The Grandmaster's Legacy (HOT Historical Suspense, Box Set)

by Taylor Lee

  Tom and Wyatt were standing off to the side of the room. Looking over at Sarah and Ella, Tom said in a low voice. “Sorry about that, Wyatt. I will talk to both of them.”

  Wyatt took a drag off his cigarette, a wry smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “That’s a good idea, Tom. The sooner the better.”

  ~~~

  Later that day, as promised, Tom jumped all over Sarah and Ella. He didn’t pull any punches. He called them into his private office and told them to close the door and sit down.

  He put two pieces of paper on the desk in front of him.

  “In case you are wondering these are, they are one-way train tickets back to Washington. They have your names on them. They don’t have a date but are good for any time I want them to be. This is your only warning. If you do anything like what you did today, Sarah, you are no longer part of this campaign. Ella, the same thing goes for you. Do you understand?”

  Both women nodded, surprised and embarrassed. Tom continued.

  “This campaign is the most important one any of us will ever be involved in. I will not have it ruined by two women who can’t keep their legs together. Wyatt is my friend. He is the man I respect more than any other. He also is a man with large appetites. You pegged him correctly, Ella. One of those appetites is for women. But he is in love with a beautiful woman. He is creating a happy family for the first time since his wife died eight years ago. This campaign will be over in less than three months. We will all go back to Washington. Wyatt and Lei and their children will be here, together. This is not a game. Do you understand?”

  Again, both women nodded. Sarah looked angry and was silent. But Ella gave Tom a cheeky smirk. “Is Wyatt the only one who is off limits? Do we have to stay away from all those good looking cowboys with their tight asses and “guns” in their pants?”

  “I don’t care if you fuck the lamppost. Or that goddamn horse out front. Just stay away from Wyatt. Remember, you two set the tone for all the other women on our staff. You are the senior members of my staff—my personal representatives. You speak for me when I am not here. The young girls out there all look up to you. Do I care if you sleep around, or, if they do? I never have and I don’t now. As I said, the only person I care about is Wyatt. Stay away from him.”

  He turned to Sarah who was glaring at him, not trying to hide her anger.

  “Sarah, you haven’t said anything. You need to answer me. If you have a problem with anything I have said, it will be better for you to take this ticket and leave now.” He waited for her to respond.

  Sarah’s face was flushed, her voice harsh. “Listen, Tom. I am offended and angry by what you are saying. Yes, I will leave your precious poster boy alone. Apparently, he can’t be trusted to keep his prick in his pants without you protecting him from the big bad women who want to corrupt him. You might want to give his “woman” a little advice from someone who knows men like her hot-assed cowboy. If he has to be protected by the likes of you, Tom, that “woman” of his is in a precarious position. And, I have a feeling she knows it.”

  With that, Sarah got up and left the room, slamming the door behind her.

  ~~~

  Chief and Alono arrived later that evening and didn’t try to hide their surprise and concern when they met Tom’s personal staff. Chief was shocked when he saw all the women Tom had brought from Washington, in particular Sarah and several of the younger, blond, blued-eyed women.

  He pulled Tom aside. “You are playing with fire, Tom. May I presume you don’t know that? Or do you like living on the edge, and enjoy pulling the rest of us out there with you?”

  Tom was surprised by Chief’s anger. “I don’t understand.”

  Chief’s expression was hard, concerned. “You weren’t around before Deshi was born. I understand that. But you know that Lei left Wyatt because he was unfaithful to her. That fact continues to plague them, even today. The real issue they had to resolve between the two of them was Wyatt’s unwillingness to let go of Vivian. He has now done that. We both know he is deeply in love with Lei, as Vivian would have wanted him to be. To this day, Lei is particularly threatened by blond women. I hadn’t known until Wan mentioned the other day that, like Vivian, Lei’s mother has blond hair and blue eyes. In addition to giving Lei her extraordinary green eyes, that may explain some of Lei’s obsession with blonds. I don’t know. All I can tell you, Tom, is that if Lei walked in here right now, all hell would break loose.”

  Tom was relieved that the Chief had not seen Sarah’s brash display earlier. He was glad that he had laid down the law with both Ella and Sarah. He also felt a little like Sarah must have felt when he warned her. He couldn’t hide the defensive tone in his voice. “Look, Chief, I understand that Wyatt and Lei have unresolved issues. I will do what I can to enforce a level of professional behavior among the staff. Ultimately, Wyatt and Lei, and all of the people working for me, are adults. I am not a babysitter. I am the chair of this campaign. Not a member of the Temperance League. The person responsible for keeping Wyatt’s prick in his pants is Wyatt. Now, if you will excuse me, I need to get back to the work I was hired to do – elect the next governor of the State of Wyoming.”

  Chief understood and appreciated Tom’s angry response. That didn’t stop him from feeling uneasy, a feeling that would get stronger, not weaker, as the campaign progressed.

  ~~~

  Chapter 10

  Grant’s team was stunned by Wyatt’s professional campaign. It was unbelievable. In three weeks, there wasn’t a town or watering hole in Wyoming that Tom or his team hadn’t visited. Every saloon in the state had at least one poster of Wyatt in the window or on the door, more often, on both. Christ, even the churches had the fucking posters. The final straw for Grant came when he went to one of the high priced brothels in Cheyenne for a group fuck. Plastered throughout the pussy stalls were no fewer than seven posters of that goddamn half-breed in his black cowboy hat, grinning like the son of a bitch that he was.

  Grant called his team together for an emergency meeting. The Forrester campaign had planned from the beginning to run a negative campaign. They assumed that all they would have to do was let people know that Wyatt was an Indian shacking up with a Chink. They planned to play those cards closer to the end of the campaign, so Wyatt wouldn’t have time to undue the damage. Their plan was to stay low. Then ten days before the election, hit the state hard with slander sheets and pictures of Wyatt looking like the scariest fucking Indian you’d ever wanna see. That was to have been followed up by worse pictures of Lei. Finally they would start a whisper campaign about Wan’s connections to Wyatt, with pictures of the Chinese doing the violent things the Tongs were doing across the country.

  That plan was now dead. They had a one note campaign and they decided they needed to play it now and play it hard. Within days, fliers with a distinctly Indian-looking Wyatt started to appear. The cowboy hat had been replaced with a fierce looking war bonnet. Some of the posters even had him carrying a spear with a bow and arrow strapped on his back. The pictures would have been laughable, except that they worked. They conjured up an image of Indians that a lot of whites had, if not overtly, hidden away in some part of their subconscious.

  When Tom showed Wyatt the first picture, they both laughed. As they became more vicious and despicable, they no longer seemed humorous, at least to Tom, who was outraged by the overt bigotry.

  Wyatt was more sanguine. He sat with the planning team and looked over the fifteen or so fliers that were now showing up everywhere. As always, Chief was in the meeting, as was Alono.

  Chief shook his head, more in wonder, than dismay. “I wonder where they dug up these headdresses. Christ, I haven’t seen anything like these since I was a young man. Even then, they were only worn on special occasions by the highest ranking members of the tribe.”

  “I’ll bet Alono has never seen them at all, have you, Alono?” asked Wyatt.

  Alono shook his head no. The stern expression on his face indicated he didn’t see t
he humor that both Chief and Wyatt saw in the portrayals.

  He hesitated and then uncharacteristically spoke. “These are terrible, Wyatt. They make you look like a savage. If I was a white person, and I didn’t know you, they would make me afraid of you.”

  Tom agreed. “I think Alono’s right, Wyatt. These pictures are more dangerous than we have been thinking they are. To you and me, and Chief, they look ridiculous. But think about a farmer and his young wife out on a secluded farm in western Wyoming. They were taught to be afraid of Indians. The image of Indians they grew up with is exactly what you see on these fliers.”

  Wyatt nodded with a frown. “Hmm, you’re right. Thanks, Alono, for speaking up. We haven’t given Grant and his asshole friends enough credit. Hell, Tom, you and I know the fastest way to dig our grave is to underestimate the sons of bitches. We’re done doing that, as of this moment.

  “Tom we have planned for this. We didn’t expect it this soon, and, sure as hell, Grant hadn’t planned on using it this soon. We spooked them by getting out of the gate so quickly. If anything, this feels like a panicked response. In a crazy way, it plays to our advantage.”

  “You’re right, Wyatt. Don’t look surprised,” Tom said in response to the questioning looks from most of the people around the table. “This is what both Wyatt and I expected them to do. Remember team, we have an answer.”

  He looked over and pointed at Wyatt. “Our answer is him.”

  Tom smiled at the group. “Yeah, folks, our answer is Wyatt, the real Wyatt. Not this caricature of a wild Indian. Let’s go right to our strategy. For every picture like this, we need a picture of the real Wyatt – our poster. That’s step one. The next step is to reinforce our fliers with testimonies from our volunteers. Every one of these ugly pictures needs to come down. Moreover, it needs to be addressed by real people pointing out how ludicrous they are. Finally, we need to get Wyatt, the man, out across the state. Five minutes with him in person will make these pictures seem as ridiculous as they are.”

  The team pulled together and added more appearances to Wyatt’s already crowded schedule. They had him making fifteen appearances in seven days throughout the southeastern corner of Wyoming. It was the job of the planning team and the Caballeros assigned to the area, to be sure that there was as large a crowd as possible at each stop. Fortunately, Wyatt turned out to be as big a draw as Tom hoped. Tom also gauged the crowd response correctly.

  The format of Wyatt’s appearances remained the same throughout the campaign. Wyatt opened with a few remarks, then spent the rest of his time answering questions. His knowledge of the state and the issues they were facing was profound. Because he was a rancher, a horse breeder, a businessman, and the father of three young children, he could relate to just about anybody in the crowd. By the time each meeting was finished, everyone there had their own impression of Wyatt. None of them were of a wild Indian in a strange headdress carrying a spear.

  Tom wanted him to make an immediate one week swing through the central part of the state. Wyatt insisted that he have two days at home before he headed out to another full week of campaigning. It had been nearly two weeks since he was home and he missed the children terribly and was aching for Lei. This was the longest they had been apart since before they had Nicolas Deshi. He craved her presence. Not only her body, but her love.

  Wyatt discovered he liked campaigning. He was good at it. He genuinely liked meeting with the people around the state. These were his people. They cared about the things he cared about. He got to be who he was. The undercurrent of tension in the campaign headquarters was the only downside.

  ~~~

  After the seventh straight day of solid campaign stops, Wyatt and his men headed out to the ranch. Wyatt could hardly wait to see the children and Lei. He was troubled. The only way to resolve his unsettled feeling was to be with Lei. All the women in the campaign office were respectful to a fault. Tom obviously talked with them, and it worked. Even the brash Sarah had pulled back. But Wyatt felt guilty. It bothered him that Tom had to intervene. Christ, was he that bad? With a rueful frown, he admitted that in a way, he was.

  Wyatt had always been attracted to women, as they were to him. Since he had been with Lei, he had put up an impenetrable wall and stayed firmly behind it. It was clear, given the strain of the campaign, and the long hours the men and women were working together, there were going to be opportunities for everyone to stray. Wyatt had every intention of being faithful, but he was troubled. He knew Lei would be upset if she saw the women he was working with. Many of the Caballeros had already struck up relationships with various women in the headquarters. The pheromones were flying. It was unsettling, the only dark spot for Wyatt in an otherwise exciting campaign.

  ~~~

  Theresa said that Lei and the children were in the dojo and would be thrilled to see him.

  “Wyatt, everyone misses you, but Lei and the children are lost without you. Lei takes wonderful care of them and they are inseparable, but I never realized how much all four of them depend on you. Welcome home!”

  When he went in the dojo he stood in the doorway for a few minutes, watching them. Lei was working with Elena on a challenging aerial move. To his amazement, Elena was close to getting it. Alex and Nicolas Deshi were standing to the side as Lei pointed out each element of the aerial as she worked with Elena. Alex nodded. Even Nicolas Deshi seemed to understand. Wyatt knew Lei was an extraordinary teacher. Watching her with the children, patient, accomplished, and beautiful, the turmoil he had been feeling begin to melt. At that moment, Elena saw him across the room.

  “Daddy! Daddy’s here!”

  Alex and Nicolas Deshi both shrieked. All three children came running toward him. Elena and Alex got to him first, but Deshi wasn’t far behind. It was amazing that his little chubby legs could move that fast. Wyatt knelt down to catch their flying bodies and they all climbed up on him. Somehow, he managed to hold all three of them at once, as they laughed and talked and jumped up and down in excitement. Wyatt looked over their heads to Lei and knew that the look on her face was mirrored on his own. She looked like she was laughing and crying at the same time, but more than anything, was excited and relieved to see him. She came to him and he let go of the children. He held her as if he would never again let her go.

  The five of them spent the day together. After an hour of the children showing off in the dojo, they decided that they would go to the stream for a picnic. They went to the horse barn where Chief and Alono went when they returned with Wyatt. Wyatt and Chief gave Lei a quick update on the seven day campaign swing, while Alono helped the children saddle up their horses. While Wyatt, Chief, and Lei talked, Alono went to get Stealth for Lei while Eagle saddled up Master for Wyatt. Chief and Alono watched the five of them ride off together, exchanging a relieved look that said it all.

  ~~~

  That evening, Wyatt and Lei lay on the floor in front of the fireplace in their retreat room. They had made love for over two hours and were wrapped up in each other’s arms, exhausted for the moment. At first, they were frantic. They tore each other’s clothes off and reached a shrieking climax almost before he got inside of her. After several more trysts, they came together without attacking each other, although they both knew the urgency might hit one or the other at any moment.

  “God, honey, I’ve missed you so much. Not only this – your body – but I miss you! I love you, Lei. I don’t know how I am going to be able to be away from you like this for another two months.”

  She snuggled up close to him, holding him tightly. Like Wyatt, Lei was astonished at how much she missed him. She knew how much she loved him. In the past, she was afraid to acknowledge the depth of her feelings, afraid of how vulnerable she was to him, to his love. But she was past that point. She was passionately in love with Wyatt and she was sure for the first time that he felt the same way about her. It was a glorious feeling.

  ~~~

  The next night, they both were anxious. Knowing that he was leavi
ng early the next day and would be gone for at least a week, their past doubts hit them both.

  “Goddamn, Lei. This is going to be so fucking hard.” Wyatt grabbed her roughly and began kissing her harder than usual. It was as though he wanted to punish her for the fact that he would leave in the morning. She understood his fierceness. Even so, she was surprised when he left the room and returned with an angry look on his face. In his hands was a dildo.

  Lei looked up, a concerned frown marring her brow.

  “I don’t understand, Wyatt. What is that for?”

  “I want to see you use it on yourself. Here. Take it. Fuck yourself with it.”

  She gasped, “Why? Why would I want to do that? Why would I use that when you are standing three feet away from me?”

  He glared at her, his eyes hard. “Two reasons. First, because I told you to. Second, because while you do, I’m going to turn you over and fuck you up your ass.”

  Lei was shocked.

  “Wyatt, what’s wrong? Why are you angry with me?”

  He hesitated. “I’m not. Oh, hell, maybe I am. Christ, Lei, I just don’t want to leave you. I’ll be honest, honey. Every once in a while I think about some other guy fucking you and it drives me crazy. That will never happen! Do you understand that, Lei?”

  “Of course, I do, Wyatt. Why would I ever do that? My God, Wyatt. I have you! How could you ever think I want someone else?”

  “I don’t, honey, I don’t. Look, we both know what this is about. I don’t want to leave you tomorrow. We need to figure out a way to be together more than once every couple of weeks. Or I’ll be crazier than I already am.

  “As for the dildo, hell, I brought it for you kind of as a joke. You know, to keep you company when I’m gone.”