[Texas Rangers 05] - Texas Vendetta (32 page)

The stableman came running out through the barn’s wide doors. He shouted, “What happened, Big’un?”

“Lightnin’ strike.” Big’un spurred his horse into a lope.

He had burned down a jailhouse and blown up a courthouse. Whatever might happen from now on, at least Hopper’s Crossing would not soon forget him.

Andy awakened from a cold half-sleep he had endured most of the night. A bloodred sun was just beginning to rise. His muscles ached from the discomfort of lying on the porch’s hard floor. He felt around for his pistol but could not find it.

Dick Landon had already rolled his blanket and placed it against the wall. He said, “Don’t you worry about that six-shooter. You’ll get it back when we figure it’s safe.”

“Safe for who?”

“All of us, includin’ you.”

Andy sensed the reason it had been taken. “What time did Jayce get here?”

“He was here all the time. Him and Flora slept out in the barn. They’re in the kitchen now havin’ breakfast. You hungry?”

“Think Jayce will trust me?”

“No, but as long as you’re not heeled there won’t be any trouble.”

Andy pulled his boots on. The air had the crisp smell of fall but not yet of frost. If Rusty had not suffered from that hailstorm he would be harvesting his fields, not lying in the doctor’s house badly shot up. Andy wondered what Rusty would think of him now, about to share breakfast with a fugitive on the fugitive’s terms.

Andy looked at the blazing sunrise. “I’ve heard them say that a red sky at sunup means there’s a storm comin’.”

“Only if you get reckless.”

Jayce stood in the door, looking calm and friendly. “Come in, Ranger, and let Flora pour you some coffee. Eggs and biscuits are about ready. Walter’s family has done et.”

Andy followed Dick through the door. He sneaked Dick’s pistol out of its holster and stuck it into his boot while all attention was on Flora at the woodstove. She poured coffee into an enameled cup for Andy. He thanked her and turned to Jayce. He said, “I was hopin’ you’d be halfway to Mexico by now. I wouldn’t have to take you in.”

Smiling at Andy’s show of confidence, Jayce poured coffee into a saucer and blew across to cool it. “Sorry about your friend Rusty. Hell, I’m even a little sorry about that ornery Farley Brackett.”

Andy wrapped his stiff fingers around the cup, enjoying its warmth. “You got away from that jailhouse fire awful quick.”

“I saw Big’un light out. Thought I could catch him, but I lost him in the dark. I didn’t see any point in stayin’ around, so I borrowed some citizen’s horse. I wish you’d take it back to him with my thanks.”

“You can ride it back yourself when I take you in.”

“You don’t ever give up, do you?”

Dick Landon spoke. “It’s the Indian in him. Did you know he was raised by the Comanches?”

“I ought to’ve figured.”

Flora said, “As soon as I saw that Rusty and Farley were not goin’ to die and I put Scooter in good hands, I followed my husband.”

Jayce said, “I’d already told her that if I ever had a chance to get away I’d head for home. She’d know where to find me.”

Both Jayce and Flora looked sleepy-eyed. Andy remarked, “After so much travelin’, you-all appear sort of worn out.”

The two smiled at each other. Jayce reached out to touch Flora’s hand. “I take it you’re not a married man.”

Andy said, “Never been asked.”

“When the time comes, be sure you get a girl like Flora. But not Flora herself. She’s mine.”

“You and her could still get away from here. There’s not much I could do to stop you so long as your family has got me a prisoner.”

“There’s one job I ain’t finished yet.”

“Big’un?”

“He’s done a lot of dirt to us Landons.” Jayce’s face tightened as he looked at his wife. “What kind of man would I be if I just let it go?”

“A live one, and free.”

Andy saw something in Flora’s eyes. He saw that he had reached her whether he had reached Jayce or not. She told Jayce, “If we stay here you know what’ll happen. Big’un will find a way to shoot you in the back if you don’t get him first. And if you get him, the law will give you a quick trial and then hang you. Either way, I’ll wind up bein’ a widow. I want us to go somewhere and start fresh.”

“I can’t forget what Big’un done to you.”

“I can. Revenge isn’t worth it. I’d rather have my husband alive and at my side. The law will take care of Big’un, or the devil will.”

Jayce argued, “Maybe you’ve forgot that murder charge against me, but the law hasn’t.”

Andy said, “That’s Texas law. But you could go someplace like Colorado or maybe California. They never heard of Ned Hopper or you either.”

He could see that Jayce was struggling. Jayce said, “Before I go anywhere I’d like to have the personal pleasure of sendin’ Big’un to hell.”

Andy had never quite grasped the concept of an eternal fiery hell for sinful souls. It was not part of the Comanche religion. “There’s hell enough right here on earth, Jayce. At the least we can send Big’un to the penitentiary for a long stretch. At the best we might be able to hang him for killin’ Sheriff Truscott.”

“I got a little inklin’ of the real hell before we got out of that burnin’ jailhouse. That’s the kind I favor sendin’ him to.”

Andy pushed his plate away with half the bacon and eggs uneaten. “Jayce, they’d drum me out of the Rangers if they heard me say this. What if I was to turn my back for a while, and you and Flora was to slip away real quiet? I’d be so busy huntin’ for Big’un that I might not even miss you for three or four days.”

Flora said, “He’s offerin’ us the best chance we’ll ever have, Jayce. We can get away from this awful old feud, away from Big’un and all the other Hoppers.”

Dick said, “Listen to her, Jayce. Her and Andy are givin’ you the best advice you’ll ever hear.”

Jayce looked across the table at Andy. “If I go, I want everybody to understand that it’s for Flora and not because I’m scared of Big’un. I’d gladly meet him face-to-face, but he’d never do that. He’d lay in wait somewhere and bushwhack me.”

Andy replied, “That’s the way I see it. The longer you stay around here, the less chance you’ve got of seein’ Christmas. If I was you two, I’d saddle up and git while the gittin’s good.”

Jayce said, “I’m bein’ ganged up on. I guess I can’t outargue you all.”

Flora nodded at Jayce. He pushed back from the table. “Ain’t got much to pack.” Flora started to follow him out the door but stopped long enough to lean down and kiss Andy on the cheek.

Andy saw a wistful look in Dick’s eyes as his gaze followed Flora out the door.

Dick said, “Andy, you’ve just violated a basic Ranger regulation. You’ve let a prisoner go.”

“I never really took him prisoner.” Andy reached down to draw Dick’s pistol from his boot. He laid it on the table in front of him. “You can have your six-shooter back.”

Dick dropped his hand and felt of his empty holster. “Well, I’ll be damned.” His eyes narrowed. “Would you really have used this?”

“I don’t know. I’m glad I didn’t have to find out.”

Andy finished his coffee then walked outside, where Dick watched his brother and Flora lead two horses out of the corral. Dick said, “You’ve got me beat. I never could talk Jayce into anything. All I could ever do was wish him luck and cover his back when I could. I got so tired of it that I had to leave.”

Jayce pulled his saddle down from the plank fence. As he picked up his blanket, he dropped suddenly to one knee and grabbed his leg. Andy heard the crack of a rifle. He saw a wisp of smoke in a patch of timber a couple of hundred yards away.

Flora dropped her saddle and screamed, “He’s shot.”

Andy and Dick ran toward the couple. With a shout of rage Flora yanked a rifle from Jayce’s saddle scabbard. She threw it to her shoulder and fired, then fired again.

Dick shouted, “Come on, Andy, let’s catch the son of a bitch.”

Andy paused for a swift look at Jayce. His trousers leg was bloody. The wound was far from any vital spot.

Dick grabbed Jayce’s saddle and threw it on the horse Jayce had been about to ride. Andy quickly caught Flora’s horse and put his own saddle on its back. Dick was fifty yards ahead of him as Andy mounted, but he soon caught up.

Big’un exulted for a moment when he saw Jayce go down. Then he felt the breath of the first bullet as it passed by his ear. He turned to grab his horse as the second bullet struck. It was as if a sledgehammer had hit him in the side. He went to his knees, almost losing his hold on the reins. The air was knocked out of his lungs. He gasped desperately for breath. Each try felt as if someone were jabbing a knife into his side.

For a moment he went into a blind panic. My God, they’ve killed me, he thought. Slowly he began breathing, but with breath came feeling. The wound in his side began to hurt like nothing he had ever felt in his life. He knew he had some broken ribs, probably a punctured lung. He exerted a heavy effort struggling to his feet and drawing himself up against his horse. He made several tries before he was able to lift his left foot into the stirrup, then pull himself into the saddle. He leaned far forward and came near to falling off.

He grabbed the horn of the saddle and beat his heels against the horse’s ribs, putting it into a long trot, then a lope. He tried to turn his head and look back, but dizziness overtook him. It threatened to make him lose his seat. He reasoned that some of the Landons must be coming behind him. They would have started their pursuit as soon as they could grab horses.

This was going to be a ride for life.

He wished now he had followed his plan to quit the Colorado River country and immediately head for Mexico. But he had feared that Jayce would follow him no matter where and how far he went. He had to eliminate Jayce before he could feel safe anywhere.

Now he had failed in that as he had failed with the jailhouse fire and with his attempt to blow Judd Hopper’s safe open. Seemed like he couldn’t do anything right anymore.

He wondered when his luck had started to sour. Maybe it was when he and Ned found Flora Landon at home alone. They had grabbed the opportunity to drag her back to her bedroom. He had always thought her one of the most provocative women he had ever seen. Taking her as he had should have been pleasurable, especially considering that she was the wife of a lifelong antagonist and this represented a victory of sorts. Instead, it had left him strangely unsatisfied. It also left him with bruises and abrasions that lingered long after the fleeting moment of pleasure.

The world went by him in a blur as he rode. With each stride, pain drove through him like a lance. Tasting blood, he rubbed his mouth and saw red smeared across the palm of his hand. He knew coughing up blood was a sign that life was ebbing away. He was bleeding to death.

He felt his hand loosen on the horn despite his effort to tighten his grip. He was conscious of slipping from the saddle. Striking the ground set off an explosion of agony as shattered ribs punched into a lung. He tasted dirt and tried to spit it out. He lacked strength to raise his head. Face against the ground, he managed a few more breaths until the dirt he inhaled choked him.

His last conscious thought was, “Damn you, Flora, this is all your fault. And you wasn’t worth it.”

During the chase, Andy and Dick had never come close enough to catch more than a glimpse of Big’un. They had to follow tracks, which slowed them. Andy said, “We don’t even know for sure that it is Big’un.”

Dick said, “Who else would’ve shot at Jayce? He could be anyplace out yonder, settin’ up an ambush for us.”

“I don’t think he’s a good shot. He just nicked Jayce in the leg.”

Andy was first to see the saddled bay horse grazing peacefully where the grass still contained some green. Dick said, “That’s Big’un’s, all right. I’ve seen him ridin’ it around the country.”

At first Andy thought Dick might be right about Big’un setting up an ambush. Then he saw the still form of a man stretched in the grass. Wind rolled Big’un’s hat along the ground and picked at the loose tail of his shirt. “That’d be him, I suppose.”

Dick said, “Flora must’ve hit him.” She was the only one who had fired in Big’un’s direction.

Andy drew his pistol in case Big’un might be playing possum. Riding up close, however, he could tell that Big’un was dead. He dismounted and turned Big’un over onto his back. Much of the man’s clothing was soaked in blood.

He said, “That’s the way the hide hunters like to hit a buffalo, in the lung. Looks to me like he bled to death.”

Dick got down for a look. “The slower the better. I hope he had time to consider all his sins.”

Andy closed Big’un’s half-open eyes. “He’s been worried that Jayce was out to kill him. I wonder if he had any idea it was Flora who brought him down.”

“Seems like justice to me, seein’ what he did to her.”

“All the same, this could cause her some trouble if she stays around here in Hopper country.”

Dick shrugged. “Nothin’ we can do about that. We’ve got to go to town and report what happened.”

Andy considered. “Maybe not. What if Big’un just disappeared and nobody ever knew what happened to him?”