Chapter 6

Jarrod grabbed Audra's arm and looked into her eyes. He was remembering everything now, every reason Melanie was an itch he hadn't been able to scratch. Now, he remembered. "Nick - where is Nick fixing fences?!"

"Off the old foothills road, near the creek," Victoria said.

Jarrod ran for his hat and gunbelt. He didn't even put either one of them on as he ran for the door.

"Jarrod, what's going on? Where are you going?!" Victoria asked.

"It's not about Heath! It's about Nick!" Jarrod yelled as he ran out the door.

He ran for the stable and was off so fast he did not even bridle or saddle Jingo. The horse was confused, but knew his master so well that he could follow Jarrod's directions just by how Jarrod tugged his mane or kicked his side. With his gunbelt slung over his shoulder, Jarrod took off at full gallop for the old foothills road, near the creek.

XXXXXXX

Heath and Melanie had taken a leisurely path to where Nick was working. Heath showed her several spots along the way that he especially liked, and he took a moment at a couple lovely views to dismount with her and steal a kiss.

"Heath Barkley, I believe I should have asked for a chaperone," Melanie finally said.

Heath laughed. "I'm harmless. Just prone to kiss a beautiful woman when I can get away with it."

Melanie laughed and ducked away from another kiss, returning to her horse and mounting up. She's a tease, Heath told himself, and as she took off riding, he went after her.

He had to yell correcting directions to her once or twice. She was laughing back at him and staying just out of his reach. It never occurred to him to question how a girl from Baltimore could be such a good horsewoman. Later, he wished he had.

They finally caught up to Nick near lunchtime. He was working hard, shirtless, and was covered with sweat. He heard them coming and smiled, pausing for a moment as Melanie and then Heath right behind her pulled up and dismounted.

"She outran you, Heath," Nick laughed and headed for the wagon for a drink from his canteen.

Melanie laughed. "A girl has to protect her virtue."

Nick raised an eyebrow at his brother. "The lady's virtue is in jeopardy, is it?"

Heath had no chance to answer. They heard a rider coming fast, back from the direction he and Melanie had just come. As he drew closer, they realized it was Jarrod.

Nick's eyes narrowed. "Why's he riding bareback? Jarrod never does that anymore."

Jarrod pulled up to them and jumped off Jingo's back even as he was reaching for his gun. He let the gunbelt fall as he aimed directly for Melanie and stopped about fifteen feet away from her and his brothers. "Get away from them, Melanie," he said, and he almost growled the sentence.

"Jarrod, what the hell's the matter with you?" Nick asked.

"Get away from them!" Jarrod said again and cocked his gun.

Heath turned on him – and got between him and Melanie. "Jarrod, what's wrong with you?"

Jarrod caught him off balance and shoved him aside – but in that instant, Melanie had her hidden pistol out and pushed it into Nick's side. Taken totally by surprise, Nick stood stunned, unmoving except to move his hands up slightly, away from Melanie's gun.

Heath had fallen to the ground, but seeing what he was seeing, he did not get up.

"I remembered," Jarrod said. "I wasn't onto you because my memory's been full of holes lately and I didn't put your last visit together with this one. But I got some information from Pinkerton this morning and just a while ago I put it all together. I will kill you, Melanie, if you move to fire that gun at any of us."

Nick's disbelief suddenly turned into believing in his older brother. Jarrod knew something Nick and Heath did not know. Nick looked from Jarrod to Heath.

Heath looked steadily at Nick, and then steadily at Melanie. "Melanie, what's going on?"

"The end of a contract not fulfilled," Jarrod said. "It's not going to pay you to kill Nick now, Melanie, and you don't kill without a payoff. Shoot Nick, and I shoot you. There's nothing in this for you."

The tiny woman's dark eyes thought about it for a moment, and then she turned the pistol over in her hand and held it by the barrel, handing it over to Jarrod. "You're right. There's nothing in it for me."

Jarrod took her gun, and Nick quickly took hold of her right arm and twisted it behind her. His eyes were flaming. "Either of you two care to fill me in on what's going on?"

Melanie gasped in pain but relaxed as Nick pulled her left arm behind her and held her wrists together. She was so small, he could hold them tightly together with one hand.

Jarrod said, "She's a contract killer, Nick. Heath, she didn't come back here to see you again. She came because she didn't get to see Nick the first time."

Nick got even angrier. He twisted Melanie's wrists and made her cry out. "Who wants me dead? Who's paying you?"

Melanie said. "Maybe I'll tell the local prosecutor about that, but you can break both my arms before I'll tell you."

Jarrod said, "Heath, get some rope and let's tie her up and take her to town."

Heath climbed to his feet. His eyes locked on Melanie's again, but she was a different woman now. There was nothing coquettish about this girl – she was old beyond her years, and deadly to boot. She gave him a small grin and a shrug. He went to his horse for the rope.

XXXXXXX

"How did you know in the first place?" Nick asked, finishing off his shot of whiskey as he and his brothers tried to explain what had happened with Melanie to their amazed mother and sister.

"I was uneasy when you brought her here the other day, Heath," Jarrod said. "Something was bothering me, I just couldn't figure out what. I wired my contact at Pinkerton yesterday and got some information this morning that finally helped me put things together. It made me remember about the first time she was here. The first time I met her, I noticed she had a callous on her trigger finger when I kissed her hand. A lady from Baltimore with a callous there just didn't make sense – I just didn't have time to worry about it then and I didn't remember again it until this morning. And there were all the questions - the last time she was here she also asked me more than once about you, Nick, and I heard her ask Audra once, too."

"Come to think of it, she did ask me more than once, too," Audra said.

"I thought it was funny, but I didn't mention it to her or anybody else at the time, and as things went on here, it didn't seem like there was any reason to be concerned about it," Jarrod said. "She was here and gone before you came home, Nick."

"But the callous?" Heath asked. "I saw the callous too and didn't think anything of it at all."

"You're not a criminal lawyer," Jarrod said. "I'd heard of female contract killers before. There aren't many and they're very good and seldom caught. Then, about a month ago, in San Francisco, I heard about a suspected lady contract killer there who had appeared, killed a man and then disappeared. The legal community was bursting with gossip – I just couldn't remember it until I heard back from Pinkerton this morning. They were looking for a young woman, small and dark haired. But she was gone."

"And you didn't remember all this until today?" Victoria asked, looking concerned.

Jarrod took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Mother. I haven't mentioned that my memory still isn't what it should be. The truth is, a lot of memories still elude me. Things are coming back, but slowly. I didn't want to worry you."

"We can discuss that later," Victoria said.

Nick and Heath looked at Jarrod with small grins that made him feel like the nine-year-old who was the one caught in the lie they had all concocted.

"How did you decide to come after us today?" Nick asked.

Jarrod shook his head. "Something clicked when I got the telegram, just like it did when I saw your gun up in Rockville, Heath. It took a couple minutes, but all of a sudden I remembered how everything fit together. I remembered everything about her from the last time she was here and everything I had heard in San Francisco last month, and I realized why I was feeling so uneasy about her when she came here this time. It all fell together, or at least together enough for me to get worried about it."

"And I told her all sorts of things she needed to know, me and my foolish girl talk," Audra said, shaking her head.

Jarrod smiled. "You weren't alone, Honey. I told her things, too."

"As did I," Victoria said.

"And me," Heath said. "She was getting information about Nick from all of us, last time and this time. We just never checked with each other. She had us all fooled. Jarrod, what's going to happen to her now?"

"I'll lay odds she's killed a lot of people, for money," Jarrod said. "She has to pay the price."

"How does that happen to a sweet girl from Baltimore?" Audra asked.

"Who knows?" Jarrod said. "The sweetness was just a ruse, and chances are she's not even from Baltimore and wasn't on a tour out here. Maybe we'll find out more about her. Maybe not. But the important thing is that she'll be put out of business."

Heath shook his head. "I'm sorry, Nick. I nearly cost you way too much."

"She'd have had to kill you, too, Heath," Jarrod said. "And, once again, it's up to Big Brother to rescue you both." Then he smiled at his brothers. "Returning the favor, for Rockville."

"Consider it returned," Nick said. "But one thing we still don't know – who hired her to kill me?"

Jarrod nodded unhappily. "We can only hope she'll give him up. Until then – best keep your head down, Nick."

"Yeah," Nick grumbled and finished off his latest whiskey. And wondered.

THE END

(for now…)