Wild Desire (27 page)

Sage gave Stephanie another lingering stare, then he looked over at Runner and nodded.

Together they dismounted and went and put their heads together to discuss the problem at hand.

Stephanie scarcely breathed as she awaited their decision. Ever so gently, she dropped Sage's reins. She had spoke her mind. If he didn't agree, there was nothing else she could do but to wait and see if a war broke out between the Navaho and the soldiers at Fort Defiance.

Thinking about Adam, and his responsibility for all of this, made an ache circle Stephanie's heart, and made her ashamed of ever having been a part of Adam's dreams.

They had turned into nightmares. Ugly, black nightmares.

Leonida patted Stephanie on the arm. “What you just offered to do for our people is admirable,” she murmured. “Especially for my son. I doubt Thunder Hawk could last long behind bars. It was hard enough for him to sit confined at a desk in a schoolroom. To be incarcerated for even one night would be devastating for my son.”

Sky Dancer went to Leonida and threw herself into her arms, sobbing. “Someone has got to do something soon,” she cried, clinging. “Poor Thunder Hawk. My poor husband.”

Leonida could see the puzzlement in Stephanie's eyes when she heard Sky Dancer refer to Thunder Hawk as her husband.

“Stephanie, Thunder Hawk has taken a wife,” she said softly. “This is my darling daughter-in-law, Sky Dancer.”

Stephanie's lips parted, but before she could respond, Sage and Runner came back to them, their eyes grim.

Runner turned to Stephanie. “Go. Speak the truth to the white pony soldiers,” he said. “Father and I will follow soon after to make sure that what you have said has been believed, and to give Thunder Hawk a safe escort back to our village.”

Stephanie smiled up at him. “Thank you for giving me this chance,” she said. She gave him a hug, looked from one to the other, then mounted her horse and rode away.

When Sage and Runner mounted their horses and rode off in another direction, Leonida's eyebrows rose. She was not certain of the plans that had been made between father and son, but she did suspect that they would not be going to the fort any time soon. There was surely something else that needed tending first.

But what? she wondered to herself.

Chapter 30

Filled with a breathless daring, Stephanie rode up to Fort Defiance and entered its gate. She ignored the stares of the soldiers as she drew a tight rein before the main headquarters, in the back of which building were the holding cells for those prisoners awaiting transfer to the main jail in Gallup.

Gathering courage from the love she felt for Runner, and now also for his people, Stephanie stopped only long enough to look up at the great adobe building with its immense thick walls and deep, barred windows. Knowing the importance of achieving her goal, a shiver ran through her. It also made an empty feeling at the pit of her stomach to realize that Adam was responsible for all of this, and that she was being forced to turn her back on him.

She thought back to the last several years, when she had shared so much with her stepbrother. Their feelings for one another had been so genuine. Only when he had become driven to have that which seemed impossible, wanting to immortalize himself by establishing a town and having it named after him, had she seen their mutual understanding of one another begin to crumble. Yes, she wanted a dream, herself, but she had never thought it would be at the expense of others.

Now she understood that even
her
dream was wrong. At this moment, she knew that she would not be able to send back any photographs to Wichita. She wanted no part in bringing more tourists to this land that should belong solely to the Navaho.

With those thoughts, Stephanie went on inside the building.

No one made any attempts to stop her, for she was a mere woman, no threat to anyone. Even the derringer strapped to her waist caused no apprehension on the soldiers' parts. They all smiled at her flirtatiously.

Those who wore hats tipped them politely to her. Others made way for her with a mocking curtsy as she moved up to the oak desk where a burly man sat in fringed buckskins, instead of a uniform.

Colonel Utley brushed papers aside as he gazed up at Stephanie. His narrow lips flickered into a flirting smile. “Now ain't you a brave miss to be wanderin' about alone,” he said. He rested his elbows on his desk and placed his fingertips together before him. “Ain't you afraid of Injuns?”

He looked her up and down. His eyes stopped on her derringer. “Now ain't that a bad-lookin' weapon,” he said, chuckling as he looked slowly into her eyes again. “But don't you know? I doubt that could even kill a snake.”

“I haven't come here to talk about snakes, or my derringer, and I am most certainly not afraid of Indians,” Stephanie finally had the courage to say. “I'm here for only one reason.”

“And that is?” Colonel Utley said, leaning toward her over the desktop.

“To tell you that you've jailed the wrong man,” Stephanie said. Her pulse raced at the thought of being only moments away from condemning her very own stepbrother of the crime that Thunder Hawk had been incarcerated for.

She hoped that Sally wouldn't hate her. But even if she did, Stephanie had no other choice but to tell the truth as she knew it.

“What's that you say?” Colonel Utley said, pushing himself up from the leather desk chair. He circled the desk and stood face-to-face with Stephanie, his height being no more than hers. “I've more than one man in the holding jail. “Which one have you come to speak for?”

Stephanie swallowed hard. “Thunder Hawk,” she blurted out, flinching when she saw the instant guarded warning in Colonel Utley's eyes. “He didn't blow up the train. I absolutely know for certain that he's innocent.”

“And horses?” Colonel Utley growled out. “Can you say for certain that he didn't steal horses from Damon Stout?”

She paled at the mention of the horses that he was also accused of stealing. She would never forget finding Runner and the other Navaho that night with all of the horses. Perhaps they were all guilty of horse stealing? Oh, Lord, then what could she do about any of this? She had to keep the focus on the train. Only on the train.

“Can you say that you are certain, sir, of his guilt?” Stephanie said, lifting her chin. “Thunder Hawk is innocent and you know it.”

“Why in hell would you say such a dumb-ass thing as that?” Colonel Utley said, flailing a chubby hand in the air. “He's as guilty as sin and
you
know it.”

“You are wrong,” Stephanie said, boldly. “I am right.”

“Proof,” Colonel Utley mumbled, going to sit down at the desk again. He propped his feet up on the desk, crossing his legs at the ankles. “I need proof. Especially from an obvious Injun lover.”

“Proof?” Stephanie said. She leaned her hands on the desk so that her eyes were once again level with Colonel Utley's. “Would it be proof enough if I said that my very own stepbrother hired someone to blow up the train so that the blame would be cast on the Indians? If you would investigate things more carefully, I am just as certain that my brother is behind double-crossing Thunder Hawk to make him look guilty of horse stealing.”

She sighed and removed her hands from the desk. Her eyes wavered. “I would never put blame on my stepbrother unless I was absolutely certain,” she said, her voice breaking.

“I ain't never come across anything like
this
before,” Colonel Utley said, searching Stephanie's face with squinted eyes. “Tell me. What's your brother's name?”

“Adam,” Stephanie said, finding it hard to believe any of this was happening. “Adam Jones. A short while ago, he and I arrived on a train on the private spur. And the man he paid to blow up a train today? I am certain you know him. Damon Stout is his name.”

The colonel's eyes narrowed. He scooted to the edge of his chair, his knuckles white as he clutched tightly to the arms. “Damon?” he said. “Damon Stout? I sure as hell
do
know him. He's here often enough with one complaint or another.”

“And these complaints are generally lodged against the Navaho?” Stephanie said, an angry fire lighting her eyes at the mere thought of the vile, shiftless man. “Aren't his complaints usually about Sage, Runner, and Thunder Hawk?”

“Sure as hell are,” Colonel Utley said, stuffing his left cheek with a big wad of chewing tobacco. “He'd worn his welcome out here because of it. But now I see that I should've paid more attention to what he said. He seemed to know more about the Navaho's activities than me.”

“How can you say that after what I've just told you?” Stephanie asked, her patience running thin. She leaned down toward Colonel Utley's scruffy face. “You don't have proof of anything. I do. I heard my brother and Damon laughing about what they did. What proof do you have? Tell me. Do you have
absolute
proof of Thunder Hawk's guilt?”

“Not exactly,” Colonel Utley said, shifting his weight nervously in his chair. “But I'll uncover enough to hang the scalawag Injun.”

“You can't hold a man behind bars without proof,” Stephanie said, her jaw tight. “I demand that you set Thunder Hawk free.”

“And who made you an expert on the law?” Colonel Utley argued back.

“I know my stepbrother and Damon are responsible for blowing up the train,” she returned sharply. “Why on earth would I say this about my brother if it wasn't true? I'd do anything on this earth to prove that he couldn't be that vile and scheming. But I can't. I heard him and Damon laughing about it. I know that Adam paid him one thousand dollars to do it. Isn't that enough? I am bringing all of the ugliness of my brother out into the open. Don't you know that what I am saying is the truth, or I wouldn't want to put a scar on my family's reputation?”

“What you say makes a lot of sense,” Colonel Utley said, spitting a stream of tobacco juice into a spittoon beside the desk. “And I do recall someone tellin' me that a man at the site of the wreck was makin' a lot of fuss about it bein' the Indians. It was almost too obvious that he was trying too hard to throw the blame on the Navaho.”

“I was there,” Stephanie said smoothly. “I heard. That was my stepbrother Adam. Now do you believe me? Will you release Thunder Hawk into my care?”

The colonel rose slowly from his chair and went around the desk to gaze eye to eye with Stephanie again. “What's this Injun to you, anyhow?” he said, smirking. “Is he your fella? Have you bedded up with this redskin?”

Stephanie blanched. She knew that this man was searching for the full truth behind her anxiousness to have Thunder Hawk set free. If he discovered that she was going to marry Thunder Hawk's brother, then everything that she had argued for today would be for naught. He would think that she was doing this for all of the wrong reasons and never believe anything that she said about Adam, even if it was the truth.

“Well?” Colonel Utley demanded.

Stephanie's throat was dry as she returned his steady stare. “I most certainly would never bed up with that man,” she said softly. “He is already married.” She leaned closer to him. “And you know that. Sky Dancer, his wife, was with him when you arrested him.”

The colonel shrugged, went back to his chair, and plopped down into it. “I've wasted enough of my time with you,” he said, glaring up at her. “Get on outta here.” He raised an eyebrow. “Your name. I need to know your name. I'm going to alert my men to make sure you ain't allowed on these premises again.”

“My name is Stephanie Helton,” she said in a low hiss. “And, sir, the only way I am leaving today is to be thrown bodily from the fort.” She smiled sweetly down at him. “And I don't think you want to do that, do you? Brutality toward a woman who has come to speak in defense of an innocent man could get you fired from your post. Don't you think?”

“He ain't proved innocent,” Colonel Utley mumbled.

“Before this day is over, he will be free from this jail,” Stephanie said, stubbornly folding her arms across her chest. “I refuse to budge until you listen to reason.”

The colonel spat another stream of tobacco juice from the corner of his mouth. He opened a journal and began entering figures, ignoring her, as though she wasn't there.

Stephanie stared down at him with a bitterness never known to her before. She was not sure how long she could stand there with this foul man, but hoped that she could at least outlast him.

 

 

Runner glared at Adam's private car as he and Sage dismounted beside it. Runner grabbed his rifle from the gun boot at the side of his horse, while Sage slipped a knife from a sheath at his waist.

Father and son exchanged glances and nods, then moved stealthily up the steps.

When they reached Adam's door, Runner slowly turned the knob. Together, he and his father stepped into the semidark car.

But there was enough light through the partially open shades for Runner to see Adam stretched across his bed on his stomach, snores rumbling from deep within him. Runner smelled a strong scent of alcohol, then smiled smugly. Adam had drunk himself into a stupor. The evidence lay in the empty bottle and glass on the floor beside his bed, and how Adam slept so soundly.

“I see it, also,” Sage said, smiling over at Runner. “He has much firewater in him.”

Runner went to Adam and grabbed him by the back of his shirt and yanked him from the bed. He turned Adam and held tightly to his arms as Adam looked back at him fearfully; seeing Runner and Sage quickly sobered him.

“Runner?” Adam said, his eyes wild. “Sage? What are you doing here?” He tried to squirm free of Runner's grip. “Let me go. Do you hear? I demand it.”

“You make demands of Runner?” Runner said, his teeth clenched. “You want to be let go?”

Runner dropped his hands away, laughing to himself when he saw a smug look come into Adam's eyes.

“Well, Adam, would you prefer this over being held?” Runner said, doubling up a fist and smashing it into Adam's face.

He watched Adam fall clumsily to the floor with the impact. Runner placed his fists on his hips as he stood over Adam. “Get up, you double-crossing cheat,” he snarled. “Get up on your own, or I will pick you up and knock you down again.”

Adam's head was spinning from the blow. He rubbed his jaw, tasting blood as it rolled from his nose and cut lip into his mouth. “Why are you doing this?” he said, pleading up at Runner and Sage with frightened eyes.

“Do not play innocent with us,” Sage said, reaching down and yanking Adam to his feet. “You are responsible for my younger son being behind bars. You will correct that mistake.
Now.
”

“I don't know what you're talking about,” Adam said, cowering away from Runner and Sage.

Runner took one wide step toward Adam. He hit him again, this time knocking him halfway across the car.

Then he went and towered over Adam, placing a foot on his chest. “If you value your life, you will go with us to Fort Defiance and back up your sister's story—that you paid Damon Stout to blow up the train and made it look as though the Navaho people were responsible. You made sure the blame was placed on my brother. You will go now and take that blame away.”

Adam's thoughts were scrambled, and not only because Runner had hit him twice in a short time. It was what Runner had said about Stephanie. “What do you mean about Stephanie?” he stammered, trying to push Runner's foot away from him. “About backing up her story?”

“She is at the fort even now telling the truth about what you have done,” Sage said, bending to one knee beside Adam. He grabbed Adam by the hair. “Her alliance is with the Navaho now, not a lying, double-crossing brother.”