Not a Second Time

"She was born on the trail from town. We had some trouble there. Sam Jackson and two of his asshole friends wanted to show everyone what happens to secessionists in Alden. He clubbed Jack on the head in the mercantile with his pistol and knocked him out. I sat on the floor and cradled Jack's bloody head in my lap. They hovered over me like they were going to hurt Jack, or me, even more."

"Oh, my God! Did they hurt you, or beat Jack more?" asked Sharon as she looked closely at the lump on Jack's head.

"I think they were going to, but a stranger walked in about that time. Sam told him to leave and come back later. The stranger hardly looked at him before telling the clerk he wanted his list filled. Sam decided he was fresh meat and tried to scare the stranger into leaving.

"That didn't go over with the stranger. He just kicked Sam's knee so hard I could hear things breaking lose. Then he pulled Sam's face down while he brought his knee up. That made some more unpleasant sounds as Sam dropped to the floor bleeding like hell.

"The man had the other two covered with his pistol before they could figure out what the hell happened. It only took a couple seconds for them to join Jackson, sleeping on the floor."

"Thank God for that stranger," exclaimed Sharon. "Did you get his name?"

"Not at the time. He loaded Jack on the buckboard and saw that I was having trouble working the reins, so he offered to bring Jack and me home in the buckboard," responded Maggie.

"That was the man Becky saw with the buckboard, wasn't it? You should invite him in for dinner. Your father will want to thank him," predicted Sharon.

"Becky invited him for dinner, but changed her mind when she recognized him," stated Jack. "Jess saved my life again, helped Maggie deliver Jessica and was called every name in the book by Becky. She made it plain he wasn't welcome on this ranch."

"Jess? It was Jess Lange that stepped in and helped you in town?" asked a stunned Sharon. "How is he? How did he look? Is he doing well?"

"I didn't know he did all those things for you, Maggie," interrupted Becky with a sob from the open door. "I'm sorry I reacted so badly. To answer your questions, Mom, he looks better than ever. He's tanned and in much better condition than he was when we were married. He has a scar on his left cheek, but it just adds character."

"I didn't know him back when he and Becky were married, but I can tell you he's the complete package now," stated Maggie with a grin. "He's hell on wheels when he needs to be, but he was gentle as a lamb when he delivered Jessica. He even cleaned her up with some clothes from his saddlebag and handed her to me. That's his shirt she wrapped in right now."

Meanwhile, Jess struggled with his emotions as he rode the trail back toward town. He had left without getting his damn list filled. He was determined to get his supplies and ride out of Kansas as fast as his horse would carry him.

Seeing Becky again had brought back all the pain and shame he felt the day he found her in bed with Big Joe Buck, the county sheriff. Jess had been enraged beyond all reason. He remembered how he had charged into the room and connected with a solid right to Buck's chin.

Buck had heard Jess' snarl and turned to face him. It allowed Jess the perfect opportunity to deliver the first blow. Jess had held nothing back and felt the shock of the blow through his arm to his shoulder.

Jess was stunned when Big Joe simply shook his head as he unceremoniously dismounted from a now screaming Becky. The next minute was a blur as Buck proceeded to tear Jess apart. Buck hit him so hard at one point, Jess careened through the closed window, taking the curtain, glass and sash with him.

Jess was in tremendous pain as he wiped blood from his eyes and nose. He saw Joe Buck staring out the window trying to decide if he should climb through it or walk out the door and around the small house. At that moment, Jess was certain Big Joe intended to kill him with his bare hands.

There was a wide stream a short distance from the window and Jess knew he had to reach it before Joe Buck managed to lay his hands on him again. Unable to stand, Jess stumbled and crawled until he hit the stream. The cold water helped revive him enough to enable him to wade out into the creek and float downstream on the rapid current. Once he had drifted a few hundred yards, he pulled himself under a blown down tree on the opposite bank. Exhausted and in pain, he mercifully passed out.

Jess spent the next day lying under the tree, healing his battered body as his heart crumbled inside his chest. He and Becky had been married less than a year. They had just turned twenty, and Jess had believed they had a long and happy future together. The fact that Becky's brother was his best friend only served to increase the intensity of the pain he suffered.

The next night was moonless, so Jess decided to leave the area under the cover of darkness. Luckily, he had just sold three horses to a rancher in the next county, so he had cash in his pocket. It was money he and Becky had planned to put toward buying the house they lived in from her father.

Jess had accepted that he and Becky would never again be together as man and wife, so he used some of the cash to buy a sound mare at a ranch where he had stopped for a meal. He already owned a good horse, but it was back at his house and he swore he'd never return. Four days later, he was feeling a lot better and was far enough north to enlist in the Union Army.

Jess didn't care much which side he fought with, except he knew that Big Joe Buck was in charge of recruiting for the Confederate Army in his county. That was the reason Jess decided to fight for the Union. His hatred of Joe Buck was the only fire left in his soul and he nurtured it religiously. Jess promised himself that someday he'd find Buck in his sights and he'd kill him.

When he enlisted, Jess hadn't been the best physical specimen the Union Army had ever seen, but he soon lost the excess weight he carried. The brutal beating at the hands of Joe Buck changed Jess. He was defensive and quarrelsome for the first six months of his tour. He found himself in a number of no-holds-barred fights with other soldiers and a few civilians. He lost the majority of them, especially early in his enlistment.

He became known as a man to avoid, mostly because he didn't seem to care if he won the fight, lost the fight or was killed in it. Some of the other men in the platoon expected Jess would become a casualty every time they engaged the enemy. Somehow, Jess continued though the war mostly unscathed. He picked up some scars from close calls, but never received any near-fatal injuries.

Because he was obviously intelligent, yet fearless, he began going on special missions for his superiors. He always wore his uniform, so he was not technically a spy. He simply rode ahead of his platoon and reported back on situations and circumstances he felt were important to the Union. His sharp eye and untrusting nature served him and his superiors well. More often than not, his hunches and concerns saved command from making blunders.

Jess was on a reconnoitering mission when he came across three Union soldiers beating a man in a confederate uniform. Jess was stunned when he identified the rebel as his brother-in-law and best friend, Jack.

Jess thought back to that day. He recognized Jack immediately even though his face was bloodied and he had what appeared to be a fresh bullet wound in his side. Jess dismounted and approached the three soldiers.

"That's enough! We don't treat prisoners like that," Jack stated as he glared at the three men.

"I don't see any stripes," observed the largest of the three as he looked at Jess' uniform. "You can't order us to do anything. We caught this damned rebel shooting at us. He hit my cousin Bill in the leg. We're going to finish him off, nice and slow."

Jess could see the raw hatred in the man's eyes. He wasn't going to be dissuaded, so Jess simply pulled his pistol and held it on the three soldiers. Jack collapsed to the ground once they released their hold on him.

Jess knew he'd be in hot water, but he saw no choice. He tied the three men tightly to a tree, knowing a patrol would be arriving within a few hours. Once he was confident that they couldn't escape, he piled Jack onto a horse and began the hundred mile journey to Jack's family home.

Jess had to stop more often than he was comfortable with to care for Jack's wound. Jack was unconscious and incoherent for much of the trip. He was stopped twice by Union patrols. Both times Jess convinced them he was transporting a prisoner for interrogation and was allowed to proceed.

It took a full week to reach Jack's family ranch. Jess waited until the small hours of the morning before he gently sat Jack down against the front door. He then banged on the door as hard and loudly as he could. Once he heard movement inside, Jess mounted his horse and took off at a dead gallop. He never knew if Jack had survived the ordeal until he saw him lying with his bloody head on Maggie's lap in the small mercantile in Alden.

Preoccupied with his thoughts, Jess never saw the group of riders gathered off the side of the road in a small grove of pine trees. The sharp pain in his side followed by a loud rifle report jerked him from his reverie. The gelding broke into a dead run as Jess slumped ahead and clung to the horse's mane.

"I'm sure that was the bastard who fucked up Sam's knee," declared the man as he slid his rifle back into the scabbard. "If my head didn't still ache from when he pistol whipped me, I would have hit him dead center. I should go after him and finish him off."

"You gut-shot him. There's no need to waste more time with the asshole, whoever he is," replied the group's leader. "We need to get a bunch of cattle and horses to push into Colorado. I have a buyer there who'll pay cash for everything I deliver to him, no questions asked. Let's work on something that'll make us money. Dry-gulching cowpokes ain't one of them.

"Dirk, you said there's three spreads out this way we can separate from their stock without too much trouble, didn't you?"

"That's right, Big Joe. The Olsen ranch is off to the west. I figure we can hit that on the way to Colorado after we pick up a decent herd from the Bennett's and the Masters' range."

"Masters? Could that be Ben Masters?" asked Big Joe.

"Ben's the father. He runs it with his kids, Jack and Becky, along with some of Jack's wife's family," responded Dirk.

"Becky? Does she have a husband? Is she good lookin', nice tits?"

"I never seen her tits, but would like to," admitted Dirk. "She's pretty easy to look at. Do you know her?"

"I sure as hell do," replied Big Joe with a hearty laugh. "I fucked her ass off and then beat the shit out of her husband when he rode home early and caught me banging his wife. He ran off. I heard he never came back."

"I don't see how that's going to make it any easier to take their stock," reasoned Dirk. "Even if she likes the way you fuck her, she ain't going to like you rustling their cattle. Neither will her family."

"One thing I learned in the war is to move fast and catch the enemy off-guard. That's a formula for success every time. We'll just ride in and take what we want. Old Masters must be seventy and his son Jack was a screwy bastard. He was always reading books and saying shit nobody understood. I bet he doesn't know which end of a gun shoots."

"It seems strange that you rode for the Confederacy, yet you're here with us Jayhawkers," observed another rider.

"We all ride on the side of easy money now, don't we?" answered Big Joe with a laugh. "That war was a fucking waste."

"We'll just ride in and kill anyone who gives us any trouble, although I wouldn't mind another piece of ass from that daughter of Masters. By the time anyone figures out what the hell happened, we'll have the livestock sold in Colorado and be half way to Mexico."

Jess had ridden hard for half a mile before slowing his horse down when he found a wooded area. Once he pulled behind some trees, he stopped his horse and studied his back trail. He was able to see back to where he had been shot and there was no indication he was being followed.

Why was someone trying to kill him? If it was for his horse or money, the shooter would have followed him to recover his belongings. It seemed more likely it was one of the men he had encountered in the mercantile when he had pulled Jack's ass out of yet another fire.

Once Jess felt he was momentarily safe, he carefully checked his wound. A bullet had gone through his right side above his hip. It had stung like hell and he was bleeding steadily. Jess determined if he could stop the bleeding and avoid infection, he'd recover. To that end, he wet his bandana and stuck one end into the exit hole and held the other end of the bandana over the entry wound. He pulled a length of rawhide out of a saddlebag and ran it around his midsection, effectively keeping the bandana in place and constant pressure on the bullet wounds.

Jess briefly considered his situation. He decided he needed a reckoning with the bastard who had ambushed him. Jess had no desire to spend the rest of his life worrying that he'd be shot out of his saddle by some cowardly son-of-a-bitch. To that end, he carefully started his horse in a circuitous route back to the grove of trees from which he had been shot.

Half an hour later, Jess was surveying the tracks left by his assailant. He was surprised to see that there were quite a few riders with the shooter. That knowledge concerned him. Why would a group of riders take precautions to avoid being seen? What kind of men would sit idly by while one of their group shot a man riding the trail? The most likely reason was unsettling to Jess.

He thought of Jack, Maggie and little Jessica. They wouldn't be able to mount much resistance if trouble came their way. He knew Becky was capable with a rifle and her father was a fighter, but what about Maggie's brother and his family? He had not met them and had no idea how effectively they would fight if called upon.

Jess followed the tracks made by the group of riders until it became all too obvious they were headed toward Jack and Becky's ranch. At that point, he moved back to the trail and nudged his gelding into a fast trot. He was less than a mile from the ranch when he heard shooting... a great deal of it.

Ben Masters had been delighted to discover he was a grandfather when he returned to the ranch shortly after Jess had ridden away. He listened to Jack's explanation of his journey to Alden and Becky's confrontation with Jess.

"Damn it, Becky. That's the first time you saw the man in years. He's your goddamn husband! It's time you two settled this thing one way or the other. Snarling at the man and driving him off isn't going to solve a damn thing."

"I never said I wanted to solve anything," stated Becky heatedly. "I don't have a problem with that jackass riding off to war without even discussing it with me. I can take care of myself."

"That's a damn strange way of looking at marriage," retorted her father. "You need a family, no matter how the hell independent you think you are. If Jess isn't the man you want him to be, find one that is. You'll be too old to have kids in a few years. You need to figure this shit out pretty damn soon."

"I don't need a man to take care of me, or tell me what to do," shot back Becky. "I don't need a husband, or a father, who thinks he can make my decisions for me. I'm going to check on the cattle."

Becky stomped out of the house and headed for the corral. A few minutes later, they heard her horse trotting away from the house.

"I don't know where she gets that stubborn streak," muttered Ben Masters as he watched Becky ride over the ridge before turning to speak to Maggie's brother.

"Will, I don't like how those bastards treated Maggie and Jack in Alden. The damn Jayhawkers are getting more brazen all the time. I know they've been rustling stock from ranches east of here. It's only a matter of time before they try us. We'd better start carrying rifles all the time and keep a closer eye on the stock."

Will was an uncomplicated man. When his sister married Jack, the Masters welcomed him and his wife, Sarah, into the family. When he was offered a chance to move to Kansas with them and have a stake in a cattle ranch, he jumped at the opportunity. He was fiercely loyal to his family. The Masters were now his family.

"I'll take a ride over to the springs right now and see how things are," he offered. "We've worked too hard to build up the herd to let rustlers run off with a single steer."

"Why are we riding to the damn ranch house?" asked Dirk as the group approached the Masters' spread. "We could round up most of the cattle and be half way to Colorado before anyone missed them."

"There's a couple reasons," snarled Big Joe. "We're going to need more horses and they're kept close to the buildings. If we shoot everyone and take the horses, we won't have to worry about them being after us. There's just old Ben Masters, Jack, the dumb fuck, and his brother-in-law and a few women.

"I want another spin with that Masters bitch before we kill her. Hell if she's any good, I may take her with me for awhile. We'll do this right. There won't be any witnesses left to tell what happened. We'll ride in to the ranch and when Ben Masters comes to the door, we'll kill him. The rest should be easy."

Maggie's brother saw the dust rising from the raiders' horses as he was riding away from the ranch. Realizing trouble could be heading his way; he pulled his rifle from the scabbard and waited behind some boulders to see what would develop.

He watched as nine riders pulled to a stop in front of the ranch house. He clearly heard the big man who had been riding up front call for Ben Masters to step outside for a talk. Will couldn't make out Ben's reply, but easily determined the gist of it when the men on horseback pulled out their weapons and began firing at the house.

Will had spent 18 months in the Confederate Army and was no stranger to combat. He calmly dismounted and took a position behind a shoulder high boulder. He jacked a shell into the chamber of his Henry and leaned over the huge rock.

Three riders fell as fast as Will could work the lever and take aim. Big Joe realized he had been outflanked and ordered his men to ride away. As they turned their horses, two more men went down. Ben Masters stepped out on the porch and emptied another saddle before the marauders managed to ride out of range.

Big Joe Buck was furious as he spurred his horse away from the ranch. He had badly underestimated Ben Masters. Only two other men, Dirk and Sam Blocker, had managed to escape with him. He'd never be able to move a herd of cattle to Colorado now that he was short handed. He was slowing his horse as he crested a small rise and almost rode directly into Becky astride her horse.

Without giving the situation any thought, Buck simply slapped her hard enough to knock her from the saddle as his horse trotted past hers. He was dismounted and on Becky before she was able to clear her head from the blow he had given her.

When she tried to resist his groping, he backhanded her, causing her to go limp. He reached down and ripped her shirt from her chest.

"Those tits are even nicer than I remembered," stated Big Joe as he took her in. "I bet you haven't been fucked right since the last time I had you, Bitch."

"Joe, don't you think we need to be riding?" asked Dirk with obvious concern. "What if that damned rancher's crew comes looking for us? We need to get the hell away from here."

"They won't be coming. There were only a couple of them and they shot the shit out of us, so they're probably celebrating. You and Sam had better keep an eye out anyway. I'll only be a few minutes. Don't let anyone interrupt me. That old bastard won't be so damn happy when he finds out what I did to his precious daughter."