Into The Lair 0f Los Rey Lobo: Wildes 0f The West (Half Breed Haven Book 9)

by A. M. Van Dorn

  “Was that you, Mamacita? Sending me a sign to cheer up?” Catalina didn’t know, but it if was, then she knew she’d better make her best effort. One thing she knew would lift her spirits was when Lt. Jeffery Washburn returned she would not let anything get in the way this time. She fully intended to pick things up where they had left off.

  Letting go of the rock, she swam out into the stream where it was at its widest. Gently, she brought her feet down, finding that she was at its deepest point as well, perfect for swimming. For some time, she contented herself to swim about, doing mostly circles until at long last she had enough and swam back to the edge. Climbing out she grabbed the blanket and dried her shapely body, looking down for a moment she touched the six solid muscles in her abdomen. Many a man and woman she had laid with had always been surprised and delighted by them. She would admit she was proud of them as they came from all the taxing physical work she did around the cattle ranch.

  After she was dry, she had wrapped up in the blanket and laid down for a nap. Before her eyes closed, she found herself thankful to be basking in the warmth of a pleasant afternoon, and her mind drifted to the others. Her poor sisters at this moment, assuming they had even found him, were watching a carpenter finish building them their wagon spokes. Catalina drifted off with a smile on her face at the thought that her sisters, like herself, craved excitement and must be beside themselves sitting bored and idle.

  CHAPTER 14

  A battle was coming for Honor Elizabeth and her new friends, but at the moment, at the side yard of the Holmes’s house, a quiet calm had fallen as Cody and Ruiz closed the twin doors to a root cellar after taking a last look at the frightened faces of Jocelyn, Mrs. Ruiz, and the children. They walked into the house to wait for the bandits. The men were prepared for whatever was coming their way. It was either they make a final stand or run away, or this time, emboldened by this mysterious colored woman from beyond their valley, they were prepared to stand and fight. They had their guns cocked, locked, and loaded, knowing the Rey Lobo’s cutthroats were close. Soon enough they could hear them coming up the road in a wagon. The bandits stopped on the trail near the shade tree and approached the house on foot, moving past several boulders and shrubs.

  “If you know what’s good for you, then you’ll abandon this homestead and kite on out of the valley at once or die!” Ned shouted, full of his own bravado, as they gradually made their way closer and closer to the house. Cody came out with a rifle pointed at them.

  “Stop where you are, uhm, you have no right to this land …” Cody said, unsure of what else to say. His nervousness was not helping his composure.

  The husband and wife already had their six-guns drawn, so they were not intimidated by Cody in the least. He kept his gun pointed at them and timidly once more urged them to go away. This was met by their uncontrolled laughter; Tracy’s was little more than a high-pitched squealing, at his lack of force. Cody’s eyes briefly flitted beyond them as he seethed. We’ll see who is laughing shortly now, won’t we?

  They were still guffawing at him when a rope slowly lowered from the branches of the tree behind them. Honor slid silently down with her big Bowie knife clamped between her teeth. She softly touched the ground going into a crouch and placed one hand on her pistol in its holster. In the other hand, she held the knife prepared to throw it.

  Unknown to Honor, there was sudden movement in the wagon, and a man under the blanket in the back of the wagon sat up. "Big Buck" Sheehan had drunk himself into a stupor the night before and made his way to the cart where he had passed out. His first thought was of the trouble he would be in with Rey Lobo, as he was supposed to be helping the Dentons with the routing of the valley. Instantly he realized the pair had continued with the mission not even bothering to roust him; he thought as a throbbing reverberated through his skull.

  Despite the killer hangover though, he was stone cold sober. He immediately deciphered what was going on despite how improbable was the sight of a colored woman about to get the drop on his partners with a ferocious looking knife. Springing into action, he slowly reached for his six-shooter, his elbow gently jostling the empty bourbon bottle he had consumed the night before. The sound was small, but it was enough to alert Honor Elizabeth. She twisted around and threw her knife at him with deadly accuracy, burying it in his chest. Sheehan cried out, and the pair of desperados twirled around, immediately splitting up to take cover behind the tree and well.

  “And there goes that plan,” Honor waxed philosophically at the loss of the element of surprise as she swiftly drew her pistol and started taking shots at the desperados. Honor heard the woman of the pair call out to her from her place of concealment behind a boulder.

  “You want to live, girl, you drop your weapons, or this is going to get nasty for you, honey!”

  “The only thing that is going to be nasty is the reek of your dead bodies baking under the sun!” Honor told her bravely.

  “Don’t say we didn’t warn you, darkie!”

  With Honor’s attention momentarily on Tracy, Ned Denton took advantage to run to change his position with a goal in mind. As he leaped from behind the well, Tracy fired at Honor as a distraction knowing what he was up to.

  Honor’s gun spit fire at Tracy as she dove for cover close to the wagon for protection. She brought her head up, and the two women stared at each other for a long moment, as if they were communicating with their thoughts and hatred. Suddenly, she became aware she had lost track of Ned. To underscore the peril, abruptly both the Dentons began firing from their separate positions and Honor realized he had repositioned himself across from Tracy hiding behind a small woodshed. Honor was horrified that she had allowed herself to now be caught in the crossfire between the pair. She vaulted herself over the side of the wagon, landing between two crates of boxes.

  A prayer of thanks flew heavenward that they would afford her some protection, as she doubted the walls of the wagon would stop the bullets. Panic replaced her joy as she noticed the boxes she was laying between were labeled in stenciled letters—dynamite! The Denton’s gunfire began to penetrate the sides of the wagon sending woodchips flying before the slugs buried themselves in the dynamite boxes on either side. She couldn’t stay in the wagon nor could she flee.

  Honor's mind worked frantically to figure a way out of her pinned down position. She was in what Cassandra called a "kill box" and understood why it was to be avoided. Salvation came when Cody, who had taken position behind a bench he had overturned on his front porch, saw they had her pinned down in the explosive-laden wagon. His gun barked, slinging lead towards the separate positions the desperados were shooting from. It gave Honor the chance to spring up and away from the potentially explosive situation and leap from the back of the wagon. Quickly she fled under cover fire; this time laid down from the Mexican sheepherder.

  Ruiz was firing from inside the front window on the second story of the house, and he continued covering Honor, who by now was running across the yard to take cover behind a boulder. Ned changed positions to behind a shrub and shot up at the window forcing Ruiz to duck back inside.

  A furious gun battle was now raging between Honor Elizabeth where she crouched behind the boulder and Tracy who had dashed to a new position behind one of Jocelyn’s many chicken coops on the property.

  Ned seeing his wife under fire from Honor became enraged. How in the hell was some colored woman giving them a run for their money when most of the men of the valley had turned tail and fled allowing Los Rey Lobo to claim their lands? In a fury, he fired uncontrollably in her direction while running to give his wife a hand.

  Honor ducked back down to save her skin. Blindly she stuck her six-shooter out firing indiscriminately. She let out a yelp as one of Ned's bullets slammed into the side of the barrel knocking it from her hands. Emboldened when he saw a very lucky shot had deprived her of her weapon he rose up intent on dashing over to kill the black bitch, but it was a foolish mistake as he had left himself exposed.

&nb
sp; Cody on the porch took advantage of Denton's error and fired a bullet straight across the yard that slammed into his chest, narrowly missing his heart. Before Ned could draw his arm to shoot in Cody's direction, Cody fired another shot, this time aiming at his head. The bullet hit Ned directly between his eyes, and he fell over, the back of his skull had blown out. Tracy screamed in rage and fired even as she fled around the back of the house.

  Honor looked down and saw that her Colt was ruined but shrugged it off, knowing she could get another in Alamieda when she got home and ran over to where Cody was crouched, tapping him on the shoulder.

  "Watch out for the women and children. I got that bitch! She is surely mine!" Honor said decisively. Cody saw the fire in the Wilde's eyes and knew better than to protest. With a grin, she said, "I thank you for saving my life back there! That was most brave!"

  As his face flushed, he watched Honor turn and run to Sheehan’s body and retrieve her vicious knife, stopping along the way to pluck Denton’s Smith and Wesson from the ground. After she vanished around back, Cody headed toward the far side of the house to stand watch over the root cellar in case there were any more of Rey Lobo's men yet to come into play.

  Honor ran through the backyard passing more chicken coops heading towards the barn that also served as Cody's carpentry workshop. She entered in a rush and found Tracy just finishing cinching up a saddle on a horse, about to attempt to back it out of its stall to make a getaway. Honor fired Denton's gun only to discover the dead man had left her with an empty chamber. She dove behind a workbench as Tracy drew her own weapon and fired.

  "I'll kill you bitch!" She fired two shots into the heavy wooden table then her gun also clicked empty. The woman looked down at her belt, but she had expended all her ammo in the firefight. In anger, she threw the useless gun at Honor who ducked out of the way with a feint to the right.

  “You are going to what now?” Honor asked with a wicked smile drawing her knife. Tracy was not deterred, however. There was a madness in her eyes. Her man was dead, and she had nothing to lose. Cassie’s warning came to mind, as she always said humans were the worst of the type of cornered animals. Honor Elizabeth jumped back as Tracy picked up a long saw and swung it at her. It swooshed through the air, and her next swing Honor deflected with her knife.

  "You're mine!" Tracy snarled bringing the jagged blade down towards her head. Honor blocked it again with the knife, but the force of it caused her to stagger back against the work table, dropping her blade. One of her hands gripped Tracy's wrist to stop her from bringing the saw down on her head, but the maddened woman was struggling like a wildcat. This tactic would not work for long. Honor found herself reaching backward to find something else. Her hand closed on a handle, and she allowed herself to drop to one knee, swinging the tool from the bench.

  Dropping down like that had been a calculated risk. The saw blade was deflected to the side, but a glancing blow along her bicep handily opened a wound. Fortunately, the screwdriver she had picked up was now stuck in Tracy's leg who was howling in agony as she hopped backward.

  The horse, a roan mare, was whinnying as well at the ruckus and trying to maneuver in the building, moving between the two women. Honor scooped up the Bowie, delighting at the feel of it back in her hand. Cursing, Tracy was grabbing things and throwing them over the horse at her, using it for cover. Screws, pieces of wood, whatever she could find, all flew leaving Honor to dodge them.

  “Darling, I dare say you are getting desperate. It is time I end this!” Honor shouted at her, the ringlets of her hair shaking as she leaped forward, knife in her teeth, throwing herself sideways through the air. She hit the side of the horse, grabbing the saddle horn with one hand and her foot in the stirrup. She let go of the saddle horn propelling herself over the horse as she curled in a ball, crashing into Tracy and knocking the outlaw off her feet.

  With a quick thrust, her knife went up under the woman's ribs directly into her heart. Tracy paled with a shocked look on her face and fell backward, her eyes beginning to glaze over.

  “You, you …” then she was quite dead.

  “I believe the word you were looking for was bitch,” Honor said rising to her feet, rotating her arm to see just how bad the cut was.

  CHAPTER 15

  On the porch of the house, Jocelyn was wrapping Honor's bicep in a crisp bandage she had retrieved from the home while Cody and Ruiz busied themselves hefting the three bodies into the back of the wagon. Unknown to Cody was that he was covering them with the blanket that had been a part of the last happy memory the disreputable couple ever had. It only partially covered the more massive third outlaw, but there was nothing to be done about that. He would have to move the wagon far away soon, as the flies followed by vultures would soon be paying a call.

  First, however, he knew he had to bestow a thank you on Honor Elizabeth Wilde that he knew would never be adequate enough. He gazed across the yard at the woman who seemed to have taken the entire battle in stride, smiling and chatting with Jocelyn as the woman switched the bullets from Denton’s gun belt to her own. Did she do this sort of thing all the time?

  His eyes drank her in … God, she was beautiful. The Holmes family had grown up in Virginia before moving to the West. He had been discouraged from engaging with the many Negro slaves that populated the area. Even after the war, it had been the same. He never saw the reasoning in it. His family was just as poor as most of the colored were. It had been that poverty that ultimately had forced the family to pack up and head west.

  Still, in those days back in Virginia as a youth he had seen many a colored girl that was every bit as pretty as any of the white girls around, and yet he had done what he was supposed to and not talked to them. Chuckling to himself, he had thought of how earlier he had done more than just talk to a colored girl he had seen her partially nude body. There was no denying the truth he had liked what he had seen a great deal.

  Nodding to Ruiz, who went off to check on his family, he strode over to the porch and put one foot up on the top step and leaned in on his knee.

  “Just saying thank you sounds pretty meager, Miss Wilde-”

  “Honor Elizabeth, please.”

  "Yes, ma'am, Miss … Honor Elizabeth. What you did here for my sister and me… well, words just aren't going to do this justice. So many in this valley have lost so much, and but for you, we would be counted among their number.

  “Amen!” Jocelyn bubbled enthusiastically.

  “You are most welcome Cody … if I may,” she said with a slight tilt to her head, “but I was glad to help. Lending aid to those in need is something we have grown accustomed to back home in Arizona.”

  The corner of his eyes crinkled in good humor. “Then Arizona is extremely lucky. I just wish there were some way I could express my gratitude.”

  Honor rose from where she was sitting, walked to the edge of the porch, and looked down, her curly ringlets falling forward as she did.

  “I am quite sure I might think of something.”

  Before she could elaborate, the three found their attention suddenly riveted to the wagon trail at the sound of furious hoof beats. Concerned that it might be more of Rey Lobo's men, Honor drew Denton's reloaded gun, and Cody snatched the shotgun from where it leaned against the porch rail.

  Honor’s alert level evaporated as suddenly as the rider came into view, as there was no mistaking the petite form astride the horse. However, she notched it back up to full-blown worry at the speed Lijuan was riding and the fact that she was alone. Where was Cassie?

  Her mouth fell open further as she saw a large bruise on Lijuan’s temple and her blood saturated pant leg as she yanked the horse to a stop.

  “Lannie, what happened?!” she screeched as Lijuan hopped down from her mount.

  Before launching into her story, Lijuan briefly looked at the corpse partially sticking out from under a blanket in a wagon. Instantly, she could see that Honor had been just as busy as she had. Quickly, as Honor Elizabeth tended to t
he wound on Lijuan’s thigh obtained during her fight with the outlaws, she filled her sister in on everything that had happened since reaching the Sweetbriar. As predicted, Honor was not happy at Cassandra going into the wolf’s den alone.

  Dust flew up from the ground as Honor stamped her foot. “Why that woman always thinks she can take on the most impossible of odds and alone no less, I shall never know! And you letting her!”

  Indignantly, Lijuan fired back at her. “Check your attitude, Honor Elizabeth … what was I going to do to stop her? Knock her out with my hammer?” Lijuan shouted as she pulled back on her jeans that she had shed in order for Honor to bandage up her injury. Jocelyn called out to tell Cody he could turn around now as he had kept his back to the women.

  Across from Lijuan, Honor’s eyes fluttered in frustration because she knew she was right. “Of course not. I know there is no stopping her when she wants to follow through with one of her plans.”

  “Time’s wasting! I’ve got to get Catalina and those troops!” she called out as she quickly remounted Kong and moved him back onto the trail. “We will pick you up on the way back when we head over to snuff out this Los Rey Lobo once and for all!”

  As Lijuan galloped away, she looked back over her shoulder with a tight smile. It had been no unintentional thing she had done when she recounted the tale that she had mentioned where the trail could be found leading towards the mission. She knew full well Honor would not be standing idly by waiting for her to return.

  It would not surprise her if the woman were already making plans not to wait but to set out for the mission. That was not an unwelcome prospect, she thought. Honor could come off as a spoiled daddy's girl when she wanted to, but the dead bodies in the wagon were a testament that she was one belle you didn't want to tangle with. Any backup Cassie could get was fine by her, as it still grated on her that she had left her beloved sister behind.