The Loner: The Bounty Killers Read Free Page B

brim pulled down over his face, he was asleep.
    From atop the big rock The Kid could hear what the men were saying, and he didn’t like what he heard.
    “. . . can’t be too far ahead of us. He was in Las Vegas a couple days ago.”
    “Yeah, but who knows how far he could have gotten in two days?”
    The first man spoke again. “Everybody we talked to said he didn’t seem to be in any hurry. It’s been like that ever since we left Arizona.”
    One of the other men said, “It’s almost like Morgan don’t know there’s a ten grand price tag on his head.”
    That confirmed it, The Kid thought. The men were bounty hunters, too, and they were on his trail. He had done well to avoid them.
    He would continue to do so. As late as it was, they would be turning in soon. He decided he would stay right where he was for the time being, wait until all or most of them were asleep, and then slip away, back to his camp.
    In the morning, they would go west, deeper into the mountains, and he would head east toward Las Vegas. He would have to be very careful. Word might have gotten around the settlement that he was a wanted man. He wondered what sort of law they had there.
    A new sound intruded on The Kid’s thoughts. It came from behind him, and it sent alarm coursing through his veins. It was a deep, throaty, animal growl, full of menace.
    The Kid swung around and looked down at the ground on the far side of the rock slab. The silvery illumination of starlight was enough for him to make out the big, shaggy shape crouched at the base of the rock. Whatever it was, it obviously wanted to tear his throat out and gnaw the meat from his bones.
    With a surge of muscles and a flash of razorsharp teeth, the snarling beast bounded up the rock toward him.

Chapter 4

    The Kid could have drawn his gun and shot the dog. It wouldn’t give away his position since all the bounty hunters could follow the sound of the dog’s snarls.
    Instead, he took the desperate chance of waiting until the savage brute leaped at him so he could duck under the attack. He fell back as the dog lunged at his throat. The animal’s teeth snapped on empty air.
    The Kid’s hands shot up and grabbed the thick, shaggy body. Using the dog’s own weight and momentum against it, he heaved the dog over his head and past the lip of the rock.
    The dog howled as it plummeted toward the ground and the fire below.
    The men around the campfire yelled in alarm, and although The Kid could no longer see them from where he was, he figured they were on their feet, surprised to see the dog come sailing down out of the night sky at them.
    The Kid didn’t wait around to see what happened. He took off down the massive stone slab, not bothering to be quiet about the descent. He almost pitched forward out of control as he reached the ground in three giant bounds.
    As soon as his boots hit the sandy soil, he caught his balance and headed for the place he’d left his horse. A lot of yelling still came from the camp, but it didn’t sound like the bounty hunters were coming after him yet.
    A moment later rifles began to crack wickedly. He glanced over his shoulder and saw flashes spurting from the muzzles of the long guns.
    The men couldn’t see him in the darkness and were firing in the direction they thought he might have gone. The Kid heard a couple bullets hum overhead and another whistled past a few yards to his right, but none of them came any closer than that.
    Then he heard the order he’d been expecting. One of the men bellowed, “Get your horses! Spread out and find that son of a bitch!”
    In a matter of seconds, hoofbeats pounded behind him. All he could do was keep running.
    One of the men shouted, “Over there! I see him!”
    The hoofbeats got louder as he galloped after The Kid.
    As the horse thundered up right behind him, The Kid spun around. A pistol barked, but the man had fired too quickly. The slug whistled past The Kid’s ear.
    That decided it. If they were willing