Chapter 2

That was when he saw the man. Staring at him from a seat a third of the way down the car.

A wide brimmed hat pulled over his brow, shading deep brown eyes. Black hair curled over his ears and neck, and a short, recently trimmed beard covered most of the man’s strangely unmarked face. Thomas Grady. Leon knew him by reputation and by sight, though their paths had only briefly crossed once.

Coming face to face with a bounty hunter wasn’t Leon’s idea of a good time at the best of times. Coming face to face with Thomas Grady with a price on his head was a little bit like looking Death in the eye.

If he’d been an optimist, Leon would have hoped Grady hadn’t recognized him. It had been two years since they’d last seen each other, and then not even by the light of day. He and Kenneth had been in New Mexico, in the process of getting new horses. One of the whores at the saloon had worked Kenneth up into a tizzy and proceeded to go off with another guy, so Leon had dragged his best friend out behind the stables to help him out.

That’s when Grady had seen them. In the shadows of twilight, with Leon on his knees, sucking Kenneth off. He hadn’t said a word, and Kenneth hadn’t even noticed since he had his eyes squeezed shut. Leon had frozen for a split second, until his buddy’s fingers tightened on his head. Continuing was his only choice. He never took his eyes off Grady, and when the man melted into the darkness as Kenneth shot into his throat, Leon watched the space he had filled. Waiting for marshals that never came.

Leon turned back to the stuck door. The back of his neck burned. He held little doubt that Grady recognized him. To assume otherwise invited danger. But Grady couldn’t do anything on the train. He was one of the best, willing to shoot a man’s foot off in order to get him to stop running, but he wouldn’t do it in front of women and children who might get hurt. A deep well of honor ran through him.

The door wasn’t going to open. If he didn’t turn around soon, he would only invite even more suspicion. Hunching beneath his coat, he turned to make his way back to his car. He never looked at Grady again, but several seats away, he faked a violent sneeze, reaching into his pocket to pull out his faded bandanna in order to blow his nose. It effectively hid his face as he passed, but he didn’t dare risk looking back to see if Grady still tracked him. He couldn’t even look back when he slid open the door at the end of the aisle.

In the next car, he ditched his coat, swapping it with a man sleeping by himself. In the car after that, he did the same with his hat. No footsteps echoed behind him, no evidence that Grady had followed. By the time Leon reached his seat, he’d even lost his bandanna, tossed into the darkness before he’d entered the car.

“We got trouble,” he said to Kenneth, his gaze darting around to make sure nobody was awake to listen in. “Thomas Grady’s on board.”

Kenneth visibly started, though not hard enough to disturb Amy’s sleep. “Did he see you?”

“Yes. Which means we’ve got to split up.”

“Split up? Do you mean you’re getting off the train?”

Leon nodded. “And I’m going to find someplace else to hunker down for the night. You cover your face with your hat, keep Amy close, he won’t even notice you if he comes looking. You look like a family now. Then tomorrow, I’ll get off when we stop. If I make a scene, maybe he’ll follow me off. You and Amy can get on to Salinas then, no problem.”

“What are you going to do if he catches you?”

Though he felt anything but cocky, he grinned. “The only thing that ever slows me down is you. He’s not going to catch me.”

Kenneth didn’t look convinced, but he nodded. “I’ll check for a telegraph in San Francisco and when we get to Salinas.”

He wanted to be glib, but the prospect of being separated from Kenneth didn’t fill him with glee. Splitting up was their only option; they both knew Kenneth’s first priority now rested in protecting Amy and Woody. It hurt, but then he’d had six weeks of getting used to the fact that things were never going to be the same again. Leon had never said so, but he’d always thought it would just be the two of them against the world. He hadn’t envisioned an order that included a woman and her son.