Indigo Blue (46 page)

When the way grew steep, Indigo gave up hope of someone helping her. They were quite a ways from town now. No one would be passing this way in the dead of night. Jeremy’s route home carried him down the mountain a quarter mile to the east. Oh, God. . . . If Jake regained consciousness, he’d have no idea where she was.

Evidently her two captors shared her feeling that any chance of interference had passed, for they slowed their pace and turned loose of her arms. Indigo’s relief at being unhanded was short-lived. Brandon dropped back a few steps and planted the toe of his boot on her bottom. With a shove, he sent her careening. With her arms tied behind her, Indigo couldn’t break her fall. She hit on her knees, crashed face-first, and slid a few inches down the incline. Only the gag saved her face.

Feigning sympathy, Brandon grasped her shoulder and rolled her over. “I’m sorry. I thought you’d be better at crawling by now.” He clamped her chin in a cruel grip. “But I guess nobody’s taught you yet. That’s okay. I give lessons.”

He straightened and motioned her to her feet. Indigo twisted to sit up, then struggled to stand. He stepped close. “You look so surprised. Don’t you remember my promise to teach you how to crawl, Indigo? Like squaws are supposed to? Sure you do.” His scarred mouth twisted in a horrible smile. “It’s time to pay, love.” He drew his hair back to reveal his notched ear. “You should never have fought me, you know. It would have been so much easier to just spread your legs. Now I have to teach you how squaws should grovel for it.”

Denver laughed. “Tell her. Tell her what we’re gonna do.”

Fear roiled within Indigo, stark and chilling. Her legs quivered under her, and she feared she might fall. They had planned this. And whatever they had in store for her, it was going to be diabolic.

Brandon leered at her. “It’s simple, really. Tonight, you’re either going to crawl and beg me to do it to you, or you’re going to be buried alive. It’s your choice, sweet.”

“And me, too,” Denver inserted. “I’ve got mine coming after what Rand did to me.”

Even through the haze of fear, Indigo caught that and slid a bewildered glance toward him. Anger burned in Denver’s eyes.

“He never told you?” He barked with laughter. “The bastard beat the shit out of me and fired me.”

Indigo stared at him. Jake had fired Denver? She thought back to her half-day at the mine and suddenly realized she hadn’t seen the blond there that day. It had been a happy miss, so she hadn’t thought about it then. Why hadn’t Jake said anything?

Denver moved closer. “Do you know why? Because I dared to get out of line with you. Can you believe it? Out of line with an Indian slut? He acted as if I’d insulted the goddam Queen of England or something.”

Brandon seized Indigo’s arms and jerked her into a walk. “Your reign was short. Now it’s back to reality.” He chuckled. “God, I can’t believe the time is finally at hand. I’ve waited six years for this, six years.” He gave her a little shake. “Don’t think that asshole husband of yours will come to your rescue. The fact that we have you shows we outsmarted him.”

Denver interrupted with a laugh. “We’ve been watching him watch for us for almost a week!”

“What he didn’t reckon on was that I wanted at you, not the goddam mine. When we saw he wasn’t going to let you near there, we took matters into our own hands and jumped you on the way home. The stupid bastard walked right into it.”

Indigo wheezed for air through the gag, pumping her legs to keep up. Her mind could focus on only one thing. The mine. Oh, God, they were taking her to the mine.
Buried alive.
She knew what they intended to do. Dear God, she knew.

Brandon glanced over at her and smiled another twisted smile. “You’ve got it figured already, don’t you? I reckon it’s all the white in you. More brains than most of your kind. So what do you think, love? Are you gonna strip down and plead with me and Denny to let you pleasure us? Or would you rather die inch by inch hundreds of feet inside the mine?”

Revolted, Indigo tried to jerk her arm free from his grasp.

He chuckled. “Don’t think I won’t do it, Indigo. I’ve owed you for six years.” He gestured at his mouth. “You ruined my face, you little bitch. Did you really think I’d just fade from your life and never make you pay?” He pressed close. “At first, I was just going to kill you. The first time, I damned near killed your father instead. That turned out okay. It was nearly as satisfying to watch you grieve over what had happened to him.”

Indigo suddenly felt dizzy. She blinked and stumbled to catch her balance.

“And then the wolf. God, that was rich. I meant to hit you and got poor old Lobo instead. I sat up there on that hillside and laughed myself sick.”

Indigo’s toe caught on a rock. Brandon kept her from falling.

“After the rock slide failed, I decided more specific aim was necessary. Denny and I thought of a dozen different plans, but the one thing that stuck in my mind was how much fun it had been to watch you squirm. So we came up with this idea. Squirm or die. If you crawl real pretty for us and tempt us enough with your charms, we’ll let you live. Understand?”

Indigo understood, all right.

He gave her another shove, this time not quite hard enough to send her sprawling. “Your grave awaits, ma’am.”

As they walked the remainder of the way to the mine, Brandon painted a vivid picture of her fate should she decide not to do some crawling. This time, he had carefully chosen the timbers that he damaged. When the tunnel collapsed, a small section at the end would remain intact. That was where she would draw her last breath, hundreds of feet into the earth, in total darkness, chilled to her bones, the oxygen slowly running out. A large grave, carefully chosen so she would die slowly and in terror.

Indigo almost wished the two men would rape her and get it over with. But she knew sexual gratification wasn’t really what Brandon craved. In his twisted mind, she was a piece of dirt to be used, and she had not only dared to deny him, but had left him scarred for life, trying to defend her virtue. As far as he was concerned, a woman like her had one use, and being chaste wasn’t one of them. To feel avenged, he had to degrade her. In exchange for her life, he expected to see her crawl and beg him to dishonor her. As far as he could see, that was her only recourse.

What Brandon didn’t understand was that without her honor, she truly would be the nothing creature he had always believed.

When they reached the mine, both men lit lanterns, then hauled her deeply into the bowels of the earth. The deathly cold penetrated to Indigo’s bones. They turned right into a reconstructed drift. It seemed to her that they walked forever. When they had nearly reached the drift’s end, Brandon passed beneath some closely grouped timbers and paused, holding his lantern high to direct Indigo’s gaze to them. She could see fresh axe marks in the darkened wood.

“Shored up,” he said softly. “A weak spot they walled in with timbers when they got this section dug back out.” As he spoke, a clod of dirt dropped from the earthen ceiling. He smiled. “I’ll bet your husband sweat blood down here helping them get these up, never knowing he was constructing a trapdoor to his wife’s tomb.”

He pointed to two ropes that were knotted around as many timbers.

“Weakened like those timbers are, what do you think will happen if Denny and I uncoil the extra lengths of rope and give them a good jerk when we reach the mouth of this drift?” He swung his lantern and made a
sw-shh-sh
sound. “In a blink, it all comes down. The collapse will probably be only a few feet wide, but it’s enough to serve our purposes.” He flashed her a slow smile. “Because guess what, sweetness? You’re going to be on the grave side of the collapse in a little pocket of space, with no air holes. You’ll last a few hours, at most.” His eyes gleamed into hers. “A few hours that will seem like eternity.”

With that he gave her a shove. On legs that felt like appendages of cold rubber, Indigo walked toward the blackness ahead. Her grave. Fear crawled over her.

When they reached the end of the drift, Brandon set his lantern aside and untied her gag. Taking a step back, he ran a glittering gaze over her. “How pretty can you beg, squaw?”

Denny plunked his lantern in the dirt and sidled toward her. “Let’s jerk that top up and see the pretties, Bran.”

“No,” Brandon snarled. His face contorted, then settled into a strained smile. “She has to beg me to look.” He moved closer. “Tell me how sweet they are, Indigo. And how they burn for my kisses.” His eyes seared hers. “Beg me to pull your shirt up, hm? Beg me to take them? Say it real sweet. Or die.”

Indigo worked her mouth and spat in his face. For several seconds, Brandon just stared at her. The shocked surprise in his gaze told Indigo something she had failed to see years ago. Brandon didn’t have any inkling of what dignity was because he had none. He had been crawling all his life and didn’t know it.

“Go straight to hell, Brandon,” she whispered. “I can’t stop you from raping me, but I’ll never ask slime like you to touch me. Not with my last breath.”

He started to shake with rage.

“You gonna take that?” Denver cried. “Slap the shit out of her.”

For a moment, Indigo thought Brandon might do just that, but at the last second, he seemed to regain control.

“No. If I start hitting the little bitch, I won’t be able to stop. I want her to die clearheaded.” Breathing hard, he backed away and leveled a finger at her. “You chose it, you stupid little breed. You just remember that. I wouldn’t have you now if you groveled for it.”

Denver laughed. “Come on, Bran. We’ve got plenty of time. I’m all worked up for it.”

Brandon shot his cousin a glare. “Go see a whore. You’re not messing this up for me just to get a shot off. I’ve waited too many years. This was the plan all along—she had to beg or die. You knew that when you said you’d help.”

Denver held up his hands. “Well, who’d’ve thought she’d choose dying? Come on, Bran. It isn’t ever as good when you gotta pay for it.”

“I said no!”

Indigo watched as Brandon collected his lantern. Denver reluctantly followed suit. Brandon pulled another length of rope from his coat. “Hold my lantern, Denny.”

Indigo stood motionless while Brandon tied her ankles. When he rose, he flashed her a cold grin. “Just so you can’t run to safety. Who knows? Maybe you can roll as far as the timbers and get buried. It’d end quicker that way.”

He slowly backed away. “Goodbye, Indigo. Tell the devil hello.”

With that, the two men walked away. Indigo waited until their lanterns became tiny bobs of light in the blackness, and then she dropped to her side to do just as Brandon had suggested and roll. Dirt and rock cut into her. She ignored the pain. The timbers. She had to work her way past them. Had to.

Dizziness washed over her. She shoved with her feet and rolled into an earthen wall. The blackness around her had become absolute. Was she even rolling in the right direction? She had lost her sense of place.

“Goodbye, you no-good Indian slut!”

Brandon’s voice echoed around her.
Good-bye-bye-bye.
The sounds died out with
slut-slut-slut.
Then a low rumble punctuated the call. The ground beneath Indigo rocked with vibration. Particles of dirt rained on her. Then silence descended, a horrible, black, endless silence. Indigo lay there, frozen with disbelief. It couldn’t be. It was too horrible to be real.

She was buried alive.

BLACKNESS SWIRLED AROUND JAKE. HE groaned and tried to swim out of it, beckoned by a distant voice, Jeremy’s voice. He tried to pinpoint the direction from which it came and move toward it. Moonlight knifed into his eyes. He reached to touch the explosion of pain at the back of his head.

“Jake, for God’s sake, what happened? Where’s Indigo?”

Indigo. The panic in his brother’s voice brought Jake to painful consciousness with a jolt. “My God, what hit me?”

With a rubbery arm, he pushed to a sitting position and blinked to clear his vision. To the east, he saw ribbons of faint pink streaking the gunmetal black of the sky behind the brooding peaks of the mountains. Dawn? He shook his head. How long had he been—

He looked around and spied Indigo’s knife lying in the dirt. Fear shot up his spine. “Indigo? She isn’t here?” He focused watery eyes on Jeremy’s concerned face. “What in hell happened? We were—” He broke off, trying to remember. All that came clear in his mind was seeing Indigo’s sweet face tipped back, her lips parted with breathless pleasure. Then sudden blackness. Jake shoved to his feet. “Sweet Jesus, where is she?”

Jake staggered sideways before he got his balance. A wave of nausea rolled over him. He braced his hands on his knees and took several deep breaths. Meanwhile, Jeremy scanned the dirt.

“Two men on foot,” he said gravely. He straightened and gazed toward Shallows Creek. “They took Indigo with them.”

Jake squinted against the blinding pain to peer into the blackness of the woods. His heart started to slam. How long had he been lying here? Two hours, maybe three? He had picked Indigo up about three-twenty. It had to be close to six now.

Jeremy turned toward him. “We’ll have to wait for daylight. We can’t see the end of our nose in the dark like this.”

Jake staggered again. “We can try tracking them on horseback with lanterns.” He spied a length of wood lying nearby and touched the tender throbbing in the back of his skull. “Son of a bitch. I kept her the hell away from there, trying to protect her, and now something’s happened to her anyway.”

“We can’t track anyone with lanterns, Jake,” Jeremy argued. “It’ll be daylight in less than an hour. Let’s wait until we can see what the hell we’re doing.”

Jake headed for the barn. “You do what you like. It’s my wife out there somewhere.”

Once in the barn, Jeremy accepted the situation and helped Jake saddle the horses. Jake had just led Buck outdoors when he heard a sound that sent cold chills up his spine. He froze and cocked his head, listening to the forlorn call of a wolf as it lifted eerily to a sad crescendo in the distant darkness. He couldn’t quite believe his ears. Lobo. He had heard the wolf howl only once, but the sound was unmistakable. Not a coyote. Jake had heard plenty of those howling around Wolf’s Landing, and there was a marked difference in the cries.