“Another step, boy, and I don’t care what Mr. Wendell’s got planned for you. I’ll separate your head from your shoulders with one good blast,” the rider scowled at Quillan, halting his advance. He turned back to Honor and spat at her feet. “As for you, that was for my brother, back in the stable,” he hissed. “You burned him pretty bad back there.”
Wendell obviously didn’t care what was going on. He stepped forward and pointed to the bags that were strapped to the horses of the riders. “Mr. Swinton! The bags!” he ordered.
Swinton shook his head lazily and finally swerved his horse away from Honor. “Sorry, Mr. Wendell … needed a pound of flesh from that colored girl for what she did,” he said earnestly just as his partner brought his horse close to Wendell too.
“Empty the bags. It’s not going to matter shortly,” Wendell shrugged.
Both men nodded at the same time, climbed down and began to remove the strapped bags from their horses. They emptied the bags afterwards, scattering bows, quivers of arrows, as well as a couple tomahawks and coup sticks everywhere.
“What are they doin’, Quillan? What are they doin’?!” Katie was clattering her teeth together. Seeing the arrows had made her more terrified than she already was.
Quillan, oblivious of what was going on, only shook his head at her and exchanged a confounded look with Honor.
“I think I know,” Cassandra said somberly, glancing at Lijuan.
“As do I,” Lijuan nodded.
“Do you wish to kindly enlighten the rest of us?”
“What’s the matter, darkie? You in a rush to know how you are fixin’ to die?” Maggie ridiculed, having been listening to their whisperings.
“I’ve got to admit, Mr. Wendell. You’re a hell of a lot smarter than you look,” Cassandra mocked.
“Why you–”
“Spreading rumors about Black Hawk on the war path,” Cassandra interrupted before Wendell could say anything more. “That worked well enough to drive away the customers and get the sheriff out of town, but when we foiled your plan back at the stables, you’re resorting to this.”
Wendell frowned, feeling quite insulted, but he shook his head nonetheless, grinning like a circus clown. “I always knew it might come to this approach. If you just hadn’t interfered at the stable, Dodge here would have gotten off with crippled hands and a lost business. Now, he’s gonna lose his life, his sister’s life, and now yours too.”
“Actually murdered, it would seem,” he chuckled, “at the hands of renegade Indians. Go ahead, Maggie, start prepping the stage.”
“With pleasure,” Maggie chuckled, obviously enjoying herself.
She picked up the bow and arrow immediately and fired it right next to Lijuan’s head. Katie ironically was the one shaken by the fired shot. She wasn’t herself anymore. She began to bite her lips and wouldn’t stop screaming in terror.
“Missed … lousy shots just like you’re lousy freight haulers,” Quillan ridiculed Maggie.
“I didn’t miss nothing, boy!” a jubilant Maggie cheered. “I used to hunt with these when I was a girl in Kentucky shooting game. I am fixin’ to have a little fun with you. Want your last minutes to be brim full of terror, but in the end, you’ll die.”
“And we will put the stage over the cliff with it riddled with arrows and tomahawks, just like your bodies will be and your deaths will be blamed on Black Hawk and his Omegas.”
“Like I said, you’re smarter than you look,” Cassandra replied Wendell.
Wendell’s pleased look faded as he turned to his wife. “Maybe not quite as smart,” he confessed. “I’m forgetting something, Maggie.”
“Wait, let me do this first,” Maggie chuckled.
In a flash, she bent to pick another arrow and fired it skillfully through Honor’s hair, sticking a few strands to the side of the wagon behind her. Honor pulled her hair free with a growl, depending heavily on the look on Cassandra’s face that told them all to be calm. A satisfied Maggie crossed to Abigail afterwards and requested the gun in her hand.
“I just need this, honey,” she asserted with a crooked grin as Abigail handed over the pistol. “Thank you … now line up with the rest of them.”
“What?!”
Abigail doubted that she had heard her right for only a second before stepping forward with a pleading look.
“Nothing personal. I just don’t know if we can trust you to keep your mouth shut, so sorry, no witnesses,” Maggie informed her.
She handed the pistol to Wendell who stared at it for a while like it could poison him before shoving it in his belt.
“You can’t do this!” Abigail shrieked, shakily reaching into the braces of her dress and pulling out a wad of money. “You can have your money back, just let me go!” she begged.
“We’ll get it back, anyway,” Wendell laughed. “Swinton, you can split that with Patterson here.”
The broad-shouldered rider gleefully jerked the money from her hands, turning to Wendell with furrowed eyes. “My brother should get some money too on account of the burn he suffered!”
“You split that money three ways, then,” Wendell ushered him off with a wave of his hand. “I ain’t running any charity. Just be glad I am keeping you on the payroll after you let yourself get beat by a band of women! Maggie, continue.”
Maggie was already getting herself busy before he urged her on. She grabbed the tomahawk and flung it less than an inch from Cassandra’s face.
“As you all can see, I’m pretty good with these too,” she gloated.
“My little brother, Blue River, could throw that better than you, blindfolded,” Lijuan taunted, folding her arms.
Maggie rolled her eyes inwardly, grimacing at Lijuan. “When a Chinese woman speaks … I hear nothin’,” she hissed.
“Do not antagonize her, Lannie,” Honor sighed. She turned to Cassandra whispering, “We have got to end this, Cassie.”
Maggie shot another arrow, this time tearing part of Abigail’s ear off. Abigail immediately lost control as Katie had earlier. Her body reverberated with fright and she wouldn’t stop yelping.
“That, I didn’t mean to do. I was going for your eye!” Maggie was laughing hysterically. “Hell! Even I miss sometimes. I’m getting rid of all you locals first and want to save these interlopers for last, so they can watch each of their friends die!” The woman declared, easily misidentifying the women as friends, not even considering that they were related, despite looking all so different and yet possessing an underlying similarity about them.
Witnessing Maggie’s rant with a scowl, Cassandra finally turned to Honor, having an idea how they could get out of the mess.
“Agreed, it is time,” her eyes flitted upwards momentarily. “Perhaps, my little friend that I’ve told you I keep under my pillow can help. Tell Swinton you’ve got money for him,” she winked at Honor.
“Wait! Stop! You there!” Honor wasted no time understanding what Cassandra meant and taking her sister’s cue, she glanced at the burly man and conjured a regretful expression on her face. “I truly did not mean to burn your brother as I did! I just kind of lost my head back there!” she told him. “I have money for him; lots of money. We are coming back from the east. I took a considerable amount of it out of the bank for our travels. Please, let me give it to you!”
Swinton fell for it immediately. He turned to Wendell with an imploring look, “Please, Mr. Wendell. My brother deserves a little somethin’. He’s gonna be scarred for life. Plus, they cost us both of our pistols back in the stable.”
“Fine, whatever. Be quick about it,” Wendell waved his hand.
“Where is it?” Swinton turned to Honor with a growl.
“It’s in my bag atop the stage!”
“Bag? You climb up there and get it,” Swinton grumbled. “I ain’t got no mind to rifle through your dainties, looking in those bags.” He drew near to the side of the stage, though, following Honor’s movements with his eyes.
“Yes, sir,” Honor s
aid faking a nervous smile and slowly climbing atop the stage.
Cassandra was also monitoring her movement. An inward pleasure coursed through her as Swinton’s reaction was just as she had hoped. Things would have unraveled if he had decided to search the luggage himself.
“You be quick about it, girl. ‘Bout time you did some kind of work. I saw your hands. You must have been one of them house slaves back in the day. What’s your story? Some master without a lick of taste lay with one of his darkies and you’re the nine months later mistake?”
Honor froze for a moment, holding her breath at Maggie’s pejorative remark. Knowing what was at stake, if she didn’t go on with Cassandra’s plan, she finally ignored the stocky woman and continued to climb until she got to the top of the stage and reaching for Cassandra’s bag. She riffled through it until she found the gun. Just to distract their attackers, she rested the suitcase on the edge of the coach, placing it just above Abigail and turned to Swinton and looked down with an assuring expression.
“I have got it. Oh my …”
She jostled the suitcase as planned, making Maggie hiss while Swinton shook his head at her.
“Clumsy no account nig–”
Honor had timed everything well. As soon as the suitcase dropped, it struck Abigail, and she yelled Cassandra’s name and threw the derringer to her. Cassandra spun around immediately, catching the pistol and shooting Swinton squarely in the stomach. The husky man growled back in pain just as Lijuan dropped to the earth and deftly rolled to the other side of the coach.
Patterson, Swinton’s partner, sprang to action immediately. He swung his gun towards Cassandra, but she hurled the derringer at him before he could aim at her, striking him on the forehead. He managed to discharge a shot, blowing through Swinton who was already managing to stagger to his feet. His large body lurched downward once more falling over his shotgun as the bullet tunneled into his back.
“Get inside the stage!”
Quillan immediately yelled to his sister, pushing her through the doorway and out of harm’s way, when he noticed that Maggie was planning an attack of her own. The loathsome woman had reloaded an arrow and was already aiming it at Cassandra who was now lunging for the fully loaded shotgun underneath Swinton’s body. A disorientated Patterson was also going for the same gun, making it quite difficult for Maggie to fire at will at her target.
Meanwhile, getting Katie safely into the stage was becoming a bad idea for Quillan. The rising chaos had frightened the horses and they had begun to charge around in panic, dragging the stage with them. As Quillan raced after the team of horses to get them back under control, a shrieking Katie rent the air with her screams while Honor quickly pulled the tomahawk out of the stage before it lurched away. She turned to Maggie and instantly struck the bow out of her hand with the tomahawk.
“You bitch!” Maggie cursed, holding her wrists in pain.
“Look at your own hands, you cow!” Honor grimaced at her.
She would have lunged towards Maggie to take her on, one on one, had she not noticed that Patterson, who was faster than Cassandra, had grabbed the shotgun from underneath his partner and was swinging around to shoot at Cassandra. Lijuan came to the rescue before that could happen, though. She appeared out of nowhere, having her hammer back and taking a mighty swing with it across Patterson’s face. Shattered teeth went flying out of his mouth before he crumpled into the dirt, carping in extreme pain.
“Did you find the second-time kill much easier?” Lijuan cheerily asked a grateful Cassandra.
“Infinitely. Thanks! Where were you?” Cassandra asked.
“Stuck on the side of the stage,” Lijuan sighed. “I dropped the hammer so it would wedge between the side of the stage and the spare wheel. I thought it might come in handy when you came up with whatever plan Honor and I knew you would!”
“Wendell is getting away!” Honor informed them, thinking it wasn’t time for explanations and gratitude yet.
The trio turned at the same time to notice Wendell racing to mount Swinton’s horse. Cassandra cursed under her breath, sprinting after him. She wasn’t two feet from her initial position before she was tackled by a frenzied Maggie. The hulking woman pushed her weight down on her, staggering her backward. Trying to keep steady, Cassandra held her by the neck and hurled her towards the left, her body landing atop Honor’s open suitcase.
A maddened Maggie sprung back to her feet and lunged again towards Cassandra who was prepared for her this time around. They both rolled about in the soil, throwing fists across each other’s face. Momentarily they regained their footing before Cassandra managed to wrap her arms around her thick waist, throwing her body to the rocky ground once more with a loud thud. The pair continued their battle, each gasping for breath.
Lijuan seized the opportunity to retrieve Swinton’s shotgun, but stopped cold as she noticed that Abigail already had it and was shakily aiming it at her.
“Don’t move!” Abigail yelled at her.
“You’ve got to be kidding. You’re still going to help them after they planned to kill you with the rest of us?!” Lijuan couldn’t believe her eyes.
“They was right about no witnesses,” Abigail scowled. “I ain’t gonna spend the next twenty years in prison cuz of what I done here today!”
“I promised you a beating before, Abbie, and now, you’re going to get it!”
Before Abbie’s finger could pull the trigger, Lijuan went light on her feet, whirling fast into the air, and kicking the shotgun out of her hand. A stunned Abigail turned immediately, escaping towards the mine’s opening.
“I’ll get her! Don’t let him get away!” Lijuan ordered her younger sister.
Honor Elizabeth scooped up the rifle, briefly watching as Lijuan raced after Abigail before she focused the barrel of the gun on Wendell. Getting a bead on him was difficult, though, due to his frightened horse. The beast was bucking all over the place with Wendell having no luck to put him at peace. She kept the gun fixed on him, though, hoping to pull the trigger whenever she got a clean shot.
Beside her, Cassandra and Maggie were back on their feet and throwing heavy punches at each other. Maggie hit Cassandra across the face once, tilting her backward. She lunged for a second punch, but Cassandra landed a staggering blow to her chest and another on her face before she could. Maggie became lightheaded immediately, stumbling forward and backward awkwardly. Cassandra intended to strike a finishing blow, but leapt out of the way instead, as she noticed that the upset team of horses was thundering towards their position. Her eyes went wide as the beasts trampled over a screaming Maggie before the stage bumped over her too.
“MAGGIE!!!”
Wendell became furious atop his horse, unable to believe his eyes. He stopped focusing on controlling the uneasy animal and pulled out the gun in his belt. He fumbled with it for a moment, cursing under his breath as the horse continually jerked around. When he finally pointed the gun, he fired but his shot came nowhere close to Cassie. He began pulling the trigger repeatedly but nothing happened, and that only made him more furious.
“Blast this thing! Why won’t it fire?” He shouted in fury. Giving up, he shoved it back in his belt and slapped the horse to get it moving. “Heyahh!!”
Honor took a shot just in time, hoping to hit him, but missed. Cassandra nodded at her not to worry about him and mounted Patterson’s horse, charging after him into the tunnel exiting the canyon. She rode by a panting Quillan who had finally managed to climb aboard the driver’s seat of the coach and had taken control of the reins. He brought the coach to a stop in front of Honor who immediately waved him off by yelling at him.
“NO!! Keep going. You and Katie head for Carlyle Springs! You can still make it before the sun goes down. We have got this in hand,” she told him. “We shall take the Wendells’ buckboard into town once this is all said and done!”
Quillan nodded gratifyingly at Honor, shaking his head at all the wonder he had seen them do.
“You Wildes
are amazing folks!” he cheered.
“You can thank my daddy for that. He raised us right. Now go!”
“Hang on, Katie!”
He whipped the reins just right, charging the stage towards the tunnel as Honor ran the opposite way towards Lijuan and Abigail.
Abigail’s feet were light and quick in the tunnel as she raced deeper into the mine, approaching the entrance of a cavern. She thought about disappearing deeper into the caverns when her head suddenly bumped against a wooden tool that was wedged into the wall. Straining her eyes, a wide smile plastered across her face as the light spilling from the shaft in the ceiling fell on metal attached to a wooden handle; it was a small handheld pick ax.
“Glory be! I don’t know who left this, but thank ya!” She hooted enthusiastically, pulling the ax out of the wall and positioning herself along the wall.
Lijuan came rushing towards the cavern then, luckily catching a glance of Abigail’s moving shadow before she swung the ax at her. She ducked in time and managed to swing to the left again before Abigail could plunge the ax into her ribs. Ducking twice in a flash made her dizzy, though, and Lijuan totally missed Abigail’s next strike. Luckily, Abigail struck her chest with the blunt end of the ax’s handle. Lijuan staggered back, coughing and trying to regain her strength before Abigail could lift the ax again.
She lunged forward and punched Abigail’s shoulders at once, weakening the joints there. The ax almost fell from Abigail’s hands, but she smartly held onto it, swinging it at Lijuan once more. Lijuan blocked the hit with her hammer, pushing her weight into her own swing and throwing Abigail backwards. The ax finally fell from Abigail’s hands, just as Lijuan threw her hammer down and decided to deal with Abigail with her bare hands.
“Please, stop! I’m sorry.”
The Wildes of the West #1: The Daughters of Half Breed Haven: Old west fiction of action adventure, romance & western family drama (The Wildes of the West/Half Breed Haven) Page 14
