California Killing Read Online Free Page A

for his own amusement. "But it is ours, I think, Senor Sam," Jose said as he reached up and parted the canvas cover at the rear of the wagon.
    Magda was certain John was dead. She saw the half circle of hard-faced horsemen, the grotesque ugliness of Hood, the slumped form of her husband and lusting eyes of the young Mexican. A burning rage, a trembling anguish and a biting fear fused in her ravaged mind toforce a reflex action toher hands. She aimed the Walker Colt directly into the face of the grinning Jose and squeezed the trigger. Then, as the sound of the report filled the wagon, she stared at him in horror. He reached up and plucked the gun from her before she could turn it against herself.
    But somebody had screamed and as the youngster sprang up on to the wagon and gripped her from behind, pressing himself against her, she saw a rider topple from his horse, blood spouting from a gaping wound in his bare arm.
    "Hey, this is much woman, Senor Sam," Jose yelled in delight .as his probing hands moved under her cloak, exploring her body from breasts to stomach.
    "Ain't much with a gun," Hood replied with a casual glance towards the injured gang member. The man was sitting in the mud, trying tohold in his blood. "Let's have a look at her."
    "All of her, Senor Sam?"
    The men cheered their encouragement.
    "Candy ain't much till you take the wrapper off," Hood pointed out, moving up close tothe tailgate of the wagon, like a privileged customer at a burlesque house.
    Dayton climbed hurriedly down from the stage as the horsemen dismounted and crowded in around the frock-coated Hood. Magda fixed her stare upon the unmoving form of her husband: her face was a mask of hopelessness as Jose's arms released their grip and his fingers curled around the hood of her cape. A small cry of pain burst through her full lips as the tie cut into her throat a moment before it snapped under the vicious jerk.
    "Man, she's sure a woman," Kilroy said hoarsely.
    Magda was dressed in an expensive blue dress, molded tightly to her luscious body from neck to waist before falling in frothy fullness to her ankles.
    "Somebody do somethin' about my damn arm," the injured man cried from the rear of the lusting crowd. "I'm bleedin' to death."
    Not a single eye was turned in his direction as the men drank in the sight of the woman, her submissive despair heightening their anticipation as Jose's fumbling fingers hooked over the neckline of the gown. The material ripped with a rasping sound and several thin giggles rippled through the watchers as the torn dress was pushed forward off the woman's shoulders and released to sink to the bed of the wagon around her feet. She was completely naked, her flesh firm and white and tremulous,
    "Travels light, don't she?" Dayton muttered as his wide eyes moved up from her ankles to the top of her blonde head before returning to the center of her body.
    "Is it true what they say about women who don't wear nothin' underneath?" a man asked.
    "We're about to find out," Hood answered flatly, reaching up a cupped hand.
    Jose grasped one of Magda’s limp arms and folded it across her back in a vicious hammerlock that tore a cry from her mouth and forced her to lean forward.
    "No!" she exclaimed as Hood gripped one of her large breasts and allowed the money satchel to slip from her other hand. "That's what they all say," the bald-headed man said, his fingernails clawing deep into her flesh. "Don't never mean it, though. Jose?"
    The Mexican released his hold and Hood jerked cruelly at her breast. Magda was dragged off the wagon and her cry of despair was cut off as her mouth sank into the slime. The men crowded in around her, hands fumbling at their belt buckles. A boot hooked under her stomach and flipped her over on to her back. She vomited up the dirt from her throat as the teeming rain washed the mud from her body.
    She looked up into the circle of evilly excited faces and tried to rise, opening her mouth to plead. A boot stamped