Love and Fury: The Coltrane Saga, Book 4

by Patricia Hagan

  They all remained silent until suddenly Dani inquired shyly, “Would you like to send for Father? He should know about this. And you might need his help in getting the gold back from Gavin. I know how treacherous Gavin is, and I don’t want you hurt, John Travis.”

  Colt laughed shortly, brittlely. “I’m not scared of Gavin Mason. And the last thing I want is for our father to hear about this before I’ve settled the score. Allow me that much dignity, please, Dani.”

  Dani could understand that easily enough.

  The four lapsed into silence again, each lost in thought. Dani felt more pain than ever before. All those years, her father had tried to get in touch with her and Alaina had kept them apart. All those wasted years. All that suffering for the whole family. She would pray for Alaina’s soul, but she wondered how even God could forgive Alaina for all she’d done.

  Branch felt terrible for all of them. He looked from one to the other and longed for this encounter to end so they could be on their way. Get the gold. Head for home. One day, Colt would be just fine again. It wouldn’t hurt anymore. He was sure of that. They had to be on their way, though.

  Colt stared at the ground, knowing they should leave. By now Alaina would have been discovered. Mason would probably take the gold and run, and they would have to chase him. But Colt couldn’t bring himself to walk away, not yet. Here was his sister, and when would he ever see her again? She would never leave the convent, and he would never visit with her again. He wanted to be with her for a little while longer, to drink in the sight of her lovely face, and have something of her to remember.

  As Colt sat beside Dani, he was struck by the realization that he would never have been drawn to her that way, lovely though she was. There was feeling between them, but that feeling had nothing to do with desire and he was certain it never could.

  The feelings he’d had for Briana had been different from the start. Deep down, he had always wanted Briana as a man wants a woman. This realization made him feel much, much better.

  Suddenly Dani withdrew her hands from Colt’s, stiffening as she looked beyond him. Walking purposefully toward them were two nuns. Colt recognized Sister Marie. The other, he supposed, was the Mother Superior. Her mouth was turned down in a disapproving grimace. He doubted the corners ever moved in the opposite direction. As she drew closer, he could see the pinched lines of her face. The woman doubtless had a sour personality to match her expression.

  Dani leaped to her feet. She bowed her head and gave a curtsy as she acknowledged respectfully, “Mother Superior.”

  The nuns stopped a few feet away, and then Mother Superior took a step forward. Positioning herself directly in front of Dam so that she could send a burning ray of chastisement straight into the novice’s eyes, she said, “You have committed a sin against your vows, my child. A report will be filed with the bishop. He will decide what is to be done with you.”

  She paused, allowing time for this information to impress her victim. Then she continued, “You may be asked to leave, for you have broken your sacred vow to renounce the world.”

  But Dani was not so easily cowed. “Mother Superior, this is my brother, whom I have not seen in nearly fourteen years. He needed me to help him with a terrible—”

  “That means nothing!” The nun’s voice was like a cracking whip. “You took vows to leave the world and to spend your life in obedience and humility. When this man came into the chapel and called your name, you were bound by your vows to deny him as you would deny the summons of Satan.”

  “Sister,” Colt interjected, “I don’t profess to be a model Christian, but I can’t say as I appreciate being compared to Satan. If you want to blame someone for this, blame me, not Dani. She did what any decent human being would have done.”

  Mother Superior’s face turned crimson with rage. For several seconds she sucked her breath in and out, attempting to quell her fury. Finally she cried, “Young man, leave here at once. I do not intend to listen to you.”

  Colt started a retort, but Dani clutched his arm. “Just go, John Travis. We are only making things worse.”

  Colt wanted to embrace Dani once more, but knew that would only bring more trouble for her. He said, “I’ll tell Pa the whole story, Dani. At least he’ll know why you weren’t in touch all these years. He’ll understand the—”

  “You will relay no messages!” Mother Superior exclaimed in horror. “There will be no communication with your sister. Do you understand?”

  In a flash, Colt decided it was a real blessing that this shrewish woman had removed herself from civilization. She had, no doubt, saved some man from a life of god-awful misery. Dedication was fine, and religion was a good thing, he supposed, but wasn’t there a place for human compassion somewhere in any religion?

  Deciding it was futile to try to reason with the Head Dragon, aware that he would only make things worse, he sent Dani a message with his eyes, hoping he conveyed all the love he now felt for his sister.

  He turned toward Branch. “Let’s go.”

  The three departed from the convent, each sorry to have to leave Dani, all hoping it wouldn’t go too hard for her.

  Briana clung to Colt’s back as the horse picked its way along the precarious trail. Her head was slumped in despair. She was unaware of the way her breasts moved rhythmically against him. Nor could she suspect how the sensation of her nipples, taut and hard against his back, aroused Colt.

  When they reached Monaco, Colt told himself, he would let her go—be damned glad to get rid of her.

  His knuckles were white as he gripped the reins tightly, finding himself assailed by a taunting thought: He had made love to her and could not remember a thing about it. He had touched those nipples, caressed those luscious breasts that now jounced against him so provocatively, and could not remember!

  And that, Colt decided fiercely, she owed him.

  Soon they reached a leveling off of the mountain, and he saw, not far from the road, a small stream flowing from somewhere high above.

  Colt slowed his horse as he stared toward the mossy bank along the little brook. Then he called to Branch, “We’ll catch up with you below. We’ve got something to settle.”

  Giving him a wave, Branch rode on, leaving them to their much-needed privacy.

  Colt lowered Briana from the saddle and set her on her feet. He held her tightly as he stared down into her russet eyes. Then he kissed her, hard, demanding.

  For a few seconds Briana was stunned into passivity. Then she began to fight, pummeling at him. But he lifted her easily, throwing her over his shoulder. He carried her away from the trail, toward the velvety green moss along the bank of the stream.

  Briana screamed, but Colt merely chuckled. When he dumped her to the ground, towering above her as he began to remove his clothing, he said harshly, “You made sure I was good and drunk those nights, sweetheart, but you did too good a job. I was so far gone, I don’t remember any of it. I figure, after all the hell you put me through, the least you can do is show me how good you are.”

  Briana flung her head from side to side. “No! You can’t! You—”

  “Oh, I can.” He flashed her a mocking grin. “And I will…” He undid the buttons of her shirt and pulled it off her.

  Briana knew she had but one chance. She cried, “No! We didn’t make love, Colt. I just made you think we did. I couldn’t go that far with you. I couldn’t do that to you…” Her voice broke on a sob.

  Colt finished removing her clothing, then stood back to feast hungrily on her nakedness. Lord, but she was a sight to behold. He had bedded his share of women, but he’d never known such perfect mounds and curves. How in hell could he have been drunk enough to forget someone so beautiful?

  Briana squeezed her eyes shut in humiliation. “Please,” she whispered, “you have to believe me, Colt. We never made love. I only made you think we did. Ladida gave me something to drug you, and then I removed our clothes and lay next to you so you would believe we had made love. But we di
dn’t.”

  Colt shook his head. She was a cunning little wench, the likes of which he had never seen. What havoc this lovely creature could wreak!

  He dropped down beside her and threw one leg over both of hers to render her immobile. Then he lowered his lips to the delectable mound of her breasts and took one delicious nipple deep inside his mouth, pleased at the way it rose so hard and impudent against his tongue.

  Briana writhed beneath the assault. Despite her shame, spasms of delight shot through her. Never had she dreamed a man’s lips could be so hotly consuming, searing her.

  She beat on his back, felt the iron muscles rippling as she struggled to move him away. He held her easily, as though her strength was nothing.

  She knew she was at his mercy. “Please, Colt, you have to believe me. I have never been with a man.”

  He paid no attention. His swollen member pressed against her thigh. Briana gasped. She squirmed, heaving her buttocks upward, trying to shove him away, but he used the movement to thrust his knees between her legs and open them, holding her thighs parted and vulnerable beneath him.

  “Now,” he panted, “this time we’ll both remember.” He thrust his massive organ against her, entering her with a mighty stab. She cried out. Fleetingly he wondered why she was pretending pain. He knew she was aroused.

  Then he felt it…the resistance. He hesitated. Was it due to the position they were in, the way he was having to force himself inside her? Never before had he forced himself on a woman.

  He pushed harder, wincing as she screamed. Why was she persisting?

  He gave another thrust, then felt his sudden entrance past whatever obstacle had held him. Again and again he pushed himself into her, and Briana began to feel a quickening deep within her belly. Never had she felt such agony. Never had she known such ecstasy.

  She exploded in climax, crying aloud with the sheer wonder of it.

  Colt took himself to his own pleasure.

  Then he withdrew from her gently and lay beside her, his head on her heaving bosom.

  He was about to ask why she had behaved as she had when he looked down and saw blood on himself.

  He sat bolt upright, blinking in denial, saw the crimson stains on her thighs and between his legs.

  She lay trembling beneath him.

  “Briana?” He touched her face gently. “Oh, Lord, tell me this is a trick…just another trick. Is it, Briana?”

  She shook her head violently and then, unable to stop herself, reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down to her.

  “I love you,” she whispered brokenly. “I think I always loved you, from the beginning. I knew that what I was doing was terrible. I couldn’t go all the way with Gavin’s plan, Colt. I couldn’t seduce you. Ladida mixed up something to drug you…as I told you.

  She paused to take a deep breath, then burrowed her lips against his neck. “I did it because I loved you. I still do love you. And even though you hate me, I always will love you.”

  She clung to him, crying, joyous with relief now that the pretense was over.

  Colt shuddered, looking down at her in wonder. Strange feelings were dancing through him, and he didn’t have to think very long to understand the new emotions.

  Yes, he acknowledged quietly, she had tricked him, but everything she’d done had been born of desperation, the need to save her little brother.

  And in the end, she’d been unable to make him party to an incestuous act.

  He gathered her in his arms, staring down into eyes that were clearly suffering. What he was feeling, he realized, was the awesome awakening of love. Perhaps it had always been there. But now there was no pretense anymore, and no shame.

  His lips brushing hers, he whispered, “Briana, can you forgive me? I didn’t know…didn’t know you loved me…until now.”

  Despite all the pain, she was able to blink back tears and smile at his beloved face. “If this is what it took for you to believe, once and for all, that I never wanted it to happen as it did…and that I do love you then the hurting was worth it.”

  He trailed gentle fingertips down her cheek. “It doesn’t have to hurt, sweet lady, doesn’t have to hurt at all. It can feel very good. Like this…” He moved his hand downward to cup her breast ever so gently. As he lowered his lips, his fingers danced downward, across her belly and down even farther. Slowly, tantalizingly, he parted the entrance to her channel of love and massaged her with teasing strokes.

  Briana gasped. The pain was gone, and in its place was joyful anticipation of wonders to come.

  He placed his knee between hers, and this time she willingly spread her thighs, opening herself to him. Then he was astride her again, and this time there was no holding back. Briana cupped his strong buttocks and guided him into her. She met his every thrust eagerly, for this was the man she loved with every breath she drew, and she wanted his body joined to hers for all time.

  The magic fires spread, and then Briana was exploding with an ecstasy she’d never imagined existed. She clung to him, crying his name.

  Colt took himself to his own glory, then burrowed his face in her neck. He whispered that he loved her…realized he always had.

  He gazed down at her adoringly. So many feelings were welling up in him that he hardly knew what to say.

  “Briana…” he whispered, and she smiled up at him, a rapturous smile.

  A shot rang out, echoing against the mountain rocks. Colt slumped across Briana’s naked breasts, blood trickling from his forehead.

  For a moment, she was frozen with horror. Surely this was a nightmare.

  In that moment, Dirk Hollister walked out of the brush, a smoking gun in his hand.

  Briana saw him, and, mercifully, her world turned black.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Dani had gone with Mother Superior to her office and sat penitently before her as she received another tongue-lashing. Sister Marie was present, looking aghast, watching Dani, hoping to see some sign that the novice understood the depth of her transgression.

  But Dani only sat quietly, nodding. Caught up in the maelstrom of her emotions, it was all she could do to keep her face impassive. To think of the evil Aunt Alaina had done, the pain she had caused so many people, was astounding. Dani was numbed by thoughts of what might have been, had the attempted communication between her and her father not been sabotaged by Alaina.

  She bit down on her lip till she tasted blood. No, she wouldn’t let the two women see her cry. They couldn’t understand how she felt. They were older, and long accustomed to the ways of the church. Why, Mother Superior had been away from the outside world for over forty years. She was in touch only with the bishop, and only for business reasons. Never did she communicate with her family. How could someone who had lived the cloistered life for forty years understand Dani’s wild surge of emotions? Her life had been thrown into complete chaos in a single hour.

  After a stern lecture that had left her red-faced and gasping, Mother Superior repeated her intention to report Dani to the bishop.

  “You will do penance at once,” Mother Superior ordered angrily. “Go to the chapel and pray until evensong. You will fast until Sunday, when Father comes to hear our confessions.”

  Dani lifted her eyes and looked directly at Mother Superior’s cold, condemning face. “No,” she said softly. “I will not do penance now. I must meditate on what has happened to my family.”

  She stood up as Mother Superior and Sister Marie exchanged looks of astonishment. No one ever disobeyed a direct order from Mother Superior!

  “You…you must!” Sister Marie cried. “You cannot just…”

  Making her voice as soft as she could, Dani addressed Mother Superior. “I mean you no disrespect. I am well aware that I have committed a serious infraction of the rules. When I have come to terms with myself, then I will seek absolution.”

  She left them gaping after her.

  Dani walked across the courtyard. She kept going until she found he
r special, private place among the shrubs, where she could always be alone with her thoughts.

  There she sat, deep in thought, until she heard the shot ring out.

  She sat there, wondering. A hunter? But they respected the convent and stayed away, or so she’d been told.

  A chill of foreboding began to work its way through her. Quickly she got to her feet, left the sanctuary of the foliage, and started down the road, forbidden though it was to go beyond the gates., As she moved, the fear grew stronger, and she quickened her pace, lifting her long skirt.

  Suddenly, in the distance, she heard the sound of a woman screaming, screaming as though the hounds of hell were snapping at her.

  There was the sound of men shouting in excitement, and then the thundering of hoofbeats. Many horses were moving along the rocky mountain path.

  She rounded a curve in the road, then stopped as something to the left caught her eye. She turned, hands flying to cover her mouth and stifle a scream.

  Colt lay naked on the ground beside the stream. The water flowing below his body was red with the crimson rivulets coming from his head.

  She ran to him and, kneeling, lifted his head gently onto her lap. His blood spread bright red stains across her skirt.

  She called his name again and again, in despair and in supplication.

  He moaned—a tiny sound, barely audible, but it was enough. Dani choked on her own sobs as she attempted to rouse him, daring to shake him only very gently.

  Others had heard the gunfire, for the shooting had taken place so near the usually serene and quiet convent.

  Nuns came running down the trail. Horrified by what they found, they ran back to the convent to summon their port in all storms—Mother Superior.

  She did not rush to the scene, but gave directions for bringing Colt to the convent infirmary.

  Dani followed as Colt was lifted on a litter and carried gently back up the trail and into the convent.