Breaking Down Defenses (3rd in Breaking Series)

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Four

"I'm coming with you," Jacob said quickly once Thomas explained what was going on.

Thomas shook his head as he stood on the porch, "No."

Jacob nodded, "Yes I am. I messed things up for you and Sally... The least I can do is watch your back and make sure my sister's husband comes back to her."

"Jacob, your wife is very pregnant. She needs you here."

Jacob shook his head, "There's still another two months or so before the baby will be here and she has Susie's help. I'm coming with you. Wait for me here."

With that Jacob disappeared into the house and Thomas looked up at the sky impatiently. He and Jacob were going to work together on something? He hoped Ellie would be able to talk her husband out of coming but when Jacob appeared with a sack over his shoulder and a gun belt around his waist several minutes later, he knew there would be no such luck. Ellie was behind her husband. Her blue eyes were full of tears and her face pale with fear and anticipation but clearly she was supporting her husbands decision. Jacob kissed his wife goodbye and then Thomas watched him walk into the barn to saddle a horse.

"Jacob wants to watch your back and be there to help you," Ellie said softly.

Thomas nodded, "I know."

"You better look after my husband. I love him and I understand why he feels like he has to do this but he isn't like you and Brody. He hasn't had to fight to survive like you have. "

"I'll bring him home safe to you, Ellie," Thomas promised. "I don't plan on getting into a gunfight with anybody."

Ellie nodded and they stood in silence until Jacob walked out of the barn, "Let's go then, Thomas." he said.

Thomas mounted the Palomino mare and he and Jacob rode off toward what Thomas hoped, would be an easy task.

***

"I can't help you," US Marshall Theodore Banks said with regret. Thomas glared at the other man, the man who owed him a very large debt yet seemed to have forgotten that now, "When I came looking for a marshal, I had no idea that you'd be the one I'd find. I was happy when I saw you since I figured you'd help me out.. seeing as how I saved your pregnant wife's life three years ago."

Theodore sighed and leaned back in his hard chair in the middle of the diner. It was a few hours past sunrise and Thomas and Jacob were both exhausted, "Thomas, I can't help you unless you give me some kind of proof."

"Come with me. Hear what he has to say. That'll give you all the proof you need," Thomas said angrily before taking a big gulp of his coffee.

"Captain Wynter and I have been friends for years. I don't think he's doing or has done any of the things you claim. I won't have him thinking that I don't trust him by showing up and questioning him about all of this."

"Are you calling Thomas a liar?" Jacob demanded. He didn't like this man. He seemed arrogant and conceited and the fact that he wouldn't help the man who had saved his wife and child didn't speak well for what kind of man he was.

"Of course not," Theodore said cautiously as if weighing his words very carefully, "Thomas is a good man, young but smart. Those other men though, the ones that have accused Captain Wynter of all of this were quite different."

Thomas grumbled under his breath and shoved his chair back, "Thanks a hell of a lot, Theodore. Give Grace my best," he said as he placed his hat back on his head and left the café.