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called from ahead.
    “Nah, we’ve lost him.” I slowed my horse to a trot
and Jackson did the same. I rode up next to him. “Damn, I didn’t
see that comin’. Who knew Carson would get that mad. Didn’t even
think he had it in him.”
    Jackson glared sideways at me from beneath the shadow
of his hat. “Just tell me how the hell is it that we always end up
leaving town with a loaded gun chasing us?”
    “Don’t know why that is, Jackson.”
    He tamped his hat down tighter on his head. “I’ll
tell you why.”
    “I thought you might.”
    “Because, Cade Tanner, you never leave town without
some girl jumping all over you first. But today, kissing Deputy
Carson’s girl not two feet from where the man stood . . . with his
loyal Remington at his side no less, well that really topped
anything you’ve ever done.”
    “First of all, Candy walked over and kissed me. I was
just an innocent bystander. Not much I can do if she finds me so
irresistible she has to throw those plumps lips at me. Who am I to
deny her? And Carson couldn’t shoot the trunk of a tree if he was
sitting in the damn thing. Besides, he wouldn’t really have shot
us.”
    “Oh yeah? Then how come I felt a couple of those
bullets buzz right past me while I was hunkered down over Winslow’s
neck?”
    “Probably just flies hovering around that bear grease
in your hair.” Just as I glanced to the road up ahead something
flashed through the air. “Hey, did you see that? Something just
fell from the sky.”
    Jackson laughed. “I think one of those bullets lodged
in your brain after all. I don’t see anything but a blue Montana
skyline and a—”
    I kicked River into a gallop before Jackson stopped
talking. He followed. We headed in the direction I thought I’d seen
the object fall. We slowed our pace. Dried pine needles crunched
beneath hooves as we trotted through a maze of evergreens. Our
unexpected presence sent a Great Horned owl from its daytime roost.
I ducked as it whirred past my head and flew out of the trees.
River’s nostrils flared and his ears perked forward at something up
ahead.
    I looked back at Jackson just as he leaned over to
spit a wad of tobacco at a squirrel racing past. “Just missed it,”
he laughed.
    “My horse is sensing something,” I called back to
him.
    “Let’s face it, River panics if a moth flies into his
stall. I think you were just seeing things, Cade. Let’s get out of
here. I’m so hungry I could eat a bear.”
    River stepped into a clearing and I pulled the horse
to a halt so fast his back feet slid beneath him. His nostrils
flared as he backed up instinctively and smacked right into
Jackson’s gelding.
    “What the hell, Cade? What do you see?”
    “Your lunch,” I whispered.
    Jackson opened his mouth to talk, but I held up a
hand behind me to silence him and reached for my pistol. On its
hind legs, the grizzly stood nearly as tall as the evergreen next
to it. Beneath the massive beast, lying motionless on the ground,
was a girl. Her long gold hair fanned out over the dirt and her
white blouse was soaked in blood.
    The bear stared down at the girl as if not entirely
certain what to do with her. Winslow snorted once and the grizzly’s
massive head lifted. The black nose twitched as the bear’s snout
lifted to pick up our scent. Small brown eyes stared at us from it
giant head. Then its lips lifted and long white fangs poked out
from its mouth.
    “Sonavagun, that’s a monster,” Jackson whispered. “Do
you think you’ve got enough bullets to take him down?”
    “Nope, and if I just wound it, that beast will turn
its rage on that girl.”
    “She already looks like a goner, doesn’t she? Where
the hell did she come from?”
    I glanced up at the sky. It was as cloudless and blue
as any March day. My gaze went back to the girl. She was tiny and
frail and if she was not already dead, she was one paw swipe away
from it. “Not sure where she came from but we can’t just leave her
out