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would’ve been fine where I was.”
    â€œSure,” Clint replied, “but it wouldn’t have been as fun.”
    She smirked and said, “No, but still…”
    â€œEnough,” Clint cut in. “Most of that was winnings from the game. I plan on squeezing more than enough from Colonel Farelli to make up for it anyway.”
    Abigail held her reins easily and glanced over at Clint as she swayed along with every one of her horse’s movements. The way she rode made it seem as if she were more comfortable in the saddle than anywhere else. “I haven’t known you for long and I already know that’s a load of dung.”
    â€œMaybe. Does it matter?”
    â€œAfter sleeping in them sheets and eating that breakfast, it don’t matter one bit.”
    â€œThat’s what I thought.”
    They shared a couple seconds of laughter before Abigail snapped her head around to look in the opposite direction. She stared into the distance with more than enough conviction to put Clint on his guard.
    â€œWhat is it?” he asked.
    But Abigail swung her hand at him in a motion that quickly shut him up. Soon she eased up a bit and then pointed in the same direction she’d been watching. “Someone’s coming from that way,” she hissed.
    â€œAre you sure? I didn’t—” And then Clint heard it.
    The sound was faint and he might have missed it if Abigail hadn’t already alerted him, but Clint could most definitely hear hooves pounding against the packed earth from that direction. “Could be anyone,” Clint pointed out.
    Before Abigail said a word, a gunshot crackled through the air. It wasn’t a shot fired at them. The shot wasn’t even close enough for Clint to be threatened by it. But since there were several more shots that followed it, someone not too far away was very threatened indeed.
    Clint and Abigail looked at each other for a moment before both of them snapped their reins. Abigail’s mustang got moving first, but Eclipse was hot on its heels.
    They were headed up a gradual rocky slope that rose easily toward a jagged edge. As Clint got closer to the edge, he could tell it dropped off steeply on the other side to look down upon an open stretch of sand-covered ground. Gunshots were still being fired and seconds before Clint was close enough to look all the way down to what was happening below, shouts could also be heard.
    Clint pulled back hard on his reins to bring Eclipse to a skidding halt at the edge of the rocks. Abigail was right beside him and leaned so far forward in her saddle that it seemed as if she might fall out. “Aw hell,” she said. “Looks like another Injun attack.”
    The scene below was a chaotic mess of several horse men weaving among one another, firing their weapons and shouting. Although it was hard to tell who was fighting who, Clint had no trouble picking out the wagon stuck in the middle of it all. One of the two horses in the wagon’s team had been killed and was crumpled awkwardly in its rig, while the second horse struggled to keep its footing with all those shots being fired back and forth.
    â€œI can barely tell what’s going on down there,” Clint replied. “But it sure doesn’t look good.”
    â€œThere’s one way to find out!” With that, Abigail pointed her mustang toward a slope that would take her down to the storm that was raging beneath them.
    Clint didn’t like the idea of charging into a fight without knowing what it was about, but he also didn’t know a way to keep Abigail from doing that very thing. “Damn,” he grunted as he pointed Eclipse in the direction Abigail had gone and snapped the reins.

TEN
    Eclipse’s hooves pounded against a surface that became rockier with every step. Loose gravel covered the path in spots, but Abigail’s mustang did a nice job of clearing it away seconds before Clint came along. The