The Five Dollar Mail Book 3: The Road Home

107: Of Tooth and Claw

Cover painting by Angela Taratuta. Chapter artwork of Jesse by Diego Candia. All graphics by me.

Book 1: The Green, Book 2: Lynch's Boys, Book 3: The Road Home, and the Riders & Kickers Anthology are available on Amazon under the name Regina Shelley. So if you hate waiting for chapter posts and/or want a more polished read, the finished product is available now.

Jesse knew when he jumped off the roof and onto Hezekiah Stone's broad, buckskin-clad back that this would be a life or death fight. There was no way to shoot the man, standing as he was with Eagle Bone in his grip. So there was nothing left to do but jump on him and go hand to hand.

Eagle Bone grunted with pain when Jesse landed and toppled Stone onto the injured brave's chest. Jesse instantly regretting slamming into him, but Eagle Bone was on his back and badly bleeding, and within a hair's breadth of being scalped. Jesse figured if he got hurt worse by the rescue attempt, it wasn't like any of them had much to lose anyway. He attempted to plunge his knife into Stone's back, but the double-layered leather cowl of the man's heavy buckskin coat turned the blade aside. His knuckles bounced uselessly against the man's well-protected shoulder blade.

Stone was like an attacking bear, twisting around and grabbing Jesse in an iron grip as the two of them grappled. Instantly, the bigger man was on top of him, digging his fingers into Jesse's lacerated shoulder and savaging him the way a wolf would a rabbit. Jesse's knife skittered from his grasp.

Jesse cried out, agony rocketing through him, and rolled in the man's grip, sinking his teeth into Stone's huge paw. It was a cheap shot, Jesse knew, but this wasn't some bunkhouse disagreement or saloon fight. This wasn't even the brutal brawl he'd had with Richard Galloway, where the two of them were at least somewhat evenly matched. Stone was a hardened mountain man, and he was stronger and tougher and faster than anyone Jesse had ever mixed it up with. Jesse knew he didn't have an edge in this fight. He was considerably lighter and nowhere near as strong. Even his impressive speed wasn't going to help him this time. And Stone, he knew, was the sort of man that could break him in half with his bare hands. And he probably will...

Stone threw a backhanded punch hard across Jesse's face, sending him reeling backwards into the dirt, ears ringing. Eagle Bone lay beside him, his face the color of ash and his eyes closed. Ah, shitfire, this is bad. He's gonna bleed out while I get the hell stomped out of me. Dammit! He rolled over, grabbing for his pistol as Stone covered the distance between them with almost unnatural speed, kicking him and sending his pistol sailing. Gasping, he rolled into Stone's legs, spilling the man back down to the ground. He glimpsed a flurry of fringe, a flash of blue, and new panic rose in him as he realized Still Water Woman had come down off the roof and was running towards the fight. "No," he gasped, frantic in his helplessness. "Stay ba..." A boot connected with his side and he arched in pain, overcome with sudden nausea. Stone kicked him again, flipping him onto his stomach and driving a knee hard into his back, forcing the air from his lungs.

"How do you like your 'beads and whiskey' now, you mouthy little shit?" Stone rasped, breathing hard and jerking Jesse's head back by his hair. "When you get to Hell, tell His Horses and that confused bastard in the dress I've changed my mind, squaw man."

He drove his knee into Jesse's back harder, compressing his ribs and rendering drawing breath impossible. Black suns exploded across Jesse's vision. He tried to twist in Stone's clutches, desperately trying to break the man's grip and throw him off.

Stone grunted in shock, his grip loosening as he jerked forward, suddenly struggling with a new attacker. Jesse immediately rolled, backstroking through the dirt and gasping for breath.

"And how do you bloody like your red-haired whores now, you filthy, murdering, bloody pig?!" Stone's attacker was screeching, blue-clad arms bound at the wrist and hooked tightly around his neck. Jesse lay frozen, mouth agape in shock. Fiona, her split lip crusted with dried blood and one eye swollen shut, was wrapped around Stone like a python, hauling hard on her bound arms locked around his throat with her legs coiled around his waist from behind. Her hair wheeled around both their heads like demon fire, buzzing with tangled, angry bees. She was howling an incoherent torrent of profane, Quebecois abuse. Stone's face was going purple as he struggled to flip her forward, wheezing out a strangled howl as her teeth sank into his ear.

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