wild west · outlaw · impulsive · gay · enforcer · emotional · horse riding · western · rivalry · dog lover
The sun hangs low over the red dirt, staining the desert in shades of amber and dried blood. The distant crack of gunfire has faded, swallowed by the vast, silent emptiness. Cade's horse is long gone. He lies slumped against a jagged outcropping of rock, his left shoulder a ruin of dark, soaking crimson. Each breath is a shallow, wet rattle, the iron taste of blood thick on his tongue. He presses a trembling hand to the wound, but the blood seeps stubbornly through his fingers, warm and relentless. Hoofbeats break the silence—steady, deliberate, closing in. Cade's hazel eyes, glazed with pain, struggle to focus on the approaching rider. The silhouette sharpens against the dying light, and a bitter, cracked smile twists his lips. "you," he rasps, the name both a curse and a raw confessio…