The door in front of her swung open finally and a dandy of a man stood there before her. He was impeccably dressed in evening cloths as if he were on his way to the opera instead of hosting a soiled dove from an out of town brothel.
Her eyes took him in. He was not an unattractive man with his auburn hair and faded blue eyes. Blake sported a clean-shaven face that exhibited deep dimples when he smiled. As her eyes trailed down, she saw just why the man likely hired women out for sex. He leaned heavily on a wooden crutch; his left leg was missing from the knee down, though she thought it wasn’t right that many men with appendages missing regarded themselves as not whole men anymore. They also often retreated from the world because of it. She had seen a lot of it following the war.
Cassandra, however, doubted a well-to-do man like Blake had been in the war, but nonetheless, he was missing part of him and that may have dealt a blow to his self-confidence. Quickly, she shook off such thoughts. Why he entertained prostitutes weekly was not of her concern. Preventing him from being robbed by Thornway and his cronies was.
“Well, Clark has certainly outdone himself this time,” Blake was smiling at her. “Never in all of my prior arrangements has he ever presented me a woman with a beautiful face and the body to match it. It’s always one or the other, but not both … not until now, Miss …”
“Marla. Miss Marla,” Cassandra answered as she took in the lush surroundings of the house, the total opposite of the one she had just come from.
The anticipation shone in his eyes so brightly she was not surprised when he immediately got down to business. She watched patiently as he pulled a wad of clipped bills from his pocket and gently placed it between the cleavage of her breasts. “Shall we go upstairs, Miss Marla?” he asked.
“Yes, that’s fine, but we have to talk,” Cassandra told him.
“Talking is not exactly what I had in mind,” Blake said, smiling.
“Trust me, you are going to want to hear what I have to say,” Cassandra’s voice lowered in pitch as she stepped into the house with him.
***
In front of the post office, Connors had just finished putting the new wagon wheel onto Thornway’s carriage. He had been grumbling to himself throughout the whole job, preferring to have stayed with Davenport, seeing the business with the whore through to the end. That would have been a hell of a lot more enjoyable than working on the wagon; at night, no less. At least, the gas lamps that lined the main street of Lake Bliss had provided him enough illumination to work, he consoled himself eventually.
Thornway had wanted the wheel replaced because he said he needed the buggy to be in perfect working condition in case anything went wrong with the plan and he needed to flee quickly. Connors didn’t see how anything could, though, but Thornway was the boss and he was paying each of his men a thousand dollars apiece, so he wasn’t going to argue.
People strolled the streets of Lake Bliss enjoying themselves in the evening air. The growth of the town had amazed Connors at some point. He was still a little boy when the consortium had started construction on the log dam that had stopped the Little Rock River at the mouth of valley. He, like so many others, had watched in awe as the valley slowly filled up into the lake that it was now. It truly had been an amazing thing. Now, people flocked from all over Arizona to enjoy it due to the scarcity of lakes in the territory.
As he had labored, the intermittent applause and even some booing from the nearby dance hall had filled Connor’s ears, distracting him. Now, a new noise caught his attention. Looking around, he realized it was the sound of a carriage moving quickly down the street. It came to a halt right across the street from him and a well-built blond woman piled out. She turned to the driver.
“You tell Judge Kirkpatrick that I consider ourselves square!” she hissed, frowning, “and thank him again for having you bring me over here!”
“He never wants to see you again, you hear?” The driver fired back.
He tossed out her bag onto the clapboard sidewalk, whipped the reins and sped off. The blonde haughtily picked up the bags and stormed over to Connors.
“Excuse me! I see this is the post office,” she said. “I was told that Thaddeus Thornway is the post master. I know it’s not likely he would be here at this time, but if you could direct me to where I might find him, I would appreciate that, sugar!”
Connor wiped his hands with a rag and then dropped his tools in the back of the carriage. “Well, you are in luck,” he told her. “He actually is here. What do you want with him? He’s not the sort that likes to be bothered.”
“He’s expecting me!” The blonde revealed. “I know I’m late—over a day late at this point, but he had a job for me! My name is Miss Marla from over Cloverfield way!”
CHAPTER 13
* * *
After leaving their horse tied up in a grove of trees, Franks had plucked a lantern that his crew kept hidden in the bushes near where the trail that led along the edge of the Yavapai River began. Though the full moon from several nights before in the ghost town was now waning, it still provided plenty of light that Lijuan almost thought they didn’t need the lantern to make their way up the trail.
Quickly, she pushed that thought out of her head and allowed a very satisfying feeling to sweep over her, and she took the liberty of complimenting herself.
“When you’re right, you’re right, Lijuan!” she whispered to herself under her breath. As they threaded their way along, she knew exactly their destination. She allowed herself grudgingly to give her adversaries credit for picking where they were going as a hideout. A very good choice all and all.
Soon, the roar of a waterfall filled their ears and they emerged at the base of the High Ledge Falls. Lijuan’s eyes scanned over the large pool beneath the falls where she had swum so often with Dutch. Cassandra had been invited along, but that was in those last years where she was still hostile towards her sister. A few years later, everything would change after the day the three of them would never forget—a day that had ignited the same burning desire fueling her hidden anger that burned brightly within her to this very day.
Now was not the time for the past, she thought, as she continued looking about. At the edge of the pool, the water rapidly started tumbling downhill, giving birth to the rapids that Mr. Huang was said to have tumbled into. The reality, though she knew, was that the Chinese businessman was not a decaying corpse somewhere downstream, but was actually behind the falls themselves and with any luck, still alive!
As if Franks was following a play that she wrote herself, he began to make his way up the ragged path that she knew would lead to an entrance to a cave behind the waterfalls. His low intelligence had been obvious to her the moment they met on the streets of Alamieda, but now, this was confirmed, as he had actually went first, telling her to follow.
Even if he had been completely fooled by her act as a cowed female, it was the height of foolishness to turn your back on your captive. Clearly, this man had survived all these years on brawn alone. He certainly wasn’t the brains of this operation. That fell to someone else and she knew for sure who that was.
For a moment, she considered dropping the bag she was carrying in her unbandaged hand and removing her six shooter from the small of her back, and ending it right then with a quick shot to the back of his head. Lijuan fought the urge to do so and stayed her hand. She wanted to see this play out for a little while longer. Plus, shooting him in the back of the head would have given her little satisfaction. She was hoping to see the light go out in his eyes when and if the moment came where she was forced to slay the big man.
As soon as they entered the tunnel that would bring them into the cave, the roar of the waterfall lost most of its ferociousness. It was now time to do what she planned next. She hoped that Mr. Huang still lived. Suddenly, she began calling out in Chinese.
Franks whirled on her.
“What are you yelling?”
Lijuan wore a small defenseless look.
“Forgive. Just calling Father. Tell him I love him and I am here.”
When Franks snorted and continued to walk, she started calling out again in Chinese words that Franks never would have guessed.
“Mr. Huang! I am here to help you! You must act as if I am Shuen Yi! You must pretend that I am your daughter!! Pretend I am Shuen Yi!”
Seconds later, they arrived into the spacious cave. She could see clearly that little had changed from the time of her girlhood. Under the light of a half dozen or more Coleman lanterns that had been staged about the cave, she saw the same stalactites hanging from the ceiling, the same pool of water in the center of the cave being fed from a fracture in the earth in the riverbed above them, and the same grayish clay at the water’s edge.
Two things, however, were notably different from those past years when she and Dutch had played in this cave. First, over along on the far wall, she saw a pile of rocks in a roughly rectangular shape with a shovel leaning against the wall, and on the cave floor near the rectangle was a small wooden barrel about a foot high.
Second was seeing the cave was occupied by people. Two, in particular. One was a fit-looking elder Chinese gentleman. This took Lijuan by surprise, as she had pictured Mr. Huang as a heavy set balding man. She certainly didn’t expect the handsome man before her with his hands tied, looking at her in a mixture of awe and disbelief.
The man standing near him was a skinny man who seemed to be losing his hair. His facial features told Lijuan though that he was likely a brother or a cousin to Franks.
The two Chinese locked their eyes to each other as Lijuan raced to Mr. Huang and threw her arms around him.
“I am your daughter! Act like you are overjoyed to see me!” she said to him under her breath and in Mandarin.
A dumbfounded Huang asked her back in Chinese.
“Who are you?”
Lijuan shook her head impatiently.
“Act … now!! And say it in English!” she whispered harshly.
Huang seemed to get the drift of the situation and in that moment, held her close.
“My baby! You have come for me! I thought I would never see you again!”
Lijuan happily put her arms around him too. “Did they hurt you?” she asked.
Huang shrugged sadly and said with tiredness in his voice.
“I have been treated in a manner rougher than I have ever encountered before, even worse than when I was a starving young man on the streets of Shanghai.”
The thin man spoke for the first time with irritation and malice.
“Ah, quit your complain’. We kept you watered and fed, didn’t we? In fact, we gave you a pretty good meal for lunch earlier! We could have been feedin’ ya bread and water!” His voice told her that he indeed believed that he had done a huge thing for him.
“My brother, Neil, ain’t right too often, but he’s sure right about that. When I was in prison, I was lucky just to get scraps.”
Lijuan released Mr. Huang and turned towards the two men. Beyond them, her eyes locked on the rock pile and the shovel and she made the connection. It was a grave dug into the hardened clay floor and it could only be the ferryman from Galveston. She would see justice for him before the night was over. There was no question in her mind about that being outcome of this caper she had fallen into on the way to what was supposed to have been a wild night out on the town.
Lijuan looked at the men now. “You have money. You promised. Let us go.”
Franks grinned. “Well, that was the deal, wasn’t it? Turns out, though, we are going to need a little extra payment,” he said, as his eyes roved all over her body.
Lijuan looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. So here it was. She had wondered how long it would be before he made his move. Men like this were pure animals. From the moment that she had left Alamieda in his company, she had expected him to attempt to force himself on her. No surprise there. However, she was not expecting what he said next.
“Listen up, Neil. Ya done a good job watchin’ over the China man since we had him. I’m going to let you go first.”
Neil didn’t seem to get his brother immediately. “Go first with what?”
Franks sighed, as he realized his brother truly was dumber than he thought.
“With her, you god damn half-wit! Mama being stone cold drunk the whole time she was carryin’ you has to explain your lack of wits.”
Neil seemed surprised at first, then alarm crept into his eyes along with understanding.
“You mean I’m gonna … with her? But she’s Chinese. She’s Chinese!” To Lijuan’s disgust, he sounded like he was talking about her having a communicable terminal disease and not her race.
Franks shook his head in pure frustration.
“You damn fool. Women are all the same down there! You want your first taste of a woman? Well, there she is, and you don’t even have to pay for it! Now go on before I change my mind and I take her first!”
Huang gallantly stepped in front of Lijuan. She had no idea if it was part of him continuing to act as her father as she had instructed or if he was being a gentleman. Either way, she felt a warmth from his actions.
“No! You shall not touch her!” he said emphatically.
Franks suddenly lurched forward, quicker than Lijuan would have thought him capable, and grabbed Huang by the throat and threw him to the ground where he landed next to the edge of the water, the grayish clay instantly smearing his clothing.
Lijuan rushed to his aid and knelt beside him, but suddenly, Neil jerked her to her feet. Franks strolled over and pointed down at Huang.
“You just stay put down there on the ground! This is goin’ down whether you like it or not. Move, and I’ll kill you. We was only keepin’ you alive until we were certain everythin’ went right and we got the money,” Franks said angrily.
He shrugged off the two bags and they fell, striking the ground with soft thuds before he continued talking.
“So there ain’t any reason not to off you right now … except I kind of want you to have to watch what’s gonna happen to your daughter.” He hooted and snatched up one of the bags of money and shook it before Huang, who looked up from the ground. “Usually, I pay for a woman, this time, you’re payin’ us to sample your little girl. Now get to it, Neil!”
He pushed his brother towards Lijuan and she smiled. This was it. Time to deal with the evil brothers and worry about the mastermind later. Her smile, though, was more for the fact that she could drop her act as a cowed mousy woman. When she had come up with her plan to masquerade as Shuen Yi, she had drawn upon the Lijuan Wilde of her childhood.
She had been so young when her father brought her to Philadelphia that she had no memory of it. Her earliest memories however were of her relationship to the two elder children that she was made to understand were her brother and sister. Spending all those years in Cassandra’s shadow, she had been shy and quiet, hoping that would win her favor with her older sister, but all that it had done was encourage Cassie’s domineering.
Her saving grace had been her brother, Dutch. The boy adored his surprise sister and they had been as close for as long as she could remember. Even now, there was such a deep bond between them and yet, these last few years, she had found that bond threatened. That was a certain problem she needed to deal with someday. Right now, though, she was just happy to drop her act because it reminded her of that long dead younger self she preferred to forget.
Reaching her unbandaged hand behind her back, she slipped it underneath her jacket and felt the reassuring grip of the Colt in her hand and yanked it free. As she was swinging the gun around towards Franks, he suddenly hurled the bag of money at her, hitting her square in the chest and knocking her to the ground by the water. The gun flew from her hand. Seconds after it clattered to the floor, Neil pounced on it, picked it up and flung it into the water.
“Let’s see you try that again!” he said with a smirk.
“You idiot!! Why would you go and waste a perfectly good shooti
n’ iron like that?” Franks asked furiously.
Neil looked down dumbly, not having a good answer.
Franks looked at Lijuan and yanked her to her feet.
“And you! Packin’ a weapon this whole time!” he growled in her face.
Lijuan inwardly rolled her eyes and momentarily dropped back into her dreaded act as she raised her hands in supplication. “No! Please sorry! Scared! That why I bring gun!” she said, as she pretended to cower in front of him.
The big outlaw spat on the cave floor near her feet, enjoying the look of fear in her eyes. “You should be scared! Do her now, Neil, or stand aside! I got a score to settle with her, and I got some great ideas on how I’m fixin’ to do that!”
Neil walked over to her and looked down at her and grinned like a simpleton. He awkwardly moved in and kissed her, while clumsily cupping her left breast. When he opened his eyes, he was greeted by her staring at him, smiling.
"Ya like that?" he asked.
Lijuan’s smile deepened. “No, I like this.”
She brought her bandaged hand up and pressed it to the side of his head. A second later, a blast reverberated through the cave and the other side of Neil’s head exploded in a crimson spray.
Lijuan stepped away as the body started to crumple and was already yanking to unwrap the shredded and smoking bandage around her hand as she advanced towards Franks, who had been rooted still in shock for several seconds before drawing his pistol, but he was too late.
Lijuan swept her foot in the air and connected with his wrist, causing the gun to fly through the air. As it splashed into the pool, she shouted for Huang to flee the cave.
Huang hesitated. “I can’t leave a woman behind!” he cried.
“Do I look like just any woman? Run! Go now!!!” she snarled at him at the same moment she finished unfurling the bandage, and the small single shot derringer she had camouflaged clattered to the ground, now useless.
Wilde-Fire: Wonder Women 0f The Old West (Half Breed Haven Book 1) Page 17
