Free A Lust For Lead by Robert Davis

killed him already. It had all been over too quickly for her. She wanted to kill him again.
The invigilators who were supposed to take away Cadero’s body were understandably reluctant to go forward while she was still so dangerously poised. Nathaniel derided them for their timidity.
No will of her own, Shane thought, and cursed bitterly to himself. The girl’s plight cut through his own self-pity and he grieved for the loss of her innocence.
Cautiously, Nathaniel walked up behind her and gently reached out his hand to encircle her wrist. ‘It’s over now, cherub,’ he said, speaking softly. ‘All done for today.’
The girl cocked her head sideways and looked up at him, uncomprehending. The look of cold hatred in her eyes was something that Shane had never thought to see in a child so young. Nathaniel prised the gun from her hand.
Chastity suddenly threw back her head and screamed. It was a noise of pure, animal loss, as if Nathaniel had reached into her body and torn out her soul. The force of it was incredible. Even at a distance, it sent a stab of pain ripping through Shane’s ears that made him flinch. Those contestants closest to her blocked their ears with their hands.
Nathaniel had clearly expected her reaction and had beaten a hasty retreat to the side of the road. ‘Bethan! Take her inside.’
The girl’s nanny came scurrying over and gathered Chastity into her arms. The girl fought violently, striking with balled fists and kicking while the woman tried to subdue her. In the end, Nathaniel had to shout for one of his invigilators to grab her, and the girl was unceremoniously tucked under one arm and carried back into the hotel while Bethan fluttered at her side, making ineffectual shushing noises to try and calm her down.
Her screaming became muffled as the door was closed behind her and the resultant silence was uncomfortable, with nobody knowing what to make of what they had just witnessed. Nathaniel smiled reassuringly, dismissing Chastity’s outburst as just an ordinary child’s tantrum. He turned and nodded across the street to Buchanan, who nodded back in reply, some comment going unspoken between them. Nathaniel then joined Whisperer and the two men disappeared into the Grande.
‘She’s quite something, isn’t she?’ Buchanan said.
Shane was not interested in making small talk. He wanted the facts. ‘How long?’ he asked.
‘Nathaniel’s had her shooting for a couple of months now. She took to it right away, didn’t even need to be shown or nothing. Girl’s a complete natural.’
‘How many has she killed?’
‘Not many.’ Buchanan replied. ‘Ten, maybe twelve.’
Not many? Shane wanted to laugh except that it wasn’t funny. Nathaniel had taken a child with no will of her own and turned her into the perfect killer, accomplishing in her what it had taken Shane more than twenty years of practice to achieve.
Chastity was damned, just as surely as he was.
And she had had no say in the matter.

Chapter 7
    Shane had returned to the Babson ranch at first light the following morning, his arrival scaring crows into flight as he led his horse through the stink of the battleground. His mind cold to the events of the night before, he knelt outside the open gate of the corral and examined the hoof marks that were left there.
Benedict Hunte had fled westwards. He was no great horseman and in his panic he had exhausted his mount in the first hour of riding. Thereafter he had been forced to travel slowly and by midday Shane had caught up with him enough that the chase looked certain to be over before nightfall.
Shane was glad. He was eager to get the job done and put the events of the previous night behind him. The murder of the Babson woman and her child still haunted him, sitting badly on a conscience he had not known he had until he had woken that morning.
It was the senselessness of the incident that bothered him the most. Shane had never killed a child before. He had shot over a hundred men and