Suddenly, shots exploded from every direction. The men standing at the camp jerked in a fatal dance with bullets. The outlaw on horseback tried to ride away.
A dozen more shots rattled across the sky and then the night fell silent. Both men at the campsite lay dead. The mounted outlaw screamed as his horse bolted, and tumbled. One of his feet remained in the stirrup dragging him behind his horse. One shot from somewhere left of McCord silenced the screams, but the outlaw’s body still bounced over rocks as the horse ran.
The screams and the last shot echoed into the canyon until they were only whispers on the wind. McCord took a deep breath. He’d felt the peace after a battle many times. One more time he’d survived, but tonight his thoughts were for another.
McCord holstered his guns and headed toward Anna. He found her sitting beside Clark, wrapping what was left of her apron around the kid’s arm. Both of them smiled as he neared.
“She said you’d come,” Clark groaned. “Drove the two fellows crazy with her threats of what you’d do to them when you came.”
McCord didn’t look at her; he couldn’t, not yet, not till he knew it was over. “You all right, kid?”
“I’m fine. They shot me in the right arm this morning because I told them I was a crack shot. But Anna made them let her bandage it. She says I’m lucky the bullet went right through.”
McCord saw Cunningham and his men moving into the campsite, making sure the others were dead.
Clark’s voice shook a little. “They told us they were going to hang us tonight, then gut us like we was fresh game. They knew you’d be coming and they figured when you found our bodies, you’d be foolish enough to do something stupid.”
Anna stood. “Which you did.” Fists on her hips, she faced him. “You rode straight in here like a madman. It’s a wonder you don’t have four bullets in your chest.” Her voice was fired with anger. “When I saw you barreling straight toward us, Wynn McCord, I almost had a heart attack.”
McCord finally looked at her. “Startled men don’t take the time to aim. I knew I could kill one, maybe two before they’d get a shot close to me. I was giving the sergeant and his men time to step out and open fire from other directions.” He hesitated, fighting down a smile over her finally using his first name. Damn, if she wasn’t adorable all covered in dirt and twigs. “Glad to see you, Anna.”
When she straightened up as if planning to give him a lecture on being careful, he raised his hands in surrender and closed the distance between them. He couldn’t very well grab her and kiss her in front of the other men, but he could at least get close.
The click of a rifle cocking sounded from somewhere in the night. It had to be the lookout the outlaws posted. The outlaw McCord had forgotten might be hidden in the night.
He dove at Anna, knocking her down a second before the bullet meant for her blasted into his back. He felt her beneath him, then pain exploded all other thought. The last thing he heard was another round being fired. He waited for the second bullet to hit, but before he realized it hadn’t been meant for him, blackness washed over him, carrying him under like a huge wave.
In the silence of dying, he drifted back to the battlefield years ago when he’d fallen. The arms of the nurse who’d stopped to help him circled him and whispered, “You’re going to be all right, soldier. You’re not going to die.”
Only this time McCord knew she was wrong. He’d finally drawn the short card.
Chapter 9
Anna frantically bandaged the Ranger, trying to slow the bleeding as the others built a travois to pull him home.
“Don’t you die on me, Wynn. Don’t you dare die on me.”
He didn’t respond.
Angry, she continued. “I don’t care if my voice irritates you. You’re not going to die. Do you hear me? You’re not going to die.”
Blood soaked the strips of cotton that had once been her underskirt. She pulled the bandage tighter, hoping to keep the blood from flowing out the hole in his back. When the men came to lift him onto the travois, she followed a step behind, giving unneeded orders for them to be careful.
Once they were moving, Sergeant Cunningham ordered one of his men to