Page 14 of Lone Star Showdown

Rachel maneuvered her body again so she could get a better look at him. Again though, she couldn’t tell if this was Paulie.

“Come out into the clearing,” Jericho instructed. “And get on your knees.”

The man complied. He hobbled about ten feet away from the woods, stopping at the makeshift driveway that fronted the gates. He bent his legs as if lowering himself to the ground.

But that didn’t happen.

A shot rang out.

Not from the killer.

No, this shot had come from behind her, and the bullet hit the killer in the head. He sort of froze there for a second before he crumpled onto the ground.

Rachel whirled around behind her and saw Arnez. Standing. His gun still aimed at the man he’d just killed.

Jericho cursed. So did Rachel. And Tilda. More profanity rolled through the others as Jericho scrambled down the tower.

“No way was I gonna let him live,” Arnez spat out. “Nobody comes onto our land and starts shooting.”

“He’d surrendered,” Rachel snarled, getting to her feet. “And we needed him alive.”

“He was a killer,” Arnez argued. “He’s better off dead.”

“The law might not think so,” Jericho said, dropping to the ground just a yard or so away from Arnez. Jericho landed like an agile cat. A deadly one, ready to pounce.

“The law?” Arnez challenged, moving to get right in Jericho’s face. “What the hell do they have to do with this?”

“Plenty,” Jericho answered, and like Arnez, there was some fire in his eyes. “A man’s dead. Yes, a man who tried to kill, but the cops have to be called in.”

“No way in hell.” Arnez puffed up his chest.

“Yes, there’s a way in hell,” Tilda countered, and both Jimbo and Woody muttered similar agreements.

It was Jimbo who continued. “We can’t just bury him and cover this up, Arnez. It could come back on us if somebody comes looking for him.”

“It’ll come back on us now if they bring in the cops,” Arnez shouted.

Jimbo apparently decided Arnez was in too much of a fit of temper to be reasoned with so he turned to Jericho. “We don’t have phones so you’ll have to make the call.”

Jericho did, all the while Arnez cursed him. “I should have killed you,” Arnez snapped to Jericho before the man stormed away, heading back to his RV.

Rachel finally released the breath she’d been holding. And she wondered if Arnez realized he was going to have to answer for shooting a man who’d surrendered. The cops could bring charges against Arnez for that, and if so, Arnez was likely going to aim all his white-hot rage at Jericho and her.

Jericho made a call and then put his phone back in his pocket. “Sheriff O’Neil is on the way,” he said to Jimbo and the others. “I know her, and she’s fair.”

That still brought on some worried murmurs, but Jericho didn’t address them. Instead, he went out the gate and toward the dead man.

“I’ll check and see if by some miracle he still has a pulse,” Jericho added.

Reaching down, he touched his fingers to the man’s neck, and then using his Glock, he gently lifted the balaclava.

And Jericho cursed.

Chapter Six

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Jericho sat with Rachel in the Canyon Ridge police station, drinking bad coffee. Really, really bad coffee. And looking at the photo of the dead man.

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