Three Men and a Bounty by Gigi Moore Read Free Book Online Page A

Moore
    and to the door in a few quick strides, flinging it open to reveal Sarah’s tear-stained face.
    He caught her by the shoulders. “What’s happened?”
    “He’s got a gun, James.”
    He didn’t ask who. It didn’t matter. He needed to get downstairs before anyone got hurt.
    James turned back to Chris standing in the center of the room now, hat in hand again. “Don’t move from this room.”
    “But—”
    “Stay here!”
    He nabbed his holster and gun from the foot post of the bed and closed the door behind him as he headed for the stairs, trailing Sarah.
    He strapped his holster on while he walked, slowing down as he neared the bottom of the staircase to take in the scene in the entry hall.
    A white man stood just inside the threshold. The front door was open behind him. He had an arm crooked around Nellie’s throat, holding her close to his side as he threateningly waved a gun in front of her face.
    A white man in Nellie’s proved an incongruity on a normal evening, but this evening had proven to be anything but normal and looked to be getting stranger by the minute.
    James caught Nellie’s gaze and signaled her not to let on that he approached. Her nod would have been imperceptible to almost anyone else but him.
    “Where is he, girl? I know your precious black marshal is in here somewhere!”
    James thanked the Lord for the well-cushioned carpeting that camouflaged his maneuver. However, two doors on the first floor opened at the commotion, and James frantically signaled to the girls and their customers to go back into their rooms.
    The man holding Nellie hostage caught the movement on the stairs and swung around to see James near the bottom, Sarah close behind him.

    Three Men and a Bounty
    45
    “I knew you’d come down to save your precious whore girlfriend.
    Well, come on then and let’s get a look at you.” The man waved his gun toward James and smiled. “You can leave the gun behind ya, though.”
    “No can do, pardner.”
    The man pressed the muzzle of his gun against Nellie’s temple, and James watched as her eyes filled with tears. They weren’t tears of fear, though. Rather, they were tears of anger and frustration. James could tell from the way her jaw worked as if she chomped at a bit.
    He peered at the gunslinger. Something about his face was familiar. Maybe he was a younger version of someone else he knew.
    Then it clicked. He’d recently brought in a fugitive who looked uncannily like this young man—his older brother, maybe?
    “Let the lady go. She hasn’t done anything to you. It’s me you want, right?”
    “You know damn well it is. You should have never arrested my brother. Not you.”
    James suspected the man had more of a problem with a black lawman arresting his brother than his brother being arrested at all.
    “I’m going to need you to drop your gun and give yourself up.”
    Connor McClary’s younger brother laughed and waved his gun in defiance. “And why should I do that? I already got the bulge on you, marshal.”
    Heart drumming, James drew his gun, prepared to do something he’d done countless times in the past, something ultimately necessary, the outcome of which he almost always regretted.
    McClary’s younger brother, however, easily pointed his gun in James’ direction and pulled the trigger. Not before James dove to the right and fired his own gun.
    His bullet found its target, striking the younger McClary in the shoulder of his gun hand and disabling him enough to make him drop his weapon.

    46
    Gigi Moore
    Nellie pulled away from him as soon as the gun clattered to the floor, kicking it farther out of the gunman’s reach as she flung herself into James’ arms.
    James held Nellie with one arm and continued to point his gun at the younger McClary with his gun hand. “Guess you’ll be joining your brother in the hoosegow then.”
    “Guess you’ll be joining the devil in hell, marshal.” The younger McClary leaned against the doorframe, eyeing