I'd begun another lively dance when a gunshot rang out. The band stopped playing; the other couples stopped dancing. "REGULATORS!" Billy's voice boomed. "Let's mount up."

I wondered what had happened now. Manuela began to weep, desperately clutching at Charley's vest. Doc told Charley he should stay now that he had a wife.

"And he can't shoot worth a piss anyhow," said Billy.

Charley stroked Manuela's face and kissed her tenderly. He jumped onto the back of his chestnut mare. Manuela collapsed into the arms of her mother, sobbing like mad. Charley looked wistfully over his shoulder, probably thinking of the wedding night bliss that had been taken from him.

"It ain't easy havin' pals," said Charley.

With an assist from Chavez, I pulled myself aboard Storm Cloud. This task was a bit difficult to accomplish in my long skirt, but propriety be damned. I had obligations to my pals too; they needed me.

We pounded away into the night. Billy told us that Pat Garrett was planning to kill Alex and Susan McSween. We only had till suppertime the next day to reach Lincoln and warn them. Lincoln's a hell of a ride from Juarez, but we never stopped. Time was too precious. Our horses were half-lame by the time we reached our destination. We breathed a collective sigh of relief as we realized we were hours ahead of schedule.

"Alex!" Billy screamed as we barged in the house without knocking.

Alex, working at his desk, nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard footsteps and saw six flintlock rifles being pointed at him.

"They're gonna come and kill you," Billy panted.

"Damn it, Billy. I told you not to come here," said Alex.

"Ain't safe to stay here. They'll kill you, and then I'll have to go around killing all the guys who killed you. That's a lot of killin'."

"I'm not leaving my house." Alex insisted stubbornly.

"We can't just stay here and hope the good Lord saves us from an allout--" Susan started.

"Susan, I'm sick," wheezed Alex. "I can't go to Old Mexico."

Doc hastily yanked the curtains over the window. "Don't fret, Alex. The trip's postponed. Murphy's boys are comin' around the front."

"They must figure they can end the war in one fell swoop," said Alex. "My God. It's gonna be a massacre." He turned to me. "It's not too late to save yourself, Serena. Run."

I shook my head. No fargin' way. I didn't come this far to let the boys down. Billy's arm pressed across my chest. "Get your back up against somethin' solid," he advised.

I leaned on the wall adjacent to the living room window and waited. It wasn't long before the shots erupted. The world became a blur: pottery breaking, Susan yelling in terror, the sound of ceaseless gunfire. I thought the Murphy boys would never run out of ammo, but they must have after a while because they stopped shooting at us. Billy took advantage of this to rally his troops.

"Charley, take two rifles and go upstairs. Doc, you're going with him. Load heavy. Steve'll cover the north side. 'Rena, you and Chavez take east and west. Don't matter which of ya goes where."

"We know you can shoot, Bonney!" Sheriff Peppin called from outside. "We can too. Give it up!"

The way things turned out, we didn't need to start shooting right away when we hit the attic. Murphy's boys had to wait until the next morning for more ammo and reinforcements, so they set up camp in the town square. The Regulators slept wherever our assigned post was, except Chavez and me. We woke the next morning to the sight of a calvalry.

"They sent in the troops." Billy chuckled. "I like these odds."

"Billy, I know we're good, but this is getting ridiculous." said Doc nervously.

For once, he was right. I gripped my rifle tighter, my heart beating out of control. How the hell were we going to get out of this one? I bared my teeth as I spotted Murphy in his carriage with a pretty Oriental woman. Murphy began to talk to the colonel; the girl made a break for it.

"Soldiers, stop her!" Murphy yelled. "China! China! Get back here!"

"Yen, come up here!" Doc called to the girl. He handed his rifle to Billy and said, "Cover me." Billy blasted towards a pair of soldiers who'd been approaching the house.

"There you go, Colonel!" Murphy said triumphantly. "Your troops have been fired on. You're in the right now." He bustled off down the street, dragging the bewildered colonel with him. "Burn it!" he yelled in the colonel's face.

Oh shit. It wasn't more than a minute before my nostrils filled with the smell of smoke.

"They lit it, boys." Steve said unhelpfully. "They lit the house."

Charley began to sob, saying we had to let him go. He had a wife and he missed her terribly though it had only been a day since we left Juarez. "Charley, if you don't stand up and start whoopin' some ass, you ain't ever gonna see her again," said Billy.

This sparked Charley into life. He began to shoot out the window and yell insults down to the soldiers. Billy joined in, and soon the two of them were having a grand time. Yen, the China girl, stood by the stair railing, holding onto Doc. I raised my rifle to fire at Sheriff Peppin, but a sudden cloud of smoke engulfed me. I dropped to the floor and started coughing harshly. I could feel the heat from the flames as they grew. This was getting dangerous.

"Alex, get Susan out of here," Doc ordered.

Alex took Susan by the arm and walked her to the back staircase. She protested that she wasn't leaving without her things, struggling and screaming with far more drama than the situation strictly called for. We started to toss chests and armloads of books out the window after her.

"Where's Chavez?" Steve asked suddenly. "Where the hell's Chavez?"

"I don't know," I coughed.

"He must have skinned out!" Charley said angrily.

Dirty Steve exploded. "I knew it! That dirty Mexican dog! I knew we shouldn't have trusted him! We're gonna die in here and he's out there doin' it with his horse." Steve began to knock things over and smack chests with the butt of his rifle. "I KNEW IT! I JUST KNEW IT!"

I winced as the sounds of mass destruction continued. Boiling rage filled me. How could the man who'd shared his last scraps of food with me and acted as my protector suddenly turn tail and run? I'd suspect this behavior out of Charley, who often panicked at the first hint of battle, but not Chavez.

Billy laid a hand on his Steve's arm to stop him from throwing a particularly large sea chest through the window. "I got an idea," he said, his blue eyes glittering. He took the quilt out of the chest and crawled in it himself. It was an almost perfect fit. He readied his pistols.

"Okay, here's the plan. Shut the lid and toss me out the window." he said.

"Are you fargin' insane?" I asked him disbelievingly.

"No, uh-uh. Then I pop out and hold off Murphy's men while the rest of you make a break for it."

"There must be another way," said Doc.

"You got any better suggestions, Scurlock?" Billy snapped. That shut him up.

I lowered the lid into place. This was without doubt the stupidest thing we'd ever done, but stupid plans have a way of working sometimes. I grasped the handle of the trunk, but could hardly raise one end. Jesus, Billy was heavier than I thought. Charley and Steve and me heaved it out the window. It bounced once and landed upright. Billy burst out like a crazed jack-in-the box.

Doc and Yen made for the stairs; the rest of us followed close behind. Lead zipped past me as I lit up the square with my pearl handles. A figure on horseback charged toward us, towing three other horses behind it.

"Chavez!" I bellowed. Steve's jaw dropped as he realized Chavez hadn't abandoned us; he was getting transportation. I reminded myself to thank Chavez if the two of us were alive and reasonably intact at the end of the day.

I turned just in time to see Charley finish off John Kinney, and an eerie calm settled over me. A bullet slammed into Chavez's side, knocking him off his horse. Steve helped him back on, which surprised the hell out of me; the two of them hated each other on principle. Less than a second later, Steve was dead. I heard an animalistic cry of pain. Billy had been shot in the shoulder twice and hit in the gut at least once.

"Eat my lead, bastards!" I yelled to the soldiers, who looked utterly surprised to see a woman wielding a gun.

I cut down as many as I could before mounting the last remaining horse. I rode away to make sure Chavez was all right. Billy confronted Murphy. "Reap it, you son of a bitch," he said as he pulled the trigger. He nodded to the rest of his gang. "Now it's over."