The Touch of Fire Read online

  Rafe glanced at the horses, but discarded the idea of running for it. Their situation was pretty good; they had food and water, and were protected on three sides. And the country, though mountainous, was too open, without the thick forest that would have enabled them to slip away. “You’d best ride on,” he replied, knowing they wouldn’t.

  “That’s not a very friendly attitude, mister.”

  He didn’t answer again. It would be a distraction, and he wanted all of his attention on the two men. They had separated, to keep from presenting a single target. They definitely didn’t have a neighborly visit in mind.

  The first shot struck sparks about two feet over his head. Behind him he heard Annie gasp. “Bounty hunters,” he said.

  “How many?”

  He didn’t look at her, but she had sounded calm. “Two.” If there had been a third one working his way closer, the horses would have heard that. “We’ll be all right. Just stay down.”

  He didn’t return fire. He didn’t believe in wasting ammunition, and he didn’t have a clear shot at either one of them.

  Annie withdrew to the deepest corner of the overhang. Her heart pounded, making her feel nauseated, but she forced herself to sit quietly. She could help Rafe best by staying out of his way. For the first time she regretted her lack of expertise with a firearm. Out here, it seemed, ineptitude could be suicidal.

  Another shot, this one ricocheting off the rocks that guarded the mouth of the overhang. Rafe didn’t even flinch. He was well protected and he knew it.

  He waited. Most men got impatient, or they got too self-confident. Sooner or later they would expose themselves to fire. He settled in with deadly patience.

  The minutes ticked past. Occasionally one or the other of the two men would fire a shot as if they weren’t certain of Rafe’s position and were trying to draw him out. Unluckily for them, he had long ago learned the difference between acting and merely reacting; he would fire only when he felt he had a good shot.

  It was over half an hour before the man on the left shifted position. Maybe he was just making himself comfortable, but for a couple of seconds his entire upper body was exposed. Rafe gently squeezed the trigger and made the bounty hunter comfortable permanently.

  He was moving before the sound of the shot had died away, slipping past the rocks and away from the overhang with a low-voiced command to Annie not to move a muscle. The other bounty hunter might try to wait him out and collect all of the ten thousand for himself, but it was possible he’d just leave his partner’s body behind and ride for reinforcements. Rafe’s mind was cold and clear; he couldn’t let the other bounty hunter ride away.

  There was too much open ground between him and the remaining hunter, preventing him from getting to the trees just as it had prevented them from getting to the overhang. They hadn’t chosen their place of attack well. Rafe studied it with a strategist’s eye and decided they were fools. A smarter move would have been to hang back until the lay of the land let them get closer, or try to swing around and set up an ambush. Well, now one of them was a dead fool and the other one would be shortly.

  More shots were fired from the trees, evidently in a burst of rage that wasted ammunition and didn’t accomplish a thing. Rafe glanced back at the overhang. The only thing Annie was in danger from was a freak ricochet, and the way she had squeezed back into that low corner made it unlikely. If only she stayed there; he’d told her not to move and he’d meant it literally, but it would be nerve-racking for her to sit there without being able to see or knowing what was going on.

  Cautiously he worked his way around to a better angle, since he couldn’t do much about the distance. He couldn’t see the other bounty hunter, but there were still two horses back among the trees.

  Then he caught a bit of movement and saw a flash of blue, probably a sleeve. Rafe concentrated on the spot, letting his gaze go unfocused so he could pick up even the slightest movement. Yeah, there he was, fidgeting behind that tree. He didn’t have a clear shot at him, though.

  The morning sun was heating up fast, shining down on his bare head. He wished he’d gotten his hat, then shrugged. It was probably just as well. It would only have given him a bigger silhouette.

  He found a good place to set up, in a split boulder with a small juniper growing out of the split. It made a fine rest for the rifle. He eased into position and set his sights on the tree where the bounty hunter was trying to make up his mind what to do. He hoped it didn’t take long.

  The bounty hunter fired a few more shots in a futile effort at provoking a response. The best shot Rafe had was at an arm, so he waited. If he just winged the man and he was able to ride off, they’d be in a lot of trouble. An entire army of bounty hunters would converge on the area.

  Suddenly the bounty hunter seemed to lose his nerve and started edging backwards, toward the horses. Rafe lined up the sights and tracked his movement with the barrel. “Come on, you son of a bitch,” he muttered. “Give me a target for just two seconds. Two seconds, that’s all I need.”

  He actually needed less. The man moved into view, carefully keeping the trees between him and the overhang, but Rafe wasn’t at the overhang. It wasn’t a clean shot, just his shoulder and part of his chest, but it was enough. Rafe squeezed the trigger and the bullet knocked the man off his feet.

  Screams of pain came from the trees, evidence that the shot hadn’t been a killing one. “Annie!” Rafe roared.

  “I’m here.”

  He heard the fear in her voice. “It’s okay. I got both of them. Just stay there, I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  Then he began working his way toward the trees, not taking it for granted that the man he’d wounded wasn’t able to shoot. A lot of men had gotten killed by incautiously approaching a “dead” man or one hurt so bad he was supposedly unable to shoot. Even men who were literally drawing their last breaths were able to shoot.

  He could hear the groans of the wounded man as he slipped into the trees. The man was sitting propped against a tree, his rifle on the ground a few feet away. Keeping both his attention and his rifle aimed at the man, Rafe kicked the weapon away, then relieved him of his pistol.

  “You should have ridden on,” he said evenly.

  The bounty hunter glared up at him with pain- and hate-filled eyes. “You son of a bitch, you done killed Orvel.”

  “You and Orvel fired the first shot. I just fired the last one.” Rafe rolled Orvel over with the toe of his boot. Heart-shot. He collected Orvel’s weapons.

  “We didn’t mean you no harm, just thought we’d set a spell. Gets lonesome out here.”

  “Yeah. You were so hungry for company, you lost your head and started shooting.” Rafe didn’t believe his show of innocence. The man was filthy and unshaven and smelled to high heaven. Pure, stupid meanness glared out of his eyes.

  “That’s right. We just wanted some comp’ny.”

  “How did you know we were up there?” The more he thought about it, the less likely it was they had seen any smoke. Nor did he think this pair had picked up their trail; for one thing, they had already been camped under the overhang for two days, and for another, this pair didn’t seem smart enough to follow a trail as elusive as the one he’d been leaving.

  “We were just passin’ by, seen your smoke.”

  “Why didn’t you ride on when you had the chance?” Rafe regarded him dispassionately. Blood was spreading down the man’s chest but he didn’t think it was a mortal wound. From the looks of it, the bullet had shattered his collarbone. Rafe wondered what he was going to do with him.

  “You didn’t have no call tellin’ us to ride on, instead of askin’ us into camp. Orvel said you just wanted to keep the woman to yourself—“He broke off, wondering if he’d said too much.

  Rafe’s eyes narrowed with cold rage. No, they hadn’t seen any smoke. They had seen Annie when she had gone for water. These two pieces of shit hadn’t had bounty on their minds, but rape.

  He now had a dilemma on