As he prepared to appropriately punish the man, he was still plagued by a nagging apprehension was heightened by the fact he had still received no word from Arizona as to whether the spy Jeb Winters had been executed. Suddenly, he could hear shots ringing out in the distance. They got closer and in a brief time, he recognized the sound of combat around his villa. He dropped the knife into his pocket and tossed the apple on the desk. Standing, he went to the window and gazed out into the courtyard.
His chief lieutenant, Ricardo Valdez, was shouting orders to men on the walls, firing back at whoever was outside his compound. He could not understand who it would be, he thought absently. As the fight heated up he saw one man, then another drop off the wall shot and probably dead. No rival gang would be so bold as to try this with him. Could it be his exiled brother making a play for taking over the criminal empire Esteban had denied him? No, Esteban shook his head. Alejandro didn't have it in him to make such an attempt. He wasn't as soft as Marisol, but he didn't have the fortitude to dare take on a man such as himself.
That left one conclusion. It must be the law. He had confidence in his people as their weapons' fire sparkled like fireflies in the night as they continued to mount their defense. Esteban opened the window to better hear the fight. It sounded like a war zone out there and he was both excited and disgusted that his beautiful home was being subjected to such things.
“Get ’em, amigos, right there, that’s it!” Ricardo shouted, gesturing to the men on the right side of the wall. He watched as several of them popped their heads up with rifles and began firing down at unseen forces on the other side of the wall. They cheered as they ducked back down. Esteban smiled. Most of his men were good men. Not counting the one behind him on the sheet.
Another volley of shots rang out and several of the men cheered, but they didn’t duck back down, and he watched as one cried out and fell. Then another of his men literally lost his head. Under the full moon and the torchlight, he could see the mess of blood and bone even from his window as a bullet ripped it apart.
Esteban found himself in a moment of confusion. It was a strange thing that had never happened. He had always been so focused and sure of himself. Now it looked like his empire was teetering, but he didn’t know why. Then a bitter thought had occurred to him. Marisol! That soft-hearted bitch had failed to deliver the message in time, and the spy had exposed the entire operation. He could only imagine what may be taking place back in the Arizona Territory.
As the fighting continued he was startled at the sound of a booming noise. A second later he heard Ricardo shouting something and turned his eyes to the left side of the wall. His ears filled with a screaming, whistling in the air, sounding distant but getting louder. Then a cannonball hit the wall exploding his right-hand man with it. That decided him. Finish with his disgraced subordinate and leave. He could put things back together later. That would, of course, come after he caught up with his sister and slit her throat for the havoc her failure had wreaked on his operation.
He turned back around to find the man he had planned on killing, no longer on the sheet but standing there with a bleak expression. The henchman, calculating his chance if he didn't act fast, grabbed the gun from the desk and got Esteban in a headlock!
Outside in the corridor leading to his office, both Rafaella and Manuela were fleeing the siege. Safety meant getting to Esteban and they both knew it.
Behind them, they could hear men shouting for them to stop. Rafaella froze but Manuela ducked into the alcove holding the "Cortez" musket. With bitterness, she looked over at her daughter and suddenly snatched the gun from the wall.
“Rafaella!”
Her daughter spun around to see the gun flying through the air. Instinctively she reached out and caught it and turned just as a squad of federales burst into the corridor.
“Madre Mia! She is armed! Shoot her!” came the call.
From her place in the alcove, she watched as Rafaella was instantly cut down by a scythe of gunfire amid her shrieks. Manuela popped out from the alcove with her hands in the air.
A final mistake in a lifetime of them that stretched all the way back to that night a drunken coupling with a man whose name she did not know left her with a daughter she never wanted.
One of the soldiers, a young greenhorn, instinctively opened fire and her body pitched forward coming to rest on the still form that in life had been that unwanted daughter … and rival.
Inside the office, the man desperately forced Esteban around the desk to the center of the room just as a furious pounding came from the door.
“Surrender, San Cristobel. You are through!” A voice shouted from outside the door.
“I have San Cristobel! Assure my safety and I will turn him over to you!” The man holding Esteban called out.
“Moments ago, you were begging for your pathetic life. Now you think you can use me to save it? I am sorry to disappoint you, my friend,” Esteban said.
Before the rustler could pull the trigger, Esteban’s knife came out of his pocket and he slashed up behind him, cutting the man’s throat. Blood gushed out as the body dropped; Esteban quickly snatched the gun from the dying man. He stood, facing the door and his inevitable fate. This was it, he thought. He always knew it would someday come down to a moment like this. With a grim smile, he raised the weapon as soon as the federales burst through the door, aiming fast and dispatching three of them with a trio of clean shots.
He shouted as he kept pulling the trigger, his office reeking with the strength of his voice … but he began to get hit, too. One bullet after another and he twitched and danced in place like a marionette before the barrage stopped.
His bullet riddled-body stood still for a moment, the lawmen watching silently. His legs collapsed eventually as he fell, appropriately, on the sheet, dead.
CHAPTER 17
* * *
Cassandra, Lijuan, and Catalina had returned home from Mexico the next morning. They stood in the living room with their bags at their feet looking at all the damage in amazement. Finding the gate to the ranch destroyed had just been the beginning. Coming up the semicircular driveway they had watched Thorny and some other cowhands cutting down and removing the charred remains of one of the cedar trees. Now they were seeing shattered glass littering the floors while bullet holes peppered the beautiful grey walls of their beloved home. Cassandra glanced at Lijuan and Catalina noticing the same shock she felt in their eyes.
They had become sweaty and worn out due to their travel, but her sister, Lijuan was still dashing with her flowing black hair, framing her narrow face and an hour-glass figure worthy of taking down a ranch for. Catalina, her youngest sister, despite her slightly rough wavy black hair and sweaty oblong face, hadn’t lost her captivating look either. Her full lips twitched unconsciously as she glanced around the house, confounded too.
Cassandra spent the next few seconds before their father came down the stairs to welcome them, catching a glance of herself in the full-length mirror that hung on the wall, which was now a myriad of cracks that resembled spider webs. Her dress had stains of dust from the dust that kicked up on the carriage ride, and it clung to her hourglass figure they all shared. Her blonde hair, though having a few stray locks, was neatly combed.
“Ah, my girls are home safe and sound! Always a welcome sight. I’ll hear about your trip when I return later, I promise. Is my coach outside?” their father asked in a hurry.
“Yes, Father. But no sign of a driver,” Lijuan told him, still sharing a confounded look with her sisters.
“Honor will be driving me. She should be right behind me. I will see you later and hear all about Mexico and tell you what went down here, but right now, I have an important promise to keep!” he told them and went out the front door.
As he had predicted, Honor Elizabeth came sweeping down the stairs, hurrying after him. Her three sisters stepped in front of her in a line, blocking the way before she could reach the door. It would not have worked with thei
r father, but they could get info out of their sister.
“Whoa, Nelly! You’re not going anywhere until you explain this!” Cassandra said, her green eyes conveying her firmness.
Honor, knowing her sisters for the stubborn women that they were, smiled and put her hands on Cassandra’s shoulders.
“Mexican criminals, working with-” she explained. She sidestepped to Lijuan and placed her hands on her shoulders next.
“-bad guys from the Syndicate ranch,” she went on, and then moved to Catalina.
“Who attacked Cedar Ledge hoping to kill an incredibly handsome undercover U.S. Marshal, who, I happily will be laying with before this day is through. That I assure you!” she finished with a proud grin as a flourish.
Catalina’s face lit up at the last bit of news, none of her sisters ever disappointing her.
“It is all in my journal, girls; on my desk, read away!” Honor invited them and ran out the door.
“Honor Elizabeth Wilde …!” Lijuan gritted her teeth after her sister who paid no mind to them anymore.
“I know, I love her, too,” Cassandra said, grinning. Both turned to Catalina, but she was already racing up the stairs.
“I call double dibs on readin’ that there journal!” she called to them, laughing.
Cassandra put her arm around Lijuan’s shoulder and she started walking her towards the kitchen door. “Well, we won’t be seeing her for a while. Let’s get some brooms,” she encouraged her sister.
“Must we?” Lijuan said with a roll of her almond eyes as Cassandra laughed some more.
***
“Lies! I admit to none of it.” Marisol said with chin held high.
She had been called to an interrogation at the courthouse in Tucson and despite her insistence that she knew almost nothing about her brother's operation, no one believed her.
She glanced thoughtfully at the old walls of the courthouse, wondering how she had ever gotten so neck deep in her brother's affairs, there probably wasn't going to be a way out for her. She had feared him. It had been the reason for the current downfall that she faced if she wouldn't be jailed, or worse, hung like an animal for it. Distracting herself with the old walls wasn't doing the trick. She could do nothing but think about the trouble she was in once she was judged to be thrown into the gallows, or worse, once her brother found her.
Rodgers who was leading the interrogation leaned close. “No need to confess anyway, ma’am. It’s all proved by these papers,” The marshal said and then jumped to his feet as a new individual walked into the interrogation room. It was Judge Wilde and for that brief second of distraction, Marisol didn’t know if she should be glad that the judge was attending her interrogation or not.
“Judge Wilde, I want to thank you again for all the help your family provided in ending this smuggling ring and for keeping our agent safe,” the marshal told the judge as he was offered a seat beside him, but Whip declined.“I am not here for thanks, Marshal Rodgers. I’m here to aid Miss San Cristobel,” Whip said, the marshal frowning at his words.
“Judge, with all due respect, this woman is a criminal!” He declared, annoyed.
“There were some extenuating circumstances, namely coercion under threat of death by her brother,” the judge pointed out.
“Who isn’t going to be a problem anymore. I got word he died in a firefight with the federales when they went to apprehend him,” the marshal gritted his teeth.
“Thank you, Father in heaven. Thank you,” Marisol whispered with a faint smile.
“Besides his surviving lieutenants and his henchmen, the federales are going to be looking for someone to prosecute, namely Miss San Cristobel here,” The marshal finished.
“I can’t go back there. Please, Mr. Wilde,” Marisol said in fright. She couldn’t. She wouldn’t!
The judge, in response to her plea, gripped his belt tightly and turned to the marshal.
“I am sure you are aware that my brother-in-law is Nathaniel Duvalier. The territorial governor?” He asked the marshal.
“Yes, I am quite aware of that,” Rodgers said warily. He could feel something was up and with the growing tension in his eyes, he already knew he wouldn’t like it.
“What you might not be aware of is that he applauds the work you marshals did in the name of justice, as do I. He does, however, admit to some displeasure that as governor, he was not informed of the operations you were running,” Whip said crossing his arms.
“Secrecy is the key to success in these operations,” he replied.
“Indeed, it is. But, Marshall Rodgers, the governor is not someone you want to make an enemy of, and neither am I. So, I am notifying you that I am officially acting as attorney for Marisol San Cristobel. You and I are going to come to an understanding,” Whip concluded with a daring smile.
Marisol smiled with gratitude at his help and reached for his hand. He took it and softly squeezed it, silently promising her that everything would all be well.
He didn’t have to do that twice. Marisol knew she was leaving the courthouse as a free woman.
***
Honor Elizabeth and the man she still thought of as Jeb lingered outside the courthouse, temporarily gazing at a few birds scrambling happily above them before staring at each other with a caring smile. The street in front of them was a busy one, having children throttling about and screaming at the top of their voices as they played with wooden toys.
There was a floral shop directly in front of the courthouse that had caught Jeb’s fancy earlier, his eyes moving on to the colorful flower in a small vase in front of the shop and back to the choker around her neck. She knew his thought. The flower had the exact same shape as the one on her choker and she blushed, noticing for the first time how she loved a man who paid attention to the tiniest detail about her.
While Jeb had been inside the floral shop, Honor had re-read the telegram that they had stopped off and picked up in Alamieda before heading to Tucson. It pleased her to see that her uncle’s friends in the Grant administration had started doing some serious vetting of Meriwether Dumont. She took heart knowing that his ambassadorship would surely be thwarted.
Better yet her father had said once you start pulling at one thread you can unravel an entire tapestry. Given every reprehensible thing she had heard Josiah say about him, she had little doubt that whatever other nefarious things the man had involved himself in, they would come to light. With a healthy dose of pride, she dusted her palms together. Helping bring down three vile, evil, and powerful men, two of which she had never laid eyes on wasn’t a bad week’s work all in all.
Now while they waited for her father to be through with aiding Marisol, she clung close to Jeb, loving the warmth that descended on her skin as soon as he was close enough to sniff his shaving powder. The flower he had given her she had placed in her hair.
“An international cattle smuggling ring. So that is the answer to that riddle of the forbidden ranch,” she finally whispered, looking up at him and loving the admiration she could see in his eyes.
“Yep, and between us, we just about wound it all up except for one thing, Honor Elizabeth,” he told her.
“What, pray tell, would that be?” she returned nervously.
"Well, there is the riddle of you and me … where do we go from here?
She smiled, relaxing in his arms knowing this was one riddle she could handle quite easily.
She moved closer again so that their chests touched. What she felt afterward had become a feeling she loved and wanted more of.
“Daddy is going to be in there for a while. I know you should be moving on to your next assignment. It was in Nevada, you said, but we have some time before the stage comes, what do you say we spend the little time you have left, over at the Tucson Arms Hotel, working on that last riddle?” she offered, taking his hands.
“I’d say I can’t think of a better way to spend my last hours in Arizona than having Honor Elizabeth Wilde wrapped in my arms. Especially touching your
lips with mine,” he said romantically.
“Like this?” she asked, reaching up on her toes to kiss him. “I do believe we have some unfinished business,” She whispered to him as she dropped back to her feet.
A moment after, they walked down the street, arm in arm to the hotel and having zero worries about anything in the world but their own pleasure.
They stepped into the newly rented room with his arm still interlocked with hers. Throughout the walk from the courthouse, Honor Elizabeth had spoken a lot but he hadn’t listened to every word. His head had been filled with images of the possible rippling pleasures he could have with her before he left for Nevada. Now that he was alone in the dimly-lit room with her, those images almost drove him into a form of madness. He couldn’t stop staring at her figure-eight shape while the sleek movement of her thighs as she moved gave him a swell between his legs.
“Come here, Mr. Pat Nevers.” She batted her eyelashes at him as they moved to the bed. She sat on the bed in front of him and seductively traced her fingers along the edges of her thighs reaching up to cup her own breasts and smiling gaily at him.
When he finally began to walk towards her, he fondled with the buttons of his shirt, getting his top out of the way first. His pants and underwear slid off too, finally freeing his hardening cock. As soon as he slid onto the bed with her, Honor Elizabeth reached for it instantly, allowing her fingers to stroke along its thick edges.
“This…” She said. “This is the answer to that last riddle…you wanted to know where we go from here…this is it. You and I are going to the heights of pleasure and we are going to get there with this,”
The Forbidden Ranch: Honor Elizabeth Wilde Tale 0f Suspense (Half Breed Haven Book 5) Page 12