Branded by Eric Red

Author:Eric Red [Red, Eric]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pinnacle Books
Published: 2020-11-16T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 22

The three riders and horses traveled the rugged trail north, their figures dwarfed by the snowy wastes of northern Wyoming.

They had once again lost the trail of The Brander. He was out there, somewhere, but they knew not where. Wyoming was a very big territory. He could be anywhere.

Joe Noose had been doing some figuring, and when he had made up his mind he shared it. “I think Abraham Quaid ain’t killing random individuals. I best believe he’s killing damn specific ones.”

“But if so, who?” wondered Bess.

“You ask me, he’s killing the gang that robbed his cattle, burned his ranch, and shot him. He’s tracking ’em all down, putting ’em six feet under. These ain’t crazy kills, this is all about revenge.”

“We don’t know that,” Bess brooded.

Emmett was suddenly overjoyed. “I’ll be! Of course it is!”

“What the hell are you smiling about?” The bounty hunter lifted an eyebrow with an expression of disregard to the gleeful lawman.

“Because you’re right, Joe.” The marshal grinned broadly, hugely relieved. “My—The Brander is out for justice he didn’t get when that gang slipped the noose. It all makes sense now.”

Marshal Bess scowled. “I don’t see how murdering entire families, slaughtering women and children, makes any sense at all.”

That wiped the smile off Emmett’s face and he nodded soberly. “Their families are innocent. He should just be killing the men who rode in the gang, the men who actually wronged him. Left their families out of it.”

Bess shook her head in fierce disagreement. “Quaid shouldn’t be killing anybody for any reason!” she retorted. “Nobody has the right to take justice into their own hands. That’s murder, five we know about, and it’s against the damn law. Law takes a hard view of vigilante vengeance. And speaking of wrongs, we know for a fact from Joe that Abraham Quaid got away with lynching three boys who were likely not even of legal age, meaning this old man is just as bad as that gang you’re saying wronged him. If that gang was acquitted, probably it was for good reason. You’re telling me this sheriff you talked to says he knew the gang stole the cattle, burned the ranch? How the hell does he know that? The sheriff—what’s his name, Conrad?—also said they killed Quaid and the three of us both know that’s bullshit. Use your head, Emmett, you’re a damn U.S. Marshal! We ain’t even positively identified The Brander’s victims yet, for Chrissakes. We don’t know they are the gang. About the only thing we do know is Abraham Quaid is alive and on the loose and we need to put an end to him before he puts an end to any more innocent folks.” Finished, Marshal Bess stared straight ahead, chin out, as she rode, figuring she put paid on the conversation.

Then Joe Noose spoke up, softly but with force of conviction. “He’s hunting down the gang, Bess, I’m convinced of it. We may not have ID’d those dead men but they’re the gang, all right.

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