Bloody Trail (24 page)

Derrick drew a deep breath. “Yeah, Charley,
but right now, we’re all just men. Tired and ready to go back to
where we belong. Back to find our balance, as you say.”

“
Wolf Creek.” Charley said, in
simple agreement.

The rain began to fall as they mounted up. The
cleansing drizzle covered them. It was the answer to an unspoken
prayer for forgiveness, with a promise of peace for them all. The
posse made their way back down through the winding path of the
foothills. When they reached the open country below, three veered
eastward, to Tamaha. The other four headed north, toward Kansas.
The rain settled into a steady shower of heaven-sent hope. It
washed away the bloody trail of vengeance, the rhythm of it singing
in their veins.

Home… Home.

THE END

ABOUT THE
AUTHORS
:

JAMES J. GRIFFIN

I've been in love with horses and
fascinated by all things Western, in particular the Texas Rangers,
since I was a kid, so when I started writing it was only natural I
would write Texas Ranger novels. Luckily, I have my good friends,
Texas Ranger Jim Huggins of Company A, and Karl Rehn and Penny
Riggs of KR Training in Manheim, Texas, to help with my research.
Jim provides advice on the Rangers, while Karl and Penny lend their
expertise on weapons of the period. I also travel out West every
chance I get for research and relaxation. My two main series are
about Texas Rangers Jim Blawcyzk and Cody Havlicek. The books are
all very traditional Westerns, and most are suitable for almost all
ages.

As a lifelong
horseman, there's nothing I like better than climbing into the
saddle and getting out into the hills and woods for the day, just
me and my horse. While I love everything about the West, I love my
native New England, particularly my adopted home state of New
Hampshire, even more, and live for the day, not far off now, when
I'll be able to move back up North for good. Right now I split my
time between Branford, Connecticut, where I work, and Keene, New
Hampshire. Two best friends are my horse, Yankee, and my Shih Tzu,
Dogie. My website is
www.jamesjgriffin.net
.

L. J. MARTIN

I am the author
of 25 western, historical, mystery, and thriller novels from
Bantam, Pinnacle, Avon, and Wolfpack Publishing, and of five
non-fiction works. I live in Montana with my wife, Kat, the New
York Times bestselling author of over 55 romantic suspense and
historical romance novels internationally published in a dozen
languages and more than two dozen countries. When not writing, I
spend a good deal of my time running a conservative political blog
at
http://fromthepeapatch.com
, working with my horses, hunting, fishing, cooking, and
wandering the back country with my cameras, both video and still.
My photography has appeared on national magazine covers and in
periodicals. Over one hundred of my videos can be seen on
youtube.com at ljmartinwolfpack. Learn more about the Martins
at
www.ljmartin.com
and
www.katmartin.com
. 

CLAY MORE

My real name is
Keith Souter and I was born in St Andrews in Scotland. I studied
Medicine at Dundee University and then practiced as a family doctor
in the city of Wakefield in England for thirty years. While I was
at medical school I started to write children’s stories for a
family magazine, but after qualifying as a doctor the exigencies of
the job were such that the focus of my writing was on medicine. I
have also been a health columnist for almost thirty years and have
written about a dozen medical and health books. In addition I write
non-fiction books including
Schoolboy
Science Remembered; The Pocket Guide to Dice and Dice Games; The
Little Book of Genius; The Little Book of Golf; Medical Meddlers,
Mediums and Magicians – the Victorian Age of Credulity
and
The Classic Guide to
King Arthur
. Using the pen-name of Clay
More I write traditional westerns with the Black Horse Westerns
imprint of Hale of London:
Raw Deal at
Pasco Springs; Nemesis for the Judge; Double-Dealing at Dirtville;
A Rope for Scudder
and
Stampede at Rattlesnake Pass.
I also
write Scottish-based crime novels as Keith Moray for Hale:
The Gathering Murders; Deathly Wind; Murder
Solstice
and
Flotsam and Jestsam
. In 2006 I won a
Fish Prize for my short historical story
A
Villain’s Tale
and writing as Keith Souter
started a series of historical mysteries set around Sandal Castle,
the ruined medieval castle that I live within arrowshot of: The
Pardoner’s Crime and The
Fool’s
Folly
. In the summer of 2012 the first in
my series of Victorian children’s adventures begins with
The Curse of the Body Snatchers
by G-Press. My website is
www.keithsouter.co.uk
and
my blog is
http://west-uist-chronicle.blogspot.co.uk

[I am a member of the Society of Authors, The
Crime Writers’ Association, Medical Journalists’ Association,
International Thriller Writers, Western Writers of America and
Western Fictioneers.]

CHERYL PIERSON

A native Oklahoman, I was born in Duncan, OK,
and grew up in Seminole, OK. I graduated from the University of
Oklahoma, and hold a B.A. in English. I’ve taught numerous writing
classes and workshops over the past years throughout the OKC metro
area. I live with my husband in Oklahoma City, OK, where we’ve been
for the past 28 years. I have two grown children, ages 22 and
25.

My short story,
“The Kindness of Strangers,” is included in the Western Fictioneers
anthology
The Traditional
West
. Other western short stories you
might be interested in are: “Homecoming,” “Scarlet Ribbons,” “Every
Girl’s Dream,” “One Magic Night,” “Meant to Be” and “Jason’s
Angel,” all available through Western Trail Blazer (WTB)
publishing.

My
novella,
Kane’s
Redemption
, the first of a series, is also
available through WTB, as well as my time travel western
novel,
Time Plains
Drifter
.

Also, look for
my upcoming releases,
Fire
Eyes
, a western novel, and
Kane’s Promise
, the
second novella in the “Kane” series, through WTB. Also, be on the
lookout for my holiday short story, “The Keepers of Camelot,” that
will be included in the Western Fictioneers anthology,
Six Guns and Slay Bells: A Creepy Cowboy
Christmas
.

You can visit my
website at
http://www.cherylpierson.com

You can e-mail me at [email protected] (I
love to hear from readers and other authors!)

All books and
short stories available at:
https://www.amazon.com/author/cherylpierson

JAMES REASONER

I write novels
and short stories for a living (although I'll occasionally write a
short story for a non-paying market if it's something I really want
to do) and book and movie reviews for fun on my blog, which can be
found at
http://jamesreasoner.blogspot.com
.
I started out as a mystery writer nearly 35 years ago and still
work in that genre and others, but I've done more Westerns than
anything else. I've been married to best-selling, award-winning
author, uncredited collaborator, editor, and plotter Livia J.
Washburn for nearly 35 years. (Note the similarity between the
length of my marriage and the length of my writing career.
Coincidence? I don't think so.) We live in the same small town in
Texas where we both grew up, although it's not so small anymore.
(We have a Wal-Mart now!) After all these years, I still love to
write and can't imagine doing anything else. My website is
www.jamesreasoner.net
.

TROY D. SMITH

I am from the
Upper Cumberland region of Tennessee. My work has appeared in many
anthologies, and in journals such as
Louis
L'Amour Western Magazine, Civil War Times,
and
Wild West
. In addition, I’ve written novels in several genres—from
mysteries like
Cross Road Blues
to the Civil War epic
Good Rebel Soil
. My other Civil War
epic,
Bound for the
Promise-Land
, won a Spur Award in 2001 and
I was a finalist on two other occasions. Two of my short stories
are finalists for this year's Peacemaker Award for western fiction.
In a massive lapse of collective judgment, the membership of
Western Fictioneers elected me president for 2012. I received my
Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, and teach American Indian
history at Tennessee Tech. My motto is: “I don’t write about things
that happen to people, I write about people that things happen to.”
My website is
www.troyduanesmith.com
,
and my blog is
http://tnwordsmith.blogspot.com
.

Sample

Wolf Creek Book 2: Kiowa
Vengeance

CHAPTER ONE

The six-man Kiowa scouting party came down
on the Manning ranch like a wolf on the fold.

Roy Manning and his younger brother, Hal,
had been about to go looking for a couple of strays. They’d just
ridden out of the barn when Hal got an arrow through the throat. He
made a gurgling sound and clutched his neck with both hands. Blood
spurted between his fingers, and his horse broke into a run,
throwing Hal’s body off about twenty yards away.

A ball from an 1866 Henry Yellow Boy blew a
hole in Roy’s heart, and he pitched from the saddle, dead before he
hit the dirt.

Two of the Kiowa warriors jumped from their
horses and drew their knives. One cut away Roy’s scalp while the
other was busy stripping Hal to remove his genitals.

The other four warriors had already stormed
into the house, where Sue Manning was trying to hide her son and
two young daughters. A warrior knocked her to the floor with one
blow, while the other three dealt with the screaming children. All
the surviving Mannings were dragged outside.

They killed the boy first, then held Sue
while they raped her daughters. She’d fainted long before they got
to her.

When the warriors rode away from the ranch,
no one was left alive. And in that, they were lucky. The scouting
party, steeped in blood, headed northeast, toward the road where
the stage from Wichita would be heading for Wolf Creek.

***

The woman who called herself Cora Sloane
wasn’t impressed with her fellow passengers on the Wolf Creek
stage.

Whenever the swaying coach hit a bump in the
road, which was all too often, Lester Weatherby, a talkative
whiskey drummer from St. Louis, would deliberately bounce against
her and try to collide with her bosom. He was a small,
unprepossessing man, and when he wasn’t bouncing around, he tried
to ingratiate himself with Cora, which only irritated her. She
found herself wishing that the stage door would flop open and
Weatherby would fall out. So far it hadn’t happened.

Cora wished she were sharing the seat with
one of the other passengers—though, on second thought, not the one
who sat across from her. John Hix said he was Wolf Creek’s barber.
He looked as if a good puff of wind would blow him away, but
something about his eyes bothered Cora. They were empty as the
prairie sky, but there was a kind of feral heat in them that
reminded her of a coyote she’d seen once as it tore into a couple
of chickens. Hix had told Cora that he’d been out of town on
business, though he hadn’t said where he’d been or why—the plain
implication being that whatever business it was, it was certainly
none of hers.

Cora had never been to Wolf Creek. She’d
seen an advertisement in a newspaper that said the town was looking
for a school teacher, and she’d written a letter to apply for the
job. To her surprise, she’d been accepted—she’d packed at once and
left the hotel in Wichita where she was staying. She didn’t like to
remain in one place for too long, but Wolf Creek was small and far
enough away from her home to be safe. Or so she hoped.

The most intriguing passenger was the man
beside Hix. He appeared to be in his late forties, though his
shaggy hair was still dark and untouched by gray. He’d introduced
himself politely to Cora and the other passengers as Dave Benteen
and explained that he was going to Wolf Creek to set up as the
town’s gunsmith. An unnamed friend had helped him purchase a store
where he’d be working. His weathered face showed the scars of past
battles, and Cora wondered what they might have been. His haunted
eyes gave him the look of someone with secrets.

Cora had seen that look in her own eyes in
the mirror, and she’d had to learn to smile with her eyes as well
as her mouth in order to hide it.