Chapter 32
“It’s him,” Blade whispered, glancing at Dakota.
She nodded in understanding.
Quietly, they continued circling the cabin. Once back at their original hiding spot, they crouched down and huddled together.
“Okay, so we know it’s them,” Dakota said, keeping her voice low. “But what’s the plan?”
“We can wait and see what they are doing,” Blade suggested. “Or we can storm the cabin, kick open the door, and open fire.”
Dakota’s eyes lit up. “I like the second option.”
Blade did too. “We’re outnumbered. Catching them by surprise will play in our favor. I’m confident that we can take down at least half of them before the rest of them return fire.”
They turned their attention back to the cabin. It still stood there, lonely and weathered, but now they knew for a fact that those walls were hiding some of the worst criminals.
“Austin is clever,” Blade continued. “There’s a possibility that they are waiting for us. They could even have set up traps.”
“So we wait for them to come out,” Dakota suggested. “Maybe kill them off one by one.”
Blade was thinking the same thing. “It’ll be safer, but it’ll take longer too, and it won’t take them long to realize that something is wrong.”
“But if we don’t show ourselves, they’ll have to come outside,” Dakota pointed out. “There are lots of hiding places out here. We’ll have the upper hand.”
Blade took her hand in his and squeezed it. “Then we do that,” he agreed. “I can wait a little longer if it means keeping you safe.”
“Wait for what?” a voice asked from behind them.
Turning toward the sound, Blade saw a tall man standing a couple of feet away.
In his hands, he held a rifle. There was no time to think things through.
They had been spotted, and it was time to act.
Blade dove to his right, rolling over and landing on his feet, wanting to distract the bandit and draw his focus away from Dakota.
The man spun toward Blade, trying to line up his aim again. Blade drew his pistol, but before he could pull the trigger, a shot rang out from beside him, and the bandit toppled over, dead.
They were safe, but not for long. Dakota had killed the bandit, but the sound of gunfire would have alerted the rest of the men that they had arrived.
“We fight clever,” Blade instructed. “Staying safe is more important than making the kill.”
Dakota nodded. “No being brave.”
The idea of anything happening to Dakota terrified Blade, but their plan was compromised, and they had no other choice but to fight.
Blade turned his attention back to the cabin. From between the foliage of the trees, he could see the door opening and men filing out. Some of them had pistols, some rifles, and some had both. All of them looked ready to kill. Blade was too, but he had to make sure that Dakota stayed safe as well.
Blade caught a glimpse of Austin, but he quickly disappeared behind the cabin. The men were splitting up. They didn’t want to make themselves easy targets by staying close together.
Blade gave Dakota one last look and then marched forward.
It was time to finish what Austin had started all those years ago.
Taking cover behind a tall tree, he watched as one of the men crept closer.
The man had his rifle ready, but his eyes were all over the place.
The bandits had heard the shot but had no idea from which direction it came.
That gave him and Dakota a chance to take out a couple of them before drawing attention to themselves.
The bandit was still walking toward Blade, unknowingly making it easier for Blade to line up his shot. He aimed his pistol at the man’s head, wanting an instant kill, and pulled the trigger. Blade’s aim was true, and a little to his right, another bandit fell as a slug penetrated his chest.
The gunshots cracked like thunder in the dead of night—loud and dangerous.
The remaining bandits rushed toward the sound, having a better idea of where Blade and Dakota were hiding.
Blade knew better than to stay in one spot, but he didn’t want to leave Dakota behind.
If he were alone, he would have sprinted through the forest and found another tree on the opposite side to use as cover, but he wasn’t alone, so instead, he ran to Dakota.
Luckily, she had years of training too and knew what needed to be done.
Together, they ran, jumping over fallen branches and dodging anything that popped up in front of them.
There, to their left, was a fallen tree, the thick stump broken in the center with large wooden shards sticking up.
It was undoubtedly hit by lightning and would provide a great spot to take cover.
Blade jumped, skidded to a stop behind it, and peered over the top.
From there, he had a clear view of the back of the cabin.
Austin wasn’t there anymore, but another bandit was hiding behind it.
Some of the men had run into the forest and were searching for them.
They had to be careful. Blade holstered his Colt Rainmaker and drew his Winchester rifle, balancing it on the stump.
He gave Dakota the signal they used to tell each other to watch their backs.
She nodded, and he turned his attention to the bandit.
Blade lined up his shot and fired. The .
44 slug hit the man between the shoulders, sending him flying forward and to the ground.
“On our right,” Dakota whispered.
Blade swiveled around just as two men stepped through the bushes.
They were much too close. Dakota had her pistol pointed at one of them and immediately pulled the trigger, hitting him in the thigh.
The man stumbled a little but just kept on running at him.
Blade grabbed one of his knives from his gun belt and pushed himself to his feet.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Dakota duck to her right, just in time to avoid a bullet.
The bandit was almost on top of Blade now, and he lunged forward, sinking his knife into the man’s chest. His eyes rolled back in his head, and Blade stepped back, pulling his knife out and letting the man crumble to the ground.
The other bandit had his gun pointed at where Dakota had taken cover. Blade pulled back his arm and threw the bloody knife, knocking the man’s gun right out of his hand and taking a couple of fingers with it. The man cried out in pain, and Dakota used the opportunity to put a slug in his head.
Blade grabbed his rifle and ran to Dakota. “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” she replied, picking up Blade’s knife and handing it to him as she stood.
“Over there!” somebody yelled.
“Just kill them,” another added.
Blade holstered his knife but kept his rifle in hand. They needed to find another spot to take cover. “Come on,” he instructed, starting to move again.
They headed back in the direction they had come.
He had seen some boulders there that they could hide behind.
Blade moved quickly with Dakota right on his heels.
Suddenly, from out of nowhere, there was a loud thud behind him.
Blade swerved around, ready to fire, just to see Dakota struggling with a bandit on the ground.
The big man had pinned her down. Blade leveled his rifle; underneath the man, Dakota nodded.
Blade took the shot, the .44 slug tearing the flesh and hair from the man’s skull.
The bandit collapsed on top of Dakota, and she quickly pushed him off.
Her clothes and skin were stained with blood. She looked like a warrior goddess. If they had had time to spare, Blade would have told her as much, but they didn’t. Blade led Dakota to the boulders and crouched down behind them. The woods had gone quiet.
“How many are left?” he asked, his voice barely audible. Dakota liked keeping count of things.
“Five, including Austin,” Dakota replied.
They had managed to take out seven of the bastards. That was good, but the last one was too close.
“I need to finish this,” Blade whispered. “I need you to hide.”
Dakota shook her head. He knew she would refuse.
“Please,” Blade begged. “Just this once. I can’t lose you.”
Dakota’s face softened at his words. “If anything happened to you . . .”
“I’ll be careful,” Blade promised. “Stay here.” It was a safe spot. The boulders covered her from three sides. If anybody approached, she could easily take them out.
“Okay,” Dakota agreed.
Blade leaned forward and gave her a quick kiss.
“I’ll be right back,” he said and then took off running.
He knew Dakota was more than capable of taking care of herself, and having her watch his back was an enormous help, but he simply couldn’t risk her getting hurt.
Besides, having her with him was too much of a distraction.
He needed to concentrate on killing the bandits, and he couldn’t do that when he was worrying about keeping her safe.
Blade found a clearing between some trees and crouched down low as he peeked into the clearing.
Maxwell and Austin were still out there, along with three other men.
At first, everything seemed quiet; there was no noise or movement, but then Blade saw it: the edge of a coat sticking out from behind the cabin.
He had promised Dakota that he would be careful, but that just wasn’t his style. Blade was at his best when he had to think fast and act even faster. Without any hesitation, he lunged to his feet and charged toward the man behind the cabin. As he ran, he holstered his rifle and drew his pistol.
Blade knew that he was going to draw attention to himself, but that was the whole idea. He wanted to keep the bandits away from Dakota and focused on him. He also wanted to finish the fight. He had looked forward to this day for so long, but now all he wanted to do was be done with it and go home.
The bandit stepped out from behind the cabin, probably having heard Blade approaching.
He lifted his rifle, but he was too late.
Blade tackled him to the ground, landing on top of him.
The bandit was bigger than Blade, but Blade was quick.
Before the man could even think of punching him, Blade had already positioned his Colt underneath the man’s jaw and pulled the trigger.
Blade could hear footsteps approaching as he jumped to his feet.
The sound was coming from both directions.
A bandit stepped around the corner of the cabin on his left.
Another came from his right. Blade had fought more than two men at the same time; he could handle them.
The one on his left was closer and already had his rifle aimed at Blade.
Getting shot was not part of the plan. Blade ducked down low and leaped forward, grabbing the bandit’s legs out from underneath him.
The man fell forward, but instead of protecting himself from the fall, he chose to hold onto his rifle.
He hit the ground hard, and Blade could hear the snap of bones.
A pained moan escaped the bandit’s throat.
In one fluid movement, Blade spun around, aimed his Colt, and shot the other bandit.
The first slug hit him in the shoulder; the second one stopped his heart.
Blade turned his attention back to the man he had tackled. He considered turning him around to find out what he had broken but didn’t bother. Instead, he shot him in the skull and moved on.
He needed to find Austin and Maxwell. Blade walked to the edge of the cabin and peered around.
He didn’t actually expect to see them, but the sight nearly brought him to his knees.
Austin was walking toward the cabin with his pistol pointed at Dakota.
Her mask was off, and the look on her face was one of complete horror.
Next to them, Maxwell walked with a rifle in hand.
Blade stepped out from behind the cabin. This was his plan, and there was no way he was going to let anything happen to Dakota because he was obsessed with getting revenge.
“Let her go,” he demanded.
Austin laughed and shook his head. “Why would I do that?” he asked, still coming closer.
“We were just going to kill her, but when I saw she was a woman, I knew she would be useful. You two have been traveling together for a long time, killing my men. There was no way that you weren’t sleeping with her. ”
Blade’s hand twitched, his finger tightening around the trigger.
“Drop the gun,” Maxwell said, “or she dies.”
Blade didn’t need his pistol to kill them.
He loosened his grip, allowing his Colt Rainmaker to fall.
With his other hand, he drew one of his knives and sent it flying.
Dakota was standing in front of Austin, but some of his body was still visible.
The knife lodged into his shoulder, causing him to drop his pistol and let go of Dakota.
She fell to the ground immediately, rolling onto her back as she grabbed Austin’s pistol and pointed it at Maxwell. She pulled the trigger before he could react.
Blade stormed forward, drawing another knife and hurling it at Austin. This one pierced his thigh. He stumbled a little but was still standing. Blade hit him with a fist, sending him crashing to the ground.
Austin tried to reach for his rifle, refusing to give up.
“I don’t think so,” Blade said, stepping onto Austin’s wrist and pinning it to the ground. He pressed down hard, causing the bone to crack beneath his boot.
Blade’s Colt Rainmaker was still lying in the grass where he had dropped it, but that was okay. He would get it when this was done. Blade drew his father’s old Colt and pointed it at Austin. He had been saving it for this occasion.
“What do you want?” Austin asked.
“Revenge,” Blade replied, reaching up with his free hand and pulling down his mask.
Austin’s eyes grew big, recognition dawning on his face.
“Slade,” he breathed.
“No, you killed Slade,” Blade replied. “I’m not the same boy you once knew.”
Austin looked at him like he was a ghost risen from the dead, his whole body trembling. “I promised my family revenge,” Blade continued. “It is time to make good on that promise.”
“Wait, you don’t have to do this,” Austin pleaded.
He was so incredibly wrong.
“Rot in hell,” Blade replied and pulled the trigger.
Dakota stood up and took Blade’s hand in hers. Together, they just stood there for a moment, looking down at Austin.
“It’s over,” she finally said.
Blade allowed himself another second to process it and then looked up, focusing his eyes on Dakota. “It is,” he agreed. “Let’s go home.”
“Where exactly is home?” she asked.
“The Cassidy Ranch,” Blade replied. “That is where we grew up, where we taught ourselves how to fight, and where we will live.”