The Gunslinger Who Came to Bury His Past — Then the Town Gave Him a Reason to Draw Again
CHAPTER 8
Gabriel buried Marshal Reed outside town.
Only Ada attended.
The rest of Mercy Creek stayed indoors.
They were afraid.
Gabriel understood.
Fear was how men like Vane ruled.
Not through guns.
Through silence.
That night, Ada found Gabriel sitting beside the grave.
“You should sleep.”
“I don’t.”
“Why?”
“If I sleep, I dream.”
“About your father?”
“About everyone I failed.”
Ada sat beside him.
“You didn’t fail them.”
“I wasn’t there.”
“You were a child.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“I still feel responsible.”
Ada reached for his hand.
He let her.
“Then don’t spend the rest of your life punishing yourself for something you couldn’t control.”
Gabriel stared at her.
“You always talk this much?”
“Only when you’re being stubborn.”
For the first time, he laughed.
Then a gunshot came from town.
They ran.
The newspaper office was burning.
Ada stopped.
“My records.”
Gabriel grabbed her.
“Leave them.”
“They’re everything.”
“No.”
He looked into the flames.
“You’re everything.”
She stared at him.
He realized what he had said.
Neither moved.
Then the roof collapsed.
They barely escaped.
The next morning, Gabriel made a decision.
He would leave Mercy Creek.
Ada was furious.
“You promised to stay.”
“I promised nothing.”
“You can’t keep running.”
“I can.”
“That’s not living.”
He looked at her.
“If I stay, people die.”
Ada stepped closer.
“People are already dying.”
Gabriel said nothing.
She touched his chest.
“You don’t have to become a killer.”
His eyes hardened.
“No.”
He looked toward the burning ruins.
“But I do have to become something Vane understands.”
“What?”
Gabriel’s hand moved toward his revolver.
“A man who won’t run.”
CHAPTER 9
The Black Spurs attacked at midnight.
They came from three directions.
The saloon burned first.
Then the general store.
Then the church.
People ran through smoke-filled streets.
Gabriel stood in the middle of Main Street.
His rifle rested against his shoulder.
Beside him stood Ada.
Elias Bell arrived carrying medical supplies.
“You picked a terrible time to settle down.”
Gabriel smiled.
“I’ve always had bad timing.”
The first outlaw appeared.
Gabriel fired.
Then another.
Ada loaded ammunition beside him.
Elias treated wounded townspeople behind the newspaper office.
The battle lasted an hour.
When dawn came, Mercy Creek was still standing.
Barely.
But the Black Spurs were gone.
Gabriel looked down the street.
Someone had left a message painted across the courthouse wall.
VANE OWNS THIS TOWN.
Ada stared at it.
“No.”
Gabriel looked at her.
“No?”
She shook her head.
“Not anymore.”
They gathered the townspeople.
For the first time, people spoke.
Farmers.
Shopkeepers.
Widows.
Every person Vane had threatened.
They agreed to testify.
They had documents.
Witnesses.
Names.
Enough to destroy him.
But they needed one thing.
Proof that Vane had ordered the murders.
And that proof was on a train arriving the following night.
A railroad ledger.
Gabriel looked toward the tracks.
“Then we take it.”
Elias smiled.
“I knew you’d say that.”
Ada frowned.
“You two have done this before?”
Gabriel looked at him.
“Unfortunately.”
Elias grinned.
“Fortunately.”
