Broken Wings (11 page)

As if staring at them through a haze,
the birds seemed to dance playfully in the sky. She pointed to them
and looked at Billy. “Did you see that?”

“
What?”

“
The birds.”

“
No...” Billy gazed at the
sky through the windshield. “I don’t see any birds,” he said, but
continued to look for them.

But the eagles were gone.

He turned the key and started the
engine. As he steered the Jeep onto the road and rounded the first
curve, the same black SUV was parked on the side of the
road.

Both Rio and Billy eyed their unwanted
company as they passed them by.

~~~~

CHAPTER 21

Billy rolled out his father’s topo map
across his dining room table. He pinned the edges down with a
couple of mugs and the salt and pepper shakers.

“
The snipe hunt is a good
idea,” she said. “It’s a good cover while we try and figure out
where the treasure’s buried.”

“
We can lead them on a wild
goose chase...day in and day out.” That wasn’t hard. Nobody knew
these hills like Billy.

“
So, where do we
start?”

“
Want to close your eyes and
throw a dart?” he asked with a broad smile.

“
Very funny.” She rolled her
eyes and chuckled.

There wasn’t any rhyme—although there
was some reason—to the next few steps they chose to take. All Billy
knew was, there were some guys following them around and he had no
idea why. He could easily guess they were after something. But
didn’t know what. He didn’t have anything for anybody to want. Not
as far as he could see. So, they must want what he was
after.

By now, the thought that Rio may know
more than she was letting on hadn’t crossed his mind. Maybe he’d
been a bit suspicious of her in the beginning, but his father
trusted her and that was good enough for him. Besides, now that
he’d gotten to know her he felt a certain sort of kinship with her.
There was a connection between them. One that ran so much deeper
than the treasure they were after. Billy assumed it was because
they were cousins.

In the course of their snipe hunt, they
picked out random sights and started digging. The way Billy saw it;
if the bad guys didn’t do anything but watch them dig, that’d say a
lot about their motives.

While Turner’s goons watched from afar,
Rio found it easy to lead them around at will. Billy chose sites,
ones that made it convenient for their friends to watch from
afar—which is exactly what they did, and nothing more.

Billy had started to think that maybe
someone had overheard them somewhere along the way, and decided to
wait until he and Rio found the treasure before making their move.
If that were the case, he was determined to confuse them and guide
them in the direction he wanted them to go. He figured it was the
least he could do since they were determined to let him do all the
dirty work.

Billy and Rio instigated a
well-thought-out plan. They’d picked out a spot, gone up to it and
started digging. After awhile he threw the shovel down, she’d
reciprocated and they started pointing at each other and waving
their hands in the air.

From a distance, it looked like they
were arguing. And for Turner’s goons, Taylor and Biggs, it seemed
real. At least through a pair of binoculars.

But how long could this wild goose
chase continue? Sooner or later, even the dumbest of dimwits would
eventually catch on. Ultimately, Rio and Billy knew they had to
come up with a better plan. For instance, one that would actually
lead them to the treasure would be nice.

If they figured out how to find the
treasure though, they’d also have to come up with a plan to deal
with their “friends”.

Billy was going to have to be the
brains behind this operation because, these days, Rio had a
one-track mind. She was even on the verge of starting to feel
guilty about deceiving the Tajan family.

But Rio had become completely
captivated by the story of Maggie and Tajan—she couldn’t help
herself. All she wanted to do was learn more about the couple’s
ill-fated romance. Then there was that thing with the pictures up
in Virginia City, as well as the remarkable incident on the boulder
up at Lake Tahoe. And it was all topped off by the way she freaked
out at the site where Maggie and Tajan died.

Somewhere in the dark recesses of her
mind, Rio got that there were strange things happening to her. But
she was much too consumed with the tragic love story to let her
brain flag the mysterious peculiarities as a problem.

~~~~

PART FOUR

THE REUNION

~~~~

CHAPTER 22

Maggie and her sisters grew up on their
grandfather’s farm in central California. Their father had run off
when her mother was pregnant with Mary. At the time, Maggie was six
and Molly was three. As a result, Maggie was the only one who had
any real memories of their father. Their mother died of a fever
when Maggie was ten. Being the eldest, it was put upon her to take
on part of the responsibilities for her younger sisters, right
alongside her grandfather.

But things had changed. Maggie was all
grown up and Molly was dead. Carrying on without Molly was one of
the hardest undertakings Maggie and Mary would ever face. They
weren’t weak women though, so they mourned their sister and then
got on with the business of living.

The first few weeks back home were pure
hell for Maggie. She missed Tajan something fierce. It was hard not
talking to him, or seeing his smile, or feeling his touch. Lost and
alone, she was sure she was destined to live a lifetime of
emptiness.

Then something wonderful happened. Like
a gift from heaven, she discovered she was pregnant. She saw the
baby as a gift from God, sent specifically to help ease the pain of
her loss.

In February of 1864, Maggie gave birth
to a baby boy whom she named Tajan, after his father. Because her
own father had disappeared from her life, not a day went by that
she didn’t feel guilty and remorseful for depriving her son of his
father.

She missed Tajan so much that her
misery was like a steel weight. But every time she looked into her
baby’s eyes, the child did help to ease the sorrow. If only a
little bit.

While Maggie had spent the entire
winter preparing for the birth of her child, Tajan had spent it
trying to get over losing her. He hadn’t had much success. The
thing that had made it so hard was he was trapped. During the
winter months the mountainous terrain was harsh on the tribe. Every
year, as the fall brought on cooler weather, the people began their
preparations for the unforgiving snowbound winter to come. The
entire camp would pack up, disperse and move down into the valley
areas along the Nevada side of the lake. Trekking over that
mountain wasn’t an option during the winter.

By the time spring broke, the snow had
eased up in the hills and Tajan talked himself into going after
Maggie. He’d made up his mind. He was either going to bring her
back here to live with him among his people, or they would strike
out on their own. But either way they’d be together, and she’d be
back where she belonged. With him.

* * *

On a spring day in April, when baby
Tajan was about two months old, Maggie was outside tending to the
task of hanging the freshly washed laundry out in the warm
California sun. Several rows of clothing, including baby articles
and sheets, swayed in the wind.

Maggie was among the rows of laundry
hanging clothes and such on the line. Baby Tajan cooed in the
basket on the ground next to her. She looked at him and smiled. “Hi
sweetie…” she crooned, “are you having a good time outside with
Momma?”

The baby had been Maggie’s
saving-grace. If God hadn’t seen fit to bless her with this
beautiful baby boy, she would’ve never been able to get over the
heartbreak of losing Tajan.

Her sister Mary had been out in the
garden gathering vegetables. Heading back toward the house, she was
the first to see the Indian on horseback riding their
way.

She did a quick scan of the horizon and
felt a measure of relief that he appeared to be alone. “Maggie…”
She kept her voice low and calm.

Maggie peered out over the line of
laundry and gasped at the sight of the figure off in the distance.
She knew it was Tajan. She looked down at the baby and said with a
smile, “Your Daddy’s here.”

Emerging from the clothesline maze, she
headed out to meet him. At first she took casual steps, but that
didn’t last long as her need to be in his arms got the better of
her. Tossing her pride aside, she ran to him.

Tajan slid off his horse and rushed
toward her, swinging her into the circle of his arms. He was
overcome with a long-awaited sense of relief. When her tears fell,
he kissed them away.

“
You’re here…” she
whispered, caressing the length of his hair. “I can’t believe
you’re here.”

Maggie’s cheeks warmed as he pressed
his lips against hers. But before giving in to her powerful need to
get lost in him, she managed to break the spell. “I have someone I
want you to meet.” She contained her enthusiasm as she tugged at
his hand, leading him back toward the house.

They strolled together, arm in arm, not
seeing or caring about anything but each other. Approaching the
clotheslines, she clutched his hand tighter and led him into the
maze. The baby was still resting quietly in the basket where she’d
left him. She picked him up and turned to Tajan. “This is your
son.”

“
My son?” Tajan’s words were
in English and they came weaker than he’d anticipated. But that
didn’t stop him from taking the baby and embracing him within the
security of his arms. “My son.” He peered down at him. “You and my
son will return with me,” he said to Maggie while still gazing at
the baby.

“
Yes.” Maggie’s answer was
delivered quickly and with certainty. “We’ll go with you. But I
want to wait until my grandfather returns. Will you stay here with
me until he gets back?”

Tajan’s smile seemed to reach out and
caress her cheek. He pulled her to him and pressed his lips to hers
with a sweet, gentle kiss. “You give him name?”

“
Like his father,” she said,
“his name is Tajan.”

That didn’t make much sense to Tajan.
As far as he could see, the child needed his own identity. It
wasn’t his custom to label a child as an extension of oneself. Even
so, he agreed because that’s what Maggie wanted. If naming their
son after him made her happy, then he was more than willing to
accommodate her. He simply chalked the naming practice up to
another one of the white man’s crazy ways.

* * *

Maggie’s eyes flew open. There was
nothing but complete silence and darkness. Emerging from her
slumber, she realized that she was in her bed. Her next lucid
insight was that Tajan wasn’t in the bed with her. She sprang up,
trying to recall some little something to prove that his arrival
hadn’t been a dream. Scanning the room, she saw him sleeping
peacefully on the floor.

She pulled a couple of blankets down
onto the floor and made herself a pallet. Pulling another quilt off
the bed, she snuggled up next to him and spread the cover over
them.

Tajan stirred. His eyes remained closed
as a smile curled on the tips of his mouth. He slid his arm around
her. “I am sorry.” He opened his eyes. “The white man’s bed is much
soft.”

Maggie laid her finger against his
lips. “Shh…it doesn’t matter. You’re here now and that’s all that
matters.” She kissed him with a hunger that contradicted her
outward calm.

“
I could not stay away,” The
caress of his lips lips sent the pit of her stomach into a wild
swirl. “You promise me—” His voice hardened. “—you do not leave
again.”

Maggie giggled. “You may live to regret
that some day.” Her head fit perfectly in the hollow between his
shoulder and neck. “Death is the only thing that will ever take me
away from you again.”

~~~~

CHAPTER 23

Bradford Fuller returned the next day.
Maggie and Mary greeted him on the back porch and coaxed him with a
gentle reverence to get him into the living room.

As soon as his gaze fell upon Tajan,
anxiety flickered on his face like a candle’s flame sputtering in
the wind. Maggie fidgeted. Her grandfather was going to object to
her returning to the tribe with Tajan. She didn’t want to go
against him, but she hadn’t the strength to leave Tajan
again.

Bradford didn’t have anything against
Tajan personally. As a matter of fact, he liked him very well. The
issue was not Tajan’s heritage.

He couldn’t get past the feeling that
Maggie would be found out up there, being so close to the scene of
the crime and Molly’s death. If a trader got a look at her, he’d
associate her with the woman killed during the bank robbery because
Maggie and Molly looked so much alike. Therefore, she’d be deemed
one of Molly’s accomplices who’d gotten away.