After saddling the mare, he untied Serena’s feet. Before she could stand, he grasped her firmly around the waist and hoisted her into the saddle. His hands squeezed painfully, then rose to cup both her breasts. Serena sat ramrod straight and slowly turned her head to glare down her nose at him. She knew he must feel her trembling, but she refused to acknowledge it.
His hands drifted down her ribs and belly to her thighs. A puzzling look of sadness crossed his face, making her wonder what went through his mind.
She tried to reason with him calmly. “Don’t do this, Caleb. Let me go.”
He stepped back and gave her a narrowed look.
Serena was tempted to give the horse a kick and make a break for it. But the saddle was too large and unfamiliar, too smooth and slippery, her feet didn’t reach the stirrups, and her hands were still tied behind her back. She’d never be able to stay mounted. Bareback, she might have chanced it.
Then, as if he’d read her mind, Caleb tied her reins to the back of his saddle. If she’d had a chance at all, it was gone.
Caleb looped a rope around one of her ankles and ran it under the horse’s belly to her other ankle. Serena cursed silently. She was trapped. Damn! If the mare stumbled and fell, Serena would go down with her and be crushed.
When Caleb freed Serena’s hands, then retied them to the saddle horn, she at least had the illusion of being somewhat in control, false though she knew that illusion was.
She kept her voice low and reasonable when she asked, “Why are you doing this?”
At first she thought he would ignore her, but then he finally said, “It’s nothing personal. I told you—it’s just business.”
Inside her head, she was screaming her fear and shrieking her rage, but outside she was calm. “What could I possibly have to do with your business? What kind of business requires you to abduct me?”
This time he did ignore her. He gathered his belongings and loaded them onto the back of his horse. Just before mounting, he grabbed Serena’s hair, twisted it into a knot on top of her head, and crammed a lopsided, beat-up sombrero down on top. When he tightened the strap beneath her chin, his fingers trailed along her jaw in a light caress. “So soft and beautiful,” he whispered.
A cold shiver ran down Serena’s spine.
A moment later Caleb mounted and kicked his horse into a gallop, leading the way south.
Always south.
South down the Santa Cruz Valley, but not by way of the usual trail. He kept to the brush as much as possible, avoiding the occasional ranch and any travelers he spotted.
Serena tried to keep her mind off her physical discomfort, but it wasn’t an easy thing to do. She hadn’t slept much last night, so she was tired. Her arms, her back, and her backside were killing her. With her feet tied the way the were, she couldn’t bend her knees or reach the stirrups. All she could do was bounce painfully in the saddle. With her hands tied to the horn, she couldn’t brush the loose strand of hair out of her eyes. And damn it, her nose itched.
Yet if she didn’t let herself think about discomfort, the only thing left to consider was her terror. It rose within her.
She choked it down. She couldn’t afford to let fear take over and cloud her mind. She had to stay calm. And sharp.
Where was he taking her? And why? He avoided the trail as though he wanted their passage to go unnoticed, yet he rode at a speed that raised a dust cloud plainly visible to anyone who cared to look. And he made no attempt at all to cover their tracks.
They stopped only briefly to rest and water the horses, but Caleb made no move to untie Serena. She was forced to stay mounted, her hands and feet and rear growing more numb by the hour.
When they made camp just after sundown, she was forced to eat the jerky and hardtack he tossed at her while her hands remained bound. He had even retied her feet.
Would he come at her now?
Serena watched his every move, sure he would lunge at her or grab her any moment. But he didn’t. He stared at the fire between them and ate without looking at her. The flames seemed to mesmerize him. His gaze appeared…longing. Like a young boy on the verge of manhood who’d just discovered the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. During the entire meal, Caleb didn’t blink. Not once.
After eating, he rolled a smoke and leaned back against his grounded saddle, a satisfied grin on his face.
When he spoke, Serena jumped. It was the first time he’d spoken in hours. “The way I figure it,” he said, his grin spreading wider across his sweat-streaked face, “your family’s probably worried by now, it being dark and you not home yet.” He rubbed his hand along his whisker-stubbled jaw and grinned wider.
“Matt Colton, I’ve got you now,” he said with relish. “Come sunup, if not sooner,” he said to Serena, “that brother of yours will probably ride in to Tucson looking for you. Take him a while to figure out you’re not there.”
He poked a stick in the fire until it caught, then held it up, twisting it back and forth, watching the flames eat down the dried wood toward his fingers.
“It’ll take him a while longer to spot where the buggy left the road. Probably be late in the afternoon before he picks up our trail.”
A bare second before the flames would have singed his fingertips, he grinned and tossed the stick into the fire.
Serena watched him closely, each flick of eyelid, each twitch of muscle. Something in his face confused her. Was it confidence? Satisfaction? Shouldn’t he be worried about being followed? If she read his expression correctly…
Her eyes widened in disbelief. “You want him to follow?”
His grin broadened yet again and his eyes flared.
“Are you crazy? Don’t you know he’ll kill you for this?”
Caleb laughed. The sound bordered on madness and sent shivers down Serena’s spine.
“All we have to do is stay ahead of him,” he said. “That’ll be easy with the head start we’ve got. He’ll follow. He’ll follow until I’ve got him right where I want him.”
Serena swallowed to moisten her mouth. “And where might that be?” she asked as casually as possible.
“Just a little place I’ve got picked out south of here.”
“South. Mexico, maybe?” he didn’t respond, just kept grinning at her. “So you want to get Matt to Mexico, and you’re using me as bait, is that it?”
“You got it, sister.”
Serena allowed a smile to curve her lips. “I hate to be the one to tell you this, but there’s a tiny little flaw in your plans.”
“I doubt that.”
“Oh, but there is,” she assured him brightly. “It’s quite simple, really. He won’t come.”
Caleb hooted with laughter. “Nice try, Miss Colton. He won’t come. Ha! I kidnap his sister, and he won’t come? Who’re you trying to kid, girl? I’ve never seen a more protective, possessive brother in my life than Matt Colton. If looks could kill, I’d have been dead the first time I got within ten feet of you. He dotes on you.” He sipped his coffee, then bobbed his head up and down. “He’ll come.”
Serena kept the smile on her lips. “No, he won’t.”
Caleb started to speak, but she held up her bound hands to interrupt him. “Not because he isn’t protective of me. You’re right about that. If he knew I was missing, he’d surely come. But you should have asked me how long I was planning to be away from home before you cooked up this little scheme.”
His eyes narrowed as the grin slowly slipped away. “What are you talking about?”
“Simply that no one will know I’m missing for a week, maybe two.” She leaned against the boulder behind her, her smile held in place by sheer will. “You see, I’m afraid we had a little…family disagreement. I left to spend some time with friends in town.” Was she putting her head in a noose, telling him this? If he thought her useful as bait for Matt, he might not harm her—yet. But if she had no more use, then what?
She straightened her shoulders. Whatever would happen would happen.
But first she wanted to see the look on his face when he realized his plan had failed. “My friends in town, of course, didn’t know I was coming, so no one will even miss me for days and days.”
“You lie!” he yelled. “You’re just trying to trick me, to get me off guard so he can sneak up on me.”
“Why would I lie about it? I want him to come, probably as bad as you do.” She let her smile slip and gave rein to anger. “I want him to catch you. I want to watch while he peels the hide off your bones.” She stopped and forced a calming breath into her lungs. “But he won’t come. Do you hear me? He won’t come.”
“Shut up!” Caleb jumped to his feet. The low fire between them cast red lights and black shadows across his features. As he skirted the fire and came toward her, she half expected to see horns on the top of his head, so evil did he look just then.
But there were no horns. Only a man. A big, angry man with a half-mad light in his cold eyes. He paced back and forth in front of her.
“If he’d just been a little bit drunker that night in Tombstone,” Caleb muttered, “he would never have made it out that damn window and I wouldn’t have to be going through this now. The fire would have taken care of him like it should have.”
Serena straightened, her heart thudding. “Fire?”
“He’s got the devil’s own luck. My biggest, best fire yet, and all the bastard gets is a broken leg.”
Good God, he didn’t mean— “The fire that burned half the town?”
Caleb gave her a disgusted look. “Yeah, half the town, but it missed the one person it was intended for, damn it.”
Horror filled her throat. “You started the fire in Tombstone? To kill Matt?”
His eyes took on a far away look. “You should have seen it. If you’d come one day earlier you would have. It was really something. So hot, so alive, so beautiful.”
He’s crazy.
His gaze focused on her sharply. “‘Course your goddamn brother got away. This is his fault, you know. If he’d died like he was supposed to, I wouldn’t have to use you to get to him. But he’ll come.”
With hard, jerky motions, Caleb bent and untied Serena’s feet, then grabbed her arm, drug her across the little clearing, and tossed her at the base of a scrub oak. He used the rope that had been around her ankles and secured her bound hands tightly against the rough, flaking bark.
He left her there. While he kicked dirt onto the fire, he cast her a hate-filled look over his shoulder. “He’ll come, damn you. He’ll come.”
But now he wasn’t so sure. It seemed like she spoke the truth. Damn her. She was ruining all his plans!
He tossed himself onto his bedroll and stared at her through the darkness. His original plan hadn’t had anything to do with Serena. Only Matt Colton. He had to kill Matt Colton. And he would, by God!
But then he’d seen Serena and decided to use her to get to Matt. A good plan. Only thing was, this second plan of his would see Serena tortured and dead. He wasn’t so sure he wanted to do that anymore.
She was so beautiful, so proud and courageous. For someone like her to die the way he’d intended—no. He wouldn’t do it. Couldn’t. He wanted her for himself.
Now, wouldn’t that get ol’ Colton’s goat? What if the bastard came after his sister, only to find she’d fallen in love with her captor?
‘Course, she wasn’t in love with him. Probably never would be. A rich rancher’s daughter like her, and him just a poor dirt farmer. But rancher’s daughter or not, she was still just a half-breed. A half-breed Apache. Not a popular thing to be in this part of the country.
If he changed his tactics, played up to her, she just might be grateful for his attention. He could take her back to Tennessee. Nobody cared much one way or the other about Apaches back there. Nobody even had to know she was Apache. She ought to like that.
He clenched his fists at his sides. He couldn’t go home until Matt Colton was dead. He needed a way to make the man come to him, but he was no longer eager to harm Serena in the process.
But Colton didn’t have to know that! All he had to do was think Caleb would kill her.
Or had killed her. That was it!
A new plan formed in his mind. Of course, he might need a little help, but then that’s what that greasy little Mex fellow was for. Pablo would do anything for a little spending money.
Caleb relaxed his hands and allowed a smile to spread. He would kill Matt Colton and have Serena all to himself. This was even better than his other plans. Things were going to work out just fine.
He took a deep, satisfying breath and drifted off to sleep. He dreamed of Serena.
“Where’s Aunt Rena, Daddy? Isn’t she going to tuck me in tonight?”
Matt straightened the covers beneath Joanna’s chin. “No, Pumpkin, she went to Tucson this morning.”
“Will she be home tomorrow?”
“I don’t think so.”
And she wasn’t. Nor was she home the day after, or the day after that. Each night Matt found himself echoing Joanna’s plea. Each day was longer than the previous one. Where was Serena? What was she doing? Was she crying? Because of him?
A couple of weeks, Pace had said. A couple of weeks.
Chapter Twelve
Serena vowed that if she made it out of this alive, she would never let herself get so soft and out of shape again. That first day on the trail with Caleb had been exhausting. The second was torture. The third, just as bad. But by the fourth day her muscles had begun to firm up, and now, eight days after she’d left home for Tucson, staying in the saddle all day was no hardship at all. It would have been even easier, however, if her hands and feet weren’t tied.
What was hard was knowing she had no choice in what was happening to her. Not tied up the way she was. But she watched, and waited. If her chance came, she would take it.
The sun had beat down on Serena and Caleb without mercy from the clear blue Arizona sky. Now it hung motionless hour after hour over the high Mexican desert.
After crossing the border, Caleb had turned east. Conversation between them had been practically nonexistent for days. Each night, Serena had waited with dread for him to force himself on her, but he’d made no such move. Was she truly only bait to draw Matt?
After days of purposely avoiding all contact with other people, Caleb now led her straight toward two Mexican riders approaching from behind a jagged boulder. Serena straightened in the saddle, her senses alert.
Caleb greeted one of the men with familiarity, calling him Pablo and demanding to know who the second man was.
“Es mi hermano,” Pablo said.
Caleb seemed satisfied that the second man was Pablo’s brother and motioned for Pablo to lead the way.
The way was slow and tortuous. They entered a virtual jungle of cholla and Spanish dagger, with an occasional organ pipe and a few barrel cacti scattered about. The vicious plants gave way here and there to black, porous lava, jagged, uneven, and treacherous, left by some ancient volcano.
The narrow trail twisted and turned, backtracking on itself, sometimes stopping altogether at a solid wall of cactus or lava, forcing the riders to back their horses carefully to another opening. Caleb swore colorfully at the sharp needles that seemed to jump out and stab him. The Mexicans didn’t appear to be bothered, and Serena knew enough to lean away. Their calmness only added to Caleb’s growing anger.
Time in that cholla forest stood still. It seemed they would never find their way through that maze of black rock and man-eating plants. Caleb kept demanding to know how much farther. Pablo kept shrugging his shoulders and swearing, “Not much, señor.”
How much farther to what? Serena wondered. What were they doing in this prickly place? Surely they could have gone around.
Then something tickled the back of her mind. Some memory. A story she’d once heard. No! Not once, but heard many times! Heard over Apache campfires in her childhood. She knew now where they were headed.
Canyon de los Embudos. Canyon o
f Tricksters. Canyon of Deceptions. Thirty miles below the Arizona border. Guarded by miles of cholla forest, with false, dead-end trails to trap the uninitiated. Old Chihuahua’s favorite hideout, before he went to the reservation.
Serena wondered what accident had led Pablo to discover the way into the canyon. She had heard the entrance was well hidden, disguised by a huge tumble of boulders. Anyone fool enough to come through all the cactus was likely to ride right past the narrow cut. A mere slice in the rocks led the way down to the clear pool surrounded by sycamores and willows on the canyon floor.
Of course, Chihuahua wouldn’t be there now. But wouldn’t Caleb be surprised if old Nana and his warriors popped up from behind the rocks?
Late in the afternoon, Pablo finally led the way behind the guardian boulder and down the steep path to the canyon floor. He chose a campsite along the edge of the pool, beneath an overhang of lava. A thick stand of willows surrounded the clearing.
Caleb untied Serena from the saddle and lifted her to the ground. Her skin shrank from his touch. He left her sitting with her back to a tree, her hands still tied together, while he led the two Mexicans aside. They were too far away for Serena to make out their words.
When they came back, Caleb jerked the sombrero from Serena’s head and combed her hair out with his fingers. He clasped her by the jaw and forced her head around, pointing to the streak of white at her temple. None of the men spoke. Serena held her breath, straining to keep from jerking from Caleb’s grasp.
“Can you do it?” Caleb asked Pablo.
Pablo fidgeted with the end of his drooping mustache, his eyes narrowed in thought. “Sí.” He nodded slowly. “Sí, I can do it.”
Caleb turned loose of Serena and walked to his horse.
Serena worked her jaw to ease the ache caused by his tight grip. She’d be bruised, she knew.
Caleb pulled a leather pouch from his saddlebag, then led the men off again. A few minutes later, the two Mexicans mounted and headed out of the canyon, leaving Serena and Caleb alone.
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