Rico (The Rock Creek Six Book 3)

by Lori Handeland

  There were no words to explain the completeness of that single shining moment.

  He kissed her upon all the spots that made her shiver, until their bodies cooled and their hearts calmed. Tangled together, all skin and limbs and sheets, he pressed his fingers to where her heart lived and murmured, “What do you feel right here, right now, Lilita?”

  “Peace.”

  “Yes,” he agreed. “Such as I have never known. What we have here between us, what we have with Johnny and Carrie—I think that’s what a family might be like.” He remained silent for a moment, trying to put into words what he’d always been missing but never known until now. “Love no matter what.”

  Before she could deny or refute him, he hurried on, trying to convince her as well as himself. “You said it yourself. Carrie loves me. Always. And I love her the same. She can do nothing that would make me not love her. Don’t you love Johnny like that?”

  “There’s a difference between love for children and love between a man and a woman. I’ve never seen that kind of love work.”

  “What about Mary and Reese? Eden and Sullivan?”

  Uncertainty flickered in her eyes before she doused it. “Who knows if they’ll last?”

  “I know. Reese threw himself in the path of a bullet for Mary. He almost died. She carried Georgie, alone and unmarried, until he came back for her. She never stopped waiting for him. I don’t think she ever would have.”

  Memories tumbled from his mouth as he tried to convince her that love could last between the right woman and the right man. “Jed wanted better than a half-breed scout for his baby sister. But Eden wanted Sullivan, and she meant to have him—the world be damned. I want what they have, and I mean to have it with you. Haria cualquier cosa para ti.”

  “You keep saying that. What does it mean?”

  Rico rolled onto his back, carrying her with him. Her hair curtained their faces. “I would do anything for you,” he whispered.

  Lily laughed and tumbled off of him. “You’re insane.”

  “I heard the right woman can save a man.” Coming up on his elbow, Rico reached for Lily’s hand, then kissed her knuckles. The laughter left her face, and she stared at him almost as if she were afraid. “Save me, Lily.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with you.”

  “Ah, querida, that is why I need you so badly. Only you could hear my darkest secret and say it doesn’t matter. Only you would know me as I am and say there’s nothing wrong with me.”

  Hope flickered once again in her eyes. Lily saw the dream, and she wanted it as well. But she’d been hurt too many times, lied to again and again.

  Rico pulled her into his arms, smoothed her hair, whispered nonsense as she drifted toward sleep.

  This was going to take some time. Anything worth having always did.

  Chapter 18

  Before the sun completely burst over the eastern horizon, Lily and Rico said their good-byes. Carrie was mutinous, Johnny silent but agitated. He couldn’t stop pacing and wringing his hands.

  “They’ll be fine as soon as you go,” Yvonne assured them. “Children always are.”

  Lily tried to smile, but her heart was breaking. She didn’t want to leave Johnny; she couldn’t bear to leave Carrie. Heck, she didn’t even want to leave Kate and Laurel.

  When had Rock Creek become home? The moment she’d started to care about the people in it.

  “Time to go,” Russell announced.

  Carrie threw her arms around Rico’s waist and started wailing. He picked her up and walked a short distance away, murmuring into her ear.

  Lily’s throat went thick at the sight. She wasn’t like Mary and Eden, and she never would be. Even if she loved him, and she wasn’t saying she did, she’d never tell him so, because a life with her would be no life at all. He’d shared his deepest secret, but she couldn’t, wouldn’t, share hers.

  Lily tugged her gaze from Rico and Carrie to find Johnny striding toward her. She opened her arms for a hug, but he shook his head, and led her away from the others.

  She watched his face as he struggled, trying to tell her something. Lily put her hand on his arm. “I’ll miss you, too.”

  He shrugged her off, kept trying to talk, but he was so upset, he couldn’t utter the first word. Finally, he snatched up a stick and wrote two letters in the dirt.

  R.W.

  “He’s gone, sugar. I just wish I knew who killed him. I know I didn’t.”

  He grabbed her arms, his face intense as he nodded.

  “Do you know who killed him?”

  “Y-y-y-yes.” He paused, struggling. Lily held her breath.

  Johnny released her. One beautiful, dark, long finger curled toward himself. Lily raised her gaze from his hand, to his face, then glanced past him to the others. No one was looking at them.

  Memories assaulted her one after the other—Johnny handing over her knife on Fat Tuesday, the cut on his hand, the blood on his clothes. She cupped her palm over his finger. “Shh,” she breathed.

  He started toward Russell. Lily yanked him back.

  “No,” she insisted, harsh and low, for their ears only. “I don’t know why you did it, but I’m sure you had a reason. They won’t convict me. I didn’t do it.”

  He pointed at himself. She slapped his hand. “I mean it, Johnny. You stay here, and you take care of Carrie. And you keep your mouth shut! I need you to do that for me. All right? Promise?”

  He shook his head. Lily put her hands to his face and stopped the movement. “For me? Please?”

  At last he bowed his head. Lily kissed his brow. “Don’t worry. I’ll handle this.”

  As she walked away, she muttered a sentence that was beginning to sound like a litany. “I’d do anything for you.”

  * * *

  Reese showed up just as they were about to leave. A slight jerk of his head and Rico dismounted, ignoring the exasperated sigh of Russell as they walked a few steps away to talk.

  “You going to be okay?” Reese asked.

  “I’m not a bebe.”

  “I can come along.”

  “No,” Rico said. “You told me once I would have to stand up for myself.”

  “I think I was talking about Johnny.”

  “Sure you were.”

  Reese’s lips tilted just a bit. Until he’d met Mary, that was as close to a smile as he’d ever gotten. “How is going to New Orleans with Lily standing up for yourself?”

  “Without her, there is no me. Or at least not a me I’m very proud of.”

  “We all thought there was something strange about Lily.”

  “There is nothing wrong with Lily.”

  “I didn’t say that. But what if she did it?”

  “Doesn’t matter to me one way or another.”

  Reese stared at Rico as if he had never seen him before. At last, he nodded. “I had Jed check Russell. He’s a Pinkerton, all right. But watch him anyway.”

  “Of course, mi capitan. I learned what you taught me.”

  “I think you might have at last.” Reese set his hand on Rico’s shoulder for an instant before he walked away.

  Carrie ran alongside Rico’s horse all the way to the outskirts of Rock Creek. Johnny caught up and took her hand.

  “I love you, Rico!” she shouted. “And I don’t hate you anymore, Lily.”

  Lily laughed, even as tears filled her eyes. Johnny and Carrie waved. Yvonne came up behind them and set a hand on each child’s shoulder.

  The rest of the town stood deserted except for the figure of a man at the schoolhouse, another at the jail, and the last in front of the hotel. Each lifted a hand then lowered it. They’d be there if Rico needed them.

  A short while later, Russell stopped his horse. “Lost already?” Rico asked.

  “You two ride in front. I don’t think you plan to kill me, but I’d feel better if I was watchin’ you instead of the other way around.”

  “I don’t know where we’re going.”

  “Keep ridin�
�� until I say turn. Sooner or later we’ll hit New Orleans.”

  “A lot later,” Rico mumbled.

  This trip was going to take weeks.

  * * *

  Johnny was acting funny. Carrie didn’t like it. Not that he’d ever been a chatty sort, but since Lily and Rico had left, he wouldn’t even play the piano, and that scared Carrie a lot.

  “Lily would want you to practice,” Yvonne said.

  Johnny gave her a disgusted look and locked himself in his room.

  Though the emptiness of the saloon made Carrie sad, the last few days of school had raised her spirits. She and Millie Sullivan had become friends. Rafe and Teddy had taken to eating lunch with Johnny. Teddy whispered to Johnny quite a bit, and Carrie hoped he could get Johnny to start talking. After all, Teddy hadn’t talked when he came to Rock Creek either.

  The five children together discouraged any teasing from the Sutton twins. Though after the way Carrie and Johnny had taken care of them, she didn’t think Frank and Jack would come near any of them any time soon.

  But now that school was out, Carrie was bored. Sure, she had Gizzard to play with, but how much could you do with a lizard? No matter how many times she threw a ball at him, he would let it bounce off his nose without even trying to catch it.

  Three Queens wasn’t very busy since Lily wasn’t there to sing. Carrie missed Lily nearly as much as she missed Rico, and she was sorry she’d ever been mean to her. She’d started to have a dream in which Lily was her mama and Rico was her daddy. That dream was even better than the one she’d once had of marrying Rico. Now that she was nine, Carrie realized what a baby she’d been to even think that might happen.

  One night when Carrie couldn’t sleep, she crept into Johnny’s room. A few times before, when the loneliness was bad, she’d slept at the foot of his bed all night, and he’d never so much as blinked to find her there in the morning.

  Tonight, when Carrie sneaked in the door, her breath caught at the sight of the empty bed. If Johnny left her, she’d be completely alone. She ran into the hall, hitching little sobs of panic.

  “Johnny?” Her voice broke in the middle.

  He appeared in the doorway to Lily’s room, and Carrie threw her arms around his waist. “Don’t leave me,” she whispered. “Don’t ever leave me.”

  Johnny’s palm ran over her hair, but when she looked into his face, what she saw there scared her. Something was very, very wrong.

  Carrie led him back to his room; then, just as they had the first night she’d been at Three Queens, they sat on the bed facing each other.

  “Tell me,” she demanded.

  He raised his eyebrows.

  “I mean it. Tell me what’s the matter.”

  Johnny closed his eyes, swallowed hard, then opened them again. “I d-d-d-did it.”

  Carrie’s mouth fell open. Not because of what he’d said but that he’d said it. His voice was hoarse, as if unused for years, but he had a voice.

  She went up on her knees and put her arms around his neck to hug him. “You did, Johnny. You did do it. You spoke.”

  He pulled her arms from his neck then gently pushed her away. “N-n-no. I k-k-killed R.W.”

  “Why?”

  “He w-w-was going t-t-to hurt Lily. I-I knew he’d d-d-do it. B-b-because...”

  Johnny’s shoulders hunched as he drew in on himself. One hand rubbed his forearm, and Carrie understood. She crawled across the bed and rolled up his sleeve, to expose the scars. “’Cause he hurt you.”

  Johnny nodded.

  “We’ve got to tell Lily.”

  “I d-d-did.”

  “Then why didn’t she tell the detective man?”

  “Said she’d t-t-take c-c-care of it. Th-that I had t-t-to t-t-take c-c-care of y-y-you.”

  Without thought, Carrie climbed into Johnny’s lap, where she felt safe, so she could think. “Aren’t y-you afraid of m-me n-n-ow?”

  “Why would I be afraid of you?”

  “I k-killed someone.”

  “For Lily. Because you love her.”

  “Yes.”

  “You love me, too. No one will ever hurt me while you’re around.”

  Johnny’s arms encircled Carrie, and he hugged her for the first time all on his own. She’d never felt so protected or so loved.

  Lily had gone all the way to New Orleans to save Johnny, but Lily had left him here to take care of her. Carrie knew Rico loved her, and she’d figured Johnny did, too, but she hadn’t been so sure about Lily. Carrie was going to have that family she’d always wanted. But, as Rico kept telling her, sometimes you had to go out and fight for what was important.

  “You could talk all along, couldn’t you?”

  “Y-yes. S-s-sorry.”

  Carrie understood why he’d kept silent. It was bad enough being the new kid in town—but the new kid who stuttered... The Suttons would have eaten Johnny for breakfast the very first day.

  “It’s okay.” She patted his hand. “I understand you without the words.”

  “Lily, t-t-too.”

  “That’s because we both love you. Now, this is what we have to do. We’ll go to New Orleans, and we’ll tell them what happened.”

  “I-I don’t know if I can t-talk in front of everyone.”

  “I’ll talk for you.”

  “I’m su-su-supposed to take care of you.”

  “You can take care of me on the way to New Orleans. If we tell them the truth, everything will be all right. Rico will make sure of it.”

  “Y-you think?”

  “I know.”

  “M-me, too. What d-do we d-do?”

  “You think I had a fit to stay with Yvonne for nothing?” Carrie winked. “She’s not as suspicious as Mr. Reese or as quick as Mrs. Mary. We sneak out tonight. We leave a note that we went on a picnic. Yvonne’ll believe us. By the time they figure out we’re gone, we’ll be on a stage and halfway to Dallas.”

  The shadows still haunted Johnny’s eyes—they probably always would—but the weight that had seemed to stoop his shoulders since Lily and Rico had left was gone. When he smiled, Carrie’s heart jumped with joy. He so rarely smiled all the way up to his eyes.

  “You with me?” she asked.

  “Always.”

  * * *

  For a man who always knew exactly what was behind him, with a sixth sense some said was Comanche but Sinclair Sullivan knew could just as well be Irish, he had jumped out of his skin more times since Rico left town than he ever had in his life.

  Sullivan couldn’t figure out why. It wasn’t as if they hadn’t been separated before. Hell, there’d been months, once an entire year, when he hadn’t seen any of the others. Until Rock Creek, none of them had stayed in one place for very long.

  So why did he feel as if ten thousand ants were crawling all over him and every time the wind blew he spun about with his gun in his hand?

  Sullivan stood in his empty jail, and he stared out the single window at the empty land surrounding Rock Creek. Everything looked fine, but something wasn’t right, and for the life of him, he didn’t know what.

  That feeling came again, and he twirled toward the door. A huge silhouette blotted out the sunlight.

  “Bang, bang,” Jed drawled. “You’re dead, boy.”

  “What do you want?”

  “Eden said you were snarly as a wounded bear.” Jed leaned on the desk. The old wood creaked with his weight. “What’s the matter with you? Miss the Kid?”

  Sullivan shrugged. “I feel funny.”

  Jed’s sharp gaze flicked to Sullivan’s face. “Funny how?”

  “Something’s not right.”

  “I know what you mean. That Pinkerton was too agreeable by half, letting Rico go along to New Orleans like that. But he checked out. He’s a detective.”

  “He said he was sending a wire.”

  “Tried to find out what it was, but the telegraph agent wouldn’t budge.”

  “Maybe I can budge him.”

  “You thin
k you can when I couldn’t?”

  Sullivan tapped his star. “Can’t hurt to try.”

  “I’ll just mosey along and see how it’s done.”

  Sullivan crossed the street to the new telegraph office. The telegraph operator, Vincent Crawley, was new, too—and unimpressed with the legend that went along with his visitors.

  “I don’t care who you are or what you did before I got here. You aren’t invading the privacy of my customers.”

  Sullivan pulled his gun, and pointed it at the impossibly thin young man. “Hand it over.”

  Crawley’s mouth opened, shut and opened again, but nothing came out.

  “I could have done that,” Jed pointed out.

  “Then I’d have to arrest you. It works so much better when I do it.”

  “True.”

  Crawley found his voice. “Y-you can’t do that. It’s against the law.”

  “Since I’m the law and I’m all for it, you’d better hand over that telegram.”

  Crawley did so in short order. Sullivan opened the paper and cursed. “I knew it. Where did you send this?”

  “San Antone.”

  Jed snatched the sheet from Sullivan’s hand, glanced at it, and cursed some more. “I’ll send for Cash and Nate in Fort Worth. You tell Reese. We’ll meet at the stable.”

  Sullivan hurried to the cabin behind the schoolhouse. When Reese answered the door, Sullivan handed him the paper. Mary appeared behind him. “What is it?”

  “I’ve found Rico Salvatore,” Reese read. “You can get him in New Orleans.”

  Mary gasped. “It’s a trap?”

  “Looks like.” Sullivan was glad to see the command he’d always admired hardening Reese’s eyes. “Send for Nate and Cash.”

  “Already done. This wire went to San Antonio.”

  “That’s where Rico’s from. I have no idea why he left. Knowing Rico, it could be about damn near anything. I don’t like it.”

  “That makes two of us.”

  “I’ll get my things.”

  Sullivan returned to the hotel. Eden stood at their bed, shoving clothes in his saddlebags.

  “Did I do something I don’t know about?”

  “What?” She blinked at him, concern and confusion evident on her pretty, sweet face.