She could feel the brutal anticipation in him. Jeb Smith had a rope. Just get her tied. We'll take her back to town and let the law handle read. Hackett shifted his weight, fumbling for her hands, his grip loosened on one of her arms. in the kitchen.
She had been slicing dried apples with her small carving knife. She had tucked it into the waistband of her skirt when she ran. Her hand free for a second, found the handle. She did not think. She reacted.
She pulled the knife and slashed upward, all her strength and terror behind it. Hackett screamed. It was a high, thin sound. He recoiled, clutching his face. Blood poured through his fingers.
The knife had laid his cheek open from the corner of his mouth to his ear. In that moment of shock, Tyen scrambled free. She was on her feet and gone, a deer vanishing into the thick scrub oak. "Get her!" Pike shrieked, his composure shattering.
Don't let her escape. Jeb and the Drifter charged after her, but the terrain was too thick for horses. They dismounted and plunged into the brush. Hackett was on the ground howling and cursing, his bloodstaining the dry earth. Daniel heard the shot.
His blood turned to ice. He dropped the half-filled buckets and scrambled up the canyon wall, grabbing at roots and rocks, his lungs burning. One shot, run, she ran. He prayed she had run. He burst onto the flat, his rifle ready.
He saw the horses. He saw Hackett on the ground, a pool of blood beside him. He saw Pike, his face a mask of rage. Reed, Pike shouted, pointing a pistol. You will pay for this.
She has mutilated my man. "Where is she?" Daniel roared, his voice inhuman. "Gone," Pike yelled. "Into the rocks."
Jeb, find her. A shout came from the trees. "We got her, Preacher. She's trapped." Daniel did not wait.
He ran past Pike, past the bleeding Hackett, and followed the sounds. He moved with a speed and silence the others did not possess. He was a ghost in the trees, his buckskin shirt blending with the timber. He knew this land. He knew where she would go.
There was a series of ledges, a place they had watched hawks from with a sheer drop to the canyon floor below. It was a dead end. He heard them crashing through the brush ahead of him. He cut left, moving silently over the rockfall. Coming in above them, he found them.