Yellowstone Origins: Yellowstone Romance Series, Book 6

by Peggy L Henderson

  “John Hastings?” Jana looked at her again, her eyes wide. “He was in the past again?”

  Riley nodded. She related the story Hastings had told her. “Hastings said that Dan wanted to kill one of his ancestors in the past.”

  Jana scoffed. “Of course John Hastings would say that.” She kept her eye on Riley for a second before facing straight ahead again.

  “I know I only met and spoke to Dan for a few minutes, but I never got the impression that he could do something like that,” Riley reassured her.

  Jana smiled.

  “Dan made a bad choice. He was letting Hastings blackmail him into doing something in the past that would benefit Hastings in the future. In exchange, Hastings was going to guarantee that Dan kept his job in the park.”

  Riley’s forehead scrunched, and she winced at the pain the action caused to her injured head. “Why does Hastings have such a hatred for the Osbornes?”

  Jana sighed, then pulled in a deep breath. “John Hastings was trying to change laws about concessioners, and bring big business into Yellowstone. He proposed deals that would be bad for the future of this park. Apparently, in the eighteen hundreds, when legislation was first passed, Hastings’ and Dan’s relatives had been at odds over what was best for the park.”

  “How did you and Dan end up time traveling?”

  “Dan had a change of heart about doing what Hastings wanted him to do in the past, but Hastings changed his plan. He tried to take the time travel device from Dan, and in the process, it hurled Dan and me to the past, but the device stayed with John. He planned to kill Dan’s direct ancestor, Matthew Osborne, whose son, Robert, was responsible for passing legislation to regulate concessioners in the park. He figured if he could wipe out the family tree near the beginning, his future would be set.”

  Riley stared out the window, not seeing much of anything. What Jana said sounded a lot like Mukua’s plan.

  “Crazy,” She whispered. “Mukua came for him to wipe out the family line even further back in time.”

  “He was a madman. Obviously, he still is.” Jana shook her head. “I can’t believe he ended up back in the past.”

  "The day I went to Yellowstone to ask Dan about showing me some archaeological sites in the park was the day I first saw one of the Sky People." Riley sniggered. "I thought my overactive imagination was running away with me."

  “I saw an old Indian when Dan and I were trying to figure out where Aimee had hidden the snakehead,” Jana reminisced.

  Riley sighed. Anger and annoyance consumed her again. If only Jeffrey would tell her what he’d done with the vessel. She hadn’t even called to tell him that she’d left the hospital, and was heading back to Yellowstone.

  “Turns out Aimee tossed it over the brink of the Lower Falls,” Jana continued. “Before I figured that out, Dan and I thought we’d never find it.”

  “But you did. How?”

  “I had a dream . . . or a vision, I suppose, where an ancient Indian showed me where it was.” She chuckled, as if the thought made her uneasy.

  A vision seemed perfectly reasonable. Wo’itsa had gone on vision quests and brought back stories of what he’d experienced. A quiet shudder passed through Riley. The day she and Cameron had left the village, Wo’itsa had made mention to Cameron about his vision, that the wolf and the bear were enemies. Had his vision been about the time the clans had fought? She shook off a sudden uneasy feeling.

  “The old Indian led me right to it in that dream.” Jana shrugged, redirecting Riley’s thoughts. “Well, not me, but in the vision. I was able to tell Dan exactly where that snakehead was. I was skeptical, and it was a long shot, but we had to try.”

  Riley looked at her again. “That day I was at the ranger station, Hastings said something disturbing when I overheard the conversation between him and Dan.” She hesitated. “He said he’d killed Dan.”

  Jana sucked in a deep breath. It took her a minute to respond.

  “Since Hastings still had the snakehead, he followed us into the past - and killed Dan. When I returned to the future, alone and heartbroken, the device brought me back to the time just before I met Dan, and it was as if none of the events we'd lived through ever happened. Dan was alive. We got a do-over somehow.”

  Riley shuddered. There would be no do-over for her and Cameron.

  “The Sky People control everything about that vessel,” Riley murmured. “I think they can’t change things that happened already, otherwise Mukua would have simply time traveled to save his wife, but they determine when and where it takes them, or us.”

  She put her thoughts into words, trying to reason out why Cameron’s death couldn’t be prevented. “I think they can only alter or influence things that are yet to happen. If Dan died in the past, but you were sent to a time just before the events in the present, he was still alive in the present. He didn’t simply come back from the dead. He was just never dead in this time.”

  Jana remained quiet for some time. “If that’s true, I don’t see how he could have the memories of what we experienced. It just all seems so impossible.”

  Riley chuckled. “Yeah, just like time travel is impossible. I’ve stopped trying to think about it rationally.”

  Jana shrugged, and shook her head, no doubt thinking and trying to reason what Riley had said.

  “I’ve tried to put this whole thing behind us,” Jana finally said. “It was an ordeal, being in the past. Unlike Aimee, it wasn’t a life for me, but Dan and I fell in love during all we went through. We had to completely rely on each other for survival.” She glanced at Riley. “We’re getting married in a few weeks, or at least married by modern standards.” She paused. “We sort of already are married in the Sheepeater traditions.”

  Riley smiled, but tears threatened behind her eyes.

  “Cameron’s my husband. It feels more real than holding a piece of legal paper in my hand.” Her voice cracked. “I suppose in a way, you and I will be related when you marry Dan.”

  Jana shot her an incredulous stare. “How do you figure that?”

  “Cameron chose to take his father’s name, Osborne, as his last name.”

  Jana’s eyes widened. Her stare locked with Riley’s, and the realization of what she’d said hit her with such force, the breath left her lungs.

  “Dan is Cameron’s descendant,” they said simultaneously.

  “But…how, if he’s dead?” Jana stuttered. She shot a quick look to the road, then one to Riley. “Are you . . . are you pregnant, Riley?”

  Riley blinked. Adrenaline raced through her. She shook her head. “I have no idea,” she whispered. “I . . . I don’t think so.”

  Jana’s hand left the steering wheel, and she gripped Riley’s arm. “Think about it. How else could Dan be here, if Cameron is dead before he had a son?”

  Hope sprang in Riley’s chest. Was she expecting Cameron’s child, and she didn’t even know it?

  “Either you’re pregnant, or Cameron is alive, Riley.” Jana’s face lit up like a little kid at Christmas.

  Riley’s heart hammered in her chest. “I have to get the vessel away from Jeffrey,” she mumbled. “I have to get back to the past.”

  “I’m sure Dan can help,” Jana said excitedly. “He’s a big teddy bear, but he can be very persuasive when he wants to be. We just have to wait until he gets back from his training.”

  A spark of hope ignited in Riley’s chest. For the first time since waking up in the hospital, the tightness in her chest eased. Could it be possible that Cameron was alive, that he had survived? What Jana had said made perfect sense. If Cameron’s line led to Dan, he had to be alive.

  Once she and Jana arrived at her small apartment in Gardiner, Riley slept most of the day, and into the next. Dan lived at the ranger barracks in the park, and Jana had given up her nursing job in California to be near him until their wedding.

  Cameron was instantly on her mind when she woke. She smiled, and dared to hope. He had to be alive. She had to get back
to him. Dan was her one hope to get Jeffrey to give up the vessel.

  She sat up in Jana’s bed, which her new friend had insisted she use to get some rest.

  “Nurse’s orders,” she’d said adamantly.

  The pain in her head was mostly gone now, and there was no more dizziness when she stood. Riley glanced around the small bedroom. Several pictures were displayed on the dresser. One was of Dan and Jana, a wide smile on his face, and his arm around Jana’s waist. Riley smiled. They looked very much in love.

  A different photo showed Jana and another girl. They looked to be in their early teens, standing with a man, posing in front of a camping tent. The shorter, blonde girl, held up a passel of fish. Her wide grin was infectious. Riley picked up the photograph. The man stood next to the girl, looking proud.

  Riley blinked, and shook her head. She glanced over her shoulder when the door opened behind her, and Jana walked in.

  “You look a hundred percent better already,” Jana beamed.

  Riley nodded.

  “Who is this?” she asked, her eyes going back to the picture in her hand.

  A sad look replaced the bright smile on Jana’s face. Her chest heaved when she inhaled.

  “That’s Aimee and me, with Aimee’s dad.” She paused. “Matt Donovan.” She smiled wistfully. “I think her mom, Kayla, took this picture. Aimee’s parents used to take us camping all the time. Her dad took us into the woods, and taught us survival skills. He was a true outdoorsman.”

  “Was?” Riley swallowed.

  “Yeah. Aimee’s parents were killed about six years ago. They died in a car crash.” Jana laughed softly. “I suppose, in a way, it’s because of that tragedy that Aimee threw herself into her studies to become a nurse, and moved from New York to California, and from there, she met Zach Osborne, who offered her the chance to go back in time, and she met his son, Daniel.” She sighed. “Funny how things fall into place like that. You alter one piece of the puzzle, and everything else falls apart.”

  Riley set the picture down. “Yeah,” she said absently, ignoring the lump in her throat, and turned away from the photo.

  The front door opened and shut with a loud bang, echoing down the hall.

  “Jana, are you home?”

  A man’s voice droned into the room.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Cam groaned and lifted his head. The loud roar of the waterfall droned in his ears, and water sprayed his face. He braced his hands against the sharp rocks under him and raised his upper body. He opened his eyes, staring at dark rocks, roots, and lodgepoles that clung to the steep canyon.

  His legs dangled in the churning water, threatening to pull him into the rushing river. From where he lay, an outcropping of boulders obscured his view of the falls, but the thick spray and deafening sound of water told him that it was just around the sharp bend in the river.

  How the hell had he survived going over those falls? He should be dead. If the weight and force of the water hadn’t killed him, being crushed against the rocks at the bottom surely would have.

  Cam dragged himself away from the river's edge, clawing at roots to pull his body up the steep incline. There was no riverbank here. The canyon climbed almost vertically several hundred feet before it flattened out at the top. He pushed damp strands of hair out of his face and stared upward. Judging by the position of the sun in the sky, it was late in the day.

  How long had he lain along the river? He glanced around. Where was Pikowan? Had he survived the plunge over the falls, too? There was no sign of the man he’d trusted and called a friend for nearly ten years. Seeing the old man threaten Riley with a knife had shocked and confused him, and made the blood run cold in his veins. When his eyes had caught Mukua standing close by, a murderous rage had consumed him.

  “Riley,” he murmured.

  He had to get to her. He’d pulled her from a certain death in the river, but hadn’t checked to make sure she was all right before he’d lunged at the Sky People elder. Anger and even hatred had overtaken any rational thought. He hadn’t seen Pikowan rushing toward him. He’d reacted too late, and they’d both ended up in the water. Pikowan had struggled against Cam, after losing his weapon.

  “Give it to me,” Pikowan had demanded frantically.

  “What has gotten into you, old man?” Cam had growled at him, trying to keep them both afloat and get them to shore. Pikowan had fought and clawed at Cam, several times dragging them both under the churning waves of the river.

  Almost too late, Cam had realized what Pikowan wanted. When Cam had grabbed Mukua by the shirt, he'd yanked the medicine pouch from the elder's neck. The pouch’s leather straps had wrapped around Cam’s arm, and Pikowan had tried to get his hands on it.

  Just as the strength of the river had gotten stronger, and Cam had felt the force of being towed under, he'd pulled the pouch free, and Pikowan had grabbed for it. He’d reached inside, unmindful of the fast-approaching falls, just as they were both dragged under water. Cam had known that there was little hope for either one of them surviving this plunge. When the crushing force of the water claimed him, it was Riley’s smiling face that stared at him. Her eyes were filled with love, telling him that she loved him.

  Cameron smiled, despite the anguish Riley must have felt when he’d gone over the falls. Knowing her, she’d be frantic with worry for him. She probably even thought he was dead. Hadn’t he thought the same thing? He should be dead. An icy chill passed through him. Riley was in danger, and he had to get to her.

  Mukua cannot harm her as long as she is with you.

  Naatoyita’s words echoed in his mind. What if Mukua had hurt her while he’d been unconscious by the river? It would be futile to try and call out to her. There was no way for her to reach him at this point. She would have come to a dead end just before the river plunged into the canyon.

  She’s just stubborn enough that she would have tried to find a way.

  Hopefully, she’d been smart enough not to try a descent along the falls, but how could she possibly defend herself against Mukua? The elder wouldn’t physically hurt her. He couldn’t. The Sky People couldn’t harm another. Mukua needed someone else to hurt her, or lure her into danger, but Riley was too smart to fall for any of his tricks.

  Why had Pikowan been trying to protect Mukua? It didn’t make any sense. Cam pulled himself up the steep canyon face, using tree branches and roots to help him up the incline. He glanced behind him, where the river churned and roared. It made a sweeping bend, and would plunge again over the lower falls just ahead.

  Had he remained in the water and not been washed ashore somehow, he wouldn’t have survived the second waterfall. It was nearly twice as tall as the first, and even deadlier. His climb to the top of the canyon from here would be shorter than further downstream, where the colors of the rocks changed from dark gray to yellow. At least they weren’t as brittle here than deeper in the canyon.

  Cam worked his way closer to the top of the canyon when strange sounds mixed with the roar of the river. He tilted his head slightly to hone in on the sound. It faded away. He heaved himself over a bare boulder, and grabbed hold of some low-hanging lodgepole branches when the sound came again. This time, it grew louder before fading away again.

  The higher he climbed, the more frequently he heard the noise, like a swarm of angry hornets that buzzed nearby, and then swarmed out of earshot. Cam froze when the faint sound of laughter and voices talking reached his ear.

  An icy sensation made its way down his spine, colder than the frigid river water. Flashes passed before him of Pikowan’s frantic demand while the current swept them both to a certain death. He’d desperately wanted Mukua’s medicine pouch.

  Cam cursed repeatedly. He glanced upward, toward the movement of people dressed in all sorts of clothing in colors that spanned the spectrum of a rainbow. It had been thirteen years since he’d seen this many people all at once, dressed similarly. He was in the future.

  Either he or Pikowan had touched Mu
kua's vessel. Why the hell hadn't he realized it himself? He'd been too consumed with anger at Mukua and Pikowan for wanting to do harm to his wife, that he hadn't even thought about the vessel.

  A jab of fear pierced his heart. Riley was alone in the past, and he was in the future. He was completely cut off from her, and she was vulnerable and alone. He cursed Mukua like he’d never cursed anyone. The elder had planned it this way. He’d set a trap for him, and for Riley. If killing her had failed, he’d made sure she was separated from him in a different way.

  What the hell was he going to do now? He had to get back to her somehow. She was completely alone. Mat had left to meet with Naatosi. Cam gritted his teeth at his helplessness. Anger and fear shot through him. Anger at the Sky People elder who had done so much harm to his family, and fear for Riley.

  Would she know what to do? She’d learned fast, and was more than capable of being by herself for a short while, but she wasn’t ready to survive completely on her own.

  “Hey, there’s someone down there,” a female voice called excitedly. More voices joined in, calling to him, asking if he was all right, and yelling that they were going to get help.

  Cam gritted his teeth. He didn’t need help climbing out of the canyon, and what the hell was he going to say to people in the future? He’d been seen, but he had nowhere else to go but up at the moment. Once he reached the top, and the obvious trail these people were on, he could lose them in the forest.

  By the time Cam hauled himself fully up onto level ground, a small crowd had formed. He met the eyes of men, women, and children, who all looked at him with gaping mouths, some speaking at once, so that he couldn’t understand anything that was said.

  Vague memories came back of his former life, and how crowded it was with people everywhere. The clothes looked oddly familiar, even similar to what he’d remembered. Had Mukua’s vessel sent him back to 2036, or some other time?

  He backed away, but the narrow trail offered little room to avoid the dozens of people who had gathered. Some carried long poles in their hands, others had packs on their backs. A couple of young children sniggered, and pointed at his buckskins, which no doubt looked foreign to them. He eyed a small gap between several people. Before he could move, a man shouted at him.