Read Online Brotherhood of Evil by William W. Johnstone - Free Book Online Page B

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    â€œBen!” She hurried over to him, dropped to a knee, and held the carbine in one hand as she rested the other on his shoulder. “It’s all right. Just lie there and take it easy.”
    â€œThat . . . son of a . . .” he rasped.
    â€œHe’s gone. He ran off into the woods.”
    â€œHe might . . . come back.”
    â€œIf he does, I’ll give him a warm welcome,” she said as she gestured slightly with the carbine. She leaned closer. “How bad are you hit?”
    â€œPretty . . . bad. Feels like . . . he drilled me . . . clean through.”
    She lifted him just enough to see that he was right. The back of his shirt was bloody, too. And judging from where the bullet hole on the front was located, the bullet couldn’t have gone all the way through him without hitting something important.
    He coughed. From the bubbling sound of it, Sally was certain he had a hole in one of his lungs. He was drowning in his own blood, and there wasn’t a blessed thing she could do about it. He had only minutes to live.
    â€œYou better . . . leave me here,” he told her. “Go find . . . Pearlie and Cal . . .”
    She heard shots in the distance and knew her friends were still in danger. She wanted to go to them, help them, but she wasn’t going to abandon Hardy. “I’m not going anywhere.” She leaned closer to him. “You hang on.”
    He took a deep, shuddering breath. She knew from the rattle in his throat as it came back out that he was gone. He stared up sightlessly at the trees. Sunlight flickered through the branches and made the shadows shift on the dead man’s face. Sally eased his eyelids down.
    She stood, filled with the same sort of anger that Smoke would have felt had he been there. Evil men had come onto Sugarloaf land and had brought death with them. They had to pay for that.
    Sally jerked the carbine level as someone came through the trees. Fallen pine needles crunched under the man’s boots. Her finger was taut on the trigger as he lunged into view.
    â€œWhoa!” Cal cried as he tried to stop himself. He threw his hands up in front of him as if they would turn aside a bullet. “Miss Sally, don’t shoot! It’s me!”
    Sally held off on the trigger at the last instant. A tremor went through her as she lowered the weapon. “Cal, I almost shot you!”
    â€œYeah, I know.” He swallowed hard. “Are you all right, Miss Sally?”
    â€œI am, but poor Ben . . .” She looked over at Hardy’s still form.
    â€œDadblast it!” Cal burst out. “I reckon that varmint I tangled with is the one who got him?”
    â€œYou fought with one of them?”
    â€œYeah. Fella who looked like he was shot in the right arm. Are you the one who ventilated him?”
    â€œThat doesn’t matter now,” Sally said. “He’s the one who got the drop on us, all right. We managed to turn the tables on him and wound him, but he got away.”
    Cal grimaced. “He got away from me, too. Even wounded and losing blood like he was, he managed to give me the slip.”
    â€œDon’t worry about that. At least he didn’t try to double back. Where’s Pearlie?”
    Cal angled his head toward the sound of shooting. “He’s trying to keep the other two pinned down, but it sounds like he’s got his hands full.”
    Sally jerked her head in a curt nod. “There’s nothing we can do for Ben. Let’s go see if we can give Pearlie a hand.”
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    As one of the outlaws tried to get around to his side, Pearlie did the only thing he could. He thrust his Colt out in that direction and started thumbing off shots as fast as he could, firing blindly until he had emptied the revolver.
    As that peal of gun thunder ended and the echoes rolled away against the mountainside above him, he shoved the revolver back into its holster and grabbed the Winchester lying on