Quinlan sat around the fire, trying to keep warm. The nights were cool, but she would never ask for a blanket. While she didn't know where they were, they had crossed a large river and even now the sound of water flowing over rocks soothed her. 

Since the day he took her from the schoolhouse, she avoided all eye contact, speaking only when spoken to. Trying not to throw up when he touched her. 

So far, the outlaw only lifted her on and off a horse and she hoped it remained that way. He was using her as bait and she knew that. When Will learned of him taking her, he would come for her. That thought both comforted and frightened her. 

For the man would lure Will in and then kill him. After that, he would have no reason to keep her. 

A tear slipped down her cheek. The idea of him killing her husband ripped her chest apart. Hadn't they suffered enough at this man's hands? First David, then Al, and then her beloved students. Had they made it out before the building became engulfed in flames? Had any of them survived?

By no means had her life been perfect. Yet her time with Will had been idyllic and the man was kind and good and if anyone could save them, Will could. 

After dealing with her father as a child, she felt nothing but terror at the sight of men. Will had been patient letting her learn he was not like her father. He'd been gentle and slowly she fell in love with him. 

At the orphanage, she didn't want her life to change. Maybe Madam Wigg was right. Maybe she needed to leave the school to become a stronger, better person, and the man she loved helped her become a competent woman.

If they lived through this, she would ask Dora to teach her to shoot a gun. Maybe not like her friends, the Lipstick and Lead girls, but at least enough to protect the children she taught. 

"You want some water?" the man asked. 

"No, thank you," she said her head down on her knees as she tried to avoid looking at him.

"It's been two days and you're not eating or drinking. We could be together for a while. At least until that husband of yours learns you've been taken. Don't worry, he'll come and when he does, I have some traps laid out for him."

The man laughed and Quinlan closed her eyes, saying a fervent prayer for Will's safekeeping. She loved him with all her heart. Losing him to this idiot's bullet was enough to make her want to grab the man's gun and shoot him herself. 

The more she thought of ambushing him, the more desperate she became as she ran different scenarios through her head. Each time trying to come up with a way to warn Will, but nothing came to mind. And Lee didn't let her go far alone, even standing right outside the bushes while she went to the bathroom. 

"Yes, sir, I'm going to enjoy shooting your husband. Then I'm going to gut him and hang him from a tree so the buzzards can feast on him."

The outlaw was evil and played sick games to get to her. Maybe learning how to block out horrible sounds years ago from her father’s tirades would once again come in handy. Just like when she was a child, in her head, she dove into her favorite book and immersed herself in the story, her mind reading to herself. 

After a few minutes, she noticed that Lee had given up tormenting her and she relaxed, and for the first time in days, she fell asleep beside the fire and dreamed of Will. As they walked to church, a little boy held their hands as they swung him in the air between them, laughing. 

In the dream, she turned to him and said the words she'd yet to say, “I love you.”

Will snuck out of camp long before daylight and headed east toward the Brazos river. When Lee killed David, they were camping along the river, only a half-day ride from Zenith. The gang of thieves had obviously been on the move heading south away from the town and closer to the big city. 

His gut instinct was telling him somewhere between here and Bath Bend he would find Lee. The man would be on the lookout and Will needed the element of surprise on his side. Most people stayed on the lower side of the river, because the other side had steep bluffs. 

Maybe it would be to his advantage to be on the side of peaks. That way, he would be higher and would see where Lee was hiding. And what if the man's hideout was amongst the cliffs?

As the sun rose, Will had already reached the river and kept his mare in the water for as far as possible, until the water level rose to his horse's thighs. When he found a trail leading along the higher bankside, he urged his horse forward up the rocky slope.

Time was getting away from him, and soon, he either had to find her or make camp for the night. Late in the afternoon, his friends appeared on the side of the river. While they rode in the same direction, they were on the opposite bank. 

Right before dark, he smelled a fire. After tying his mare in a rock enclave, he began to walk the perimeter stepping as lightly as he could. 

The last rays slid beneath the horizon when he saw a rope not quite hidden under the leaves. One wrong tread and he would have been hanging upside down with his ankle in a snare. 

Quickly he took out his knife and cut the cord. In the darkness, it would be difficult to see any more of those traps, yet the woman he loved was near. 

Suddenly a hand covered his mouth and his heart leaped into his chest, beating uncontrollably. He'd been caught.

Turning, Chief Isatai held his fingers to his lips and he whispered. "Man and woman are beyond those rocks. The others are going to come at him from each side."

Will shook his head. "He'll kill her. Let me go in and then you guys cover me. We'll give everyone a few moments and after I find them, everyone rush him," he said, still not sure that would work. 

Where Lee was camped, there were three sides of sheer rock. They would need to fire from above or the main entrance.

"I fear you're right," the chief said. "I'll make certain he doesn't escape. This man is not going to survive tonight."

Will smiled. Frankly, he hoped all of them but Lee made it out alive. That was his concern. 

Night shrouded the land when Will nodded to the chief. The time had come. 

Walking softly, he approached the outlaw's fire. With his gun in his hand, he walked into the circle of light. "Lee,” he called, not seeing the man. Quinlan was tied up sitting by the fire, a rag stuffed in her mouth, her eyes trying to desperately warn him of something. 

A stick of dynamite lay less than a yard away. The wick was burning, mere seconds before the thing exploded, killing them both. Stomping on the wick, he kicked dirt over the flame to extinguish it. 

Still no Lee. 

"Lee, I know you're here," he walked over to Quinlan hoping that maybe he could untie her before he hunted for his nemesis. 

Stepping up to Quinlan, fear raced through him as he placed his Colt back in the holster and began undoing the knots on her wrists. At the next to last one, she started trying to talk through the rag in her mouth. Instinctively he knew, whirling around he glanced up. Lee stood with a gun in his hand pointed at his wife. 

"Quinlan has done nothing to you. If you let Quinlan go, you can have me. I'll not put up a fight," Will said, wanting to somehow move in front of his woman. Knowing Lee had deliberately set this up so he would be behind her, unable to stop a bullet from reaching her. 

The man shook his head at him. "Oh, Will, don't you get it, the fight is half the fun. We've been playing this cat and mouse game for nearly ten years and if it ends, who is going to chase me? Who is going to let their friends come after me while they sit at home with their wife? Oh no, just because you marry doesn't mean you get out of this revenge game we have going." 

The man laughed. "In fact, let's up the ante."

Lee raised his Colt and Will shoved Quinlan with all his might trying to protect her. But Lee anticipated the movement, aiming his gun in her direction and firing.

Will screamed with fury as Lee turned his weapon on him, laughing. Before the man could fire his fatal shot, four rounds of gunfire tore into Lee. Along with Will's own Colt that blasted the man in the heart.

Shock radiated from the dark, evil eyes as his mouth dropped open as he sagged to his knees, then fell to his back. After ten years, Lee Carver lay twitching on the ground.

"Game over," Will spat at the man as he rushed to his wife's side. But Quinlan didn't move.  

The bastard’s bullet had hit his beautiful wife in the right shoulder, knocking her out.

"Quin, noooooo," he cried. 

Quinlan dreamed of her mother's sweet smile and laughter. Her mom hugged her daughter to her, but Quinlan wasn't a child, she was a woman. "Oh, my daughter," she said. "I'm so happy for you. A loving man is waiting for you. You have so much to live for, you need to go back. Someday I'll see you again, but I'm so proud of the woman you have become." 

She kissed her on the cheek and sadness overwhelmed Quinlan. Reaching out, she touched her mother's cheek, but all she felt were her own tears. 

Her body ached and she slowly opened her eyes wondering what happened and then she remembered. With a gasp, she glanced around and noticed she was in their bedroom with the sun peeking through the curtains. 

Slumped in a chair beside the bed, Will slept. The man she loved with all her heart and soul. The man she wanted to spend the rest of her days with, bear his children, and love him with every breath, sat sleeping beside her, watching over her. Clearly she remembered how he had been willing to give up his life for hers. Yet they both almost died because of that evil man.

Needing to hear his voice, she reached out and touched his hand and his eyes flew open. "You're awake."

It took all her strength to give him a weak smile.

“Oh my God, I didn't know if you would come back to me. I've been so afraid you wouldn't live," he said, falling to his knees beside the bed, hovering over her. "Blaming myself for leaving you."

"No, you had no choice. But what about the children?" she asked, remembering, fearing what he would tell her.

"Chief Isatai saved them. They are all fine, including Pecos," he said. 

Relief overwhelmed her. 

"You've been out for three days," he said softly, taking her hand in his. "Three days of being terrified I'd lost you too." 

"I dreamed of my mother. She was happy and told me a loving man waited for me, that I needed to go back," she said, thinking what an odd dream.

As she gazed at the man she loved, she reached up and ran her hand down his scruffy cheek. "My time to die was not yet. Not before I told you how much I love you."

Tears welled up in Will's eyes as he gazed at her. 

"Oh, how I regretted not telling you I was sorry for not admitting to you that my mother chose you. But it didn't matter who picked you because my heart chose you the moment you arrived. The moment we said hello, I was smitten."

How amazing that in a turbulent world, somehow she had been so incredibly lucky to find Will. The journey from the safe haven of the orphanage to here had been rocky, but so worth the end result. Thank goodness Madam Wigg made her become a mail-order bride. 

Weakly, she smiled and he leaned down and kissed her softly on the lips. "You're my everything. My love, my wife, and my heart will always belong to you."

"Oh, Will, we are so very blessed. Thank goodness your mother picked me to be your wife."

He grinned. "Me too, love, me too."