Silver Nights With You (Love in the Sierras Book 1) (26 page)

Argyle peered through the window, assessing the situation as he raised the gun Morgan had given him. He looked over at David, taking aim through the other window flanking the front door. They exchanged a nod.

“I’ll do my best,” Argyle whispered. “But I’ve never fired a gun in my life. I’ll aim for the guy on horseback so that I don’t accidentally hit Val. I’m relying on you to kill that bastard ringleader.”

David nodded and peered down the barrel aimed right at the side of Jared Percy’s head. Argyle wiped beads of sweat from his temple and took a few deep breaths, feeling his age for the first time in a while. When he commanded the shaking in his hands to cease, he began counting down.

“Three, two,” he cocked the hammer. “One.”

He and David pulled their triggers at the exact same moment. What the doctor missed, however, was the last-minute swivel of David’s aim. As he felt a cold spread of tingling in his chest he turned to see the curling smoke of David’s gun pointed right at him, and he crumpled to the ground in wide-eyed shock.

A bullet ripped from the front window and pinged into the dirt beside Bobby’s horse, frightening the animal into a jump that tossed its rider to the ground. He landed in a roll and came up firing rapidly at the house, shattering glass windows and splintering wood. Jared had lunged away at the zinging sound of a bullet so close, and Val made his escape at a dead run.

As he pumped his legs toward Morgan and Lila, Jared leapt back to his feet. His left arm refused to lift so he raised the pistol in his right hand and aimed it at Val’s back. Morgan knocked Lila to the ground and covered her when the shooting started, but he looked backed to see Val running his way as Jared raised his gun.

“Val! Get down!”

Without looking back, Val dove to the ground in a somersault as Jared let loose a bullet and missed. He sprang back up to his feet in a sprint as Jared cocked again.

“Morgan! Go! Get out of here!” Val called, waving his hands erratically.

Time ground almost to a stop as Morgan watched the second round of bullets fly toward Val, this time from Jared and Bobby. One ripped through his upper right shoulder while the other tore through the lower left side of his back, bursting out of his front in a crimson spray that sent his brother’s body flopping and skidding across the ground.

“
No!
” Morgan wailed as he ran to Val, tears rushing to his eyes. The shooting had gone quiet while Bobby worked at reloading, and Jared mounted Bobby’s horse. Morgan turned Val’s body over gently, filling his hands with blood as he did so. “Val…” he sobbed. “Oh, God!”

Lila ran to his side, hiding a sob behind the hand clasped over her mouth. Neither saw the rope slinging through the air until it landed around Morgan’s throat. He had just enough time to work a few fingers between it and his neck before Jared rode the horse away, dragging Morgan’s body behind him.

“Morgan!” Lila shrieked as she ran after him.

Jared dragged him all the way to the metal arch of the gateway and tossed the end of the rope over to Bobby, who caught it and then threw it back to Jared. He wrapped it twice around the saddle horn so that he could use his good hand to hold his gun. He backed the horse up slowly.

Morgan felt the thick rope pressing his fingers against his throat as he was pulled to a stand. His eyes were watery from tears but he saw Lila running frantically toward him before Bobby grabbed her and forced her to watch as his body went up until only the tips of his toes touched the ground.

“Uh oh. Uh oh,” Jared jeered and laughed. “How far can he stretch those toes?”

“Stop it!” Lila screamed, fighting against Bobby’s restraining hands. “You’re killing him!”

“What did you think we were here for?” he laughed and backed the horse up until Morgan was dangling in the air, the veins in his neck popping as he fought for breath, and Lila screamed even louder.

David emerged from the house, dragging his bloodied leg behind him. He was full of pain and fury, ready to kill anything that gave him the slightest provocation. Morgan’s body dangled in the distance. Lila’s sobbing wails lent an eerie sound to the otherwise deathly-still air. His eyes fell on the unmoving body of Valentine Kelly, and he stopped in his tracks. The ground beneath him was a thick burgundy pool. With a vengeful roar, David raised his gun and fired at Bobby’s back.

Lila fell forward as the dead weight of his body toppled over her. Blood pumped onto her hair and back from the hole in his chest. She tried to claw her way out from beneath him but it wasn’t until David reached down and lent his assistance that she was freed.

“David!” she screamed as he lifted her up to stand beside him. She held onto his arm for balance, all of her strength having abandoned her. “David, please help Morgan! Shoot Jared.”

“If I shoot him, it’ll scare the horse,” David told her quietly. “The rope is tied to the saddle. If he takes off, Morgan’ll be dead before he hits the road.”

Lila’s cries intensified as David glared at Jared, who already had his six-shooter aimed at him.

“Well, well, well,” Jared mused. “Here we are, Mack. Just you and me now. What’s this look I see on your face? It’s not quite anger. I’ve seen that often enough on you. I know what it is,” he said with his eyes springing mockingly wide. “It’s distress. I can just hear what’s running through your head right now. Let me guess. Is it: this wasn’t part of the plan?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, you filthy piece of scum.”

“Oh, I see. It’s time to play possum, is it? Well, I’ll tell you what. Why don’t I just ease this little fella down while we have a chat?” He walked the horse forward, lowering a purple-faced Morgan until his feet fully touched the ground. There wasn’t enough slack for him to collapse, but he still gulped at the air nonetheless.

“You see, Miss Cameron let slip an interesting bit of information earlier. I wasn’t about to believe her then, but seeing as how she’s called you David twice it’s a bit hard to ignore now. So, which are you? David or Mack?”

“What is he talking about David?” Lila asked as she peered up into his unmoving features. His eyes were fixed on Jared, the gun still raised and very much a threat.

“I’ll tell you,” Jared offered. “About two months back we met at a Faro table in The Silver Queen, came upon some drunken miner talking it up about how he sold his claim to Leonard Stacy for a handsome sum of ten thousand cash. Told us the old millionaire would be bringing it personally in September, even told us the date and time. I won’t lie, I had my own thoughts about intercepting that coach, but Mack cornered me later that night and offered to split the pot if I rounded up a few men to help us relieve the rich man of his goods. There were five of us in on the deal. We robbed a few of the Carson stages first just to butter ourselves up for the mother lode.”

“Don’t waste your lies on us,” David answered. “You think any of these people will believe the words of a gutless low-life like you?”

“Why would David hire you to rob the stage when he was the one who foiled the robbery?” Lila asked.

“That is a good question,” Jared said. “One I’d like an answer to myself. We mixed up the day of Stacy’s arrival, you see, and came at y’all instead. My guess is that Mack, here, was scouting out the road. That was always his job, to survey the road conditions, the lighting and the surroundings before we went. We weren’t expecting that driver and his man riding shotgun to put up such a fight. We thought they’d pull over like the other drivers. When they started firing, it didn’t bode well for Mack’s plan.

“See, killing wasn’t ever a part of the deal, but if a man gets shot at he has a right to shoot back. Things went tits-up real quick once the shooting started. I imagine Mack had a pretty nice view of things where he was and seized on the opportunity to play hero, just like he’s trying to do now.”

Lila took a step away from David, horror seizing her features. She backed away again, closer to Morgan. David’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“Don’t tell me you’re actually listening to this deranged lunatic,” he said incredulously. “Lila, don’t let him play you.”

“He came storming into the hideout last night, mad as a bull with a burr up his ass and ready to spill blood,” Jared continued as if he’d never heard David. “At first, I thought he was just mad at us for not leaving town like he paid us to after the botched robbery, but once I got here it all suddenly became clear. This man stole his woman, and he was planning to use me to get rid of him, just like he used all of us to rob and steal for him.

Jared looked at Lila. “Course, he wasn’t even supposed to be here when we did it. He was just supposed to show us the way, drive you all out into the open with your guards down and then be on his way. Kill only this man, here, and leave everyone else alive. That was the plan, right, Mack? Thing is, I don’t ever do a thing unless there’s something in it for me. With the stage robberies, it was five thousand greenbacks. This, here, is about my brother, and a fine deliverance it is to be staring at the two who did it.”

“Are you finished yet?” David growled.

“Nothin’s finished yet,” Jared said, his voice lowering, his eyes clamped onto David’s. “You know how this is going to end, don’t you? Ain’t a one of us gonna walk away from this alive.”

“Well, then,” David replied. “Let’s start the killing with you.”

His arm sprang up with the gun, and they fired simultaneously. Jared slumped forward on his horse with a yelp. The animal reared and punched the air with its hooves, causing Jared to slip off of the back. David fired rapidly, one bullet following the next in quick succession. Several shots buried into the horse’s breast and it reared again before toppling to its side.

The rope tied around the pommel tightened when the animal collapsed, and it pulled Morgan up off his feet again and into the air. Lila screamed his name and ran to him while he fought desperately to cling to life. She wrapped her arms around his legs and tried to lift him to relieve the pressure, but on her first attempt she knew she hadn’t the strength. He kicked out a boot to her and she looked up into his face. He shook his foot and widened his eyes, relaying a desperate message.

She lifted his pant leg and found the hilt of a knife sticking out of his boot. Quickly, she unsheathed it and ran to the dead horse, sawing through the rope as fast as she could. When it finally came apart in a bundle of frays Morgan’s body dropped to the ground and the noose went slack enough for him to pull it over his head.

Lila slid to his side and threw her arms around him, sobbing into his shoulder. David had collapsed to the ground while dodging Jared’s bullet and his wounded leg didn’t allow him to stand unaided. Morgan fought to his feet, his chest and throat roaring with a fire-like pain. Lila pushed herself up under his armpit so that he could lean on her.

They staggered to David and after a long moment of scrutiny Morgan reached down and pulled the man to his feet. Jared’s story sounded too fitting to ignore entirely, but Morgan knew that David was directly responsible for saving his life.

“You did what I would have done,” Morgan rasped. “Shot the horse.”

David nodded. “It was the only way I could see you getting out of this.”

“Thank you.”

No words were spoken as they hobbled back in the direction of the house, Morgan refusing to acknowledge his brother’s body or the cold weight pressing on his heart. Collette was rounding the house, the tiny hand of Helene clutched in hers, a gun clasped in the other.

As they all locked eyes, they watched Collette’s gaze dart to a distant spot behind them, and just as Helene’s mouth fell open to scream, the seamstress whipped the gun up and in one swift movement of her hand cocked and fired. Morgan, Lila and David all turned to see Jared fall from a standing position, a clear circle the size of a bullet dotting his forehead.

“Him next!” Helene said, causing every head to swivel back around. Her arm was outstretched and one long index finger pointed right at David. Collette looked down at Helene, nonplussed.

“What do you mean?”

“He’s with the bad men,” she answered. “He shot the doctor!”

Lila gasped.

“No, I didn’t, little one,” David said in counterfeit smoothness, prompting a sigh of relief from Lila. “The bad men shot up the house and got both me and the doctor. See?” He lifted his leg to show the wound, but she shook her head vehemently.

“That’s not true,” she said. “I saw what you did. The doctor wanted to save Val and Morgan. When he told you to shoot out the window, you shot him! Shot him dead!”

David heaved an exasperated sigh. He was at the end of his tether for the day’s spoilers. He scratched his temple with the tip of his gun and laughed maniacally, causing every face to drop in shock. Without warning, he whipped his gun hand out toward Helene, cocking the hammer as he went. Multiple shots pounded the air.

When the smoke cleared, David was bleeding the ground red. Collette twirled back the gun she’d just fired, and Argyle was slumped against the open doorway, a steaming gun falling from his hand.

“Teach you to shoot me, you bastard,” the old man croaked, and Lila ran to him.

“Papa! You’re all right.”

“Well, I’m spewing blood like a well and I’m pretty sure my collar bone is shattered,” he said gruffly. “But I’m alive and aim to be for a while yet.”  He looked from one face to another. “Where’s Valentine?”