Venom Read Free

Woman. And he is old enough to be my grandfather. I wanted a slightly younger man for my husband.”
    “ Slightly younger? Why, you wench, you.” Nate patted her posterior. “Let me put my horse in the corral and I’ll show you who is old.”
    “In broad daylight? With our daughter in the cabin?”
    Nate glanced up. “Where is she, anyhow? She should have been back by now.”
    “Maybe she is brushing her horse.”
    “Without being told?” Nate scoffed. He kissed Winona and tugged on the reins and made for the side of their cabin. “I’d better check on her.”
    “I will fix a meal. If she has gone off to see Dega, don’t be mad. Young love does foolish things.”
    Nate walked faster. He was willing to admit that Winona had a point, but he still wasn’t comfortable with the idea of his daughter being interested in a man, no matter how good the man’s heart might be. She was his little girl. She would always be his little girl. He saw her standing at the corral gate, and smiled. “There you are. We were wondering where you got to.”
    Evelyn didn’t respond or move.
    “What the devil has gotten into…” Nate began, and felt a chill ripple down his spine when a blunt triangular head rose a few inches off the ground. He snapped his Hawken to his shoulder and thumbed back the hammer but didn’t shoot. At that angle the slug might go through the snake and hit Evelyn in the leg. Slowly circling, he said quietly, “Don’t move a muscle. I’ll take care of our visitor.”
    “Don’t kill it, Pa.”
    Nate stopped. “Why in blazes not? It’s a rattler. One less won’t be missed.” He had seen two or three since summer began. One morning he nearly stepped on one on his way to the chicken coop to collect eggs; he had chopped off its head with his ax.
    “It hasn’t tried to bite me.” Evelyn didn’t like snakes all that much, but she didn’t like to kill at all.
    “It’s a rattler, ” Nate said again.
    “So? If it’s not bothering us, why must you kill it? It has as much right to live as we do.”
    “Where do you get those strange notions of yours?” Nate took another step and had the shot he wanted.
    “Please, Pa.”
    “What if it sticks around and bites my horse or your horse or your mother?” Nate was glad Winonahadn’t heard him mention her last. He would be in for no end of barbed tongue.
    “You don’t know that it will. You just want an excuse to shoot it.”
    Nate lowered the Hawken. “That was harsh. I don’t go around killing for the sake of killing things. I only do it when it’s necessary.”
    “Is it truly necessary now?”
    Nate scowled. She had him. The snake wasn’t hissing or rattling or doing anything except stare at her. “All right. Shoo it off. But if you get bit, don’t come crying to me.”
    Evelyn took hold of her rifle and bent and poked at the rattler. Instantly, it reared and its tail buzzed. She poked at it again and it retreated, whipping its body from side to side.
    “Careful,” Nate cautioned.
    “Isn’t he beautiful, Pa?”
    Nate had never thought of snakes as anything but, well, snakes. This one was about three feet long with splashes of dark brown edged with black. Its vertical pupils lent its face a vicious cast, as if it couldn’t wait to sink its fangs into something. He would just as soon shoot it and be done with it.
    Evelyn jabbed and took another step—and the rattler did the last thing she expected. It launched itself under her rifle at her legs.

Chapter Two
    Nate reacted purely on reflex. He drew a pistol and fired from the hip. He didn’t think, he didn’t aim, he pointed and shot and the rattlesnake’s head exploded in a shower of gore.
    Evelyn had started to recoil. Bits of snake spattered her arms and face and a piece of snake flesh flew into her mouth and partway down her throat. Gagging, she doubled over and nearly swallowed it.
    All Nate could think of was how close she had come to being bitten. He put his hand on her shoulder and