Shadow of the Hangman Read Online Free PDF Page B

lusts. Anders had been right; there could be no forgiveness for that. No going back to what might have been. Not now. Not ever.
    Shade had to be destroyed, but Shannon would do it himself.
    The captain hobbled stiffly toward the barn. He was tormented by grief, but his eyes were determined. It was time to end it and send back to the hell where it had been spawned whatever had possessed his boy’s soul.
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    The barn doors were wide open and moonlight slanted the dark interior. The musky odor of horses mingled with the night smells of cedar, prairie grass, and high-growing pine. A teasing wind slapped Captain Shannon’s silk robe against his wooden legs, and strands of iron-gray hair tossed across his face.
    Shannon drew the gun from his pocket and walked lamely to the entrance of the barn. Breathing hard, he rested on the crutches and said, “Shade, where are you? Speak up, boy.” Moonlight glinted blue on the barrel of the revolver by his side. “Shade?”
    Inside, a horse snorted and a hoof thudded on wood. Far off, Shannon heard an owl question the night, and closer by coyotes yipped at a moon as big and round as a silver dollar.
    â€œI know you’re in there, boy,” he said. “I’m here to cut you loose.”
    The answering silence mocked Shannon. He stumbled to the lantern that always sat on top of an upturned Arbuckle coffee box to the left of the doorway. A few matches lay next to the lantern, and the captain picked one up . . .
    Then screamed as a shocking pain hammered the back of his knees.
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    Shannon dropped in a heap, and his Colt skittered away from him. He reached for the revolver, then collapsed again as an iron crowbar slammed into his left shoulder and shattered his collarbone.
    Through a scarlet haze of agony, he saw the silhouette of a man standing over him, saw the gleam of his teeth in the darkness.
    â€œHello, Daddy,” the man said. “How nice of you to drop by.”
    Shannon was almost beyond speech, his terrible injuries taking their toll. During the late war both his legs had been amputated below the knees, and now one of his artificial limbs had followed the path of the Colt and lay several yards away.
    â€œI came to kill you, Shade,” he said.
    â€œI know you did, Daddy.”
    â€œDamn you to hell, you’re a monster.”
    Shade took a knee beside his father and stared into his eyes. “I know that, too. Isn’t it fun?”
    Captain Shannon made a lunge for his revolver, but the crowbar came down fast and hard and shattered his elbow. He groaned and fell on his back. “Finish it, Shade,” he said. “I don’t want to live in your world a moment longer.”
    Shade smiled. “Why, certainly, Daddy.” He raised the iron bar and brought it crashing down on his father’s head. Only when the older man’s skull was smashed into pulp did he stop.
    Slowly, Shade got to his feet, his thin chest rising and falling as he struggled to catch his breath. He stood still for a few moments and cursed the asthma that had plagued him since childhood.
    He looked at his father’s body. Damn him, not that he cared. Not that anyone ever cared. Shade kicked the lifeless man again and again, until his building fury was played out.
    Gasping again, he stepped from the barn into the mother-of-pearl moonlight, his hands clenched into tight fists, and he stared at the star-splashed night sky, the woman craving ravening at him.
    God, he needed a woman real bad.

Chapter Six
    â€œSeems to me,” Jacob O’Brien said, “that we can settle this amicably.”
    â€œWhat the hell does that mean?” the older, bearded man standing beside him at the bar said. “Amic . . . ambly . . .”
    â€œIt means, my ignorant friend, that we can settle this in a friendly manner, like,” Jacob said.
    â€œAn’ suppose I don’t cotton to settling in a friendly manner?” the bearded