Apache-Colton Series

by Janis Reams Hudson

  A violent, icy shudder tore through her. Think. Think, she ordered herself.

  The gun in his hand held only two shots. He had fired one in the shack when he and Matt had fought. Unless he had found more ammunition somewhere in the vast desert, Caleb had only one bullet left.

  Why the hell had she left her Colt and Winchester in camp?

  Stupid. And a potentially deadly mistake on her part.

  “Come on over here, little sister,” Caleb called. “Come watch me kill your brother.”

  Shaking like she’d never shaken before, Serena stepped cautiously closer. Her goal was her holster Matt had tossed onto the blankets laid out next to the fire. She had to pass it to get near Caleb. Would he notice?

  “I wouldn’t try for the gun, sis. I can’t possibly miss him at this range, now, can I?”

  “You can’t possibly expect me not to kill you if you pull that trigger,” she warned him. And she meant it.

  “Won’t matter much to me if you do,” he said casually. “I came here to kill Matt Colton. That’s all that matters now.”

  “You’re willing to die to do it?”

  Caleb shrugged. “If that’s what it takes.”

  “Get out of here, Rena,” Matt said harshly.

  “Ah, hell, Colton, I want her to watch.”

  This couldn’t be happening. It had to be a nightmare. She would wake and Matt would hold her and it would all disappear. Yet the coppery taste of terror in her mouth told her she was wrong. This was real. Too real.

  Stalling for time, desperate to keep from diving for her Colt too soon, Serena took another cautious step in that direction. “How did you find us? For that matter, how did you live through that fire?”

  Caleb’s laughter sent a chill down her spine.

  “Finding you was easy, once I thought about it. Colton’s friends led me straight here.”

  Serena sidled a few inches closer to the bedroll. “His friends?”

  Caleb shook his head at Matt in mock chagrin. “You and your bears. All I had to do was follow their tracks. You wouldn’t want to tell me how they always know where to find you, would you? Before I kill you, I mean.”

  Serena saw Matt’s jaw bunch. She prayed he would stand still and silent until she could help. If he made a move on his own, he’d be dead. “What about the fire in the shack?” she said to forestall anything Matt might say. “How did you survive?”

  For the first time, Caleb turned his head toward her. “Who says I survived?”

  Serena couldn’t hold back her gasp of horror.

  “Pretty sight, huh, sis?”

  Her stomach lurched. Nearly half his face was…gone. The raw red scar that replaced it started at the top of his head, where the hair used to grow. It covered the whole side of his face and head, melting his features, eye, cheek, ear, everything, into a blob not recognizable as human flesh. The hideous scar disappeared beneath the neck of his shirt. Remembering the way the flames had engulfed him, Serena knew it must also cover his chest, back, and arm. “My God,” she whispered.

  “Yeah. My God,” he echoed. “So you see, you kill me and you’ll just be doing me a favor. But first I’m going to do what I came to this goddamn territory to do.”

  Matt waited, every nerve screaming at him to move. Each muscle strained to hold him still. If he moved, he was dead. No two ways about it.

  Damn it, why the hell hadn’t Rena run when he told her to?

  And why the hell hadn’t he checked that damn crevice where the cat tracks had led him? That one oversight looked like it was going to cost him his life.

  Bitterness burned the back of his throat. His mouth went dry while sweat soaked his back. Was this it, then? Was he to die here at the hands of this madman? And Caleb was mad. It was plain in his one remaining eye.

  Matt wasn’t ready to die. Not now. Not when he’d only begun to live again.

  His only consolation was that this time, the woman he loved would not pay for loving him with her life. He knew Serena. The instant Caleb pulled the trigger, she would grab for her Colt and kill the bastard.

  Matt didn’t want her to have to live with that. Didn’t want her to blame herself for the rest of her life for not being able to save him.

  And he didn’t, by God, want to die. So he waited, and watched for an opening. When it came, he nearly missed it.

  “No,” Serena said thoughtfully. “I don’t think I’ll kill you after all.”

  Caleb shifted, but kept the damn derringer pressed between Matt’s eyes.

  “I think I’ll just wing you,” she said seriously. “My Uncle Naiche—he’s Cochise’s son, did I tell you that? He’s only a day’s ride behind us, with Geronimo. If you kill Matt, he’ll want to get his hands on you. Then there’s Matt’s best friend, Chee. He’s with Naiche and Geronimo. You did know that over three hundred Apaches broke out of the reservation, didn’t you?”

  Matt couldn’t miss the sheer terror in Caleb’s eye. The man shifted his grip on the derringer and jerked his horrified gaze to Serena.

  When he did, Matt flung an arm up and knocked the two-shot pistol aside.

  Caleb cried out in shock. He stumbled for an instant, then swung the gun back toward Matt’s head.

  Serena dove for her pistol.

  Matt reached for his at his hip.

  Together, they fired, their two shots sounding as one.

  The impact of two .45 slugs knocked Caleb back three feet before he fell to the dirt. One lone tear trailed from his startled eye. He gave a grunt of pain, then smiled. And died.

  Before Matt could holster his gun and hold out his arms, Serena flung herself at his chest. He couldn’t tell which of them shook the hardest. It had been close. Too damn close.

  Or so he thought, until later, after he’d buried Caleb and retrieved the derringer.

  Both chambers in the little pistol were empty.

  Caleb Scott hadn’t come to kill. He had come to die.

  Matt would have to think about it awhile before deciding whether or not to tell Rena. Right now, all he wanted to do was hold her. So he did. Hard and tight, all night long.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  As the sun dropped behind the mountains the next day, Matt and Serena bypassed Tucson. “If you don’t mind riding after dark, we could be home in another couple of hours,” he said.

  Serena gave him a look from the corner of her eye. “Home?”

  “Yep.”

  “With real food?”

  His lips twitched. “Yep.”

  “With a real bed?”

  He grinned. “Yep.”

  “And all those people?”

  He frowned and looked at her. “You’re not worried about that, are you? About what kind of reception we’ll get?”

  Serena shook her head. “No,” she replied honestly. Whatever came, she could handle it. She gave him a slow smile. “Not worried. Just selfish.”

  The smile she expected didn’t come. There was something in his eyes…

  They made camp two hours shy of home. Bonehead, however, had other plans. With a snort, a bawl, and a shake of his long horns, he trotted off over the rise in search of his fellow bovines.

  Matt and Serena ate the last of the jerky they had each carried from home, along with the last of Nod-ah-Sti’s ash cakes. There would be enough coffee, but nothing else, left for breakfast. As close as they were to home, it didn’t matter.

  All evening Matt tried to search Rena’s eyes. Was she worried about his dad and Pace’s reaction to the news of their marriage? How could she not be worried? Matt hadn’t told her about Travis’s change of heart.

  He should have, he knew. But it was so sweet to know she was willing to fight for him.

  Asshole.

  He’d left her to worry over their arrival home so he could feed his own damned ego.

  He waited until they were curled up beneath their blankets and he had both his arms wrapped tight around her before he said anything. When he told her the truth, she was lia
ble to get mad and stomp off. This way he could at least hold on to her.

  “Rena?”

  She slid on top of him and settled her hips between his legs. His blood rushed to meet her. With hooded eyes and a teasing smile at the hardening she couldn’t help but notice, she lowered her stomach, her chest, her breasts, one heart-stopping inch at a time. Her hot gaze devoured him, snared him, thrilled him. Burned him.

  What…there was something he’d meant to say. She was destroying his concentration. Her hands did incredible things beneath his shirt.

  God, he was glad they hadn’t gone home yet.

  Home. Family. Oh, yeah. “Rena?”

  She unbuttoned his shirt and pressed her warm lips to the center of his chest. “Hush. I’m busy.”

  So was he. Busy falling apart. But he had to tell her. “You’re—” Ah, what her mouth was doing to his skin. “You’re not worried about facing Dad and Pace, are you?”

  She trailed a path to one nipple and flicked her tongue.

  Matt gasped.

  “No.” She blew on his nipple. Her teeth tugged, her tongue laved.

  Matt squeezed his eyes shut and sucked in his breath. “God, what are you doing?”

  “I told you. I’m busy.” She kissed her way to the other side of his chest and started over again.

  “Busy killing me,” he said with a moan.

  “No. Busy loving you.”

  “Rena, I need to tell you—” His words ended in a sharp gasp when her hips rocked against his. “Damn, Rena, this is important.”

  Her hand snaked down and gripped him. “Yes. This is important.”

  Sweat beaded his face. “I don’t think I can take much more of this.”

  “I can,” she whispered. “I can take it all.”

  Fire shot through his loins and left him gasping for breath. Whatever he’d been trying to tell her couldn’t possibly matter. Nothing mattered but the way she freed him from the confines of his pants, the way she hitched up her skirt and straddled his hips. “Then take it,” he managed on a ragged breath. “Take it all.”

  But still she teased him with her clever, clever fingers. “I will,” she promised.

  He was about to explode. “When?”

  “Just as soon,” she said leaning up to nip at his jaw, “as you stop talking.”

  He didn’t utter another word. Not a coherent one, anyway. Not until she lowered herself on his aching flesh and took him straight into oblivion. Even then, all he could manage was her name. He whispered it over and over, until at last, he exploded deep inside her and her name ripped itself from his throat and flew into the night.

  It was just past dawn and the barn was deserted when Matt lifted Serena down from her saddle. They shared a slow, soft kiss, then walked hand in hand for the house.

  Matt had had ample opportunity to tell Rena his father would no longer cause them trouble, but on the ride to the ranch he had decided to hold his tongue. Suppose Dad had changed his mind? He’d been so worried about Serena, he might have said anything to get Matt to bring her home.

  Please God, for Rena’s sake, let Dad have meant it.

  They went in through the courtyard.

  “Nervous?” he asked.

  Rena smiled up at him. “About Dad and Pace? No. By the way, I would have thought Pace would have come with you to Pa-Gotzin-Kay. Where is he?”

  Matt shifted his weight and studied the toes of his boots. “I, uh, don’t think you want to know.”

  She laughed. “Maybe you’re right.”

  The smell of coffee and hot biscuits lured them to the dining room, where Joanna, Jessie, and Spence were the only ones present.

  With a glad cry, Joanna slipped from her chair and threw herself at Matt. “Daddy! Daddy! You came home.” Egg yolk dripped onto the tiled floor from the fork clutched in her small fist.

  Matt hugged her tight. “I came home, Pumpkin. We both came home.”

  “Aunt Rena!” Joanna reached for her, and Matt relinquished his hold as Rena knelt to hug her.

  Matt knew he had the perfect opportunity, one he couldn’t afford to let pass. “I guess she’s not really your aunt anymore, Pumpkin.”

  Joanna’s big green eyes widened. She stared at Rena, then at her father. “Did you do it? Did you marry her? Is she my new mama now?”

  A look of uncertainty crossed Rena’s face. “I’m your stepmother, Jo.”

  Matt placed his hand on Rena’s shoulder. He knew what she was thinking. He could read it in her eyes. She feared he’d be hurt if Angela’s daughter called her Mama. “It’s all right, Rena. Jo was so young, she can’t possibly remember much about her mother. She can call you whatever you’re comfortable with.”

  Still holding Joanna’s hand, Rena rose. “I won’t let her forget Angela, Matt. It wouldn’t be fair, not to Jo, not to Angela. But I swear I’ll be the best mother I know how.”

  He couldn’t help himself. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her, long and slow.

  Three voices sounded in the room. Two young and female, tittering. One adolescent male, groaning in mock disgust.

  Then a fourth voice. Male, adult, and roaring with rage.

  Matt raised his head in time to see Pace fly across the room at him.

  “Get your stinking hands off her!”

  Before Matt could blink, Pace grabbed him by the arm and jerked him from Rena’s embrace.

  “Pace,” Rena cried.

  Pace swung.

  Matt ducked, but not in time. The blow to his chin sent him staggering backward. To keep from landing on Joanna and crushing her, Matt ended up on his tail on the floor.

  A childish shriek pierced the stunned silence.

  With her fork still clutched tight in her fist, Joanna attacked Pace’s back. “Don’t you hit my daddy, Uncle Pace! Don’t you hit him, you hear?” her fork stabbed him in the rear.

  Pace howled.

  Joanna screamed and jumped away, leaving the fork stuck in Pace’s left hind cheek.

  “What the devil is going on in here?” Travis bellowed, Dani rushing in beside him.

  “She stuck me,” Pace cried in shock. “The little brat stabbed me with her fork!”

  Matt lunged to his feet.

  Serena held a sobbing Joanna in her arms and glared at Pace.

  Matt strained to keep from reaching for Pace’s throat. “Don’t you ever, ever call her that again.”

  “He hit my daddy, Rena,” Joanna cried. “Uncle Pace hit my daddy and knocked him down!”

  “I know, sweetheart, I know. Here, dry your eyes. Would you feel better if I hit Uncle Pace for you and knocked him down?”

  “Serena,” Dani warned, “don’t make things worse.”

  Serena stood, feeling the fire in her veins. “Oh, I’ll make things worse, all right,” she said between clenched teeth, her gaze locked on Pace as he yanked the fork from his hip. “I’ll beat him until he’s black and blue if he ever so much as raises his voice to my stepdaughter or my husband again. I’m damn sick and tired of him trying to—”

  “Your what?” Pace roared.

  “You’re married?” Travis asked.

  “Yes, Dad,” Serena told him firmly. “Matt and I are married.” She turned to Pace. “Didn’t you go to Pa-Gotzin-Kay?”

  “Of course I did, but I was too late, wasn’t I, thanks to him,” he said with a glare at Matt, “and his friends and his goddamn whiskey. By the time I got there, the two of you were already gone.”

  Friends? Whiskey? Serena blinked. She would have to ask Matt. Later. Of Pace, she asked, “Didn’t Dee-O-Det tell you?” she showed him the healing cut on her wrist.

  “No, that sorry son of a—”

  “Pace, I’ve heard just about enough of your name-calling for one day,” Daniella said sharply.

  “Matt and I are married, Pace.” Serena reached for her twin brother, begging him to understand. “Can’t you be happy for us?”

  With a snarl, Pace shoved her hand aside. “Happy? Happy that my brother
has married my sister?”

  The look of rage in his eyes took Serena’s breath away. Then she saw the pain, the betrayal he felt. “Pace—”

  He turned on Matt and flung Joanna’s fork against the wall. “You’ll pay for this, shik’is.” He spat the Chiricahua word for brother out as if it left a bad taste in his mouth. “One day I’ll make you pay for what you’ve done.”

  Matt met him glare for glare until Pace, with another roar of rage, fled from the room, blood staining the hip of his pants.

  An instant later the front door slammed hard enough to rattle the windows in the sturdy adobe house.

  Serena rushed to Matt’s side. “Are you all right? Did he hurt you?”

  Selfish as it was, Matt reveled in her attention. She had done it. She had stood toe to toe with Pace and fought for her husband, for their right to love each other. He pulled her into his arms and laid his cheek against her hair. “I’m fine. I love you.”

  “Oh, no,” Spence said with a groan. “They’re gonna kiss again.”

  Serena stiffened. But instead of the harsh words from her father, she heard his laughter. “They are, huh?” he said.

  Serena pulled herself from Matt’s arms and turned to face her father. “Daddy?”

  Travis looked to Matt, curious. “You didn’t tell her?”

  Matt smirked. “To come home and find out you hadn’t meant it? Not on your life.”

  “Tell me what?” Serena asked.

  Travis opened his arms wide. “Tell you I’m sorry. For everything. Come here, Princess, and tell your old man you forgive him.”

  With a glad cry Serena fell into her father’s embrace. “Oh, Daddy, thank you, thank you. I love him so much.”

  “I know you do, Princess.”

  Serena pulled the sheet and blanket up to her chest and let out a contented sigh. “Ah, a real bed.”

  Matt shucked his pants and tossed them to the floor beside the rest of his clothes. “Don’t get too comfortable in there alone, woman.”

  “Never.” She threw back the covers and held her arms up. “Not without you.”