The Bride Series (Omnibus Edition)

by Bittner, Rosanne

  Luke hung his head. “Please, God,” he prayed. “Don’t let her wake up.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Standing Horse and Gray Bear slithered down the rocky embankment to where Brand and Joshua waited in a thick cluster of scrub bushes. Joshua was astounded at how Brand and the two young Comanche had found their way to Hell’s Canyon. Darkness had fallen before they reached their destination, and the lay of the land approaching Hell’s Canyon was rocky and dangerous, full of crags and crevices. As they got closer, just before night fell, Brand and his two companions had come across the tracks of several horses. They had followed them over rocky areas where Joshua was sure no human could possibly track anything. But Brand and the two Comanche boys seemed to almost be sniffing out their prey.

  Joshua didn’t even know this place existed, for he had never dared stray this far north. This was Indian and outlaw country, but Brand Selby seemed to feel perfectly comfortable and confident wherever he was. It seemed ironic to Joshua that men he had considered his worst enemy were now helping him in his hour of need.

  Brand and the two Comanche boys spoke to each other in low whispers, using the Comanche tongue. Then Brand turned to Joshua. “Wait here,” he said quietly. “Gray Bear and Standing Horse say there are many men below. By the firelight they recognized Jason Brown. They know him. They saw one white woman, but she had dark hair. They couldn’t see a young white boy, or a white woman with light hair. But my bet is they’re both down there somewhere. Even if they aren’t, the fact that Jason is with them should be proof enough to you that he’s no good. By the light of a second fire they could see some horses and cattle—probably yours and whatever settlers they raided.”

  “What should we do?”

  “I’m going up to take a look myself. They’re sure to have some lookouts up there someplace. The ones on the other side of the canyon can’t do us much harm before we get through—most likely they’ll run off. Either way, we can’t get to them in time, but if there are any on this side, we can take care of them.”

  “But they’ll hear the gunshots.”

  “We’ll use our knives.”

  Joshua shivered, glad he was not the one this man and his Comanche friends were after.

  “You wait right here,” Brand told him. “I’ll try to see how many there are and we’ll try to get rid of a couple of them up here. Then we’ll move in closer. You hold the horses.” Brand reached out and squeezed Joshua’s shoulder before disappearing into the darkness.

  Joshua waited, his heart pounding. Were Rachael and Luke down there? How many men were there? It didn’t seem to matter to Brand, and that helped Joshua’s own courage. Brand seemed even more fierce when he borrowed war paint from Standing Horse and Gray Bear. All three of them had smeared the dyed clay across their cheeks, foreheads, and down their noses in black and red, and tonight Brand Selby was Running Wolf, the Comanche warrior.

  They had ridden all day and half the night to get here. Until now Joshua had not wanted to believe Jason could really have anything to do with outlaws, but he was here in this godforsaken place amid stolen horses and a captured white woman. That only meant Brand Selby had been right all along. Even Rachael had been right long before this. Joshua felt sick. He could only pray now that Rachael was alive and still untouched, and that Luke was down there, too.

  The next few minutes seemed like hours, until Brand and the Comanche boys returned. Joshua could almost smell death in their excited state.

  “We found two guards. They are dead,” Brand said matter-of-factly. “My own knife gladly tasted the blood of one of them when I pulled it across his throat. Standing Horse severed the spine of the other.” Brand told of the killings as though it was no more than cutting a blade of grass. He had not lost the Comanche way of boasting about his conquests. “Keemah,” he said to Joshua then, indicating he should follow.

  Josh crept up the slope to the top right behind Brand, then flattened himself, his eyes widening at the sight of Jason Brown below, sitting around a campfire and arguing about something.

  “Maybe you can bring her around,” someone was saying. “A few slow slices down the bottom of her feet might do it. Sure would wake me up.”

  They all laughed, and Joshua’s fists clenched. “Let’s get the bastards!” he whispered, starting to get up.

  Brand grabbed him and shoved him back down. “Wait! Let’s make sure everybody knows what he’s doing. I count eight men around the fire. There are sure to be a couple more guards on the other side of the canyon, and there are probably a couple of men in the shadows over by the stock, keeping watch on the herd. The one with his shirt off is all bandaged up—must have got wounded in one of the raids.”

  “Some look like Comanche,” Joshua whispered.

  “They’re Mexicans who let their hair grow so they can paint themselves up and make people think they’re Comanche when they raid. I don’t doubt they’re the same ones who raided your place, and I’ll bet both Luke and your herd are down there. There are four of us, so we each have to pick a man and get off good shots first round—make sure four go down right away. The rest are going to scatter as soon as we shoot, so the first shot means a lot—brings the numbers down to more even terms. And don’t kill Jason. Save him for me.”

  Joshua watched as Jason rose then. “You can’t kill him, Brand.”

  “I have to,” Brand whispered hoarsely. “He’s got to die, and die slowly.”

  “Use your head, Brand. I want him dead, too, but we should keep him alive so we can take him back to Austin and prove to everybody what he’s really been up to. Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted to do?”

  Brand watched the men below. “I don’t think I can let him live,” he said.

  “You have to, for Rachael’s sake! If you let him live, you’ll be showing the people in Austin that you aren’t the savage they say you are. If you cut Jason up, you’ll only verify what they think; and with him dead, they might not believe any of it. You’ve got to take him in alive, Brand. They’ll respect you more for it. We can both get our revenge when we watch him hang! Rescue the white woman and she can testify against him—tell everyone the truth about Jason Brown. I can tell what I saw, and so can Luke and Rachael, if they’re down there. Make him face the people, Brand. Make him pay publicly.”

  Brand sighed deeply, watching Jason climb into a wagon. “The wagon!” he whispered. “That’s where they’ve got her!” He turned and spoke to the Comanche boys in their own tongue, then turned to Joshua. “I’ll try not to kill him. We’d better move closer and pick our targets. Jason’s in that wagon with Rachael! Follow me!” He turned to the Comanche boys. “Keemah!”

  Below Rachael began to stir, something hurting her foot. She screamed out, the pain suddenly excruciating. Her eyes popped open, and by the light of a lantern inside the wagon she saw Jason Brown sitting near her feet. He looked at her with eager brown eyes, holding up a bloody knife.

  “Well, Jules was right,” he said, his voice gruff with delight. “A few pricks of the knife did wake you up. It’s about time.”

  She blinked and just stared at him a moment, trying to gather her thoughts. The last thing she remembered was Jules Webber slugging her while she struggled to keep him from throwing her into a wagon. Reality began to set in when Jason grasped her right ankle. She tried to pull it away, but his grip was too strong. She screamed as Jason held her foot tightly and ran the knife deep down the middle of the bottom of her foot. She began shaking with pain and horror as he came closer to her face, holding the bloody knife in front of her eyes, then moved it lightly between her breasts, leaving blood on her skin.

  “If you weren’t worth so much the way you are, I’d carve these pretty things off for tobacco pouches—while you’re fully conscious,” he said softly, grinning. He fondled her breasts and she grabbed the wrist of his knife hand with both her own hands and pushed upward. Jason only laughed, backhanding her with his free hand. He held her down by pressing his forearm against her
throat until she could not breathe. In moments she was forced to let go of him for lack of air. He threw the knife aside.

  “That’s better,” he sneered. “Now we’re going outside and show the other men just how pretty you are. The rest of these clothes come off, my little white squaw, for all the men to see the fine prize they will be taking to Mexico—after I’ve had my fill of you. That could take several hours!” He took his arm from her throat, and she gagged and gasped for breath.

  Jason bent closer, touching a breast. Rachael found her breath and scratched his eyes, making him cry out.

  “Coward! Brand Selby will kill you for this!” Rachael screamed.

  They fought as Jason jerked her up, and he hooked one arm through both her own, pulling hers behind her and squeezing her face painfully in the other hand, holding his face close to hers.

  “Brand Selby is dead!” he lied, grinning. “By now the good folks of Austin have hanged him.”

  She shook her head. “No,” she squeaked.

  “Oh yes, my sweet,” Jason answered, running his hand back down over her breasts. “Your half-breed lover is dead, and you, my lovely Rachael, are going to pay dearly for humiliating me like you did at that dance! There is no one to help you now, Rachael,” he sneered. “I am going to do all the things to you I’ve only dreamed of doing until now. And then I’ll turn you over to the rest of the men. You wanted to be a slut, so now you’ll be one. When they’re through with you you won’t be fit for any decent man.” He enjoyed the way she trembled, the terror in her eyes. “And then I am going to take the skin off the bottom of your pretty little feet. After all, you have to be punished for what you did to me. I would rather use my whip on you, but I decided against it. I don’t want to put scars on your pretty skin.”

  She could not stop the tears. “You…stinking coward,” she whimpered. “And you call yourself a man!” She sniffed and glared at him boldly. “Is this the only way you can get a woman, Jason Brown?” she sneered.

  His jaw flexed with rage, and he literally threw her to the back of the wagon, then kicked her off the gate so that she landed hard on the ground. The pain in her badly cut foot was close to unbearable, and through misty vision she could see several men looking at her, laughing at her. She struggled to find the sleeves of her dress so she could pull it back on and over her breasts, but someone hauled her up then, pulling her arms behind her.

  “Here you go, boys. Not a bad prize, is she? Didn’t I tell you?”

  There came hoots and whistles and dirty words, and Rachael felt faint from the pain in her foot for having to stand on it.

  “Hurry up, Jason, so we can have our turn,” someone spoke up.

  Joshua and Brand watched in horror from above. “My God, it is Rachael!” Joshua groaned.

  Brand cocked his rifle. “We’ve got to move fast. It’s now or never.”

  “But she might get hurt in the gunfire!”

  Brand slowly lowered his rifle. “We’ll draw their attention first, get Jason to let go of her.” He took a bow from around his shoulders, then pulled an arrow from a quiver on his back. He said something to Standing Horse and Gray Bear, then turned to Joshua. “Be ready. I’m taking the one closest to the fire. You take the bandaged one.” They all took aim. “Wait ’til my man goes down. They’ll be startled at first. I’m hoping Jason will let go of Rachael then.”

  Brand struggled to ignore Rachael’s screams and struggles as Jason jerked her head back and tried putting his mouth over one breast. Brand pulled back the bowstring and let the arrow fly. It whirred through the night air, and in an instant it landed in Wendel’s back. The man grunted and rose, standing awkwardly for a moment, then falling face forward into the campfire.

  “Jason!” Webber called out.

  Jason looked over at the suddenly quiet men to see Wendell lying in the fire, his flesh beginning to smoke.

  “What the hell—” He looked at Webber.

  “Selby?”

  “It couldn’t be! He’s nowhere around!”

  “Brand,” Rachael whispered at hearing someone mention his name. She struggled to clear her head as she moved her eyes to stare at the man with the arrow in his back. Now everyone was looking up at the canyon walls. Rachael had no idea if it was Brand up there, or Comanche Indians come to do in the outlaws and steal their loot.

  Everything happened in only seconds, but it seemed much longer than that. Jason was suddenly shoving Rachael aside, and the men were going for their guns.

  A shot rang out as Jason jumped into the wagon, and the bandaged man went down, then another man. Rachael scrambled under the wagon as Brand, Joshua, Gray Bear, and Standing Horse charged forward, letting out war whoops as they descended toward the rest of the astonished men. As the four other men around the campfire pulled guns and started firing into the darkness, Brand fired twice more, killing one of Lobo’s men and wounding Sam Greene in the leg. Greene began crawling on his belly toward his horse, but Gray Bear ran up to him, grasping him by the hair and slicing a knife across his throat. The Indian let out a yelp of victory before rising and running toward where the horses were kept.

  Joshua took aim at Dan, sending the man sprawling with a bullet in his lower right side. Standing Bear headed for the man with his knife. “No! No!” Joshua told him. “Save him! We need him!”

  Standing Bear looked at him curiously. Making sure the man was dead was to him the only right thing to do, and he wanted a scalp. But the white man kept waving him off, so he turned to help Gray Bear, who was shooting and Whooping around the horses.

  Brand raised his rifle and fired at a figure fleeing into the dark, and just then a bullet fired from inside the wagon slammed into Brand’s shoulder, sending him reeling sideways. He rolled under the wagon while Joshua ran behind a large rock to take cover from the light of the flames. The stench of burning flesh pierced his nostrils, as the first man Brand had killed still lay in the fire.

  Under the wagon Brand crawled to Rachael, who sat hugging the other white woman, both of them shivering and crying.

  “Brand!” Rachael squeaked, folding one arm over her breasts. “You’re hurt!”

  He grimaced with pain, grabbing her away from the other woman for a moment and hugging her tightly. “Rachael! My God, Rachael, I’m so sorry! So sorry!”

  “It’s all right,” she wept. “Oh, Brand, you’re alive! Jason said you were hanged!”

  Two more shots came from where the horses were kept, and Hank and one of Lobo’s men, who had been guarding the horses, went down under fire from Standing Horse and Gray Bear. Suddenly all was quiet.

  Brand held Rachael close for a moment. “Be very quiet,” he whispered. She watched in terror as he moved away from her, still grasping his rifle. Brand! He was alive, and he had come for her! Her heart swelled with love, and she turned to the other woman, hugging her close again.

  The woman cried quietly as Brand stayed on his knees under the wagon.

  In the distance Standing Horse sliced a piece of scalp from Hank, then hurried to where Luke was tied, cutting the boy’s ropes while Gray Bear took a scalp from the other man they had shot near the horses. Standing Horse motioned to Luke to stay put and be quiet. He pointed to the distance. “Joshua,” he said, using the name he had learned by now. “Brand.”

  Luke understood, his heart rushing with joy. Joshua! He was alive? It seemed impossible, for he had seen his brother knocked from his horse and dragged, an arrow in his side. What seemed more incredible was that Joshua was with Brand Selby. Standing Horse and Gray Bear moved off into the darkness and Luke crawled to Hank, feeling around for the man’s rifle. He finally found it and moved closer to the wagon where he could see the women crouched underneath.

  “Make yourself visible, Selby!” Jason was shouting from inside the wagon. “Come on, you bastard!” There was obvious terror in his voice. “Come on out from wherever you’re hiding and fight like a man!”

  Brand crawled to the front of the wagon, and Rachael watched in terror
as he just crouched there quietly. Suddenly he spoke.

  “Fight like a man?” he called back to Jason. “It didn’t take much of a man to terrorize and brutalize these two women under here! I wouldn’t be fighting a man, Jason. I’d be fighting a goddamn coward! You might as well come out of there, Jason. It’s all over. If you fight it, you’re a dead man.”

  “You sonuvabitch!” Jason screamed, sounding as though he was crying.

  Brand crawled back to Rachael. “Head out into the shadow behind the wagon,” he whispered. “Stay in the dark. Get out from under here!”

  Rachael pushed the other woman, and she struggled not to cry out from the pain in her foot as she scrambled out from under the wagon and limped into the darkness, while Jason Brown began shooting wildly through the bed of the wagon. Brand rolled out from under it and stood in the shadows.

  “Come on out, Jason! You don’t have a chance!”

  He could hear a sniffling sound inside. Jason Brown was crying from fear. Brand darted back to the side of the wagon, silent as the soft night air. Joshua watched from his hiding place and waited. Finally Jason began to emerge from the back of the wagon, sticking his hand out first and brandishing a gun. He began firing into the darkness. Brand stepped from around the corner of the wagon and slammed his rifle barrel upward against Jason’s wrist. The blow knocked the gun from Jason’s hand. Brand quickly reached up and grabbed the hand, yanking Jason out of the wagon and raking his arm across a nail, causing a deep cut.

  At the same moment the two guards who had been climbing down from above were running toward the scene. Gray Bear jumped up from behind a stack of wood and shot one of them down. Joshua came running from behind the boulder and took aim at the second man, putting a hole in the man’s right hip.

  Brand slammed Jason to the ground, but fear and desperation made Jason get right back up. He lunged into Brand, slamming him against the back of the wagon.

  “Brand!” Rachael screamed.