Page 69 of Charlotte's Reckoning
“Their heads would explode?” Janelle suggested.
Leave it to Janelle to be frank. “Exactly,” Charlotte murmured.
“How about a ride home, if nothing else?” the matriarch offered.
“I’ll see her home, Mrs. Jackson.”
Startled, Leticia turned. “Sheriff Walker. I didn’t see you there?”
“I just arrived.”
“Any luck finding Thorn?” Aaron Jackson inquired, as he, along with his brothers and father, gathered around the sheriff for news of the manhunt.
“Not yet, but I will,” he replied, his jaw set in grim determination. He turned to Charlotte and surprised her with an apology. “I regret not being here for the service, but I was following up on a lead. Unfortunately, it didn’t pan out.”
His usually neatly trimmed beard was scruffy, and he was wearing the same clothes as the last time she saw him. He looked like he hadn’t slept. “Have you been out all night?” she asked.
“The past two, actually. I came back to round up more men. My two deputies need to get some shut-eye, and they’ll need to relieve the ones we left here on duty.”
“Don’t you need sleep too?” Charlotte asked.
“I’m used to going without on the trail.”
“Count us in,” Heath, the eldest brother, volunteered before being asked directly.
“I’ll see if Joseph is up for a hunt,” Luke said.
Still new to town, Seth asked, “Is that another brother?”
“He might as well be,” Heath replied. “Joseph Whitefeather is our ranch foreman and the best tracker around. We’ve needed his skills for personal matters lately, more often than any of us care to recall.”
“Convince him to join us,” Seth urged, then cursed softly. “I can’t believe Thorn’s still breathing. I hauled him in ten years ago for armed robbery and killing a bank teller.”
“I did some checking. Everyone in Omaha thought he should hang, except the jury,” Aaron informed them. “He was serving a life sentence but escaped when transferring to a different prison last year. Since then, his crimes have mounted. He’s wanted for countless robberies, each more brazen than the last, and at least three murders—four if you count Fenton Sneed.” When his fiercely determined gaze locked on Seth, he looked less like a politician and more like the seasoned lawman. “You don’t need me to tell you he’s dangerous. How many more men will you need?”
“The three of you should do, especially if your foreman joins us.” He settled his hand on her back, the heat seeping through her clothes. “Once I see Charlotte home, we’ll head out. There’s a place I know north of Cheyenne. It’s secluded. He might be lying low there.”
The Jackson men nodded, moving with their womenfolk toward the surrey. All except Henry.
“Don’t you worry, little missy. Our new sheriff is experienced hunting fugitives,” he assured her. “He’ll find the killer and bring him to justice.”
“I hope so, Mr. Jackson, because this isn’t the first time he’s killed someone dear to me.”
Her comment stopped the others, who turned, staring at her in surprise.
“I wasn’t aware you knew Thorn before this,” Aaron said.
While she addressed the mayor, her eyes locked with Seth’s, providing more details than even he knew. “Emmett and I go back a long way. Thirteen years, in fact, when he shot my husband point-blank in the chest and he died at my feet, just like Fen. Making me a widow and robbing every man and woman on that train that day wasn’t enough for him. He looked at me and saw gold, which is why he abducted me and sold me to the most notorious brothel in St. Louis, making me what I am today.”
“The man is the devil incarnate,” Henry declared, brimming with outrage on her behalf.
“Oh, Charlotte,” Janelle whispered, raising trembling fingers to her mouth.
“He walked away, laughing, after Carson, after Fen, and didn’t bat an eye when he left me in the hands of a ruthless madam, and to an even crueler fate. His laughter has haunted my dreams ever since,” she admitted. She looked from the former lawman turned mayor to the man who had taken his place. “I’ve always thought rotting in jail was a more just punishment than death. Not anymore. Emmett Thorn stole the lives of two men dear to me. Carson and Fenton deserve justice. As for me, I look forward to the day I get to watch him walk to the gallows, fear in his eyes at facing his maker, and I won’t shed a tear when he hangs.”
Silence enveloped the group as the horror of her story sank in.
“I’ll ride with you, too, Sheriff,” Henry Jackson declared. “That varmint needs to be stopped for good.”
