Page 8 of Charlotte's Reckoning
Seth fought tears as he gripped his father’s icy hand. “What happened?”
His brother answered for him. “We split up. The posse followed one half.The others roderight into an ambush. Pa was the only survivor.”
“You make sure you get Lem and Earl’s share to their widows,”their father ordered hoarsely.
“I will. Just like we all agreed.”
Hearing Judd’s reassurance,Billclosed hiseyesand said with a ragged sigh, “Even though they were outlaws, at their core, they were good men.”
When his pa’s rough, raspy breathing was the only sound in the room, Seth thought he slept. “Do you think there’s a traitor among us?” he asked his brother.
His father answered in a surprisingly strong voice. “These men are like family, boy. Saved my ass more times than I can count. But in our business, somethin’ like this was bound to happen.” He cracked an eye and looked at his older son. “Now that we’re weak in numbers, you’ll need to be more vigilant.”
“I will, Pa. I swear,” his eldest declared resolutely.
“No one ever had more than a scratch,”Bill rasped, struggling to speak through parched lips. “It figures, when the bullets found their mark, one was in me.”
“In ten years, we were damn lucky.”
Judd’s voice was scratchy, too, as if he held back tears.In all his twenty years, Seth had never seen him cry. It confirmed what he suspected; this was a deathbed conversation. The moment weighed on him, heavy and final.
“I should have rejoined you instead of riding on,”Seth said, guilt and regret bitter on his tongue.
“That’s bullshit, boy,”his father said more forcefully, but it wasn’t even at half strength, and the effort made him wheeze and cough. “You followed orders. If you hadn’t, you might be lying dead in Colorado or close to it, bleeding out in this bed next to me.”
Coughing again, this time blood droplets appeared on his lips. When the spell passed, he’d grown weaker, every breath laborious.
Seth glanced at his brother, who confirmed with a shake of his head what he already knew. Their father wasn’t long for this world. Beside him, Uncle Ike was sobbing silently, tears running down his ruddy cheeks.
Judd, stoic as ever, wrapped his arm around the older man, lending his support.
“Son?”
His gaze immediately shifted to his father. “Yeah, Pa?”
“Get out. This ain’t the life for you.”
“What?”
“Find a pretty girl and settle down. Give her lots of babies. An outlaw’s life isn’t your destiny.”
“I’m not living in Texas, and my general isn’t falling. You’ll pull through—”
“No. Judd will be your leader after today.”
“Don’t say that,”Seth said brokenly, gripping his father’s hand tighter as if he could physically keep him from slipping away.
He found the strength to grab Judd’s hand, a son on either side. “Love both my boys. Never said it enough.”
Despite his unsavory vocation and all the stories, some exaggerated and many true, the notorious outlaw Deadeye Bill, at heart, was still a devoted father and family man.
Tears overflowed and ran freely down Seth’s cheeks, and he didn’t give a fuck how it looked.
Bill’s gaze moved to Ike next. “Love you too, Brother.”
“You saved me after—”His uncle’s voice broke into a sob. “Every day I wake up since then, I owe to you,and I hatelike hell to see you go.”
“And I hateto go.”He laughed, choking and coughing. “TheHartigan ganghada good run, didn’t we, boys?”
