Bear shouted, lurching toward the girl, whose hat dangled down her back as she dropped to her knees beside the table. There was another loud thud as wood slivers spewed from the door casing. The rifle’s crack followed a quarter-second later. Out in the yard, the horses whinnied and stumbled around, startled. Haskell wrapped an arm around Raven’s shoulders and whipped her behind the cabin wall, left of the door. “You all right?” he asked her. “I’m all right!” she yelled, glancing down at the torn upper left sleeve of her blouse. At the same time, another bullet hurled through the open door and chewed a divot of wood from the top of the table. Another bullet slammed into the range again, clanging and sparking. “Son of a bitch!” Haskell grated out, edging a look around the left side of the door. Smoke puffed near the dead federal lawman lying against the corral, and Bear jerked his head back behind the doorframe as a bullet slammed into the frame’s opposite side, spitting more slivers in all directions.
