Indigo Blue (48 page)

Suddenly, she heard him cry out.
She’s alive. Jeremy, goddammit, get in here! She’s alive.
The voice bounced around her. She moved closer to the light. Blinding bright. She squinted and tried to move her head so it wouldn’t hurt her eyes.

“Indigo. . . . Sweetheart? Indigo . . .”

The world went into a spin. Arms were lifting her. Someone was carrying her. Indigo tried desperately to go into the light, but instead, she spun away again, back into the blackness.

 

When Indigo next surfaced, Jake’s haggard face was the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes. She blinked and focused, perplexed because she was safely at home in bed with moonlight streaming in the window. Jake sat on a kitchen chair drawn close to the bed, his elbows propped on the mattress, one of her hands held in his.

“Welcome back,” he said huskily. After kissing each of her fingertips, he smiled. “What a lazybones you are, sleeping the day and half the night away.”

Indigo touched his whiskery cheek. “I had the strangest dreams,” she whispered hoarsely. “Terrible ones. Have I been sick?”

He took a shaky breath. “I almost lost you.”

She ran a fingertip under his eye. “I dreamed you were crying.” She managed a quavery smile. “It’s all a jumble. Brandon Marshall and Denver—” She closed her eyes. “And Lobo came to me. I thought I was dying, and he came to sing my death song. It seemed so real. . . .”

Slowly, so she could absorb it, Jake told her what had happened. “Brandon and Denver are in the Jacksonville jail. Marshal Hilton and the sheriff rounded them up late this afternoon. Brandon has confessed to everything. He says he met Hank Sample in the J’ville saloon a few months back. Sample needed some work of a confidential nature done, and Brandon was interested. When he discovered your father’s mine was the target, he saw a way to take his revenge against you and be handsomely paid while he was doing it.”

“By your father,” she said sadly. “What will happen to him now, Jake? To your father, I mean?”

He bent his head to kiss her hands again. “Indigo, I’ve been to hell and back again today, because of my father and because of Brandon Marshall’s sick prejudice. You weren’t breathing when I got you out of there. We thought you were dead.” Tears filled his eyes as he looked at her, and he shrugged one shoulder. “I guess it sounds crazy, but I think maybe you really were and that—”

His voice cracked, and he looked out the window for a moment before going on. At last he shook his head. “All that doesn’t really matter now. What counts is that I walked out of that mine with you alive in my arms, and there’s no room left inside of me for my father. No love, no hate, just a feeling of nothingness. Jeremy and I have decided to let the law decide his fate.”

The look in his eyes told Indigo he truly meant that. Never had she seen him look so exhausted. Yet he also seemed strangely at peace. Sad, but at peace.

“He’ll always be your father,” she said softly.

His mouth twisted. “The man who sired me, but never a father. There’s a difference. My one consolation is that I don’t believe he ever meant for anyone to be hurt. His mistake was being ruled by greed and hiring a madman like Marshall to do this job for him.” He fastened a determined gaze on hers. “But those were his mistakes, not mine. I’m finished with paying for what he does.” His grip tightened on her hand. “Today, I nearly paid the ultimate price. I think from now on he can atone for his own sins.”

“I’m not dead, Jake. I’m right here, talking to you.”

He nodded, clearly unable to speak. In the moonlight, she saw tears spilling down his cheeks. After a moment, he swallowed and said, “We have a second chance, you and I. I’m going to make the best of it and live every second as if it’s our very last.”

She wiped the tears from his cheeks, then slid a hand to the back of his head. “Don’t cry then. I want our last second to be happy.”

With a horrible sob, he joined her on the bed and drew her into his arms. Indigo hugged him close, frightened because she had never seen him like this. His whole body was shaking. He held her so tightly that she had the feeling he was afraid to let go.

After several minutes, he drew a ragged breath and relaxed, drying his cheeks on her hair. “Don’t ever leave me. Promise me that.”

She closed her eyes and smiled, remembering all the revelations that had come to her in the mine. “I promise, Jake. Where you go, I go. Even if it’s to Portland. As long as I’m with you, the thought no longer frightens me.”

“To hell with Portland,” he replied in a husky voice. “I may have to go up for a few weeks to set Jeremy on track, but after that, Wolf’s Landing is my home, and it’s where I’m staying.”

“When you go, I’ll go there with you.”

“I know,” he said with a smile in his voice.

“You don’t even sound surprised.”

“I’m not.” He pressed a kiss to her temple. “You and I are meant to be together. Whatever problems we run into, we’ll get them worked out.”

“What about Ore-Cal?”

He laughed softly. “I think it’s about time Jeremy takes over. And why not? I’ve carried the load for years. Now it’s his turn. He can handle it. I’ve earned the right to be my own person and live my own life. I plan to do that here in Wolf’s Landing, with my little powder monkey and our twelve children.”

Indigo stirred, acutely aware of an unstated message behind those words. “Me? Mrs. Jake Rand, a powder monkey? We’ll see what tune you sing when it’s time to do some blasting.”

He ran a hand up her back, loving her as he had never loved anyone. “I learned an important lesson in the last twenty-four hours. I can’t protect you from everything. I was with you last night when Brandon came along, remember?”

“Well, he hit you from behind. You can’t blame yourself for that.”

He sighed. “No. And I can’t go through life blaming myself for every other bad thing that happens either, just because I can’t prevent it.” In a halting voice, he told her about his mother’s death. “Nearly losing you made me stop and realize that it’s the quality of life that matters, not how long you live.”

He took a deep breath and exhaled on a sigh. “The true tragedy about my mother’s life was that she was miserably unhappy during her short stay on earth. I can protect you into old age and make every day of your life miserable, or I can give you the freedom to enjoy every minute.” He grew quiet for a moment. “I’ve been wrong, Indigo, about so many things. Mary Beth, for instance. I can only pray it’s not too late for me to change.”

“You’re going to let her study law?”

“I’m finished with wrapping the women I love in cotton.” He took a deep breath and exhaled on a sigh. “Take you, for instance. I want to know I gave you happiness. In the end, when we have to say our final goodbyes, those memories are the only things that comfort us.”

He sounded as if he had learned that from personal experience. Indigo pressed her cheek against his chest and listened to the even, sturdy beat of his heart. “You mean it, don’t you? You’re actually going to let me handle dynamite and set the charges.”

He tightened his arms around her. “Honey, I’ll always be overprotective. That’s part of my makeup, just as a need to be free is part of yours. I can’t see myself happily standing aside while you do backbreaking labor. We’ll have to reach compromises we can both live with. But the dynamite is different. Unless it blows accidentally, it won’t hurt you to handle it.”

Indigo’s heart welled with happiness. “I’ll be careful, truly I will.”

He chuckled. “You’d better be. I’ve already made up my mind I’m going to be right beside you when you handle the damned stuff. If you get blown to kingdom come, I’m going with you.”

Except for the wind whipping under the eaves outside the house, a peaceful silence settled around them. Enveloped in happiness, Indigo grew drowsy and drifted between sleep and wakefulness. She blinked awake when Jake gently moved away from her and got out of bed.

Unaware that Indigo was awake, Jake moved to the window. He didn’t know why, but the sound of the gusting wind drew him. He pressed close to the glass and stared out into the moonlit darkness at the shifting shadows. When he stared long enough, those shadows seemed to take shape. He knew it was his imagination, but in the distance, he thought he heard the forlorn howl of a wolf on the wind.

With a sheepish smile, he lifted the latch and opened the window wide. Since his marriage to Indigo, he had grown accustomed to sleeping in the cool night air. Besides, what could it hurt to leave the window open?

Just in case. . . .

With tears in her eyes, Indigo watched Jake standing there at the open window, gazing out into the night. She knew what was going through his mind. She turned her head on the pillow and listened to the wind’s song, filled with joy because Jake had finally come a step beyond the explainable and could share the beauty of it with her.

He turned toward her, his eyes glistening like silver in the moonlight. Indigo met his gaze and let all that was within her flow out to him. A slow smile curved his mouth as he moved toward her. She knew he heard the message, even though she hadn’t spoken it, just as she heard the one he sent to her.

Whether or not Lobo’s spirit truly lingered here in this place was a question that no longer seemed important. The wolf lingered in her heart, and it was enough to know that. What truly counted was that Jake had somehow come to embrace those things about her that she had always been afraid to share. The Indian side of her that set her apart in a hostile world. She lifted her arms to him, content in a way she had never dreamed she could be.

As Jake moved from the window, his body cut through the moonlight and his shadow fell across the bed. For a moment, Indigo was swallowed by blackness. When he took another step, the light fell across her again, and she reappeared.

Indigo . . . a whimsical girl made of moonbeams who heard songs in the wind, a girl not quite part of this world, yet absolutely necessary to make it complete. He joined her on the bed and drew her into his arms, cherishing the moment, thanking her many gods for this second chance. He knew it was crazy, insane, totally irrational, but if he lived to be a thousand, he’d always believe she had been snatched from the clutches of death and brought back to him by a loyal silver-and-black wolf whose howls would drift always in the night wind, an intrinsic part of the mountains and the moonlight.

Indigo. . . . She was indeed a most precious gift.

JULY HEAT HUNG OVER THE YARD LIKE A blanket. A cluster of bees hummed nearby, feeding on drips of whey that seeped through the butter muslin hanging from the fence.

Chase Wolf repositioned his shoulder against the pine tree and closed his eyes to absorb the smells. He smiled at the images they brought to mind of his boyhood and other July days when he had run wild along the creek that bordered his parents’ property.

This summer he didn’t reckon he’d be doing much running. The smile on his mouth thinned to a grim line. He considered rolling himself a smoke, then decided against it for fear it might make him cough. Coughing, like all other activities that called for muscle movement, was a luxury he couldn’t afford, not with three cracked ribs. This would teach him not to let any moss grow under his feet the next time two logs tried to make a sandwich out of him.

He heard the sound of feminine giggles coming from down along the creek. He listened for a second and identified one of the giggles as belonging to his sister, Indigo. Twenty-four to his twenty-five, she had a husband and two children now. He grinned. Leave it to her to beat the heat by playing in the creek. The other wives in town, including his ma, were at home doing household tasks, a fair number baking bread if the smells on the morning air were an indication.

Chase pushed to his feet, drawn toward the creek by the sounds of laughter. With one hand pressed over his side, he moved slowly through the sun-dappled woods. Taking care where he placed his booted feet, he finally reached the river rock that bordered Shallows Creek.

Heading toward the voices, Chase rounded a bend in the stream. Expecting to see his tawny- haired sister, he was surprised to see a petite blonde instead. If she was from Wolf’s Landing, Chase had never met her. She was as pretty as a picture, not the kind a man with eyes was likely to forget. He leaned a shoulder against an oak, happy to stay hidden so he could enjoy the view.

Stripped down to her camisole and bloomers, the young woman was cavorting in the water with Chase’s four-year-old nephew, Hunter. The drenched muslin of her undergarments was nearly transparent with wetness and clung to her body like the skin on an onion. The rosy nipples of her small breasts were taut with cold and thrust against the cloth in impertinent little peaks.

Content to stay right where he was, Chase lowered himself carefully to the ground and draped his arms over his bent knees. On a hot day like today, it’d be downright unchivalrous to show himself and spoil her swim. He was nothing if not thoughtful.

Apparently she was in competition with his nephew to catch salamanders, commonly known in these parts as water dogs.

Whoever she was, she looked like an angel. A shaft of sunlight ignited her golden hair, turning it to a halo around the crown of her head. She had petal-white skin, as flawless as ivory in contrast to his Indian darkness.

His gaze dropped to her waist and lower as she slogged through the shallows and pounced to catch a water dog. With little-boy enthusiasm, Hunter dived to reach their quarry before she did and sent up a spray. She shrieked and staggered, laughing as she rubbed the water from her eyes.