by Georgina Gentry - Iron Knife's Family 01 - Cheyenne Captive
The last really good lay he’d had was that Arapaho gal, he thought. Matter of fact, she was the reason he was still scouting for the army. After she’d knocked him in the head and got off with his half of the reward money, he had no cash to start that saloon with so he’d stayed on as a scout. He had to admire her even though if he ever saw her again, he’d kill the bitch. She was every bit as ruthless and full of tricks as Jake himself.
He checked his rifle again and looked around at the men, silent and waiting behind the rocks. The lieutenant still sat against his tree. Jake started to suggest he take cover, then thought better of it. Hell! What did he care if the officer was the first to take a bullet? That’d make it easier for Jake.
The lieutenant grimaced and tried to prop his swelling ankle into a more comfortable position. “We just going to sit here all day?”
Jake shrugged and tipped his hat back. “You got any better ideas, sir?”
Shaw shook his head. The way he was favoring that swollen ankle, Jake decided, that man wasn’t going to chase after any Injuns or Jake, either, for that matter. The lieutenant would have to finish his ride to Denver in the wagon.
Jake ran his tongue over his yellow teeth and sniffed the clean, cool air, considering the possibilities. It would be dark in about three hours. If he could get some kind of ruse going, he might take the girl and sneak off. In the trees off to one side, he saw movement but the others didn’t seem to notice. He had been right about one thing, Jake thought coolly. It wasn’t a big war party or they would have already have attacked.
A fly buzzed around his face and he brushed it away, pulling his hat down over his eyes to cut the glare. Then on the edge of the clearing, four painted braves rode out, yelping and waving blankets, trying to run off the extra horses.
The sergeant from Vermont leaped to his feet. “If that’s all there is of them, sir, let me take the men and go after them!”
Summer looked around wildly. “Weren’t those Dog Soldiers? I didn’t get a good look, but—”
“Let me go after them, sir!” The lanky sergeant interrupted her.
“I—I don’t know.” The officer glanced uncertainly toward Jake. ”I’m not sure going after them is a good idea—”
“Shore it is, Lieutenant!” Jake said eagerly. “Let the men go after those red devils and teach ’em a lesson! You can’t ride so’s you and me will stay here to protect the ladies till the patrol gets back.”
“That’s not a good idea,” Summer blurted. “I think—”
“I’m the Injun expert around here.” Jake glared at the girl, then looked back to the officer. “Beggin’ yore pardon, sir, but take a man’s advice. Women don’t know nothin’!”
The little blonde tried to protest again, but Shaw evidently agreed with Jake’s opinion of women. “Mount up!” the lieutenant ordered Meridith.
Jake had a hard time holding back the laughter as the green officer gave the command that sent the novice patrol to mount and ride out in hot pursuit. Sure them was Cheyenne Dog Soldiers! He’d recognized them at a distance and they were pulling the oldest trick in the books! How many greenhorn patrols had been ambushed just that way, led away by a handful of braves only to find there was half a hundred waiting out there behind a hill to surround them?
He scratched his beard and watched the patrol ride out. He wasn’t sure what the Cheyenne hoped to gain by this trick, but it didn’t matter none, he thought. By the time the Dog Soldiers doubled back and rode into this clearing after losing the patrol or killin’ them, he intended to be long gone. All them Injuns was gonna find was that fat Irish sow and the officer.
But he’d have to be real careful now. If a single gunshot sounded, that would alert the patrol and they’d swing around and come back.
Jake looked at the two women. “Either of you ladies got a gun or know how to use one?”
They both shook their heads. “No,” answered Summer. “We aren’t carrying guns. Neither of us knows how to shoot one and we didn’t figure we’d need to with an armed patrol along to protect us.”
Jake glanced over at the officer propped against the tree. “What about you, sir?”
“Come to think of it, Dallinger,” Shaw said, “all I’ve got for my pistol and rifle are the ammunition that’s in them. You might bring me some more shells from my saddlebags.”
“Yes, sir,” he said humbly, picking up his own Sharps as he walked to the lieutenant’s horse. He lifted the heavy saddlebags off the pony. Then he walked over and threw them behind his own saddle on the Appaloosa.
The officer stared at him, uncomprehendingly. “What are you doing—?”
Jake grinned in evil delight as he swung around and leveled his rifle at the man. “Okay, you stupid greenhorn! Toss that pistol and that rifle away from you as far as you can and don’t none of you make a sound!”
The three of them looked at him blankly, almost as if they didn’t understand what he wanted.
“What is this?” the officer asked. “Some kind of joke?”
“Yeah, it’s a joke,” Jake said, waving his rifle. “Only the joke’s on you! You should have listened to the little lady. She’s a smart one, all right. Now, toss them guns away like I told you to!”
He stalked over and stood pointing the Sharps down at the man’s chest. Gathering up Shaw’s guns, he took them over and threw them into the creek.
“You uppity bastard!” He came back to look down at the lieutenant. “I’m gonna take your woman and your money and clear out of here!”
The maid gave a choking sound and crossed herself and he thought she might scream. “Don’t you yell, you fat sow, or you’ll never live to hear it echo through these mountains!”
“You rotten, no good—!” The blonde’s eyes flashed. “I should have known you’d try something like this!”
Jake grinned. “You’re a cool one,” he said. “Feistier and braver than I thought! We’re gonna make a good team! Now, honey, you take some of that damned yarn that maid’s always knitting with and tie her up and gag her with a scrap of your petticoat!”
Jake stood with his rifle almost against the lieutenant’s chest as Summer moved to comply. When she was finished, he turned back very slowly and deliberately cracked the officer across the skull with his gun butt before Shaw realized what was happening.
The blonde gave a smothered cry of protest as she ran over and knelt by the limp form. “You’ve killed him!” She tried to take the bloody head in her arms but Jake grabbed her and dragged her away from the unconscious man.
“No, I ain’t, missy, I’ve just put him to sleep for a few minutes, that’s all! Now you and me has got some hard ridin’ to do!” He gripped her arm and looked down into her eyes as he leaned his rifle against a tree.
Summer stared back up at him in horror, trying to pull out of his grasp. She looked desperately from Mrs. O’Malley to the limp form of Austin. The maid rolled her eyes at her but her voice was muffled by the gag. No one could help her, Summer realized as she struggled; no one but herself.
She had known back there in Colonel Burton’s office that she should have protested, asked the officer to assign them another scout. But she’d been afraid Burton and Austin both would ask why if she made that request.
She couldn’t tell the two officers why she didn’t want Dallinger, and she’d been afraid the scout might if she raised any kind of objection to his coming along on the patrol. She didn’t want Austin to know the truth. The truth was she hated the scout because he had killed her Indian lover and Dallinger might suspect that. Nor did she want him to tell Austin he’d had to fight Summer to take her away from the Indians because she didn’t want to leave!
Dallinger dragged her toward the horses.
“You’ll never get away with this!” she gasped as she fought him.
“Sure I will, missy, you jes watch me!” he drawled as he jerked her up against his rancid smelling body. “Your boyfriend is gonna sleep through the whole thing and that fat maid ain’t gonna he
lp you none. The patrol is either bein‘ led on a wild goose chase through the hills or bein’ ambushed this very minute!”
Almost on cue, gunshots and savage shrieks echoed through the mountains and Jake laughed. “I think the U.S. Cavalry jest met up with the Injuns they was lookin’ for! They ought to keep each other busy long enough for us to take the gold and clear out of here!”
Summer clawed his face as she struggled to get away.
“You shouldn’ta done that, honey,” he said with evident relish. “Pain excites me!” He pulled her to him and kissed her while she fought him. His breath smelled sour and she tried to spit in his face as his mouth covered hers.
“You little wildcat!” He slapped her hard across the face and she could feel the sting of the blow as one of his dirty paws squeezed her breast roughly. “I’ll teach you not to spit at me, you uppity bitch! Keep fightin’ me, though, honey! I love to take a woman that way!”
She needed no urging as she struggled. She saw the lust in his eyes as they fought and then she felt his leg behind hers, forcing her to the ground. His hot, wet mouth ravaged hers as he fell on her with his great weight.
“You’re softer than a featherbed, missy,” he snickered. “You need humblin’ worse than any woman I ever saw! I got no time to play with you right now, we got to get out of here! There’ll be lots of time later for us to play this game!”
She paid him no mind and kept fighting. The more she fought, the more aroused he seemed to become. She could feel one of his big, rough hands gradually working her skirt up under his heavy body and him fumbling with the buttons of his pants.
“Maybe just a quick one!” he panted. “Two minutes is all I need!”
In panic, she fought him as she felt the sudden heat of his bare manhood against her naked thigh where he had pushed up her skirt. He forced himself slowly between her legs as one big hand cupped her breast cruelly. When he tried to kiss her, she bit his lips and he bit her back.
“Gawd Almighty!” he breathed rapidly, “you drive me crazy that way! I’m gonna take you quick and then knock you in the head! When you wake up, you’ll be miles from here, headed for the Mexican border!”
“Never!” she vowed. “Never!”
“Never’s a purty final word, honey,” he said with a grin, holding her down with the weight of his huge body. “You never had a stud like me before and you’re gonna love it, so quit tryin’ to stop me!”
He came up on his knees, positioning himself to come into her as she fought to get out from under him.
A twig snapped as he readied himself. She looked past his shoulder in terror at the big form silhouetted against the sun so that she saw only the outline of a tall man standing behind Jake. She froze in terror, thinking Jake had a partner and now all was lost for her. She couldn’t fight them both off.
Then the man moved slightly and the sun reflected off the cavalry button earring and the head of the lance he carried.
For a split second, she stared up at him, sure she had created the image out of her own terror for it couldn’t be! It just couldn’t be!
The scout seemed to realize from her sudden stillness that something had changed. He looked into her wide, staring eyes, and slowly turned his head to look behind him. Frantically he tried to scramble to his feet, his naked manhood still visible in his unbuttoned pants.
But the other man was already reaching, tossing the scout to one side with an enraged roar.
Summer looked up at the intruder, almost disbelieving. Her heart had never been so full and for a moment, as she tried to get up, the tears came and she couldn’t speak. “Iron Knife!” she finally whispered. “I thought you were dead!” She swayed to her feet and ran into his arms, sobbing uncontrollably.
Very gently, Iron Knife held her quivering body in his big arms for a long moment, his face buried in her golden hair. His heart overflowed with emotion. Reluctantly he stood her away from him and turned to the big scout who still stood almost as if he had seen a mistai, a ghost. “And now, Jake Dallinger, we finally meet again!” he said coldly as he gripped the hilt of his big knife.
But the scout only stared at him with his mouth hanging open as if he didn’t know him. Then a slight recognition crept into his mean little eyes. “You’re—you’re that Dog Soldier I shot and thought I killed last fall when we raided the Cheyenne camp! I was shore I killed you!”
“You should have made sure you finished the job!” Iron Knife flung at him to control his rage as he glanced again at the bruised, weeping Summer. “Take a better look, you worthless Coyote whelp! Take a good look and remember a helpless boy in Fandango, Texas!”
The scout’s face worked in horror for a long moment as if he couldn’t believe the fact that was slowly dawning on him. “No—You ain’t—You can’t be—You can’t be Texanna’s half-breed son!”
Iron Knife smiled mirthlessly. “I will carry scars all my life because of you. I have waited long for revenge! Now I find you in possession of both my horse and my woman!”
The other crouched, uncoiling his big whip. “Texanna?” he asked. “Where is she?”
Iron Knife felt the old sadness. “She’s dead. Texanna died where she wanted to be, in War Bonnet’s arms—and he’s dead, too!”
The rage and pain on the other’s face was indescribable. “You damned Injuns!” he snarled. “You’ve cost me the only woman I ever really loved! If I had realized who you was last fall, I’d never have ridden out without makin’ sure you was dead!”
“And if I had recognized you at the same time, I would have tried to see you never rode out of that camp alive! I’ve searched for you all these many months in vain. But a messenger came from the buffalo hunt to say the big Appaloosa was riding with a Bluecoat patrol. I knew it had to be you since there is no other stallion like mine on the plains!”
“Then, take a good, last look at him, Injun.” Jake spread the lash behind him as he crouched warily. “Take a good look at him ’cause after I kill you, I’m gonna take that stallion and the girl and ride out!”
Iron Knife crouched with his big knife, anger making his voice rise as he faced the scout. “You’ll never make it! My men have deliberately drawn the soldiers away so I could ride in here, but they’ll swing around and come back before you can leave with my woman!”
“Your woman, huh?” Jake’s head turned toward the sobbing girl as he spat to one side. “I’ll enjoy her twice as much then when I rape her and make her whore for me! I’m gonna treat your woman like I’ve been treatin’ your horse! They both need a heavy quirt and sharp spurs to break their spirits and show ’em who’s boss!”
Iron Knife felt his face darken with fury at the image the other’s words brought to mind. “It’s even odds now, Dallinger! You’re not dealing with a young, scared boy anymore! You’re too yellow to face up to a grown man when you’re so much better at brutalizing helpless women and horses!”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Summer glancing around vainly for help, but he knew that his blade and lance were the only help she would get. The fat woman was tied up by the big rock and a cavalry officer lay unconscious with a bloody head over near a fir tree. Gunshots echoed through the canyons as Two Arrows and Lance Bearer led the cavalry on a fruitless chase. The plan had been to keep the patrol occupied just long enough for him to ride in and rescue Summer and his horse. He hadn’t believed she was along, at first, but the sun glinting off her pale hair from the top of the ridge had been unmistakable.
Dallinger cracked the whip with evident relish. “I don’t need any help for what I’m about to do! I’m gonna finish the job I started in the town square years ago! When I finish, there ain’t gonna be enough hide or face left for anyone to know you was anything but a raw hunk of meat!”
Iron Knife hefted his big blade easily and gripped the lance in his left hand. He saw the other’s gaze go to the rifle leaning against a tree behind Iron Knife’s back. The scout couldn’t get to the gun without getting past him. Iron Knife had never han
dled the white man’s firearms enough to know if he himself could load or aim one. He felt confidence only in the weapons he held in his hands.
Warily he circled, remembering to stay out of the range of the big whip. He could remember the sting of it on his body as though it were yesterday and he knew its deadly accuracy. Glancing over at Summer, he saw she was untying the plump woman but he thought he would not be able to depend on them for any help. Most white women were not like his mother, they knew nothing of guns or weapons.
The lash cracked abruptly, and Iron Knife stumbled backward, remembering how far it reached and that its tip stung like a thousand angry wasps. The scout drew the lash back and cracked it again.
Iron Knife tried to twist away but he wasn’t fast enough. It wrapped around his chest, cutting the deerskin shirt almost off his body. He grabbed at the thin leather squeezing his naked chest like a snake and felt the warm blood run from the wound. Summer screamed in horror. He glanced at her and saw she had managed to untie the woman. The lieutenant moaned as he regained consciousness.
Iron Knife feinted with the lance, trying to find an opening, hoping to impale the other. But Dallinger brought the whip back over his shoulder and even as Iron Knife readied for his throw, the whip reached out and jerked the lance from his hand.
He heard Summer gasp in terror but there was nothing it seemed she could do to help. He had only his knife against the twelve-foot lash and he couldn’t close enough to use it. Hopelessly he looked toward the rifle, wishing he knew more about using the white man’s firearms. He wasn’t even sure it was loaded. If he dropped his guard and tried to pick the gun up, Dallinger could lash him a dozen times while Iron Knife tried to handle the unfamiliar weapon.