Huang looked reluctant, but turned and fled the cave as Lijuan did a drop and roll that placed her next to where she had dropped her bag earlier. As Franks charged at her, she opened the suitcase and yanked out Shuen Yi’s clothes until her hands closed around a familiar object.
He was looming over her as she brought her hammer to bear, and took a mighty swing that caught him in the stomach.
Franks winced; the hammer not only knocked the wind out of him, but surprised him, too. He hadn’t been expecting yet another weapon coming from the petite woman. He staggered back as Lijuan jerked her body from the ground and brought her feet to the hard clay below her. She flipped her hammer and her left hand caught it by the handle. Circling the huge man, she knew not to get too close to him or he would overpower her. From the teachings, she had received from Mr. Chow long ago, she knew that when fighting alone, strength sometimes conquers all. She took one step back as she continued to circle the man.
Franks straightened out. He brought his hat back down low, above his brow. He narrowed his vision and tilted his head down, concentrating on his opponent. He could see her determination as gleaming sweat dripped down her forehead despite the chill in the cavern. He could see how the veins in her neck stood out. She was skillful, there was no doubt about that, and he was enraged that a small petite girl was making what should have been an easy victory a struggle. If only he could get his hands on her, he would break her into tiny pieces!
He looked at her and growled, “You want a fight, bitch?” He circled around her with his face set into thin hard lines of murderous determination.
“I’ll give you one. After, I will still get what I want from you, awake or out cold; I’m still getting inside you!”
Lijuan grimaced as she flipped her hammer again, this time, changing hands to her right. She could see clearly that he meant it. But she also knew that she would not be letting him have his way with her. She would fight till she dropped. All the sisters knew his kind, bullish braggarts forever underestimating them. Instead of being intimidated by him, she was fueled with resolve not let him win.
Franks, who had been fighting since he was a young boy, was one of the best fighters in the southwest. His wanted posters even carried this detail, declaring him to be considered dangerous either armed or not. The public was strictly warned against approaching him for any reason. With his reputation, nobody would challenge the man. That, however, did not stop him from challenging people to fights. Even when they didn’t want to, he would force them into it just for the fun of it because he enjoyed it. He was far from a stranger to the sport.
Now, Franks lunged at Lijuan, who quickly sidestepped and dodged the huge hands of the man. He obviously wasn’t expecting her to be so fast and was thrown off balance as she went to her left. Seeing her opportunity in that moment, Lijuan let fly a savage kick, striking Franks in his right thigh as he used the same leg to try and keep balanced.
Franks had never been kicked in a fight but he knew this was one painful and powerful kick and he couldn’t believe it had come from the small woman. His leg was too big to be moved from the earth, but the sheer force behind her kick made waves of pain reverberate through his muscles. Lijuan brought her leg back having kicked him leading with her shin, and she noticed his face as she did. He had felt it, no question about it. Now she knew that she could keep him at bay with that kick.
Franks positioned himself and they were now as face to face as much their height difference would allow. He swung his hands back up.
“Shit woman!” He gasped and then hissed angrily. “I haven’t killed a lady since I was in Ft. Worth.” He paused, before once more spitting at the ground near her. “She was just a Mexican, though …” His face took on a look that told her that he was relieving that moment. “I knocked her out cold first. It was easier to have my fun. Knocked-out doves let you do whatever you want to them, for however long you want. I am going to spend time with you enjoying myself before I snap your neck.”
It was not the first time he had uttered that threat, but she still felt the spidery cold, crawly hands of panic move through her body. What if he was right? What if she was no match for him and he succeeded in knocking her out? What if … what if …
She didn’t have much time to dwell on the “what ifs” because as soon as he finished the statement, he attacked her quickly. His huge hands started swinging viciously. She tried to duck and move, but his vicious attack was quick. His left missed, but his right clipped her right temple staggering her. As she wobbled on unsteady legs, his left hand was already darting to the left side of her jaw. He connected and she felt a tidal wave of fuzziness and pain.
She tried to scurry back, but the way the fight was going, she knew that moving back would let this huge man’s long arms still connect. Lijuan felt woozy, but she decided quickly to duck and change levels on the big man, and as she did, she switched her stance in one quick motion and used her right leg to kick the man again in the same spot she previously did and when her foot connected again, it made an impact that at last moved his tree trunk leg and he fell to the ground. She wanted to jump on the man and start pounding him with her hammer, but she knew his upper body wasn’t feeling pain; he still had the strength. Lijuan paused before stepping back and motioning with her hands for him to get up. It was a smart move.
Franks felt the throbbing pain as he struggled to regain his feet, hoping she would come towards him. Lijuan, however, stayed her ground. Eyeing him with a satisfaction washing over her face.
“Maybe after you’re dead, I will cut off that little dick you’re sure to have and show everyone how big Franks really is.”
Franks didn’t like that, as it hit too close to home and he charged her. She tried to move to the side again, but his arms were longer than she thought. He was able to strike her again and she fell to the side. As his momentum carried him near the rock pile that covered the grave, Lijuan, without thinking, rebounded and rushed Franks, leaping as she got close and extending her leg to deliver a powerful kick landing square in the man’s stomach. Franks quickly got to his knees and basically absorbed the kick with his thick body. Then he grabbed Lijuan, swallowing her body as it reached him. The pressure of his hold made Lijuan drop her hammer. There was no question about it, she had made a mistake and she was sure at that moment that she would pay for it. She furiously cursed under her breath.
“Why did I rush him?” she asked herself. She had the big man where she wanted him. Why didn’t she use her hammer as a first strike instead of trying to kick him? She knew it was a mistake due to the mindset that people get while fighting a large man. Everyone always wanted to show the big man they were just as strong. She let her pride dictate her fight, and she knew that was first mistake of fighting.
Franks dropped and threw Lijuan to his side. She crashed to the cave floor and as her body landed on the cold hard clay, her breath left, leaving her gasping for lost air. Franks bent down picking up the hammer, his face morphing into the death grin of a Jolly Roger straight off the flagstaff of a pirate ship.
“I mustn’t let him win … I … I need to fight.”
She slowly picked herself up, she tapped her waist in habit, but she already knew her hammer wasn’t there. Lijuan was looking straight at it in the hands of an enemy.
Franks slowly crept towards her. Her breath was still hard to find, but she slowed down and concentrated, bringing it back to her center. She knew this was life or death and she felt a renewed confidence, even though she didn’t know her plan yet. She stepped back as he drew closer. Their eyes locked in a paramount way; they both knew this was it. She scanned the area as she circled to her left. Franks moved his body so he could cut her off as they slowly positioned for battle. Franks’ big body blocked what was behind him, but with his last move, the shovel by the rock pile was revealed. Lijuan knew that was her only chance. Getting there, however, was going to be the problem.
The outlaw edged closer as he watched Lijuan’s feet. He didn’
t want to feel that kick again. He had seen her pattern, noting that she moved left every time. He prepared his mind quickly as he barreled towards her. He moved forward as fast as his leg would let him. Just like a Jesuit planning a war, he used deception as his first action. He purposely started to lead with the hand with the hammer, and as he used the hammer in his hand, Lijuan quickly moved to her left and as she did, the big balled fist of the man landed on her thin, petite jaw.
He felt the button. The jaw button that lets you know you connected with a solid damaging hit. Lijuan instantly felt the dark starting to come over her eyes. Her knees were shaking and barely fighting to stay up. The momentum from the punch made her turn a circle. She started to stumble away. Her body, with no control, was going into muscle memory. Lijuan still had her hands up, protecting her face, but she had lost all sense of direction.
Franks watched the woman with a sardonic smile on his face. He knew one more punch would get her down. He, too, forgot the rules of fighting: When you go for the kill, you still have to do it in sound mind. Franks rushed at her without thinking. He wanted the knockout because he didn’t want to kill her yet. He wanted to kill her after he was finished with her. Franks aimed for the side of her temple and let fly his right fist. As it plowed towards her, Lijuan ducked and used her positioning and momentum to deliver one more final kick to his thigh.
The first pain he felt was that of his elbow hyperextending from the missed punch. Then he felt his leg get hit with so much power that he thought it was broken. He fell to the ground with his grip still tight around her hammer, and as he did, he watched Lijuan dash past him.
Lijuan scooped up the shovel by its wooden handle almost swooning from the after effects from the hit. She again halted long enough to regain her composure. As she turned around, she saw Franks trying to stand. She was able to muster up the strength from some reserve deep inside her and moved quickly in his direction. Lijuan came within striking distance and as she did, she turned to her left and did a complete spin and used the shovelhead to hit him in the same spot on his right thigh.
Franks smashed downward and as he landed on his back, the hammer tumbled from his grasp. She then gripped the shovel handle with both hands and raised it above her head, and came down as if she was chopping wood. The tool came down with full force and as the head of the shovel came close to Frank’s face, he held up his right hand and with it, he caught the handle of the shovel just below the scoop. Lijuan was astounded at the strength of this man. He then yanked the shovel behind him and Lijuan was thrown off balance to the ground behind him with it.
Lijuan hit, striking the barrel, the stenciled letters on the side proclaiming “DANGER BLACK POWDER” flitting across her line of vision. She laid there stunned, having lost any chance of getting back on her feet quickly. Before she knew it, Franks was limping over to her. He had the shovel in one hand and had retrieved her hammer in the other. Standing over her, he threw the shovel down raising the hammer high above him and with one viscous swing, the hammer came down heading directly for her head, his earlier intentions now forgotten, his intent clearly to kill. Lijuan, with everything she had left, seized the barrel next to her and shoved it in front of her face blocking the hammer’s strike.
The hammer smashed a hole through the top of the barrel, becoming stuck in it. Lijuan then from her back, kicked Franks one more time, and he went to one knee. With newly found gusto, she yanked the hammer from the barrel with such force the barrel flipped as it parted ways from the hammer, landing upright with the jagged hole facing the earth. Lijuan quickly struggled to her feet and walked over to the prostrate form of Franks. With one of her twenty-dollar boots from Nellie’s Outfitters in Tucson, she kicked him in the face. He fell back heavily over the ferryman’s grave, the rock pile serving as a pillow for his head.
In one last attempt to save himself, Franks grabbed the shovel that was lying next to him and as Lijuan came down with her hammer, he thrust the shovel up, using the head to block the powerful blow. When the hammer stuck the head, it broke cleanly off from the shovel and clattered next to his own head. Gazing down and with all that was left of her might, she swung another blow as he brought the handle up with both his hands and the hammer broke through the solid wood and struck him square in his chest.
Franks let out a scream of pain as his chest buckled and throbbed in agony. Lijuan looked at the man with glee, wondering if she had shattered his breastbone. That was in doubt, however, as he was already struggling to rise again. It was time to finish this before he did. She looked at him, as a rush of adrenaline surged through her and she growled at him. “Ready to join Neil? I’m happy to oblige!”
She hefted the hammer over her head and was about to finish the job when she heard a gunshot and a bullet struck the head of her hammer. The vibrations traveling down the length of the hammer into her arm caused her nearly to drop it. The resulting numbness was so intense, she barely noted the breeze from the ricocheting bullet as it flew past her cheek. Lijuan turned to see who had interrupted her kill and what she saw came as exactly zero surprise to her.
“Drop it! Drop it now, Miss Wilde!”
Lijuan let the hammer fall from her hand, angry to have been denied her much earned victory. Still, the anger was tinged with the satisfaction of knowing she had been right yet again.
“Well, it looks like a certain posse is shy one man.”
The foreman of Jaden Jamison’s proud “Western Experience” Double J ranch, Patrick Winston stepped forward from where he stood at the entrance of the cave with a six-shooter firmly in his hand. Slowly, he cocked the weapon and with precision, took careful aim at Lijuan Wilde.
PART 3
GAMBITS
CHAPTER 14
* * *
Regrets. They were coming fast and furiously as Catalina stalked back into the campsite the posse had set up in a clearing a few miles into the Twin Butte valley.
When she had gone off on her own to collect her thoughts earlier, she had advised Newell to post a few sentries around the clearing, but when she had just reentered it now, she had been challenged by none. Everyone seemed to be just where they had been when she left them.
A number of the men had gathered around and were engaged in a poker game. Who had happened to have poker chips in their saddle bag when they left to hunt the Fenwicks? She did not know and certainly didn’t care.
Others were drinking and again boasting of the glories ahead when they took down the Fenwicks. Without a crystal ball, Catalina was wondering how they knew how it was going to play out. Newell, at least, seemed more serious as he was cleaning his gun by the light of the campfire in the middle of the meadow. Still, that did nothing to alleviate her misgivings.
At first, the impulsive decision to join the posse seemed like the right thing to do—the Cassandra thing to do. However, the more she thought about it, she knew that Cassandra would have asked more questions and taken better measure of the men involved. That was Cassie’s way, and Cat knew it was the right way.
Catalina had always idolized her older sister to a degree. Women weren’t supposed to be like Cassandra. Stay home and birth babies was what was expected of most women. Yet, there was Cassandra who had displayed such potential that Alan Pinkerton himself had made her the protégé of Ms. Warne, the first ever female Pinkerton. Cassie had ultimately given up her job and returned to the West and had put her skills to effective use, working for the governor as undercover detective. Her sister had trained the rest of them with her skills and they had been apt pupils. However, Catalina knew she was no Cassandra.
Rushing off to help the men avenge the death of the Sheriff and the others seemed like just the perfect opportunity to emulate her sister and take charge. She had even talked Honor into going along, though it hadn’t taken much, since her sister loved adventures as much as the rest of them. Besides, the handsome colored cowboy certainly played a role in her accepting, Cattie easily guessed.
However, Lijuan had called out New
ell’s number on the spot and she had been right. The youthful inexperience and recklessness she was seeing in this group was liable to end in disaster when they encountered the Fenwicks. On her walk, she had been considering her options. There weren’t many. She certainly wasn’t going to bail out on Newell and the men. That was hardly the honorable thing to do. She wasn’t a yellow belly like Winston turned out to be.
Thinking of the vanished foreman from the Double J only drove her deeper into an ill mood, the opposite of her usual nature. Honor and Carver Jackson had been trailing the posse and were adamant that Winston hadn’t passed them. So that meant he had chickened out somewhere back when they were still in the Cedar Ledge forests.
She was disappointed that she had passed judgment that he might be worthwhile. It was true the man did perform the duties of a foreman at the Double J, but in her mind, it wasn’t real. All just fakery and showmanship. No, he wasn’t a real cowboy in her book. That was for sure, now that it became clear he had turned yellow and most likely fled back to the Double J. How he would explain his cowardice to Jaden Jamison, she didn’t know.
That wasn’t her problem. Hers was the lack of options about being stuck in a posse of tenderfoot greenhorns. Really, the only true option was that she and Honor had to take charge. The likelihood of that, with these men not familiar with their slew of adventures, was almost nil.
This conclusion was underscored as she walked past the men drinking and heard several “come ons” and lewd comments. One particularly riled her when a baby-faced cowhand talked about her ass being extremely slap worthy, though he had put it in much cruder terms. Her hand had gone to her bullwhip coiled on her waist but she had reeled herself in. They were her age or younger save one or two but unlike her they had a lot of growing up to do. Besides, they were on the same side after all.
Wilde-Fire: Wonder Women 0f The Old West (Half Breed Haven Book 1) Page 18
