“Too late for that,” Denny said. “That horse is a long way out of the barn.”
Dave just glared at her, so she twisted her head and shoulders and looked up at Benjy.
“I’ll sweeten the deal even more, if that’s what you want. If you agree to ride off and leave me here, we can have a little fun before you go. Of course . . . you’d have to untie my legs first.”
Benjy’s eyes got bigger in the firelight. “Are you sayin’ what I think you’re sayin’?”
Before Denny could reply, Dave pointed his finger again and said, “You just stop that! That’s serious business, and you don’t need to be making sport of us about it. You’re a respectable young woman—”
“Whoever told you that?” Denny asked. She laughed and shook her head.
“Dave, listen,” Benjy said with a note of urgency in his voice. “I think she’s tellin’ the truth. She ain’t a-gonna hold it against us. And she’s derned near the prettiest gal I ever saw in my whole life!”
“No!” Dave was starting to sound really frustrated. “Blast it, we had a plan, Benjy. It was all worked out—”
“Plans can be changed. Sometimes, a better plan comes along, and you got to grab the chance while you got it.”
Dave shook his head stubbornly. “We’ll stick to what we said we were going to do.”
Benjy stepped around Denny. He was the one pointing a finger now, and waving it in his partner’s face.
“We’ve rode together for a long time and I don’t want any trouble betwixt us, but we never shoulda gone into this like we done. The more I think about her bein’ Smoke Jensen’s daughter, the less I like it. What if he really is as fast as he ever was? There ain’t no tellin’ how many hombres he’s gunned down over the years. I don’t want him on my back trail. And what she’s offerin’ us . . . man, Dave, you know fellas like us ain’t never gonna have another chance at somethin’ like that!”
With his face now mottled with anger, Dave got right in his friend’s face and said, “Now, you listen to me, you big bumpkin. We can’t—”
“Bumpkin!” Benjy raised a fist and shook it in the air. “Boy, howdy, Dave, if you wasn’t my pard, I’d—”
Denny didn’t wait to hear what either of them was going to say next. Caught up in their argument, they weren’t paying any attention to her, so she took them completely by surprise when she jackknifed up from the ground, lifting herself high enough that she was able to reach out and pluck Benjy’s gun from the holster on his hip before she fell back.
CHAPTER 36
Benjy yelled, jerked around, and slapped at his now-empty holster. Dave jumped back and clawed at his own gun. He hadn’t cleared leather yet when Denny leveled the Colt at him and said, “Don’t!”
Dave froze with his gun halfway out of the holster.
“Pull it out slow and easy and throw it away,” Denny told him.
Instead of following the order, Dave glared at his partner and grated, “You blasted fool!”
“Me?” Benjy said. “You was the one who was arguin’—”
“No, it was you—”
“Shut up, both of you!” Denny said. “Now, take that gun out carefully and toss it away from you. I’m not going to tell you again.”
She was very tempted to just shoot both of them while she had the chance. In Dave’s case, that would have been justified since he was trying to draw on her, but Benjy wasn’t threatening her, and drilling him would have been murder to Denny’s way of thinking. She’d almost done it anyway, and she would still pull the trigger if she had to.
But then Dave sighed, slowly and gingerly lifted his revolver from its holster, and tossed it toward the rear of the area underneath the bulging rock.
“Get your hands up, both of you,” Denny said. “Back up, closer to the fire.”
As they backed away, Benjy said bitterly, “We tried to be nice to you—”
“By hitting me and kicking me and tying me up?” Denny snorted. “I’d hate to see what you’d do to somebody you were trying to be mean to.”
“You could have seen it, all right,” Dave said, scowling. “I think we treated you pretty good, considering.”
That was true, in its own bizarre way, Denny supposed. But she also didn’t care. She said, “Benjy, take your knife out and toss it over here where I can reach it. If I even think you’re about to throw it at me, I’ll just kill you and let Dave do it.”
“I ain’t gonna try nothin’,” Benjy grumbled. He slid the bone-handled knife from the sheath on his left hip and gave it a gentle, underhand toss that landed it in front of Denny and to her left. She’d have to struggle and stretch a little to reach it, but she didn’t figure that would be a problem.
Sounding aggrieved, Benjy went on, “You wasn’t ever plannin’ to really let us have some sport with you, was you?”
“Of course she wasn’t, you lunkhead,” Dave told him. “She was just playing us against each other so we’d stop paying attention to her long enough for her to try some trick.” He glanced at Denny. “And it worked.”
Benjy heaved a big sigh and shook his head.
“Well, you can’t blame a fella for dreamin’—”
Denny leaned forward to try to reach the knife. As she did so, she took her eyes off the two men, and Dave suddenly darted toward the fire. He dragged his foot across the ground and kicked dirt over the flames.
The fire wasn’t big to start with, and the dirt put it out almost instantly. Darkness enveloped Denny as if someone had dropped a thick black curtain over her head. But since she had been reaching for the knife anyway, she continued her lunge toward it and slapped her free hand on the ground, searching for the weapon.
Her fingers brushed the bone handle and closed around it. Hearing the fast shuffle of feet near her, she threw herself to the side and rolled. One of the men, probably Benjy since he’d been closer, brushed against her as he tried to tackle her in the dark. Denny lashed out with the blade, felt it hit something. Benjy howled in pain.
She came to a stop against the rock where it angled down low to the ground. As she heard one of the men coming toward her again, she jerked the gun up and pulled the trigger.
The muzzle flash revealed Dave looming over her. That lasted only a split second before darkness closed in again. Dave yelped and scrambled away. He was moving fast enough that Denny didn’t think she had hit him, not seriously, anyway.
As Denny sat there with her back braced against the rock and her heart slugging furiously in her chest, she realized she could make out the opening of the cavelike area because of the starlight outside. As long as she stayed where she was, they couldn’t come at her without her being able to see their silhouettes against that faint glow.
From somewhere near the entrance, Dave called, “Listen to me, lady. You don’t want to do this. It’s just going to make things worse.”
“She cut me, Dave!” Benjy said. “The little witch cut me!”
Dave ignored him and went on, “You hear me, Miss Jensen? You’re making this a lot harder on yourself than you have to.”
Denny didn’t respond to him. She was too busy leaning forward and using the knife to saw at the rope tied around her ankles. She felt the strands parting under the keen-edged blade.
“Miss Jensen?” Dave said tentatively. “Are you all right?”
Denny still didn’t answer. Let the varmints wonder about her. As soon as the rope fell away from her ankles, she scooted slowly and carefully along the rock wall, feeling around as she went for the gun she’d made Dave toss away.
If she could get both guns, she’d stand a lot better chance, she reasoned.
“Missy, I’m plumb sorry I called you names just now,” Benjy said. “My leg hurts like fire where you cut me. But I reckon I understand why you did it. You’re scared of us, and you don’t trust us. I don’t blame you for feelin’ that way. But I swear, we ain’t out to hurt you.”
Benjy’s voice came from far to her right. Dave had been to her left. Th
at was worrisome. They were flanking her, she realized, and soon would be moving in from both sides.
Maybe it was time to forget about that other gun and make her move now.
She gathered her legs underneath her and came up fast, springing to her feet and dashing toward the entrance. She wished she could have gotten one of the horses, but that seemed impossible under the circumstances.
They must have heard enough to figure out what she was doing. Dave yelled, “Stop her!”
“I’ll get her!” Benjy cried.
Denny was almost to the entrance when he rammed into her from the right and knocked her off her feet. She rolled and felt his hands clutching at her, trying to get a secure hold on her. She thrust the gun toward where she thought he was and pulled the trigger again. Benjy screamed and his hands fell away from her.
Denny rolled again, and the ground fell out from under her. She was outside now, toppling out of control down a steep, rock-studded slope.
She grunted at the impacts that jolted her as she continued her downward plunge. It was pure luck she didn’t dash her brains out against one of the rocks. Vaguely, she was aware of Dave and Benjy both shouting somewhere above her, so she supposed she hadn’t killed Benjy with that second shot.
She fetched up hard against a tree trunk, hitting it with enough force to make her gasp. She slipped around it and staggered to her feet. After a few stumbling steps, the ground started to move under her feet.
No, not ground, she realized. Smaller rocks. She had wandered onto a talus slope, and as her feet shot out from under her, dust, racket, and flying pebbles surrounded her. She slid downward, feetfirst, picking up speed until it seemed like she was flying down the mountainside.
That slide probably lasted only a few seconds, but it seemed a lot longer to Denny. What waited at the end of it was worse. Suddenly she was in midair, plummeting toward an unknown fate. She might fall for hundreds of feet before she slammed to her death on the rocks below.
Instead, in two terrifying heartbeats, she hit water, cleaving deep into its icy grip.
Since she hadn’t been able to see it coming, she hadn’t caught her breath before she went under. Her lungs cried out for air and her pulse thundered inside her head. Somehow, she kept her wits about her, and when she stopped sinking and her natural buoyancy tried to lift her in the water, she stroked with both arms to help her rise.
That was the first time she realized she still held both the gun and the knife she had taken from her former captors. Somehow she hadn’t dropped them during her mad plunge. She thought about letting go of them to lessen the weight pulling her down, but she didn’t want to give them up. She might need them. The gun ought to work even after being submerged in water, and it probably still had either three or four rounds in it, depending on whether Benjy liked to carry the hammer on an empty chamber.
After another seemingly interminable interval, her head broke the surface. She gasped and then began dragging in as much air as she could, treading water as she did so. She had fallen into a good-sized creek. Its current carried her along at a steady pace.
She tilted her head back to look up at the slope looming on her right. She had rolled and slid and fallen from somewhere fairly high up there, and since Benjy and Dave wouldn’t be able to take such a direct route down on horseback, she knew she had some time before they could mount much of a pursuit. For that reason, she was content to let the stream carry her farther away while she caught her breath.
It didn’t take long, though, for the cold to penetrate her body until every bone ached and it felt as if her insides were about to turn to solid ice. Now that the storm had passed, the temperature itself wasn’t that frigid, although the nights were cool in the high country. The streams, though, were fed by snowmelt most of the year and were always cold.
Despite the need to put more distance between her and her former captors, Denny knew she had to get out of the water sooner rather than later. Eventually the chill might paralyze her muscles and cause her to sink.
She stood it as long as she could, but between the cold and the weight of her clothes and boots dragging her down, she weakened quickly. She kicked her legs and angled toward the far side of the creek. A pang of relief went through her when her feet scraped on the rocky bottom.
Within moments, she had pulled herself out of the water and collapsed on the bank. Almost immediately, she began shivering. The night breeze wasn’t very strong, but as soaked as she was, any movement of the air had a frigid bite to it. Although she was so weary that all she wanted to do was lay her head down on the grass and close her eyes, she forced herself up to hands and knees and then pushed all the way to her feet.
She swayed and put out her arms to balance herself as the world spun crazily for several seconds. When it settled down and stopped tilting every which way, she shoved the gun and knife behind her belt and then looked around to take stock of her situation.
That really wasn’t a mountain on the other side of the creek, she saw now as starlight shone down on the landscape. More like a good-sized hill. Still it would take Benjy and Dave time to make their way down from their hideout—assuming Benjy could even travel. She was pretty sure she’d hit him with that second shot. He had screamed like he was shot, no doubt about that.
Even so, they would be hurrying, so it wouldn’t be too long before they were down here searching for her. She turned to look in the other direction. This side of the creek appeared to be rolling, wooded terrain. At least it wouldn’t be too much of a challenge to travel through.
And since she didn’t know where she was, one direction was as good as another, she supposed. Her main goal was to find a place to hole up where she could get out of the wet clothes, maybe even make a fire to help her warm up and dry off.
She reached down to the pocket of her jeans, felt the familiar lump that was the small, waterproof tin container of matches Smoke insisted that she always carry with her when she was out on the range. She didn’t know exactly how waterproof it was, but the storm and now the dunking in the creek would be good tests for it. First she had to find a good place.
She turned and walked into the trees, stumbling only a little from exhaustion, exposure to the elements, and the battering she had received at the hands and feet of her captors.
Luck had been with her tonight, she knew, but her own stubbornness had played a large part in her escape, too. It wasn’t enough just to escape, though. She had a grudge against those two, and she intended to settle it.
First things first.
The woods swallowed her up.
CHAPTER 37
Denny hunkered over the tiny fire, trying to soak up every bit of the warmth the flames gave off. Earlier, she had taken off her wet clothes in the hope that she would be warmer out of them, but that hadn’t proven to be the case since she didn’t have a nice dry blanket to wrap up in. Her jeans and socks still hung on a low branch above the fire, but she had pulled her underclothes and flannel shirt back on. They were still quite damp but an improvement over nothing.
Mostly, though, she would just have to remain cold and miserable while she waited for morning. She had kept the fire small because she didn’t want Benjy and Dave to spot it. She could have built a big, roaring blaze to dry off and warm up much more quickly, but that would have led them right to her.
Her camp was tucked into a little nook at the base of a bluff, with little ridges sticking out on both sides of her and a thick stand of trees straight ahead. Several trees grew around her, as well. Not a perfect hiding place, by any means, but the best one she had come across before she was too stiff to continue searching.
With trembling fingers, she had found some broken branches and arranged them in a pile, stuffed dried pine needles underneath them, and then opened the container of matches. As far as she could tell, they had remained dry during her dunking. Carefully, she tried to strike one of them.
She was shaking so bad, it had taken her several tries, but finally she got the fir
e going. Then she had taken off her clothes, given up on that idea, pulled the shirt back on, and knelt beside the flames.
The coffee and bacon and biscuits her captors had given her had been good. She could have done with something like that right now. Not at the cost of being a prisoner, though.
The pistol and the knife lay on the ground beside her. At every little sound in the night, her hand strayed toward the weapons and she listened intently for several minutes before relaxing again when it turned out to be nothing.
One of these times, it might not be nothing. She had to remain vigilant, alert for any potential threat.
She warned herself about that as sternly as possible—but despite her determination, she wasn’t even aware of it when exhaustion overwhelmed her and she slumped down on the ground beside the fire to let sleep claim her.
* * *
“Now that is just about the prettiest sight I ever laid eyes on in all my borned days.”
The jeering voice jolted Denny awake. She sat bolt upright and realized that it was morning. Sunlight flooded down around her. Under other circumstances, she would have enjoyed its warmth, but right now her blood ran cold in her veins because of the sight that met her startled eyes.
Benjy and Dave stood a few yards away, looking at her. A leer twisted Benjy’s face, but it wasn’t just Denny’s partially unclad body that brought about that expression. He had a small wound on his cheek, covered with dried blood and surrounded by little red marks that looked like burns.
That was what they were, Denny thought—powder burns from when she had discharged the pistol right in his face. If she’d been holding it at a slightly different angle, she would have blown his brains out, and she would have been facing only one enemy right now.
That would have been all right with her.
The left leg of Benjy’s trousers was dark with dried blood, too. She remembered him yelling about how she’d cut him when he tried to tackle her as she made her escape. That made three wounds she had given him, overall. She was whittling him down.
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