CHAPTER THREE

A few minutes earlier as the patrons of the Lucky Seven had fled in fear, most of them had moved on to other saloons and gambling halls that populated the dusty Arizona town. No one went running for the law as there had been none in the town since the Sheriff and both his deputies had died trying to break up a brawl at the Ace of Diamond Gambling den two months earlier. In the aftermath to add insult to injury one of the deputies had died accidentally, caught in the crossfire between the other lawmen trying to take down the brawlers.

So, forever hoping to make a grand score, into this lawless environment had ridden three down on their luck, two-bit criminals. Hustlers, petty thieves, and grifters, all these descriptions could be applied to the trio. Their self-appointed leader Ike Tidings, his wife Judy Rose and her brother Zeb Gibson had been among those who had bolted out the door but had not dispersed. They along with others had taken position at one of the four glass windows that fronted the gambling palace. Some of the people peering through the windows were drawn to the spectacle of four women of scattered races taking on a pack of hardened criminals. Most however lingered in concern for the money they had abandoned without thinking.

Ike's interest was not on the four females but on the stacks and stacks of money that dotted the various tables, abandoned by their owners in a panic, not a dime of which belonged to them. His crew had been in the Lucky Seven looking to scout a target for the old "Badger Game." Judy Rose would find someone to seduce and later he and Zeb would bust in on them and shake down the hapless dupe for all he was worth.

Suddenly the opportunity had presented itself like a gift from above. All that money…just sitting there ripe for the taking, the opportunity for that elusive grand score had finally arrived. Hastily he had pulled his wife and her brother to the side.

“Lissen you two. All that money in there! That’s gonna be ours! Thing is we gotta move quick before someone else gets the same idea.”

“You think we can just walk in there and take it? What about that band of bitches in there? Didn’t you hear? That hombre they got the drop on turns out was “Five Shot McGivers! One of the best gunslingers in the west.”

Judy Rose’s pale blue eyes lit up, warming to her man’s plan, “Easy! We get the drop on them ourselves!”

Quickly they hashed the plan. The men would sneak around back and climb up to the second floor. Once inside they would emerge on the balcony and surprise the women. Judy Rose came up with the idea that they would need to make a quick getaway because some of the people at the windows with them likely were the owners of the money they were about to make off with. Her solution was the bonus of adding the fine-looking coach sitting right outside to their bounty. Zeb had protested that they would be abandoning his horse and the one the Tidings shared but his sister quickly pointed out with the money they were going to make off with they could buy a half dozen horses worth more than their pair of old nags.

Zeb agreed, and as he and Ike ducked into the alley, Judy Rose had moved to untie the team of horses she had seen the Mexican woman tether to the hitching post when had pulled up with the China woman. Quickly she slipped onto the seat unnoticed by the watchers, still rapt with the goings on inside. Beneath the bench she had noticed a Winchester was bolted horizontally on the front of the box housing the bench, obviously carried for protection. There was a small lock on it but using one of her hairpins, for a grifter like her, she made quick work of picking it and soon the rifle was in her hands. A quick check revealed it to be locked and loaded. From that point on all she had to do was wait for the fireworks.

***

Cassandra called out to Catalina as she just finished checking to make sure the cuffs on Pete were secure. She told her she wanted the privilege of locking the cuffs on the wrists of "Five Shot," one of the West's most notorious outlaws. Catalina had only taken two steps in her direction when a voice from above had boomed out.

“Everyone reach for the sky!”

The Wildes, the Indian woman Silver Moon, McGivers and Pete were all taken by surprise. The other two still lay on the floor semi out of it from the blows they had suffered at the hands of Honor Elizabeth and Catalina. Looking up Cassandra's green eyes fixed themselves on a pair of scruffy looking men in worn dungarees and faded vests. One man featured a scruffy beard, and the other only sported a thick brown mustache like his shaggy hair sticking out from underneath his Stetson.

What she noticed the most, however, were the two six guns each man had pointing down at them from the balcony overlooking the floor of the gambling den. One of the men had his gun pointing directly at her, and the other had his trained-on Honor Elizabeth who was the closest to them, standing next to where the drunk was sprawled out on the bar almost directly below where the men stood on the balcony.

“Lose that gun woman and you too colored girl with that derringer! Hurry up now and don’t’ even think of trying to shoot. Zeb here will drop this black cutie quicker than you can say glory halleluiah!” the man with the mustache ordered.

Cassandra tightened her grip on her pearl-handled silver-plated Colt .45 that her Uncle Nathanial had gifted her along with its twin many years ago. Her teeth mashed together, thinking of the other gun resting now in the back seat of their father's coach outside. When she had decided to play act as Sara Drew, she felt it wise to don a holster with just one of her guns in it as showing up packing both of them she figured would make McGivers suspicious that there was more to her than some desperate, grieving widow attempting a hopeless revenge. If she had them both in her hands right now, she had a high degree of confidence she could drop the men with simultaneous shots. She didn't have them, however, and she was not going to risk Honor's life trying to get them both, one right after the other.

"Toss them irons behind the bar now! I know Ike and he ain't gonna ask again!" Zeb blustered.

Cassandra looked at Honor Elizabeth and nodded, and both women hurled their guns towards the bar. Being closer Honor's derringer easily flew over it smashing a bottle of gin on the rack behind it, but Cassandra's Colt struck the surface of the bar next to the passed-out man but then bounced and disappeared behind the bar.

Satisfied the two new arrivals came sweeping down the stairs as Cassandra looked at McGivers and felt her blood simmering at the smug look on his face that things suddenly weren’t going the Wildes way. She’d wipe that away later, right now there was this new threat.

"The best-laid plans…" she muttered as she eyed Lijuan who looked like she was like a coil ready to spring. A subtle shake of her head told her sister to stand down. They would have their moment, but this wasn't it.

"Who the hell are you women anyway? Never seen a collection like you all under one roof before?" Ike called out grinning, but none of the Wildes bothered to answer him. Shrugging it off he began to wave his gun towards the alcove where the "Midnight Stakes" was to be held.

“You all is too spread out! I want you all over there where I can keep an eye on you while my brother in law collects up this here money!”

Zeb drew up behind Honor and slapped her on her heart shaped ass causing her eyes to flash in anger, "All except this one! I always was partial to you darkies when I lived back in Louisiana. Your kind sure knows how to pleasure a man! I'm putting you to work. You're gonna help me collect the money!" his face was a lascivious mask of desire as the fingers of his free hand idly tapped the butt of a hunting knife he had sheathed at his waist.

Honor Elizabeth turned to him and put her hands on her hips. "And if I were to refuse your generous offer of employment?" she bit back, her dark skin flushed by his commentary on fellow female members of her race.

Zeb pressed the gun against her forehead, "Whoo-wee! Don't you talk you talk mighty fine?! Now be a good girl." He smiled even as they could all see him puzzling over Honor's unique voice, a mixture of refinement, laced with a slight southern accent she had picked up from one of her teachers who had hailed from the south and her original southwestern twang.

“Fine. What may I enquire we are to put your new-found wealth in?”

This seemed to stump the man for a moment, but then he spied a black bag sitting on the floor next to one of the nearby abandoned tables. Withdrawing his gun but still keeping it trained on her, he shuffled sideways and bent down on his knees to pluck it from the floor and tossed it to her.

With her sharp reflexes, she easily caught it and opened it up to peer inside. "It's full."

Nearby Ike puffed out an exasperated sigh, "You might sound smart, but you're as dumb as a box of rocks! Empty it out!"

“Very well.” She reached in and began pulling things out and dropping them to the floor. It quickly became apparent that a doctor had been among the hopeful gamblers who had come out that evening to try his luck. Clattering to the floor was a stethoscope, bandages, some pill bottles and other things one might find in a doctor’s bag.

"Hurry up damn it!" Ike hollered, prompting her to turn the entire back upside down dumping the rest of the contents on the floor. With an unnecessary flourish, she shook it to signify that nothing else remained in it.

"Now that's more like it! Get busy!" The rest of you move! Line up in there!" Ike shouted, and the remaining Wilde sisters, Silver Moon and the conscious members of the McGivers gang began to shuffle towards the alcove area. Catalina arrived first and unhooked the chain to allow them to enter. Unseen she gave it a slight tug while she held it in her hand as the other filed in and lined up single file as ordered. She released the chain and took her place and watched as Honor began scooping up money and stuffing it into the bag at different tables while Zeb prodded her along with his gun while using his free hand to stuff money into the doctor's bag as well.

They weren't the only ones watching, outside a murmur ran through the crowd, and a cry of consternation arose at the sight of the robbery in progress. Two to three heartbeats later a man with an enormous belly hanging over his britches with a walrus-style mustache burst through the batwing doors.

“See here now! That’s my money! I won it fair and square!”

Zeb snorted and gave a crooked grin as he shouted, "You think you're made of metal partner?" The blast of his Smith and Wesson sent a piece of hot lead in his direction. The bullet caught the big man in the shoulder and spun him around, and he hit the floor. Seizing up into a fetal position he moaned in pain. Two daring souls bolted in and quickly yanked the injured man back outside.

“Nice to have friends.” Zeb chuckled.

Cassandra was furious now; the man had been lucky that Zeb was a bad shot or he would now be dead. She needed an opportunity to end this before anyone else got hurt. The thought barely passed through her mind when chaos erupted.

Unknown to them all, the shattering gin bottle and the bouncing of Cassandra's gun in such close proximity had aroused the drunk out of his stupor, and he had remained sprawled with his arms across the bar. His eyes had fluttered open but were unseen as everyone he had his back towards them as he fought to shake off his lethargy and claw is way back towards trying to form a cohesive chain of thought. The shot from Ike's gun had been the last link in the chain that roused him out of his torpor.

He suddenly sat upright on the bar stool and spun to his left on it to face the alcove area where his bleary eyes fixated on the sight of Jeremiah McGivers. He raised his stubby index finger on his left hand and stuck his arm out pointing towards McGivers. His right hand was yanking out a pistol that had been unseen under his duster.

“You bastarddd” his slurred voice was hollering. “Duggg in them hills for three yearsssss and you take everything I made in one night! I knows youuuu cheated! Aint nobody that lucky! Eat lead you sonnnn of a bitch!”

The wobbly, shaking hand of a man in the throes of drunkenness failed to be ideal for making a good shot, and the gunfire shot upwards smashing through one of the chandeliers hanging from the ceiling as everyone seemed to start shouting at once!

Taking advantage of the chaos McGivers turned and leaped up onto the poker table along the outside wall. From there he dove with his arms covering his head through the window accompanied by the loud sound of shattering glass. The outlaw, partially tangled in the drapes that had been torn free, rolled once before freeing himself and regaining his feet he made a mad dash escaping out of the alley he had landed in.

Instinctively upon hearing the bellowing followed by the gunshot, Ike had spun his back to the hostages and gunned down the drunk at the bar with brutal accuracy. As the big man crashed to the floor, his bulk burying his weapon underneath him, Catalina having felt the chain had some give in it earlier, yanked it out of the wall just as Ike turned his back on them. She wished she had her bullwhip but decided the chain would work in this pinch of a situation. The young Mexican swung the chain and savagely struck Ike across the back, causing him to unleash a roar of pain mixed with anger as he pitched forward. His arms flew out to the sides, and his pistol broke free of his grip, falling back to land near Lijuan. She quickly scooped it up as Cassandra cried out.

“McGivers is getting away.”

Acknowledging there was no better shot amongst them than Cassandra Lijuan didn’t hesitate to toss her the gun and fell in line behind her sister who was bolting towards the batwing doors.

"Let's get him, Cass!" Lijuan called out knowing that Catalina and Honor Elizabeth would take care of Zeb and Ike, who began advancing on Catalina with murder in his eyes.

Across the room, Zeb was swinging his gun around to get a shot at Catalina, but Honor Elizabeth's hands seized the heavily laden doctor's bag by the grip and brought it up in a sweeping arc striking him in the chest. The paper money and gold and silver coins flew up into the air and began raining down in a clatter. Also airborne was Zeb’s pistol the hit the floor and skidded away disappearing in the confusion.

Zeb’s anger buried any latent attraction he might have had for her, and he growled as he lunged towards her but at the last minute managed to jump back barely missing Honor's next swing that wasn't with a bag this time but with a small but severe looking blade that now protruded from her hand. Unknown to all Honor had secreted away a doctor’s scalpel when ordered to empty the bag earlier.

She was thankful the jaspers weren't sharp enough to realize she could have simply turned the bag upside down to empty it before being ordered to hurry up and do so. On one of her dips into it, she had craftily palmed the instrument and slid it up the sleeve of her dress. Now armed she had hoped to take him out with the element of surprise but his reflexes were quicker than she had expected, and her swing didn’t land but caused his backward leap.

Now aware he was facing an armed opponent he pulled out the hunting knife he wore and went into a crouch. Honor followed suit. She wasn’t keen on not having her usual Bowie knife, now wishing she had hidden it somewhere in the bar in case of trouble as Lijuan had done with her hammer, but figured she still had an edge on the guy. How good could he be? Across the room, she could see Catalina about to square off with this Ike cretin and also had seen Cassandra ran out of the saloon with Lijuan in tow after McGivers. Zeb was hers and she turned her full attention to taking him down.

Near the alcove Catalina swung the chain again, keeping the tough guy back. He quickly picked up a chair, and she unleashed another swing, only lower, under where he held the chair at his waist level. It whacked his ankle prompting yet another anguished bellow to come bursting out of him even as he swung the chair. Cat jumped back and then forward with another swing of the chain handily breaking one of the legs off the chair with a sharp crack, and she laughed at him.

“Not so tough without your gun huh big hombre?!” she taunted. Ike grunted and moved forward as Catalina swung the chain once more. It wrapped around the chair seat, and the thief yanked it back, tugging her closer to him. Catalina, almost without thinking, used the momentum of being pulled across the space to spin, like in a dance. It allowed her to move out of range and move to a position she could jerk the chain free from the chair. Another leg broke off the chair as she did so.

“I’m gonna kill you bitch,” spit flew from his mouth as he threatened her, but all Catalina could do was continue laughing at him. Men couldn’t take being laughed at, that had always been her experience, and Ike wasn't likely to be the exception to the rule. Sure enough, he rushed forward prompting her to flip the chain again, but this time she had to duck to try and avoid the swinging chair. Catalina didn’t quite make it as the end of one of the remaining legs clipped the side of her head. It was a glancing blow, but it was just hard enough to disorientate her momentarily. Pulling her wits together she fell quickly backward, to give her some space, shaking her head.

“Killin’ me is easier said than done eh tough guy!” she blustered at him. At the same moment, the combatants heard a man cry out from the fight behind them causing Ike to make the cardinal mistake of losing his focus as he glanced back to see what was happening with Zeb. Ready for an opening she whipped the chain forward, and when he turned his head back, it had wrapped around his neck.

Giving it a hearty pull she choked the breath out of him as Ike clawed at the chain trying to rip it loose. As he struggled, he dropped by to his knees in front of one of the vertical wooden support beams running from the floor to the ceiling. He fought to suck air back into his lungs and didn't hear the movement behind him.

Catalina had dropped her end of the chain and now had her two muscular arms braced against the piano on wheels that rested nearby. Tapping her considerable strength, she pushed off with her equally muscular legs and launched toward Ike with the piano. Still recovering he didn't have time to move as his body was slammed between the piano and the beam. The impact smashed one of his ribs, which handily punctured one of his lungs.

She hadn't anticipated this, so Catalina's face took on a look of surprise as the man fought even more desperately for air than he had before. Killing him had not been her attention, only putting him out of commission but she could only shrug. He had wanted her dead, and now he was the one about to take the big journey. It happened far more quickly than she imagined one moment he was still struggling and the next his form grew still in death.

While Catalina had been fighting with her improvised weapon Honor Elizabeth had circled Zeb carefully with her scalpel. He had lunged, but she had jumped back, then forward, scoring a slice along the back of his free hand and that had been when Zeb had cried out. If he was angry before, now he was out for blood.

“You’re going to die, darky, you know that. Just give it up; it’ll be easier on you to… shit!” He cursed as she stepped forward and swung, almost connecting with his knife arm as he shot back. She smiled and didn’t say anything. Zeb regrouped and rushed at her swinging viscously downward with speed. Honor dropped straight down into a crouch, swinging her scalpel forward. Her blade scraped along the front of his thigh, but she was unable to withdraw in time. Zeb finally managed to draw blood as he sliced her along her forearm just as she had hit his leg.

They both recoiled backward from their injuries. The bandit let loose a string of curses that would have made a stevedore proud, but she remained silent. The cut stung, but it wasn’t deep and didn’t affect her strength, at least not yet. She circled again as did he, each looking for an opening. He continued spewing his vitriol, but the usually loquacious woman remained silent. It was a strategy she was good at having learned from Cassandra long ago that fighting a silent opponent inevitably shook people up.

Her arm bled, and he was now limping. The time was coming she resolved to end what she considered a stalemate. The opportunity afforded itself when unexpectedly there was the sound of gunfire and one of the front windows shattered. Distracted Zeb began to turn towards the front of the gambling hall when she reversed her grip on the scalpel and threw it. The small blade sank into Zeb’s throat up to the handle. Silver Moon who had sought safety behind the roulette table when the fighting had broken out shrieked as blood began spurting from the major artery in the man’s neck.

Down but not out Zeb stumbled forward into her still brandishing his knife. Honor Elizabeth grabbed his knife arm and found there was still some strength in it. She held him back, face to face as she saw the life leaving his eyes as his blood ran down his neck like a river. After another minute he went limp, and she let him fall to the ground, no longer a danger to anyone.

Standing there panting, Honor Elizabeth only had a moment to attempt to recover when suddenly a hoard of gamblers burst through the swinging doors and descended on the floor like vultures shoving money willy-nilly into their pockets in an attempt to regain the funds they had entered the Lucky Seven with. As Catalina joined her at her side, tearing off the sleeve of her shirt to fashion a makeshift bandage for her arm, Honor thought, let them have it. Her mind was more focused on the gunshot that had granted her an opening to take down Zeb. They would soon learn the shot had originated because of Lijuan.