"How about neither one of us dies?" Braddock suggested. "What is it you want from me?"
"Sit down in the booth. Someone wants to talk to you."
Well, thought Braddock, he had come in here in hopes of learning something. Maybe this was one way to do it.
He stepped up to the booth and moved the curtain aside.
A man sat there waiting tensely in the shadows.
Chapter 9
"Thank God," Charles Horner said. "I was watching through the gap in the curtains, and I thought there was going to be a...a shootout."
As usual, Braddock tried not to let surprise show on his tanned features, but the bespectacled secretary from Massachusetts was just about the last hombre he'd expected to run into in this cantina.
"Please sit down," Horner went on. "I really need to talk to you, Ranger Braddock."
"Why don't you start by not calling me that?" Braddock said as he slid onto the bench across from Horner. "That is, if you really don't want to attract attention."
The man took a folded handkerchief from his shirt pocket and patted away beads of sweat from his forehead. It was hot and stuffy inside the cantina, but Braddock didn't think that was the only reason Horner was sweating.
"I don't," Horner said. He slid over on the bench to make room for Elena, who sat down and pulled the curtains so that only a tiny gap remained between them.
A candle burned in the center of the table. Beside it was a bottle of tequila and an empty glass. Horner had an empty glass in front of him, too, but Braddock could see a little liquor clinging to the inside of it. The secretary had gotten a head start.
"Please, help yourself to a drink," Horner said as he gestured at the bottle.
Braddock nodded toward Elena and asked, "What about the lady?"
She laughed softly and said, "I don't drink."
Instead she took a quirley from a pocket hidden somewhere in her voluminous skirt, put one end between her lips, and leaned forward to puff it into life as she held the tip in the candle flame. The odor of burning hemp filled the booth as she blew out some smoke.
Braddock poured a couple of fingers of tequila in the empty glass, sipped the fiery stuff. He said bluntly, "What the hell are you doing here, Horner?"
"I followed Jason down here, after I saw him arguing with Jack Conover."
"Did you happen to overhear what they were fighting about?" Braddock asked.
"Not really, but I did catch a few words. I heard Conover say something about...about mules. He wasn't happy. Then Jason told him to be patient."
Braddock took another sip of tequila and nodded slowly. What Horner was telling him fit in with a vague theory that had started to form in Braddock's brain while he was riding down here. It was prompted by memories of the bitterness he had heard in Jason Rainey's voice when Jason was explaining how his mother had died after being dragged from one primitive frontier outpost to another by his father.
That was enough to make Jason blame Rainey for his mother's death, and that could have caused resentment. Resentment often led to hate.
Enough hate to make Jason strike back against his father by planning that ambush in Buzzard's Canyon?
Happy Jack Conover was capable of taking part in such a massacre, Braddock thought. Some of the other men on Rainey's crew probably were, too. Maybe Rainey had hired them to rustle Felipe Santiago's cattle and force Santiago into selling his share of the mine cheaply. But even if that was true, Conover and the others could have double-crossed Rainey later on when Jason offered them a share of the gold.
It made sense, but Braddock had no proof.
Maybe he could find some while Jason was down here below the border. Maybe Jason would lead him right to where the gold was stashed...
"Where's Jason now?" Braddock asked.
"You're thinking what I'm thinking, aren't you?" Horner said in return. "That Jason was responsible somehow for what happened?"
Horner sounded miserable. He probably didn't want to believe it was possible for a son to turn on his father so completely. Braddock could believe it, though. He had seen such things, and worse, during his time as a Ranger.
"It seems like it could have happened that way," Braddock said slowly.
Horner blotted sweat from his forehead again and nodded.
"I know. That's why I followed him. I...I felt like I needed to be certain."
"You didn't tell me where he is," Braddock pointed out.
It was Elena who answered. She took a drag on the quirley, held it for a second, and then said, "He's in one of the rooms in the back, with a girl."
Braddock looked at her with narrowed eyes and asked, "What's your part in this?"
"I have no part," she said. "Carlos and I are friends, that's all."
It took a second for Braddock to realize she was talking about Charles Horner. He said, "Really?"
His obvious skepticism caused Horner to flush and look down at the table in embarrassment, but Elena's eyes flashed with anger.
"He is a very intelligent man," she said. "He has many good qualities."
"I'm sure he does."
"I'm sitting right here, you know," Horner muttered.
"Sorry, Charles," Braddock said. "No offense. You just don't seem like the sort to go adventuring south of the border. How'd you get down here, anyway?"
"I brought a buggy. And as for why I came, I don't want Mr. Rainey to be hurt any more than he already has been." Horner paused. "Unfortunately, that may be unavoidable."
"If his son turns out to be a murderer and a gold thief, you mean."
Horner looked down at the table again and sighed.
"It's liable to kill him. But if Jason is responsible for this, he can't be allowed to get away with it. For one thing, what will he do next?"
That was a good question, Braddock thought. If Jason Rainey was the mastermind, the next move he made against his father might be even worse.
Braddock wasn't ready to accept that theory completely just yet, though. He said, "What about Manuel Santiago? He's got a grudge against Rainey, too. Maybe he's to blame for the ambush." Something else occurred to him. "Or maybe he and Jason are working together, Jason to avenge his mother and Manuel to settle the score for his father."
"No," Elena said flatly. "That isn't possible. Manuel Santiago is dead."
Braddock leaned back against the bench and said, "You're sure about that?"
"I am certain, Señor Braddock. I knew Manuel. He is gone."
"How did he die?"
"Foolishly."
Clearly, she didn't want to say anything more about the subject. Braddock was willing to let it go for now because he wanted to concentrate on Jason Rainey. He needed proof that Jason was involved in the massacre.
Once he had that, if it existed, then he could indulge his curiosity and find out more about what had happened to Manuel Santiago.
"What are you going to do now?" Horner asked.
"You say Jason's in the back with a girl?"
Elena nodded and said, "Sí. Her name is Amelia."
"What will he do when he's finished?"
"He usually leaves through the back door."
"Then if I wait back there, I can follow him, see where he goes," Braddock mused.
"He might just go back to the ranch," Horner said doubtfully.
"Why would he come all the way down here just to be with a whore? He could have done that at the Palomino or one of the other saloons in Cemetery Butte. Unless she's one special whore...?"
Elena shook her head and said, "He has no favorites. I've been with him myself, several times."
She appeared not to notice how Horner winced a little at that casual comment.
"Then he just stopped here before he goes on to his real reason for crossing the border," Braddock said. "I want to find out what that is."
"Then I guess it's a good idea for you to follow him," Horner said. "Do you want me to come with you?"
Braddock shook his head. Jason might lead him st
raight into trouble, and the last thing he wanted was to be saddled with looking after this Easterner.
"No, you go on back to the ranch." Braddock smiled faintly. "Or stay here and visit with Elena. Doesn't matter to me."
"I will show you where Jason will come out," she said. "Get your horse and go around back. I'll meet you. But first I will make sure that Jason is still busy."
"Good idea. I don't want to bump into him."
Elena took one more deep drag on the smoke as Braddock parted the curtains and slid out of the booth.
A different girl was dancing to the guitar music now. She wasn't as pretty as the first one, but her slim brown legs moved just as swiftly and deftly under the billowing skirt.
Braddock stepped outside and untied the dun from the hitch rail. Other than the cantina, Alamoros was quiet now. Most people were settling down for the night.
But he was just getting started, Braddock thought.
He led the horse around the big adobe building. When he reached the back he saw that there was a barn and a corral not far away. The barn might make a good place for him to wait for Jason Rainey.
Elena stepped out of the shadows next to the cantina's rear wall. She came toward Braddock and whispered, "Jason is still inside with Amelia. But I think he will be leaving soon. You can hide in the barn."
"I was just thinking the same thing," Braddock told her.
He led the dun to the big double doors. One side was open a foot or so. Braddock grasped the door and pulled it back wide enough for him to take the horse inside.
Thick shadows closed in around them. Braddock could barely see Elena as she stepped into the barn and moved beside him.
"You don't have to stay out here," he said. "Be better if you go back inside."
"I don't mind staying." She put her hand on Braddock's arm, as she had done a couple of times already this evening. He smelled the scent of flowers again, although this time it was mixed with the hemp she'd been smoking.
"Not a good idea," he said. "I've got to keep an eye out for Jason."
"I'll know when he's leaving."
Somewhere behind Braddock, a horse stamped and blew. That was nothing unusual in a barn, but it prompted him to glance over his shoulder anyway.
By now his eyes had adjusted enough to the darkness that he was able to spot the shape of a buggy parked in the barn's center aisle, with a couple of horses still hitched to it.
Like fireworks going off on the Fourth of July, connections suddenly popped in Braddock's brain. The buggy back here, the horse with the Spade brand tied out front, Jason Rainey supposedly coming out soon from the cantina's rear door...
Something just wasn't right.
Elena must have felt him tense and realized that he'd figured out she was lying to him. As Braddock started to pull away from her and reach for his gun, she cried, "Now, Paco!"
Chapter 10
Paco had either sobered up in a hurry, or he was a better actor than Braddock had given him credit for. There was nothing clumsy or lumbering about his movements as he lunged out from behind the buggy and tackled Braddock.
The impact was enough to drive Braddock off his feet. He landed on the hard-packed dirt with Paco on top of him. That drove all the air out of Braddock's lungs and left him momentarily stunned. Paco hammered punches around Braddock's head and shoulders.
Survival instinct made Braddock arch his back and buck upward from the ground. Paco tried to hang on by clamping his knees around Braddock's torso, but Braddock reacted too fast and his wiry strength was too much. Paco toppled off of him.
Gasping for breath, Braddock rolled over and pushed up to his hands and knees. He sensed as much as heard something coming through the air toward him and threw himself to the side. Something thudded into the ground, and Elena said, "Ooof!" Braddock knew she had just tried to hit him with a club of some sort.
He didn't know if she wanted him dead or was trying to knock him unconscious, and at the moment it didn't really matter. It seemed, though, that if she just wanted to kill him she could have done it before now.
He couldn't rely on her wanting him alive. He rolled fast across the floor, crashed into her legs, and reached up to grab her skirt and pull her down. She sprawled on top of him.
There was a time when Braddock would have had compunctions about hitting a woman, but no longer. He swung a backhand and felt it crack against her head. She cried out and fell away from him. He scrambled up but had just gotten to his feet when what felt like a piledriver slammed into his belly. He doubled over, almost passing out from the shock and pain, then fell to his knees.
Paco loomed over him, holding up the bludgeon Elena had wielded a few minutes earlier.
"You want me to bust his head open?" he asked her.
"No," she said. "I want him to live for now."
Braddock looked up, saw Paco shrug. He knew he needed to get up and fight, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get his muscles to obey him.
A second later, Paco's boot connected with Braddock's skull in a vicious kick, and Braddock went over backward.
He was out cold when he hit the ground and never felt it.
* * *
When he woke, he was sick from being knocked out, and the rocking motion didn't help. He started to retch. Somewhere nearby, Elena called, "Paco!"
A moment later, strong hands took hold of Braddock, hauled him out of wherever he was, and dumped him on the ground as he heaved up everything in his belly. It didn't amount to much, thankfully, because he hadn't eaten since the noonday meal at Martin Rainey's ranch house.
"Get him up," Elena ordered coldly.
Paco's big hands closed roughly on Braddock and lifted him. Braddock's legs were useless at the moment. He would have collapsed if Paco hadn't held him up.
He blinked bleary eyes and managed to focus them on the buggy, which was visible in the moonlight as it sat motionless at the edge of a trail. Rugged peaks and ridges dotted with trees and brush loomed around them.
Charles Horner sat in the buggy holding the reins. Elena was beside him. She had a rifle across her knees. Braddock's dun was tied to the back of the vehicle, and another saddle horse that was bound to be Paco's stood nearby, its reins dangling.
"Now that he's awake, tie his hands behind him," Elena told Paco. "Then throw him behind the seat again."
In an irritated voice, Horner said, "I don't see why we're going to this much trouble. It would have been easier just to kill him, dump his body in the hills, and let the coyotes have him."
Even though Braddock still felt sick and dizzy, a bleak smile stretched across his face.
"That's mighty cold-blooded talk for a secretary," he said.
Horner blew out a disgusted breath and said, "I'm hardly just a secretary, Ranger Braddock. I'm the man who's going to destroy Martin Rainey for what he's done."
Braddock forced his brain to work despite the fuzziness he felt. He remembered what had been said at the meal he'd shared with Rainey and Horner, and he said, "This is about your father."
"It was Rainey's vainglorious foolishness that got him killed," Horner snapped. "He was an ambitious man. He was going to be a general, to hear him tell it, so he took stupid risks no commanding officer should have. He led his men into an Apache ambush and got three-fourths of them killed, including his adjutant, my father, who died saving that bastard's life. That was the end of his military career, even if his wife hadn't died." Horner paused. "I wish she had suffered more, so maybe he would have, too."
"You set up the ambush of that mule train," Braddock accused. "Who bossed it? Conover?"
"I thought you might have recognized him. Yes, he was in charge of it. He and a man named Scanlon were the ones who tried to kill you in the canyon this afternoon. Scanlon was the wrangler who took Jason's horse when the two of you rode in this morning. He didn't make it out of the canyon."
"You pushed that rock down on him so I wouldn't recognize him and go back to Rainey's headquarters." Braddock sh
ook his head. "I wouldn't have thought you had that in you, either, Horner."
Elena said, "I told you, Carlos is a man of many unexpected abilities." She sounded impatient as she added, "But we've talked enough. I want to get to the mine."
"Of course, my dear," Horner said. "Paco?"
The big man lashed Braddock's wrists together with rawhide thongs, marched him over to the buggy, and half-shoved, half-threw him into the narrow space behind the seat. That made Braddock's head spin crazily again for several seconds.
Horner got the team moving again. The buggy bumped and swayed over the trail. Elena had said they were going to the mine, and there was only one place she could have meant, despite the fact that the statement didn't really make sense to Braddock.
The way he was lying on the buggy's hard floorboard, he was really uncomfortable, so he tried to distract himself from that by saying, "Was Jason Rainey really in Alamoros tonight?"
"He was there," Horner said without looking around. "That part of what I told you was true. He was with that girl Amelia, too. Elena told her to keep him busy until we managed to get you outside. He was the bait we used to catch you."
"But if he didn't have anything to do with ambushing the mule train, why was he there?"
Elena laughed and said, "Because he likes putas, why else? Jason would be content to spend the rest of his life drinking and whoring and feeling sorry for himself because his mother is dead."
"You sound like you know him pretty well," Braddock said as another idea tickled the back of his mind. With the shape he was in, plus the fact that he was tied up securely, there really wasn't anything he could do right now to turn this situation around, but it wouldn't hurt to learn as much of the truth as he could.
"I know him too well," Elena said. "I hate him. I hate his cruelty, the way he takes advantage of people—"
She stopped short, as if she didn't want to say too much.
"Horner, what about the rustling?" Braddock asked.
"You mean when the cattle were stolen from Don Felipe Santiago's ranch?" Horner said. "What about it?"
"Was Martin Rainey behind it? Did Conover ramrod that job, too?"
Blood and Gold (Outlaw Ranger Book 3) Page 5