Apache Summer sb-3

by Heather Graham

  his belt buckle. She inched his pants slowly down his hips. Boldly,

  possessively she touched him, stroked him and trembled, her fingers

  shaking as he came hard as steel to her ministrations. Then he could

  stand no more of the sweet torture and she was on her back, with his

  lips savoring her body beneath the gauze of the lilac gown. He tasted

  her breasts and the valley between them and her navel and her upper

  thighs and teased her more intimately still until she was thrashing and

  calling his name to the moon-dusted night, begging that he come to her.

  With the deepest pleasure, he obliged, and the feeling of being where he

  belonged within her was almost as great as pure sexual excitement of

  being so tightly, so erotically He shuddered with the force of his

  desire, and deeper and deeper until they exploded as one. Then her

  tightly into his arms, glad of her lips pressed to her head burrowed

  against him.

  You're mine, he longed to tell her. You were mine when I first found

  you, and mine when I came to Nalte to ask for you. You are mine this

  night. And if we can only survive, you will be mine forever. His

  thoughts gave pause, and he added silently: even if you are the most

  ornery and troublesome female in the western world.

  In the morning his troublesome female was up and almost dressed by the

  time he had pulled on his trousers.

  "Afraid of my family?" he asked her.

  Tess looked his way curiously and shook her head. No man could be a

  finer lover, tender and tempestuous, but in the morning his temper

  always seemed to leave something to be desired.

  "I don't care what they know, if you're talking about our sleeping

  arrangements."

  "I see. You think my older brother will insist that we marry."

  "No one will ever force you to marry, Jamie. You said so yourself."

  "So you're not planning on marriage."

  "I try not to plan on anything."

  She was at her dresser, brushing her hair. He slipped behind her, his

  chest still naked, and pulled her against him.

  He whispered against her ear.

  "What if you're already with child?"

  She turned and faced him, looking him up and down. "You're nicely built,

  intelligent, I think, and your brothers don't seem to have too many

  flaws.

  If I have a child, it should be a darling one." She swung around to

  continue to brush her hair.

  He laughed as he donned his shirt and socks and boots. "Tess, you are a

  hellion," he told her.

  She smiled sweetly.

  "I just do the best I can with what I've got, Lieutenant. I'm going down

  for breakfast. I'm sure Dolly and Jane got things started very early

  with all those 273 little children to feed. And I do want to be at the

  paper by eight. I've got to teach Kristin and Shannon how to work the

  press."

  "I'm right with you," Jamie told her. But when she would have exited the

  room, he pulled her back.

  "We do things my way, remember."

  "I remember," she said coolly. "Everything."

  "Meaning?"

  "I'll tell you later," was all he said.

  He stepped past her and hurried down the stairs. She followed him,

  convinced that he had only stopped her to prove to her that he could be

  down first.

  Dolly and Jane were busy with the children, and they seemed like a

  couple of doting old aunts. Dolly beamed at Jamie.

  "I just can't wait until it's one of your little bundles I'm holding,

  Lieutenant!" she said. Of course she wasn't really holding Shannon's

  daughter--the child was squirming away, ready to chase a little string

  ball that was rolling across the floor.

  "Yeah, soon enough, Dolly," Jamie said sweetly. To Tess's surprise he

  winked at her.

  "Coffee!"

  A cup was shoved into her hand by Malachi.

  "Jamie," he said, "I've told Hank to tal~ Dolly and Jane and the

  children down to the storm cellar once we've gone. They're invisible

  there." "Fine," Jamie said.

  "Dolly?"

  "I understand, Lieutenant, I understand perfectly."

  "I'll watch them," Hank promised.

  "Me and the hands, we'll stay in and down in the cellar with the

  children."

  "Is everybody ready?" Jamie asked. He swallowed his coffee and set the

  cup on the table, then everyone was hurrying out.

  The children were taken to the cellar, and Dolly waved a cheerful hand

  to Tess.

  "You take care, missy, you hear?"

  "Yes, Dolly, I promise! Thank you!"

  Dolly disappeared into the storm cellar, and Hank followed, closing the

  door over them. Cole and Kristin stamped the dirt around so the opening

  was invisible. By then Jon was coming around with the wagon, and Kristin

  and Shannon and Tess climbed up with him. The Slater brothers mounted

  their horses. Tess was aware that each was wearing a gun belt with two

  Colts.

  Each also had another gun attached to a saddle. They were well-armed,

  but managed to remain nonchalant.

  Tess froze, praying that she wouldn't bring about one of these men's

  deaths.

  It was her fight. Her own. She had no right to get these men killed.

  Maybe nothing would happen today. Maybe yon Heusen would lie low.

  Maybe he would take his time to attack her again. She had written the

  truth once. After today, maybe more people would believe her. He

  couldn't kill everyone.

  "Why don't you explain the press while we ride?" Jon suggested to her.

  Tess gave him a grateful smile. If she talked, she would relax.

  "It's a small press, really, compared with many of the innovations

  they're coming up with today. But it's a small town, and we're a small

  paper. We set the type in a box called a chase. We tap our letters and

  words in with wooden mallets, ink the set type, then roll the papers

  through. It's very simple." She was just warming to the subject when

  Jon's voice interrupted her softly.

  "The town is quiet today."

  It was quiet. The streets were deserted. Not that it was usually busy at

  this time of the morning, but there was no one around. No one at all.

  "Well," Tess murmured.

  "There's, uh, there's the paper over there.

  See, Wiltshire Sun. The place with all the windows broken out," she

  added drily.

  "Well, you can set to typing your story while Kristin and I sweep up,"

  Shannon said.

  Tess nodded. There was a giant lump in her throat, though. Why was the

  town so damned deserted?

  Jon stopped directly in front of the paper. Jamie had already

  dismounted, and he was watching the silent buildings for any sign of

  movement. Malachi came to the wagon and helped the women down.

  "Get into the office," Jamie ordered curtly. Tess didn't argue but did

  as he told her. Shannon and Kristin followed her.

  "Will you look at this mess!" Kristin said, clicking her tongue.

  "I should help you," d Tess said.

  "Will you please go type! We can handle this," Kristin said.

  Tess nodded and walked to her desk and typewriter. She dusted fragments

  of glass from her chair and blew it from her pap
ers and rolled a blank

  sheet into her typewriter. She stared at it for just one second, then

  her fingers began to fly. She had a lot to say. A hell of a lot. Time

  moved quickly.

  Kristin and Shannon moved around the room competently, and their

  presence didn't disturb Tess in the least. She was just getting to the

  part where Jeremiah and David had admitted their involvement with yon

  Heusen when she heard a shout in the street.

  The three of them froze. The shout came again. "Tess! Tess Stuart! We

  know you're in there! And you're under arrest."

  "Under arrest!" Tess gasped.

  Then she heard Jamie respond from beyond the window, his voice harsh and

  firm as he met the threat.

  "It's the sheriff, I think!" Shannon said, peeking around a broken

  window.

  Tess joined her beside the window, and nodded. "She's under arrest for

  what?" Jamie demanded.

  "Slander and murder."

  "Murder!"

  "She killed two of Mr. von Heusen's men. She tricked them out into the

  open fields. I've witnesses to that effect.

  Then she shot them down cold."

  Jamie let loose with a flaming oath. Then he was striding out to meet

  the sheriff face to face. Tess gripped the window frame.

  "This is bull, and you know it. Von Heusen set you up to this. You're

  just a hired gun, like any other of his thugs."

  "You shut your mouth, Slater. You're under arrest, too."

  "For what?"

  "Conspiracy to commit murder."

  "Well, I'll tell you what, Sheriff, you just try to take me in ." ' Tess

  was never quite sure what propelled her, but before anyone could stop

  her, she was racing out to the street, streaking toward Jamie. She

  caught his arm and faced the sheriff, furious.

  "Don't you even think it! Don't you even try to drag him down into the

  mud and mire that you've created with von Heusen! Arrest me if you want

  to so damn badly" -- "Tess, damn you!" Jamie swore, swinging her around

  behind him.

  "What the hell are you doing out here? I told you" -- "Slater, shut up,"

  came a new voice.

  It was von Heusen. He came striding out from the saloon, his pale eyes

  shimmering with hatred, his white hair touched by the breeze.

  "Miss. Stuart," he said, addressing Tess, "you are ever valiant. But I

  can't wait to hang this Reb. I just can't wait."

  "You aren't ever going to hang me, yon Heusen," Jamie said.

  "And you aren't ever going to have that property for the railroad."

  Von Heusen's brows shot up.

  "So you know. You're quite a detective."

  "I travel in good company," Jamie said with a shrug.

  "It doesn't matter. The sheriff is my man. Aren't you, Harvey?"

  "Von Heusen, don't say that," the sheriff began uneasily.

  "Why? Who is going to stop us now?" yon Heusen said. "I own the sheriff,

  and I own the magistrate, and I can damned well bet you I'm going to own

  the executioner. You're dead, Slater. As dead as a doornail."

  "No. You may own the sheriff, but I've got a few guns around the place,

  too, yon Heusen."

  "Yeah, your brothea's and that half-breed friend of yours. It's not

  enough.

  I've got guns all over this town."

  As if to prove it, and obviously uncaring that he was about to commit

  murder in broad daylight, yon Heusen raised his pistol and aimed

  straight at Jamie's heart. But he didn't have a chance to fire. A gun

  cracked, and yon Heusen grabbed his hand, screaming. And the streets

  came alive.

  There was a fearsome pounding of hooves, and war cries tore the air.

  Jamie, astonished, bent low and whirled around. "Jesus!" he breathed.

  The cavalry. The cavalry was coming, Sergeant Monahan in the lead.

  Nor were they alone. They were traveling, curiously enough, with a small

  band of Indians. Apache.

  "Jamie!"

  Tess screamed his name and he swung around again even as the horses came

  tearing down the street.

  Von Heusen had Tess. His right hand might be crippled and bleeding, but

  he held his pistol in his left hand, and the muzzle was pressed against

  her temple. He was backing toward the saloon.

  "One more step and I blow her to kingdom come!" yon Heusen warned Jamie.

  Gunfire was spitting all around him. From behind a water barrel by the

  Wiltshire Sun office Cole was picking off yon Heusen's men from the

  rooftops areund them. Malachi and Jon were positioned behind the wagon,

  which they had overturned.

  And the cavalry and the Apache wee rushing in to the fantastic sound of

  a bugle call. It was quickly obvious that von Heusen's men would not be

  enough.

  Except that yon Heusen had Tess.

  He disappeared through the swinging doors of the saloon. Jamie caught

  his breath, hearing ~-. ss's screams as the man dragged her upstairs.

  "The roof, Jamie! The roof!" Cole called to him. He looked up. He made a

  leap toward the railing and swung himself up to the roof. A shot nearly

  made him trip and fall.

  He heard someone groan and saw a man fall to the ground. He looked

  across the street.

  Cole smiled, blowing the smoke froaa his gun.

  "Dammit, Jamie, go get the girl!"

  Jamie grinned and gave his brother a thumbs-up sign. Then he felt his

  blood run cold again. He was. going to have to kill von Heusen if he

  wanted to live hxnself.

  "You, Miss. Stuart, have been a bloody thorn in my side since the

  beginning.

  You should have died in that raid on the wagon train, and if you'd had

  any damned sense, you would have stayed with that bleeding Apache." :

  Tess winced. Von Heusen's hold on her arm was vicious, and she could

  feel the cold steel presseft hard against her temple. She swallowed. If

  he killed her now, she was still the winner. She had to keep telling

  herself that, so she could keep fighting him.

  "That bleeding Apache, as you call aim, is here to kill you, von Heusen.

  The Apache and the cavalry are riding together. Just to kill you."

  They had come to the top of the stairs. Von Heusen burst open the door

  to one of the rooms and threw her inside. Tess 279 staggered across the

  room as yon Heusen closed and bolted the door, putting a chair across

  it.

  "What now, yon Heusen?" Tess demanded.

  He cast her an evil glar~ with his near colorless eyes, and she felt

  fear creep along her spine. He strode across the room to her, wrenching

  her by the hair.

  "You foolish, foolish little girl. You could have lived as that Indian's

  squaw, but now I promise you that you're going to pay dearly. One wrong

  move, and I'll scalp you myself. What a beautiful trophy that hair would

  be, eh, Miss. Stuart?"

  She spat at him. He pulled on her hair so hard that she was certain half

  of it left her head and, despite her efforts to choke back the sound,

  she cried out. She saw him smile at her pain, and it sickened her, and

  she realized that he liked hurting people, that killing gave him

  pleasure. "What now?

  Now we wait. We wait for your ever gallant young cavalry hero to come

  running up those stairs. T
hen I shoot him dead. Then I use you to escape

  this town, and then maybe later I'll let you go, but more likely, I'll

  kill you.

  I'll kill you slow. I'll have you first, and I'll humiliate you every

  way I know how, and then I'll kill you bit by bit." She managed to jerk

  away from him, backing toward the window, staring at him.

  "You bastard! Why don't you just kill me now?

  I'll make your life a living hell. I'll never take a single step with

  you.

  Unless."

  "Unless?" He drew out his knife, a wickedly sharp and long bowie knife

  that glinted in the fraction of sunlight that entered the room.

  "You leave Jamie alone. We'll go out by the roof right now and I'll come

  along without a protest" -- "How touching."

  "If you kill him, I won't make a move."

  "Oh, but I can make you," yon Heusen told her softly. And maybe he

  could. He was walking toward her, his knife before him, twisting in his

  hands.

  "I'll just make you bleed a little now, but you'll feel it," he promised

  her.

  She was going to scream or faint. She wanted desperately to fight, to be

  brave, but all she could see was the glinting steel. He was coming

  closer and closer, and she didn't know how brave she could be once that

  steel touched her.

  "I'll make you bleed!" yon Heusen promised again. He was almost on top

  of her. She could see the razor sharpness of the blade, aimed toward her

  face.

  The window shattered behind her, and a man came bursting through. Booted

  feet connected with von Heusen's chest and he was sent flying into the

  room.

  He landed hard and turned, ready to throw his knife straight at Tess's

  heart.

  Jamie fired his Colt without hesitating, without a flicker of fear or

  remorse.

  And yon Heusen stared at him, startled. Then his colorless eyes closed

  for the last time, and he slumped to the floor.

  Jamie strode over to Tess.

  "Are you all right?" he demanded.

  She nodded, her throat dry, her heart pounding. "Dammit, Tess, I told

  you that this had to be my way."

  "I--I was trying to do it your way!" she said. But then she looked at

  von Heusen again, and back to Jamie. And she passed out cold.

  With a tender smile, Jamie lifted her into his arms and held her very

  close.

  He didn't look at yon Heusen. He car tied her into the light of day.

  Chapter Fourteen.

  It was really amazing when one looked around, Tess thought.