Diamond In The Rough (Bodie Kendrick - Bounty Hunter Book 3) Page 13

  While Amelia numbly did as she'd been ordered, Wilby jeered some more from the crest of the rise. "I'm surprised you didn't figure it out long before now, Kendrick. Totter has had this ace up his sleeve since even before he hired me. Kazmir was bought and paid for clear back in Egypt, way ahead of him and the two women leaving in advance of the others. He kept in regular contact with Totter, sending him telegram updates at every opportunity.

  "How do you think Totter managed to have somebody so close on the heels of the redhead's every move? Even after she quit reporting back to him herself, and even hired a private detective to try and help her gain several jumps ahead. And that little trick you tried back in Lowdown—the make-believe swerve up into the Dos Cabezas to throw anybody trailing you off your scent? Kazmir slipped off to the telegraph office before you left town and sent word what you were really up to. Me and my boys never wasted a glance at those other mountains as we passed through and came barreling straight in this direction, where we knew you were headed all along."

  With the diamond now in his possession, Kazmir motioned Amelia back with another jerk of his chin. He then began dragging Faleejah away from the boulders, angling toward the base of the rise where Wilby and his men continued to set their horses.

  "The one morsel of truth that spilled from the big man's mouth before," Kazmir called up to Wilby, "was the information about the savages who inhabit these mountains. There is every reason to believe they are massing to stage a vengeance attack. We must ride away from here with all haste. I want this sow for my personal entertainment once we are in the clear. The others I suggest we leave behind—stripped of their weapons and horses by your men. That should entertain the savages for a good long while and help discourage them from any pursuit of us."

  Without warning, Kendrick hip-fired his Winchester and the round gouged a furrow in the ground directly in front of Kazmir. The Egyptian stopped so abruptly he nearly pitched off balance.

  "Freeze right there, you sonofabitch," Kendrick growled, immediately jacking a fresh shell into the rifle's chamber. "You ain't takin' another step with that girl!"

  No sooner had Kendrick triggered his shot than Wilby and his men had their guns drawn, part of them trained on Kendrick, the rest on his group hunkered in the boulders. Kendrick completely ignored them, keeping his eyes and his Winchester trained on Kazmir.

  "You fire on him, you're almost certain to hit the girl, too," Wilby warned. "And then we'll cut you and the rest of your people down one second later."

  "Fine. Go ahead and call it," Kendrick came back in a sandpaper voice. "Before I go down, I'll still kill this weasel bastard and I'll make sure I kill the girl, too. Better that than him draggin' her off for what he's got in mind … Same for the other woman and the rest. Better they go out in a hail of lead than under Apache torture knives … And don't be so sure, with you and your boys perched all in a row up there like you are, that me and mine won't take a few of you with us on the way."

  "Shoot him!" demanded Kazmir. "Go ahead and kill him! What are you waiting for? He wouldn't dare risk harming this—"

  The whistling shriek of the arrow drowned out Kazmir's words. An instant later, the barbed shaft entered the back of his neck just left of the spinal cord and then thrust out from under his chin, ripping the words out of his throat and leaving them dangling silently on the tip of the arrowhead along with bloody shreds of his larynx and other fibrous internal matter.

  As Kazmir's knees folded and he began to crumple lifelessly, more than three dozen Aravaipas came boiling out of the rocks and underbrush of the foothills above the line of boulders where Kendrick and his group had sought cover. More arrows whistled through the air and numerous rifle reports mixed sharply with bloodthirsty yelps.

  Nor were those in the boulders the only targets. Up on the crest of the rise, Wilby and his men drew a heavy concentration of bullets and arrows as well.

  Return fire—accompanied by impassioned curses to match the savage yelps—kicked in after a second of stunned inaction. In quick order the air turned blue with roiling gunsmoke sliced by streaking arrows … And formerly baked brown earth became stained by splashes of scarlet.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Bolting recklessly, Kendrick ran to Faleejah, grabbed her by the wrist, then yanked her back toward the line of boulders. Arrows zipped past their heads and shoulders and bullets chewed the ground ahead and behind their pounding feet. But, amazingly, neither of them took any hits. Kendrick flung the girl ahead and then went into a diving roll that took him down in behind the ragged rocks. Bullets continued to ping and ricochet and arrows rattled off the jagged hard edges on all sides.

  "You hurt?" Kendrick asked Faleejah.

  "No. I-I don't think so," she replied breathlessly. "Only nearly frightened to death."

  "Hug the ground and stay tight where you are," Kendrick told her. "You'll be okay."

  He wormed forward two or three feet until he found a notch that provided a portal through which he could return fire. Amelia was off to his right, snapping carefully aimed rounds with her Baby Russian .38. Hickory was on the other side of her, booming away with his Henry repeater. Kendrick couldn't see Caleb.

  Up in the foothills, the Aravaipas were ducking and darting with practiced precision, utilizing the terrain to its fullest advantage—popping up to take a shot with rifle or bow and then disappearing again after presenting only a momentary flash of colorful calico or headband for a target.

  Kendrick managed to get off just three shots before—as suddenly as it had begun—the skirmish was over. The Aravaipas simply stopped shooting and, apparently at some unseen signal, all at once dropped from sight.

  An eerie silence settled over the scene. Eyes continued to dart this way and that, ears stayed sharply cocked for any warning sound … but there was nothing.

  After a full minute, Wilby called down from the crest of the rise. "Kendrick! How'd y'all make out down there?"

  Kendrick glanced around. He could still see Amelia and Hickory off to his right. To his left, Faleejah remained hunkered low as he had instructed. There was no sign of Caleb Frost.

  Before Kendrick could ask, Hickory said, "Ol' Caleb didn't make it. Took a bullet to the head right off the bat. Never even got off a shot of his own … Got one of our pack horses, too."

  Kendrick relayed their condition to Wilby, adding, "Plus that traitorous sonofabitch layin' out there in the dirt. But him I no longer claim him as one of ours—he belongs to you … How about the rest of your bunch?"

  "We took it pretty hard," Wilby replied in a grim tone. "Like you said just a minute before it all broke loose, we was perched like sittin' ducks up here on the crown of this damn hill … Two dead, two wounded. I doubt one of them is gonna make it. Lost a couple horses, too … If they hit again, we still ain't sittin' a hell of a lot better. We raise up to shoot, we immediately skyline ourselves and make damn near perfect targets."

  "We're a little better off here, cover-wise, but not by a lot," Kendrick assessed. "These boulders would be good cover if everything was level. But if the 'Vaipas position themselves right, they can find spots to shoot down on us and get inside the boulder cover."

  "You're seein' it that we're in this together now, right? Against the Apaches, I mean," Wilby said somewhat edgily.

  Kendrick considered a moment. Then: "That'd be one way to play it. But, you know, you boys could just turn and ride away. You ain't pinned down like we are. We could give you cover fire and we're figurin' the 'Vaipas ain't got much in the way of horses to give chase."

  "To hell with that!" Wilby barked in quick response. "I may never have walked the straight and narrow, but I damn well have never gone so far off course to where I'd consider leavin' two women in a tight with a pack of Apaches ready to swoop in. You got no call to insult me like that, Kendrick."

  "All right, then," Kendrick backpedaled. "So as far as throwin' in together, yeah, it only makes sense. That's sure as hell the way the 'Vaipas are seein' it. Don't make sen
se for us to look at is as fightin' them and each other."

  "You figure they'll hit us again?"

  "Sooner or later. Bound to."

  "But probably not right away," Hickory spoke up. "I don't know much about the Aravaipas direct, but the Apache way in general is to hit with an up-front attack like the one we just went through. But then, if they don't overwhelm right away, they'll drop back like they're doin' now and start pickin' away with potshots whenever we give 'em a glimpse of something. Try to thin us out one by one. Bidin' their time until they feel ready to stage another attack … But they ain't ready to quit, not by a long shot, if that's what anybody's hopin'."

  "So what do we do? Try to hold 'em from these positions?" said Wilby. "Seems to me we need to get ourselves better situated."

  "I agree," said Kendrick. "But where? And how?"

  There was an unintelligible exchange of words between Wilby and one of his men. Then Wilby called down again. "Look off to the east and upslope a bit. A hundred or so yards. See that hump of weathered rock anglin' down? We got a better look from up here, but that's the near side of two fingerlike humps reachin' down. In the middle are lots of broken boulders and some brush. It'd make good cover from three sides and the bare cliff wall up above it wouldn't let the Injuns shoot down without badly exposin' themselves … It'd make a pretty good spot for us to fort up for a spell."

  Kendrick craned his neck to see as best he could where Wilby was indicating. When he had the general idea, he said, "Okay. I see what you mean. But how do you figure on gettin' in there?"

  "We can drop back and move along unseen behind the crest of this rise until we're a little ways past those humps. Then we'd be able to charge down in between 'em with you givin' us cover fire. After that, we could cover you while you make a break from where you're at."

  "Don't sound half bad," Hickory whispered to Kendrick. "That is, if you figure you can trust 'em to cover us and not cut us down when they get the chance."

  "They need our guns as bad as we need theirs," Kendrick replied. "And the way things are right now, we're pinned considerably worse than they are."

  "What about the diamond?" Amelia wanted to know.

  Kendrick cut a glance over to where Kazmir's body lay out in the open with the arrow impaling his throat and the diamond stuffed somewhere in his clothing. "Be plumb suicide to make a play for it now," Kendrick said. "The 'Vaipas don't know it exists and wouldn't give a damn about it even if they did. But they'd sure-hell take interest in anybody going after it. So, since that diamond ain't gonna grow legs and walk away on its own, for the time being it's okay right where it is. Come cover of night, we may get the chance to sneak back and retrieve it."

  A moment later Kendrick called up to Wilby. "Alright. Let's give it a try. Go ahead and work your way over to where you want to be. We'll position ourselves on the east end of this boulder line and be ready to cover you … "

  Chapter Twenty

  Wilby's plan went almost without a hitch.

  Covered by Kendrick, Hickory, and Amelia, the hired gun and his men made their charge into the space between the rocky humps. They accomplished it with only the loss of one additional horse plus the man who'd been so badly wounded in the earlier attack.

  Once in place, they laid down a heavy cover fire that allowed Kendrick and his group to make their run for it. They, too, lost another horse and Kendrick suffered a nicked left ear when a bullet sizzled close to his head. Otherwise, they fell in alongside the others with only a few minor scrapes.

  The Aravaipas made it plenty hot for them, mostly with rifle fire, but as soon as both groups had gained the improved protection, the rifles once again went abruptly quiet.

  "Savin' ammunition," Hickory speculated. "Means they ain't got a lot to spare. Something to keep in mind that could work to our advantage later on."

  As for the combined company now occupying the V-shaped area between the two rocky humps, they were well supplied with ammunition and weapons and their number—nine total, counting the two women—still represented a significant force. They were also well provisioned with food and water and, even minus the mounts that had been cut down, there remained ten sturdy horses at their disposal.

  Now it came down to playing a waiting game and not letting the Aravaipas gain the edge by fraying their nerves.

  The afternoon dragged on. With no breath of air stirring, the heat built up in the boulders and underbrush.

  The Aravaipas remained invisible and silent but their presence could be felt like a steadily increasing weight. Each hour, each minute, that passed without a rifle shot or an arrow started to seem almost worse than if another attack came.

  At one point, two of Wilby's men overreacted to a fluttering in the brush and simultaneously drew and fired on an unfortunate magpie, blowing the bird into a cloud of smoking feathers left to float slowly in the still air. The rest of the men looked on and made bets as to which feather would touch the ground last.

  As the eerie silence stretched past its third hour, Hickory slipped up on one side of Kendrick and said, "This is damned spooky. I can't claim to have spent a whole lot of time fightin' Injuns, but I never heard of an encounter with the red devils goin' like this."

  "Me neither," agreed Kendrick.

  "Something ain't right."

  "You reckon there's any chance they called it a day and went back up in the mountains?" Anse Wilby said from where he sat leaning back against a sloping boulder on the other side of Kendrick. "Maybe they figured they got enough of us to satisfy their revenge. After all, that Kazmir fella was the first one they sank an arrow in. You said he was actually the one who killed their braves, right?"

  "That's true enough," Kendrick allowed. "But I ain't quite ready to believe the 'Vaipas have withdrawn, leastways not to a point where I'd be willin' to poke my head up for a long, leisurely look around. Would either of you?"

  Wilby and Hickory were quick to admit that neither of them was willing to make that test either.

  "I'd expect any pack of Injuns on the prod, especially Apaches," Kendrick added, "to at least do some scalping and mutilating of their victims before they pulled out. I can't get a clear look at any of the bodies we left scattered back where they first hit us, but I haven't seen or heard any movement over that way."

  "No, me neither," Wilby said.

  "Not very Christian to say it, I don't suppose," muttered Hickory, "but I'd pay money to see those heathens scalp and carve up whatever's left of that double-crossing Kazmir skunk."

  "But not," Wilby was quick to point out, "before we got the diamond back off him."

  Kendrick cut him a sidelong glance.

  Wilby grinned. "I heard you and the woman talking about the same thing. So don't tell me you haven't already given it consideration."

  Kendrick shrugged. "It's what we all came after, ain't it?"

  "For a fact."

  "The way that sky looks off to the northwest," Kendrick said, pointing, "we got a weather change rollin' in. Means we should at least have a cloud cover by full dark, maybe even rain."

  "And your point is?"

  "Couple possibilities. A weather change could nudge the Aravaipas into tryin' something ahead of it … or it could cause 'em to decide to hold off even longer before they hit us again."

  "Jeez, that's real profound, Kendrick," Wilby sneered. "Either the Injuns are gonna attack or they ain't. We already knew that much, with or without the damn weather."

  "For our own purposes," Kendrick went on, "a cloud cover or a storm would give us the best chance we're likely to get for slippin' out and snatchin' that diamond off Kazmir's body."

  Wilby's lips pressed into a tight, straight line. "I like that line of thinkin'. I like it a lot."

  "Figured you would." Kendrick pinned him with a flat, even stare. "And once we have that diamond again, there ain't a damn thing to keep us here. Dark of night, storm, whatever—we make our break and ride out across the desert. Put this place and these mountains and the Aravaipas as
quick and as far behind us as we can."

  Wilby met his eyes and held them. "I'm with you all the way, big man." He paused, as if carefully choosing his next words. "But if all that works out," he went on, "you know what comes next. We'll reach the point where we'll have to stop and once again face each other over who's gonna claim final possession of that diamond."

  "I know. Can't say I'm lookin' forward to that part. But I guess that's how it has to be."

  "I ain't lookin' forward to it, either. Not no more. But you're right … That's how it has to be."

  * * * * *

  With the afternoon waning and the cloud cover from the northwest skidding in rapidly, Kendrick and Amelia sat apart from everyone else, talking.

  "Me and my 'story of a lifetime'," Amelia said with a rueful smile. "I've really gotten us into a fine fix, haven't I?"

  Kendrick had positioned Amelia and Faleejah at the inner point of the V formed by the splayed fingerlike rock humps. There they had the best concealment and the least likelihood of any Aravaipa bullets or arrows reaching them. The horses had also been herded back to this area to best guard against losing any more of them.

  "Things seem not to get boring around you, that's for sure." Kendrick responded to Amelia's remark with his own wry grin.

  "If I am ever able to shake the Gailwood curse when it comes to putting trust in duplicitous people," Amelia lamented, "then maybe my life would calm down a little."

  "If you're talking about Kazmir, you had a lot of help with that one," Kendrick pointed out.

  "Yeah. Help from Brandon Totter, the other snake in the grass my whole family and I trusted. That's hardly a soothing reminder."

  Kendrick spread his hands. "Hey. I tried."

  Amelia's expression turned sober. "But, of course, there's you. I put my trust in you, Kendrick, and you haven't shown the slightest hint of letting me down."