looking into the face of a man who wants to kill you. If you’re fast enough, you can watch the blood ooze the very life out of him. It’s not a pretty sight, Grant, and you’re too smart to get in the middle of gunslingers.” She stared into his startled face and braved on. “Maybe the first time you shoot a man, you think it’s over. You’ve had enough, but what you’ve done spreads like wildfire. Someone else wants to call you out, and the list goes on.”
“Shawne—”
“Please put this crazy passion aside. I’ve heard you say you want to be a doctor. Make something worthwhile of yourself. I beg you. Leave the revolver alone.”
Grant glanced at the target, then back at her. “Where did you learn to shoot? Morgan?”
“Years of practice.” She pressed her lips together. “I had nothing better to do while my brother rode with Davis Jenkins.”
“Casey O’Hare,” he whispered, as though someone might hear. “You ran off from the Jenkins gang. Neither he nor the law has been able to find you.”
She eyed him squarely. “Yes, that’s who I am. I’ve lied to you and everyone else here in Kahlerville to save my own skin. I escaped from Jenkins, dodged the law and bounty hunters. My face is on more wanted posters than most men can count. It’s an awful life, Grant. I figure it’s my own hell.”
“This can’t be.” He swung around as though the truth hit him in the stomach. “But you’re nursing Sarah Rainer? You’re living at the parsonage? You and my brother?”
“The Rainers and Morgan know about me.” She was more shaken than she cared to acknowledge. “Where do you think I learned how to take care of dying people but through nursing outlaws?” she said. “That leg your brother favors? Do you really want to know what happened?” She took a ragged breath. “I’ve seen enough blood and heard enough screaming men to last forever.”
He shook his head. “You took a big chance by telling me all this. Why?”
“Because God gave me a second chance, and now I want you to have the same. I couldn’t ignore what you’re doing any more than I could deny Jesus Christ. Some might think this is harmless, but I saw my brother turn from a good young man into a killer.” Suddenly she felt at ease. A sense of peace flowed through her veins.
“Morgan knows.” Troubled lines creased Grant’s brow, and he frowned. “Now I understand so much more.”
“Will you give it up?”
Grant sighed deeply and ran his hands through his hair, just as she had seen Morgan do on so many occasions. “I’m not sure I can.”
Morgan’s brother, a boy with grandiose dreams of becoming a man. Oh, dear Jesus, make him see how wrong this is. “Do you want to give up on your future for a wanted poster—or an early grave?”
He hesitated while she stared into his face. Taking a deep breath, he slowly nodded. “Yes, I’ll give it up. I’m not sure what I’ve been thinking. Guess I’ve been jealous of Morgan all my life and wanted to do everything like him.”
“You’re a fine man all by yourself.” She offered a grim smile. “I think I know how you felt. The gun gives you a sense of power. It is, or can be, the one thing you can do better than anyone else. I never had anyone tell me differently. I never had anyone who cared enough to put me on the right road. Your family loves you dearly. They are so proud of you.” She opened her palm to reveal the revolver glittering in the sun. “Putting your faith in this will destroy you.”
Grant shook his head. “I’ve been a fool, and I even told Mama I’d quit.”
“It’s not too late.” She looked at the gun in her hand. “Do you want it back?” Holding it out to him, she waited for a response.
“What’s going on here?” Morgan said. In the intensity of the moment, she hadn’t heard him ride into the clearing. He glared at Casey. “Can’t get it out of your system, can you? Now you’re trying to turn my brother into one of them.”