“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.”
“That’s just what I was thinkin’,” said Coffin as he leaned over to jerk loose the reins from the flowering shrub where he had tied them.
Longarm saw that Coffin had brought the bay mare from the stable. With a grunt of approval, he slung Sonia’s body over the back of the horse, just in front of the saddle. Holding her there awkwardly, he mounted the bay and took hold of its reins.
A group of outlaws came boiling around the corner of the house, while several more ran out the rear door. One of the men yelled orders in Spanish, while another shouted, “There they are! Don’t let ‘em get away!”
Longarm snapped a shot at the group on the patio while Coffin threw lead at the ones near the corner of the house. The gunfire made all of the outlaws duck back into cover. Longarm and Coffin jabbed the heels of their boots into the flanks of their mounts, and the horses leaped forward into a gallop.
Wisely, Coffin had left the rear gate open when he brought the horses from the stable. The fugitives galloped through the opening as guns began to bang behind them. The outlaws had hesitated before opening fire, obviously fearing—and rightly so—that Sonia was with Longarm and Coffin. But they were unwilling to let the two lawmen escape, even if it meant taking a chance on hitting Sonia.
Riding fast in the dark like this was a chancy proposition, but Longarm and Coffin had no choice. They circled the hacienda at breakneck speed, heading for the trail that led to the gap at the end of the valley. Longarm had his hands full keeping Sonia on the horse with one hand while trying to control the galloping animal with the other.
He was also worried about Walt Scott. The man called El Aguila had to have heard the shots from the
