Texas Heat

by Holly Castillo

  But no matter how hard she fought it, she couldn’t defeat her overwhelming attraction to him. And it wasn’t just a physical attraction. She craved him on an emotional and mental level as well.

  She had learned so much in the last week. She had come to realize how impetuous her actions were and how they endangered the men. She couldn’t take back her actions, but she could make sure she did the right thing going forward. And her view of the Comanche was changing as well. The image of Stalking Wolf’s scalped head floated in her memories, and she cringed. She couldn’t support a group of people willing to torture a man in such a way.

  She flipped over on her back and stared at the light of the moon shining through a piece of fabric of the tent. What was taking Trevor so long?

  Finally deciding that she was going to go on a leisurely stroll through the camp to see if she could find him, she began to push herself up on her elbows, only to be slammed back down into the cot by a forceful hand over her mouth and nose.

  Instantly, panic set in and she began to claw at the hand. It was so strong she couldn’t breathe. Then, suddenly, a sweet smell met her nostrils as she tried to escape the clutches of whoever held her. But the more she fought, the weaker she felt. Until she could no longer fight or scratch. She succumbed to the darkness beckoning her.

  Trevor was hopeful. His men had been tracking the area and had discovered a set of footprints that had come down from one of the plateaus that had overlooked them as they entered the area for the bloody fight with the Indians. The footprints had led them for a long distance, then the man purposefully began covering his tracks by dragging a shrub behind him.

  Any suggestion of a trail for the wanted man ended near their camp, and Trevor’s heart began pounding harder. “He’s here among us again.” His eyes scanned the faces of the men around the campfire, ready to see the man that had haunted him since he had just been a boy. But he wasn’t to be found.

  Trevor turned to his rangers. “Scout the camp tonight. Watch for anything unusual. I don’t want this bastard to slip away again.”

  The rangers nodded and silently entered the camp, where most of the men were sleeping. It was well past midnight and the moon didn’t offer much help. Frustrated and disappointed, he went to his tent, eager to feel Serena in his arms again.

  But, when he entered the tent, he saw her wrapped in a blanket on the cot, obviously in a deep sleep. He wanted to wake her and kiss her and hold her, but she needed her rest. She was quickly becoming emotionally and physically drained, something that happened frequently to people that went out to war.

  He sighed heavily as he lay down. He had the fleeting thought that Serena’s cot looked odd before drifting off into his own dreams.

  Morning came far too soon. Streaks of sunlight were breaking through the sky and Trevor rolled onto his back with a groan. He ached all over and wanted nothing more than to sleep for a few days. But they had a job to do, and he would see to it that it was finished.

  Serena still hadn’t moved and he smiled, thinking of all the different ways he would like to wake her up. He approached the cot and slowly pulled back the blanket, not wanting to wake her immediately. But he had only pulled it back part way before he yanked it off entirely.

  Horse blankets had been bundled up and placed underneath the blanket to make it appear as if she was there sleeping. She hadn’t been there all night. Trevor’s heart hammered against his ribs. She wouldn’t have left them. Not on her own.

  He tossed through the horse blankets frantically, looking for anything, and then saw a piece of paper. Scrawled in horrible handwriting and poor grammar, the weight of the message sent him to his knees. She was a Comanche prisoner.

  Serena woke up with a pounding headache and what felt like chalk in her mouth. She desperately needed water. Squinting against the sun, she tried to sit up, but went back down quickly. She had been tied with her arms behind her and another rope connecting her bound hands to her bound feet.

  She wanted to scream in fear, but she had no idea who would hear her, or if anyone at all would. Trying to keep herself calm, she began to look around her, attempting to distinguish any type of landmark, any type of sign that would alert her to where she was.

  After several minutes, all she could discern was that she was on some kind of path. It appeared to be a horse path, because it was worn thoroughly, but it wasn’t wide enough to hold wagons. Surely, she would be discovered soon if it was a well-used path. The question was, who would discover her?

  She began to test her bonds and found them to be quite secure, though there was a little give. Straining still to see what was around her, she was ecstatic when she saw a rock sticking out barely above the surface of the ground. Wiggling her body, it took her nearly thirty minutes just to reach the rock and she was breathing heavy, sweat covering her.

  She positioned herself so that she could rub the rope that was keeping her arms and legs together against the rock’s sharpest edge, which, unfortunately, wasn’t very sharp. But she would take all of the help she could get.

  She was exhausted and dripping sweat when she felt the first pop of the rope breaking. With excitement she began rubbing even harder, and felt another pop. Nearly in tears from the exertion and the hope, she cried out in excitement when it finally gave and she was no longer held in the awkward position.

  Her muscles protested as she straightened out, and she moaned in pain as she tried to loop her hands under her, bringing them to the front so she could see the knot. Whoever had made it was damn good at tying knots, and she was going to have a hard time untying it. But she was going to give it all that she could.

  As she worked on the knot, her mind raced to understand who could have done this to her. Yes, there were men in the camp who didn’t approve of the way she felt towards the Comanche. But they wouldn’t go this far, especially knowing it would land them in serious trouble with Trevor. No, this was something different entirely.

  She was sweating so profusely that her hands were slipping on the knot. “Pull it together. Pull it together!” she said out loud to herself.

  She had finally gotten the knot partway undone, but realized her only hope of freeing her hands was to saw at the rope the same way she had done with the other. Gritting her teeth, she lined up her arms over the stone and began to saw away, blinking the sweat out of her eyes. She wasn’t going to be left out her to die. She was going to get back to Trevor.

  What was he thinking about it? What kinds of things were running through his mind? He wouldn’t think that she had run away from him, would he? No, he was aware of how much she wanted to be there. She just prayed he wouldn’t put himself in danger to try to find her.

  “She’s what?”

  “Gone. She’s gone. She was taken sometime last night while I was with my rangers.”

  “How could you not notice that she was gone when you came back to your tent?” Lorenzo demanded, a muscle in his jaw twitching.

  “Because they had packed her bed to make it look like she was sleeping there. Ah, hell, maybe I was so damned tired I didn’t look hard enough. I don’t know. But she’s gone, and we have to find her. That’s all that matters.” He had looked hard enough.

  He knew he had. Because he had wanted her in his arms more than ever the previous night.

  “Are you certain the Comanche have her?” Cade asked, far calmer than Lorenzo, at least, on the outside.

  Trevor handed him the note. “No. But I also know that a woman like her would fetch a fine price if a man wanted to sell her to the Comanche. We have to start looking for her. Every minute we stand here asking these questions, the further away she could be.”

  Cade nodded solemnly and handed the paper back to Trevor. “What do you need us to do?”

  “You’re still going to take orders from him? He just lost Serena! Serena could be hurt, could be tortured, could be—”

  “Just fine and swimming naked in another watering hole. Keep a cool head, Lorenzo. Flying off about this isn�
��t going to help us find Serena any faster.”

  Trevor gave Cade a nod of appreciation before telling them where he needed them to go and which men to take with them. Within minutes, they were breaking down camp, and Trevor’s bay stallion pranced eagerly beneath him, sensing his master’s anxiousness.

  He barked out orders to his men more harshly than he meant, but it was the best he could do. His mind was already racing with how far away they could have gotten in a fast night’s ride. And what scared him even more was that he never heard a sound from the tent. No fight, no scream, no sound. If he truly knew Serena the way he thought he did, she would have fought.

  His gut told him it wasn’t an Indian. His gut told him it was someone else—someone like the man who had murdered his father. And, if that was the case, the bastard could be long gone with Serena, or done exactly as Cade feared and sold her to the Comanche.

  As Trevor led his men out, his chest constricted. If anything happened to her, he’d never be able to forgive himself. There was something about her that had gotten under his skin, that had reached him in places he had long thought gone cold. She had made him feel, made him laugh... made him happy.

  They were going to find her, one way or another. Even if that meant he had to take on the entire damned Comanche tribes on his own.

  The sweat that ran down her arms mingled with the blood from where she had cut herself on the rock, and it burned painfully. But she barely noticed. The last and final string holding her hands together was about to pop. She sawed at her hands faster and faster and she gasped with relief when the line popped and her arms stretched free. Now it was only a matter of freeing her feet.

  She began to work on the knots rapidly, but between her blood and sweat, the rope kept slipping through her fingers. Suddenly she felt a vibration in the ground. She froze, pressing her hands to the ground to be certain, but there was no doubt. A large group of riders were coming her way, and at a rapid rate.

  She raced even faster to get her feet untied, moving the rope quickly, having figured out the knot finally. She was on the last loop and sliding her foot free when, the riders crested the small hill and her heart fell to her stomach. She was directly in the path of the Comanche, and they were coming at her fast. There was nowhere to hide.

  Squaring her shoulders, she turned to face them, prepared for them to run her down all together before they pulled their horses up short, stopping within inches from her and a lance was thrown with accurate precision, landing directly at her feet.

  She did her best to maintain her position and hold a strong stance. She wouldn’t get aggressive with them unless they got aggressive with her. If at all possible, she was going to talk her way free of them. She would not go willingly as a hostage.

  The chief was riding close to the front and approached her slowly as the warriors around him gripped their lances or guns, watching her closely. His eyes scanned the rope lying on the ground and then the blood running down her hands.

  “Why are you here?” he asked in his native language. “Where are your people?”

  “I was taken,” she replied in his language back to him. “There are men who are angry with me.”

  His face remained passive, not showing his reaction to her speaking in his language.

  She placed a fist over her heart and lowered her head as an act of humility. “I ask that I may go and seek fortitude with family.” She could feel her heart beating rapidly under her fist, could feel the rush of blood to her face, and was barely containing the tremors that threatened to overtake her body.

  The chief’s lips turned up slightly. “It appears your family doesn’t want you. Maybe you need a new family.” Serena swallowed hard, but what he said next made her clench her fists, ready for a fight. “Or maybe you don’t deserve a family and should die.”

  He watched her for several long minutes, and she didn’t move a muscle, not even to wipe away the sweat on her forehead. She couldn’t show any sign of weakness.

  Finally, he spoke. “Did you betray your people?”

  “I have committed no crime against my people,” she replied.

  “I did not ask about crimes. I asked if you betrayed your people. Have you?”

  Serena stood as tall as her small frame would allow, and some of the warriors chuckled at her, but after the dark look from the chief, they fell silent once again. “I have fought for the rights of the Comanche,” she answered, looking the chief directly in the eyes so he wouldn’t doubt her. “My people do not approve of my beliefs.”

  The chief shook his head at her. “Why would you fight for our rights? Why would you try to help us?”

  “Because I believe you deserve to keep your land. You deserve to keep your buffalo. You deserve to be left in peace. It is the right of every man, woman, or child... to live in peace.”

  “What if we don’t want your ‘peace’? What if our ‘peace’ comes from killing every white man, woman, or child?”

  Two warriors had slid off their horses and were slowly beginning to move closer to her. She watched them advance and braced herself. She had to either fight or die. And she wasn’t going to die. They were sauntering towards her, almost arrogantly and, from the look in their eyes, she knew they intended to do more than just capture her.

  “I humbly ask your permission to walk from here until I find my people. I seek justice against the one who did this to me.” Serena meant that with all her heart.

  She would find whoever had done this to her and put an end to him.

  “Who has taught you our language? I have never seen you before. Who has taught you our manner of approach?”

  Serena swallowed hard. Her answer was probably going to get her killed. But she had no other choice. “Talking Wolf.”

  A ripple of sound and movement went through the large company of Comanche. Yet, as always, the chief’s face remained passive. He watched her with knowing eyes, then made a slight gesture with his right hand.

  The warrior that was standing at his right side lunged forward, a fearsome growl coming from his lips. Serena quickly grabbed the spear that had been launched at her earlier and held it tightly. As he drew closer she lifted it up and swiped it downwards, cutting him deeply across the cheek and his chest.

  He danced away from her, light on his feet and touched his fingers to the blood on his cheek, and a smile curved his lips, a terrifying smile that told Serena she was probably going to die soon. She gripped the spear even tighter and knew it was up to her to stop him. No one was going to ride in and rescue her.

  She lunged at him and he dodged her, punching her hard in the side when he got close enough. She felt the pain, but she didn’t let him see it. They circled each other and Serena suddenly realized the pounding that she had thought was her heartbeat was actually coming from one of their drums. Their fight was providing entertainment.

  She gritted her teeth and found her movements began to move in unison to the drum. The warrior’s movements also matched the beat. Which made his moves predictable. He lunged at her again, and she attempted to move away from him, but she wasn’t fast enough. His fist struck her hard in the stomach and she doubled over, trying to regain her breath.

  He took advantage of her weakened state and brought his fists down hard on her back, sending her to her knees. But the fight in her wasn’t gone yet. She swung her leg out, tripping the Indian and he stumbled over her, trying to regain his balance.

  The chief made a motion with his left hand, and the other warrior began to move forward, his movements graceful and fluid. He danced around Serena, and she felt mesmerized by his actions. But suddenly he lunged. She dodged, but not fast enough and his fist struck her right in the stomach, knocking her breath from her again. They certainly knew the right place to strike a person.

  Fighting to regain her breath, she returned to her defensive stance, watching him closely. She made a lunge for him, extending the spear out further from her body, and was pleased when she saw the blood running down his chest, ev
en though it was just a shallow cut.

  He smiled at her, the same as his fellow warrior had, and a chill ran down her spine. She might be able to beat this one, but she couldn’t hold up much longer. How many warriors was he going to send at her?

  She saw an opening and took it, driving forward with the spear. But, to her horror and surprise, he caught the spear, and gripped it in his hands, blood running down his fingers, as he tried to pull it away from her.

  Using all of her strength, she yanked it free of his grip with a loud yell of determination. His hands were cut badly, but it didn’t seem to faze him. He had a crazed look in his eyes, one that was induced by more than just his anger. He had probably smoked something recently, something that made him believe he was invincible. And he very well might have been, in her eyes, at that moment.

  She dodged his next attack but failed to land a bow. But she wasn’t prepared for him to launch another attack so quickly, and he punched her hard in the ribs as he moved around her. She heard something crack, and pain shot through her body. But she wouldn’t give up.

  She charged the warrior, then went low, sliding underneath him as she stabbed the spear down his stomach, and as she went between his legs, she also sliced his testicles. She expected a terrified scream from him, but instead he fell to his side on the ground, his hands cupping his manhood.

  Serena almost felt sorry for him. He would never be able to bear children and, more than likely, would never be able to have sex again. A warrior was judged on his prowess among the squaws. More than likely they would leave him to bleed to death or be discovered by the militia.

  Which brought her mind back to the present. She needed to get back to Trevor. She needed his arms now more than ever. She turned to face the chief and noticed in disbelief there were two more warriors on the ground, watching her, waiting on her.