"You didn't tell me, Marshal. You told my promoter. And I fired that useless toad." Keeler spit in his hands and clapped them together. "Now I wanna know what it feels like to kill me a marshal with my bare hands." Keeler curled those formidable hands into fists and assumed his fighting stance. "You ready to die, Dillon?"
Rain continued to pelt the men as they stood face to face. Matt shouted over the thunder, "You followed me all the way out here to kill me because I hurt your pride?? In this storm? You've lost your mind!"
The wild look in Keeler's eye at the memory of the humiliation he'd suffered at Matt Dillon's hands made the hair on the back of Kitty's neck stand on end. She shuddered, a combination of the cold rain streaming down her face into her collar and also the foreboding memory of the warning she'd given Matt last week in the Long Branch--that Sam Keeler was the kind of man that couldn't be laughed at.
And Keeler had been a laughingstock all right, after Matt had beat him at his own game, first by buffaloing him in the street and then knocking him out in a bare-knuckle fight outside of town. But Matt had been defending mild-mannered preacher Seth Tandy, whom Keeler had continually bullied in spite of the fact that he wouldn't stand up and defend himself.
Kitty apprehensively stepped away from the two big men, worry for Matt's safety gnawing at her belly. Keeler was starting this fight with an unfair advantage over Matt after smashing him in the back of the head with a chunk of wood. And Keeler was a bloodthirsty man. He was determined to kill someone with his bare hands. He wouldn't stop until he had. Shivers ran down her spine as she watched the two brawny men circle each other warily, fists raised in the air as lightning slashed the blackening sky and thunder crashed around them.
Keeler punched first, landing a straight left to Matt's jaw. Kitty winced as she heard the crunch of bone on bone and Matt staggered backwards. Matt shook his head to clear it and continued to circle his aggressive opponent.
When lightning struck again, Matt struck as well with a sold right to Keeler's nose, stunning him enough so that Matt was able to land two more quick, powerful punches to his head, causing Keeler to reel and stumble backwards into the mud. Blood poured out of the man's nose but Kitty's eyes widened at the resulting feral look in his eyes. Matt leapt on top of him while he was down and the two rolled in the muck, blood running in pink rivulets with the rain sluicing down their bodies. Keeler ended up on top and landed a dirty punch to Matt's liver.
Matt gasped in shock and pain, paralyzed from the blow as a wicked grin spread over Keeler's features. Keeler began jabbing and pummeling Matt's face mercilessly over and over as Matt lay helpless, unable to move from the crippling blow he'd taken to his midsection.
Kitty cried out as she heard the pounding of Keeler's deadly fists against Matt's body and saw the blood pouring from his face. Kitty leapt doggedly on Keeler's back, clawing at his face with her nails. "Get off him, you big ape! Stop it! You'll kill him!"
Keeler roared in protest, and elbowed Kitty in the face, knocking her off him as easily as he would a child. The blow made her see stars, and she landed on her backside in the mud.
Matt hissed at Keeler, "Don't you hurt her!"
Keeler threatened with a maniacal smile, "I've never killed me a woman. Maybe I'll do that after I get done with you, Marshal…"
Matt growled in rage and tottered to his feet to slam his fist solidly into Keeler's stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Keeler sank to his knees, splashing in the mire. Matt held out his hand and grunted, "Kitty, stay back! I don't want you hurt!"
Keeler lurched forward and gave Matt a crushing left hook to the kidney, putting him down for the count once again. Keeler began kicking Matt while he was down, and Kitty threw herself onto Keeler, pounding him with her fists to no avail. He pitched her backwards like a rag doll into the swirling dirty water.
Keeler grinned at his opponent, the big, strong marshal no one could beat, now knocked nearly insensate. He leaned over and began thrashing Matt again with his bare fists with hardly any resistance. He was gonna' kill him a marshal today…and maybe a woman, too.
"Hold it right there!" A determined, angry feminine voice carried over the howling wind.
Keeler hesitated, hovering over Matt Dillon's body.
"Get off him! Now!" Kitty demanded as thunder boomed ominously overhead.
Keeler laughed, but then he heard a gun cocking. He twisted his body to look back at her. She was pointing a dripping rifle straight at his back, her finger on the trigger.
Keeler smirked. "Little lady, you know you're not gonna' shoot me." He rose to his full height and stepped over Matt's prone body, advancing two steps…three.
"Stop right there, mister!" A streak of lightning in the sky seemed to punctuate her words.
"Come on, give me that gun. You know, it's wet. It's probably not even gonna' fire in this rain."
"I told you not to come any closer. I will shoot you." She squinted down the barrel at him, mud splattered on her face and rain dripping in her eyes.
Quick as a flash, Keeler reached in his pocket and jerked out a Derringer, but Kitty hastily moved to pull her trigger. A shot rang out.
tbc
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