“I want to thank you, Cass, you’ve saved me from a bad fate. I will always be grateful for your help and concern,” he told her honestly.
She smiled and patted his arm, remembering their time together back in the canyon.
“You are quite welcome, Brent. Things may have ended badly in Leland Gulch, but seeing justice triumphing here is like the sun coming out after a dark storm.” She returned his honesty with her own, and he smiled. Glancing over, she saw Melinda approach Catalina. Catalina, being quite the cheerful one, smiled and introduced herself.
“We never got a good introduction with all the runnin’ around after Cassandra’s telegram got us here an hour before the robbery. Just enough time for her lay out plan, but little else,” she told the younger woman.
“It’s great to formally meet you, Miss Catalina,” Melinda said. “Thanks so much for saving me! You’re amazing with your guns and that whip. I’ve never shot a handgun before. Heck! That shotgun I fired earlier was the first time I ever picked up any type of gun!” she admitted. “Too bad it was empty when I needed it again.”
“Like I said…brave of you. Well, when you get some time, come on out to Cedar Ledge and I’ll give ya some lessons,” Catalina said, sharing a warm smile with Melinda, who smiled back with a nod at the sultry Mexican. Lijuan stepped up next to Catalina a second later, shaking her head.
“How in an area as vast as the Southwest do you always seem to find other like-minded women as yourself so quickly?” she asked, getting Catalina to chuckle with laughter behind her.
“There is no word for whatever sense Catalina has, but she has it in spades!” Honor said as she stood behind Lijuan, leaning on her shoulders and listening to Catalina’s familiar chuckle. Her sisters’ banter was like music to her ears and in a few short steps, Cassandra had joined her siblings with all the happiness of the world.
“Time to mount up, girls. I want to go home. I feel like it has been ages since I’ve been there,” she said.
It truly did feel that way. She missed her home and being surrounded by her sisters. She felt as if she missed all of it. She longed to be there with her sisters and the rest of the family. To soak in their special place in the hot springs behind Cedar Ledge and when secure in the place she loved the most to reflect on and remember with fondness Christopher Thorpe. As she mounted her horse, she saw the assistant warden come out and begin speaking to the sheriff with awed tones.
“Ah, Assistant Warden DeVries,” She heard the sheriff mutter, “you, sir, have quite a mess to clean up here, now that you are going to be the acting warden.”
“Yes, yes, I do.” Warden DeVries said distractedly as he stared at the women on horseback. “Who were those amazing women?” he asked.
“That’s right, you just moved here from back east, didn’t ya?” the sheriff said with a proud grin and a gaze that followed the Wilde sisters as they began to ride out of the prison. “People call them a lot of things. The Ladies of Cedar Ledge, The Wildes of the West. But mostly, folks just call them what they are.”
“The Daughters of Half Breed Haven!” Cassandra finally heard the sheriff say as she and her sisters galloped out of the prison, heading home to the grandeur that was Cedar Ledge.
A SNEAK PEAK AT THE JOURNAL ENTRY THAT OPENS OUR NEXT RELEASE
HALF BREED HAVEN WESTERN SHORT STORIES #2: DARK RIVALS
(A Lijuan Wilde adult western adventure)
From the journal of Lijuan Wilde 1873
“That bitch!” was racing through my mind as she locked the door behind her leaving me to die. Name calling however wasn’t going to save me. It was up to me. Cassandra always, always told us girls that there were options and I had to find mine and right quick.
Over on the table the fuse was burning down on those three sticks of dynamite and getting shorter by the second. I would already have been dead if Lettie hadn’t made the fuse extra-long just to torment me. That’s when my eyes went to the little window in the supply shack that was meant to be the place where I would get my ticket to heaven or hell depending on who you asked. There was no getting out of the tiny opening but that wasn’t what I had in mind. There was another way it could save me.
As I struggled to my feet with my hands tied behind me I was at least thankful the insane cowgirl hadn’t bound my feet or I wouldn’t have had a prayer. Making my way towards the dynamite I remember thinking Loco Lettie Bell was out to kill me all over...a man! Men grew on trees at ranches like these but I had “stolen” away HER man. I will admit he was a fine, fine man.
Dale was my type through and through, the blonde hair with the blue eyes that familiar look that I’ve loved so long. The type that made my toes curl up at the thought of the night before when his strong arms had lifted me up to his body. The sizzling sensation had started in the pit of my stomach and traveled down to my feet and all over my body. Everything that was me tingled at his every touch of my skin. Those strong arms of his couldn’t be compared to any other for a long stretch of wilderness in Arizona. And his flat, hardboard chest… I think I might have been addicted to Dale’s entire body. If only he could be…
Anyway, it is for that same body that Lettie had me trapped in a room with dynamite as her murder weapon. I guess I am not the only one who knew a fine specimen of a man when she saw one.
As fine a man as Dale was however...I sure as hell wasn’t going to die for him nor let that mad woman Lettie kill him in a jealous rage. The only thing that stood in my way was the fuse that was nearly at its end. I had less than a minute left to save myself or the next stop was either paradise or the fiery gates of hell!”
THIS AND OTHER BOOKS IN THE WILDES OF THE WEST SERIES
NOW AVAILABLE
THE WILDES OF THE WEST #1: THE DAUGHTERS OF HALF BREED HAVEN
HALF BREED HAVEN #2: IN DANGER’S SHADOW
(A Cassandra Wilde adult western adventure)
HALF BREED HAVEN #3: DARK RIVALS
(A Lijuan Wilde adult western adventure)
ALL CAN BE FOUND AT THIS LINK
https://www.amazon.com/A.M.-Van-Dorn/e/B077GNX3GP/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1
COMING SOON 2018
HALF BREED HAVEN: SILVER, GOLD, AND DECEPTION
(A Catalina Wilde adult western adventure)
HALF BREED HAVEN: THE FORBIDDEN RANCH
(An Honor Elizabeth Wilde adult western adventure)
HALF BREED HAVEN: SING THE DEATH SONG
(A Dutch Wilde & Bright Feather adult western adventure)
HALF BREED HAVEN: DISASTER AT DEVIL’S CANYON
(A Blue River Wilde adult western adventure)
AND
THE WILDES OF THE WEST #2: DANGER DOWN MEXICO WAY
AND REMEMBER YOU ARE INVITED TO JOIN THE CEDAR READERS GROUP
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AND THE BONUS ADVENTURE:
HALF BREED HAVEN: RENEGADES AND REVENGE
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Thank you for reading. If you feel like leaving a review to help the Wilde family adventures continue that is always appreciated.
A.M. Van Dorn
In Danger's Shadow: Cassandra Wilde Western Adventure (Half Breed Haven Book 2) Page 12
