Mathis encouraged pensive moods and everyone was so eager to see him returned to his child without thinking about what kind of life he brought with him. It wasn't the same life as Art had - where he could go home every night and not worry about if someone was following him.

"Thought about goin' back to Glynco for Winona's sake but.." He shook his head. "Chasin' down assholes and shootin' is the one thing I'm good at." This job was the one successful thing in his life. He couldn't step back from that.

"And it wouldn't stop the people already after me. Better that I keep the badge and have a legal recourse to puttin' them in the ground and off my plate for good. It'd be like askin' you to never fire a gun again - you think we'd do well with those rules?" His head bobbed. "Maybe you would. Still young enough to change some parts of you, but I think I'm too far gone. I'm gonna be a Marshal until they kick me out or kill me."

He'd long ago made peace with that and he wasn't going to lower his level of protection power as a way to keep Willa safe. That seemed counterproductive, for all the arguments he made.