Logan's Promise Read online

  The women looked at Logan, with unfriendly looks on their faces. They're also wiping tears from their eyes—distraught, after seeing the destruction and death on the farm outside.

  Then the man named Donaldson tells Logan that they decided to come by and see if the Johnsons were okay. That they hadn't been at church that morning, and they never miss a Sunday.

  “You got any idea who might have done this, Logan,” Dillon asks?

  “Not yet. That's what I was about to ask the girls, when you all showed up.”

  “You think it was renegade Apaches, Logan?”

  “It could've been. But I don't think it was, cause whoever did this killed the livestock. If it was Indians they wouldn't have done that. Also both of the bodies still have hair and weren't scalped. So, no, I don't think it was Apaches, even renegades.”

  Then everyone in the room again turns their attention to the girls. Logan wants their attention, too. She still wants to find out what happened here. So she goes over to them and starts to ask them to tell her what happened. One of the ladies began to protest Logan wanting to question them, but Libby intercedes, and tells her it was okay. That she and her sister want her to know about the people who did this, so she could possibly catch them.

  Libby told Logan that she was right, this was not Indians as she suspected. That it was the work of five men—four white, and one Indian. Libby said they came onto the farm yesterday and asked their father if they could water their horses. He told them yes they could. Libby said their parents followed the men to the horse trough and were standing close by. When one of them dismounted and pulled his scatter gun and shot them without warning, as they tried to run away. Then he took the butt end of his gun and beat their dead bodies with it. It was horrible to watch, they said through their tears. They told everyone that the other men just sat on their horses and laughed, while this man did this.

  After Libby told Logan this the same woman again tried to get her to stop questioning them, trying to protect the girls. Libby completely ignored her pleas this time, and continued to tell Logan what she and Connie saw. She told Logan that they had stayed hidden in the grove of trees and tall grass behind the house, while this was going on. Libby said that the men laughed as they did bad things to their mother, after they killed her. They said that the men went into the house and tore up things. They set fire to the barn, and shot and killed all of the livestock, before riding away.

  Libby said she and Connie stayed out back until it was dark, before they came back into the house for safety. They were afraid the men would come back. They'd been too frightened to leave, until Logan should up.

  “Did you happen to get a look at any of them.” Logan asked? Not sure, if they'd remember any details about the men.

  “The one that did the killing—he had a patch over his eye, and he wore all black,” Connie said. “He was really mean.”

  “Do you remember which eye?”

  “Left.” They both said at the same time.

  Causing Logan to smile at them. Then she asks, “can you remember anything else about them?”

  “The one that was an Indian, he was riding a pinto horse,” Connie said, still crying.

  “One more question. Did you perhaps see which way they went, when they rode away?”

  Both girls pointed west at the same time.

  Logan thanked and hugged each of the girls, “I should be able to locate them based on that information. One more thing girls,” Logan said, looking at them. “If, and when I do find them, and bring them to justice. I will come back and tell you, and I will bring you any reward money they might have on their heads. You have my word on that.”

  Then she stood up and looked at the two women, turned away and went outside, to leave. She's followed closely by the two men.

  “You goin' after these animals alone, Logan,” Dillon asked?

  “I guess, I will. I ain't doin' nothin' else, right now. Besides, I owe it to those to young ladies in there to catch them for what those bastards did here. I'm sure it's not the first time they've killed like this.”

  “Logan, the men who did this are just plain vile and mean. What will you be able to do by yourself, if you do find them.” Donaldson asks?

  “I don't rightly know, for sure. I'll have to think on that for a spell.”

  “You do that, Logan, don't you go and get yourself killed, girl. You do be careful,” he said.

  “I'll do my best to try and not let that happen. Trust me,” Logan said to them.

  “Good luck, Logan, and God speed, to you.”

  She smiled at both men and mounted Warrior to leave. The women and the girls were now on the porch, too, as Logan tipped her hat to all of them and rode away.

  2

  Logan Kincaid is a bounty hunter—a nomad—a loner. She has no friends, except fellow bounty hunter and lover Gavin Sloan. And as she rides today she wonders where he is. The last time she saw him was a year ago. He told her he was heading for west Texas, and she figures that's where he went. He wanted her to go with him, but she declined, telling him she wanted to stay in New Mexico. She smiles as she thinks about him. She hopes he's okay, and she would like to see him again, soon. Logan has known all along that they love each other, but are not ready to settle down with each other. It is just not their time she figures. But she thinks that she'd like for that to change between them, the next time she sees him. She hopes that will be soon.

  Logan, like Gavin wanders from place to place hunting bounty. She knows that what she is doing, and has been doing for the past six years is very dangerous for her. Even though three of those six years she was riding with Gavin. Logan wants to quit hunting bounty. She has, too, she thinks, before she gets killed. And she doesn't want that to happen, because she's only twenty-six years old.

  Logan is a tough, strong, and independent young woman, with an attitude and stubborn streak. Born out of having to fend for herself all of her life. She's a fighter and a warrior who doesn't show frailty, because of the reputation she has. She's an anomaly in her own time, and she knows it. She doesn't sow and gather like other women her age, though she'd like to find the time to do all of that someday. Right now she is what she is—a bounty hunter. Still she really wants is a stable life like that, where she gets respect for being a solid ordinary citizen. But so far that life has eluded her, and she wonders if she will ever have an opportunity like that.

  Gavin Sloan is the only one she has let see her softer side. They are lovers, even though they haven't seen each other for a year. The two of them rode together for three years, and they had become very close. Then all of a sudden he got the idea he wanted to go to West Texas. He's been gone from her life, and she misses him, along with all the other things she so desires to change in her life.

  IT'S NOW GETTING TO be past six in the evening, as Logan leaves the Johnson place. She still needs to find a place to camp for the night. As she rides, she knows that the men who killed the Johnsons had a full day or more head start on her. She figures she will find them eventually. But like that man Dillon asked her. What will she be able to do against them by herself? If she does find them? How does she by herself, bring such violent men to justice without getting killed herself? Which is where she is now, with being a bounty hunter in the first place. She thinks. Why not just leave, and let this go? Why go after the vile men who did this, and possibly get myself killed? It's because Logan knows she must do her best to catch them sooner or later. She must do it for Libby, and for Connie.

  After riding a little longer, Logan comes upon a clump of trees and discovers that they're near a small stream. She decides that this is as good a place as any to stop and make camp for the night. The trees, and the few rock outcroppings will provide good cover if danger should approach her.

  Logan's camp fire is going, and she's made coffee and opened a can of beans that she cooked for her dinner. It is good to stop she thinks to herself, as she sets quietly against the big rock that is behind her bedroll. She just w
ants to set and to enjoy her meal, and take her time eating. She wants to try and relax, as it has been a very eventful day. She watches as the sun sets, and begins to play peek-a-boo with the storm clouds that have gathered to the west. She’s still trying to get the terrible images of death and destruction she saw today at the Johnson farm, out of her mind.

  Finished eating, she gets up and heads over to the small stream near-by to wash her pan and utensils. Looking up and all around her, it is very dark now. She's outside the safety and the light her campfire provides. However Warrior is quiet, and Logan knows that if someone or something was in the area, he'd be making all sorts of racket. Warning her of any danger in the area, that might be near them.

  Near the stream, she only has the moonlight to see by, and all it does is create deep ghostly shadows in the darkness. It has become intermittent with the passing clouds, created from a dying thunderstorm in the distance.

  She quickly cleans her utensils, and returns to her campfire. Logan is beat, and exhausted. She looks at her pocket watch and it's well past nine. She takes her gun and holster off lays them down next to her bed roll. She lays down wanting to sleep, pulling her blanket up over her. Her carbine leans next to the big rock behind her, and Warrior is quiet, that's a good sign. She can get a good night's sleep. She thinks.

  But sleep doesn't come quickly, like she wants it, too. She lays there on the cold hard ground—eyes wide open trying to block out the horrible images that remain in her mind.

  She has to sleep, she thinks. So she turns over to her right side facing the fire. And she begins to fantasize about how nice it would be to sleep in a nice big soft bed. One that she can call her own. Not one that is in some fleabag hotel. No, a nice, big, soft, down bed, that is in her own house—in her own room. “Someday I will have those things.” She affirms aloud to herself. “Someday.”

  Logan lays there for a few more minutes, wanting desperately to quiet her mind, as the rhythm of the fire begins to let her drift off. Then she hears Warrior stir as he whinnies softly. She sets up quickly, like she's heard gunshots go off. She grabs her pistol and sets there in her bed roll, not sure what he has heard. But something spooked him. He may have just heard a small animal, but it could have been a mountain lion. He quickly gets quiet again, and she relaxes and lays back down. She lays there and listens herself, straining her ears for a sound, any sound that might arouse him again. But all she can hear is the breeze that has been kicked up from the dying storms that she saw earlier. Causing the wind to blow and rustle the leaves in the trees around her camp.

  She lays back down and starts to drift off again, when she hears the sound of hoofs on the ground. She's not sure, but thinks she only hears one rider. She wonders why Warrior is quiet? She quickly gets up this time, grabbing her pistol and carbine. Then jumps behind the big rock that is in back of her bedroll, taking cover.

  As the rider gets closer to her, she calls out into the darkness, “You there. Who are you?”

  The rider calls back to her, “that you Logan? It's me, Gavin, don't shoot.”

  She quickly recognizes the voice of Gavin Sloan. She relaxes, and is relieved to hear his voice.

  “You're back,” she comments. Trying her best to hide her excitement at seeing him.

  “I am,” he says, as he rides into her camp. “Mind some company?”

  “No, not at all, since it's you. It would be real nice, Gavin. It's really good to see you.”

  “Same here, Logan, it's really good to see you, too. I been lookin’ for you.

  “You have?” She’s smiling upon hearing him say that.

  “I have,” he says, dismounting and grinning widely back at her. Then he walks over to her and hugs her, as they embrace and kiss several times before they stop.

  She says nonchalantly after he releases her, “I was just getting ready to turn in.” She sets back down on her bedroll and feels a rising heat throughout her entire body, at seeing Gavin.

  Gavin asks, “any coffee left in that pot?”

  “Some, help yourself,” she says. Unable to take her eyes off of him.

  He reaches into his saddle bag feeling around for his coffee cup. He quickly finds it and comes over to the fire, and reaches down for the pot and pours himself a cup. Draining the last drop.

  “I been wonderin' about you. Did you go to West Texas?”

  “Yeah, that's where I was, Logan. I been trackin' after five of the meanest sons a bitches, I've ever tried to track down. With you, or alone. Been huntin' em for almost five months now. They kill everybody they come in contact with. Have you come across em?”

  “No, not directly. Though, I think I've seen their handy work. So, tell me Gavin, who the hell are we dealing with here?”

  “Mean, bad men, Logan, with no conscious, and no soul. They kill just for the hell of it. They make Cutter Hargrove, look like a choirboy.”

  Logan is quiet, wondering again what she could have done if she'd found them and had tried to take them alone. She also remembers Cutter all to well, and how damn mean he was.

  “You're lookin' for em, too, I take it,” he says.

  “I wasn't until today, but I am now, I guess.”

  He shakes his head and is quiet for a few seconds then says, “You know, Logan, we should team up together to go after this bunch, they're real badasses. I'm not sure what I could do if I found them by myself. I'm good, but not that good.”

  “Yeah, yeah, you know that would be a good thing. I was laying here, thinking about that very same thing before you showed up,” she says.

  He shakes his head in agreement.

  “How'd you come across em,” he asks?

  Logan then tells him about the Johnsons, and the murder, death, and destruction that they left at their farm. As he listens to what she's telling him, he looks at the ground, shaking his head in sorrow. He squats down in front of the fire, Logan is laying down again.

  “That's them, alright,” he comments.

  “Do they have a reward on their heads,” she asks him? Yawning.

  “Yeah, fifteen hundred on each of them. The U. S. Marshal over in Lubbock put that out on them, along with Pinkerton. There may be more, but that's the only bounty I've heard tell of on em.”

  Upon hearing the amount of the bounty, Logan's ears perk up. She sets up in her bed roll again, running the fingers of her right hand through her hair, and says, “keep talking. That's thirty seven-fifty apiece. What do you know about them?”

  “They're lead, by a real mean sonofabitch, named Bailey Hogg. There's five of em all together, one is a half-breed. They are all deserters of the Confederacy, except the half breed. I've heard that they're from Georgia, and they're doin' all this killin' to get revenge.”

  “Yeah, revenge for what,” She asks?

  “For the way Generals Sherman and Sheridan, burned and killed everything and everyone in Georgia, during the war on their march to the sea. They hate Yankees.”

  “Well, if they hate Yankees so much, then why are they out here in the west? Why didn't they go north?”

  “I can't answer that one, Logan. You got me. You know as well as I do, men like these don't think like other men.”

  “Yeah, if well if you ask me, the way these bastards kill, I would say, they don't think at all.”

  They're both quiet for a few seconds.

  “So, Logan, you want to go after them together?” He asks her again, breaking the brief silence between them and sipping on his coffee.

  Logan is still setting up in her bed roll and is looking at him, pausing briefly before she answers him. Even in her tired worn out state of mind she just stares at Gavin. She thinks to herself, “He's so damn hot. I want to...” Then she catches herself. Her thoughts quickly shifting back to the picture in her mind, of the carnage that Hogg and his gang had left at the Johnsons.

  “Yeah, yeah, we should. Like you said, how could I, or you do anything about them once we found them? I mean, by ourselves.”

  “That's what I'm th
inkin', too. I figure, that the two of us stand a better chance of bringing them in, together, rather than alone.”

  “Yeah, that's for sure.” She says, and lays back down, her head down on her saddle with her thoughts going back to grabbing Gavin. She lays there and stares at him, trying her best to have him not notice.

  “Then it's settled, we'll go after Hogg and his butchers, together.” Gavin grins to himself, knowing that she can't take her eyes off of him.

  “Yep. Right now, I just want to sleep, Gavin,” she says. “It has been a very long and trying day, and I'm exhausted.” She says this in spite of her urge to get after him.

  “One more thing.”

  “What's that,” she asks, quietly? Still staring at him.

  “I guess, that since you say you're gonna join up with me to catch, Hogg, that you're not gonna quit bein' a bounty hunter. Like you talked about, when I left a year ago.”

  “Yeah, I guess that is what it will be, for now, Gavin. But this is gonna be my last one, I ain't given up the thought of quitting at all. I'm doin' this to help you, cause I care too much about you. And because I owe it to those two little girls, to catch them.”

  She pauses.

  “So how'd you find me?”

  “Ah, you know, I just ask around along the way. I'd ask if anybody'd seen ya, or new where you might be.”

  Logan is laying on her side facing the fire, “So again you were looking for me, huh,” she says, with smile coming across her face

  “Yeah, I was, Logan.” he grins at her. “I been wantin' to find you for sometime, now. I was lonely as hell last year, after we went our different ways. After a while I knew that leavin' you was the stupidest thing I’d ever done.”

  She smiles at him, “I'm glad you found me, if it makes you feel any better. I was lonely for you, too. Now, if you don't mind, Gavin, I need to go to sleep.”