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

by A. M. Van Dorn

  Daniella remained silent, but Cassandra could hear her taking deep breaths trying to control her anger. She wanted to continue chiding the evil woman, but every second she delayed could allow Rey Lobo and his men to get the upper hand on her.

  “Light the dynamite!”

  The command gave rise to another round of exclamations from the men with their hands in the air. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a man with a shaggy mustache and beard suddenly drop his hand towards his holster.

  His chest exploded in a spray of crimson as Cassandra momentarily pulled the gun out of Daniella's ear and fired. Even as she was shooting, she tightened her grip on Daniella's throat to kill any idea the woman might have of using the distraction to try and escape.

  “Schoolteacher my ass!” Rey Lobo spat as he looked at her with eyes as cold as the top of the Rocky Mountain range.

  “I’m teaching you all a lesson, aren’t I? Pillaging this valley is going to come with severe consequences. Now light that TNT, Daniella! Now!”

  The woman fought to steady her hand as she brought the match up in one hand ready to swipe it across the striker on the box. Cassandra knew that the shaking was only ten percent fear and ninety percent rage. Daniella was a woman used to being in absolute power and Cassandra had cut her down a score of notches.

  “And just what is supposed to happen once it is lit?”

  "Light it and find out!" Cassandra hissed through clenched teeth, blinking a couple of times as sweat poured down from her forehead. In another moment all hell was going to break loose, and she was either going to die here, or she was going to ignite the opportunity that would allow her to defeat the corrupted siblings and escape from the lair of Los Rey Lobo alive.

  “Puta!” Daniella insulted her again as she struck the match to life and touched it to the wick that instantly began burning down accompanied by Daniella shrieking in anger and frustration.

  Hands were falling down all over the place in Cassandra's vision, but they weren't reaching for their guns. Instead, the men all around were turning to run, even Rey Lobo and Dogget. Daniella gasped as Cassandra suddenly released her. Before she could move, Cassandra had deftly flipped the gun in her hand and pistol whipped the side of Daniella's head even as she tossed the stick of dynamite towards the front wall of the grizzly enclosure.

  She might now be on the shady side of thirty, but just like her sisters, she was a specimen of good health and in shape. This allowed Cassandra to latch on to the stunned Daniella who was staggering around from the blow to her head. Grabbing the woman's waist, she leaped forward and threw both of them to the ground landing behind the nearby well.

  A deafening blast arose as the TNT which had bounced off from the wooden wall exploded a few feet away from it blowing the wooden bolt in two as well as leaving a gaping hole in the fence and sending burning bits of wood flying all over the courtyard of the mission-turned-bandits'-hideout. Even as the rumble of the blast rolled outward and across the De La Santa Barbara Valley, to those within the mission, another sound took its place. The terrifying roar of the frightened and angry grizzly bear.

  In her prone position on the ground, Cassie looked at Daniella, amazed that the woman was still conscious. She had expected to render her unconscious with the butt of her pistol. Daniella was not only a smart woman but a tough one as well. Still, she was momentarily neutralized, which suited Cassandra just fine as there was more left to do.

  She had no intention of letting the shock and awe of the explosion subside. Cassandra needed to keep the chaos and confusion. Snatching the second stick of dynamite out of her boot she would kill two birds with one stone. Her hand reached out for a burning chunk of wood lying near the well.

  It was hot to the touch, but she only needed it for a second, just long enough to ignite the wick on the second dynamite stick. As the fuse started its burn towards its destruction, she flung the burning stick aside and gave thanks for Honor showing up when she did, bearing this dynamite. That had made things a hell of a lot more easier for her. Further increasing her satisfaction, she glanced at the trio of wagons. The one carrying the hay bales, presumably for the desperado's horses, had burst into flame and was billowing smoke that was quickly wafting over the courtyard helping increase her cover.

  Taking a chance, she leaped to her feet and threw the explosive with all the might she could muster up within her. It spun end over end in the direction of the two large doors that served as the gateway to the mission. Cassandra was already in the process of dropping back down when a shot rang out from somewhere. Cassandra’s luck held out for her once more as the smoke enveloping her had not done the shooter any favors when it came to aiming at her. Still, the bullet came so close to her neck she felt the breeze in its wake as it rocketed by her. Dropping down behind the circular well her eyes widened at how close a call she had just had when the dynamite exploded.

  Once more shards of wood flew skyward peppering the courtyard with burning debris as Cassandra heard a man cry out somewhere in the smoke as a deadly projectile struck him. Sneaking a glance towards the door of the mission, she saw the stick of TNT had destroyed one of the doors and left the other hanging limply by one of its hinges ablaze. There's your easy entry girls. You just need to get here right quick, she thought.

  Cassandra refocused her attention to the bear’s now doorless enclosure. Peering up from behind the lip of the well, she saw inside the animal was pacing about roaring in anger and fear as the pointed logs that made up the pen were now blazing as well. Steadying Rey Lobo’s gun she was prepared to unleash one last bit of mayhem into the mix.

  Few in the West were better than Cassandra when it came to a trick shot, but this was going to be as about as challenging of a shot as she had ever taken. Between the billows of smoke and the bear occasionally rearing up on its hind legs and blocking the pole, she was having an extremely challenging time trying to draw a bead on her target.

  "Damn it!" she said as once again a gust of smoke temporarily obscured her view of the pole. Time was running out. Rey Lobo and Dogget were no slouches, and they could be regrouping at this very moment, and she had no wish to be stopping their lead when they came after her.

  Suddenly, the wind pushed the smoke out of the way, and the grizzly was pacing back and forth on all four legs. Taking precise aim at the top of the pole she fired! Son of a bitch! She chided herself as her first shot missed. Wasting no time, the pistol spat fire a second time and this time her shot found its mark, shattering the lock holding the chain to the pole.

  Almost as if the bear knew what had just transpired, it lurched towards the gaping hole in the fence and this time with the chain no longer tethered it burst out of the enclosure, rearing up on its hind legs again bellowing in triumph. One of the outlaws had the misfortune of running by at that moment. A mighty swipe of one of the paws nearly tore his head from his shoulders. Mercifully, he was probably dead before he hit the ground as the bear pounced on him, growling savagely.

  "Get on the wall! Get on the wall!" she heard someone yelling, and she thought that was a damn fine idea for herself. She wanted Rey Lobo, and he would be shrewd to flee to up there, away from the rampaging bear. On the ground next to her, Daniella was suddenly on her knees and attempting to grab the pistol away from her. Cassandra dropped on her back and brought one of her booted feet up in the air and let loose a ferocious kick to Daniella's forehead. This time the criminal maven reeled backward into oblivion.

  Rising to her feet once more, another shot winged its way towards her, passing through the bucket of the well, pelting her with splinters. She dropped back down behind it and unleashed a pair of shots in the direction of her assailant. Just before she ducked back down, she saw it was Dogget, firing at her from the large statue of Jesus the missionaries had erected long ago in the courtyard. Of course, it was Dogget, his meat for brains wouldn’t allow him to be sensible and flee to atop the wall.

  Bolting back to her feet, she fired again when she saw him peer out from
around the Savior, but the shot went wide as did the one he unleashed at her, burying itself in the wooden structure above the old well. She paused for a moment and caught sight of the grizzly finishing mauling the dead hoot owl. It would be moving onto a new victim soon, and she didn’t intend to be it. She wanted up on that wall, and she wanted Rey Lobo in her gun sights.

  She leaped to her feet again just as Dogget stepped from behind the statue apparently having decided to take advantage of the smoke and storm her position at the well. Cassandra’s gun barked as the man was enveloped in the smoke. Suddenly, she heard the ferocious growl and a man who sounded a lot like Dogget cry out in pain from within the shroud.

  It was now, or never she thought. The wind was suddenly picking up, and large swaths of the courtyard were becoming clear once more as the wind began to push all the smoke in one direction. It could shift again at any moment, and she didn't want to be exposed.

  Rising to her full height, she turned away from the well and began to dash towards one of the staircases leading to the walkway atop the wall that surrounded the mission. Out of the corner of her eye she just caught sight of the bear chasing Dogget, who clutched his bloodied left arm with his right hand, through the destroyed entranceway to the outside of the compound. Her attention was immediately drawn away when a shot rang out from above, halting her in her tracks, halfway from her goal as a high-pitched voice screamed.

  “Stop!!!”

  Another shot buried itself in the ground in front of her left boot, and she looked and fired but to her horror all she heard was the click of the hammer striking an empty chamber. Immediately, she cursed herself. She believed she had a single shot remaining for her dash to the staircase if she needed it, but she had forgotten Rey Lobo executing one of the recruits.

  “Where is he? Did you keel heem!?” the heavily accented voice cried down to her. “Where is my love?! Where is Rey Lobo?”

  Cassandra looked up, and atop the crumbled bell tower it was none other than Lupe looking down at her through the sight of her gun and the woman's hands were not shaking. There was little doubt in Cassandra's mind that she knew how to use it. The jealousy she sensed in the young woman earlier was now on full display, and it just might prove lethal to her.

  “I don’t know where he is, but I haven’t harmed him!”

  “You lie! This is for whoring with heem before, and this is for killing heem! Adios Americano!”

  Cassandra didn't close her eyes as some did when death was imminent. In her line of work, she was prepared to die on any given day, and she had long vowed when it came she would look it in the eye. An instant later death came as a burst of blood exploded from Lupe's chest and with nary a cry or a scream she pitched forward, her body thudding to the ground, with the rifle clattering next to it.

  Spinning around she saw a head, shoulders, and arms sticking out from underneath the tarp covering the bed of the third wagon belonging to Honor Elizabeth with her gun still pointing skyward, smoke wafting from its barrel. Pure joy hit Cassandra so hard that for a moment her knees felt weak and she swayed.

  “Honor!”

  Her sister didn't answer but was working to scramble out from the back of the wagon. Even as she was doing so Cassandra became aware of a sound she would know anywhere. The thunder of an approaching number of horses, their hooves smacking the ground as they charged towards the mission.

  Honor dropped to the ground and shouted for Cassie to keep going. There was nothing more Cassandra wished she could do then run over and embrace her, but Honor was right.

  "I love you!" she shouted as Honor took a position behind the wagon, and she dashed over to where the body lay. Scooping up the rifle she looked down at Lupe a final time. She had wondered earlier how the young woman had come to be mixed up in this business. Perhaps she now had a better understanding. She had been under the spell of Rey Lobo, and it had cost her the most precious gift in the world … her life.

  Bitterly she turned away from the body wondering how many more lives Carlos and Daniella had ruined. Lupe had tried to kill her, but she couldn’t help feeling pity for the young woman. Somewhere someone else fired at her, but the gunfire ceased as Honor used her weapon to cover her. Cassandra reached the bottom of the staircase and paused just long enough to see that the men who had fled to the walkway earlier must have seen the bear escape and were now barreling back down the stairway nearest them. Undaunted, as she did not see Rey Lobo among them, she continued her charge up the stairs when Lt. Washburn, flanked by Lijuan and Catalina burst through the ruined entrance to the mission with their guns blazing.

  CHAPTER 24

  A few minutes earlier, Lt. Washburn lay atop one of the hills overlooking the open expanse leading up to the old mission, studying it carefully through his field glasses. Flanking him on each side lay Lijuan and Catalina, also looking sharply at the mission even without any binoculars. They had touched off the two sticks of dynamite in quick succession and were now waiting for a signal, but none of them were sure of precisely what it would be.

  Catalina stole a glance at Lijuan's face and found it was a mask of concentration laced with a touch of worry. The uncertainty as to what was going to happen next wore on her as well. She glanced back over her shoulder and down at the base of the hill where the mounted troops stood ready at a moment's notice for the assault on the compound of Rey Lobo. Along with the waiting men was also Cody Holmes.

  Earlier, as they had drawn near the waving figure at the bridge over The Rift, Lijuan had vaulted off her horse before it had even stopped moving and charged over towards the man. She and Washburn had quickly followed even as Lijuan began peppering the man with questions.

  “Hold up now, Lijuan! Who is this feller?” she’d asked.

  In short order, Catalina learned that this was the carpenter the trio had set out to see for the repairs and had relayed to them Rey Lobo's reign of terror. When last, she had seen Holmes; it had been in the wake of Honor Elizabeth and the man successfully saving his homestead from destruction.

  “She went off to help Cassandra, didn’t she?” Lijuan said, not bothering to hide her smile.

  Holmes quickly filled them in on their fortuitous encounter with Cassandra in the woods just behind the mission and of Cassandra’s plan to initiate some type of distraction as a sign to launch an assault on the mission. He also relayed that once they were out of sight of Cassandra, Honor Elizabeth had insisted that he return to The Rift and relay the message, and she would attempt to find some way into the mission.

  Lijuan and Catalina exchanged knowing looks as he said that he begged her not to, but she couldn't be dissuaded. If it had been either one of them, they wouldn't have either. The only other thing in the world that was certain beyond life, death, and taxes was that a Wilde always had the back of one of their own.

  Now all they could do was wait for whatever signal Cassandra had planned. Washburn had puzzled over what it could be, but Catalina and Lijuan agreed that it would likely involve the TNT sticks that they learned from Holmes that Cassandra had appropriated from Honor Elizabeth.

  “I declare, I do not know what you ladies were thinking trying to stop a band of characters with the bonafide credentials of criminals through and through,” he said, shaking his head.

  Catalina gave a small grin despite the tense situation. He had repeated this several times since they had left their encampment. She didn’t blame him, as other than what she had told him, he couldn’t know the full extent of the lives they led back in Arizona.

  Lijuan, however, was not so forgiving of the Army officer's reservations.

  “Five bodies, Washburn! That’s five bodies between here and where we came from courtesy of Honor Elizabeth and myself. And that’s not even counting the Apaches we just sent to meet the Great Spirit my brother is always talking about. Don’t you believe your own eyes?” she asked with a tart tongue that was no stranger to the young Asian woman.

  Washburn said nothing, apparently not having a good response to
her needling. Still, Lijuan being Lijuan, she wasn't finished. Catalina sighed, and sure enough, she continued.

  “Even with you being an Army officer, I’ll bet I could still match you kill for kill-”

  “Simmer down now, Lijuan!” Catalina finally felt compelled to interject. Her getting into some pissing match with the cavalry officer on whatever body count the pair had racked up, he in service to his country and she felling numerous bad guys was not something they needed right now.

  Lijuan seemed to realize that as well, as she saw the usual mirth that Catalina's face was customarily adorned with was absent, and she turned her focus back towards the mission.

  Washburn raised the glasses back up to his face. “It seems very quiet up there-” He never finished his words as all three of them saw a plume of smoke suddenly rise from within the walls of the mission, followed seconds later by the echoing boom of an explosion.

  "Hot damn! That's gotta be it!" she said leaping to her feet and already turning to run down the hill. Behind her, she could hear Washburn and Lijuan's feet slapping the ground as they raced after her.

  A young private had stood by holding the reins to their horses while the trio had been spying on the mission. The boy stepped aside as the triad quickly mounted up.

  "This is it, men! Forward ho!!!" Washburn commanded as he turned his horse towards the crook of the hill they had just raced down and the one next to it. It would lead them out onto the open plain and their target beyond.

  The balmy air swept passed Catalina’s face as the pack of soldiers with the two women and Washburn in the lead galloped at full speed towards the mission. Over the thunder of the hoof beats, they heard another of the muffled explosions somewhere in the valley that they had heard from time to time while they had waited on the hilltop.

  Suddenly, when they were about halfway to the mission, their ears were filled with the pulsating blast of an explosion that unlike the others was not distant. It was right in front of them as one of the large doors to the mission exploded into pieces, and the other one nearly blown off now just barely hanging by one hinge.