Trackdown (9781101619384) by James Reasoner Read Free Book Online

Mordecai at the café!”
    The bank was a couple of blocks away. Bad leg or no bad leg, Bill could move pretty fast when he had to. He did now, running toward the bank.
    Behind him, Benjy scurried across the street toward the café. People started to yell questions, sensing that something was going on.
    Bill was still more than a block away when he spotted two men standing by a bunch of horses tied in front of the bank. Those men appeared to see him coming at the same time. They twisted toward him, clawed guns from their holsters, and opened fire.
    With his heart hammering wildly in his chest, Bill threw himself down and to the right, landing behind a water trough.The range was too far for accurate shooting with handguns, but the men at the bank might get lucky. The bullets they sent toward Bill kicked up dust from the street in a wide swath.
    He rolled closer to the boardwalk and looked through the gap between it and the water trough toward the bank. More men spilled from the building now, all of them brandishing guns. It was a robbery, all right, no doubt about that. Bill drew his revolver, aimed high so the shots might carry better, and triggered two rounds toward the outlaws.
    That drew more fire from them. He didn’t have time to see if his shots hit anything before bullets began coming uncomfortably close to him. He scooted back to his right as slugs thudded into the water trough.
    Some of the townspeople were still yelling, but they weren’t asking questions now. Those cries were shouts of alarm and warning. People scurried for cover as the battle continued in the street.
    It was a pretty one-sided battle, Bill thought. There were nine or ten of the robbers and only one of him.
    A rifle cracked behind Bill and to his right. He twisted his head around to look and spotted Mordecai crouched behind a barrel on the boardwalk on the other side of the street. The deputy had gotten hold of a Henry rifle somewhere and used it to open fire on the outlaws as they tried to get mounted. Men and horses milled around now in a confused mass.
    Monroe Mercantile was only a few doors away. Bill cast an anxious glance toward the store. At this time of day, Eden might be in there, or she could be over at the café or even back at her father’s house. Bill just didn’t know.
    He hoped that if she was in the store, she would have the good sense to stay behind the counter in the back, where she ought to be safe from any of the bullets flying around wildly in the street.
    He needed to get closer, he realized. His Colt would be more effective at shorter range. The shots from Mordecai’s rifle had the outlaws roiled up right now, so this might be his chance.
    He pulled three cartridges from the loops on his gun belt and thumbed them into the empty chambers in the revolver’scylinder. Then, snapping it closed, he lunged to his feet, leaped to the boardwalk, and started running toward the bank.
    Before he had gone more than three steps, something knocked his right leg out from under him. He fell off the boardwalk and toppled into the street. At first he thought a bullet had struck him, but he didn’t feel any pain other than that of crashing to the planks and getting the wind knocked mostly out of him.
    He didn’t have time to figure out what had happened because at that moment, the door of the mercantile was flung open and Eden ran out, crying, “Bill!” She must have been watching from inside the building and had seen him go down. She leaped off the boardwalk and started running toward him.
    Fifty feet separated them. Bill shouted, “Eden, go back!” but she might not have heard him over the sudden thunder of hoofbeats. The outlaws had made it into their saddles and now they charged along the street, guns still blazing.
    Bill’s eyes widened in horror as he saw one of them veer his horse straight toward Eden. His gun was still in his hand, but he couldn’t fire because she was between him and the outlaw.
    At the last second she must