Bad Men Die Read Online Free PDF

payment for that jibe, Luke thought as he chuckled to himself.
    Even though the hour was fairly early—the sun had just come up—quite a few people were on the street, and Luke realized they had turned out to watch him leave Rimrock with his prisoner. Having the notorious desperado Frank McCluskey captured in their town was probably the most exciting thing that had happened in the settlement in years. It was possible nothing would ever take place in Rimrock to top it. Some of the townspeople were probably even sorry to see them go.
    Luke wouldn’t regret putting the place behind him. He glanced across the street at the Powder River Saloon, which was dark and quiet at the early hour. Delia Bradley was probably asleep. He was confident that what he had told her was right. She would soon forget all about Frank McCluskey.
    Luke swung up into the dun’s saddle. Elliott handed him the reins of McCluskey’s horse.
    â€œThanks again, Marshal,” Luke told the lawman.
    â€œMy pleasure. Just be careful, Jensen. You never know what you might run into.”
    Luke nodded and heeled his horse into motion. Leading McCluskey’s mount, he rode out of Rimrock, on his way to collecting six thousand dollars.
    As they passed the saloon, he thought he saw a curtain in one of the windows twitch, but he wasn’t sure about that and didn’t figure it mattered anyway.

    Delia let the curtain fall closed. She couldn’t bear to watch McCluskey humiliated like that, being paraded in front of those stupid townspeople as a helpless prisoner while Jensen took him out of town. She hadn’t known McCluskey long, but she knew what a proud man he was and how that display had to be eating at his guts.
    It was just one more thing Luke Jensen would pay for, sooner or later, she swore to herself. Her eyes were red-rimmed and gritty. She’d been awake all night, crying and plotting her revenge.
    That damn bounty hunter would rue the day he first set eyes on her, she thought as she stripped off the thin wrapper she wore and started cramming her few belongings into a threadbare carpetbag.

CHAPTER 5
    Southwest Wyoming was a wide basin broken up occasionally by ridges and buttes and gullies. The rugged, snowcapped mountains in the distance were the Prophecies. Rattlesnake Wells was located at the base of that range, on the closest side of the peaks.
    In the thin, clear air, the mountains looked almost close enough to reach out and touch, but Luke and McCluskey were still a day and a half’s ride away, assuming they didn’t run into any delays.
    They rode steadily toward the mountains and stopped only occasionally to let the horses rest. McCluskey complained almost constantly, but after a while Luke was able to just ignore him, almost as if he couldn’t hear it.
    During the years he had spent as a bounty hunter, a lot of his prisoners had done the same thing, and the only other options were to gag them or knock them out, both of which were too much trouble as far as he was concerned. It was easier to not pay attention to the profanity-laced tirades.
    When the sun was high overhead, Luke called a halt in the shade of some scrubby aspens that grew along the edge of a gully. The wash was dry, but he supposed water ran in it during rainstorms, which accounted for the trees. Their roots could reach down far enough to find some moisture.
    â€œI’ve got some sandwiches I brought from the café back in Rimrock, and I’ll boil up a pot of coffee,” he told McCluskey when he had dismounted and let the dun start grazing on the sparse grass beneath the trees. “You think you can stop flapping your gums long enough to eat?”
    â€œHow the hell am I gonna eat with my hands behind my back? I’ve got to tend to some other business, too, if you know what I mean.” McCluskey smirked at Luke. “You gonna help me with that, bounty hunter?”
    Luke resisted the impulse to backhand him. He