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  Harder than the Rest

  MacLarens of Fire Mountain

  SHIRLEEN DAVIES

  Book Three in the MacLarens of Fire Mountain Series

  Copyright © 2013 by Shirleen Davies

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

  For permission requests, contact the publisher.

  Avalanche Ranch Press, LLC

  PO Box 12618

  Prescott, AZ 86304

  Harder than the Rest is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used factiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is wholly coincidental.

  Cover artwork by idrewdesign.

  Description

  Will MacLaren is a hardened, plain-speaking bounty hunter. His life centers on finding men guilty of horrendous crimes and making sure justice is done. There is no place in his world for the carefree attitude he carried years before when a tragic event destroyed his dreams.

  Amanda is the daughter of a successful Colorado rancher. Determined and proud, she works hard to prove she is as capable as any man and worthy to be her father’s heir. When a stranger arrives, her independent nature collides with the strong pull toward the handsome ranch hand. But is he what he seems and could his secrets endanger her as well as her family?

  The last thing Will needs is to feel passion for another woman. But Amanda elicits feelings he thought were long buried. Can Will’s desire for her change him? Or will the vengeance he seeks against the one man he wants to destroy—a dangerous opponent without a conscious—continue to control his life?

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to our three oldest sons, Justin, Brandon, and Martin. Each is special in their own, unique way, and each has brought meaning to the terms dedication, family, and loyalty. I love you all.

  Acknowledgements

  As with the first two books in this series, I want to thank my editor, Regge Episale, who continues to be a beacon through my writing journey.

  Thanks also to my beta readers, including my wonderful husband, Richard. Their input and suggestions are insightful and greatly appreciated.

  Finally, many thanks to my wonderful resources, including Diane Lebow, who has been a whiz at guiding my social media endeavors.

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Other books in the MacLarens of Fire Mountain series

  Harder than the Rest

  Prologue

  New Mexico Territory, 1886

  “Don’t shoot, MacLaren. I’m laid-up, can’t hurt you none.” The old man pleaded from his bunk in the dirty hidden shack. He’d been holed-up for a couple of weeks, with little food and less water, since taking a shot in the leg during a robbery that had gone wrong. He’d barely escaped alive. His sons hadn’t been so fortunate.

  “You hear me? I ain’t no threat to you.” He shifted his weight on the old mattress, trying to get a better view of the man standing just outside the door.

  No answer came. The old man could just see the silhouette of the bounty hunter who’d tracked him. MacLaren wasn’t human, at least that’s what others said of him, and the old man had joined the ranks of believers.

  No one knew of this old shack where he and his boys hid after each robbery. It lay tucked deep into the rugged mountains north of Splitshot, New Mexico, and took several days on horseback to reach. He guessed no one had ever tracked them closer than ten miles. All had given up and turned back. All except Will MacLaren.

  “Hear me good, old man. Makes no difference to me if I take you in alive or dead. Full of holes or not, I know you can walk, cause I’ve been watching.” MacLaren shifted his stance from his location behind a tree, about ten feet from the cabin entrance. “And I’d think twice about trying to run if I were you. If you do, you’ll be dead before you get five feet.” His voice was hard, rough, and raspy, the result of an ambush several years before. There was no mistaking that he meant what he said.

  “Now, you know I ain’t able to run like you’re thinking, MacLaren.” He changed positions once more to adjust the blanket that covered his legs. “I’d have a better chance with a judge than with you.”

  “If that’s what you think, then you’d best give up and come on out. I’ll make sure you get your trial. No one has to die here today.” Will continued to glance around the brush and trees that encircled the house. He was confident the old man was alone, but being careless had cost him in the past, and he had no intention of ever being taken by surprise again. “Let’s not waste anymore time, Tankard. Come out or I’ll come in and get you.”

  “Now, I ain’t so sure I’d make it back alive. Way I hear it, you bring just as many back wrapped in a blanket.”

  Will knew the old man was stalling but he couldn’t detect any movement from his current position. He shifted a few inches as he gazed into the dark cabin, and saw it—shiny metal that poked out from the blanket’s edge. His hand gripped tighter on his own rifle. He brought the gun up to his shoulder. “I’m saying it once more. Don’t do anything stupid. There’s just no chance you’ll make it through this alive if you do.”

  But as the last words were said, Tankard pulled a gun from under the blanket and tried to get a shot off before MacLaren had time to react. It wasn’t to be.

  Two seconds later the old man lay dead. As far as MacLaren was concerned, Tankard and both his sons, Billy and Tuck, could rot in hell together. Jamie, Will’s older brother, should’ve killed Billy when he had the chance several years ago, but as a U.S. Marshal he’d done what was expected, what was right, and arrested him instead. Will didn’t know how many other people had died at Billy’s hand since then, but there would be no more. Their reign of robbing and killing had ended.

  Within the hour Will MacLaren, with Tankard’s body wrapped in a blanket and secured to the old man’s horse, began the long trek down the mountain.

  Chapter One

  Splitshot was a growing community located in what many considered to be a desolate area in the Northern New Mexico Territory, with little water and less commerce. Will told himself that he had come here because of the reward on the Tankard family, but he’d fought his way up the mountains through the rough terrain, changing weather, and sudden hazards because he knew what kind of animal he tracked. Old man Tankard was a heartless, cold-blooded murderer, with no reluctance about killing an innocent man, woman, or child, if they stood in the way of what he wanted. Human life meant nothing to him and had meant little more to either of his sons. But t
hey were no longer a concern to law-abiding people, like his family back home in Fire Mountain, Arizona Territory. Tonight the bounty hunter would celebrate a righteous death.

  “MacLaren. Buy you a drink?” Sheriff Cordell McAllister grabbed a chair and sat down at Will’s table without invitation. He knew he didn’t need one. Cordell had known Will since they’d sat next to each other at the schoolhouse in Fire Mountain. They’d become best friends. The two of them, plus Will’s twin brother, Drew, had shared so many adventures that they’d never be able to remember them all.

  “Anytime, Cord,” Will said without looking up from the whiskey he nursed.

  “Slow night,” Cord added idly. He held up his drink and pointed it around the almost empty saloon. “Tomorrow will be different, being Saturday night and all. Then the locals will come in, have a few drinks, turn into idiots, and make my life exciting.” He smiled and downed the whiskey in one gulp.

  “Exciting?” Will looked up at his friend.

  “Well, you know my life isn’t as interesting as yours—traveling around, finding the bad boys, making great money. I’m just a small town sheriff. I have to find excitement where I can.”

  Will just shook his head and continued to study his whiskey. It had been a long few weeks. He’d rest up a spell then find another job that would take him away from Splitshot, possibly out of New Mexico. It had been a long time since he’d been around people who’d known him before his life had changed. Each job seemed to take him further and further away from his roots and the few people he still felt comfortable with. Cord was one of those people. He wished he could stay longer, soak up the warmth and kindness his friend offered, but he knew the past would intrude. It always did.

  “What are your plans, Will? Aren’t you ready to give this up? Go home?” The concern in Cord’s voice was not lost on Will. The compassion was well intended, but Will just didn’t want to be dragged into that conversation again.

  “Not yet, Cord. Don’t know when I’ll be ready. Maybe never.”

  “It’s been over five years. You’ve spent the whole time going after the types of men who did this to you, to Emily. We all loved her, Will, but you’ve got to move on. Live the life you were supposed to live.”

  “Yea, Cord, and what life is that?” Will knew his already rough voice was strained, edgy, but he hated talking about that fateful morning, years before, and the losses he’d suffered.

  “Ranching, breeding horses, all the stuff you planned to do before she died,” Cord replied quietly, not wanting to set Will off, but needing to get his point across.

  “Those plans are as dead as Emily. They mean nothing to me without her.” He swallowed the amber liquid in his glass and poured another. “You know that we’d just finished the house. Baby was due in about four months. Emily had just started feeling better,” Will said, more to himself than to Cord. Cord had heard the story many times, but always let his friend talk it out. “Shouldn’t have let her convince me to take her off the ranch. If I’d followed my gut and stood firm…” his agonized voice trailed off.

  “Wasn’t your fault, none of it.” Cord struggled to find the right words, but in five years he’d never come up with them. Didn’t figure he would tonight. “The filly you wanted for Emily was available and she insisted on going with you. I doubt anyone could’ve kept her at the ranch. How were you to know the Hawley’s would break Chad out of jail and head directly across your path? You’ve blamed yourself for all these years and there’s just no sense to it anymore.”

  Will sat quiet for so long that Cord didn’t think he’d answer. “Doesn’t matter. She’s gone, along with our baby. You know, Cord, she was the only woman I ever wanted. I’m not interested in another, not to love anyway. My life is fine as it is.”

  Leaning forward and placing his arms on the table, Cord looked square into Will’s haunted eyes. “Do you think that’s what Emily would want for you? Becoming a hired gun, never settling down? Do you think she could love the man you’re becoming?” He could see Will’s face harden and back straighten at the words, but continued. “You got them, all of them. Buried Emily, tracked the Hawley’s down and brought them in for the justice they deserved—well, at least the two you didn’t kill, and the one we heard got shot dead near Santa Fe. He was the last. It’s time to go home before this type of life consumes you and you won’t be able to stop. That’s all I’m saying.”

  Will shot back the whiskey and slammed his glass on the table before standing to stare down at a man he loved like a brother. “Everything you say is true. I know it. But it doesn’t make a bit of difference to me. I know you mean well, but it’s my problem. That life’s over. The man you knew is long gone.”

  “So you’re just giving up. Going to continue this until someone kills you and ends your misery?” Cord couldn’t believe this was the same joking, carefree Will of their youth—the relaxed boy who’d displayed a constant smile and pulled endless pranks—the man everyone could count on to be the first to offer help or just an ear, and who could joke anyone out of a sour mood.

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Will replied truthfully. “Go home to June and your kids. Tell them goodbye for me.” He walked to the door before turning and adding, almost as an afterthought. “Take care, Cord.”

  ******

  Fire Mountain, Arizona Territory

  “Any word, Tom?” Jamie MacLaren walked into the telegraph office with his young son, Adam, following at a slow pace, looking up at the tall counter and the thin man smiling down at him.

  “Jamie, how you doing today?” Tom had known the MacLaren family for years, watched the brothers grow up. And like many in Fire Mountain, he knew of their accomplishments, failures, and struggles.

  “Good, Tom. Real good. Looking for news from either of our errant brothers. Got anything for me?” Jamie reached down to pick up his son and position him on top of the counter.

  “A message from Drew just came in,” Tom said as he reached over to grab the telegraph and hand it to Jamie. “Nothing from Will. Any idea where he is right how?”

  “Nothing since the last message a couple of months ago from Cord McAllister saying he was in Splitshot, looking for old man Tankard. It’s killing Aunt Alicia to not know what goes on with that kid.” He moved a squirming Adam from the counter and placed him back on the wood floor. “Niall’s about ready to ride out to New Mexico and track him down, and if he goes, I just may go with him.” The disgusted look, and tone of Jamie’s voice, illustrated the frustration all the MacLarens felt at the lack of communication from Will.

  “It’s a hard thing, loosing family. Especially someone like Emily. Each man deals with it in his own time. Can’t force ‘em to do it any other way. At least that’s the way I look at it,” Tom said, his voice full of sympathy.

  Jamie couldn’t remember anyone other than Tom ever running the telegraph office. Besides Reverend Blanchard, Tom probably knew more about the people of the town than anyone else. And he was a good friend.

  “Yea, I know you’re right, but it’s hard on the family. We just wish he’d put this quest for revenge, or justice, as he calls it, behind him. Come home.” Jamie read the message from the other twin, Drew, laughed softly, then folded it and tucked it into his shirt pocket. “Well, we’d best get going. Got a supply list a yard long today. Thanks.” Jamie shook Tom’s hand, picked up Adam, and left to deliver Drew’s message and lack of news from Will to Aunt Alicia.

  Chapter Two

  Cold Creek, Colorado

  “Ah, come on, Amanda. How long can dinner take? There’s still plenty of light left. I’ll even ride with you, if you like.” Chet smiled at the young woman he’d been pursuing for several months. She was a tough one all right.

  “Stop, Chet.” Amanda held up her hand as if to ward off the man blocking her path. “I’ve told you I’m not interested in having dinner with you.” Amanda’s exasperation showed. The cowboy had become too pushy, almost insulting in his advances. “I don’t have time for
dinner. I need to get back to the ranch and Joey.” She looked over her shoulder. “See, there’s Jake now.” She pointed to a man on horseback coming up behind Chet.

  The older man rode up next to her. “You all set, Amanda?”

  “Sure am, Jake.” Amanda smiled as he helped steady her horse, Angel, so she could mount. “Let’s get going.”

  “Some day you’ll change your mind, Amanda, and I’ll be waiting,” Chet yelled after her. She turned her horse in the direction of the ranch.

  “What was that all about?” Jake asked once they were outside of Cold Creek, the town closest to the ranch.

  “Nothing. He’s just a nuisance, nothing more.” Amanda refused to dwell on Chet or his persistent requests to court her. She had much more important things on her mind. “So what did Whitaker say about selling us the bull?” She’d been negotiating for this particular animal for months, and Whitaker finally seemed interested.

  “I think we’re breaking through to him.” Jake sounded pleased that they might be one step closer to buying the bull that could produce the kind of stock needed in this mountainous and cold region of Colorado. “We started talking price and I don’t think we’re that far off. Told him I’d check with him again in a few days. Got to head back into Cold Creek anyway to pick up the supplies we ordered. Maybe I’ll return with a bull, too.”

  “That’s good, but just don’t let him push you over our limit. I only have so much to put towards this bull.” Although the ranch did well, cash was always tight. Her father had established a line of credit before he and her mother had left for their long-awaited trip to Europe, but Amanda didn’t want to use it unless she had to.