Prologue
The sound of shattering as bullet met glass rang over her head. Harley scrabbled to reload her six-shooter.
“I thought you said they’d agreed to leave without a fight!” She shouted to Lou, who was ducked under an overturned table a few feet from the bar.
“I thought they’d said that too!”
Another bellow of a gun and a chunk of the old solid bar splintered to prickly ribbons around her head. She slipped the barrel back into place and rolled her eyes.
“Alright, Dan,” She called out when the ringing subsided, “you’ve made your point. Let’s all take a sit down and think about how we’re all going to leave here...”
Another shot. Harley groaned. This wasn’t going to be a good time.
“You think I’m going to just sit down and take this?” Dan roared back. And there was another noise, a soft metallic snap. “Like shit I am! My pa made this place what it is. You think I’m going to move for some- for some...”
Harley spun up from behind her cover and levelled her revolver between his eyes just as Dan was half way through slipping a fresh bullet into the chamber of his shot gun. He froze.
“Drop it. No good can come from this.”
To her right, Lou slipped up from her table spot and skulked unseen in a wide circle to surround Dan.
Harley could see Dan’s fingers trembling. He did not move them away from the open mouth of the chamber.
“Come on, Dan. It’s over. Come quietly and we can sort this out.”
His face twitched uncomfortably. She could see beads of sweat gathering at is temple. She could feel her own in the heat of the hot bar.
Dan dropped the bullet into the chamber and raised the gun.
The shot was heard all over town.
