Page 101 of Dark Sky

Nate looked up briefly in time to see Earl move his horse into the stand of trees. It was a thick group of mature ponderosa pines rimmed by buckbrush in full fall color. The isolated stand stood well above the spruce and lodgepole in the drainage. But the copse was surrounded by clearings on all four sides. There was no way Earl could ride away within the cover of the forest without exposing himself.

“Now that it’s all gone to hell, will your dad stand down?” Nate asked Kirby.

A spit bubble formed on Kirby’s lips, but his eyes flashed. “No way.”

“What does he want?”

“He wants to be with Sophia,” Kirby croaked. “That’s all he’s ever wanted.”

A round snapped past Nate’s head from the copse and he dropped and flattened himself on the ground next to Kirby. Heplaced his revolver on Kirby’s back and used it as a rest while he moved his front sight through the trees where the shot had come from.

“Get away from me,” Kirby hissed. “He can’t hit you without hitting me first.”

“That’s the idea,” Nate said.

—

Sheridan arrived at where her dad was hunkered down and she dismounted on the fly. She hit the ground running, almost stumbled, but ran to where he was and dropped to her hands and knees beside him.

He looked terrible, she thought. There were rips in his clothing, streams of blood coming from fresh cuts on his back and shoulders, and his face and hands were filthy. But he didn’t look seriously hurt. And his expression was as warm as ever.

“You’re a sight for sore eyes,” he said. “Keep down so Earl can’t see you.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yes. Are you?”

“I’ve never been shot at before.”

He chinned toward the man lying next to him. “Sheridan, this is Steve Price. Steve-2, this is my daughter Sheridan.”

“I know who he is,” Sheridan said. She realized she was blushing and she couldn’t believe it.

Price was distracted and didn’t greet her. He had raised his head and was looking down the slope to where Nate was.

“Isn’t he your friend?” Price asked.

“Nate?” her dad said. “Yes.”

“Then why is he aiming atus?”

Sheridan focused on Nate to reveal that, yes, he had shifted his position and was now pointing his pistol in their direction.

BOOM.

Sheridan wheeled in time to see Brad Thomas get hit in the chest and fly backward. Brad had managed to get to his feet and had been approaching them from behind with his shotgun.

“That man is really hard to kill,” her dad said.

—

Back off!” Earl shouted to Nate. “Get away from my son. I’ve got ’em pinned down up there and if you don’t retreat, I’ll pick them off one by one.”

Nate shifted back to where he’d been before and he concentrated on the stand of ponderosas where Earl lurked within. He couldn’t see the man clearly amid the tree trunks, and he guessed Earl was behind them. Nate’s fear was that from where Earl was, he could position himself to get a clear shooting angle at Joe, Sheridan, and Price up in the rocks. And shoot them all, as he threatened to do.

Nate squinted, trying to will himself to see better than his vision allowed. And while he couldn’t get a good look at Earl himself, still astride his horse, he could make out a contrast of shapes within the vertical trunks.

Specifically, Nate could recognize the rump of a horse on the left side of the thickest tree trunk in the stand, and the headof a horse to the right of it. Which meant Earl was hiding directly behind the tree itself.

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