Wilderness Double Edition 22, page 1
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Vengeance
In the wilds of the Rocky Mountains, there are the hunters and the hunted. Legendary mountain man Nate King had taught his son to be an excellent hunter. But now Zach finds himself the prey was a vicious killer stalks his every move.
Athena Borke will stop at nothing to take vengeance upon the man she believes killed her brothers. Her goal—to capture Zach King and make him suffer a slow death. And she’s concocted a plan sure to bring her bitterest enemy straight into her trap.
When Athena captures Zach’s younger sister, his fury knows no bounds. Even with the help of his wife and their old friend Shakespeare McNair, Zach will have to pull out every truck his father taught him-and add a few of his own—if he hopes to survive.
Shadow Realms
Raised in the harsh Colorado Rockies, Zach King knows the wilderness. He can track his way through the thickest forest and bring down the most dangerous beasts. But his most recent quarry has moved the game to a whole new ground: New Orleans.
Hot on the trail of Athena Borke—the vicious woman who kidnapped his sister, Evelyn—Zach must adjust to a whole new set of rules in this vipers’ den of corruption. From gator-infested swamps to a mansion with the most sinister reputation, Zach will brave it all to save Evelyn’s life, even if it means forfeiting his own.
WILDERNESS DOUBLE EDITION #22
43: VENGEANCE
44: SHADOW REALMS
By David Robbins Writing as David Thompson
First Published by Leisure Books in 2004
Copyright © 2004, 2019 by David Robbins
First Digital Edition: October 2019
Names, characters and incidents in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead is purely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information or storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the author, except where permitted by law.
Our front cover shows The Emigrants by Frederic Remington, courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.
This is a Piccadilly Publishing Book
Series Editor: Mike Stotter
Text © Piccadilly Publishing
Published by Arrangement with the Author.
WILDERNESS 43: VENGEANCE
Dedicated to Judy, Joshua, and Shane. And that Sunflower Bigfoot, Larry.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
The entries in the King journal detailing Evelyn’s abduction and the subsequent search comprise over fifty pages. This book covers only the first five.
One
The man came down the narrow street slowly. He paused often to look behind him and listen. At that late hour his were the only footsteps, the sigh of the wind the only other sound.
On his right a house reared out of the darkness. None of the windows was lit. The yard had suffered neglect and the weathervane on the roof creaked. The gate creaked, too, when the man opened it and moved along an overgrown path to the porch. He climbed cautiously. A brass knocker hung on the door, but he used his knuckles instead, rapping lightly so as not to wake any of the neighbors.
When there was no response, the man knocked again. While he waited he shifted his weight from one foot to the other and clenched and unclenched his hands. At last there was the scrape of metal on metal, and the door swung in on raspy hinges.
A black cavity yawned before him.
The man started to take a step but hesitated. “Hello?” he said softly. “Is anyone there?”
From the depths of the house came a muffled noise the man could not identify. He repeated his question and when there was no reply he turned to go.
“Do you have the note you were sent?”
The man gave a start and nearly tripped over his feet. “Yes,” he said, probing the inky interior. He fished the note from a pocket and held it out. “See? I have it right here.”
A hand twice the size of his took it and withdrew into the dark. “So you are Mr. Benjamin, is that correct?”
“Yes, I’m Ira Benjamin. But how can you read that when there’s no light?”
“Please follow me. The others have already arrived, and it would not do to keep the mistress waiting.”
“Mistress?” Benjamin repeated. “That’s a strange way to refer to her. Who are you? Her butler?”
“This way, if you please.” The voice came from farther in.
Benjamin stepped over the threshold and immediately couldn’t see his hand when he held it in front of his face. “Can’t you light a lamp? What’s to keep me from walking into a wall?”
“Follow the sound of my voice. Keep walking and in a few moments we will be at the cellar. That’s where the others are.”
“Who are these others you keep talking about?” Benjamin strained to hear the man’s footsteps, but he moved as silently as a cat.
“You will know them when you see them. All will be made clear,” was the enigmatic answer. “Keep following my voice. That’s it. A little more. Another few yards, and here we are.”
A door opened and a rectangle of pale light spilled into the hallway. For the first time Benjamin saw the other man clearly, and he involuntarily shivered. “My goodness! You’re a big one.”
Over seven feet tall if he was an inch, Benjamin’s guide wore a short black jacket and black pants, the jacket sculpted to his muscular frame like a second skin. “I’ll take that as a compliment, sir. After you, if you please.”
A flight of stairs led down. Benjamin descended partway, then stopped. Below was a musty basement, the walls cracked and pitted, the overhead beams caked with grime. “Why in the world are we meeting in this godforsaken place?”
“Because I deemed it prudent,” said a melodious female voice with a hard undercurrent. “Please, won’t you join us?”
Benjamin continued to the bottom. A table had been placed near the left-hand wall. Behind it sat a woman all in black with a stylish hat and a lacy veil that covered half her face. “You’re the one,” he said.
“Yes,” the woman confirmed. “You will soon be a thousand dollars richer, thanks to me.” She gestured. “Be seated.”
Five chairs had been set up facing the table. Four were occupied by men Benjamin recognized. To say he was shocked did not do him justice. “It can’t be! Do you mean to say I wasn’t the only one?”
“I do not believe in leaving anything to chance,” the woman said. “Which is why I’m wearing this veil. Should any of you have an ill-advised change of heart, you won’t be able to report me to the authorities.”
In the first chair sat a man of sixty or more, his hair nearly white, his face a latticework of wrinkles. His name was Webber and until recently he had made his living as a carpenter. “You too, Benjamin?” he said. “I never suspected how many were involved.”
“Here I reckoned I was the only one,” said the second man, Hurst, who in his time had eaten more than a few too many pies and sweet cakes.
“So did I,” said the next one. Theodore Beckman was young and pale and had spectacles perched on the end of his thin nose.
“Let’s make it unanimous,” declared the fourth, a middle-aged fellow whose clothes were better than the other men’s but not as expensively made as the woman’s or her manservant’s. Phillip Monroe owned a thriving mercantile.
Making himself comfortable in the last chair, Benjamin said to the woman, “You’re taking an awful risk. If the authorities ever find out, they’ll throw you behind bars, female or not.”
Her vehemence was as unexpected as it was unsettling. She smacked the table and growled with animal-like intensity, “I would take the same risk a thousand times over to see him pay for what he did.”
“I take it you are not fond of the gentleman?” Phillip Monroe asked.
“Fond?” She hissed like a lynx about to strike. “He is scum! A half-breed pig who deserves to suffer without end for the lives he has taken.”
Benjamin waited for her to regain her composure, then posed the question, “If you hate him so much, Miss Borke, why did you go to so much trouble to have him found innocent?”
The woman stiffened, and for more than a minute she was still. Then she slowly raised her veil, revealing an exquisitely lovely oval face with piercing green eyes and full red lips. “So you have figured out who I am? Then there is no further need for subterfuge.”
“It wasn’t hard,” Benjamin said. “There was talk at the trial about a sister. But she never showed. Then each of us were slipped these notes.” He placed his on the table. “Two plus two usually equals four.”
“Quite perceptive of you,” the woman complimented him, then proudly confirmed, “Yes, I am Athena Borke.”
Hurst was looking at her in confusion. “I don’t get this. You’re the sister? And you want the breed dead? Then why in God’s name did you tamper with the jury?”
“Exactly,” Theodore Beckman said. “Had it not been for you, we would have found him guilty. His neck would have been stretched on the gallows by now.”
Athena removed her hat and placed it beside her. “I suppose it won’t hurt to satisfy your curiosity. After all, you five have done me an inestimable service. I am forever in your debt.”
“The thousand dollars you promised will make us even,” Hurst said, and laughed far louder than his comment called for.
A thin smile curled Ath ena’s fine mouth. “Artemis and Phineas Borke were my older brothers. I might note that I loved them as fully and dearly as any sister has ever loved her brothers since the dawn of time.”
Hurst laughed again. “My sisters hate me. We always fought like cats and dogs when we were young.”
Athena ignored the comment. “When I learned that my brothers had been murdered by the half- breed, I came straightaway to see that their deaths were properly avenged.”
Phillip Monroe said skeptically, “By having him set free? I’m afraid I agree with the others. Your logic eludes me. Why not let the court deal with him? Let the punishment fit the crime?”
“Hanging is hardly fitting,” Athena said with intense bitterness. “They would slip a rope around his neck and throw a lever, and in thirty seconds it would be over. There’s little pain, little suffering. And I want the breed to suffer as I have suffered. To hurt as I have hurt.”
“Ah,” Benjamin said, nodding. “Now I understand.”
“I knew the jury would find him guilty,” Athena said. “The evidence against him was overwhelming. My only recourse was to tamper with the jurors so he would be set free for me to deal with as I deem most fitting.”
“So you sent notes to each of us promising to pay a thousand dollars if we voted not guilty,” Beckman said.
Athena nodded. “And to persuade the other jurors to vote not guilty, as well. My plan worked wonderfully.”
“Why just the five of us?” Webber asked. “Why not offer money to all the jurors?”
“The more of you I contacted, the greater the chance one might refuse and report the tampering to the judge. I did not want a mistrial called.”
“So you pulled our five names out of hat?” Hurst said with a snicker.
“Hardly,” Athena said. “I investigated the backgrounds of everyone on the jury and then chose those mostly likely to take the bait.” She showed her teeth in a dazzling smile. “The five of you.”
“Come now,” Phillip Monroe said. “I’m hardly poor. To me a thousand dollars is a rather small sum.”
“True,” Athena conceded, “but you love to gamble, and a thousand dollars can buy a lot of chips.” She indicated Hurst. “With you it was a simple case of greed.”
“I resent that.”
“Why resent the truth?” Athena responded. “A friend of yours made the comment that you would beat your own mother if she owed you a dollar and failed to pay it back on time.”
“Who the hell told you that lie?” Hurst came out of his chair and leaned toward her, and suddenly the giant in the black jacket and pants was next to him, a huge hand on his shoulder, pushing him back down into his chair. Hurst seemed shocked by the giant’s strength.
“Thank you, Largo,” Athena said. “Mr. Hurst, I would advise you to control that temper of yours.”
Benjamin did not like how her protector raked the five of them with what he would describe as a look of contempt. “Well, you can’t say you didn’t get your money’s worth, Miss Borke. The accused is now a free man, and you’re free to have his throat slit or his brains blown out.”
“Haven’t you been listening?” Athena asked. “Where is the suffering in deaths so quick? Where is the misery? No, the vengeance I have in store for Zachary King is much more refined. Much more thorough.”
Theodore Beckman pushed his spectacles up on his nose. “An eye for an eye, is that what you want?”
“Oh, much more than that.” Athena smiled. A smile so cold, so wicked, it did not bode well for the object of her hatred. “His very soul for an eye would be more appropriate.”
“Enough of this small talk,” Hurst said gruffly. “All I care about is the thousand dollars you promised. Hand over the money, lady, so we can get the hell out of here.”
“Yes,” Phillip Monroe said. “I would like to take my money and go, too.”
Athena smiled that same cold smile. “Very well. Largo, would you be so kind as to dispense what each of these gentlemen deserve?”
Benjamin watched the giant move to a shadowed corner and bend over a bench. A large cobweb hung above it. “Is this your house?” he asked. “It certainly doesn’t look lived in.”
“I rented it under an assumed name,” Athena revealed, “and wore a disguise so the landlady cannot identify me later.”
“You’ve covered your tracks admirably,” Webber told her.
Athena dipped her shapely chin in acknowledgment of the compliment. “Thank you. There are a few loose ends to tie up and then I can get on with the business of turning Zach King’s life into a nightmare.”
Largo returned bearing five objects in his hands. He went from one of them to the next, placing an object on the table, then moved to his original position between them and the stairs.
Ira Benjamin stared in disbelief at the Bowie knife. “What in the world is this for?”
“You may use it to protect yourself,” Athena said. “It was Largo’s idea. He needs the practice. Had it been up to me, I would simply have had him shoot you and be done with it.”
“Shoot us?” Beckman said in alarm. “But what about the thousand dollars you promised in your note?”
“I paid a woman to write them, actually,” Athena said, “so the handwriting wouldn’t match my own. Then I had Largo snap her neck and left her lying in a ditch.”
Hurst was on his feet again. “You’re stark raving mad! You can’t get away with something like this!”
“On the contrary.” Athena stood and backed up near the wall. “I suggest you pick up your knives, gentlemen. Largo is ready to begin.”
Benjamin looked. Her bodyguard had not one but two Bowies in his huge hands and was advancing on them in a pantherish crouch. “Please. We’d never tell anyone that you bribed us.”
“I must make sure of that.” Athena said.
Largo darted forward. Benjamin tried to push his chair back and rise, but he pushed too hard and his chair crashed to the floor, spilling him. He rolled to his knees in time to see Largo nearly decapitate Theodore Beckman with one stroke of a Bowie while simultaneously burying the other knife in Hurst’s ample stomach. Largo gave a powerful wrench, and Hurst’s internal organs oozed out.
Webber tried to fight and was dispatched with ridiculous ease.
At that point Phillip Monroe broke and ran for the stairs.
Benjamin did the same. They stood no chance against so formidable an adversary. He glanced back and saw that Largo wasn’t giving chase, and he smiled, thinking they would escape with their lives.
Then the giant’s arms flashed, and twin blades of steel cleaved the air. Benjamin saw Phillip Monroe pitch forward with a Bowie imbedded to the hilt between his shoulder blades even as an acute burning sensation lanced through him and he realized in a burst of raw horror that a Bowie knife was imbedded in his own back. He was vaguely aware of striking the floor, and of pain, and of a voice that came as if from a great distance.
“You know what to do. The kerosene is upstairs. Douse them good. The authorities must not identify the bodies.”
“Yes, my mistress.”
“And Largo?”
“Yes, mistress?”
“Well done.”
The next instant Ira Benjamin’s world blinked out of existence.
Two
Zachary King opened his eyes and was back in the stockade at Fort Leavenworth. He saw the ugly cell bars and smelled the rank, dank odors. He felt the bruises from the beatings and the gnawing pit of hunger in his stomach because he refused to eat the slop they fed him. Panic seized him until there was a light snore. Zach rolled onto his back and beheld the woman he loved more than anything in the world, and he smiled.
Life was deliciously sweet. Zach was free, he was with Louisa, he could go where he wanted, he could do as he pleased. But all he had done since the verdict was rendered two days ago was make up for lost time with his wife. Forty-eight straight hours in bed. He was blissfully relaxed, and more content and at peace with himself than he could ever remember being.
Lou stirred but did not awaken.
Leaning over, Zach lightly nipped her shoulder, then ran a hand from the nape of her neck down her back to the swell of her pert buttocks.
