Diablo

by Georgina Gentry

  “You said you were twenty-nine.” She looked up at him, feeling loved and protected in his embrace.

  “But it’s an old twenty-nine. I’ve got a lot of miles on me,” he answered, “and you’re so innocent. I’ve got nothing to offer you.”

  “I don’t think I care,” she said and buried her face against his wide chest, “as long as you keep me with you always.”

  “I can’t promise that, Sunny, and I’m bein’ honest. I came up here to kill some men, and then I’m gone, alone as always.”

  “You can’t mean that,” she whispered against his chest.

  He stroked her hair and held her close. “I never realized how lonely I was until I met you. It’ll be like tearin’ my heart out to leave you.”

  “Then take me with you,” she looked up at him earnestly, tears running down her cheeks.

  He reached out with one strong brown hand and very gently wiped the tears away. “And offer you what? A cheap room in a crummy hotel as I drift around the country? You deserve better than that.”

  “Can’t you let me make that decision?”

  He shook his head and held her close, kissed her cheek. “No, I can’t. I care enough about you that I can’t let you make that sacrifice. Besides, I’ve already set the last chapter of this in motion, and there’s no stoppin’ this showdown now.”

  “I hate you for that.” She glared up at him.

  “And I adore you, Princess,” he whispered, and then he kissed her again, deeper and deeper still until she clung to him, weeping. He made slow, gentle love to her by the fire as Wolf stood guard.

  After that, he took her one more time that night, caressing her breasts and kissing her belly before he mounted her again. But this time, he rode her slowly and teasingly until she was begging him to speed up his ride, and she clawed his muscular back as he did. Again she heard the music, and it became louder and faster until it disappeared in a wild roar as he gave her his seed.

  Afterward, they lay locked in each other’s arms by the fire, both content to do nothing else. Finally, they both slept curled up together, and Wolf lay guarding the mouth of the cave.

  When she awakened, he lay with one strong arm thrown protectively across her naked body. The pink dress lay crumpled under her. She sighed, and he came awake, grabbing for his pistol, then saw her and relaxed.

  She reached up and stroked his face. “Do you always sleep so lightly?”

  He lay back down. “I’ve stayed alive this long by always sleeping with one eye open.”

  “Well, you can relax,” she murmured. “I’m not going to harm you.”

  He looked as though he thought she would regret last night, but she smiled and pulled him to her, kissing his scarred face. “Make love to me again.”

  He actually grinned. “Wouldn’t you rather have coffee and bacon?”

  “Nope.”

  He laughed. “You little wild thing. Let’s have breakfast, and then we’ll make love again.”

  “Cowboy, you’ve got a deal.” She got up and put on the rumpled dress, showing no modesty as he feasted his eyes on her body. Then she took the bucket, walked down to the creek for water.

  Diablo watched her walk away, her round little bottom moving seductively as she walked. He felt deeply troubled. He had never allowed himself to care about a woman or anyone else. In a few days, she would realize what a bad bargain she had made, wasting her innocence on an ugly, penniless Texas drifter. She would regret it bitterly and wish she had given her virginity to the rich Hurd Kruger. When he thought of her in Kruger’s arms, it made Diablo grind his teeth. He couldn’t stand the thought of any other man touching her or making love to her. He had made her his in the way no man could ever possess her again, by taking her virginity, and he wanted to keep her—God, how he wanted to keep her!

  Sunny came back with the water and began to make coffee. While she did, she watched him out of the corner of her eye. She wished she knew what he was thinking. Had she only been a night’s pleasure for him? Certainly it had been more than that for her. Surely it couldn’t end with him riding away forever . . . if Hurd didn’t kill him.

  She fixed breakfast, and they ate the biscuits and bacon in silence, the dog cleaning up the scraps.

  “Now what?” she finally said.

  “Now nothing,” he shrugged and avoided her eyes. “I tried to tell you there was no future with me. I’ll be riding out as soon as I get Kruger and Joe.”

  She felt her face fall with her spirits. “So after what’s happened between us, you haven’t changed your mind?”

  He laughed without mirth. “Is that what last night was about? You thought if you let me take you, you’d save those bastards’ lives?”

  She shook her head. “I’m not worried about them; I’m worried about you.”

  He didn’t look like he believed her. “You know I’ve left a note for Kruger. Someone has probably taken it to him by now.”

  She looked up. “So there’s no stopping the showdown ?”

  “No, so your actions last night were in vain.”

  So he didn’t believe she could really care about him. “I reckon you really are Diablo after all. So you ambush them both and kill them, or they kill you?”

  He nodded. “That’s about the size of it. I don’t have much money, or I’d buy you a train ticket and send you to your aunt.”

  “You didn’t even ask me if I wanted to go to Boston or with you.”

  “This isn’t some fairy tale, baby, where the princess kisses the ugly beast and he turns into a rich, handsome prince. If I took you with me, there’d come a day when you would wonder what you saw in me, regret it, and walk out.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  He winced. “It would kill me if you did. I can’t take the chance.”

  “Then you don’t have any confidence in me—you think I’m a spoiled child, not a woman.”

  He stared into her eyes and finally said “I don’t have any confidence in myself. Nobody ever wanted me—why should you?”

  “Because I love you.” Tears made crooked trails down her face. She reached up and brushed them away. “There’s nothing to keep us from riding out right now. Let’s go to Texas.”

  He shook his head and glanced at the midday sun. “Too late for that. This whole thing should be over before sundown.”

  “You promised you would make love to me,” she whispered.

  He raised one eyebrow. “After what’s been said, you still want that?”

  “One last time,” she whispered and swallowed hard to keep from sobbing.

  “Baby, I didn’t mean to make you cry.” He put a gentle arm around her and kissed her tears away.

  “Let’s not talk.” She hid her face against his shoulder. “Just love me for the very last time.”

  “Oh, God,” he muttered and pulled her close, “Oh, God, I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

  She kissed the scarred side of his face; then her lips brushed across his cheek and down to his mouth. His eyes were as moist as hers as he pulled her to him and kissed her as if he would never let her go.

  Then they made slow, gentle love and slept again, curled up in each other’s arms.

  It was late afternoon when they awoke.

  He got up and began to check and load his weapons, ignoring her eyes as she stared at him.

  Finally he walked over and threw the saddle up on his black horse.

  “One thing I can say, baby—I’ll never forget you.”

  She watched him yanking the girth to tighten the saddle. There was no way she could convince him. He was going to kill those two and then ride back to Texas without her.

  She saw him reach in his saddlebag and pull out something. She couldn’t see what it was.

  Diablo looked at the small photo in the gilt frame. He would be leaving a part of his heart behind when he left Wyoming, but at least he had her photo. In the lonely years ahead, he could pull it out sometimes and look at it, remembering the precious few hours the
y had had in each others’ arms.

  “What have you got there?”

  He heard her walk up behind him and tried to put the photo back in the saddlebag, but she had already seen it.

  “Why, that’s the little photo my dad always kept on his desk. What are you doing with it?” She didn’t know whether to be shocked or just puzzled. She tried to grab it out of his hand, but he held on to it and they struggled for the photo.

  “Not what you think,” he said as she tried to take it away from him.

  “Where did you get this?” she demanded as they fought.

  He knew what she would think if he told her the truth, so all he could do was try to hide it, but it was too late. He was bigger than she was and as they battled for it, he yanked it from her hand and it flew across the clearing. It struck hard against a stone, and the frame came apart with a tinkle of glass.

  She ran over to it. “That was my dad’s. Where’d you get it?”

  He looked guilty as he raised his gaze from the shattered frame. “I—I took it. I looked through the window and saw it, and I wanted it. I fell in love with the pretty girl in the photo.”

  “Why, you thief !” Abruptly her face paled. “You—you’re the one who killed Dad. He caught you robbing the house, and you killed him!”

  “Sunny,” he gestured, pleading, “I swear to you, I never did anything to hurt your dad.”

  She slapped him hard. “You bastard! You liar! Making love to me, knowing you shot down my dad in cold blood.”

  “More than once now, you’ve done things I’d kill a man for.” He rubbed the stinging red place on his cheek.

  “Go ahead!” she challenged, “Shoot me down in cold blood like you did my father!”

  “Sunny, I swear to you, I didn’t—”

  “I don’t believe you! And to think I gave myself to you, wanted to go to Texas with you!” She seethed and ran over to pick up the damaged gold frame. As she did, folded one hundred dollar bills fell out of the back of the frame. “What the—”

  “Well, I’ll be damned.” Diablo reached to pick up the money and hand it to her. “He said he had money hidden to send you to your aunt’s in Boston. I reckon no one ever believed him.”

  She was past emotion, staring dumbly at the bills in her palm, then slowly at Diablo. “There must be at least a thousand dollars here. Was that what you were after when you killed him?” She began to cry.

  “Sunny, I swear to you, I didn’t kill him.”

  “Liar! Then who did?”

  He knew if he told her Kruger had done it, she wouldn’t believe him. “Not me. I just took the photo. You were so beautiful, and when I saw it, I had to have it.”

  She walked over and sat down on a rock, clutching the photo and the money. “Dad, my poor dad, scrimping and saving to send me to school. If he saved to send me to school, why did he tell Hurd Kruger he wanted me to marry him?”

  Diablo hesitated. She wasn’t going to believe him, so he didn’t answer.

  “Well?” she sobbed and clutched the money.

  He shrugged and looked away. “That solves your problem. After I kill those two, you’ll have enough money to go to Boston.”

  “Can’t you think about anything but killing?” Her beautiful blue eyes were wide and red with tears.

  “That’s what I came for—you’ve always known that. But know this, Princess, I did not kill your dad. I may be a low-down, cold-blooded killer, but Swen was good to me. I wouldn’t murder him and then deflower his daughter.”

  She was in inner pain. “I—I don’t know what to believe, even with the evidence in my hand. I’m such a fool to care about you.”

  “I told you that,” he agreed quietly.

  “It’s hard to believe you would seduce me all the while knowing you had killed my dad and stolen the little money he had,” she lashed out.

  “I swear to God, baby, I didn’t know the money was in the frame.” He strode over to her. “Look, I don’t need you to finish what I’ve come to do. Let me take you to the railroad station over in Wildfire. I’ll put you on the train to Boston, and you can forget you ever knew me and get on with your life.”

  She raised her tear-stained face. “Don’t you understand? I can never forget about you. I love you.”

  “Then how can you not believe me?” he snapped, “I know what the right thing to do is. I’m letting you go. I’ll put you on that train myself.”

  She wanted to believe him, believe that he wouldn’t lie to her, that he was the kind of man she thought in her heart he was. She looked up at him. “Have you nothing more to say?”

  He struggled for the words that must have been hard coming. He was an independent loner who lived by his wits and his gun. He was proud, not a man who wanted to be beholden to anyone. “I—I want you, Sunny. I didn’t realize how empty and barren my life was before I met you. Oh, to hell with it! Believe anything you want. Then tell me if I should put you on that train or send you back to Kruger’s ranch.”

  She didn’t know what to do. She had always let other people make decisions for her, tried to be the ideal pioneer woman—always obedient, never questioning. She hugged the photo and the money to her breast as she ran into the cave and fell down on the blankets and wept and wept.

  Diablo sat outside, watching the sun move across the sky and tossing pebbles against a rock, unable to deal with his feelings. He hated that he’d made her cry and that she thought he was the kind of hombre who would kill an old man in cold blood and rob his house. Well, to hell with everything. If Kruger had gotten his note, the rancher would come to the clearing by the three cottonwood trees, and Diablo would finally get his revenge. Somehow, that didn’t seem so important as it once had. Damn that girl. She had changed his priorities.

  The bartender at the Longhorn Saloon had read the note that was tossed through his window last night. So the kidnapper was ready to make a deal. Hurd Kruger would pay a nice little reward to get this news. He chased the last two drinkers out of the place, hung a CLOSED sign on the front door, and got out his wagon. It was a long drive to the K Bar ranch, but he could be there a little after midnight. Kruger would certainly pay him well for bringing the note.

  Kruger sat before the fire, drinking straight from the bottle, when he heard the knock at the door. He staggered as he got up, answered it, and glared at the man standing in the darkness. “What the hell do you want? It must be one o’clock in the morning.”

  “I got information, Mr. Kruger.” He handed over the note as he came in and looked around the disheveled house. “Uh, sir, what’s happened to your housekeeper?”

  “None of your damned business,” Kruger snarled as he led the way into the den. He hadn’t shaved or changed clothes in almost a week. He didn’t give a damn anymore about how he looked; he only cared about Sunny. The ranch was in disrepair and most of his cowboys had quit, but he didn’t care about that either. He flopped down in his big leather chair and stared at the crumpled paper. Then he got up and hobbled over to the door and shouted, “Joe, get in here!”

  “Uh, sir,” the barkeep played with the brim of his hat, “I thought you might be grateful for the note.”

  “So?” Hurd wavered a little as he stared at the man. He hadn’t had much to eat these last couple of days, but all he wanted now was another drink. “Get the hell out of my house. You’re probably in on this. Everyone’s after my money.”

  “Why, no, sir, I just thought bringin’ you that note might be worth a little—”

  “Get the hell out of my house!” Hurd shouted.

  The burly barkeeper turned and scurried out the door.

  Hurd slammed it behind him. “Joe! Where the hell are you? Joe!”

  “Yes sir, boss,” Joe had been asleep in a chair in another room. Now he came into the den, his eyes bleary and his mouth yawning.

  “We finally got a note from the kidnapper. He says he’s gonna return Sunny. He wants me and you to come unarmed and meet him alone in the clearing near the three cottonwo
ods.”

  “Boss, ain’t that where we lynched them three cowboys and—”

  “Yes, it is.” Hurd grinned and poured himself another drink. “So our little half-breed has come back for revenge.”

  Joe licked his dry lips. “Can’t blame him after what we did to him. I ain’t never told anyone about flipping him on his belly and—”

  “Shut up.” Hurd waved a hand for silence. “We wouldn’t have done that if we hadn’t been drunk. He deserved the branding, though, because he was a rustler.”

  Joe poured himself a drink. “When, boss?”

  “Today, about sundown. I reckon he’s usin’ my Sunny to lure me up there. I’ll geld him like a steer before I kill him if he’s touched her.”

  “Boss, we ain’t goin’ up there alone, are we?” Joe’s hands trembled.

  “Of course not, you idiot. We’ll take the crew, and we’ll ambush him.”

  “Boss,” he hesitated, not wanting to anger the man, “we only got two men left, and they’re both new.”

  “Two?” Kruger swore long and loud as he poured himself another drink. “Where the hell is everyone?”

  “They all pulled out.”

  “Why?” He glared at Joe.

  He didn’t want to tell him the cowboys all thought Hurd Kruger had gone loco and was letting the ranch go to rack and ruin while he drank and worried over his sweetheart. “They—they just left, that’s all.”

  “I can’t run a ranch without a crew. It’ll be worthless, all the cows scattered, all the fences down before winter.”

  “I know, boss. Now if we can get this thing settled about Miss Sunny, maybe you could go to Cheyenne and hire a new crew—”

  “Later. Right now, I don’t give a damn about any of that, you hear me? I only care about Sunny!” He threw his tumbler at Joe, and it missed him, hit the wall behind him, leaving a dark stain on the wallpaper. “That Injun bastard. We should have finished him off the first time instead of being so merciful.”