Heart of an Outlaw *First in the Crane Gang series*

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Gill was surprised at how easily Craig had agreed to lead him and Pete to the gang. Of course just because they’d earned Craig’s trust didn’t mean that the older and wiser members would be so easily swayed. Hell, Gill didn’t even know how many members the Crane Gang had! He could only hope that he and Pete were ready for this. 

They weren’t trained for undercover work. They weren’t trained for infiltrating gangs and forming cover I.D.s. Which was why they had simply decided to use Gill’s true identity and simply omit the Texas Ranger bit… if anyone with the gang knew about the Rangers then Gill would simply have to make them believe that he’d left that life and decided to live a life that would have made his father proud. 

The thought turned Gill’s stomach. 

“How far is it?” Pete whispered, glancing around uneasily. Gill fought back a laugh. Pete was scared of the dark, a fact that was a constant source of amusement for Gill. Pete glanced around dark forest around them and shivered atop his roan mare. “I don’t much care for being out here in the dark.” 

“It’s not too dark,” Craig countered with a grin. Craig was leading Willie’s horse by the reins since Willie had long since passed out in the saddle and was hanging over the poor appaloosa’s neck. “At least we have the moon.” 

Pete shivered. “Yeah, the full moon,” he grumbled. 

Gill did laugh at that. Pete not only had an illogical fear of the dark but he had a completely unfounded fear of the full moon. He claimed that when the moon was full people changed--that the ‘crazies’ came out that more accidents and bad things happened. 

Gill didn’t know about all that. What he did know was that he was tired and if he was going to be surrounding himself with dirty, shiftless, no account, thieving outlaws, he was going to need some rest. 

Gill came to attention in the saddle when he saw the light of a fire up ahead. The four horses entered a small clearing beside  river and Gill took in the sight of several tents haphazardly set up around the fire. The night was silent save for several horses snorting at the newcomers as they stood tied off beside the river. 

“Everyone’s asleep,” Craig whispered. “I’ll take Willie to his tent; you two can bunk in mine for tonight and we’ll introduce you to everyone else in the morning.” 

“Which one is yours?” Pete asked, clearly eager to be inside a shelter. 

Craig tipped his head toward the tent closest to the river. “Just tie your horses up beside those. Gill, you can clean your boots off down there at the river before you bed down if you’d like to.” 

Gill nodded and dismounted his horse. Pete followed suit and the two men tied their horses off with the others. “I wonder how many there are?” Pete whispered. 

Gill counted six tents. That was quite a few.. But they were fairly small; maybe they each had their own and six members was all there were. Gill had a feeling there couldn’t be many more than that. Many more members than that and a gang became sloppy--the Crane Gang had proved to be anything but sloppy.