Saving the Gunslinger

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

Zachary stood in the barn and watched the fat droplets of rain dripping from the door frame and plopping loudly into the puddle formed by the drops that had come before. He took a deep breath of smoke scented air and sighed. This rain was set in to stay for the day at least. The sky was nothing but an endless expanse of dull gray. In the past, days like this would have served to deepen his melancholy and blacken his mood. But not today. Today, Zachary was feeling the closest thing to peace in his soul that he had felt in five long years.

That house was gone. That damn black front door would never taunt him again. As he had stood there yesterday and watched those flames devour those boards and beams, as he had watched that dark smoke swirl away into the blue sky—Zachary had imagined the souls of his family had been riding on it. The wispy clouds of ash and soot had given them freedom—had liberated them from the prison their murderers had placed them in.

Zachary may not have avenged their deaths but he no longer felt such a sting from that knowledge—he knew their souls were finally at peace.

Glancing back toward the stall he was using as his temporary home, Zachary thought of the photograph that lay there. When Samantha had held that out to him yesterday and his eyes had seen his family for the first time since the day he'd found them bloody and mutilated—Zachary had damn near broken down and sobbed.

Time had played such evil tricks on his brain and robbed him of the details of their faces. Even in his good memories, their features had begun to blur. The only images of them he had been able to see plainly were soaked in blood. To see their faces so clearly and so free of all evidence of that day... There was nothing he could ever give or do for Samantha that could repay what she had given him when she had handed him that photograph.

Samantha.....

She made him feel.... Hopeful. Hopeful that he had a future that wasn't limited to guilt, blood, and vengeance. A future that could include happiness, a real home, a family.... And love? Zachary had never given much thought to falling in love. He had been too young before his vengeance mission to have ever thought of settling down—all he'd wanted to do was sow wild oats and run free. And after his family had been murdered romance had been the farthest thing from his mind.

But now....

He was back in Hackney. He was fixing up the ranch. He was going to be settling down and staying put. This ranch had been built to be a place for happiness, love, and family. Zachary had sworn for a long while that it could never be that again. But maybe...

Hoofbeats drew Zachary from his thoughts. His pulse quickened but then his heart dropped when he realized it was only Timothy heading his way—Samantha wasn't with him. Of course she wasn't. It was raining and Zachary wouldn't want her out in this weather but, he sure would love to see her.

Then he looked toward the ash pile that had once been a farmhouse. Damn. There was no longer a house for her to be turning into a home and therefore Samantha's reason for coming to the ranch was gone. Zachary would have to do something about that.

Zachary stepped out of the way as Timothy rode his horse directly into the barn. Puddles formed in the dirt beneath the mare, and then beneath Timothy as he hopped off shook himself roughly. "Damn, it's wet."

"That's what happens when it rains." Zachary crossed his arms over his chest. "Why are you here?"

Timothy frowned. "To work."