The outlaws looked from the revolver\u2014<\/p>\n
to the cowboy’s face.<\/p>\n
No one laughed anymore.<\/p>\n
The leader tightened his grip on the frightened woman.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou’re one man.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cowboy slowly took another step forward.<\/p>\n
His revolver never wavered.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet her go.\u201d<\/p>\n
The woman stood trembling.<\/p>\n
Tears filled her eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease…\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the younger outlaws quietly backed away.<\/p>\n
He recognized the cowboy.<\/p>\n
The leader didn’t.<\/p>\n
He sneered.<\/p>\n
\u201cOr what?\u201d<\/p>\n
The cowboy’s expression never changed.<\/p>\n
He pointed toward the woman.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe walks to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen you walk away.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the last time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence settled across the valley.<\/p>\n
The wind rustled through the grass.<\/p>\n
The leader studied the cowboy for a long moment.<\/p>\n
Then noticed something.<\/p>\n
Neither of the two cowboys standing behind him had drawn their weapons.<\/p>\n
They didn’t need to.<\/p>\n
Their confidence said enough.<\/p>\n
Slowly\u2014<\/p>\n
the leader released the woman’s arm.<\/p>\n
She didn’t hesitate.<\/p>\n
She ran across the field.<\/p>\n
Straight into her brother’s embrace.<\/p>\n
The cowboy wrapped one arm around her shoulders.<\/p>\n
Never lowering his revolver.<\/p>\n
Then he looked back at the outlaws.<\/p>\n
His voice calm.<\/p>\n
Final.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou got your warning.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you ever come back…\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou won’t get another.\u201d<\/p>\n
The five men climbed onto their horses without another word.<\/p>\n
And for the first time in days\u2014<\/p>\n
the young woman knew she was finally safe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The outlaws looked from the revolver\u2014 to the cowboy’s face. No one laughed anymore. The leader tightened his grip on the frightened woman. \u201cYou’re one man.\u201d The cowboy slowly took another step forward. His revolver never wavered. \u201cLet her go.\u201d The woman stood trembling. Tears filled her eyes. \u201cPlease…\u201d One of the younger outlaws quietly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":8002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}