Chapter Text
Jed felt as if ice water had been dumped over his head. Numbly, he released Octavius and turned to face Lucas, and see a pistol pointed at each of them, moonlight shining off the twin silver barrels.
“I always knew you were too soft, Smith,” he drawled. “Now I have proof. Prisoner, get down on your knees and don’t even think about moving. Smith, up against the canyon wall.
“No!” Octavius moved in front of Jed without even a hint of hesitation. “I won’t let you kill Jedediah.”
“Now’s not the time for your melodrama,” Jed hissed to him. “One of us can get out of this alive if you comply, now get down.” Knowing only one surefire way to do it, he kicked the other man in the back of his injured leg. Purely on instinct, he went down to his knees and Jed moved to the canyon wall.
When his boots hit stone, he closed his eyes and began to pray. Maybe he’d get lucky and have been more saint than sinner.
A single shot rang out against the silent desert and Jed waited for death to arrive.
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It never came. Turning slowly, Jed saw Lucas lying prone on the ground, a pool of blood spreading out from his body. Carlos stood at the edge of the trees, pistol out and steel in his eyes, even from that distance.
The tension poured from Jed’s body and he almost dropped himself from relief. The only thing that kept him standing was the hug Octavius immediately pulled him into. It was oddly intimate for people who had known each other for less than 24 hours, but it felt so natural, like they had known each other forever.
“You were ready to sacrifice your life for me?” Jed whisper-snapped in his ear. “That was so idiotic.”
“You were about to die for me too, so don’t start,” Octavius’s voice shook as he replied.
“Get out of here!” Carlos, who had holstered his pistol and made his way up to join them, snapped, gesturing to the horses. “I’ll clean up this mess.” There was no explanation, no excuse, just a calm statement of the necessary steps. The whole thing fell somewhere between idol-worthy and terrifying.
Confusion swirling in his head, Jed stepped back to survey the scene. “Why?” He asked his one-time friend.
“Someone had to do something,” was Carlos’s gruff reply. “And if it’s all the same, I prefer you.”
“Then why are you hurrying me away?”
He kicked some sand in frustration. “Because someone has to win in all this goddamnit! You two go tell some sob story to the police with a third party, I’ll clean this up, and maybe, just maybe, we’ll all get away with our heads attached to our necks.”
Slowly, Jed nodded. This was the best solution given the circumstances, even if he personally wasn’t thrilled with letting his men take the fall for something that was more his fault than not. Still a little shaky, he untied and mounted Spike as Octavius did the same for Lucas’s horse Ranger.
Then, without any of them saying another word, the two men spurred their horses into a trot and set off toward town, into the glowing pinks and golds of the sunrise.