Pace didn’t know if Will had fainted in fear, or if he’d finally understood Pace’s message and pretended. It didn’t matter; the result was the same—Will was free.
In the back of his mind Pace registered the fact that the arm that had been holding Will had not changed position when Will fell to the ground. He remembered Dee-O-Det’s report of what Jo had done to Juerta. That must be the elbow she had ruined with one of her shots, because the arm appeared permanently bent.
The thought took no more than half a second, which was how long it took Juerta to realize he no longer had a hostage or a shield. He straightened his gun arm and took aim at the nearest person—Matt. Pace reached behind him and drew the pistol from his belt. He didn’t have to think, didn’t have to aim. Instinct honed on years of staying alive took over. He swung the pistol toward Juerta and fired twice, dead center on the bastard’s chest.
Don Rodrigo Francisco Alfredo Martinez Juerta, El Carnicero, fell face down in the dirt, dead.
Enrique had been hit during the last onslaught of riders, but, like Matt’s wound, it wasn’t serious. Rosa knew that, but still she let him play the helpless invalid for all it was worth. She didn’t even remind him that it was late evening and the wound had been fine while he, Pace, and Matt had hauled the dead bodies away and dumped them on the border patrol at Naco. A few of the faces had appeared on recent wanted posters, so the border patrol didn’t grumble too much.
Pace, Matt, and Enrique had made it home by dark. It was only then that Enrique decided his wound was serious after all. Rosa cooed over him and lent her support to help him back to their little house beyond the barn. As they made their way home, Rosa patted his shoulder and promised him his favorite supper to make him feel better.
Serena, on the other hand, slapped a bandage on Matt’s arm and pronounced him fit. “Sheesh,” Matt grumbled. “I could’a been killed, but does she care?”
“You ever try to run off and leave me holding a string of horses while you ride into the thick of a gun battle again, I can guarantee you’ll be killed.”
Pace raised a brow at Joanna. “Now I know where you learned all your threats.”
“She threatens you?” Serena beamed with pride.
Russ didn’t know whether to brag about the knot on his head, or grimace at having been bested by a man with only one good arm.
Will told the tale of his capture again and again, assuring them all that his faint really had been a trick to get Juerta to loosen his hold.
“Yeah, sure,” his older brother said with a snort.
Joanna refused to let herself remember the dead bodies littering the yard that afternoon. She wouldn’t let herself remember the fear. She was too busy watching the give and take between Pace and her father. They were talking and laughing, teasing each other, and she was euphoric. They were brothers again.
Cradling Chance in her arms, she eyed her husband and felt her heart swell with love. Something had changed. Whatever had been wrong this morning after their lovemaking was gone. He was truly whole again, and he was hers.
Pace felt her eyes on him from across the room and he felt himself being pulled to her side. He was the moth, she was the flame. But this flame wouldn’t kill him, it had brought him back to life more than once.
As he approached her their eyes met. He felt strength and heat surge through his veins. Her eyes widened with awareness and she stood to meet him. Pace took his son from her and placed him in Matt’s arms. “Here you go, Grandpa.”
Will and Russ thought that was immensely funny.
“Take care of your grandson for a while,” Pace told him over the boys’ laughter.
“What are you going to do?” Matt demanded gruffly, as though he weren’t pleased to be holding the newest generation of Coltons.
Slipping his arm around Joanna and turning her toward the stairs, he rubbed a hand over his jaw. Looking down at Jo, he grinned. “First, I’m gonna shave.”
Matt and Serena shared a look of indulgent amusement. “After that?” Matt asked with mock innocence.
Pace tossed him a wink. “After that, I think I feel Chance’s baby sister coming on.”
Joanna made a strangling sound in her throat, but her eyes glowed with inner fire.
Matt looked like he was about to choke.
“Sorry,” Pace told him. “That was something a man would say to his brother. Even after all these years, it comes natural to talk to you that way. I keep forgetting you’re also my father-in-law. Daddy.”
Will and Russ tumbled to the floor in fits of laughter over hearing a grown man call their father “Daddy.”
Pace didn’t wait for Matt’s reaction. He took Joanna’s arm and sprinted up the stairs. She was close on his heels. In the bedroom he closed the door and drew her into his arms for a heated kiss.
“Can we?” she breathed against his lips. “After all the times this morning, will it work?”
Pace laughed and swept her up in his arms on his way to the bed. “If we can’t, it won’t be for lack of trying, Firefly.”
He tried.
They could.
It worked.
They loved each other into the early morning hours. Time and again Pace lost himself in the flames of his destiny. He lost himself in Joanna.
Epilogue
In the years that followed, Joanna and Pace added a total of five children to the Colton clan. They raised their children as Coltons were always raised, with respect for the land and those who had walked it before them. With a strong belief in themselves, in love, in freedom and justice.
The children watched their parents, aunts, and uncles work tirelessly year after year lobbying Washington on behalf of the Chiricahua Apaches. In April of 1913 Pace Colton was at Fort Sill to see the The People finally released after twenty-seven years as prisoners of war. His wife, his children, his twin sister, and his stepbrother stood with him.
In the years ahead, other Coltons fought for other causes. Throughout the ages, when warriors were needed, Coltons answered the call, men and women alike. They were fighters, each in his or her own way. They were movers and shakers. They were survivors. They believed in freedom.
They fought and loved and made more babies, more Coltons to grow up and fight for the freedom of those unable to fight for themselves. As teachers in the classroom they fought inequities and ignorance. As ministers and missionaries they fought for the needy and the lost. As politicians, attorneys, they fought for justice. As doctors they fought death. As soldiers they fought for their country. And they prevailed.
From Daniella and Travis Colton’s stand on the dusty streets of Tucson to save two terrified Apache boys from a lynch mob, through world wars, cold wars, Southeast Asia, Middle Eastern conflicts and beyond to the intergalactic battles for Earth’s freedom, Coltons have stood and will always stand shoulder to shoulder and face all comers. They stand by their fierce honor and risk their lives for what they believe in.
They believe in making a difference.
They believe in each other. They believe in their country, in love, and in freedom.
It is their destiny.
THE END
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Apache-Colton Series Page 219
