filtered into the alley, Longarm could barely see the smooth, straight columns of her bare legs. She spread her legs a little and leaned back against the wall of a building, her skirt up around her hips now so that he could see the thick forest of dark hair at the juncture of her thighs. She closed her eyes as she breathed hard and waited for him to ravish her.
Longarm was ready to do just that. His pole jutted out from his trousers as he undid the buttons. He stepped up between her spread legs and heard her crooning obscenities in Spanish under her breath. “Hard and fast, Senor Long,” she whispered. “Take me hard and fast.”
She was really something, thought Longarm. But he gave her what she wanted—hard and fast.
Her channel was wet and ready for him, and the feminine muscles clasped him in a hot, buttery grip as he filled her. “Yes, yes!” she chanted. Longarm thrust in and out of her, not bothering to try to delay anything this time. She was more than ready. She was, in fact, way ahead of him. He hadn’t stroked into her more than half-a-dozen times when she began to spasm around him. Her hands grabbed his shoulders and hung on tightly as her climax shook her. Longarm kept driving into her, and each time his shaft socketed home, she gave a sharp little cry of passion.
He felt his own climax boiling up with an intensity that was surprising considering the short time he had been inside her. With Sonia Guiterrez, though, time didn’t really mean much. A few minutes with her packed in all the desperate craving that might take an hour with most women. With a grunt of effort, Longarm slammed into her again, almost lifting her off her feet, and began spurting.
Sonia flung her arms around his neck and pulled his head down so that she could kiss him again. Longarm groaned as the last of his climax rippled and swept through him. Even though the lovemaking with Sonia had lasted only a few minutes, it had been every bit as good as Longarm had anticipated.
So good, in fact, that it was a few seconds before he heard the yelling and the gunshots over the pounding of the blood in his head.
But then the sounds penetrated his passion-numbed brain and caused him to jerk around, pulling out of Sonia’s embrace. “What the hell!” Longarm exclaimed.
The thunder of galloping hoofbeats came from the street. Longarm was already heading in that direction, buttoning up his fly as he hurried toward the sound of trouble. He palmed out his Colt as he came out of the alley mouth and bounded up onto the boardwalk.
Several riders were galloping along the street toward him. Bright orange muzzle flashes split the night, accompanied by the boom of shots. Over the racket, Longarm heard the yells of alarm. “El Aguila! El Aguila!”
“Damn it!” Longarm grated. The outlaw leader had come back after all.
What was he after now, since he had already cleaned out the bank?
Longarm lifted his gun and squeezed off a shot at one of the galloping, shooting raiders. The darkness made for uncertain shooting, and he didn’t think he hit anything. The shot drew the attention of the outlaws, however, and a second later Longarm was forced to dart back into the alley as a hail of owlhoot lead raked across the boardwalk where he had been standing.
“Senor Long!” Sonia screamed from somewhere down the alley, but there was no passion in her voice now, only fear.
“Stay back!” Longarm shouted at her. “Get back in the shadows and stay down!”
El Aguila’s men pounded past the mouth of the alley. Longarm threw himself onto the ground, expecting them to throw more lead in his direction, but something else had already caught their attention and they were shooting at it. As the raiders swept past, Longarm scrambled back to his feet.
If the bandits were following the same pattern as before, they would make several passes through town before fleeing. Enough time had passed since the first raid for the banker to have replaced at least some of the stolen cash with more currency from the reserve bank in San Antonio, Longarm realized. Maybe that was what they were after.
He leaped back onto the boardwalk, hoping that Coffin would have the sense to stay where he was in the hotel and keep the members of the diplomatic parties there too.
Except for Sonia, of course. She had already slipped out of the hotel, so it was too late to do anything except hope that she would lie low until after the raid was over.
Longarm looked toward the far end of the street, where just as he had thought they would be, the outlaws were wheeling their horses for another swift gallop through Del Rio. This time Longarm was sure they were after something else, because simply shooting up the town wasn’t going to gain them anything. He turned and ran toward the sheriff’s office, thinking that he ought to join forces with Sanderson.
Before he could get there, he heard the crackle of more gunfire coming from the direction he was going. He had been right—the gang had split up, and while some of them were raising a deadly ruckus by riding up and down the street and shooting, the rest of the outlaws were up to some even more sinister purpose. Longarm ran harder as he saw muzzle flashes in the vicinity of the sheriff’s office.
The outlaws were after Sanderson, he thought. They must have considered the lawman a threat, and now they were trying to get rid of him. Several men on horseback reared their mounts in front of the adobe building that housed the sheriff’s office and jail and poured lead through the windows and the open door.
Longarm drooped into a crouch behind a rain barrel that was probably seldom used in this dry border country. It would give him some cover as he tried to catch El Aguila’s men in a cross fire. Sanderson was already fighting back from inside the jail. Longarm heard the boom of a shotgun, and saw one of the outlaws slump in the saddle.
He lined his sights on another of the mounted figures and squeezed the trigger. The outlaw’s hat flew off, and with a startled yell, he jerked his horse around so that he was facing Longarm. He fired the pistol in his hand, and Longarm ducked as slugs knocked splinters from the barrel.
“This’ll root him out of there!” shouted another member of the gang.
Longarm lifted his head and peered over the top of the barrel in time to see a stick of dynamite spinning through the air, trailing sparks from its furiously burning length of fuse. It disappeared through the open door of the
