“I grew up there.”
“You did?”
“Yes. My parents died of consumption when we were passing through and the natives took me into their family. I learned a lot from them when I lived there for two summers—but then the military found me living with the tribe and ‘rescued’ me,” he grimaced. “I was in the military for a few years until I left to join the Pinkertons. Allen Pinkerton actually gave me a chance to feel like I could right some wrongs out there. I always thought Oklahoma had the most beautiful sunsets, but awful storms.”
“Really?”
“Yep. What about you? What brought you to Texas?”
“I couldn’t take it anymore at home,” she admitted painfully. “I wanted so much to just be happy and it seemed like everything had a negative element to it. If the sun was shining, it was hot. If the birds were singing, my aunt had a headache. I wanted to laugh and have a delightful time… there was work to be done.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being happy,” Joker offered up softly. He looked at her over the fire and she could see the warm glow in his expression.
“I know there isn’t,” she whispered almost to herself. “I remember my parents laughing or talking together and I didn’t have that anymore after they passed from consumption too. I thought I would be okay, but it kept bothering me to the point I was desperate to run away and start over new.”
“The mail-order bride ad.”
“The ad,” she confirmed with a sad smile.
“I’m sorry again.”
“Don’t be. There’s a bigger picture out there and maybe we were meant to meet like this, for these things to happen, so that way it could all work out in the end.”
“I’d like to think that too.”
They sat there silently for a bit and Rosemary was tempted to ask if he thought they were still out there watching them. She saw the silent warning in his eyes and smiled ruefully.
“Maybe we can put our bunk rolls beside each other so I don’t feel so alone this evening?” she suggested, feeling herself blush at sleeping beside him.
“I’d like that,” Joker admitted. “I’ll move them.”
As they laid down, she smiled softly at him, feeling exhaustion beat at her. It had been a long, eventful day. It wasn’t every day someone got married or took off on their first mission.
“What are you smiling about?” he asked huskily, his eyes watching her. She liked the way he seemed to look at her differently from everyone else around them. She noticed in town that he had a cool expression to his face when it came to others, but when his eyes landed on hers? The heat level always went up, making her feel all jittery on the inside.
“I was just thinking with a name like Joker, my life will be full of smiles and laughter—won’t it?”
She saw the tenderness in his eyes as he leaned up on his elbow. One hand reached out and touched her hairline near her temple, following the path down her cheek and around her ear to her throat. The soft, gentle smile was nearly her undoing as she met his gaze.
“I will make sure of it, my little empress,” he breathed. “I promise it.”
“Goodnight.”
“Sweet dreams.”
Hours later, she felt something clamp down over her mouth as she was dragged off her bunk roll aggressively by her wrists. Rosemary began kicking and trying to scream, in an attempt to awaken Joker. How in the world was he such a heavy sleeper? she wondered in panic.
Glancing over, she felt her heart stop in her chest as she saw the bump on his head and blood seeping out from his ear. He was laying there slack, and she started crying at the idea that he was dead. They’d been attacked during the night at some point. He’d promised to stay awake to watch her but had been knocked out. His gun was in the grass close to where they’d been laying.
She felt a surge of hope as she saw the shallow rise and fall of his chest. He was alive! No matter who this was or where they took her, he would find her. She had complete confidence of this. As they dragged her kicking and screaming, further into the grass, she saw a man on horseback in the moonlight.
“Rosie-posey, we meet again.”
Martin Espinoza!
Just as she was about the tell him where he could go, she felt the butt of a rifle slam into her head and blacked out immediately from the explosion of pain in her skull.
Rosemary opened her eyes slowly.
She was laying face-down on a wooden floor. Her hands were bound, and she’d been laying there for quite some time. Her chest ached from the pressure and there was a small puddle of drool under her cheek. She closed her eyes against the bright light of the room and winced as she heard a chair scrape against the floor close to her head.
“She’s awake, boss.”
“Good. Next time you decide to knock them around, try not to kill them, eh? This one deserved it, so I don’t mind.”
She groaned against the pain the voices caused in her head. Everything seemed to hurt and frankly, she wasn’t one to complain because she was alive. Flexing her fingertips, she tried to get feeling back to her hands and failed miserably.
“Where am I?”
“You think I will share that with you?”
“Shhh,” she instructed, closing her eyes again.
“Next time, you won’t run away or destroy my things, will you?” Martin replied with disgust. “I know it was you because you were the only one bright enough to make sure I don’t go back. The others had no backbone, but you? You have a fire deep inside.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You have a heart of a fighter in you. I like that, Rosie.”
“Rosemary.”
“You are whatever I want to call you,” he bit out, kicking her in the stomach. Rosemary felt her breath knocked from her and immediately began coughing for air. Each gasp, each cough, made her head pound that much harder.
“He’ll… kill you… for… this,” she bit out painfully. Opening her eyes, she saw that several men who were sitting there laughing and talking in another language surrounding her.
“I don’t think he will,” Martin said with a malicious smile that made his moustache curl upwards. How had she ever thought he would make a decent spouse? He was utterly despicable! She’d gone from the lowest scum in the world to being blessed to be with someone that respected her and made her laugh.
“Joker will be here before you know it.”
“I doubt that, senora.”
“Why?”
“He was headed north, and we left no tracks.”
“Where are we?”
“Near Austin.”
“We travelled south?”
“It doesn’t matter to you; well, it shouldn’t anyhow,” Martin replied. “We’ll be in Mexico in two days and then no one will ever see you again.”
“Why is that?”
“You’ll be sold to some poor fool with a whorehouse. I’ve got top dollar coming for a pretty blond senorita. You’ll earn your keep until they break you. I would try myself, but you aren’t worth dirtying my hands anymore. I thought I might take care of you before, but that was prior to you getting married. I don’t like to sample other men’s leavings. I won’t be one of those pox-ridden, addled-minded fools out there.”
Rosemary bit her tongue and kept silent.
If he thought she’d consummated her marriage, that would keep her from being raped by Martin. It might not save her from the others, but it would certainly buy a little time until Joker got here. Closing her eyes, she let up a silent prayer that he was okay and found her soon.
Joker winced as he took a sip from his canteen under the blazing sun above. His head throbbed like mad and he felt nauseous from the impact of the gun. He’d never even seen the rifle until it was too late. It had come smashing down, right into his temple, knocking him clean out. When he awoke and saw Rosemary was gone, the panic he felt was overwhelming. He had thrown up at that point, between the pain in his head and the feelings in his heart.
&n
bsp; It was crazy to think he felt so strongly for the woman that kept him on his toes, but he’d met no one like her before. Loyalty was something that drove him, and once he’d committed himself to something—he never gave up. The fact that it was now becoming emotional, as well as a matter of honor, wasn’t lost on him. He liked the woman more than he ever imagined. The women he’d met in the past were either loose, a bit stodgy, or too snooty for him. Rosemary looked at him like he was all that was good and right in the world.
She made him feel like he was important…
That he was someone special to her – and that was all that mattered.
He couldn’t let her down.
Dragging himself on his horse, he’d surveyed the area very carefully to see which direction they’d headed. Something didn’t sit right with this whole thing, and while everything in his gut said to head north, the small imprint in the dirt not far from their camp showed that they were headed south. Ignoring the blackness that kept threatening his vision and the raging nausea he felt, he rode on.
He would find her—no matter the cost.
It was sheer luck that he glimpsed at them over the ridge. It was raining and everything around them was sodden down with moisture. The bright green grass was now dark and riddled with black puddles of water. The trees dripped and the brown bark was now black. Everything was dark from the heavy downpour except for one bright spot that appeared out of nowhere and then disappeared. At first, he couldn’t believe his eyes and thought it might be because of the impact. Maybe he was hallucinating? He’d heard of seeing lights in the swamps of the bayou—but never in the middle of the nowhere!
Blinking, he saw another glimpse of something grey or white moving through the sparse mesquite trees ahead. Squinting, he realized it was a woman on horseback and nearly shouted with joy. He’d caught up with them—now it was a matter of sneaking her away safely and returning to finish the job.
Chapter 8
This was horrific.
Rosemary was soaked to the bone and shivering in the humid midafternoon rainstorm. It would be another miserable night spent shivering, and she would be lucky not to come down with ague or influenza at this rate. She’d never have to worry about Mexico because she would catch her death at some point if she didn’t get out of these sodden things. Once the sun went down, it would be unbearable.
She’d looked over her shoulders several times during the day, hoping to catch a glimpse of hope, her husband, behind her. So far, there had been nothing and every time she looked, the men surrounding her taunted her cruelly, calling her names and describing graphically how she would be used in a whorehouse. It was enough to break even the strongest woman, and she was hardly that! Putting her nose up in the air, she tried her best to ignore them and was getting to a point that she was failing miserably.
“When are we stopping?”
“When I decide,” Martin bit out, pushing the brim of his hat upwards with a gun that had been pointed lazily in her direction. “Are you ready to try some of the ideas my men have been giving you?”
“The lot of you are disgusting.”
“You won’t feel that way soon.”
“I hope my husband shows up soon to finish this. You don’t deserve the air you draw into your lungs, you monster.”
“I sincerely hope he shows up too. He and I have unfinished business,” Martin said evilly with a grin that chilled her soul. What did he mean? She’d foolishly thought he was after her, but had he been after Joker this entire time?
“You know Joker?”
“Very well, truthfully. It’s not the first time the Pinkerton agent and I have crossed paths – it will, however, be the last time. I’m sick of them taking the law into their own hands and destroying any chance for a man to make a name for himself.”
“Make a name…? Hahaha!” Rosemary repeated, stunned, and began laughing at the idea that Martin claimed that he’d been wronged. He was crazy and a narcissist.
“Stop laughing at me!” he declared angrily.
“I can’t help it—you’re crazy.”
Martin raised his arm and aimed steadily at her, silencing Rosemary immediately as she stared down the barrel of his revolver. His arm didn’t waver at all, and the coolness in his eyes told her that he’d killed before and would easily do so again.
“I said, ‘stop laughing’,” he said firmly, staring at her. She didn’t look away and didn’t move an inch. A slight nod of acknowledgement was all she dared as the gun sat a mere three inches from her nose.
“That’s better,” Martin said triumphantly. “We’ll make camp at sundown—and you’d better be on your best behavior, or maybe I’ll let the boys have you first and forget the plans to head to Mexico. We can just leave your broken body out here in the middle of nowhere for the coyotes to find.”
“I’ll behave.”
“You’d better.”
Rosemary vowed she wouldn’t say another word. She turned to peer over her shoulder and for a moment, she thought she saw a rider off in the distance as she was being pelted by the cool rain. Blinking several times, she rubbed her eyes with her sore hands that were still bound and looked again. Whoever or whatever it was—they were gone.
The sinking feeling in her chest made her heart ache with pain. She hoped and prayed that Joker was okay. She missed his smile and the way he picked on her in order to get her riled up. He would have grinned at her laughing at him or probably done something else stupid to incite another giggle from her. She liked that he enjoyed making her happy… and she missed him terribly.
He made her soul feel alive.
Hours later, she dismounted the horse carefully and ignored the squishing of her boots as she stood in the puddle. They were near a river and the sodden water was running down the slopes of the slight hills towards it in rivulets. There would be no fire tonight, no warmth whatsoever, and she would have little place to hide from the torrential rains that seemed to never stop coming down in waves.
As the men moved towards the trees, Rosemary did the same and picked a tree to lean against to try resting upright. She had no desire to lie down in the mud or make contact with any more water. Her fingertips were already wrinkled from the sodden moisture and she was glad to be wearing several layers. It kept her a little warmer, but felt like she was moving through mud as she walked. The layers were soaked and heavy against her shoulders.
Collapsing down, she leaned back against the tree, putting her knees up and circling her bound hands over her knees. Sinking her face down, she allowed the tears of despair and frustration flow, hidden away from the others. She wouldn’t give them the satisfaction, and realized that Joker might not have followed after all. He might have gone the wrong direction and with her hands bound, she hadn’t been able to leave any signs for him to see along the path. It would be like finding a needle in a haystack at this rate!
The hope she’d felt in that brief glance was just enough to be a cruel joke. Whoever that had been, or whatever, was long gone. Part of her wondered if her mind was playing a joke on her after being knocked out. If it had been Joker, he would have made a move or gotten help to take down the gang of men. There were eleven of them and it would be a foolhardy move to have that many men against one lone man.
He might be crazy—but no one would be that big of a fool…
Would they?
Joker grinned widely in the darkness.
This was gonna be a piece of cake!
Espinoza and his men were idiots—and he was about to teach them a lesson in harming someone he loved. It took him a while to realize that the admiration and affection he felt for Rosemary was blossoming into something more—but when he caught her looking over her shoulder directly at him… it was like being hit with the truth.
He was so proud of her…
So completely overwhelmed with relief…
… And head-over-heels in love with the blasted woman.
He never planned on falling in love or getting married. The idea
for a mail-order bride had been a gimmick to draw out his prey. He never considered that the woman would have feelings regarding it, nor did he plan on actually liking the chit! She was everything unexpected and wonderful in this world—and dang it! She was HIS.
His wife.
His bride.
His friend.
… and his heart!
Now it was time to save his wife’s beautiful behind from these wretches that dared to touch a member of his family. They would never make that mistake again. As he moved through the mud, he winced at the squishing sounds that his boots made. He removed them and proceeded forward, barefoot and in his hole-ridden socks. As he neared the grove of mesquite trees, he saw Rosemary’s blond hair faintly in the moonlight and thanked God that there was enough light to see by. Taking a moment, he let his eyes adjust to the shadows and pinpointed his targets. Drifting towards his prey, he plotted out his course… one man at a time…
Rosemary heard someone moving around and a faint grunt. She dared not open her eyes because last time had gotten her an eyeful. Some things just could not be unseen! Instead, she kept her eyes tightly closed, her head down between her elbows, and pretended to sleep. Another grunt, heard from the left, made her jump slightly, and she ignored it.
It was when she heard the grunt to the right of her that she looked up in alarm. The man named Julio was no longer sleeping against the tree ten feet from her. Glancing around, it was like she was alone!
What was going on?
Had they left her to the coyotes as they’d threatened?
“Shut your eyes, empress…”
She recognized that whisper and nearly yelped in alarm. There would be no closing her eyes or hiding her face, not when the relief she felt coursing through her veins made her want to jump for joy!
Joker was here!
Seconds ticked past, and she heard another grunt off in the distance and vaguely wondered if it was him being hurt? She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from calling out and instead began gnawing at the ropes binding her wrists together painfully. She hadn’t had a chance to try this often but now seemed to be a perfect time.
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