The black horse thundered across the desert.<\/p>\n
Dust billowed behind them.<\/p>\n
The frightened woman held tightly to the cowboy’s coat, her breathing still unsteady.<\/p>\n
After several miles\u2014<\/p>\n
the cowboy slowed the horse near a narrow canyon.<\/p>\n
He looked back.<\/p>\n
The outlaw was gone.<\/p>\n
For now.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can breathe,\u201d he said quietly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve lost him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The woman climbed down with trembling legs.<\/p>\n
She looked at the cowboy.<\/p>\n
Tears filled her eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t even know your name.\u201d<\/p>\n
He gave a small nod.<\/p>\n
\u201cCall me Jack.\u201d<\/p>\n
She wrapped the blanket tighter around her shoulders.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe won’t stop.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe always comes back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jack’s expression turned serious.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho is he?\u201d<\/p>\n
The woman lowered her eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy husband.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silence settled over the canyon.<\/p>\n
Jack understood everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou weren’t running from a stranger.\u201d<\/p>\n
She slowly shook her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was running for my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just then\u2014<\/p>\n
hoofbeats echoed through the rocks.<\/p>\n
Closer.<\/p>\n
Faster.<\/p>\n
The woman’s face turned pale.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe found us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jack calmly helped her behind a large boulder.<\/p>\n
Then stepped back into the middle of the trail.<\/p>\n
His hand rested on the grip of his revolver.<\/p>\n
The outlaw rode into the canyon and pulled his horse to a stop.<\/p>\n
His eyes locked onto Jack.<\/p>\n
\u201cMove.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jack never blinked.<\/p>\n
His voice was calm.<\/p>\n
Cold.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe isn’t running anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe doesn’t have to.\u201d<\/p>\n
And in the silence of the desert\u2014<\/p>\n
both men knew the next decision would change all three of their lives forever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The black horse thundered across the desert. Dust billowed behind them. The frightened woman held tightly to the cowboy’s coat, her breathing still unsteady. After several miles\u2014 the cowboy slowed the horse near a narrow canyon. He looked back. The outlaw was gone. For now. \u201cYou can breathe,\u201d he said quietly. \u201cWe’ve lost him.\u201d The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":8549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8548","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\/8548","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=8548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}