them, promising to do her best to keep in touch—a promise she knew she would break.
Chapter 5
"Boy, it's hot." Travis wiped the sweat from his brow.
"What's wrong? Ya getting soft in yer old age?" Dave chuckled.
"I've tracked every kinda criminal there is, hot days, cold nights, and stormy weather. Used to never bother me, but today I'm hot. I'm getting tired of this job."
"You, Travis Parker, tired of being a ranger? Huh, I don't believe it. Ya used to say ya wanted to join up since ya was a young'n."
"I don't know why you don't give it up, Dave. You got a wife and a baby on the way. That's a life I dream of, but that's a dream, not real life. Dreams and real life ain't the same thing. Women don't marry lawmen."
"Hey, remember, I'm married."
"That's cause Mary is a rare woman, and you're a lucky man. Don't matter anyhow, haven't ever met a gal I would want to court." Travis shifted in his saddle. "Cept'n one," he muttered.
"What?" Dave pulled the horse reins. "You met a girl?"
A warmth spread across his face. Great, he heard me.
"It ain't nothing. Come on; let's go." Travis kicked his horse's flanks.
"No. I ain't movin' from this spot until ya tell me about this gal."
"Come on now, Dave, we gotta get to Greenville, to fetch the prisoner then escort him to Clairton so he can stand trial."
"Then ya better start talking."
Travis sighed. "All right, all right, I'll tell you," he said as he dug in his pocket, retrieving a folded-up paper. He took a deep breath and handed it to Dave.
"What's this?"
"Just read it."
"Missing, Belle Alston," Dave read aloud, "5'5", brown hair, violet-blue eyes, birthmark right arm, bell shaped. If you have any information—"
Travis snatched the paper from Dave's hand and returned it to his pocket. "Go on now; have your laugh."
"Travis, who is she?"
Travis sucked in some air. "Belle Alston. Her parents were murdered, and her home burned to the ground, but we couldn't find Belle. I was assigned to search for her. That was three years ago."
"And you fell in love with a picture?"
"No, you idiot. I met her at a dance. Her parents were murdered the same night."
"And you fell in love with her?"
"You can laugh at me if you want, but I did, or at least I was startin' to. I've never given up looking for her."
"I ain't laughing. Same thing happened to me when I met Mary. The first time I saw Mary, she was workin' in her pa's store. I came in the store and went up to the counter, didn't see anyone there, so I yelled out. Well, up pops Mary from behind the counter, scared the shit out of me. She was the purdiest girl I'd ever seen. Knew right then and there, I would marry her, and I did. So, I ain't laughin', Travis."
Travis saw a look of concern cross Dave's face. "I tell ya what, partner," Dave said. "We are almost to the road to Serenity. Why don't you go there and take a break, get a good meal, and sleep in a real bed. I'll go on to Greenville and get the prisoner and meet up with you in Serenity, then I'll hand over the prisoner and you can take him the rest of the way to Clairton, and I can go home to Mary and maybe the baby if'n he decides to come."
Travis was silent. He mulled over Dave's idea. "You can handle Dale McGraw alone?"
"Hell, McGraw is a banker, arrested for stealing from his own bank. If I can't handle him, I need to turn in my badge."
"Yeah, I reckon a middle-aged embezzler wouldn't put up much of a fight."
"Come on, Travis, you can use a break, and I want to go home to Mary."
"All right, all right, I'll go if it means you might see your baby born, but I wouldn't call the town of Serenity a break."
Dave laughed aloud." No, I guess not."
A few minutes later, Travis and Dave reached the road to Serenity.
"Here's where I leave you," Dave said." See ya tomorrow."
Travis sighed." Yeah, see ya tomorrow."
I should reach Serenity before nightfall. Tired from travel, Fury hoped she had enough money left from her last bounty to get a room in the hotel and sleep in a real bed. Even with the training she received from Black Hawk, the years she'd spent as a bounty hunter had not been easy. There were long days of travel and nights of sleeping on the ground. Rain or shine, cold or hot, the weather did not offer any reprieve, the job had to get done. Bringing criminals to justice offered her survival and a way to search for those who murdered her parents. She had a few close calls and knew one day she would probably be killed, but she hoped she would find her parents' murderers before she met that fate.
Fury tried her best not to think of her parents and her life with them, because those thoughts made her feel and she found feelings and emotions a detriment to her survival. Perhaps fatigue kept her from keeping her memories buried. She thought of her papa's laugh and her mama's sweet smile. Tears attempted to form in her eyes, but she forced them back. A sad smile swept her face as she remembered how easily Belle would cry. Sweet Belle, soft and feminine, replaced by hard, cold Fury. Not a trace of Belle's femininity remained. Fury walked like a man and spoke in a low voice if she spoke at all. She wore men's clothes—jeans, shirt, and a jacket, to cover her womanly form. Today, the jacket was troublesome. It was a hot day, and she didn't dare remove it, so she settled on rolling up her sleeves, hoping that would bring relief.
Fury kept her hat low, to hide her feminine face. She didn't bathe often, using her offensive smell to keep others away, and added an extra layer of dirt to her face so her lack of facial hair would be obscured. To add a final touch to her masculinity, Fury smoked a slender cigar and taught herself to like the taste of whiskey. She smiled when she remembered how sick both habits made her in the beginning, but now, they were a part of Fury.
The town of Serenity glowed from the light of the setting sun as Fury arrived at its outskirts. She stopped for a moment as she heard the wild sounds coming from the town. Serenity did not live up to its name. It had become a town where people of dubious reputations often gathered due to the lack of effective law enforcement. Fury was no stranger to Serenity; she found the Golden Nugget saloon a place with a wealth of information if you knew the right people to ask, and besides, she had grown to enjoy the whiskey they served.
She tied her horse to the hitching post outside the saloon, and a dirty brown dog followed her into town and lay next to her horse. Even though the saloon served as a good place to gather information, at times it could be dangerous.
Fury checked the tilt of her hat, making sure it covered her face. She took a deep breath and pushed through the saloon doors. She knew she would get a reaction; she always did, but her reputation as a bounty hunter had grown past the rumors that Black Hawk had spread. At first, a reputation gave her an advantage, but now she was a target for want-to-be gunslingers hoping to make a name for themselves. Fury approached the bar with her usual confident swagger. She wanted to be left alone to drink her whiskey and look for a particular type, the kind of person who could have the information she needed and would willingly part with it when plied with enough whiskey. Fury had become an expert at singling out informants.
"Whiskey," Fury said as she slapped down money on the bar.
"I'm sorry, young fella," the bartender replied," we don't serve kids. Come back in a couple of years."
Fury lifted her gaze to meet the bartender's eyes.
"Oh, it's you." The bartender quickly retrieved a shot glass and placed it on the bar