Christ, the way you're going at it, it'll take a week for you to kill that breed off." "Will not. And I won't rush. Pa always said if a man's to do a job, he should take his time and do it right. I aim to do this Injun up right." "Yeah, but..." The voices faded in Amanda's ears, overridden by the loud, erratic slamming of her heart. Her breath sawed in and out, stinging her lungs. The pistol she clutched to her chest felt cold and solid... and so damn useless! Her fingers were trembling too badly for her to shoot with any degree of accuracy even if she knew how to, which she didn't. She had found them. Dear God, she'd done it! She didn't know how, didn't really care. The fact was, she'd done it. That was the good news. The bad news was, there wasn't one kidnapper, there were two. The very bad news was, they had Jake—what was he doing here?—and the situation didn't look promising. Amanda stifled a hysterical hiccup in her throat when she realized her fingers weren't the only things trembling.
