Western
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Iron and Orphaned Soil
I remember the way the wind sounded when we left the last town. It whistled through the holes in Arlo’s heavy coat. That coat had a dark, round circle on the chest where a tin star used to sit. Now, it was just frayed thread and a shadow. My brother Benny was only six, and…
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THE GHOST OF BITTER WATER
Lean in close, because the folks in town don’t like to talk about what happened out at Bitter Water. They say the ground there is cursed, but I know the truth. You see Marcus sitting on that porch now, looking like he owns the world, but not long ago he was a man with nothing…
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The Iron in the Hearth
Sy was a man who smelled like old copper and wet horses. He carried a hole in his soul where his pride used to be. Back in the war, he was a Union scout who missed a trail. Because he got lost, a whole wagon train got found by the wrong people. He spent ten…
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The Hollow in the Ground
I could smell them before I saw them. It was the scent of unwashed wool and horse sweat baking in the hundred-degree heat. I checked my revolver. Five rounds in the cylinder. I kept the sixth chamber empty so I didn’t shoot my own foot off if the hammer slipped. That was a habit from…
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The Peak of the Broken Star
You probably heard about Knox. Most people back then talked about him like he was already in the dirt. He was a U.S. Marshal once, a real lion of a man, but by the time I saw him in that dusty saloon, he was mostly just whiskey and regret. His hands shook so bad he…
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The Bone-Deep Debt
The dust in this valley doesn’t just sit on the floor. It crawls into your skin and stays there like a secret. I watched Silas sit by the window for three days: his hands trembling as he polished a tin badge that hadn’t meant a lick of anything since the fires of ’88. He was…
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The Iron in the Throat
The body was cooling fast. Ray noted the signs like he was back in the precinct: the blue tint of the lips, the way the blood had turned to a thick, dark jelly in the snow. Benny was a mess. Someone had shot him three times in the back. That is a coward’s way to…
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The Blue Eye of the Desert
Saul carried his past in a heavy, wooden box in his mind. He used to be a lawman in a town that forgot how to be kind. One night, his gun spoke when it should have stayed silent, and a young man fell. Saul took off the silver star. He bent it with a pair…
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The Rust on the Silver Star
Reid was a total wreck. Everyone in the territory knew it. Ten years ago, he was the man every woman wanted to dance with and every man wanted to be. He wore a suit that cost more than a small house. His silver badge caught the light so bright it could blind you. But now?…
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The Salt in the Throat
Now, you look at a man like Hayes and you do not see a hero. You see a walking graveyard. You see a man who traded his silver badge for a cracked bottle and his pride for a place to sleep in the dirt. He was a man of the law. He was a man…