A Lesson Learned: Red: Book 3

by Darrell Maloney

  “Follow me. I’ll show you.”

  In seven minutes flat they had their mounts saddled and rode them out of the large building. They looked to the east, toward the highway, from a slightly higher vantage point than they’d had on foot.

  There was no sign of the wounded rider. Or of anyone else, for that matter.

  “When you were sleeping, before I spotted the riders, I noticed a line of green to about half a mile to the east of us. I was tempted to go check it out, but I was kinda stuck on guard duty. I almost went anyway, but I’m glad I didn’t. They would have gotten the drop on you and you wouldn’t have had a chance.”

  “You’re gonna have to do better than ‘a line of green’ if you want me to know what in the hell you’re talking about.”

  “A line of green, Jacob. As in trees. The only place you see a long line of trees in this part of the country is alongside a river or a good-sized creek. That’s where we’re headed.”

  “Are you nuts? We’ll move slower in water. They’ll catch us even faster.”

  “Not if they’re going in the wrong direction.”

  “Okay. Again, you’ve lost me.”

  “When they were tracking us, we were headed south. They’ll follow our tracks to the creek and they’ll disappear. They’ll assume we turned south again, since that was our original direction. But we won’t. We’ll head north instead.

  “We’ll head north for a few miles, then get out of the creek and head east again. We’ll go four or five miles inland, and then we’ll head south. Only this time we’ll stay away from the roads and head overland instead.”

  “That’ll slow us down a lot. We’ll have range fences to cross every couple of miles.”

  “Not a problem. I got two good pairs of wire cutters from the work bench in the truck barn. We’ll snip the barbed wire as we go. Hopefully it won’t cause the ranchers too many problems. Those that have working cowboys will have their men repair the fences after we’ve been through.”

  “We still traveling at night?”

  “Yes. If anyone spots us on private land in the daytime they might confuse us as rustlers. They might shoot first and ask questions later.”

  “Red, you haven’t had a lick of sleep. It’s still four hours until sundown and probably another full night’s ride until we’re in the clear. Are you going to be able to handle it?”

  “I don’t have any choice, do I?”

  “No. I suppose not.”

  “Look. In four hours we’ll be far enough up the creek to leave it and head east. We’ll look for a rocky patch where we can leave the water without our tracks being seen heading away from it. Once we’re on open ground you can take point. My pony will follow yours in tandem if I give him loose reins. Then I can doze off for short periods if I need to.”

  “You can ride while you’re sleeping?”

  “If I have a gentle pony and we’re at a slow walk. I’ve done it before.

  “My horse Bonnie and I go off to the forest sometimes to get away and clear our heads. There have been a couple of times when I’ve gotten on her and she’s found her way back home without my help. And she’s got such a smooth gait she lulled me to sleep. Next thing I knew I woke up and we were back home again.”

  She managed a chuckle.

  “Just keep your ears open. If you hear a thud, stop and pick me up.”

  Chapter 35

  John Stance was damaged but not beyond repair. He would survive. And in the days and weeks to come he’d be fill ed with anger and vengeance.

  How dare that little red-headed spit of a woman defy him? How dare her stand up to him, talk back to him? It was her role to be subservient to him. To call him sir. To give him his horses without complaint, and anything else he wanted as well.

  Then after he got everything he wanted from her, it was her place to die. Like the others. Or to be tied up and brought back for his men to enjoy.

  But she had the gall to set him up. To stall while someone else was getting into position to bushwhack him. To have somebody else take out three of his best men.

  It was fortunate for her that his lieutenant shot him in the back. If it weren’t for that, he’d have shot her dead himself.

  And it was extremely unfortunate for her that Stance had one of the last surviving doctors in Lynn County on his payroll. Doctor John was a trauma surgeon before the hospitals all closed. He still had his medical bag full of sutures and scalpels and medications of all types.

  The truth was, Red wouldn’t have died had Stance not been shot. She could have easily shot him off his horse had he not panicked and ran.

  But Stance liked to talk big. Especially when he got angry.

  And while Doctor John was probing for a bullet near his shoulder blade, Stance cursed the red-headed woman.

  While the doc was suturing a torn vein Stance was already plotting his revenge.

  While his incision was getting closed Stance was talking to two of remaining lieutenants… the only two he had left, and was giving them instructions.

  “Take half a dozen men. There’s only two of them, so that’ll be plenty. Head toward Highway 87 just north of O’Donnell. Look for horse tracks on the west side headed south. Follow the tracks to a ranch house. Find that son of a bitch who shot Charlie and the others and kill him dead. Deader than shit.

  “But take care with that little red-headed bitch. I want her brought to me alive. You can beat her up a little if you want. Have your way with her and then pass her around. But don’t kill her. I want to make her wish she’d ever been born. I want to break bones she never even knew she had. I want to show her a hundred different kinds of pain and make her beg for mercy before I kill her.

  “She’ll be damned sorry she ever stood up to me.”

  “But, sir, what if they left?”

  Stance turned to look at the man, who suddenly regretted asking the question and wished he were somewhere else.

  “What are you, Martinez? A special kind of stupid? If they left, then track them. Pick him off from a distance, then chase her down and bring her back.”

  He looked around at the assembled men.

  “Are there any other stupid questions?”

  No one had guts enough to respond.

  “Then get the hell out of here. You’ve still got an hour before sundown.”

  He winced out of nowhere.

  “Ow! Goddamn it, Doc. Take it easy back there, will ya?”

  “Sorry, boss. I guess the anesthetic’s wearing off. It’s old and out of date.”

  “Well, give me another shot of it before you finish up,” Stance said, then swigged more Jack Daniels from a liter bottle.

  It was only after his men left the room that he let his eyes water again.

  He couldn’t let them see tears forming in his eyes. For he depended on their fear of him to keep them in line. If they knew that he, like most other bullies, was at heart a big sissy, they might be tempted to defy him.

  So he put on an air of fearlessness, of toughness beyond compare. And he yelled, cursed and threatened every chance he got.

  In his experience as a child, a soldier and an inmate, it was always the loudest and those with the most bluster who had the most power.

  Chapter 36

  By the time Stance’s men were dispatched, Red and Jacob were long gone. They’d been in the water and traveled some two miles north of the ranch house where three bodies were being picked over by a dozen Texas turkey buzzards.

  The creek was a foot or so deep, its bed sandy and soft. The water was very cloudy, which was good. And it flowed swiftly, and that was even better.

  The tracks they left in the bottom of the creek were hard to spot even when fresh. After a swift current flowed over them, they disappeared completely within minutes.

  Their trackers would follow the tracks to the creek easily enough, but would have no way of knowing which direction they went once they were in the water.

  In Red’s estimation, the logical conclusion would b
e that they’d continued on their path south. That would take the bad men even farther away.

  But bad men were frequently illogical. And they generally weren’t very smart either. Red knew there was a chance they’d either split up or would follow her route to the north.

  So she couldn’t take any chances.

  As each hour of darkness ticked away, they went farther and farther off-course.

  It wasn’t a major problem, the only result being it would take them longer to reach Blanco. And they weren’t in a major hurry to get there. All of the family ties Red had with the town were now broken. She still had some good friends there. Friends she wanted to protect so she wouldn’t lose them too. But getting there a day or two longer likely wouldn’t make much difference in that regard.

  Her main motivation for going back to Blanco was to finish getting vengeance for the murders of her loved ones. And in the grand scheme of things, she supposed it didn’t matter much whether Savage and Sloan died next week or the week after.

  She doubted that God would care one way or another when Savage and Sloan died. They weren’t going to Him anyway.

  The devil was probably rubbing his hands together and salivating, not wanting to wait any longer than he had to to get ahold of his two newest underlings. But to hell with the devil. Red wasn’t on his timetable either, she was on her own.

  Red didn’t think her pursuers would make it into the water before sundown. They’d approach the ranch house with caution, not knowing whether or not she and Jacob were still holed up there. They’d probably waste an hour or more scouting it out and watching it for any signs of movement.

  She hoped they’d wait until dark and then move in on it, hoping to surprise them as they slept. Maybe just take the easy way out and burn the house down.

  Of course, there was a possibility the wounded rider never made it back to tell anyone about the shooting. That he’d gotten too weak to ride, had fallen off his horse and succumbed to his wound. She hadn’t gotten a good look at his back as he’d wheeled around and vamoosed, other than to notice he was favoring his right side and had a huge red spot on the back of his shirt.

  With any luck the bullet had severed an artery and he had only minutes to live as he rode off.

  Red was never one to count on luck, because in her experience most of it was bad. At least as it related to her.

  So they’d go through the motions and use some time to get themselves as far away from the situation as they could.

  As they walked slowly through the creek she got drowsy. The rhythmic slosh, slosh, slosh of the horses’ hooves in the water didn’t help any.

  To keep her mind active she went over possible scenarios. She decided the most likely was that the rider made it back to wherever his other men were gathered and sent some of them back to the ranch house.

  She suspected that the men surrounded the ranch house from a safe distance, and that in the process of doing so someone riding the perimeter found two sets of fresh tracks headed toward the creek.

  He likely fired a shot to get the attention of the others and had them abandon their vigil at the house and follow him to the creek.

  From there, there were three options: They would all head south. Or they would all head north. Or they would split up.

  Only one of the options was good.

  Chapter 37

  As a new dawn broke on West Texas that day Red watched the bank of the creek. She was looking for a particular place to exit the water. Some rocky ground.

  “How are you doing up there, partner?”

  “I’m okay, Red. Probably better than you. I got a few hours of sleep yesterday. You must be running on empty about now.”

  “Yeah, pretty much. But we can’t relax yet. I had an idea. Wanna hear it?”

  “Sure. Ain’t much else to do.”

  She smiled. She was going to enjoy her long journey with the man-boy. He had the same temperament as her. A little bit sassy and a little bit sarcastic. They were going to get along fine.

  “Since we’re going overland anyway, let’s just head due east until we get to Highway 281. We’ll need to do it at some point anyway, since 281 is the way to Blanco. If we do it now instead of later there’s less chance of those guys finding us.”

  “Red, we don’t been know if there are any guys. Maybe it was just the four of them. Maybe they were looking to steal our horses just to sell them. And maybe the wounded man died. Maybe he’s lying face down in the dirt back there. Maybe somebody has already picked his body clean of its valuables and taken his horse and is celebrating their good fortune.”

  “Yeah, maybe. But I’m just not in the mood to take chances. I’ve taken too many of them lately and most of them haven’t played out.”

  “Hey, the shore’s rocky. Want to get out? I’ll bet the ponies are anxious to get back on dry land.”

  They paused and she surveyed the shore. He was right. It was slated limestone on both sides of the creek and extended as far as she could see.

  It was a perfect place to leave the water and head east without leaving any tracks.

  “Yep. Let’s go. Want me to take point now?”

  “Sure. Got any ideas where we’re going to bed down for the day?”

  “I’m hoping to find an arroyo. That would be the best option. The second best option would be another abandoned property with a couple of outbuildings. The problem is, during the daytime it would be kind of hard trying to determine whether it’s abandoned or not without actually riding onto it and checking it out. And that makes us pretty vulnerable for being picked off by someone who doesn’t like strangers on their land.”

  Jacob was tired and his head was foggy. He was having trouble processing her words.

  “You lost me at arroyo,” he said. “Just what in hell is an arroyo? It sounds like a disease, or maybe a dish at a Mexican restaurant. I’d like an arroyo with extra cheese, and a side of refried beans, please.”

  She smiled.

  “An arroyo is a dried creek bed. A wash, if you’re more familiar with that term. It’s a place for the spring floods to drain, but they’re bone dry most of the time. In soft and sandy soil, like we have around here, the arroyos can carve pretty deep holes in the ground. The walls can be ten to twelve feet high sometimes, with lots of curves and bends. Except around noontime, when the sun is directly overhead, there are shadows. Shadows to break the heat and to sleep in fairly comfortably. And the walls are high enough to hide the horses while we sleep. And to hide us, so we don’t get picked off by some coward with a rifle.”

  “So, how do we find one of these arroyos?”

  “We just ride due east and hope we stumble across one. And in the meantime we watch out for someplace else that’s safe to spend the day. A stand of heavy trees. An abandoned farm house. Something.”

  “And if we don’t find anything?”

  “Then we’re out in the open and vulnerable. So we keep moving and keep our eyes open while we move. And if we have to move all day long at least we’ll put some distance between us and the men behind us. Then by dark, it’ll be safe to stop in the open and catch some sleep.”

  Jacob groaned at the prospect of going another twelve hours without sleep.

  Red chuckled. “Come on, Jacob. You’re a tough guy, remember?”

  “I’m a tough guy who likes his sleep. And I need it to maintain my rugged good looks.”

  “Yeah, well, that ship has passed.”

  “Meaning what, exactly?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Hey, can we ride side by side? My throat is getting sore from yelling.”

  “Let’s ride tandem for another hour, until we get farther away from that creek we were in.”

  “Does it really make a difference?”

  “Yep. Side by side we double the size of the target for anyone back there shooting at us.”

  “You really think they’re back there?”

  “Nope. I think they probably headed south at the water. And I don’t
think they even got into the water until just a few minutes ago when the sun came up. And I think they’ll follow the creek north until they get tired, and then go back and tell their wounded friend they lost us.

  “That’s what I think happened, and what I hope happened.”

  “Then why are we being so cautious?”

  “Well, because I’ve been wrong before. And because I’m relatively new at this whole game too. This game where we’re being tracked and hunted like animals by men who want to steal our horses and do us harm. So while I’ve been trying very hard to learn as I go, I might make a mistake in judgement. So I’d rather be safe than sorry. Plus, I’m exhausted. So I’m even more prone to make a mistake.”

  “Well I’ll be damned, Red. And here I thought you were perfect in every way.”

  She smiled and said, “Almost. But not quite.”

  Chapter 38

  As new as she was to being human prey, and as tired as her mind and body were, Red called the bad men’s actions perfectly. They’d arrived at the ranch house shortly before sundown and had waited until dark to attack it. They’d surrounded the house, peeking in the windows and hoping someone inside might be stupid enough to light a candle or lantern and expose themselves.

  But the house was dark and quiet.

  In charge of the group was a man named Abbott. He was Stance’s senior lieutenant now, since the three other lieutenants died at the ranch house.

  Abbott, like the rest of Stance’s men, was sufficiently afraid of him to do his bidding without question. And if the boss wanted the girl brought back alive and her partner killed, then by God that was the way it would be.

  Abbott didn’t particularly like killing. He personally thought those who’d survived as long as they did probably deserved to live out their lives in peace. But he had a family to consider. If he bucked Stance’s plans, disobeyed his orders, there might be hell to pay. He might be gunned down by one of the other men who was fiercely loyal to Stance, or by Stance himself.