Read The Cowboy Who Strolled Into Town for Free Online

open door of the barn. He could hear the sound of two men shuffling around in the barn.
    “I’m telling you Ty, I saw him toss a bag of powder calling it sugar all the way to the floor! They must have cleaned it up. They know I tell you!” One of them said.
    “I knew we should have moved this stash before now. Check the stuff to make sure it’s still there.”
    Daniel could clearly hear the voices of Tyler and Tyrone, on the surface, the strangest of bedfellows, but deep down it was difficult to tell who was more rotten. He knew they would be fidgeting with the floor boards as they tried to get the huge stash of cocaine deposited underneath.
    Daniel risked a glance round the edge of the door. He saw both men gingerly ripping out floor boards and drew back to gather his fief before moving in on them, when he felt a blow at the back of the head. He lost consciousness in a bright multi-coloured flash behind his eyelids.
    The two shadows turned towards the door in apprehension, when they heard the sound of shuffling, but relaxed to see Sheriff Vincent McGrady, dressed in black coveralls, “Look what the sheriff dragged in.”
    It took a while for the stars dancing before his eyes to go away, but even after this, his head felt like he had borrowed it, and screwed it on wrongly. Shutting his eyes did not make the pain go away, so he kept his eyes open, and he could not help groaning even though a part of his mushy brain insisted that silence would have been the better option.
    A shadow came over, leaving the other two at the boards, and kicked him hard in the belly with cowboy boots  that still managed to gleam even in the dark; Tyler, Daniel guessed, “That is for kicking me in the crutch, you piece of shit!” he hissed, the menace in his voice open and blatant, now that the crowd had gone home.
    Daniel was too dazed to scream so just writhed on the floor like a fish out of water. Tyler kicked him again, harder the second time, the sharp tip of his boots connecting with bone. Daniel grunted in pain.
    “You know Daniel all you had to do was stay away like you had done for the last twenny years and everything would have been fine, but you had to come back, and you had to settle, and you had to start a farm, and you had to discover our stash-two million dollars’ worth of powder right under our feet.”
    “We got the boards out, Ty” Tyrone whispered in the darkness, “come help us get it out.”
    Tyler grumbled on his way back, clearly not pleased at the interruption, obviously enjoying his monologue. Daniel touched the base of his skull, flinching at the soreness of the mountain-sized bump he encountered. His head no longer swam, and now he cursed inwardly for not waiting a little bit longer for the possible third person. His heart sank, but he was not surprised when he realised that his pistol was not at its holster. He threw his head left and right helplessly, aware that he was as likely to find his weapon in the darkness as he was as likely to find a needle in a haystack. His left side hurt where it had received punishment from Tyler, but he began to crawl towards the wall that lay to the right, of the gaping mouth of the barn.
    He had already crawled one metre when Tyler saw, and came rushing over. Beside the door, and under the partial view of the stars, Daniel saw the gleaming approach and caught the malicious boot. Twisting with all the might he could muster, he heard Tyler scream in agony, and felt his knees buckle.
    Daniel tried to shake off the weight of Tyler off him, and tried to limp the remaining distance but McGrady tackled him, catching him across his body, and slamming him into the ground with a muffed thump. Daniel tried to put up a fight, but he went unconscious again in a flash.
    When Daniel came through again, it was not as bad as the first time. He suspected he had hit his head against the wood of the floor and passed out. He tested his hands and feet to realise that he had not been restrained,