Scott smiled faintly. “Phantom’s a one-man horse. He doesn’t care much for other people messing with him.”
“You’re lucky I didn’t throw your saddle on another hoss instead of riskin’ life and limb the way I did.” Coffin came farther into the dining room and peered down at Deke. “This old boy’s still out cold, I see.”
“You hit him pretty hard,” said Longarm. “You may have killed him.”
“Good riddance,” muttered Coffin. “Now, how are we goin’ to go about gettin’ out of here?”
“Scott and I were just talking about that. We need a diversion to clear the way to the gap in the wall around this place.”
Scott said, “I suggested that I set off a few sticks of dynamite up at the far end of the canyon.”
Coffin grunted. “Might as well put a gun to your head and pull the trigger. You’d never get out alive.”
“We don’t know that. And it’s worth a try, don’t you think? You and Marshal Long can take Barton and Senorita Guiterrez back to Texas that way.”
“Well, you’re about the oddest owlhoot I’ve ever run across,” said Coffin, “offerin’ to give up your own life to save ours that way.”
“Maybe we should draw straws to see who takes the dynamite,” Longarm suggested.
Scott smiled again. “I’m the one who knows where it is. And besides, as Ranger Coffin pointed out earlier, I’m the one who got us into this.” With a smooth movement, he holstered his guns and started toward the patio door, pausing only long enough to pick up his hat from a side table and settle it on his head. “Give me ten minutes.” With that he was gone, vanishing into the shadows outside.
“Damn it,” grated Coffin. “You reckon we can trust that hombre, Long?”
“I don’t see that we’ve got much choice,” Longarm replied. He moved toward the end of the table. “On your feet, Sonia.”
Her lovely features contorted with hate until they were anything but beautiful. “You will never get away with this, Custis,” she said, practically spitting the words at him. “Turning you over to the Yaquis is too good for you. We will hang you from your feet and let you roast in the sun.”
Longarm ignored the threat and motioned with the gun in his hand for Sonia to stand up. She did so reluctantly.
“There’s no need for all these melodramatics, gentlemen,” Barton said suddenly. “There’s plenty of money to be made in this arrangement, plenty to go around for everyone. All you have to do is put up those guns and join us.”
Coffin grinned. “Sounds to me like this fella’s startin’ to get a mite scared, Long. You reckon he figures there’s a chance we might actually get him back to Texas to face a hang-rope?”
“Could be,” said Longarm.
Barton’s face was pale and taut. “Come now,” he insisted, “how much does either of you make in a year’s time? Give up this ridiculous idea and I can promise you ten times as much.”
Longarm shook his head. “Might as well forget about it, Barton.
Money’s mighty nice, but there’s some things it won’t buy.”
“That’s preposterous-“ the renegade diplomat began, but Coffin interrupted him.
“How long’s Scott been gone?” asked the Ranger.
“Almost long enough,” Longarm replied. He started toward the patio door. “Come on, you two,” he said to Barton and Sonia. “By the time we all get mounted up, it’ll be time to go.”
“Custis, please,” begged Sonia. “If I ever meant anything to you ...”
“You meant just as much to me,” Longarm said coldly, “as I meant to you.”
Again her face twisted in a snarl as her true feelings were revealed.
Under the threat of Longarm’s gun, she started slowly toward the door.
Barton moved alongside her.
That was when Deke surged up from the floor and leaped toward Coffin, grabbing the big Ranger’s gun arm and thrusting it toward the ceiling. “Get the marshal, Barton!” Deke shouted.
Barton had no intention of tackling Longarm physically, though. As Longarm swung instinctively toward the fight between Coffin and Deke, Barton grabbed Sonia’s arm, shoved her at Longarm, then threw himself toward the long table. Scott had left the diplomat’s pistol lying on the far end. While Longarm struggled with Sonia, who was trying to claw his eyes out, Barton slid full-length along the polished wood, scattering the platters of food and reaching out to close his hand around the butt of the gun.
Over the shoulder of the cursing, spitting Sonia, Longarm saw Barton reach the pistol and twist back toward him. Silence was no longer an option. Longarm backhanded Sonia, knocking her to the side, and jerked up the pistol in his other hand. He and Barton fired at the same time, the mingled explosions deafening in the low-ceilinged room.
Longarm was accustomed to standing up in the face of enemy fire. Barton wasn’t. The slug from Barton’s gun whined harmlessly past Longarm’s head to thud into the far wall. Longarm’s bullet ripped into Barton and flung him backward off the table. Barton gave one brief cry of pain before he slammed into the floor and lay still and quiet, blood pooling under his side.
Deke still had hold of Coffin’s gun arm, holding the weapon away from him. But Coffin’s other hand was wrapped around Deke’s throat, and as Longarm turned toward them, the muscles in the Ranger’s arms and shoulders corded and bunched under the homespun shirt. Coffin lifted Deke off the floor and let him dangle. Deke had no choice but to let go of Coffin’s gun arm and try to break the death grip.
He wasn’t in time. Coffin’s hand squeezed even tighter as he jerked his arm, and Longarm heard the sharp crack of Deke’s neck breaking. The outlaw went limp, and when Coffin released him, Deke slumped to the floor as if every bone in his body had turned to jelly. He would never lead another raid pretending to be El Aguila.
But there was no time for the lawmen to congratulate themselves, Longarm knew. That pair of shots would bring down a storm of trouble on their heads in a matter of moments. If they were getting out of there, they had to go now.
“Head for the horses!” Longarm snapped as he stuck the pistol behind his belt.
“What are you goin’ to do?” asked Coffin.
Longarm bent and hefted Sonia’s body. She was still half stunned from the backhand blow. “We’re taking at least one prisoner back to Texas,” Longarm said grimly as he threw her over his shoulder.
That was assuming, of course, that any of them reached the border alive.
Chapter 16
Longarm heard shouts of alarm nearby as they hurried across the patio. Sonia was no lightweight, and she became even more of a handful as her wits returned to her and she began to struggle. “Stop it!” Longarm hissed at her. “Damn it, Sonia, I don’t want to knock you out, but I will if I have to!”
“Bastard!” she yelped as she struck at his back with her fists.
“Amigos! Back here! Help me!”
She was kicking her feet at the same time, and as one of them sunk into Longarm’s belly and made him gasp for breath, he muttered, “The hell ... with this!”
He stopped short, lowered the surprised Sonia, and clouted her in the jaw with a loose fist. Her head jerked to the side, and she once again slumped senseless in his arms. Longarm bent over and lifted her onto his shoulder again.
“If you’re through waltzin’ around with that gal, Long,” called Coffin, “you’d better get mounted up.” The big Ranger had already swung up into the saddle of one of the horses tied at the edge of the patio.
There was an extra mount now that Barton wouldn’t be coming with them. Longarm didn’t want to take the time to tie Sonia onto the saddle of the remaining horse either. He said to Coffin, “Grab the reins of those other critters. We may need extra mounts before we’re through.”