she could put the horse into a gallop. Even a trot. But she was too keenly aware that she and Theo were fugitives, out after curfew, and afraid that the sound of thudding hooves would draw attention.

“I like the moonlight.” Theo sat in front of her on the horse. “In the factory, we never saw the moon or stars.”

He was leaning back, and she had wrapped an arm around him because he was shivering so badly, but she held the reins in her right hand.

“Hush,” Caitlyn said. Any noise unnerved her, even with the sound of the fire engine sirens echoing through the valley. Her focus was on escape. When they cleared the edge of town, she could risk putting the horse into a trot.

The moon cast shadows, and the paved road ahead looked like a pale ribbon that disappeared at the curve of the hill. If she turned in the saddle, she’d be able to see the glow of a fire behind them. The livery. It wasn’t her concern, she told herself, and there was nothing she could have done to prevent it.

Her attention returned to Theo’s shivering. She realized she’d been too harsh. Would it really endanger them if they whispered a conversation?

“You were brave in the livery,” she said. “You rescued me like a hero.”

“I did, didn’t I?”

She could almost feel him grinning. Little rascal.

“What number after 941 can only be divided by one and itself?” she asked.

Maybe that would put the boy to sleep. There were hours ahead of them, lonely travel on the road. If Theo slept, maybe his shivering would end.

“You really want to know?” he asked. “Really?”

“Really.” Caitlyn smiled in the dark.

“Then I’ll figure it out and tell you.”

For a moment, it seemed peaceful. Without the past and the future on each side of this moment, it would have been idyllic. But the past and the future were inescapable—and were immediately imposing on the tranquillity.

“What’s that?” Theo said, sitting straighter. “I hear something.”

Caitlyn pulled the reins. Too late. A man on horseback came out of the trees and blocked the road.

He was armed the way Mason had been armed. Shotgun. He swung it up and pointed it at the horse.

Finally. A decision easy for Billy to make.

He’d been following the girl and the boy, staying back far enough not to be seen, wondering exactly how to ask for help without scaring them.

He needed them as witnesses because Mason was right. The surveillance camera did show Billy to be guilty. But to arrest the girl and the boy would be breaking his word. Maybe there was a way, though, that Sheriff Carney wouldn’t arrest them. Carney would take away Billy’s badge for letting the fugitives go, and Billy could be relieved of his law enforcement duties, maybe even go back to work in the livery. Except it was burned down now, so he’d have to find other work until it was built again.

Billy felt like it’d been a lot of thinking for him, while walking and half jogging to stay close enough to the horse not to lose the fugitives, but far enough back so they didn’t know he was there.

They’d turned around, though. Riding just ahead of another man on horseback, also with a shotgun like Mason Lee’s.

Billy had no doubt this was a bounty hunter in Mason Lee’s gang. A whole band of them were in town. That meant Mason would soon enough have the young woman captive again. Billy also had no doubt that Mason would kill her, if for no other reason than she was a witness to the events in the livery.

Billy stepped into the shadows behind a tree as they approached. He wasn’t armed, but he’d have to stop the bounty hunter.

The woman and the boy on the horse passed the tree. Then came the bounty hunter on his horse, holding the shotgun.

Billy turned sideways. The tree probably wasn’t wide enough to hide him completely during the day, but the branches would serve as a shroud. He crouched to push off, and he ran forward on his toes, staying bent, coming up behind the horse. A slight scuffing of his shoes on the ground gave him away. The bounty hunter reacted too slowly as he tried to turn in his saddle, and by then Billy was close enough that the hunter couldn’t get the shotgun barrel around and between them in time.

One handed, with a powerful heave, Billy grabbed the man by the back of his collar and yanked hard, pulling him loose from the saddle. For a moment, the man hung there, feet flailing. With his other hand, Billy found the shotgun and yanked it loose from the man’s grip.

Without letting go of the man’s collar, he let the man fall to his feet. Billy threw the shotgun away, so he had a free hand.

The man twisted but couldn’t get loose. He swung at Billy with a wide punch that Billy caught in the center of his palm. The smack of flesh echoed.

Billy held the man’s fist.

“Stop,” Billy said. “I don’t like hurting people.”

The bounty hunter tried to kick Billy’s knee, but his shifting of balance was enough to alert Billy, and with his iron grip on the man’s fist, Billy jerked him sideways.

The man kicked at Billy’s crotch. When Billy turned and took the blow on his hip, the hunter threw his other fist, catching Billy’s eye socket. It felt like his eyeball had exploded in a flash of white. Something else was white too, the explosion of rage inside Billy.

Time and again he’d been pushed around and beat up and mocked. No more. No more pain. As the next fist came swinging in, Billy blocked it with his bicep. He let go of the man’s other fist, and for the first time in his life, he threw a counterpunch, hooking it into the man’s ribs.

The audible crack surprised Billy. The man sagged.

But it wasn’t enough. Billy hooked another one around, pounding the man’s head with the side of his fist. As the man was falling, Billy grabbed with both hands and tossed him like a sack of feed.

There was a horrible thump. The man didn’t move.

Billy’s rage immediately became remorse. But he turned to the bounty hunter’s horse, which had sidestepped away in confusion. Billy grabbed the loose reins and pulled it close.

He discovered he was panting, amazed and perplexed and sorrowful at what he’d inflicted on the bounty hunter.

“Wow,” the boy said, teeth chattering. “Do that again.”

Billy didn’t have time to answer. The young woman pushed Theo against the mane, goaded the horse, and sent it into a gallop.

No time to think either. Billy pulled himself into the saddle of the bounty hunter’s horse and began chasing the two fugitives. It took him a couple of seconds to get into the rhythm of the gallop.

Slowly he closed the gap but only because the woman on the other horse was fighting to keep the boy in the saddle. Then the boy fell.

A moment later, she eased out of the gallop and pulled her horse to a stop.

“Keep it walking,” Billy said. “Let it cool down. We’ll turn it back to Theo.”

She hesitated, as if preferring defiance, then kicked the horse’s ribs to nudge it forward and away from him.

“I’m all right!” Theo yelled from behind them. “Really.”

“You,” the young woman accused. “You made a promise not to chase us.”

“I did.” Billy thought of the unconscious bounty hunter behind them. Or maybe the man was dead. Even if witnesses cleared him of setting the fire, how could he explain that?

“I just want you to record something on my vidpod,” Billy said. The horses were breathing hard. “So Sheriff Carney will know what really happened in the livery. ’Cause the cameras make me look guilty. That’s all. And now that I might have killed one of Mason Lee’s bounty hunters…how will anyone believe me if you don’t help?”

Billy looked at the girl, waiting for her answer. He held his breath. If he went back to town without something from her, it’d be worse than losing his deputy badge. He’d probably be sent to a factory.

Theo reached them. “Don’t want to do that again!”

Caitlyn ignored Theo and cocked her head. “What’s your name?”

“Billy Jasper.”

“Billy, you think anyone is going to believe anything I say, on the vidpod or even in person? Someone that Mason Lee is chasing? Think they’re going to believe that a near-blind kid climbed the rafters and dropped a rock on his head?”

She was right. And better at thinking than Billy. His hopelessness overwhelmed him. “What do I do?”

“Forcing us to go back won’t help you.”

For the first time that he could remember, a decision came to Billy with suddenness and clarity. It almost stunned him. It certainly frightened him—but there was no other way.

“Let me come with you two,” Billy said.

“You don’t know where we’re going.”

“I know you can’t go back. I can’t either.”

For several long moments, she studied him. Billy held his breath again.

“Hand me your vidpod.”

He was surprised at how much her answer disappointed him. He’d been ready to change his life with that simple decision. Now he’d have to go back and hope her testimony would protect him from the factory.

He unclipped the device from his belt. She held her hand out for it. Instead of speaking into it, with a quick movement of her cloaked arm, she flung it into the trees.

It was far more shocking to Billy than if she’d pulled out a shotgun. He couldn’t even react by speaking.

“There it is, Billy Jasper. You can go look for your vidpod. Or you can join us.”