Touch of Fire by Howard Linda

Author:Howard, Linda [Linda, Howard,]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2010-12-24T00:45:30.940000+00:00

CHAPTER 11

Explosions of gunfire rocked the tiny room, deafening her. Smoke filled the air and the stench of cordite burned her nostrils. She stood frozen, the pistol still clutched in her hand, the barrel protruding from the burnt, tattered remains of her pocket. Rafe was there somehow, she didn't know how. She couldn't remember seeing him come through the door. Someone was screaming.

Rafe was yelling something, but she didn't know what. She could barely hear him over the ringing in her ears. He slapped her leg and hip and she began sobbing, trying to push him away. It took her a moment to realize that her skirt was on fire.

Then, with a jolt, splintered reality settled into place again.

Rafe crossed the room to kick the pistol away from Trahern's outstretched hand, and the screaming ebbed to moans. On trembling legs Annie managed to move a few steps and then stood frozen again, staring at the man lying crumpled on the floor.

Blood soaked his lower abdomen, turning his shirt and pants black in the shadowed depths of the room.

It pooled around and under him, soaking through the cracks in the floor. His eyes were open and his face was absolutely colorless.

"Why didn't you shoot me?" Rafe asked harshly, going down on one knee beside the bounty hunter. He knew he'd given Trahern the perfect opportunity, but when he had seen Annie's skirt flaming nothing else had seemed to matter except getting to her before the fire licked upwards. He had literally turned his back on the bounty hunter—and Trahern had held his fire.

"No point in it," Trahern rasped. He cleared his throat. "I'm not going to be able to collect the money. Hell with it." He moaned again and then said, "Damn. I never thought to see if she had a gun."

Horror licked through Annie. She had shot a man. She had heard other shots, but somehow she knew that Trahern had been falling even before Rafe had come through the door. She hadn't aimed, she didn't even know how she had managed to pull back the hammer. But the bullet had found its mark, and Trahern lay bleeding to death on the floor.

Suddenly she could move, and she whirled to grab her bag, dragging it across the floor to the bounty hunter. "I've got to get that bleeding stopped," she said frantically, going down on her knees beside Rafe. She flinched from the horrible wound. Trahern was gut shot, and her medical training told her that he was a dead man even though her instincts were screaming at her to do something to help him.

She reached out and Rafe's hands shot forward, catching hers and holding them. His gray eyes had a stark look in them. "No," he said. "You can't do anything for him, honey. Don't break your heart trying." He didn't think even Annie's healing touch could work against a wound of such magnitude, but she would exhaust herself in the effort.

She jerked futilely at her hands, trying to free them.

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