Scalpers (21 page)

She smiled to herself, lying low on the running horse. Anyway, she told herself, whoever was coming, her life could be in no more danger running into them than it would be facing Fox and his men once they saw the money was missing.

Riding hard, with a spare horse to shorten his time, Ozzie had made it close enough to hear the two sharp reports from the small pocket pistol. The sound sent him riding harder. So did the sight of dust roiling in the far-distant sky. He stayed on the hoofprints so closely that he almost rode past the spot where dark blood had soaked into the sand.

“Whoa, now!” he said, finally seeing the blood and reining both horses in a sharp circle back to it. He sat in his saddle looking back and forth between the drag marks where Rayburn had pulled himself out onto the flats and crawled up under a stand of low-hanging cactus, the hoofprints of two horses leading straight ahead. Not hard to figure, he told himself. Whoever had crawled out there—
shot
—either was dead by now or soon would be. Either way, the money was with whoever rode away.

Hope you die slow, whoever you are.

He gave a tight little smirk toward the flats, then batted his boots to the spare horse's sides and rode on, his own horse resting, galloping easily alongside him.

“
Adios!
Hope you like warm weather,” he shouted out loudly across the hard, desolate land.
Warm weather, get it?
he said to himself. Chuckling
at his mindless humor, he put his horses forward, fast and steady.

At midmorning he slowed as he looked far ahead and saw the lone rider veering diagonally up off the edge of the flats up onto a thin, rocky path. The woman? Yes, it was her all right, he told himself, a little surprised at first. But watching her, seeing her stop and climb down from her saddle, he saw her tie the reins of the horse carrying the money to the front horse's tail. She led the two horses up the rugged path as Ozzie gave the matter a quick thought and smiled to himself.

Hell, this could turn out better than he'd ever hoped for, he told himself as he put the horses forward, hoping she wouldn't see him before he got behind her on the bare lower slope and moved into the cover of rock higher up. Even if she did see him, so what? She was scared to death of him. He'd seen that every time he was near her.

Before he got to the path, he turned onto another thin trail leading upward, diagonally meandering across the hillside.
This will work,
he told himself. He kept the horses climbing instead of getting down and leading them.

When he got to where the two paths intersected on a terraced cliff side, he stepped down from his saddle and stood waiting midtrail, his Navy Colt in hand, as Terese climbed the path into sight.

“Well, well,
well—well—well
!”
he said, overplaying his response to meeting her there. “I come out to take air and my, my, look who I find.”

Terese jerked to a halt, startled, but she acted in
quick reflex. Her hand went for Rayburn's Colt stuck down in her waist.

“Huh-uh,” said Ozzie. He wagged his Navy Colt at her, the hammer cocked. “You don't want to do that, little darling.” He grinned. “Ol' Oz here'll kill you dead.”

Terese let her hand drop.

“All right, you've got me,” she said. “What now?”

“What now?”
Ozzie said. He walked in close and pulled the Colt up by its handles. “What now is whatever I want it to be.” He looked at the bags of money, then back at her, standing so close she almost felt him against her. “I'm wondering whether or not I want to spend some time us getting to know each other, or wait until we've found some shade.” As he spoke he bumped himself against the full length of her. “What do you think?”

“Listen to me, Ozzie,” she said quietly. “I know how this looks, but I had nothing to do with stealing the money. Rayburn made me go along with him.”

“That why you killed him?” Ozzie said with a grin.

“Yes, partly,” she said, jutting her chin a little. “He is a terrible man who wanted to force himself on me. He would have had I not shot him. I kept telling him,
Please take me and the money back to Fox.
But he would not listen! I killed him, and I knew of nothing else to do but flee for my life!”

Ozzie nodded as she spoke, as if believing her quickly concocted tale.

“Go on,” he encouraged her, putting the tip of his Colt up against her breast and jiggling it.

“I—I begged him to take back the money. I even told him I would do things to him. . . .” She paused, then said in a lowered suggestive tone, “Things that only a
puta
like myself knows how to do to a man.” Now it was her turn to press herself against him. Her voice became a low wanton whisper. “Things that drive a man crazy with desire. Things that most men can only dream of.”

“Yeah?” Ozzie wasn't completely buying it, but he wasn't opposed to the feeling her suggestions aroused inside him. “Like what?” He stood against her, but lowered the Colt a little, liking this fanciful game.

“They are things I cannot tell you about. They are things that I can only show you. Things that I can only
do
, if I really care for a man.” She pressed herself more firmly against him.

Jesus!

He looked all around wildly, knowing he'd left his blanket roll behind in his haste. But what about a bed of pine needles, a flat spot on the cliff, in the shade, a downed log? Something . . .
anything!
He didn't care.

As he looked all around, Terese stared at the black bloodstained bandanna tied around his face. A fresh trickle of blood seeped down his upper lip.

“What has happened to your nose, Ozzie?” she asked.

“My horse bit if off,” he said, still looking all around.

The woman grimaced.

“It is bleeding,” she said.

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” he said impatiently. “It's been bleeding all day.”

“Does it hurt?”

“Not if I leave it alone,” he said, looking down at her. “These things that you know. Does a fellow have to be lying down—?”

Before he got the words out of his mouth, Terese hiked a leg up behind her, slipped off her leather-soled shoe and began batting him on his wounded nose.

To get away from the hard repeated blows, Ozzie fell backward to the ground, screaming and thrashing, blood flying from under the bandanna. As he writhed and bellowed in agonizing pain, Teresa turned and ran, shoe in hand, and leaped atop her horse. Struggling to see through watery eyes, Ozzie pulled his Navy Colt and waved it back and forth, trying to focus on her.

But Terese had seen her chance and she wasn't stopping. Atop her horse, she batted the animal forward, grabbing the reins to both of Ozzie's horses on her way up the trail, the horse with the money bags reined nose-to-tail behind her.

“I'll
kill
you!” Ozzie sobbed and shouted. Staggering, trying to see through a watery veil of pain, he fired wildly in every direction until the Navy
Colt clicked on an empty cylinder. Still sobbing, knowing he'd been left afoot, he sank onto a rock and sat slumped, Rayburn's loaded Colt hanging loose in his hand.

*   *   *

Fox, Otis Seedy and Sergio Sega had heard the gunfire in the distance only moments ago. They had pushed their horses along the Ranger's trail for a mile when Fox stopped short, jumped down from his horse and put a hand on its front shoulder. The other two men gathered close and looked down at the animal.

“What's wrong, Zorro?” Seedy asked.

“He's not riding right,” Fox said. “I'm afraid he's coming up lame on me.” He lifted the horse's front left hoof and twisted it back and forth slightly. The horse nickered a little under its breath. “Yep,” Fox concluded, “I felt it no sooner than we left camp. Damn it!” he shouted. He set the horse's hoof back down.

“This is a bad place to be horseless,” Sega commented, looking all around.

“I know it,” said Fox. He breathed deep and kicked the sand, cursing his luck. Sega and Seedy looked at each other. “I was hoping I'd caught it before it had gotten too far along.” He pushed his battered hat up on his forehead and looked all around as if expecting a horse to appear. “Of all the damn lousy luck,” he cursed.

“You figure to stay off him awhile, see what that does?” Seedy asked.

“Yeah, I best,” said Fox, gazing off in the direction of the gunshots they'd heard. “A couple of
days he'll heal up. But damn all that. A couple days is too late with what we've got going on here.”

“It can't be helped, Zorro,” said Sega. “Do you want us to go on ahead and get the money?”

Fox stared off, considering it.

“If you do, we need to get going,” Seedy added.

“Not so damn fast, neither one of you,” Fox said. “You're too damn eager to get after that money.”

Seedy and Sega looked at each other again, as if shocked by his accusation.

“Zorro,” Seedy said. “We're just saying what it is we've got to do. If we don't stay after that money, its gone like a wild goose.”

“
Sí
, Otis is right, Zorro,” said Sega. “We are at a place where you must trust us.”

“Trust you?” said Fox. “Here's an idea for you. Why don't one of you stay here with my horse, let me take yours? Soon as we've got the money I'll get right back here with it. Sounds fair enough, don't it?”

The two sat silent for moment; then Sega let out a sigh and started to swing down from his saddle.

“All right, take my horse,” he said.

“Hold it,” said Fox. He looked ashamed. “This is not good. I know how this works. It's my horse that's down. I'm the one has to drop back and wait.”

Sega sat back down in his saddle.

“It's how things are generally done, if you don't mind my saying so,” Seedy put in.

“Oh yeah?” said Fox. “Here's another way.” His Colt came up cocked and pointed. He waved it
back and forth. The two sat stone still. Finally he let the gun slump. “Damn it, go on, then, both of you!” He turned away and stared out across the sand flats. The two started to turn their horses back to the trail, but Fox spun back toward them. He raised a finger for emphasis. “But if you try to double-cross me on this, as sure as there's a devil in hell, I'll find you and kill you!”

“We got it, boss,” said Seedy. “You needn't worry. We'll be right back for you. You'll see . . . you can trust us.”

“Get going,” Fox said, dismissing the matter with a wild toss of his hand.

The two Perros Locos turned their horses and booted them out quickly before Fox could change his mind again.

As they rode along, Seedy said sidelong to Sega, “Now, there is man who has a terrible time trusting folks. I bet he goes to the jake one hand holding the door closed behind him.”

“He still doesn't have this sitting just right inside his head. I can tell,” said Sega.

“Well, that's too damn bad,” said Seedy. “It's his horse going down, not ours.” They booted up the horses' pace. “Let me ask you something,” he said. “What the hell were you thinking, offering him
your
horse?”

Sega shrugged.

“It was foolish, but I wanted him to trust us,” he said.

“Yeah?” Seedy grinned. “Well, what were you
going to do if he took it and left you standing out here holding the reins to a lame horse?”

Sega thought about it.

“I don't know, kill him perhaps,” he said. “Anyway, he did not take it, that's the main thing.” They rode on, putting their horses up into a quick gallop toward the six gunshots they'd heard on the distant hillside.

“Two ways on this money when we get it?” Seedy said.

“
Sí
, two ways,” said Sega. “You have my word on it.”

“Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of,” said Seedy. They both laughed a little and rode on.

*   *   *

The Ranger had also heard the shots in the distance. Hearing them, he'd looked up from under the low-hanging cactus where he'd found Rayburn taking shelter from the burning sun. He'd followed Rayburn's drag marks on the ground and upon finding him, he'd carried a canteen of water to him from his saddle horn. Now he sat watching the man replenish himself.

“Ranger Sam Burrack, I guess it goes . . . without saying I'm glad to see you,” he said in a halting voice.

“Same here, Jep,” Sam said. “Except under these circumstances. I hadn't heard anything about you the last couple of years. Figured you got that spread somewhere and settled down.”

“Naw, that ain't going to happen, Sam,” Rayburn said. “I took off my badge in Hayes City . . . left
Texas. But after a while I took up guarding the mines down here.” He adjusted himself and pressed the bandanna firmer against his back. “I never should have turned my back on one of these hard-baked
putas
. I blame myself more than her.”

“What were you trying to do anyway, Jep?” Sam asked.

“Just what I figured . . . I was getting paid to do. I was still guarding the money.” He gave a pained smile. “Even though it was in somebody else's hands. You know me, Sam . . . I'm like a bulldog. I don't turn loose easily.” He took another swig of water. “You believe me, don't you . . . that I was taking the money back?”