Page 52 of Wellspring
Though he begrudged every minute that kept him from riding back to town and Erick, Cade scouted the grounds to salvage his arrows when he heard a low groan.Not wanting to take a chance if it wasn’t a Wellspring hand, he nocked an arrow and approached cautiously.As he got closer, he saw it was one of Reichardt’s men.“Collier, isn’t it?”he asked when it was clear the man posed no threat.A bullet had shattered his right shoulder, the gun limp in his hand.
“Fuck off, squaw,” Collier protested.
“Is that any way to talk to a man who could put an arrow in your face?”Cade dragged Collier to his feet by his undamaged shoulder and back toward the barn, where Kit was overseeing the hands dousing the fire’s embers.Cade couldn’t judge how much of the building was salvageable.Still, it was one building, not the whole ranch in flames.Wellspring was safe, for himself, for his friends, for his future.Erick just had to survive to see it.
Kit grinned when he spotted them.“We’ll patch him up once we’re sure this is out.At least we can prove to Lutz that we didn’t kill everyone who attacked us.”
Cade handed Collier off.“Get him to Lutz when you can.I don’t have time to wait for you.”
“Be careful” was all Kit said.
Cade nodded sharply and whistled for Nahnia.He swung onto the horse’s back and dug his heels into Nahnia’s side.As he wheeled him toward town, he heard another set of hoofbeats and glanced over his shoulder to see Chel right behind him.He faced forward again and rode on.She could keep up or not.He wasn’t waiting, even for her.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
IF ANYTHING,the return to Eldorado was even more tense than the ride to Wellspring had been.Then he’d been able to force aside thoughts of Erick by focusing on the danger bearing down on his friends.Now, while he knew things could still go badly if Mac wasn’t able to reach the marshal in San Angelo or if that marshal was just as corrupt as Lutz, his only real thought was for Erick and whether he’d survived the night.Sanders was a dead man either way, but if Erick died, Cade would make Sanders pay for it before killing him.
Cade decided to chance riding back across JR land rather than the more treacherous southern route.He was pretty sure Reichardt had sent most of his men in the attack on Wellspring.Even if some had remained or returned, the risk of their spotting two riders in the dark was worth taking if it got him to Erick faster.
He could only pray, to his birth parents’ God or his adoptive parents’ Great Spirit or any other power that might be listening, that Erick had survived.The part of him that had watched cavalry soldiers gun down his Comanche brother argued that Erick’s wound was fatal, that he couldn’t survive after all the blood he’d lost, but he wouldn’t let himself believe that.
“Erick is strong,” Chel called to him, as if she could read his thoughts.“He has you to hold on for.”
Cade just dug his heels harder into Nahnia’s flanks and sped on.
The sun was rising as they hit the edge of Eldorado.Cade reined Nahnia in at Dr.Lillard’s office and slid down.Exhaustion pulled at him, but he forced his knees to hold and braced himself to deal with whatever awaited him inside.
“You ready?”Chel asked.
Cade nodded and pretended it was the truth.He rapped on the door and waited.
“Who is it?”Javier called through the door.
“Chel and Cade.”He hoped Javier still being on guard was a good sign.If Erick were dead, Javier wouldn’t be worried about Sanders coming to finish the job.
“Webster!”As Javier was opening the door to the surgery, Sanders stumbled out of the saloon with Lutz on his heels.“I was hoping Carter would save me the trouble of having to shoot you too.”
“Sorry to disappoint you, Frank, but Chel here slit Adam’s throat while he and his men were attacking Wellspring.”Cade drew an arrow and ran the fletching through his fingers, while Chel gave Sanders a wicked smile.“Reichardt may not be happy when he hears you sat here drinking while we were kicking JR’s ass.”
The shouting brought Javier outside, cradling his massive gun in his arms.Several other patrons staggered out of the saloon, followed by the Meier brothers, and Lizzie Hart stood outside the door of the mercantile.That was fine with Cade; he didn’t need an audience but it wouldn’t stop him either.
“Erick’s in bad shape, but he’s still alive,” Javier murmured as he came to stand alongside Cade and Chel.
Sanders drew his pistol and took aim toward the three of them, but there was no question who he was gunning for.Cade dove to the side, taking cover behind a horse trough as Sanders fired.The shot went wide, but Cade wasn’t taking chances on being as lucky a second time.He fit the arrow to the bow’s string and aimed at Sanders.As he drew back his arm, a second shot rang out, followed by the explosive retort of Javier’s Nock gun.
Cade watched Lutz sink to the ground, trying to hold his guts in, but he swallowed down the bile that rose in his throat at the sight.He could get sick later.Sanders took another shot that set chips of rock flying from the trough—how had he survived this long with such lousy aim?—and that was all Cade could take.He rose up on his knees and fired, his arrow hitting Sanders in the eye.Too quick a death for him, but he wouldn’t be shooting anyone in the back ever again.
A couple of people applauded, but Cade ignored them.He burned with the need to take Sanders’s scalp so he would never be reincarnated to make someone else’s life hell, but half the townsfolk already thought he was a savage.He’dnever shot anyone in the back, but that vengeance was denied him.He just needed to see Erick.
The gunshots had drawn Tatum out of the sheriff’s office.He looked sick when he saw what Javier’s gun had left of Lutz and Cade’s arrow sprouting from Sanders’s face, but he drew his Colt as he walked toward them.“I don’t want any trouble, but I’m going to have to take you in.”
“It was self-defense!”Chel protested, knives in hand.“Sanders fired at us first, and so did Lutz.”
Several people in the crowd that had gathered called out their agreement, but Tatum didn’t back down.“There are two men dead.I didn’t see it happen, so we’ll just have to send for a judge and let a trial sort things out.”
“MacRae rode to San Angelo before the JR attack to find a marshal who wasn’t being paid off by Reichardt.”Chel didn’t look happy, but she sheathed her knives as she glanced at first Cade and then Javier.“Maybe it would be safest for you to go with Tatum until he gets here.At least it would keep any other JR hands from gunning for you.”
“I’ll take my chances,” Cade insisted.“I need to see Erick.”
