Wildest Dreams - By Rosanne Bittner Page 0,73

hunter went down, and he turned to see Tex's gun smoking.

Cully had got to his feet by then. He stepped away, glaring at Luke. "You shot my brother, you bastard!"

Luke aimed his six-gun at the man, and the rest of Luke's men had rifles and handguns ready. "A man pulls a gun on another man, he takes the chance of getting shot,"

Luke growled. "It's just a fact of life out here. Now you take those two dead bodies and your gear and get going! Now! And leave the buffalo guns behind! I don't intend for you to turn around and use them on us after you get a couple of hundred yards away!"

"We need those guns for our livelihood!"

Luke nodded to Tex and the others. "Take their rifles."

His men surrounded the buffalo hunters and picked up all the buffalo guns they could find. The skinny man with the wounded wrist and Cully both let off a string of curses then as Luke's men forced them to pick up their things and get on their horses. Two of them picked up the dead bodies and threw them onto the wagon full of robes.

Cully rode up to Luke then, bitter hatred in his eyes. "You'll regret this, Fontaine! You can't be everyplace at once, and I expect you're gone a lot, runnin' such a big ranch, ain't you? You got a wife, Fontaine? Kids? You'd best keep a good eye on them."

Luke charged off his horse and landed into him, both men plunging to the ground and rolling in the gravel and sage. Luke's men backed away and watched guardedly, keeping an eye on the rest of the buffalo hunters. Cully rolled on top of Luke and pulled a huge knife. He was a big man, shorter than Luke, but strong and burly. Luke grasped his wrist, straining to keep the knife away from him. Tex and the others kept their six-guns ready, afraid to fire for fear of hitting Luke as the two men tumbled and rolled.

Finally Luke was the one on top, still grasping Cully's wrist. Cully reached up and grasped at Luke's face, trying to gouge his eyes, while Luke slammed the man's knife hand against a rock, over and over until finally Cully dropped the knife. He grabbed Cully's other wrist then, pulled it away from his face and managed to jerk the big, burly man to his feet. Cully kicked at his legs, but Luke landed a big fist into the man's belly, making him grunt and knocking the air out of him. Several more hard blows to his gut, ribs, and face sent the man sprawling, his face bloody, no fight left in him.

Luke knelt down then and pulled him to his knees, his own eyes bloodshot and bruised from Cully's attempt at blinding him. He jerked the man close, teeth gritted, his face smeared with sweat and dirt. "Nobody threatens my wife and my kids, you stinking bastard! You be glad you're leaving here still breathing! If I ever see your face anyplace near here again, I'll shoot you on sight, whether you're armed or not!" He shoved the man back to the ground, where Cully lay groaning. Luke looked at the other hunters. "Get him the hell out of here, before I decide to drag all of you to the nearest tree and hang you!"

The rest of them were sullen but appeared humbled. "We're goin', mister," one of them spoke up. The tall, skinny man dismounted and asked one of the others to help him pick up Cully. They helped the man walk to the wagon and climb into it, where he moaned as he fell into the robes beside his dead brother. The other two mounted up, and one of them picked up the reins to Cully's horse. Another climbed into the wagon. Then they all rode off.

"Keep an eye on them till they're completely out of sight," Luke told his men. If they rode hard they could get home by nightfall, and he missed Lettie and the kids. He didn't want to be gone one more day, and he knew Billy was anxious to get home to Anne.

"You okay, boss?" Runner asked.

Luke rubbed at his eyes with his shirtsleeve. "I'm all right." He picked up Cully's knife, and saw that it was very well made. "Looks like Lettie's got a new butcher knife," he commented.

The others laughed, beginning to feel the relief of a successful confrontation.

"Pick up those buffalo guns. They're damn