Canyons of Steel - Lawman in a Lawless Land Pt 8

The pair walked slowly along the dock, letting the kinks work out of their muscles. They stayed in that compartment for three hours before it finally pulled into port in the William. The man who owned it was a legitimate businessman, even if her captain, hired to sail her, was not. The coast guard detained the ship, then sent her back. The containers of the disease were confiscated and sent to the CDC labs in Atlanta. All in all, a days work complete.

But it wasn't over yet.

"This'll be a hoot, explainin' this ta Walker," Monty commented as he rubbed his shoulder.

"Walker will understand," Marianne replied. A small ruckus along the dock caused her to look up. A ship was unloading horses, and the handler was being none to kind to the cargo. Smacking a grey filly viciously. Marianne scowled, and without thinking, she dashed off toward the handler, ignoring the pain that screamed in her muscles. She reached the handler, threw him up against a wall, and backhanded him across the face. For good measure, she slapped him with a hard, open hand. "Hurts, doesn't it?" she said with venom. "Give me those reigns," she added, ripping the leather reigns from the handler's hands.

"This is Don Maximus' goods," the handler spouted as he wiped blood from his face. "They gonna hear about this."

"Go ahead and tell them you lost the shipment, then," Marianne said with a smirk as she began to lead the filly down the length of the dock. There were two other horses standing at the dock and the former Sister with the Sisters motioned for Monty to lead them as well.

"Great, Annie," Monty called out to her as he held tight the reigns of a chestnut mare and a brown quarter horse. "Lovely, we saved the horses. Now what?"

Marianne just looked back without any answer. The action was implusive. The horses reminded her of the time she spent show jumping when a little girl on her family's estate in Sussex. But what to do with them now. They really couldn't keep horses. Unless...

"The back room, behind the storage area in the Safehouse," Marianne explained. "What about there?"

Monty blinked as he came to a stand still. The brown quarter horse nudged his shoulder, seemingly interested in this human, one of his saviours for rescuing him and the other pair from the hands of these men. "Ya sayin' we make a stable?"

"Why not?" Marianne shot back, and continued leading the horses off the dock and down the street of the William. "We'll keep the horses out of sight as we construct it. Should take only a day, if we work quickly enough."

"Marianne," Monty replied with a snort. "Walker's a Texan. Trying to hide horses from him is like trying to hide cheese from a mouse. The man probably already has some sixth sense that says we're bringin' horses home." Marianne didn't reply. She'd think of something, she always did. At least they saved the horses. Right now, that was the only thing that mattered.