Chapter 2
Brody Farrell stomped down the mountain with his hands balled into fists. How could one little girl make him so mad? What did she say that got to him more than anything anybody else had to say about the Farrells?
So that was Star Cunningham. Dang, she grew up all right! He remembered the skinny kid with stringy black hair and too much make-up he saw at Lachlan MacAllister’s wedding to Roxanna Dodd. Ill feeling between the Cunninghams and the Farrells was at its slowest ebb at the time. Brody couldn’t remember the reasons why. That’s why both the Cunninghams and the Farrells were invited to the wedding.
Star tagged along with her older sister, Aurora. While the older girls tittered about every man that walked through the door, Star didn’t speak to a soul during the whole week-long wedding celebration. She hovered near the wall with her arms clutched across her chest. Her big eyes darted around the gathering hall in search of enemies about to pounce on her; and now look at her.
Her black Lycra pants clung to her rounded ass, and her skin-tight white T-shirt with the glitter decal of a cat with huge eyes hugged her apple breasts and set off her belly. Her layered chestnut hair brushed her shoulders, and her soft brown eyes took in every detail of the landscape around her.
He couldn’t get her out of his head. The sad reality in her eyes when she told him about her father’s plans to marry her off to Hyatt stabbed at his heart. There must be a way to stop the wedding – but how? He was a Farrell. Kaiser Cunningham planned this match to fight the Farrells.
So Brody wasn’t the only person on Bruins’ mountain that could choke on all this feud stuff. He wasn’t the only one who wanted it all to go away. Star had the sense to see it for what it was and dream of a world where Bruin didn’t fight Bruin.
Didn’t the Bruins have enough to worry about, with humans tracking them and hunting them from all sides? They surrounded Bruins’ Mountain with traps and trackers. A Bruin wasn’t safe beyond this territory. The tribes should band together instead of warring against each other.
Brody wanted nothing more than to put his arms around Star and tell her everything was gonna be all right. He couldn’t tell her that, though, could he? He was her enemy. He even threatened her to never come back to Bruins’ Peak.
What the confounded tarnation was he thinking when he said that? Didn’t the poor girl have enough on her mind? Why couldn’t he leave her alone to enjoy the Peak by herself? She needed it a lot more than he did.
He kicked himself for losing his cool around her. He could have helped her, and he had to go and stick his foot in it like an idiot.
He didn’t enjoy the hike down the mountain the way he usually did. He usually took his sweet time in these woods. Nothing settled him down after a run-in with his brothers like a nice long walk in the peace and quiet of the mountains.
Today, he marched straight back to Farrell Homestead and burst into the big timber house. His father Duke and his mother Mona looked up from their breakfast. “How’re ya doin’, son? Where’s the fire?”
Brody paced around the living room. “How much do you know about exactly where our southern boundary butts up to Cunningham territory? Is there any kind of marker or map that shows exactly where our two territories meet, and that will maybe stop all of this battling?”
Duke wiped his mustache with a napkin. “Well, son, as far as I know, our territory ends at the bottom of Craven ravine. The creek is the physical boundary between us and the Cunninghams. That’s what my father always told me.”
“That’s on the other side of the Peak.”
“That’s right.”
“That can’t be right. The Cunninghams think the boundary is on this side of the Peak. They claim the Peak is inside their territory.”
“No, that’s wrong. Craven Creek is the historical boundary.”
Brody came back the other way. His mother and three brothers stared at him from the table. “No wonder there’s a feud going on between our tribes. No one knows where the boundary is.”
“We know where it is. If the Cunninghams don’t know, that’s their problem.”
“If they dispute the boundary, it’s our problem, too. I just met Star Cunningham up on Bruins’ Peak, and she claims the Peak is inside Cunningham territory. We better get this straightened out before someone gets trigger-happy and blows the whole place apart.”
“We won’t have to worry anymore about that happening: I’ve settled on the perfect solution.”
Brody groaned, “This I have to hear.”
Duke jabbed his fork at the burly mountain man to his right. “Your brother Mattox is going to marry Sasha Kerr. Once we form an alliance with the Kerrs, the Cunninghams won’t be strong enough to give us any further trouble. It’s the best possible outcome for us.”
“Sasha Kerr? She’s Hyatt Kerr’s older sister.”
“That’s right, and she’s stunning. You remember her, don’t you, Brody? She’s tall, statuesque, brilliant....”
“She’s a snob. If she really wanted to marry Mattox, we would have heard about it long before now.”
“She’ll marry who her parents tell her to marry, just like Mattox will.”
Brody looked at his older brother. Mattox made a laborious project of sawing his steak into pieces with his Bowie knife. Scraps of fried egg dangled from his beard, and the rawhide fringe on his handmade shirt swung into his plate when he forked the steak into his mouth. No way in a thousand years would prissy, brilliant Sasha Kerr marry Mattox Farrell. Brody would bet his last nickel on that.
“It’s not as perfect a solution as you think, Dad. Even if it was, you better move fast and get them hitched before the end of the week. Have you even started the negotiations yet? Do Sasha’s parents know you’re pinning our hopes for survival on this match?”
“I haven’t mentioned it to them yet. I only just thought of it last night. I was lying in bed, and I heard that gutter dripping outside my window. Just before I drifted off, I thought, ‘Hey, how about....?’”
Brody cut him off. “You better call them today then. You better not let the sun go down on your perfect solution.”
“Why not? What’s the big rush? You know what they say. ‘Marry in haste, repent at leisure’.”
“We’ll all be repenting if this plan of yours goes south. The Cunninghams are trying to mate Star with Hyatt Kerr to get the Kerrs on their side.”
Duke’s head shot up and he dropped his fork. “What?”
Brody nodded. “Star just told me up at the look-out. She doesn’t want to go through with it, but like you say, maybe her parents will make her do it; just like you’ll make Mattox mate with Sasha. None of you gives a rip about your kids’ happiness, but who cares? You’ve got a feud going on.”
No one heard a word he said. Duke knocked over his chair in his haste to get up from the table. Mattox stuffed the last of his steak into his mouth and wiped his whiskers with the back of his hand. Brody’s younger brother Austin upset the cream pitcher when he grabbed the shotgun propped next to his chair.
Duke shouted orders. “Charge the battery to the electric wires around our perimeter. Mattox, get down to the east pasture and bring the cows in. No, scratch that. You’re the biggest. You bring the storm shutters up from the cellar and set them out next to the windows in case of a Cunningham attack. Brody, you go down to the pasture, and don’t hesitate to shoot at anybody you see along the way. Make sure all the barns and store sheds are locked down and the booby traps set to go off at the slightest disturbance. Austin, you come with me. We’re gonna run our southern boundary along Craven Creek, just to make sure no more Cunninghams get any fancy ideas about trespassing on our land.”
Brody held up his hand. “Wait a minute. That territory is disputed. We don’t have any more right up there than the Cunninghams do. We should stay out of there until we settle this.”
“Do what I tell you, boy, and don’t argue. Austin, bring up the ammo stores and set up the Gatling guns on the roof. Put out a case of ammo for each gun, and fit out all the trucks with rocket launchers and five AK’s for every truck.”
Austin raised his shotgun over his head and whooped. “Yee-haw! It’s about time! We’ll skin ‘em alive and eat their livers for supper tonight.”
Brody tried to head his family off at the door. “For Pete’s sake, Dad, get a grip. Don’t you think you better check with the Kerrs before you go off half-cocked? For all you know, the Cunninghams haven’t even talked to them about Hyatt mating with Star any more than you have about Mattox mating with Sasha. For the love of all that’s holy, use your heads.”
Austin cut in. “Come on, man. Where’s your sense of humor? Can’t you see this is the next best thing to the county fair? Go play with your cows, brother, and leave the man’s work to your little munchkin. There’s nothing I love more than the smell of gunpowder in the morning.”
Brody surveyed the family with a sinking heart. “Don’t you at least want to talk to the Kerrs? They haven’t allied with anybody yet.”
No one heard him. Duke and Mattox burst out of the door. Mona cleared the breakfast dishes. Austin slid open the pump action of his shotgun and slotted shells into the chamber. “This is gonna be priceless. All the work we put in wiring this place for an attack is finally gonna pay off. I can’t wait to see the looks on their weasel faces when the first Claymore goes off. They’ll get their just Cunningham desserts.” He collapsed in maniacal giggles.
Brody shook his head. “Just try not to step on any Claymores yourself, dude.”
“Here.” Austin shoved a hatchet into Brody’s empty hands. “Take this with you, and if any Cunninghams come near you, bust their heads open. I’ve seen you doing it with watermelons, so I know you’re an expert at it.”
He raced out of the house and left Brody alone in their family home. Brody hefted the hatchet in his hand. Then he set it back down in the kindling box next to the wood stove and headed out into the sunshine.
Not a soul remained in sight outside the house. He heard trucks firing up in the big steel shed across the yard. He turned the other way and climbed the east hill to the pasture.
He scanned the tree line for the Cunninghams he knew wouldn’t be there, but his mind dwelt on only one Cunningham. He wouldn’t be busting any heads open, especially not if he ever happened to see Star again.
She was a Cunningham. She was his sworn enemy, so why did he wish he had never laid eyes on her? He helped his father and brothers set up the booby traps and trip wires all around their Homestead to kill any Cunninghams that dared come near it. Now he hated himself for doing it. Those same booby traps kept Star away. His family would kill her if they ever laid eyes on her.
He turned his steps toward the herd in the distance. What if he just kept walking east? He would come to the Kerr’s boundary. He could ask them to give him sanctuary – but from whom? How could he ask for sanctuary from his own family? How could he admit to any living soul that he wanted …what?
What exactly did he want? Star Cunningham hated him the same way she hated every other Farrell on Bruins’ Mountain. She had every right to hate him after the things he said to her this morning.
What did he think he could expect from her? She would never speak to him again. She would bend all her efforts to killing him and those he held most dear, and he would do the same to her.
He couldn’t reconcile himself to hating her, though. He didn’t hate her; he refused to think of her as his enemy anymore. If he saw her right now, he would be happy. Busting her head open with a hatchet was the last thing in the world he wanted to do.
He wouldn’t fight her, and fighting the rest of the Cunningham tribe meant fighting her, too. That meaning of his life’s focus completely changed: he would have to stop fighting the Cunninghams. That’s all there was to it.