Some were still leery of the deal she was offering them, so she had given each man an advance of one thousand dollars apiece. It had been an easy decision for the simple reason that part of the deal was that the men would not be allowed to leave the valley until the excavations were complete so there would be no opportunity for them to spend her money. The Villanuevas would simply collect the money from their corpses when the excavations were at long last complete.
She smiled at the delicious irony at the prospect of the men digging a mass grave for themselves. Her loyal men would share in the wealth, but these recruits were easily disposable. They would, of course, be told such a large hole was an attempt to hit the mother lode, and she was certain none would question it, but rather dig with vigor hoping to reach it. Having completed the circuit to the front of the mission, she watched as the large double doors were being opened. She knew she was getting ahead of herself.
Right now, she needed all these men. In a day or so, the rest of the valley on the other side of the Sweetbriar should be cleared out of the last of the settlers, and then she could put these new men to work by opening more excavations amidst the empty homes, farms, and ranches. With the population gone there would be no prying eyes to see what they were up to. Maintaining the secrecy of what they were doing was the key to success. If word were to leak out, the valley would be overrun.
As they passed into the courtyard area, her eyes narrowed as she saw Dogget standing stock still like a mighty oak, with his hands on his hips. Behind her, the noise of the two doors being shut echoed but she didn't even hear it as the wagons came to a stop and he strode over to her, his face grim.
***
In Lobo's studio, Cassie shoved the second and last stick of dynamite back down inside her boot, double checking to make sure no part of the stick or the fuse was protruding out from either one. Satisfied, she crossed to the little table that held Rey Lobo's pallet of paints, cigars, and spotless ash tray. Deftly she swiped the box of matches resting by the candelabra and slipped them into the sleeve of her dress next to her left wrist to keep them handy for the coming moment when she would need them.
Cassandra swung the door open and stepped back into Rey Lobo's bed room and froze. The man too had redressed, but this time there was an extra adornment to his attire. His leather gun belt was strapped to his waist. She had known he would eventually make his move, but she hadn't anticipated it would be immediately after they made love.
Her eyes traveled around the room instantly. There was nothing that would immediately serve as a weapon to defend herself save for the knife on the cheese platter, but that was out of reach. Still, she felt reasonably confident that he wasn't going to shoot her in the middle of the room. His fixation on neatness she felt would extend to not wanting to get blood all over the lush carpet they were standing on. Her eyes took in more evidence of his compulsive fastidious nature.
Besides getting his clothes back on while she was dressing, he had busied himself with other concerns. His bed was neatly made and in a pile on the floor lying in a heap was the sheet made damp with the sweat and juices of their sexual romp. She had little doubt a fresh sheet lay underneath the Navajo blanket on the bed. Despite it all, though, she knew if she was wrong about him not wanting to make a mess then she was dead, she acknowledged to herself. Affecting a tremor in her voice, she spoke.
“C-Carlos?”
The hair rose on the back of her neck as he swiftly pulled the gun and trained it on her. A voice, loud and clear rang out in her head … it was Kate’s. So many times, when she was in dire straits, Kate’s wisdom always came to her. How she missed her so.
You only have to be wrong once, Cassandra. It is up to you to figure out how to right that wrong and save yourself.
Kate, I don’t see a way out of this if he fires, she thought as she felt her heartbeat start speeding up. But to her relief instead of firing he jerked the gun in the direction of the door.
"I am sorry, Kelly, I truly am … but while you were covering that shapely body of yours, I heard The Countess return. By now, Señor Dogget will have told my sister of you … and she doesn't appreciate guests."
“I … I … shall be happy to leave. J-Just tell her I will be on my way.”
Rey Lobo frowned, and she saw a puzzled look on his face that quickly gave way to what she was sure was a suspicious one, and she knew why. He clearly was trying to reconcile the frightened woman she was pretending to be with the tiger he had just been with in bed.
When he spoke, his voice had lost the considerable amount of warmth that he had used since she had arrived at the old mission.
“I am sorry. It does not work that way. Not with my sister. I shall do whatever I can to see that you are spared, but I make no promises, Señorita.”
“Spare me? But you assured me when I came here that you weren’t the kind of man the people in the valley were making you out to be!”
“I am not … but my sister is,” he said coolly.
The man was good in bed, she thought, but he wasn't much of a liar. Whatever he might say would not change the fact of what she had seen. Homes in ruins, a man staked out for the vultures and another mauled to death by a bear. Carlos was just as deadly of a person as The Countess, but there was no point in protesting further. Cassandra welcomed the chance to leave the confines of the room. Once she was out in the open that would leave her more room to maneuver. Play acting; she let her shoulders sag and trudged towards the door. Rey Lobo fell in behind her as they entered the hallway.
"For the record, I do hope I can save you … at least for a little while. Your skills in a bed are unlike any I have ever encountered. I would enjoy sampling them further. Perhaps we might even have the servant girl Lupe join in with us," he said as they entered the living room.
As she swung the door open to the walkway outside, the room she squinted for a moment as the sun, now low in the afternoon sky struck her eyes.
“You’ve got the wrong, sister,” she mumbled.
"What do you mean?" he demanded, but she ignored him, instead choosing to peer over the balcony. Below she saw Dogget engaged in an animated conversation with a woman who could only be Daniella. Suddenly, Dogget looked up and pointed at her.
“That’s her! The schoolteacher!”
Daniella swung her face upward, and Cassandra got a good look at her. She guessed the woman was around fifty years of age, and there was nothing dowdy about her. Daniella filled out a very fancy and expensive-looking dress that she knew Honor Elizabeth would have approved of. The woman’s skin was the same coppery tone as Catalina’s, and she was looking up at her with two of the blackest eyes she had ever seen. She was regal, beautiful, and terrifying all rolled into one.
Cassandra’s eyes suddenly lifted from taking in the sight of Daniella to beyond the front wall of the mission towards the hills, as she heard the unmistakable sound of an exploding stick of dynamite, immediately followed by a second.
Honor Elizabeth had sent the signal!
A feeling of satisfaction and far more confidence than she had since she had entered this wolf’s den of Los Rey Lobo came over her. She was not alone.
“Get that bitch down here right now, Carlos!” came the icy command from Daniella’s curt voice.
Rey Lobo's right hand latched onto her upper arm with an iron grip, and he began ushering her towards the staircase and down until she was standing before The Countess.
The black eyes swept over her, and calmly she said as if she were discussing the weather, "He fucked you, didn't he?"
Cassandra hung her head in mock embarrassment.
“Of course, he did. That is the only reason he would be so bold as to let you into our stronghold instead of giving you a dose of lead. For your sake, I hope you enjoyed it. It shall be your last experience in this world.”
Cassandra drew upon all her skills at theatrics and began to sniffle, still keeping her head bowed.
“Please …” she begged, her voice wavering. “
I just wanted to come here and teach the children of this valley.”
Rey Lobo was standing directly behind her, still holding her arm and his voice boomed in her ear as he called out over Cassandra’s shoulder.
“Watch yourself, sister. I am beginning to suspect all is not what it seems with our schoolteacher here!”
One of Daniella’s eyebrows shot up as she regarded her brother. Flipping one of her hands in dismissal, she said, “Now you are worried, only after you buried your cock in her. You and I shall be having a lengthy conversation about your judgment. We are on the brink of success now that the valley will soon be empty. All will be ours for the taking and yet you allow her in here?”
"I tried to tell my old friend he was making a mistake, but he wouldn't listen," Dogget said off to one side where he stood with his thumbs jammed into his belt.
“Silence!” both Villanuevas shouted together. Properly rebuked Dogget said no more as Daniella turned her attention back to her brother.
“Do not look at me like that, Daniella. The day is coming when I may decide that you shall not order me around like one of these dogs that work for us!”
"Who you callin' a dog!" shouted one of the recruits who had been standing in a group by the wagon they had just traveled in.
Rey Lobo swung the gun away from where he had been loosely keeping it trained on Cassandra and squeezed the trigger. The round struck the man in his forehead, and what had once been his brain that held all his thoughts and memories, controlled all his actions, ceased to exist as it exploded out the back of the man’s head.
He swung the gun back and forth at the line of recruits even as the man’s body hit the dusty ground of the courtyard.
“Welcome to the Mission De La Santa Barbara. I trust there will be no more comments from the rest of you.” He kept the gun pointing straight out with his outstretched arm. There was a chorus of the word “no” and a good deal of head shaking.
“I needed that man to help uncover more of the deposits … on the other side of the Sweetbriar where your fresh pussy just came from. Speaking of which, who knows what she has seen since you allowed her in here. What if she had escaped and told what she knew. It would ruin everything, you fool!”
Her brother swung the gun towards Daniella, and Dogget became alert, but Daniella merely laughed.
“Please spare me the theatrics. You would never harm me, Carlos. Without me you are nothing. I am the one who has placed us on the verge of vast riches!”
Cassie watched as the gun began to waver. She had little doubt that what she was saying was correct. The only thing he had balls for was screwing women and threatening the helpless, but they would shrivel up against someone as formidable as his sister. The next words Daniella spoke only added to her conviction.
"Put your gun away. I shall now dispense with your little toy. It's been a while since I've personally taken care of a matter such as this. Shooting is too easy. I want to have a little fun … and keep my skills up." She said almost breezily as she reached into her dress pocket and pulled out a knife. With a flick of her wrist, the blade extended.
Ignoring the knife Cassandra instead cleared her mind to keep it focused on Rey Lobo's gun. Her best chance to strike was when he would return it to his holster. As his arm lowered the gun and bent backward in preparation for sliding it back down into the leather, she coiled her body and sprang into action.
In moves as fast as lightning, she swung her left hand up and outward striking Daniella's right wrist, causing the knife to fly away. At the same moment, Cassandra's right elbow buried itself in Rey Lobo's stomach. As the wind was knocked out of him, she yanked the gun from his grasp and sprung at the stunned Daniella.
Shouts went up as Daniella found her neck in the crook of Cassandra's left arm and the cold muzzle of her brother's gun now jammed against her temple, held by Cassandra's rock steady hand. Dogget was about to go for his gun when Cassandra screwed the gun in, even more, causing Daniella to give a small grunt from the pain.
“Don’t do it, Dogget!”
Dogget froze in place as Rey Lobo began to pull his senses together. Anger showed on his face now that the truth had hit home he had been duped by this "schoolteacher."
"Everybody … keep your weapons holstered, or I will drop Daniella before any one of you can clear leather!" she shouted, even as she began to back up dragging Daniella along with her. She made micro-second glances over her shoulders as she covered the ground to her destination.
"I do not know who you are, woman, but you are loco. Look at all these men. You may have me at a disadvantage now, Señorita, but you are outnumbered. You will never walk out of these walls again."
“The name is Wilde, Cassandra Wilde. Just keep on blustering all you want, but you’re the meal ticket for these men. They aren’t going to do anything that risks putting you in the dirt.”
“Let her go, bitch!” Rey Lobo threatened, but he had not moved from where he stood. No one had save for Cassandra and her hostage.
A final quick glance over her shoulder told Cassandra she was right where she wanted to be … ten feet away from the main entrance to the grizzly pen as well as strategically placing herself so that the front of the pen would block any sniper attempt from the wall that overlooked the grizzly’s enclosure.
“I heard it was your idea to put that beast in there … to torment him.”
“What-what are you doing?” Daniella whispered, her voice finally betraying a hint of fear.
“I’m not going to do anything you are. Now real slowly we are going to lower ourselves.”
“What?”
“Just do it!”
"If it were not for that gun I would break you in half!"
Cassandra didn’t doubt for a moment that the boast was one hundred percent true. Being this close to Daniella she could tell the woman might be older than her, but she appeared to be made up of a lot of solid muscle.
“Well, then I’m glad I’ve got the gun! Now let’s move!”
With deliberate slowness, Cassie squatted down forcing Daniella to mimic her. All the while she kept her eyes on the puzzled faces of the outlaws watching her. She was in the thick of things now and wasn't about to take any chances.
"I want everybody to put their hands in the air so that I can see them! Right now. If I have to ask a second time I will-" She paused for a moment and smiled to herself remembering a threat Lijuan had once made to a desperado. She didn't always approve of the things her sister did, but she was pretty good when it came up with some creative threats.
"If I have to ask a second time," she repeated, "I will blow one of Daniella's ears off. If I have to ask a third time, it will be her other ear!"
“Do as she says!” Rey Lobo shouted, the panic in his voice was pleasing to Cassandra. He raised his hands and soon all the others did too. The last one to respond was Dogget. Even across the distance now she could tell the man was seething that a woman he had wanted dead hours ago was now calling the shots.
With the men’s hands reaching for the sky, it was time to play her next card. “Daniella … in my right boot I want you to reach down. You’ll find a stick of TNT. Pull it free.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Your ability to understand English is just fine. Pull out the dynamite … now!”
With no choice but to comply, Daniella's fingers probed into her boot, and her thumb and forefinger pulled the stick of dynamite out of her boot as a roar of consternation went through Rey Lobo's men.
"Easy now!" Cassandra shouted while she was straightening back up. "You keep those hands in the air. As for you, Daniella, I want you to put the stick of dynamite in my free hand and then reach into my sleeve. You will find a box of matches."
“Matches?” suddenly her eyes went wide at the implication of matches and stick of dynamite being in close proximity. “What are you going to do, you bitch?!”
"I can answer your question and then blow your brains out, or you can just keep qui
et and do as I say."
Daniella glared at her.
“I know what you’re thinking. You could try and overpower me. I don’t doubt you have the strength, but do you have the speed because all it will take is a second for me to pull this trigger and no more Countess.”
Defiantly, Daniella spit down on Cassie's boots causing her to readjust the barrel of her gun from her temple. She screwed it into Daniella's ear causing her to howl in pain. Across the way, Rey Lobo's raised hands clenched into fists, and Cassie shot him a look of warning.
“The matches, you murderer! Get them.” Cassandra snarled. Obeying, she slipped the TNT stick into Cassandra’s hand that she was holding open to receive it, and then gingerly Daniella slipped her fingers into Cassie’s sleeve and pulled out the matches.
“How I look forward to when the moment comes, and I am free once more. I shall take delight in killing you puta.”
"You have no idea how many people before you have wanted me dead. All of them are either in prison, boot hill, or their bones bleaching out in the desert picked clean by the vultures where I bested them. So, bluster away all you want to, Daniella," Cassandra chided, but her own bluster was mostly an act. This was one of the most harrowing situations she had placed herself in, but she couldn't help it. Law and order had been a lure to her from when she was just a little girl. She couldn't explain why she had been drawn to it, but she just had. Coming to the Mission De La Santa Barbara Valley entailed significant risk, but she couldn't let stand what was happening to the people who called this valley their home.
Cassandra jerked her head towards the heavily secured doors that would have once led into the mission’s nave. “I know what you’re up to here. I’m sure of it. It’s all in there isn’t it? The fruits of your labor. The reason you’ve driven people out and killed any who have gotten in your way.”
Into The Lair 0f Los Rey Lobo: Wildes 0f The West (Half Breed Haven Book 9) Page 16
