Prologue
Nate Garrett bit into the dried jerky, ripping a chunk off with his teeth and chewing vigorously, his nearly black eyes staring up the side of the mountain. He and Aaron Jenkins, his best friend, had been planning this for nearly six months. He and Aaron were destined to be best friends, as close as brothers. He knew it because they were both orphans, had both come to stay at the Blue Leaf Orphanage when they were four, and had the same birthday, just one year apart.
Aaron was older and made sure Nate always knew it. Their birthday was coming up, and they had big plans to go to Lincoln, Nebraska, a nearby city that was booming with jobs and women. Nate was a little nervous about it because he was just turning sixteen, and that seemed a little young to him. He wasn’t shy, really. He was quiet and took things seriously.
Being with a lady wasn’t something he took lightly. He wanted a family someday.
For now, he was content having fun with Aaron, the only person on the entire planet he had any regard for. It wasn’t his fault. He was born with a stubborn intelligence that forced him to think most people were diminished in the intelligence department, and Nate didn’t tolerate fools gladly.
Aaron did, though. He was the compassionate one. He was always getting them into things, volunteering them for this or that. Nate found himself helping out old people who needed things repaired or picking up and transporting things for injured neighbors. It was always Aaron who got him into those things.
Six months ago, Aaron had volunteered the two of them for a cattle run that took them around this very mountain.
He shaded his eyes and looked up at it, chewing a new bite of jerky as eagerly as he had the last one.
“It’s the perfect weather,” Aaron said from next to him, excitement obvious in his voice. Nate looked at him, grinning.
“Yeah, I noticed. That’s a good thing. I don’t wanna be trying to climb any rocks or sides of the mountain if I’ve got rain pelting me in the head.”
Aaron laughed delightedly. “No, of course not. Although if you think about it, that might be kind of fun. Spark up the adrenaline a little. Make your heart beat faster.”
“I don’t want my heart beating faster because I’m terrified for my life,” Nate responded, pretending to be stern. “I do this because I think it’s fun. We’re way too young to die.” He returned his eyes to the mountainside, looking for the trail they would take.
The goal was to reach the peak of Blue Leaf Mountain and make a sketch of what they saw. Aaron was the artist, but being his best friend made Nate interested in it, as well. Maybe he couldn’t draw it, but he would remember it after seeing it with his own eyes.
He hoped it was something he would never forget.
“You ready?”
The ride up would be a bit treacherous for the two boys and the horses. The terrain was rough, and the path sometimes disappeared in the overgrowth. The Blue Leaf Mountain Trail was known for causing people to turn back. There were several places along the trail where it was single file only, the path being barely wide enough for a horse.
No buggies had ever made it to the top of Blue Leaf Mountain.
Nate and Aaron figured the trek would be easy for them. They were both young men, able-bodied, fearless, as well as able to navigate on a mountainside as easily as a goat. They hadn’t tried this one yet, but that was what they were there for.
“We should probably wait for Alex to get here, don’t you think?”
Aaron shook his head, his expression anxious. “I want to go. He was supposed to be here an hour ago. If he ain’t here by now, I don’t think he’s coming.”
Nate looked up the side of the mountain. “Didn’t somebody say we shouldn’t go without someone who’s already been up there once? That’s how it’s done. So we don’t get killed.”
Aaron grunted, slapping one hand on Nate’s shoulder. “I ain’t waitin’, Nate, but you feel free to. I can handle it. You can handle it, too, and ya know it. That’s mostly for the old-timers who have to be careful. We’re young. We don’t need a guide.”
Nate chewed his lip reluctantly and nodded. “All right. But I’m lettin’ you know now I think a guide would be better. We shouldn’t be doin’ this without somebody to take us up. The terrain is rough.”
“I know it is. But we’ve got plenty of time. Plenty of supplies. We can do it.”
Nate nodded. With a reluctant heart, he followed Aaron up the side of the mountain along the trail.
Three hours later, the two boys had trekked halfway up the mountain. It was time for a break, and Nate made it known that whether Aaron liked it or not, they were stopping for water and a snack cake. Mabel at the orphanage had kindly given them four each for their journey. It wasn’t the only food they had, but it made a good snack when the stomach was rumbling.
Aaron spotted a ledge for them to sit on. Nate didn’t want to dangle his legs over the edge, so he stayed back against the side of the mountain while Aaron stepped to the edge and looked over.
“It’s not too far down there.”
“Oh yeah?” Nate responded sarcastically. “Why don’t you jump down and see what happens?”
Aaron laughed, shaking his head and turning back to Nate. “I’m not trying to break my neck, thank you.”
“Yeah.” Nate narrowed his eyes, continuing his sarcastic tone. “Not too far down there, huh?”
Aaron opened his sack and took out his canteen. Tipping it back, he turned and walked closer to the edge, but not so that he was right at it.
Nate closed his eyes and rested his head back, thinking about their trek so far. It was a beautiful day. The squirrels, rabbits, rodents, deer, butterflies, birds…everything was out and about, enjoying the springtime like he and Aaron.
There was no one else but the two of them right then in that moment. Nate wished it could last a lot longer than five minutes or however long they stayed there, taking a short meal break.
A loud crack brought him out of his thoughts. He opened his eyes and looked in front of him just in time to see Aaron fall as the ledge broke in two, with him on one side and Nate on the side of the mountain itself.
Nate pounced forward, stretching out one hand. The tips of his fingers brushed Aaron’s jacket. Aaron lifted his own hand, and Nate snatched it in mid-air.
He almost immediately slid forward, nearly going over the edge, but was able to break his fall by grabbing a tree root as he slid. His arms stretched painfully, and Aaron dangled below him.
“I’ve got you!” Nate yelled out, his heart thumping in his chest, making it difficult to breathe with his body stretched the way it was. “I’ve…I’ve got you!”
“Don’t let go!” Aaron screamed. “Don’t let me go.”
“I won’t let you go!” Nate struggled mightily to pull Aaron up high enough so his friend could grab onto something. Damp sweat began to pool in between their hands. Tears shot to Nate’s eyes when he realized he wouldn’t be able to keep Aaron’s hand from sliding out of his. “You have to reach up with your other hand and grab my wrist. You’re going to fall if you don’t!”
Aaron jerked his other arm to bring it up, and that was all it took to make his other hand slip from Nate’s.
Nate shrieked and almost let go of the tree root in his panic. He grabbed at the air, nearly snatching Aaron’s other hand as he reached up, but he missed.
He watched his best friend plummet to the ground below, staring in stunned horror and disbelief.
Chapter One
Nate clenched his teeth around a cigar, watching Colonel Farley Harrison trace a line on the map in front of him. The tent was cold and damp. It was raining out there. As if the camp wasn’t dirty enough, now there would be mud tracked everywhere. Everything was drenched, and it just made the depressing circumstances even worse.
“Damn this war,” the colonel muttered, flipping his eyes up to Nate. “Ain’t that right, soldier?”
“Yessir,” Nate replied without taking the cigar from his mouth. “Mighty nasty weather out here. You asked ta see me?”
Nate had joined the war effort because he had nothing better to do. He’d spent the years from the age of sixteen, when he lost his best friend and decided he would never care for another human being again to avoid the pain when they were taken away, till now at thirty-seven, twenty-one years later, being a gun for hire. An outlaw sometimes, a peacemaker other times.
He worked alone and lived alone. He’d never found a woman worth putting in the work. Besides, if he got close to someone, especially a fine lady, and then she died, he would feel that pain again. That agonizing, heart-wrenching pain. He couldn’t do it. He refused to do it.
Nate looked at life and death as one and the same. Neither one was really worth a dime.
Bored with being a gun for hire and satisfied with the amount of money he had saved, Nate joined the fight for the Northern regiments, living in Texas out of camps all around the rocky land, going where he was told, killing who he was told to kill.
For some reason, he’d never been killed in all the fights he’d been in. The only thing that provided a clue to his past was the long scar on his left cheek, starting at the corner of his cheekbone and trailing to his chin. He kept a trim beard—very trim—to hide the scar, but no hair grew down that line.
No one had ever mentioned it, and he didn’t care whether it was there or not. He wasn’t trying to impress anyone.
“I’m gonna need you to do a special mission for me, Nate. There’s someone we need you to…to find for us. He’s got weapons, and if the Southern regiments get those supplies, we’re gonna lose this war. We need you…the first task we need from you is to find us a thief.”
Nate had no interest in which side won the war. He just wanted to fight.
“So you need me to find this man and do what? Hire him? Just like that? I can’t offer a criminal a job position. You’re out of your mind.”
The colonel shook his head. “If you find the right man for the job, he will accept a job position like this,” he said. “We all know you’re a charming man when you want to be, Nate. You know how to talk to people. Men and women. We need a thief. We need a criminal. The best way to find a criminal, a good one, is to send a criminal to find him.”
Nate clenched his jaw again, chewing on the end of the cigar, trying to internalize his rage. He was a criminal, and he knew it. But he didn’t like hearing it. It seemed pretty rude for this man to just stand there and call him a criminal, even though he was one.
He took the cigar from his mouth. The end was getting nasty. He took out his pocketknife and cut off the wet part, returning it to perch between his lips. This time, he got his box of matches from his pocket and lit the end instead of leaving it unlit.
Puffing on it while he shook out the match and dropped it, he narrowed his eyes at the colonel.
“How long I got to find this thief? And what am I supposed to do to get him to come along with me? I’m gonna bring him back here, that right?”
“That’s right. We’ll give you some money to give him as a bonus to get him interested. Then, when the two of you are here together, I’ll give you the details of the mission. First thing, though, is to find someone good and bring him back here.”
Nate nodded. “And just where you want me to find this man?”
“Go over to Broken Branch. They’re a town that needs a better sheriff, I’ll tell you what.” The colonel shook his head, looking disgusted. The opening in the tent flapped to the side, and several drenched soldiers came in, looking aggravated.
“I gotta talk to these men,” Colonel Harrison stated, waving one hand at Nate to dismiss him. “Bring me back a good one, soldier. Make me proud.”
Nate pondered that last sentence as he went out into the rain. It beat down on his hat with fervor, but he didn’t care. Nothing fazed him. He was a pillar of stone. And that included his heart. He’d decided long ago not to care about anyone but himself.
Shoot, he barely cared about himself.
The tent he shared with another fellow was just a few feet away when Nate got an idea. He could check the prison on the outskirts of Broken Branch. That would probably yield better results than going to the sheriff or the jailhouse looking for someone. The sheriff wouldn’t want him employing an outlaw. But he might let him take one off his hands if he paid the bond.
Nate glanced in the tent at the sleeping soldier on the other side of his own cot. He didn’t feel like resting. He felt like riding. It was a cold, dreary, rainy day. Perfect for going to fetch a criminal.
Chapter Two
The prison outside Broken Branch was two hours from the camp where Nate’s regiment was stationed. He had to pass first through Barleyville and then Fontaine.
Barleyville was closer, and on that particular day, it was filled with action. Near chaos, Nate thought, looking around as he entered the throng of people moving through the town square. He turned a corner and saw why. In front of a tall building labeled the courthouse was a gallows tower. It looked like it had just recently been built. Men were on the landing, adjusting the rope, testing it, jerking on it to make sure it didn’t come crashing down on their heads or let the person being hung fall to the ground a free man.
Nate lifted his eyebrows, watching the people move around the large structure, wondering why people had such a vulture-like nature. It was sickening to watch a man be hung by the neck until dead. At least, that was Nate’s opinion of the whole thing.
He moved his horse through the crowd slowly, excusing himself when someone wasn’t paying attention. He got a few nasty looks but ignored them. They were in the street where they didn’t belong. If they wanted to watch someone die, that was on them. He didn’t want to watch it. He’d seen a lot of people die, men and women, and only one of them had had an impact on him. The first one. The only one he’d cared about.
Nate glanced at the gallows, when he saw four men surrounding a young man with straw-blond hair and blue eyes being led to the structure. He wasn’t struggling, but he did look desperately sad. He kept telling everyone he passed that he was innocent. That he never stole what they said he stole and if he knew where the jewels were, he’d give them back, but he didn’t know because he didn’t steal them.
Something about the young man gave Nate pause. He didn’t know why, but he felt empathy for the kid.
It had been a long time since he’d had the sensation of caring about anyone. Seeing this boy pleading for his life actually touched his heart, something completely unexpected.
Nate looked through the crowd for the right person to ask about this situation. He spotted a man leaning against a pole under a roof on the walkway in front of the barbershop. He had a starred badge on his vest. Nate went for him. He would know what was going on if anyone would.
“Howdy,” he greeted the man, taking off his hat for a moment and bowing his head once. He placed his hat back on, glad to see the deputy do the same back to him. It was touch and go with sheriffs. Some of them recognized him immediately, but most didn’t. He wasn’t wanted…anymore. He’d done a short stint in jail, but otherwise, he’d managed to go unnoticed and undetected, killing when it was needed and sparing when it wasn’t.
Mostly, it had come down to the money.
“Mind tellin’ me who that kid is and what he’s done?”
The deputy scanned him. “Don’t know ya,” he said.
“No, sir, just travelin’ through.”
The man nodded, his eyes still narrow and wary. He slid them back to the boy being tugged up the steps of the gallows. “Skylar Quinn. Thief, vagabond, murderer.”
The name sounded familiar. Nate wasn’t sure, so he said nothing. He watched as Skylar screamed that he was innocent. He begged the onlookers to say something, to spare him.
“Who’d he kill?” Nate asked, narrowing his own eyes. Something wasn’t right about this. Nothing was adding up. Something felt off about the whole thing.
“Some nobody. ’Nother murderer,” the deputy responded. “All I know is he was ordered to be hung by the neck till dead, and that’s what we’re doin’ right now.”
He seemed much too happy about fulfilling this promise. Skylar screamed some more, turning his attention to them. He must have recognized the deputy.
“Help me! You know I’m not guilty! You know I didn’t kill nobody! Help me! Spare me!”
Nate looked from the deputy to Skylar and back again. The deputy looked even more satisfied than he had before, smirking. Nate didn’t like it. That look told Nate the man was getting pleasure from seeing this event.
It was never pleasant to watch someone die. No matter the circumstances.
“If he didn’t murder anyone, why are you taking his life?” Nate asked, concerned that this innocent boy was about to die. It seemed like no one cared about it but him. Why did they all think this was entertaining and fun? Why did they think it was the right thing to do?
“I said I don’t know who he murdered,” the deputy responded dryly.
“Okay, but…”
“I just know he’s a murderer, and that’s good enough for me.”
Nate didn’t like that. It wasn’t good enough for him. He watched Skylar as he was dragged over the last step and forced into position under the noose, a bag over his head, and then the rope lowered.
Nate shivered, imagining how horrified and scared the young man must be.
“All right, all right, all right…” One of the men stood at the front of the structure, waving his hands at everyone and yelling loudly. He had a naturally amplified voice that Nate was instantly impressed with. “Let’s everyone quiet down now, please. Let’s quiet down.”
Chapter Three
Skylar was sure his heart was going to come out of his chest. How could it be that for once, the one time when it really counted, his charm and boyish good looks hadn’t been able to keep him from the hangman’s noose?
He hadn’t even done the crime they were accusing him of. Others maybe. But not that one. He’d never murdered anyone in his life, especially not over a tomato vine. The very thought was foolish.
He didn’t even like tomatoes.
“Don’t do this…” he pleaded with them. He mixed in a bit of warning with his tone, knowing it didn’t make a difference what he said or did; they were going to hang him anyway. He looked at the man dressed all in black, his head covered by a black hood.
“Please don’t do this,” he said. “I’m begging you. I ain’t done nothin’. I ain’t killed nobody. You can’t do this!”
“Can and will, young man. You just be quiet.”
There was another man talking in front of him. He was talking to the crowd, telling them all what he’d been accused of and why he was being hanged. When the man mentioned the murder, Skylar yelled out, “Lies! Lies! I ain’t killed nobody!”
Skylar searched the crowd. There had to be somebody who would listen to him. Someone who would believe him.
To his left, in front of the barbershop, Skylar saw a deputy, the same one who had watched him while he was in the jail cell over the last week. They hadn’t made friends. In fact, Skylar hadn’t been able to get even one kind word out of the man.
But there was someone else with him, or at least it looked like they were together. They were talking, glancing at each other before returning their eyes to him. That could only mean one thing. He was being talked about.
Of course, that deputy didn’t have a pleasant look on his face. He never had, even the whole time he’d been at the jailhouse keeping an eye on Skylar, even though there was literally nowhere he could go to escape.
His whole body ached from his tense muscles. He had a tremendous headache. He didn’t want to go out with a headache. There were much better ways to die, he thought.
“Hey!” he called out to the deputy and the stranger. “Hey, you know I didn’t do this. Tell ’em! Tell ’em! Save my life! Tell them they got the wrong man! I didn’t kill nobody!”
The man who’d been whipping up the crowd, telling them all the false charges against Skylar, turned around to look at him. He had a snide look on his face, and the tone of voice he used matched the look.
“No one is listening to you, young man. No one. You’re wasting your breath and wasting your time, as well as ours. We don’t have time to waste on you, outlaw!” He flipped his hand to the executioner, and Skylar’s heart nearly came out of his chest.
“Wait!” he yelled. “You gotta give me another chance! You can’t do this! I’m not a murderer!”
He was determined not to cry. He wouldn’t go out with tears in his eyes. If only his hands weren’t tied behind his back. If only he could fight his way out of this.
“No. No, no, no,” he continued saying the word as they pulled and pushed him into the right position. He didn’t stay where they put him, doing a little dance with his feet so they couldn’t keep hold of him.
The crowd laughed. Skylar looked out at them, wondering how they could laugh when he was about to die. He hadn’t taken anyone’s life. He had taken some tomatoes on a vine from a vendor’s cart a week past, but that was all. He didn’t deserve to hang for that.
“I didn’t kill anyone!” he cried out, flipping his head from side to side to make it more difficult to get the rope around his neck. “Stop! Stop! Don’t do this! I’m innocent!”
He searched the crowd once more, looking for faces that believed him. He saw few, and it broke his heart.
“I’m not a killer!” he yelled with all his might, letting the tears sound out in his words. He felt like stomping his feet and throwing a tantrum like a baby. How could they do this to him? He was a charmer with the ladies, helped old people, and generally had an overall happy demeanor. He was what his caretakers at the orphanage had called a “little scamp”. It wasn’t right to hang a little scamp. It was wrong. “This is wrong!” He put his thoughts into words.
“You need to settle down and accept this.” The man who’d addressed the crowd stood directly in front of him. He felt the noose tighten as someone behind him adjusted it.
Skylar stared at the man, snarling. “I don’t deserve to die.”
“You’re a murderer,” the man replied as if that was all there was to it.
“I am not a murderer!” With each word, Skylar got louder until the last word came out like a thunderbolt. “I don’t kill people! I steal food and water! I’m not a killer! I could never take someone’s life!”
The boards under Skylar’s feet wobbled when one of the men on his left jiggled the lever that would release it when he was to be hanged. The man in front of him would count, they would release the lever, and he would break his neck and soil himself.
His tears were unstoppable at that point. He didn’t care if he was blubbering like a baby. He didn’t want to die. It was unthinkable. He didn’t have any family to speak of and maybe a friend or two in the world, if one really had such a thing as friends, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t important.
“I don’t wanna die,” he mumbled, casting his gaze up to the sky. “Oh God!” he cried out, tears streaming down his face. “Save me from this fate! Save Your child from this fate, oh God, and I’ll never harm anyone ever! I won’t ever hurt anyone, I promise! Save me, God! Save me!”
He hadn’t hurt anyone to begin with, so he felt safe making that promise. It was never his intention in life to kill, maim, or even insult. He just wanted to eat, drink, and be able to clothe himself, maybe have shelter when he could get it.
Skylar swept his eyes around the crowd one more time before the burlap sack was pulled down over his head. He never understood why they did that. He still didn’t, and being underneath it, smelling the rotten smell of other men’s dying breath made him feel sick to his stomach.
He held his breath and closed his eyes, waiting for the lever to be pulled and the floor to drop out from under his feet.
Someone had to save him. His time was running out. Any minute now ,the lever would be pulled. Any second now, his life would be snuffed out, and there would be no more charming little scamp running around stealing bread and apples. That was basically the extent of his criminal activity. He was just a little scamp.
He was just a little scamp.
“Please, please, please…” Skylar breathed and sucked in a deep breath when he heard the metal clank as the lever was pulled. He felt air rush up below him when the door dropped out beneath his feet.
Chapter Four
Nate was stunned to see the boards under Skylar Quinn’s feet open only to a slant and then abruptly stop, getting stuck so that Skylar was standing on two boards almost facing each other. Nate watched the young man scramble and dance, keeping himself from falling through the narrow opening. He danced from side to side and then hopped back so he wasn’t over the top of the hole in the structure he was supposed to fall through.
The crowd looked on in stunned silence. Their cries for “justice” and “hang the murderer” ceased completely. After a moment, when the audience to the hanging had processed what they’d just witnessed, a murmuring grew as they all began to question the event.
According to local lore, if someone was somehow saved from a hanging by supernatural methods, like the two perfectly working boards suddenly sticking halfway open, allowing the prisoner to hop off to safety or the rope snapping in two, that same prisoner was to be set free.
Nate knew that was what everyone in the crowd would want. He knew he didn’t want the young man hanged. With or without local lore, there was a reason those boards stuck. Maybe this was the man he was supposed to employ. There was little doubt, however, that letting Quinn go would be the order of the lawmen. He watched as the men on the scaffolding scrambled to grab hold of Quinn and take control of him again.
Nate had no doubt Quinn was acquainted with the lore and knew that the crowd would now expect him to be set free. He also likely knew the sheriff wasn’t going to let that happen, just like Nate knew it. He glanced to the place where the deputy had been to see the man had jumped down the three steps and was pushing his way through the crowd. He looked furiously up at the scaffolding where Quinn was now doing the dance of his life.
If there was one thing Nate didn’t like, it was a group of men against just one. And he didn’t like what he was looking at. For the young man to have his hands tied behind his back and his head covered with a cloth, Quinn was remarkably dodging all their hands as they tried to grab him. It seemed like he was being guided, but there was no one up there helping him.
Quinn had to do something. The man who’d been speaking to them all made a quick move and wrapped his arms around Quinn, yanking him back. A spry youth had climbed up to the top of the structure, where the rope was wrapped around a thick pole. The boy had pulled the noose end up and made the rope a little longer. When he tossed it back down, someone grabbed it and threw it perfectly around Quinn’s neck.
“The Path of a Righteous Gun” is an Amazon Best-Selling novel, check it out here!
In the rugged landscapes of the Crimson Frontier, Nate Garrett, a man entrusted with the most arduous tasks, faces his greatest challenge yet. Tasked by Union Colonel, Robert S. Harrison, with an almost impossible feat, Nate sets off to infiltrate enemy lines. His goal? To intercept a crucial cache of weapons coveted by the formidable Rebel General Thaddeus Crestwood. As he embarks on this treacherous quest, a lingering doubt surfaces…
Has he been led into a trap, a mere pawn in a sinister game?
Rescued from the brink of death, Skylar finds himself thrust into a world where trust is as scarce as truth. Amidst the chaos, a bond forms between him and Nate, built on mutual need and unspoken understanding. However, as the layers of deception peel away, he is left to wonder…
In this high-stakes game, is he a partner in survival or just another disposable asset?
Nate and Skylar’s quest morphs into a daring infiltration of the Rebel camp. Every step is a gamble against overwhelming odds, testing their grit and resolve. Can they turn a suicide mission into a fight for glory? Or will the unforgiving frontier claim their lives, swallowing their dreams in its vast, merciless embrace?
“The Path of a Righteous Gun” is a historical adventure novel of approximately 80,000 words. No cliffhangers, only pure unadulterated action.
Hi there, I hope you enjoyed this sneak peek of my latest story! I will be impatiently waiting for your comments below.