Kid Curry had been lying on his back after rolling away from the fight. His side was bleeding freely now and his senses were all dull around the edges. The second the door had opened he'd shoved himself up on an elbow, though, and then when Sara screamed and the gun clattered to the floor he managed to lunge for it despite the protests of his body. Behind him he heard the thud of what was no doubt his partner falling over but the Kid thrust that worry aside and concentrated on keeping ahold of the gun even after he was slammed into from behind.

He went down hard but rolled out of the way of another hit and as the Kid did so he brought the gun up and fired.

The shoulder of Kelly's fancy shirt bloomed with blood and the rancher's son screamed.

Kid couldn't get up but he stayed flat on his back with the gun trained on his enemy steadily, despite the fact he was shivering all over from the sudden chill.

"You shot me," Kelly said in shock before he grabbed his injury and leaned against the door frame.

"Yeah," Kid replied as he cocked the six gun and stared down the man who had caused all the misery and death of the last few days. "Might do it again."

The sound of a second gun cocking surprised everyone.

"I've got him covered, cowboy," came Marybeth Johnson's voice. "You can put yours down."

Curry glanced over to his right to see the pregnant woman brandishing a gun she'd no doubt pulled from the sideboard drawer. Her hands were shaking but she had her finger on the trigger. Kid frowned and looked back at Kelly, his eyes as hard and unrelenting as his gun.

"Put it down, please," Mrs. Johnson continued. "I don't want to have you go to jail, too, since he's unarmed now."

The word 'jail' penetrated through Kid's blind rage, but he didn't lower his weapon. "You know how many people he's got killed? Over some damn sheep?"

"Just because he acts one way doesn't mean you should use his example," Marybeth said. Again Curry thought of a schoolteacher.

"My father will destroy you if you k-kill me," Kelly managed. He hadn't moved and was holding his injury, eyes closed, whimpering under his breath.

The Kid was a lot of things, but he wasn't a murderer. Shooting even Kelly unarmed would make him one. Normally it wouldn't be under consideration or worth wasting the bullet on a whining bully, except he was the man responsible for almost killing Heyes, for killing Jimmy Sterling and Tate, for terrorizing women and children, for that horrible night in the cave he spent expecting Heyes to die on him...

It was like facing Danny Bilson all over again.

"Thad," Sara said softly. "He killed my brother. I want him to pay...but I don't want you to end up payin' that debt, too. You stopped me when I was gonna make a mistake. You said you don't shoot people who're down and you don't hurt people weaker'n you. Mr. Kelly ain't half as strong as you an' Joshua are. 'Sides, if you go to jail for killing him, that will leave me to nurse your partner alone and I know from experience now he takes more'n one person to watch after him."

Kid reluctantly cracked a smile at the second part of her statement, but his hand didn't move. The hatred and blame hadn't left his eyes. It came down to one thing. Kelly was evil. Kelly was responsible for everything. Kelly hurt Heyes. Yet he could hear the echo of Heyes in his mind. How far do you figure on going toward getting yourself hanged just to get even with him?...Kid, don't. "All right," Curry said finally. "But Mrs. Johnson, please give Sara the gun."

"I know something about 'em," Sara said in explanation as she took the weapon.

After he saw that Sara had Kelly in her sights, Curry lowered his weapon, putting it and his hand on the floorboards. He noticed his hand was trembling which worried him distantly. Kid intended to crawl over to Heyes to check on him, but he couldn't push himself up and his eyes closed despite his best efforts.

"Marybeth, tie up Mr. Kelly and Matt so we can tend to Thaddeus and Joshua and let the children out," Sara was saying, but the rest of her words were lost to the Kid as he slid into the waiting cold.