THE WILD BUNCH RIDE AGAIN

It's Wednesday and the Wild Bunch ride again - this initiative, the brain child of western writer, Terry James, sees a bunch of us writers posting extracts from our work. The theme this week is the bad guy and I've selected a section from Tarnished Star where Cole Masters confronts the Bowden crew. For other extracts see the links at the end of the post.



Tarnished Star (C) Gary Dobbs
Posted with kind permission of Robert Hale LTD


‘Don’t know anyone else who’d take pleasure is cutting up a defenceless
woman.’

That seemed to anger Clem. ‘Woman,’ he roared. ‘It weren’t no woman. This
was a whore. Just because God gave her titties don’t make her no woman.’


‘She was a woman, sure enough.’ Cole stood his ground, feeling the evil eye
of each and every weapon trained on him. He bit his lower lip to quell his nerves and
prayed that the anguish he was feeling was not visible. He muscles ached and felt as
heavy as lead. He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to shoot if the need arose and suddenly
the enormity of the danger facing him sent his stomach into spasms.

‘My son will face trial,’ Clem Bowden said, firmly. ‘But until that day comes
I’ll see him released into my custody.’

‘No.’ Cole said, spitting the words out of a dry mouth. The whiskey he’d
drunk earlier left a sour taste in the back of his throat and he coughed, almost hearing
fingers tense on triggers as he did so.

‘We’ll we’re going to take him.’ Clem said and nodded to his ranch foreman
besides him. ‘You going to stop us?’

Clem took a step forward and then Cole sensed movement behind him and he
turned to see both Jessie and old man Tanner standing on the boardwalk outside the
jailhouse. There was one of Bowden’s gunmen to either side of Jessie and Em and both
suddenly trained their weapons on them, one apiece.
‘Shit.’ Cole said.

Clem and his ranch foreman kept their steady pace and were now almost level
with Cole. They didn’t alter their course but kept coming with measured, purposeful
strides.

Da, da, da dum - buy the book to find out what happens next!

The Tarnished Star by Jack Martin is available now from all good book sellers - overseas readers can snap the book up postage free from The Book Depository which is a darn good deal - these folks will send the book to the moon at no cost to the buyer.


Other extracts
Terry James
Jack Giles
Lance Howard
I.J.Parnham