White Shadows (20 page)

Watching Henry carefully, Clay felt helpless. If he moved any closer he’d lose his sister. If he did nothing he’d lose the woman he loved—then his sister, for he had no doubt that Henry would kill them both.

“Let them go, Henry.” He had to stall his enemy.

Henry laughed. “Not a chance, old friend. They know too much.” Henry pulled Jenny toward the edge, where Winona stood. “If you try anything, Clay Blue Hawk, I will kill them both. If I die, so be it. But you will know that you caused the death of your sister.”

Frustrated and afraid as never before, Clay let his gaze dart around, seeking anything that might help him. Somewhere behind him Dream Walker waited to help. But until Henry released Jenny, there was nothing anyone could do. Any abrupt move from him would force Henry to kill one if not both of the girls.

Clay’s gaze snapped back to the ridge below Henry. He blinked once. Twice. Then a third time. Hidden in the rocks a short distance down from Henry, Clay saw a child. He quickly realized it was one of Winona’s nephews.

He stifled a groan. Could this get any worse? He saw the small bow in the boy’s hands.

Now he had to worry about a child trying to be a warrior.

What kind of family did Winona have? Women and children in a war party, and small boys creeping up hills with bows and arrows? Where was Winona’s father and his warriors? Hell, where were his own warriors?

As the boy got closer, Clay saw the look of steely determination on the boy’s face and readied himself. There was no doubt that a small arrow was going to be let loose. He caught the boy’s gaze.
Wait,
Clay tried to communicate.

Clay shifted to the side. Henry shifted as well.

“Not another move, Clay Blue Hawk, or I kill your bratty sister.”

Clay froze. Satisfied, Henry took the knife from Jenny’s throat long enough to motion to Winona to jump.

“Now!” Clay shouted at the same time that a miniature arrow flew from the bow.

Startled, Henry jerked back, then screamed when the arrow flew into his backside. Clay moved fast. First he grabbed Jenny as she threw herself forward, then he whipped his knife from behind his back where he’d hidden it.

“Now it is just you and me.” He noted the blood running down Henry’s leg.

Breathing hard, Henry crouched. “You should have died.”

Clay shrugged. “You failed.”

Without glancing away from Henry, Clay spoke to Winona, who had scrambled away from the edge. “Take Jenny and go.”

“I am not going anywhere,” Winona said behind him.

“This is not the time to argue,” Clay ground out. “Take my sister to safety.”

“No, Clay. I am not leaving you.”

He heard a scrambling noise behind him but dared not take his eyes off Henry.

“Your woman and sister are stubborn,” Dream Walker said from behind him.

Clay breathed out a sigh of relief. “It is about time you showed up,” he said.

“I saw the boy and didn’t want to disappoint by shooting first.” He paused. “He did well.”

Clay grunted. “Take the women and get them to safety.”

“He will not take us anywhere,” Jenny argued. She stepped to her brother’s side. “He took away our family. He took me from you. Let him die a slow death—like our family.”

Henry licked his lips and dropped his knife. He held out his hands. “Go ahead. Kill me,” he said with a sneer.

Clay shook his head. “Pick up your knife. We fight.”

“No. You want to kill me, then do it.”

“Fight me, coward.”

Henry smiled and took a step back. “If I die, you will never know the truth. You will never know why my father killed yours.”

Clay stalked his prey. “Your father was a coward. He killed his best friend over a damn game of cards.”

Shifting his eyes to the side, Henry shook his head. He gave a half bark of nervous laughter. “You fool. My father killed yours because he learned that Clayton Coburn had raped my mother.” His lips twisted with hate.

“You lie.” Clay jumped forward, grabbed Henry’s knife and tossed it. The weapon landed buried in the ground between Henry’s legs. “Pick it up.”

“No. We are brothers. Your father is my father.” Henry held out his arms. “Can you kill your own brother?”

Clay felt sick at the cruel joke. “You are no brother of mine.”

Henry nodded toward Dream Walker. “Ask your good friend. He knows the truth. He will say I speak true.”

Without taking his eyes off Henry Black Bear, Clay shook his head. “You go too far, Henry.” Henry Black Bear would soon die, and the murders of his family would be avenged.

Dream Walker walked over and joined him, standing to one side but not between the two men. “He speaks the truth.”

Startled, Clay glanced from Henry to Dream Walker. “You expect me to believe that this man is my brother? How is that possible? I cannot believe it.”

“In this, your enemy speaks the truth.” Sadness tinged Dream Walker’s voice.

Clay felt ill. Was he still sick? Weak, ready to pass out again? “If this is true, why have you never spoken of it to me?”

“It is the truth. Just as he is your brother, sharing the same father, I am your brother.”

“We have always been brothers, you and I. Your family adopted me. My family did not adopt him.” Frustration rose in day. He wanted to fight, not talk.

Dream Walker shifted so he could see both men. “You do not understand. You are my blood brother. We share the same mother, while you and Henry share the same father.”

“Impossible.” Clay’s mouth went dry.

“My mother was caught in the sleeping mat of a trapper. Clayton Coburn. She made it clear that she wanted to go with this white man. My father let her go to him, but he refused to allow her to take me, his son, with her. I stayed behind to be raised by my father’s family. He took another wife, who then became my mother as well.”

Dream Walker paused. “I have known the truth for many years, but you loved your father and I could not destroy your image of the man who sired you.”

Clay was speechless. “My father loved my mother, and she him.”

Regret filled Dream Walker’s voice. “Your father loved many women.”

Henry’s voice turned bitter. “My father would never have learned the truth had your father kept his mouth shut. But he got drunk and taunted my father with the knowledge that he had no son while he, Clayton Coburn, had sired seven.”

“No. This cannot be true.” Chills ran up and down Clay’s back. His father had been devoted to his mother—to all of them.

“Oh, it is the truth. I heard it all. Your father bragged about you, your two brothers, me and two others—twins. That is why my father killed yours, then came to take your mother. He was after revenge. He was going to take her and use her the same way your father used my mother. He wanted a son. A true son.”

Clay remembered Henry’s anger, and the crazy words that hadn’t made sense back then. He saw Henry take another step back and narrowed his eyes. “Do not move,” he warned.

Henry waved his hands. “You were so smug. You had a father who loved you, gave you all he had. But my father refused to have anything to do with me once he learned the truth. Even after you shot my father, I nursed him back to health, but still he refused to accept me as his son. He talked about leaving. Alone. Said he had no son.”

Henry paused. “I killed him. He had no son. I had no father.” His voice rose with fury.

Shocked, Clay stared at the man who’d once been his best friend—an older brother. “So you killed my mother, brothers and sister, and tried to kill me.”

Smirking, Henry took another step back. “Yes! I hated you. All of you. Even though my father killed yours, you still had each other, and I had no one.” His voice rose as he slid one foot back so his heels were over the edge.

His mind numb, Clay lowered his arm. After all that had happened, all that had been said, what was he to do? This man was his brother, yet he’d killed Clay’s family out of bitterness and hatred—and Clay could not find it in his heart to forgive. A brother in blood Henry might be, but not in spirit or in his heart.

Yet even as fury demanded that he avenge the deaths of his family, Clay spoke, his voice low. “You should have told me. We would have welcomed you into our
family.
” The word burned his throat.

“And would you accept me now, my brother?” Scorn laced Henry’s words, even as sadness slid over his eyes.

“No. You killed your brothers and sister, and the woman who cared for you.” Clay stepped forward. “You took your young sister and sold her and left me, friend and brother, for dead. Do not speak of family. You wanted no family then, you have no family now.”

“Then we speak of this no more.” Henry’s eyes glittered with malice as he shifted slightly. Rock crumbled beneath his heels. “I took from you all who mattered. As your father destroyed my family, I destroyed his. Just as I take from you the right to avenge their deaths.”

Realizing that Henry was about to end his own life and deprive him of seeking revenge, Clay lunged forward. Henry smirked and stepped out of reach.

Winona ran to Clay and tackled him so he did not follow Henry. Jenny joined them, and together the three of them stared down at Henry’s twisted body lying among the rocks. Moments later, warriors burst through the trees and ran up the slope to stand with arrows poised at Clay and Dream Walker.

Winona whipped around, keeping her body between her father and the man she loved. Jenny joined her. “No, do not harm him,” she shouted to her father. Behind her, Clay tried to push past.

“Golden Eyes, I can take care of myself.” Clay put his hands on her shoulders to move her.

“Not if you are dead,” she muttered. She watched as her father and brother came forward.

“Do not harm them,” she called out, staying in front of Clay. When the men in her family were several feet away, she held out her hands. “It is not as it appears,” she told her father. “Listen to what he has to say.”

“Move aside, daughter.” Fury radiated from Hawk Eyes.

“No—” She broke off when Clay once more tried to move her. Reaching back, she grabbed for his breechclout to hold him behind her.

She froze when she realized she’d grabbed too low.

“Golden Eyes, this is not the time.” Clay sounded amused. Beside him Dream Walker chuckled, and Jenny turned red.

Winona didn’t budge or release him. If it took holding him there to keep him behind her…

A flurry to her left drew everyone’s attention. To her surprise her mother and White Wind, along with her two nephews, ran to join them. They stood shoulder-to-shoulder with her and Jenny.

“Wife!” The bellow came from both her father and her brother. Seeing Eyes patted Winona on the arm. “Release your man, daughter.” Her lips twitched. “He will not go anywhere.”

Clay cursed loudly. “I need no women and children for shields,” he bellowed.

Seeing Eyes glanced at him. “Young man, you are to marry my daughter, and you cannot do that if my husband acts rashly.”

Hawk Eyes held up his hand. All arrows lowered. He folded his arms over his chest and glared at each woman and child and the two warriors. “Explain. Someone explain what is going on!”

Winona felt Clay’s palms on her shoulders. “Allow me to explain, Golden Eyes.” He turned her to face him. “Trust me and your father.”

Frowning, Winona glared up at him. “You are stubborn.” She eyed her father and brother. “And they are as well.”

“You know me well.” Clay brushed his fingers across the back of her neck as he stepped around her and walked with Dream Walker toward her father and brother.

Winona went to follow. Her mother stopped her. “Let him speak for himself.”

Torn, Winona sent a worried look at her father. “Father—”

“Your father will listen. He may not like what he hears, but he will listen.”

“You are wise, Mother. I just hope you are right,” she muttered.

Seeing Eyes smiled and put an arm around both her and Jenny. “He will not think so, and will not for some time, I fear.”

The women hugged and laughed, bringing dark looks from each of the men.

Clay told his story. Jenny and Dream Walker and Winona spoke only when called upon. Sharp Nose and Crazy Fox had also arrived. Sharp Nose produced the messages Hoka Luta had left along the trail. Following Hoka Luta, he’d found each one buried.

But before Hawk Eyes had a chance to do more than learn the facts, one of Henry’s warriors who’d been traveling with Hawk Eyes stepped forward. “None in our tribe knew of his past. He lied to us, spoke falsely.”

Clay stared for a long moment into the eyes of the warrior who’d spoken. “I knew him well, yet knew him not at all.” Later Clay knew he’d go over and over his younger years spent with a boy named Henry Black Bear with mixed feelings, for Henry was a part of his past and together they’d shared many happy days.

In those days, Henry had been a brother in his heart. Now the man was truly dead to him. Forever. No longer would this man cause him pain.

The warriors from Henry’s tribe nodded, and without another word they turned away.

Clay glanced over at Winona and felt as though the sun had risen deep inside him. When Henry had ended his own life he’d been furious. He’d needed to avenge the deaths of his family and the pain caused to him and Jenny. But, to his surprise, he no longer cared. The hate that had once been his shadow was gone, and all he could think of was the woman he loved.

He glanced over at her. She was pale, trembling from her ordeal. The day had been a hard one for her. Winona had her arms around her. Jenny looked shaken and on the verge of collapse.

Clay held out his arms to the two women who meant everything to him. Winona ran to him. He looked at Jenny. “Jenny,” he whispered. “I never gave up hope that you would still be alive.”

With a sob, Jenny ran to him, too.

“Welcome home, little one,” he told her, holding her tightly. Winona stepped back. “It seems we have a new family to get to know.” He stared at Dream Walker.

Star Dreamer walked up to him. She glanced back at her grandmother, then motioned him down. “There are two more brothers,” she whispered.

“Yes, little one. I have two more brothers to someday find.” He wasn’t sure when, but when the time was right he’d also try to find the twins.