Prologue
Tyree Allison was raised a Kettering, and that name meant outlaw. Head of the family and wanted rustler, Jace Kettering, drew on Tyree in a drunken rage forcing Tyree to use his only skill to kill the man.
Running from the vengeance of Jace’s brother, Clem, Tyree finds himself alone for the first time in his short life.
Doing work as a ranch hand on the Malone Ranch, Tyree finds more than a job. Willing to overlook his rough ways and inexperience, ranch owner Joel Malone offers Tyree an honest living.
When members of the Kettering gang show up, doubt is cast on Tyree’s identity as an honest, hardworking man, causing his newfound friends to question his integrity. But when Clem finally hunts him down, more than just his reputation is on the line.
Tyree must once again, decide whether to use his skill as a gunfighter in order to keep his new family safe from his old.
He caught sight of himself in the grayed mirror behind the bar. He was a full head shorter than the man standing beside him. He looked, he thought, like a skinny hound standing in the presence of a timber wolf, and it reminded him that in the larger scheme of things he was alone. He and the bounty hunter were the only people in that saloon if it came to trouble. The voices of his friends faded into the dingy air, and he swallowed down the knuckle-sized chunk of panic that rose in his throat.
“I don’t ride with Clem,” he told the bounty hunter.
“You ride with his brothers, I know. I see who you’re rubbing elbows with here, still keeping company with vermin. Damn shame, but I ain’t surprised. Where would I find Clem, you think?” The man took a step toward him, and Tyree’s hand dropped alongside his hip.
“You are a stupid little mongrel. You pull that thing, I’ll feed it to you,” Kyle Brown told him quietly.
Dark Trail Home is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locals or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2019 by Cindy Lou Harvell
DARK TRAIL HOME
A Novel by
CINDY LOU HARVELL
2020
