Authors: Sabine Starr
Lady Gone Bad (19 page)
“All that cost a pretty penny and I’m broke,” she spit out with fury.
“Trust Burt and Bob to salvage what they can.” He tugged her against the flow of people. “One thing for sure, your legend will be even bigger after this fire. They’ll probably call you Blazing Lady Gone Bad, a woman so hot she sets the world on fire.”
“That’s not funny.”
“But true.”
“Let’s go get that scoundrel Pecos Pete!”
Chapter 37
L
ady led the way, frantic to cut a path through the crowd that was bunching up near the base of Robber’s Cave. Several men climbed upward, carrying blankets and canteens to put out the fire. Burt and Bob stood tall on top, motioning left and right as they directed the firefighters. She really appreciated their help.
ady led the way, frantic to cut a path through the crowd that was bunching up near the base of Robber’s Cave. Several men climbed upward, carrying blankets and canteens to put out the fire. Burt and Bob stood tall on top, motioning left and right as they directed the firefighters. She really appreciated their help.
She’d been willing to let bygones be bygones, but if Zip and his gang wanted to push their luck, she was going to accommodate them. Their sins were piling up, what with insulting her at the Boggy Saloon, kidnapping Angel during a train robbery, and now setting fire to her tent. Rafe would never let all that go. She wouldn’t either.
When she reached the base of Robber’s Cave, she lost sight of Pecos Pete since he was headed down the side. At least they’d gotten past the crowd. She glanced up at Rafe. He squeezed her hand in encouragement.
They were running out of daylight. They had to get the outlaw before the woods turned dark or he’d be even harder to track.
“We’d better split up.” Lady leaned close to him. “Cover more ground.”
“Hate to leave you alone.”
She patted her Colt .44. “Take more than that sidewinder to get me.”
“We know where he’s got to come down. Lots of rock and thick growth out there that’ll slow him down.”
“Us, too. But there’s a trail back in the woods leading down to Fourche Maline Creek. If he gets on horseback and hits that trail, he’s gone and nothing we can do about it.”
“Get our horses?”
“Take too long.” She glanced around to make sure Zip or Heck wasn’t sneaking up on them. All looked clear. “Why don’t you try to catch him on foot while I head over to the trail? If he sneaks past you, I’ll get him there. You can join me.”
“Sharlot, I don’t want you in danger. Isn’t there another way—”
“No time for anything else.” She gave him a quick hug, and took off running. She stumbled over rocks, catching her falls on tree trunks, and finally slowed down to pick her way through growth too thick for a horse, almost too much for a woman. If she could’ve turned her body into a snake or a raccoon, she’d have been aces.
She kept trudging deeper into the shadow of the thick undergrowth and tall, ancient trees. The sharp scent of life and death hung in the air, rotting black vegetation warring with purple wood violets. She trampled all underfoot as her clothes snagged and tore on briars and thorn bushes. At this rate, she was going back to civilization in rags. Didn’t matter.
By the time she hit the trail, she was breathing hard and her heart hammered in her chest. She leaned against a broad tree trunk, letting her head sag forward in exhaustion. She had to be steady and strong, particularly if Pecos Pete snuck past Rafe. Even if she got the drop on him, the outlaw might not stop at the sight of her six-shooter.
She heard Rafe shouting about the same time she heard a horse thundering down the trail. Pecos Pete was getting away. Blast his ornery hide. Good thing she’d remembered the trail, or he’d have been gone.
Odd thing. His horse must be hitting rocks, roots, or something since the pace sounded uneven. Maybe the outlaw hadn’t made it clean into the saddle, hanging onto the side, trying to get his foot into the stirrup. That’d be good for her if he was off balance.
She drew her Colt .44 and stepped to the side of the trail, keeping under cover. She counted to ten, then stepped into the center. Clutching her pistol in two hands, she held it steady as the horse and rider, dark shadows in the shade of the trees, burst into light from a break overhead. For a moment, his sorrel looked familiar, but then they rode into shadow again.
“Halt!” she shouted above the drumming of horse hooves, that odd, uneven gait more apparent on what appeared to be a level trail. “I’m warning you!”
Pecos Pete didn’t slow. He hit the horse from side to side with the ends of his reins, kicking at its ribs, urging the animal faster. He looked like he was going to try to run her down as he made his escape.
Lady kept her aim steady, and stepped back just as they came abreast of her. She pulled the trigger as Pecos Pete kicked out, the pointed toe of his boot connecting hard with her chest. Her bullet went high as she fell backward. He raced away down the trail.
Gasping, she was almost unable to breathe from the blow and the burning pain. Still, she couldn’t let him escape. She rolled to her stomach, rose up on her elbows, steadied her hands, aimed, and then stopped in shock as she got a better look at the horse.
Forgetting her injury, she leaped to her feet. She could hardly believe she was looking at a sorrel stallion with white left fore stocking, right fore sock, white left hind stocking, and right hind sock.
Putting two fingers to her mouth, she whistled, one short, two long, and two shorts. Pain made her dizzy, so she took short, shallow breaths, focus never straying from the horse.
The sorrel slowed, hesitated, and then turned around. Joy filled Lady’s heart, driving out the pain. She repeated the whistles. The horse neighed, and then leaped forward, racing toward her.
“Copper, come here, boy!” she called, tears filling her eyes and spilling down her cheeks in relief and joy. She’d finally found Da’s prize stallion. She almost hadn’t recognized him. He’d grown in size but was boney and skinny, obvious signs of mistreatment. Worst of all, nobody had dealt with his special horseshoe, so he now favored his back right hoof. She could only pray that Epona wouldn’t let him go lame.
Anger at the way he’d been treated warred with the happiness she felt that she’d found him. She aimed her revolver at Pecos Pete as Copper came to a stop in front of her, lowered his head, butted her chest, and put his head over her shoulder in a strong hug.
“What in blazes are you doing to my horse?” Pecos Pete yelled as he leaped down, hand slapping leather.
“Better not,” Lady said, stepping away.
Copper kicked out, knocking the six-shooter out of the outlaw’s hand with one hoof and pawing down his face with the other. Pecos Pete fell backward and stayed still, blood running from the wounds on his face. Nostrils flaring, Copper sniffed the outlaw, put a hoof on his chest, and then looked to Lady for instructions.
“Good boy!” Lady picked up the outlaw’s pistol and tucked it under her gun belt.
“You all right?” Rafe called as he ran up. He glanced down at Pecos Pete, then back at her. “Guess now I know why you went to so much trouble to get this horse back.”
She grinned, tears misting her eyes. “He’s the best.”
Copper nickered and tossed his head.
Lady chuckled. “Keep talking like that and he’ll get a big head.” She walked over to the outlaw and kicked him in the side. “Wake up!”
Pecos Pete looked at the horse looming over him, the hoof ready to cave in his chest, and squeezed his eyes tight.
She kicked him harder. “You got some talking to do. You can do it easy, or you can do it hard. And if you lamed Copper riding him when he limped, you’re gonna be lamed, too.”
Pecos Pete groaned, not opening his eyes.
“Lady, can you prove this is your horse?” Rafe asked, looking over the sorrel.
“That’s right. Prove it,” Pecos Pete hissed.
“Check the left ear at the base, small triangular cut. Da wouldn’t allow a branding iron near his animals.”
“Don’t prove nothin’.” Pecos Pete coughed. “Get this worthless jackass off me. You can have him.”
“Copper, let Fast John check your ear.” Lady gently stroked down the blaze on the stallion’s long face.
“It’s here,” Rafe said, touching the mark. “Pecos Pete, you’re looking at horse theft. Destruction of property. Kidnapping.”
“Think mighty highly of yourself, don’t you?” Pecos Pete taunted.
“Whatever he thinks, I’m you’re worst nightmare,” Lady said, voice sharp as ice bullets.
Chapter 38
R
afe had never seen Lady so cold, so remorseless. He couldn’t blame her. She had her horse back, but the animal wasn’t in good shape. He’d found his sister, but she wasn’t safe in Bonham. He’d survived the necktie party, but his face was on a wanted poster. All due to Zip Rankin and his gang playing fast and loose with other people’s lives.
afe had never seen Lady so cold, so remorseless. He couldn’t blame her. She had her horse back, but the animal wasn’t in good shape. He’d found his sister, but she wasn’t safe in Bonham. He’d survived the necktie party, but his face was on a wanted poster. All due to Zip Rankin and his gang playing fast and loose with other people’s lives.
Zip, Pecos Pete, and Heck Humby deserved a visit to the Hangin’ Judge, but Rafe couldn’t take them in till he got his badge back. For that, he needed to catch Lampkin. So far, not an easy task, but he couldn’t give up. His whole life was on the line.
And then there was Copper’s notched ear. It was connected to two unsolved grisly murders. Horse breeders had been gunned down, burned out, horses stolen. No way to follow a cold trail. Zip Rankin’s name had come up in connection with it. All the deputy marshals had been advised to watch for the unusual ear notch used instead of a brand, but nobody had figured they’d ever find one of the horses, not in Indian Territory. Yet here Rafe was with one.
Too many connections, coincidences, lines drawing together like the center of a spiderweb. Made him uneasy.
What the hell did Sharlot have to do with it all? He knew enough about her now to know her parents had been horse breeders. If the family had been killed for their animals, why hadn’t Lady been taken out, too? Had she set up the raid and never gotten her share? Or maybe they hadn’t been her parents at all. She had a strained relationship with Zip, maybe dating back to his cutting her out of the horses. Outlaws didn’t get along with each other any better than anybody else.
Still he couldn’t see her as a stone-cold killer, but he might be listening to his heart and body, not his mind. He’d come to trust her, but now he’d better not. Where she was concerned, he’d have to think like a lawman, not a man.
He evaluated the scene before him. Sharlot had clenched fists on her hips and blood lust in her eyes. The horse was ready to kill at her command. At the very least, she and that animal had history, because no other way would a stallion be so ready to obey her.
“Pecos Pete, you’ve got five seconds to tell me who stole this horse, or I’ll let Copper crush your chest like a rotten melon,” she said, kneeling beside him.
“Got protection,” Pecos Pete taunted. “Get that dad-blamed horse off me, or you’re deep in snakes.”
Rafe dropped his hand to his Peacemaker, glancing around. Was the fire a ruse to set them up, knowing they’d come running and follow Pecos Pete? Zip and Heck could gun them down, be gone, and nobody’d be the wiser. Hair stood up on the back of his neck. They had to get out of there.
“Lady, let’s go. Could be a setup.”
She glanced up at him, eyebrows drawn together. “No! He’ll tell me—”
“Later.” Rafe stepped toward her. “Let’s get Pecos Pete up on the horse. You ride him out of here. I’ll stay behind. Protect your back.”
“I don’t want to put any extra weight on Copper.”
“No choice.” Rafe jerked a length of rawhide off the stallion’s saddle, and knelt beside her. “Call off your horse, so I can tie this man.”
“Better leave me be!” Pecos Pete gave them a narrow-eyed stare.
She looked down the trail that led away from Robber’s Cave toward the valley below. “Trap? Can’t see far for the trees.”
“Play it safe.”
She stood, used a hand gesture, and Copper backed away.
Rafe flipped Pecos Pete over, tied his wrists tightly together behind his back, and jerked him upright. Blood dripped from his shredded face down the front of his shirt.
Picking up the smaller man, Rafe threw him facedown across the saddle. Copper shied, dancing sideways till Lady soothed him with one hand on his nose and the other on his reins
“Oh, no!” Lady hissed, putting a hand to her head as if hearing something. “You’re right. Danger!”
“Help me!” Pecos Pete hollered. “They got me!”
Hoofbeats thundered, getting closer. Three riders came barreling up the trail. Six-shooters blazed away.
“Ride!” Rafe called, drawing his Peacemaker. “I’ll hold them off.”
“They’ll cut you down!”
A shape melted out of the woods nearby, silent and quick, slipped the reins from Lady’s hands, and leaped up behind the saddle.
“Crowdy!” Lady blinked at him in astonishment.
“Stone Corral.” He turned the stallion, holding Pecos Pete down with one hand, clutching the reins with the other, and galloped away into the growing darkness.
Rafe pushed Sharlot behind him as he fired again and again, laying down cover. They backed off the trail toward the brush line. Bullets zinged around them. When he ran out of ammunition, Lady handed over Pecos Pete’s revolver. Rafe grasped it with one hand while he holstered his Peacemaker with the other. They crouched out of sight in the undergrowth.
Night would be settling in soon. Rafe figured it was the best luck they’d get since their rifles and extra ammunition were back with their horses. But as soon as they moved, they’d give away their position.
He watched the three outlaws. They stopped shooting, reloaded, and talked to each other in low voices. They were hanging back out of accurate six-shooter range, but they’d be pulling out rifles soon. Plenty of range and plenty of firepower. Rafe and Sharlot would be sitting ducks, even hidden in the thick foliage. He had to do something quick.
He peered between the bushes. He could make a run at the men and take out one, maybe two, before he was cut down. She’d have a chance to escape, get back to the Hayes Brothers, Crowdy, and her horse. Not the way he wanted to go out, but he saw no other option.
“Hell!” he whispered, peering at the three men. He recognized them now. “They can’t let us live.”
“You get a good look? Zip? Heck?”
“Yes.” The third was the one man Rafe wanted above all. “And Lynch’em Lampkin.”
“We know too much.”
“They need us dead. Now I understand what happened back at the Bend. Lampkin is why Zip tried to get me strung up. He had to protect his tame marshal. I was sniffing around too close for their comfort.”
“And they used me to get to you,” Lady added, sounding disgusted.
“But we foxed them.”
“Got to do it again.” Lady sighted down her Colt .44. “If I move a little closer, I can get one.”
“Rafe,” Lampkin yelled, saddle leather creaking as he pulled out his rifle. “We can make a deal. No need to let this get out of hand. One deputy to another.”
“Lampkin, I saw the ear notch on that horse Pecos Pete rode. I’m betting you were in on those murders with Zip and his gang.”
Lady inhaled sharply and clutched his arm. “My parents!”
He ignored her, still not sure about her affiliations. “But we can let Judge Parker sort this out,” he called.
Lampkin laughed, a sharp, grating sound. “Morgan, you’re a damn, by-the-book fool. You’ll be eating dirt by the time you’re forty while I’m living like a king. Prime stock like the Eachan horses made us a pretty penny.”
Hearing that, Sharlot screamed like a raging warrior and lunged out of the bushes, firing at the outlaws, catching them by surprise. She spooked their horses, causing them to rear and paw the air as she continued to scream and shoot.
Rafe cursed and leaped after her, laying down a cover of bullets till he reached her. Somehow, she’d managed to nick all of the outlaws, red blossoming on their clothes as they fought to get their mounts under control.
He grabbed her arm and tried to pull her back to safety. She fought him, kept clicking her empty revolver. He couldn’t get a good grip, so he holstered his Peacemaker.
“You’re all dead men!” she yelled, ramming her empty six-shooter into its holster.
Rafe grabbed her around the waist with both hands and dragged her backward. She struggled to get away, screaming and clawing the air as if trying to kill the outlaws by sheer anger alone.
As they reached the brush line, Lampkin got off a rifle shot. Rafe heard it whiz by his ear. Felt it, too. He tossed Sharlot into the bushes. He fell on top and held her body down as more bullets hit leaves and limbs, knocking debris down on them. The scent of gunpowder filled the air.
“Lampkin, Zip!” he hollered. “We’ve got the horse. We’ve got Pecos Pete. You’re next!”
He leaned down and whispered in Sharlot’s ear. “We’ll get them. But right now, we’re crawling out on our bellies through thick brush where horses can’t follow.”
She nodded, taking deep breaths to get control. “Another bargain?”
He smiled, despite the situation. “Yes, bargain. Now let’s get the hell out of here while we still can.”
As she started out in front of him, bullets zinging around them, he knew one thing for dang sure. She’d had nothing to do with her parents’ murders.
And if they could stay alive, he’d sure as hell see justice done.
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