“Whatever, you’re the boss. I thought our mission was to rescue his sister, not be his mammy too, that’s something his father should have taken care of.”
Cole laughed. “You…somebody’s mammy?”
Colt stopped what he was doing and leaned on the side of his horse. His lips twitching, grinding his teeth, as Cole continued to put his own saddle on, not looking at Colt, as he continued. “You’d be the worst mammy, in the history of mammies. I’d never leave a child with you. You have no patience, you’re more aggressive than you need to be, and—ouch.” Cole rubbed out the pain from the side of his head, from the rock Colt tossed at him. “Huh, what’s that for?”
“I just thought I’d remind you what Dad used to say, when we were kids. If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. I was helping you realize, it’s your time to shut up.” He grinned and pumped his eyebrows.
“I hope you show the same level of appreciation when I return the favor.”
“I doubt that I will, but then again, I’m the one stuffed full of needless aggression. It can’t be helped.”
“Point taken, I’ll lay off. But I’m getting you back. It’s not okay to hit a man when he’s not looking.”
“It’s not okay for you to keep riding me as if I was your horse either.”
“I wasn’t riding you. I was teasing, it’s different.”
“To you maybe, but it riles me just the same. So you leave me alone, and I’ll do the same for you.”
“I’ll leave you alone when you’re rubbing the side of your head too.”
“What you griping for, at least I didn’t shoot you, which was what I wanted to do.”
“Back at ya.” Colt turned his fingers into the shape of a gun, and fired at Colt. Colt stared wide-eyed, grabbed his chest, and fell to the ground.
“You got me, you dirty rat. I knew it was coming, though, I never thought you’d be the one to pull the trigger.” Colt threw his legs in the air, and shook them out as if having a spasm, then slammed them to the ground. He slung his arms out, made a guttural sound, closed his eyes, and let his head droop to the side.
Cole burst out laughing. Colt opened one eye and grinned. He cocked a finger, and called his brother to him. Still laughing, Cole went to his side. “Don’t tell Ma, it was you who done me in. Say it was the Apaches, she’ll sleep better.”
Cole took his hand. “I will, don’t talk, save your strength.”
Colt beckoned his brother to come nearer. “I will, you just need to come a little closer.” As soon as Cole lowered his head, Colt got him in a headlock, and began to rub his knuckles in Cole’s hair and against his skull. Cole struggled to get him off. They were rolling around on the ground, laughing.
Breathless, Colt said, “Say you forgive me for the rock, and I’ll let you go.”
Cole struggled a little longer, then gave up, he was laughing too hard. He tapped Colt’s arm.
“All right I forgive you. Now let me go.”
Colt released him.
They sat side by side catching their breath, and wiping the tears of laughter from their eyes. It had been years since they’d fooled around like that. The childhood game they’d played had lifted Colt’s spirit. They didn’t know what they were heading into tomorrow. It was good to know he wasn’t going into a dangerous situation still mad at his brother for being rational.
He’d better get a handle on what was wrong with him, and soon. He couldn’t let this thing he had with Storm get the better of him. Had the situation been different, he’d be able to ignore Storm, and his strange ways. But they weren’t different, he was stuck with Storm, and all the weirdness that came with him. As well as the unsettling feelings that being around the strange little man evoked in him; most of them included violence.
Colt hated being lied to as well as having his time wasted, and he suspected Storm of committing both offenses. If Storm had a hand in what happened to Emma, their mission could be more dangerous than they first thought.
“I know what you’re thinking, Colt. Let’s not jump to conclusions. We’ll just keep a special eye on him, and see what happens.” Cole threw his arm over his brother’s shoulders and rocked Colt from side to side with him. He let Colt go and stood with him when they heard a sound near the trees.
“Here’s our guide now, let’s just follow his lead. It’s easier to catch prey when they don’t know they’re prey,” he said, close to Colt’s ear.
Colt smiled, and glanced over as Storm strode toward them. His face was clean but his eyes looked puffy. “Are you all right? You took off mighty fast earlier.” Colt kept the smile on his face as he waited and watched to see what the little liar would come out with next.
As expected, his excuse of having gut rot didn’t wash with him or Cole. Their eyes met over Storm’s head, and Cole nodded to him. Storm was on borrowed time.
Chapter 13
As they rode toward the next suitable campsite, Storm grew nervous. The brothers usually rode together, traveling side-by-side behind her or alongside her—but not tonight. They’d sandwiched her between the two of them, although allowing her to be a horse head in front. They were close enough on either side to grab her reins at will.
The journey to the new spot was made in silence. And Storm was aware of every sound that rustled, twitched, squawked, or pinged around them. Everything seemed amplified, including the thumping of her heart as well as their breathing. The horse’s hooves crunched loudly among the debris echoing back, as the ground shifted beneath them.
Storm noticed even Cole had been acting strange toward her. Ever since she’d got back to camp, and begun to help pack up.
Why, oh why, hadn’t she come up with a better lie than gut rot?
She felt hemmed in by their presence. It was as if both men were closing in on her, blanketing her with the sheer force of their will. When they’d mounted their horses, their faces were rigid—jaws set, their lips pursed in a grim line. And now she could feel their eyes piercing through the back of her, shaking her resolve.
She felt herself slipping, as if she carried the weight of the world on her shoulders. Her shoulders drooped, and she slouched on her horse. She no longer had their trust, and she knew it. What she didn’t know was why it should matter to her. Tomorrow they’d have Emma. The desire to tell them the truth now burned through her. Why couldn’t she? She wanted to.
But it would mean betraying her sister, and she couldn’t do that. She had no intention of helping Emma extort money from their father to pay Red-Ken either. If she wanted to reward that scoundrel for abducting her, so be it. Storm wanted no part in it.
All she had to do was hang tight for tonight, tomorrow was another day. Soon Cole and Colt would know the truth. Then they could stop giving her the stink eye, and she’d be free of this burden.
Emma had said she needed the marshals, and she wouldn’t come back to the ranch until she’d seen and spoken with them. And if Storm revealed Emma was complicit in her own abduction, Emma would be jailed alongside Red. Storm had to allow Emma time to explain and clear her name and Red’s.
Storm had no idea how Emma planned to do this, and didn’t really want to think about it either. She had her own troubles. She still had the problem with Red-Ken knowing her true identity. If Emma couldn’t persuade him not to reveal her secret, she was lost. Then again, maybe it was for the best. Whatever her father had planned for her, had to be better than what had been happening since she’d hit that age of becoming a proper woman.
Walking in the sun as a woman would be a dream come true—even if her father did marry her off to a complete stranger, and send her away. Maybe she’d be lucky, and be given to a man she could love, and who would love her in return.
Storm wished Emma would understand their lives were different. She didn’t have her sister’s privileges. Although Emma thought she was taking a stand on Storm’s behalf, as well as all the people her father had wronged, Storm didn’t see it that way. She would never see thin
gs the same way as Emma.
She’d grown up knowing what she was, even if she didn’t know who she was. It was what it was. The way of the world she’d been born into, she was Indian, and that’s how she’d be perceived by others. No stand Emma took against the tyranny of their father was ever going to change that.
The war in the south was about freeing people, but would those people really be free?
Emma needed to wake up and stop playing the martyr. She wasn’t helping anyone. The only person benefiting from Emma’s actions would be Emma. Her irrational need for justice would backfire on them all, leaving Storm hanging in the cold. She’d tried to get Emma to see this earlier to no avail.
“How much farther now? The light will soon be gone,” Cole’s voice broke through her thoughts.
She gazed over her shoulder at him. He smiled but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Not much farther, we’ll make camp by the oak trees at the foot of the mountain. There’s a ridge nearby where we can lead the horses for as far as they can go. Then head the rest of the way on foot.”
“When we get there, I think it’s best if we stay together,” Colt said.
“I agree,” Storm said, “we have enough food, and this should all be over by noon tomorrow. When we get settled, maybe Colt will help me collect wood for the fire.” She smiled at the puzzled looked that passed between the brothers and righted herself on her horse.
“We’re going to need warmer clothes, I can feel the temperature changing already,” Colt said.
“There’s a tribe close by, I saw the signs when I came this way earlier. I can go there and negotiate a trade for extra clothing. What do you have we can use for trade?”
“Nothing,” the brothers said in unison.
“No matter, I’ll go hunting tonight, and bring them food. We can use that.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“That will be fine, but when we get there, let me do all the talking. I have no idea how the tribe will react to seeing a white man.”
“Maybe we should all go,” Cole said, a concerned expression on his face.
“No, I think I can only take one of you. Based solely on your temperament I believe it would be better if Cole came with me.”
“What’s that’s supposed to mean?”
“It means there is something softer, more attractive in Cole that is missing in you. With Cole at my side, I don’t see us having any problems. I can’t be that certain, if I took you.”
“I’m not sure I like what you’re implying.”
“You don’t have to like it, it’s a fact. Cole’s spiritual presence is more welcoming than yours. I feel it, and the tribe will notice it too. Therefore, it is safer for all of us if you stay here.”
They had reached the camping spot Storm had earmarked when she’d left Emma. She stopped and dismounted from her horse. “We rest here. I’ll get a fire started, then on our return, Cole, you will come with me. I will set a few traps and collect what we catch on the way. I hope it will be enough.”
As Colt and Storm set off into the forest, he told her when she came out there with Cole not to mention anything about lions and bears.
“Why?”
“Trust me, it’s safer for you, and everyone else if you just do what I say—and don’t mention it.”
“All right.”
They gathered the wood, and set the traps before heading back to camp. When they got there, it seemed Cole had collected his own firewood, and was practically sitting in the roaring flames, with his gun cocked. He holstered his weapon when he saw them returning.
“Were you cold?” Storm asked.
“No, I thought I heard growling.”
Storm gazed at Colt, and the side of his mouth curved into a lopsided grin, with a quick pump of his brow.
“Okay, we’ll eat, then go and see what we’ve caught in the traps.”
Storm and Cole left shortly after they’d eaten. Although there was a moon, the thickness of the trees didn’t allow for much light. Storm tied a rope to herself and Cole, then used it to lead their way to the Indian village.
The trade was successful, but they didn’t get as much as Storm would have liked. They were given extra blankets, and not much else. She would have to find a way to convert it into warm clothing.
On their return, Colt sat by the fire wrapped in one of his blankets. She also noticed he’d shifted their sleeping arrangements. The packs were laid side by side with no gaps. He caught Storm’s gaze.
“I put our sleeping things together. I thought as the nights are getting colder, it would be better for us if we huddled together—with you in the middle.”
She saw the brothers share a look and sighed inwardly.
“Fine, I’m tired. We have an early start.” She strode over to the laid-out blankets, and climbed into the middle, wrapping one of the newly acquired blankets around herself, laid her head on her saddle blanket, and closed her eyes.
Chapter 14
The medicine she’d left boiling for Red-Ken was on the stove. He was in the living area soaking his foot in the water Emma collected from the hot spring out back. She was now out front chopping wood and feeling guilty for the position she’d put Storm in. Sometimes she wished she’d never gone with Red. It had felt like fun at the time, and she’d only planned to stay with him for a little while, find out what he wanted, make her escape, and then report him.
Things began to turn on their head when Red spoke of her mother, a subject forbidden in her household. She knew nothing of the woman who gave her life, other than she’d been told by a few of her father’s acquaintances that she bore a slight resemblance to her, and had her mother’s striking red mane. Ken had filled some of the gaps for her, and she was addicted to his tales, wanting to know all she could before having to return home. A place dedicated to the memory of a woman she’d known nothing about, until now.
She could pretend all she wanted that Red-Ken knowing Storm’s secret made her reluctant to leave. But if she was being honest with herself, this knowledge had merely added to her desire to stay. It had only been a small part of the reason she’d chosen to continue her journey with Red. She’d been hungry for more information about her mother.
But to what cost? Now she’d put Storm at risk of discovery. She had to fix the damage she’d done. The only way she could see how, was by using the marshals. But how could she convince those law men she hadn’t been abducted—but had gone with Red-Ken willingly. That it was all one big misunderstanding?
Emma shook her head. If she couldn’t convince herself, how was she going to convince anybody else? She’d been foolish in her quest for the truth, and knew why her plan could never work. She’d be asking US Marshals to break the law. Somehow, she couldn’t see in what universe the scenario she’d sketched out in her mind would work in her favor.
If she thought deep and hard enough, she’d have to admit her motives had been selfish.
The air was crisp and clean this high up on the mountain. She paused from chopping the wood to gaze out over the wilderness. Different shades of green contrasted beautifully against the blue and gray backdrop where sky and mountains collided. The pointed peaks of the ponderosa pine trees stood tall and proud as they peeked over the curvier branches of the oak trees mingled between. The smell of the pine cones floated in the cool breeze around her. It was as if she witnessed the whole thing from heaven’s gate. She sighed.
Storm was out there somewhere, alone with two US Marshals. She said they were keeping a close eye on her, but she looked scared. A rare predicament for Storm. Emma hadn’t seen Storm this rattled and streaky since they were children. She’d almost been tempted to leave with Storm there and then, but she couldn’t. Her father had long since been due a day of reckoning, and Emma decided she’d be the one to bring him to his knees. He had to learn he couldn’t use people for his own personal gain.
But wasn’t she doing the same? Storm hadn’t asked for any of this, regardless of whether Emma felt her action
s justified. Storm would be the one to pay if her plans backfired. Could she really stand there chopping wood, believing she was any better than her father? At least he’d been honest in his cruelty. She was hiding behind Storm’s pain in order to mask her own.
Red told the story of her mother’s abduction, and how her father hadn’t bothered to look for her himself. Instead he’d sent Ken, promising a monetary reward, knowing Ken would have done it for free. He counted on the other man’s love for his wife to cheat him out of the promised reward.
It was Red-Ken who suffered the loss, and the guilt of not reaching her mother in time to save her life, not him. By commissioning Ken, her father could shed all guilt of the failed rescue attempt. He blamed Ken, knowing had he set off after her the moment she was taken, he could have saved her. As far as Emma was concerned, the delay in waiting two days for Red-Ken to arrive had cost her mother dearly.
Now she knew why her father had been obsessed with her protection. His conscience wouldn’t let him forget what he’d done, or should she say, didn’t do? Emma knew it was wrong, but she reveled in the thought he might be suffering from her absence. She was only sorry Storm had to suffer alongside him. Her father loved her, of that she had no doubt, her survival training proved it. She was the only female she knew other than Storm, so equipped to look out for themselves in the wild, and she would use that love against him.
The sun rose high overhead. It was almost noon. Storm would be here soon. She’d told Emma in no uncertain terms, if she didn’t return with her to the marshals, she’d bring them to her. She was done playing Emma’s games. And who could blame her? Emma had gone too far. How was Storm to know her true intent if she hadn’t shared it with her? If she’d only found the words to say this was for her mother, Storm would have understood. Even if she didn’t like what Emma was proposing, she’d have stuck by her, even at the risk of exposure. Instead, she let Storm believe she chose to do this for Storm’s protection, knowing full well Storm would sooner risk disclosure than see the two people she loved most hurt.
Wild Storm (The Unbridled Series Book 2) Page 6
