That sharp voice halted the Kiowa’s attack, at least for the moment, but he stood ready to strike again.
Ace thought he knew who had spoken. A second later he saw that he was right as Henry Baylor stepped away from the wagon with his left arm around Isabel’s throat. His right pressed a gun into her side.
She wore only a thin nightdress, and her long black hair was loose around her head and shoulders. Clearly, she had been asleep when the commotion broke out, and Baylor had either dragged her out of the wagon or more likely waited in the dark until Isabel jumped down from the tailgate and gave him a chance to grab her.
“Jack,” Baylor went on. “do you have her?”
“Yeah,” Loomis replied. “I’ve got this sweet little hellcat wrapped up.”
Lorena unleashed a flood of profanity as she writhed in the grip of the beefy Loomis. His arms were looped around her, and he was too strong for her to break free.
“Bitch took a shot at me!” Loomis went on. “I’ve got a bullet burn on my cheek, thanks to her.”
“You’ll live,” Baylor said dryly. He raised his voice. “You other women in the wagon, come on out now. Don’t try anything, or I’ll hurt your friend.” He looked at Ace. “The same goes for you, Jensen. Reach for your gun and I’ll kill her. Jack will snap the other one’s neck, for good measure.”
“Aw, Henry, we can’t kill ’em before we have a little fun,” Loomis protested.
Baylor ignored him. “Ladies, get out here! I won’t tell you again.”
At the front of the wagon, Agnes poked her head out. “Take it easy, mister. We’re doing what you say. There’s no need to hurt anybody.” She started to climb down over the driver’s box.
At the same time, Molly and Jamie emerged from the rear of the wagon, at the tailgate.
Ace saw instantly what was going on and figured that Agnes had come up with the idea. Baylor couldn’t watch both ends of the wagon at once, and Loomis had his hands full—literally—with Lorena. Baylor had to turn one way or the other, and when he swung toward Agnes, the other two young women suddenly broke away, bolting toward the back of the general store.
“Henry!” Loomis cried. “They’re gettin’ away!”
Baylor snarled and pressed the gun even harder into Isabel’s side. She let out a pained yelp as he said, “Let them go. This is the one we really want.”
That was interesting, but Ace didn’t have time to think about it. He was keeping an eye on the Kiowa, who still looked like he wanted to spring forward at any second and plunge that knife into Ace’s chest.
Running footsteps sounded nearby. Lew Shelby raced up, gun in hand.
Baylor barked at him. “Did you get the other Jensen brother?”
“I don’t know,” Shelby answered. “What are you doing? Kill the bastard and let’s get out of here!”
A group of horses surged around the corner. Two men were riding and leading five more saddle mounts.
One of the men shouted, “Isabel! Give her to me, Baylor!”
Isabel screamed, the sort of terrified shriek that Ace never would have expected to come from the throat of the defiant, high-spirited beauty.
As the horses crowded in and added to the confusion, the Kiowa seized the opportunity to go after Ace again. Ace was ready. His hand dipped to his gun and brought it up. Colt flame bloomed in the darkness. The Kiowa was thrown backwards by the bullet ripping into his body.
“Over there in the trees by the store!” a new voice shouted.
Shelby whirled and started shooting. The group of men who had just emerged from the saloon returned the fire. A deadly storm of lead whirled around the wagon and the men and horses nearby.
The Kiowa made a weak swipe at Ace with the knife. Ace blocked it and hammered the gun in his hand against the Kiowa’s head. Buffaloed, the Indian went down and stayed there.
“Hold your fire! Hold your fire! There are women over there!” That was Chance.
The sound of his voice made a surge of relief go through Ace. His brother was still alive, at least.
The man who had shouted at Baylor to hand over Isabel brought his horse closer and reached down for her. Baylor loosened his grip on her, and that gave her a chance to reach under her nightdress and produce her dagger from somewhere.
She drove it back into Baylor’s thigh. He screeched and let go of her completely. She yanked the blade loose and slashed at the hand of the mounted man who was reaching for her. He cried out in pain and jerked his hand back.
Cursing, Baylor swung his gun toward Isabel and was about to blast her at almost point-blank range.
Ace shot the gambler in the head.
It was risky, trying to make a shot like that in bad light, but Ace knew if he drilled Baylor through the body, the man might still be able to squeeze off a shot at Isabel. The only way to put him down quickly and cleanly enough to save her life was to send a bullet through his brain.
Baylor dropped to the ground as suddenly as if a giant fist had hammered him into the earth.
Isabel wasn’t out of danger. The other mounted man made a grab for her, but she twisted away lithely. The man didn’t pursue her, instead catching the reins of his injured companion’s horse and kicking his mount into a run. Both animals thundered off into the darkness.
Ace had lost track of Lew Shelby. He swiveled around, searching for the gunman, but didn’t catch sight of him. Nor did Ace see Prewitt anywhere. Jack Loomis appeared to be the only one of the bunch still on his feet.
He backed away, still holding on to Lorena so that nobody could risk a shot at him. “Everybody stay back!” he yelled. “I’m gettin’ outta here, and I’m takin’ this gal with me!”
“No, you’re not,” Chance said as he stepped out into the open with the .38 in his hand.
“Give it up, Loomis,” Ace added as he moved to flank the hardcase on the other side.
They had Loomis in a crossfire, but unfortunately, Lorena was right there in the middle as well.
“Let go of me, you big ox!” she cried. “If they don’t shoot you, I’ll claw your eyes out!”
A threat like that wasn’t very likely to make Loomis surrender, but the odds stacked against him might. He looked around wildly, his head jerking back and forth.
Not only did he have the Jensen brothers covering him, but the men who had rushed out of the saloon to see what all the shooting was about were close by, too, all of them armed and apparently eager to burn more powder.
Agnes had reached into the wagon and brought out a rifle, too, and despite the fact that she was wearing a long, thick flannel nightgown, she looked pretty formidable as she pointed the repeater at Loomis.
Ace said, “Your friends are all dead or out of the fight, except for Shelby, and it looks like he ran out on you. No sense in you getting killed, too, Loomis.”
Loomis looked like he wanted to continue his defiance, but his face twisted abruptly and he said bitterly, “The hell with it.” He let go of Lorena and stepped back as he shoved his hands into the air above his head.
She whirled toward him and launched an attack of her own, striking out at him and forcing him to duck and flinch.
“Get this loco bitch away from me!” he exclaimed.
Jamie and Molly reappeared from wherever they had hidden behind the store. They hurried up to Lorena and took hold of her arms. Forcing her away from Loomis wasn’t easy, but after a few moments her fury seemed to subside and she allowed them to steer her toward the wagon.
Blood oozed from a couple scratches on Loomis’s face.
Chance stepped up behind him and plucked the gun from the holster on Loomis’s hip.
Ace pouched his iron and moved over to Isabel. “Are you all right?”
She still clutched the dagger. Breathing hard was causing her breasts to rise and fall under the thin nightdress in a distracting manner, even under the circumstances. She nodded and said, “I’m fine. I just can’t believe he found me!”
“Who?”
“
Ripley Kirkwood,” Isabel said with a savage gleam in her eyes. “The monster I almost married!”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Cross Plains was so small that it didn’t have a jail or a marshal, but Jacob Dawson, the undertaker, had a room in his business where the townspeople could lock up anybody who caused too much trouble. It was used only rarely.
That was where Jack Loomis and the Kiowa ended up, once the wound in the Kiowa’s side was patched up. Dawson took care of that, too, being the closest thing the settlement had to a doctor. The Kiowa’s injury was minor, and he was expected to live, but there was no guarantee of that.
As Dawson sometimes wryly observed, if he didn’t get a customer’s money one way, sooner or later he would get it the other.
Henry Baylor and Prewitt were at the undertaking parlor as well, but they didn’t need Dawson’s medical services. He would be building their coffins and planting them in the ground. Ace’s bullet to Baylor’s head had killed the gambler instantly, and Prewitt had been shot to pieces in the Devil Horse Saloon.
None of the women were hurt. Lorena gently probed the lump on Ace’s head with her fingertips, then announced, “You’ll live. You’re lucky you have a thick skull, Ace.”
Chance grinned. “I knew his thick-headedness would come in handy one of these days.”
They were gathered around a fire Agnes had built near the wagon so that she could boil a pot of coffee. It would be a while before any of them felt like sleeping.
As they sat and sipped from tin cups, Ace asked Lorena, “Did you see what happened? Was it Loomis who knocked me out?”
“That big bald son of a bitch? Yeah, it was him, all right. He came out of nowhere and walloped you with his gun butt. Thick skull or not, I’m a little surprised you weren’t hurt worse than you are. He holstered the gun and made a grab for me, but he wasn’t expecting me to have a pistol with me. I got a shot off before he knocked it out of my hand and wrapped me up in that bear hug.”
“I heard the shot as I passed out,” Ace said. “You’re pretty quick on the draw.”
“Thanks, but I think I’ll leave the gunfighting to somebody else. Even that close to him, I didn’t manage to kill the bastard.”
“I came to my senses in time to keep the Kiowa from stabbing me. It’s a good thing he didn’t use a gun. He could have killed me while I was still stunned.”
Chance said, “He must have believed there was more honor in killing you in hand-to-hand combat.”
“I wasn’t really thinking about honor when I shot the varmint,” Ace said.
“You saved my life when you shot that other man,” Isabel said as she cradled her cup in both hands.
“Maybe. But it sounded like you were worth a lot more to Baylor alive. I reckon he was a little out of his head after you stabbed him, though. It hurt too much for him to think straight.”
Silence hung over the group around the fire for a minute or so.
Then Lorena said, “Don’t you think you ought to tell us what really happened here, Isabel? You’re the reason some of us almost got killed.”
“You blame me for the actions of a madman?” Isabel shot back.
“You could have warned us somebody was after you,” Lorena insisted. “They might not have taken us by surprise.”
“There’s some truth to that, but it was Chance and me that Shelby and the others had a grudge against. I’m not sure how they came to throw in with those other two fellas. It seems to me there’s enough blame to spread around here.”
“If you want to talk about blame,” Chance said, “save most of it for Shelby and his pards. None of us forced them to be killers and hardcases.”
That was certainly true. Ace still wanted to know the story behind the shocking statement Isabel had made earlier. “How about it, Isabel?”
She sighed and then slowly nodded her head. “I told you, the man’s name is Ripley Kirkwood. He is from New Orleans, like me. Because his father is very wealthy, Ripley has always felt that he can do whatever he wants without anyone daring to deny him. Anyone foolish enough to try will be crushed, either by his father’s money or Ripley’s own cruelty.”
“You knew that, and you agreed to marry him anyway?” Ace asked.
“I did not know,” Isabel said forcefully. “Oh, I knew his father was rich and that Ripley had a reputation for being . . . colorful . . . and perhaps a bit dangerous. But he can also be quite charming when he wishes, and there are many young women from fine families who are eager for his attention. When he began pursuing me . . . it did not take him long to conquer any resistance I might have put up.” She paused. “I was not just another conquest for him, though. He asked me to marry him. I was surprised, but I agreed. Then, as the date of our wedding drew near, I began to see”—she stopped again as a shudder went through her—“I began to see more clearly what he is really like. The way he treated me when we were alone together became less affectionate and more . . . violent.”
“There are plenty of fellas who like it rough, honey,” Lorena said. “Sorry to be so plain-spoken about it, but it’s the truth.”
Isabel shook her head. “This was more than that. I began to hear rumors that sometimes Ripley engaged the services of young women, and that some of these women . . . did not survive the encounter.”
“How terrible,” Jamie murmured. “I never heard of such a thing!”
“Count yourself lucky,” Lorena said. “I’ve heard that and worse, plenty of times.”
Chance said, “So once you found out what this fella Kirkwood is really like, you told him you weren’t going to marry him after all?”
“That’s right,” Isabel said, nodding. “It angered him that I was breaking off our engagement, and then I saw that all the rumors were true. In his fury, he could have killed me right then and there. I had gone to his home to tell him, and I believed I might never get out of there alive. He grabbed my arm, threw me in a room, and locked the door.”
She looked down as the terrible memory of her fear kept her from continuing for a moment. When she could speak again, she said, “Later, someone unlocked the door. One of his servants who took pity on me, I suspect. It was the middle of the night and the house was asleep. I was able to sneak out without being caught. I went back to my home, gathered up a few possessions and what money I had, and then I left New Orleans. That was months ago, and I’ve been fleeing ever since. I thought I had gotten far enough away, and enough time had passed, that Ripley would never find me.” She laughed, but there was no humor in the sound. “Clearly, I was wrong.”
With her story concluded, again the group was silent.
Finally Ace said, “I’m sorry you had to go through all of that.”
“But you still should have warned us,” Lorena added. “You couldn’t be sure Kirkwood couldn’t find you.”
Isabel glared at her. “You of all people should understand that sometimes you just want to bury your past and never unearth it again.”
Lorena shrugged but didn’t say anything else.
Ace asked, “Who was that big hombre with Kirkwood, the one who hustled him away after you slashed his hand open?”
“Leon,” Isabel replied. “That is the only name I ever heard him called. He takes care of Ripley. Cleans up his messes, I suppose you could say. He’s a terrible man. I don’t think he ever feels anything. Ripley mentioned once that he used to be a prizefighter, but that’s all I know about him—other than that he frightens me a great deal.”
“So he’s alive,” Chance said. “Kirkwood’s alive, and as far as we know, so is Lew Shelby. The three of them are still out there, just like the three men who kidnapped Molly and the rest of that Fairweather bunch. Somebody’s going to be dogging our trail all the way to San Angelo!”
Lorena looked at Jamie and Agnes. “Do you two have any old enemies who might be trailing us, too?”
“I swear, I don’t have an enemy in the world,” Agnes said.
“Neither do I,” Jamie said. “And it’s
not Molly’s fault those men carried her off before.”
Molly just looked down into her coffee cup and didn’t say anything. Ace figured the memories of that ordeal were bothering her, and he wished Jamie hadn’t brought it up.
Isabel frowned at Lorena. “What about you?”
“What about me?” the honey-blonde snapped back.
“Is anyone seeking vengeance on you?”
“Not a damned soul, honey. I may not have lived the most righteous life anybody ever did, but I haven’t cheated or robbed or killed anybody. I don’t have to worry about any jilted lovers, either.”
Isabel sniffed.
Before she could add anything, Ace said, “Why don’t we all turn in and try to get some rest? I know probably nobody’s that sleepy, but we need to cover some more ground tomorrow.”
“That’s right,” Chance said. “With everything that’s hanging fire, the sooner you ladies make it to San Angelo and get hitched to your new husbands, the better it’ll be for everybody.”
Lorena said, “You mean it’ll be our husbands’ problem, not yours.”
“I mean that San Angelo’s a good-sized town with an army post, and there’s bound to be some local law, too. Anybody who’s chasing any of you will have to think twice about bothering you there. That Kirkwood fella, for instance, will probably just give up and go back to New Orleans.”
“I wish that were true,” Isabel said, “but a madman seldom gives up. And I believe that Ripley Kirkwood is truly mad.”
* * *
Kirkwood cursed bitterly as Leon tightened the makeshift bandage around his right hand. Isabel had laid the palm open to the bone when she slashed him, and it hurt like hell. The wound had also bled a great deal, and he was still a little lightheaded. Mostly, though, he was just angry. Lew Shelby and the others were supposed to be dangerous men, and yet they hadn’t been able to deal with two youngsters and a handful of women.
Kirkwood and Leon were in the gap between the two hills so that the one to the east shielded their campfire from being spotted in the settlement. It probably wasn’t a good idea to stop that close to town, but they had needed a place where Leon could patch up his employer’s hand before Kirkwood lost even more blood.
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