“That’s my big sister!” Catalina shouted out in glee as she looked over next to her and saw Lijuan beaming with pride as well. She then turned her attention back to the mission that was looming ever larger before them. The Wildes and all the troops were now controlling their horses with one hand in the other they had their weapons drawn expecting to attract fire from the walls above the mission at any moment.
To the relief of all, no shots had been fired. Instead, amazement swept over them as they saw a man bolt through the door and run around the side of the mission with a massive grizzly bear at his heels. Lijuan and Catalina exchanged a look of complete bewilderment as they rode side by side, but Lijuan quickly shrugged. They had seen many a strange sight in their adventures, so now they had added one more. When they were about fifty yards from the destroyed door to the mission’s courtyard, Washburn had shouted, “Dismount!” with the intention of leading the men into the now smoky compound on foot.
They had just done as ordered when they heard the first two shots but quickly found that they weren’t being fired at them. Catalina had just fixed the location of where the gunfire had originated with her eyes that widened, when she heard a third gunshot and watched the body of a woman pitch off the top of one of the bell towers, her black hair flapping in the breeze on the way down until she passed out of view behind the wall.
“Cassie or Honor’s handiwork, I’ll warrant!” Lijuan grunted as she tightened her grip on her pistol and pulled out her hammer with the other, ready for anything.
“Attack!” Washburn shouted to his squad of soldiers. “Death to Rey Lobo and liberty for this valley!”
Catalina chuckled even as she began running with him towards the doorway. She liked his grit and determination, plus as far as men went, he was damn good when it came to pleasuring a woman. Assuming the sisters all got out of this safely, she wouldn't have any regrets about those wagon spokes splintering the way they did and setting their full involvement in the De La Santa Barbara Valley into motion.
CHAPTER 25
Catalina entered the splintered gates with Lijuan to her left and Washburn and Cody on her right. They fanned out. Smoke was washing over the place, and dust was in the air. Directly ahead of her was a statue of Christ and off to the left was a well. The smoke was pouring off a wagon between the two, and there were two more wagons on her right, along the far side of the mission. She saw Honor crouched down next to one.
Nice, she thought as they all moved forward. She had fully expected Honor to be found in the thick of things, and she had not been disappointed. A shot rang out from above that brought her to attention. Catalina realized the men she saw on the far side of the courtyard weren’t all of Rey Lobo’s men. The wall above had a few as well.
The young Mexican had a feeling they were outnumbered, but that had never bothered her. She was a Wilde after all, and she was in the company of highly trained infantry men to boot. Catalina dodged, running towards the statue as the others spread out in different directions, the cracks of their rifles reverberating within the old mission's walls. She dove and rolled as a man popped up from the other side to take a shot at her. He attempted to fire again, but his hammer fell on an empty chamber.
Catalina came to her feet as he ducked back behind the stone Messiah, to reload. Taking advantage, she charged forward; as she did so, she unfurled her whip. Long had it been since she tried this trick, but the outstretched arms of the Galilean, in their welcoming gesture, made it ideal for what she was attempting, she thought with a grin. Catalina snapped the whip up and it wrapped tightly around one of the spread arms of the statue. Getting a running start, she propelled herself off the ground into a sweeping arc swinging wide around the statue.
The man had just finishing slamming the newly filled cylinder shut when he looked up just in time to see her swinging at him. She held her muscular legs up straight and together, the souls of her boots now a battering ram. The impact as they slammed into him knocked the air clear out of his lungs. Two seconds later his body careened to the ground, crumpling in an unconscious heap. She landed next to him and crouched as she flipped her whip and it uncoiled from the statue's arm. She quickly coiled it, looking up at the Redeemer, as she scooped up the man's gun and shoved it in her belt.
“Muchas Gracias, Por Favor,” she said to the statue. She had never been much of a religious person during her young life, but she figured it couldn’t hurt. The stone base of the statue next to her splintered as a shot from above whizzed by her shoulder. She rolled forward and scrambled to hide under the center staircase to the wall ringing the mission, out of site from above, but with a good line of sight of the courtyard. Catalina wiped the sweat on her forehead away with the back of her hand just as she saw her sister Honor give her a playful salute, before racing for the far staircase.
Honor Elizabeth had been amazed, yet at the same time, unsurprised at her Catalina's actions at the statue. Young Cattie had always been the wildest of the Wildes and that extended to her seductive romps with other women that she favored. Scanning the wall, she thought she saw her chance and rushed forward up the nearest stairway to the top. She hoped to get a better vantage point now that Cat had the courtyard covered. Washburn's men had already whittled enough of the bandits down that the odds were even.
She was halfway up, when a man popped around the wall abutment, pointing a gun down at her. Honor dropped to a knee and fanned her pistol hammer back twice. One shot hit the man in the side, and the other plowed a bloody groove across his shoulder, and he fell back as his gun flew into the air and landed at the top of the steps. Honor kept going, not wanting to stay exposed.
Reaching the top, she glanced quickly around the abutment and then jerked back. There was another man crouched there, and a shot rang out hitting the banister of the staircase. Honor drew her knife and waited patiently, glancing down at the courtyard. Lijuan was on the far side behind some barrels and crates. She watched a man run down the middle steps as Catalina's whip cracked out and caught his leg. She yanked and sent the man toppling down the stairs. Honor didn't bother to suppress her smile as she listened to Cattie's triumphant whoop. How she loved that little sister of hers! Catalina and Blue River had been the only opportunities she had been afforded to be a "big sister," and she had rejoiced in the role.
Honor returned her attention to her own predicament. Crouching down on her haunches she began to move closer to the abutment, listening, she could hear the man's heavy breathing around the corner. She waited patiently, remembering Cassandra always saying, patience could be a virtue, but it damn sure could save your life too.
It paid off. The man jumped out, thinking she would be standing. She thrust up with her knife and sliced through his shirt and into his chest. He cried out and dropped his rifle. He swayed on his feet and looked at her.
“Hell of a first day on the job. Wish I’d knowed what I was gettin’ myself in for when I signed up … with that Mexican … bitch.” Honor Elizabeth extracted her Bowie knife and casually wiped the blood off it on the man’s shirt. He gave her a final look of hatred, coughing crimson blood out his mouth before falling towards her. With the grace of a ballerina, Honor slid aside, and he fell, tumbling down the steps to the courtyard dead. When he landed, a thick sheaf of bills tied together fell out of his pockets.
Admittedly, not worth one's life for, she thought as she picked up his gun and the other man’s as well before she glanced around the abutment again. It looked clear, so she went around, staying in a crouch. Her attention was suddenly drawn to the sight of Cassandra running and slipping into a doorway of what Honor guessed to be the living quarters above the former chapel.
***
Down below, Lijuan still held her position of cover behind a few barrels and crates that Rey Lobo’s men had offloaded from one of the wagons before all hell had broken loose. Her brown eyes perused the wall for shooters. Earlier she had witnessed with pride Catalina’s swing from the statue and Honor’s rush up the stairs and takedown
of the men.
To think, just several years ago the foursome had led relatively ordinary lives. Well, as ordinary as they could be when you were a family made up of so many different races. Now, their own natural abilities coupled with the training they had received from Cassandra, had given them the ability to handle themselves quite capably in situations like this that they often found themselves being propelled into. Shaking her head, it was hard for her to remember this whole thing had started from a simple trip to arrange a surprise for their beloved father.
Looking back up, she, too, spied Cassandra disappear inside the rooms above the chapel. If she knew Cassie, she was going after Rey Lobo himself. A cry of agony brought her attention back to the courtyard as she saw one of the cavalry soldiers drop to the ground. The man's body jerked once again as another bullet struck him to ensure that he was dead. Lijuan grimaced in bitterness at the loss but took comfort as she saw Washburn fell the man who had just killed his soldier. A couple of shots thudded into the ground next to her from above, and she realized she was too exposed to remain in her position any longer, and she bolted from behind the crates.
At the same moment, Gonzalez, who had been hiding behind one of the wagons, had the same idea to flee, and the pair found themselves running right at each other, head on. It was suddenly a race to see who could bring their pistol up first, and Lijuan won that contest.
The blast from her Colt .45 sent the man flying backward, but not before he squeezed off a shot of his own. The errant bullet struck the head of her hammer tucked on her belt, and it ricocheted off it.
She gasped, as that had been far too close. She didn't pause but swept past Gonzalez whose body had sailed through the shattered door into some type of enclosure that had a pole at the center of it. The side of his head had come to rest in some type of brown goo.
“Shit,” she said, recognizing it for what it was. Then she remembered the grizzly bear chasing a man around the back of the mission. What had the hell been going on around here, anyway?
Her eyes darted back for another redoubt for her to continue fighting from, though targets were running out as all around her the cavalry continued to eliminate the men plundering the valley. As she took position behind the well, she looked around for her next target, and she spied a man pop up and aim at Cody who was now behind the statue. She aimed and pulled the trigger. His body jerked and then toppled over the wall, falling and landing a few feet from Catalina. Cody got up and she watched as he ran for the wagons on the other side of the courtyard dropping two men along the way with his Peacemaker. Not bad for a carpenter, Lijuan thought. She looked back over the rim of the well just in time to see a man come over the top at her.
It was Reyes, and he managed to use the element of surprise to get a grip on her gun hand, and a hold on her other arm, preventing her from reaching for her hammer. She went over backward with him on top, and they rolled sideways before their momentum was halted by bumping into the figure of a woman. Lijuan didn't have time to puzzle this development or notice that the jolt to her body had caused the woman to stir. Instead, she fixed a hateful gaze on her opponent.
“You just made a mistake, bastard,” she told Reyes.
He laughed, struggling to get her gun away from her and nodded his head in satisfaction as her small fingers released their grip on it, and it spilled from her hand. He wasn't laughing a moment later when she used her skull to head butt him in the forehead and make him lose his grip on one of her arms. That was all it took for Lijuan's hammer to suddenly appear in her hand like magic. Recovering he, repined her by the bicep, but she could still swing her forearm. Lijuan managed to get in a good swing and connected with his elbow.
He screamed, and she threw him off, rolling with him with her landing on top. She grinned at him and said, “Now, how did you know I like being on top?” A second later she brought her hammer down shattering his shoulder. He screamed loud enough that she was sure anyone they hadn’t driven out of the valley probably heard him.
Lijuan rolled back to her previous position. Just as she got situated, she heard a shout and turned in her crouch. A man armed with a sword was raising the blade up, intent on bringing it down in a swinging motion to relieve her of her head. With just a split second to react, she swung the hammer up between his legs crushing his treasures. He let out a howl that could have roused the dead. The man staggered backward, the sword making a clattering sound as it bounced off the side of the well.
“Make that the two Musketeers,” she muttered as she looked at the sword lying on the ground. It appeared very old, and she suspected it dated back to the days of the conquistadors and had likely been at the mission for centuries. A museum would probably like to get its hands on such a piece, she thought for a fleeting moment. Such concerns, however, meant nothing to her, so she pushed it out of her mind as she started looking for more targets.
She heard a few shots coming from the wall and looked across the courtyard. Lijuan could see several of their men were down in heaps and gritted her teeth. The shooting was becoming more sporadic, and the battle was winding down. It, however, had come with a cost as such battles always do when men pick up the tools of warfare.
Across the way, Catalina gave a sigh of relief that Lijuan had taken down the swordsman, but she planned to do some teasing about how she nearly became a whole lot shorter than she already was. Lijuan would love that, she knew. Suddenly, she saw a figure that had been laying on the ground bolt up and start running towards the staircase that she was positioned under. At the same moment above her, she became aware of another man running down the stairs. A quick glance saw that a gun swung from his hand and that made him her priority, not the unarmed woman.
As the woman she did not know was Daniella, one of the architects behind the crimes that had engulfed the valley, began dashing up the stairs, Catalina reached up over her head and grabbed the man’s right leg at the same moment the woman was being jostled aside by him as she ran up the stairs. Catalina threw a quick glance at her as she disappeared, whoever she was she would worry about her later, her attention snapped back to the man. He had been pitched forward and with a terrified shout catapulted down the remainder of the steps coming to rest next to the first man Cattie had sent down the stairs.
This man, however, proved to be ten times tougher than that man, and he had not only remained conscious, but he had managed to keep a grip on his gun that he was now raising to train on her. Catalina blinked as suddenly the side of the man’s head exploded, and she looked over to see Washburn gripping his service revolver with both hands. She leaped out from under the steps and raced over to him.
"And I thought I liked you before!" she gave him a quick hug and he gave her a tight smile as they looked around. Catalina could see the pain etched on her new lover's face over the losses. The shooting had stopped, and the dust and the smoke were subsiding as the wagon, and the door had been completely consumed. What few bandits remained alive had their hands in the air, and their weapons were lying at their feet under orders from the soldiers. What the outlaws had been dealt this day was far more than they had bargained for and knew if they wanted to save their worthless lives, surrender was now the only option.
An eerie quietness had fallen over the courtyard save for the anguished sobbing of wounded bandits scattered here and there. To Catalina, it appeared that they had won the day. Or had they? Her heart leaped as she heard a single gunshot coming from above the chapel.
***
Several minutes earlier, Cassandra had gently opened the door to the Villanuevas’ living quarters and crept down the hallway towards the door she knew to belong to Rey Lobo. When she had been coming up the stairs, she had scanned around the best she could during the battle between the bandits and the cavalry, searching for Rey Lobo but had not seen him. It would have been easy to miss him amidst all the smoke and the confusion. More of Kate’s wisdom came to her now remembering how she had always urged her to listen to her instincts, and those instincts at th
is moment were telling her that Rey Lobo was up to something.
Cassandra was now listening outside the door but heard no movement inside. Perhaps she had been wrong, but then she remembered his artist’s studio off of his bedroom at the very back of the mission. Quietly, she turned the knob and opened the door a crack. Now she could hear faint sounds, and they were indeed coming from the studio. She brought Lupe’s rifle up and used the tip of one of her boots to push the door open.
With the door now wide open and the view into the room unobstructed, she looked around. Everything was as it was before. Cassandra began creeping towards the door to his art studio that was partially open. As she moved, she found herself thankful for the plush carpet the Rey Lobo had seen fit to lay down. More than once in her career had a creaking floorboard given away her attempts at stealth.
As she came to a standstill in front of the half open door, she became aware of the decrease in gunfire from the raging battle. Her money was on her sisters and army troops any day of the week. There was no doubt in her mind that Rey Lobo’s operation here was in its death throes. Now it was time to act. She raised up her right leg and struck the door with a mighty kick.
Behind the easel, Rey Lobo stood bearing a large bag with its strap slung over his shoulder. The wall nearest him revealed the frame of one of his depictions of wolves was attached to hinges, and it was swung open to reveal the open maw of a safe. One of his hands was stuffed in the bag which she saw was over flowing with money, and the other clutched the bottom of the frame of a picture he cradled under one of his arms. It was his portrayal of himself lording over the wolf pack. Apparently, the man was getting ready to flee with what was most important to him, money and his favorite work.
Into The Lair 0f Los Rey Lobo: Wildes 0f The West (Half Breed Haven Book 9) Page 18