Prime Catch

by Ilona Fridl

  He leered at her. “See anything you like, injin lady?”

  Sarah found her voice. “Not anything I’m interested in. Have you no shame?”

  He took a step toward her. “You savin’ your whoring for Sheriff Amos?”

  She marched up to him and slapped him across his face. “I won’t take that from anyone. You stay away from me, or I'll defend myself and shoot the first body part I see.”

  He grabbed her arm. “Tough talk from a girl.”

  “Let go of me!” Her voice carried and got the desired effect.

  Amos dashed down the path and caught Max by the back of his shirt. “What in hell is going on here? Tunny!” he bellowed.

  Max let go of Sarah like a hot poker and quickly tried to put himself together. Tunny appeared on the path, wiping his face with a towel. “What is it, Darcy?”

  “Teach your goddamn deputy some manners, or I will have to string up his sorry carcass for bear bait!”

  Sarah had to stop herself from running into Amos’ protective arms. She didn’t want to appear weak in front of this jackass, but she was still shaking.

  Tunny took the back of Max’s collar from Amos and shoved his deputy toward camp. “Don’t worry, Amos, I will.”

  Amos put his arms around Sarah. “Are you all right?”

  She buried her face on his shoulder. “I should have Tunny arrest him for lewd behavior. Why do I always run into these types?”

  “Fortunately the staff in Juneau treats you with respect.”

  Sarah pulled back. “I think that’s because they respect you. I’m all right now. We’d better strike camp.”

  Walking back, she had to steel herself for the rest of the job. She and Amos took the point when they started out on the trail. Campfire was spotted across the valley, and they headed in that direction. The fugitives should be overtaken tomorrow, if all went well. The whole time she felt hostile eyes burning into her back, but Cartwright said and did nothing to her during the rest of the journey.

  After they’d eaten, Amos took her aside. “Usually, I wouldn’t do this, but I don’t trust Cartwright around you. You’re sleeping in my tent tonight, and I’ll sleep in yours.”

  Sarah mind reeled. “How would that help?”

  “We’ll switch after everyone has turned in. If he thinks about pulling anything, he won’t find you where you’re supposed to be.”

  Despite herself, she suppressed a giggle. “If he does try something, I’d love to see his face to find you there.”

  Amos smirked. “Remember, after they all go into their tents.”

  Sarah kept an eye out from behind her tent flap and watched as the men retreated to theirs. As soon as she saw the last one disappear, she made her move. Carrying her boots, she pussyfooted in stocking feet over the damp ground to Amos’ tent and crawled noiselessly through his tent flap. “You can go to mine now.” She couldn’t see him, but she could feel his warmth, and she got that tight-chested tingle.

  “The things I do to protect your sorry hide,” he whispered.

  She found his face and pasted a kiss on his lips. “I’m very grateful,” she murmured as she pulled back.

  He groaned and yanked her back into his arms. “You’re driving me crazy.” His voice was getting husky.

  “But my tent is―” She was cut off by a passionate kiss. She gave up and melted into his arms. The dark in the tent made the whole experience otherworldly. His hands stroked down her body and underneath her shirt, cupping her breasts while the nipples peaked under his grasp. Losing most of her conscious thought, she ached for more.

  “Sarah, you smell like the fresh woods.” He showered kisses down her neck and collarbone. Then he groaned as she undid the buttons of his shirt and felt the muscles ripple and become steel beneath her fingertips.

  Sarah writhed out of her Levis as Amos undid his. Her hand moved down his stomach and she grasped his shaft as he moved between her thighs. She wanted him with a fierceness she’d never felt before, but she bit her tongue to keep her moans low.

  Amos was stifling noises, himself. She guided him to her warm, slick opening, and he thrust in with a sharp intake of breath. He moved back and forth, slow at first, but gradually building speed. Without the visual, the sensations were all in the touch of his hands, his lips, and especially where they were joined.

  Finally, an intense orgasm engulfed her body, and her pelvic muscles pulsed around his shaft. Amos groaned into her neck as she felt the hot spasms of his release. He shuddered a couple of times, then lay bonelessly on her. She rubbed his back, and he shuddered again.

  “God, Sarah, that was good.” He rose and gave her a heartfelt kiss that set her to tingling again.

  The chill of the night air brushed her as he pulled back. “I must say you have incredible heating in your tent.”

  “I’d better get over to yours before I get too comfortable sleeping on top of you.” He got his clothes together and crept out of the tent.

  Sarah adjusted her garments, then happily snuggled down into the blanket that smelled like Amos.

  ****

  Slipping through the tent flap, Amos crawled onto Sarah’s blanket. Not long after, he heard a rustling outside. The tent flap slowly opened, and Amos held his breath. A form eased in beside him, then grabbed him. “Don’t scream, injin lady, or I’ll―huh?”

  Amos wrestled him over. “Cartwright? I thought you were going to try something stupid.” He bellowed out the tent, “Tunny!” He heard a quick shuffling from the other side of the camp and footfalls as he pulled the deputy out. “Put a leash on this dirtball deputy of yours, or he’s being tied to a tree for the buzzards!”

  Tunny shook Cartwright. “That’s it! You’re packing in the morning and starting back by yourself. You’re fired, Max! Turn in your badge in the morning!”

  “Fired? For trying to get―” He was cut short by the connection of Amos’ fist with his jaw.

  “Get out of my sight!” Amos yelled, as he rubbed his hand. “You’re lucky I don’t make a eunuch out of you!” He glanced around at the gathering. “Show’s over. Get back to your tents.”

  ****

  Amos awoke from the best sleep he’d had in a long time. As he stretched, his thoughts went back to Sarah, and he felt a strong twitch from his groin. Not a good time for thoughts like that. He made his way to the stream to clean up and met Sarah coming back.

  He grinned. “Good morning. Hope you slept well.”

  An impish smile appeared. “Yes, I did. The best was after the fight with Cartwright. You?”

  “Very well. You have a comfortable bedroll.”

  Others of the men were coming down, so they parted on that note. Amos cleaned up and packed his tent. Grabbing his binoculars, he climbed to a rise that looked out over the valley. A campfire several miles away caught his eye. Mahoney joined him. Amos handed him the binoculars. “Looks like we may catch up with them today.”

  Mahoney pointed. “They’ll probably try to cross that glacier. Skagway should be just a day’s trek after that.”

  Amos nodded. “We can take them before they hit Chilkoot.”

  The men started down to the campsite. Mahoney nudged him. “Good idea about you and Lakat switching tents last night.”

  Amos moved his hat forward. “I didn’t like the way Cartwright was harassing her. To keep her safe, we tried that. Luckily, he was caught going in where he wasn’t supposed to be.”

  “She must be a good deputy, for you to put up with this.”

  “She’s a good deputy and a good person. I’m beginning to understand, somewhat, the things women are hollering about these days.”

  Sarah greeted them as they came back and gave them each a steaming mug of coffee and a hard biscuit. My, she is beautiful in the morning.

  Amos and Mahoney briefed the rest as to where their quarry was. “I think we should keep noise to the minimum. Voices carry in this valley. We don’t want to tip them off,” Amos warned. Everyone checked their glacier spikes to make su
re their gear was in working order. They also had their guns at the ready. Amos set the pace, with Sarah beside him.

  For a few hours, all they heard was their footsteps. The edge of the glacier glistened in the morning sunlight, and Amos took a scan of the terrain. The fugitives were less than a mile in front of them. They paused to affix the spikes to their boots and put on their heavier jackets.

  Tunny spoke up. “You know we’ll be out in the open and lose the element of surprise.”

  Amos nodded. “We have to hope they don’t turn around. It would be nice to have the advantage of them. Maybe we could come upon them in a wide semicircle.” He pointed to the east. “Sarah, you take that side. Mahoney, you and Abner, then Tunny. I’ll take this end.”

  The cold of the glacier ice cut through their boots although the May sun warmed the air. The spikes made a scrunching sound, but that couldn’t be helped. Amos’ stomach clutched with nerves on edge. He glanced at Sarah in the distance and hoped they would get through this without too much of a fight. She glanced at him and gave a nod. She seemed to have more confidence.

  The breeze over the ice stung his face, but they were almost on top of the fugitives. Then the dogs ahead started barking, and their pursuit was discovered. The sheriffs and deputies had already shed their backpacks and gotten out their sidearms.

  Amos brandished his gun. “Stop! We’re taking you in!” A shot whistled over his head, and he dropped to the ice, firing back while the others scrambled ahead. The circle of the law swung around and trapped any exit the fugitives might have had.

  “Drop your weapons!” Tunny bellowed.

  The fugitives glanced around at the encircling law officers, who stood with guns trained. As the villains slowly lowered their weapons, sheriffs and deputies advanced. Sarah had circled to a point behind George when he suddenly whirled and fired at her feet, sending up a spray of ice. She stepped back, then wobbled and, with a cry, disappeared.

  “Sarah!” Amos yelled, the anguish clear in his voice. Mahoney fired and caught the rifle in George’s hand, skittering it over the terrain.

  Mahoney motioned to Amos. “We can take care of securing this lot, if you want to check on Lakat.”

  Amos hurried to the place he last saw Sarah, dread making holes in his insides.

  Chapter 19

  Sarah stood rigid, afraid to even breathe. She carefully assessed her situation. Her left shoulder was jammed in a fissure crack and her feet were precariously placed on a ledge next to a blue ravine she couldn’t see the bottom of. She carefully looked up. In her judgment, she was five feet from the top, with bits of ice raining down.

  She leaned to her left to keep herself from sliding farther. Her ears caught shouts and more gunfire from above, and she prayed things would turn out all right. Shivering from cold and shock, she knew she had to get out of there soon.

  She heard her name called and, without moving, glanced up to see Amos’ face peering at her from the top. “Amos, I’m down here. Help me!”

  For what seemed like hours, he disappeared, then showed up again with a rope. “Sarah, we looped the rope and are going to lower it to you. Tie the rope around your waist and under your arms, leaving it long enough to step into. When you’re ready, put your foot in the loop, then push off the ledge and swing out. We’ll haul you up.”

  Sarah shifted slightly to grab the rope, her foot threatening to slip. She leaned into the crack as far as she dared and snaked the rope around her waist and tied a hitch. Then she wound it under her arms and coiled it around her right wrist for a tight grip. “Amos, I’m ready, but I haven’t stepped in the loop yet.”

  The rope lost slack and she heard Amos say, “Do it! We won’t let you go.”

  She took a deep breath. Lifting one foot from the ledge, she felt her other foot slip. I’ll have to do this in one quick move. Sweat poured down her face and started to freeze. She moved the rope as close to her boot as she dared. Now! The toe of her boot slid into the loop, and she plunged sideways. A hot flash of pain went through the shoulder that had been jammed in the crack, but she held on. “I’m off the ledge. Get me out of here!” she managed to shout.

  Every tug of the rope brought a new agony of pain, but she kept pushing back from the face of the ice to help. She was almost to the top when she heard a groan from the rope. Looking up, a piece of it was frayed, and she watched as a couple of the threads snapped. “Amos, hurry! The rope’s about ready to break!”

  “Grab onto the rim when you get there!” She clawed at the lip of ice until she got a grip and swung herself onto the rim. The men heaved back one more time―and the rope broke. Sarah dug her spikes in to keep from sliding over the side as Amos crawled to her, extending his hand. “Hang on, I’ve got you!” He pulled her to where the ice was level.

  Sarah lay still a few moments, willing her body to stop trembling, before she groaned and rubbed her arm. “I injured my shoulder in the fall.”

  Amos carefully helped her to her feet and held her. He wordlessly stroked her back, and she realized he was trembling, too. “I almost lost you,” he whispered, and she noticed the tears on his cheeks.

  The thumbs of her gloves wiped his face and she cupped his jawline. “My hero.” She put her forehead to his, and they laughed and cried. She didn’t give a damn in hell who was watching or what they thought.

  Mahoney appeared beside them. “Miss Lakat, I was trained in first aid. Can I help?”

  She pulled back from Amos. “My shoulder. It was jammed in the fissure crack.”

  “Let’s go to my backpack. I’ve got my kit in there.” Amos guided her as they followed Mahoney. She noticed the other two men were guarding the prisoners, whose feet had been shackled together.

  Mahoney rummaged through the pack and brought out a hinged metal box, painted white with a red cross. He found a triangular linen cloth and shook out the folds. “Take off your jacket.”

  Amos helped her out of it, and Mahoney gently moved her shoulder, which made her cry out. “It’s really starting to hurt now.”

  Mahoney nodded. “Being wedged in the ice must have kept it from swelling. Amos, gather some of the loose ice in a handkerchief.” When Amos brought him the ice fragments he’d scraped together, Mahoney made a small ice pack, put it on her shoulder, and tied the linen around her arm and waist to keep it immobile. Amos slid the jacket over her good arm and draped it around her other side. Mahoney gave her two white tablets and his canteen. “Here’s some aspirin for the pain.”

  When they had made their way back to the others, Tunny spoke up to ask, “Shall we start hiking back to Gustavus?”

  Amos shook his head. “We’re less than a day’s walk to Haines. Let’s get off this glacier and camp over there in that clearing, then start out tomorrow.” They retrieved their packs, and Amos slung both Sarah’s bag and his own over his shoulders.

  After they ate, Amos and Sarah volunteered to take first watch. Sarah’s gun was handy in her holster, and Amos sat with a rifle across his knees. The campfire flickered light across the faces of the fugitives like the effect of a nickelodeon moving picture. George and his wife were a few feet away in their sleeping bags. He studied Sarah for a moment, then turned his head. “Sorry, Sarah.”

  Sarah snorted. “For anything in particular or everything in general?”

  He was silent for a moment. “I used you badly.”

  “Yes, you did. By the way, what did you do with your children?”

  He glanced at his wife. “They’re with her parents. They were going to bring them to us when we got to Canada.”

  Sarah nodded. “I see. Well, they’re better off where they are.”

  “That’s enough of the chit-chat,” Amos growled.

  She opened her mouth to say something, then shut it again. Her shoulder was aching again, so she took out two of the aspirin from the supply Mahoney had given her and washed them down with water from her canteen.

  Amos leaned toward her. “If you want to get some rest, I can do the watch
myself.”

  “No. I can do it.” The swell of love for this man almost overwhelmed her. She studied his face in the firelight―almost boyish, even with the mustache and scruffy beard. The dim light can take years off, she thought.

  Later, when Mahoney and Abner came to relieve them, Amos helped her to her tent. He kissed her forehead. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too. Goodnight.” She curled up in her bedroll for a few hours of blessed sleep.

  The next morning, Amos assisted her with taking down her tent and packing. He again carried both their backpacks as he guided her through the trail to Haines. The small military base came into view a few hours later.

  Portage Cove, home of the Chilkoot Docks, was besieged by sea birds, all screeching and diving in the gray mist. The travelers gathered at the liner ticket office in a weatherbeaten wooden building near the water. Amos set down the backpacks. “I should only need two others to help get these varmints to Juneau. I’ll let each of you know when the trial is finished, and you can barter between yourselves about who gets them next. You can send your people to Juneau and I’ll transfer them. Agreed?” Everyone did.

  Mahoney returned from the ticket office. “The next liner to Juneau is tomorrow morning at eight o’clock. Why don’t you take Miss Lakat to the doctor’s office in town while we’re waiting?”

  Amos glanced at Sarah, and she nodded. “All right. Could you pick up our passage?” At Mahoney’s nod, Amos gave him the fare for them and for the prisoners. “We’ll be back as soon as we can.”

  Walking up a rise to the main street, they found the doctor’s shingle. The office was up an outside stairway to a whitewashed wooden door that led into a small waiting room with a nurse at a reception desk. She looked up and smiled. “May I help you?”

  Amos released Sarah. “I’d like for the doctor to check Miss Lakat’s shoulder. She took a tumble into a glacial fissure and injured it.”