New partner? Longarm thought. What in blazes was Rainey talking about?
A second later, Longarm’s blood seemed to freeze as he heard Helene start screaming. He hurried forward, confident that her shrieks would now muffle any slight noise he might make moving through the brush. Just before he would have broken into the open, he dropped into a crouch behind the last screening bushes and parted the growth to peer through it.
Longarm’s breath caught in his throat. Lurching out of the cave behind Rainey was something the likes of which Longarm had never seen before. The creature was stooped over, but if it had been standing upright, he judged it would have been close to seven feet tall. A thick coat of matted brown fur covered its body. Huge clawed feet left deep impressions on the ground as it walked. A low growl rumbled from the creature’s throat as burning yellow eyes peered out of a forest of hair.
Was it a bear? Longarm asked himself. No, the bone structure was wrong, he decided. Some things about the monster looked almost human. Was it … could it be … a man? Longarm couldn’t tell, but he understood now why Rainey had been so scared that other time and why Helene was screaming now. Just looking at the thing made cold chills prickle along Longarm’s spine.
“My God!” exclaimed Booth. His face was pale and helooked like he wanted to run, but he controlled his fear with a visible effort. “You’re … you’re in league with the Brazos Devil!”
“Yep, you could say that,” Rainey replied as his grip on Helene’s neck tightened and he choked off her screams. “Him and me got together yesterday. I figured he was goin’ to kill me like he did those other folks, but he ain’t so bad if you don’t rile him. Him and me get along now, and he does just about anything I tell him to do, like grabbin’ this gal of yours for me. He just don’t like it when somebody tries to hurt him, or when they make a lot of noise. I reckon when those rancher’s boys who got killed a while back happened on him, they tried to lasso him or shoot him or something like that.”
“What about Marshal Long’s horse?” asked Booth.
Rainey shrugged. “All critters got to eat. Out here in the woods, you take what you can get.”
Helene was sobbing quietly now and shuddering in Rainey’s brutal grasp. Longarm wondered if he could put a bullet in the outlaw’s head from here, taking Rainey down with a quick kill. But even if he was able to do that, the Brazos Devil would still be right there to grab Helene. Longarm didn’t think he could drop the creature with a handgun.
Where the hell were Catamount Jack and Lucy? A couple of Big Fifties would come in mighty handy right about now.
For that matter, Singh had his master’s elephant gun slung on his back, but it would take time to bring the Markham & Halliday into firing position, time that none of them would have if trouble broke out. As far as Longarm could see, it was a standoff.
Then a slight motion caught his eye and he lifted his gaze to the bluff behind Rainey. Lucy Vermilion was up there, Longarm saw as his pulse quickened. She was working her way along the rugged face of the limestone, just as they had figured the Brazos Devil had done when it carried off Helene. Longarm didn’t see any sign of Catamount Jack, but he figured the mountain man was around somewhere close by. Lucy must have come to investigate the shooting the same as Longarm had, and now she was trying to get behind Rainey without the outlaw seeing her. So far she seemed to have been successful. Rainey never even glanced in her direction.
Lucy had her Sharps strapped to her back. She reached a spot almost directly behind the group on the ground, and settled into a little crease where a boulder jutted out from the bluff. Longarm watched as she brought the Sharps around and lifted it to her shoulder, steadying both herself and the big buffalo gun. He wasn’t sure what she intended to do, but it was obvious all hell was going to break loose around here in a matter of seconds. Longarm tensed and lifted his gun, ready to act as soon as Lucy made her move.
Unfortunately, Lord Beechmuir chose that moment to glance up, spot Lucy on the bluff, and exclaim, “Good Lord!”
Rainey twisted around, yanking Helene with him. The Brazos Devil turned too, just as Lucy fired. The Sharps boomed and the creature staggered, fur flying in the air from its left shoulder where the heavy slug merely grazed it. Longarm knew he couldn’t wait any longer. He burst out of the brush and yelled, “Rainey!”
The outlaw didn’t know which way to turn. He looked around frantically, uncertain which threat to react to first. Longarm couldn’t fire with Helene so close to Rainey, but Booth lunged forward, grabbing for his wife. He shouted, “I’m coming, Helene!”
The Brazos Devil let out a roar and swung a thick arm with surprising speed. The backhanded blow slammed into Lord Beechmuir and knocked him sprawling. The creature bellowed again and lifted both hands, apparently ready to club them down on Booth’s head and crush the Englishman’s skull.
Before the blow could fall, Singh was there, slashing at the Devil with the curved sword. The Sikh shouted his defiance in as fierce a tone as the monster had. He cut and thrust with the blade as the Brazos Devil attacked, enveloping Singh in its long, heavily muscled arms.
In the meantime, Ghote was rushing toward Rainey and Helene. The little Hindu had a dagger in his hand, and despite Longarm’s dislike for Ghote, he had to admit the servant wasn’t lacking in courage. Charging into the barrel of a gun armed only with a small knife was an act of bravery—or desperation. Maybe Ghote just didn’t want to lose all the benefits he had gained from his mistress’s laudanum addiction.
Rainey saw Ghote coming and triggered a quick shot at him. The bullet hit Ghote in the chest and spun him around. While he was falling, a groggy Lord Beechmuir regained his feet and threw himself at Rainey, crashing into the outlaw and loosening his grip on Helene. She jerked free and tried to run, making only a few feet before she stumbled and fell.
But that took her out of the line of fire, and Longarm yelled at her husband, “Get down, Booth!”
Lord Beechmuir didn’t have much choice in the matter. Rainey slashed at him with the gun and the barrel raked along the side of Booth’s head. The Englishman fell.
For the first time, Longarm had a wide-open shot as Rainey turned toward him again. He took it, triggering twice before the outlaw could fire. Both slugs thudded into Rainey’s chest and drove him backward. His eyes widened in pain and shock, but he still tried to lift his pistol and bring it to bear on Longarm.
The next instant, Rainey’s head practically exploded as Lucy Vermilion’s Sharps blasted again. The slug bored through the outlaw’s brain and burst out the other side of his skull. The gruesome corpse swayed there for a second, already dead but not aware of it yet, before it slowly toppled over.
