<\/p>\n
Summary:\u00a0<\/span>Two brothers, one killer, and only one way to end the standoff.<\/span><\/p>\n Rated:<\/span> T Word\u00a0count:\u00a0<\/span>684<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Standoff<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Adam swallowed, steadied his hand, and spoke evenly, \u201cIt will be fine, Joe.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The man at whose head Adam had his pistol pointed snickered. \u201cYou don\u2019t expect him to believe that?\u201d The man pressed the end of his gun against Little Joe\u2019s temple and snickered again. \u201cOf course, if you put down your gun, I won\u2019t shoot your little brother.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Adam saw the flicker of fear in his brother\u2019s eyes and spoke soothingly, \u201cDon\u2019t worry, Joe, he\u2019s not that stupid. He knows enough to understand you are the only thing standing between him and death.\u201d Adam chilled his next words and directed them at the outlaw. \u201cKilling my brother would be a one-way ticket to hell; make no mistake about that, Carson.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cHe would beat me there,\u201d Carson sneered.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Adam\u2019s smile was cold and wickedly condescending. \u201cNever.\u201d Adam watched Carson\u2019s gaze focus on the gun pointed at his own head.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWell, now, we\u2019ll just have to see who gets tired of this standoff first.\u201d Adam heard the barest trace of concern in Carson\u2019s voice and sent a silent prayer heavenward.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Little Joe shifted slightly, and Carson yanked his arm back against the boy\u2019s throat.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cRelax, Joe!\u201d Adam\u2019s voice was commanding but fraternal. \u201cJust settle down. Just settle down.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Little Joe could read his elder brother almost as well as his father and Hoss could. The barest inflections in Adam\u2019s voice, the set of his mouth, the flicker of an eye all held meaning for Little Joe, and though Adam would have teased against the notion Little Joe obeyed his brother far more often than he disobeyed. Little Joe sent his own prayer to Jesus, God, and his angel mother. Then he forced his body to reverse itself. Instead of straining against the arm that held him, he relaxed back against Carson\u2019s body going limp and slipping downward. Carson was surprised; Adam was not.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Adam fired. His shot was echoed by a second. Adam darted forward before the sounded had disappeared from the air.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cJoe! Joe! Are you. . . Little Joe!\u201d Adam snatched his brother from the ground.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m…I\u2019m not hurt. I\u2019m… \u201c<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Adam was frantically examining Little Joe with his hands and eyes, but he found no injury. Adam\u2019s bullet had hit Carson directly between the eyes. The outlaw had been thrown back and his arm flung outward before his finger reflexively pulled the trigger of his own Colt.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cLittle Joe, I… there was no other. . . oh, my God!\u201d Adam buried his head against Little Joe\u2019s curls as he clutched his brother to his chest.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAdam! I\u2019m not hurt! I\u2019m not!\u201d Little Joe managed. The he muttered, \u201cUnless you\u2019ve broken my ribs.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It was his brother\u2019s weak sarcasm that cut through Adam\u2019s panic. He released his hold on Little Joe and sank back to sit in the dirt panting as if he had run twenty miles. Both brothers sat trying to regain control of their breathing and their thoughts.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Then Adam\u2019s eyes flickered to the body lying sprawled beside them. His voice was a flat whisper when he spoke. \u201cIf I had laid down my gun, he. . . I knew he… if I had thought for a moment…\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Little Joe listened as his brother seemed unable to complete a sentence. \u201cHe would have killed us both,\u201d Little Joe stated simply and with the same conviction Adam had used to make his decision.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Adam turned his eyes to his brother\u2019s face. \u201cIf I had thought for a moment that he would let you for live for even a few minutes, I would never have risked firing. You know that don\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Adam drew in a deep breath. \u201cFine then. What do you say to getting up and getting home?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d say that\u2019s the second-best idea you\u2019ve had today!\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Summary:\u00a0Two brothers, one killer, and only one way to end the standoff.<\/p>\n Rated:\u00a0T\u00a0 Word count:\u00a0684<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143,"featured_media":11800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-full-width-post.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[2,1091,23,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-actionadventure","category-adam-joe","category-drama","category-short-stories","wpcat-2-id","wpcat-1091-id","wpcat-23-id","wpcat-8-id"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/A-J.jpg?fit=400%2C320&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/143"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}