Dark Rivals: Lijuan Wilde Tale 0f Suspense (Half Breed Haven Book 3) Read online

  Table of Contents

  DARK RIVALS

  Author’s Note

  Foreword

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Epilogue

  DARK

  RIVALS

  A LIJUAN WILDE ADULT WESTERN

  By

  A.M. VAN DORN

  Copyright © 2017

  Cedar Ledge Publishing

  All Rights Reserved

  BOOKS AVAILABLE IN THE WILDES OF THE WEST SERIES

  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

  HALF BREED HAVEN #4: SILVER, GOLD, & DECEPTION

  HALF BREED HAVEN #5: THE FORBIDDEN RANCH

  HALF BREED HAVEN #6: SING THE DEATH SONG

  HALF BREED HAVEN #7: DISASTER AT DEVIL’S CANYON

  HALF BREED HAVEN #8: RENEGADES AND REVENGE

  HALF BREED HAVEN #9: INTO THE LAIR OF LOS REY LOBO

  COMING SOON

  THE WILDES OF THE WEST #3: THE TOWN OF NO RETURN

  (THE DANGER DOWN MEXICO WAY TRILOGY PART 2)

  THE WILDES OF THE WEST #4: THE BOOT HIILL EXPRESS

  (THE DANGER DOWN MEXICO WAY TRILOGY PART 3)

  ALL CAN BE FOUND AT THIS LINK

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

  If you enjoy the Wilde family and their spicy adventures, join the Cedar Reader’s Mailing list and be alerted to new releases as well as receiving a free gift of a Wilde Family Adventure for further reading.

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  www.thewildesofthewest.com

  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 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 Lijuan Wilde 1873

  “That bitch!” was racing through my mind as she locked the door behind her leaving me to die. Name calling however wasn’t going to save me. It was up to me. Cassandra always, always told us girls that there were options and I had to find mine and right quick.

  Over on the table the fuse was burning down on those three sticks of dynamite and getting shorter by the second. I would already have been dead if Lettie hadn’t made the fuse extra-long just to torment me. That’s when my eyes went to the little window in the supply shack that was meant to be the place where I would get my ticket to heaven or hell depending on who you asked. There was no getting out of the tiny opening but that wasn’t what I had in mind. There was another way it could save me.

  As I struggled to my feet with my hands tied behind me I was at least thankful the insane cowgirl hadn’t bound my feet, or I wouldn’t have had a prayer. Making my way towards the dynamite I remember thinking Loco Lettie Bell was out to kill me all over … a man! Men grew on trees at ranches like these, but I had “stolen” away HER man. I will admit he was a fine, fine man.

  Dale was my type through and through, the blonde hair with the blue eyes that familiar look that I’ve loved so long. The type that made my toes curl up at the thought of the night before when his strong arms had lifted me up to his body. The sizzling sensation had started in the pit of my stomach and traveled down to my feet and all over my body. Everything that was me tingled at his every touch of my skin. Those strong arms of his couldn’t be compared to any other for a long stretch of wilderness in Arizona. And his flat, hardboard chest … I think I might have been addicted to Dale’s entire body. If only he could be …

  Anyway, it is for that same body that Lettie had me trapped in a room with dynamite as her murder weapon. I guess I am not the only one who knew a fine specimen of a man when she saw one.

  As fine a man as Dale was, however, I sure as hell wasn’t going to die for him nor let that mad woman Lettie kill him in a jealous rage. The only thing that stood in my way was the fuse that was nearly at its end. I had less than a minute left to save myself or the next stop was either paradise or the fiery gates of hell!”

  ************************

  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 old American West. These accounts were narrated to me in the desolate ruins of Cedar Ledge—a once mighty Arizona ranch—and I promise that everything I was told 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 the ranch’s last inhabitant, old Cattie Wilde, relayed to me the true story of the heroics of the most improbable of mixed race families, of which she had been a member. 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 sibling, cavalry officer Dutch and his Indian love Bright Feather, and their youngest brother, the Yavapai brave Blue River, made up the WILDES 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.

  Lijuan Wilde was said to be the most petite of the Wilde sisters, but she was the most dangerous. Lijuan was half Chinese from a time in their father’s life when he was shipwrecked in that far off and mysterious country. Equipped with deadly fighting skills from the ancient land and driven by the frustration of a hopelessly forbidden love that fueled a darkness within her, she was at times an untamed force. Over time, her family tried to convince themselves that the darkness in Lijuan was not there, but that was a tale in itself. It was that darkness, however, that made her someone whose path no enemy would wish to cross.

  Catalina has graciously made available to me all her family’s writing 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 conquest 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. In this entry from Lijuan Wilde’s journal, the deranged cowgirl, Lettie Bell would find her match in Lijuan as the dangerous pair faced off as …

  DARK RIVALS

  Chapter One

  Alamieda

  Arizona Territory

  1873

  All good things must come to an end. No one knew that better than Samuel Stinson. A heavy sigh escaped his lips as he felt the warmth of Lijuan Wilde’s body pull away from him. He propped himself up on his elbows on his bed in one of the rooms above the assayer’s shop and watched as the Chinese beauty wordlessly slipped out of his bed with its sheets and blankets all askew.

  As her short legs carried her to the window, her long blackish/brown hair cascaded down her back, swinging slightly, Sam’s eyes followed her every step of the way, paying close attention to her heart-shaped ass that flowed out from her shapely hips. Still saying nothing, he watched as she drew back the curtain to look out on the main street of Alamieda. He couldn’t stand being separated from her any longer and swung his feet to the creaking wooden floor and trailed after her. As he did he briefly looked over his shoulder at the messy bed, still in partial disbelief at what had just happened.

  A couple heartbeats later he stood behind the very petite woman and maneuvered his hands around her front, cupping her remarkable, melon-sized breasts that were a hallmark of the four notorious, mixed-race Wilde sisters of Cedar Ledge. Sam kissed the top of Lijuan’s head before lowering his, so he could nuzzle the side of her neck. The woman purred for a moment, but her focus remained beyond the window.

  “What you looking at?” Lijuan partially turned her head and answered him before once again turning back to look through the dusty window pane.

  “It looks like they finished taking that old prospector and the piece of shit that murdered him down to the funeral parlor, but I can still make out the blood stains on the ground even if it’s dark now. Who do you suppose he was? Did he give you his name?”

  Sam had to think a moment, but he could only shake his head. “No, he never said. He was a happy fellow though. Said he’d spent the last thirty years trying to strike it rich, and he was sure what he brought to the shop was just the tip of the iceberg. It’s a damn shame he didn’t live to enjoy it.”

  Lijuan finally turned her attention away from the window. She maneuvered herself around in his arms, as short as she was her breasts now pushing hard against the muscles of upper abdomen. She reached her right hand up and ran it through his black hair as a smile crossed her face, but in her almond eyes he could see the coldness that many in town whispered about the lovely Asian who held sway over the entire sprawling five hundred square miles that made up the Wilde family’s ranching and timber operations.

  “Well, at least he got the justice he deserved.”

  “That he did, Lannie.”

  He surprised even himself when he let out a slight gasp at the speed of which the corners of her mouth turned downward and her eyes narrowed.

  “It’s Lijuan! Do you understand that? Only my sister, Honor Elizabeth, is allowed to call me that!”

  Flummoxed, he explained he had indeed heard Honor call her that the last time the pair had been in the shop and he apologized, saying he figured after what they just had gone through it would be okay.

  Lijuan seemed to ease up and a smile returned to her face, but her eyes still held their hardness.

  “It’s okay. When she was a toddler she couldn’t say my name and the best she could manage was Lannie. It’s just something for her. Just call me Lijuan,” she said as a playfulness returned to her demeanor and she drew her thumb down across his face to the corner of his mouth. “And I think I will call you a very good time, Mister Sam Stinson!

  Saying no more she raised herself up on her tippy toes, bringing her lovely narrow face close and he opened his mouth to accept her kiss from her lush, petite red lips. The slight giggle that escaped the woman’s mouth he knew was because she was being poked by his now rigid and eager member. Her small hands fell to his chest and began pushing him back towards the bed behind them. Perhaps, he thought, maybe all good things might continue after all!

  His mind began to spin knowing a repeat of earlier was moments away. As they fell onto the bed with Lijuan straddled atop him, her large breasts jiggling ever so slightly, he still couldn’t believe everything that had happened in a short time. In amazement, he thought one would never have guessed that not much earlier Lijuan Wilde had sent a man on his way to a pauper’s grave in the Boot Hill on the edge of Alamieda. It had all started with her arrival at the shop. And to think he had nearly locked her out!

  ***

  “Whoa now, Kong!” With a gentle tug on the reigns Lijuan dropped her steed down from the steady gallop that she had maintained all the way from the Cedar Ledge ranch on the outskirts of Alamieda. There had been little choice after all but for her to keep up her steady pace on the ride in, with a dust cloud billowing behind the pair. As it was she was still likely to miss getting to the assayer’s office before it closed its doors for the day. Lijuan had business to attend to there, and she wanted it concluded before she left on her trip in the morning, so it had been now or never.

  Honor Elizabeth, of course, had been indirectly to blame for the mad rush to Alamieda, she stewed. She drew Kong up in front of the shop with its weather-beaten sign hanging over it proclaiming it to be Treadwell Assayers, painted in a fading red in large Bodoni font. Her sister had come down with a raging cold and had mustered herself up out of her overstuffed canopy bed just long enough to make it out to the balcony railing overlooking the great room of Cedar Ledge. Honor had appeared just as Lijuan had finished strapping on her gun belt and slipping her trusty foot-long blacksmith’s hammer into a loop on the other side of the belt. For all practical purposes, her favored weapon had almost become a part of her.

  From the railing, her coughing, sniffling sibling pleaded with her to fetch her a fresh pitcher of ice water. Lijuan had placed her hands on her hips and was just about to demand to know why she didn’t ring the bell to call for the ranch’s cook, old Mrs. Chow, when she remembered the old woman and her husband, the ranch’s handyman, had gone to visit new friends they had made amongst the Chinese community helping build a spur line for the Great Western Railroad over by Pixley Junction.

  To Lijuan’s annoyance upon arriving in the kitchen, she found all the ice was gone resulting in a trip to the ice house to resupply. On the way and in a huff, she passed her ever-cheerful youngest sister, Catalina, in the backyard. Cattie, being Cattie, had only laughed when her greeting was ignored by Lijuan. The young Mexican beauty took no offense to it at all. The quartet of sisters knew each other’s personalities and moods as well as their own. It was only natural being as tight knit as they all were, and everyone knew it. Long ago the four sisters had been nicknamed the Daughters of Half Breed Haven in a failed attempt by others to hurt them. Turning the tables on them the sisters had embraced the moniker and had even added HBH to the ranch’s sign.

  By the time her errand for Honor was said and done she was running late. As she tied Kong up to the hitching post, she shook her head and gave a slight smile. She might like to complain about Honor Elizabeth’s precociousness, but she loved her sister deeply as she loved all the Wilde family. All for one and one for all wasn’t just as saying … it was how the Wildes lived.

  Suddenly from the front door of the shop a hunched-over man burst forth leaving one of the dual doors ajar. The man’s clothes were ragged and worn in places, and he was caked in dust, but those attributes weren’t what gave Lijuan pause for a moment. It was the wad of bills he clutched in his grubby hands and held in front of his lined face that shone with glee. He nearly bumped into her but paid her no mind as he continued out into the street whe
re he stopped and began counting the small fortune he held.

  Even if he hadn’t been coming out of the assayer’s office Lijuan would have pegged him as a prospector any day of the week given his appearance. What was different about this old man was that he appeared to have made a windfall instead of toiling in vain as most gold miners she had met over the years seemed to. One eyebrow shot up as she watched him counting the money. Flashing that kind of cash around was never a good idea, but it wasn’t her problem. With a shrug, she turned back towards the door, not seeing the man on the opposite site of the street lurking in the shadows of a recessed doorway who had taken a keen interest in the little man.

  Lijuan took a moment to reorganize her hair that had been whipped into a frenzy from the mad dash to town, and as she approached the door, she saw a hand swiftly flip the open sign in the door window to closed while another hand was drawing the partially opened door shut. Without hesitation, she jammed her booted foot in the door, bringing it to a definitive halt.

  “Sorry we are clo-” the man never finished what he was saying as he brought his eyes up to see who he was closing the door on. With amusement, she watched as the door couldn’t be flung open fast enough. It had been the Wildes’ experience that there were two kinds of men they encountered. Those who were instantly rendered color blind based on their looks, and those whose bigoted beliefs were so deeply rooted and entrenched that even a pretty face couldn’t sway them. She was glad Sam Stinson was the former or the door would have been locked and the shade drawn down in her face.

  “Miss Wilde, please won’t you come in!”

  “You don’t mind?” she asked coyly, knowing full well the answer but clasped one of her hands to her chest just for effect.