Without looking at her, Travis covered her hand with his other hand and squeezed ever so gently and then spurred his mount into a trot and away from her. She wondered if her comforting him had caused such great sadness in him that he could not let her see him cry or if her act of compassion had sent him off into another rage. Whatever his reason for leaving her behind, she let him take the lead and sort out his feelings without being disturbed by her. A sad and lonely sensation overcame her and she brushed away a tear that had found its way to her cheek.
For hours, they rode in this position, with the stallion plodding a few yards ahead of the Appaloosa and with no words being spoken between Travis and Savannah. Finally, they found a stream that was only a few feet wide and barely an inch deep. There, they dismounted and let the horses drink while they refilled their canteens. Still, he was silent, almost ignoring her as he scanned the horizon and pulled his Stetson from his head to let the tiny breeze cool it.
Then, as Savannah dipped a cloth in the stream, he looked down at her and said, “The brim of your hat is too small.”
Savannah took off her hat and examined it, wondering what he meant by his statement, but was taken by surprise when he tweaked her nose between his forefinger and thumb and the pain was quite distressful to her, so she screamed, “Ouch!”
“You got sunburned,” he announced as he lifted her chin with his finger and narrowed his eyes at her reddening face. “We’d better take care of that soon.”
He reached for the knife that was strapped in its scabbard at his side and then walked away from her. Savannah watched him searching the ground for some elusive object and she could not figure out what it could be. When he returned to her, he held a thick leaf of a plant that reminded her of the cactus plants that covered this part of the country with its prickly but thick thorns on the edges.
“Take it,” he ordered her after he peeled back the flesh of the plant and shoved it toward her. “Rub the liquid on the inside of it on your face. It’ll relieve the pain.”
She did as she was told, almost instantly feeling the coolness of the slime penetrating her burning skin and with amazed interest, she asked, “What is this thing?”
“Aloe Vera,” he replied as he watched her apply the plant to her face. “The Indians use it for healing purposes. And the Mexicans. I’ll cut you some more for later.”
“Thank you,” she called after him as he disappeared into the thicket again.
When he returned, he handed her the pile of plump, green leaves that resembled the one that she had melted onto her face and then said, “We’d better get going. I want to cover at least ten more miles before sundown.”
She nodded and tucked the Aloe Vera into a handkerchief and then remounted. She nudged Dixie so that she could ride along side of Travis and began to make idle conversation, trying to lighten his mood. She talked about everything but what had happened when they had stopped to eat lunch and when she had caused his gloomy mood. And, it seemed to be working, for he would answer her curious questions about his life as a Texas Ranger and she even got him to tell her how he had gotten shot in the head.
“We’d been on the trail of the marauders, your husband’s men,” he paused to see her reaction, which he seemed pleased to find was one of repulsion. Then, he continued his story, “We found them just outside of a town called Sabine. They had raided several farms around there and were on their way back home to Mexico to hand over the goods to El Diablo when we caught up to them. There was a shoot-out of course and we killed most of them and they managed to put a few bullets in us.”
He lifted his hat to remind her of his head wound as he said, “I got this then. And, the one on my ribcage.”
Savannah sucked in a breath of concern but he assured her, “Hayden and Tito stopped the pursuit and took me to the doctor and he fixed me up. The bullet that hit my head, as I said before, just grazed me. It took only two stitches to mend that one. Luckily, I have a hard head.”
Savannah laughed nervously while he continued, “Well, the chest wound was more serious. There was no damage to any vital organs and the bullet went clean through. What almost killed me was the blood that I lost between the time I was shot and the time they got me to the doctor. But, after a few weeks, I was good as new. But, Hayden and Tito left me there to heal while they picked up the trail again. Unfortunately, the banditos made it to the border and there was nothing we could do about it. Mexico is a whole other country and they don’t recognize our laws as theirs. So, that’s why your husband gets away with murder in the United States.”
Savannah ducked her head again, embarrassed that the man that she had married was such a despicable creature and she mumbled, “He won’t be for long.”
“Nope,” Travis said as he plopped his Stetson back onto his head. “I’m gonna make him pay for what he did to my wife.”
Afraid that he would return to his brooding, she said quickly, “And for what he did to me! And I’m getting my son back.”
“Yep,” Travis said, watching her as she made her declaration and he felt a surge of pride for her. This little slip of a woman who dared to crawl out of the desert after being sliced by her husband and left for dead was still courageous enough to ride back and confront him. He nodded to her and then spurred his mount into a trot as he called, “Death to El Diablo!”
She followed suit, kicking her Appaloosa and shouting, “Death to El Diablo!”
Their mood lightened, they fell silent, each reveling in the glory of killing the man who had caused them so much misery. Without even realizing that the common ground that they now shared would undoubtedly bring them closer together, they hurried onward toward a mutual destiny. And whether they lived through the confrontation or died in the attempt, they were certain that the only outcome of this mission was victory for them and all of the victims that they represented.
As they rode well into the night, they exchanged glances of reassurance and delight at the thought of their joint effort of bringing justice to the man who had caused such misery in the wake of his carnage. Bound by their shared goal to annihilate El Diablo, they somehow came together in spirit, at least for the time that their quest for vengeance was fresh in their hearts. Silently contemplating the outcome of their journey, they rode in quiet reverie until they stopped to make camp.
But as the sun waned and the moon rose, Savannah’s mind began to wander back in time. Back to the night that she had met Travis at the hotel, back to the kiss that he had forced upon her. Their first kiss, which was the first emotion-filled, heart-stopping, mind-reeling kiss that she had ever experienced, still echoed in her mind. And while she gathered wood for the fire, her mind drifted with the cold wind that whipped around her like death’s dreadful breath while she yearned for another taste of his heavenly lips.
And that first night in the desert, the chill in the air made each exhalation that escaped from the people and animals, which occupied the sphere surrounding a blazing campfire, seem as if smoke was puffing from their noses and mouths.
Savannah sat on a log and watched Travis go about readying a meal of canned beans and bread while she darted glances toward him, her mind ablaze with questions that she just had to have answers for. She would wait until they had cleaned up after supper, she decided, before she would begin her assault on him.
Travis noticed that her mood had changed since they had stopped for the night. He wondered what could be bothering her as he stole glances at her. Each time he had looked in her direction, he’d seen that she had been looking at him with questions in those dark violet eyes.
Finally, he threw the coffee pot that he had been cleaning and strode to stand in front of her, his hands on his hips and his lips pressed in a thin line as he said, “Alright. What’s eating you?”
Savannah looked up at him wondering how he had figured out that she had questions, but she stood up to her full height and blurted out her first one, “Travis, why did you walk in on me that night while I was bathing?”
&n
bsp; He almost laughed at her fuming expression, which was illuminated and exaggerated by the firelight. Ignoring his instinct to apologize for his aforementioned actions, Travis shrugged his wide shoulders and answered with a smile that sparkled with mischief in his brown eyes, “That was just a happy accident.”
“Then, why didn’t you give me my privacy?” she accused with her hands on the hollow between her ribs and her hips. “Why did you just stand there, humiliating me with your audacious ogling?”
He took a step forward and hovered over her like a whispering willow, quietly showering her with his overwhelming presence as if to challenge her and to cause her to cower and scurry away. But she stood her ground, rising higher on her tip-toes in order to appear a more formidable foe, squaring her shoulders for good measure. Realizing that she wouldn’t back down, Travis softened his stance and balled his fists at his sides so that they would not forcefully grab her and pull her into his arms, because at that very moment, he wanted to, he needed to. Instead, he pulled in a deep breath and told her the truth.
“I couldn’t take my eyes off you” he said in a low, agonizingly amorous voice as he leaned so close to her that he could smell her frozen breath, sweet and crisp in the cold night air. “Seeing you there naked and drenched, your hair wet and falling around your shoulders, reminded me of the night that we met, the night of the storm.”
Blushing with anger in lieu of embarrassment, Savannah recalled that night when he’d stood almost as close to her as he did during this encounter. With much displeasure, she jutted her jaw out in determination while she retorted, “And why did you kiss me?”
She stood up to her full height and looked up at him, her head tilted to one side, waiting for him to counter with words that would continue their argument. But he did just the opposite when he winked and widened his smile, which revealed the twin dimples that dissolved into the valleys on both sides of his mouth. Shaking his head, which was now hatless with light brown waves shifting in the slight night breeze, he drew out his words so as to emphasize each essential syllable.
“It just seemed right to finish what we’d started,” Travis answered, his tongue finding its way to his parched lips and leaving a glisteningly inviting shimmer in its wake.
Savannah’s heart fluttered, her breathing increased and her resolve crumbled like the spent embers in the campfire. A loud pop from the fire sent her stumbling into his arms and as she looked up into his impassioned eyes, she felt her body melt into his as if the heat that passed between them was enough to bind them together for eternity.
“And do you want to kiss me now?” she asked, her voice wavering, her knees weak with anticipation that his answer might be in the affirmative.
“Yes,” he answered so quietly that only her heart heard his reply.
She sucked in a breath of expectation when he failed to act on his response. Then she let it out in a quick puff of mist while she whispered, almost pleadingly, “Will you?”
Easing his face toward her inviting smile but pulling back just at the moment his lips touched hers, he quipped, “Will you throw something at me?”
“I don’t have anything handy right now,” she admitted with a shrug of her slender shoulders, which he caught in his large, strong hands as he gently eased her into the ardent vigor of his body.
His arms enveloped her, possessed her, while his roaming hands searched her body for that one elusive place that would cause her to whimper for more. Finding it in the small of her back just where her spine met her hipbone, he pressed his large hand into her flesh so forcefully that it surprised her and took her breath away.
Savannah’s heart stopped, time stopped, life stopped for that brief, surreal moment where reality meets fantasy, where the possibility that one’s wishes would truly be fulfilled suddenly manifests itself in the explosion of pure, gratifying bliss. She sucked in an apprehensive breath as if there was some faraway chance that it could be her last before he snatched it away with the vitality of his kiss.
His lips were so close to hers at that moment that Travis could taste her frigid breath. He leaned closer to touch his lips to hers, to tease her with just a taste of what was to come. Then, he pulled his head back to look into her smoldering eyes to see if she would protest. When none came, he leaned back down and melted his lips with hers in a searing and passionate kiss that, for some reason, took them both by surprise.
His heart leapt into his throat, for the feelings that suddenly permeated that hole, which had taken up the entire cavity of his chest, now somehow filled with some unknown, unforeseen emotion that he had never expected to fill the void.
For her, the surge of pure passion, which she had never in her life experienced, was so overwhelming that she could not sustain the strength that it took in order for her to keep herself upright. In a wavering, dizzying attack of sheer ecstasy, she nearly collapsed in his strong arms, but he held her tightly, encasing her in the very warmth that threatened to deny her the end result which she so craved.
Finally, she opened her eyes and saw the glow of her wedding ring in the firelight and she gasped and found the strength to pull herself from his grasp. Putting distance between them, she stepped around the campfire and touched her fingertips to her lips in an attempt to cool the fire that burned there. She backed away from him when he closed the distance between them in only a few short strides. In a feeble attempt at protesting, she fought against his grip as he took her into his arms and thrust her against his chest, filling the gap between them with another searing kiss.
Again, she struggled against him and this time, he knew that he must stop. He pushed her away, sending her flailing backwards, her arms flying in all directions in order to keep her balance. She glared at him with all the sudden anger that flashed in her violent violet eyes.
He wiped the back of his hand on his lips to remove the taste of her as he railed, “What the Hell do you want, woman? Do you want me to kiss you or don’t you?”
She paused, wringing her hands together and then twisting the wedding ring on her left hand as she admitted, “I’m still married.”
A huff of indignation puffed in the night air, and like steam from a locomotive, his breath shot out in clouds of anger as he accused, “You won’t kiss another man, but you would kill the man that you’re married to.”
“That’s different,” she argued, turning away from him to keep from running back into his arms and begging him to continue kissing her. Remembering the many evils that had been drilled into her at Mass, which Diego had insisted that she attend, she knew that what she had done was wrong and she told Travis, “Even though I know that it is a sin to kill, I know, too, that I must carry out that task so that he will never hurt me or anyone else again. But, to commit adultery while he still breathes, that is a sin that I can not and will not perpetrate even if it kills me.”
“Well, Miss High-and Mighty, Mary the Perpetual Virgin, I promise never to offend you with my advances again,” Travis barked angrily at her.
“How dare you call me names?”
“How dare you ask me to kiss you when you know you don’t really want me to?”
“How dare you oblige me?”
A sudden quiet filled the air as each of them searched for more words to throw at the other, but neither found more cutting remarks than those that had already been said. They turned their backs to each other, licking their wounds and chasing away the urge to apologize and find their way into each other’s arms again.
It was Travis who spoke first, his voice almost harsh with hurt as he told her, “I don’t know what it is that you do to me. It’s like that first night I met you, the night of the storm, the night that you were afraid to go into your own house. I didn’t want to leave you.”
Intrigued by his words, Savannah turned back toward him and saw such torment on his handsome face that she wanted so desperately to rush toward him and comfort him. But, she hesitated as he continued his statement.
“And I didn’t leave you,�
� he admitted, taking one step toward her and then waiting to see if she stepped backward. “I just couldn’t leave you with that man, knowing what I knew about him and knowing that you knew nothing about what kind of monster was sleeping in the same house that you were. I stayed in the shadows, watching and waiting, just in case you needed me.”
Her heart melted at his words and Savannah took a step toward him as he continued, “But, then, I heard voices in the darkness. Men’s voices and they were speaking Spanish. They were saying something that you obviously never knew about your father and you and your future husband.”
“What were they saying?”
He shook his head and waved his hand in front of his body as if he was angry at himself for bringing up the subject as he answered curtly, “I can’t tell you, not yet anyway.”
“Why not?” she asked as she took more steps toward him and he followed suit until they were so close that if either of them moved in the other’s direction, a kiss was all that could be exchanged.
“Because it could change all that you know about yourself and your father and your husband and, right now, I can’t be the one to sway you in any direction but the one that you are headed.”
“Why are you telling me as much as you are telling me then?”
“I don’t know. I just felt that you needed to know that the life that you thought you were living was not what it seems.”
“Now you are confusing me.”
“I know. And I’m sorry. Forget I even mentioned it.”
“I can’t. You have to tell me everything.”
“You know I can’t do that. Not until your husband is dead.”
“What does his death have to do with my life not being what it seems?”
“Look, I’ll explain it when the time is right.”
“But…”
“Please, don’t ask me again.” He waved his hands in front of her, making her step backward in defense.
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