Silver Creek - G.L. Snodgrass Page 0,36

men shot at each other. No, they were too smart and had seen too many men die from stray lead.

He held back until a cloud passed in front of the moon casting him in darkness. Only then did he open the door wide enough to slide in.

Following his gun, he held his breath until he was sure Frost hadn’t noticed him. Only when the bartender didn’t react did he let himself relax just the slightest. Taking a deep breath, he prepared himself then slowly move forward, each step placed slowly to stop any creaks or groans.

He was five feet in when the room opened up. And there they were, in the corner like he’d thought, facing forward, both of them with guns in their hands, ready to kill as soon as he stepped inside.

“Don’t twitch,” he said, “or you're dead.”

Both of them hunched as if they’d been stabbed in the back. They knew he had them dead to rights. The slightest movement and they’d be dead before they hit the floor.

Both froze, not even breathing.

That was the thing, he realized. These two had never really gone up against anyone who knew what they were doing. It was what he had banked on.

“Now,” he continued, “my finger is getting itchy. I got to tell you, I don’t enjoy men waiting to kill me. I want you to slowly un-cock your guns and keep them pointed that away. I see the littlest swing and I’m opening up.”

There was a slight hesitation. “I’m telling you, gentlemen,” he growled, “it ain’t going to take much to get me to shoot. You first Cooper, put the gun on the table and step back away from it.”

“Parker …” Felton cursed under his breath.

“That is Sheriff Parker,” Luke said as he watched Cooper gently set his weapon on the table and back away from it.

Luke, twisted slightly to watch Felton when Cooper suddenly spun, a gun in his hand. Luke froze as he realized the man had one tucked into his belt.

Instinctively, Luke fired just as the other man’s gun exploded. A sharp searing pain flashed across his left arm.

That oh so familiar smell of burnt gunpowder bit at the back of his nose as a gray cloud of smoke filled the room.

Felton grabbed at his moment and twisted to fire. Luke reacted without thinking and swung his gun to catch the man across the face and knock him to the ground then quickly swung back to find Troy Cooper sitting on the floor looking down at the blood bubble out of his chest.

The cowboy looked up at Luke with a confused expression then fell back dead.

Luke ground his teeth as he twisted back to find Felton face down, out, a nasty welt across his forehead. Cursing under his breath, he kicked the gun out of the unconscious man’s hand. Only when it was safe did he holster his own weapon.

It didn’t have to be this way, he thought as a burning rage built inside of him. Another man dead. One more mark against his soul.

Spitting into the sawdust-covered floor, he twisted to inspect the wound on his upper left arm. Four years of war and these idiots got him. Over what? A miner getting roughed up. How had things escalated to this level?

“God, protect us from idiots,” he cursed as he bent down and used his good hand to grab Felton by the collar and begin to drag him out of the Saloon.

He reached the door then turned back to Frost. “You ain’t doing a good job keeping things quiet. Dead cowboys is as bad as dead miners. Shut her down for two days.”

“What? No …” Frost stammered.

Luke stopped dragging Felton and glared at Frost as he felt the blood from his arm dripping onto the floor. “This ain’t the time to be pushing me. Two days. You can open sundown, day after tomorrow.”

Luke didn’t wait to see if the man would comply. Instead, he dragged Felton out of the saloon, across the boardwalk, and into the street, not caring if the man bounced a time or two.

A dozen people had rushed to watch. Luke noticed that Strumph and Tuthill stood outside of the General Store with Seaver. Strumph lifted his lamp and nodded to him, obviously pleased with the results.

Pain shot up his arm with each step, He could have called for help. Now that the worst was done. But no, he needed people to see him handling this himself. If they thought he was