Molly pressed herself against the wall hoping to become invisible. She didn’t understand what was going on. Cheyenne and the man who was with her continued to quietly argue in their odd language. Molly had never excelled in French, succeeding instead in Latin. As hard as she was trying she couldn’t understand what they were saying. Cheyenne walked back up to her, “You must remain here with us,” she said to Molly. “If your father returns he must remain as well.”

“I don’t understand. . .” Gabe cut her off. He angrily stepped toward the still frightened young woman,

“You have no need to understand. No one leaves this house. I will see to it myself,” he said, this time pulling his gun.

“Gabe,” Cheyenne pulled him away from Molly. “Josiah says we are to trust this man, her father. He said that he would help us.” Gabe shook her off and walked to the other end of the room. Molly watched him, his movements reminding her of a caged animal. Cheyenne turned to Molly. The young woman now had tears streaming down her face. “I give you my word, no one will be hurt,” she told her. Molly wrapped her arms around her waist and walked over to a chair that had been placed against the wall and collapsed into it.

“Are you in trouble?” Molly dared to ask softly. She quickly corrected herself, “What I mean is, you’ve been gone from town for so long. It didn’t seem as though Mr. Sanchez even knew where you’d gone. I just. . . I only hope that. . . ” Molly struggled with her words. Cheyenne took in a breath at her question and looked down at the girl. She’d been kind to Cheyenne where others were cruel. It didn’t seem right what they were doing. Josiah must not have gotten to Gallagher fast enough, she thought. Molly’s voice brought her out of her thoughts. “If you are, in trouble I mean, my father would help you. My family in Ireland they help people hide from the British. They give people a safe place to stay. My father did too when he lived there.”

“How do you know this?” Cheyenne asked her.

“I’d hear my mother read letters to my father from relatives there,” Molly answered her. She didn’t have a chance to explain further. The front door opened and before Molly knew what was happening Cheyenne was lunging for Gabe who had drawn his gun.

“Gabe, no, someone will hear,” she yelled as she knocked his arm away but the gun fired. The person who had entered hadn’t even time to react as the bullet hit their arm and they stumbled backward. Molly immediately recognized the person as AJ Cinders. She righted herself and drew her own gun and took aim at Gabe. In spite of Cheyenne’s efforts Gabe aimed his gun back at her.

“Stop it!” Molly screamed.

“Enough,” Cheyenne yelled at him in French.

“Molly, what the hell’s going on here?” AJ asked the young woman still aiming her gun at the pair. She’d never meet Cheyenne or Gabe personally before but had heard the gossip in town surrounding the two and knew immediately who they were. Then there was that sheriff that had arrived in the town and was asking all sorts of question about them. Molly didn’t answer and AJ looked over at her to see her face a mask of shock. It was all the distraction Cheyenne needed. She lunged at the woman knocking her to the ground and wrenching the gun out of her hand before AJ had a chance to really fight back. Now both Cheyenne and Gabe had a gun trained on her.

“You know who this is?” Cheyenne asked Molly. Molly didn’t answer her.

“Miss Cinders, what are you doing here?” she asked the woman still on the floor.

It was then that she noticed her shawl. The one that she’d worn the night the group of robbers had held up her and Jake when AJ and KC had come to their rescue. She didn’t even know she’d dropped it.

“Get up,” Gabe ordered her not caring who she was. He was going to protect Cheyenne no matter what it took. Slowly AJ stood up. Molly took a step toward her noticing that she was bleeding from her shoulder. “Walk over to her,” he said indicating Molly. AJ did as she was told.

“You’re hurt,” Molly whispered to her.

“I’m alright,” AJ told her. The bullet had just grazed her shoulder. It hurt like hell but it wasn’t serious.

“Both of you sit,” Gabe ordered them. The two women sat themselves on the floor. Molly reached over and picked up the rag that she had long ago discarded.

“You’re bleeding,” she said moving to press it to her shoulder. “She’s hurt,” Molly spoke up to Gabe. He didn’t answer her.

“You gonna tell me what’s going on?” AJ asked her. Molly took in a breath and tried to remember the events of the past hour. It seemed like days since she’d discovered Gabe and Cheyenne in the house. “Molly?”

“Da brought me here to get the house ready while he went to the ranch. They must have been already here. They won’t tell me what’s happening. Cheyenne said something about Mr. Sanchez speaking with my father but she didn’t say about what. My father would have told me if someone were here. He wouldn’t just leave me alone. I’m so afraid that if my father comes back he’s going to kill him,” she said in a rush.

“You know them?” AJ asked her. Molly wasn’t sure how to answer her question.

“Not really,” was all she’d said. She had tried to befriend Cheyenne but to what seemed like no avail. The man, Gabe, she’d never met. He’d been with Cheyenne the last evening Molly had seen her.

“This about them guns?” AJ asked her.

“No,” Molly answered trying not to seem exasperated. She stood up.

“What are you doing?” Cheyenne asked her.

“I told you to sit down,” Gabe told her.

“Gabe,” Cheyenne said in a warning tone. She pulled him aside. “Go and check the horses,” she said to him. Gabe gave her a strange look. It was unusual for Cheyenne to take to anyone let alone act as protective as she’d been to this girl. He remembered the look on her face the night they’d left town as she looked at the girl before they rode off, almost as though she was looking at a memory. He wondered if she thought she had something in common with this girl. She was about the same age as Cheyenne had been when her father had been killed and she’d been attacked. He would never do anything to a woman like what had been done to her so long ago but he’d do what ever else it took to protect her from the people that wanted to hang her. If that meant sacrificing these women’s lives or the life of Bryan Gallagher he’d do it, without hesitation.

“Remember what we’re doing,” he warned her before going outside. As soon as he was out the door Molly walked up to Cheyenne.

“Cheyenne, please, please just let us go,” she begged her.

“You in with Malley?” AJ spoke up from the floor. She needed to get her gun back. This woman came across as someone that would give her a fight if she needed to. Molly recognized the name of a man that worked with her uncle. She knew what AJ was trying to get at.

“You need to sit down,” Cheyenne told her. Molly eyed the door. She could try and make it. Mr. Larabee’s house wasn’t that far away. “Don’t,” she warned her, seeing what she was about to do. AJ seemed to know it too.

“Molly, come here by me,” she called to the young woman. Molly went and sat back down by her. “It’s gonna be okay,” she said to her. Gabe came back inside. He had rope in his hands. He walked up to the women and crouched down in front of them.

“How long you think it’ll be before that sheriff figures out where you two are?” AJ asked him.

“He arrived in town?” Cheyenne asked her.

“Been askin’ about you two to just about everyone,” AJ answered her. “Something about a murder and an escape from a hanging.”

“A murder?” Molly asked.

“Enough,” Gabe said. He took AJ’s hands and tied them together and did the same to her ankles.

“No, don’t, she’s hurt,” Molly begged him. He ignored her and used his knife to cut the extra rope and grabbed her wrists.

“Leave her,” Cheyenne said to him. “She will go no where.”

“She’s right, I won’t,” Molly said to him. He stood up towering over the young woman before walking to the other side of the room and Cheyenne. They had to come up with a plan in case this sheriff showed up.

Molly turned to AJ and reapplied the rag to her shoulder. The bleeding for the most part had stopped. “I have to try and get you help,” Molly whispered to her.

“Molly, don’t do anything stupid,” AJ warned her. She looked at the young woman. “This got anything to do with those guns?” she asked her.

“Would you please stop with that? There’s a logical explanation for everything. Perhaps they were for the ranch. Aside from that it’s not your concern,” Molly spat at her.

“You don’t really think that though do you?” AJ asked her. Molly ignored her question. The answer was no even though Molly didn’t say anything. She placed her head against the wall and shut her eyes. Tears of fear and exhaustion fell down her face and the young woman quietly cried herself to sleep.

Molly woke with a start. She was still on the floor, AJ Cinders still next to her. She was still tied. Across the room were Cheyenne and Gabe. Both were lying on the floor, bedrolls under their heads, asleep. Molly looked at the door only a few feet from where the pair were sleeping. The girl stood up. She had to find her father before he came back to the house and something horrible happened. “Molly what are you doing?” AJ wishpered harshly to her. Molly either didn’t hear her or ignored her. Quietly, with her hands pressed into fists at her sides, Molly slowly walked to the door. It seemed miles away. Her breathing increased the closer she got. Then suddenly her hand was on the handle, it was turning it and she was out side and on the porch. She flew down the stairs and ran as fast as she could down the path toward the road.