pocket, pointed it at El Diablo, and squeezed the trigger.
Click.
El Diablo smiled.
'That must be disappointing, Governor.'
'A bit.'
He must have shot both barrels at Hector. He dropped the Derringer on the floor.
'But that was a clever try. Your wife does have beautiful legs.'
'I need to help Jesse,' Lindsay said.
'Yes. Of course.'
She went to the doctor and dropped to her knees next to him.
'I need to cut his pants leg.'
El Diablo tossed scissors from his desk to her. She cut the doctor's trouser leg.
'Will he live?' Bode said.
'He's in shock. I need blankets.'
'In the closet outside.'
Lindsay stood and went outside. She gagged at the sight of a decapitated man. But she went closer and picked up a gun with a long tube on the barrel lying nearby. She then opened the closet and removed several blankets. She placed the blankets over the gun. She went back inside and covered Jesse with a blanket.
But she held the gun.
'I did not want that,' Enrique said to her husband. 'This is not about the doctor. This is about you.'
'You wanted me here. I'm here. Let them go. Let her save the doctor. Shoot me if you want, but let them go.'
'Yes, okay.'
Enrique raised the AK-47 and shot Bode.
'Bode!'
The force knocked him to the floor. Lindsay released the gun under the blanket and went to her husband. She knelt over him and checked his wound. The bullet had struck him in his right shoulder.
A hot, sharp pain burned through Bode's shoulder. He didn't think it was a fatal wound, but his right arm was useless. He reached into his coat pocket with his left hand.
'I love you, Lindsay. I'm sorry I hurt you. I'm sorry I didn't come here and beg you to come back to me. But I'm gonna get you and the doc back across the border. After I kill this son of a bitch.'
El Diablo snorted. 'You Texans, always with the cowboy talk.'
He again pointed the AK-47 at Bode, but then seemed to think otherwise. He placed the gun on the desk then picked up the machete.
'You killed my son, Governor, now I must kill you. But I will not kill you like a coward, as you killed my son. I will kill you as a man
… mano a mano.'
He stepped closer with the machete. Bode pushed Lindsay away.
'I killed your son because he was gonna kill a young girl.'
'No! Jesus would never have hurt a child! He would never violate the code!'
'He beat her, and he raped her! A twelve-year-old girl!'
'No! I do not believe you!'
'You don't want to believe it, but you know it's the truth. The girl said he did. The other kids witnessed it. Your son was a sick fucking bastard just like his daddy!'
El Diablo glared at the governor of Texas.
'I will kill you now.'
'Bring it, you crazy-ass bastard! I'm not afraid to die!'
'Good-because you are about to.'
He raised his machete, but Lindsay threw her body over Bode.
' Senora Bonner, move away. I do not want you hurt. But the governor, he must die. Now.'
El Diablo reached down and took her shoulder to pull her away from Bode, and when he did his face came within reach of Bode's long left arm-which Bode swung up and across El Diablo's face. He stumbled backwards and grabbed his face. Blood oozed from between his fingers.
' What… what is that?'
Bode pushed himself up off the floor and held out the scalpel he had found in Jesse's coat. El Diablo seemed stunned.
'A scalpel? You brought a scalpel?'
'Doc did.'
El Diablo's face now showed his renewed determination to kill the governor of Texas. Bode searched for weapons. On a shelf were signed baseballs on small stands. He grabbed one.
'Do not touch my beisbols! '
Bode threw the ball at El Diablo. He ducked. Bode threw another. He ducked again. Bode threw baseballs until he ran out. Of baseballs, not balls. Because his only goal in life-his last goal in life-was to get his wife and the doctor back across the border. So he now fought with an energy that came from fear of failure, not of death. El Diablo stepped forward and swung the machete with both hands, again and again, blood dripping from the cut on his face. Bode jumped and ducked, but he felt the sharp blade slice through the skin on his left arm and bring blood. He knew the odds were against him, so on the next swing, Bode rushed El Diablo and tackled him with a ferocity he hadn't felt in twenty-five years. He wanted to drive this son of a bitch into the tile floor more than he had ever wanted to drive an opponent into the turf of a football field. They went down to the floor hard, and he felt the air come out of El Diablo as Bode's full weight landed on top of him, and he heard the machete's metal blade slide across the floor. Bode's right arm hung limp, but he punched El Diablo with his left fist as they rolled across the hard tile. He was determined to beat El Diablo to death, and might have, but a sudden sharp pain consumed his body. El Diablo kneed him in his balls. He released his grip, and when he looked up, El Diablo stood over him with the machete raised.
'I now avenge my son's murder. I now have justice.'
'Stop!'
El Diablo froze. Lindsay pointed Eddie's silenced Glock at him.
'Shoot him!' Bode said.
Enrique de la Garza smiled down at the governor of Texas.
'Oh, Governor, your wife and I have plans. She will not shoot me.'
She shot him. Twice.
Enrique fell backwards against the desk, the pain in his chest fierce and hot. He had been shot three times before, but he knew instantly that this would be the final time. His eyes turned down to the holes in his chest. He put his free hand over the wounds, and it was soon bloody. His breath came harder now, and he spit blood. Enrique de la Garza would die that night in Nuevo Laredo. He turned his bloody palm up, then he turned to the governor's wife.
'But we had plans.'
'That was my plan,' the governor's wife said.
Enrique de la Garza would never again read the ingles to Carmelita or listen to Julio's Bach. He would never again experience romance or feel the love of a woman. He would die alone. He would die now. He dropped the machete and stumbled outside onto the balcony. He leaned against the railing and gazed down at his beloved Rio Bravo.
Bode pushed himself up and wiped blood from his face, his blood or El Diablo's, he didn't know. He stepped out onto the balcony. El Diablo leaned against the railing, breathing hard and bleeding profusely.
'Please, Governor, do not let my children see me like this.'
'What do you want?'
'Help me over, so that I may die in the Rio Bravo.'
'Why should I?'
'Because we are not so different, you and I.'
