Silver, Gold And Deception: Catalina Wilde Western Adventure (Half Breed Haven Book 4) Read online

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  SILVER, GOLD & DECEPTION

  FOREWORD

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  SILVER, GOLD & DECEPTION

  A CATALINA WILDE ADULT WESTERN

  By

  A.M. VAN DORN

  Copyright © 2018

  Cedar Ledge Publishing

  All Rights Reserved

  OTHER BOOKS IN THE WILDES OF THE WEST SERIES

  NOW AVAILABLE

  THE WILDES OF THE WEST #1: THE DAUGHTERS OF HALF BREED HAVEN

  HALF BREED HAVEN #1: WILDE-FIRE

  HALF BREED HAVEN #2: IN DANGER’S SHADOW

  HALF BREED HAVEN #3: DARK RIVALS

  ALL CAN BE FOUND AT THIS LINK

  https://www.amazon.com/A.M.-Van-Dorn/e/B077GNX3GP/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1

  COMING SOON in 2018

  HALF BREED HAVEN: THE FORBIDDEN RANCH

  (An Honor Elizabeth Wilde adult western adventure)

  HALF BREED HAVEN: SING THE DEATH SONG

  (A Dutch Wilde & Bright Feather adult western adventure)

  HALF BREED HAVEN: DISASTER AT DEVIL’S CANYON

  (A Blue River Wilde adult western adventure)

  AND

  THE WILDES OF THE WEST #2: DANGER DOWN MEXICO WAY

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  * * *

  Thank you for joining the Wilde sisters on one of their adventures. Just a quick note regarding what you are about to read

  Please be advised the Wilde sisters are all grownups and therefore they engage in in very adult escapades and situations that include their romantic encounters as well as the sudden violence that can occur in their continued fight against assorted bad guys of the Old West.

  So, in short, these stories are recommended for mature readers of 18+ years of age.

  With that said it’s time to saddle up and dive into the world of Half Breed Haven!

  A.M. VAN DORN

  Contact Information can be found at: [email protected]

  or

  www.thewildesofthewest.com

  From the journal of Catalina Wilde

  1873

  I'll sure as sugar say this…I don't know even where to begin with this here crazy week I just lived through! It was supposed to just be a quiet time with me looking after the ranch with Blue River's help while those big sisters of mine were gone over Nevada way on business. After they got back it sounded like a heck of a lot more cavorting than business! Instead of the peaceful set of days I was imagining it seems I wound up having my hands full with one jasper after another. Mind you these were the most dangerous kind of snakes you'll ever find. The kind that goes about walking on two legs!

  The things I saw and did are gonna be sticking with me for a long time to come. This I know!

  The sight of a woman whose beauty was battered away at the hands of a coward who would raise a hand to a woman. A farmhouse in flames and a family massacred. Then there was that peaceful tribe of Yavapai facing slaughter. It wasn’t all bad though. I saw a young woman’s slice of bravery that could hold a candle right up there against anything we Wilde girls have ever done.

  Yeah, I sure did see a lot. Can still see it. My mind keeps a spinning back to that there massacre. I’m sad to admit I’ve laid eyes on more than my fair share of death up close ever since we girls started helping our older sister, Cassandra. But then, what I saw that day even now still shakes me up, and more so after I found out just why this family had met their Maker in the gruesome fashion I happened upon them.

  It's plain as day, right before my eyes. That homestead with the bodies scattered about the yard, the burning farmhouse and then, of course, that poor fellow who come running out, little more than a human torch. The Lord knows I did what I could for him, and honestly, he was as good as dead before I saddled up with him and rode away with him like all of hell was on our tail. I had hoped that getting him back to town might give him a tiny shot at being saved, but it actually turned out bringing him back signed his death warrant! No way could I have known that at the time, of course. But at least I eventually saw justice was meted out nice and proper like.

  And while all this was going on I still needed to find a way to help my friends back in Alamieda who were in desperate need of the kind of help we Wildes do best. Ruth Anne my friend, was facing separation from her beau who was looking at hard labor in prison for at least the next twenty years. There was no way I was gonna let him take the rap for a crime he didn’t commit, hell no! Ruth Anne and Jackson were more than good friends … that day in the cabin, we had all been lovers and for me, it was enough reason to save his ass from jail. Course I would have done it even if he wasn’t Ruth Anne’s beau … No way I’d ever let an innocent man go to prison!

  Not gonna mince my words here, it was a first-rate time when we all came together in that room in the old cabin I volunteered as a hideout on Cedar Ledge. I won’t be forgetting the soft feel of Ruth Anne’s body against mine nor would I forget Jackson giving free rein to his hunger for this new experience he was having, one that drove me to a pleasure higher than any of these here mountains on Half Breed Haven

  Yep; that sure was a romp all three of us are gonna long remember. Ruth Anne and I obliged her man a little slice of paradise that beautiful afternoon. However, after it was over the fact remained the only thing standing between the paradise he just had and going straight to the hell that was Claymore Prison was me, and I damn well wasn't fixing to let hell come out over heaven!

  Oh, and one more thing. Through all this I done made me an enemy, nah scratch that...HE done made an enemy outta ME! Give me a stack of bibles and I’ll swear on them that someday he’s gonna be sorry he ever heard the name Cattie Wilde. I’ll see to that!

  ***

  FOREWORD

  * * *

  My name is Allie Mastluehr, and in the spring of 1913, I stumbled upon some of the most remarkable but forgotten tales of the American West and the entry you have just read was from the journal of Catalina Wilde from the days of her uninhibited youth. I was rewarded with Cattie’s writings, along with those of her one-of-a-kind family, by her upon my arrival in the desolate ruins of Cedar Ledge—a once mighty Arizona ranch—and I promise that everything I learned wasn’t the stuff of legend; it was one remarkable family’s real history, almost lost to the unforgiving winds of time.

  I experienced a countless series of shocks as Cattie, the ranch’s last inhabitant, relayed to me the true story of the heroics of her most improbable of mixed race families. She quickly immersed me in all the action, adventure, romance, and family drama that came with being one-quarter of the formidable foursome known to friends and foes alike as THE DAUGHTERS OF HALF BREED HAVEN. In short, I learned of this stunning multiracial quartet whose bravery, thirst for justice and love for each other were matched only by their unbridled appetite for the most casual and sizzling encounters with the opposite (or in Catalina's case, the same) sex.

  The Mexican Catalina along with the fair-skinned, blonde Cassandra, the mulatto Honor Elizabeth and the Asian Lijuan—all half-sisters—were the proud daughters of Judge William Henry “Whip” Wilde. The interracial sisters along with their siblings, cavalry officer Dutch and his Indian love Bright Feather, and their youngest brother, the half Yavapai brave Blue River, made up the WIL
DES OF THE WEST. They upheld the law and aided those in need amidst the pristine beauty and natural wonders that was their corner of 1870s Arizona.

  Though I have only had the privilege of knowing Catalina, through her stories and the significant volume of diaries and journals mercifully saved by her, the rest of the Wildes have become as alive to me as if they were standing before me as I write this.

  Catalina Wilde is my gracious hostess and now, for all practical purposes, is also fast becoming the mother I never had. From what I can tell, she has not changed one bit from her youth. She was an impetuous, fun-loving young woman who enthusiastically engaged in her romances that flew in the face of what society deemed acceptable. Come what may, little ever stifled her good cheer—not even the dangers she faced against the countless robbers, rustlers, polecats, and jaspers that the West kept throwing at them. Woe to anyone that stood in the way of Catalina and her sisters.

  She has graciously made available to me all her family’s writings so that I may pen the definitive tale of this unique and exceptional family and the adversity they faced. The more I read of them, the greater my amazement and respect for them grows as I follow their adventures in vanquishing villains and bedding whatever conquests happen to come their way.

  Together, the Wilde sisters could be near unstoppable but whenever alone or in pairs they still proved to be a force to be reckoned with.

  Just how much can be found in one of Catalina’s journals from long ago when she would stop at nothing to come to the aid of both intimate friends, a courageous young hostage held by a fiend, and an entire tribe of Indians all of whom were threatened by evil men who planted the seeds of their own destruction through dark obsessions and unbridled greed that came hand in hand with …

  SILVER, GOLD & DECEPTION

  CHAPTER 1

  * * *

  SCRUB BUSH COUNTY OUTSIDE

  ALAMIEDA

  ARIZONA TERRITORY

  1873

  That miserable goddamn wench!

  Over and over again that one thought churned within the murky cesspool that was the brain of Ian Oaksford as he clenched his teeth so hard the possibility of some of them snapping off wasn’t out of the question. His muscles burned under the strain as he snapped the reins yet again, urging the exhausted animals in the traces to maintain their speed and put as much distance between him and Alamieda as possible. His trip to there was the final, humiliating rejection from that bitch; after all he had done for her.

  Under him, the wagon was vibrating as if it were about to fly apart, and given its age and deplorable condition, Oaksford wouldn't be surprised if it did. The rickety old wagon, after all, had been purchased by his parents all those decades ago when they had headed west. Like many, the Oaksfords had answered the siren cry of that unknown land. So, they had turned their backs on their failing little Vermont dirt farm that sat within view of the famed Fort Ticonderoga across Lake Champlain and answered the call of Westward Ho! Life had proved no better there in the end, and Oaksford grew up with little in the way of wealth. Which was the reason the bitch had spurned him, even now with all the money that was now his. His dilapidated wagon, well-worn clothes and his modest job filling the horse troughs that lined the streets of his destination of Halfmoon would now be a thing of the past, and yet she had rejected him again. But this time it had been at her peril.

  So, he wasn't good enough for a fancy shopkeeper! That was what she had been implying every time she had sought to end their relationship. Now he had gone and done the unthinkable, he had given up everything for her and still, she had snubbed him. The blows that he had delivered to that once beautiful face were as justified as any he had ever delivered in his life. Did he want to beat the shit out of the woman that he loved? No, of course not, but she had left him little choice. Now he was a man on the run. But worse than that, in his fit of pique, as he beat her, he had revealed that he was the man everyone was looking for in Halfmoon.

  His only bit of luck was that by the time she told anyone, he would have loaded up all his meager belongings and left, along with his new fortune, before anyone would even know he was gone. Still, he was taking no chances; he needed to hurry and get to Halfmoon, get his stuff, and disappear into the immense expanse of the Arizona territory. Hell, he might return to the beautiful green hills of Vermont he had loved as a child or maybe, just maybe, head to California like he had planned, only before the vision had included Noelle at his side.

  Oaksford did a quick calculation. He would soon be crossing the drought-shriveled Apache Creek, and not far after that, he would be cut across the tracks where the Grand Western Railroad operated its route between Halfmoon and Gillespie. Once he traversed over them, it would be another two miles and he would be back home in Halfmoon, and once he was there, maybe an hour to load up all his essentials and escape the area.

  Miss Noelle Dorrett once again returned to his thoughts. Part of him wondered if he should have killed her by simply continuing his beating of her all the way until she was dead. It certainly was possible, as he had done it before, albeit by accident. He had been lucky that time. With the help of the slick lawyer he exhausted what little savings he had in this world to hire, he had escaped prison for his beating of his wife Sarah Jane. Everyone thought she had packed up and went to Montana where she had family following his exoneration.

  No one knew that he had shown up the night that she was packing to do just that. He had begged and pleaded for her to take him back only to have his appeals fall on deaf ears. How it had escalated to the point he had crushed her skull during his final, fatal beating of her, even he couldn't be sure now. It was all one huge blur as was burying her body and belongings out in the Los Mochis Flats desert where to this day she remained undisturbed.

  A thudding sound below his feet brought Oaksford back to the present. He knew what it was. The tongue of the wagon connecting the team of two horses in the “double tree” was coming loose. He’d known about it for some time but he just never seemed to get the energy up to fix it. Now a cold sweat broke out across his brow. He needed to slow down or else the inevitable would happen, but suddenly he found he had no choice but to keep going. Oaksford had glanced over his shoulder at the coil of rope he had in the back of the wagon, wondering if he could use it to somehow secure the tongue properly so he could maintain his desperate flight.

  His eyes then traveled to his sole weapon, a shotgun lying in the bed of the wagon, the same shotgun he had used to blow away the luckless teller the day before. Most men of the West carried six-shooters strapped to their waists, but he didn’t care for their weight. However, when he witnessed the bloody mess he had made with the double barrel shotgun blast to the man’s chest he had wished it had been just a pistol he had used. Surely it wouldn’t have done the kind of gory damage he had caused.

  As he was shaking his head at the memory of throwing up inside the sack he had worn on his head as a disguise and was just about to turn his attention from the back of the wagon, that was when he saw her! He couldn’t believe it to the point where he had to do a double take just to confirm what he had just seen was no mirage.

  "Oh, shit! It's one of them." His voice was little more than a dry croak as he looked over his shoulder for the third time and saw the charging figure on horseback, even closer now than she was before. Off in the distance, he heard the whistle of a locomotive but it barely registered on him as he looked at his pursuer. It wasn't the blonde or the colored girl, nor was it the petite Asian that intimidated men and women alike. It was the Mexican. For no reason that his struggling mind could grasp, he was being pursued by none other than Catalina Wilde!

  ***

  EARLIER

  Catalina was loving every moment of this. She was standing in the middle of Naomi Dorrett’s bedroom on the second floor of Dorrett’s Decorum, as the store was known. She reveled in the sunlight as the afternoon rays washed over her face, her skin tingling in its warmth. It was a pleasurable feeling, but the young half Mexican bea
uty knew that it would pale in comparison with what was yet to come. That was if her nervous would-be lover could rise to the challenge.

  Standing in front of her with one hand pressed against the exposed skin below her neck and breathing deep breaths that seemed to reverberate through her entire body was one-half of the Dorrett sisters. Cattie's brown eyes, just a shade removed from being all black, flashed and she moistened her lips as she took in the trembling woman from head to toe.

  She didn't know Naomi's age but she was probably a good three to four years younger than she was making her about twenty, Catalina guessed. Her sandy blonde hair hung in ringlets that dangled from the sides of her head. How long it took her in the morning to fashion them that way was, unlike her age, one thing that Catalina wasn't even going to attempt to take a guess at. Naomi's blue eyes were striking in not only their size but the shade reminded her of the color of the sky at dusk when not a trace of the sun's rays could be seen but before the curtain of complete blackness enveloped the sky. Catalina was gazing directly into them, eye to eye.

  Their height was not the only thing that was evenly matched. Just like Cattie she had an hourglass figure that filled out her fancy dress, with melon sized breasts that seemed to be doing their best to burst free of the fabric that held them in check. If things proceeded as Catalina had planned then they would soon be free and in her hands as welcome playthings.

  Catalina, with one hand, slowly skimmed her fingertips over Naomi's jawline with one hand and with the other she took the hand Naomi had pressed against her chest and removed it. As Naomi's arm fell to her side Catalina laid her own hand where Naomi's had once been. The blond beauty's heart was pulsating under Catalina's palm in what she knew would be one-part terror and one-part arousal. She knew this because she had been many a woman's first time with a member of her own sex.