by My Desperado
“I’m going to make certain Delias never hurts anyone again, least of all Travis.”
“We can’t let you do this on your own, miss. You’ll get yourself killed.”
“I ain’t about to let that happen.” Luke’s tone was deep and definite, and Katherine winced mentally, rethinking her plan.
“We’ll have to bury the body,” she said flatly.
“That body? But, miss, he was gonna kill us out flat.”
“Nevertheless.” She kept her voice firm and her eyes averted.
“We ain’t got no shovel.”
“Then we’ll cover him with rocks. It’s the Christian thing to do.”
“But—”
“You don’t want to be like Delias, do you? Then, get down here. And hurry. We haven’t much time.”
They did as they were told, but slowly, sliding from their mounts to let their lariats dangle in the dirt, then shuffling halfheartedly off in search of rocks.
“Shadow,” Katherine called softly. The dog appeared at her side, as silent as the darkness he was named for. In a few strides they were at the gnarled oak. “Scent, Shadow. Scent,” she ordered, nudging the horse dung with the toe of her boot, just as Finch had said to do.
The hound lowered his nose, snuffling up odors in loud breaths before raising his head to sneeze. He emitted a single moaning yelp before dropping his nose again and galloping off, long ears skimming the ground.
There was no time to lose now. Katherine could only pray Shadow had the right scent and that she could keep him in sight.
Running to the bareback mounts, she grabbed up their ropes and led them back to her bay. In an instant she was astride, and was dragging Buck and his companion into a trot behind her.
“Hey!” yelled Jacob, just appearing with a jagged rock in his hands. “Hey! What you doing?”
“I’ll tie your horses within a mile of here if you don’t try to follow me,” Kat shouted.
“Miss Kat, please. You can’t go alone.”
Ahead was a stretch smooth enough to allow Kat to canter if the Jamesons decided to try to catch her.
“Don’t follow me,” she warned, “or you’ll never find Buck.”
Standing in the stirrups, Katherine held the horses at a steady pace to watch the stunned, diminishing figures behind her. “Good luck to you, boys,” she murmured, and turned away.
It rained on the third night. Katherine shivered under her damp blankets and prayed.
On the following morning Shadow snuffled worriedly at the ground then circled back time and again before finally catching the scent.
She’d taken a good deal of dried jerky and sourdough bread from a store box in the chuck wagon. But the food was dry and salty, making her constantly thirsty and finally causing her stomach to ache.
She startled a mule deer from hiding and shot at it, but missed.
The following night was clear. From somewhere too close for comfort an animal howled. Shadow snuggled closer to her side, wrapping his tail firmly against his hind legs and rolling sad eyes to Kat’s face. She stroked his head, tried not to think of Travis, of the hunger that tormented her, or of the bloated corpse Delias had left behind.
Two nights in a row she dreamed she had a child, a little boy with eyes as blue as the heavens and a wayward mane of tawny hair.
At one point she woke to her own scream, clawing away half-remembered images of her child’s lifeless form in Delias’s arms.
The next day she shot a rabbit. She skimmed it sloppily, and though she had watched Travis do the same thing, she found she remembered him more than she remembered the procedure. Still, she and Shadow thought it a feast.
Billy, the bay she’d stolen and subsequently named, threw a shoe and was beginning to get footsore, which slowed their progress. But if her calculations were anywhere close to correct, and if Shadow was on the right trail, their journey should be very near its end. Though not at all the end she’d expected, for she had thought to find Delias near Silver Ridge. Instead, the trail had led north and east, toward Latigo’s ranch.
Billy’s pace slowed even more on the following day, causing Kat to dismount and lead him. They traveled well into the night. And for a moment, from a high, bare knoll on the side of a mountain, Kat thought she saw a flicker of fire far in the distance.
Chapter 32
Katherine’s breath came in hard, raspy inhalations. From behind her Shadow whimpered. She prayed he would not break loose and that he and Billy would be silent and remain where they were tied.
Through the trees on the downhill slope Kat caught another glimpse of camp fire light.
For a moment she thought her knees might give way, but they did not. It was her mind that was the traitor. She held Finch’s Colt in her right hand and noticed that the barrel wobbled when she lifted it.
From up ahead a voice rose in anger. Kat stopped in her tracks, holding the gun with both hands and breathing hard, remembering Red’s bloated corpse. For some time she could not force her legs to move. But in her mind she saw the child she had dreamed of. The blue-eyed angel with the infectious laughter and tawny hair.
She held her breath and crept closer, moving from tree to tree and finally stretching out full length on the ground to stare at the camp before her.
There were four men, two playing cards and two who sat face-to-face, talking in low voices. She couldn’t hear their words, nor guess at their emotions. Which man, if any, was Delias? She waited, feeling her heart rap against her ribs and watching.
“Goddamn you!”
Kat jerked, terror making the slight movement stiff as her breathing clogged in her throat.
“I say you’re cheatin’!”
“The hell I am!” was the growled response.
“Damn your—”
“You boys want to kill each other?” A man rose slowly. He was of medium height, with graying hair and a long, wicked-looking knife held casually in one hand. “Or do you want me to do it for you?”
Both men shook their heads, seeming to forget their argument.
“How ‘bout you, Cory? You ready to meet yer redheaded friend?”
“I wasn’t cheatin’, Mr. Delias. I swear it.”
The older man nodded, lifting his lips in a feral grin. “Hear that Duke? He says he wasn’t cheatin’.”
“But I—”
“Listen, Duke.” His tone was very civil. “You wanna die, I’d be more than happy to help, but you’ve got to wait till we rout Mr. Latigo from his hole!” He pulled his shoulders back one at a time then realigned his expression into the semblance of a smile. “Then, after Ryland and the girl are taken care of, if you ain’t had enough blood yet, we’ll see what we can arrange.” He laughed, and in the flickering shadows his face seemed to contort into something hideously evil. “Be good boys, now, and go to sleep.” He bent, slipping the knife slowly back into his boot, as if loath to feel the weapon leave his fingers. “Tomorrow we’re going to go get ourselves some bargaining power.”
“I’m tellin’ y’, it’ll take a small army t’ get the old man outta that house.”
Delias turned slowly, raising one brow a fraction above the other. “Lucky we have a small army then, isn’t it, Selby?”
“It’s said Latigo was the one taught Ryland what he knows bout fightin’.”
The smile was back on Dellas’s face. “Maybe that’s why Ryland will come back here, huh? Because he thinks his woman friend will be safe with the old man.”
Katherine could not see Selby’s expression.
“Hell! Ain’t we lost enough men yet?”
“You ever heard of the devil, boy?”
Selby didn’t answer, and in a moment Dellas’s fist whipped out to grab him by the shirtfront.
“Well, it’s me!” he said, and leaning close, he thrust the other man back off the log where he had been perched. “It ain’t wise to rile the devil, son!”
Katherine watched as Delias strode into the darkness.
Sometime during
the conversation she’d quit breathing. She drew in air now, but the inhalation sounded frightfully loud, so that she stopped again, watching the men by the fire to make certain they hadn’t heard.
“Bastard.” The single word was a low growl. But she waited to hear no more.
The night seemed blacker than ever as she crept through the underbrush with the Colt held before her. Her chest ached, and her legs felt wooden and disembodied, but the thought of Travis the boy and Travis the man drove her on.
She saw Delias in a moment. He was facing away from her, a black shape in the darkness. Her left hand lifted to cover her right, so that she gripped the revolver with all her strength.
“Drop your gun and your knife, or I’ll shoot.”
Her voice did not shake, but sounded as if it came from a different source. From someone far away.
She saw his shoulders draw back.
“It ain’t nice to shoot a man when he’s relieving himself.”
“Get rid of your weapons.” Her voice had come back to herself and quavered from the depth of her guts. “Or I’ll put a hole through your head. I swear I will!”
His hands moved, dropping his gun first and then his knife. “You mind if I close up my pants? Wouldn’t be proper exposing myself to a lady.”
Kat remained silent, every sense honed and focused on the back of the man before her. “Keep quiet, and start moving toward your horse.”
He shrugged and took a step.
“Not through camp.” Without thought she cocked the Colt. “Silently.”
They moved through the underbrush. A twig snapped off to her right and she jumped, jerking her gaze in that direction but not daring to remove her aim from Dellas’s back. Up ahead she could see the ghostly outline of a pale gray horse.
“What now, Miss Simmons?” he asked, and laughed, turning slowly to face her in the darkness. The sound shivered along Kat’s forearms, immobilizing her body.
“You didn’t think I’d know who you are, did you? But then it’s a natural mistake to underestimate me. A smart woman like yourself would be inclined to think I chose this profession out of a lack of intelligence.” He shook his head. “Did you never consider, Miss Simmons, that I simply might love to kill?”
Her gaze was locked in paralyzed fear on his face, but her hands were steady and her gun was aimed dead center on his heart.
“I’m taking you to Silver Ridge.” She managed the words through stiff lips.
“Just you and me on such a long journey?” He chuckled again, low in his throat. “I’m flattered by the invitation, but wondering at the purpose.”
“You’ll say Travis didn’t kill the mayor and didn’t steal the money.”
“An interesting theory. But how would I know that?” he asked, taking a step toward her.
“Get on the horse,” she ordered in a brittle tone.
“But I haven’t slept yet.” He drew back his lips like the smile of a leering dog. “Maybe you could join me.”
“I swear I’ll kill you,” she rasped.
“I doubt…” Delias began and lunged.
She saw him streak toward her. Her mind begged her to run, but she was frozen in place, her mouth open in a soundless scream. For an instant his face was before her, then her muscles jerked free from paralysis, and the Colt exploded in her ear.
Delias slammed into her, and Katherine fell, hitting the earth with a jolt. He rose from the ground like an enraged lion and she fired again, scrambling backward. But he hit her with his careening body, knocking her down. The gun fell, unseen.
Kat tried to rise, to wriggle from beneath her captor. His weight lifted momentarily. She jerked her knees up, trying to scramble away as she clawed toward freedom. Hands grabbed at her, and she screamed, terror ripping at her heart. She lunged, fighting her way toward the darkness that could hide her. But someone grabbed her, and she fell back. For just a moment she saw Dellas’s crazed face. His smile was set at a twisted angle, and his fist was raised. It seemed to come at her with incredible slowness, and she watched it, entranced, until a low-pitched din sounded in her head, and the world went black.
Chapter 33
It was difficult to tell reality from the nightmares.
They flickered through Kat’s head, sometimes jolting her to wakefulness. She had been astride a horse, tied in place. She remembered studying the bonds and thinking she should devise some way to break free. But the hands that pawed and struck her made her shudder and want to wretch. Oblivion was comfortable.
But oblivion was gone now, and in its place sat stark, cold terror.
She was tied to a tree with her back against the trunk. How long had they been riding? Days? Weeks? She had no way of knowing.
A fire blazed less than a yard from her feet.
“I tell you he’s out there!” said someone off to her right. “Has been for days. Following us like a damn shadow. No noise. Just following.” His tone sounded hysterical. “He killed Duke. I know he did.”
Katherine tried to turn her head but found she was immobilized by a rag stretched across her open mouth and tied to the tree behind. She moved her eyes. The effort made her head roar with a dull pain that flooded up like a tide of dark water.
“Maybe our friend Duke simply got lost when I sent him out to watch our trail,” Delias suggested.
“You know he killed him,” Cory argued nervously.
“I hear Ryland’s not afraid to die,” Delias said, his voice smooth and deadly. “Not like you, huh, Cory?”
“I ain’t scared of him. Just wish he’d show his damn face.” Katherine could hear him cock his weapon. “I’d blow him clean to hell.”
Delias laughed. The sound was low and made her shiver. “Some say he’s already been there, boy. And come back.”
“Damn your lies, Delias!” Cory swore, but his voice cracked and the other laughed.
A guttural grunt sounded from the darkness to Kat’s left.
“Selby?” Delias called. “You there?”
No answer was forthcoming.
Silence settled in, thick enough to cut, but now Delias was at Kat’s side, crouched beside the tree with something poking hard and cold in her abdomen.
“I got your woman, Ryland!” he called, barely raising his voice.
No sound. Nothing except the crackle of the fire.
“Be a shame if she died after trying to save yer hide, huh? You know she plugged me in the shoulder? You got yourself a real spitfire here. I owe her something for my injury, but we’ve been easy on her so far, cause she couldn’t enjoy us anyhow. But she’s full awake now. See?” He shook her arm. “She’ll feel everything we do to her from now on.”
It was hard for Kat to breathe. Terror bound her throat as surely as her hands were tied. Seconds ticked by, echoed by the thud of her heart against her chest.
“Ryland!” Delias called in a louder voice. “I’m tired of hide-and-seek, so I’m changing the game. And these here are the rules. You lay down your weapons and come on into camp.”
Kat could hear nothing but the sound of her own frenzied breathing.
“And you do it before I count to ten.” Delias cocked his weapon, pushing it harder into her middle. “If you don’t, Miss Simmons here is going to be mighty disappointed.” He drew back his lips in an evil smile. “Cuz it’s going to take her a while to die.” He shifted closer. “But you know all about gut-shot females, don’t you, Ryland?” His gaze skimmed the darkness. “Maybe you thought I didn’t recall, huh? That I forgot. But I remember all the people I kill. Like to think about them when I’m falling asleep.” He reached out quickly, grabbing her hair to force her head back farther. “And I’ll remember her a long time.”
“Let her go, Delias.” Travis’s voice sounded very close. “And I’ll come in. No weapons.”
“Afraid I can’t do that. We still got us some miles to go to Silver Ridge, and she’s my security, huh? But I give you my word not to hurt her so long as you do as I say.”
“Let
her go.” Travis’s voice had dropped in pitch and volume, and seemed to rumble from the darkness.
“Are you saying you don’t trust my vow?” Silence answered him, and he laughed. “Could be you’re smarter than some, Ryland. But it looks to me like I hold all the cards. Or at least I got the queen of hearts, huh?” He laughed again. “Come on in, boy, and I won’t hurt her, cuz you see, Tommy Grey, he’s a squeamish one. He doesn’t like killing women. And he’s paying the bills.
“You lay down your weapons out there. All of them, you hear? Because if I find you were keeping any back, the girl will have to suffer, and we wouldn’t want that. Lay them down, then come on in nice and slow. We’ll ride into town like one big happy family.”
“What have you got planned, Delias?”
“Well now, there’s the sad part. Looks like the good folk of Silver Ridge are looking to hang you for murder and thievery.”
“And what about you?”
“There’s the funny thing. Grey, he paid me to steal his miners’ wages. But now it seems it was you who did the thieving. There was an eyewitness and all. I’m just clearing my name by turning you in.”
Silence echoed in the forest before Travis’s voice came again. “What about the woman?”
“There ain’t no reason for her to die, so long as you confess your crimes.”
From the woods before her Kat heard a rustle of underbrush. She tried to scream, to drive Travis back into the safety of the darkness, but the gag choked her, allowing only a squeak of protest to issue from her aching throat as Travis came out of the woods.
*
They rode for five days.
Travis no longer slept, but watched Katherine whenever possible. Her face was bruised, and there was a lump on the side of her head. For those wounds he hoped he would be allowed one wish—to cause Dellas’s death before he found his own. He took to praying, begging one last favor from a God he had quit believing in long ago.
He did not hope to live out the month. No, he would die. But Katherine must not.
She slept now. He knew by the way she slumped over her saddle horn. The gag had been removed, but she rarely spoke.
