Bounty on a Baron

Chapter Twenty-six

Brand had just finished disposing of Sheriff Roman’s body—albeit temporarily—when he heard the front door of the house open. He stiffened, then relaxed when Josephine came into the kitchen.

“What are you doing home?” he asked. Then he saw her face and said, “What the hell is wrong?”

“He came to see me.”

“Who?”

“Decker.”

“He did? What did he want?”

“He wants me to tell you that he doesn’t want to kill you.”

“That’s what he said?”

“Yes.”

He studied her for a moment and then asked, “And you believed him?”

“Yes,” she admitted, lifting her chin, “I did.”

Brand frowned and asked, “What else did he tell you?”

“That you were a professional killer called the Baron, and then he showed me a wanted poster.” There was a long pause, but she finally asked, “Is that what you were doing all those times you were gone? Killing people?”

“I was doing,” he said, “what I have to do to survive.”

“You have to kill to survive?”

“We all have to kill to survive, Josephine,” he said. “Sometimes.”

“I can’t believe that.”

“But you believed everything that Decker told you.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because he didn’t try to lie about what he is. He said that everything you told me about him was true. Tell me, Brand, if he has no need to lie about himself, why would he have to lie about you?”

Brand was about to protest when he saw that it would do no good. Josephine finally knew who he was, and what he was.

“Josephine—”

“He also said you killed the sheriff in this room, broke his neck. Is that true?”

Jesus! Brand thought. Had Decker seen that? How was that possible?

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“He didn’t deserve to live. He was trying to blackmail me. He tried to shoot Decker in the back, and he killed a whore to try and blame Decker for it.”

“Then he was no different from you or Decker. You’re all killers.”

“Yes.”

“My God—” she moaned. She started to sit at the kitchen table and then suddenly stiffened and jumped away. “God! I can’t even live here anymore.”

“Josephine,” he said. He moved to touch her but she flinched. “We can go somewhere else—”

“How can we?” she asked. “How can I forget what happened here? How can I forget the lies?”

“I never lied to you,” he said. “I never told you what I did when I was away, and you never asked.”

“No, you’re right,” she said. “I never asked. I’m just as much to blame for all of this as you are.”

“Nobody’s to blame—”

“He doesn’t want to kill you,” she said, “he just wants to take you back.”

“So they can kill me,” he replied bitterly. “Make me dance at the end of a rope.”

“Please!” she said, clapping her hands to her ears.

“That’s what they’ll do to me, Jo. They’ll hang me.”

She removed her hands from her ears and said, “Only if you deserve it.”

He stared at her then, knowing that he had finally lost her, as he’d always known he would someday.

“All right,” he said dejectedly.

“You’ll turn yourself over to him?”

“Where is he?”

“At the Broadus House.”

“I’ll go and see him.”

“I’ll go and tell him you’re coming,” she said.

“There’s no need,” he assured her. “He knows I’m coming.”

“How?”

“Believe me,” Brand said, “he knows.”

When Brand left the house without his gun Jose phine assumed that he was going to turn himself over to Decker.

She was wrong.