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

by A. M. Van Dorn

  It was open terrain for about a hundred yards, where Rey Lobo had shot most of the small animals, but then the open area gave way to the thickly forested area she had seen at a distance earlier. Leading straight through the plain and the forest was a wagon trail heading in the direction of the other end of the valley, giving confidence to Cassandra that there was indeed an exit at that end as well. The trail appeared to be well traveled.

  That wasn't the only thing that had caught her eyes. On the open plain between the mission and the woods, there were signs of more excavations having been done at random intervals. Some appeared to be still active dig sites with pickaxes and shovels resting against crates. Rey Lobo it seemed kept his men busy.

  The trio was just about to turn around and head back to the mission when at the tree line Rey Lobo spotted a flash of reddish fur and watched as a tail of a fox disappeared into the woods.

  “Hurry! I am going to get that dead to rights!” Rey Lobo’s voice was loud and energetic. His enthusiasm took a splash of chilly water to it when Dogget held up the burlap bag he was carrying and shook it.

  “We already got plenty!”

  Rey Lobo went rigid for a moment, and then he seemed to relax and in a calm voice said, “Our friend the bear will have worked up quite an appetite. A good-sized fox will be a fine meal for him. The rest of these unfortunate creatures can be but appetizers. Senorita Kelly, you wait here while we make short work of that fox. Being a lady who gets lost easily, I think it best you stay put.”

  "Understood." Cassandra hastily agreed giving lip service as she didn't for a moment have any intention of hanging behind. After waiting several long moments after they entered the woods, she turned and looked back at the mission. The hills facing the front of the compound were now on the other side and blocked from view. Her eyes scanned the skies over where they would be but saw nothing. It was expected. It was too early still for Lijuan to return with troops in hand and she knew it.

  Cassandra turned back towards the woods and entered them. Cautiously, she picked up the men’s trail and tracked them to where they stood next to the enormous trunk of a Bristlecone pine. The two men were eye to eye, the hunt seemingly on hold. From her place behind a boulder, she listened to the argument.

  “How you dare question me back there in front of a woman?”

  “I’ll question you plenty, my old friend! She should have been killed as soon as she got here, but you’re thinking with your dick, Carlos!”

  She listened, and there was a long pause as Rey Lobo was apparently gathering himself together over the rebuke from Dogget. Finally, he found the words.

  “I should kill you where you stand.”

  “But you know you can’t, and you gotta know that I’m right! Think of all the things she’s seen just bringing her out here past the excavations. She goes back to any town and starts running those pretty little lips of hers … it’s going to get people curious, and then people are going to come back. We’ve gone through a lot of trouble to rid this valley of peo-

  Cassandra could hear the tell-tale sound of a pistol’s hammer being drawn back as Rey Lobo raised his sidearm and pointed it directly between Dogget’s eyes.

  “Give me one reason I should not pull this trigger, Amigo. I’ve had enough of your surly attitude. You no longer know your place.”

  Cold laughter from Dogget floated through the air. “One? I’ll give you two! Here’s your first reason. Have you forgotten it was I who saved your ass in Tijuana? How many lawmen did I have to kill to do that? Second reason hombre, you kill me, and Daniella will have your balls in a sling.”

  “How emboldened you have become since you stepped into your new role of providing stud service for my sister’s needs. Where will you be when The Countess tires of your cock?”

  “Trust me she’s not going to tire of it,” He boasted as Cassandra rolled her eyes.

  Rey Lobo lowered the gun and stewed. “Braggart. It would almost be worth Daniella’s wrath to plant you out here as food for the maggots.”

  “Back to the woman! She is a problem.”

  "She is not a problem. I can tell my charms have worked on her. Soon she will be in my bed … and once I have had my pleasures with her, I shall have one of the men dispose of her down one of the excavation holes that did not pan out. Are you happy now?"

  The man glowered at him and snorted as he rocked back on his heels. "If you are going to be fucking her, compadre, then you better be doing it soon. When Daniella gets back, she is likely to shoot her on the spot or throw her to the bear for its next meal."

  At these suggested fates for her, Cassandra felt a chill run down her spine. Suddenly, Rey Lobo cried out, “There it is! Come on!” She saw through the trees that the two men were dashing over the newly remerged fox, but it had led them into a small clearing. There would be no pursuing them further to eavesdrop as she would be instantly spotted out in the open if she attempted to follow. It was best to go back to where she was supposed to be waiting.

  Arriving back on the spot, she started mulling over her options. She was weaponless, but that could be remedied. Dogget was the clear target to disarm. He was a big man, but her observations were that he moved slowly. If the men could somehow be separated, she was confident she could yank his gun from his holster and turn it on him before he could do anything about it. With Doggett quickly incapacitated or dead, she could then capture Rey Lobo.

  Still, she felt she should stay her hand. It was becoming more and more evident that the actual brains behind the takeover of this valley was this sister Daniella. She was the one who ultimately had to be put out of commission. It would be best if she could do it before the hoped-for reinforcements arrived, but she knew better to put all her eggs in one basket and pin all her hopes and plans on the arrival of the troops.

  Before she could think any more on the matter, she suddenly froze at the sound of a twig snapping behind her. She was no longer alone! Looking down at her feet she saw part of a dead branch that had long ago broken off from the tree above. Its end was about as long as Lijuan's hammer and the end was pointed enough that it would make a good enough weapon. One quick thrust of it in an enemy's eye and that would take them out nicely.

  She took a deep breath preparing for the moment she would reach down, snatch it from the ground, and turn it on whoever was stalking her. Likely it was one of Rey Lobo's men who had followed them out. Perhaps he was hoping he would find her alone. More than a few men had been looking at her hungrily. It was always the same with the wicked men they went up against. Someone would always get the notion that they were going to force themselves on one of the sisters. None had ever been successful, and none ever would.

  Cassie shut her mind off to such thoughts as she switched into instinct mode. She dropped down, snatched the stick, and whirled around rising back to a standing position and thrust the makeshift weapon towards the face behind her.

  To her shock, there wasn't one face but two! One of Honor Elizabeth's hands flew up and cupped Cody's mouth before he could shout in surprise, and the other grasped Cassie's wrist stopping the thrust before it could drive home into Cody's right eye!

  “Holy Mother, Mary and Joseph! What are you doing here?” Cassandra hissed in as loud of a voice as she dared while her hand dropped the sharp stick to the ground.

  “I would think it would be obvious, sister dear. Cody and I are here to provide whatever back up you may require. A none-too-pleased Lijuan told us of your attempt to go it alone up here.”

  Cassandra didn't even try and suppress a smile. They wouldn't be her sisters if they didn't attempt something like this, but still, she needed to know more how they happened to be here at this exact spot, at this moment.

  Honor explained that they had followed her route after crossing the Sweetbriar, even leaving their horses where she had hidden Lily. However, when they had seen the wide-open landscape between the hills and the mission they knew a frontal approach was out of the question. Honor had noticed how the
hills circled the plain holding the mission, so she had decided their best bet was to go the long way around and hope they might be able to draw close to the mission from that backside. To her it had appeared the hills were very close to where the back of the mission was, perhaps affording them a better opportunity to get close and maybe lay eyes on Cassie.

  As Honor finished, Cassandra took a moment to feel a wealth of pride in her sister. All four of them were resourceful women, but Honor Elizabeth she always found to be exceptionally brilliant. Her ingenuity had aided them on many occasions in the past.

  Honor finished by saying that it was just a matter of random chance that they had arrived in the woods beyond the mission while Cassandra was out beyond the walls.

  Random chance … meaning they had gotten lucky. Cassandra laughed inwardly at her sister's enjoyment of polished diction. Continuing their story, Honor said she had spied her through the trees, and they had moved towards her as quietly as they could. A chagrined Cody admitted that he had been the one to step on the downed branch. This caused Cassandra to regard Cody for the first time.

  “Did you have trouble from Rey Lobo’s merry band of destroyers?”

  "That we did, ma'am. Showed up ready to add our homestead to their list," he said shaking his head leaving her to ask Honor how it went.

  “For us, I would say splendid. For the three corpses in the back of their wagon, I would say rather poorly.”

  “I don’t know what we would have done without Miss Honor Elizabeth.” The carpenter said earnestly. “We-”

  His words were cut off by the sound of a distant explosion.

  “What are those Cassandra? We’ve been hearing them from time to time ever since we crossed The Rift!”

  “Rey Lobo’s men appear to be doing several excavations on this side of the Sweetbriar. The dynamite they are using to level homesteads isn’t the only use they have for it. Their using explosives to help them along in their diggings.”

  “Digging’s for what, ma’am? Gold, silver? Shoot there ain’t none of that around here.” Cody scowled.

  “No, neither of those. Did Lijuan give you a canteen? I wanted to taste some water and get your thoughts on what might be tainting it. It was from the Sweetbriar.”

  “Come to think of it, she did hand it to me, but after she left I was so determined to get here I hadn’t tried it yet. It’s still with my horse. What do you think is the issue with it?”

  There would be no time for further discussion on the matter because the trio heard the shot not far off from the woods, followed by a faint victory cheer from Rey Lobo.

  “We haven’t much time. They were hunting a fox, and it sounds like they got it. They will be along to collect me soon!”

  Honor slipped her gun out of her holster and extended it towards Cassandra. "Three against two. Shall we take them out?" she asked as her other hand came to rest on her knife strapped to her belt.

  “No. I want to go through with my original plan. Taking out this pair isn’t going to cut it. Especially since I’ve discovered that the real architect behind what’s going on here is his black-hearted bitch of a sister named Daniella. She’s on her way back, probably coming from the trail, not far from here that leads from the far end of the valley.”

  Honor nodded, “We saw it just before stumbling across you.”

  “I want to wait for the troops Lijuan went to fetch and take them all out then, with Daniella here. I want her inside those walls, so we can capture her and bring her to justice for the havoc she’s wreaked on this valley.”

  “Very well. Just tell us what you want us to do?” she said, her eyes scanning past Cassandra’s shoulders on the lookout for any sign the pair of bandits might be drawing close.

  “I want you to leave,” she said simply.

  “I beg your pardon!”

  “We don’t have time to debate this, sister. I need you to go back to The Rift and wait for the cavalry. They have to cross there. Once they are there, I am going to need them to give me a signal that they are ready and waiting. Once I get it, then I’m going to create a ruckus around here like no other. I’m going to try and draw them away from the front wall to give Washburn’s men a chance to get as close as possible to the mission before being spotted.”

  “I see. You wish to preserve the element of surprise. But what kind of signal can we send to you to let you know the cavalry is in place so that you might act?”

  “That’s the big problem. I’m not sure how.”

  “I believe I can help with that,” she said with a cocky smile.

  Cassandra watched, puzzled, as she reached down and from each boot, she pulled a stick of dynamite.

  “The three dead bodies back at the Cody farm didn’t have any use for these anymore. Cody here also has two sticks shoved into each boot. We can use one as a signal to you. These scoundrels will just think it’s another one of their own blasts.”

  “God damn, I love you, Honor Elizabeth!” she moved in and gave her a quick hug. “But we will need to use two as a signal. All the blasts I’ve been hearing have been spaced out with a respectable number of minutes between them.”

  As if to underscore what she was saying another rumble sounded somewhere across the terrain.

  “Explode one and then another immediately after it! That’s how I will know it’s you. These killers likely won’t even pick up on it … or if they do, they will chock it off as two teams detonating their charges at the same time by coincidence!”

  Now they all could hear the snapping of twigs and branches as the two men were approaching rapidly.

  “And how will we know when you are ready for your so-called ruckus?”

  Cassandra grinned wickedly and snatched the twin sticks of dynamite from her sister’s hands and shoved a stick down each of her own boots.

  “Those will do nicely for what I have in mind. Now go!” she said in a voice that was little more than a strained whisper.

  CHAPTER 22

  Like a polished gentleman, rather than one of the ruthless parties who had managed to run nearly the entire population out of their valley, Rey Lobo pulled out the chair for Cassandra as she took her seat at the small table in his master bedroom. As soon as he pushed her chair back in, he scooped up the bottle of wine that was sitting on the table and held it out for her.

  “Chardonnay. From the Corderro Crest Vineyards! How wonderful!” she exclaimed as a look of approval swept across the man’s face.

  “I figured a learned woman such as yourself would be able to spot a fine wine when she saw one. A shame what is happening to that once fine vineyard south of the border. Word has reached even up here that the drunkard who runs it is mismanaging it towards its extinction. What a loss to the world when no more of these fine wines flow from it.”

  Cassandra could only nod. She knew full well of the plight of the vineyards as they were owned by the family of Catalina's late mother. A lifetime around the abundance of alcohol had left Catalina's Uncle Hector addicted to his own product, and despite the best efforts of his children, Cattie's cousins, he was on the verge of ruining the prestigious vineyard that had thrived for well over two hundred years. It brought great sadness to Catalina; she knew that the legacy of the Corderro family was on the brink of ruin.

  None of this, of course, could she discuss with Rey Lobo and wouldn't have even if she could. Instead, she merely nodded as the man produced a corkscrew and set to work on the bottle. Her eyes traveled about the room, and one thing became very obvious. She had been in many a man's rooms and most looked like they were hit with some cross between a tornado and a hurricane but not Carlos's room. Everything was in complete order, and nary could a speck of dust be seen, which was no small feat living in the West. It seemed the man lived by a code of neatness that bordered on the obsessive.

  As the cork came free and made a popping sound, her mind wandered back for a moment to earlier after she watched Honor Elizabeth and Cody Holmes slip back into the dense woods only moments before Dogg
et and Rey Lobo returned. Reunited, the hunting party retreated to inside the mission walls with the fox. Rey Lobo had left it with Dogget and had quickly escorted her up to his room. It was all playing out as she had overheard. The man was intent on getting her into his bed before Daniella returned.

  If she weren't a trained professional, she would have snorted at the flimsy excuse he had given her to get her into the room. They were going to celebrate his "victory" in hunting down the fox. Now if he had brought down a bull moose like she had seen her father do when she was a little girl still living in Philadelphia, and they had gone on a trip to New York's Adirondack Mountains, that would have been an impressive victory worthy of a celebration.

  Still, she shrugged her shoulders, at least he was going to try and seduce her. A much less suave criminal would have attempted merely to rape her, and she would have had to drastically alter her plans by killing the man.

  With the cork free and Rey Lobo pouring them each a glass, she took it as an opportunity to study him closer. He indeed was a handsome man. How had he gone down the path that he was on now? Was perhaps he once a good man and had been led astray by this sister Daniella? No way to know. Cassandra was just thankful that she found him attractive. Had he not been she would have had to find a way to stall his seduction until it was too late for his plans of sexual conquest and his sister returned. Instead, she knew she would actually enjoy the sex she was about to have with the man.

  Long ago all four sisters had agreed that they intended to enjoy life to the fullest, doing what they wanted, when they wanted and with whom they wanted. Sparking this had been the sobering knowledge that not one of their mothers had the chance to experience all that life had to offer as they had all died before their time. The four Wilde sisters were adamant that would never happen to them.