Code of the Wolf

“Don’t ever do that again,” she said, very softly.

He ignored her warning. “Bonnie was working out here?” he asked.

“With Zora.”

He didn’t know who Zora was, but this wasn’t the time to ask. He was too busy keeping an eye on Serenity, who had pulled her rifle from its scabbard and moved to a point where she could see around the rocks to the lip of the arroyo. “How do you know Leroy is there?” she asked.

He couldn’t very well tell her the truth. “I saw one of them stick his head up,” he said. He didn’t tell her that he smelled blood. He hoped it belonged to one of the gang.

“I have to find Bonnie,” she said. “Zora can take care of herself. But Bonnie—”

Her voice broke. She was sick with worry, and there was little Jacob could do to reassure her. “Miss Maguire struck me as a lady who can take care of herself, too,” he said. “They may have the men pinned in the arroyo.” He adjusted his gun belt. “Let’s just hope your friends don’t shoot at me when I—”

“You don’t have to worry,” she said. Her face was as hard as one of the granite peaks rising above them. “I’m going out there myself.”

“Don’t be stupid,” he said. “They’ll shoot you down as soon as you stick your head out. I know how to get around them. You cover me.”

Before she could protest, he was running around the rocks, crouched low and ready to shoot. He heard Serenity’s feet crunch on the gritty earth behind him. He prayed she was only getting into position to shoot if one of Leroy’s gang spotted him.

They didn’t see him until he was within a few feet of the arroyo, and then only because someone out of his sight nearly got him in the leg. He half fell into the arroyo, twisting like a cat so that he landed on his feet and was firing before his boots touched ground.

There were four horses and three men crowded between the steep walls of the arroyo—Leroy, Hunsaker and Silas—and two bodies sprawled behind them, one male and one female. The man was Stroud, clearly dead, and the woman was Bonnie Maguire. She was lying on her stomach, very still, but breathing.

Leroy was heavily bandaged, but he wasn’t as badly hurt as Jacob had hoped when he’d seen the outlaw shot. Leroy’s eyes blazed with a very personal hatred.

Three guns aimed at Jacob. He got Leroy in the bad shoulder again and watched the man go down before the first bullet grazed his own arm. He twisted out of the path of two more bullets and fired again.

His shot missed, but someone else’s didn’t. Hunsaker fell with a cry. The horses shied and squealed. Hoofbeats pounded at the edge of the arroyo.

Serenity had ignored his warning.

“Go back!” he ordered.

“You’d better give up!” Serenity shouted from her position somewhere above them. “You’re outnumbered!”

Silas looked wildly toward Jacob and aimed his revolver at the female body at his feet. “Tell her if anyone shoots again, I’ll kill this bitch!”

Jacob lowered his gun. “Serenity!” he called. “Can you hear me?”

“I hear you. Are you all right?”

“Yes.” The slight wound on his arm was already healing, and he was too worried to feel much pain. “Don’t shoot, and tell your friend to hold her fire. They’ve got Bonnie.”

Neither Silas nor Leroy heard Serenity’s soft wail, but it tore at Jacob’s heart. He swallowed a growl and faced the two men who remained.

“I warn you,” he said, “if you hurt the woman, you’ll never get out of here alive.”

CHAPTER FIVE

SILAS LAUGHED NERVOUSLY. “You’re going to let us go, Constantine, and we’ll be taking the woman. We’ll release her when we’re good and ready. If you try to follow us—”

He continued with his threats, but Jacob was concentrating on the sounds of movement above the arroyo. Serenity had dismounted and was walking away. Not abandoning him or Bonnie, he knew, but planning some new and foolhardy tactic. He had no way to stop her, but at least the men hadn’t heard her. He could keep them occupied until something—or someone—broke the stalemate.

“How do I know the woman is still alive?” he asked.

“She’s alive,” Leroy said, clutching his bloody shoulder and rolling to his knees, his face pale as milk. “But she won’t be much longer if you don’t do what we say. Drop the gun.”

Jacob let his pistol fall and raised his hands. “Why did you come back?” he asked.

“You think I’d let a bunch of ugly bitches drive us away?”

“So you thought you’d make them pay.”

“They will pay.”

“Didn’t you plan to take the woman and leave?”

“I’ll be back.”

“And I’ll find you. You think I believe you’ll let the woman go once you’re out of here? You’ll kill her, and there won’t be anything to stop me from getting you.”

Leroy glowered. It was obvious he knew Jacob wasn’t bluffing. The fight seemed to go out of him all at once, but Jacob wasn’t fooled.

“I’ve got a deal for you, Leroy,” he said. “Me for the woman.”

Silas giggled, but Leroy was listening. “What’s your relation with these females, Constantine?”

“They saved my life.”

“You want me to believe you’d give yourself up for some bitch you hardly know?”

“That’s right. I’ll ride with you, unarmed. Once we’re at the pass, you let the woman ride back, and you can do whatever you want with me.”

Leroy’s eyes narrowed in calculation. He was smart enough to realize that Jacob would never expect him to keep his part of the bargain, and he had a hard time believing Jacob would keep his.

But he couldn’t resist the temptation. “Okay,” he said. “I want to see you strip buck naked so I can make sure you don’t have any weapons on you. And you tell them bitches to keep away.”

“I need proof the woman’s alive and well enough to ride.”

Leroy jerked his head at Silas, who knelt beside Bonnie and turned her over. Her jaw was already black-and-blue from a nasty blow, but there was no visible blood on her clothes.

She groaned and tried to push Silas away. He helped her sit up, and she opened her eyes.

“Jacob?” she whispered.

“I’m here. You save your strength.”

“All right, Constantine,” Leroy said. “Throw your duds and gear down there, then climb up top and tell them females not to fire afore you come back.”