Winter Fire Read Free

thought, not for the first time.
    Once she had felt guilty for being glad to be rid of her cruel husband. Once, but no more. She was simply grateful that she and her younger brother had survived Hal Kennedy.
    â€œWe agreed on no raiding close to Spring Canyon,” Ab said loudly. “Remember, Moody?”
    â€œDammit, I—”
    â€œYou remember or not?” Ab snarled.
    Case saw the hints of movement below as members of the Moody bunch squared off against the Culpeppers.
    Good , he thought. Maybe Moody will just kill the lot of them and spare me the trouble. Then I can get on with looking for a place to build a ranch of my own .
    But Case didn’t really think he would get that lucky. Ab Culpepper was too wily to be killed by the likes of Moody.
    â€œDammit!” Moody said.
    He repeated himself several times. There was more bluster than conviction in his voice.
    â€œThe Circle A is too close,” Ab said. “You want beef, you go farther. You want game, you hunt anywhere you please. Savvy?”
    â€œDammit, I still think—”
    â€œYou don’t think nothin’,” Ab interrupted impatiently. “That’s my job. If you was any good at thinking, you wouldn’t be dead broke in winter, chasing your own tail in this red hell.”
    â€œYou’re doin’ the same thing, dammit.”
    â€œI got twenty Yankee dollars, saddlebags full of bullets, and I ain’t chasing nothing.”
    â€œDammit! We go all the way to New Mexico Territory for our beef and, dammit, we don’t have no time to look for Spanish silver, dammit.”
    â€œYou can look after we get the meat we need so we ain’t eating roots like Injuns come spring.”
    â€œWhat about women, dammit?”
    â€œWhat about them, dammit?” Ab mocked.
    â€œA man can’t go all winter without a woman to warm his jeans and cook his beans.”
    â€œSteal or buy some down in Mexico. Or get a Injun.”
    â€œDam—”
    â€œJust be damned sure she ain’t no chief’s wife or daughter, savvy?” Ab said, talking right over Moody. “Some of them redskins are pure poison when they’re on the prod.”
    If Case had been a smiling kind of man, the words would have made him smile. He knew just why Ab was so touchy on the subject of stealing the wrong Indian girl.
    Over in the Ruby Mountains of Nevada, Ab and some of his kin had tangled with Indians over a stolen girl. Ab and Kester were the only Culpeppers who survived. They had faded out of the losing fight, mounted up, and gone to join their remaining kin in Utah Territory.
    â€œWhat about them two white women over to LostRiver Canyon?” asked a new voice. “They’re close. All they got guarding them is a kid and that old outlaw. Them’s good odds.”
    â€œThat girl is supposed to be right tasty, dammit,” Moody said eagerly.
    Other men joined in with a chorus of rough comments about the girl they had seen only through their spyglasses.
    Hearing the voices, Sarah fought against the nausea that was trying to wring her stomach like a washrag.
    â€œShut up,” Ab said flatly. “Get it through your noggins. Ain’t no raiding close to camp.”
    â€œBut—”
    â€œ Shut up .”
    For a moment there was only the faint sound of water trickling down stone into darkness.
    â€œNothin’ riles the army like a white woman gettin’ raped by half-breeds,” Ab said coldly. “If I decide the Kennedy widow needs taking care of, I’ll do it personally and legally. I’ll marry it.”
    There were faint grumblings from Moody and his men, but no real protest. When they first met, one of Moody’s gang had tested Ab’s temper. The man had died before his gun was even partway out of the holster.
    Ab was as fast with a six-shooter as any man Moody’s Breeds had ever seen, and they thought they had seen them all.
    Until Ab