Slocum 382

The words froze Slocum in his tracks. At least two men were outside near the wagon, and there wasn’t anywhere he could run. He looked at the chalk marks on the wall and thought about erasing them, then decided it wouldn’t do any good. If those were members of Jesse’s gang, they could always ask Zeke to replace the code. And if they weren’t, their chance of reading the cipher was as good as his.

Slocum slid his six-gun from his holster and pressed himself against the cold, rocky wall. If he went to the far cave wall, he would run the risk of being pushed back and blunder into the pit. This way he knew he could follow the wall if he had to and miss the pit. A narrow ledge on this side skirted the deep shaft.

Slocum caught his breath. Berglund and his squad! He raised his pistol and waited for the inevitable. When the face of one of the soldiers he had saved earlier poked around the bend in the cave, Slocum fired. His aim was a little off and the bullet ricocheted against the cave wall, but the effect was just as good as if he had hit the man squarely in the forehead. Rock shards ripped his face and got into his eyes, blinding him.

Slocum stepped out to the middle of the cave floor and fired twice more. One slug ripped into a soldier’s chest and caused him to simply sit down. Slocum knew he was dead. But the other shot missed Sergeant Berglund by inches. He cursed his bad luck and moved forward, ready to fire again. He couldn’t let himself be trapped in the cave.

The command echoed forth an instant before somebody opened up with a rifle. From the muffled report Slocum knew the fourth soldier was firing at him using his carbine. The short rifle barrel caused every shot to be softer, mushier sounding than that from a longer barreled rifle like his Winchester. The thought of his rifle made Slocum wish he had the rifle now. He could blast his way out of this rocky trap.

But he didn’t. He got off a couple more shots, hoping to hit Berglund. All he did was send the short, stocky sergeant scampering away to take cover in the rocks near the abandoned wagon.

Slocum retreated into the cave and knelt beside the bluecoat. He grabbed his arm and shook until the soldier stopped caterwauling.

“You’ll be fine. All you need to do is wash your eyes out with some clean water. But being blind’s the least of your worries if you don’t do as I say. You’re going to be dead otherwise.”

“If I’d meant to shoot you, I would have,” Slocum said, lying through his teeth. He had meant to kill the soldier and only the darkness in the cave had spoiled his shot. Hastily reloading, Slocum knew he had only seconds before he would never get out of the cave alive. Unless he kept Berglund jumping and guessing, he would never survive a siege.

“I don’t want to die,” the soldier sobbed out. Slocum knew if the tears kept flowing, the rock dust and shards would eventually wash out on their own. When the man’s vision returned, he would be more than a handful. If he didn’t coerce his cooperation now, he wasn’t going to be able to get it later.

“On your feet,” Slocum said, pulling him upright and spinning him around. “You get on out there and tell your sergeant you’re all right.”

Slocum knew one of two things would happen. Either Berglund would shoot down his own man or he would be decoyed away from what Slocum intended. It took only an instant to find out what the treasonous sergeant would do. A shot caught the blinded soldier in the middle of the chest.

Slocum caught him up, supporting him with his left arm as he leveled his six-shooter over the collapsing soldier’s shoulder. Two quick shots. Berglund and the other soldier fired. Slocum felt the slugs hit the man he held as a human shield. Getting his feet under him, Slocum bent his legs, then heaved, sending the now dead soldier flailing away. The momentary diversion was all he had and he made the most of it.

Feet driving hard, Slocum ran for the cover of a rock a few yards away from the cave mouth. He hit the ground hard, came up, and got off three fast shots that wounded Berglund’s surviving partner. The soldier grunted and sat down, clutching his belly. This was all Slocum needed to get off a couple more shots at the sergeant.

Slocum might have charged and taken Berglund when the man ripped away the soldier’s blouse to expose the wound in his belly. Instead, he wended his way through the rocks and got to his horse. He was out the gold. Wherever Zeke had been told to take it, the lovely metallic coins were probably far out of his reach by now. All Slocum wanted was to get away from Berglund without catching a slug or two.

He swung into the saddle and, riding low, trotted through the winding path until he reached a part of the path that was straight enough to gallop. He expected a few shots to follow him but nothing came. Berglund either was content to tend his wounded man or had gone into the cave, thinking to find the gold. Whether he could decipher the code didn’t matter to Slocum now. He rode with the wind and had escaped without catching so much as a sliver of a bullet.

If he stayed on this trail, he would end up back on the road leading to Las Vegas. Zeke had not come this way. If he had, Slocum would have passed him and the two horses laden with the Comanche gold. He swung around to the south and angled back into the foothills. There had to be another path through the rocks, one too narrow for the wagon to traverse.

From the direction of the cave Slocum heard shouting and then a single gunshot. He doubted the private had shot Berglund but the sergeant killing his man because he had botched what ought to have been an easy kill was within the realm of possibility. Whether Berglund tried to hide the bodies or would simply leave them there and explain to Jesse James what had happened didn’t bother Slocum unduly.

Jesse could tell when a man was lying—most of the time. He might need Berglund to worm his way into the underbelly of Fort Union and leave him alive for that reason alone, but the day had to come soon when the outlaw no longer tolerated the double-crossing sergeant. Slocum had seen Jesse get rid of a man or two simply because they displeased him. And those killings had been when Jesse was much younger and less experienced in the ways someone might try to steal his gold.

As if by magic, the trail appeared. Slocum almost missed it in his deep thought about what Berglund was doing and what Jesse would do. A quick glance at the dirt along the rocky path showed recent passage of at least one horse. The hoofprints went in the right direction so Slocum followed. He would overtake Zeke soon enough.

“What are you talking about?” Slocum was taken unawares when Zeke lifted a shotgun from across the saddle in front of him, leveled it, and fired. The range was too great but one of the 00 buckshot managed to graze Slocum and knock him from the saddle. He landed hard, momentarily stunned.

“Jesse told me to shoot anybody coming along the trail because he knew they’d be after the gold. I didn’t think I’d find anybody, and certainly not you.”

“You got it wrong, Zeke. I don’t know what you mean about gold.” Slocum shook his head but the loud buzzing refused to go away. The fall more than the pellet had discombobulated him.

“He promised me I could be mayor of the city promised to whoever I found. You were gonna be mayor of Santa Fe, weren’t you?”

“Take it. I can ride off. Don’t . . .” Slocum feinted right and rolled left in time to avoid another blast from the double-barreled weapon. He went for his six-shooter but froze when he found himself looking down the barrel. It seemed large enough for him to reach his hand into and grab the shell chambered at the far end.

“I thought me and you was good friends, trail companions, Slocum. I was wrong.” Zeke lifted the shotgun. Slocum went for his pistol, knowing he could never beat the young outlaw. A shot rang out but something sounded strange about it. Then Zeke slumped forward, twisted to one side, and tumbled from his horse. The animal reared and lashed out with its front hooves, then galloped off in fright.

Slocum sat half propped up, his six-gun still in the holster. He pulled it all the way out when he heard another horse approaching from the direction Zeke had come.

“Audrey!” The lovely woman was the last person he expected to see on this trail. She held a rifle, smoke still curling from the muzzle. “You pulled my fat from the fire.”

“I don’t know what Jesse James told him, but I lost track of the gold. I couldn’t follow Jesse because he had a half-dozen men with him, including his brother.”

“I know. When I couldn’t go after them, I decided to see where this one was heading since he’d brought the gold to Jesse.”

“A good thing you did.” He stared at her. Audrey Underwood didn’t seem too perturbed that she had just killed a man. “You going to turn him in for the bounty?”

“Not sure there is one on his head. He just joined up a few days back. He wasn’t even dry behind the ears.” She shoved her rifle back into the saddle sheath, the stock pointing backward as if she went through heavy brush and wanted to keep the weapon from catching on bushy limbs. There was more about her than he’d thought.

“And a reporter,” she said, smiling. “I might try to write this up for a penny dreadful. Such fiction has become quite popular back East, especially in New York City.”

“We might as well head that way,” Slocum said. “It’s getting mighty dangerous around here.” He quickly explained what had happened at the cave after he’d found Zeke’s new symbols.

“I can decipher them. He must have placed the location where the gold was being taken into the code. That means someone else is joining Jesse.”

“It might mean someone else is joining Jesse, but the cipher doesn’t have to reveal the location of the gold anymore. It might give a rendezvous point since Jesse’s already got the gold.”

“He’s probably stashed it somewhere safe by now. I wish I was a better scout. I could have followed and watched.” Audrey heaved a deep sigh.

She gave him an appraising look, then wheeled her horse about and set off at a brisk walk. He shook the cobwebs from his head, then mounted. It didn’t surprise him that he was a little woozy. The pellet had grazed his skull and shaken him up. He urged his mare to greater speed to catch up with Audrey, then he slowed. From behind he got a good view of the her riding form—and her own womanly form. When she half turned to look back to see if he was keeping up, he got a silhouette view of her that set his heart to beating just a little faster. The gentle bobbing up and down made her into a vision of pure sexiness.

Slocum explained how the gang had ridden down on the town and seized it as the first of what the outlaw expected to be a series of rapid conquests.

“This is amazing,” Audrey said. “You told me what the gang intended doing, but somehow I discounted it as being too completely outrageous. Jesse James is actually going to establish a country for the Knights of the Golden Circle.”

“He’s going to try. It’ll take more than one sleepy, dusty town and a small mountain of gold to bring the entire territory under his sway.”

Slocum just stared at her, wondering what she meant. But he pulled his eyes off her to the Sangre de Cristos rising a few miles beyond. They had ridden through the foothills, but the mountains themselves were rugged, ragged, and difficult to cross. Unless you were a thunderstorm.

“Lightning,” Slocum said. He had seen the flash and the thunder came a few seconds later, spooking his horse. “That storm’s boiling up over the mountains and coming right at us.”

“I wanted to be sure we weren’t riding past a couple of the gang waiting to ambush us. That would have been a great spot.”

“I know. I thought the same thing. But nobody’d disturbed the dirt in front of the cave, except for some small animals. I didn’t see any bear tracks.”

Again she surprised him with her observation. All he had wanted to be sure of was the lack of men with rifles trained on them as they rode past. They returned to the cave and a quick look at the terrain around the cave confirmed what Audrey had said. Coyotes and maybe a wolf had entered the cave—and left—but nothing bigger. No sign of a puma or bear.

Slocum jumped to the ground as the first watery fist struck at his face. He pulled down his hat to protect himself, then tugged hard to lead his horse into the cave. The entrance was small but immediately inside widened enough for two horses to be stabled for the night.

“You’re almost soaked,” Slocum said. She had followed him in. The brief added time she was outside had seen her drenched by the downpour. He liked the look of her blouse stuck against her skin. He could see every delightful contour and imagine even the moles and freckles.

Slocum hobbled their horses at the back of the cave, then hurried out to gather what dried wood he could find. By the time he had returned, he was soaked to the skin, too.

He stopped just inside the mouth of the cave and stared. Audrey had shed all her clothing and sat with the blanket wrapped around her. Or rather, the blanket was almost wrapped around her. Enough bare skin showed to give him a tantalizing view of her breasts, her legs, and even a hint as she moved of the tangled thatch between those shapely thighs.

“Right away,” he said. As he worked, he found it increasingly difficult to concentrate because Audrey had dropped the blanket and moved behind him, working off his gun belt and coat, vest and shirt, then starting on his jeans. As the last button of his fly popped open, she caught at the fleshy handle that stuck up from his groin.

“Yes, it is hard,” she agreed, putting her cheek against his bare back but never relinquishing her hold on him. Her hand moved up and down slowly, giving him lightning flashes to match those outside. The rain hammered down but they were safe in the cave. When he finally ignited the wood, they had a chance to be dry also.

But by this time neither of them paid a whole lot of attention to laying out their clothes so they’d dry faster. They were locked in each other’s arms, kissing passionately and moving with increasing need, their bodies sliding back and forth. Slocum wanted everything but he found himself with a woman whose damp skin made it hard to hang on. Audrey slipped and slid until she was in the position she wanted.

“Go on,” she urged. “I’m feeling lusty, like an animal. Take me like an animal. I—” He cut her off by moving behind, giving her rounded butt a quick slap and then moving forward even more. He gripped the fleshy half-moons of her ass and parted them slightly to give himself a direct shot inward. His hips levered forward, the bulbous tip of his manhood rubbed along her moist nether lips, and then he sank into her heated center.

It was his turn to be speechless. The sensations flooding his body robbed him of all rational thought. All he knew burned at his groin, in his loins. He gripped her waist and pulled her backward. Her ass fit the curve of his body perfectly and they remained unmoving for what seemed forever. She surrounded his length totally with warmth and increasing wetness as her desires mounted.

Then Slocum could remain still no longer. He pulled back, then surged forward at the same time he pulled on her waist. She got into the rhythm and soon all he needed to do was balance himself. She was thrusting her hips back as he moved forward so they collided with growing power. He sank deeper into her with each thrust until the power began to take its toll on him. His control slipped away.

She reached down through their legs and began fondling his dangling sac, which tightened even more at her touch. With her cheek resting on the blanket, she let out one long, low moan after another.

He obliged. He felt the friction burning at him, at her, consuming them both. When he reached the point of no return, a thunderclap outside marked their mutual release. Another eye-dazzling bolt followed and then even Audrey’s moans of pleasure were drowned out by the crashing of rain against the rocks.

Spent, Slocum slipped forward. His arms wrapped around her and held her close. She shivered now so he pulled the blanket around them.

“This is so nice, John, so nice.” She began to drift off, but just before she fell sound asleep, Slocum heard her mutter, “Gold, so much gold.”