Jessie's War (Civil War Steam) (15 page)

These men might be a threat
to him, but they were no threat to her.

“Friends of yours, Jessie?”
he asked.

“Of a sort.” One of the
newcomers said it with a laugh, though he didn’t lower the weapon pointed at
Luke, and Luke didn’t expect him to.

Jessie’s eyes were wide as
her gaze bounced between Luke and the leader of the group of natives, a man
distinguished by the hardness of his features and the intricate beading of his
choker.

This man was a warrior, a
fighter, a man who had seen death and hardship. Luke recognized his own.

The newcomer’s weapon never
wavered. “Nice to see you again, cousin.”

“This guy’s
related
to you?” Luke asked.

“Yeah. I’m related to all of
them, “ Jessie said. She acknowledged each of them with the barest of nods,
somehow seeming regal despite the precariousness of their situation and the
fact she had nothing but a blanket to hide her nakedness. “Been a long time,
Cheveyo.”

“Not entirely of our
choosing.” He asked her something in her native tongue.

Her eyes met Luke’s and she
shrugged. “Of a sort.” The admission seemed to pain her.

The echo of his earlier
response seemed to placate her kinsmen, and his features relaxed, though his
grip on his weapon did not. “Then I won’t kill him today. Tell your man to
lower his gun, Jessica.”

“He’s not my man.”

Bullshit
.

Cheveyo’s lips curled into a
mocking smile. “He’s naked in your shelter, cousin. I’d be interested to hear
Grandfather’s take on that.”

“Tell him, and I’ll kill you
myself.” She picked up a blanket and handed it to Luke.

He held it so he was covered,
but he didn’t dare lower his weapon to wrap it around himself.

Grudging respect lit Cheveyo’s
features, and he lifted a single brow in Jessie’s direction.

“Jessie?” Luke waited for
permission to either fire or reach an accord. At this point, he didn’t care
which, so long as when he left this cave, she left with him.

She nodded, just once. “It’s
all right.”

Luke lowered his weapon and
took his finger off the trigger, and Cheveyo’s smile mocked him as her cousin
waited several seconds to do the same.

Much like the North and the
South, the natives had been fighting a quiet war with the Union for as long as
Luke could remember. If he decided to tread upon Paviotso or Bannock or Paiute
or Shoshone land, he was in enemy country as much as he would be in Atlanta. In
some ways, trespassing on Indian held territories was more dangerous.

After all, he frequented the
southern states, but even he gave the Ewepu Tunekwuhudu a wide berth, despite
his connection with Jessie. He was well aware what her grandfather was capable
of.

“I am Cheveyo, son of
Chayton,” the leader said, but he did not extend his hand. Certainly not
offering friendship, but not declaring enmity, either.

“Luke Bradshaw.”

“Tell me, Luke Bradshaw, what
causes you to trespass on my ancestral territory with my young cousin?” Cheveyo
asked. He jerked his head to the warriors behind him. They turned and filed out
of the mineshaft without a word.

A powerful man, to have
warriors at his command.

Never taking his eyes off
Cheveyo, Luke adjusted the blanket around himself. “I apologize for that.” He
bowed his head. “We needed to find shelter from the storm, and this was the
nearest place I could find. Jessie was exhausted and suffering from exposure.
Otherwise, we never would have trespassed.”

Something in Cheveyo’s eyes
seemed amused. “I see. I do hope you understand that
she
did not trespass.
You
did.”
Cheveyo searched the dark tunnel behind Luke. “Did our ancestors give you any
trouble, white man?”

“None at all,” he said.

Anxiety lit Jessie’s dark
eyes, and he answered her unspoken question with a shrug. He would never admit
to what he’d seen the night before, to what he’d heard.

He would never admit—to
Cheveyo or anyone—what he’d heard in depths of the abandoned mineshaft.
The many voices he’d heard in Jessie’s chant, a song that had been terrifying
in its beauty.

He’d pretend he’d never heard
it, and maybe, one day, he would forget he had.

“Interesting.” Cheveyo gave
Luke a long look. “You realize you are in Indian territory, do you not?”

“Technically, this area falls
within the purview of the Union. The mine was not within the confines of the
treaty negotiated at the end of the Paiute War.”

But Jessie’s ancestors wouldn’t
let him forget the fact that treaties meant very little to the dead.

The smile Cheveyo gave him
bordered on malicious. “Technically, white man, this is Paiute burial ground.
That makes this Indian territory whether recognized by your illegitimate
government or not.” He raised his gun and pointed it at Luke, and while Luke
never doubted that Cheveyo was quite capable of using it, he didn’t think he
would. Not while Jessie watched, anyway. “But you’re not going to argue the
point with me, are you, Luke Bradshaw? I think that would be unwise.”

“Don’t do this,” Jessie
implored.

The muscles in Luke’s arms
tensed, preparing for a fight he did not want. “I meant there was no
intentional violation of the treaty.” He kept his voice mild and soft.
Unassuming. Reasonable.

Cheveyo eyes promised
trouble. “There never is with you people.”

The tension heavy in the air,
Luke was silent for a moment. “We will leave at once.”

“We?
So now you’re going to trespass on our territory
and
take our women? Typical.”

Silently, Luke willed Jessie
to keep quiet, and, to his surprise, she did.

He struggled to steady his
heart rate. “Jessie chose to come with me last night. We traveled together.
There’s no taking
here.” He kept his
expression carefully neutral, his words cautious, and his tone unperturbed. Yet
his jaw ached from clenching his teeth, and the muscles in his shoulders and
his chest tightened.

He was ready to surge into
battle, and he would never leave Jessie behind.

She shook her head tightly at
him, as if she recognized the fury boiling beneath his skin.

But if Cheveyo noticed, he
said nothing. Instead, he nodded once. “Then we thank you for keeping her safe
and relieve you of any perceived obligation you may feel you have for her. We
will be taking her with us.”

“She stays with me.” Luke’s
tone brooked no argument.

“Who says I want to stay with
you?” Jessie asked. She turned to her cousin. “And who said anything about my
going with you?”

Luke ignored her, focusing
all of his attention on the man who blocked their exit. He had no idea how many
of her kinsmen awaited her outside, but he’d fight his way out, if he had to.

“She comes with us,” Cheveyo
warned.

Like
hell
. “She stays with
me.”

Jessie put herself between
the two of them. She anchored the blanket to her body with her elbows and held
up her hands—one toward Luke and the other toward Cheveyo. “You don’t get
to argue about me like I’m not even here. Don’t I have any say in this?”

Cheveyo winked at her.

Luke’s blood boiled.

“No,” Luke and Cheveyo
answered in unison.

Jessie groaned, and opened
her mouth to speak.

“If he’s not your man, why
would you choose to stay with him?” Cheveyo interrupted. “You are Paviotso, and
you belong with us.”

Luke forced his fingers to
relax. If Cheveyo forced them into a fight, he’d start slapping the trigger if
he didn’t. And if Luke fired his weapon, he might miss.

He
never
missed.

“I’m not choosing to stay
with him. I’m just asking for a say in the matter.”

“Jessie…” Luke began, his
voice guttural, harsh even to his own ears.

Cheveyo grinned, triumph
glittering in his dark eyes. “Get dressed, cousin. We will be leaving soon.” He
gestured vaguely at the tarp behind him. “We’ll be taking that horse, too. I
think a horse would be acceptable payment for our hospitality.”

“Bullshit,” Luke snapped.

“Tsk, tsk, such language in
front of a lady.” Cheveyo laughed. “You’re lucky I’m feeling generous enough to
leave one for you. After all, I’m entitled to take both.”

“Like hell you are.”

“My land, my warriors, my
horse, my kinswoman. You want to fight me? You’ll lose, Luke Bradshaw,” Cheveyo
said blandly, but Luke heard the threat in the man’s voice.

“Would you two stop it?”
Jessie demanded, her voice rising angrily. “Right now, I don’t want to go
anywhere with either of you!”

Luke inhaled deeply, ignoring
the fury throbbing in his chest like a second heart. “Where you gonna go,
Jessie?”

“The white man has a point,”
Cheveyo said. “And you don’t have a choice. You come with us.”

“Like hell,” Luke snarled.

Cheveyo focused on Jessie. “It’s
not an accident we found you.”

Danger eddied in the silence
as Luke considered Cheveyo’s words. He would die before he allowed anyone to
take Jessie away from him—even her own kin.

“Oh?” Her voice conveyed only
vague interest, nothing more, and a small fraction of Luke’s fury subsided.

“No. We have been searching
for you, Jessica.”

“And you didn’t think to look
at her house?” Luke asked. “That’s where
I
found her.”

“She wasn’t there.”

“Then you didn’t look very
hard,” Luke returned. “You didn’t protect her from the airship that destroyed
her house, you didn’t save her from the Confederate soldiers who were pursuing
her. You didn’t lead her through a snowstorm and find her shelter. You didn’t
see how she suffered last night.
You
didn’t
do anything. But I did all of that, and more. Where were
you
?” He grabbed Jessie’s arm and forced her to face him. “Just try
to deny it, Jessie. Just. Try.”

She gave him a long look
before turning back to her cousin. “Why would you choose
now
to look for me? It’s been almost nine years.”

“We respected your father and
stayed away.”

Jessie blanched. “My father… my
father told you to leave? And you did?”

“Grandfather worried you
would be caught between worlds. A person isn’t meant to walk in both for long,”
Cheveyo answered. “Now, it is time for you to come home.”

She closed her eyes briefly,
and Luke fought the urge to take her into his arms and spare her this hurt, but
he didn’t think she’d allow him to. He could safeguard her body, but her spirit
wasn’t his to protect.

“I looked for you,” she said.
“I went to the summer hunting grounds. You weren’t there.”

Cheveyo regarded her, and for
the first time, his eyes were interested. “We have not been there.”

“So I noticed. Where have you
been?”

That’s
right, Jess. Keep pushing.

“We’ve been… hunting,”
Cheveyo replied. The man clearly had no plans to offer her anything more. He
shifted his weight, and Luke recognized the look of a man who was hiding something.
“It’s time to come with us.”

Jessie rubbed her chest as if
it hurt. “For so long, I was all alone. You have no idea what I went through.”

“I can’t do anything about
what happened before, but I can help you now, Jessie.” Luke hoped she believed
him, for he’d never spoken truer words. “I’m the only one who can.”

“You think so highly of
yourself,” Cheveyo said.

Luke swallowed the sudden
inclination to punch Cheveyo in the face simply to feel the crunch of bone
beneath his knuckles.

Cheveyo turned his attention
back to Jessie. “Perhaps I didn’t make myself clear. This is not a request.
Grandfather summoned you.”

“Maybe I don’t want to see
him.”

Good
girl
.

“You will not deny
Grandfather,” Cheveyo said in a voice like a bullwhip. The temperature in the
mineshaft inexplicably dropped. “I will not return to the tribe without you. So
you can either come with me as my cousin or you can come as my prisoner. You
choose.”

Jessie simply glared at her
cousin, but said nothing.

“Your bitterness will be your
downfall, cousin.”

Luke stepped forward to stand
beside Jessie. “She goes nowhere without me.”

“I’ll
go
wherever I please, Bradshaw,” Jessie snapped. “You don’t own me
any more than
he
does. And if you two
will excuse me, I’d like to get dressed.” When neither man moved, Jessie made
an angry motion toward the tarp.

“You have not made your
decision, Jessica,” Cheveyo pointed out.