Sam’s gut turned to lead, and he whipped to face the door.

“I’m giving you one minute, then we’re torching the place,” Rex threatened.

Bebe leapt into Hubert’s arms. “He can’t do that. He simply can’t do that.”

“Don’t worry,” Hubert assured her, holding her tight. “He’s bluffing. He’s not going to burn down a building with his daughter inside.”

“Besides,” Julia added, voice tremulous, glancing to Sam for reassurance. “Burning down buildings is illegal. Even Mr. Bonneville must know that.”

“Yeah,” Sam drawled, rubbing the bottom half of his face. “But Trey is out of town. Rex wouldn’t be making threats otherwise.” And that fact irked him. He started toward the door. “No one threatens to burn down my saloon.”

“Oh, Sam, be careful,” Julia called after him.

“I will,” he said, still looking at the door.

He unlocked the door and threw it open, stepping out onto the boardwalk. Half a dozen of Rex’s ranch hands, Rance, and Rex himself stood in the street in front of the saloon. The ranch hands were lighting torches as Rex stood by and watched. Even in the dark, Sam saw a smug grin on his face. Rance stood to the side holding a lantern and looking put out about the whole thing.

“I’ll thank you not to go making threats against my property,” Sam said, tucking his thumbs into the waist of his trousers. His pulse pounded, but he knew the best way to handle the situation was to remain calm.

Of course, that calm evaporated when Julia came rushing out of the saloon to stand at his side. “What is it? What’s happening? Is he really going to burn the saloon down?” she asked, clinging to his arm.

Rex chuckled. “You need to learn to control your woman, Standish.”

“I beg your pardon?” Julia stood straighter, planting one fist on her hip. Sam couldn’t see it in the dark, even with the growing torchlight, but he knew his wife wore an incredulous frown.

Rex continued to laugh. “A woman like that will ride roughshod over you. Although I must say, I always assumed you were more bark than bite.”

The men surrounding Rex laughed.

Sam’s skin prickled with anger, and he balled his hands into fists. “I don’t expect any of you sorry lot to know the joy of a woman’s love,” he growled. “Most good women wouldn’t look twice at the lot of you. And we all know where you stand with the fairer sex, Rex. Or rather don’t stand.” It was a low blow, but ever since Bonnie had walked out on Rex, revealing just how impotent the man really was, there wasn’t a woman in town who wanted to be seen on Rex’s arm.

Rex’s expression sank from smug superiority to dark fury. “At least I’m not shackled to a wool-headed wanton.”

Julia gasped. Sam growled and took a step closer to Rex.

But it was Bebe, who ran out of the saloon to shout, “Papa! Julia is my friend!” that prevented the scene from descending into a street brawl. “You can’t talk to my friends like that.”

“I can talk to whomever I want however I want,” Rex snapped at her. “No daughter of mine is going to raise her voice to me like that. You will leave off this foolishness right now and come home, where you belong.”

Hubert stepped up to Bebe’s side and took her hand. “She does not belong with you, Rex. She belongs with me.”

Rex’s expression flashed to the deepest fury yet. In the light of the torches his men carried, he looked downright diabolical. “You have no right to speak to me like that, like you’re my equal.”

“I am your equal,” Hubert insisted, holding his own.

“Some might argue he’s your better,” Sam added. Every shred of sense within him said he needed to keep the situation under control, to keep a calm head and an open mind. But in his heart, he wanted to show Rex just what he thought of him and then some.

Rex glared at him. “You’re treading dangerous waters, Standish. Don’t think I won’t remember an insult like that. I can lay your saloon to waste, even without burning it down.”

“No you can’t.” Sam blinked as Julia came to his defense. “You think you can,” she went on, “but Haskell is growing all the time. It’s certainly big enough for more than one saloon. And men like to drink with friends. You are no one’s friend.” She nodded to Rex at the end of her bold statement, then turned to Sam to see what he thought.

In spite of the tension of the situation, Sam smiled at her. He’d never been prouder.

Even as the feeling hit him, caution rushed in. Rex’s men were moving, fanning out to the sides as their war of words continued. Rance had moved right up to the edge of the boardwalk. Time felt as though it were ticking away.

“Let’s resolve this,” he said, pulling himself to his full height.

Rex misunderstood his intent and let out a gloating laugh. “You’re just a tiger without teeth,” he said, then rushed on before Sam could prove otherwise. “Come along, Bebe. We’ll resolve the rest of this at home.” His tone was ominous enough to leave no one in any doubt about the danger that waited for Bebe back at the Bonneville ranch.

“I’m not going,” Bebe said, stomping her foot. She grabbed Hubert’s arm and held tight. “I’m a grown woman. You can’t make me go anywhere or do anything that I don’t want to do.”

“I can and I will,” Rex shouted. “As long as you live under my roof, you will do as I say.”

“But I don’t live under your roof anymore,” Bebe protested. “I packed my bag and left tonight. I’m going to San Francisco to start a new life with Hubert.”

“Like hell you are,” Rex growled. He darted a look to Rance.

Before Sam could react, Rance stepped up onto the boardwalk and grabbed Bebe. He moved so fast and yanked at her with such force that Bebe peeled away from Hubert’s arm. She screamed and flailed. Hubert leapt after her, grabbing her outstretched hand and trying to pull her back.

“You let go of her!” Julia shouted at Rance, jumping into the mix.

As she did, she caught her toe on a loose board and tumbled forward. But for once, her clumsiness worked to her advantage. She spilled forward into Rance with enough force to knock him sideways. Rance stumbled, and in the process dropped both Bebe’s arm and the lantern he was carrying. The lantern fell, hitting the lip of the boardwalk as it did, and shattered on the ground. It burst into flames, catching the leg of Rance’s trousers.

“Help! Help!” Rance reeled back, shaking his leg. “I’m on fire! I’m gonna die!”

Sam jumped down from the boardwalk to kick the broken lantern into the street and to stomp on the flames in its wake. It was his luck that neither the boardwalk nor the side of the saloon had caught fire, and that the spilled oil burned out before anything could catch. Another of Rex’s ranch hands rushed forward and kicked dirt on Rance’s leg to put out his trousers.

“Enough of this,” Sam all but shouted. “If you’ve got a problem with your daughter eloping, then you should be discussing it like a gentleman instead of acting like a criminal.”

The flash of fire had startled him, but Rex recovered fast enough to say, “I refuse to negotiate with a lowlife who steals my daughter in the middle of the night.”

“Hubert isn’t a lowlife,” Bebe insisted. “He’s the man I love.”

“He’s a nobody,” Rex roared. “He’s the son of a nobody. He has no prospects and nothing to recommend him.”

“Well, I don’t care.” Bebe reached for Hubert’s arm and clung to him again. “I love him.”

Hubert turned to her, a worried smile flittering across his face. “I love you too,” he said quietly.

Sam frowned. Something wasn’t right. If it were him, he’d be hollering from the high hills and declaring his undying love for Julia. He’d demand to fight Rex and Rance and every last one of the ranch hands to prove that he was worthy.

“You’re young and foolish,” Rex said, taking a step toward Bebe. “But I won’t let you ruin your life because of some misplaced romantic notion. Let go of that man and come home at once.”

“No.” Bebe clutched Hubert’s arm even harder. “You’re going to have to burn this saloon down with me inside it.”

“Hold on a second.” Sam held up his arms, sending Bebe a scolding look.

“Yes,” Julia agreed. “You’ll have to burn me down too, because I stand by my friends. Come on, Bebe.” She lifted her chin and glanced from Bebe to Rex. “We’ll go inside, lash ourselves to the bar, and await our inevitable demise.”

With a sniff of defiance, Bebe held her head high and turned to follow Julia back into the saloon. She pulled Hubert with him, but as he retreated, Hubert sent Sam a pleading look.

“What kind of trickery is this?” Rex bellowed. “You come back here this instant, Bebe. I will not tolerate this sort of behavior.”

Rex leapt up onto the boardwalk and shoved past Sam, marching into the saloon.

“Watch it,” Sam shouted after him.

He would have followed but for the vicious grins that spread slowly over the faces of Rex’s men.

“Think we should go ahead and start the fire?” One of them asked.

“I reckon when this place goes up, you’ll be able to see it from Denver,” another laughed.

“Sounds like a good idea to me.” Rance straightened from where he’d been brushing at his singed trouser leg and sent Sam a toothy smile. “Seeing as this one’s woman tried to burn me to a crisp.”

“It was an accident,” Sam grumbled, his muscles tight with danger. “And you aren’t going to burn anything down with Rex inside.”

One by one, the smiles on the faces of Rex’s ranch hands vanished. Rance’s was the last to go as the truth of the situation took its time to sink in. “Shoot,” he mumbled.

“We don’t need torches to do what needs to be done,” the first hand who had spoken told the others. “We’ve got insurance.”

Cold dread spread through Sam’s gut as the others chuckled and extinguished their torches. The street went dark once more, and Sam’s pulse kicked up. The men were moving, but the sudden shift from light to dark made it next to impossible for Sam to see what they were doing. His only smart move was to retreat into the saloon.

“I won’t go with you, Papa, I won’t!” Bebe was already shouting as Sam crossed through the doorway. “You can’t make me.”

“I can and I will,” Rex glowered at her. “And believe you me, missy, once we get home, you’re going to spend some serious time locked in your room.”

“I won’t let that happen.” Hubert stood stalwartly by Bebe’s side, but the stress of the confrontation was vivid in his face.

“You can’t keep a strangle hold on Bebe forever, Rex.” Sam tried to step into the fray, but Julia rushed forward and caught his arm before he could approach the bar. “She’s not a child anymore.”

Behind Sam, the rest of Rex’s men poured into the saloon and fanned out. Surrounded them, really. And there was nothing good about the way they all had their hands close to their sides, close to their belts.

“What the heck happened in here?” one of the ranch hands asked—in the light of the saloon, Sam could make out who each of them were now, and the one who spoke was Frisk, the worst of the lot. Rex hadn’t just brought his employees to retrieve Bebe, he’d brought his toughs. And Trey was out of town.

The others glanced around at the torn-up stairs, the missing stones from the fireplace, and the ransacked bar. Sam used their moment of distraction to scan behind the bar, racing to figure out if he could reach his hidden revolver in time. But Bebe and Hubert were in the way, and with Julia hanging on him, there was no way he could make a break and get behind the bar.

“We were searching for the loot,” Bebe answered, her chin raised. “When we find it, Hubert and I will have thousands of dollars to start a new life.”

“What loot?” Rex darted a nervous glance around the saloon.

“The loot left by the robbers,” Julia answered.

“There’s loot in here?” Frisk looked around, his stance loosening.

“Keep your focus,” Rex barked at him, at all of the men, who now searched the saloon with avarice in their eyes. “Remember what you’re here for.”

“And what are you here for?” Sam asked, meeting and holding Rex’s gaze.

“To take my daughter back,” Rex growled. “By whatever means necessary.”

“Papa, you can’t—”

Bebe’s protest was cut off as Rex shouted, “Now!”

In an instant, every one of Rex’s men snapped to attention, drawing guns from their belts. Some of those guns had been hidden, but most had been right there in the holsters the men wore, plain as day. And Sam had barely registered them. He would have kicked himself for being as tame and soft as Rex had accused him of being if the situation weren’t so dire. He’d let his guard down, spent more time worrying about star-crossed young people than the violent threat staring him in the face.

And the fact was, he would rather have dealt with the domestic drama than the pending gunfight in front of him any day. Hellfire and damnation. Not only was he every bit as domesticated and boring as he dreaded being, he would have chosen to be sound asleep in his boring bed with his boring wife—all right, not so boring wife—wrapped in his arms than facing down the barrels of six guns any day.

“This has got to stop,” he said, feeling more like a schoolmaster faced with a bunch of disobedient—and deadly—children than the rugged and wild saloonkeeper, used to breaking up fights that he supposedly was.

“It’ll stop when Bebe is at home, where she should be,” Rex snarled. “Otherwise, tomorrow Haskell will wake up to a horrible scene.” His grim expression took on an unexpected flash of victory. “And you’ve done most of the work for me.” He glanced around at the mess that the saloon had become. “Turns out there were robbers in this saloon. They ransacked the place looking for their loot. And when they didn’t find it, they shot up the place, killing the saloonkeeper, his wife, and their pitiful trash of a friend.”

Rex’s men pulled back the hammers on their revolvers, sending a round of ominous clicks echoing through the saloon.

“No!” Julia gasped. She clung to Sam’s arm, trembling with genuine fear that drained the color from her face.

“I won’t let you hurt her.” Hubert stepped in front of Bebe, shielding her with his body.

“I have no intention of hurting her.” Rex grinned. “You, on the other hand.” He laughed, long and low. “What a pity that Sheriff Knighton is away on his honeymoon.”

Having his suspicions confirmed did nothing to make Sam feel better. “He’ll hear about this,” he said. “Don’t think for a moment that the good people of Haskell won’t know exactly what happened here come morning.”

“Who’s going to tell them?” Rex snorted.

Bebe opened her mouth to answer, but a deep answer of, “We will,” sounded from the doorway.

Julia yelped and Sam’s heart dropped into his gut before bouncing clean up out of his throat in relief as Travis Montrose, Solomon Templesmith, Athos Strong, and Gus Cooper burst through the door. All four of the men had their guns drawn.

“Trey asked me to keep an eye on things,” Travis said, positioning himself along with the others so that Rex’s men were in their sights. “And then I heard a ruckus.”

“And saw torches in the street,” Solomon added, eyes narrowed at his father-in-law.

Rex stared back at Solomon with a hatred that surpassed any look he’d ever given Hubert. “As far as I see it,” he growled, “this is the perfect opportunity to exterminate more than one kind of vermin. Boys, shoot to kill!”

Rex’s men whirled to face Travis, Solomon, and the others. Sam jumped for the bar, reaching as best he could for his own revolver. Another sickening round of clicks filled the air as Travis and the others readied to fire. The air itself crackled, as if death were just seconds away.

Until Bebe jumped into the middle of the standoff, arms outstretched, shouting, “No!”

A gunshot split the air.