Spirit Horses (29 page)

With no time to get to his rifle, Shane picked up a
rock and readied himself for the unfair advantage Jack had with the large
knife. Jack, still screaming and charging, nearly made it to Shane when out of
nowhere, came a vicious, coordinated attack from Butch and Jessie. The two
wolves were on top of Jack with all the speed and precision they had acquired
while hunting together since they were pups. One bit down hard on Jack’s knife
hand while the other went for the back of his neck.

Tara, her shirt ripped, and her face bruised, had
already grabbed Shane’s rifle off of Tory and hers from her horse. She tossed
Shane his gun and yelled, “There are two more men in the cave, and they have
Tashawa!”

Thomas had since moved off the feisty Tashawa and
was running out to see what all the hollering was about. Shane met him at the
cave entrance with a crashing blow to the forehead from the butt of his 30-30
rifle. Thomas barely got a look at Shane before the blow dropped him hard to
the ground.

Tara was right behind Shane and soon inside holding
her gun within an inch of Bo’s face as he was still leaning on the rock,
recovering from her previous kick to his throat. Bo stood up, pointed at Shane
with hate in his eyes, and yelled, “You tell this squaw bitch to get that gun
out of my face so I can finish you off, man-to-man, like I should have done in
town that day.” In the meantime Tashawa stumbled over and begun hysterically
kicking Thomas in the back as he lay unconscious at the cave’s opening.

Shane looked at Tara, who was pointing her gun at
Bo, and told her, “If he moves or even twitches, shoot him in a knee.” Then he
went over to get Tashawa away from Thomas as she continued relentlessly kicking
the still unconscious Arapaho. “All right, girl! That’s enough,” he said, as he
put his arms around her from behind and pulled her back. “He can’t hurt you any
more. Just get your rifle and keep a close watch over him.”

He then hurried outside to check the dogs. They had
Jack on the ground propped against a tree, and he was pretty mauled up. He was
also still bleeding profusely from the cut Shane gave him with his spur. Shane
called the dogs off, walked up to Jack, leaned over, face-to-face, and said,
“Man that’s got to hurt.” Then, with a look that could kill, he told him, “I’m
going to let you go get some help now before you bleed to death. Seeing as how
we’re out here in the middle of nowhere, I don’t have much of a choice. But
just keep in mind, the next time I see you, I won’t give you a chance to pull a
knife on me. You’ll be dead before you can get it out of the sheath.” Shane
grabbed the injured Jack by the collar, dragged him over to his horse, and
pushed him up into the saddle.

Jack was hurt badly. With blood pouring from his
face, he could hardly speak, but somehow he managed to look down at Shane and
muttered painfully, “Fuck you, white boy, this isn’t over yet.”

Shane looked him square in the eye, “Not by a long
shot, asshole.” Then he slapped Jack’s horse on the hip, and sent him galloping
into the thick woods.

Shane quickly made his way back to the cave. Thomas
was now beginning to regain consciousness. Tashawa still had her rifle stuck in
his face, and he saw the dogs were now helping her keep him pinned to the
ground. Shane was confident that Thomas was under control and wasn’t going
anywhere. Then he walked over to Tara, put his hand on her shoulder, and told
her to stop pointing her gun at Bo. “All right, dipshit, I’m going to give you
that opportunity you asked for. Man-to-man, you can show me what you’ve got.”

Bo, with a cocky smirk, stood up. Trying to seize
the advantage, he suddenly threw a sucker punch at Shane before they had a
chance to square off
at each
other. Shane was expecting a cowardly move like this and adeptly blocked the
sorry punch. Quickly reacting, he hit Bo with a crushing blow to his face,
breaking his nose and knocking him to the dirt. Bo furiously struggled back up
onto his feet and took another swing at Shane, hitting nothing but air. Shane
countered his punch once again, this time connecting with Bo’s left eye. Bo
dropped to the cave floor, out cold.

As Shane stepped back, he noticed Butch was still
helping Tashawa with Thomas, while Jessie had come over and positioned himself
to pounce on Bo, in case things had gone the other way with their fight. He
looked down at the wolf and said, “What’s wrong, Jessie, didn’t you think I
could take him?” The dog looked back up at Shane and wagged his tail.

At that moment, Tara walked over to Shane and sighed
emotionally as she put her arms around his neck.
 

He pulled her in close and
whispered in her ear, “It’s all over now.
”

“I sure am glad you came looking for us,” she said,
as she took a deep breath and recovered her composure.

Shane whistled for Tory, and the horse immediately
came inside the cave and over to him. He untied a jacket from his saddle and
wrapped it around Tara’s torn shirt.

“What are we going to do with these jerks?” Tashawa
asked.

The two men were now beginning to regain
consciousness. “We don’t have much choice,” Shane answered. “We’re too far out
to do anything but let ’em go. We’ll talk to the law about them when we get
back.” Tashawa was not happy with this. She would have killed them if Shane had
not been there to stop her. Reluctantly, they let the two injured men leave.

Tashawa led the trio down to a stream, where they
rode a while in the water. This would make it difficult for the Indians and Bo
to track them to the camp if they had a mind to. All three men were hurt badly
enough to need to go home and lick their wounds. However, Tashawa figured it
was better to be safe than sorry.
      

On the way back, Tigee’s voice came over the radio.

“Shane, come in.”

“This is Shane. Over.”

“Did you find the girls?”

“Yes, sir, we ran in to a little trouble. Over.”

“What do you mean, trouble?”

“We’re traveling pretty fast right now. We want to
get back to the cabin before dark. I’ll talk to you later, but everyone’s
okay.”

The old man hesitated and then said, “All right,
over and out.”

The women were pretty shook up and hadn’t spoken
much since they left the cave. It was Tara, who finally broke the silence.
“With all the commotion, we forgot to tell you what we found. Tashawa spotted
some covered up tire tracks. The storm hit before we had a chance to follow
them very far, but someone had definitely gone to a lot of trouble to hide
them.”

Tashawa finally spoke, “That’s probably what those
pigs were out there doing before the storm drove them to the cave.”

“Do you think you can follow the tracks after the
hard rain today?” Shane asked.

“Yes, I believe so,” she answered.

“We’ll go out in the morning and have a look-see
then,” he said. “I don’t think those three will be coming out to the valley
tomorrow. They were all pretty banged up.”

Suddenly Tashawa held up her hand, stopped her horse,
and pointed down. She noticed some fresh mountain goat tracks in front of them.
She told Shane and Tara to stay put, slipped off her horse, and quietly walked
into the woods. It wasn’t long before they heard the faint shot of a rifle,
with a silencer. Soon, Tashawa was back with a goat slung over her shoulder.

“Fresh meat tonight,” she said as she threw the
animal up in front of her saddle.

The shack was a welcome sight. Shane suggested the
women go to the pool and clean up, while he fed the horses and put them away.
As an afterthought, he sent the dogs down to keep an eye on the ladies. By the
time they returned, the goat was skinned, cleaned, and ready to cook.

Tara walked past him holding her head down as she
went by. Shane wasn’t sure what was wrong, but it was obvious to him that she
wanted some privacy. So he headed on down to the pool to wash up. While
relaxing in the cool, refreshing water, he had a chance to reflect on what
happened that day, along with the connection he and Tara had made. His thoughts
then shifted to how enraged he’d become when he saw her pinned down to the
ground by Jack. He was glad he’d kept his cool, though, and had not done
something he would have regretted. He recalled what that son of a bitch told
him as he rode off, “This isn’t over yet.”

Shane knew in his gut that it wasn’t the last time
he would see
Jack
.
He tried to put it out of
his mind as he soaked in the pool a while longer.

Approaching the cabin, he could smell dinner
cooking. As he walked within sight of the porch, he noticed Tashawa putting
some of the fresh meat down for Butch and Jesse. He jokingly said, “You aren’t
feeding those dogs our food, are you?”

All she said back to him was, “They did good today.”
Then she turned and went inside.

“Looks like you boys finally won her over,” Shane
mumbled to the wolves as he followed Tashawa into the cabin. The two women were
busy preparing dinner. Along with the fresh meat, they had canned vegetables,
potatoes, biscuits, and gravy. “Wow!” Shane exclaimed in surprise when he saw
everything they were cooking. “You ladies went all out tonight.”

Tara still kept her back to him and didn’t say a
word, but Tashawa looked at him and said, “This is because you did good today.”
The meal was Tashawa’s way of showing her thanks without actually having to say
the words. Tara continued to work with her back to Shane, and he was beginning
to wonder if he’d done or said something to upset her.

He decided to go outside and sit with the dogs until
dinner was ready. It was a nice, warm evening, and the afternoon storm had
helped to settle the dust, leaving the air fresh. A few minutes later, Tashawa
came out to tell him it was time to eat. As he stood, she gestured to him to
follow her away from the front door.

“You seem to be a good man, Shane Carson, but I have
something I need to say to you privately. Tara would be very angry at me if she
knew I was talking to you about this.”

Shane looked confused. “About what?”

“I have known her since she was a little girl, but
I’ve never seen her look at a man the way she looks at you. Even with what you
did for me today, I’m telling you now, if you hurt her, you will have to deal
with a lot of pissed-off Shoshones�—�including me.”

Shane wasn’t sure what to say. He thought carefully
for a moment before he replied. “I don’t know what the future will bring for
us, but I do care about her, and I’ll never lie to her or lead her on.”

Tashawa looked at him sternly. “I guess that’s all I
can ask of you.” Then, she turned to walk back inside.

“Hey, wait a minute, why is Tara upset with me?”

Tashawa smiled out of one side of her mouth and
answered, “She’s not mad at you. She doesn’t want you to see the way she looks.
Her eye is turning black and her cheek is swollen. She’s pretty tough though,
she’ll be okay.”
 

After they ate and cleaned up, Tashawa grabbed a
couple of blankets to sit on and told Shane and Tara to follow. Tara was still
shyly trying to keep the left side of her face away from him. The long day had
given way to night, and a bright full moon lit the way as Tashawa led them up the
steep trail that began near the back of the cabin. The narrow path wound its
way up to the top of the ridge that served as one side of the corral where the
horses were being kept.

“Our grandfathers call this place
Gewaga-Mukua.
In
English it translates to
next
to the spirits.”
Tashawa knew all the constellations of the stars
and the Indian folklore for each. Shane had never seen her so talkative and was
pleased to see she was opening up around him. Then, all of a sudden, she stood
and said casually, “I’m going to bed now. You two should stay up here and enjoy
the evening.”

Shane moved over to sit next to Tara on the handmade
Indian blanket. She shyly looked at the ground, still trying to conceal the
left side of her face. “If you hadn’t come to the cave looking for us when you
did, who knows what they might have done to us. I want to thank you, again.”
Tara was usually in control of her emotions, but the thought of what could have
been had induced a single tear to run out of her injured eye. Without thinking,
she reached up to wipe it off and grimaced at the pain when she touched her
swollen cheek. “I look as though I’ve been hit with a baseball bat,” she said,
with a quiet, angry tone. Then she looked away again.