Page 22 of Hard Bounty

Danger had found them once again.

Chapter Fourteen

“Get down!” Mary heard John yell.

She didn’t need any encouragement. She was already off her horse and running for the trees that lined the trail.

Another bullet sizzled past her ear. One slapped at some leaves hanging on a nearby tree, while a third one kicked up bark as it bore into the tree itself.

“You thought you could make a fool of us? That we wouldn’t come after you?” a familiar voice yelled.

A shiver traced Mary’s spine. She recognized that voice from back at the stagecoach station.

Butch Morehead.

Had he been tracking them this whole time? Evidently so. Or maybe they’d just happened upon them now and decided to get revenge.

The how of it all didn’t really matter.

Right now,staying alivewas all that mattered.

Fear seized her. She got behind the thickest tree and flattened herself on the leaf and twig-strewn ground. Praying there wasn’t a rattler or other kind of snake there, she figured she’d just have to take her chances.

Because the other alternative was a bullet, and she sure didn’t want to catch one of those.

She looked up and could see the trail. John had dove to his left while she’d gone to the right, so they were now on opposite sides of the road.

This provided a golden opportunity, she realized. While John was tied up with those bounty hunters, she could make a break for it.

But…

A pained groan signaled her internal struggle. Could she just leave him to fend off those vicious men by himself? Then again, what could she really do if she stayed? It wasn’t like she was much of a fighter or shooter, despite what the campfire stories and dime novels claimed about her. And she didn’t have a gun.

Plus, God forbid the evil Butch and his men won and John went down, she’d be defenseless against the savage beasts. She’d seen the look in their eyes the other day. It didn’t take a genius to guess all the things they had in mind for her. So, the reasonable thing to do was get away now, just in case.

Yet something inside her wouldn’t let her budge.

She lay there for a few tense moments, watching as the gun battle played out before her. Her mind was too lost in thought, though, for her to really even hear the shots. She was only vaguely aware that the horses bolted up the road, clearly spooked by the gunfire and yearning to be free of the terrifying chaos.

Come on, Mary. It might not be easy, but sometimes, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. It’ll be fine. Just get up. And get to it.

With that in mind, she sighed, slowly rose to her feet, turned around, and took off through the trees.

***

There was a small ravine just off the trail, but it didn’t give John much cover, so he’d crawled on his belly all the way to the tree line.

Slugs had plunked into the earth all around him. For a moment, he’d figured he was a goner. Miraculously, though, he’d made it behind a large oak that provided some cover, though at the rate the bullets were chewing into it, he might have to move in a few minutes.

White puffs of smoke from their rifles told John that the hardcases were fortified behind a cluster of boulders just up the trail and to the right a ways where the road started to curve. Thankfully, the horses had run off, so they were safe now. They most likely wouldn’t go far. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time he’d had to chase down his mount after getting separated from it during a gunfight.

He was just thankful Butch and his friends hadn’t shot the animals out of pure meanness. Their sparing of their lives probably hadn’t been out of compassion, though. They weren’t that kind of men. No, they probably had it in mind to catch them and keep ‘em or sell ‘em. A horse had a lot of value out on the frontier.

John would have to worry about the horses later. Right now, he just needed to stay alive! And, of course, keep Mary alive and out of the clutches of those men. The thought of what they wanted to do to her made him quake with white hot rage. He’d put bullets into every one of them before he let them lay a finger on her. That was for damn sure.

But as he looked across the road to where Mary had taken cover, it seemed awfully still.

Had she fled?

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