“Sorry. We are leaving, remember? There was no point in stocking up the bar,” she said stoically.
“Well, like I said, we might be back for a little ski trip.”
Over my dead body, Clementine thought as she turned toward the kitchen. “I’ll bring you a wine cooler,” she told him.
She was pulling the longneck bottle from the refrigerator and wondering where Quito was hidden when she heard light footsteps behind her.
Looking around, she spotted Niles standing directly behind her and she jumped with fright which only made him smile with glee.
“What’s the matter, honey? Your nerves a little on edge? I’d hate to think I was the reason for your jumpiness.”
I’ll bet, Clementine thought nastily. He enjoyed every moment of tormenting, frightening and goading her and they both knew it.
“I’m fine,” she lied. “I just didn’t hear you.”
With her back to the refrigerator, she shut the door and then handed him the chilled bottle. “Here.”
He took it and twisted off the cap. Clementine hovered by while he took a long drink.
“Aren’t you going to join me?” he asked in a too smooth voice. “A man doesn’t like to drink alone, you know.”
“All right. I’ll have some coffee,” she said and carefully stepped around him to the cabinet counter.
After she filled a cup and added a dollop of cream, she turned to him. “There’s a nice sundeck upstairs. Why don’t we go up there and sit and have our drinks while we talk. There is a fabulous view from there,” she suggested carefully.
He shot her a sly look. “What’s this? A plan to push me over the railing?”
Forcing her features to remain expressionless, she said, “Believe me, Niles, if I was a killer, I would have already found a way to get rid of you.”
His nostrils flared and she could see that she’d angered him. But as Quito had warned her, she couldn’t seem too sweet or complying, otherwise, Niles would certainly become suspicious of a trap.
“Well,” he said after a long tense moment, “at least you’re honest. I suppose it’s good to know my wife won’t kill me in my sleep.”
She walked past him, her chin tilted, her shoulders straight. “Follow me and we’ll go up to the deck. It’ll be dark soon and we’ll miss the sunset.”
Just a little longer, Clementine told herself as Niles followed her down the hallway then up the short staircase that led to her bedroom. She hated to take him through that intimate area of the house, but she had the feeling that Quito would be there, close by if she needed him. And since the other way to the deck was a darker, more twisting route, this was the safest course.
“Nice,” Niles purred as he cast a glance at the four poster covered with a white comforter. “Maybe we should forget our drinks and stop right here,” he suggested.
Her face stony, she glared at him. “Not now, Niles. Before we get to that you’re going to have to court me. To assure me you can behave like a gentleman.”
He looked at her with immense surprise and then he tilted his head back and laughed loudly. While he expressed his amusement, Clementine hurried out the sliding glass doors and onto the sundeck.
At least she’d escaped for the moment, but she knew before much more time passed, Niles would be pressing her to have sex with him and if she refused he would think nothing of forcing himself on her. There was nothing for her to do but to get him to talking and quickly.
She was standing by the deck railing, pretending to enjoy her coffee when he emerged through the glass doors.
Instead of taking a seat on one of the nearby lounge chairs, he came to stand by her and purposely pressed his shoulder into hers.
The knowledge that she was doing this all for Quito and her future with him stifled her resolve and she gritted her teeth and prepared to stand her ground.
“So how was your flight up here?” she asked in an effort to start a conversation.
“Uneventful. I piloted myself. I didn’t necessarily want my pilot to know where I’d gone.”
Genuinely surprised, Clementine looked out at the desert hills. “Uh, why is that?”
He chuckled lowly and evilly. “A man likes to keep some things private, Clem.”
Maybe he’d come up here planning to kill her, Clementine thought. That could be the only reason she could think of for not wanting his pilot to know of his whereabouts. Or maybe he had plans to murder both her and Quito. Oh, God help her get through this, she prayed.
“You used to be proud of me,” she reminded him. “You wanted everyone to know I was your wife.”
He sighed. “Yeah. That was when things were perfect. That was before you decided to separate us,” he said accusingly.
The last of the summer sun was slipping behind the far horizon, casting an orange glow across the desert and purple shadows over the deck. The fast approaching night sent an eerie shiver over Clementine’s skin and she was forced to rub away the goose bumps skimming along her arms.
“I’ve, uh, I’ve been thinking a lot about that, Niles. I’ve always tried to be a fair person and maybe you were right about some things. Maybe I just didn’t try hard enough to be the sort of wife you wanted.”
The words were like chewing nails and swallowing the bits of metal, but she had to get his mind to working and his tongue loosened.
“You’re damn right, you didn’t try!” he shot back at her. “And we both know why, don’t we?”
Clementine did her best to appear innocent. “I tried,” she argued. “I just didn’t realize how much you cared for me.”
He tossed his empty bottle over the railing’s edge and Clementine heard the glass shatter on the ground below as he reached and grabbed her by the upper arms.
“So you’re finally owning up to your mistakes, are you? This is not what I expected from you, Clem. All this time you’ve been telling me to leave you alone, to stay away from you. You even had me jailed,” he growled.
“That was before I realized that you were only doing all those things because you loved me.”
Suddenly the hardness of his features relaxed and he looked at her with an odd tenderness that bordered on insanity. Clementine realized she was walking a very fine line now. If he put his hands around her neck and squeezed, or if he decided to toss her over the edge of the deck, there wouldn’t be much she could do about it. He was far stronger than her. She could only hope that Quito reached her in time.
“You’re finally speaking the truth,” he whispered as he brought his fingers up and began to stroke her face. “You’re finally seeing the light. Maybe I will let you live, after all.”
She drew in a shaky breath and tried not to pull back in revulsion of his touch. “What about Quito? Are you going to pull your dog off of him?”
“Still worried about your lover? I should have known,” he said, his expression changing abruptly to a glare.
“Well, you did admit that you’re the one who tried to get him killed.”
“So, I did. Why not? The man needs killing. He’s had your heart all these years. All this time that I’ve loved you and wanted you, you were pining after him.” The grip of his hands slipped upward toward her neck. “I should kill you right now for your deceit! And you can bet that I’m not going to let your lover off the hook. My gunman might have failed the first time, but he won’t miss this second trip. Your admired sheriff is going to meet his end and you won’t be around to weep or carry flowers to his funeral. You’ll be with me!”
There was a glazed look in his eyes and Clementine knew he’d entered another zone in his brain where a human’s life held little value to him.
“I thought you said you were going to kill me,” she reminded him while thinking she might as well get Niles to hang himself on every count.
“I was,” he agreed, his voice menacingly sweet.
Clementine felt icy shivers racing down her back as his sleazy gaze slipped over her face, down to her breasts and the juncture of her thi
ghs.
“But I wasn’t counting on you looking so good, Clementine. I’d almost forgotten just how gorgeous you really are. Those blue eyes. And the way your long blond hair brushes your breasts. Ah, what a delight your body was.”
His fingers curled around her neck and Clementine struggled not to move and fight back in any sort of physical way.
“Now that I think about it, killing you would be a terrible waste. With Perez out of the way, you could be mine. Really mine.”
As Niles spoke his warped reasoning, Clementine glanced over his shoulder to see Quito slipping past the glass doors leading onto the deck. Quietly, softly, he crept forward at the same time Niles’s fingers were tightening more and more against her windpipe.
“Over my dead body!” she lashed out at Niles. “I’d jump over this railing before I’d let you touch me again!”
Her retaliation was enough to keep Niles’s attention occupied on her. He never realized Quito was anywhere near until he grabbed him by the back of the collar and jerked him away from Clementine.
Finally free from Niles grip, she jumped out of the way and stood watching, her hand over her mouth, as Quito spun Niles’s around and swung his fist straight into the man’s face.
Niles staggered, then fell heavily on his back. Instantly Quito was over him, jerking him up by the front of the shirt and rearing his fist back to hit him again when Niles lowered his head and butted Quito straight in the midsection. The blow was enough to cause Quito to loosen his grip for a fraction of a second and Niles ripped away from him. But one step was all he managed to take before Quito collared him again.
By now Daniel and Jess had rushed onto the deck, their revolvers drawn, but both of them stood back, allowing their boss to subdue Niles all alone.
Terrified, she glanced hopelessly at Daniel. “For God’s sake, help him!” she cried. “Why are you just standing there?”
Keeping his gaze on the two struggling men, Daniel hurried over to Clementine. Taking hold of her arm, he pulled her even further back from the fight. “Quito needs to do this on his own, Clementine. I think you understand why.”
Deep down she did understand. But at this very moment none of that mattered. She only wanted Quito safe and Niles put away where he would never have the chance to hurt anyone.
“Daniel! They’re headed for the railing!” she screamed as Quito and Niles struggled and fought to the opposite side of the deck.
Jess and Daniel glanced at each other then with a nod of agreement started over to the fray. But before the two men could offer any sort of assistance, Quito once again knocked Niles to the floor of the deck.
Crazed and out of control, Niles bounced up and with a bellow he lowered his head and tried to ram Quito again. Only this time Quito quickly stepped to one side.
Instead of striking the sheriff, Niles crashed into the railing. Beneath his weight, the wood splintered like toothpicks and Niles went flying over the edge.
Clementine screamed as Quito reached out to save the man. But it was too late to make a grab for anything.
Exhausted and grim faced, Quito turned to the three of them and quickly motioned to his partners. “Go check it out,” he ordered.
Both men rushed off the deck to do his bidding and Clementine began to sob with relief as Quito walked slowly over to her and enfolded her in his arms.
“Oh, Quito! Quito! I was so scared. I thought you were going to be killed!”
“Shh. Shh. It’s all right now, darling,” he said between gasps for air. “It’s all over with.”
Quito decided the best thing to do was let her cry for a few moments to get the emotional upheaval out of her system. He stroked her hair and murmured his love for her while her body trembled against his and her fingers gripped his shoulders tightly.
Her sobs were beginning to subside when Jess shouted from the ground down below.
“Quito! Look at this!”
Easing Clementine away from the front of his body, he closed his hand around hers. “I’d better go see,” he told her.
She nodded solemnly and followed him across the deck. When they carefully looked over the broken railing, both of them were shocked to see Daniel hauling Niles, who was very much alive, out of the swimming pool.
“The guy must have nine lives,” Jess shouted up to him. “The momentum of his body must have propelled him off the edge of the roof and into the swimming pool.”
As Daniel stood Niles on dry ground and snapped his wrists in a pair of handcuffs, he shook his head and sputtered.
“You’re all going to pay for this! I’m going to see that every last one of you is brought to trial! You don’t have a thing on me. Nothing!”
“Only your confession on tape,” Jess told him as he took him by the shoulder and headed him in the direction of one of the squad cars that had now pulled up in the driveway.
The shocked look on Niles’s face was almost comical and was enough to make both Clementine and Quito laugh.
“He’ll look even more shocked when he’s thrown in the state penitentiary. He’ll be the one watching his back every minute of the day and night,” Quito told her.
Clementine sighed as relief and happiness swirled around her like golden gossamer. The fear she’d lived with the past years was now over. And her life with Quito was just beginning.
“Thank you, darling,” she whispered through happy tears. “Thank you for loving me enough to forgive me.”
The smile on his lips was as deep and gentle as the emotion pouring from his heart. Wiping the last of the tears from her cheeks, he said resolutely, “We’re getting married in a few days. We’re going to have lots of kids and we’re going to grow old and gray together.”
Her smile was dazzling, a wide glorious display of love for him. “That’s exactly what we’re going to do, Quito Perez. And I’ve also been doing a little thinking—”
“Uh-huh,” he interrupted teasingly. “Blondes aren’t supposed to do any thinking.”
Feeling light as a cloud, she playfully pinched his cheek, then rising on tiptoe kissed his lips. He quickly caught her head with the back of his hands and holding her, he continued the kiss until he was certain she’d gotten the message.
“I’ve been thinking anyway,” she went on. “I’m going to have this land cleared, barns built and equipment purchased. And then we’re going to buy a herd of good horses.”
He looked at her with utter surprise. “Why? What about my place?”
“We’ll keep it, too, but remember how you used to talk about having a horse ranch? This patch of land would make a great beginning for one. Don’t you think? And since you are the beloved sheriff of San Juan County, you’ll need help holding down two jobs.”
He chuckled. “Where am I going to find it?”
“Right here, darling.”
She kissed him again and in the distance, the squad car carrying Niles to jail disappeared into the quiet night.
“We’d better go,” Quito finally told her. “There’s a few things we need to finalize on this case tonight.”
“Yes, like getting this thing off me!” She raised her shirt and smiled as Quito untaped the wires and removed the recorder. Walking with him out of the house she climbed into his waiting vehicle.
They had traveled half the distance to town, when Jess came over the two-way radio and even Clementine could hear fear and desperation in his voice.
“Quito! Daniel’s taking Niles on in to jail for booking. Turn around and head to the T Bar K!”
Frowning, Quito turned a dial on the radio and picked up the mike. “Jess, what’s wrong?”
“Fire! The horse barn is on fire and the men are trying to put it out!”
“Has anyone been injured?” Quito quickly questioned.
“I’m not sure. I only know that Linc has been burned pretty badly. An ambulance is on its way to the scene.”
“I’ll meet you there,” Quito assured him and hung up the mike.
“Oh, God,” Clementi
ne murmured with concern. “Linc is Victoria’s cousin! I hope he’ll be all right. Do you think anyone else has been hurt?”
Quito shook his head. “Don’t know. We’ll have to see,” he said, then with a squall of the brakes, he made an abrupt U-turn in the middle of the road, then pounced on the gas.
As the vehicle sped over the dark highway toward the Ketchum ranch, Quito glanced regretfully over at her. “I know you’re tired, Clem. You’ve been through so much, you must be exhausted. Do you think you can make it to the T Bar K?”
With a reassuring smile, she reached for his hand and squeezed it tightly. “I went from here to Texas and back for you. I’m not about to let you down now.”
He didn’t make any sort of reply, but beneath the glow of the dashboard, Clementine could see a smile of contentment cross his face.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-2495-7
FROM HERE TO TEXAS
Copyright © 2005 by Stella Bagwell
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††Men of the West
*Heartland Holidays
†Twins on the Doorstep
From Here to Texas Page 17