The Town 0f No Return: Special Edition (Half Breed Haven Book 11)

by A. M. Van Dorn

  “Dutch!” she screamed as she came, leaving him feeling the wetness of her fluids lubricating his dick. He paused as he watched her gasp for breath, her body convulsing with outright pleasure. When her orgasm began to subside, she opened her eyes and looked down at him, then lowered her head to plant a kiss on his lips.

  Dutch carried her towards the bed which was only a few paces away from where they stood with his rock-hard cock still lodged in her drenched sugar walls. When he got to the bed, he gently deposited her onto the wide but lumpy mattress and then fell in by her side.

  Without wasting time, he began exploring her gorgeous body, and running his fingers over the top of her hard nipples as the sound of her gentle laughter seemed to drift on the warm currents of air about them. He ran his hands down her stomach, his fingers tenderly touching and massaging her soft skin.

  Dutch’s hand caressed Bright Feather's body all over, then down his hand drifted lower and lower. By now her breathing had started becoming heavy, and her chest heaved up and down. Dutch could feel the heat coming off her as he leaned forward and kissed down her neck and upper chest. Stopping to lick her right nipple and lightly blow on it to making it rise. Then doing the same to the left hardening it as well before returning to the right to trace his tongue around and flick the nipple.For a time, he alternated between both her areolas as she gently made cooing noises under his touch.

  He then kissed between her sexy breasts slowly kissing his way down to her stomach until he was licking and running his tongue around her belly button. Then going lower and lower as he started to kiss her inner thighs. Making his way to her sweet spot between her legs. Under his ministrations, her body began to quiver with intense pleasure. Finally, he made his way up kissing and licking her body until they were kissing deeply again before he climbed on top of her, using his knees and palms for support though, to keep himself from exerting on her delicate body. Slowly, he guided himself into her juicy tunnel as she gasped, and a moan escaped her throat as Dutch slowly slid all the way in starting a rhythm. He began speeding up his strokes as her moans become consistent with each thrust, becoming louder and louder as he picked up the speed.

  Bright Feather wrapped her legs around him, using her heels to nudge him in his masculine ass, a sign never to stop. As man and woman grew closer and closer to a climax, her moans and panting increasing as the intensity of his thrusting increased as well. He reflexively lowered his lips and began kissing her sweet lips.

  She tightened up, and then her legs started to shake as she let out a long, satisfying moan as her second orgasm sent Dutch over the edge. In a heartbeat, his body rocked, and a deep growl cut through the hot air of the dusty room as he exploded into her with wave after wave until he collapsed next to his lover on the bed, the pair trying to catch their breaths, breathing heavily, the aftermath of their climax.

  CHAPTER 11

  The two laid in each other's arms for a time until at long last Bright Feather rolled over and looked into his face and he nodded. They had been together for nearly six years now, and they almost knew what each other were thinking. Her eyes had sent the signal that she knew it was time for them to venture out once more and with any luck accomplish what they had set out to do in this most dangerous game.

  As they both slipped out the bed and began dressing, Dutch thought of how he had always enjoyed being in such tune with his lover. Now, though, he was certain that she had picked up on his being out of sorts with Lijuan. Their torrid tryst of the past few minutes had dislodged it from his mind and his demeanor, but it was swiftly returning. As he watched her breasts disappear under her clothing, he knew it was only a matter of time when they were going to have to confront the issue.

  Now fully dressed they were wearing the clothing they had chosen for going undercover. Bright Feather wore, rather than one of her usual short buckskin dresses, a full-length one with long sleeves. They had decided it would draw less attention to them. Rightly leaving his uniform back at the fort, Dutch was wearing civilian clothes, looking a little like a cowhand. The couple walked to the window and stood side by side as she worked to redo her twin braids.

  Outside, the sun was moving lower about to kiss the very top of the hills they were looking at. Below the streets bustled even more with their cadre of wanted men. He was not surprised to find the town even busier as the approaching shadows of the night easily emboldened already brazen men to carry out their brand of lawlessness. All through the time they had been there sporadic gunfire had been heard every now and then, and it seemed to be increasing. As Bright Feather handed him his gun belt that rested atop the dresser by the window he thought back to how they had wound up in this godforsaken town in the first place.

  ***

  "Reporting as ordered, sir!" Dutch told his commander, at attention in his office at Fort McCallister. Only a few minutes earlier, he had been having breakfast in the officer's quarters when a corporal had appeared at his table summoning him.Along the way, he collected Bright Feather in her quarters. Even though Caine had made her welcome to dine with the officers, even after five years of being employed as scout and interpreter when needed, she rarely did. For every accepting officer like Col. Caine, there were others among his fellow officers who would never be completely comfortable in her presence despite all she had done in service to the fort. Their attitude somehow persisted despite the award she had recently received in honor of that service. In the face of this, she had merely found it easier to take her meals in her room.

  Dutch more often than not joined her, but this day he had gone alone while she meticulously cleaned the dress she had worn to the party at Cedar Ledge saying she wanted to have it ready for any future occasions. The opportunities for her to wear the dress of a white woman were rare, so when she did, she wished to look her best.

  "Yes, Captain Wilde, Bright Feather, a matter has arisen of utmost importance. I have just received word from my counterpart at Fort Campbell by the border, and the news is not good," the Colonel said.

  “Sir, what’s happened?” Dutch asked, leaning in slightly concerned about the grave look on his face. Next to him Bright Feather too, drew very attentive.

  “Colonel Anders down at Fort Campbell was given orders to be on the lookout for a desperado believed to be making a run for the border. This scum of the earth was the one that murdered those troops up north across the Utah line,” Caine said.

  “Sir, I thought he had vanished without a trace? Those murders were two weeks ago,” Dutch asked in surprise.

  "Indeed, however, in the last few days, there have been unconfirmed sightings pegging him as heading south. The other night we had a stage driver make what we feel is a positive identification of Rodrigo Salazar. A man matching his description attempted to rob the stage. This man believed to be Salazar tried to murder him when the stage proved to have nothing of value. That was up in the Godspell area and from …” Dutch and Bright Feather looked at each other in surprise, and a small gasp escaped Bright Feather’s lips.

  “Did you say Godspell, sir?” Dutch asked as he felt the quickening of his pulse.

  “Yes.”

  “Do we have a name on the driver?” He asked the colonel.

  "It didn't say anything about a name in the report; only he was a colored fellow," Caine said. Dutch and Bright Feather looked at each other again.

  “But he did survive to make the identification?” Dutch pressed, the alarm coursing through his body palpable.

  “Minor injuries. The gentleman was lucky. What aren’t you telling me?” Caine asked in return as his eyes narrowed.

  “The driver is someone that we likely know. A one-time beau of my sister, Honor Elizabeth, is a stage owner up in Godspell. They are still very close. I wonder if she knows,” Dutch replied, the last bit more to Bright Feather than the Colonel.

  “Thank the Great Spirit that he at least managed to survive the attack my lo …” Bright Feather broke off her words.

  Colonel Caine lit a cigar then. They
all knew that Dutch and Bright Feather were more than partners, but military decorum dictated they at least continue the charade.

  For a moment, Dutch felt a stab of guilt. His beloved sister had made a similar slip at the party, and his reaction was to shun her. He would never do that to Bright Feather but also knew her near slip was about something everyone knew already. What Lijuan had nearly said would have been enough to shatter the Wilde family. Still, the more time that passed, the guiltier he felt about his cold treatment of his younger sister. Dutch was distracted from his thoughts by Colonel Caine.

  “Your sister’s friend was lucky. Captain Vellaneau was on patrol and encountered Salazar on the LaDorada flats, just on this side of the border. He was shot,” Caine said to Dutch and Bright Feather’s shock.

  “What!” Dutch said, the news hitting him like a sledgehammer. Captain Reginald Vellaneau’s relationship with Dutch had begun at West Point when the upperclassman had tormented the younger cadet. Later they had wound up on two different sides when the southerner had left the Union Army to take up arms with the Confederates. Following the war, the man's father, a powerful senator, had greased the way for Reginald to regain his commission, but that had left Vellaneau with the same rank as Dutch, a situation that rankled the man to no end.

  That was the least of the strain in their relationship, however. From the day Bright Feather had joined Fort McCallister, Vellaneau had been suspicious of Bright Feather, even going so far to accuse her of being a spy for her uncle, the nefarious renegade Black Hawk who was constantly terrorizing Arizona. In later years he finally acknowledged Dutch’s lover was on the up and up, but it made for an uneasy working relationship between the trio.

  “Salazar shot Reginald? Was he … killed?” Bright Feather asked haltingly. There was no love lost between them and Captain Vellaneau, he knew, but she would not want any harm to come to the man, let alone wind up dead.

  “No, as I said, he was lucky. Again, minor injuries, but his partner at the time, a Lieutenant Dan Bishop, was killed in the ambush. They had stopped him on patrol, but it seems he had cut his hair shaved off his beard as a precaution not to match up to his description, knowing he had left a witness behind in Godspell who could identify him as he looked recently. The ruse worked just long enough for him to strike,” Caine explained.

  “You are right about luck. Not one, but two men surviving an encounter with Salazar is unheard of. Hopefully, Captain Vellaneau will recover soon. I am sorry about Bishop. We did a couple of assignments together when he was stationed up here,” Dutch said.

  “That’s four of our men he has killed. Now that he has crossed over the border we have no jurisdiction unless …” Caine said.

  Dutch knew where the conversation was headed.

  “Unless a man went over there undercover, is that it?” Dutch asked.

  Caine tapped his cigar ash into a tray and looked at him from across the desk.

  "Captain that is correct. Anders has requested to see if I could send you for the mission based on your past undercover work. You've served the army well in that capacity for the last few years. You'll have to figure a way to get him to this side of the border before you can arrest him. It won't be an easy job," Caine pointed out. Dutch nodded understanding.

  "As you know I have been trained in undercover by one the best," Dutch said with a slight smile, thinking of his sister, Cassie, unaware that she was on her way to Mexico at that very moment, alongside Catalina. Caine stamped out his Cuban completely into the tray and formed a tight smile.

  “The lovely Miss Cassandra, the ex-Pinkerton. A most remarkable woman, if I do say so myself. I am glad she shared her experience with you, Captain,” he said briskly.

  “As am I,” Dutch responded honestly.

  "A most remarkable woman indeed. She does remind me of my late wife when she was your sister's age," Caine said looking off to the side, into a past life only he knew. Dutch and Bright Feather exchanged a glance at the Colonel's apparent attraction to Cassandra.

  “I’ll give it my best Colonel,” Dutch told him.

  “Do we know where he might be hiding out?” Bright Feather asked.

  “There are two likely candidates not far across the border. From what little we know of Salazar, he hails from Santa Cruz. It’s possible he’s returning there if he has any family left that might harbor him. If he’s not there, then the next likely place he might turn up is in Palmarez. Smack dab in the middle of the hell hole everyone calls the Badlands. A ten-mile trek equal distance from the border and from Canebraro Valley. The first of the Los Valles Tres. As said, right in the middle of the badlands,” Caine finished.

  “Quite a town by its reputation. From what I’ve heard, half the fugitives from the territory hole up there, shoulder to shoulder with their Mexican criminal counterparts. We’ll be careful,” Dutch commented.

  “We? So, you’ll be taking Bright Feather with you?” the Colonel asked.

  "Well, sir, as you know, we have successfully posed as man and wife before. Such as the time you sent us into the mountains when Captain Wilde was playing the role of a trapper, and I was …" Bright Feather was interrupted by the Colonel holding up his hand.

  “You two don’t have to sell me on allowing this to be a two-person operation. I am not one to argue with success and you two always come through,” Caine told them.

  “Thank you for your confidence, sir,” Dutch said. Caine stood then.

  "Get your things together, and then make your way down to Fort Campbell to report to Colonel Anders. He'll brief you on any new developments before you continue into Mexico. We've just got to hope we can find the fugitive in either of those towns or the trail is likely to go cold forever and the men he killed don't deserve him getting away with their murders. Now please give my well wishes to Vellaneau when you see him. Dismissed!" Caine said with a salute.

  “Yes, sir!” Dutch returned the salute.

  As they turned to leave, Bright Feather saw a picture on the desk and looked at it closer. It showed a beautiful young woman.

  “What a lovely photograph; I haven’t seen this before,” Bright Feather commented glancing at the Colonel curiously.

  “It was sent to me the other day. A gift from the subject, my daughter Christina,” Caine said proudly, the man’s chest seeming to swell with pride and rightly so, Bright Feather thought.

  “She is quite a lovely girl,” she remarked sincerely.

  “That she is. Now you two go on and be careful. I know Anders is going to want you to bring him back to face justice, but Salazar is a mad dog. If you must put him down, do so,” Caine advised them.

  “Understood, sir. We won’t hesitate if it comes to that,” Dutch said. It was time to bring back a killer, dead or alive.

  CHAPTER 12

  TOWN OF HORSESHOE

  Arizona Territory

  At the edge of town under the twilight sky on the flat roof of the two-story building that housed a general store on the ground floor and the proprietor’s living quarters on the second floor, Lijuan Wilde was bringing her boot down on the lip that ran around the edge of the roof. She rested both hands above her bent knee as she surveyed the busy scene below her.

  During the time that Blue River had traveled to The Settlement, she and the Tatums, as well as rancher Scott and more of his men, had been quite busy. As she had predicted, the crowd was already tense over their money having been stuffed into saddle bags that were described as so full they were nearly bursting and then ridden off to parts unknown by bandits. The townsfolk were not exactly in a mood to listen to someone with three strikes against them for being a stranger, female, and Oriental giving them orders.

  Tatum and Scott had quickly tamped down their hostility when Ross had Rosalee summon the undertaker to remove the Indian's body from where they had been keeping it in an empty room at the hotel. As the dark clad man with the tall top hat and his assistant had carried the body, draped over with a sheet, down the main street on some type of stretcher
the crowd grew silent and very solemn. Everyone knew of the truce, and now it had been broken.

  Willing to listen now, Lijuan had stepped forward and told the crowds on the street that everything was being done to ward off an attack, but they had to be ready. To that end every crate, every barrel, anything of size needed to be dragged out into the main street, along with all wagons and buckboards that could be found.

  Looking down she was pleased that their one bit of good luck was the town was one of the most defensible she had seen in the West. Horseshoe consisted of one very long main street that allowed for each end to be sealed off handily with the crates, barrels, and wagons that had been turned over on their side.Lijuan watched as the one wagon in the center of the barrier just below her that had not been flipped over was moved to allow a wagon with a family to enter.

  As soon as it was on the main street, the wagon was rolled back in place. Using the men from Scott's ranch and some other cowhands that Scott had borrowed from some of his fellow ranching neighbors, Lijuan had ordered them to start visiting the homesteads and ranches the circled the town itself. Everyone was to drop what they were doing and head into the town. It would be the only place to offer any safety until the threat had passed.

  Gazing down the street, she saw the same scene being repeated at the far end with more homesteaders arriving. Grimly she knew that there would be those who would not leave their property and were taking their fate into their own hands.

  Suddenly she became aware of Ross Tatum having drawn up next to her.

  “Well, at least this part went well,” he said.

  What had been left unspoken was that in the time since Blue River had returned and detailed his meeting with Summer Sky, they had made no progress in identifying the killer. They had canvassed the town speaking with as many of the residents as possible, but not one had seen Charging Bear with any of the four suspects. Being unable to find any link had frustrated her to no end, and now she looked out beyond the town. It was the direction the Mescalero’s would be coming from should they leave The Settlement to attack. The sun had long since dropped behind the valley's rim she was gazing at. Time was running out.