Ride The Wild Wind (Time Travel Historical Romance) (34 page)

“Enter.”

The door slowly opened and a hunched man tottered inside, his cane
tapping on the wooden floor. Keeping his head down, he closed the door behind
him quietly. He was not at all what she expected. His duster was coated with a
film of red dust. Odd that an old man whose riding days should be long gone
would wear a duster. But when he removed his hat and set it in the chair by the
door, a chill skittered up her spine. His hair was dark with not a speck of
gray.

He rose to his full height. A sinister black patch covered his right
eye. He looked vaguely familiar. She immediately rose from the chair, eyeing
him intently. This was no old man.

“Hello Elena.” He removed the patch, revealing a healthy eye, as well as
his identity. “Been a long time.”

Elena slid back into the chair to avoid collapsing on the floor. Her
pulse pounded out a near-deafening tempo in her ears as the room threatened to
slip out from beneath her feet. Fear knotted her throat, now aching and dry.

“You wrote that you would never come here!” she managed with much
difficulty. “We had an agreement, Franklin.”

He chuckled as he walked about the room, perusing the paintings on the
walls. “I reckon we did have an agreement Elena, but you said you would deliver
the girl. You never did. It’s been a few months so I figure I needed to pay a
visit in person and check on your progress.”

“She is not here. She has been gone a long time.” She almost told him
the girl had died, but feared he would demand to see a grave site.

He turned and gave her a look that spelled trouble. “I know she ain’t
here. She’s with your old lover, Whitehorse, isn’t she?”

Fire shot through Elena’s veins. The bastard always knew how to make her
blood boil! And now he had come to her house, despite the fact he promised in
his letters he would never. She had to get rid of him before Antonio arrived.

He grinned as he removed his gloves. “Come on darlin’. Ain’t ya gonna
properly welcome me to Albuquerque? How’s about a good long kiss for starters?”

She suddenly felt ill, as if she might swoon. “You said I was free, that
you would never bother me again if I did this one thing for you.”

He shook his head. “That was before you got caught up in my niece’s
little plot to blackmail me.”

Her breath caught. Blackmail plot? What was he suggesting? Surely
Franklin did not think she would participate in such a foolish venture? “I know
nothing of what you’re speaking about.” It was true.

“Don’t you? I figured it out. You was in on it, too. You’re greedy like that,
Elena. Always were.”

“No. You are mistaken. I know nothing of any blackmail plot.”

“All right, Elena. You want to play games, but I’m a straight shooter.
Let me get right to the point. Don’t matter whether you was in on her schemin’
or not. I know my niece has been here as recent as a few months ago, that she
was here when you answered my first letter. You said she wasn’t here at all,
that she had run away. Then the letters stopped. Guess you figured I’d just go
away if you didn’t answer, didn’t you?”

Elena shook her head vehemently. “No. I was not avoiding you. I swear
it.”

Cole shook his head. “You lied to me then, Elena, and you’re lyin’ to me
now.”

Elena swallowed down the bile that rose up in her throat. Since Halle
left—the only person in the house who could read or write—she’d not been able
to send letters nor read his. “No, I did not lie, Franklin. This is all a
misunderstanding.”

He moved toward her and she shrunk back, silently praying he would not
strike her.

“I’ve been trackin’ her a few months now, her and that Indian outlaw. So
has the U.S. cavalry, which you’d know if somebody had been readin’ you the
newspapers.”

She drew in a deep, steadying breath. She could not read or write and
Franklin knew how that humiliated her. In the past, he often belittled her for
her illiteracy. “Well, I cannot change anything. She is not here as you can
see.”

He nodded. “I done as much as poked around and found it out, but I also
figured you might know where Whitehorse had taken her.”

She blinked. “I know nothing.” Actually she did
have an inkling
of where Antonio might be hiding. She had recently heard rumors that small
groups of Navajo were migrating northward into the Chuska mountains. Since
Chief Manuelito had reportedly relocated his band there, it would not surprise
her if Antonio had followed his uncle.

Cole untied his sweat soaked neckerchief and laid it across the back of
a chair. “I saw Whitehorse’s sketch on all them wanted posters. The
government’s offering a sizeable reward, dead or alive. Surprised you ain’t
turned him in yourself. You expectin’ him back ‘round here anytime soon?”

Elena swallowed hard as he removed his duster and laid it on the chair
by the door. How did this Franklin know Antonio visited occasionally? Did he
know that he was scheduled to arrive tonight? “I do not know when or if he will
return.” She prayed that one of her ladies hadn’t already tipped him off.

His eyes roamed over her hungrily, sending an icy shiver up her spine.
She knew that feral look, remembered it from the first time she gave herself to
him. At fifteen, she ran away from the De los Santos ranch with a much younger,
handsomer Franklin, a man with eyes as blue as a winter sky. He was to have
been her salvation from her hellish life as the daughter of a peasant washer
woman for the wealthy De los Santos family. Instead, he had been her Hell.

“I’ll be honest with you, Elena.” Franklin took an arrogant stance, feet
set wide apart. “I’d like to turn in Whitehorse for the reward, but I’m sure
you’d be agreeable to making a special deal with me right here and now in
exchange for my remainin’ silent about your involvement in aiding a fugitive.”

Elena’s flesh prickled as her stomach twisted into a knot. She knew of
Frank Cole’s deals all too well and wanted no part of them despite the fact he
knew of her treachery. Still, she would not lose everything she had built over
the years, this house and her reputation as madam of the finest bordello in the
Territory. Hand trembling, she crushed out her cigarette in the tray and drew a
deep, calming breath as she assembled her thoughts. “What type of deal do you
propose?”

“I’ll pay you five hundred dollars for the girl plus, maybe you and me
can work out a little something extra today in exchange for me not killing
Whitehorse and claiming the reward on him.”

Elena clutched the collar of her robe.
Dios!
What was he
suggesting? A cut of her business?

His gaze pinned her. “Word on the street is Whitehorse is coming here
tonight, sugar.” He chuckled. “I’m sure if I get to him first, I can easily
find out where he’s hidin’ my niece. You know I’m good at extractin’ the truth
out of folks. I’ll get him to talk one way or the other—if I have to start
hackin’ off limbs…or his pecker.”

Elena swallowed hard. She certainly did know of Franklin’s cruelty and
ruthlessness. She’d watched him cut off a man’s fingers once simply because he
didn’t have the two dollars to pay for one of the whores in their El Paso
establishment. She’d also witnessed abuses he perpetrated on the women who
worked for him when he suspected they were holding out pay. Some were
disfigured so badly they could never work in other houses. She had no other
choice but to surrender the girl in exchange for Antonio’s life being spared.
Now she only had to find her.

“You do not need to pay me for the girl. You may take her once I have
located her. She is yours, but only in exchange for Antonio’s freedom, and your
silence about my involvement with h.”

He laughed. “Now, Elena, darlin’, I don’t think that’s much of a good
deal for me. You see, I came here all prepared to hand you cash for that little
gal. It ain’t like I’m hurtin’ for money. After all, it’s only right that you
should be paid for the meals and her room and board during her stay. As for
Whitehorse—” Franklin gave her a once over that sent shivers skittering up her
spine again, “Let’s just say that I’m curious to know how far you’ll go to save
his worthless life. I want to spend the afternoon with you Elena—in your bed.”

Elena lifted her chin a notch. What a crude and casual bastard he had
always been. He presumed much now. She was not that doe-eyed fifteen year old
girl who’d run away with him. She was now Madam Elena Costanza, the most
beautiful woman in the Territory. She no longer slept with common men like
Franklin Cole. True, he might have money in his pocket now, but she suspected
it was only temporary. Men like Franklin drifted through life, stealing and
lying and murdering. They never amounted to much of anything. From the way he
was dressed, he still hadn’t.

“My body is not free, Franklin. You cannot afford my price.”

He laughed, gave her a penetrating once over that made her stomach
clench.

“And you, Elena, cannot afford the price of not bargaining with me for
Whitehorse’s life. You want me to tell the government of your involvement with
the outlaw and those savages? You’ll dangle right alongside him on the gallows
until your body swells up in the sun and buzzards pick at your green, rotting
flesh. Take it or leave it, you uppity bitch.”

Rage shot through her.
The bastard!
Nothing had changed between
them. He was still the abuser. But what choice did she have? Franklin knew of
Antonio’s impending arrival. If she did not comply, he would kill Antonio for
the reward and tell the government she’d been aiding and abetting a fugitive.
They would close the gentlemen’s parlor and at the very least lock her in
prison for aiding Indians these past months. And as Franklin suggested, she
might even hang for her crimes!

She had no choice but to play one final hand with Cole. Her breath
caught in her throat at the thought of what she was about to say, and do. “If I
agree to your terms, I must have your word you will do Antonio no harm.”

“You have my word.”

His word meant nothing. Still, she had no leverage—no choice except to play
along. She shuddered, recalling that he was never a kind lover. She drew a
deep, steadying breath and prayed silently he would not leave marks on her
lovely skin.

He uncuffed his shirt sleeves, then began unbuttoning his shirt with
vigor.

His jaw was set firm, his eyes unwavering. “Don’t you worry, Elena. No
harm will come to Whitehorse.”

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 relieved 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.”