The Copper City by Chris Scott Wilson Read Free Book Online

screamed.
    The piercing shriek ripped into his brain. He cracked her again. He threw in punch after punch under the barrage of her own wild blows. Once more his fist caught her.
    She screamed again.
    Dazed, she was weakening, sobs mixed in now with the screams. Billy’s breath was coming in gasps. Trading punches with her had excited him almost as much as the sight of her bare breasts. Heat ate greedily outwards from his groin. Now he seized her shoulders, pulled her to him. His mouth crushed against hers. She strained to pull away, then in a moment of wild inspiration she made to kiss him. He giggled crazily, sensing victory.
    She sank her teeth into his bottom lip. They were welded together, but it was he who screamed now. He tried to free himself. She ground her teeth together so they sawed through the thin flesh of his mouth. His blood was on her tongue. She pulled away, spitting it out.
    Billy was in a blind rage. He staggered back, blood running from his ruined mouth. He groped for his gun. Blind in the darkness, he collided with Seth, who was holding his groin as he dry-retched against a wall. Billy’s hand came up gripping a Navy Colt.
    White-Wing shrank back against the other wall of the alley. The swift burst of fear-fed adrenaline had burnt out and was now replaced by insane terror.
    She began to scream again.
    Billy staggered under the wailing agony of her voice. He thumbed back the Colt’s hammer.
    â€œYou kill me first!”
    Crazy with rage, Billy swung to face the mouth of the alley.
    Quantro stood framed in the glare from the street.
    Billy’s Navy Colt leveled, fed on reflex.
    Suddenly Quantro’s hand was filled and orange flashed from the muzzle of his .44 Colt. The heavy bullet ploughed into Billy’s chest. It tore sideways, dragging him along the wall. His pistol fell to the earth. Seconds later his lifeless body followed.
    Seth fought off his own sickening agony long enough to witness his partner’s fate. His own hand groped for his six-gun and came up firing.
    Quantro was already gone. Where he had been silhouetted against the square of daylight was vacant. Only the face of a curious man across the street was in Seth’s field of vision. A gun crashed and pain smashed into his left arm. He fired wildly, as fast as he was able.
    Quantro hung in the shadow on the opposite wall of the alley. A bullet splintered wood by his head. It was time to finish it. He aimed above and to the left of the muzzle-flashes.
    Then he squeezed the trigger.
    Light lanced across the alley. As the thunder of gunfire died away, Quantro could hear a body sliding down the wall. Then there was silence. He waited until his vision had again adjusted to the darkness after the gun-flashes, then eased out of his crouch. Carefully, he approached the body. The bullet had entered below Seth’s jawbone then blown away half his head. It was an ugly sight. The other one was dead too, a pool of lung-blood feeding the earth where he had fallen.
    The sound as he swung out the Colt’s cylinder and allowed the smoking casings to clatter into the dust was loud in the silence. Automatically, he reloaded, his gaze still resting on the two men.
    There was a plaintive sob behind him. Vermin, he thought, reminded of her presence. Vermin, they deserved to die.
    Quickly, he searched for her in the blackness. She had crawled away, up the alley, and now she was cowering against the wall. A hand held together her torn dress with a pretense of dignity. He touched her shoulder gently and she shrank away until her forehead lay flat on the rough planking as if the solidity of the wall provided protection. Helpless, he fingered her hair. She shuddered, sobs rising in her choked throat.
    â€œIt’s me, White-Wing. Quantro,” he said, not really knowing what to say that would be any use. He stooped and placed strong hands on her shoulders, squeezing gently. “It’s over.”
    The statement brought on