“Son of a bitch,” Clint muttered. He was in mid-stride when he saw the gun in Ben’s hand.

  It was pure reflex that caused both Clint and Matt to draw their own pistols. They only had to wait a second before Ben took a shot at them and rode down the street. Clint returned fire, but knew the men were already out of pistol range.

  Matt fired as well, but the snarl on his face made it plain to see that he was doing so more out of anger than the desire to hit anything. “That son of a bitch is just trying to get under my skin,” he said once the roar of his gun had faded a bit.

  “Well, he’s done a hell of a job,” Clint said. “I’m gettingmy horse and chasing him down. Are you coming with me?”

  “You couldn’t keep me away.”

  Both men ran for the livery, but soon found themselves snarled up in a thick group of people gathered around the front of the hotel and spilling out of it. There were too many of them screaming and carrying on for them all to be reacting to the couple of shots that had gone off.

  “What is it?” Clint asked as he nearly knocked one local down.

  The younger man staggered, but kept trying to run away. “There’s a dead woman in there,” he said while pointing toward the hotel.

  Clint felt the bottom of his stomach drop as he shoved through the crowd to get to the front door of the hotel. Before he got the door open, he could smell the stink of burnt gunpowder and spilled blood in the air. When the door had only cracked an inch or so open, he could see the blood staining the wall behind the front desk.

  “God damn it,” Clint snarled when he saw Laura on the floor.

  He didn’t need to see any more to know she was gone.

  Clint didn’t even realize he was moving again until he was outside.

  Matt was in his saddle and holding Eclipse’s reins in his hands while waiting for Clint in the street. The Darley Arabian was fussing under Matt’s control, but calmed down the moment he caught sight of Clint heading his way.

  In a matter of seconds, Clint was in his own saddle and snapping his reins to get Eclipse running down the street.

  Matt caught up to him and kept pace so he could look over and ask, “Was someone shot in there?”

  “Yes.”

  “A woman?”

  Clint had to pause before saying, “Yes. It was the brunette who worked at the front desk.”

  “Jesus Christ.”

  “Would Ben go to that much trouble to get under your skin?” Clint asked.

  “That’s his way of telling me it was a mistake to steal from him and then run away.”

  Clint pulled hard on his reins and steered Eclipse around a corner. Once he saw the edge of town drawing closer, he leaned down and tapped his heels against the Darley Arabian’s sides. “Now it’s Ben that’s made the mistake.”

  Matt nodded solemnly and did his best to keep up with Eclipse. Every so often, he would point in the direction he thought Ben had gone. There wasn’t much guesswork involved, however, since the town of Lohrens wasn’t big enough to have many places for escaping killers to hide. Although Clint was a little ways behind Ben and Danny, the dust the others had kicked up was still swirling in the air. Without any buildings nearby that were large enough to hold two men and two horses, Clint followed the dust trail to the open range outside of town.

  “Halt!” someone shouted from behind Clint and Matt.

  Clint twisted around in his saddle to see who’d shouted loudly enough to be heard over the thunder of Eclipse’s hooves. He was surprised to find Marshal Lind running down the middle of the street behind him.

  “Too little too late,” Clint said as he turned back around to steer Eclipse out of Lohrens.

  Matt grinned and snapped his reins to keep up. “Looks like we might have a real chase on our hands,” he shouted. “It’s been awhile, but I’m up for it!”

  THIRTY-TWO

  Matt wasn’t the only one who was a bit rusty at outrunning the law. Once he heard the enthusiasm in Matt’s voice, Clint took a second to think if he’d ever done what he was in the process of doing right now. He couldn’t think of an instance offhand, but Clint was also a little too busy to give the matter more than a moment of consideration.

  While one part of his head sifted through those thoughts, the rest of him was rattling and churning like a steam engine’s piston that was about to explode from its casing. Clint did his best to keep from dwelling on the fresh memory of Laura laying on that floor. Thinking of that would make him too angry to keep his wits about him. There would be plenty of time for Clint to be angry once he got his hands on Ben Jarrett.

  As Lohrens faded behind him, Clint had no trouble at all in spotting Ben and Danny. Their other riders were well ahead of him, but their horses standing in the open couldn’t be missed. Clint knew better than to bite on that bait right away and pulled Eclipse sharply to the right.

  Before Matt could say anything about the sudden turn, Clint looked over to him and said, “You take the left.”

  Matt nodded and veered off in that direction. Once they’d split off, the other two of Ben’s riders came out from where they were waiting so they could charge forward before they were flanked.

  Even though Clint hadn’t been heading directly for those other two, he’d gotten close enough to make them nervous. Clint grinned and got Eclipse moving even faster. Nothing was more satisfying than spoiling one man’s bluff with an even bigger one of his own. Now that all four of the outlaw riders had shown themselves, Clint let out a sharp whistle aimed at Matt.

  The outlaw turned quickly to see what Clint wanted. The moment he saw Clint waving to him, Matt pulled his reins so he could meet up with Clint and ride once more at Eclipse’s side.

  By this time, Ben and his other riders had formed a single group. Those four now charged toward Clint and Matt as a few distant gunshots cracked through the air. Knowing he was well out of pistol range for the moment, Clint wasn’t too concerned with the wild shots. There was, however, one other group to worry about.

  The first few times Clint had checked over his shoulder, he hadn’t seen one trace of Marshal Lind or any of his deputies. Now that he and Matt had been able to saddle up and race out of town, another group of riders was also charging out of Lohrens. This third group may have been only two strong, but Clint could see a few others breaking away from the town’s limits so they could meet up with the original pair.

  “That’s either the law,” Matt shouted, “or more of Ben’s boys.”

  “It’s the law,” Clint said.

  “You sure about that?”

  “Yeah. They’re not shooting at us.”

  Matt laughed once and added, “Not yet, anyway. It’s probably a good idea to not let them catch up.”

  As much as he hated to admit it, Clint agreed. And since he knew he hadn’t done anything that warranted being chased by the law, he didn’t have any trouble in giving Eclipse the order to bolt ahead like a bullet from the barrel of a gun.

  As the Darley Arabian tore over the ground between Clint and Ben, Matt started to fall behind. No matter how much he whipped his own horse, Matt wasn’t able to maintain the other stallion’s pace. Rather than kill his horse in the futile hopes of winning the race, Matt took the rifle hanging from his saddle and laid it across his lap.

  Clint reached down with one hand to carefully take the modified Colt from its holster. Every muscle in his body moved in time to Eclipse’s steps, but he still wasn’t about to risk dropping his gun before firing it. Since he knew the Darley Arabian stallion and the Colt as well as he knew his own arms and legs, Clint never had to take his eyes off of the oncoming riders to get the pistol in hand and take aim.

  As the two groups closed in on each other, the wild firing from Ben’s side tapered off. Clint took a quick look over his shoulder to find Matt a little ways behind him with a rifle against his shoulder. Turning even farther around, Clint could see that the group he figured to be lawmen were so far behind that they might have already given up on trying to catch him.

  Clint hadn’t yet turned back around when he heard a shot crack through the air. Reflexively, he ducked down and snapped his head around to get a look at Ben and the other three riders. A bullet hissed through the air close enough for Clint to hear it, but not so close that he was afraid of getting hit.

  Bringing up the Colt, Clint sighted down the barrel and fired a shot at the outlaw riders. He kept his aim low enough to make his intentions clear, but not low enough to knock anyone from his saddle.

  Sure enough, that one round was enough to split two of the four riders away from the rest. It also made the outlaws jumpy enough to start answering back before Clint and Matt got any closer.

  Shots crackled from Ben and his men, sounding like corks popping directly in front of Clint’s nose. A few rounds whipped by Clint, but most of them either fell short or were too wild to make their presence felt. Matt fired his rifle a few times, causing one of Ben’s men to wobble in his saddle and fire his next shot straight out to his right.

  Even though all the horses were running at a full gallop, Clint was focused so intently on Ben and the other three riders that it didn’t seem as if they were getting any closer. Suddenly, it all rushed in on him as he could now make out the sneers on the men’s faces.

  Clint sighted along the top of his Colt to take a few shots in earnest. He’d lost count of how many shots the men had fired, but he knew they’d burned through a good amount of their ammunition before he and Matt even got within range.

  The next shot Clint fired was at the rider to Ben’s left. That one was taking aim at him and must have been close to pulling his trigger. Clint fired first and felt the Colt buck against his palm. As soon as he saw the rider flinch, Clint shifted his aim to one of the others.

  Matt was firing as well, and he managed to drop one of the riders from his saddle with a pair of shots from his rifle.

  As the two groups of horses drew closer together, the firing was coming more and more from Matt and Clint. Ben had saved a few rounds for this spot, but his men were already in dire need of a reload. One of them was forced to holster his pistol and try to take another from his belt while also struggling to keep hold of his reins.

  “All right!” Ben shouted. “Break off!”

  With that command, all three of the remaining outlaw riders made a sharp turn away from Clint and Matt. No two of them chose the same direction, which created a thick cloud of dust as all three of their horses kicked up clumps of dirt while scrambling to turn.

  Although Clint could see what the riders were doing, he was moving too quickly to do anything other than try to steer Eclipse to a spot where he wouldn’t smack against another horse or ride straight into a stray round of gunfire.

  Where everything had been playing itself out slowly in Clint’s mind before, the scene was suddenly launched into a confusing mess of swirling dust, thundering hooves, shouting voices and flying lead.

  Shots were still being fired at them, but Clint and Matt could no longer tell where they were coming from.

  Just as Clint was beginning to sort through the mess, he saw a man climbing to his feet no more than three steps in front of Eclipse’s nose. It was all Clint could do to pull the reins and turn Eclipse away before trampling the other man. Although he did manage to steer around him, Clint was forced to bring the Darley Arabian to a stop.

  THIRTY-THREE

  For a moment, Clint couldn’t tell if Matt was nearby or was still on Ben’s trail. He put that aside for the moment when he realized that the man he’d almost trampled was one of the riders who’d been shot from his saddle.

  The man’s left arm was hanging limply from his shoulder, and his clothes were stained by both blood and dirt. “Go to hell!” he shouted as he tried to grab for a gun sticking from his belt. That motion was more than enough to bring a pained wince to his face as he grabbed a bloody wound in his side.

  “Your friends left you behind,” Clint said. “How about you tell me where they’re headed so I can show them the error of their ways?”

  The other man flashed a dirty grin as he said, “They left but we ain’t alone.”

  Following the man’s eyes, Clint looked back toward Lohrens and saw the other group of riders that he’d pegged as lawmen. They weren’t quite close enough to make out the whites of their eyes, but they were making steady progress.

  “Far as those lawmen know,” the wounded man said, “you and Matt are the ones that shot that bitch in the hotel.”

  Clint’s eyes narrowed as the image of Laura’s dead body was brought back into his mind. “Come on,” he said while extending a hand down to the man. “Unless you want to take your chances with the law.”

  “Maybe I will.”

  “And maybe they’ll hang you once someone from that hotel speaks up about you being there before Matt or I even showed our faces anywhere near that dead woman.”

  The smug look on the man’s face slowly started to fade as Clint’s words sank in. Eventually, he started glancing over his shoulder toward the lawmen as if he was no longer glad to see them coming. “You’re just gonna shoot me when you get the chance.”

  “I’ve got my chance right now,” Clint said while holding his gun hand out for the man to take rather than drawing his Colt.

  “Careful,” the man grunted. “I got a—”

  But the man’s warning was cut short as Clint took hold of his arm and hauled him up onto Eclipse’s back without so much as a hint of regard for the fresh wounds. The man let out a pained yelp as all of his weight strained against his wounded shoulder while stretching out the bullet wound in his side. By the time Clint lifted him into the saddle, the man dangled unconsciously from his hand.

  Clint grunted with the effort of holding the man up. Thankfully, he only needed to do it for another second or two before draping the man across Eclipse’s back. Judging by the way the wounded man nearly flopped off the stallion, Clint was certain the guy had passed out from the pain.

  Holding the unconscious man in place with one arm, Clint kept hold of his reins in his free hand and snapped them to get Eclipse moving again. Before he could think too long about how he could keep from being shot at by the panicky lawmen, Clint saw another horse ride up to him.

  “Anyone send for the cavalry?” Matt asked.

  “Where’s Ben and the others?”

  “I could only follow one for a little bit before losing him in some trees. The others were long gone by the time I doubled back.”

  “And you don’t think you could have caught up in time?” Clint asked.

  Matt shook his head. “They would have each run for miles before meeting up somewhere else they’d picked out beforehand. It’s a good move to make an escape and it’s damn effective. I should know, since I’m the one who taught it to Ben.”

  “Then you know where Ben’s going.”

  Matt shook his head. “The whole beauty of that move is that nobody knows where it’s headed other than the men doing the running. It’s different every time. That way, it can be used plenty of times.”

  “All right, save me the sales pitch,” Clint said.

  “But it looks like you’ve already got the answer to our little problem,” Matt said while nodding toward the unconscious man laying across Eclipse’s back. “I may not know the details of where Ben’s headed, but you can sure bet that fella does.”

  Clint pulled in a breath and turned to look at the lawmen who were closing in on them. Their horses were only building up more speed now that the riders could tell that Clint and Matt had come to a stop.

  “They won’t be sitting still for long, Adams,” Matt said. “If you want to be sure to give Ben enough time to make a clean getaway, then just head on over to those lawmen and try to explain what happened.”

  All Clint had to do was think once more about Laura’s wide, dead eyes and the decision was made. With a snap of the reins, he turned his back once more to Lohrens and rode away from the approaching lawmen. It took a bit of time for Eclipse to build up speed, but the Darley Arabian was soon able to give Marshal Lind a chase.

  As he rode, Clint shook the wounded man by the collar. Between that and the motion of Eclipse’s strides, the man was quickly rattled awake.

  “What the . . . ,” the wounded man groaned. As soon as he saw where he was and what was happening, he grabbed onto the first thing he could reach. Holding onto the lower edge of the saddle wasn’t nearly enough to put his mind to rest.

  “Tell me where to find Ben or I’ll drop you on your fool head,” Clint said once he saw the wounded man start to squirm.

  “I don’t know, for Christ’s sake!”

  “Fine. I don’t need the extra weight anyway.” When Clint slapped his hand on the man’s back, he thought he heard whimpering coming from the wounded outlaw.

  “Head south!” the wounded man shouted. “There’s a camp by a lake! I’ll take you right to it!”

  “That’s more like it,” Clint replied.

  THIRTY-FOUR

  Even with the extra weight on his back, Eclipse was able to put the lawmen behind him and keep them there until Clint was able to find a way to shake them. After a few sharp turns through some trees and a quick circle around a lake, Clint was no longer able to see or hear a trace of the posse. Before too long, Matt joined up with him once again.

  “They’re headed back to town,” Matt said as he brought his horse to a stop. “A pretty sorry excuse for a posse if you ask me.”

  “Nobody asked you,” Clint replied.

  While Matt knew well enough to keep quiet, the wounded man wasn’t so smart.

  “Ain’t much more than a lawdog yourself, huh?” the wounded man grunted. “That figures.”

  Without a word to announce his intentions, Clint pushed the wounded man over Eclipse’s back until he began sliding to the hard earth below. At the last second, Clint tightened his grip on the man’s belt to keep him from falling all the way.

  “What was that you were saying?” Clint asked.

  All the wounded man could get out was a couple of gurgling moans.