Deborah Camp (34 page)

“Looks like she needs another ticket to send her to hell.”

“No!” Adele bent over Mrs. McDonald, a cold tremble rising in her to make her teeth chatter. Through Terrapin’s parted legs she saw Buck Wilhite come out of the Black Knight and walk confidently in their direction, his hand on the butt of his holstered gun. Her courage ebbing away, she grasped at her last ray of hope. “Reno!” she screamed. “Help, Reno, help!”

As if by magic, Reno materialized, gun in hand, not even breaking his stride as he fired on Wilhite, winging him in the shoulder. Grunting, Wilhite staggered and tried to raise his own gun. Reno fired again, and Wilhite jerked and fell onto his back.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Adele babbled, so relieved to see Reno that nothing else mattered, not the woman bleeding in her lap or the terror that shook her as Terrapin turned to face Reno.

Sunlight shimmered around Reno, while shadow draped Terrapin. Adele blinked, trying to clear her vision, trying to find a way to help Reno, who was always so willing to help her.

“I’m going to kill you, you son of a bitch,” Reno said, and Adele hardly recognized his voice, it was so deathly deep, so full of rancor.

“I don’t think so,” Terrapin said, holstering his own gun. “But if you want to try, then let’s face each other like men. Twenty paces, Gold.”

Adele realized she was sobbing, but she couldn’t stop. She felt for Mrs. McDonald’s pulse again and found it thready and faint. Anchored by the woman’s inert body and her own paralyzing fear, she could only watch as Reno holstered his gun and prepared for a contest that would leave one dead, one alive.

Wilhite, who Adele thought had been knocked unconscious by Reno’s bullets, suddenly moved. Adele’s blood froze in her veins. She opened her mouth to yell a warning to Reno, but managed only another sob.

Rising behind Reno like a specter, Wilhite leveled his gun at his back. A scream rattled from Adele, shrill and full of terror.

As Reno whirled to face the new menace, a small figure darted into the street from the direction of the Lucky Strike and disappeared behind Wilhite. When Buck groaned and wilted like a plucked flower without any report from a gun, Adele thought her eyes were playing tricks on her.

“What the hell?” Terrapin muttered, then cursed.

Little Nugget stood barefoot and clad in a pink nightgown, the neck of a shattered whiskey bottle clutched in one hand and a look of determination stamped on her face. The rest of the bottle lay in pieces around Wilhite, having made contact with the back of his head. This time he was out cold, thanks to Little Nugget’s quick action.

Adele released a long sigh and her heart settled back into place, but then Terrapin reached for his gun. Fury and fear combined to give Adele a burst of strength.

Pushing Mrs. McDonald from her lap, Adele scrambled
to her feet and lunged at Terrapin, throwing her body against his to ruin his aim. The bullet went foul, grazing Reno’s gun hand, slicing through muscle, and sending his fingers into spasm. Dropping the Smith & Wesson, Reno cursed viciously and stared bleakly at his weapon lying in the dirt. Only a foot away, but it might as well have been a mile.

Adele tried to sink her nails into Terrapin’s eyes, but he pushed her off. Screaming with fury, she threw herself at him again, trying to give Reno a chance to retrieve his gun. Terrapin backhanded her across the face and sent her sprawling in the dirt. Hot pain spread through her head and she choked on dust.

Through a red haze she saw Terrapin chuckle with fiendish delight as he aimed his gun at Reno.

“Good-bye, Gold,” Terrapin said. “Time to shake hands with the Devil.”

“T
aylor! What have you done?” Sally cried, running toward him, oblivious of the danger.

Terrapin frowned and waved her aside, but kept his eyes trained on Reno. “Get out of here, woman. Are you crazy? Can’t you see I’m taking care of business?”

“But Taylor, you didn’t shoot her, did you?” Sally asked, glancing fearfully at Mrs. McDonald.

Adele prayed Sally could appeal to any shred of decency Terrapin might still possess. She saw Reno signal Little Nugget to go back into the saloon and out of harm’s way. Little Nugget hesitated, but then obeyed, running in a crouch to the Lucky Strike. Adele could see the hard glitter in Reno’s eyes and his tight-lipped snarl.

“Taylor, answer me! You didn’t shoot her, did you?” Sally demanded, grasping Terrapin’s arm.

“It’s what she deserved. I told you, she betrayed me. Now get out of the way.”

“You’re a coward,” Adele said, anger making her voice shake. She glanced around, looking for allies,
but saw only Yancy Stummer and a couple of his cronies crouched behind a water trough. The weasels.

Sally turned her face up to Terrapin’s. “Taylor, please. This isn’t right. Think of our future together. We have so much at stake. Don’t throw it away. I know your pride is stinging over what she did, but it’s over and done with. Don’t be stupid.”

Terrapin grabbed Sally by the hair and yanked. Crying out, she struggled, but only briefly. He wound his fingers more tightly into her hair and she sobbed.

“Taylor, let go! You’re hurting me.” Her voice quivered with uncertainty as she turned her eyes up to his face, a face contorted with rage. “Taylor … please?”

“You think I’m stupid, bitch?”

“Nn-o … d-darling.” There was no mistaking the fear in her voice.

Adele knew the exact moment when Sally saw Taylor Terrapin for what he truly was, a monster with no conscience and no thought for anyone but himself. Staring at him, Sally’s eyes rounded and her skin paled to ghostly white.

Searching for a way to tip the odds in Reno’s favor, Adele’s prayers were suddenly answered from an unlikely source. Rousing up from his stupor, Buck Wilhite let out a groan that startled Terrapin enough to make him flinch and loosen his hold on Sally so she could wrench free. She stumbled away from him even as he tried to recapture her, his hand grasping the air in front of her face.

“You disappoint me,” Terrapin said, seeing that he’d lost her. “I thought you were a woman who knew her place and when to keep her mouth shut.” He brought the gun around and aimed it at her, then
slowly and with deliberate assurance. “I fear I can’t allow any woman to call me stupid. How unfortunate for you, my dear.”

The world ground to a halt. Even the horses and mules stood motionless as Sally Baldridge stared down the barrel of the gun. A whimper escaped through her white, trembling lips.

“No!” Adele screamed, feet flailing in the dirt as she tried to find purchase and stop Terrapin before he could pull the trigger.

That’s when Reno lunged.

In a flurry of movement too fast for the eye to follow, Reno dropped to the ground and grabbed his .44 in both hands. He rolled, making himself a moving target. Terrapin fired over and over again, the bullets whizzing through the air, digging into the horse trough, the hitching rails, and the boardwalk. Women inside the buildings screamed. A baby wailed. One of the bullets knocked off Reno’s hat. Another took a piece from the top of his shoulder.

Terrapin stood rooted to the spot, taking his shots, laughing as Reno tried to evade the bullets. Reno came to rest on his stomach and sighted his weapon with both hands. He fired. The bullet went wide, sailing over Sally’s head. She jerked as if she’d been shot. Reno fired again. Terrapin grunted and took an involuntary step backward, the lump of lead burying itself in his shoulder and shattering bone, splitting muscle.

Reno rolled again as Terrapin roared with outrage and fired in a frenzy of blood lust. Each bullet was a fraction too late, finding dirt instead of Reno’s flesh.

Click. Click. Click.

Adele heard the sound and knew that Terrapin’s luck had run out, just like his ammunition. Reno knew it, too. He got to his feet, no longer having to dodge death.

The two men faced each other in an age-old battle of fate and final decisions. Terrapin dropped his empty gun. Adele released a sigh of relief. Sally, on her knees in a puddle of tears and shivers, sobbed in gratitude.

Then Terrapin reached across his body toward the other gun, which was strapped to his hip. He smiled with mad determination. Reno shook his head, silently advising the man not to go for the weapon. Terrapin was beyond sanity. He made a grab for the gun’s grip. Reno fired, and Terrapin spun sideways, hit in the other shoulder. Still he did not stop. Drawing his Colt, he squeezed the trigger at the same moment as Reno fired again.

Adele flinched at each gun burst. For an instant of pure, heart-stopping terror, she couldn’t tell who, if anyone, had been wounded. Then she saw the red blossom of death bloom on Terrapin’s chest. He fell backward, kicked once, and stared sightlessly at the gray sky. Sally’s hysterical sobs filled the eerie silence, and the smell of blood and gunpowder turned the air rancid.

Reno strode slowly to the sprawled body and looked down into Terrapin’s face. Reno’s haggard expression twisted Adele’s heart and she went to him, tucking her arms around his waist and pressing her face into his shoulder. The smell of blood stung her nostrils, and she leaned back to take inventory. The
left sleeve of his shirt was pink, and blood dripped off his fingertips.

“He’s dead and you’re alive,” she whispered, touching his face. “And that’s all that matters.”

He swallowed and heaved a sigh, then seemed to shake himself into awareness. “Stummer!” he bellowed, motioning with his gun at the man cowering behind the horse trough. “You and your pals there, carry that woman to the doctor and make it quick!” He pointed to Mrs. McDonald, the back of whose dress was soaked in blood.

“Is she alive?” he asked Adele.

“Yes, I think so.”

The men left their shelter reluctantly, giving Terrapin’s body a wide berth as they approached the fallen woman. They reminded Adele of scurrying rats.

“Adele … I’m so sorry!” Sally wailed, still on her knees, her arms outstretched toward Adele. “Please forgive me! Please don’t hate me!”

Adele could find no forgiveness at the moment, only profound gratitude that Reno was still standing. She clung to him, glad to feel his arm circle her waist.

“You’re hurt,” she said.

“It’s nothing.”

With another weary sigh, he let go of her and moved with heavy steps to Sally. She sat weeping, her face buried in a lacy handkerchief.

“Sally Ann?” He slipped his gun back into its holster, then touched the crown of her head. She looked up at him with red-rimmed, puffy eyes. “Get on up and let’s go into the saloon. We could all use a drink.”

Sally let him pull her to her feet and followed him and Adele to the Lucky Strike. People were venturing
out of the buildings now, their eyes wide and wary. One grizzled man slapped Reno on the back and gave him a broad smile.

“Atta way, boy,” the old-timer said. “I watched it all from inside the saloon. Glad it’s you still on your feet and not that sneaky Terrapin.”

Reno barely acknowledged him, moving with dogged determination to the shelter of his saloon.

Little Nugget sat huddled in a blanket on top of the bar. She eased off it and smiled wanly.

“Y’all okay? I saw it from in here. Taylor’s dead.” She raised herself on tiptoe and kissed Reno’s cheek. “I won’t forget what you did. I want to go see about Doris, but I’m as weak as a kitten.”

Reno gestured toward the stairs. “You get on back to bed and I’ll check on her in a bit.”

“You going to be okay?” she asked, eyeing his bleeding shoulder and hand.

“Yeah. I just need a drink.” He went around to the other side of the bar and set three glasses on the shiny surface.

Adele placed an arm gingerly around Little Nugget’s tiny waist. “Let me help you up those stairs.”

“I can make it. Will you look after Doris for me?”

“Of course.” Adele stood at the bottom of the staircase and watched Little Nugget’s slow ascent. The young woman turned and waved before shuffling back to her bedroom.

Sally fell into a chair. “Everybody in this town hates me now,” she said, sniffing and dabbing at her eyes.

“
Now?
” Reno repeated with dry sarcasm.

“Reno,” Adele scolded, but had to fight to keep from smiling. Sally sobbed and blew her nose.

“Aw, hell, Sally Ann, have a drink.” Reno picked up the whiskey bottle and offered it to her. “You weren’t the only one in Whistle Stop to kiss Terrapin’s backside. The whole damn—”

A young man strode unsteadily into the saloon. His eyes were red-rimmed and he smelled of rum and sweat. “What’s been going on? I want answers, by God!”

Reno regarded him curiously. “And who would you be?”

Adele swallowed a startled laugh, realizing that Reno hadn’t met the town sheriff.

“Me? Why, I’m Sheriff Marcus Short.” He slapped a hand to his chest where a tin star should have been pinned, but wasn’t. Startled, he stared at his shirt, patted down his pockets, and looked as if he might cry. “Hell, I’ve lost another one.”

“
You’re
the sheriff?” Reno asked, incredulous. He glanced at Adele for confirmation, then shook his head in amazement. Draining his shot glass, he backhanded his mouth and gave a short, barking laugh. “You’re just a kid.”

Adele couldn’t help but snicker when Terrapin’s hand-picked sheriff turned beet red. He
was
a kid. Eighteen and good for nothing but drinking until he passed out in a whore’s bed.

“Did you shoot Taylor Terrapin?” the boy sheriff demanded.

“Yes, son, I surely did,” Reno replied affably. “And he shot me. I’m just a better marksman and a lucky bastard.”

“I’ll have to arrest you until this thing is sorted out.”

Adele gaped at him. “You must be out of your mind!”

“Calm down, Dellie,” Reno said, unconcerned, as he returned his attention to the sheriff. “He’s not going to arrest anyone.” He sauntered toward the red-faced boy, standing a foot taller and twice as broad. “I’ve been in this town awhile and I’ve opened up a business, but this is the first time I’ve seen you. Seems to me you’re a day late and a dollar short, Sheriff Short.”