Ride The Wild Wind (Time Travel Historical Romance)

by Ivey , Kimberly

  He grinned, then reached into the duster’s inside pocket and produced two long pieces of leather cord, along with a bandanna. Elena’s heart slammed in her chest.

  “Franklin, no.”

  He nodded. “Now, now, Elena. Don’t git all worked up.”

  Her knees buckled at the realization of what he was going to do. “You do not need to tie me. I will do anything you want.”

  “You damned sure will. You do realize you left me with a hell of a debt in El Paso, a runnin’ out on the business like you did before I could get back.”

  “I am sorry, Franklin.” Her lower lip quivered as tears coursed down her cheeks.

  “I lost everything ‘cause of you. I reckon it’s gonna take me a while to git my money’s worth for that, too. Besides,” he added with a feral grin, “I figure once I commence with some of your most unfavorite things, you might turn wiggly on me.”

  Elena watched as he shed his shirt, her heart pounding in her chest so hard she could barely think straight. Dios! He was going to punish her severely—perhaps beat her while she lay helplessly bound and gagged. She could not bear this man’s sadism! “I promise I will comply. I will do anything you wish. Anything! Just do not…h-hurt me.”

  His eyes were cold. “Get undressed.”

  Her stomach roiled about like a pan of mop water as she lifted her trembling fingers to the buttons on the bodice of her peignoir. True, she abandoned the brothel in El Paso after Franklin headed off to the silver mines in Nevada. And she had run up huge debts which she could never repay. While she could not bear this man’s sadism, she must to spare Antonio’s life.

  Antonio—the cheating bastard! He didn’t deserve her sacrifice. He did not deserve her. Still, she loved him, despite any involvement with the red-haired girl. While she could not bear to see him gunned down, or worse, hanged on the gallows, the image of her own grotesque, heat-swollen and fly swarmed body dangling from a noose repulsed her. What would people think if they saw her in such a state? What if they took photographs of her for the newspapers?

  “Oh, come on Elena,” Frank came closer as she hesitated. “It’ll be like old times in El Paso. You remember, don’t ya?”

  She did remember—all too well. He was kind in the beginning, treating her like a lover, but once he schooled her well in the sensual arts and grew tired of her, he whored her out, beating her if she refused to service his friends. Her only salvation came when he left to seek fortune in the silver mines of Nevada. She was free to do as she wished. Thankfully, Antonio found her before Franklin’s return and took her to his family’s ranch in California.

  Tears blinding her, Elena let the peignoir slip to the floor. Franklin moved in closer, his icy hands seizing her by the shoulders as he perused her naked flesh.

  “Just as I remember, Elena…so purty…” His hands skimmed down her arms and brought her wrists together. “So soft.”

  She whimpered as he bound them tight with one of the leather cords. “Franklin, is this truly necessary?”

  He cinched the knot painfully tight, the leather cutting into her skin, then turned her around and gave her a hefty shove in the direction of the bed.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Pedro greeted Halle in the alley behind Elena’s and took their horses to the stables. It was a good thing they’d found clothes in an abandoned mission along the way. They’d encountered soldiers on the highway who believed Halle, in her new garb, was a nun and the children, Mexican orphans bound for new homes in Albuquerque.

  She ushered Tani , the boys, and Max into the house through the secret back passage way. While Rosa warmed a bowl of soup for the children in the kitchen and found Max a bone,, Halle slipped into her old room upstairs undetected. As she’d hoped, the bills were still sewn in the slit she’d made in the drapery’s lining months before. She counted fast. Five hundred dollars.

  Once the children had eaten, she’d enlist Molly’s aid in finding safer lodging for the night. Perhaps that abandoned cabin on the outskirts of town was still habitable. At least it was a start.

  After changing into a dark traveling suit, she packed a small bag of clothes and toiletries and crept down the hallway. Sneaking past Elena’s closed door she tiptoed toward Molly’s room, praying Molly wasn’t with a customer. She thought she’d slipped by undetected until Elena’s door flew open. Her heart slammed in her chest.

  “The sly little kitten has returned,” the madam said, coming out into the hallway.

  Elena stormed up to Halle, grasped her by the arm and dragged her into the room. She slammed the door behind them. “So you’ve finally come crawling back. Let me guess. Antonio is bored having you in his bed?”

  Halle gulped down a hard knot of fear in her throat. So Elena suspected she and Antonio had become lovers. Good. At least all pretenses were off.

  “Why do you not have a smile on your face, Halle? After all, you were successful in snatching the canary, were you not?”

  The madam turned and crossed over to her dressing table and took a seat. Halle noted the disarray of the woman’s hair, the unusual abrasions on her wrists. Even her fingernails were broken down to the quick. Damn, but Elena looked and acted as if she’d been slammed by a train.

  “At first I thought soldiers had taken you that day.” Elena turned slowly on the stool to face Halle. “Then I remembered the look in Antonio’s eyes when he saw you in my boudoir that afternoon. The way he touched you…the disgust in his eyes when he thought I had soiled his precious virgin. He took you with him.”

  Halle gnawed nervously at her lip. This wasn’t the reunion she hoped for. Elena’s dark eyes narrowed on her.

  “You caught his eye like a piece of expensive candy in the jar and he had to taste you.”

  Realizing the dangerous direction Elena’s inquiry was taking, Halle changed the subject. “I brought a few people with me.”

  “I know. I saw you in the back alley. This is not a hotel!” Elena’s hands curled into fists as she shrieked. “You take those...those Indians and go elsewhere!”

  “They’re children, Elena. They have no where else to go.”

  Elena tossed her head back. “They are savages. I’ll not have them smelling up my house.”

  If Elena had been standing a few feet closer, Halle would have flattened her for that remark. She sought to control her own temper, not allowing this selfish woman get the best of her. “For your information, those ‘savages’ as you call them are Antonio’s family. I brought them here because I knew they would be safe—much safer than in the Navajo encampments. Besides…” She played her trump card. “Antonio owns this house, doesn’t he?”

  The madam winced. Aha! Halle had struck a raw nerve!

  Elena’s eyes flashed. “He left you, did he not?”

  “Newsflash, Elena. I left him.”

  Elena quirked a brow as if she were stunned she’d addressed her by her first name. “He is a most difficult man you have no doubt discovered.”

  Halle nodded in agreement.

  Elena’s demeanor changed. “But then you are no match for a man like Antonio, or his sexual appetites.”

  The madam’s words were meant as a slur, yet they didn’t hurt. Halle knew all too well about Antonio’s appetites and that he’d taken many lovers in his past. But Elena was wrong about one thing. Despite her inexperience when she first came to his bed, Halle’d learned how to please him immensely the few times they’d been together. “I never intended to take him away from you.”

  “Take him from me?” Elena gave her an incredulous glare. “You could never! No woman has ever taken Antonio from me…not permanently.” The madam rose and took a menacing step toward her. “No, you little fool. You were but a passing fancy for a man with an appetite for a pretty young girl. No matter if he claimed you as his own, took your virginity and told you his sweet lies to get you beneath him, his interest in you was temporary. He will soon return to my bed. He always does.” Elena folded her arms across her bosom. “Let us not play
games. Why have you really returned? What is it you want of me now, to take you in and allow you to raise Antonio’s child under my roof?”

  Halle’s heart skidded to a stop. Was she talking about Lukachukai, or did she suspect her pregnancy? It had only been a few weeks since her last cycle and. Other than a bit of morning nausea and mild breast tenderness, it was too soon to tell. Perhaps Elena was bluffing.

  Elena smiled like a crocodile. “So that is the reason. You are knocked up!” She snatched an unlit lamp from her credenza and smashed it against the wall. Halle covered her head with her hands as glass shards rained down upon the room. She then watched in horror as the woman stormed across the room and clawed the red velveteen draperies down, shrieking and cursing in Spanish. Elena wheeled around, her murderous gaze fixing on Halle. “I should kill you—you and the little bastard that grows in your belly!”

  Halle swallowed the hard knot of fear in her throat. She knew Elena’s temper and had no doubt the woman could carve her up into cold cuts if she desired. She had to think of a distraction quick. “I brought your son, Diego.”

  A look of horror spread across Elena’s face. “Why have you done such a thing?”

  “He wasn’t safe.”

  “No! I cannot have him here. You must take him away.”

  “He needs family right now, his mother specifically.”

  “I am not his mother!” she screeched. “He died to me long before he was born. I did not want him. I could not.” Elena slid into a chair. “Dios! Take him away. I do not wish to ever see him.”

  “Antonio told me about the rape, Elena, how you were abducted and sold to a brothel.”

  Elena laughed maniacally. “You’re as stupid as he is. There was no abduction. I fled that godforsaken valley with the first man who came along with money—Franklin Cole. He and I were lovers. We formed a business partnership in El Paso fifteen years ago, one that procured young women. I ran a successful brothel for many years. Diego is his child.”

  Bile rose up in Halle’s throat and she fought to swallow it down. Frank Cole had been Elena’s lover, not her abductor? They were in contact now? Oh, God. Antonio had tried to warn her and she hadn’t believed him. That could only mean...

  Elena reached across into her dressing table drawer and retrieved a pearl-handled derringer. Halle backed up against the wall when Elena pointed the tiny pistol at her.

  “Elena don’t do this.”

  “You betrayed me. You both did.” She waved the gun erratically, tears glistening in her dark eyes. “You knew Antonio intimately before he brought you to me, did you not?”

  Halle shook her head no. Elena lunged from the chair and rushed toward Halle, slapping her so hard the room went black for a split second.

  “You were lovers!” Elena raged. “How dare you lie to me! Were you laughing at me the entire time? Did you laugh at Elena the fool?”

  Her cheek burning from the blow, Halle dared a peripheral look at Elena. “We didn’t sleep together. I swear it. I’d been injured and he took care of me. That’s as far it went.”

  Elena moved in close, so close that Halle felt her breath fanning her cheek. “But you shared a special moment. I know you did. I saw the way he looked at you.”

  Halle swallowed hard as she recalled her first kiss with Antonio. “It wasn’t what you’re thinking, Elena. He saved my life. I was grateful, but nothing happened beyond a kiss.”

  Elena jammed the barrel of the pistol at Halle throat and in that moment, the world around them ceased to exist. Her pulse thumped in her ears.

  Elena prodded her. “You wanted him for yourself.”

  Tears blurred Halle’s vision. “N-no. I was in pain. What I felt for him was gratitude.”

  Still pressing the gun to the hollow of throat, Elena reached up and caressed her cheek. “From the first moment I saw you, I wanted you for my own. Did you not know that I dreamt of loving you, of keeping you as my companion?”

  Halle suspected that Elena desired her, although the madam had never behaved inappropriately. “I liked you, too, Elena, but not in that way.”

  Elena laughed softly and kissed Halle’s temple, her fingertip trailing down her cheek. “I would have changed your mind, querida. After I had dressed you in Paris’ finest fashions and adorned you with expensive jewels, you would have loved me, too.” Elena’s hand drifted down to cover a breast and Halle stiffened. “I do not want to give you up even now, despite knowing how you have betrayed me by seducing Antonio, but what is done is done. We would have been very good together. I would have taught you so many things. I would have loved you well.”

  Halle turned to look Elena in the eye, their faces so close their breath mingled, their noses almost touching. “How can you say you cared for me, when you dressed me in the initiation gown? You were going to sell me to your customers, then hand me over to Frank Cole.”

  Elena slowly withdrew the pistol and took a step back. “I would have never sold you. I only wanted to hurt Antonio, for him to see you in the special dress and believe you had become a whore, that you were no better than I. Then he wouldn’t have wanted you either.”

  “Antonio never thought of you as a whore.”

  Elena scoffed at that remark. “I was ruined when he found me in El Paso. Franklin had abandoned me. I was pregnant with Diego. Antonio took me back to his Spanish family’s ranch in California. My mama would not look at me, would not speak to me. Once the child was born, Antonio placed him with the Navajo. But the bastard still would not marry me. True, he bought me this beautiful house, but he married a Navajo woman instead!”

  Even through her fear, Halle sympathized with Elena’s deep hurt. It was obvious that Elena loved Antonio, even if in a warped way. “He truly cared about you, Elena. Why else would he have kept coming back to you all these years?”

  Elena hesitated, tears welling up in her dark eyes. “Because he pities me.” Her voice was a broken whisper. “He pities me like my own family did.”

  “No, you’re wrong. He did love you, and maybe in some way, he still does.”

  The door crashed open, banging the wall with such force the paintings and candle sconces on the walls rattled. Elena wheeled back, away from Halle.

  Antonio.

  His eyes darted to Halle, then to Elena.

  “Give me the gun.” He slowly extended a hand.

  Elena squared off to face him. Lifting her chin a notch, she raised the derringer and pointed it at him. “Try and take it you bastard!” With her free hand, she reached into her skirt pocket and produced another pistol, taking close aim it at Halle. She cocked the hammer of the small gun. “I will kill you both. First, Halle so you can watch your lover die and then you, so that I may claim the reward on your head.”

  Halle’s stomach knotted. If Elena had wanted her dead, she’d already be that way. No, it was the feral look in Elena’s eyes as she stared coldly at Antonio, her finger poised on the trigger. It was the look of a woman scorned, a jilted lover who intended to kill. Antonio was the one in danger!

  The room took on a slowed, almost ethereal mood as the two said nothing, staring one another down. Halle heard her own pulse thumping in her ears. The room grew stifling, the tension in the air thick with electricity. Antonio shook his head, but as if in slowed motion. His words were drawn out and punctuated. “You could never kill me.”

  Elena nodded. “But I can. Easily.”

  Antonio stretched his arms out in a pose of surrender. What the hell?

  “Shoot me,” he challenged.

  Halle ceased to breathe. Was he insane, inviting his ex-lover to kill him? She had to intervene and fast. If she lunged for the gun aimed at Antonio and missed, Elena would shoot one or both of them with the other. But if she was successful in wrestling at least one away from her, perhaps Antonio could overpower her.

  Elena’s teeth clenched. Her hands trembled, then a moment later she lowered both pistols, her shoulders slumping in defeat. The color drained from Antonio’s face. He cast a re
lieved glance her way. Sweat glossed his forehead and beaded across his upper lip. He swallowed hard as he moved in to take the weapons away from Elena without incident. Elena turned away and sobbed uncontrollably into her hands.

  Antonio caught Halle’s gaze. His eyes were wild, his face drawn with worry. He looked as if he hadn’t slept in days.

  “Are you all right?” he asked barely above a whisper.

  She nodded, feeling the tension drain from her body. Her legs felt as if they were made of jelly. She wanted to fall into his protective arms, to tell him how sorry she was about their argument—about running away with the children—but Elena had turned back to look at them. “Take your little puta and leave. I never wish to see either of you again. If I do, I will kill you both.”

  Halle jerked, startled to see a man standing in the doorway, hand on hip. No, his hand on the butt of a gun. She opened her mouth to speak, to warn Antonio but he’d already seen him. Antonio turned as a single shot rang out.

  Elena screamed. “No, Franklin! This is not what we agreed! Do not kill him!”

  Antonio doubled over slightly, clutching his shoulder. Bright blood seeped through his fingers. Antonio shoved Halle to the floor and she watched as he lifted his gun and pointed it at the man. Elena was swift. Reaching beneath her gown, she produced a stiletto and hurled the open blade, striking the mysterious man in the upper arm. Although semi-disabled, he snapped off a shot, striking Elena in the center of her chest. She staggered backward two steps, her eyes wide with horror as a crimson stain blossomed on the front of her peignoir. Clutching at her bosom, mouth open, she sank to her knees.

  The man then turned the gun toward Antonio. “Dead or alive the reward poster says.” He clicked the hammer and fired.

  Antonio ducked and raised his pistol. Firing twice, he sent the man sprawling backward on the floor. The acrid smell of gun powder and white smoke filled the room. Halle could barely hear above the loud ringing in her ears. Elena now lay face down on the floor in a growing pool of blood. The dark haired assailant was across the room, slumped against a blood splattered wall.