Flash Gold Read Online Free Page B

did not hurt, but it startled her. Cold snow scraped her cheek. Kali tried to push up, but Cedar pressed her face down.
    “ What are you—”
    An explosion roared, hammering her eardrums. Wood splintered and snapped. Branches and needles pelted the snow around them.
    “ What was that ?” she asked when Cedar rolled off her.
    “ Grenade.” He patted the snow. “Tarnation, where’s my gun?”
    Her ears rang, and she barely heard him. A rifle fired, the sound puny compared to the previous blast, but a bullet burrowed into the snow inches from her face, reminding her how deadly the threat was.
    Kali rolled to her back. She had retained the grip on her rifle, and she lifted it, searching for the gunman.
    Cedar, sword in hand, plowed down the hillside, churning snow as he high-stepped through the powder. The man in the gully popped up, rifle pointing toward Kali, but he shifted it toward Cedar.
    Not able to target him from her back, she lunged to her knees. She feared she would be too slow to help Cedar, but somehow he anticipated the gunman’s shot. He hurled himself into a roll, and the bullet flew harmlessly high.
    Kali fired, aiming for the man’s shoulder. She clipped him, but he did not go down. He howled in pain—or maybe anger—and turned his rifle on her. He pumped the lever, but she fired again first. Once, then again. Both shots took him in the chest.
    Eyes bulging wide, he stared in disbelief. His rifle fell to the snow, and he slumped out of view behind the gully wall.
    Dead. By her hand.
    Kali propped herself on her rifle for support and closed her eyes, chin drooped to her chest. It was not the first time she had wounded someone, but it was the first time she had killed. Self-defense or not, it did not sit well in her gut. As if becoming a killer added some measure of truth to the imprecations the townsfolk sent her way. Evil witch, they whispered. Harbinger of death and misfortune.
    Snow crunched as Cedar approached. He had sheathed his sword and located his rifle. “How do you fire so quickly?”
    Her surprised “Huh?” frosted the air before her eyes.
    “ Those rapid-fire shots. It almost sounded like a Gatling Gun.” His gaze fell to the lever of her Winchester. “How did you chamber the rounds so quickly?”
    “ You’re worried about how my gun works when we just killed a pile of men? Are weapons the only thing you care about? What’s wrong with you?”
    His eyebrows rose at her outburst. Maybe it was not wise to berate such a proficient warrior.
    His response was mild though: “Much, I’m told.”
    Kali eyed the desecrated copse. The grenade had mauled the evergreens, leaving one knocked over and several with broken or missing branches. Her first feeling was one of indignation—the Mounties were supposed to be limiting firearms in the Dominion of Canada—but her second feeling involved inquisitiveness. She was tempted to see if anything remained of the grenade so she could take it with her to examine later. She caught herself before moving more than a step that direction. If her thoughts could shift so quickly from killing to tinkering, perhaps she was no better than Cedar.
    He was watching her, though not, it seemed, with judging eyes. He simply waited for an answer to his question.
    “ I modified it to be self-loading.” Kali lifted the rifle.
    “ Do you do custom work for people?”
    “ Of course. That’s how I scrape together enough money to buy bacon and flour. It’s also, I suspect, the main reason nobody’s tried seriously to drive me out of town. I’m useful.”
    Cedar nodded. “I’d be interested in some of those smoke nuts.”
    “ I thought you had no money,” Kali said, thinking she might catch him in a lie.
    He spoke without hesitation. “We’ll win, and then I’ll have one hundred dollars.”
    “ Not if we have more delays like this.”
    Cedar squinted at something below. “There’s a woman, too, isn’t there?”
    Kali winced. She had forgotten.