“Run, Emil,” she shouted, but the little boy stopped, grabbed an orange and flung it at the man. His skinny arms lacked the strength to give it a good toss, but he was so close the it was enough force to stun and it did in just the right place... right between the man’s legs.
He doubled over in pain, going down on his knees.
Rosa scooped Emil up and took off, not looking back. She prayed the man wouldn’t regain his strength, though after only a few steps she heard footfalls behind her. But it was the shout that followed that sent a chill through her.
“You’re going to die, bitch!”
Carrying Emil slowed her pace and she worried over his fate as well as her own. He was fast on his feet and no doubt could easily outrun the man, especially if the assailant was busy with her.
“I’m going to put you down, Emil, you’re to run as fast as you can and get help.”
He nodded. “I will. I will.”
Rosa knew she was taking a chance of being caught, but better her than the boy. She stopped, put Emil down and he took off so fast that it startled her. She didn’t waste any time in following him, though he soon disappeared from sight and she felt a sense of relief.
She didn’t look back, didn’t want to know how close the man was, though the pounding of footfalls behind her warned that he wasn’t far. And within in minutes, he slammed into her back sending her hurtling forward and hitting the ground so hard that it knocked the breath from her for a moment.
He flipped her over and smacked her across the face with such force that it split her lip, the blood pouring down her chin. He hit her again, the sting to her cheek resonating through her head and stunning her senseless.
“Now I’m going to give you what you deserve, and then I’m going to take you to Pacquito and he’s going to...” he laughed and started shoving her skirt up.
Rosa shook her head to regain her senses and didn’t hesitate. She made a fist and with as much force as she could muster, and with Carlos too busy fumbling at his crotch that he didn’t see the punch coming, she hit him square in the jaw and sent him tumbling off her.
She struggled to get her legs free, he having collapsed on them. She gave his limp body a shove and was almost free when he seemed to regain his senses. She hurried, knowing she had only seconds and once her feet were free she was on them ready to run. But she wasn’t fast enough. His hand shot out and grabbed her ankle, sending her crashing to the ground again. This time she threw her hands in front of her face and tucked her arms against her body protecting herself as much as possible from the fall.
“Bitch!” he spat and grabbed Rosa by the back of the hair and yanked her to her knees. He kept a tight hold on her hair as his other hand fumbled with the opening of his pants until he finally freed himself. “Now you’re gonna pl—”
Rosa’s head was jerked forward for a second as Carlos’s body was torn away from her, his hand breaking free of her hair.
Her husband stood with his hand around Carlos’s throat and his feet dangling off the ground. He stared at her and his eyes filled with such a murderous fury that she moved back away from him.
“Go to the house,” he ordered.
His fierce anger froze her. She couldn’t move.
“God damnit, Rosalita,” he screamed. “Go to the house... now!”
His threatening tone snapped her out her stupor and she scrambled to her feet and stumbled away. She had only gone a few feet when she heard the screams. She stopped and thought of returning, but her husband’s menacing warning for her to leave had her staying on the path to the house. The screams grew so agonizing that Rosa clamped her hands over her ears to try and drown them out.
Rosa hurried her steps and was surprised to see Dona Valerianna pacing along the kitchen garden, while Dolores stood a few feet away. The two women ran to her.
“Madre de Dios,” Dona Valerianna said and reached out to wrap her arm around Rosa. “Get the healing basket, fresh towels, and water, Dolores.”
Rosa felt as though her legs couldn’t go another step. “I must sit.”
Dona Valerianna helped her take slow steps to an old worn bench beside the entrance to the kitchen garden.
Rosa took some much needed deep breathes, her breathing was labored from her ordeal. She hadn’t had the time to be fearful, but now that it was over fear of what could have happened began to sink in, and she felt a chill start in her bones.
Dona Valerianna gently raised Rosa’s chin to get a better look at her split lip and bruised cheek and winced. “You were very brave going after Emil.”
“She was very foolish!”
Both women startled at Esteban’s angry shout. It even stopped Dolores in her tracks as she approached with the requested items.
“I will tend, my wife,” Esteban ordered. “Take those things to our bed chamber and bring a fresh bottle of wine as well.” Then he turned to his mother. “Father needs help with the injured vaqueros.”
Dona Valerianna cast a concerned glance at Rosa.
“She is mine to worry about.”
“Then do well by her,” his mother ordered sternly and walked away.
Esteban looked so very angry that it caused a nervous tremor to run through Rosa, and it intensified when he hunched down in front of her. He appeared as if about to say something, when his eyes drifted to rest on her split lip. He stood suddenly and scooped her up in his arms and though she winced from the pain, he said nothing. She knew then that he was more than angry... he was furious.
Chapter Twenty-nine
Esteban sat Rosa on the bed, took a couple of steps away from her, and then turned back to her again. His hands were fisted at his sides and his knuckles white in an effort to contain himself.
Rosa grew more upset, the chill that had started in her bones now spreading throughout her body, and she began to shiver. She couldn’t stop tears from stinging her eyes, though she refused to shed them.
Esteban glared at her, shook his head, let out a growl, and walked over to her with such determined strides that she found herself easing back away from his approach. He reached past her, grabbed the blanket, wrapped it around her, and hunched down in front of her.
“Damn you for not obeying me, damn you for being courageous enough to risk your own life for that of a child, and damn myself to hell for not being there to protect you.”
His strange way of saying that he blamed himself, not her, tugged at her heart and she placed a tender hand to his cheek. “Hell can’t have you, Esteban, you belong to me now and I love you with all my heart.”
He dropped his head to rest his brow against hers for a moment, and then he kissed her cheek gently. The words seemed to come to him as naturally as breathing as he said, “I love you, Rosa, I love you so very much.”
She had been waiting to hear him admit what she already knew and it filled her with such joy that she forgot about her split lip and went to kiss him. As soon as her lips met his, she pulled back with a grimace and felt the blood start running down her chin again.
“Damn it, Rosa,” he scolded and hurried to get a cloth and bucket of water. “We can’t kiss until that lip heals, I will not see you suffer any more pain.” He soaked the cloth, squeezed it, and then began to gently clean away the blood from her chin and lip.
She didn’t care about that. What she did care about was that... “You love me.”
His eyes focused on hers and this time his words surprised even him. “You have no idea how very much I love you.”
Her joy grew in leaps and bounds. “I knew you did, I could feel it in the way you made love to me. And someday I knew you would tell me. I am glad that it was today.”
He kissed her cheek. “Today and every day I will tell you that I love you”— he smiled— “though you did trick me into thinking that I wed a docile and obedient wife.”
She poked his chest. “And you let me believe that I wed a cold, heartless renegade.”
His eyes narrowed. “You did.”
Sh
e went to disagree with him, but he placed a gentle finger to her lips, avoiding her wound.
“The renegade in me will never go away, be cautious of him for he’s a soulless bastard.”
His warning sent a chill to invade the warmth that had finally settled in her. It had been the renegade part of him that had grabbed hold of Carlos and ordered her to leave. And it had been the renegade in him that had dealt with Carlos. Her curiosity urged her to ask about Carlos’s fate, but he spoke before she could.
“You will remain abed today,” he instructed, rinsing the cloth again and wiping away the last of the blood.
“Will you be joining me?”
“Don’t tempt me,” he said gruffly. “It’s all I can do to keep my hands off you and reaffirm that you’re mine, that you belong to me and no other, and that you will always be mine.” He shook his head trying to chase away the vivid image of his wife on her knees in front of Carlos and what he would have forced her to do. The thought boiled his blood and he wanted to kill Carlos all over again.
Rosa stared at her husband, surprised by the pain in his eyes. He suffered more than she did. Her lip may hurt and she had a few aches, but she had no intentions of letting that evil man leave her in fear and suffering. She had learned many years ago, when the abuse started, that if she allowed herself to linger in it, it would forever keep her a prisoner. Every day she had told herself that somehow, someway she would be free of the Curros and their cruelty and that day had come when she had wed Esteban. Now it was her turn to help Esteban and the only way she could do that was to love him.
“I am yours and always will be,” she reaffirmed, though wished she could smile, her throbbing lip preventing it. “And you are mine. We are now one. And I will let no one take you from me... not even the devil himself.”
A sting of fear caught Esteban unaware. It was a foreign feeling to him, having buried it long ago. But then he hadn’t cared about anything then. It hadn’t mattered to him if he lived or died, actually death had been a preferable choice. But he hadn’t been that lucky and now he realized just how lucky he had been to live. Now he had Rosa, though the thought that something could happen to her just as it almost had today stabbed at his long suppressed fear.
He couldn’t lose her. He wouldn’t.
He cupped her chin gently. “The devil would run from you in fear.”
Rosa raised a fisted hand and shook it. “He better.”
Esteban laughed. “You are a treasure, Caro.”
Rosa’s heart fluttered at the sound of his laughter. He had begun to laugh a bit more each day and it was wonderful to hear him do so. She couldn’t hold back a smile and once again her lip tore open and blood dripped down her chin.
Esteban swore beneath his breath. “That’s it, no smiling, kissing, laughing, nothing that will cause that wound to keep bleeding.”
“That will be difficult, since you make me smile so often and I want to kiss you all the time and there are times you make me laugh.” She shook her head. “I am afraid I will once again fail to obey you.”
“Does that mean I am also going to have difficulty keeping you in bed today?”
“Not if you stay with me,” she said trying not to grin, but failing and of course blood trickled down her chin.
Esteban wiped it away with the rinsed cloth. “That wound will never stop bleeding if I join you in bed.”
She laughed and winced and Esteban scolded her again.
“I don’t want, nor do I need, to remain in bed all day. I’m bruised and a bit sore, but otherwise I’m fine, more than fine now that you’ve told me that you love me. Besides I want to know what’s happening, what needs to be done, and most importantly what you intend to do. Otherwise I will worry endlessly.”
He wasn’t accustomed to sharing anything with anyone. That would require trust and renegades trusted no one, especially each other. So it was his nature not to share, but that had changed with Rosa. He wanted to discuss things with her, and it felt so right to do so.
He continued to clean the blood from her chin and neck as he spoke. “This was no raid on the hacienda. Pacquito was simply toying with me and letting me know that there was nothing I could do to protect the ones I love. That I was to return to camp or else.”
“Why can’t he just let you be?”
“No one ever walks away from Pacquito. It is the way he keeps his men in line. If his men think that I have succeeded in breaking free of him, then more may do as I have done and Pacquito’s reign will be no more.”
“That is good. It is time for his evil ways to end.”
“The only way his reign will end is through death. Pacquito will have it no other way.”
Rosa threw her arms around her husband’s neck and pressed her cheek against his. “He cannot have you. I will not let him.”
Esteban slipped his arm around her waist and shut his eyes for a moment lingering in her love. It was almost as if he could feel it seeping into him, comforting warmth that he didn’t want to ever live without again.
He kissed her cheek. “You will need your strength to fight so much evil.”
She poked his chest playfully. “Don’t think that will get me to stay in bed and rest. The day is beautiful and meant to be enjoyed. And we must show everyone on the hacienda that we are strong and they are safe.”
He shook his head. “You’ve just been brutally attacked and what do you talk about? The beautiful day and the care of others.”
“That horrible man stole some of the joy from this day. I refuse to allow him to take even more from me or anyone. I am fine, Emil is fine and with his family, the injured are being tended to and no one died, so it is a good day.”
“I killed him,” Esteban said so coldly that it sent a chill rippling through Rosa. “He deserved to die.”
Rosa had thought that her husband had killed Carlos. The murderous look in his eyes when he had torn Carlos away from her told it all. She laid a tender hand to his cheek. “You did what you had to do. Now he will never hurt anyone again.”
“I will kill anyone who touches you,” he said.
Rosa shuddered, his words now ringing truer than ever, for he had proven he was a man of his word.
Esteban held her close, wanting her in his arms, always wanting her there. Today, more so than their wedding day, they had truly become one. And he would let nothing, absolutely nothing, tear them apart.
“Let me change,” she said, “And then we will go and see if our help is needed.”
Esteban stood. “I’ll get Dolores to help you.”
“That’s not necessary. You can help me.”
“No, I can’t,” he insisted backing away. “If I did, I’d have you naked and in bed in minutes. And you don’t need that after what you’ve just been through.”
She stood and closed her eyes a moment and when she opened them they were filled with sorrow. “You’re wrong. Your loving touch and kisses are exactly what I need.”
He was at her side in seconds, his arm coiling around her waist and drawing her up against him.
Her tears started then. She had been strong as long as possible, but what had happen had taken a toll on her. And she finally admitted it. “I was afraid, so afraid that Carlos would take from me what belonged only to you, my husband, that I gave freely and lovingly to and wanted only you to have. I don’t know if I could have faced you if he had...” She shuddered at the thought of what could have happened.
He scooped her up in his arms, and then sat on the bed with her in his lap. “I’m grateful that I arrived when I did and was able to prevent you from suffering any more than you already had. But never, never think that I would love you or want you any less if something like that should ever happen. I was proud you fought so bravely, but always remember that I would want you to survive, no matter what, you must survive.”
Words choked in her throat and she nodded while tears streamed down her cheeks.
Esteban held her and let her cry. She needed to cry. It woul
d help release the fear that she hadn’t realized lingered with her. The ordeal that she had been through could not be so easily dismissed and he would hold her and comfort her until her last tear was spent. And then...
“You should—”
Rosa pressed her fingers to his mouth. “Please don’t tell me to rest. I don’t want to be closed away in this room with nothing to do but think.” She shivered. “Or fall asleep and drift into nightmares.”
Nightmares he was all too familiar with and there was nothing worse than waking alone from one. “Let me help you change and we will do as you say... go and help others.”
She swiped at her tears. “I would like that.”
He expected to grow aroused as he helped her out of her clothes, and though he did, he found himself more concerned with tending her than making love to her. Especially so when he peeled away garments to reveal bruises he hadn’t been aware that she had suffered. His temper rose as he silently cursed away his anger. Until finally...
“Damn it, Rosa, you took more of a beating than I thought.”
“No, it’s from the fall I took when I tried to get away from him and he caught me. I felt rocks jab at me when I went down.”
Esteban shut his eyes against the image, wishing he could kill Carlos all over again.
She turned, naked in his arms. “Truly, I’m all right.”
His hands went to her waist though he couldn’t stop them from drifting further down over the swell of her hips and down even further to cup her backside. “I’m glad, but you will tell me if you grow tired or too uncomfortable and I will tuck you into bed to rest.”
“You have my word.”
He kissed the tip of her nose. “Don’t dare smile,” he warned as the corners of her mouth began to turn up. “You’ve bled enough today.”
Rosa kept her smile from surfacing. “I will smile with my eyes,” she said and spread them wide.
He laughed and hurried to help her finish dressing, afraid that her nakedness and dark smiling eyes would be his undoing.
Renegade Love (Rancheros) Page 23