Page 88 of Lawless Ride

Bang.

He smiled when he heard the shotgun blast. “Travis knows I’m gone. He’s in the bunkhouse. I’ll go in that direction and follow the noise.”

By feel, Harlan found the ladder and when a scrap of moonlight fingered through the trees, he climbed down to the ground.

Upright, his head spun around like a top and he felt like he might puke. His body told him to lie down, and he fought against the urge to give it up and crash.

“I gotta keep going.”

Bears. Fuck, there might be bears.

Bang.

Harlan chuckled. “They ain’t talking and Travis just shot somebody else.” He followed the sound of the shots and trudged through the trees.

The guys in the bunkhouse were hard to crack and I figured that was because a lot of them were ex-cons. Hannah must hire them special to do her wishes. Like rustle horses for profit and who knows what else they had to do for the boss woman.

This time she’d gone too far. I couldn’t cuff and arrest all ofthese guys by myself, so I’d have to wait until morning to do it if they were still around. For now, Max and Sarge would hold them at bay. If they made a move towards me, they’d get their throats ripped out. The dogs were skilled at that. Very competent.

Hannah’s boys knew there were too many of them for a single cop and that’s why they were holding their ground and not telling me where they stashed Harlan.

A standoff, and I was about to leave the bunkhouse and go back to the house to see if I could intimidate Hannah enough to tell me where Harlan was.

The door opened behind me, I turned quickly and there she was with her shotgun pointed right at me.

She didn’t have time to say a single word.

Shoot first. Annie-girl’s rule.

Bang.

I shot her in the face and killed her. She crumpled into a bloody heap and that was the end of Hannah Hargrove and the little game she was playing with Harlan.

“Thanks, Hannah. That’s all I needed for a reason to kill you dead. Appreciate it.”

Hannah’s blood, brains and bodily fluids splattered all around the doorway and one of her boys found it a little intimidating.

He was beginning to see the real me.

“Okay, I’ll tell you where he is.” One of the rustlers decided not to wind up like Hannah. He jumped up eager to spill the beans.

“Tell me and it will go easier on you, buddy. You’re Carl Spofford, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right. We never should’ve taken your kid, Sheriff. Hannah told us to do it because you owed her.”

“I just gave her what I owed her. Where is he?”

“A couple of the guys dosed him and stashed him in thehunting blind a ways back. We never hurt him. Honest. The drugs will wear off. Hannah said it was a lesson for you not to mess with her.”

“Yeah, good lesson. Thanks again, Hannah. Guess you can’t hear me. Who wants to show me how to get to the hunting blind?”

“You gonna leave the boss lying there in the doorway with her head all blown away like that?” asked one of the other hands.

“Yep, leave her for the coroner. She won’t care.” I casually waved my shotgun in an all-encompassing motion around the table they were sitting at, and they got the message.

Spofford said, “I’ll show you where the blind is, Sheriff, but I want a deal.”

“Deals come from the DA, not from me. I can recommend a lighter sentence for you and that’s all I can do.”

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