by Smith, Bobbi
“Since he is alone, ”I’ll go down to the bar and see what I can find out. He’s never seen me close up, so there won’t be any danger that I’ll be recognized. You two wait here.” Malo strode hurriedly from the room.
There were only a few patrons left in the saloon, and they were gathered around the bar, listening intently to something Ed was saying. As Malo approached, the conversation lulled, but only to allow Ed to serve him. As soon as Malo had picked up his drink of tequila and started to a table, they began again.
“I heard him, I tell you! I was right outside the door!” a little man was saying with emphasis.
“Eavesdropping.” One of the other men laughed.
“So what?” the man challenged and then went on to defend himself. “I work in the hotel and it’s my job to know what goes on over there.”
At the mention of the hotel, Malo started paying close attention to their words.
“So, Ace, what you’re telling us is that the woman registered over there as Mrs. Mac McCaine really is his wife, Eve?” Ed asked, incredulously.
“That’s right,” Ace answered proudly. “Why, I told you just the other day that she had young Billy deliver a letter out to the ranch addressed to Mac, and then she hired him to drive her all the way out there. But strangest thing of all is once they reached the ranch, she didn’t go in. She told him to turn around and go back to town.”
“But Mac’s claimed for years that Eve was dead. If she was .still alive, why did he lie?”
“I don’t know, but even his children believe her to be dead. Jennie and Carrie used to talk about her all the time whenever they came into the store,” added the shopkeeper, who’d been listening avidly to the conversation.
“I know. Even Jake believes his mother is dead. But why would Mac keep her existence a secret from them?”
“What did you hear, Ace, exactly?”
“I heard him ask her why she’d come back after all this time, but I couldn’t make out much after that.”
The rest of the men nodded their interest.
“He’s coming this way, now!” someone announced softly, and the group quickly dispersed around the room, oblivious to Malo’s studied exit up the stairs.
He didn’t bother to knock as he reentered the bedroom, and his unexpected appearance startled Lucia and Pablo.
“Well?” Pablo demanded. “What did you find out?”
“He’s not here looking for us.” Malo smiled as a plan began to form in his mind. “There seems to be some kind of mystery going on around here concerning McCaine and his supposedly departed wife.”
“What are you talking about?”
“From what I understand, Mac McCaine’s always been considered a widower, and yet while he was gone some woman showed up in town and registered at the hotel as Mrs. Mac McCaine.” He frowned. “In fact, I think I saw her the other day.”
“Wait!” Lucia said quickly, remembering the picture she’d taken from Jennie’s room. “I think I may have a portrait of her.” Rummaging through the sack she’d brought up to the room with her, Lucia finally found it. “Is this her?”
“What are you doing with this?” Malo asked as he took it from her.
She shrugged indifferently. “I didn’t want to leave there empty-handed. The frame is silver, I think.”
Malo stared at the picture of the much younger Eve. “Yes, I think this is the woman I saw the other day.”
“So?” Pablo wondered what he was planning.
“If this really is his wife and if what I just heard downstairs is true, I think I’ve just found a way for us to get even with Ricardo Peralta.”
“How?” Lucia asked eagerly.
“Evidently McCaine told his children that she was dead when, in truth, she was very much alive.” Malo grinned evilly.
“You mean they don’t know about her?”
“No, and that’s why I think we’ve got the perfect chance to lure them into town.”
Lucia’s eyes were alight at the prospect of seeing Jennie suffer. “I’ll send a message out to the ranch addressed to Jennie, begging her to come to town and sign it from her mother.”
“Do you think Rick will come with her?” Pablo asked.
“I’m sure of it,” she declared bitterly.
“Well, if he does, then we’ll ambush him when he gets here. And if he doesn’t, we’ll ride out to the ranch while the rest of them are in town. Maybe with a little forceful encouragement, he can be convinced to take us to the mine.” Malo was pleased with the thought.
Mac entered the saloon, wanting only to pass the next few hours in solitude. The run-in with Eve had upset him more than he’d let on, and he needed time to get his thoughts together.
“Give me a whiskey, Ed,” Mac ordered, sidling up to the bar.
“You got it, Mr. McCaine. How’s it goin’?” Ed asked amiably enough, but Mac looked up at him sharply.
“Fine,” he answered brusquely.
“You got Jennie back safely?”
“You’d heard?”
“Hildago sent word into town.”
“Of course.” He sighed and took a deep drink of the whiskey. “We just got back today. It was some chase, but everything turned out all right.”
“What happened?”
“Some of Miguel Malo’s men took Jennie captive.”
“Malo was in the area?” The bartender was shocked by the news, and he would have been even more shocked to know that that very same gunman was staying upstairs.
Mac nodded as he took another drink. “I took a posse out from the ranch, and we rescued both Jennie and another captive he had in camp.”
“But did you get him? He’s about the most dangerous outlaw around.”
“We got everybody but Malo. In fact, I’ve got one of his men locked up out at the ranch now. Jake will be bringing him in to the sheriff in the morning.”
“Do you think Malo’s still around?”
“I don’t know. Last I saw of him, we were up in the Superstitions.”
“It’s easy to lose a man in those mountains,” Ed said. “Did you have any trouble with the Indians?”
“A small party of Apache attacked us on our way back, but we managed to run them off.”
“Well, I’m glad you made it, and it’s good to know that your daughter’s all right. Most of the folks around town were worried about her.”
“You can tell them she’s doing just fine.” Mac finished off his drink and pushed the glass back toward Ed. “Pour me another one.”
“You staying in town tonight?”
“Yes, I had some unfinished business to attend to that couldn’t wait until tomorrow.”
“Would you like a room for the rest of the night?”
“No. There’s no need, but thanks for the offer. I think I’ll just settle in at a table and relax for a while.”
“Sure thing, Mr. McCaine. You want the bottle to take with you?”
“Yes, thanks.” Mac picked up the bottle of liquor and made his way to a table in a deserted corner of the saloon.
Oblivious to the curious glances of the other patrons, Mac refilled his glass again and downed it quickly as his thoughts turned to his encounter with Eve. Mac was glad that he’d come to his senses and had broken off their torrid embrace, and he wondered, somewhat guiltily, how he could have let things get out of control that way. He knew what kind of woman she was, and he knew he didn’t love her, so why had he allowed himself to touch her?
Though he wanted to deny the answer that came to him, Mac knew he couldn’t. He had always found Eve’s blond beauty stimulating, and he remembered well how near to perfect their lovemaking had been. He had wanted to see if that spark of passion still existed between them, and he’d been very disappointed to find out that it did. No matter what she’d done, he still found her exciting, and the thought upset him even as it stirred him.
Downing another glass of whiskey, Mac stared, unseeing, across the saloon. He would put Eve on the first stagecoach out of Mesa Roj
a tomorrow. There was no way he was going to let her cause trouble for him here in town, and there was no way he was going to let her near Jake, Jennie or Carrie. She’d made her choice years ago and now she had to live with it.
Firm in his resolve, he felt some of the tension leave him, and he sat back in his chair. Glancing out the window of the saloon, he was surprised to find that from where he sat, he could see the window to Eve’s room in the hotel. Grimly, he kept his eyes fixed on that softly lighted portal, wondering what her thoughts were as she readied herself to leave town.
Eve was stalking angrily about her room, trying to figure out what to do next. The Mac McCaine she had just dealt with had been a different man from the one she’d known before, and she realized now, with unfailing certainty, that she had been the loser in that encounter. He had had the upper hand between them from the moment he’d shoved in the door. There had been little she could do to change it.
Knowing that Mac fully intended to put her on a stagecoach out of town the next day, Eve sat down heavily on her bed. She did not doubt for a moment that he was serious about divorcing her, too, and she knew that somehow, she had to get a financial settlement out of him. Eve tried to think of a way to convince him to pay her enough money to live comfortably. If he wanted her gone forever, as he said he did, that was just fine with her, but he’d have to be willing to pay for her continued absence.
The eastern horizon was slowly brightening as she lay back on the bed, and she hoped to get at least a few hours’ rest.
Hildago stood at the window of the bedroom she shared with Mac, gazing out at the rising sun as his parting words echoed grimly through her mind. I’ll be back long before sunup, so don’t worry. It was certainly easier said than done, expecially since she knew he was with Eve.
Eve. Just the thought of her stirred resentment within Hildago. Mac’s wife had had everything: a loving husband, three beautiful children, and a secure future. Yet she’d given it all up. Hildago shook her head, unable to comprehend a woman and mother who could abandon her family so easily.
Turning away from the lightening morning sky, she returned to their bed, hoping to get some rest. Mac loved her, she was sure of it, and just as soon as he could he would come home to her. The fact that he was late in returning from town, she chided herself, did not mean he was with Eve.
Yet the remembrance of the heartache he’d suffered those first years after Eve’s desertion brought to mind just how deeply he had loved her. Her heart heavy with worry, she curled on her side and closed her eyes. He would be back, Hildago tried to convince herself, and everything would be just as it always had been between them for surely Mac would not allow the other woman’s unexpected intrusion to ruin the beauty of their life together.
At the first blush of morning light, Rick came awake. He smiled at the sight of Jennie sleeping so peacefully next to him, and he lay still savoring the privacy of these last few minutes before he had to awaken her to return to her own room.
Rick was well versed in the art of lovemaking, but he had never known it could be so completely and totally satisfying. The night he had just passed with Jennie had been more exciting and more beautiful than anything he’d ever experienced before. Now, as he watched her sleep, he remembered the feel of her bucking, silken hips beneath him, and his body roused, ready once again to taste of her loving delights.
With gentle fingers, he reached out to caress the softness of her breast. “Jennie, love.”
Jennie’s lips curved into a warm smile as she opened her eyes to gaze upon Rick. “Morning.”
“Morning,” Rick answered, raising up on his elbows to look down at her, tracing with his eyes the loveliness of her features. He bent to her slowly and kissed her tenderly.
“I wish it was still night,” she said throatily as she slipped her arms up around his neck. “Then we’d have time to—”
“To what?” He grinned, moving over her nude, supple form and pressing the heat of his burgeoning desire against her thighs.
Jennie’s eyes sparkled at the prospect of one more moment of bliss in his arms, and she pulled his head down to hers for a flaming kiss.
At her blatant yet unspoken invitation, Rick positioned himself between her legs, and as she reached down eagerly to guide him, he sought the sweetness of her womanly sheath. Their mating was breathlessly frenzied as they sought only to please each other with each caress and kiss. They lay together afterward, touching and being touched, whispering endearments to one another. Rick would have been contented to stay with her in bed for the rest of the day, but he knew that Jennie had to return to her own bedroom.
“Rick?” Her voice was a soft purr as her hands indolently explored the hard-muscled strength of his chest.
“Yes?” The mood was so tranquil that he didn’t even want to think about breaking it.
“I have to go. It’s dawn,” Jennie told him, regretfully.
“I know, love,” he said sympathetically. “Lord, how I wish you could stay.”
“Soon.”
“Yes, very soon. I’ll talk to your preacher today as soon as Jake, Todd, and I go into town,” he said as she finally stirred and sat up.
After one last, lingering kiss, Jennie stood and pulled on her dressing gown. “You’re leaving early, aren’t you?”
“That’s what Jake said last night.” Rick got up and took her in his arms.
“Then I guess I’d better go back to my room so I can get dressed and meet you at breakfast.”
“Hurry,” he ordered as he claimed her lips in a heart-stopping exchange.
“I will.” She smiled sensuously at him and quietly left his room.
Lucia looked up, smiling brightly at her companions. “I think this will do it.”
“Read it to me again,” Malo demanded from where he lay on the bed.
“All right.” She read:
My children,
I know your father has told you that I’m dead, but I am not. As your mother, I’d like to have the chance to speak with you before I leave town. I am staying at the hotel.
Eve McCaine
“How’s that sound?” Lucia asked proudly.
“Fine. Now how do we get it out there without making anyone suspicious?” Pablo asked.
“I’ll check with the man at the livery. He should know of someone who’d be willing to ride out there.” Malo got up and took the letter from her once she’d sealed it in an envelope and addressed it to Jennie. “I’ll be back”
He returned in less than half an hour with the good news that there had been an older man at the stable more than willing to deliver the message for a few extra dollars. Pleased that things were going so smoothly, they settled in to await the arrival of the McCaines in hopes that Rick would be accompanying them.
Jennie’s heart was light as she practically floated back across the courtyard to her bedroom. She had never before been this happy, and she was totally unprepared for the sight that greeted her when she opened the door to her room.
She blinked twice in stunned confusion as she stared at the cluttered mess in the middle of the floor. The entire room was in a shambles. Everything she owned had been dumped unceremoniously together in a big heap, and even her bed had not escaped the vandal’s wrath.
Shaken, Jennie lurched from the room to get Rick. Her first instinct had been to tell Hildago, but she realized that if she revealed the damage to her room to the other woman, she would know exactly where Jennie had spent the night. Upset and more than a little confused, she knocked softly at his patio door.
“Rick!”
Rick had had only enough time to pull on his pants when he heard Jennie at the door. Wondering at the nervousness he heard in her tone, he rushed to admit her.
“Jennie?” he asked as he opened the door, and she rushed in. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
“My room.” She was frowning, trying to understand why anyone would want to destroy her things.
“What about your room?” Rick took
her by the shoulders and turned her to face him, reading in her expression all the bewilderment she was feeling.
“Someone was in there last night. They’ve wrecked everything—my clothes, my bed—”
“Are you saying that someone broke into your bedroom while you were with me?”
She nodded, casting a worried look in the direction of her room. “Come with me. I’ll show you.”
“Let me finish dressing first.” He released her only long enough to pull on the rest of his clothes. I’m ready now. Let’s go.”
“I don’t know who could have done it or why anyone would have wanted to,” she remarked as she led the way back across the patio and opened the door to her room.
Rick followed her inside and looked around in disgust as Jennie knelt down and automatically started to straighten up.
“Can you tell if anything is missing?” Rick questioned, bending down beside her to help.
“I don’t know. With everything dumped out this way it’s hard to say. Who could have done this? We’ve never had this kind of trouble before.”
“Lucia,” Rick answered with a dreaded certainty.
“She must have seen me going to you last night.”
Their gazes locked in understanding.
“I’ll bet she’s gone. Which room was hers?”
“The one right next door, and it opens onto the courtyard, too,” Jennie told him, and Rick went outside to check.
“She’s gone. The bed wasn’t slept in.”
“But where would she go?” she asked, pulling a riding skirt and a blouse from the jumble of clothing.
“I don’t know, but as I recall, she wasn’t all that enthusiastic about being sent back to Mexico with Chica tomorrow. I wonder if we should check on Pablo? If she’s vindictive enough to do something this stupid, she might have tried to free him.”
“Let me get dressed and we’ll go together.”
Rick held her close and embraced her for a long moment. “I’m sorry about your things.”