Stryker Returns - Hell in Mexico: Stryker Series, #4

By George M. Goodwin

Stryker leaves Lone Pine and the California Mountains behind for the last time. He's going home to raise his daughter, as it should be. 
Little did he know that someone else had different plans for him. Going to Chihuahua Mexico on his way home to try and talk Mira's brother into going back with him, he is stopped by a General in the Mexican Army. 
When Stryker refuses to answer his questions it cost him dearly. By the time he returns to Texas, his daughter is almost grown, his ranch is nearly finished and his friend Jess has been shot. 
He has his work cut out for him in handling all of these things and regaining his place in his daughters heart but with the help of friends he always has before.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pale Horse Publications
• Release date: May 31, 2024
• ISBN: 9798227961235

George M. Goodwin

George was born in 1960 in Jefferson County Alabama. The fifth of nine children, eight boys and one girl. The family was raised poor, but not poorly raised. At home, George was taught morals, ethics and respect. Reading, writing and arithmetic at school. Love, honor and obedience to God at church. He grew up on John Wayne movies, country music and the writings of Louis L' Amour, Robert Louis Stevenson, H.G. Wells and Jules Verne.  

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

Wen left the cabin he had built shortly after coming to the mountains of California. This he knew would be his last time to ever see it or the mountains.

He rode to the town of Lone Pine for one last time as well. There he visited Emily’s grave and said his final goodbye to her. He talked to the sheriff for a little bit, then got himself a room. The following day on the second of January 1876, he rode away from where he once thought he would spend the rest of his life. It was not to be and after losing Emily, he just wanted to get away from the memories. Running from the same kind of pain had brought him back, but he knew now where he belonged. 

He had decided last night he would go to Mexico to find Emilio before going home. Back to Texas, back to his and Mira’s daughter. Back to where the people he loved and who loved him were. Maybe he could talk Emilio into going back with him. He rode nearly due south to Los Angeles, staying there only long enough to buy supplies, then rode south by east which would take him to Tucson Arizona.

From there, holding his same course would bring him to Chihuahua Mexico. It was there he hoped to find his brother-in-law or at least word of where he might find him. His trip was uneventful and by mid-March, he found himself less than twenty miles out of Chihuahua. It was there just before he broke camp one morning that they came on him. Soldiers of the Mexican Army.

He tried to tell them who he was and that he was going to Chihuahua to find his brother-in-law Emilio Valencia. At that time, he was thrown to the ground and his hands were tied behind his back. The soldiers begin digging through his saddle bags where they found a small handful of the gold coins from Laffite’s treasure, he had held bank for emergencies. Immediately, he was put up on his horse and taken into town. There, he was taken to the jail and thrown in a cell. Every time he tried to ask a question, he was cussed at and told to shut up. Between the time he was captured and noon the following day, he was given nothing to eat and only two small drinks of water. That’s when General Juan Gomez showed. A man that Wen Stryker would soon come to hate as he had no other. At the general’s command he was once again bound and dragged from the cell. In broken English, the general asked him where he had gotten the gold coins found in his bags.

Stryker’s throat was so dry he could barely speak, but managed to say Texas. Gomez called him a liar and knocked him from the chair. The guard was told to give him a drink.

When he was back in the chair. With his thirst now sated, Wen told the general he could speak some Spanish. The general asked him again where he had gotten the coins. He answered Texas and was knocked from the chair again.

These are Spanish gold, he told Wen. You have found them hidden somewhere here in Mexico and you will tell me or else, said General Gomez.

Go to hell, said Stryker.

Me, no senor, said Gomez, but that is where you will go. When you have been there long enough, you will tell me what I wish to know.

He was roughly pulled from the chair and thrown back in his cell. For the next two weeks, he was beaten almost daily, fed nothing but hard bread and given one cup of water a day.

Then the general returned. Wen was dragged from his cell, given a small drink of water and roughly sat once more in front of Gomez. We will talk again, he told Stryker.

I’m done talking to you, Wen told him.

Senor why do you do this to yourself? he asked.

Wen said nothing.

The gold you had does not belong to you, nor even to your country. It belongs to Spain. Many treasures were hidden here long ago and I believe you have found one of these. Tell me where and when I have it, I will have my soldiers take you to the border and release you.

Wen just stared at him. He expected to be hit again, but instead the general stood up and starting for the door. He told the guard to take him to the mine tomorrow.

When you have been there for a little while, you will beg to talk to me, he told