Slater Bros: Apache Summer Part 26

"I intend to do my best to see that he does," Dolly a.s.sured Jon. She looked at him anxiously.

"What about Tess.9" Jon shook his head.

"I don't know. I had' to get him back here before he died. I'm going back out to see what I can find." He liftext his hat to Dolly and left.

At the door he paused and looked back.

"Now, don't you let him die."

"I'm just going to sew him up. And I'm going to pray." Jon hurried out.

But when he returned to the river, he discovered that whoever had attacked Jamie and Tess had made an escape through the water. He would need daylight to track them. There was nothing he could do that night.

But maybe there was. It was late, but saloons had a tendency to cater to the late crowd. Maybe he could find out more from casual conversation over a poker game than he could from a broken branch.

He turned the pinto toward town.

Jamie's d~s were occasionally dark and occasionally erotic, but always fevered.

He fought giants with buffalo headdresses. Then the battle would fade away, the powder would dissipate, the roar of the guns would cease. He wasn't fighting Yankees anymore, he tried to tell himself in his dream world. He was a Yankee, dressed in blue. He was a specialist in Indian affairs, a linguist. And he knew Indians. He hadn't needed Jon Red Feather to tell him that the Apache didn't like scalping. It was a contaminating thing to them, and it had to be done with 191 careful ritual. He should have known from the very beginning that the woman hadn't lied.

The woman. Tess. And the Yankees were gone, and the Indians were gone, and he was lying by still, cool waters, and she was walking toward him.

Her hair was like the sun, falling in soft, delicate tendrils over her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and down her back, and her smile was at once wistful and innocent and full of the most alluring promise. She knelt beside him and her fingers touched him, raking gently over his naked flesh. He couldn't take his eyes from her. Her eyes were so giving, velvet and deep, deep blue, and startling in their honesty. He had thought that she would run, but she had not. And now, no matter whether he woke or slept, she was with him, the sun- ray webs of honey-gold hair spinning around him and wrapping him in the sweetest splendor.

Her breath was soft against him. She leaned over him, and her b.r.e.a.s.t.s brushed against his chest, and he groaned aloud and waited. He wanted to pull her beneath him. He wanted to see her eyes widen and darken to mauve with the startling strength of pa.s.sion. He wanted to feel her arms wrap around him.

But the smoke was coming again. The powder. And people were shouting; they were at war again. The war was over, but the fighting hadn't ended.

It was the Indians. It wasn't the Indians. That was it. They could dress up all they chose, but they were not Indians. They had Tess. he couldn't remember. yes! They had Tess, they had ridden away with her. By G.o.d!

What they would do with her! He awoke and jerked up. A staggering pain seized his temple, and he cried out hoa.r.s.ely, grabbing his head. The pain slowly subsided to a dull thudding, and he opened his Jori was sitting in front of him, watching him. Jamie groaned again.

"what the h.e.l.l happened? Where's Tess?"

"Von Heusen's pseudo-Comancbe," Jon said calmly, still studying him; Alarmed, beginning to remember much more clearly everything that had happened, Jamie sat up. He saw that his legs were bare, that he had only been covered with blankets, and he saw that Dolly and Jane and Hank were hovering anxiously behind Jon. He gritted his teeth against the new pain that had come with his movement, frowning.

"Tess?"

"She was gone."

"Gone! And you didn't go for her"

"Wait a minute, my friend," Jori warned him.

"You were supposed to have been dead--that's the way they left you.

You would have been dead, if I hadn't brought you here. I couldn't trail them in the dark"--" You can trail anyone!" Jamie savagely reminded him.

" Not when they ran the river, not without some light," Jon said'.

"But I did find out where they're taking her."

"Where?"

Jamie exploded. The sound of the word seemed to reverberate in his skull, and he grabbed it in an effort to ease the savagepain.

"They're taking her to the Comancheros. And the Comancheros are taking her to a renegade Apache chief down in Mexico named Nalte."

Jamie grabbed a blanket and staggered to his feet. Dolly cried out softly then scolded him, "Jamie Slater. What do you think you're doing?

You can't go anywhere" -- Jon had risen, too.

"Sit down, Jamie. rll go."

"No! It's my fault they took her. I'm going after her."

"You're in no condition" -- "I'm in d.a.m.n fine condition!" Jamie roared.

The sound of his own voice ravaged his temple. He shook his head.

"I.

need my pants. And if you don't want to be offend&t, Jane and Dolly, I need you two ladies to disappear. Now!"

"Jamie Slater" -- Dolly began. But he was already rising.

"Jamie" -- She turned around, pinkening. Jane let out a little gasp and went tearing up the stairs.

"Want to wait until I've got some clothes for you?" Jon asked dryly.

"I'll throw something down the stairs," Dolly said. She let out an indignant little snort.

"Although what good you think you're going to do that girl when you can barely hold your head up, I don't know." "I'll be with him," Jon said.

Dolly was heading up the stairs.

"I'll go saddle up your horse," Hank told Jamie, heading out.

Jamie nodded his thanks, then confronted Jon.

"You can't come with me. I need you here."

"You can't ride alone. You're in no shape to do so."

"Then I'll let you come as far as the border. Maybe we'll catch up with them before that. If not, you'll have to turn back.

Jon, once I go after Tess, you'll be the only one who can stand against yon Heusen here. You've got to do it." He shuddered and sat on the sofa.

"Comancheros! She could already be dead! And after yon Heusen's men" -- He broke off, white, panicked.

"I'll kill him," he swore.

"I'll kill yon Heusen with my bare hands, and every other man who came near her.

Jesus, Jon, it was my own d.a.m.ned fault"--" This was going on long before you came into it, Jamie. They meant to kill her on that wagon train. And it's not as bad as you think. Von Heusen's men won't touch her, and the Comancheros won't touch her, because Nalte wants his golden blond for himself, so I learned at the saloon."

" At the saloon?"

"There's a wh.o.r.e there named Rosy who knows yon Heusen well--personally, that is. Every once in a while yon Heusen sends for her, and she goes out to his ranch. Last time she was there, he was sending out messages and making plans. This Nalte has always wanted a blond woman for a bride. You know the Apache. They usually only take one wife, unless they consider themselves well able to afford more than one. Nalte does very well. He has an Indian bride, but he wants a white woman, too. A blond white woman. And his requirements go a little further. He wants an innocent white woman."

Jamie stared at Jori blankly, then his face began to pale again.

Jon frowned, then slowly sucked in his breath.

"She isn't an innocent white woman any more, is that it?"

"Jamie Slater, here are your pants!" Dolly cried, dropping a pair of trousers down the staircase. Jamie wrapped the blanket around his waist and went to retrieve them. His hands were shaking as he stumbled into his pants.

Dolly tossed down a s.h.i.+rt, and he shrugged it on also. "Jamie?" Jon said.

Jamie paused, looking at his friend.

"Maybe they won't know. I doubt it's something that Tess is going to rush around telling them," Jori suggested.

"First, yon Heusen's men are going to have to be d.a.m.ned afraid of him not to hurt her," Jamie said.

"Then the Comancheros. Who the h.e.l.l ever trusted a Comanchero?" He strode to the sofa and stared at Jori.

"I've got to catch up with them before they get to this Nalte. Or I'll have to try to talk to Nalte himself."

"Yes, you'll very definitely have to talk to him," Jon said gravely.

"And carefully, Jamie. Nalte will not be easy to deal with. He's watched wars and treaties go by for years, and he is a law entirely unto himself. He eschews everything white--except for the white men's guns, horses and women.

He moved his people into the mountains when the white men took over the plains, rather than have to deal with them.

"He keeps to the old ways. His women do not buy cotton for their dresses, and his scouts do not wear cotton s.h.i.+rts. He moves about in a breech clout as do his braves in summer, in winter he warms himself with hides and furs.

He is also intelligent, astute and very dangerous--an Apache to the core."

Hank had come in.

"You need the cavalry," he said. Jamie shook his head.

"No, Hank. No. If I do that, they might ?dll her. If I don't catch up with them before they hand her over to Nalte, I'll have to speak with him personally and convince him to give her back. I_t's our only chance." Listen Hank, yon Heusen is going to think that he has both Tess and me out of the picture. If anyone comes around, act as if you haven't seen either of us. That lawyer will let out the information about the will, and that will stall yon Heusen for a little while."

He paused, then strode over to the big desk, sat and drew out a piece of paper. He wrote on it quickly.

"Now Hank, you make sure that this telegraph gets out today, you understand?

It's real important."

"Yes, Lieutenant Slater, I understand."

"Good. Jon will be back soon, and if I've any luck at all, I'll bring Tess home to you again." He paused.

"If not, Hank, you hold tight. Help will come. Von Heusen isn't going to win this one." He stood again, gritting his teeth.

I'll be d.a.m.ned in h.e.l.l a thousand times over before I let yon Heusen win this one!" He strode around the desk again in his bare feet.

"Hank, I need a pair of boots that will fit me."

"Sure thing, Lieutenant.

I'll find you something." Jamie nodded.

"Jon--I need new guns."

In silence, Jon left to fulfill the request. They'd come with plenty of guns, and he would know what Jamie wanted and what he needed.

Twenty minutes later the guns were a.s.sembled and Jon and Jamie were ready to ride out. Dolly had made some coffee, and Jamie drank some quickly, wincing as the hot liquid filled him. He felt a twitch at his temple and felt the st.i.tches there for the first time.

"You sewed me up, Dolly?"

"As pretty as a young girl's ball gown, Jamie."

"Thanks."

They moved outside. Jamie and Jon mounted with the others looking on.

"You bring Tess home now, you hear?" Hank said. "Please, please, bring her home!" Jane added, her large doe eyes wide and damp.

Jamie smiled at Jane.

"I'll bring her home. I promise, Jane. I'll bring her home, or I'll die trying."

He tugged on the reins, and he and Jon turned their mounts and started off.

The sun was rising already. It was falling in orange and gold splotches across the dry earth. Beyond them, it s.h.i.+mmered upon the mesas.

He'd been out a long time, Jamie reckoned. And von Heusen's men had already had Tess for a long time.

His muscles clenched tight, his jaw locked, he d.a.m.ned himself again and again for what had happened. He should have been more careful. They never should have had the opportunity to sneak up on him. h.e.l.l, if he'd been that careless during the war, he'd have been dead half a dozen times over.

He'd always been so d.a.m.ned good: he could hear a twig drop in a forest, he could hear the rustle of trees when it wasn't just the wind, he could hear bare footsteps against the dry ~rth. But when it had mattered, he had failed.

He'd failed Tess. He'd forgotten everything, staring into her violet-hued eyes, feeling her against him, hearing the whisper of her voice, the tremor of her words. He'd just had to prove something.