“Looks like you are out of options, friends!” Cassandra yelled at them. “You can’t go back that way and you can’t get past us. We are asking for a real nice, peaceful surrender!”
“I ain’t takin’ orders from any bitches!” One of the outlaws yelled back. He drew his gun, and Cassie, true to her words, shot him dead with a single bullet.
“Goddamn you!” Another outlaw cried as the previous one’s dead body fell to the earth in between them. “Who are you?” he yelled.
“Well, our friends and enemies feel obliged to call us the Daughters of Half Breed Haven, so feel free,” Honor said, humoring him.
“Please! It’s gettin’ hot! Let us out of here!” A female voice cried out amongst the bandits.
Sensing that some of them were ready to cooperate, Cassandra nodded at Catalina who first tossed an empty bag at the bandits and then tossed another one that hit the soil with a metallic clink.
“In that bag is a whole heap of handcuffs we brought along just for this occasion,” she yelled at them. “Before you slap on these iron bracelets though, anyone who’s got a shootin’ iron should put it in that there empty bag!”
“Anyone who doesn’t comply, I’ll drop you like I did your friend or make you head back into that inferno,” Cassandra added. “Oh, and don’t think about rushing us either,” she said, nodding her head towards the water tower. “Our other sister up there will pick you off before your next heartbeat.”
“Other sister?” The female voice that begged for release earlier asked. “But that one’s a colored and this one’s a Mexican?”
“Did you know you were colored, Honor Elizabeth?” Catalina asked, laughing.
“A shocking development to wake up this morning and to find it was so. Were you equally surprised to discover your copper skin and Spanish blood?” Honor retorted with a smirk.
Both of them got Cassandra to laugh briefly, but she cleared her throat afterwards to get them serious. “Okay, that’s enough, girls!” she grinned before turning to the bandits once more. “What do you scoundrels have to say? Trade your guns for your lives?”
Curses and grumbles filled the air, but in the end, five pistols and one knife went into the bag as they began applying cuffs to their own wrists.
“Throw that bag of guns down the well, Cattie,” Cassandra instructed. “I want them as far away from these owlhoots as possible.”
Cattie nodded and headed back towards the alley with the bag of guns as Cassandra motioned for the group to start emerging.
“One at a time!” she yelled at them.
Out on the main street, Catalina paused for a moment at the sight of the general store. In just a few minutes, the old building had become a raging inferno and was spreading to the buildings next to it, the light from the fire making the main street seem like it was broad daylight. Quickly, she trotted over to the shed underneath the tower and halted in her tracks while drawing her gun. The door was now open when she was certain it had been closed earlier to hide the captive from view. Cautiously, she approached the doorway and looked in, her mouth falling open.
“Oh, hell!”
By the light of the fire, she saw that the captive had been smarter than he looked. He had apparently managed to break one of the old glass bottles that had been on the shelf and cut his bonds loose!
Tossing the bag of guns into the well, Catalina dashed back out to yell up to Lijuan, but she was shocked to see that the man who had been called Tosh had not run off, but was climbing up the ladder, undoubtedly going after Lijuan. He was almost at the circular walkway too, while Lijuan was on the far side, oblivious to the threat. Catalina cursed at herself, knowing if she had only looked up when she was approaching the tower, she probably would have seen him when he was still half way up.
She steadied herself, however, and was about to draw a bead on Tosh when suddenly, the street around her erupted in geysers of dirt from fired shots. The last shot grazed the holster on her hip and she bolted into action. To her right, she saw an old wagon sitting in front of the long-abandoned assessor’s shop and sprinted for it, doing a drop and roll landing underneath it on her belly. For the moment, she was safe, but that seemed like a temporary situation since she didn’t know where the shots had come from or how many she was up against, but then a more pressing thought than her own safety overwhelmed her mind …
What of Lijuan?!
***
A few minutes earlier, in the derelict hotel on the opposite side of the street—which was kitty corner from the general store and main entrance to the hide out—a passionate evening was about to come to a most unwelcome and premature ending.
As a rule, Fox Darrow, a bulky-looking man with a full beard typical of many Western men didn’t like screwing in the dark. Sex for him was a very visual thing, especially the aspect of seeing the look on his conquest’s face as he pleasured her. However, he had been intimate with Jeanne Marie Bouchard for long enough now that he knew every expression, every moan and every contour of her body that he didn’t need to see her very well to enjoy her performance.
It wasn’t completely dark, anyway, as the full moon was doing its share to spill its light into what had once been the best room in the Beacon Arms. On the plus side, though the moonlight wasn’t strong enough to reveal the now shabby surroundings that the pair were making love in, Jeanne Marie had at least thrown clean sheets down on the old bed. It served its purpose because there wasn’t much privacy in the hideout beneath the general store.
The pair was celebrating their last night in Beacon before moving on to Nevada to start anew. While it was true there wouldn’t be the personal satisfaction he got from robbing Boxhall Banks, the loot was going to make up for it. He had been planning to move his gang on for a week now and this afternoon had told him he was right to be pulling up stakes.
To his surprise, the strangest band of women had arrived in the town. He still couldn’t wrap his mind around on what not only women were doing out there, but how each one was a different race. He had ordered the men to be as quiet as possible in the hideout as they observed them and waited for them to leave. An hour later, they were indeed gone, but during that hour, he had to quell some of the men who had gotten the foolish idea into their heads of capturing the women. One fool in particular, Avery Bolton, had been encouraging the men with whispers of “Pussy for everyone!” Darrow had been forced to knock the man on his ass to put an end to such talk. Best to wait them out and let them be on their way. For all they knew they could be part of some larger group beyond the town and their disappearance would trigger a search ending in the gang’s discovery.
The last place they had been to was the well and perhaps, all they wanted was water and maybe their search of the town was because they were looking for anything of value. They surely weren’t any posse … they couldn’t be. Given their odd looks, maybe they were part of a traveling circus that had been separated from the rest of the troupe and had gotten lost in Hell’s Kitchen. Darrow didn’t quite really believe his own theory, and it made him uneasy. Those women were the first people ever to be seen in Beacon since they started their crime spree. Indeed, it was an omen that it was time to move on.
An hour back, Jeanne Marie had come to him and told him the bed was ready and they had made their way out of the hideout, brushing away the big orange cat that tried to rub up against them as they crossed the street to the hotel. He didn’t give a damn that Tosh was fond of the thing; he figured he would shoot it dead before they left, as a reward for being such a nuisance.
Once in the room, Jeanne Marie had dragged him close to her and in no time, had knelt in front of him. She always had a way of being light with her fingers and he wasn’t surprised when his trousers dropped to the floor without the least of him feeling the fabric on his skin. He did feel her palm circling his hardening cock, though and when the warmth of her mouth closed around it, he closed his eyes and thought about how pleasuring it was every single time.
Jeanne Marie wa
s very good at making a man so hard the tip of his cock hurt. She was also a very good sucker and he couldn’t have been happier that she was always around to warm his bed. He gave her control often, at first, whenever they made love he let her fulfill her wants, and when she thought he was near climax, he surprised her by taking over the reins and making her cum rigorously.
She was like that – his Jeanne Marie. Whenever she came while he was deep inside, her body shook violently while her eyes would almost pop out of their sockets. She would give voice to loud guttural noises from deep within her and would dig her nails into his skin, asking him to never stop as if she could take more of his rigid cock inside her.
That was what he wanted again, he thought, finally opening his eyes. He wanted her to suck his cock passionately until he was so hard he would lose it. She knew what she ought to do. She always wanted him to make her orgasm too. So, he wasn’t surprised when after sucking his cock to some extent, she gripped it hard and began to pull with a frenzy. She glanced up to look at him, daring him with her seductive brown eyes to stop her from yanking his cock so hard.
Would he? Despite the pain, he loved how he felt. He loved the way his cock jerked uncontrollably in her hand and the way his entire body shook with waves of irresistible pleasure.
Jeanne Marie obviously was just getting started. She left his cock alone abruptly, stood and began to take backward steps towards the laid bed. She beckoned him after her with her index finger, while her teeth ground together in anticipation. He was more anxious than she was, he was sure. He could imagine being deep inside her again. He could imagine how she would grip his shoulders tight and ask for more and more as he kept drilling the pleasure hole between her thighs.
Meanwhile, he loved to take his time. He was still hers for the meantime. She stepped aside as he got to the bed and watched silently as he laid his body down, his back to the bed. With little effort, her top and skirt quickly dropped beside them on the bed.
Her peach-sized breasts! Darrow thought with a sigh. They always succeeded to make him harder than he could imagine. They sprouted hard and round while her tits pointed at him, asking for his touch. Seeing the hunger in his eyes, Jeanne Marie reached down abruptly, pulling a nipple into his mouth. He sucked hungrily, letting one of his fingers reach for her thighs in search for her womanhood.
He found it without much effort and as expected, her juice was everywhere. She was wet and warm for him, he thought. She was ready and so was he. Once she pulled herself up into a crouching pose atop him, he held his cock and slid it gently into her. She took the bait. Her hands flew to his shoulders while her mouth parted for her to gasp.
She began to ride him, her moans carried on the night’s breeze. He held her waist, urging her on, guiding her movement quicker and getting her hole to fill with the length of his entire cock. The frenzy was rising. His animal hunger had taken over and he was groaning too, complementing hers. When she bent lower, plastering her boobs to his hard chest as she kept riding him, he knew it was a matter of time before he took that rein.
Pushing her beneath him and he pummeled her hard. It was a matter of few seconds, actually, before he gripped her waist, pushed her over and begin to pound her from behind. He was going to….
The sudden horrendous sounds of cracking and splintering wood jolted him from the thought of his plans. It caused Jeanne Marie to bolt up from her position, a look of total bafflement on her face. Darrow flipped her off from where she rode atop him too, his eyes searching in the dim light. Both subsequently scrambled to the window just in time to see the figure of a woman cutting some ropes that led into the general store that was collapsing in on itself. As the woman disappeared into the alley next to the disintegrating mercantile, Jeanne Marie clamped her hand on his shoulder and pointed to the water tower.
Tosh, who led the other raiding party on the banks while Darrow led his own was coming out of the shed beneath the water tower. Looking up, he saw what they now saw. In the moonlight, a woman stood on the catwalk with some type of rifle trained on something. Tosh quickly began scaling the ladder intent on surprising the woman as he would emerge on the opposite side of the tower.
Their eyes swung back to the general store as the first sign of an inferno below the building could be seen. Greedy tongues of flame seemed to be licking everywhere and Darrow had only one thought and it wasn’t the men … the money!
Suddenly, a relief washed over him that felt like a cool drink of water after days in the desert. From around back, most of the horses were emerging still laden with their saddlebags of Boxhall money. He shared a grin with Jeanne Marie. The money hadn’t been destroyed and they could recapture the horses … but first, they had to deal with that infernal band of women if they, beyond all reason, were the ones attacking them.
Suddenly realizing they were both still naked, the pair scrambled for their clothing. As Jeanne Marie yanked on her shirt, despite everything that was happening, Darrow thought it was a damn shame to cover that fine firm pair she possessed. He had thought he would grip them hard as he rammed into her from behind but that opportunity was gone now.
Jeanne Marie was his soul mate and he knew it. She had been the woman of one his partners, Tex Ramsey, who had made the fatal mistake of challenging another bandit by the name of Clay Travers to a gun fight. Darrow shed no tears over Ramsey because he moved in to claim the French-Canadian beauty. To this day, he still knew little about her; only that she had fled Montreal years ago, after committing a murder that she refused to talk about. The Southwest was as far away from Quebec as one could get and she had taken a liking to it, falling in with the wrong crowd and finding that the outlaw life suited her, especially given how she was good with a variety of weapons, including her own two fists. No one knew it, of course, but the murder charge she was fleeing the Mounties from was far from her only murder, not with her skills.
Completely dressed now, the pair reached for their weapons and leaned out the window to see what was now transpiring. The woman from earlier who had destroyed the general store had returned and was clearly illuminated by the now raging fire. Indeed, she had been one of the four bitches Darrow had seen snooping around the ghost town earlier. It also appeared that she had seen Tosh who had apparently frozen when she had returned from the alley and was now on the move again. The witch was aiming her gun like a pro intent on blasting Tosh right off the water tower. With seconds to act, they knew they had to open fire.
Unfortunately, a gust of smoke blew from the burning general store and the woman was temporarily obscured from their view, but they fired down in her direction, anyway, hoping for the best.
When the smoke blew clear, there was no corpse on the ground and the woman had vanished.
CHAPTER 4
* * *
Lijuan stood atop the water tower walkway, her attention solely on the view beyond the end of the rifle’s barrel. She kept her sisters in sight trying to ignore the raging fire which was growing in ferocity likely leaving little hope for the ghost town to survive the horrific blaze. When it finally burned itself out she could imagine the charred ruins they would be leaving behind when suddenly, she heard creaking from the wood behind her. Quickly she glanced about to see the source of the noise, but didn’t see anything.
She was returning to her vigil of watching over Honor and Cassandra rounding up the Boxhall bandits when the night air reverberated with the sound of gunfire. Looking down, her mouth fell open as closer to home, Catalina caught her attention as she rolled under an old wagon, fleeing the gunfire. Lijuan was about to take up a sniper’s stance and look for the shooter’s location when she heard footsteps coming fast behind her.
Spinning around, she was startled to see Tosh making a run at her rather than still being bound in the shed below. Lijuan pulled up her rifle, but Tosh was too quick. He grabbed the barrel and her shot hit the side of the tower, splintering a section of it. Tosh pulled on the barrel and she yanked back, but anticipating he would pull again, Lijuan let
go just as he did. As calculated, he fell back and hit the side of the tower, further cracking the rotten wood. The gun fell in front of him, spinning on the catwalk.
There was a moment of surprise between both of them. They looked at each other in anticipation, waiting to see who was going to go for it, but before either could act, the weapon spun off the edge into the void.
Without further hesitation, Lijuan drew her pistol from her holster. Tosh, on the other hand, quickly darted towards her and slapped her hand. The force made Lijuan lose her grip on the gun and it, too, flew off the side of the tower walkway. More gunshots below distracted both of them, their conflict momentarily halting as they seemed unsure of the battle and unsure of the intent that each other had. They stared, waiting for one to make a move, and then from below, they heard a scream of joy. They both looked down, a creepy smile blossomed on Tosh’s face. He watched briefly, noticing as did Lijuan, one of his fellow outlaws running away from the base of the tower, and he thought it was a sign that everything was going to go their way.
Lijuan glared at him, sizing up his slim wiry body. She reminded herself he didn’t look tough, but he had already proven to be capable when he snuck up on her and handily disarmed her. This showed her he could more than handle himself. Still, she was a Wilde and her instincts kicked in, getting her to raise her fists in the air, ready to duke it out.
Tosh’s instant reaction was to laugh.
“You ain’t no curly wolf,” he said. “Hell, you chink bitch, you don’t even have curly hair!”
Lijuan smiled. She quickly moved her left hand down, tapping her hammer. A habit she had, always checking to make sure it was hanging on her belt. Tosh glanced down to see what she was touching and as he did, Lijuan stepped forward and threw a quick left jab that smashed into his pointy nose. The shot shook him a bit. She followed up with a quick right cross, Tosh blocking it this time around. He had noticed the damn hammer on her, so he wanted the upper hand. He reached down to her belt, but she grabbed his arm before he could. As she did, she stepped back with her left foot and twisted his arm.
Wilde-Fire: Wonder Women 0f The Old West (Half Breed Haven Book 1) Page 5