Two guns. One bounty. And a man who had been hunting the wrong enemy for fifteen years.
CHAPTER 2
They found Thomas’s camp just before midnight.
There were six horses.
Five men.
And a fire burning low beneath the trees.
Clay counted the rifles.
Scott counted the exits.
Neither man spoke.
They had agreed to work together.
Neither trusted the other enough to stand with his back exposed.
Clay whispered:
“Three on the left.”
Scott nodded.
“Two near the fire.”
“And Thomas?”
Scott pointed toward a covered wagon.
“Inside.”
Clay looked at him.
“You take the left.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re faster.”
Clay smiled.
“You’ve been watching me.”
“I watch everyone.”
“That’s comforting.”
Scott drew his revolver.
“On three.”
“One.”
“Two.”
Clay fired before three.
Scott stared at him.
“You cheated.”
Clay shrugged.
“I never said I was honorable.”
They attacked.
Gunfire exploded through the trees.
One outlaw dropped.
Another fired toward Clay.
Clay rolled behind a tree.
Scott shot the man’s rifle from his hands.
Within seconds, the camp was silent.
Clay approached the wagon.
“Thomas?”
No answer.
He pulled the door open.
Empty.
Scott swore.
A gunshot came from behind them.
The remaining outlaw fired from the darkness.
Clay spun.
Scott shot first.
The outlaw collapsed.
Clay looked toward the trees.
“Thomas?”
Scott’s jaw tightened.
“He’s gone.”
A piece of paper was nailed to the wagon.
Clay pulled it free.
Three words had been written across it.
YOU’RE TOO LATE.
Scott stared at the message.
Clay folded it.
“You know what this means?”
“Yes.”
“He’s been watching us.”
Scott looked into the darkness.
“No.”
He pointed toward the ridge.
“He’s been leading us.”
Clay’s expression hardened.
“To where?”
Scott didn’t answer.
He walked toward the fire.
There, beneath the ashes, he found something.
A military medal.
Old.
Burned around the edges.
Scott picked it up.
His face went pale.
Clay noticed.
“That yours?”
Scott closed his hand around it.
“No.”
“Then whose?”
Scott stared at the medal.
“My son’s.”
Clay said nothing.
Scott finally looked at him.
“Thomas Adam didn’t just kill my family.”
He placed the medal in his pocket.
“He took something from me.”
“What?”
“My reason for living.”
Clay watched him walk away.
For the first time, he wondered whether the bounty on Thomas Adam was really about money.
