by Elle Marlow
Cooper laid his hands on both shoulders. “Stop, Sophia. You’re fine, I’m fine, the baby is fine. I’m no longer pressing charges on you. You’re free, and before long, Crow will be dead and you and this baby can have the life you’ve always wanted.”
Her heart pounded in her chest, listening to Cooper’s words. She looked down at the baby wondering if it could really be possible. Her arms started to quiver as sweat beaded on her hairline. She wasn’t fine, she wasn’t fine at all. She was terrified because Crow could be anywhere at any time, and the baby was without protection of the church.
“No, no…I’m not fine. I’m not. Please, take the child back to the mission where God can protect him. Please Cooper, I’m begging of you. I know you want me to be okay, I know you were just trying to help, but please take him back.”
Dawn had broken through the dark sky when Cooper finally left without a word with boy. Sophia stood at the window and watched them go through a watery vision. Despite the joy she’d felt playing house with Cooper, she couldn’t keep pretending. Nothing was ever going to be fine until Crow takes his last breath.
Cooper couldn’t do that if he continued to worry over her and her happiness.
***
Sophia sat at his desk and removed a pen from the ink well, thinking. When Cooper invaded her thoughts, her chest swelled with incredible warmth. She wasn’t sure if it was love, but she damn sure knew she was grateful to him. Emotions surged a thought of facing the unknown. She wiped away a stray tear and then began to scribe Cooper a note to apologize for leaving. Tears continued to roll down her cheeks, making it hard to write as she explained that she’d have to keep the gun. She asked him to take better care of himself. She also wrote that only the light could chase away the darkness, so he should leave the curtains and his heart wide open. After she was done with all of that, she wrote that her heart would be full if she knew that he adopted the boy and gave them both a life they deserved with a woman worthy of such a wonderful life.
Her plan was simple, she’d go back to Maya’s cantina. Hopefully the horse she bought for Crow was still there, and she’d settle-up any boarding fees with Maya and ride out. If the horse was gone, then she’d hop on a train to California.
Sophia dressed back into the men’s clothes, shoved a couple clothing items she found in the trunk into a velvet bag, and then took one last loving look at the house. After she closed the door, she shoved the little gun between the valley of her breasts and then buttoned the shirt collar up high. Her fingers then touched her lips as she remembered the night she’d laid with Cooper. Her heart ached knowing how much she’d miss the sheriff, and sincerely doubted she’d ever know such an honorable man like him again.
She was careful to avoid eye contact, shoving her hat tightly over her head, holding the brim over her eyes. But, the closer she got to the cantina, the more her stomach twisted. Maybe she should just forget about paying Maya for caring for the horse, and just head to the train now. Sophia stopped to consider it, but then realized the station was close to the jail, and if she went too soon, she’d run a risk of being caught by Cooper, or recognized by his deputy. It would be better to wait at the cantina until she knew Cooper would go home for lunch and to check on her.
Sophia hesitated when she reached the little thatched building. Despite that it was late in the morning, the cantina and stables looked to be closed. There were two lanterns burning outside and no horses tied to the hitching rail. Sophia tested the door and it opened to reveal two people inside. One was Maya, and the other, was a man at the bar bent over his glass. Maya stood behind her bar, forcing a smile. “Usted no debe haber llegado aquí,” Maya told her, her voice shaking.
“What’s wrong? I’m sorry, Maya, I don’t understand Spanish.” Then the man at the bar removed his hat and turned to face her. The air she inhaled, burned her throat when she realized that she was face to face with Comanche Crow.
“She said; you should not have come here,” he hissed, as he grabbed her by the shirt. He twisted the fabric and held it high within his fisted grip. The shirt squeezed around her neck cutting off her air, then Crow lifted her off her feet.
“I got hurt, Crow. Stop, I couldn’t help it, I got arrested and then I got hurt…”
He dropped her and she hit the floor on her knees.
“You couldn’t help it? But you found the time to wash your clothes and your hair? You smell like soap.” He shouted. She stood upright, fighting her pounding heart that formed a rock in her throat. His nose curled as his eyes raked her over. He then lifted a handful of her hair to his nose. “You continue to lie to me,” he accused in a growl, dropping her hair to unsheathe his knife.
He raised the blade over her head. Sophia instinctively covered her face with her hands. “No!” she cried into her palms. The air whizzed from the sound of the knife being swung back and forth. Then he grabbed her hair once more and swung the blade just inches from her scalp. He threw a handful of her hair on the floor and then lifted her up again by the collar of the shirt.
“You should have obeyed me, Little One. Your hair is only the first of many things you will lose this night.”
A scream came from behind and Crow turned. Maya was coming toward Crow with an iron poker from her fire. “Maya, no!” Sophia screamed. Crow grabbed the poker and tossed it to the side. He pointed a finger at Maya. “Do not cross me, old woman.”
***
Cooper knew the moment he rode onto Blackwater Ranch that something had gone terribly wrong. He reached beside him for his gun as he dismounted his horse.
There were no lights, and no movement inside. It wasn’t so late that Sophia would have already taken to her bed. He took each step slowly, trying to detect if anyone was inside the house.
“Sophia!”
Worried, Cooper kicked in the door. Other than a single candle burning on the desk, he saw nothing.
“Sophia!”
He walked toward the desk and then stopped to listen. She was gone, and if she’d wrote a letter, then she left of her own accord. Disappointment pricked him as he sheathed his gun and picked up the letter.
Son-of-a-bitch…
A screeching wail came from the front of the house. Cooper dropped the letter and ran to the window to witness a woman running toward the steps. She was wearing all black, with a black veil covering her face. He removed his gun and pointed it at her chest.
Then he realized she was screaming in Spanish and realized that the woman was Maya and she was holding up a handful of hair.
“Cuervo loco tiene su!”
***
Along with rain pelting her face, guns and shouts blasted from all directions. Crow held her tightly against him as they rode double, racing back toward the hills. The horse slipped and stumbled as it struggled to carry them up the wet and rocky incline. Crow shouted Comanche words in her ear, and then would scream out profanities in English. Her throat swelled and swallowing hurt, preventing her from making any noise. From the sounds of it, the Apache were after them, but her heart held hope that somehow, that it wasn’t Apaches, but rather Cooper riding in to save her.
When they’d finally reached the camp, Crow jumped from the horse and then pulled her down to land in a heap at the ground.
“You should not have gone after her! You brought the wrath down on all of us. Those shooters are Apache that spotted you when you left. We have been fighting with them since then. We are almost out of ammunition!” Jorge yelled.
Crow said nothing, but ripped at his own shirt and then shoved the fabric into her mouth. He then tied her wrist and her feet. Then Crow lifted her, throwing her over his shoulder, pushing the air out of her lungs. She was going to die. He’d never been this rough with her, and her betrayal has earned her death, just as she feared.
“You should have let me kill the traitorous bitch, and that homely baby,” Jorge hissed from behind. “We will teach her a lesson soon enough,” Crow assured him, as he dropped her. Sophia finally managed a strangled
cry inside her chest as she fell straight into a crevice her body wedged between the rough sides of two boulders.
Crow and Jorge said nothing else and left.
The rocks stabbed into her skin and her heart pounded with such ferocity she was afraid to move. She strained to listen, but she was sure she could no longer hear their footsteps. She struggled against the confines of the ropes and the crushing sides of the rocks but it only drove her deeper into the cleft. Sophia closed her eyes trying to calm her breathing. It was like a bear trap and if a snake or wild animal came by she’d have no way to protect herself.
The night passed agonizingly slow. If she slept, it was in short dozes riddled with hallucinating nightmares. Occasionally, Cooper Blackwater’s face would materialize before her, giving her both comfort and scorn for having left his house and causing her own demise.
From what little she could see; the horizon lightened. She couldn’t believe she’d survived the night. She shifted her body trying to relieve some of the pain and the pressure. Her wrist burned from being held together with ropes, and her feet had gone numb sometime during the night. But why was she still alive? Where was Crow?
Dear Lord, maybe he’s blessedly dead. Maybe Cooper or the Apache finally got him.
With hope and desperation burning, Sophia managed to hook a part of the rope that bound her wrist on a jagged rock edge. If she could just free her hands, she could reach Cooper’s gun wedged between her cleavage.
A shadow fell over her and she froze. Crow was staring down at her, his black eyes narrowing as his bare chest rose and fell from heavy breathing. Sweat, dirt and blood all coated his skin and she screamed into the fabric still shoved into her mouth.
“Like my enemy, you thought you could escape me,” he said, reaching down and grabbing her by the forearm. He effortlessly pulled her from her rocky trap. Sophia’s knees buckled at her own weight. She noticed a horse stood behind him fully packed for travel and her heart and hope dropped like stone. Crow ripped the gag from her mouth.
“Where are we going?” she managed.
“What does it matter to you?” he snapped, yanking her forward so she’d have no choice but to stumble into him. Her feet and hands were still bound and she had to lean against him for support. Grinning at her predicament, Crow wrapped an arm around her while his other hand glided over her head, smoothing what was left of her hair. “Even without your hair, you are still beautiful to look at,” he said.
Her repulsion swelled in her chest until it came out as a strangled sob. “Crow, don’t touch me,” she whispered. Jorge and two other men approached on horses with war paint splashed across their chest and rumps.
“Let’s go,” Jorge yelled, looking over his shoulder. “The Apache will be after these horses, and our necks. Forget about her and let’s go!”
***
Cooper did nothing but think about Sophia the entire time he escorted Maya back to her cantina. The story Maya recounted was one of pure horror, and had drawn a line in the sand. A line that as a lawman, he wouldn’t be able to cross.
Armed with two revolvers, and a rifle and as much ammunition as he could carry, he rode to Gunther’s cabin that he shared with his young wife. A couple of dogs barked at his arrival, and someone inside the home lit a lantern.
Gunter opened the front door and walked out onto his porch. “Is that you, Cooper?”
“I’m going after Comanche Crow.”
Gunther rubbed the sleep out of his eyes with balled up fist. But he dropped them fast. “Wait! By yourself? Let me come with you.”
Before Cooper could argue, Gunther disappeared inside his cabin and was out within moments dressed, and packing. Cooper kept to himself, alone with his rage as they rode due west until they reached the bottom of the hills that would climb and meet the dense saguaro forest. This is where everything changed. The landscape was rough, and hard to navigate, making it the favorite hang-out for bandits, renegades and anything else dirty a man could mention. It also had one of the only decent roads that cut through to California.
The sun had been up for a good two hours by the time they managed to get close to where Gunther and the posse had the shoot-out with the Hellfire gang the first time.
“This is it, Coop. It was right here that I snagged a couple of those bastards. I got to tell you though, my skin feels jumpy, I feel like these rocks have eyes and were out here like a couple of sitting ducks.”
“They’re gone. They’ve pulled their camp and they’re gone,” Cooper told him, his gaze carefully scanning every ridge, every rock. There wasn’t a trace of anything, except for an old campfire and a few overturned trunks. “From the looks of those tracks, I’d say they’re heading west toward California.”
“Well, if they’re gone, then chances are high that they’re already out of Pima county. It’s not our problem anymore,” Gunther said, sounding a hell of a lot relieved.
Cooper placed a cigar between his teeth and lit the end. “Well, I’m about to make it my problem. I’m going after them.”
“Sheriff, they could be miles and miles from here by now. You’d be breaking the law and no arrest would stick.”
Cooper listened patiently to Gunther rant about all the reasons why they shouldn’t pursue the gang. He was making perfect sense, but the image of Sophia at the hands of Crow turned his stomach and boiled his blood. To hell with it.
“Who said anything about an arrest? I plan on killing the son-of-a-bitch,” he said, reaching across his chest and plucking off his badge. “This god-damned piece of metal already cost me one woman. I’ll be damned if it’s going to cost me another,” he said, tossing the badge over to Gunther. “Crow thinks Sophia is his property. Well, I’m going to show him different. Go back to Tucson, Gunther, and take the law with you.”
Gunther expression fell as he dropped the badge in his shirt pocket. “Are you sure, sheriff?”
“It’s just Cooper,” he corrected, pointing his horse south and the mission.
Chapter Nine
Exhausted, bruised and burnt from the sun, Sophia had no choice but to move her body with the rhythm of the galloping horse. This was the second sunset the gang rode into after two days of riding hard in the unmerciful heat. Her ability to care and her will to live slipped away with every stride that took her further from Tucson.
Crow and the remaining Hellfire gang pushed the Apache horses they stole to the brink of death. There was nothing around for miles except rocks blackened by the sun, stretching out toward the horizon like an endless dark sea. Hallucinations plagued Sophia. Hallucinations of Cooper riding through a molten fire to save her with the orphan boy tucked in one arm.
“I can feel those Apaches following us,” Jorge called out. “I don’t see a damn thing, but I can feel it,” he repeated, his pitch rising to match his panic.
“Just keep going,” Crow insisted, his breath brushing her ear. Sophia rested her head against his shoulder, not having the strength to hold herself up. Crow mistakenly took it as submission, and because of it, eased his treatment of her by untying her hands and taking the gag out of her mouth. He even gave her the last of his fresh water from a canteen. She tried to drink, but her stomach hurt so badly, she couldn’t take much more than a swallow.
Now twilight, they stopped at a river that Jorge called the Great Gila. “The water is hot, but it’s good here,” he promised.
Crow helped her from the horse, but she dropped to her knees and started crawling her way toward the sound of water lapping against the shallow banks. She wasted no time splashing her face, the back of her neck and down her chest. The water was warm as Jorge said, but it still cooled and soothed her parched skin.
Crow was doing the same next to her until he lifted his head, his eyes wide. “Something is moving in the cattails,” he said in a hush. Sophia didn’t see or hear anything unusual, but she didn’t move.
“I hear it too. I can’t tell from where,” Jorge agreed.
“Be quiet!” Crow warned as his ga
ze frantically searched the area around them. The only movement came from dragonflies that skimmed the water’s surface. There wasn’t even a breeze to ruffle the surrounding foliage.
The gang stayed still as darkness began to swallow the waning light, Sophia could only think that the noise he heard was all in their heads.
“Those Apaches can blend into the surroundings, those sneaky bastards,” Jorge whispered. With tension stretched thin, an accidental snapping of a twig caused Crow to jump to his feet. “There’s nobody! Nothing is out there. We are losing our minds!” he cried out, kicking at the dirt.
Despite her condition, Sophia took some satisfaction in Crow’s frustration. Crow must have read it on her face. “Get up!” he ordered. “Get up!” he yelled again, kicking sand toward her.
Sophia stood, feeling unsteady as she did. Cooper’s gun was still safely tucked between her breasts, and for a flash she toyed with the idea on using it on herself just to finally end this misery and once and for all be out from under his control.
“Get on that horse. We won’t make camp here. We’ll head to those pile of rocks in the distance for cover. She turned to follow the direction in which he was pointing. The rocky outcrop was nothing but a dot on the blackening horizon.
“No,” she told him. “I’m too god-damned tired to move another inch,” she said, returning her gaze to Crow. A slap came out of nowhere and knocked her ass first into the water.
“Keep your hands off my woman!” Crow shouted. She was lost inside the splash she created, but when the water settled, she witnessed Crow and Jorge wrestling on the ground. She immediately stood to protect her gun from getting wet. But her breathing halted. If Jorge got the upper hand on Crow, it would be over, and she’d be next.
Jorge managed to stand over Crow, and her heart began ramming against her ribs. But then she noticed he was holding his sides as blood gushed out as fast at the current. Crow’s knife was buried clear up to its handle into Jorge’s side.
