Free Brutal Vengeance by J. A. Johnstone Page B

double cabin had chimneys at both ends, but smoke wasn’t coming from either of them.
    At this time of day, somebody should have been preparing a midday meal. The fact that they weren’t was a bad sign.
    The Kid looked at the dogtrot and frowned. No dog had bounded out and started barking at them as they approached.
    Of course, just because the cabin was designed with that open area between its two halves didn’t mean the family had to have a dog. That was just what it was called.
    However, nearly every ranch had at least one big cur on it, and no barking had greeted the newcomers. In fact, an eerie silence hung over the place. Every nerve in The Kid’s body told him something was badly wrong.
    Quietly, he moved into the shade under the dogtrot. The door of the cabin to his left was closed, but the one on the right stood open.
    “Anybody home?” he called.
    There was no answer.
    The Kid glanced toward the barn. One of the big double doors was partially open, and as he watched, Nick disappeared through that dark gap.
    The Kid stepped to the open door of the cabin and looked inside. The first thing he saw was an overturned chair, and beyond it on the floor a couple broken dishes.
    A fight of some sort had taken place in there, but no one was inside now.
    He moved back into the dogtrot and turned toward the barn. As he did, Nick suddenly let out a startled yell and came into sight again, backing up as fast as he could, practically running backward, in fact.
    He tried to point his rifle at the barn, but as he lifted the weapon he got his feet tangled up and went over backward, sitting down so hard dust puffed up around him. He grunted from the impact and dropped the Winchester.
    A man stepped out of the barn holding a revolver. “I don’t know who you are, boy, but you poked your nose into the wrong place!”
    The gun came up, and The Kid knew Nick was only instants away from having the life blasted out of him.

Chapter 11
    That was plenty of time for The Kid to react.
    The Winchester snapped to his shoulder. With a round already in the chamber, all he had to do was settle the sights on the gunman’s forehead and squeeze the trigger.
    The whipcrack of the shot filled the air.
    The man’s head jerked back as the bullet smashed into his forehead, bored through his brain, and exploded out the back of his head in a grisly pink spray of blood, gray matter, and bone shards. His knees came unhinged, dropping him straight to the ground. The pistol fell from his limp fingers, unfired.
    “Move, Nick!” The Kid shouted. He didn’t know if there were any more would-be killers lurking inside the barn, but if there were, he wanted the youngster out of the line of fire.
    Nick rolled onto hands and knees and scrambled to his feet. As he did, shots erupted from inside the barn.
    Plumes of dust geysered into the air around Nick’s feet as he ran toward the barn’s far corner. The Kid slammed three fast shots through the open door of the barn and then ran across the space between it and the house, angling for the nearest corner of the barn. There might be another way in around back.
    From the sound of the shots, probably two or three men were inside, he guessed. He and Nick were outnumbered, but only for the moment. The shooting would bring Culhane and the rest of the posse in a hurry.
    The Kid saw Nick vanish around the other corner of the barn. From the way the young man was moving so quickly, he wasn’t hurt. That was pure luck ... luck, and Kid Morgan’s fast reflexes and deadly aim.
    The Kid ducked through the bars of the corral and trotted along the side of the barn. When he reached the rear corner, he peered around it.
    There was a door back there, all right, big enough for a man to lead a horse out through it.
    The corral extended around to the back of the barn as well, forming an L-shape around the building. The horses, spooked by the shooting in front, had all retreated back there and were milling around nervously.
    The