Comanche Haven (The Loflin Legacy: Book 1) Read online

  The older man wheeled with his revolver in his hand. “Holy mother of…” Panic gripped his words as he scanned the top of the bluff. “We didn’t do nothing!” His words bounced off the steep embankment as his head darted back and forth searching for Seth. Water slouched under foot as the woman backed away stunned and shaking.

  The assailant’s next words vibrated with fear off the bluff wall. “Look, Loflin, it was all a mistake. She came on to us! We didn’t do nothing wrong.”

  “Or maybe I got here just in time.” Seth’s voice was hard with anger and irony. “You made one mistake I’m sure of, ReMour.”

  The man’s eyes settled on Seth as he emerged from the scrub bushes. Gaining a bit of his bravado back, he yelled, “Yeah, what’s that, Loflin?”

  “Stealing from me. You know I can’t abide a thief.” Seth raised his rifle, centered the site on the one he called ReMour and yelled. “We can handle this one of two ways. You can turn yourself in peaceable to the sheriff or we can take care of the problem right here and right now, your choice.”

  ReMour’s lips peeled back in a sardonic sneer. “The almighty Loflin lost some of his precious money at the Tyler Savings and Loan. Big fuckin’ deal. You got plenty more where that came from. I’ll tell ya what, Loflin.”

  Seth watched as the robber’s hand shook. “What, you son-of-a-bitch?”

  “I’ll make a deal with ya.” ReMour watched Seth with one eye squinted against the sun’s glare.

  “Go on.”

  “Let me go and I’ll leave the money and the girl goes free. That’s fair ain’t it?”

  “You’re turning yourself in, ReMour. Or, we settle it now. That’s the deal. No harm comes to the woman either way cause she stays with me. That’s fair.”

  Seth waited.

  ReMour’s next move was lightning fast. His gun was out of the holster and his hand came down on the hammer in a gunslinger’s repeating trick shot as the woman stumbled backward into the water.

  Seth pulled the trigger. Within an instant, it was over. ReMour’s jerky forward motion made him resemble a marionette’s puppet before he landed face first in the creek.

  Death was a sticky business but in self-defense or the defense of another, Seth saw no other choice. Shoving his gun back into its scarab, he mounted up and headed down the steep embankment to the water’s edge and the woman who struggled still to get out of the sucking mud of the Shooter Creek. Her body glistened in the late afternoon sunlight as she did her best to get out. Seth wondered at the strange sense that he’d seen her before. She cursed low with the verbiage most often reserved for a man as she struggled to free herself from the mud. Her voice sounded familiar, but he couldn’t be sure this far from the water. Still the feeling that he knew her nagged at him, causing Seth to move more quickly in her direction. The odds were great that he was wrong but his gut told him different.

  Wet hair and meager clothing wasn’t a good combination with night setting in. Seth knew what the cold could do to a person’s body. It would be dark soon. Figuring the water was several degrees colder than the air already, Seth knew he’d have a half-chilled woman on his hands. She wouldn’t last long under those circumstances.

  ***

  Carrying the blanket from his saddlebag, Seth rushed forward as he saw the woman slump into the water. She’d fainted dead away! He reached her and gathered her up in his arms. Freeing her foot, he carried her to the bank before splaying the blanket and depositing her in the middle. Wrapped in a cocoon, she moaned and her eyelids fluttered open. Another kind of surprise swept over him as he lifted the hair from her face, only this one had the welcoming force of a warm zephyr. He wondered with all that had happened, if he wasn’t hallucinating. “Celia?” Seconds ticked by before he found his voice again. “What are you doing out here? Where’s Broken Horse?” His temper got the better of him as he checked her pulse and watched her eyes focus again. “Damnation, Celia! Are you all right?” The realization of what could have happened set in and had his next words started with an oath. “Damn it, what happened to Broken Horse?

  “He’s dead.” Grief flooded her beautiful green eyes. “Seth?” She breathed his name and his heart constricted.

  “Broken Horse?” she whispered.

  Without thinking, Seth took his hand and brushed the remaining strands of hair from her face. Her skin was like burnished gold in the waning light. “I’ll start a fire and then look for him,” he muttered, irritated at the effect she always had on him. Her hair in his hands felt like silk and brought back too many old memories. He couldn’t think about those now.

  Celia rose up, leaning on her elbow, and pulled the blanket close. Still shaking, she inhaled and then slowly released the breath on a shudder. “Broken Horse, they, they killed him,” She said quietly.

  Seth stopped picking up the wood needed for a fire. Glancing back, he saw a subdued, traumatized woman in the throes of misery. Celia’s cousin had been a loyal friend, one Seth had depended on many years before. Cursing low, he turned to go back and kneel beside her. “This should never have happened. Christ!” Her teeth chattering as she tried in vain to stop the tremors racking her body. Vague and disoriented, she hadn’t recovered her equilibrium completely, he mused and he was swearing at her. Seth cursed again at his own stupidity.

  “What are you doing?” she asked shakily.

  Seth glanced back at the small pile of wood he’d managed to stack for her. “Gonna build you a fire. Take off those wet clothes.”

  “I will not!”

  The retort came from a very feminine proprietary bank of right and wrong. “You’re coming around,” he told her with a half grin. “Temper’s good. It’ll get your blood flowing again.”

  “You’ve got some nerve telling me to remove my clothes.”

  Seth turned on his haunches and couldn’t keep the smile off his face. “Well, darlin’, seeing as how you have very few on and they’re dripping wet, I thought you wouldn’t mind an attempt at getting warm.” His command must have caught her by surprise and, as her mind cleared, Celia gasped and shot back, using defiance as a shield.

  “And just how do you propose I do that?” Celia queried haughtily.

  Agitated, fired up at having to take a man’s life and now aggravated at having to deal with a woman’s sense of proper made him want to curse at the moon appearing in the east above the tree line. “Look, all I meant was I would build you a fire and get some dry clothes for you. That’s all!” Seth wiped at the air between them. Shoving up, he cursed low and glared back in her direction. He couldn’t much blame her for her suspicions. After all, she’d almost been raped. She had a right to be defensive, but not at the risk of dying from the cold and wet.

  Seth stalked back to the pile of limbs and wood he’d managed to arrange in a stack for the fire.

  She eyed him warily as she tugged harder on the blanket.

  The look she sent him had “Go to hell” emblazoned all over it. Anger made a person’s blood move. “That’s more like it. I could always piss you off in a heartbeat.” His grin was lopsided as he took in her reaction once more. “Suit yourself, but if you don’t, I’m gonna have to come over there and undress you. I’m just saying you have a choice right now.” Shrugging, he went back to his fire building and pretended to dismiss her. From under his Stetson, he observed her. She’d been through hell and didn’t need his threats, just his help, he mused. A long ago memory flashed in his mind’s eye of the same such threat he’d used in getting her naked one cool spring evening all those years ago. Did she remember as well the first time they’d made love by the creek?

  Blinking, Celia sent a futile gaze to the creek and the myriad of clothing and bags lay strewn about or floated in the shallow water of the creek. Seth’s gaze followed hers and he realized her attackers had seen to it the creek looked like wash day at an all girl’s school. She didn’t own a dry stitch of clothing at the moment and darkness was falling. “Here, I’ll help you.”

  “No!” Her eyes
grew big with the suggestion. “I can manage.” Turning her back on him, Celia held the blanket with one hand while she undid buttons with the other.

  Cursing himself for a fool, Seth watched her undress behind the blanket’s protection. He remembered all too well, what she looked like in the altogether. “Throw them here. I’ll stake them out to dry,” he said as he managed to tamp down the urge building inside him.

  Soon the camisole went sailing through the air and before long, the pantalets followed.

  Seth stood up and shrugged out of his coat. “Here, put this on.”

  Celia automatically stiffened in defense. She’d done her best to cover herself with the scratchy wool blanket and Seth could tell when she decided there had to be a another way.

  Her brow knit in decision. “Maybe the coat would offer more warmth,” she said aloud after a considerable contemplation. Seth held it out to her by the lapels.

  Celia bit her lip, extended her arm, and snatched the coat from Seth’s grasp. Immediately grateful for the warmth of the large sleeve opening, Celia sighed as she slipped her arm into the big canvas coat, unconsciously rubbing the sleeve of the coat up and down in nervous appreciation. Though he’d seen her knee-deep in the creek water with her undergarments plastered provocatively to her body, she continued to clutch the two ends of the blanket tightly together under the coat. Seth watched and decided the tactic afforded her some small measure of modesty and control. Since she’d had both taken from her, he saw no reason to argue.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  “My pleasure,” Mildly surprised, he shot her a grin before touching his fingertips to the edge of his Stetson. “You always were able to surprise me, darlin’.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?” She stared up at him ready to fight, he stared down at her in challenge, before turning toward to his horse and saddlebags. “Here,” he said as he handed her a pair of pants and socks and effectively cutting off her question. “They may be a bit big, but under the circumstances, they’re better than nothing.” Fighting with a frightened, disoriented woman wasn’t going to help either of them. He’d come to the conclusion as she wrapped the coat tight around her.

  With one hand on the coat and another on the blanket, Celia hesitantly sat before shooting a look out at the water and the dead men floating among her clothing. “You have to see to Broken Horse? There are bear and wolves in the woods aren’t there?”

  Seth noted her tone, though weighted with concern was almost hysterical. He couldn’t help the tug at his heart as he hunkered down to help her pull on the pants. “I’ll go as soon as I’m sure you’re warm. A person can die from exposure to the cold.” With a gentleness he rarely displayed for anyone, Seth eased Celia to her feet, securing the pants in place with a leather thong from his bag. “Better?”

  Celia nodded and then searched his eyes. “Are you going to look for Broken Horse?” she implored. The words spoken so plainly sounded brittle and devastated. He was about to answer when she closed her eyes and moaned. “Are you all right? Celia, look at me.” Seth found his fingers reached out and gently brushed the swelling under her eye and along her chin.

  Celia winced.

  “It’s okay. I won’t hurt you. Yes, I’m going to check on Broken Horse. Tell me where he might be, can you?” She broke the eye contact with him. His hand stilled and simply held her cheek.

  She relaxed a fraction. “That way,” she whispered. In only the briefest of moments, Celia reached out and gently braced her fingers on his forearm. “I am fine…really.” Glancing over his shoulder, Celia took a good look at the younger of her two attackers floating in the water. “We were ambushed. They were bank robbers.” Celia grimaced.

  Seth watched her face and the pain, which crossed it. Sometimes talking helped, so he let her continue.

  “They just appeared out of nowhere on the other side of the creek. We could hear them hooting and carrying on about all the money they’d stolen as they watered their horses. They hadn’t seen us yet.” Celia looked back at Seth’s face and her mouth started to tremble. “Broken Horse…” She gripped Seth’s forearm tighter, her eyes never leaving his. “Broken Horse…he tried to protect me!” She turned from his hold and stumbled. “I’ve got to go to him.”

  Seth reached out and caught her about the waist. “Easy…”

  Coming back from the hysteria, Celia gently, she laid her hands over his. “I have to go to him, Dark Wolf. I have to see to him.”

  Her touch warmed him in a way he remembered so well. His Comanche name sounded so right on her tongue. “Easy…I’ll see to Broken Horse,” he said gently.

  His arms circled her and Seth couldn’t stop the need to pull her into his embrace. The contact almost undid him. Yes, Seth had to admit, it was good to hold her, if only for a moment. Celia leaned in and Seth gathered her close. “You’re safe.”

  Rather than give in to the burning need she called up in him, Seth released her and swept off a spot on the log near the fire. “Sit down before you fall.” He motioned toward the log. After removing her water soaked boots and briskly rubbing her feet, Seth eased back, resting an elbow on his knee and simply stared at her. “I’m sorry for what my men did.”

  Celia looked up from putting on the socks and nodded automatically. She even gave him a tremulous smile. Then her mouth sagged slightly as the realization of what he’d just said dawned on her. The surge of righteous temper, which erupted, should have warned him. “Your men? Those were your men?” Her eyes narrowed on him like a judge and juries’. “Have you taken to robbing banks now?” She asked him incredulously. “Are you a criminal as well?”

  Seth’s mouth thinned but he took the accusation with abloom. His low, throaty chuckle escaped unbidden as he shook his head in disbelief.

  Celia opened her mouth to reproach him but shut it again. “Surely, you’re not going to make light of my question.”

  He glanced up at the sky as if seeking assistance. When his eyes returned to hers, they were defiant and hard as stone.

  “To relieve your worry over my current occupation, the answer is no. I haven’t taken to robbing banks. I hired those two trail-mites about a month ago.”

  Celia continued to scrutinize him. Her baleful expression was full of suspicion.

  Seth rose to stand. He couldn’t help becoming the cowboy defending his position. “We take on extra hands for the spring calving season. A strong back and a willingness to work are about all that’s required of a man when he signs on.” Removing his Stetson, he knocked it against his leather-clad thigh in a display of frustration. “Look, I said I’m sorry.”

  Celia glared at him before wiping the air to encompass the scene before them. Pointing to the location, she’d last seen her cousin, Celia shot back, “They did this to us. Broken Horse is dead…and…and…” Her eyes dropped to the ground in front of her. Tears filled them. With a set to her chin, she regained some of her composure before looking directly at him. “My family will come looking for Broken Horse and me.”

  “I know, Celia.” He uttered the words with subdued sincerity.

  Celia blinked. “Deep down, I want to believe you didn’t sanction those men or their actions.” She gave him a quick glance from lowered lashes. “You did kill them,” she said contemplatively. “You saved my life.” Celia dug her hands into the deep pockets of the pants, studying the ground intently. “But maybe, you wanted the money for yourself.” She glanced at him then trying to decipher what she saw in his face. Shaking her head, she took a step toward him. “No, I think you’re telling the truth. That’s good enough for now.”

  Seth released the breath he didn’t realize he was holding. Despite his feelings, what she saw in him was important.

  “They’ll want revenge for Broken Horse’s death. My people may come looking for trouble.” The words were hard for her to admit. “For that I am sorry,” she said. The rush of tears, which welled in her lashes, had her looking up and off into the trees. Instead, the tilt of her head b
rought the tears rolling down both of her cheeks in long slow trails.

  “Try not to do that, Celia. Awe, hell…” Seth bit down on the rest of his request.

  Celia swiped at her cheeks before shaking her head vehemently. “I won’t cry.” Her voice wobbled over the declaration as she sniffed. With another quick swipe, Celia dried her face.

  Seth produced his handkerchief before looking out over the creek while she gathered herself. “You put up one hell of a fight.” Nodding reassuringly, Seth glanced back at her. “I’m glad I got here before…” Trailing off he released a slow uneasy breath. “Look, I can’t….”

  “Before they raped me?” Effectively cutting him off, she peered up at him with a bit more clarity. Harsh and real, the words had come out unbidden. The undiluted truth must have been like a slap of cold water in the face, but one she needed, he mused.

  “I wasn’t gonna say that.” He sighed. “You shouldn’t dwell on it.”

  The truth seemed to calm her. She looked him right in the eyes. “I won’t.” Squaring her chin, Celia shook her head slowly. “I suppose you expect me to dissolve into a weeping mass of lace and fuss after such an attack. But I’ve never used the response to defend myself. I won’t dwell on anything.” She sniffed again and looked away.

  Seth continued to watch her without saying a word.

  “I can feel you staring at me. Please stop it. It’s so very irritating.” Celia folded her arms across her chest making the shoulders of the coat stand up at attention on either side of her lovely neck. “Is it quite necessary for you to study me so closely?”

  Seth said nothing, only continued to stare.

  “After all, I haven’t melted into a hysterical pool of fluff and fuss, so why must you continue to watch me so closely? I’ll be okay. I’ve seen dead people before.” She’d made the statement with far more bravado than she represented, he mused.

  Stepping to his horse, Seth unhooked his canteen from the saddle and came back to her. “Here, drink this. It’s water. I don’t have any whiskey on me or I’d make you drink some.”