Gold Raven (14 page)

“
When?” Max asked.

“
In approximately five weeks. We’ll need a very good hiding place for the guns, for them, the shed will not do.” This is where Mike made the opportunity to make things right between Juan and himself, by saying. “Juan and I will be working on that, sorry men…but the less who know of their whereabouts, the better.” Juan beamed once more with pride, knowing the importance of the secret being entrusted to him.

“
As for the payroll and the bank job you pull off Juan…they will both be divided evenly among us, I hope that I can depend on you to carry it through?”

Beaming with pride he answered, “It is as good as done, as you would approve, but…if I may ask, why hide the guns Miguel?”

“
For one, we have no immediate use for them. At the present, we are well armed. However, with what is developing between the tribes and armies, they could become quite valuable to us later on. For now, those guns are more valuable than gold – as long as we have them, we have extra means. As for the land deeds, we get them and destroy them, perhaps by doing so we will give the original land owners time to defend their rights to hold their lands.” He went on, all giving him their full attention.

Following the information concerning the heist they would carry out, he began giving out various assignments of preparation in the coming plan. At the conclusion of their strategizing, a call came from their camp lookout. There were horses coming, four of them – the young man called out.

Mike rolled up the map, handing it back to his waiting son to return it to where he’d gotten it from. His men walked towards the gate following him. They knew it had to be someone from their camp, because very few knew of the hide-a-way. The large gate swung open to admit the four riders; all of them road dusty, with their mounts tired and lathered.

Groaning inwardly, Mike had hoped their venture out, would have kept them away permanently, unfortunately, no such luck was his as he glared disconcertingly at Santiago’s return. Santiago was a Mexican/Spaniard almost the size of Mike. He was strong, muscularly sound and ugly. The kind of ugly that came mostly from the way he carried himself, along with his looks of consistent sneers. He kept a beard that always seemed to be growing, but never really passed a quarter of an inch from his skin, adding to his already dirty/swarthy features that were menacing and suspect. Accenting those features were thick black eyebrows that met in the center, above the prominent bridge of his nose. His hair was curly and kept short cropped close to his head, with definite signs of balding in the crown. He also kept a cheroot stuck in his mouth, aiding to stain his already dark full lips and yellowing teeth.

His eyes were a penetrating black, surrounded by sooty black eyelashes too long for his rugged features. His arms and body were overly hairy…resembling the beast he was known to be. Many wondered if Ephraim was not possibly his sire, their features
were so similar; there was also a lingering body odor the two had shared. He was obviously immune to it, because washing himself was usually the last thing he considered doing.

His companions were three Apache Indians, with like dispositions and destructive tendencies. Mike and Santiago were close to the same age, they were like two bulls forced to share the same pen, constantly their horns would lock, one forcing the other to retreat or else.

When they rode in, Maria and Hope were cleaning out their dwelling. Maria softly warned Hope to stay near their door entrance now that Santiago was back in the camp. Mike was very stern and insistent that they, -(his immediate family)- stay clear of Santiago, knowing him to be dangerous. Heeding her warning, she still could not better her curiosity that commanded she stand and look over the men that entered the camp as she stilled her hands from shaking out a rug she held. She watched as her brother and his men approached the newly arrived.

Santiago removed his sombrero, slapping it against his dusty thighs, causing another cloud to rise as Mike walked up to him.

“
So, you have returned. What a shame, here I’d hoped your leave was permanent.” Mike greeted his wary enemy, standing legs akimbo before Santiago. Mike’s men stood behind him, as did Santiago’s behind him.

This was one man who was determined to make Mike’s life miserably uncomfortable. Mike could not really ban Santiago from the camp, since he had been there before his arrival and Santiago had never mustered the nerve to challenge Mike…since he had been among those whom Mike beat up as he had grown into manhood. Until, or unless he was challenged outright by him, he would allow him entry. Banning him might also force him to take revenge by disclosing to the authorities the location of the camp, so he was a cross that Mike had to bear.

Santiago grinned with his cheroot stuck in the side of his face, responding in his gruff deep voice. “Ah ha! How you wish my friend, how you wish. Tell me what would they think of me were I to desert, and leave you to running things and caring for the people alone? Aye – I could not do such a thing…were you to ever find a knife in your back – I need to be here, to take over you see. So…I am back…and uh…watch your back ‘Mulat – watch your back.” He simpered flexing his thick brows, as he gave his cheroot a chew and shifted it to the other side of his mouth.

“
Thank you for the warning my friend, be aware that I’d sooner bed down with a rattler than offer you – my back.” Mike countered.

Santiago feigned insult. “Who me? No no no ‘Mulat – it is not I you must watch…I only warn you.” He grinned menacingly.

“
Save the lies! You would love to take my place, only – you lack the balls to fight me for it! As with most cowards, you wait in hopes that something will befall me – perhaps give it aid, hm?” Mike retorted, daring him to take the challenge from the insult. Santiago wanted the leadership of the camp, but the fact was – a fight to the death with this man, might possibly mean his death. He would bide his time, although the insult singed his pride enough for him to retaliate with, “Better I lead them, than some white skinned Negrido!” Immediately as he said it, he cleared his throat nervously when Max raised a brow at his declaration. Mike smiled as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Take me out! Meet the challenge! Set the moment, I will even give you time to rest from your travel. What I hold is here for the taking.”

“
No need my friend. Your day is coming, and when it arrives, I will take your place, without suffering a scratch.”

“
As would a coward…yes, wait, but as you do…watch – your – step!” He warned. Then heard some mumbling from the Apache’s with him. Santiago and Mike both turned to see what the murmurs and pointing was about.

Santiago sucked in stunned to see the new fetching beauty in the distance. Hope stood with the mild breeze blowing at her skirt that was carried up around her legs and knees, causing the fabric to hug and cling against her shapely hips and thighs. Her hair blew loose around her shoulders, with the suns rays dancing and playing in and out of her golden waves, making them shimmer and shine. She reached up and pulled long strands from her face and mouth, suddenly realizing they were staring at her. Even from where she stood, she could clearly see the angry, deadly scowl crossing her brother’s face. So startling, it made her turn and enter Maria’s dwelling, giving them a momentary view of her back where her tresses hung, tossing to and fro from her flight inside.

The Apache’s with Santiago were speechless at her beauty. They started to take a step in direction of his abode, hoping to catch another glimpse of her. Santiago’s breathing was disturbed to say the least. His mind was in instant turns, conjuring images of her naked and pressed into the hay of the stable, lying beneath him. Her full lips parted and panting as her soft young body writhed with him thrusting within her. He’d been on the go for quite a long time, and to return to such a fresh and fetching sight as she, lit a desperate hunger too long ignored within him. He could feel his loins growing hard in anticipation of bedding the aureate beauty.

Mike’s jaw worked to control the building rage that was surely going to cost some poor soul his life. He knew what their thoughts were, the greasy, nasty fantas
ies that sprung to life upon seeing his little sister. They were lower than pigs in his eyes, unworthy to even breathe the air surrounding her. He harnessed a bit of his fury in the wake of them, their eyes filled with lust, their mouths on the verge of salivating like starving dogs. By the Apache’s third steps, they heard a deadly low warning growled from between clenched teeth.

“
Take another step in that direction, and I’ll cut your hearts out as they beat!” They froze. Santiago snapped his head around to look at Mike.

“
Who is the gringa? Why do you care, you have a wife; what does it matter who goes near her!?” He asked, for the first time, feeling an urge to fight against their leader.

“
That gringa…is born of my mother, sired by my father! God as my witness – I make this promise to you, and every man here…so help me - should either of you touch a hair on her head – make any lewd remarks before her – I will gut you from your cajones to your heart! Take me serious...”

“…
because this warning comes only once…failure to heed it, will bring instant death to you…believe me, it is as final as fire.” Mike's eyes burned with deadly warning. After glaring hard and cold at each one, even his own men, he walked off, a stride of purpose toward the dwelling.

His men fell away, leaving Santiago to stew, his gut churning with anger and fear, his tortured mind screaming,
‘Noooo! She can’t be! She cannot be!’
He knew if it was true that the young woman was indeed his younger sister, he would have to pay hells price to the devil before he could even begin a chance of having her. Just the sight of her stirred him as he had never experienced before. Knowing that she was forbidden made her even more tempting. There seemed to be something sinfully enticing about the forbidden, and Santiago was not one who could stand to have something in his reach, yet be denied the right to have it – if it were his desire to have it…and this golden mulatto…he desired…very much so.

Leaving the group of men behind, having just laid the gauntlet concerning his sister gave Mike a fiery attitude. Many thoughts sprouted for him to consider, one being…was his little sister an innocent? He assumed she was, he hoped she was…but facts stood – he could not be sure of it. He knew he must get to the bottom of this with no further delays. He had not a clue as to the type of lifestyle or morals she’d learned while living with whoever had raised her.
‘Apparently no morals at all – to stand and gaze at strange men so boldly!’
He thought angrily. Well, he would find out all he needed to know concerning her make up – right then and there…and afterwards she would hear what was expected of her from him as well.

Mike stormed through the door of Maria’s dwelling and rudely barked. “H
ope! I wish a word with you – to my place - now!” He ordered even more firmly, and left heading in that direction of course fully expecting her to be at his heels. Hope stood stunned, staring at the vacant door he had exited. She turned her astonished expression to Maria, disbelief written clearly on her face. Sighing, Maria shook her head, softly advising, “I think it would be best if you follow him before he comes back for you.”

Hope stood silently aghast, unable to shake her dread, thinking,
‘Who does he think he isf - my father?
’

“
Hope! Please…go.” Maria encouraged gently. Perturbed, Hope set the broom aside and strode from one dwelling to the other. As she marched with clenched fists, she realized her brother was turning out to be one compelling puzzle. She could not help but wonder how this change in her life would affect her.

As happy as she was to have found him, she wondered now, if she should request to be returned to her gypsy family. As far as she could see, he had all the makings of a tyrant. They may be flesh and blood but there were things about him that gave her feelings of unrest despite what Maria told her. When she entered his shelter, he was sitting at the table against the wall, drumming his fingertips impatiently. Looking up at her, he asked right away. “You lack an understanding of the word – now?”

She ignored the question and took the seat across from him, her annoyance plain to see. With a lifted brow, Mike silently admired the fire and grit she was fighting to keep in as she crossed her arms over her breasts, full of defiance.

“
We need to talk.” He started right off. “A few things need to be understood and clarified…from the beginning. I see no sense in false starts, now that you will be staying-…”

“
I wish to return to where I was taken from.” She interrupted.

Mike withheld comment…staring into her stubborn, narrowed eyes. After an effective pregnant silence, his response was, “My time is never wasted to discuss something that has already been established.”

“
Says who?” She fired back.

Mike stared a moment trying to collect his thoughts and show his reaction to her obvious rebellion. “Listen here-…”

“
You may ask me if I will stay but you cannot demand that I do.”

“
I most certainly can and will! After all, you have no choice in the matter, because you haven’t a clue as to where you are, and to leave my protection means sure death or worse.” He gave her a few minutes to let that sink in.

“
You, little girl, are in the midst of a camp of men with questionable integrity…only absolute stupidity would push you to test if it is so.”

With a deflating chest, Hope sank back in her seat.

“
Ah…so you’re not stupid…that’s good.”

With a grudging pout, she remained silent and waited to see where the conversation was going.

“
You can make whatever faces you wish…but you must listen to my every word, and take them all as serious as you do your life. I have every intention of taking over what is left of it. It is what your mother would expect of me and – your father as well.” He began thinking of his mother, knowing that what he said was true. Concerning their father, he thought she would be the sure pull that would make him leave Katherine completely, so that together…the four of them would be a whole, real family. The tie that would push his father into making a respectable woman out of his mother – where she would no longer be labeled as his bed-wench…however, that hope had never been fulfilled.

If he dug really deep, he knew there was a part of him that still loved his father. However, having suffered so much hell alone – even though he had survived, that entire time spent making it on his own forced him to bury that love, deep…beneath the pain. Even though no one could make him speak ill of his mother, how he wished she’d had the strength to deny Manny entry to her bed…just once. It ate at him seeing him enter their cabin, knowing why he was there. After he finished with her, he would depart – leaving Mike to burn from the shame of it, the man that was his father, had that privilege.

The privilege that allowed him to come and go, disregarding Lena’s feelings or his as to the way it looked before the others. Many at the plantation loved him and his mother, but others murmured behind her back. She had been a princess but he’d treated her as his whore. Mike hated the word. He had heard it repeated enough as her label among those who would bring her down, resentful of her carriage; her walk; her speech; her refusal to accept what she was.

There had been children on the plantation, just as mean and spiteful as the white boys he’d mistakenly believed were his friends. Calling his mother the masters ‘ho – wanting to hurt him…and it did, deeply. To them, he was no better, despite his white skin and blue eyes. “Yo’ mama a ‘ho – and you a ‘ho’son!” But Leon had always stepped in to protect him, to dare any to say another word. Mike looked down, right then, he missed him… and wondered where he was. He swallowed the growing moisture in his mouth. A tidal wave of emotion was trying to pass through him, and he knew he had to get control. That was all in the past, his mother, Leon and Manny.