Manhunt by Lyle Brandt

Author:Lyle Brandt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2010-03-10T00:00:00+00:00

Slade got four hours’ sleep before Hec woke him to complete the night watch. He’d been plagued by troubling dreams before the gruff voice roused him, but they vanished like wind-tattered smoke when his eyes opened.

Just as well.

Slade didn’t put much stock in dreams, particularly as a means of scrying the future. As far as Slade recalled, he’d never dreamed any event before it happened, nor had he received any apparent warnings against future hardships from Queen Mab. On balance, though he welcomed rest after a long day in the saddle, Slade preferred to be awake.

The quiet predawn hours gave him ample time to think—which didn’t mean that he reached any meaningful conclusions. He’d learned nothing new about the Frain brothers or their companions, other than confirming their complete and utter disregard for human life. Slade briefly wondered how they’d come to be that way, divorced from any civilizing influence, but quickly gave it up as wasted effort.

What he didn’t know about the gang was all that mattered now.

Slade didn’t know where they were going, or who might be waiting to join them.

He didn’t know if they were planning new jobs, or were hoping to rest up awhile.

He didn’t understand why they were heading northward, when his own instinct, in their place, would’ve been a hard ride south to Mexico.

He didn’t know what they were thinking.

And why should he?

Just because Judge Dennison had set a twin to track and capture twins, that didn’t mean he had some special insight into how their minds worked, what they felt and shared. The spate of bloody crimes aside, Slade’s personal experience was worlds apart from that of the Frains.

He knew nothing about their childhood, but Slade understood that they had spent their lives together, barring jail time, whereas he and Jim had separated when Slade ran away from home. He’d never had the extra decade-plus of shared events, emotions, wins and losses, trials and tribulations.

None of which, Slade calculated, would’ve helped him anyway.

Because, when all was said and done, Slade and his brother were not criminals. Some might have judged him harshly for his gambler’s life, but Jim had been square from the start to his last living day. He’d been putting down roots, bent on building a life for himself.

And for Faith.

They even differed, there. Slade loved her to the best of his ability—and, yes, as often as he could—but he still hadn’t given up a kind of drifter’s life to tend a herd or plow the soil on her behalf. Today, in place of cards and easy money, it was a “duty” and a badge that kept him moving, never safe of settled long enough to know if he had truly found a home.

Was he supposed to learn some lesson from the Frains?

Was anyone truly supposed to learn anything, during their transit through life?

That belief took some “higher power” for granted, a leap of faith Slade couldn’t make. Not with all that he’d seen, done, endured, and survived in his time.

So

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