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

by A. M. Van Dorn

  “I do,” she answered. Both thinking at least they agreed on something here in this room.

  "Then I guess we leave him for the night, and tomorrow we'll follow through with our plan," Dutch said. He held out his hand to her, and she hesitated before taking it. They left with Bright Feather snatching the bottle of fake vodka off the table. Dutch was again reminded his head wasn't in the game. A short while later they lay on their bed, but instead of a session of lovemaking as they had earlier and often ended each day with, they lay back to back, staring into the darkness. There was a yawning gulf between them, and that gulf's name happened to be Lijuan.

  CHAPTER 29

  TOWN OF HORSESHOE

  Arizona Territory

  With the murderer’s hands bound behind him, LaRue was being pushed along by Ross Tatum and the rancher Scott with the others from the lobby in tow as well as Rosalee and Farquhar who had come out from the back room following the showdown with LaRue. At the front of the pack, Lijuan led the way shouting for the wagon serving as the gate in the barrier to be rolled back.

  The men manning the barricade either looked uncertain or outright refused, gesticulating wildly at the war party charging up the road under the full moon. Within a minute or two they would be passing the cemetery at the edge of town and be at the barrier.

  “Listen to her, goddamn it!” Scott shouted!

  “Don’t a one of you shoot!” Tatum added. “We’ve got the killer right here! We might be able to defuse this, but if we take the first shot we’re done for!”

  A grumble rolled through the assembled defenders as they looked at each other uncertain of what to do. Up until this point they had followed the orders from the strange Chinese woman, but now the situation had suddenly gotten very real with the enemy now on their doorstep.

  ***

  Thundering toward the town at the vanguard of the Mescalero forces was the trio of the chief, and to each side of him was Summer Sky and Crazy Elk. Though displaying the stoic face of a warrior going into battle, Crazy Elk was awash in joy and deep satisfaction inside. He was on the threshold of achieving everything that he had always dreamed of. A new day would dawn that would see not only himself as the new chief but also as the man who would lay claim to Summer Sky as was his right. If he genuinely believed in the Great Spirit as he pretended to, the elimination of scores of the hated white eyes would be a bonus from the deity. He could almost smell the fear from the town of Horseshoe as they approached.

  Ahead to the right of them as they neared the town he saw a gallows, erected across from the town’s cemetery. The empty noose swung loosely in the gentle night wind. The white men were fond of hangings he mused, and since Blue River was half white, instead of splitting his head open with a tomahawk; he would hang the half-breed with that empty noose.

  His look swiveled to the cemetery across from the gallows. Sitting outside the gate was a small wagon with a coffin still in it, a shovel leaning against the wagon's side. Crazy Elk nearly laughed at the sight of it. So fearful of joining their dead companion the white eyes had abandoned their fallen to rot so that they might retreat into town in fear.

  His gaze turned away from the cemetery they had just passed to a barricade of wagons stretched across the main street of the town. The chief began a series of war whoops joined in by the other braves. Crazy Elk himself started shouting them at the top his lungs. Suddenly the cries began to fall silent, including the chief's and even Crazy Elk's as an inexplicable sight began to unfold in front of them. One of the wagons began to roll back, and two figures started to walk towards them, one carrying a white flag and the other a torch—and they were women!

  The chief raised his hand signaling them to pull their horses to a halt. The braves quickly obeyed, but all of them raised their weapons, ready to unleash them when commanded. Crazy Elk felt his chest tighten in fury as he recognized them. The short woman with the long dark tresses may have been wearing the clothing of a Mescalero woman, but in the torchlight, there was no mistaking her as one of the mysterious people who was said to come from beyond endless waters that swallowed the setting sun.

  The torch-holding woman he would know anywhere. Crow Woman! Sister to his romantic rival that he had framed and managed to get expelled from the tribe. He had privately celebrated the man's suicide which ensured he could never find a way to return to their people and pick up where he left off with Summer Sky. He had loved the chief's sister for as long as he could remember, but as children he was nothing more than her constant companion—rail-thin young man who had paled in her eyes compared to other braves and the Yavapai trader's son, Blue River, who had spent time amongst their tribe all those years ago.

  The sight of Crow Woman served only to remind him of her brother. Crazy Elk had worked hard through the years to bulk himself up and become the kind of man that would catch the eye of Summer Sky. Just when he finally sensed she was beginning to look at him as a man, Ka-e-te-nay had swooped in and had stolen her away. It had only been after he had framed Ka-e-te-nay and the man had taken his life in a ritual leaving open the way to Summer Sky completely clear. At long last, she had become his lover. Though he had possessed her body he could tell her heart was not with him. His offers of marriage were turned down repeatedly. The only way she would ever be his wife would be when he held the ultimate power over her.

  Now he felt an uneasiness he had never known. What were these two women doing? He had reason to be concerned as he glanced over toward the chief, understanding full well the history that he shared with Crow Woman. This was foolishness! They should attack! Up on the roof, he could see weapons trained on them and poking out through the barricade of wagons. At the moment he knew the townspeople wouldn't fire because the two women would be cut to ribbons in the crossfire. Still, he knew the white men, and he knew their prejudices, and he found himself hoping that there was one man in the town who held no value on the life of an Indian or a Chinese and would fire out of fear. He needed the battle so that he might slay the chief!

  Crazy Elk listened as he heard the Chinese woman speak, “I understand, Great Chief, that you speak English?”

  A silence followed as the chief stared at the woman before shifting his gaze to Crow Woman.

  “First, you abandon your people and live with the white man, and now you stand with them as we come to avenge Charging Bear and the invasion of our settlement?”

  “I stand here because I chose to leave with my brother. Banished by you who listened to the liar on horseback beside you. My brother, your closest friend who breathes no more because he was falsely stripped of his honor.

  “Speak no more of this Crow, Woman. Banishing him weighed on my heart. When I lost my friend, I also lost you, my love.”

  Crazy Elk watched as the Asian woman’s eyebrow raised and she looked over at Crow Woman. “My love? I thought you hated him for what he did to your brother.”

  “That hatred only came AFTER he believed the evil Crazy Elk over Ka-e-te-nay. How could I continue to love such a man who would believe a liar over his oldest friend?”

  “A brother and sister in love with another set of a brother and a sister. Sounds like it used to be pretty interesting times around The Settlement,” Lijuan mused.

  Crazy Elk felt relief wash over him as the chief raised his voice as well as the spear he held over his head! "We will not revisit old wounds! We come to take this town tonight as revenge against the slaying of our blood brother Charging Bear! The time for talk has ended! As leader of my war council, Crazy Elk is right! Horseshoe has broken the peace between our peoples. The white men have started this, and we shall end it!"

  His heart was pounding now as Crazy Elk looked around. According to his plan, he had made sure that his loyal followers in his coup had positioned themselves as close to the chief as possible. With satisfaction he saw all the horsemen directly behind the trio; at the lead were his men. They would serve as cover when he assassinated the chief in the melee. He held his breath because once he knew their
leader brought the spear down sharply; it would be the signal to unleash with everything they had. Suddenly a fierce cry shattered the night air.

  “Wait!”

  CHAPTER 30

  HOTEL FRANCO

  Palmarez, Mexico

  Silently, Bright Feather reopened the door to their room and slipped back inside, locking it behind her. Light from the full moon spilled through the dirty window and captured the sleeping figure of her man. Earlier, Bright Feather had remained awake even after Dutch had fallen into a restless sleep, tossing and turning beside her. She knew the scene between them tormented him, and even in his sleep, he could not escape it.

  Bright Feather had gingerly slipped out of bed and changed into her buckskin dress craving the freedom it allowed before noiselessly leaving the room. Her gun belt was around her waist as she had left the hotel seeking peace from her quarrel with Dutch. Though rare, it was not the first time they had quarreled, but it was the first time their argument had touched upon Lijuan's treatment of her. It had always been the white elephant in the room. Lijuan's unwarranted and irrational antagonism towards Bright Feather. It had taken all her self-control to not bring up before now the fact that truly angered and hurt her.

  Dutch never seemed to do anything to put a stop to it. What made it the harder was she knew how much her man truly loved her. It was strange, Bright Feather thought to herself, how it had started. When she was younger, she had got along with all the Wildes, including Lijuan. When she returned from her sojourn to master all the Indian languages she could, she had got reacquainted, and fallen in love with Dutch. Then, when Lijuan returned from school after her father's injuries, was when the friction had started. Bright Feather had at first thought Lijuan was jealous, but Lijuan was Dutch's half-brother, so she once again pushed that possibility out of her head. Yet she never could figure any other reason for the hatred than jealousy, and she always circled back to this explanation.

  Bright Feather sighed as she had stepped out into the streets. This hell on earth never seemed to sleep, and plenty of people were still about. Coming out here was not the smartest thing to do, and she knew it, but she had brought her weapon and was ready for anything that came her way. What she was not prepared for was the morning when she would have to confront the awkwardness she knew would lay between her and Dutch. It was hard to be in such a position with a man she loved more than life itself.

  Her stroll through Palmarez had taken her past the Mending Shop, and she had been surprised to see a light burning. Drawing up to the window she peered inside just as the woman looked up from where she was stacking material and fabrics under the counter. The old woman smiled at her and then came around from the counter. Undoing several locks, the door, at last, had been swung open, and she was invited in. After ambling in, her fellow Indian woman offered her a cup of strong, black coffee and the soon they had struck up a conversation. The woman's name, Bright Feather found out, was Snow Bird.

  “I never understood how the white man drank this stuff, until I had my first cup. A day has not gone by since that I haven’t had one.” Snow Bird said.

  “It is very good, thank you. May I ask you something? I know we have just met but …” Bright Feather asked, hoping she wasn’t too forward.

  “Ask away, child,” the woman said.

  “You seem like a nice woman. Why have you left your tribe to come here to work and live?” she asked. “To this horrible place?”

  "When I was but a girl, my father would travel here with my mother and me. We were all over this area. He was a trapper and a trader. We would bring furs from the far north that were never seen by the locals and sold them. In those days this area was not known as the badlands, but It was so different from the lands of my birth, what the white eyes call Canada. I loved it here just because it was so different. I wanted to live here someday," she explained, staring off into space.

  "Of course, that was just a dream, but in my seventeenth year, that was when it all changed for me. On our way down here, through Utah, we encountered some white men. They killed my father while my mother and I could only watch. Then they killed her. I managed to escape while they were doing that, and I ran. I didn't stop until I reached here," she finished. Bright Feather felt deep sorrow for the woman after hearing the tragedy that had propelled her to this place.

  “I am so sorry, Snow Bird,” she told the older woman.

  “It was long ago, and I settled here. I trapped in the nearby mountains to support myself before the Great Spirit sent to me a fine man who I married and bore his two children. Vincente has been gone for many moons now, but the children still come to see me. Not as often now since these lands have become what they have. A haven for evil men and women who respect nothing.” She said.

  “Why don’t you leave?” Bright Feather asked.

  “It is my home. I have lived here far longer than I ever did in Canada. No, I shall stay here until the Great Spirit calls me to His home,” she told Bright Feather.

  The younger woman wanted to say more but knew she would never convince the woman to change her mind, and it wasn't her place to do so in any case.

  “Now let me ask you something, Yellow Bird,” Snow Bird said.

  “Yes?” she returned.

  “I saw you riding in with a white eye. Why are you traveling with him when a beautiful young woman like yourself would make a fine wife to a brave?” she asked. Bright Feather smiled. She had been asked this before from other Indians.

  “It is simple really, he is the man I love,” she responded.

  “He is a white eye. An evil runs through them. I know this full well as I watched the death of my parents,” Snow Bird told her.

  “Not all are evil; he, he is the finest man that I have ever known. There is no man, either white or red, who I would rather be with,” Bright Feather told her forthrightly.

  “He treats you well?” Snow Bird asked. Bright Feather wiped away a sudden tear that welled up.

  “Yes, he does. He always has, but there is trouble between us. His sister with a dark heart wishes to poison our love,” she told the woman honestly.

  “If this white eye is who you truly love, then do not let this woman do this. I see strength in you, young one,” Snow Bird told her, and Bright Feather smiled and agreed wholeheartedly.

  What she had just said encouraged her, lifted her spirits and put things into clarity. She nodded to herself; she was a strong woman, strong enough not to let Lijuan Wilde win. For whatever her reasons truly were, she could try and drive as big a wedge between her and Dutch, but she would not succeed. Not now. Not ever!

  ***

  Now back in the room she glided over to light the oil lamp next to the bed before she slipped in beside Dutch. This time she made no effort not to disturb him. She wanted to. Sleeping lightly, he instantly became awake and rolled over and found himself staring directly into her eyes. He was so handsome she thought.

  "Have you been somewhere?" he questioned, having realized that she was wearing different clothes than when they had gone to bed.

  "I've been to truth and back," she said as she reached out and ran her hand through his hair and hitched herself close to him, so their lips were nearly grazing each other’s.

  “I don’t understand …”

  She didn’t answer him but rather closed the gap between their lips kissing him passionately. When finally, she pulled her lips free from his, she saw a burning sincerity on his face.

  “I am sorry, Bright Feather. About before, about everything,” he told her honestly.

  “As am I,” she returned.

  “You shouldn’t be. You have nothing to apologize for.” He traced his fingers over the curve of her left ear.

  "You know the reason I get up and draw a breath in the morning is that I know you will be there with me," he told her. "Always, no matter what or who, may not wish it to be."

  They kissed again and rolled off the bed and began undoing each other's clothes. The morning was still a ways of
f, so they had plenty of time, she knew. He slid the shoulder strap of her little buckskin dress down her arm, and the other side slid down as well. Her hands went to his belt and undid it as they continued kissing. When her dress was down around her waist, his pants dropped to the ground around his ankles. He stepped out of them as they broke apart briefly.

  Dutch then wrapped his arms around her and cupped her behind and picked her up and gently placed her on the bed, straddling over her. Their tongues entwined once more, and he breathed how she tasted like perfection to him. He removed his shirt and lay next to her on one elbow. He whispered sweet things to her how her amazingly exotic beauty made him choke up briefly, how she was so beautiful, sexy, confident… so many things that made him feel amazed she was his woman. He leaned in to taste her further.

  "You are my life Beautiful Bright Feather." He said before his lips found her luscious breasts. She stiffened under him and moaned. He moved one leg over hers, entwining their bodies with an eagerness they both shared. The feel of his naked body against hers was like an invitation to heaven. Dutch moved his leg upward between her thighs so that his knee was pressed against her moist opening of desire.

  He kissed her over her breasts and up her neck. His caressing of her flat stomach created more desire within her as he moved his hand lower, probing her desire. He slid two fingers into it touching a need and she arched her back in response. He rocked forward over her using his knee to press against his hand, pushing his fingers in and then out. She panted and groaned, kissing his chest and twining her fingers in his hair.

  Dutch gasped in pleasure as Bright Feather grabbed his thickening member. He swelled quickly in her hand causing his whole body to stiffen with from his lusty shaft. She wrapped an arm around his shoulders and twisted rolling him over so that she was on top. She had a mischievous, aroused grin on her face as she pulled him down on top of her. She kept working his rock-hard cock while kissing his chest and neck, moaning her need and desire.