by Marie Harte
Celia blinked through tears and stared at Pilar with all the pain a woman could feel, having been raped of her dignity, her choices, her freedom. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because it needs to be done. Gregor needs killing. My advice would be to lie as you are now, naked, vulnerable, the knife hidden. Wait until he’s over you, better yet, inside you. Then strike when he least suspects it. It won’t heal your pain, but revenge will make it easier to bear.”
Celia nodded slowly, the glaze of helplessness leaving her eyes. Despite the scars on her body and the fear in her eyes, she was pretty. She looked innocent, and Pilar knew that’s what drove Gregor to continue to defile the girl.
“Keep out of sight for as long as you can. And don’t let him win.” Pilar squeezed Celia’s hand once before leaving. “When you’re finished, take whatever you can to make a new life for yourself. Leave this territory and don’t look back. Ever.”
Celia nodded.
Pilar could do nothing more. Now it was up to Celia.
Pilar left the room and closed the door behind her, satisfied when she heard the creak of the bed. Movement.
She left Butch’s grand house, wondering if his cock still hurt him and hoping it did.
Deke met her by an outbuilding. “Pilar, we need to talk,” he said and nodded her away from the few hands still working the ranch.
“What now?”
Deke had been her eyes and ears. He didn’t like her staying in the house with Butch and his sadistic brother any more than she did, but so far he remained quiet about it. So long as they didn’t touch her, she wouldn’t object either.
“Head count?” she asked.
He looked grim. “Of the thirty-six hands here two weeks ago, only fifteen are left. Ten have gone missing.” Of which Brian was one. “Two are dead from that gunfight a few days ago.”
She nodded. “Stupid Nolans.”
“I know. You should try livin’ with them.”
Poor Deke had to make use of the bunkhouse with the inbred clan.
“Any word of Brian?”
“No. I don’t mind tellin’ ya, I think Thais is out there pickin’ them off one by one. It’s what I’d to.”
Me too. Perhaps Thais wasn’t the spineless bitch Pilar thought her to be. “But there are men unaccounted for. We should have twenty-four still here. Where are the other nine men?”
“Either whoring or running errands for Butch in town.”
She frowned. “Butch put a stop to town runs this morning.” Before he’d insisted she beat him into orgasming three times.
“Gregor turned the order around. Said Butch wanted his men happy.”
“I see.” She thought about their circumstances from a strategic point of view. “Gregor wants his brother dead. Men are missing; we have no idea why.”
“You and I both know it’s Thais. Has to be. That or the asshole who was with her. What’s his name?”
“Hinto Dakota,” Pilar murmured, intrigued by the tales of the stubborn bounty hunter, one the whores in town cooed over. “You’re right, Deke. If I was Thais, I’d thin down the enemy away from their stronghold. Then I’d wage my attack during an empty moon, when the open area around the ranch would be most vulnerable. They’ll come at us tonight when we can’t see them.”
“Want me to tell the others to be ready?”
“No. It’s time you and I left here. But not before I find Thais.”
“And we find out what happened to Brian.”
She nodded, her thoughts awhirl. Time to plan. Action would come soon enough. She judged the sun’s position. In another ten hours, if I’m not mistaken.
Pilar grinned. “Come, Thais,” she whispered on the wind. “I’m waiting.”
***
Thais glanced up at the cloudless night. The sun had all but faded from the sky. She and her companions sat a few miles outside the McKenzie ranch. They’d been entrenched in their camp for a week, taking careful aim at dismantling McKenzie body by body.
Through Hinto and Salvatore’s scouting, they’d learned about Butch’s two-man patrols. They’d whittled the number of patrols down to one lone man. The only reason they hadn’t killed him was because his partner had shot him first.
Like the others they’d interrogated, Brian Sampson told them what he knew about the ranch, about Pilar’s arrival, and about Butch and Gregor. What he’d also given them was worth its weight in gold—a look into Pilar’s private world.
Apparently, Brian and his brother, Deke, were Pilar’s lovers. A small protectorate of their own, she thought. That Pilar had turned to a life of crime came as no surprise. The fact that she wanted Bartel’s head on a platter astounded her.
According to Brian, Pilar wanted to kill the man. He didn’t know why, but Pilar had been doing her level best to rob the man blind—the reason for the Flower Gang’s continued pursuit of the Watchco/Redville line and a Mr. Amery Nore’s private Runner. Amery Nore? Aaron Bartel? The names didn’t mesh, but it was something to go on.
Brian died from Cedric Nolan’s gunshot to his belly. Painful and long, his death had taken hours before he’d finally succumbed.
Instead of the joy Thais expected to feel, she pitied Brian. He seemed like a decent enough man, if one lacking the intelligence to make sound decisions. He’d truly loved Pilar and thought she loved him back. Little did he know Pilar only looked out for herself.
“You okay?” Hinto asked for the tenth time in as many minutes.
“I’m fine.”
“Just a little while longer and we’re going in.” He crouched next to her and ran a finger down her cheek. “I told myself not to worry about you. Seeing you handle Salvatore’s bow is a thing of beauty. You’ll have to teach him how to use it when we get back.”
“Dickhead,” Salvatore muttered from close by.
Hinto chuckled.
The mood felt surprisingly light considering they readied to infiltrate a camp manned by three times as many men.
“Why are you so happy?” she had to know.
“It isn’t every day I get to dole out justice to a complete asshole like McKenzie. And I get to do it with my friends, my woman, and my brother,” he said in a louder voice.
The camp quieted.
A man’s low curse interrupted the silence.
“Wolf?” Rudy grumbled in surprise. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Thais sighed. Dozie was never wrong. She’d do well to remember that.
Wolf walked into their small camp, his face and hands smeared with a dark stain that helped his concealment. He made no noise as he moved, and Thais respected this part of him she’d never before witnessed.
“Hey, there, Amazon,” he teased, his white teeth glinting in the gathering darkness. “Nice to see you’re keeping my brother in check.”
“Yeah, she is.” Hinto grinned, sounding smug.
“Too bad he’s not as perceptive as he should be. I’ve been tracking you since the day we left.”
“I know.”
“What?” Wolf frowned. “But you never invited me into camp. You didn’t know I was following you, cleaning up your trail.”
“Ah, Wolf?” Jon said, apology in his voice. “He did. Told me not to mess with you since you felt you had to be in on our trip south.”
“You mean I about froze my nuts off out there, trying to take care of you, when you knew I was there all along?” Wolf said through gritted teeth.
Mick snickered.
Hinto shrugged. “Do you really think anyone gets near me I don’t know about?”
Wolf snarled. “I know you can, ah, hear better than most.”
Thais wondered if the men knew what Hinto could really do with that extra sense of his.
Wolf continued. “But you seem so smitten with Thais you don’t know up from down.”
“Now, Wolf, don’t be sore ‘cause you’ve been ass-out for days.” Salvatore smirked.
“Try weeks,” Wolf growled.
“Boys, please,�
� Thais interrupted before blows fell. This would be her last night with Hinto. She wanted to make it memorable. “Hinto, can I have a moment?” In another two hours, they’d attack.
She couldn’t wait.
She dreaded it.
They walked away from Wolf still smarting and left the camp for the privacy of a small clearing a few feet away. The whistling wind, and Hinto’s ability, promised them a measure of privacy.
“What’s wrong, honey?” Hinto pulled her into his arms and hugged her. “Worried about tonight?”
“I am. I want you to promise me something.”
“Anything.”
“If something happens to me, I want you to promise to take whatever I learn to my sisters. Give them the information.”
“Nothing’s gonna—”
“And if I find nothing of value from Pilar, go anyway. Take my knife and give it to Yara. She’ll be the pretty one with dark brown eyes, long black hair and skin the color of the nucca seeds. Luiza will want to gut you. She and Isadora are twins, so stay away from the straw-haired warriors with eyes the color of rainclouds.”
“Thais, why are you telling me this?” he asked gently and pulled back so he could see her.
It was all she could do not to cry.
Thais cleared her throat. “Like I said, in three months and two weeks, meet them at the town center in Eden in Four Corners. Show Yara my knife and tell her I sent you. Tell her I’ll always treasure our time in The Cave, where I’ll be waiting to be reborn.”
“Dammit, Thais.”
“Please. Promise me.” She clenched his arms tight. “It means very much that if I die, my sisters have my knife. You have my heart. It’s such a small request I make of you.”
His eyes softened and he sighed. “I promise. Treasuring time in The Cave. The dagger. Stay away from Luiza.”
She grinned in spite of her worries. “She’s unforgiving of your gender, yes.”
“Hell, I should introduce her to Wolf.”
Thais forced herself to accept what she couldn’t change. Death would claim her, but Hinto owned her soul. She would come back to him somehow.
“Can we sit here together, you and me?”
“Anything for you, Thais. Now stop worrying about tonight. I have a plan.” He whispered it to her in detail, a slight variation from what the group had already agreed. She liked it. She thought it might very well work. But she wouldn’t be around to see it completed.
She hugged his arms around her and listened to the soothing sound of his heartbeat.
The rest of the world faded away.
Chapter Twenty
Thais waited for Wolf to make the first move. He darted into the darkness a few feet from her quarry. She knew because Hinto whispered his position in her ear.
She notched her arrow, raised Salvatore’s bow, and took aim.
“Ready,” Hinto warned.
A spark of flame lit the night, highlighting the two sentries sitting atop their horses on the far side tree line bordering the McKenzie ranch. Before the flame winked out, Thais released the arrow which found purchase in the sentry’s chest. He toppled from the horse just as Wolf leapt to his partner’s mount.
In seconds, Wolf should have slit his throat, then done the same to the man Thais had taken down.
Wolf returned to them after a few minutes. “We’re good. Two down, eight more to go.”
They heard shots in the night.
“That’s Salvatore, Mick, and Rudy taking care of the McKenzie men coming back from town.” Thais nodded with satisfaction. With reinforcements cut off, only nine or ten men still remained on the ranch. Time to find Pilar.
“Let’s go.” Hinto took the lead. Wolf, Thais, and Jon followed him around the tree line, so that they entered the open fields surrounding the ranch on the opposite side from where they’d taken out the sentries. “Expect more over here. Two, a hundred feet directly in front of us.”
“I’m on it.” Wolf snuck away to deal with them.
“Dammit. I should have taken them,” Hinto whispered. “Fool can’t see in the dark.”
“Neither can you,” Jon muttered. “Thank God McKenzie and his fools believe in oil lamps aplenty.”
On the ranch, several hands stood with lanterns, looking out into the night.
Butch suddenly shouted from the house to douse the lights. Thais didn’t see Pilar anywhere.
Hinto took control, and Thais let him. She wanted Pilar. He could handle Butch and the others with her blessing. Before she could sneak away, he grabbed hold of her wrist.
“Jon, you maneuver closer, just on this side of the barn, towards us. Lay in wait with that rifle. You don’t recognize the guy, shoot him.”
“Right-o.” Jon left, moving like a cat.
“It’s funny, but all of your men move like hunters.”
“How do you think we found them? Dad made a good living cleaning up Shine when he first arrived. Place used to be a haven for criminals.”
“Which explains Rudy,” she murmured and followed Hinto as they raced up the slight hill toward the barn, following Jon.
Shots rang out in all directions. They dropped to their bellies and low-crawled the rest of the way.
“A reformed Rudy,” Hinto rasped.
Grinning and charged on the power of this hunt, Thais lay next to Hinto as they caught their breath.
This close to the ranch, she could make out darker blurbs of shadow against the black of night. They’d picked the perfect time to invade. She could barely see her hand in front of her face.
Knowing now was the time, she rolled over Hinto, groped for his face, and kissed him hard on the mouth. “I love you,” she mouthed against his lips.
She didn’t wait for his reply. Thais darted into the barn and hid behind a bale of hay. The plan dictated Thais would wait inside the barn. Anyone who ventured inside was fair game. Should Hinto find Pilar, he’d direct her to Thais. He’d sworn not to handle her himself, and Thais trusted him to keep his word.
Jon fired and a body fell. He fired again. Another thud.
Thais felt the presence of someone creeping behind her and didn’t hesitate. She dropped to the ground and rolled into a pair of long legs. A man swore. She didn’t give him time to do anything else but gutted him with her knife, then followed by cutting his throat.
Effective for ensuring a body stayed dead.
She crawled over him, but not before taking the heavy pistol from his hands. Every man on Butch’s ranch had a gun. Just one more sign the UTs were nowhere to be found in Morrow. Most towns regulated who could carry a weapon. She doubted the UTO would sanction firearms for even one Nolan, let alone all of them.
Thais killed another man sneaking by the other entrance to the barn on his way to Jon. He made enough noise to wake the dead, but he managed to nick her with his knife all the same. The small cut to her hand stung but didn’t hinder her ability to defend herself.
Gunfire, screams, and shouts filled the night as they rained justice down on Butch McKenzie’s head. Now if Pilar would just play her part…
A bright light and a burst of heat blew up behind her, where an oil lamp exploded and set the floor and walls on fire.
Thais shielded her face from the intense heat and backed away, into the shadows behind the first stall, where a horse should have been but wasn’t. Shit.
“Little girl, where are you? It’s time to finish the rite. Time to earn the flower I’m going to carve into your cheek.”
Finally. Pilar.
***
Hinto swore up and down when the barn caught fire, but before he could move he tracked Wolf stalking a burly ranch hand sneaking around the side of the barn. So far, Hinto had counted five men down. He sensed Jon, Wolf, and Thais, all alive and well.
A shot from Jon’s direction, forced him to keep his head down, and he dove for the drying shed to his immediate right. Carefully easing around the corner of the small building, he searched for the threat Jon felt a need to warn him about
. Butch McKenzie held a rifle, waiting, his form outlined by the fire burning in the barn in front of him.
“Welcome back, Hinto. We’ve been waiting for you.”
Gunfire peppered the night beyond the ranch, Rudy and the guys making headway, apparently. With a grim smile, Butch stepped back into the shadows of his porch and disappeared inside the house. “Come and get me,” he yelled.
“Dammit.” Hinto didn’t like walking into a trap, especially when he could feel the presence of four people inside. He looked back at Jon, who shrugged before pulling the trigger and felling another ranch hand close to stepping on him.
Jon help up a three fingers. Yeah, three left by his count too. But four people were inside the house. Maybe some servants? He didn’t know. If only they could put out that damned fire. It lit up the ranch like a goddamn burst of sunlight. He had a hard time thinking while trying to keep from being illuminated for target practice.
With no other choice, he ran like hell while Jon shot at the house and provided him cover. Shots landed in the dirt around him. One grazed his arm and he dove headfirst for the side of the building. He landed under a window and reached out with his senses. He felt no one within the room next to him. Hinto concentrated again. To his surprise, the four in the house suddenly became three. Then two, as one of the bodies left the premises in a run. “Butch and Gregor, you’re all mine.”
***
It was surprisingly easy. Celia blinked at the bloody knife. The gunfire from outside proved the perfect distraction. Instead of having to endure Gregor McKenzie forcing himself on her, he’d turned at the sound of the first bullet. She hadn’t thought. She’d simply reacted to the rage and hatred festered inside her. Celia had struck him hard, right in his belly.
He’d tried to choke her, but she twisted the knife. The agony on his face went a long way toward mediating her suffering at his hands, though she knew it would never be enough. She’d never forget what Gregor had stolen from her. Nor should she. A lesson learned, she thought with a shrill laugh. She shoved him away from her, intending to slit his throat.