Renegades And Revenge: Daughters 0f HBH (Half Breed Haven Book 8)

by A. M. Van Dorn

  She could see that he was shocked at the knowledge for the past month his fraud was being exposed and dissected and he had not realized anyone was on to him.

  “I’ve been working behind the scenes with your company. You left a lot of upset and hurt people in your wake there. I’ll give them credit that they were able to maintain their professionalism and never let on that the jig was up for you. That telegram Cattie sent was for your employers to proceed with the arrest of your bookkeeper accomplish. I told them we would deal with taking you into custody.”

  The man's face drooped in anguish at the complete exposure of his scheme, and he let a weary sigh escape his lips.

  "It seems you have me."

  "Red-handed hombre!" Catalina called out from outside the window.

  “You may release me. I shall go quietly. I assume that you will be turning me into the authorities in Alamieda.” He asked none of the sisters in particular as he looked out through his sullen eyes.

  “Not here. Alamieda has no law.”

  "Unless of course, you count us!" Catalina chimed in just before Cassandra continued. "I'm on my way to my next assignment for the Governor. Scottsdale is along the way I'm heading. I'll be dropping you off with the law there. Representatives from your…well, no doubt ex-company will meet us there."

  “After that, one swift trial later and I can well imagine you will be breaking rocks at a local prison.” Honor said as Cassandra slowly let go of the man’s arms.

  “Don’t try anything funny. That’s the only warning you’ll get from me.”

  The exposed criminal nodded as he swung his arms back around in front of them shaking them to get the circulation back into them. On the wall, an antique clocked sounded off the two o'clock hour, but he barely heard the chimes. Instead, he was giving Lijuan a cold hard stare, and the petite woman stepped closer to him in a challenging way.

  “Got something to say to me?”

  “So, the whole fucking me up in the tower...just a distraction so Honor Elizabeth could go through my travel case?”

  “Guilty as charged!” Lijuan admitted as she crossed her arms, her face ablaze with a satisfied smile.

  DeVries shook his head before turning to her with a sneer on his face. "There were a hundred other ways you could have distracted me besides that. Everyone knows you're all a pack of whores out here and that proves it!"

  At the window, Catalina again snickered with laughter, "Hoo boy Mister. You must not wanna keep your front teeth in your head!" True to form Lijuan's hand automatically fell to her waist where she usually kept her favorite weapon, a small foot long blacksmith's hammer. She bit her lip as her hand passed through empty space remembering she wasn't wearing it. Instead, she grabbed the man by the front of his shirt and pulled him forward.

  "You didn't seem to mind when you were balls deep in me a little while ago! And yes, I could have distracted you any other way, but I figured I would have me a little fun. Especially if what I heard about you was true!"

  She could see the man’s head spinning as he demanded to know what she was talking about.

  “The pot here was sweetened long before I gave you a taste of the honey before. I know all about how after you finish our transactions here every month you take a little time out before heading back to Scottsdale by tapping our little Greek girl!”

  DeVries eyes widened at the revelation of just how much the Wildes knew about all his activities. Lijuan took delight in the satisfaction how much this latest tidbit had rattled him. Three months ago, the ranch’s cook old Mrs. Chow and the closest thing Lijuan had to a grandmother had come to her complaining. Young Elanie Kanakanares, who had joined the ranch late the previous year, as one of the cooks for the ranch hands and helped on the chuck wagon during cattle drives had been up at the kitchen in the big house getting supplies.

  While Mrs. Chow had gone off to look for a certain item needed for a stew Elanie was making down at the bunkhouses Elanie had struck up a conversation with Nellie Cheetum who served as a maid/cleaning woman at Cedar Ledge. Mrs. Chow had arrived back early and had overheard Elanie bragging about a relationship she has begun with the representative from the grain company she had met by chance on one of his trips to Half Breed Haven.

  Mrs. Chow had complained to Lijuan that the young woman was speaking out of turn when she was boasting about the size of the man’s endowment to Nellie who could only look on in wonder at her description. The old Chinese woman had burst in and scooped up a wooden spoon and was shaking it at her fellow immigrant saying the house was no place for such talk and what if Judge Wilde had walked in. Lijuan had told the old woman it would be handled.

  The ranch was hers to run, but Honor's light duties included overseeing the ranch house, so she had passed along the story to her sister and Honor had handled the matter with young Elanie. However, from that day until this every time she saw DeVries, she couldn't help wondering if what Elanie had said of his attributes were true. When the sisters decided to trap him, she figured she might as have some fun while they did it.

  Lijuan swayed her head back and forth as she put her hands on her hips. “I just wanted to find out if those twelve inches Elanie was bragging about was true!” her gaze swept over her siblings as she smiled darkly. “An exaggeration by about a good three inches, impressive for sure but still an ex- “

  In the next instant, DeVries was snatching the handle of his travel case and gave a mighty swing with the still open case, its contents flying in all directions as it struck Lijuan in the chest knocking her backward. The man made a quick dodge around Cassandra and out the door. As Cassie pivoted around to pursue, she suddenly found herself being pulled back.

  Spinning around she saw Lijuan had recovered and with teeth gritted she hissed, “He’s mine!” and bolted out the door after him. Cassie looked over to Catalina at the window and then to Honor.

  “If I were Mister DeVries I would thank my lucky stars that Lannie does not have her hammer with her when she catches up with him, which she will most assuredly do.”

  “You got that right Honor Elizabeth!” Catalina shouted in delight as her right hand slapped her thigh. “Looks like that pole cat managed to get outta the house but he’s not goin’ to get far!” she finished as she brought her hand up to shield her eyes from the glare of the afternoon sun and take in the scene playing out on the sloping front yard.

  DeVries was nearly halfway down the sloping well-manicured lawn to the Cedar Ledge and had just dodged around one of the immense Cedar trees that dotted the property when Lijuan closed within striking distance and lashed out with a well-placed kick to the back of his thigh dropping him instantly. He groaned in pain as he tumbled end over end but still managed to stagger to his feet, and he turned to face Lijuan.

  "This would be the first time I've stuck a girl before, but for you, I can make the exception!" he panted balling his fists as he did so.

  “I’m not a girl! I’m a Wilde. Do your best though…you didn’t mind playing rough an hour ago!” she chided with her teeth flashing in a reckless, devil may care grin.

  He took two swings at her. First with his left and then with his right fist but neither of them connected as she darted back out of the way. DeVries fared better with his third punch that while missing her jaw as he intended did strike her on her bicep sending her lurching sideways. Lijuan quickly shook it off. Too much time had been wasted on this liar and thief. The Wildes had a cattle drive to Santa Fe coming up and things needed to be accomplished in preparation. It was time to dispense with Dixon DeVries once and for all.

  Using skills, she had been trained in by Mrs. Chow's husband oId Mr. Chow in her youth; Lijuan launched herself off her feet and did a corkscrew-like spin in the air before delivering a direct blow to DeVries's diaphragm that sent the man down to the ground, down for the count and gasping for air.

  Lijuan stood over him as Cassandra and Honor Elizabeth approached on each side of her, joined by Cattie still in the saddle atop her palomino Pretty Feet
.

  “Way to take out the trash Big Sister.” Catalina chuckled

  “This gentleman is surely going to find out whatever ill-gotten gains he may have made are not going to be worth the time he shall spend in one of Arizona’s finest prisons.” Honor said looking down at the prostrate form.

  Cassandra nodded at her mulatto sister. “I would agree with that Honor.”

  The man was trying to stand up now and made it to his knees when Lijuan gave him a gentle kick to the ribs knocking him once more onto his back.

  “Oh, don’t worry about him. With what he’s got he’s going to be very, very popular there! That I promise you.”

  CHAPTER 6

  Clayton's Hollow

  Arizona Territory

  ONE MONTH LATER

  The pothole laden mess that passed for the main street of Clayton's Hollow, nestled in the mountains thrusting skyward not far from Prescott momentarily gave Honor Elizabeth pause as to whether she wished to bring the old buckboard to a stop. She tilted her head towards Cassandra who was riding shotgun next to her on the front seat.

  “If I stop us it will be a wonder if we are ever to start moving again with all this mud. I fear we shall be stuck fast.”

  Cassandra shook her head and pointed at wagon on the opposite side of the street that was just pulling away from in front of a feed store. The burly driver whipped the reins, and the two-horse team seemed to struggle to a degree before the wagon lurched forward and started rolling again.

  "Now stop your usual fretting Honor. See it can be done. They got going again. And besides, it's not like we have a choice we need some supplies for our stay up in the cabin.”

  The muscles hidden under the sleeves of one of the colorful dresses she perpetually wore, preferring so to eschew the blouses and denim pants western wear her other sister wore, strained slightly as she tugged at the reins and brought their ride to gentle stop directly in front of the town’s general store.

  Catalina who had been riding in the second bench seat behind the one occupied by her older sisters leaned forward so her head was now between her two siblings and she let out a long whistle.

  "Wouldja look at this place! Never seen much like it before!" Cassandra knew what she was marveling at. The main street was flat of course, but most of the houses that dotted the hills that made up the sides of the hollow and the hills in question were quite steep.

  “What folks do for a livin’ around here anyhows?” Catalina asked.

  They had been riding nonstop for hours, so Cassie shook one of her legs to get a little more feeling back into it as she answered. "Silver mining. It's nothing compared to the Comstock Lode, but the miners pull a decent amount out to keep this a bustling place." Out of the corner of her eye, Cassie saw Honor open her mouth to say something but quickly closed it. All those years growing up she knew her sister well enough, so she invited her to have her say.

  “Go ahead. You want to complain. I’m not stopping you.” She sighed with a smile.

  “Well, since you insist. I find this a dreary little place. I surely hope that where we are going nearby is as nice as you have described it and is nothing like this Clayton’s Hollow!”

  "Don't go getting your garter in a knot," Cassie told her eliciting a chuckle from Catalina. "I was at this cabin last year. It's beautiful up there. It's on the edge of a cliff with a magnificent view of a valley below it. Oh, and nearby at the top of a gorge there’s a beautiful pond behind a beaver dam. I know how you like to swim so you are going to love that!"

  "Indeed, I shall…though swimming with a pack of beavers is not something that I had in mind." She said and crossed her arms to emphasize her point.

  “You know you sure look a whole heck of a lot like Lijuan when you do that!” the ever-present mirth in Cattie’s voice carried to the sister’s ears.

  Cassie used her index finger to turn Catalina's head back in the direction of the small cargo bed behind the twin seats of the buckboard. "Speaking of our snoozing sister you best be waking her up now!" she ordered. The previous day the sisters had been traveling in the four seats huddled under a canopy that offered them protection from a driving rain that had plagued their journey. That morning the sun had come out, and Lijuan had taken advantage of it by leaving the seat behind and curling up to nap in the cargo bed.

  Lijuan was known by her family to have an almost supernatural ability to be able to fall asleep even in the most uncomfortable of surroundings, so the bed of the wagon to her was the equivalent to Honor's featherbed back at Cedar Ledge. All the sisters were glad that she had decided to doze off so as their half Asian sister was never a fan of travel so if she was sleeping she wouldn't be awake to complain.

  Catalina’s brow crinkled as she spoke. “You sure you wanna have me do that. Maybe we should just let her sleep the rest of the way to this cabin.”

  "Just do it Peppercorn. We'd be waking her up anyway when we start loading the supplies next to her." Cassie said expecting Cattie's usual rebuke about using the nickname their father Whip had long ago given her. Despite all her detective skills, Cassandra was never quite sure if her sister's protest about not liking it was real or an act. Either way, she didn't say anything but had resigned herself to waking up Lijuan for better or for worst.

  “And you!” Cassie whipped her head over to Honor Elizabeth. “You don’t have to worry about the beavers anymore. My friend told me they had died off a few years ago when some type of sickness beavers are prone to swept through their lodge. He said he hadn’t seen any since.”

  This appeared to mollify Honor as she and Cassandra climbed down from the old buckboard. It had been in the family since the days when William Henry “Whip” Wilde had first moved his unusual family from Philadelphia to start a new life in the West. From there the Wildes had expanded with the births of Catalina and later their half-brother the Yavapai brave Blue River.

  In the back of the wagon, Catalina had successfully rousted Lijuan with a not so gentle shake of one of her shoulders. Just as Lijuan had the ability to fall asleep near instantaneously, she also woke up completely alert, with no rubbing of the eyes or yawn of the mouth.

  “Are we there yet?” The words no sooner tumbled out of her mouth as she sat upright in the bed of the old buckboard and had her questions answered for her by the sight of the bustling town with its clapboard buildings dotting the sharply angled hillsides on either side of her.

  Lijuan hitched herself over to the back and swung her short legs over the edge before dropping to the ground, with both boots landing squarely into a three-inch-deep puddle splashing mud onto her pant legs. "Well, shit." She muttered as Catalina hopped out at the same time, avoiding any puddles.

  “Welcome to Clayton’s Hollow Lijuan!”

  Her sister ignored her and walked around to the front of the wagon where Cassandra was feeding an apple to one of the horses and Honor was doing the same with the second horse. One horse was all black, and the second all white and Honor had long ago named them Salt and Pepper.

  “This is where we supply up?” she said posing her second question since waking up.

  “Yes, and from here it should only be another hour for us to get to the cabin. It’s on that mountain right over there. That’s Topaz Peak.”

  All the sister’s eyes followed Cassie’s finger as she pointed directly at the mountain seen looming overhead just beyond the “V” shape of the hollow. It was an unusual looking mountain that rose and became flat with what looked like a second, smaller mountain sitting on top of it. Cassie likened it to a two-tier wedding cake like Alamieda’s resident baker Lulu Del Rogers liked to make at her shop next door to where her father’s law practice occupied the former jail.

  “My friend’s cabin is on a cliff at the edge of the plateau beneath where the mountain starts rising again to the summit. Lijuan you are going to love the fishing in the nearby pond!" This statement brought a smile to her sister's face. As a girl, Lijuan and their brother Dutch spent a good deal of time togethe
r fishing various spots on the Wilde's vast empire of land.

  “I am looking forward to seeing what I can land. It’s just too bad David couldn’t be here and Blue River too.” Lijuan said wistfully, using her brother Dutch’s given name that she and she alone used. For a moment Cassandra arched one of her eyebrows.

  “And Bright Feather too of course?”

  For a silent moment, the pair stared at each other. Even though Dutch had turned a blind eye to it, the rest of the Wildes were more than aware that Lijuan had an animosity towards the love of their brother's life. It left the family baffled save Cassandra who knew full well what lay at the heart of it all and it was not something to be discussed.

  "Of course." Lijuan mimicked in a cheerless tone. The moment of understanding that passed between the two sisters was broken as Catalina bounded up and used her shoulder to bump Cassandra's shoulder amid her usual laughter.

  "Come on girls! Enough jawin' and let's get shoppin' the sooner we get done, the sooner we can get this Wilde family vacation rollin' along!" Patting the horse Pepper, she had just fed on the nose; Honor nodded her head. "I concur with our little Cattie here. Let us do this and be on our way!" she said cheerfully.

  With gentle laughter amongst them, the four sisters finished hitching up the wagon to a nearby post and turned to walk as a group into the general store. Inside and out they ignored the stares and double takes from the citizens of Clayton’s Hollow. They had long ago become accustomed to the amazed looks from people at the sight of a striking blonde, a petite Asian, a ringlet laden mulatto and a well put together Latina, all drop dead gorgeous as well as sporting their hourglass shapes. The Wilde sister made an impression wherever they went.

  An hour later the back of the wagon was fully loaded with food stores and other supplies they would need for their stay when Cassandra caught sight of a gun shop on the opposite side of the street. There was a going out of business sign in the window that piqued her interest.