Bed of Roses (37 page)

Tia dabbed at her eyes as well. The money her dear Francisco has somehow acquired meant that her kitchen would soon be filled with every supply she could ever wish to have.

Azucar’s gaze bounced from Sawyer to the gold and back up to Sawyer. Now the handsome devil had money to pay for her services. Finally, at long last, she would lie beneath his muscled body and give him the ecstasy she’d yearned to give him since the first day she’d seen him.

Sawyer saw plainly everyone’s emotions and thoughts. Everyone’s save Zafiro’s.

No expression whatsoever touched her features or glimmered in her eyes. She simply stood by the table staring at the money, her only movement the gentle rise and fall of her breasts as she breathed.

Was she angry that he’d returned to pillaging? he wondered. But why would that anger her? She’d spent most of her life with thieves, and she adored them, defended them, understood why they did what they did.

“Zafiro?” he said.

Finally, she looked up from the money.

And finally, he realized what she was feeling, thinking. Sadness burned in her eyes, a deep sorrow that could only have come from her heart.

She knew. Knew that the money was the last thing he would ever do for her. The last duty he would perform as her knight in shining armor.

Delaying his departure would only prolong her grief, he decided. Although he’d slept only a few hours after his return to La Escondida, he would gather his belongings and leave. With any luck he would reach Synner, Texas, in two weeks’ time.

“You are leaving now,” Zafiro said.

Her voice shook; he knew she was holding back tears. “You know why I have to go.”

“Yes.” Sorrow squeezed around her very soul. “Yes, you must go.”

“Why must he go?” Pedro asked, his question echoed by everyone except Lorenzo, who had sat down in a chair and fallen asleep with a gold coin in his hand.

“Zafiro will explain,” Sawyer answered. “Now I’ve got to get my things together.”

When he disappeared upstairs Zafiro told her people everything Sawyer had remembered and everything he now had to do. Only Tia saw no sense in the story. Lost in her fantasy world, she vowed to spank Sawyer if he so much as set foot out of the cabin much less out of La Escondida.

But when he came back downstairs Sawyer quickly ended her protests. “Mama, I’m not a little boy anymore,” he said gently, rubbing his finger over her fat cheek. “You can see for yourself that I’ve grown into a man now. I can’t stay with my mother forever. You know that. I have to go out and make my own way in the world. It’s what sons are supposed to do, you know.”

Slowly, reluctantly, Tia understood his reasoning. She stepped away from him, looked at him up and down, and her eyes widened. “A man,” she whispered. “You have become a man now, Francisco. Oh, my son.” Her hug of farewell lasted so long that Sawyer was forced to pry her arms from around him. And when he drew away from her his shirt was damp with her tears.

He turned to Azucar then. Reaching out, he caressed her cheek, played with her brittle hair, then bent down to give her a quick peck right on her lips. Her gasp of joy induced him to give her a sad smile.

Odd. But he realized he was going to miss the old strumpet.

Next he faced the old outlaws and embraced each of them in turn. His throat closed a little as he held them, and he knew he would miss them as well.

The hug he gave to Lorenzo awakened the old man, and Lorenzo promptly returned to the subject about which he’d been speaking before falling asleep. “Yes, the Quintana Gang stole our share of gold too, Sawyer. And we will never forget the night you robbed us. A thief robbing thieves. It was an honor, you know.”

“Yes, well, good-bye to you all,” Sawyer said. Each old person, in his or her own way, had become special to him, and his voice was thick with emotion as he bade them farewell.

His bag of clothing slung over his shoulder, he picked up Zafiro’s hand and led her outside toward the barn. There, he quickly saddled and bridled Coraje and attached his bag and small trunk to the saddle.

The last thing to do was to say good-bye to Zafiro.

She looked so miserable standing beside the barn door. Like a little broken thing that couldn’t be repaired.

He’d broken her. He hadn’t meant to, but he had.

He pulled her into his arms, and in only seconds he felt her hot tears further wet his shirt and warm his chest. “I wish I didn’t have to go,” he murmured to her. “I’d stay, you know. If I could, I’d—”

“But you cannot.” Closing her eyes as tightly as she could, she squeezed out the rest of her tears and willed herself to stop crying.

This was not how she wanted Sawyer to remember her.

She lifted her face from his chest and smiled for him. “Thank you for all you have done, Sawyer Donovan. If not for you I do not know what would have happened to us. I, too, wish you could stay at La Escondida, but life, it is not roses to sleep on.”

He smiled a sad smile, knowing he was going to miss her mangled expressions. He’d miss the sound of her voice, the song of her laughter, the pretty sparkle of her smile, and the beautiful glow in her sapphire eyes.

He would truly miss Zafiro Maria Quintana.

Bending slightly, he kissed her. This was the last time he’d ever kiss her. Hold her. Feel her.

The moment he realized that, something inside him emptied and became a dark void. And he knew no one could ever fill or illuminate it again.

It belonged to Zafiro. Without her it would be empty and dark forever.

What an ironic twist of fate, he mused. He’d come to La Escondida with a dark emptiness inside him, and he was leaving with another.

Zafiro was right.

Life was not roses to sleep on.

“I will pray for you,” Zafiro said when he lifted his head and ended the tender kiss. “I will think of you every single day for the rest of my life, Sawyer. I promise.”

“And I won’t forget you either, sweetheart.” Seeing that she was about to lose her valiant battle with tears, he released her from his embrace and mounted Coraje.

She watched him slide his black hat onto his head, and for a moment she did nothing but stare at the contrast of the black against the gold of his hair. “Be safe,” she whispered.

“I will. You too.”

“Sawyer?”

“Yes, Zafiro.”

She moistened her lips, lips still warm with the gentleness of his kiss. “I love you.”

He tucked her love into his heart, where he would shelter the tender emotions forever. With a nod of his head and a flash of his smile, he bid her a final farewell and quickly urged Coraje out of the boundaries of the hideaway called La Escondida.

Giving Coraje his head as the stallion carefully picked his way down the rocky slopes, Sawyer dwelled on the woman he’d left behind.

Anything musical would remind him of her voice, her laughter. A song. A sweetly played instrument. A whistle. Even the sound of a gentle rain.

He would think of her smile when he saw something bright. Sun-kissed dewdrops. The happy twinkle of a star. A sudden and beautiful sizzle of lightning.

And her hair… God, she had gorgeous hair. The velvet black of midnight would never let him forget her hair.

Her thoughts. Her ideas. Sawyer smiled. Anything outlandish in the world would have him remember that wonderful daftness of hers.

An hour passed. He continued to think of Zafiro. Another hour passed. He found a road that headed north, and he followed it.

It would lead him into Texas. Toward Synner and his brothers and sister.

He felt as though he were two men. One knew he had no choice but to return to his family, to the children who needed him.

But the other man yearned to return to Zafiro, in whose arms he’d found such pleasure and in whose outrageous company he laughed and shouted on the same breath.

A sigh rushed from his chest, and he leaned his head back over his shoulder and looked at the wide-open azure sky.

Zafiro’s eyes were bluer.

Her eyes shone even more brightly than her sapphire.

Her sapphire.

The large and unusual jewel appeared in his mind so clearly, he felt as though it were truly inside his head.

Her sapphire.

He jerked on the reins, forcing Coraje to an abrupt halt on the dusty road. His mind pounded with realizations.

She was right. Zafiro was right.

Danger
would
arrive to La Escondida.

He turned Coraje around and quickly sent the stalwart animal into a full gallop.

Why hadn’t he thought of this before? he chastised himself. How could he have been so blind to such obvious peril?

In a little over an hour a very tired Coraje entered the stony confines of the hideaway. “Zafiro!” Panic edged Sawyer’s voice as his gaze swept through the yard searching for her.

Zafiro almost fell out of her swing when she saw Sawyer return.

He leapt off Coraje’s back and met her halfway as she ran across the yard.

They stopped in front of each other, each of them breathing hard.

“I had to come back,” Sawyer told her. He stared at her sapphire, which glimmered between her breasts.

“You did?” Joy danced through her.

Sawyer picked up her sapphire. “The man that got away yesterday,” he began, rolling the blue jewel around in his hand. “He saw Tia run into La Escondida, didn’t he?”

“What? I… Yes. Yes, I think he did. Why?”

“He saw your sapphire too, Zafiro.”

She looked down at her gem, then back up at Sawyer, suddenly sensing all was not right. “Yes. He saw it.”

“He won’t forget it. If he tells anyone about it… If he mentions it even in passing…”

“If he tells?”

“Luis is going to hear about the sapphire, Zafiro,” Sawyer explained, careful to keep his voice low and even so as not to unduly frighten her. “When he hears about it he’s going to know who was wearing it. And it won’t be hard to find out where the sapphire was last seen. The man who got away yesterday knows where La Escondida is.”

Fear stole Zafiro’s voice and her every thought but the one of Luis.

He was coming. But of course she’d known he was. Had known for months.

It’s just that she never expected her sapphire to be the cause of his arrival.

Sawyer was right. News of her sapphire would travel quickly through the tight circle of thieves, and then Luis would know exactly where to find her.

“That’s why I came back,” Sawyer rushed to tell her as he watched panic fill her eyes. “I’ll be here, Zafiro. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

The need to believe him consumed her. But he didn’t know Luis the way she did. Didn’t understand the lengths Luis would go to in order to acquire what he wanted.

“Zafiro?” Sawyer stared at her face. Right before his eyes her coloring paled. “Zafiro—”

“You are not enough.”

“What?”

She took her sapphire into her hand, squeezing it so hard that her hand began to ache. “I mean that you will need help,” she said, the shiver she heard in her own voice deepening her apprehension. “You cannot face Luis alone. He is too—”

“Sawyer, you are back!” Maclovio shouted as he, Pedro, and Lorenzo came out of the cabin and stepped into the yard.

With a nod of his head, Sawyer acknowledged the three men, then turned back to Zafiro. “Listen. I can—”

“No,” she whispered. “No!” Spinning away from him, she looked beyond the stony walls of La Escondida, imagining Luis and his gang riding toward the hideaway. “You do not understand, Sawyer! Luis will—”

“All right, I can’t face him alone,” he cooed. Folding his arms around her, he smoothed her hair and caressed her cheek. He wasn’t afraid to face Luis and the man’s gang alone, but knew he had to somehow set Zafiro’s mind at ease before true panic set in. “I’ll have help, Zafiro.”

She struggled to comprehend what he was telling her. “Help?”

He couldn’t believe he was really going to tell her what he was going to tell her. “I’m going to attempt the impossible. I’m going to work with your men.”

She blinked up at him. “What?”

Sawyer gave her a smile, one he hoped would further ease her distress. “Yes, I think it’s time the Quintana Gang came out of retirement.”

Chapter Eighteen

I
t took some doing, but
Sawyer was finally able to convince the nuns to do his shopping. He’d have gone for the supplies himself, but dared not take the risk of leaving Zafiro and her people alone.

Four days later, the nuns brought the needed provisions to La Escondida.

But the Reverend Mother remained highly displeased. “We took our habits off and wore skirts and blouses when we went to Piedra Blanca to buy these things for you, Sawyer,” she said, sitting at the table in the great room and gratefully accepting the cup of tea that Tia handed to her. “It would not do for a group of nuns to march into a store and buy things such as guns, ammunition, daggers, and dynamite.”

Doing their best to ignore the Mother Superior’s irritation, Sawyer, Zafiro, and all the old people examined the supplies. Not only had the nuns brought the weaponry, but also enough food and other household provisions to last a long while.

“We borrowed the clothing from a few of the village women,” Sister Inez explained further. “We told them we needed the clothing to use as patterns because we were going to start trying to make apparel to sell.”

“Lies,” the Reverend Mother muttered. “We have told falsehoods to get you these things. Oh, may God Almighty forgive us our sins.”

Sister Carmelita smiled broadly. “And when we were inside the store in Piedra Blanca, a few men flirted with me!”

“Sister!” the Mother Superior flared. “Remember yourself!” She sent a sharp gaze Sawyer’s way. “And to think we bought these things for you with money you stole, Sawyer. If indeed we go to hell when we die, I imagine we will see you there.”

Because he heard the tiniest hint of amusement in the holy sister’s voice, Sawyer smiled at her. “Thank you for doing us this favor, Sisters. I promise you that your efforts and all the lies you told will help keep Zafiro and her people safe.”

Zafiro nodded and smiled. “You have rescued us from the day, Sisters.”