Arizona Embrace (50 page)

“I will. And you take care of that cough. Have you seen a doctor?”

“Dozens of them, but they all scratch their heads and mumble behind my back. I think they’re afraid to tell me I’m dying. If they only knew that I don’t care. I don’t care at all.”

Ben looked nervously about him. The quietness of his surroundings didn’t seem to comfort him. He approached each patch of brush or clump of trees as though he expected an ambush. It didn’t take long for his skittishness to communicate itself to Victoria.

“I wish you’d stop jumping about. You’re making my horse nervous.”

“I don’t know why you had to visit that old man today. I’ve had a bad feeling ever since I got up this morning.”

“You just didn’t want to get out of bed.”

“You’re right, I didn’t. Trinity told me to stay in that hotel and keep an eye on you, and I was perfectly happy as long as I did just that. But I wasn’t content with doing what I was told. I had to let you talk me into coming on this jaunt.”

“And it’s been perfectly uneventful.”

“Except that I got a feeling someone’s got dead aim at my back.”

“There’s nobody here, certainly not anybody who wants to bother us.”

Ben sighed resignedly, but he didn’t look convinced. “You’re probably right. You know, before I took up with that man of yours, I was an easygoing kind of man.”

“What do you mean by ‘that man of yours’?” Victoria demanded.

“I hustled a few cows, drank a little whiskey, chased a few women, and listened to a lot of trail talk. Never had a worry in the world and slept like a baby at night.

“Since I took up with him I been saddled with a herd of cows I didn’t want, and I’ve taken to looking over my shoulder so often my neck has a permanent crick in it. I been chased by bad men from New Orleans to California, I’ve slept on the ground so often I’ve forgotten what a bed feels like, and I’m so nervous I can’t eat good. Now I’ve taken to escorting young women on daylight outings to visit old men.”

“From desperados to debutantes. My, you have come down in the world.”

“It ain’t the coming down I mind. Chaperoning is a nice safe job. For the most part it’s quiet and restful. It’s the rest of it. Every one of those men he brought in has a bunch of relations that’s as sore as a nest of rattlers. No telling when they might decide to even things up a bit. Associating with your young man ain’t none too safe. Maybe you ought to reconsider.”

“You think I ought to marry someone else?”

“You might think about it.” Ben grinned ingratiatingly.

“You have any candidate in mind?”

“It’s not for me to say. You’d be doing the marrying.”

“I know, but as a friend, you might give me some advice.”

“Well he ought to be an obliging fella, one who won’t expect you to rustle up the grub or mess up your hairdo chasing about on horseback.”

“You think I would enjoy having a cook and a closed carriage?”

“It’s the only way to live. A pretty little thing like you wouldn’t be wanting to arrive at parties all rumpled and dusty. People would gossip.”

“Maybe I ought to find a husband who would like to live in town, one who wouldn’t mind sleeping late, eating too much rich food, and going to parties all night.”

“Not many men who can keep up that kind of pace.”

“Do you think you could?”

“I might.”

“But that would be stealing your best friend’s girl!”

“When it comes to a gal like you, ain’t no man going to worry his head about a best friend.”

Without warning, Ben leaned over and grabbed Victoria, practically pulling her out of the saddle. Furious that he could be so stupid as to take her nonsense seriously, she hit him as hard as she could. Her blow landed on the side of Ben’s neck and nearly cut off his air.

“There’s somebody on that ridge with a rifle,” Ben gasped.

Immediate corroboration came in the sound of a rifle shot and a bullet splitting the air over Victoria’s head.

“Ride like hell!” he shouted and brought his hand down on Victoria’s mount’s rump.

A second rifle shot reinforced his command.

“Whoever they’re after, they mean to get both of us. Make for that clump of brush.”

“We’ll get killed if we try to ride through there.”

“We’ll get killed if we don’t.”

Victoria closed her eyes and rode straight for the wall of thorns.

Trinity was thoroughly angry.

He had arrived in Bandera feeling rather pleased with himself. He had handed the affidavit to the judge in Austin. Victoria was free. Now all he had to do was ask Victoria to marry him and decide where to live. He had spent the weary miles on the way back to Bandera going over every part of the country he had seen, considering each for suitability for a ranch. There were hundreds of spots exactly like what he was looking for.

But he had also looked at them from the standpoint of a home for Victoria and their children. That changed everything. He didn’t want to end up somewhere in the panhandle of Texas, the wilds of New Mexico, the mountains of Arizona or Colorado, or the plains of Wyoming or Montana. He came to the conclusion that the ideal place was right here at the Demon D, situated between Bandera and San Antonio.

It would be perfect… except for Queenie.

He had tried to put Queenie out of his mind, but once more she was forcing him to do something he didn’t want to do, to make a decision that was not the best for him and his future family. Hell! He’d be damned if he’d let her do that again!

Okay, so I mean to stay at the Demon D. What can I do about Queenie?

He knew Victoria didn’t believe Myra was Queenie. She had never said so, but he knew. He could understand. Myra had changed everything about her, even the smallest details, but Trinity never had any doubt. He’d have known her anywhere, anytime.

He was certain Queenie wouldn’t stop until she poisoned Victoria. And if she ever remembered who he was, she’d try to poison him as well.

It went against the grain to run from Queenie. Even worse, it galled him to be chased away from his home. But he also had to be reasonable. Could he always protect Victoria? How about his children? They would be perfect targets for Myra’s revenge. Would he always be around to protect them? Was his pride worth a lifelong vigil?

Queenie would never give up.

Trinity hadn’t reached any conclusions when he arrived at the hotel, only to be informed Victoria had gone to visit Judge Blazer and wasn’t expected back until late afternoon. It would take the clerk about ten years to use all the new words he learned that afternoon.

“Her uncle is due in this afternoon,” Red said. He had come to the hotel looking for Victoria. He waved a telegram David Woolridge had given him. “He still thinks she’s dead.”

“You stay here and wait for him,” Trinity said. “You can explain what happened. I’ll go bring her back.”

Trinity cursed himself for choosing to ride Diablo. He had been riding the stallion a little each day since he returned from Uvalde. He never wore spurs or carried a riding crop. But even though he was very careful never to use his heels, guiding Diablo entirely with the bit and his knees, the horse still fought him.

“If I had the time, I’d take you back,” Trinity told Diablo as the stallion circled and bucked and generally took twice as long to cover a hundred yards as he should. “But Victoria said you were as fast as the wind, and I need your speed today.”

Diablo apparently wasn’t in the mood to give it. He whirled and covered twenty-five yards in the wrong direction before Trinity got him turned around again.

“Damn you. I’ve never known such a contrary beast in my life.”

Fifteen minutes later, Trinity was still trying to convince Diablo to cooperate when he noticed a rider coming from the direction of Bandera at a gallop. When he recognized Kirby Blazer, he pulled up.

“He’s going to kill Victoria,” Kirby shouted as he shot by without stopping.

Digging his heels sharply into Diablo’s side at the same time he brought his open palm down on the stallion’s rump, Trinity set him in pursuit of Kirby. Diablo responded with a glorious burst of speed.

He ran Kirby down with the ease of a gazelle chasing a donkey.

“Who’s going to kill Victoria?” Trinity shouted, the wind valiantly trying to tear his words from his lips.

“German Lyman.”

“Who the hell is German Lyman?”

“He took care of Mother when my father deserted her and left her pregnant. He’s been with her ever since.”

Diablo tried to savage Kirby’s thoroughbred gelding. The gelding was so frightened of the huge stallion he went into a full-out gallop. Diablo kept up effortlessly.

“How do you know this man is going to try to kill Victoria?”

“I saw one of the hands in town. He said German left the ranch this morning several hours before mother went visiting. German would
never
let mother go anywhere without him, not unless he had something more important to do.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’ve got to make her stop him. I’m sure he killed Jeb. I won’t let him kill Victoria, too. It would kill the Judge.”

The whole story seemed utterly fantastic to Trinity. He wouldn’t have given it a moment’s credence if he hadn’t known Queenie. Where she was involved, anything was possible.

“What’s he going to do?” Trinity asked as he continued to foil Diablo’s efforts to attack Kirby’s gelding.

“I don’t know”

Trinity realized it was useless to question the boy. He was nearly hysterical with fear and worry. He was tempted to use Diablo’s greater speed to hurry ahead, but he stayed alongside because he knew Kirby would be better able to guess where an ambush might take place.

Trinity had never felt so helpless… or so murderously angry. If Queenie hurt Victoria further, he would kill her. If anything happened to Victoria, it wouldn’t matter what they did to him. Not as long as he killed Queenie first.

Diablo pricked his ears. Trinity couldn’t hear what had attracted the stallion’s attention, but he felt his muscles gather, his pace quicken. They left Kirby behind in a half-dozen strides. Going on instinct, Trinity let Diablo have his head. The great black stallion wasn’t fighting him any longer. He had lost interest in Kirby’s gelding. Something ahead riveted his interest.

Then Trinity heard it. Faintly at first. But as they rounded the edge of a small rise, it suddenly grew much louder. The sound of gunfire! Diablo screamed with fury and galloped even faster. Trinity had no way of knowing why Diablo hated the sound of gunfire, but this afternoon he was glad. It just might save Victoria’s life.

He saw a lone rider first, a rider chasing something in the brush and firing almost as rapidly as he could cock his rifle. Whoever he was chasing had to be in the brush. He hoped it wasn’t Victoria. She wouldn’t come out alive.

He saw her when she and Ben made a dash from one clump of brush to another. Even at a distance he could tell her clothes were being torn to ribbons. With a howl of rage, he drove Diablo after the rifleman.

Diablo needed no encouragement. The distance between them closed with dramatic swiftness. Trinity drew his gun but didn’t fire. He wanted to be closer. He didn’t want to kill mis man. He wanted to know who sent him after Victoria and why.

The rifleman was so intent upon following Victoria, Diablo was almost upon him before he realized he was being pursued. With a look of fury he whirled about in the saddle, his rifle raised.

Trinity fired, and the man’s body jerked, but he didn’t drop his rifle. As Diablo drew closer, he raised it again. Trinity shot into him a second time, and still the man retained his hold on the saddle and his rifle.

Diablo reached the flanks of the straining mount. With bared teeth, he bit viciously into the tired horse. The animal screamed in pain and whirled around to defend himself. The sudden motion caused the rifleman to lose his hold and tumble to the ground…. Right under Diablo’s pounding hooves.

Trinity wrenched the stallion to one side but not before he felt the sickening impact of driving hooves on soft flesh. He leapt from the saddle and ran to the body lying motionless on the dry prairie.