by S. E. Smith
They both watched as Billy walked stiffly out of the shadows of the trees and down the road to where the silver truck had stopped before they dismounted themselves. The door closest to them opened and a slender woman with long, black hair slid out. She called out a greeting to Billy as he walked toward her before stopping near the back of the long silver and black wagon.
Jacob frowned as another figure came around the side. He could feel his brother’s eyes burning a hole through him when he drew in a sharp breath of surprise. Blinking rapidly, he fought the urge to rub his eyes as he gazed at the figure of the woman.
She was small and had shoulder-length black hair. His eyes swept down over her. She was wearing the dark blue trousers that Indy liked so much.
That wasn’t what had him clearing his throat. It was the top she was almost not wearing that had his attention. Hell, he thought Indy had looked pretty damn good in her shorts and top, but this… this was just… A dark scowl crossed his face when she turned to Billy and he caught the look of male appreciation in the other man’s eyes.
“Hey Allie,” Billy said with a boyish grin.
“Who the hell did you get into a fight with? You look like shit,” Allie commented in return as a greeting before she opened the back of the large horse trailer.
Jacob’s scowl darkened when he saw a flash of white lace when she raised her arms to pull the locks down on the metal doors. The top she wore clung to her slim figure and left her arms and midriff bare. Her skin was the color of honey and made him wonder if it tasted as sweet. A faint flush rose in his cheeks when he saw her looking at him with a raised eyebrow before she turned away.
“Hi Billy,” the other woman said. “Oh my, what happened to your face?”
“I ran into something,” he joked, glancing over to where Jonathan and Jacob were standing.
“Let me look,” the woman demanded.
“Ah, Aleaha, it’s nothing,” Billy muttered in embarrassment. “I just ran into a wall.”
“More like a fist,” Aleaha snapped before her eyes widened in alarm and she paled. “Allie.”
*.*.*
Allie swore silently to herself as she glanced under her eyelashes at the two men standing in the shadows. She had caught Billy's lanky figure coming out of the logging road right away, but something else had caught her attention as well when she rounded the back of the trailer. That something was two cowboys straight out of the Wild West judging by their long coats, chaps and hats. These were no city slickers pretending to be cowboys.
All we need is the music to start playing! She thought as she reached up to pull the safety clips on the trailer.
She had been so busy trying to bury old hurts that she almost missed them. Now, she was doing everything in her power not to let the one glaring at her know that it was beginning to piss her off. She assumed they were probably going to need a lift as well. She should just change the name to Whitewater’s Equine Chauffeur service. It took a moment for the horror in her sister’s voice to break through her thoughts.
“What?” Allie retorted, looking over to where Aleaha was staring in horror. Shock washed through her followed by pure, unadulterated rage! They had Indy’s horse, Midnight. “Son-of-a-bitch! Where did you get Indy’s horse! So help me, if you’ve harmed one hair on her head, I’ll kill you!”
“Jonathan,” Jacob muttered quietly, taking a step toward the furious woman who looked like she would do it too. He reached out and gripped her wrists even as his brother signaled for the two dogs.
“Allie, Aleaha,” Billy interrupted. “It’s not what you think. They need your dad’s help. Indy’s in trouble.”
“Why?” Allie heard her sister ask in a husky voice.
Allie glanced wildly around as Chester and Tweed ran up to Jonathan. It wasn’t until he gave another signal that they came over to her with their tails wagging. It was a signal only Indy would have known. Something wasn’t right! Indy would not have shown anyone else how to handle the dogs the way she did. Hell, the dogs wouldn’t have responded to another living soul the way they did to Indy unless they trusted the person.
“Listen to him. We don’t want to hurt Indy,” Jacob murmured in a low, soothing voice as he released her wrists as if they were burning him. “She’s in danger and we are trying to help her.”
Allie’s head jerked up and she stepped away from him. “What is she to you?” Allie demanded, glancing back and forth with suspicion and unease. “Why do you care what happens to her?”
“She's my wife,” Jonathan informed her in a voice filled with anguish.
*.*.*
Twenty minutes later, Allie continued to glance repeatedly in the rearview mirror at the two men sitting in the back seat of her truck. To say she had been shocked by the man’s revelation would have been an understatement. She was floored by it! Indy? Married? She shook her head as she pulled the truck back into her own lane when a car passed them honking in annoyance.
I need to stay focused before I get us killed, she thought to herself as she listened to Jonathan explain what had happened to her best friend.
It was hard to do, though, with the two unusual men behind her. She glanced in the mirror again to check on Billy, who was riding in the back with the dogs before flickering her gaze over Jacob's taut features again. He and his brother had removed their hats before they reluctantly slid into the back seat of her truck.
She swore they both acted like they had never been in one before. Their faces had been a mask of unease as they pulled the truck doors closed. When she'd ordered them to buckle up, panic and confusion had darkened their matching blue eyes before they scrambled to comply. She hadn't missed the fact both of them were watching Aleaha as she pulled hers on as well.
There was no mistaking that they were not just brothers, but identical twins, unlike her and Aleaha who were fraternal ones. Allie couldn't ignore the dry humor that always swept through her at other people's looks of amazement when they found out she and Aleaha were twins. They were polar opposites in everything from clothing to personalities to their likes and dislikes.
The men, however, were identical except for the scar above Jacob’s his left eye. They had the same dark brown hair, blue eyes and six foot plus muscular frame. It was obvious they were also both accustomed to a life filled with hard work.
A man didn’t have muscles like that unless he worked out at a gym all the time or did hard work for a living, she silently admitted.
Her eyes glanced back and locked on the pale, stiff features again. A shiver went through her as she remembered his hands wrapped around her wrists. She could feel the strength in them, but he had been gentle so as not to bruise her. She had also felt the rough calluses on his palms as they pressed against her skin. The combination of strength and roughness was a total turn-on for most women, but Allie had learned the hard way that appearances could be deceiving.
No matter how big and tough a man appeared, there were some things in life that were even stronger and tougher, she thought bitterly before she stiffened as Jacob suddenly looked up and caught her gaze. For just a brief second, confusion filled her as they locked gazes in a silent battle of wills. The sound of another horn blowing and Jacob's sharp admonishment released her.
Allie forced her eyes back to the road and focused on where she was going. Reaching forward, she grabbed her sunglasses off the dash and slid them on when Aleaha touched her arm in warning. She swallowed the sarcastic rebuttal she was about to unleash on him. Instead, she pressed her foot on the accelerator for just a moment. Her lips pulled up at the corners when she heard Jacob curse once again.
That makes six. Six muttered curses in less than half an hour, she thought as she reduced the speed and stuck her hand out in apology in response to Billy's harried thump on the back window. She wondered if she could make it seven, not that she was counting, of course.
“Great!” Jacob muttered darkly. “Now she covers her eyes so she can’t see at all! We’ll all be dead before we get to th
is Sam for help.”
Chapter 4
It had taken almost two hours to get back to the Whitewater ranch. Jacob breathed a sigh of relief as he peeled his fingers from the soft handle attached to the door. A wry grin curved his lips when he saw Jonathan do the same thing. There would be imprints from their fingers on each side.
He was just glad he had kept the contents of his stomach down. He’d ridden the train a few times, but that was nothing compared to Allie’s truck. The train had reached speeds of almost twenty-five miles an hour on the straight, flat sections and he had felt like he was flying. If the little needle pointing to the numbers in the round circle in front of Allie was what he thought it was, they had been doing over seventy miles an hour at times.
His eyes focused on the narrow opening between the front and back seats and he watched as Aleaha pulled on the silver lever. The lever released the lock on the door and it opened. Searching next to him, he saw a matching one and pulled it. Relief swept through him as the door opened with an ease that almost sent him tumbling out onto the ground.
Jacob slid out the passenger side and locked his knees as his feet hit the ground. He drew in a deep, calming breath as he straightened and took in the sight around him. Two men hurried over to the horse trailer the moment the dust settled and went to work taking care of the horses. A series of huge barns, larger than anything he had ever seen before and made of metal, stood off to the side. Huge, alien looking machines, some red, some yellow, others green, were parked in neat rows beside them.
He swallowed over the lump in his throat as he followed Aleaha around the front of the truck. Overwhelming uncertainty gripped him as he watched one of the strange machines with a man in it pause at a gate not far from one of the buildings. The gate opened without anyone touching it before closing again after the man and machine passed through.
Magic, he thought in fascination and fear.
“Hey, you coming or not?” Allie asked in a short tone. “I’ve got to go check on some mares about to foal. Aleaha will take you and your brother to my dad.”
“Where…,” Jacob started to ask before he saw the huge house. “How long will you be gone?”
Jacob bit back a curse and flushed at her surprised look. He hated that he couldn’t see her eyes. She still had them covered by the dark eyeglasses. He watched as she placed a dark brown cowboy hat on her head before pulling on a light blue, long sleeve shirt over her short top as she slipped out of the truck. The combination was incredibly… sexy…well, without the glasses, he decided.
I’d want to make love to her without the dark eyeglasses on so I could see her eyes, he thought.
He flushed even more when he saw her knowing grin. A sense of unease washed through him as he wondered if there was something about women from the future that let them read a man’s thoughts. Hell, that was another thing he was going to have to ask Jonathan.
“If the mares are doing good and haven’t dropped their foals yet, I’ll be back for dinner,” she replied. “Don’t worry, cowboy, we don’t take scalps anymore. Dad won’t hurt you.”
“I respect your people and do not fear them,” Jacob retorted with a dark scowl.
Allie’s amused laughter echoed through the yard, drawing a few grins from the men working around it. She shook her head and stepped forward to pat Jacob on the chest. Her smile faded when his eyes darkened and an intense look came into them.
“Who are you… really?” She asked in a quiet voice. “There’s something that you didn’t tell Aleaha and me. I can feel it. There’s something more than just Indy, isn’t there?”
“I’m Jacob Tucker from the Twin Rivers Ranch. We are here to get Indy back where she belongs. That’s all you need to know,” Jacob answered in a low tone. “We are hoping your father would know where her brother Hayden might have taken her.”
He watched as Allie’s mouth tightened and she pulled back a step. Her head rose and he knew she was shooting daggers at him behind her dark glasses. The tight line of her jaw showed him that. He hoped she never played poker. Even with her expressive eyes covered, he could tell when she was aggravated. Her whole body moved with her emotions.
“Well, then you’d better follow my sister,” Allie replied in a short, clipped voice. “Right now, I have work to do. A ranch doesn’t run itself, cowboy. If you are from the TR, you should know that.”
*.*.*
Sam Whitewater looked up from the report he was reviewing. A frown creased his brow as he read over the information the investigator had sent him about Hayden Wild and some of his recent meetings. He also looked at the signature on the Will that Hugh Wild had made out with Sam as a witness and the newest one that Hayden said Hugh had signed right before his death. Either Hugh’s handwriting had gotten better, and changed, or Hayden had forged it.
He glanced up when a soft knock sounded on his office door. A smile lit up his face when he saw that it was Aleaha. He was so damn proud of her decision to return to the reservation after she finished her residency to work as a doctor in the local clinic.
“Hi, Papa.” Aleaha greeted with a warm smile. “There are two men here that would like to speak with you.”
“Do you know what they want?” Sam asked, rising from behind his desk.
Aleaha’s smile faded and her eyes grew very serious. “Yes,” she replied. “They say they are here to get Indiana. They said she was in danger and they needed your help.”
Sam’s eyes narrowed. He was well aware of the lengths Indiana’s brother, Hayden, would go to get his hands on her. He was also aware of some of the not so legal things that Hayden had been up to, including hiring someone to come in and bug his house.
“Where are they?” Sam asked in a hard voice.
“In the reception room,” Allie said in concern as she stepped aside so her dad could walk by. “Should I have sent them away? One of them had Indy’s horse Midnight, and Chester and Tweed were with them, as well.”
“Damn it,” Sam muttered under his breath. He heard Aleaha’s startled gasp at his curse. He seldom cussed, but when he did, there was a good reason for it. “Sorry, sweetheart.”
“They were with Billy coming down the old logging trail off of Wilson’s Creek,” Aleaha explained quickly as she followed her dad down the long hallway. “Ansel called Allie and asked her to pick him up. The men were with him. One of the men, Jonathan, knew the hand signals that Indy uses with the dogs and they obeyed him.”
Sam started to pause, but shook his head instead. He didn’t need to ask. A sinking feeling began in his stomach. Wilson Creek wasn’t far from the entrance to Spirit Pass. All a person needed to know was how to look for it. Sam knew Billy’s dad, Billy, Sr., had taken Billy up there when he was younger against the council’s wishes.
He stopped in the doorway to the sitting room when he saw the two men standing with their backs to it. One tall, imposing figure was standing in front of the fireplace looking up at the portrait of him, Claire and their six children while the other was staring at the globe in the corner.
“Papa, this is Jonathan and Jacob Tucker,” Aleaha introduced as she stepped into the room. “They are from…” Her voice faded and she frowned as she realized she didn’t know where they were from.
“Montana Territory, ma’am. Mr. Whitewater,” Jonathan said, holding his hand out to Sam Whitewater.
“Territory?” Sam replied, growing pale. “Thank you, Aleaha. I’ll see them. Can you go ask your mother to make us some refreshments and bring them to the office, please?”
“Sure, Papa,” Aleaha said with a smile before she nodded her head to Jonathan and Jacob. “If anyone can help you, it will be Papa.”
Sam waited until Aleaha left the room before he spoke. His face was grim as he took in the long, dust-covered long coats, the chaps, and the glimpse of a gun belt strapped around the men’s waists. He nodded his head to them before he turned.
“Follow me,” he ordered in a gruff voice.
*.*.*
Sam m
otioned for both men to enter his office before he entered, shutting the door behind him. He knew they were studying him as much as he was studying them. He could feel the threat of danger and barely controlled violence in the men.
“What year is it?” Sam asked bluntly as he stepped behind his desk and turned to look at both men.
“Now, or before we came through Spirit Pass?” Jonathan asked in a steady voice.
Sam slowly lowered himself into the chair behind his desk as his legs gave out from under him. This was worse than he realized. Indy had gone through the Pass, and into a world that was totally different from her own.
“Who are you and what do you want with Indiana?” Sam asked as he sat forward in his seat as the two men sank into the chairs across from him.
“My name is Jonathan Tucker,” Jonathan said in a quiet, firm voice. “My brother, Jacob, and I own and operate the Twin Rivers Ranch in the Montana Territory. Indiana is no longer Indiana Wild. Her name is Indiana Tucker and she is my wife. I’ve come to get her back from the bastards who kidnapped her.”
Sam reached for the thin piece of paper that Jonathan had pulled from his vest pocket and held out. Taking the yellow paper, he picked up his reading glasses off the desk in front of him. His eyes widened as he read the short paragraph.
Marriage Announcement of Jonathan Ryan Tucker, Meeteetse, Montana Territory to Miss Indiana Indy Wild of Montana Territory, by Rev. A. R. Blackburn on May 3, 1867.
Sam raised his eyes back up to the dark blue eyes staring intently at him. His mouth tightened in concern. He had no doubt that the paper in his hand was real. He just needed to figure out how to handle this new and unexpected development.
Chapter 5
For the next hour, Jacob and Jonathan explained to Sam Whitewater who they were, why they were there, and asked for his help. Sam slowly began to explain about Indy’s life before they met her. Jacob could tell that Jonathan already knew a lot of it. His eyes wandered over the room as he listened. He noted the differences between his and Jonathan’s home and this one.