The Reluctant Gun Hand by Paul Lederer

Author:Paul Lederer
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781497694026
Publisher: Open Road Media

SEVEN

Sparky Finnet was pretty fast, but he was also too enraged to have a steady hand and when he fired, his bullet sung off of something in the kitchen and whined into the wall. Jake Worthy’s gun hand was calmer, his aim surer, and the A4 slug from his Colt caught Finnet with a solid, deadly thud.

Sparky had been turned slightly to his right when he had fired, jerking around at the sight of Jake Worthy. Jake’s bullet had taken him low on the right side, beneath the last ribs and near the liver, and exited the back of the bad man’s body through his spine. Sparky Finnet fell with his pistol still in hand, but there was no way he was going to rise from the rough cabin floor to fire again. The little toad lay on his back, legs dancing an involuntary jig, his face washed to sheet-white, his mouth twisted as he tried to swallow his pain.

Jake crossed the room, holstering his Colt and kicked Finnet’s pistol from his limp, twitching fingers. Dosie, summoned by her father’s earlier call, spurred on by the sudden explosion of gunfire, burst in through the front door, anxious eyes surveying the scene. She rushed toward Saunders, briefly clinging to him. Her eyes fixed on Jake Worthy as he crossed the room and kicked Finnet’s gun aside.

‘What’s going on here?’ Dosie demanded. She looked toward the body on the floor. ‘Isn’t that—’

‘Sparky Finnet,’ Webb Saunders said, in a low, pained voice. ‘He always stopped by when he was traveling east,’ he explained to no one.

Dosie had stepped to Finnet’s body and crouched down over it. ‘He’s alive!’ she said in astonishment. Truthfully Finnet did not look like a man who should be alive, as much damage as Jake’s bullet had done, but she could feel a pulse in his throat. ‘Help me get him up on to the couch.’

Jake simply stepped away as Saunders came to help lift Finnet’s still form on to the couch, his body dripping blood on to the floor in small, urgent drops. The man hadn’t long to live; that seemed certain. Dosie fixed a heated gaze on Jake who had not moved a step to help them. ‘What are you doing?’ she demanded harshly. Jake noticed that her nose crinkled up when she was very angry. It didn’t seem like the time to mention it. Instead he answered coldly, ‘I’m just trying to decide whether to spit on him or just finish him off with another bullet.’

‘Don’t you dare think of it!’ Dosie commanded.

‘Spitting?’ Jake asked innocently.

‘Shooting him again! It’s likely you’ve already killed him, though I can’t guess why, and I don’t suppose you’d care to tell us.’

‘The man took a shot at me at point-blank range. I take offense at things like that.’

‘Father?’ Dosie asked, looking up at Saunders whose mouth was drawn down heavily in sorrow.

‘Finnet did shoot first – though I don’t know why either. I don’t suppose Jake is going to tell us that.

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