Each Time We Love

by Shirlee Busbee

  Taking a mug of steaming black coffee from Bodene, Jason blew on it and said with commendable restraint, "He's right, you know—there are usually two sides to every story, and while Davalos may have painted himself innocent in this affair, the truth is far different."

  Savanna thought she would choke on the rage that consumed her at Adam's interference, and ignoring the way her heart had leaped when his hands had closed around her upper arms, she glanced coldly at the hands that still held her prisoner and snarled, "If you wouldn't mind? The time when you could treat me as you liked is long past."

  Adam's mouth tightened, but his hands dropped away. "Listen to what they have to say, Savanna," he urged . "Even you might find it illuminating."

  Before Savanna could reply, Bodene came up and shoved a mug into her hand. "Drink this, brat. And then sit down on that log over there and let them talk." He cocked an eyebrow at her. "You're not in the best position you know—after all, you did take part in Adam's kidnapping, and if they want to bring charges against you, I wonder how a judge would view the case."

  Bodene's words took the wind right out of Savanna's sails. The fact that she could face criminal charges had never occurred to her, and she was suddenly aware of her invidious situation. Staring at the black liquid in her tin mug, she wondered bleakly how everything had gone wrong and she sighed. She was so bloody tired. So weary of endless days of little food and the never-ending nights of sleeping rough on the ground; so exhausted from the fierce, unrelenting battle that Adam had aroused within her breast that all she wanted to do was crawl away and sleep until everything faded from memory.

  Becoming aware that she was the object of four different pairs of masculine eyes made her sit up straighter, her expression carefully blank. Taking a sip of the coffee, she muttered, "Go ahead. Tell your damn story."

  Jason shook his dark head. "No," he said evenly, "I think we should hear your story first."

  Savanna shrugged. It didn't matter to her. Nothing seemed to matter to her. Since she'd already told Bodene what had happened and why and how she had come to be here with Adam, the second telling was easier. Like the story that she had told her cousin, this rendering of it also left out any references to the emotional storm and incomprehensible attraction that existed between her and Adam. Painfully aware of Adam's presence, she again deleted the fateful stop at the forest pond. Her eyes fixed on some spot in the distance, she spoke in a flat tone of voice, giving no hint of what she might or might not have felt during that wild odyssey. She ended her tale with Bodene's appearance and the flight of the three of them from the Spanish.

  Jason looked thoughtful when she finished speaking, and a curious gleam appeared in his eyes, as he glanced at Adam. "Why did you take her with you when you escaped? Wouldn't it have been simpler to leave her behind?"

  Adam's mouth thinned. The look he sent Savanna was baffled and hostile. "Let's just say that she irritated the hell out of me and I felt that it was time that someone taught her a lesson."

  That seemed to satisfy Jason, although there was an odd quirk at the corners of his mouth as he turned back to Savanna. The quirk faded as he gazed at her and a frown marred his broad forehead. Davalos's daughter! Good God, but it was hard to comprehend.

  Jason had not thought of Davalos in years, but the enmity and hatred he felt for the man who had once been his friend was unabated, and all too clearly he could remember that terrible dawn when he had held his wife in his arms and watched as she had lost the baby she had carried; had watched the ground darken with her blood; had watched so helplessly and feared that she would die—and for it all, he had Davalos to thank. It was only later, when it was apparent that Catherine would live, that he had been further shattered to learn that during her terrible ordeal after Davalos had kidnapped her from Terre du Coeur, Davalos had also brutally raped her. There were some things that a man never forgot or forgave, and the murder of his unborn child and the rape of his wife certainly ranked high among them. Time might have dulled the pain and horror, but the scars were still there, deep and ugly in his heart, and Jason could not help the wave of antagonism that swept over him as he stared at the daughter of the man who had inflicted so much suffering on him and his family. His feelings were unfair, even he would admit that, but although he could admit that Savanna was an unusual and intriguing young woman, the fact that her father had been Bias Davalos made her as appealing to him as a twelve-foot timber rattlesnake. And there was the further damning fact that she had taken part in the abduction of Adam and had been, it would appear, as equally driven to find that lost Aztec gold as her father.

  A touch on his arm startled him and he glanced over at Blood Drinker. Blood Drinker's expression was understanding as he stared into Jason's eyes. For Jason's ears alone, Blood Drinker said softly, "It is hard, my brother, but do not condemn her for the sins of her father. She had nothing to do with those events that caused us such pain so many years ago. She was a mere infant when Davalos killed Nolan and stole the golden armband and began the terrible chain of events that linked us all together. We took our vengeance on Davalos—there is no need to punish her for what she cannot help."

  Jason took a deep breath. A faint smile curved his mouth. "As always, my friend, you are right, but it will not be easy for me to look at her and not remember what her father did to us."

  Blood Drinker nodded, the long black braids swaying slightly on his powerful chest. "But you will have to overcome it... there is Adam to consider now."

  Jason grimaced, well aware of what Blood Drinker alluded to. That his harum-scarum half brother was attracted to Savanna had not escaped him, and it created problems that he would rather not have faced. Why in hell, Jason wondered angrily as his gaze wandered between Adam and Savanna, couldn't Adam have chosen to lose his heart to someone other than the daughter of Bias Davalos? Good God! Catherine was going to be devastated when she learned of Adam's infatuation, and for that alone, Jason was already wishing that he had never laid eyes on Savanna O'Rourke.

  While Jason and Blood Drinker had been speaking quietly to each other, Bodene had been busy concocting breakfast for all of them. Having found a slab of smoked bacon amongst the supplies that Adam had pilfered from the Spanish, Bodene had sliced the entire hunk since it would not keep long and tossed it into a pan, and very soon the mouth-watering scent of frying bacon was wafting through the camp. It was eventually served with the ubiquitous corn-meal mush, but no one seemed to mind—the food disappearing shortly after it was dished out.

  Conversation was coolly polite at the beginning of the meal, everyone deciding privately that breakfast should be eaten in relative tranquility. Gradually the atmosphere lightened and soon Jason was skillfully asking questions about the cousins—how they came to be together and where they had lived as children. Expertly he gathered general information about them and their lives. Savanna and Bodene were careful what they said, but Jason and the others deducted more than enough to get a clear picture of the wretchedness of their early lives—unknowingly, the cousins revealed more by what they didn't say than by what they did say. It was only after their stomachs were full and the clutter from breakfast had been cleaned and repacked that Jason settled back against a scrubby oak tree and began to talk about his own relationship with Davalos.

  "My grandfather's plantation, Beauvais, adjoins Campo de Verde, did you know that?" Jason asked as he looked at Savanna.

  They were all scattered about the camp in various positions of relaxation, except for Blood Drinker, who stood half hidden in the thicket of trees behind Jason, his black eyes missing nothing as he scanned the horizon near and far. Savanna and Bodene were sitting side by side on the ground to the left of Jason, their backs resting against a fallen log; Adam was lounging across from his half brother, his broad shoulders, like Jason's, propped against the trunk of a tree. All of them, except Blood Drinker, were enjoying one last cup of coffee; while most of the initial hostility had been banished, there was an air of constraint about the group.r />
  Glancing up from her deep contemplation of the dark liquid in her cup, Savanna met Jason's gaze and shook her red-gold head. "No, I didn't. I knew some old man lived next door, but that's all."

  At her reference to "some old man," a smile crossed Jason's face. "Armand, my grandfather," he said, "will not be pleased to be called an old man. He celebrated his eighty-third birthday this past February and still exerts a vast charm for the ladies."

  Savanna shrugged. "Perhaps—but I have never met him, although it's possible that my mother has been introduced to him."

  "I doubt it," Bodene interjected dryly. "I'm afraid you'll find that this branch of O'Rourkes doesn't move in such exalted circles."

  Jason didn't argue the point. Taking a swallow of his coffee, he said, "Because of the location of my grandfather's plantation and the fact that I spent most of my youth with him, it was natural that I became intimate with his neighbor's son—Bias Davalos. We were close in age and in those days were consumed with many of the same pursuits." Jason smiled wryly. "Mostly horses, women and gaming. Our friendship might have continued unabated except for the fact that in the late 1790s, the indigo crop failed and the Davalos fortune was wiped out." Jason looked grim. "Bias took it hard and he was bitterly resentful that in a matter of months he had gone from being the heir to a large fortune to having to work for a living. The last of the ready cash of the family had been spent in procuring him his rank in the Spanish army." Jason sighed. "While another man would have gone on and put the past behind him, Bias couldn't seem to—he blamed everyone for his reversal of fortune and was particularly bitter against me and my family. We escaped the indigo crisis because we had switched to the growing of sugarcane a few years previously." Jason sighed again, staring off into space. "It was a difficult time for him, and I'm afraid that while I sympathized with him in the beginning, after a while I grew angry and irritated at his constant complaints about his financial predicament. Gradually we grew apart—a little because Bias could no longer afford the pursuits that were still available to me, but mostly because of his bitterness and resentment at the blow fate had dealt him. He became sullen and unpleasant and began to chase after quick, often unlawful schemes to regain the family's lost fortune."

  Jason was silent for a long time, his thoughts dwelling painfully on those events of long ago. Eventually he shook himself and said softly, "I had another friend, Philip Nolan. Nolan was my hero and my mentor, and Blood Drinker and I had many adventures with him. He was older and perhaps not any wiser than we, but he seemed a font of wisdom to me—I loved Nolan."

  Again Jason stared off into the distance, and it was obvious to Savanna that this conversation was painful to him in spite of the fact that he was speaking of events that were decades old. Jason took another swallow of his coffee and then in his compelling voice he wove a spell around the others, telling of that fateful trip to trade with the Comanches and of the hidden Aztec treasure they had accidentally found. In detail he described the twin gold-and-emerald armbands that they had discovered on the grisly remains of the last victim of the Aztecs' priests, the same armbands that he and Nolan had carried away with them when they had left the hidden valley and the treasure. Rolling up his sleeve, he showed them the gold-and-emerald band that adorned his own arm. Savanna stared at it mesmerized until Jason abruptly pulled down his sleeve and began to speak once more.

  Savanna couldn't help interrupting. Her eyes fixed on Jason, she asked huskily, "Why did you leave the treasure? Haven't you ever tried to go back for it?"

  Jason smiled. "We had only the horses we rode, and with a pack of Comanches intent upon lifting our scalps searching for us, I'm afraid that taking any treasure with us, beyond the armbands, was out of the question. As for returning for it..." He glanced across to Blood Drinker.

  A brooding expression on his darkly chiseled features, Blood Drinker said slowly, "It was an evil place, not a place that I or my blood brother wanted to find again. We had no need of the gold. Jason has always had a great fortune—what would he have done with more? My family is wealthy even by the white man's standards and my wants are simple. The gold of the Aztecs had no usefulness to me."

  Intently Savanna stared at Blood Drinker. "But could you find it again?"

  Blood Drinker nodded. "If I wished," he replied distantly.

  His own curiosity evident, Bodene asked, "Do you think that Nolan returned to it?"

  Jason shrugged. "I think he may have planned to." He glanced at Savanna. "Unfortunately, he met up with your father."

  There was an uncomfortable silence for a moment and then Jason continued his tale, his anguish revealed when he spoke of Nolan being led away in chains and shackles by Davalos, never to be seen again.

  The very fact that Nolan had disappeared while in Davalos's custody was damning, but Savanna knew that her father had killed Jason's friend; she had Jeremy's story of Davalos's dying words to shatter whatever doubts she might have wished to harbor about her father. Her mouth twisted bitterly. What a wonderful legacy Davalos had left her.

  But the story became even more horrifying and ugly as haltingly, Jason spoke of his wife, Catherine, and what had happened when Davalos, still intent upon finding the Aztec gold, had stumbled across her and taken her captive. Blood Drinker and Adam knew the terrible tale, and their faces were stony when Jason reached the point of Catherine's escape after suffering Davalos's rape and the subsequent loss of the child she had been carrying.

  There was utter silence in the camp when Jason stopped speaking and the atmosphere was dark and full of remembered pain. Savanna's tender heart bled for Jason and Catherine, and knowing what her father had done to them, she could almost forgive Adam's treatment of her. Certainly she never doubted that she had finally heard the truth—not some fanciful tale concocted by Micajah to sway her to his side. Ashamed and horrified that she had ever allowed herself to be part of the scheme that Micajah had proposed, she stared miserably at the bottom of her mug, wishing that there was something she could do or say that would make even the smallest amend for her actions. As for what her father had done...

  Tiredly Savanna realized that there was nothing that she could say to excuse or explain either her own rash actions or her father's far more brutal ones, and, her face revealing none of her inner torment, she met Jason's cool gaze. Her chin lifted slightly at the expression in his eyes. "It would seem that the Davalos family has sinned against you one more time," she said gravely.

  Jason nodded. "It would appear that way."

  His tone made Savanna writhe with guilt and she felt compelled to add something in her defense. "I have no real excuse... except that I believed in what I was doing—I believed that I had right and justice on my side—I believed that I was avenging my father's death and that I had a right to the gold."

  Remembering Catherine's distraught face at Terre du Coeur when he and Blood Drinker had left to search for the missing Adam, and his own fear that he would never see his half brother alive again, Jason appeared unmoved by her words. He merely snorted and said, "For your sake, I hope that a judge will look kindly on that feeble excuse. As for myself, the sooner I can turn you over to the authorities and wash my hands of you, the better I will feel."

  Adam had listened to this exchange silently, but at the mention of authorities, he stood up and stated forcibly, "She is not going to go before a judge." Looking grimly at Jason, he declared, "This episode ends right here. I do not intend to press any charges against her and I'll deny everything if you try to ride over the top of me."

  For a long minute the two men stared at each other, and seeing the fierce determination in Adam's blue eyes, Jason shrugged. "It's your decision and I won't argue with you—I only hope to hell you know what you're doing."

  Adam smiled crookedly. "I doubt that I do, but I think it would be simplest for all concerned if we let well enough alone." His smile faded and he added bluntly, "While Savanna may have taken part in Micajah's plan, she was as much his prisoner as I was. Certain
ly she's not had a pleasant time of it, and I see no reason to persecute her further."

  While Savanna was horrified at what her father had done to Jason and his wife and ashamed of her activities in furthering her father's terrible wrongs, after the way Adam had treated her, she was outraged at his daring to act as her champion. She wanted nothing from him. And despite her best intentions, that unruly tongue of hers got the better of her. Aquamarine eyes a stormy blue-green, she surged to her feet and snapped, "If there is one thing I don't need, it's your help. I want nothing from you, and that includes your mawkish support."

  Flashing a furious glance at Jason, she said hotly, "Take me before a judge—I'll be damned if I care."

  "But I'll care, and so will your mother," said Bodene quietly, entering the conversation once again. "And if you'll cool down and think about it, I'm sure you would rather not have this unpleasant little affair go any further. Nor do I think that you would enjoy the notoriety that would accompany your appearance in court."

  "He's right," Adam added with a mocking twist to his lips. "For once, why don't you shut that lovely mouth of yours and let us settle this thing peaceably."

  Savanna shot Adam a scalding look, but Bodene's mention of her mother knocked the fight right out of her. Hadn't it been to keep her mother safe from scandal that she had gone along so meekly with Micajah in the first place? And while Micajah's threat was still very real, she hadn't yet decided how she was going to deal with him, if he showed up again. Was she willing to subject Elizabeth to ugly speculation simply to defy Adam St. Clair? Savanna was hot-tempered, but she wasn't stupid, and with a defeated shrug of her slender shoulders, she turned away. "Do what you want," she muttered dully. "It makes little difference to me."

  Looking at Adam, Jason inquired dryly, "Having settled that little problem, what are we going to do about our friend Micajah?"