Jack was growing more nervous by the second as he sat in the hard stage coach seat and looked out the window at the forests and fields they passed through.

He knew that within the next few hours he would be in Great Valley and he had no idea what he was going to say to everyone. Hawke might have said he could come home but Hawke did not know yet the kinds of things Jack had been a part of and done. How did you tell the people you cared about the most that you were a murderer and a thief?

"What's your name?" the man sitting across from him asked. They were the only two on the stage and had not spoken a word to each other since boarding in Helena.

"Jack." The man nodded and adjusted the vest of his fancy gray suit. Jack looked down at his own dirt and mud covered clothes and wondered how much the man must have paid for that suit.

"What's your name?" Jack asked.

"Gavin Henderson. I am going to be running the new bank in Great Valley."

"Great Valley is getting a bank?" Jack asked. Gavin nodded.

"Yeah the town is really growing thanks to the oil and lumber mill moving in." he replied. "What are you planning on doing while you're there?" Jack shrugged and ran his hand over his beard as he looked out the window.

"I just got some business to take care of is all." he replied. Gavin nodded. Clearly Jack was a private man and a dangerous one if the gun on his hip and the sharpness of his eyes were any indication.

"I'm hoping that I have a fiance waiting on me when I get to the station." Gavin said. He was tired of silence so even if he had to do the majority of the talking it was better than nothing.

"Hoping?" Jack asked raising a brow and looking over at the other man.

"Well I asked her a few months ago but she was not quite ready to say yes or no. I will find out what her answer is when I see her and see whether or not she is wearing my ring."

"Good luck." Jack said turning his attention back out to the road. Gavin continued to talk but Jack was no longer listening. A movement at the side of the road had caught his attention. A man was limping out into the road clutching his leg and grimacing in pain. When Jack felt the coach beginning to slow he yelled out the window.

"No you idiots! Don't stop!" But it was too late. The limping man stood straight and went for his gun even as shots rang out from the trees.

"Get down!" Jack yelled, grabbing Gavin by the vest and throwing him down on the floor of the stage. Jack threw himself down over the man as bullets ripped holes through the stage walls.

Jack's hat flew off his head when a bullet ripped through the brim and Jack felt the breeze from several other bullets as they whizzed past his head.

"What is going on?" Gavin demanded his voice loud and fearful.

"Be quiet." Jack replied harshly as the bullets stopped flying and he listened to the movements outside the stage.

"I reckon they're dead." a man said. Jack heard footsteps walking up to the stage. Three different sets.

"I told you two this would be easy. Now all we gotta do is get in there and take whatever they got on 'em… Easy money."

"Oh my God we're gonna die." Gavin whimpered from beneath Jack.

"Hey did you hear that! That sounded like a damn woman! They're still alive in there!" Jack growled and slapped Gavin in the back of the head.

"What part of be quiet was not clear enough for you, woman." he snapped.

"Are they gonna kill us?" Gavin asked in a fearful, shaking voice.

"Hell no. They're gonna learn our names and ask us out to dinner, you damn idiot. Of course they're gonna kill us." Jack replied angrily. "Now shut the hell up." Gavin whimpered and fell silent and Jack sent up a prayer of thanks for small miracles.

"Should we shoot some more?" One of the men outside asked.

"Hell no we're gonna run out of bullets." a second replied. Jack sent up another thankful prayer. Not only was Gavin silent but the outlaws trying to rob them were apparently the village idiots.

"We're gonna be just fine city boy. I'm gonna get ya back to your fiancee safe and sound." Jack assured Gavin and then he yelled loudly. "Hey don't shoot no more!"

"You got a gun in there with ya?" the first man asked.

"Yeah." Jack replied.

"Toss it out." Jack pulled his revolver and threw it out the window.

"What are you doing?" Gavin demanded.

"I'm gonna throw you out the window next if you don't shut up."

"Okay now open the door and step on out." the first man said. This was not Jack's first rodeo and he knew that the moment he opened that door he was gonna get shot and so he just had to make sure that he was a little bit quicker than they were.

Jack stood up and Gavin grabbed his arm and was about to speak but the ice in Jack's eyes had his mouth snapping shut. Jack pulled his knife and took a deep breath before throwing open the door.

His knife was sailing through the air before the door fully opened and the center man slumped to the ground as it sunk to its hilt in his forehead. Jack jumped to the ground and crouched as the second two men fired shots where he'd been standing seconds before. He pulled his derringer pistol from his boot and fired two quick shots and then all was silent….

All except for Gavin's nervous chattering and gasps as he stumbled down off the stage coach and looked at the dead men.

"Are… Are they…. Are they dead?" he whispered as if he feared the words would have the dead men jumping back to life. Jack walked up to the first man and yanked his knife back out of his head.

"Nope." he said as he wiped the knife clean on the dead mans pants. "They're sleeping."

"What are you? I have never seen anything like that." Gavin said as he regained his composure.

"I'm a blacksmith." Jack replied as he walked over and picked his revolver back up. He slid it into its holster and pushed past Gavin to reach in the stage door and grab his hat. He stuck his finger through the hole in the brim and cursed.

"I oughta shoot the son of a bitches again. I was just getting the damn hat broke in the way I liked it." Gavin watched in horror as Jack stuck the hat on his head and then began going through the dead men's pockets.

"You can't do that! That's stealing!" he exclaimed. Jack grunted as he stuck some newfound money in his pocket and moved to the next man.

"I don't think they care." he said and he let out a satisfied chuckle when he found a pouch of tobacco and rolling papers.

"How do you know they don't care, they're dead?" Gavin demanded. Jack rolled his eyes. Gavin did not belong out here and needed to go back to the city where a pansy ass like him stood half a chance. Jack stood up straight and looked around at the dead outlaws.

"If any of you dead men want to keep your stuff speak up." he said. He shrugged after several seconds of silence and grinned over at Gavin.

"Looks like I got me some new smokes." he said sticking the tobacco and papers in his pocket. "Now to find some matches."

Twenty minutes later Jack was driving the stage toward Great Valley. Gavin was riding in the stage with the dead driver and shotgun man because he had been scared to death that more outlaws would attack and kill him if he was up front with Jack.

Jack took a long draw of his cigarette and leaned back in the drivers seat. There had been a time when killing those men would have bothered him. But that was five years and a whole lot of hell ago. Now Jack lived by the motto of shoot first and ask questions later and killing men who wanted him dead did not bother him at all.

888

"You wait here on Gavin and I'm going to run over to the mercantile and give Ed a list of what I need." Lily said and Allie nodded distractedly and chewed on her lip as she looked up the road and watched for the stage coach.

Lily sighed and walked down the road toward the mercantile with wolf by her side. She couldn't stand to be around the stage office. Every time she stepped inside that building she relived the horror of six years ago.

Allie forced herself to stop chewing on her lip when she tasted blood. Her nervous energy had to come out someway though and so her foot started tapping loudly on the wooden porch as she at down on a bench. She looked down at the ring on her left hand and spun it around her finger.

"I wish he would hurry up." she said impatiently and Janna looked up at her from where she was lying on the porch and seemed to nod with agreement. Allie wondered how Gavin would react to Janna and Wolf. He had never met either of them before.

Allie jumped to her feet when she saw the stage coming over the plains and into town. It came to a stop and her attention was drawn to the single driver up front as he jumped to the ground and landed firm footed and silently on the dirt road.

His back was to her and Allie felt a tremor of excitement pass through her as she took in the sight of him. His shoulders were broad beneath his dirty white shirt and brown vest. His hips were lean and his legs were long. His black trousers hugged his lower body and she felt her blood heat…..

She was shocked by her own thoughts and by her bodies reaction to the sight of this mans back. 'Great Allie,' she thought to herself. 'Your new fiance is on this stage and here you are getting heated up at the sight of the damn coach driver!'

The stage door flew open and the driver turned and Allie got a look at his face for the first time… His black hat was pulled down low over his eyes and his face was covered in a beard. He was long and lean but she couldn't see a single detail of his face. She wondered why the early spring day seemed to be growing so hot and she turned her attention to Gavin who came jumping out of the stage, rubbing his arms as if trying to clean himself off.

"Remind me to never ride in a stage with dead bodies again, Jack. Although I think those men smelled that bad before you killed them." Allie's eyes widened when the driver grinned and nodded in agreement. She felt her head beginning to spin and when he spoke she thought for sure she must be dreaming.

"Yeah I reckon they probably smelled that bad to begin with. 'Course I probably don't smell real pretty either."

"Jack…" Allie gasped and his eyes turned to her for the first time. She caught the flash of bright blue beneath the brim of his hat and the world began to spin as her knees buckled and everything went black.