I hop to my feet and shoulder the man. His gun flies upward and shoots off at the ceiling, dripping splinters of wood down on us. The people in their seats, all dressed in suits and dresses, shout out with undisguised fear.

“You best get away from her,” I roar, socking the man so hard in his face that his bandana falls off and onto a woman’s lap.

The woman screams and flurries the sweaty cloth off her leg like it might punch the same kind of hole in her a bullet would. Sarah gets to her feet while I deliver another punch to the man’s cheek. Sarah wrestles the gun out of the man’s hand and he and I lock eyes.

I drop him by the cuff of his shirt and Sarah points his own gun at him.

I lick my dry lips.

“Mart…” I whisper under my breath.

Mart squints at me, rubbing his sore and red jaw. “Jude?”

Instinct takes over and I drag Mart up to his feet and toss him over the moving train. He rolls rapidly, but I catch a glance of him sitting up as we move farther and farther away from him.

So Mart survived the fall. That’s good. I guess.

Sarah stares at me, her hand half-aiming the pistol. “How’d you know that feller?”

The people in the train car cheer and applaud us, cutting the tension between me and Sarah.

“Hush up now, won’t ya!” I exclaim, slicing a hand through the air and pressing a finger over my lips. “What, you want all the other fellers robbing this train to come check this car? Now, somebody tell me how many more of them they saw.”

A man trembling in his seat starts to speak with chattering teeth. “There were at least three of them. Then a black feller. Didn’t look like the same posse. Looked to be a lawman of some sort.”

So Sheriff Crawford made it aboard too. If this heist is going down as planned, then the rest of the boys are in the front of the car, getting all the goodies from the richer folks in the upper class. ‘Course they send Mart to do the cleanup. Man can barely tell a pilfered pocket watch from his own ass…

Sarah presses the barrel of the gun to my back. “You never answered my question, Jude. How did you know that man you threw overboard?”

I raise my hands up and a swift chill runs through the car. “Sarah…”

“No,” she says, stern as her father before we left. “Speak.”

I turn to face her, swallowing all my pride. “They asked me to join in on this raid, Sarah. That’s the truth.”

Sarah’s eyes widen and her mouth drops open. She blinks a few times and I pick up the bag of stolen goods, then hand it to the feller who had the gall to speak up.

“You seem like a good enough man,” I tell him. “Make sure everybody gets back what’s theirs. We got it from here.”

Sarah steps between me and the platform to the next train car. “Are you pulling my leg, Jude Price?”

I shake my head but can’t look her in the eyes. “I ain’t. Been caught up in all sorts of trouble, but it ain’t the path I wanna go down. I came to dinner to warn your Pappy about this heist. Thing is, it wasn’t supposed to happen today.”

Sarah studies my face. Her bottom lip quivers in what I can only guess is a strong mixture of anger and confusion. I want to give her a hug and make this all go away, but that ain’t in the cards.

We duck as more gunfire erupts from several cars over. The people in our car return to screaming their heads off, and Sarah and I are stuck staring at each other.

“Tell me right now,” she says, stomping her foot. “Are you with me?”

I put a hand over my heart. “Sarah Townsend, I ain’t no crook. I’m here to help you get your Pappy and save these good folks.”

Sarah nods. More gunshots rattle off, and one punches through the wall near Sarah’s head. I grab her and take her in my arms, hoping to protect her from any more gunfire. No more shots ring out, and Sarah breaks away from me.

This is how I want this to all go down. Sarah wrapped up in my arms, the two of us safe.

“Let’s move,” Sarah says, sliding the train car door open and moving into the next car.

It’s empty of robbers, though the open doors show a gunfight two cars further down. Crawford has his back pressed against a train seat, popping off shots at robbers. The train car we’re in is packed full of people standing, no doubt having moved over from the fight to as much safety as they could. Sarah takes a knee.

“The hell are you doin’?”

“Focusing,” she says, slinging the Sharps rifle off her shoulder and lining it up for a shot. “That guy. Red bandana. Black hat. You know him?”

Butterflies flutter inside my belly. Last thing I wanna do is lie to this girl. “Yeah. I know him. He’s a bad man, Sarah.”

Crawford is in a bad spot. Three boys are advancing on him.

I cup a hand over my mouth. “Sheriff! Get down!”

Crawford spots us and leaps to the floor, a hand over his gray-haired head. One of the robbers runs up to Crawford, but he’s far too out of range for me to hit with my pistol. Sarah holds her breath, then fires.

The explosion from the Sharps rifle is unlike any gunshot I’ve heard before. My bones shake and my blood runs hot. Sarah groans at the recoil, and through the smoke, we can see she’s made short work of the man pushing in on Crawford. She drops the rifle and rubs her shoulder, breathing heavily.

There’s no time to chat, so we run up to Crawford in the empty car. Gunshots ping past me and Sarah and we get to cover behind the seats. Sarah rolls her shoulder. There are tears in her eyes, and I can’t blame her. My ears are still ringing from that shot. I can’t even imagine shooting such a thing.

But her shot saved Pappy’s life.

The other two robbers reload and their shell casings clink and clank on the train’s metal floor. Crawford catches his breath and peers through the open door.

“Listen here!” he calls out. “I’m Sheriff Townsend of Blackwood. We got you dead to rights. We already killed a feller of yours. Ain’t no reason for anybody else to die.”

“Don’t trust ’em!” I shout.

Chuckling, one of the robbers with a black bandana shakes his head. “Aw hell. Jude Price! You made it after all! Pop Grandpa over so we can be off.”

I hang my head low before I can catch Crawford’s gaze. “You must be confused. I’m with the Sheriff!”

More chuckling comes from the robbers. “That’s a good one, Jude! Let’s get a move on, boy!”

Black bandana tosses his pistol beside Crawford. “There you are, Sheriff. We’re turning ourselves in.”

It’s a trick, and I can smell it a mile away. I know these men. How dangerous they are. How slimy. It’s exactly why I refused the job, no matter how much debt my good-for-nothing father left me with.

Crawford hangs his gun low and is still at the ready, but it won’t be enough to fire against two advancing, armed killers. Black bandana pushes forward with a shotgun. Sarah fumbles to aim her pistol in time. Again, instinct takes over. I know what I have to do. Fast as I can, I swipe my pistol from its holster and aim it right at my hip. Arching my back, I slam down on the hammer rapidly, and fire all five shots quickly and messily, right through the open door.

The robbers go down, and so do their shotguns, right on top of the corpse Sarah made.

Crawford wipes sweat from his head. He runs over to Sarah and the two hug. I smile and watch the two embrace, and Crawford waves me over to join them. I wrap one arm around both of them.

How could they welcome me like this? I don’t deserve their kindness! These robbers asked me to join them because they knew I take odd jobs. But I never planned to hurt nobody…

Sarah stares at the corpse she’s made with the Sharps. I gulp at the sight of the two men with bullets in their chests because of me. I’ve never killed before, and I can tell Sarah hasn’t either by how pale and shaky she’s become.

The horror on her face is something I’m gonna have to live with for the rest of my life…

And yet, I’m being hugged like I’m a hero. The packed train car behind us storms in and sings our praises. There’s so much noise I can’t hear myself think. Sarah smiles at me, and Crawford sets a hand on my shoulder.

“You’ve done good, Jude. Saved me and my girl,” he says.

I force a smile, but something sits rotten with me. I can’t shake the feeling like I’ve got to get away…