The Gallows' Bounty (West of Second Chances) (35 page)

Nathan untangled himself from Max’s still form and sprang for Luke. He hoped the action would draw his fire, but Luke only had eyes for the woman who had ended his brother’s life. Nathan tackled Luke just as the Colt fired.

Red blossomed on the Angel’s ivory blouse, and she staggered backward. Rage erupted within Nathan as he followed Luke to the ground. He grappled for the gun the man held even before they hit the dirt, but Luke’s anger flared as savagely as his own.

Nathan curled his finger around part of the pistol’s grip, and in retaliation, Luke threw a fist into the side of his face. Nathan’s ear rang with the impact. Stars danced in his vision and darkness crept to the edges of his sight.

Not. Giving. Up.

He’d lost before. He knew what it was to lose. It cauterized your heart, devoured your soul.

He gritted his teeth, using both hands to yank on Luke’s single-handed grip of the gun. The effort cost him, and even as Nathan gained an edge, Luke sent another punch rocking up into his chin.

“How does that feel?” Luke grunted the words from between rotten, tobacco-stained teeth.

Not all that good actually, but Nathan grinned and provoked, “You sure your mother didn’t teach you how to fight?”

Luke growled low in his throat as he lunged off of the ground, knocking Nathan back into the dirt. “You rotten bastard!”

He surged over Nathan, but each of them maintained an inflexible grip on the heated steel. On instinct, Nathan lifted a booted foot and slammed it upward into the other man’s gut. The motion jerked Luke up and back, and as Luke fought to keep his grip on the pistol, the man’s own finger forced the trigger.

A shot rang out.

Luke Dalton’s grip on the pistol slackened as the man fell face forward. Gun in hand, Nathan rolled out of the way and stood just as the other man’s body crumpled in the dirt, stirring up small whirls of dust.

Nathan slid the single Colt home.

Without a backward glance, he strode to where the woman lay in the dying tendrils of the fading sun.

Once again, he’d escaped with his life while a woman paid the price.