***
“Have you men seen Dale?” Lettie asked the men as she rode up to the branding fire astride Ginger.
The night was chilly, and she wouldn’t have minded being near to a fire too…preferably one in the small fireplace back in her room and with Dale snuggled next to her. Yet, she couldn’t just get it out of her mind that the sudden disappearance from Lijuan from the big house meant she had come here. Her mind was fueled with the suspicion that that little yellow witch was busy with Dale, her man, doing God-knows-what. She just couldn’t shake the image from her thoughts no matter how hard she tried.
The men at the fire glanced at each other and shrugged as if her question meant nothing to them. The nonchalant lot!
“Saw him a while ago,” one finally said.
“Where?” She snapped at them. They looked uncomfortable, but she didn’t give a cattle shit.
“He was around, you know,” the other man said.
Lettie became frustrated. After everything that was probably going on already, getting help from the men that had known her longer than they had Lijuan was proving to be difficult! Men that were on her payroll no less.
“Tell me where he is now That’s if you still want jobs come morning!” She growled at them.
Again, she watched as they looked at each other nervously. They knew something, she quickly guessed. They knew something, and they had already taken sides.
“I don’t think he wants to be interrupted right now, miss.” the first man said to her eventually, looking embarrassed.
She opened her mouth to argue with him, but she realized what he meant when she heard the sound of laughter from the barn. She spun and saw Dale and Lijuan leaving the barn that housed his upstairs quarters. She was fixing mussed hair while he was straitening his shirt. The harlot! Both walked over to the fire where Lettie and the two men were, laughing amongst themselves.
“Dale, you best be getting yourself into Saddle Gap and let Doc Wainright have a look at you. If you just laid with that slant-eyed concubine, you probably caught something … like yellow fever,” Lettie found herself yelling maliciously.
Her words hit the right chord. Lijuan had had enough. A white light flickered in her brain followed by an explosion that went off inside of her like a thousand sticks of TNT.
“That’s it! I am going to give you the thrashing you deserve. Get down off that horse!” Lijuan told her, rushing towards her.
Lettie, still angered by the idea of the position she had met both of them, kicked out from her vantage on the horse’s back and hit Lijuan in the chest. Lijuan staggered back, but then rushed forward, grabbing her leg and trying to pull her off the horse.
“Let go or I’ll kill you!” Lettie screamed in rage.
She began to struggle off her horse. She so wanted to beat that stupid Chinese woman. When she finally got off the horse and to her feet though, Lijuan grabbed her arms and swung her around. As Lettie reached out to grab one of Lijuan’s arms, she kicked her legs out from under her in a move that Lettie had never seen before and shocked the hell out of her. Lettie fell, her knees missing the soft mud and striking a large flat rock, the blow delivering a healthy dose of pain.
Lettie kept an iron grip on Lijuan’s arms though, taking her down with her. Soon, both women were punching each other and rolling across the ground, caking themselves in a combination of mud and dust. Lettie was not going to stop until the wicked man-stealer was done and unconscious at least! She thought to herself as she punched and scratched that it was the only thing that would satisfy her for the night.
“Watch out! The branding fire!” Lettie heard Dale yell an instant before she rolled once more to her left.
It was too late. Her face went into the fire. She felt a piece of burning wood press against her cheek and she screamed as agony spread from her face to her whole body. The smell of her own burning flesh erupting in her nostrils. She had hurt herself badly and the pain was almost blinding.
Lijuan had pushed herself away when she had seen they were rolling towards the fire and was now on her feet with her mouth agape, seeing what Lettie had done to herself. Lettie finally managed to roll to the side and away from the fire. She got to her knees, covering her burnt face in her hands.
“Lettie? Lettie, let us help you up,” She heard a concerned sounding Dale say. Grudgingly, Lijuan stepped close to her as both she and Dale extended their arms.
“Get away from me! Both of you! Especially this Oriental whore! The fire has branded me for life, but I’ll see you dead for it!” Lettie groaned, shouting and cursing at the same time as she staggered to her feet.
It was sealed. Lijuan was her nemesis, and she was going to end her. She stumbled to her horse, climbed up, and rode off without glancing at the number of eyes that watched her in stunned silence.
Every step the horse took was a shudder of pain through her body and every breath she took afterwards was accompanied with rage, hatred, and determination to see Lijuan Wilde dead.
Chapter Five
Lijuan ate her breakfast in silence the next morning, feeling conflicted about her scuffle with Lettie that had ended so horribly. The ranch’s dining room was oddly silent, and she guessed that everyone else was probably thinking of Lettie, too. The news of their fight would have gone through every corner of the house almost as soon as the dust had settled; she knew this, despite that she was currently eating with Carson, her father, and Catalina, and no one had said anything about it yet. The food was good, but that didn’t distract her from her guilt. She was supposed to admire the polished roof above them and the Grecian pots at every corner of the dining as she did all the meals they had taken at the ranch previously, but she didn’t have the heart for it this day.
She knew Lettie had started it and logically knew it could just as easily had been her who rolled into the fire, but that knowledge didn’t help. Lijuan could be as hard of a person as you would ever find, but she hid her heart more often than she ever showed, so there was a small flicker within her that felt some sympathy for Lettie and the wicked burns she had, in her opinion, self-inflicted.
“How is Lettie doing?” someone finally asked Carson.
It was the judge, her father. Lijuan trusted him to be the one to bring it up just to lay things bare and to get things off everyone’s chest.
“Doc Wainright patched her up as best he could, but I am afraid the burn will leave a scar on the left side of her face that will be with her for life,” Carson informed them.
“I am sorry it happened as it did, Mr. Bell,” Lijuan felt compelled to say.
Catalina was indignant though. “What for?” she asked reproachfully, setting her jaw. “From what I heard, she was sayin’ some pretty nasty things about you being Chinese. If I’d been there, a fire would have been the least of her problems.”
Lijuan loved her sister for sticking up for her, but their father definitely was not pleased at her remarks. A stern frown fixed upon his face as he turned to his youngest daughter.
“Catalina Mercedes Wilde! We are guests in this house. I will not have you talking this way,” he said firmly, and, in a manner, that suggested he did not expect to be challenged.
Catalina blushed immediately, embarrassed for letting their father down. Lijuan reached secretly under the table to Catalina next to her and squeezed her hand in thanks. She hoped her sister would feel at peace with the kind gesture. Catalina nodded her head mutely at her just as Carson interrupted with tranquil words that made everyone’s mood quite calm as well.
“Now that’s alright, William.” The ranch owner said, “And don’t you apologize, Miss Lijuan. I heard she struck you first while sitting on her horse. I’ve spent my life trying to help that girl, but I reckon I just never will get through to what ails her. On top of all this, we had another attack last night. Even though we got one of the cats, we lost two more cattle. It was two that were going to your herd. Don’t worry though, I will see them replaced,” Carson told them.
“D
on’t worry about that right now,” Whip said, feeling pity for his friend.
“In any case, it is time to end this cougar problem now,” Carson said, thanking him with a nod. “If you’re all done, let’s get the men and saddle up! I’m anxious to try this plan you have worked out, Miss Catalina.”
“I think we’ve got a good chance of gettin’ rid of your varmint problem once and for all, if this works,” Catalina said, her usual exuberance returning to her face, putting the embarrassing chastising behind her.
It took a while before they all finished their meal of bacon and eggs, and during the entire time, Lijuan was glad her issue with Lettie had been worked out between their parents. She had been afraid there might have been consequences as a result of the fight, but everyone seemed to take their scuffle better than she could have hoped for given its outcome. Finally, when the meal was over, they all pushed back from the table and silently crossed the short narrow passage to the sitting room. In a few seconds, Carson and Whip had headed out the front door, while Catalina rushed up to walk beside her sister, her smile revealing profound gratitude for the brief compassion Lijuan had showed her during breakfast.
They headed out too, determined to help the ranch however they could and do what the Wildes always did—put an end to a problem once and for all.
***
Lettie, with a bandage on the left side of her face, peeped from her room and watched everyone leave. She had waited a long time, hoping that they would. A few minutes ago, she had also gotten one of the servant girls to get a message to Mick Caldwell at the bunk house and she knew for sure that her discussion with the man would be impossible if everyone didn’t leave the house first.
She got back into her room now, biding her time. When footsteps echoed in the outside hall a short time later and a knock sounded, she hurried toward the door and jerked it open before he could knock the second time. It was Mick Caldwell alright, and he was looking at her with a bewildered frown.
“Come in,” she said.
“Ma’am?” he replied.
“Are you deaf? Get your ass in here!” she snapped impatiently.
He entered cautiously, his eyes wandering all over the walls of her colorful room. “Sorry, ma’am. It just didn’t seem proper,” he told her.
“A lot is going to happen this morning that might not seem proper, but I need your help to make it happen,” she told him.
“I don’t understand,” he said in an uncertain tone.
‘I know you wanted that foreman’s job, and then my father just up and hired Dale away from old man Murphy’s ranch over in Stillwater. Twern’t right, and it twern’t fair,” she told him.
“No, ma’am. It twern’t,” Mick agreed.
“Well, today, you are going to get a chance to have a little fun with him, if you help me,” she told the big man. He was definitely falling for everything she said. She couldn’t have chosen any man more right for what she had in mind than him.
“Doing what, ma’am?” he asked, exactly as she had predicted.
She stepped towards him now, telling him her plan to get revenge on the interloping woman from Alamieda. He listened intently, his eyes widening with every detail that she disclosed.
When she finished, she watched as he took off his hat respectfully and said, “I am sorry, ma’am. If I do that, I could get fired.”
“You aren’t going to lose your job. I will protect you, I promise. I got my father’s ear after all,” she urged him.
The truth? She really needed his help to get what she wanted and would say anything … do anything to accomplish her goals.
“Maybe so, but good jobs are hard to come by. I can’t take the chance,” he pointed out as he began to back away towards the door clutching his hat.
She had also calculated that he would say something as such. She wasn’t going to take the chance of her plans not playing out either.
“It sounds like you need more convincing,” she told him, walking over to the bed and swinging her hips seductively. She let him watch quietly as she poured a powder into a glass of water and after swishing it around, drank it.
“The Doc gave it to me. It helps with the pain,” she told him and then turned quickly, opening her blouse.
“I don’t under … understand.” She heard him stutter.
“Get over here!” She ordered him, quite aware of his astonishment.
“Ma’am!” his face was flushed now, and it almost amused her.
“Get over here. All of this is yours, if you help me!” She told him again.
If he didn’t take her offer serious now, then he was one hell of a fool; a stupid man who never took rare chances. He licked his lips now, giving her all the signs of his acceptance.
He threw his hat to the side and moved towards her, undoing his shirt. When he got close, he bent over her and she completely opened herself to him. He scooped her up and put her on the bed before dropping his pants, his hard cock larger than she had thought any man’s cock could be. The proud shaft pulsed in a raunchy dance as he joined her on the bed, his fingers jerking her clothing off her slender body. Her breasts were freed immediately to his prying eyes while he also had access to the sweet spot between her thighs.
She had been the one to offer herself to him. She had been the one with all the plans and now everything was playing out exactly as she wanted. As he began to caress her small breasts and thighs with his fingers and lips, she was assured once more that her plan would work. She was going to be able to get that hellfire woman who branded her face. All she could think about was revenge. She didn’t even allow herself to be swayed by the tingling down there, as Mick began to finger her, his lips suckling her timid nipples hungrily.
She reveled in the idea of Lijuan and Dale being hurt. As Mick abandoned his finger play and raised himself above her lowering his manhood deep within her, she gasped briefly at the sensation while her body moved in a rhythm that she didn’t care about. She was doing this to get the satisfaction of revenge, she told herself.
If this got her the help to bring her hatred down on her enemies, then so be it. She actually found Mick’s ministrations pleasurable in a vague way, even more when she had a vision of hurting Lijuan dancing in her head. The woman stole her man! Mick would get his reward from her now, but that was payment for her own reward when Lijuan finally got what she deserved.
Mick was breathing hard on top of her now. He was jerking his cock fast into her too, but it didn’t matter.
Nothing mattered, but what she would get out of this.
***
A short time later the two were atop their mounts riding side by side at a good clip towards the canyon where the plans were underway to put an end to the menace the big cats were heaping on the Bell’s cattle ranch once and for all.
“Miss Lijuan and Dale are at this end of the canyon by now. Mr. Wilde and his other daughter are midway up the canyon and Mr. Bell and a couple of men are at the far end of the canyon. It should be all in place,” Mick told Lettie.
“Good, they are all out of sight from one another. Dale and his Shanghai slut are ripe for my vengeance!” Lettie said. She ignored Mick’s look of bewilderment as he had never heard of the city she had referenced. God could he even read she wondered?
She wasn’t the only one doing their share of wondering. There was a fire in her eyes that made Mick ponder just what he had gotten himself into. He watched as she gritted her teeth in excitement, her eyes blazing with inexplicable evil.
***
The sun shone bright and hot, its strength placing thick sweat on the hunting parties’ skin. The canyon was a large narrow scar in the land between various heaps of sand and rocks. A still damp waterline revealed they had been correct to fear a flash flood. One had apparently swept the canyon up to roughly six feet.
Catalina had come up with a fine plan that involved them taking various positions around the ravine and Lijuan was sure it would work having complete faith in her youngest sister. She had
put aside her guilt about the previous evening and was now focused on the task at hand. Before splitting off with Dale she had also assisted in staging three groups of cattle at a trio of points in the canyon to lure the cougars out of hiding. Now, she and Dale were ready with their rifles, paying no attention to the unfavorably hot weather.
One of the points was near their position at one end of the canyon. The second was where Judge and Cattie were stationed along mid-canyon. The third cattle positioning was at the far end of the canyon with Carson and his men. It was a great plan and it was working already. They hadn’t been at their position at the end of the canyon for more than half an hour when Lijuan saw the rustle of some scrub brush down on the canyon floor.
Held in place by a strap that crossed her chest was one of the oversized canteens Sam Stinson had given her as a partial thank you for her actions at the assayer’s shop when he had assured her the owner would likely find a way to truly thank her. Lijuan unscrewed the cap and took a long pull from it before turning her attention back to the canyon, her right hand wrapped around the end the gun barrel. She was ready for whatever came as she saw a cougar poke its head out through the brush. Then another appeared as well. Two of them. Perfect she thought.
“There they are, Dale!” She whispered, a few minutes later raising the gun and setting her sights on one of the big cats as it stealthily approached their bait of long horns. They could see them come to a halt, crouching down, their heads in the air sniffing the scene of their intended prey. Slowly paw by paw they began to move again. A third emerged from behind another boulder on the opposite side of the steers and began its own advance.
“Yep, let’s get ‘em, Lijuan,” he said to her.
They both opened fire at once, the blasts of their gun reverberating up the canyon with neither of them missing their targets. Dale felled the third one as a fourth sprang from behind a brush it was hiding behind, apparently still determined to make a run at the steers that were bellowing in terror from the gun fire and the sight and small of the cougars. Lijuan quickly shifted her aim and got that one too. Several more of them emerged from beyond the range of their rifles and began to run down the canyon. Their intended quarry now forgotten as their instincts told them they were now prey themselves but to their misfortune they were headed in the direction the other hunting parties waited.
Dark Rivals: Lijuan Wilde Tale 0f Suspense (Half Breed Haven Book 3) Page 7