"On your feet," he snapped, slinging Rawlins's gunbelt over his shoulder.
Diego barked a second order in Spanish, and an unwashed wall of flesh stepped forward. Fancy's nose recognized Bart Wilkerson. The outlaw grabbed Parson Brown and shoved him toward the door. When the preacher resisted, his gangly legs tangled, and he sprawled across the threshold.
"Clod!" Wilkerson bellowed, kicking the parson in the buttocks. "Get up. Get your scrawny ass up before I fill it with lead!"
The preacher squealed as Wilkerson booted him into the snow.
"Your turn, Marshal," Diego said.
Rawlins's eyes narrowed. His gaze flickered to his captured holster and the civilian weapons that lay beyond his reach. Then he glared at the gunmen who threatened the diners.
"What about the rest of them?" he demanded.
"That depends entirely on your cooperation, senor."
Fancy pictured the thin, cruel smile beneath Diego's mask.
"Andale!"
Diego gestured with his .45. Rawlins's fingers whitened where he'd laced them behind his head, but he kept his peace as he stalked to the door. Diego turned and sauntered after him. Furtively rubbing her buttocks, Fancy clutched the lucky coin she wore around her neck and hurried after Diego.
Outside, a macabre hissing echoed in the valley. The locomotive had capsized, and the ruptured boiler spewed clouds of steam over the twisted spine of the train. Rawlins's jaw hardened as he gazed upon the scalded remains of what must have been the engineer; Fancy quickly averted her eyes.
Caring is weakness, and weakness is death.
Chanting the old adage over and over in her mind, she stripped off her skirt, revealing the trousers she had concealed underneath. Ribald hoots and cackles encouraged her from the trees, where a handful of outlaws covered the wreckage with their rifles. Strewn across the blood-stained snow, the dozen contorted bodies of soldiers and deputies attested to the gunfight that they'd lost shortly after derailment. She shuddered, trying to think of those men as faceless enemies, nothing more, as she tramped past them.
Diego forced Rawlins to crunch a trail through knee-high drifts. The express car lay behind the parlor and sleeping Pullmans, which the rest of Diego's gang was now looting. Fancy knew that most of the outlaws considered this robbery routine. Only she and Wilkerson knew of Diego's plot to steal U.S. minting plates.
In fact, she had been the one to discover the hidden papers ordering coinage operations to commence at Carson City's branch mint. According to the federal agent she had duped, the necessary machinery would be secretly shipped from the Treasury Department's San Francisco office. That was why the army and the U.S. marshal's office had teamed up to ride shotgun on this train.
"Now to business, Marshal," Diego said as Wilkerson shoved the hostages to their knees. "Call to your men. Tell them to open the door and throw out their weapons."
"And if they refuse?" Rawlins challenged.
In answer, Diego fired. Parson Brown yelped as the bullet clanged into the car's metal wall, just inches beyond his ear. Rawlins's jaw twitched. He tossed a calculating glance at Fancy's .32, which she aimed steadily despite her shivers. He probably thought she would be the easiest to overpower. He would not be the first man to make such an error.
"Hamilton! O'Reilly!" he finally called, his face ghostlike in the stars' frosty light. "It's Rawlins. Open up."
A faint scratching answered his bellow. When the door did not open, Diego arched a brow.
"Your men do not seem overly concerned for your welfare, Marshal. Remind them that we have a train full of passengers and enough bullets for each."
"Why don't you just blow the car to kingdom come?" Rawlins retorted. "Or did you idiots forget the dynamite?"
Diego stiffened. Rawlins had called the outlaw's bluff. Dynamite was out of the question, and Rawlins knew it, if the outlaws hoped to keep the plates intact.
"Call your men again." Diego ground out the words, his eyes glinting like twin stilettos, "Or the first bullet sends the preacher to his maker."
Brown's eyes brimmed with tears, and Rawlins clenched his teeth, forced to relent.
"All right, Hamilton. Enough. Open the goddamned door."
"Sorry, Marshal. I got my orders," came the muffled reply from inside the car.
"To hell with your orders, Captain. They're holding hostages out here!"
Diego, who had taught Fancy everything she knew about theatrics, gestured to her. She nodded in understanding.
"Please, Captain Hamilton," she begged, adopting her best scared-witless tone, "do as they say!"
"They got a woman out there?" called a second voice from inside the car.
Wilkerson jammed his revolver beneath Rawlins's chin before he could answer.
"Yes!" Fancy wailed. "Please, oh please open the door. They said they'd kill me! And Parson Brown too!"
"I don't want no preacher's death on my conscience, sir—"
"Shut your mouth, O'Reilly," Hamilton said with a growl.
Fancy could see that drastic actions were required. She gestured for Diego to play along. "Stop!" she sobbed. "You—you're hurting me!"
"I'm just getting started," he snarled on cue.
With extra flair, she tore the false sleeve of her gown from shoulder to cuff. It ripped loudly, and she screamed. The door clanged open.
"Take your filthy hands off her, you sons of—"
"Dammit, O'Reilly! Close that door—"
The soldiers' threats died simultaneously on their lips. Gaping, they blinked at the .32 in Fancy's unwavering fist. The captain's gaze flitted to the hostages. His grip tightened on his rifle.
"You probably think you can kill one of us," Diego said, his voice pleasant despite his sinister words. "You might be right, senor. But then you would die, and the preacher would die, and the fine young marshal here would join you all in hell. You see that stand of trees?" Diego waved toward the grove, no more than thirty paces away. "My men are covering you from there. So you see, you would be wise to throw down your weapons."
Captain Hamilton, a grizzled bear of a man, glared at Rawlins. "I'll have your hide for this, Texican," he said in unmistakably New England accents. He tossed his rifle so that it jutted from the snow crust; the Irishman did the same.
"Out of the car," Diego ordered, motioning the soldiers to their knees. When they were at last shivering beside Rawlins, Diego pulled two grain sacks from his frock coat and thrust them at Fancy. "Empty the safe."
Her heart quickened. Shoving her revolver into her waistband, she furtively crossed her fingers for good luck before hoisting herself into the car. She had to stumble over crates, bruising her shins and banging her knees until she finally found a lantern. She congratulated herself for having had the presence of mind to stash a flint inside her pocket. Living a life on the run, she had learned to survive by her wits.
The wick flared, and light bloomed inside the globe. She retreated hastily, unable to quell a sudden shiver. The outlaws always whispered that a fluttering lantern flame portended death. She glanced over her shoulder, and Rawlins's gaze snared hers. She felt as if he'd pinned her to the wall.
"Christ, what are you standing there for?" Wilkerson bellowed. "Get a move on! Crack the safe, bitch."
"If you'd keep your sewer mouth shut for a minute, maybe I could," she fired back. She trusted Wilkerson about as much as she trusted a rattlesnake. In camp the other night, he hadn't been pleased to learn she no longer sold her services. Fortunately Diego had been sober enough to protect her—and himself—from a bullet.
Shaking away those thoughts, she knelt and pressed her ear to the door of the safe. She turned the dial with painstaking slowness, her ears straining for the faint echoes that would betray the lock's combination. Once, twice, three times, she tried the handle and failed. It was nerve-racking work. She didn't realize that she'd worried her lip until she tasted blood.
"We're gonna freeze to death before that slut figures out what she's doing," Wilkerson gr
umbled. "Let's blast the damned thing open and be done with it."
"You don't have the brain that God gave a cockroach," Diego retorted. "Shut up."
"Stinking greaser! I'll carve out your tongue and serve it for breakfast—"
The door swung open. Fancy caught her breath. Never before had she seen so much silver! For a moment, as the car walls reverberated with Wilkerson's tirade, greed whispered to her heart. Only Rawlins watched her now. She could feel his eyes stabbing through her, but he couldn't stop her. Not with Diego's gun trained on him. She could stash a few bars inside her pockets and no one would be the wiser....
Visions of Diego's bullwhip quickly negated that idea. Shuddering, she reached for the nearest bar of ore.
The silver was heavy, and she wasted precious time lifting the bullion from the safe. As if that weren't bad enough, she quickly found that Diego's sacks were too small. No matter how she restacked and rearranged, she couldn't fit all the silver and the four minting plates inside. The canvas seams were in danger of splitting; she wasn't even certain she could hoist the sacks. She needed to find another way to carry the two remaining plates.
Biting her lip again, she gazed around her. Dangling from the corner of a nearby crate was a heavy woolen duster. Judging by its lingering odor of tobacco, Fancy decided the coat belonged to Rawlins. She smiled to herself. How ironic that a U.S. marshal's coat would help her commit a federal crime!
Thrusting her arms through the long sleeves, she turned her back on her cohorts and stuffed two minting plates into her pants. She used her belt to strap them to her waist before she stashed her .32 in a pocket and buttoned the coat to her chin. The voluminous duster disguised the lumps against her stomach. Still, she felt clumsy and not at all certain she could ride a horse, despite the coat's accommodating rear slit. Whenever she bent forward, the leaden plates bludgeoned her ribs. She was beginning to think there must be a better solution when Wilkerson stuck his head into the car.
"What're you up to, slut? Whatcha got that coat on for?"
She blushed, and was glad the lantern threw her face into shadow. Diego's eyes had narrowed as he, too, noticed the duster. She stooped hastily, dragging the sacks forward.
"I'm cold. I ripped my sleeve, remember?" she said, trying not to imagine what Diego would do if he thought she had cheated him.
"Get down, querida."
She swallowed. "But Diego, I couldn't carry all the—"
"Get down."
She thought better of defending herself. He wouldn't believe her, anyway.
As she eased to the ground, snow flurried, dusting her eyelashes. She blinked, squinting toward the outlaws who had mounted their horses and were waiting in a cluster near the tracks. At their forefront was Gonzalez. The heavy-set Mexican was recognizable by the double set of cartridge belts that he wore slung across his shoulders. He rode forward, leading Wilkerson's horse. Fancy's heart quickened as Gonzalez approached the express car. Only one horse? What was the idiot thinking?
Uneasily, she drew her .32. Wilkerson grabbed the silver bags. Carrying them to his horse, he strapped them behind the saddle. Diego waved to Gonzalez.
"Our friend Wilkerson is finished now," he said.
"Sí."
Fancy dashed a hand across her eyes. The snow was so deceptive. For a moment, she actually imagined that Gonzalez had turned his rifle on Wilkerson's back. Had Diego conspired with the Mexican to kill Wilkerson?
A shot rang out. Grunting, Gonzalez pitched forward. His horse reared, bolting, and his unfired Remington sank beside his lifeless body in the drifts.
"What the—?" Wilkerson grabbed a shotgun from his saddle. "Who the hell is shooting?" he shouted as gunfire spat again from the windows of the train. Near the grove, a mounted outlaw crashed to the snow. The bandits scattered, but three more fell before their horses reached the trees.
"My God, it must be the railroad detective," Fancy said, glancing nervously at Diego. "He must have stashed rifles on the train and passed them out to the passengers!"
Diego bit out an expletive as he rounded on her. She heard his gun chamber click, and for a split second, she thought he might actually shoot her.
Then she spied a whir of movement.
"For God's sake, woman, run!" Rawlins shouted as he dived for an army rifle, snapped its breechblock, and fired. Never before had Fancy seen a man move so fast. Diego shrieked when the bullet ripped through his shoulder. Blood spurted, and his gun arm dangled. A second shot smashed through his leg. He crumpled to the snow, and Rawlins rolled beneath the train.
"Diego!" Her stomach crawling to her throat, Fancy ran toward him. She slid to a halt before the threat of O'Reilly's rifle.
"Drop the .32. Drop it!" the young corporal shouted, his voice high and wavering.
The gun slid from her shaking fingers.
"Diego?" she whispered again.
He didn't answer. He didn't move. His blood seeped into the snow in widening circles. This time when she blinked, she felt the hot sting of tears.
She turned to run. O'Reilly wouldn't shoot her, she reasoned wildly. Not a woman. Not in the back!
"Halt!"
Warning bullets burrowed in the snow around her boots. She stumbled, glancing fearfully over her shoulder. O'Reilly hesitated, and Wilkerson's buckshot drilled through him. She was nearly deafened by the second blast that tore Hamilton's chest in two.
Rawlins loosed a retaliatory volley, and Wilkerson screamed. His shotgun clattered across a patch of ice. Fancy almost retched to see the weapon's trail of blood. Gathering her wits, she raced for the horse Gonzalez had been leading.
"You ain't riding off without me, bitch!" Wilkerson cried as she wrestled with the frightened animal. She threw her boot into the stirrup, and Wilkerson drew his .45. Blood bubbled from his chest as he rose, firing at the entrenched lawman. Bullets pinged off the iron rails, and Rawlins yelped. His curses were vehement when Parson Brown appeared, dragging him back beneath the belly of the train.
"Wilkerson!" Fancy struggled to sit his skittering mare. "Mount up! Grab my hand!"
He grunted, nearly dragging her to the snow as he threw himself behind her. More bullets whined past her ears. The mare half reared as Wilkerson raked his spurs across her belly.
Minutes passed like hours. They galloped through the maze of trees, leaving the gunfire and shouting behind. The snow began to fall so fast that Fancy could see little beyond the horse's ears. She was grateful for the flakes on the one hand, for they would delay pursuit and cover their tracks. On the other, she feared she might freeze to death before they found decent shelter. The rifles had long since fallen silent. She couldn't tell where the rails were, much less the train and the surviving outlaws.
"Slow up." Wilkerson's voice was raspy. "Can't you see Bessie's laboring?"
He wrenched the reins from her hands, and the mare stumbled to a halt, her sides heaving.
"Get down," Wilkerson said.
"What?"
"Get down, you stupid whore!"
Fancy quailed when his gun hammer clicked in her ear. "All right! All right! Take it easy, Wilkerson."
Careful to keep the plates anchored to her waist, she jumped, landing knee-deep in a drift. "Where are we?"
"Hell, I don't know. A mile, maybe two, north of Carson." He doubled over, clutching his chest, then wrenched the horse's head around. She gaped.
"Wilkerson, wait! You can't just leave me here."
He laughed. The sound was cruel and pitiless before it wheezed into a cough. "You are stupid." His hand shook as he holstered the gun. "I got the plates and the silver. I don't need nothing else, 'specially no aging, smart-alecky whore."
"You need someone to bind that wound!" she said desperately. "You'll bleed to death before you reach Carson."
"This ain't nothing. The Yanks shot me up a sight worse at Chickamauga."
"But I'll freeze!"
"Then you best start walking, eh, long legs?" He cackled as he spurred the mare. "See ya in hell
."
"Wilkerson!"
Her cry echoed off the valley walls. He never looked back as he cantered away.
She railed. She cursed God, Wilkerson, and the elements. She damned Diego for letting himself get killed. But most of all, she damned herself for surrendering her .32.
Her throat burned from yelling, but the rest of her felt cold. Thrusting her hands into Rawlins's pockets, she rummaged inside. Her fingers were stiff despite her kid gloves, and she had trouble pulling out the pockets' contents: tobacco, beef jerky, riding gauntlets, and a whittling knife. She felt a grudging gratitude for Rawlins's possessions until she remembered how he'd shot Diego.
And quite possibly saved my life.
She hurriedly dismissed such a notion. Diego had loved her; he would never have betrayed her as he'd tried to betray Wilkerson. She would make Cord Rawlins pay for killing Diego. But first, she would have to survive.
Her hands quaked as she tugged on the gauntlets. She reminded herself that she'd lived through tougher spots than this. She had her flint and a knife. She could eat. All she had to do was keep moving. She knew that every lawman in Nevada would be looking for her and that they'd start in Carson City, but it couldn't be helped. It was either Carson or freeze.
A pearl-gray dimness heralded the rising moon. Clouds dumped less snow now. Tucking her fists beneath her arms, she trudged south into the dwindling storm.
Lawmen were just men, she comforted herself grimly. And there wasn't a man alive she couldn't charm, seduce, or just plain outsmart.
Chapter 2
Fort Worth, Texas April 1874
Cord Rawlins squinted at the crudely painted sign. It was supposed to proclaim the shack before him as the Diamondback Saloon. He wasn't much good at letters, but he recognized the snarling rattler with its exaggerated fangs. Little else distinguished this pinewood shanty from the dozen other saloons on Main Street. One-story beer joints with their false fronts and swinging doors were as common as dust in Hell's Half Acre.
Cord swung down from his saddle and tied Poco to the crowded hitching post. At high noon, the Diamondback was already rowdy. Piano music tinkled above the laughter and cursing that floated outside. A gunshot suddenly hushed the din, but the noise quickly roared back to normal. Cord smiled mirthlessly and unhooked his holster's trigger guard. Near the door, another sign demanded that all patrons check their weapons with the sheriff. The ordinance was largely ignored now, but five years earlier, Cord had strictly enforced it when he had kept the peace here as a Texas Ranger.
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