“Yup.” Nash nodded, his hand moving to his jacket pocket where Amy’s torn map fragment rested. The piece of paper that might save her life.
Colt and Chance emerged from the back. They stayed behind.
“That’s far enough!” the bearded man shouted as Nash and Porter approached, his voice echoing across the quiet cemetery.
Nash stopped about twenty yards away, close enough to see Amy’s terrified face and the tears streaming down her cheeks. She was alive. She was breathing. That was all that mattered.
“I have what you’re looking for,” Nash called out, slowly pulling the map fragment from his pocket and holding it up.
The bearded man’s eyes locked onto the document. “Bring it here.”
“No,” Nash said firmly. “I’ll give this to you in exchange for her. That’s the deal.”
A laugh escaped the bearded man’s throat. “You’re not in a position to make deals, boy.”
Nash took a step closer, his gaze never leaving Amy’s face.
She looked up, her green eyes wide with a mixture of terror and hope that made his chest ache.
“Haven’t you ever loved anyone so much you would give up everything for them?” Nash asked, his voice carrying across the cemetery with quiet intensity.
The bearded man’s expression didn’t change. “No.”
The man with the scar—still holding the gun to Amy’s head—let out a harsh laugh. “Not this kind of gold.”
Nash felt a wave of pity for these men who had never experienced the kind of love that could transform a person, that could make them willing to sacrifice everything for another’s safety. They would never understand what drove him to stand here, unarmed, offering them exactly what they wanted.
Porter stepped forward. “We’ll give you clear passage out of here if you let her come to us.”
The bearded man laughed again, the sound echoing off the weathered headstones. “And then you’ll kill us.”
“No,” Porter said simply. “If you let her go and she comes to us, we will give you safe passage out of here.”
Nash caught a glimpse of the Stone brothers. They were in position. Chills washed over him. They wouldn’t miss. He just needed to keep talking, keep these monsters focused on him instead of Amy.
“Wait a sec, I think I have an idea,” Nash said.
“What?” the bearded man asked.
“How about you duck?”
Nash grabbed Porter’s arm and threw both of them to the ground just as two rifle shots cracked simultaneously across the cemetery.
The bearded man and his scarred companion dropped instantly.
Amy screamed and collapsed forward, her hands pressed to her ears.
Nash was up and running to her, covering the distance between them in seconds.
Porter was next to him, a gun trained on the men, who were scrambling.
“Put the guns down!” Porter barked out.
The scarred face wouldn’t drop his gun and suddenly a bullet flew and hit his shoulder.
He screamed out.
Porter got to him and put a boot on his back. “That’s what you get for not dropping the gun,” Porter said, putting a hand up at the Stone shooters. “Got them.”
