Colton advanced slowly into the room. With a growl, Caleb flung the table aside and launched himself through the air to land with his hands clutching Colton’s throat. Both men went down under the impact.
Serena pulled herself up from the floor and leaned, panting, against the wall. She stared wide-eyed at the jumbled mass of arms and legs thrashing in a cloud of dust near the doorway.
Didn’t Caleb realize that even if he weren’t wounded, he wouldn’t stand a chance against Matt? Matt was going to kill him. And Serena, no matter how hard she tried, could not work up any regret over the thought.
But the fight wasn’t as uneven as Serena had thought. Desperation lent Caleb strength. His right hand was a bloody mess, but he packed a powerful punch with his left.
Matt caught the fist flush in the mouth. Pain exploded. His head snapped back and struck the dirt floor with an audible thud, jarring his teeth. Blood trickled from a cut in his lip. Caleb was all over him then. Knees and boots and elbows and fists struck and gouged from one end of Matt’s body to the other. He was stunned by the ferocity of the attack.
Matt worked a knee up into Caleb’s stomach and shoved, bringing his foot up as Caleb rose above him. The man sailed over Matt’s head and landed on his back, just outside the doorway. Matt gained a temporary breather. He rolled to his knees and waited, letting his breath come back.
Caleb pulled himself up from the ground and shook his head. Droplets of sweat sprinkled down around him. Matt regained his breath and rose to his feet. Caleb roared with rage. He lowered his head and charged, butting Matt in the chest.
Matt’s breath left him in a grunt of pain. He scrambled backward for purchase, trying to stay on his feet. Just before he hit the wall, he gained his balance and struck out with a hard right, taking Caleb in the left eye. Blood spurted from the deep gash left there.
Caleb dodged the next blow and landed one of his own in Matt’s shoulder, barely fazing him. Matt swung again, his breath whistling through his teeth. This time his punch landed squarely on Caleb’s jaw, spinning the man completely around.
Caleb came back swinging. Matt ducked right and stepped out away from the wall. He circled until Caleb crouched with his back to the fireplace. Matt landed three blows to his one.
Both men fought for breath as well as victory. Suddenly Caleb stepped inside Matt’s reach and wrapped both arms around Matt’s chest. The fierceness of the hug brought a groan to Matt’s lips. He raised his hands and slapped his open palms sharply against Caleb’s ears.
Caleb released Matt and grabbed his ears, his face twisting in a grimace of pain. The sudden concussion of Matt’s blow left him momentarily stunned. Matt didn’t wait. He moved in, driving one fist after the other into the man’s belly.
Staggering backward, Caleb crossed his arms to ward off the blows. His head struck the rickety shelf over the fireplace. The lantern wobbled precariously, danced toward the very edge, then settled in place.
Caleb swung a hard left. Matt dodged and stepped back. Something akin to pleasant surprise flickered in Caleb’s eyes. Like he’d just realized an easy way out of this mess.
Like hell, you bastard, Matt thought grimly. He moved in to finish him off. Instead of swinging back or raising his arms in defense, Caleb’s left hand darted in and out of his pants pocket. Firelight flickered off metal.
Matt recognized it at once. He heard Serena gasp as she, too, recognized her own derringer.
Chapter Seventeen
Caleb raised the little gun swiftly.
Matt countered just as fast. With his right hand, he grabbed Caleb’s wrist and forced the gun up to point at the ceiling. With his left hand he made a sharp jab to Caleb’s chin.
Caleb’s head snapped. The back of his neck hit the shelf. His head struck the lantern, shattering the glass globe. The lamp base fell on its side. Oil ran from the reservoir onto Caleb’s already greasy, oily hair.
Matt watched, stunned, as one entire half of Caleb’s head burst into flames.
Serena screamed from her corner.
The acrid odor of burning hair filled the room.
Caleb screamed. Flames raced down the side of his face to his shoulder, his chest, engulfing him in a wavering sheet of fire. He kept on screaming. Then, as if suddenly realizing exactly what was happening, he wrenched his arm from Matt’s grasp and staggered blindly out the door, his screams growing more shrill with each step.
Matt and Serena gaped at each other, shocked. Matt had wanted to kill the bastard. Slowly. But to see a man burn alive was somehow different. Terrible.
“My God!” Serena cried when she finally found her voice.
Matt suddenly snapped to. The shack was in flames! The dry, flimsy walls caught fire like dead leaves. He swooped down and grabbed Serena to his chest, cringing at how frail she felt, and dashed out the door. On the way, he managed to kick his holstered gun away from the door of the cabin.
He sat Serena down a safe distance from the fire and picked up his gun.
“No.” Serena clasped his arm.
Matt looked down at her, his breath still coming hard. “I came to kill him, Rena.”
“He’s as good as dead already,” she cried.
Caleb’s shrill screams grew weaker in the night. Rena was right. No one could live through being burned like that.
A moment later the screaming stopped.
Matt dropped to his knees beside Serena. He followed her gaze and watched the shack collapse in upon itself. Dry and brittle, it was only a matter of moments before it was entirely consumed. The fire managed to burn itself out before it could leap out of the clearing and spread to the rest of the small canyon.
Serena huddled next to Matt, shaking violently from all that had happened. He knelt beside her, uncertain what to do.
She stared up at him, her eyes wide and glassy. “He’s dead.”
“He’s dead,” Matt answered grimly. “I’ll finish with him tomorrow.”
Serena frowned. “You mean bury him?”
“Among other things,” he said through stiff lips.
“What other things?”
“Never mind,” Matt said. “We’ve got to get you some clothes.”
Serena’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t change the subject. What ‘other things?’“
Matt cursed beneath his breath. “You don’t think I’m going to let the bastard meet his maker with all his body parts still attached after what he’s done to you?”
She shook her head and reached for his arm. “It isn’t necessary.”
“Maybe not, but he’s damn sure got it coming.”
“No, he doesn’t, Matt. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. He didn’t do anything to deserve that.”
Matt shifted from his knees to sit down next to her. One large hand cupped her bruised, dirty cheek. “It’s all right, Rena. You don’t need to deny it. Dani saw what happened.”
Serena gasped. Her hold on his arm tightened. “No!”
“Yes.” He stroked her cheek. “Dani saw, and Pace felt. So there’s no need to deny it. You’ll forget, in time. You’ll get over all this.”
By now, the shack was nothing but glowing embers and rising trails of smoke. Serena tried to make Matt understand. “I don’t know what Mama saw or Pace felt. But Matt, you have to believe me. The worst thing he did was starve me for the last several days.”
“Rena—”
“I mean it, Matt,” she cried earnestly. “I’ll admit he did try once. That must have been what Mama saw. I even remember thinking about her at the time. But Matt, he never finished, and he never tried again. That’s why he wouldn’t feed me. He wanted me to let him. He didn’t want to try to force me again.”
Matt looked at her skeptically. “If he tried, what made him stop? Am I supposed to believe you talked him out of raping you?”
Serena grimaced and looked away. “I did worse than that. I got sick and threw up all over him.”
Dumbfounded, Matt stared at her a long moment. Then he threw bac
k his head, and his full-throated laughter boomed along the canyon walls. Still laughing, he reached out and pulled her onto his lap and hugged her fiercely. Giddy with relief, he laughed until his sides ached.
Serena sagged against his chest, revelling in the warm strength of his arms. Arms she had despaired of ever feeling again.
Oh, Matt.
He had come for her, saved her. Tears stung her eyes.
But he was still laughing. She pushed back from his chest and pursed her lips. “Frankly,” she said, “I don’t see what’s so funny.”
In between fresh bursts of laughter, Matt said, “I’ve never heard of a more effective way of cooling a man’s…ardor.”
When his laughter finally died, he rose to his feet with her in his arms. “Let’s get some food into you before you faint. How long’s it been since you’ve eaten?”
“A while,” was all she said.
Matt stopped and looked down at her. The moonlight bathed her face with a soft glow. “How long?” he demanded.
“I’m…not sure. Four days, I think.”
Matt groaned and tightened his hold on her, crushing her against his chest. “Oh, Rena,” he moaned. “It’s all my fault. I’m so sorry, sweetheart. So sorry.”
“Hush,” she told him. “It’s not your fault. It’s his fault. He did this, not you.”
“But he only took you in the first place to get back at me. Rena, Caleb was Abe Scott’s brother. That’s why he kidnapped you.”
Using very nearly the last of her strength, Serena reached up and brushed his cheek with her fingers. “I know. He told me.”
Matt fought the guilt and remorse that threatened to overwhelm him. When he had a better grip on himself, he started walking again. “Did he happen to tell you how he even knew who I was and what happened to his brother?”
“No. I wondered about that myself, but he never would say.”
Matt carried Serena to a cave halfway up the far wall of the canyon. He’d brought his bedroll, saddlebags and canteen down from the ridge and spent the afternoon in its dim coolness, watching his quarry chop wood.
At the abrupt change from hot August night to cool, damp cave, Serena shivered in Matt’s arms. Matt fumbled in the darkness until he found a blanket. He wrapped her snugly and sat her against the wall. She shivered again at the loss of his arms.
He started a fire, then pulled a strip of jerky from his saddlebag.
“Lord. I never thought I’d be glad to eat jerky.”
“I hate to disappoint you, but I don’t think your stomach could take this stuff as is.”
Matt proceeded to tear the jerky into small chunks and drop it into a skillet of water, which he set on a flat rock at the edge of the fire. Serena knew he was right. The broth alone would do her more good than large hunks of dried meat hitting her empty stomach. But the waiting would be agony. The one bite of rabbit had merely increased her hunger.
Matt saw the wistful look on her face and gave her a hard biscuit to chew on while she waited. It disappeared in no time.
“How about a bath?” he suggested.
Serena grimaced. “You think I need one?”
“Yes,” he said with a laugh. “I think you most definitely need one.”
Serena couldn’t agree more. She’d been smelling herself for so many days, she no longer noticed her own odor. But Matt surely must. She wanted nothing more than to scrub away the filth of her ordeal. But her strength was gone, and she didn’t want Matt to know just how weak she really was. He would only make a fuss. And blame himself.
“I’d rather eat first.”
Matt knelt beside her and rested a hand on her shoulder. He winced at the frailness he felt there. “I know you’re hungry. But it’ll be awhile before that’s ready,” he said, nodding to the skillet. “Come on. A bath will feel good, and it’ll make the time pass. I’ll help you.” He went to his saddlebag and fished around. “I even have soap.”
When he returned and picked her up, she was too weak to argue, and had the sinking feeling he knew it, too. He carried her back outside, where the warm air felt good against her chilled cheeks.
By the time they reached the canyon floor, her head rolled against his shoulder. “Matt?” she whispered.
“What, sweetheart?”
“I…can’t do it.”
“Can’t do what?”
“Take a bath. I’m too…tired.”
Matt pressed his lips to her forehead. “I know, sweetheart. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you. Just rest.”
“Where are we going?”
“That stream that runs the length of the canyon comes from a pool at the north end. That’s where I’m taking you. Don’t talk now, just rest.”
He walked on, surefooted in the darkness, cradling his precious burden carefully against his chest. She was so thin, so weak. God, but he wished Caleb Scott was still alive, so he could kill him with his bare hands!
“Matt?”
“Hmm?”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. But what for?”
“For coming after me. For finding me. For saving me.”
Matt walked on in silence, unable to speak past the lump in his throat. There was no way in hell he could have not come after her. The thoughts that filled his mind during the past weeks hadn’t been thoughts of a brother for his sister. They’d been the thoughts of a man whose woman had been torn from his side. Those kinds of thoughts, that kind of anguish, were familiar to him.
Yet he was still confused. It was hard to let go of the past, and he had two pasts to cope with. The one with Angela as his love, his wife, and the one with a sister named Serena. He no longer knew what to do, what to think, what to feel. What was right, and what was wrong. He only knew that Serena felt good in his arms. Good, and right.
When he reached the sparse grass at the edge of the pool, he lowered Serena to the ground. Moonlight sparkled on the still water and turned her face a pale, milky white. Gazing down at her familiar features, a fierce longing engulfed him. A longing to hold and protect her, to see her smile again, hear her laugh. To spend his days, and yes, his nights, too, by her side.
He pulled off his moccasins, then started to remove his pants, but stopped. Even dirty and bruised as she was, the sight of her was enough to start a tightening in his loins.
He removed the buckskins, but left his underwear on.
When he lifted Serena from the blanket, he had to shake her awake. Her eyes came open with a snap. Even in the darkness, he could read the fear. “Ssh,” he whispered. “It’s all right. It’s only me.”
“Matt?”
“That’s right. We’re getting into the water now. It’s spring fed, so it’ll be cold.”
She nodded her understanding, and he walked into the pool. At its deepest spot, it came only to his thighs. He knelt and lowered Serena carefully. Ice cold water caressed her feet, then her backside. She gasped.
When the water was up to her neck, Serena sighed. “Feels so good,” she whispered. She rolled her head back and let herself float in Matt’s arms. A few moments later, he pulled her toward the edge of the pool so she could sit on the sandy bottom while he bathed her.
Matt hadn’t been so gentle and careful since he’d bathed his daughter when she was a baby. Angela had laughed at his care, swearing to him that Joanna wouldn’t break.
“She’s a Colton,” Angela had told him. “Coltons don’t break.”
Strange, he thought, brushing soap-slicked fingers down Serena’s cool arm. It didn’t hurt so much now to think of Angela. For a moment, the thought panicked him. Then he relaxed. From somewhere deep inside came the knowledge that Angela didn’t want her memory to hurt him. She had never wanted anything to hurt him.
For as long as he lived, he would never forget Angela and the love they shared. She would always be a part of him, just as Joanna would always be part of them both.
But as the soap slid off his fingers, so did the grief slip out of his heart. He wa
s ready to live again. And yes, he admitted, even love again. It was time.
Beneath his hands, Serena sighed. Careful of her bruises, he washed her from head to toe and tried to ignore the feel of her flesh against his fingers. Yet even in her present state, battered, exhausted, starved, she was beautiful to touch, beautiful to look at.
The cold spring water did nothing to lessen his response. He wanted her. Right here, right now, I want her. And the wanting felt good.
Never mind that the timing was wrong, that he wouldn’t give in to the heat raging in his blood. It was enough just then to feel aroused without the guilt that had consumed him in Tombstone.
How wise Rena had been, how right, when she had reminded him so bluntly that no matter how they were raised, she and Matt were not brother and sister.
Tomorrow, or as soon as she was rested, they would talk. Tonight, he would take care of her and remind her she was safe. Her ordeal was over.
It took two soapings before he was satisfied that her hair was as clean as it should be. After rinsing her thoroughly, he lifted her from the water and wrapped her in the blanket once more.
He stepped behind a bush and traded his wet underwear for dry buckskins, then put on his moccasins. He returned to her side and lifted her in his arms. “Feel better?” he asked.
Serena closed her eyes and sighed. “Nothing in the world could possibly feel better.”
Matt chuckled deep in his throat. “That’s what you think, girl.”
Serena’s eyes popped open. All thoughts of fatigue and hunger fled as she looked into his shadowed eyes. Was that a leer in his voice? He couldn’t possibly have meant what she thought he meant. Could he? He had never talked to her like that before. Their entire relationship since she’d found him in Tombstone had been one of her pursuing him, and him not only denying it, but running like a scared rabbit.
Now it sounded like—like she didn’t know what. At the very least, he was loosening up around her. Or had she misread the tone in his voice?
She watched the smile die on his mouth. With lips still parted, he slowly lowered his face to hers. She waited breathlessly as, inch by inch, he came closer. The first touch of his lips on hers was feather light. Her heart slammed against her ribs. Then, when her lips parted in response, he kissed her fully. It was the most tender, most soul-shattering kiss imaginable. Hot tingles raced down her arms and legs.
Apache-Colton Series Page 94