Dark Rivals: Lijuan Wilde Tale 0f Suspense (Half Breed Haven Book 3)

by A. M. Van Dorn

  “Hey, you two, anyone want to go for a ride?” she called to them as she came up, oblivious to the building tension. Lettie stepped away and grabbed the bridle of her horse roughly. She was furious, and now to see Lijuan on this horse … her horse!

  “You’re riding my horse! What are you doing on my horse? Get down off him, nobody rides Ginger but me, damn it!” Lettie screamed fiercely at Lijuan. Cowmen all around briefly paused to look before they resumed their chores.

  Lijuan was surprised and quickly got down off the animal without a word.

  “Don’t you ever dare to touch her again! Who gave you permission to ride her?” Lettie groaned like a wounded animal, leaning in close and breathing hard.

  “Your father, Carson, said I could help myself to any horse in the stable behind the ranch house. I am sorry, Lettie. I didn’t recall this was the one you were on earlier. I guess I was distracted by all the mud on my favorite dress.” Lijuan said wrinkling her nose only to earn a snarl from Lettie.

  “He is not my father. He is just the man who got stuck with me when my mother died!” she said with disgust in her voice.

  Lijuan surprised herself by feeling a little bad for the woman. Lettie did lose her parents early, and Lijuan knew what that felt like.

  “I am sorry, Lettie. I lost my mother when I was a baby and never got to know her. It hurts, I understand,” she said to Lettie, trying to extend an olive branch and not let her father down.

  Lettie snarled again, too angry for her words to be anything but unintelligible. She jerked the horse’s reins eventually, stalking off without saying anything else. They watched her disappear around the corner of the barn. Lijuan sighed and shook her head. It was sad, really sad how bitter Lettie had made herself become. For a moment in time, less than a heartbeat maybe, just maybe she should back off. No, she concluded, whether she did or didn’t, Dale still wasn’t going to be interested in Lettie regardless.

  “I have a horse you can ride, Miss Lijuan. She is nice and gentle. I like my horses how I like my women,” Dale said, appearing suddenly beside her with a grin. She returned it, mesmerized by his sparkling eyes. She thanked him as he led her over to where his horse was tethered and untied the animal. Like a gentleman he helped her, and her short legs get up in the saddle. The horse was quite docile, and she knew would be easy to ride.

  “Thank you, Dale. Maybe we could go for a ride? I would like to see some of the countryside,” she said by way of asking him out. She was surely strongly attracted to him and wouldn’t mind getting him alone and see what he was like. The Wilde sisters were never shy about such matters. Long ago they had vowed to seize the moment and go for their desires whenever the happenstance arose. None of the four wished to be like their mothers who had missed out on so much by dying early deaths.

  “Well, I would love to, Miss Lijuan. I have duties until after supper though. I don’t suppose you would be interested in a ride then?” he asked, not looking like he was expecting a favorable answer.

  Lijuan surprised him. “That sounds wonderful, Dale,” she told him. “I would really enjoy that. It is a full moon tonight too. It’s always lovely to explore by the light of the moon,” she said with a smile that felt happy and good to her.

  “Sounds mighty fine, Miss Lijuan. I’ll really be looking forward to it!” Dale said his eyes aglow.

  “Thanks for the loan of the horse,” she told him as she began to ride back to the Bells’ ranch house.

  As she rode she glanced back at him a few times and waved. Fucking Sam Stinson’s brains out over the assayer’s shop had been fun, but she had not been on an actual date in a very long time and was looking forward to it. She had been very tense between having to put down the murderer of the old prospector and now this Lettie Bell character, and this could be what she needed. A good old-fashioned courting by a man. Of course, he didn’t know her well and was under the illusion she was something quite different from what she really was, but that was what dating was for; to learn about one another, she told herself cheerfully. She could start dropping hints that she was more than some type of hothouse flower.

  Dale, now a quarter mile behind her, watched her go with a smile, thinking how much fun it would be to go riding with her later. A gorgeous and exotic Chinese woman! He could hardly believe his luck. Still shaking his head in disbelief when he finally turned to inspect the corral one last time, he almost felt his heart jump out of his chest when he saw Lettie behind him. She was just standing there with her hands on her hips and a frown that said that she wasn’t pleased with whatever she saw.

  “Why were you so mean to her, Lettie?” He asked her with a frown, annoyed with the pretty hellion.

  “Because she is just a painted doll, Dale. She is not getting you, you’ll see!” Lettie said abruptly before leaving him alone and hurrying out of sight once again. A moment or so later he heard hoofbeats and watched as Lettie rode away.

  He was quite content to let her go without further words. He shook his head at her odd behavior though, concluding that Lettie was just a strange young and bitter woman.

  ***

  “How does this look as a place to stop for a spell, Lijuan?” Dale asked her, having acquiesced to her request to dispense with the “Miss” before her name.

  Lijuan smiled, glad to get a chance to be alone with him. It was evening time, and they had met beside the ranch house to share a knowing smile before riding straight towards one of the hilltops behind the house. The night breeze was cool and soft, making the time she had spent riding with him high onto the top of the hill rather magical. When they got to the top, he had made his horse walk slowly to a spot; a rather beautiful one where they were surrounded by small trees on three sides and on the open side they could see the view of the tiny, brightly lit ranch house and the corral, on the spread below them.

  “It’s great, Dale. I even like the sound of the cattle just down the way. Thanks for thinking of it,” she told him when he asked what she thought about the spot.

  They got down from their horses, sharing a brief smile once more before he spread a blanket for them to sit on. He surprised her by producing a bottle of wine and two glasses from a large pouch he had carried on his horse.

  “A bottle of wine for a sophisticated lady like yourself,” he winked.

  Lijuan let herself be swayed by his words and the view around them as he poured them both a glass. A small smile formed on her face when she noticed the bottle was from the Corderro Crest vineyards in Mexico, the family vineyard of her sister Cattie’s late mother. Dale clearly had good taste.

  Looking above for a moment, she saw tiny dots of light flew everywhere amidst the dark black sky, that seemed to have lives of their own. She could imagine the worlds that might lay out there, beyond the reach of everyone and how magical it would feel up there, perhaps almost as magical as it felt right down here at this moment that was currently so welcoming to her.

  “Here.”

  Dale got her attention from the stars as he handed her a glass already filled with wine. She smiled as they clinked glasses and silently sipped the drinks for a while. If only he knew that Lijuan was actually thinking a glass of beer from her best friend’s establishment, Gabriela’s Cantina on the main street back in Alamieda would go down just as wonderful. She kept her smile though, thinking that it was sweet of him to think of her the way that he was. For a moment, she curled up one side of her mouth in amusement when she realized she was nearly role-playing as if she were Honor Elizabeth. It was a good thing Honor wasn’t able to come along after all because that would have placed them in competition for Dale, and that was one rule the sisters refused to break, and poor Lettie of course would have found herself pushed even further back in the queue.

  “So, tell me about Dale,” she asked him.

  He gave her a wonderful smile before going right into talking about himself. He told her how he had been working on the ranch for a while and how Carson had hired him as the foreman away from another nearby ranch
. They sipped more wine together as they spoke of their daily lives. He happily told her how he spent his day, looking after the ranch and the countless steers under his care.

  Lijuan on the other hand, steered away from any talk of her usual, more hellcat-like activities, such as her recent business of dispatching a killer to Boot Hill with a pickaxe or the unending daring do that came with aiding Cassandra in her undercover duties for their uncle, the governor of the territory. Instead she focused on her role as the overseer of the Wilde family business ventures that included the cattle ranch and a lucrative timber business, though she was quick to give credit where credit was due by telling Dale the hands-on running of those operations were done by Catalina and her young brother, Blue River.

  As Lijuan spoke, she could hear the sounds of the cared-for cattle echoing with the night’s wind, and for some reason, it was soothing to know that she sat close to the cowhand foreman.

  They finished their glass of wine eventually and leaned against each other. His arms were strong, and she curled close into them when they went naturally around her waist. She liked his warmth and the way he smelled of soap. She gazed up into his blue eyes, sparks easily passing back and forth between the two. Lijuan gently ran her tongue over her lips taking delight when he leaned in for a kiss. She accepted the soft touch of his lips with a satisfied sigh, trying not to appear eager. He was a good kisser, and she felt his hand caress her hips and then move up her waist at the same time. She kissed him back, breathing into his mouth and drawing breath from it too. It felt amazing to her as she realized that she wouldn’t mind if he caressed more parts of her body.

  Dale, reading her beating heart, kissed her hungrily now and was about to find her breast with his searching hands when suddenly, they both heard the attack scream of a cougar and the frightened bellows of the cattle below! Dale groaned first as his lips released hers, leaping up immediately, his eyes searching the endless lands that spread before the hill. He seemed to have confirmed that it was indeed that the cattle were in trouble as he bounded towards his horse immediately and called for her to follow.

  Lijuan hurried after him as they rode down to the cattle. By the time they got there, there were a couple of ranch hands already standing over a dead steer. The animal had been torn to a bloody pulp, its life’s blood staining the already dark sand a deeper shade. For a fleeting moment, it reminded Lijuan of the view of the street from Sam Stinson’s window in the aftermath of the old prospector’s body being carted off to the undertakers.

  “It’s those damned cougars again! This is the third attack this week,” fumed a short, stout man, as he paced in circles by the fallen livestock.

  “We was on patrol, but we didn’t see nothing until it was too late. I got a few shots off at the dirty animal, but I missed him. He was fast,” the second guard explained as Dale looked down solemnly from his horse.

  Lijuan and Dale looked at each other, but this time, with worry in their eyes replacing the romantic sparks from before. They nodded, mutely deciding that it was best to go back to the ranch house and report the attack.

  Their little plan to spend a romantic night together unfortunately had come to an abrupt end.

  ***

  The next morning, as soon as the first light filtered through the windows of the large ranch house, Carson Bell reached out to every occupant and held a meeting in the living room. Despite the serious business at hand, Lijuan almost unconsciously noted that while a fine living room it was, it was no match for the Great Room at Cedar Ledge. Whip and Catalina’s mother, Mercedes Corderro had done an excellent job of planning the elaborate ranch house where they would share their lives together. Unfortunately, destiny had other plans, and, in a heartbeat, Mercedes had been taken from them.

  She blinked her eyes and returned her attention to her father’s old friend who remained standing while everyone had their seat, their eyes fixed on his presence. Carson was obviously aggravated with the sudden fate his ranch and cattle had been meted to go through. His men had found several sets of cougar tracks, so he had concluded that they were not just dealing with one big cat. All the tracks led in the direction of a nearby canyon, which could now reasonably be concluded held their den. Carson was determined to end the attacks for good and he was briefing everyone how they would work together to make sure that happened.

  “So, me, Dale, Lettie, and some extra hands are going to go after them,” Carson Bell finally finished his explanation after which Whip cleared his throat and pointed out that they could be of help.

  “Would you like some help from us? None of us are strangers to this sort of thing,” he said relaying the truth about the many challenges that were involved in maintaining order on a spread as large as Half Breed Haven was.

  “No, thank you, my friend. You are my guests and it would not be right to ask for your aid in this thing,” Carson replied with a sigh.

  “Honestly Mr. Bell, we wouldn’t mind a lick! I saw that there dead steer and that was too fine an animal to be wasted like that for nothin’. We’d all love to help you for darn sure!” Catalina told their host, leaning forward with her hands on her knees.

  Carson seemed to be unable to accept their help himself. He glanced around the room and saw that most of the men were already giving him an affirmative nod. Lettie remained as still as a statue for the longest time before finally giving him a barely perceptible nod.

  “All right then, your help would be welcome, truth be told. The sooner we stop these cougars, the better it will be,” he told them heartily and even gave Whip a slap on the back.

  Everyone rose and herded out the door afterwards, with new instructions on how to end the menace threatening the cattle. Lijuan, however, was stopped by Lettie who clasped a vice-like grip around her left arm before she could exit with the others. Lijuan looked at the woman with annoyance sparking in her eyes before she remembered her pledge and fought to modulate her voice into a completely calm and neutral tone.

  “Yes?”

  “So, is it true what they say?” Lettie grinned at her with reproach. “I heard the rumors all the way up here.”

  For a second Lijuan found herself pausing as she was struck that Lettie’s transparently false smile was not unlike her own that she had to adopt when conducting ranch business, dealing with men who were quick to dismiss her for the triple sins of being petite in stature, a woman, and Chinese.

  Collecting herself, Lijuan crossed her arms with a scowl, deciding to continue asking questions instead of just using her fist to knock the fake smile off the annoying woman’s face.

  “And what would that be?” She asked in return.

  “That your little half Mexican sister there likes to dally in a lady’s area more suited to a man,” she said, and Lijuan felt a rage build inside of her as her eyes widened and she yanked her arm free from Lettie’s grasp.

  No one went after her sisters! She leaned forward so her face was inches from Lettie’s and gave a final warning, “Whatever preference Cattie has, they aren’t any of your business!” she told Lettie. “So, don’t let me catch you asking again. You got that?” she snarled as one of her hands instinctively balled up into a fist, the other extending straight out ready to draw on her martial arts skills and land a chop to the woman’s neck. Either attack method was fine by her; all Lettie had to do was give her one more reason.

  “I knew it! You are a hellion like me!” Lettie hissed, having finally seen confirmation that Lijuan’s gentleness was a ruse. “I see your hands down there. You can barely keep them fangs under control. That’s what you’re trying to do though, isn’t it? Posing just so your little Oriental self can get a taste of a fine strapping white man like Dale. Hoping to get your first time with one, I imagine” she said with a sneer.

  “You imagine very little, girl. I’ve been with more white men and Chinese than a tomboy like you could ever dream of. And guess what, I can have Dale any time I choose to,” she told her enemy viciously. Lettie had become more than just an anno
yance.

  “He ain’t gonna lay with no Asian!” Lettie said rudely, as her face and neck blossomed a shade of red to Lijuan’s satisfaction.

  “How do you know he hasn’t already?” she asked with a purposely sweet voice. “As we say … a Wilde always gets her man one way or another. Perhaps I already have. We did have that ride together … alone,” she teased and watched as Lettie’s fingers retracted, almost turning claw-like. Lijuan knew a slap was coming and she welcomed it. Lettie’s ass was about to be thoroughly beat and she could honestly relay to Whip that the hellion had started it. She licked her lips and readied herself in anticipation of the brawl that was to come.

  As expected, Lettie looked incensed, grinding her teeth and visibly sweating and looked ready to lunge when Dale suddenly walked back into the house.

  “There you two are!” he said, oblivious of what was going on. “Thought we lost you. Lijuan, you are riding with me!” he said.

  Lijuan managed a quick smile as she stepped towards him. As she passed Lettie, she gave her a tight grin with raised eyebrows, almost taunting her to try to start their throw-down now.

  Lettie, knowing better now, only stewed in silence as Lijuan left with Dale.

  Chapter Four

  The sun was already making its way to the center of the sky as they rode out. They had spent a few minutes before departing, preparing a wagon which hauled the supplies for the riders and in which she would ride in with Dale. She longed for her horse, Kong, far away at home in the Cedar Ledge stables, or any horse, really, so she could ride solo, then again, riding next to the strong, handsome man had its upside. The entire time they rode far away from the house, she kept stealing glances at him, noticing for the first time the seductive way tiny strands of hair peeped out from his chin as the beginning of a beard he was growing. It took every ounce of strength not to just nuzzle close to him and let him touch her once more.

  “I could have ridden a horse, Dale,” she finally told him, preferring honesty over what she was thinking at the moment and to start dropping hints there was more to her than she had let on.