The Loner: The Blood of Renegades Read Online Free PDF Page A

asked. His voice, along with those of the others, was crystal clear to Conrad on top of the mesa.
    “There were only two men,” Leatherwood snapped.
    “Plus the girl. That makes three. The odds are even if you count her.”
    “She’s a girl. She’s not going to fight.”
    “She had the gumption to run away from Elder Hissop,” Kiley pointed out. “She might surprise you.”
    “Let’s get back to the horses,” Leatherwood said. “God is on our side. He’s not going to take the side of a couple Gentiles and a wayward girl over His own avenging angels.”
    Conrad hoped Leatherwood was wrong about that.
    In order to keep dodging trouble until they got out of the reach of those fanatical gunmen, he and Arturo and Selena could use all the help they could get, divine or otherwise.

Chapter 6
     
    Conrad waited while the men walked off and vanished into the darkness. They were no longer trying to be quiet, so he was able to hear their footsteps. A few minutes later, the swift rataplan of hoofbeats drifted to his ears as the avenging angels rode away from the mesa.
    He waited until he couldn’t hear the horses at all, then waited some more. Finally satisfied the gunmen were gone, he stood up, made his way to the ledge, and started down.
    As he climbed he thought about what to do next. He and Arturo had several canteens full of water, as well as a small barrel of it stowed in the back of the buggy, but it was a long, dry stretch across that part of Utah. Conrad had planned to take advantage of the water stops along the railroad.
    He’d just learned some of their enemies would be waiting for them at Navajo Wash, so that was out. And so were the tanks at Frenchman’s Flat, wherever that was. Maybe Selena would know of another place they could replenish their water supply.
    When he reached the bottom of the trail, he turned in the direction of the rocks, but had taken only a couple steps before he heard an all-too-familiar sound behind him—the ugly, metallic ratcheting of a gun being cocked.
    A hard voice immediately followed. “Don’t move, mister. It’ll be easier on me keeping you alive, but I’ll shoot you if I have to.”
    Conrad froze. He recognized the voice. “Kiley.”
    “You know me?”
    “Only by what Leatherwood called you. I thought you went to Navajo Wash.”
    “I know what you thought,” Kiley said with a note of boastful pride. “I told the other men with me to go on, that I’d catch up to them at the wash, then doubled back here on foot. I spotted that little ledge when we were here earlier. Jackson never noticed it, but I thought at least one of you might be on top of the mesa. Looks like I was right. I would have gone up, but I heard you coming down and decided to wait and get the drop on you.”
    “You want all the credit for bringing back the girl, don’t you? You’re trying to impress Father Agony so he’ll make you the top man in his gang.”
    Conrad heard the sharp, angry hiss of breath between Kiley’s teeth. “Don’t you disrespect Elder Hissop by using that awful name for him. You shouldn’t refer to the avenging angels as a gang, either. We’re doing the Lord’s work.”
    “By killing?”
    “If that’s what it takes. Now tell me, are the other two still up there?”
    “I’m not telling you anything.”
    “Then you’re a fool. I’ll put a bullet in your knee so you can’t run and you’ll hurt so bad you’ll tell me anything I want to know. Or you can cooperate, and once I have the girl, I’ll let you and your friend go.”
    Normally Conrad wouldn’t have believed a promise like that. He didn’t know Mormons well enough to be sure what they might do, however. Maybe Kiley was telling the truth.
    It didn’t really matter. Conrad wasn’t going to turn Selena over to him. No matter how Agonistes Hissop’s other wives felt about it, Selena regarded marriage to the elder as being locked away in prison, and Conrad wasn’t going to condemn her to that.
    His mind