Richard knew he was a short timer. Not from the bullet which had only grazed his leg or from the blow to the head which had hurt and given him a headache but other than that left him unharmed. Even the long ride dragging across the dusty ground behind Franks damn horse wasn't what he was sure was going to kill him.

No, the reason he knew he was a short timer was because he was currently tied to a wooden post in the center of the courtyard of the old worn down fort covered in dirt, blood and sweat with a damn crazy ass mad man and his two screw loose buddies waving guns in his face.

The only thing Richard had to be thankful for at this moment was that Tessa had actually listened to him and remained hidden and was safe from Trigger. Richard had been working at getting his hands free for the last thirty minutes he'd been tied up but he wasn't having any luck.

"So, Richard Helms, it looks like you're not gonna get that big bounty on my head after all." Trigger said. Richard shrugged.

"No guess not." he replied. Then he looked around.

"I heard tell you had ten men working with ya. What happened?"

"Bank robbing is a dangerous business. People die." Trigger replied simply. Richard nodded. That meant it was just three against one…. Three armed men against one beat all to hell man currently tied to a wooden post. Not his best odds but surprisingly not his worst.

"I thought Richard Helms was supposed to be some big tough ass?" Franks said. "He don't look so tough to me." Franks swung his fist out and caught Richard in the jaw. Richard's head snapped around but he chuckled as he spit out a mouth full of blood.

"You should ask Trigger's brother about how tough I am." he said. Trigger let out an angry yell and kicked Richard in the leg where the bullet had grazed him. Richard let out a painful groan through his clenched teeth.

"Did you know that a man can't live but a day or so out in this hot desert without water?" Trigger asked. "I've heard tell that dying of thirst is a damn painful way to go. Guess you're going to find out aren't you Mr. Helms?"

"Guess I am." Richard replied. Franks walked close to Richard and leaned down over him.

"You are one cocky son of a bitch aren't you?" he asked. Richard shook his head.

"Naw. Not me." he replied. Then he swung his uninjured leg up and over Franks neck. He pulled Franks down and held him in place with both his legs around his neck, cutting off his air supply.

"I hear that suffocation is a pretty rough way to go too." he said. Franks was struggling against him but Richard was too strong.

"That's enough!" Trigger yelled finally and hit Richard upside the head with his pistol. Richard was dazed and his legs relaxed just long enough for Franks to pull away coughing and gasping for breath.

"You stupid son of a bitch!" he yelled and punched Richard again. Richard just kept his head bowed and his mouth shut this time. He was sick and damn tired of being hit in the head.

"Let's get out of this sun boys. We'll come back out and check on our little guest here about dark." The three men walked away and Richard went back to work on loosening the ropes on his hands. He didn't really think he stood a chance of getting away but he had to try. He closed his eyes and said a million 'I love you's' to Tessa in his mind with the hopes that somehow God would let her hear him.

888

The sun was beginning to set as Tessa and Neil came up on the fort. They walked their horses quietly up to the stone wall.

"Must not have any lookouts posted or we'd done be dead." Neil said his voice weak. Tessa knew the old man was probably going to die and felt a moment of guilt. She should have let the doctor sew him up before bringing him out here but the only thing she'd been able to think about had been saving Richard.

"Stay here with the horses." she said. Neil nodded.

"Not exactly like I'm in any kinda shape to run off." he said as he pulled a rolled cigarette and some matches from his pocket. Tessa nodded and down the stone wall. She came to a spot in the wall, that had obviously seen better days, and looked through the broken and cracked bricks to the inside of the fort.

The courtyard was lit up brightly by several small campfires and lanterns. Tessa could see Richard tied to a wooden post in the center of the courtyard but couldn't tell whether he was alive or dead. As she was watching Trigger and two men walked out of a door and into the courtyard.

Tessa breathed a sigh of relief when Richard looked up to watch them walking over. He was alive.

"How you feeling, bounty hunter?" Trigger asked as the three men came to a stop several feet from him. Richard chuckled when he saw they all stayed well out of the reach of his legs.

"Pretty fair I reckon." Richard said. Tessa could hear that his voice was dry and cracking but at least it sounded like he still had some fire in him so maybe he wasn't doing quite as bad as he looked.

"I'm getting a bit tired of waiting for you to die of thirst." Trigger said. Richard looked up at him and grinned through his dry cracked lips.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Trigger. I hate to be a pain in your ass." he said. Trigger chuckled.

"Too bad you killed my brother and seemed determined to kill me. You would have been a good man to ride beside."

"You know if you want me dead a bullet would do it quicker. I'm about tired of hearing your voice." Richard said. Trigger kicked Richard hard in the face and Tessa barely kept herself from crying out as Richard spit out blood and put the same grin right back on his face.

"I'm a married man, Trigger. I'm used to getting beat around." he said as he looked over at the broken wall Tessa was peering through. Their eyes met and Richard quickly looked away and back up at Trigger. What the hell was that fool headed woman doing here?

The third man, who had not spoken a word since Richard had been brought here, walked away toward the broken wall where Tessa was hiding. For a moment Richard thought that maybe the man had seen Tessa but then he stopped about twenty feet from her and undid his pants to relieve himself in the dust.

Tessa had seen enough of them abusing her husband. She had to save Richard and now that he knew she was here it was time to act. She knew she couldn't just start shooting away because she wasn't very good with a revolver and she'd just end up shooting Richard. She pulled a stick of dynamite from her pants and struck a match to light it. She held the stick until the fuse was nearly gone before tossing it at the peeing mans feet and then she ducked.

The man barely had time to let out a yell before the dynamite exploded and his body went flying in more than one piece through the air. As the dust, blood and gore settled to the ground Trigger and Franks looked around with their guns drawn.

"Who's there!" Trigger yelled. "Who the hell is out there!" Tessa walked back around to where she had left Neil.

"If anybody other than me or Richard comes out, shoot them." she said. Neil nodded.

"Whatever you say." he replied. "I ain't arguing with you no more. Not now that I know you carry dynamite in them britches." Tessa jumped up on Horse and rode around to the front door of the fort.

"Trigger Jones!" she yelled. "Open up and let me in!"

"Who the hell are you, woman!" Triggers voice yelled from inside.

"I'm Tessa you son of a bitch and I believe you've been looking for me!"

"Tessa Bradshaw?" Trigger replied his voice full of disbelief.

"Used to be. I'm Tessa Helms now and that's my damn husband you've got tied up in there." Silence followed her statement and Tessa worried that Trigger was not going to let her in.

"I'm gonna open up Tessa, but we've got our guns drawn so don't you try nothing stupid."

"I'm way too smart to ever do anything stupid." she replied. Richard was seriously doubting that right now. If by some miracle he and Tessa lived through this he was going to beat the woman to death.

Tessa rode Horse into the fort at gunpoint. Once she was inside she was happy to see that Trigger and Franks left the door open.

"Jump down off that stallion real slow and throw down your weapons." Trigger said. Tessa jumped down from Horse who quickly walked over to Richard and then walked behind him. He lowered his head down to the rope tied around Richard's hands. Richard could feel his big teeth starting to gnaw at the rope and was happy to see that Trigger and Franks were too busy watching Tessa to notice.

Tessa threw down her own gun at her feet then she grabbed Richard's guns from the waistband of her pants and tossed them down as well. She reached into the front of her pants while all three men watched wide-eyed and pulled out several sticks of dynamite and threw them down into the dust.

"Now step this way." Trigger said. Tessa walked toward him stopping about a foot away from the man.

"Untie my husband and let us go." she said matter-of-factly. Trigger laughed.

"No I don't think I will. You're gonna be a widow real damn soon sweetheart and I have every intention of being your second husband." he said. Franks looked at his boss in shock.

"You can't marry that bitch!" he yelled. "She killed Doomer!" He added pointing to the many parts of Doomer that were littering the ground. Trigger caught Franks hard in the jaw with his fist.

"Don't you call Tessa a bitch!" he said. Franks rubbed his jaw and backed away from Trigger.

"Sorry boss." he said.

"Of course once your mine you'll have to take off those ridiculous pants and start wearing some of the beautiful dresses I'll buy you.' Trigger said turning his attention back to Tessa. "I think that dark green would look really good up against that hair." Trigger ran his hand through some strands of Tessa's hair and she couldn't' stop herself from shivering.

Richard felt anger well up inside of him as Trigger's hand moved to Tessa cheeks and then his thumb traced her lips. Then he damn near had a heart attack when Tessa opened her mouth and bit down hard on Triggers finger. Trigger yelled in shock and pain and backhanded her across her face.

"I'll have to teach you some respect too!" he said. Franks looked over at Richard as the big black stallion that had been standing behind the pole started walking over to Tessa.

"That's a nice damn horse." Franks said eyeing Horse happily. "Can I have it boss?" Trigger nodded.

"Sure. I'll be too busy riding Tessa to worry about some damn horse." he said with a grin. Tessa felt her breakfast rise in her throat but swallowed it back down.

"You aint' gonna be riding nothing you son of a bitch." Richard said. Trigger looked over at him and laughed.

"Yes I am. I'm gonna be riding your widow here in about two minutes after I blow your good for nothing brains out." Tessa forced tears into her eyes and grabbed onto Trigger's arm before he pulled his gun.

"Please let me say goodbye to him." she said. Trigger looked at her. He figured it wouldn't hurt nothing to let the woman say goodbye to her husband. Might even help her be a little more accommodating to him later.

"You have one minute." Trigger replied. Tessa quickly ran to Richard and threw her arms around his neck. Richard breathed in her scent. He knew he was about to die but he was grateful for one last chance to feel her body against his. However he wished that she had stayed away and stayed safe.

"You're a foolish woman. You should have stayed where you were safe." he said. Tessa shook her head.

"But then you would have died." she said. He sighed.

"I love you, Tessa. I guess I ain't never actually said that before but I want to make sure I say it before Trigger puts that bullet in my head. I love you more than any man has ever loved another woman." Tessa felt tears in her eyes but pushed them aside. She reminded herself that this was not goodbye.

"As much as I enjoy hearing you say that I don't need the sappy ass Richard Helms right now. I need the tough as nails bounty hunter who likes to kick ass." Richard looked at her questioningly.

"Okay." he said.

"Horse did chew through your ropes like I told him to didn't he?" she whispered. Richard nodded. "And you are real good at throwing knives right?" Richard nodded again. "I got a knife in each boot." She said and then without another word she straddled her legs around his waist, laying her feet against his hands and began kissing him passionately.

Richard reached into both her boots and closed his hands around the hilt of both the knives.

"Hey! I said you could say goodbye! I didn't say you could make love right there in front of me!" Trigger yelled angrily. Tessa rolled sideways off of Richard as he raised his arms and sent one of the knives flying. Trigger's eyes widened in shock just before the knife sunk deep into his head and he fell lifeless to the ground.

"What the hell!" Franks yelled turning away from Horse to face them. Richard threw the second knife but Franks moved to the side and it went sailing harmlessly past his head.

"You missed." Franks said pulling his gun. Richard nodded.

"Guess I did." he said. He jumped to Tessa and shielded her body with his just as a gunshot filled the air.

Richard waited for the pain but it didn't come. He turned his head in time to see Franks stagger forward several steps and then fall on his face on the dusty ground.

Richard looked toward the doorway of the fort and saw Neil standing there leaning on the wall for support with his gun in his hand.

"I think ya'll might need to get me to that doc now." he said and then fell to the ground unconscious.

Richard stood up and pulled Tessa to her feet before wrapping his arms tight around her.

"You damn fool headed woman! I should beat you senseless for coming out here like that! You could of got killed!" he scolded.

"Yea and you would have gotten killed if I hadn't come dammit." she replied.

"I'd have figured something out." Richard argued but even he knew he was lying. Tessa looked over at Neil and pulled out of Richard's arms. She dropped to her knees beside the old man.

"He needs help." she said. Richard limped over and pulled off his shirt. He tied it tight around the old mans leg to help try to help slow the blood loss and then picked him up and carried him over to Horse. He threw Neil on his stomach over Horse's saddle.

"He's tough. He'll be okay. We'll have to take him into town and to the doc. That bullet is still in his leg." he said. "And I guess this mean I'm gonna be stuck being sheriff after all." Tessa nodded. Richard grabbed his and Tessa's guns off the ground and tossed hers to her while she picked up the knife that had missed Frank and stuck it back in her boot.

She walked outside and grabbed her and Neil's horses and Richard led Horse out to meet her. Tessa jumped on her mare and Richard jumped on Neil's horse.

"I'll come back out tomorrow and get Triggers body so we can turn it in for that bounty." Richard said as they started back to town.. Tessa shook her head.

"I don't care about that bounty." she said. "I just want to go home and get back to our life together without having to worry about Trigger Jones ever again."

"Sounds good to me." Richard replied.

"Isn't it crazy to think that the only reason you and I are together now is because of your love of a bounty?" she asked. Richard shook his head.

"It weren't never the bounty I loved, darlin. It was that little red-haired she-devil named Tom."