Thief of My Heart (Watty Awards Finalist 2012)

Chapter 45

Heyes lay awake watching her sleep.  He couldn't stop looking at her, knowing this was the last time he'd ever see her sleep.  Pangs of quilt coarsed through him. Not only for what he was going to do to her tomorrow, but for what he'd already done to her.  Making love to her had been the most perfect moments of his life.  Those moments couldn't compare to any he'd ever had.  He would cherish those memories .   But those moments would forever be tainted by his regret at  having been so foolish and careless with her virtue and her reputation.  Remembering it now had desire and yearning springing to life inside of him, but he pushed it down. He couldn't touch her again.  Could never make love to her again.  He'd almost given in to the temptation earlier when she had given him a bath.  Kid had saved his neck again.  As if hearing his thoughts, Kid stirred in the cot beside him. Heyes turned to see his partner sitting up on the edge of his cot, staring at him.

"How ya feelin'?  Heyes whispered.

"Pretty good, all things considered. "   Kid whispered back.  Kid watched Heyes as he lay there propped up on one elbow looking down at the angelic face of the young woman who slept next to him.  He was lovingly stroking her hair and touching the side of her face.  He reminded Kid of a child with a new toy that he didn't want to stop looking at before he went to bed.  He felt for his friend.  He knew Heyes was going to send her away tomorrow and he was dreading it.  Kid dreaded it for him.   Because he also knew that Heyes planned on that being the last time he would ever see her.  Kid hated for her to get hurt.  He loved that girl too.  She was like his baby sister.  But it had to be done.  For her own good.

"She saved us, Heyes."

"She sure did.  I can't believe she came all this way."   He leaned over and dropped a gentle kiss to her smooth cheek.  She amazed him.  Most women twice her age wouldn't have had the guts or courage to do what she had done.  He admired her for that and he loved her for it.

"Heyes, you know she can't stay here.  It's too dangerous."

"I know.  I already told her she has to leave in the morning."

Kid could see in his partner's face and hear it in his voice how much he dreaded that moment.  He had been prepared to never see her again, after being forced to leave her.   And now suddenly she was here.  And now he had to endure the parting he thought he had been able to avoid. "I know it's going to be hard, but it's for the best.  And just because you're sending her back doesn't mean you don't love her.  And she knows that.  You're sending her back because you love her.  I think she knows that too."

"I know she knows, but that doesn't make it any easier.  And I know it's for the best, but that doesn't mean I have to like it."

"You know she's going to put up one heck of a fight when you try to get her on a horse and make her ride out of here tomorrow."

He kept his eyes locked on her sleeping profile.  Wanting to remember how she looked.   He had really thought that he was going to spend the rest of his life with her.  What a fool he was.  He just hoped she didn't hate him afterwards.  He couldn't bear the thought of her hating him.  But he knew she wouldn't.  She loved him so completely and without condition that his mind was boggled sometimes.  He simply didn't deserve her.    And she didn't deserve the kind of life that being with him would give her.   He had caused this whole mess and now he would fix it.

"Yeah, I know."

"Heyes, what did you do with the ring?  She didn't find it while we were out did she?"

"It's in my saddlebags....."  A strange look came over his face.   "Oh, no.  My saddle and gear are still in the well."

A light crept up the side of the tunnel wall just outside the doorway.  Kid saw it first and drew his Colt which had never left his hip the whole time he'd been unconscious.   Even wounded, Kid Curry's hand was steady and prepared to fire as he aimed the shiny, cocked pistol at the doorway.   Heyes watched calmly,  confident that Kid would take care of whoever came through that door.   Kid let out a long slow sigh of relief and uncocked the pistol and pushed it back into the holster. 
Preacher stood in the doorway, hands raised, lantern swinging from his right hand.  "It's just me, Kid.   How you boys feeling?"  he asked as he lowered his hands and entered the room to sit in the chair next to Kid's cot.

"Better.  Still kind of weak though.  We sure don't know how to thank you, Preacher.  If you and Evie hadn't shown up, me and Heyes might of been done for."

"You two boys know I'd do anything  for you.  In fact I believe I still owe you a couple.  Remember that time in Emeryville....."

"Yeah, yeah,  we remember Emeryville.  You don't have to remind us of that every time we see you.  That was one train job we'd like to forget,"   Kid said.

"Oh, yeah, you took a bullet in the leg on that job too, didn't you?"  Preacher recalled.

"Yeah, and after Heyes doubled back to get you,  we got separated.  It was dawn before we found the two of you."

As Heyes listened to Kid and Preacher talk about past times and long forgotten robberies, he thought about what he and the Kid were going to do if they got out of this one.  Where would they go?  They couldn't go back to Red Rock.   They'd have to head north.  But it was coming on to winter.  They never went north during the winter.  It was too cold and you never knew when you'd end up sleeping outdoors.  And work was scarce in the winter.  They would have to go back south.  And that was very risky when they had just been spotted.  Every time there was a Heyes and Curry sighting,   people would flock to that area just hoping to be the one to cash in.   He just didn't know what to do.