Death Rides Alone Read Online Free

it didn’t really matter. The important thing was turning this situation around so that Tyler was his prisoner.
    â€œI really ought to shoot this fella in the head,” Tyler muttered, more to himself than to Crandall. “But that’d draw too much attention.” The fugitive sighed. “I know I’m gonna regret this, but I guess I’d better tie him up, too.”
    That was good news to Luke’s ears. He could afford to lie there and wait while he continued to recover from being knocked unconscious.
    He was stretched out on his belly, with the side of his face pressed against the hard-packed dirt of the stable’s aisle where he had been standing when he was struck down. It smelled faintly of all the horse manure that had been dropped here over the years.
    Luke hoped once again that he would be able to get a hot bath.
    Once he had captured or killed Judd Tyler, of course.
    A tense moment passed. Maybe Tyler had caught on that he was shamming and said that about tying him up just to keep Luke from trying anything. Maybe the young killer was aiming a gun at his head this very second, about to squeeze the trigger and blow his brains out.
    Then Tyler grunted as he bent over, grabbed Luke’s left wrist with one hand, and pulled it behind his back. He held it there while he took hold of Luke’s other wrist.
    That meant both of Tyler’s hands were full, so he couldn’t be holding a gun.
    Luke exploded into action.
    He bucked up from the ground and threw himself toward where his ears had told him Tyler was standing. His shoulders rammed into the man’s legs at the knees. Tyler yelled in surprise and alarm as he went down.
    Luke rolled over and pushed himself up. Tyler lay on his back a couple of yards away, clawing at the gun on his hip. Luke dived toward him, caught his wrist just as Tyler jerked the Colt out of its holster, and shoved the gun aside as it went off. The shot echoed from the barn’s high ceiling and made the horses in the stalls move around skittishly.
    Luke drove his fist into Tyler’s face while hanging on to the fugitive’s gun wrist with his other hand. He planned to batter Tyler into senselessness.
    Tyler fought back with surprising strength. He might be slender, but evidently his muscles were tough as rawhide. He writhed partially out from under Luke and aimed a knee at his groin.
    Luke wasn’t able to avoid the blow entirely, although it landed higher in his abdomen and didn’t do as much damage as it would have if it had found its intended target.
    As it was, his grip slipped enough for Tyler to tear free. The gun in the young man’s hand slashed at Luke’s head in a vicious swipe.
    That blow missed, too, as Luke jerked aside, but it did some damage anyway as the gun barrel crashed down on his left shoulder. Luke’s entire left arm went numb, which meant he was fighting one-handed.
    Tyler really turned into a wildcat then, fighting with the ferocity of sheer desperation. He punched, kicked, clawed, and even bit, clamping his teeth down on Luke’s thumb when Luke tried to grab his jaw.
    With a pained yell, Luke tore his hand free and hammered a punch into Tyler’s midsection. His left arm was still numb and not any good to him, so he struck as hard and fast as he could with the right.
    Tyler was snake-quick, though, and most of the blows glanced off.
    As the two men rolled and thrashed on the floor, they wound up next to a shovel lying on the ground. Tyler grabbed it and rammed the handle into Luke’s ribs.
    Fresh pain shot through Luke at the impact. Tyler swung the handle at his head. After being knocked out once already, Luke knew another blow might cause permanent damage, so he ducked, hunched his shoulders, and took the blow there.
    He butted his head into Tyler’s face. Tyler reared back, stunned. Luke dug a knee into the wanted man’s belly and grabbed him around the throat at the same time. Keeping him