Trevor didn't mind at all that they had to share a bed again. Randy didn't keep her back to him that night. She snuggled right into his chest and woke him up several times with her soft sobs. He ran his hand through her hair and would press her cheek into his chest.
"I love hearing your heart beat. At least it still beats. You're the only one left." She whispered.
"I love you," Trevor said.
Randy looked up and pressed her hands against his face. "I love you so much. Don't ever forget it. Not ever."
Trevor wrapped his arms around her and kissed her head. "I won't ever forget."
The next morning they were able to able to catch Annie and Frank before they left on the first train of the day.
"A rematch next year?" Annie asked hopeful.
"We'll see. With Bronson gone it seems like the whole point of it left with him." Randy pressed her fingers into her eyes. Trevor pulled her back against his chest to hug her.
"I'm sorry about your friend. There's no point in doing it if you don't love it." Annie patted her arm.
Annie and Randy hugged each other goodbye. Trevor and Randy shook Frank's hand. Then Frank and Annie were gone.
Trevor looked into a new hotel while Randy left to take care of Al. Trevor needed to talk to the mayor hoping he would help them out. By the time he left the mayor's office, he was flustered. The mayor felt no sense of obligation to help them, feeling that the money they received should cover everything. A couple of men cut him off as he muddled over their troubles down the boardwalk. What he overheard pulled him out of his thoughts.
"I heard the girl is in Chinatown. Butch set up the perfect ambush. He wants the glory of killin' Carter's daughter for himself, but if we get there first, she's ours."
Trevor had a sharp pain in his chest and his heart raced. The men were familiar. One had his arm in a sling. He was shocked they didn't notice him. But they were walking with purpose down the hill. Trevor followed them discreetly into the smaller well kept shacks at the far end of town. Unusual gardens grew beside and in front of many of the quaint little homes and flowers grew in front of the humble shops.
Trevor stopped dead in his tracks when he spotted Randy standing in front of a shop with various urns on racks. Trevor wanted to run to her to warn her but he was already too late. The men in front of him drew their guns. She drew hers but before any of them could shoot, someone jumped out from behind a building, caught her by surprise, taking her gun. Butch shoved her against the wall.
"No! You can't have her, she's mine." Butch yelled at them all waving the gun at them until his eyes met Trevor's. Butch's face turned white. He pressed his mouth together for a moment before going on. "She won't have me anyway. She's in love with that boy." Butch yelled so everyone could hear, pointing his gun at Trevor. A crowd gathered.
"Trevor!" Randy cried and she shook her head. She looked out of sorts as she motioned for him to leave.
Trevor started to run to help her but Butch shoved the gun into her chest and it went off. Trevor felt everything fall into the pit of his stomach. He was suddenly cold and unable to move as she slowly sunk down to the ground. He barely noticed when Butch ran off. Red seeped through her shirt and she looked at her chest in shock. Trevor ran to her and pulled her into his arms.
"I'll take you to the hospital." He pulled at her shirt. She grabbed his hand and pulled it away.
Randy struggled to breath with sweat beads forming all over her face. "No." Her hand squeezed his and her gripped instantly weakened. "It's better this way. I can't be Miranda Carter anymore. They'll follow me wherever we go. Just let me go."
Trevor sobbed. "No! That never mattered. I love you."
"You'll love again. Promise me you will. You'll marry some other girl that needs to be cared for just like me. Promise me." Her face turned whiter and whiter. "Please." She gasped and groaned.
"I can't. I just want to love you." Trevor rested his forehead against hers and he rocked her in his arms.
"Promise me," Randy said one more time as her eyelids fluttered.
"I love you so much. I don't know if I can ..." Trevor knew she was slipping away fast. He whispered, "but I'll try." He kissed her head.
"I love you more than anything," she barely whispered before her hand slid from his and fell limp at her side.
He rocked her in his arms and wailed for her to come back.
A young Chinese girl rested her hands on Trevor's shoulders. "Let my father help," she said gently.
Her father took Randy from his arms and carried her into the building. He followed the man inside. The girl stopped him from following her father to the back. Trevor couldn't read the writing on the sign, but judging by the jars that lined the walls, he had to be a healer. Maybe by some miracle he could heal her. The Chinese man at home saved her. Maybe this man could do it again. Trevor opened the lid to one of the jars on the counter and it was full of ash. The jars were for the dead.
Trevor stood in the room in tears, rubbing his arms as he waited for the old man to come back.
"She's gone." The man shook his head. "The burden she carry was big. More than she could live with." The old man patted Trevor's shoulder. "Much love you have for her."
Trevor couldn't hold back the sob. The girl wrapped a blanket over his shoulders. He buried his face in his hands as he dropped to his knees and rocked. He sobbed for a long time. The girl brought him tea when he calmed down.
"I came all the way here to keep her safe, to be with her," he said to the girl. "She can't be gone. I can't live without her."
"You will," she said rubbing his back.
The day passed slowly. No one could find Butch after he killed Randy. The town emptied out and everyone that remained mourned the passing of the Lady Sharpshooter, Miranda Carter. That was what the paper said the next day. The Chinese man, Zhou and his daughter Soon Lee asked him to stay with them. Since they had helped comfort him and he couldn't go home to Nana, he decided to stay with them. However, they never let him see Randy's body again because they were worried he would take his own life. If he did see her dead body, he probably would. Trevor thought about it all the time. He might have said he something like that a few times but he couldn't remember.
He sold Bronson's horse and brought Al and Storm to the stables in Chinatown.
A funeral for Bronson and a memorial for Randy were held. The mayor did give Trevor the reward money for all the outlaws they arrested after Bronson and Randy were killed. The mayor offered Trevor a huge amount of money for failing to protect Randy too. Trevor didn't hesitate to take it even though it didn't help the emptiness he felt.
Zhou arranged for Randy to be cremated in Chinatown so her ashes could join those of her family.
Trevor sat in Zhou's shop doing nothing for days. He never let Randy's urn out of his sight. Soon Lee kept him company until he could pull it together and make a decision on what to do next.
"Are you ready? I feel your time here is done." Soon Lee handed him a bowl of rice.
"How did you know?" Trevor moved the rice around in the bowl. He preoccupied his grief stricken mind by attempting to learn how to use chopsticks. Most of the time with his efforts, he went hungry. "I need to finish what Randy started. I have to go to California to the ocean."
Trevor said goodbye to his beloved horse before he reluctantly left Storm with Zhou and Soon Lee. Al wouldn't let anyone but Trevor tend him. Since Randy was gone, Al was quite subdued and must have understood that Randy wasn't coming back. With the ashes of Randy in a jar next to the jars that Zhou gave him for the rest of her family, the money they had all earned-which was more money than he had ever seen in his life-- stashed away, the necklace with her parents rings around his neck -- for some reason the turquoise one was gone -- and with Randy's and Bronson's guns, Trevor set off with Al to the train station.
The two of them would travel by train to San Francisco.