Dark Rivals: Lijuan Wilde Tale 0f Suspense (Half Breed Haven Book 3)
Page 11
Lettie only shrugged. The girl would have been better off staying in Ireland. Nobody asked her to come to the West. None of that mattered now. What did was the future. She had no idea what she would do or where she would go, especially with the scarred face she now wore. Only one thing was certain, she thought as one hand clutched the bulging bag of gold and her other rested on her injured and aching rib cage…somewhere…someday she would finish her business with Lijuan Wilde and only one of them would walk away with breath still in her body.
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PLESE ENJOY A SNEAK PEAK AT THE JOURNAL ENTRY THAT OPENS OUR NEXT RELEASE:
HALF BREED HAVEN WESTERN SHORT: SILVER GOLD AND DECEPTION
(A Catalina Wilde adult western adventure)
From the journal of Catalina Wilde
I’ll sure as sugar say this … If there was one thing that was able to take my mind off my friends being in a bad way back in Alamieda, it was the sight lying out before me as I came charging up to that blazing homestead while my horse, Pretty Feet, sprang forward, carrying me as fast as she could go!
I’m sad to admit I’ve seen more than my fair share of death up close ever since we girls started helping out our older sister, Cassandra. But then, what I saw that day even now still shakes me up and, more so after I found out just why the whole family had met their Maker in the gruesome fashion I saw when I happened upon them.
Yeah, I can still see it. The bodies scattered about the yard, the burning farm house and then of course, that poor fellow who come running out of it—on fire! The Lord knows I did what I could for him, and honestly, he was as good as dead before I saddled up with him on my steed Pretty Feet and rode away with him like all of hell was on our tail. I had hoped that getting him back to town might give him a tiny shot at being saved, but it actually turned out bringing him back signed his death warrant! No way could I have known that at the time, of course. But at least I saw justice was meted out nice and proper before heading off back to Half Breed Haven.
Even after I wrapped up that little, now what’s that big word Honor Elizabeth likes to use? Oh … that little impromptu adventure, there was still the matter of just how I was gonna save Jackson, the beau of my friend Ruth Anne. But then, my little adventure amongst the Swedes was the eye-opener I needed to go about saving Jackson; solving the poor farmer’s mysterious death led me to figure out what really must have gone down that left Jackson facing hard labor in prison for at least the next twenty years.
There was no way I was gonna let him take the rap for the theft of the gold shipment, hell no! Jackson and Ruth Anne were more than good friends … for one afternoon, we had all been lovers and for me, it was enough reason to save his ass from jail. Course I would have done it even if he wasn’t Ruth Anne’s beau … No way I’d ever let an innocent man go to prison!
I ain’t gonna lie, not in my own journal anyways, but it sure was unexpected when the pair of them approached me with what they had in mind. It was right quick after I saved Jackson from the claws of his boss, the sheriff and his posse, oh and that slick lawyer Kincaid! Don’t wanna forget that jasper! All of who were out to capture him for that their missing gold. Sure, Ruth Anne and I had been intimate those times past but now that she was with Jackson, I figured she’d gotten all the exploring she needed.
It turned out that she hadn’t.
I was more than happy to help her get it all out of her system. Seems like she wanted to take one more walk on the “Wilde” side and I was quite happy to oblige especially with her man thrown into mix. From what she told me he had been curious ever since she done told him about our past, and with him on the run for a crime he didn’t commit, she knew this would be one heaping helping of a distraction away from what he was facing.
I can tell you that Ruth Anne thought it right. Not gonna mince my words here, it … was a first-rate time when we all came together in that room at the old cabin I volunteered as a hideout on Cedar Ledge. Should I be writing about the time when Ruth Anne and I were all over ourselves, or when we were both all over Jackson? Or perhaps, I should just think about the delicious shivers that singed my soul as I connected on the most basic level with both sexes whilst danger was all around us? I wouldn’t be forgetting the soft feel of Ruth Anne’s body against mine nor would I forget that of Jackson’s ruthless hunger driving me to the height of sensual pleasure.
Yep; that sure was an encounter all three of us was never gonna be forgetting anytime soon. Ruth Anne and I done gave him a little slice a paradise that beautiful afternoon. However, the only thing standing between the paradise he just had and going straight to the hell that was Claymore Prison was me, and I damn well wasn’t fixing to let hell come out over heaven!
So again, that escapade with the burning farmhouse and the poor family in that there “Valley of the Swedes” showed me the trick I needed to get the tables turned—and turn the tables I did!
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PLEASE ENJOY A SNEAK PEAK AT AN EXCERPT FROM A NEW LIJUAN WILDE ADVENTURE COMING SOON:
THE WILDES OF THE WEST #3
THE TOWN OF NO RETURN
(PART 2 OF THE DANGER DOWN MEXICO WAY TRILOGY)
(A WILDES OF THE WEST ADULT WESTERN ADVENTURE)
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Lijuan Wilde was nude. Her state of undress didn’t last long as she tugged and pulled until the buckskin dress finally managed to pass over her large breasts. Looking down at them, she shook her head imagining they would explode through the material if she moved the wrong way.
Her bare right foot kicked away the mound of clothes that she had been wearing including her cowboy boots. Looking around she found a pair of moccasins and pulled them on as she eyed the glowering woman with her hands tied behind her back and her feet bound. Reaching down Lijuan seized the band Little Flower wore around her head, yanked it off, and slipped it on her head even as she felt the Indian woman's blazing eyes on her.
She had entered the tent some minutes earlier just after she had watched Blue River and Summer Sky slip into her tent. It had been their prearranged plan for that to be her signal to drop down into The Settlement and incapacitate Little Flower so that she might snag some clothing to help pass herself off as an Indian, and now she would be more able to move more freely around the camp.
When she had entered, Little Flower's back had been to her, but unfortunately, the rustling of the flap had made a little too much noise. Lijuan had been surprised that the woman didn't turn around. Instead, she had said something in her native tongue that Lijuan had no way of deciphering. As she had moved to draw up behind her, she raised her hand ready to perform one of the chops she had learned as just a little girl from Mr. Chow. Her father had long been fascinated by the fighting skills he had seen Lijuan's mother display in the fleeting time they had been together, and he had wished his daughter to know them as well. That had happened when he had hired Mr. Chow to do just that as he worked as the handyman at the ranch. Mrs. Chow would teach her about the culture from the land Lijuan was part of but never had known.
Before she could strike, Little Flower had turned around with a brilliant smile on her face that evaporated in the blink of an eye as she saw she was under attack. For an unknown reason, she was holding a beaded cradleboard in her hands and brought it up to deflect Lijuan's blow. As Lijuan stepped back, the woman dropped the construct customarily used to hold a papoose in and reached for a knife that lay nearby. But Lijuan was on her before she could even move. Swiftly she brought her foot up to the side of the woman's right knee and kicked her. Little Flower opened her mouth to cry out in pain, but Lijuan clamped her mouth shut with her hand and this time succeeded in landing the chop to the side of her neck. Under the twin strikes Little Flower swayed and then dropped backward falling on her furs.
Lijuan knelt next to her and quickly checked her over. She had pulled her strikes as best she could, not w
ishing to do any serious harm to Little Flower. Satisfied the woman was out but not seriously injured, her eyes darted about the tent. Her eyes fell on copious amounts of materials telling her that Little Flower did more than raise chickens, but also was a master craftswoman who had made the cradleboard she had defended herself with.
Unfortunately, Lijuan did not see any of the woman's garbs. She hoped they would be lying in plain sight and not buried amongst the furs and belongings. Realizing there was no alternative, she hastily stripped the fallen woman nude for her buckskin dress. No sooner had she done it that she used some of the rawhide Little Flower had been using to make the cradleboard to bind her. Once that had been accomplished, she began peeling off her clothes even as her captive's eyes fluttered open. Lijuan was impressed at the woman's fortitude to regain consciousness so quickly, but she was young and robust, likely not more than eighteen or nineteen. In her life, she had found the people native to these lands to be a hardy lot, and given the conditions, they lived in it was easy to see why.
Now with the headband in place, she was adequately attired to slip out and head towards the hostages and wait for the commotion that Blue River had promised. There was just one last thing left to do. Lijuan reached into the satchel she had brought with her and withdrew two large handfuls of berries raided from the pantry at The Gossamer. Under Little Flower's watchful eye, she ground them in her hands and smeared the berry juice thoroughly on all her exposed skin to hide its yellowish hue.
When she was finished, she found herself wishing for the large mirror that hung at the foot of the grand staircase leading into the Great Room of Cedar Ledge. Though she could not see her reflection, she felt confident that in the darkness, despite the full moon, if she kept her head down, she could now pass as one of the Indians. For a fleeting second, she wondered how much she might resemble her thorn in her side, Bright Feather. Sweeping the thought out of the way, she knelt by Little Flower.
“Listen, I know you must speak a little English from your dealings with the townspeople selling eggs. I had no wish to hurt you. Truth be told I went easy on you, Little Flower. We just want to see that no harm comes to the people captured from the stage … and to stop any larger massacre. You have to believe that.” Lijuan straightened up and looked once more at the bound woman.
Her eyes still blazed, leaving her uncertain as to if she perhaps didn't understand after all, or if she did and just chose not to believe it. Whichever it was, there was no time to worry about it now. She slung the satchel over her shoulder, preferring to leave the knife she had brought inside it and instead plucked Little Flower's and fastened it to her waist. All the better for her disguise she thought as she turned and slipped out of the tent.
As she walked along the wall in the direction of where the captives were bound, suddenly an Indian woman emerged from a nearby tent holding a basket. Lijuan kept her head bowed and walked right past the woman. To her relief, the woman didn't even give her a second glace. Perhaps her man was one of the braves that would soon be risking their lives attacking Horseshoe, and she was preoccupied with that Lijuan pondered. There was no way of knowing and she was just glad that her attempt to blend in passed its first test. Before her emerged the captives but she veered off and stood behind a large tree. Apprehension flooded over her as she was a woman of action and not one who was accustomed to waiting around, but now that was precisely what their plan called for. Lijuan slipped into the shadow of the tree, her hand resting on the butt of the knife and resigned herself to waiting.
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And a reminder this and other Wilde adventures now available or coming soon.
THE WILDES OF THE WEST #1: THE DAUGHTERS OF HALF BREED HAVEN
HALF BREED HAVEN #1: WILDE-FIRE
HALF BREED HAVEN #2: IN DANGER’S SHADOW
HALF BREED HAVEN #3: DARK RIVALS
HALF BREED HAVEN #4: SILVER, GOLD & DECEPTION
HALF BREED HAVEN #5: THE FORBIDDEN RANCH
HALF BREED HAVEN #6: SING THE DEATH SONG
HALF BREED HAVEN #7: DISASTER AT DEVIL’S CANYON
HALF BREED HAVEN #8: RENEGADES AND REVENGE
HALF BREED HAVEN #9: INTO THE LAIR OF LOS REY LOBO
COMING SOON
THE WILDES OF THE WEST #3: THE TOWN OF NO RETURN
(THE DANGER DOWN MEXICO WAY TRILOGY PART 2)
THE WILDES OF THE WEST #4: THE BOOT HILL EXPRESS
(THE DANGER DOWN MEXICO WAY TRILOGY PART 3)
ALL CAN BE FOUND AT THIS LINK
https://www.amazon.com/A.M.-Van-Dorn/e/B077GNX3GP/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1
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