“I guess I don’t have a choice.” Caleb took another step forward. “You’re obviously the better man.”

“Don’t come any closer.” Bohdan was suddenly tense. “You’re saying the right words, but I don’t think I like the way you’re saying them.” He was raising his gun. “Maybe I’ll have to give up my plans to—”

BLAMM!

The shot rang out from behind Caleb, the bullet tearing through Bohdan’s upper arm! He howled in pain as the gun flew from his hand.

Caleb whirled to see where the shot had come from.

It was Jane, and she was standing there, panting, out of breath, her eyes glittering wildly in her pale face. But she was still holding her long carbine gun absolutely steady. “Stop this, Caleb. I know what you intended to do, but I’ve had enough of it.”

“Bitch!” Bohdan scrambled to pick up the gun he’d dropped. “Do you think I won’t kill you? I’ll get you, too.”

Caleb had no time to do anything but remove the immediate problem. He dove for Bohdan’s gun and was there only a second before Bohdan’s hand closed on it. “Never again, bastard.” Caleb pointed the gun directly at Bohdan’s chest and pulled the trigger. He stopped him with a single shot in the heart.

“Is he dead?” Jane asked.

“Absolutely.” Caleb was on his feet and running toward her. “Are you okay? What the hell are you doing here? I told you that—”

“You told me a lot of things. But there was no reason for me to listen to you.” She turned and headed out of the forest. “And I refuse to do it right now. Did you think I wouldn’t find a way to follow you?”

“I was hoping to God that you wouldn’t. How did you do it?”

“I waited until the train turned the curve to go into the rail yard; that slowed it down even more. It had almost stopped, but I decided the little girl might need a cushion.”

“A cushion? There were no cushions.”

“I improvised. She had to be protected. So I pointed my gun at Rodland and told him to jump off the train and cushion me as I made the jump myself. It worked very well. Practically no jarring.”

He blinked. “You used Rodland as a cushion?”

“Why are you surprised? He wasn’t about to argue with me. He knew I was dead serious.”

“I imagine he did. You had a gun in your hand.”

She shrugged. “We both knew I probably wouldn’t use it, but it gave him an excuse when he realized he’d have to face you for helping me.”

He shook his head. “‘Probably’ was the key word in that sentence.”