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HALF BREED HAVEN #13: RIVER OF DEATH
(A CASSANDRA WILDE ADVENTURE)
PLEASE ENJOY A SNEAK PEAK AT AN EXCERPT FROM CASSANDRA’S LATEST ADVENTURE
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The driver was pointing up towards the towering cliffs of the escarpment they had been traveling alongside now for some time.
"See now, I like the runs that take me through here later in the day. The entire road falls into the shadow of the Heidelberg making for a bit of relief from the heat, I'll tell you what." Out of the corner of her eyes, Cassandra could see Millie edging closer accompanied by the clearing of her throat.
"Excuse me. How much longer to the station?" Millie asked trying to sound casual, but Cassandra was reasonably sure that it was an act to cover her urgency for the trip to end. Most folks didn't realize just how uncomfortable stage travel could be until they experienced it for long distance. At any rate, Cassandra thought she should have phrased the question as to how much longer to the station barring any more stops for Mister Renaud.
“Don’t worry none, ma’am. I’d say it will be just another hour before we reach the way station. There’ll be a fresh team of horses waiting for us and some of the best food you will ever find. The station agent’s wife, Mrs. Halliday, makes the finest apple pie this side of the California border.”
The relief in her voice was palpable. "That sounds delightful. I shall look forward to our time there. A slice of pie sounds like a wonder to look forward to." She turned away from them and smiled at the sight of her husband emerging from the brushy area off the trail. He strode up, dusting off his elegant attire. Cassandra rolled her eyes as trying to keep the dust off you during stage travel was as fruitless as trying to plow the sea. She smiled at the expression thinking of her father back home at Half Breed Haven. Cassandra had picked that up from him because despite the many years in the West he was still an old Navy man at heart.
"I have wonderful news, Teddy. The driver says it's just an hour to the station where we can rest up and get some civilized food."
“Dear, it’s Theodore when we are amongst company. How many times need I remind you of that?”
Cassandra felt like slapping her forehead. This dandy was such an insufferably stuffy gentleman that she didn't know how his wife put up with him. Such thoughts, though, immediately left her mind as she became aware of something. Endicott and Renaud had entered the brush at the same time, so where was Renaud?
“Mr. Endicott, where is Mr. Renaud?”
He looked up at her, rather her breasts anyway, and answered with a shrug of his shoulders.
“He was right behind me once we finished our business.”
Montana and Cassandra exchanged a worried look, and swiftly she slipped down from the bench seat. Turning back, she looked up to Montana.
“I’ll check it out.”
She twisted around with her boots and began a quick stride towards the thick brush that lined the beaten stage road. A hot wind whipped her golden tresses about as she neared the edge when suddenly Renaud stepped out with a sheepish smile, causing Cassandra to halt in her tracks.
“My apologies. I can see the look of concern on your face. I tarried a bit after Mister Endicott because I noticed this on the ground. It appears to be some sort of exotic animal pelt.” He swung up one of his arms that hung by his side and in his hands was his discovery.
Cassandra's heart seemed to stop in her chest, and her breath left her body. The temperature was easily in the nineties, but a sudden coldness struck her to her core. Her lips parted, preparing to stun him with the truth of what he was holding in his hand when suddenly Renaud's eyes bulged. A split second later an arrow burst through the man's throat splattering her with his warm blood.
The screams of Millie Endicott and the shouting from the two men back at the stagecoach might have been happening a world away. Cassandra didn't hear them. The survival instinct that had kept her alive her entire adult life kicked in. Even as the very much dead Renaud was pitching forward, she grabbed him and spun him around. Arrows were now flying around her, and she began to half run, and half stumble backward using the body as a shield. Several arrows pierced the dead man like he was an oversized pincushion.
Behind her, Endicott was shoving his screaming wife unceremoniously through the door to the cabin, and piling in after her, and he slammed the door shut and was shouting to Montana.
“Go! Go! Go!”
Close enough now to the coach, she shoved Renaud’s body forward and whipped out her twin Colts and laid down blast after blast in the direction that the unseen archers were targeting her from. The arrows stopped long enough for her to leap up onto the bench next to Montana.
“You all right?”
"Don't worry about me! Just go as the man says!"
Montana's powerful arms brought the whip skyward and snapped it like the experienced stage man he was. The horses already skittish from Cassandra's gunfire, reared up for a moment in the traces before their muscular legs launched into action jerking the stage forward into a wild gallop.
Cassandra looked back shocked to see a lone Indian emerge from the brush. She hated herself for respecting the speed at which he had launched his arrows making her believe that it was more than one attacker. Bitterly, she watched as the Indian reached down and grabbed Renaud by his hair with one hand and with another drew his blade. Rather than watch the horror, she could only think of how Renaud's scalp was about to join the other one the warrior must have lost when he was concealing himself. The one that Renaud had picked up believing it to be an animal pelt. The delay had likely cost the fencing salesman his life.
Facing forward into the hot wind, she asked Montana to repeat how long he thought it would be to the relief station. Grimly he told her that if they pushed the horses to their breaking point, he could shave the trip down from the hour to forty-five minutes, maybe even forty.
“It’s the only place along this route that offers any sort of shelter correct?” Montana nodded and then quietly asked her if she thought there were more braves about. Cassandra told him that he could put money on it.
Montana's eyebrows drew together almost in a line. "I don't understand this! I've been driving this route for years, and there has never been any trouble with the Injuns along it. Never! This is one of the busiest routes around just because there is no trouble. Sure, it takes longer than going through Pecos Pass because you have to skirt the Heidelberg Escarpment, but the stages going through the pass run the risk of Injun trouble over that way. The tribes say the coaches pass through sacred land."
"That's because these Indians aren't native to this area. They're the Omegas my brother came to fight. Their leader, Black Hawk, is cunning; he sends groups of warriors to different points all over the territory. You never know where he is going to attack. Sometimes he will tell his forces to launch massacres when the sun is at the highest, and the only thing is it could be two separate groups. One attacking down near the Mexican border and another up by the Utah line!" Her eyes were cold as she thought of the innocent men, women, and even children who had fallen to the Omega warriors throughout the years of their perpetual reign of terror.
“Didn’t your brother say they had been driven off?”
"That was what appeared to be the case, but it would seem something is going on here the Army doesn't know about. We can worry about that later, right now I'm going to arm the Endicotts," she said as she reloaded the Colts. Montana watched her well put together figure rise from the bench seat and crawl onto the roof behind him.
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Hope you enjoyed this sneak peek and a reminder this and other Wilde adventures are now available or coming soon.
THE WILDES OF THE WEST #1: THE DAUGHTERS OF HALF BREED HAVEN
THE WILDES OF THE WEST #2: THE REAPER OF THE RIO SANGRE
(THE DANGER DOWN MEXICO WAY TRILOGY PART 1)
THE WILDES OF THE WEST #3: THE TOWN OF
NO RETURN
(THE DANGER DOWN MEXICO WAY TRILOGY PART 2)
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
HALF BREED HAVEN #10: SPECIAL EDITION OF THE REAPER OF THE RIO SANGRE (HBH VERSIONS)
HALF BREED HAVEN #11: THE TOWN OF NO RETURN (HBH VERSION)
HALF BREED HAVEN #12: SPECIAL EDITION OF THE BOOT HILL EXPRESS (HBH VERSION)
COMING SOON
HALF BREED HAVEN #13: RIVER OF DEATH
(A CASSANDRA WILDE ADULT WESTERN ADVENTURE)
LINCOLN’S LAWMAN#1: HIGH SIERRA SHOWDOWN
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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A.M. Van Dorn
The Boot Hill Express: Special Edition HBH Version (Half Breed Haven Book 12) Page 25