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THE COWBOY FOUND A FROZEN APACHE WOMAN IN THE BLIZZARD—THEN SHE SAW THE PHOTOGRAPH ON HIS WALL

Chapter 10

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The sound echoed off the granite walls of the gorge, followed three seconds later by a second shot, and then the faint, terrifying sound of screaming!

Ayana didn't wait. She dug her heels violently into her mare's flanks, sending the copper horse plunging through the deep snowdrifts toward the ridge!"Ayana! Wait!" Daniel yelled, lunging forward and catching her mare's bridle leather just as the horse reared!"Let go!" she screamed, her dark eyes wide with wild, frantic terror. "My family is up there!""And if you ride straight up that open draw into a crossfire, you'll be dead before you reach the top!" Daniel barked, holding the mare's head down with sheer muscle strength. "Think for three seconds!""They are shooting them!""Listen to me!" Daniel commanded, his gray eyes locking onto hers with a fierce, absolute authority that cut through her panic like a knife. "If you ride into the middle of that clearing, you give them a hostage or a target. If we take the high granite ledge behind the trees, we can see who they are and hit them from above!"Ayana stared at him, her chest heaving, her breathing coming in frantic white plumes in the freezing air.She stopped. She took one long, ragged breath, forced the terror down into her boots, and gave him a single, sharp nod."The high ledge," she agreed, her voice trembling but firm.Daniel released her bridle. He led his bay horse into a thicket of dwarf fir trees, tying both mounts out of sight in a deep drift.Together, they scrambled up the steep, snow-covered granite slope on foot, staying low beneath the drooping, ice-heavy branches of the ponderosa pines.The gunshots were coming faster now—sharp, echoing cracks of repeating rifles mixed with the deeper boom of heavy military carbines.They reached the crest of the granite ledge, flattening themselves against the cold rock behind a thick snowdrift.Below them, nestled in a horseshoe-shaped basin surrounded by sheer sandstone walls, lay her family's camp.Three canvas lodges and two brush wickiups sat near a small spring.Surrounding the camp were ten white men wearing long, heavy wool trail coats and wide-brimmed felt hats. They were cattlemen from the southern valley line—notorious land-grabbers led by a broad, heavy-set man named Vance, whom Daniel recognized instantly.Vance’s men had surrounded the camp, firing their rifles over the heads of the lodge poles to keep the defenders pinned inside, while two riders were actively trying to drive a herd of twenty native ponies out of the camp corral!Standing near the door of the largest canvas lodge, holding an old single-shot Springfield rifle, was an elderly native man with silver-streaked hair."My father!" Ayana gasped, her hand flying to her mouth.It was Chief Tahan—Leona's husband. He was standing his ground in front of the lodge, shielding two women and three children behind him, his single-shot rifle aimed at Vance's horsemen.Vance reined his heavy horse forward, raising a double-barrel shotgun."Drop the gun, old man!" Vance’s voice boomed across the snowy basin. "We're taking these ponies to pay for the three steers your young men stole off our range last week! Touch that trigger and I'll burn these lodges to the ground!""We took no steers!" Tahan shouted back in thick, raspy English, his rifle held steady against his shoulder. "You steal our horses in the white storm!"Vance sneered, pulling back the hammers of his shotgun. "I don't argue with redskins in the snow. Shoot him!"A rider beside Vance raised his Winchester rifle, aiming straight at Tahan's chest.
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THE COWBOY FOUND A FROZEN APACHE WOMAN IN THE BLIZZARD—THEN SHE SAW THE PHOTOGRAPH ON HIS WALL

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