Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Complications Excerpt

As promised, here's a brief excerpt from Complications: The Deputies Book 1

The bad guy, Howdy Baxter, is holding Kitty Moynahan hostage, thinking that he can use her to make Harvey Palmer and Deputy Jesse Thompson drop their guns...

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Jesse saw Baxter’s dive into the tunnel and heard Lila’s agonized voice as she fought to save Kitty. He rose and started for the tunnel, but before he could move away from the ore cart Baxter appeared with his body pressed tightly against Kitty and his arm and hand holding her in front of himself as a shield. The Colt was pressed tightly against her jaw. Jesse took a step forward; the Remington in his right hand swung up as he turned sideways and stepped into a perfect target stance.

“Stop right there, Deputy Thompson!” Baxter snapped. “Or I will spread this young lady’s brains all over this canyon. And I don’t think you want that now, do you?”

Harvey appeared in the corner of Jesse’s narrowed vision, Winchester at the ready. “You stop right there too, Palmer!” Baxter snarled. “If I have to kill both of these lovely ladies to get your attention, I will. You have my word on that.”

“What have you done with Lila?” Harvey grated. “If you’ve touched one hair of her head…”

“Those are big words for someone who will be dead soon!” Baxter suddenly laughed, a high-pitched caw that brought the hair on the back of Jesse’s neck to attention. “Throw down your guns and I’ll only kill the two of you. The ladies can go free. And the same goes for whomever you have on top of the bluff.”

Jesse thumbed back the hammer of the Remington. The front sight was steady on the small sliver of Howdy Baxter’s head that he could see. At the same time, he saw that the hammer of Baxter’s Colt was back and the knuckles of his trigger finger were white. Baxter was on the edge of pulling the trigger and killing Kitty.

“Drop the gun, Baxter,” Jesse said evenly. “If you kill her, the whole territory will be hunting you and you know it. Even your own men will track you down and kill you.”

“But that won’t matter to you, will it?” Baxter crowed. “You’ll be dead.”

“So it looks like a standoff,” Jesse said. His gray eyes narrowed as he tried to figure the odds of shooting Baxter without Baxter killing Kitty.

“I think not. Drop the gun!” Baxter commanded. His voice was rising and he was getting further and further from sanity. Jesse’s finger tensed on the trigger. Then something caught Jesse’s eye that kept him from firing.

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Author's disclaimer: Before everyone starts thinking that my blog is degenerating into nothing more than a commercial for my books, let me say that, well, it is, but only temporarily. It'll get back to normal as soon as I manage to migrate everything from my old website. Until then, please bear with me...

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