Apache-Colton Series

by Janis Reams Hudson

  The tiny woman with the fierce eyes was dwarfed by her son. She suddenly looked vulnerable, which Blake realized he had never expected. Her eyes softened with love for her son, and pain for his suffering. Blake felt a sharp pang in his chest. What was it like to have a mother?

  The old hatred rose up thick enough to choke him. He would never know what a mother’s love felt like, nor a father’s, thanks to Geronimo.

  “Shimá,” Pace whispered softly. Looking over her head, which barely reached his shoulder, he greeted his sisters. “Shilhúkéne.” Very gently, he stepped back from his mother and faced them all. “You should not have come.”

  Blake watched Daniella Colton square her shoulders. A look with which he was much more familiar came across her face. Pure stubbornness. “Of course I should have. You can’t possibly expect me to simply leave you to the tender mercies of the United States Army.”

  That hard look, the one Blake had seen yesterday in the guardhouse, settled over Colton’s face. “Yes, that’s exactly what I expect.”

  “Don’t you get that full-blooded Apache look with me, young man—”

  “Mother,” Serena interrupted.

  Daniella clamped her lips shut and closed her eyes briefly. “I’m sorry. You’re a grown man, and I’m treating you like a child.”

  “Then you’ll go?” Pace asked. “And stay away?”

  “If you insist, we will leave and not try to see you again. But don’t mistake me. I will not be far away. If you need me, you’ve only to send word.”

  One side of Pace’s mouth lifted in a half smile. “Thank you. If that’s the best you can do, I’ll take it.”

  One by one, Pace hugged his sisters. Jessie went first, and Blake was stunned at the jealousy he felt. It was only her brother, for crying out loud. What the hell do I have to be jealous about? But he was, and it made him angry. With himself, with anyone who touched Jessie.

  “Oh, Pace, I’m sorry,” Jessie whispered. “I should have done something, I should have kept them from taking you.”

  “Don’t be a goose, Jessie. It wasn’t your fault. There was nothing you could have done.”

  “I could have—”

  “No,” Pace said harshly. He pushed her back and looked into her eyes. “I won’t have it, Jessie. I won’t have you blaming yourself, taking responsibility for something that had nothing to do with you. This is between me and Miles. It’s my own fault for not seeing it coming.”

  “What in the world did you do to him, to make him do something like this?”

  “Never you mind about that.” Unmindful of Blake or the guards, Pace planted a brotherly kiss on the end of her nose.

  Then it was Serena’s turn. She and her twin brother simply stared at each other for long moments. Blake could practically feel the communication flying back and forth between them. Then they spoke to each other in Apache, words so low and harsh, Blake wondered that even an Apache could understand them.

  After another moment of silent communication, they parted, and Blake herded the women outside.

  Jessie felt the strength of fury fill her. How dare anyone treat her brother in such a fashion. The bruises on his face and hands…dear God. She could only imagine what the rest of his body looked like.

  “Now will you go home?” Blake asked her as they bordered the street car.

  Jessie stiffened her spine. “Not on your life.”

  Chapter Eleven

  The next day the weather turned cool and stormy. So did the atmosphere in the sitting room of the suite as Blake once more tried to convince the three women to go home.

  “You heard Pace,” Blake reminded them. “He doesn’t want you here.” What Blake wouldn’t say aloud, but feared they knew, was that rumors were flying at the fort. Rumors about plans to attack the Apaches. It appeared Blake wasn’t the only one around with a private agenda. The scary thing about the rumors was that the plans seemed to be circulating among civilians and soldiers alike. Everybody wanted a piece of Geronimo’s hide. There was even talk of a civil trial—and hanging.

  Yet Blake didn’t mention any of this for fear the women would somehow end up involved if something did happen. And something would, he was certain. He felt it in the air, smelled it like rain on the wind. He wanted Jessie gone. And he knew she wouldn’t leave without her mother and sister.

  Daniella’s temper flared in her eyes. “To you I know he’s just another renegade Apache.”

  “Mama,” Jessie cried.

  “You know that’s not true,” Blake told her.

  Daniella met his gaze squarely. “Maybe. But forgive me if I can’t bring myself to gamble his life on how you do or don’t feel about him. Even if he was your best friend, I wouldn’t expect you to sacrifice your career, perhaps even your life, for Pace.”

  Blake closed his eyes and ran his fingers through his hair. “I’m not talking about anybody sacrificing anything. I merely think the three of you would be safer and Pace would be happier if you went home and worked this out through channels.”

  From her place by the window, Jessie said quietly, firmly, “We’re not going, Blake.”

  The look in her eyes matched the fire in her mother’s. The color may have been different, but the determination was the same. Blake strove for patience. “At least promise you’ll stay away from the fort.”

  Daniella’s look softened only slightly. “Until and unless we have reason to do otherwise, we will stay away from the fort. But I would like a promise from you,” she told Blake.

  Wariness prickled along his spine. “What kind of promise?”

  Daniella looked at her daughters each in turn, then met Blake’s gaze. “We’ve all heard the rumors of an attack on the prisoners.”

  Blake bit back a groan.

  “Serena and I are no strangers to fighting. If it comes down to it, I will not leave my son with no one to fight at his back.”

  Good God Almighty. Shock held Blake immobile. He’d known Daniella Colton could breathe fire with the best of dragons, but to actually talk about…about what she was talking about, was incomprehensible to him.

  “I see I’ve shocked you. That wasn’t my intent. As I said, Serena and I are prepared to do what must be done if it becomes necessary. Jessie, on the other hand, is not.”

  “Mama, what are you saying?” Jessie cried.

  Daniella ignored her. To Blake she said, “If trouble breaks out, I want your word that you’ll keep her safe.”

  Blake didn’t hesitate. He’d lived his entire life to do what he planned in the next day or two. And it wasn’t just his plan any longer, it was an order now. Yet all Blake’s plans, his revenge, his orders, meant nothing compared to Jessie’s safety. He could give her up, if that’s what carrying out his orders meant. It would damn near kill him, but he could do it, because she wouldn’t want to be near him then anyway.

  But he couldn’t see her harmed. He would not risk her safety, not for any reason on earth. Giving his promise to her mother was no trouble at all. “You have it.”

  Her mother’s request and Blake’s quick answer stung. Jessie knew what her mother was doing, but that didn’t lessen the impact of being treated—albeit on purpose—like a child.

  When Blake had left them yesterday after returning from the fort, Jessie had listened to her mother quiz Serena sharply about Pace. “Well? What did you learn?” Daniella had demanded. “How is he, really?”

  Jessie had recalled the long looks that had passed between Pace and Serena in that dingy, crowded office. She’d known instantly they were communicating with each other.

  To others it would seem strange, even impossible, Jessie knew, but she had grown up watching Pace and Serena talk to each other silently. The bond between the twins was strong, mentally, emotionally, and sometimes even physically. Talking to each other without speaking was only one of the ways they communicated.

  When Serena had hesitated answering her mother, Daniella had asked, “He didn’t shut you out, did he?”

  Se
rena had shaken her head. “No.”

  Jessie had heard her mother’s sigh of relief. Serena’s marriage to Matt had torn a rift between the twins. Indeed, Pace had been estranged from the entire family since then, coming home only occasionally, then leaving almost immediately. He clung strongly and stubbornly to the Apache belief that although Matt and Serena were not related by blood, they had been raised as brother and sister. To Pace, to the Apaches, that relationship should have been sacred. For them to fall in love and marry each other was wrong in Pace’s eyes, and he’d made his feelings known, loud and clear, from the beginning.

  “No,” Serena had repeated. “He didn’t shut me out. I know exactly what he’s thinking.”

  “And?”

  “The first chance he gets, he’s going to bolt. I don’t know if he’s actually got a plan, or if he’s just going to play it by ear.”

  “Then we can’t take any chances. We’ve got to get him out of there.”

  Serena’s lips had twitched. “With Captain Renard dogging our every step?”

  Daniella had turned to Jessie with a raised brow. “We’ll just have to make sure Blake is…otherwise occupied.”

  “Mother,” Serena had cried, horrified. “You don’t mean you expect Jessie to—”

  “Of course not. Don’t be an idiot. But I’ve seen the way he looks at you, Jessie. If he’s convinced we’re about to do something he considers dangerous, he’ll move mountains to keep you safe.”

  It had all sounded so calculating to Jessie. Yet she’d seen this side of her mother before. Serena, too, as well as the rest of the family. When one of them was in need, nothing was allowed to stand in the way. Not even Blake.

  Then another thought had occurred to Jessie. “But Mama, if I’m busy keeping Blake out of the way, I won’t be able to help you and Rena. Or is that what you had in mind all along?” she’d added, seeing the look that passed between her mother and sister. All her feelings of inadequacy had risen to her throat. Even today she could still taste it. She’d told her mother, “Maybe it’s not Blake you want out of the way at all, but me.”

  “Now, Jessie.”

  Jessie’s eyes had widened. “It’s true!”

  Daniella had taken Jessie’s hands in hers. “It’s not like you think, honey. It’s just that…”

  “Jessie,” Rena had offered. “Mother and I have had more experience at this sort of thing, that’s all.”

  “At what?” Jessie remembered demanding. “How many men have you broken out of prison?”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “No, I don’t.”

  “Honey,” her mother had said softly. “Rena spent half her childhood in Apache camps playing warrior. We, the two of us, know what we’re getting into. I don’t think you do.”

  “If you’re talking about experience, I didn’t handle myself too badly when I was kidnapped. And I know how to use a gun.”

  “You know how to shoot bottles and cans. Could you shoot a man?”

  Could she? Jessie thought so, but the idea of firing a bullet into human flesh…she just didn’t know. But she couldn’t tell them that or they would leave her behind—or worse, send her home. She had straightened her shoulders and met her mother’s steady gaze. “If I had to. For Pace, I think I could.”

  “And if Blake tries to interfere? Could you shoot him, Jessie?”

  “No! Mama, you wouldn’t!” But even as Jessie had protested, she’d known better. To save Pace, her mother would do whatever she had to do, sacrifice anyone, except one of her own, without regret.

  All that had taken place yesterday. Jessie had gone over and over her mother’s plan and couldn’t find a way out. The only thing to do, it seemed, was to go along. Not to stay out of Daniella and Rena’s way should anything happen, but to keep Blake safe. He would never stand for it, of course, unless he thought he was keeping her safe. Even then, she feared the plan might not work. Apparently she had worried since yesterday for nothing. Blake didn’t bat an eye at promising to keep her safe.

  Still, if she was too docile, he might get suspicious. So Jessie played her part to the hilt and cried out, “No! I won’t be talked about like I’m not even in the room, and I won’t be treated as if I were an imbecile.”

  “No one is doing any such thing,” Daniella said sharply. “My intentions are not to hurt your feelings, but to keep you safe.”

  Properly chastised, as planned, Jessie hung her head and bit her lip, not at all comfortable with the subterfuge, but willing to go through with it to keep Blake safe.

  Outside, rain pounded against the windows.

  “Blake,” Daniella said softly. “I think the three of us need to talk.”

  “Yes ma’am. May I escort you ladies to dinner this evening?”

  Daniella gave him a dazzling smile. “We would be delighted. Why don’t we try Scholz’s Palm Garden Restaurant tonight?”

  “Fine.” Blake found Jessie with his eyes.

  His look was so solemn, Jessie’s stomach tied itself in a knot.

  The next telegram from Travis came an hour after Blake left them. “Well,” Daniella said slowly after reading it to herself. “That’s that, then.”

  “What does he say?” Jessie and Serena asked.

  Daniella quoted the message: “All doors closed here, stop. Do what you must, stop. Love, stop. Travis.”

  Silence stretched taut for several moments as mother, daughters, sisters, read fear and determination in each other’s eyes.

  “I need to tell the two of you,” Daniella said. “Your father and I spoke about various possibilities before I left him in Washington. This message means we’re on our own. No one in Washington is willing—or able, perhaps—to help get Pace released. Your father will stay there to do what he can to keep the Army from retaliating once we’ve freed Pace.”

  “I can’t believe it,” Jessie said, genuinely stunned.

  “What can’t you believe?”

  “Daddy wouldn’t send you down here to do something so dangerous as break Pace out of prison. He would have had you stay in Washington and come here himself. What’s going on, Mama?”

  Jessie watched, amazed, as her mother’s cheeks turned red.

  “You’re right, honey. And that’s the way it would have happened, but I…”

  “Mother,” Serena said with narrowed eyes. “What did you do?”

  “Well, I didn’t do it on purpose,” Daniella said defensively. She flushed again. “I threatened to punch Cleveland in his fat gut if he didn’t order Pace released.”

  The two daughters stared blankly.

  “Cleveland?” Jessie said carefully. “Grover Cleveland? Mama, you threatened the President of the United States?”

  “Well I can’t help it if he’s a jackass.”

  Despite the graveness of the situation and the danger they faced, Jessie and Serena burst out laughing. The tension in the room eased.

  “Under the circumstances, your father agreed that he should stay and try to smooth things over. We both thought Lamar, the Secretary of the Interior, would be able to help. Your father didn’t really have any intention that we should have to do anything on our own.”

  Serena narrowed her gaze and studied her mother. “What else aren’t you telling us?”

  Daniella shrugged. “That’s it, really. Except…he thinks Matt met me here, rather than you. When I got your telegram saying you were on your way, I’m afraid I didn’t…enlighten him.”

  “Mama,” Jessie said, appalled. “You lied to Daddy?”

  “Don’t look at me like that,” Daniella said. “You know good and well that my threat to Cleveland would sound like child’s play next to what your father would have done if he’d come here and seen Pace yesterday. The two of them would undoubtedly be sharing the same cell this very minute, and what good would that have done, except perhaps get the guard doubled?”

  Jessie mashed her lips together. Her mother was right.

  “Enough of this,” Daniella said. “We’v
e got work to do. Jessie, you’re the organizer among us. We’ll tell you what we plan, and you tell us what you think we need. Between the three of us, if we’re very, very careful, and very, very lucky, we might just get out of this with our skins intact. And that, I might add, is our first objective,” she said with a sharp glance to Serena.

  Serena blinked in exaggerated innocence. “Why, Mother, whatever do you mean?”

  “I mean,” Daniella said slowly, firmly, “that no matter what happens, I do not want any of us getting hurt. If that means giving up and being forced to wait and try again, we do it. Our lives come first. Pace’s freedom comes second.”

  As inexperienced in matters of war and fighting as Jessie might be, she knew her mother. What Daniella was saying was that the lives of her children were paramount, while she herself would not hesitate to suffer injury or death for any of them. Her little speech was meant to make Jessie and Rena be careful. By the look on Rena’s face and the sudden flare of protectiveness in Jessie’s heart, the speech was wasted.

  A tremor of fear ran down Jessie’s spine. From the roll top desk in the corner of the elegant sitting room, she took a sheet of paper and pen and ink. The paper rattled in her trembling hand. No one cared, for Daniella and Serena suffered their own fears.

  “All right.” Jessie cleared her throat. “Tell me how you plan to go about this.”

  Scholz’s Palm Garden Restaurant on Alamo Plaza was every bit as elegant as advertised. It even had real palm trees growing in huge clay pots around both the upper and lower dining rooms. The palms, combined with potted geraniums, forced tulips, and tiny moss roses lent a relaxed, outdoor garden atmosphere at sharp odds with the tension humming through Jessie’s veins. Blake hadn’t believed her mother’s lie.

  Daniella had gone to Blake an hour before dinner and told him she and Serena had been called to the bedside of an old friend who lay dying in a part of town she would rather Jessie knew nothing about. The intent was to make Blake believe Daniella and Serena were headed for the red light district.