Page 44 of Wellspring

Shots rang out in the distance, and Cade cursed under his breath.

Even he couldn’t see well enough in the darkness to know who had fired out on the range and whether they’d hit anything, but Beaufort hadn’t made it back in with Quinn and Walsh yet.

He’d just have to pray they were safe and get revenge if they weren’t.

The flickering lights moved slowly toward them, and Cade whistled to alert the others. Chel whistled back. The clatter of hooves caught Cade’s attention. “Hold your fire,” he yelled as he recognized Beaufort’s horse even in the low light.

Quinn followed close behind him, Walsh’s lax form cradled in the saddle in front of him.

“Shot his horse out from under him,” Beaufort called softly, letting Quinn ride past him to the main house.

“Probably a few cracked ribs and a slug in his thigh, but he should make it. We took out the shooter, but they’ll have heard the gunshots. Won’t be long now.”

Cade nodded grimly. Quinn must have handed Walsh off to Miz Roarke inside, because he thundered up to rejoin Beaufort and ride back toward the oncoming attackers.

That wasn’t the plan, but what the hell, he’d go with it.

He pulled back on his bow, the fletching a familiar tickle against his cheek, and waited for the first of the JR riders to come into range.

The moment they did, he loosed the arrow and watched in satisfaction as the figure fell from the saddle, his torch hitting the ground and sputtering out.

He grabbed another arrow and fired again, determined to keep as many of them as possible from even reaching the others.

Beaufort and Quinn had peeled off to either side of the oncoming riders, shooting from the darkness at anything carrying a torch.

Cade had never had a high opinion of the hands JR hired on, but it took an embarrassing number of them falling before the rest realized the torches made them a target.

By then the first men reached the outbuildings, and one of them was sharp enough to toss his torch into the hayloft.

The dry feed kindled quickly, and Cade gave a thought toward anything trapped inside.

“Let it burn,” Payne shouted. “The horses are already in the paddock.” One of the JR men fired toward the sound of his voice and dropped a second later when Payne’s rifle cartridge split his head open.

Cade looked away from the fire, not wanting the light to mess with his night vision.

Without the torches to pinpoint his targets, he’d have to work harder to locate them in the darkness, waiting for the flash from the muzzles of their guns as they fired, but he’d learned patience as well as the art of war with the Comanche, and the JR crew had made it personal.

He wouldn’t be letting a single one of these bastards get away with attacking his home.

Burke had worked his usual magic, and bombs exploded with irregular blasts, each one taking out a knot of attackers and sowing chaos in their wake, but Cade wasn’t counting on them, because he didn’t know how many Burke had made or where he’d set them.

He put an arrow in the eye of a man who was trying to flank Kit’s position and turned back to surveying the battle as a whole.

They’d managed to get the JR hands off their horses, which took away their speed, but it also made them harder to spot.

At least the Wellspring hands were sticking to the plan and staying in their hideouts so anyone moving around was someone Cade could shoot.

He just hoped it stayed that way. If the JR men lit more buildings on fire, that might change.

The cloud that had been obscuring the moon drifted to let a sliver of light break free, enough for Cade to spot Chel race from her hiding place and leap onto one of the attackers.

It had to be Carter—she wouldn’t give up her advantage for anyone else.

She kicked the gun from his hand and slashed one of her knives across his throat.

“ Meurs, salaud ,” she called as he fell heavily to the ground.

That was enough for one of the JR hands to target her. Before Cade could fire, Burke dashed out of nowhere and threw himself at Chel, knocking her to the ground. Cade brought the man down with an arrow through the eye, but Burke fell too, blood pouring from his head.

Shit! Ned could be a pain in the ass, but Cade had always considered him a friend.

To lose him now was one more black mark against the JR attackers, as if Cade had needed another reason to wipe them from the face of the earth.

Chel dragged Burke toward the bunkhouse, though Cade had slim hope he’d survived.

Even if Ned had gotten on Cade’s last nerve at times, he was a good man who’d given his life protecting Chel.

He added another score to his tally to revenge.

The handful of remaining JR men, once they realized Carter had fallen, didn’t seem inclined to press the fight. Cade picked off as many as he could as they hightailed it off Wellspring property. Take that, fuckers.

Once he was sure they were gone and not coming back, he dropped to the ground and raced toward the bunkhouse. As he did, he heard Payne calling for everyone to check in. He shouted his own okay, but he didn’t stop. He needed to see Chel for himself, pay his respects to Ned, and get back to town.

“He’s alive,” Chel said as soon as Cade crossed the threshold into the bunkhouse. “He’s a fucking idiot, but he’s alive.”

Cade sagged against the doorframe, relief flooding him that at least one of his friends had made it. Now he could only pray Erick would be as lucky. “How?”

Chel brushed Ned’s bloody hair back with a gentle hand. “It just grazed him.”

“You’re right. He’s an idiot,” Cade said with a shake of his head. He came closer to examine the wound, but while Ned didn’t stir, Cade could see him breathing easily, and head wounds always bled more than anywhere else. “And I owe him your life.”

“I’ll bandage him up while you make sure we got everyone,” Chel offered. Cade nodded and left her to work.

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.