A trail of dust kicked up behind Johnson’s horse on the deserted road. Castillo clenched his fingers around the binoculars as he shifted them to evaluate the hills beyond the road. He didn’t see any movement, no sign of Derringer or one of his men watching for Johnson.
Castillo, Zane and Hunter had made the decision that it was time to act when there’d been suspicious tracks early that morning on the ranch’s southern border. They couldn’t wait around and allow Derringer to get desperate and do something stupid, like attack the ranch. They’d need to lure him out with the only bait they had. Rob Johnson.
Castillo had ridden to Victoria House that morning with a couple of the men from the ranch and Hunter, who’d insisted on coming despite Castillo’s protest. They’d concocted the plan to have Johnson ride out as if he’d been successful on his mission to capture Castillo. The gang would hide and ambush Derringer once Johnson brought him out of hiding.
It hadn’t taken much to convince Johnson to agree to the plan. They’d offered him more money, and it wasn’t hard to buy the temporary loyalty of a man like him. There was no question the plan was risky. Johnson could get jumpy. Derringer might smell a trap. A hundred things could go wrong, but it was the only plan they had right now. There’d been no other signs of Derringer and no clear way to find him.
After getting a visual on Zane hidden in the hills across the road, Castillo stowed the binoculars back in the case hanging from his saddle horn. They were only a few miles from town. They’d likely have another few miles before Derringer showed himself. Tightening his grasp on the reins, Castillo led his horse through the trees, careful to keep up with Johnson, but not get so close he couldn’t stay out of sight. In the intervening silence and the growing tension of possibly facing Derringer after all these years, misplaced thoughts of Carolina began to intrude. Truth be known, he’d barely stopped thinking about her since she’d left his room the night before.
Carolina. What a surprise she’d turned out to be.
Last night he’d nearly gone against everything he believed in and taken her. She’d come undone in his arms, her body slick with her need for him. It would’ve been so easy to move the sheet aside and slide between her thighs, claiming her as his. He swallowed hard and gritted his teeth against the half erection just the memory of her caused. Why did she intrigue him as she did?
He’d had his share of beautiful women, and not one of them had been as innocent as he knew Carolina to be. But none of them had gotten under his skin like this. They’d been fun and distracting while he’d had them, but he’d been able to move on with just the memories. He hadn’t even slept with Carolina and already she was on his mind more than she should be. Maybe that’s why he couldn’t forget her. He hadn’t had her yet.
No. Even as the thought flickered through his mind, he knew it was false. He liked her, and in some strange way he couldn’t quite understand, he understood her need to do something different with her life, to buck the restraints put on her. As much as he loved the hacienda in Texas and planned to rebuild as soon as this journey with Derringer was over, he couldn’t help but wonder what his life might be like if he didn’t have the yoke of that responsibility hanging over his head. What if he had Hunter’s freedom to live how he wanted?
He thought of Carolina as she’d spoken of her chosen profession. She’d been confident and alluring, even as Bonham—that bastard—had tried to demean her. She’d kept her composure and had looked like a queen patiently addressing her wayward subject. Castillo had been proud of her. No, he’d felt more than that. He’d felt proud to walk with her on his arm. Proud that she’d smiled at him when he intervened. His chest had swelled with something he didn’t recognize when she’d looked up at him in the light of that lantern with something like admiration in her eyes. It was why he hadn’t been able to resist kissing her that night, even though he knew he wasn’t good for her. He’d wanted to capture just an ounce of her goodness.
Then that image was replaced with one of how she’d looked last night in the candlelight of his bedroom when he’d kissed her. The dark pink of her nipple under the pale, wet cotton of her nightgown, her luminous eyes as she’d stared up at him, the pink glow in her cheeks. He could almost smell the lavender from her body. His palms tingled at the memory of her soft skin beneath them. It would’ve been so easy to peel off her gown and run his hands all over her silky body. He’d wanted to dip his tongue between her legs and taste her desire for him. Then he would’ve taken her.
If he had the luxury of freedom, he would claim her as his.
Castillo took in a deep breath, letting it expand his chest, filling him up with hope and possibilities, before he let it out and the weight of his life settled over him again, indifferent to his musings. She had a life in Boston, and his life was nowhere near Boston. Even without the hacienda, he belonged out here in the wide open spaces, not in the city. She needed to be far away from him where he couldn’t hurt her.
He shook his head to clear it, but he couldn’t help wondering what she was up to today and how she felt about what had happened between them. He’d grabbed a quick breakfast before the sun came up, but he missed taking breakfast with her.
Johnson quickened his pace, catching Castillo’s attention. Retrieving the binoculars, Castillo held them up and saw some movement about a mile ahead at the tree line. It wasn’t a very dense copse of trees, so after a moment he was able to make out a man on horseback. He raised the lenses to the hill behind the trees and caught the tail end of a horse skirting around behind it. That’s probably where Derringer was camped, out of view of the road but close enough to keep watch. The only problem was that Castillo had no idea how many men Derringer had with him.
Castillo quickened his own pace to catch up with Hunter. But before he could, Johnson yelled out a warning to Derringer. “Son of a bitch,” Castillo muttered and put the binoculars away so he could draw his gun.
The first gunshot came out of nowhere and slammed into Johnson’s chest, unseating him so that he landed spread-eagled on his back in the dirt. He lay there unmoving. A figure crested the rise just ahead, and Castillo knew that Derringer’s man had pulled the trigger. Another one came over the hill to the east and fired in Zane’s direction. Castillo wasn’t close enough to see if he’d found his mark, but figured he hadn’t when the man narrowly missed getting hit by the return fire. Castillo turned his attention to the man who’d shot Johnson and pulled the trigger. The man lurched backward, pulling up on the reins of his horse. He wasn’t dead, but he turned around and moved out of sight.
And then it was chaos. Hunter darted from the trees to cross the road and get to a closer and better position, but he drew gunfire, revealing the positions of two other unknown attackers. Castillo was able to take out one, but the other had set himself up behind a rocky embankment. His heart pumping, Castillo followed Hunter and disappeared into the trees where the others were waiting for him. None of them had been hit, but the gunfire kept coming, breaking off bits of the cottonwood trees around them. This wasn’t somewhere they could ride out the fight indefinitely.
“We have to get around the hill to that camp,” Castillo said. “I saw a man heading over in that direction.” He pointed east around the hill, where he’d seen the horse going.
Zane nodded.
Another bullet ripped into a branch, filling the air with the sharp smell of green wood and gun smoke. “We’ve gotta get out of here,” Hunter said, aiming and firing in the general direction of the gunfire.
More shots echoed from the valley behind the hill and Castillo prayed that it was the two men from the ranch they’d brought with them. His prayer was confirmed when one of them let out a whoop of victory. From the pitiful cover of the cottonwood trees, Zane, Hunter and Castillo fired on the attackers still out there. One of them went down, but there was still the man behind the embankment of rock.
“I’m going around that embankment. Keep shooting until I get there,” Castillo called. As long as Hunter and Zane were shooting, the man likely wouldn’t chance a return fire. It was a risk, but one that Castillo was willing to take to end this. Even in the midst of this madness, he thought of Carolina and was glad he’d stopped when he did last night.
The two men from the ranch were just riding out behind a trail of dust that headed east, probably Derringer attempting escape. Castillo longed to follow them, but had to take out the man behind the embankment first so that Hunter and Zane wouldn’t be vulnerable. He circled around, using the top of the hill as cover, until he’d managed to work himself so that he could see the man’s shoulder. Dismounting, he edged around until he could see a dark beard.
It wasn’t Derringer, but it could be Bennett. Very much wanting to keep him alive for questioning, Castillo raised his gun and aimed for Bennett’s shoulder. Something must’ve tipped him off; at the last moment he turned just enough that the bullet missed him and fired back. Pain exploded in Castillo’s shoulder, as if someone had lanced him with a hot poker. He didn’t have time to acknowledge it as he ran forward and fired again, but this time his bullet skimmed off the rock. He was close enough to duck down beside the embankment for cover and could hear Bennett’s heavy breathing on the other side.
“Give up, Bennett. We’ve already taken out the others. It’s only a matter of time for you.”
“You think this is getting you any closer to my father?”
“It’s taking down a few barriers. As I said on the train, I don’t want or need you dead. I just want Derringer. Give up and I’ll let you walk.”
Bennett laughed. “You think I’ll give up my father and walk away?”
Castillo had hoped but had known all along the likelihood that he’d have to kill Bennett. “That’s your choice, Bennett. If you want to keep up the fight, then that’s on you, but he’ll pay for what he did.”
Bennett laughed again, and Castillo couldn’t help but wonder what the hell the man had to be so jolly about. Something was missing in this scenario, but Castillo couldn’t figure out what it was.
Since he was keeping Bennett occupied, Hunter and Zane were slowly making their way to the back side of the embankment. It’d only be a matter of minutes before they had Bennett surrounded. Castillo figured he’d get him to talk as much as he could while they waited.
“You still don’t know who my father is, do you?” Bennett taunted.
Something about that made Castillo’s blood run cold. It had occurred to him that Buck Derringer wasn’t the man’s real name, and after killing Castillo’s grandfather, he’d simply gone back to assuming his old identity. Was he missing something? “What do you mean?”
“Just you wait, Reyes. Soon enough everyone here will know who you really are. How do you think Papa Jameson will feel when he realizes his firstborn is a notorious outlaw?”
Castillo didn’t particularly care how Tanner felt about anything, but he didn’t want things to get difficult for Hunter and Emmy. If it was revealed that Hunter had been involved with the gang, he could go to jail for a long, long time…or even worse. Gritting his teeth, Castillo tightened his grip on his gun, and said, “No one would believe you.”
“Not me, hombre. You’re right, no one would believe me.”
“What in hell are you talking about, Bennett?” Then it hit him, and he realized why the man was talking crazy and laughing like he wasn’t in the middle of a shoot-out. “You’ve been shot.”
Bennett laughed again, and this time it was followed by a moan. Castillo darted around the rock and trained his gun on the man. Bennett fired, but the shot wasn’t even aimed and went wide. Bennett’s left forearm was bloody where it pressed against his belly. It looked like he’d been shot in the arm, but when Bennett shifted, blood poured from a wound in his gut. It flowed so fast that he only had a few minutes before he’d bleed out.
“Where’s Derringer hiding?”
Bennett smiled and it looked gruesome. His teeth were red with blood and some trickled out the corner of his mouth. “You won’t find him until he’s ready.”
There was movement behind Castillo on his left side. Bennett raised his gun in a weak grip, but could barely get it off the ground to fire. Hunter didn’t even flinch as he came up beside Castillo. A moment later, Zane came up on his other side, drawing Bennett’s attention.
“How do the whores like the scar I gave you, savage?”
“Hasn’t had much effect,” Zane deadpanned.
Hatred flashed in Bennett’s eyes. “I should’ve killed you for what you did to her.” Whatever else he might have said was cut off by a series of deep coughs as he struggled not to suffocate in the blood.
Zane tensed. One look at his face and Castillo knew he was cursing the fact that Bennett’s death was depriving him of the retribution he’d planned. All those nights they’d spent out under the stars, eating their dinner around a fire and planning revenge, and this was how it ended for Zane. The man who’d cut his face, the man who’d taunted him and said that he’d rather see his own sister dead than married to a “half-breed savage” was now dying.
“Christine came to me, Bennett. She loved me,” Zane said, a muscle ticking in his jaw.
Blood flowed from Bennett’s mouth now, far more than the earlier trickle, but still he managed to spew his hatred as he slumped over, too weak to stay upright. “She’s married now—” his words were interrupted with a watery cough “—to a decent man.” His eyes fluttered and he coughed again. “Doesn’t change the fact that she’s a whore.”
Zane clenched his jaw so tight, Castillo could hear his teeth grinding. Bennett had found Zane and his sister together one night. They’d nearly come to blows, but Bennett hadn’t stood a chance against Zane’s bigger size. When Derringer had come back to burn down the hacienda, Bennett had come with him, intending to kill Zane. He’d only been able to disfigure him.
Castillo looked over at his friend, but a flash of movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention. Bennett had raised his gun in a surprisingly steady and strong grip and was pointing it at Zane. Before Castillo could adjust his aim and pull the trigger, a shot rang out.
The shot came from so close, it filled the air with the acrid burn of the ignition. Bennett’s eyes went blank and he slumped onto the ground. Zane didn’t say a word as he holstered his gun. Castillo rested his hand on Zane’s shoulder. “Let’s go get Derringer. Then it’ll be over.” Zane nodded and they made their way to their horses, ready to follow the trail of dust, hoping it was Derringer. Bennett’s words weighed heavily on Castillo’s mind.