Slocum #395 : Slocum and the Trail to Yellowstone (9781101553640) (19 page)

“Too real?”

“She ain't there to simply turn tricks for a few bucks. There's more to her than that. She never charged me. I don't know what else she is, but she's a schemer.”

Sobell grinned. “Funny how you can tell something is up with one of them, no matter how hard they fuck you.”

“There's got to be schemers in this world.”

Before they went to supper at a small café that Sobell's woman said made wonderful dishes, Sobell sent his telegraph from the federal telegraph office. Then the two women met them at the candlelit table and they had a great meal of tender beef, spicy enchiladas, sliced avocadoes, and fried apple pie. They washed the meal down with red wine, then leisurely walked the two blocks of dark street back to the hotel.

Sanchez had not checked in to the hotel yet. The cattle buyer would come sooner or later, so Slocum excused himself and Silvia, and the two of them started up to his room, Slocum following her up the stairs. She wore a tight blue silk dress and high heels that showed lots of her tan legs to very good effect. Not an outfit anyone would show up to attend church in, but the garment fit her shapely body and made things interesting to look at.

He unlocked the door and let her go in ahead of him, then struck a match and lifted the globe enough to see her undoing the front of her dress. Saliva flooded his mouth as the image of her naked body filled his mind.

He toed off his boots and then he prepared to help her out of the dress. Soon her flesh spilled out of the half-shell opening, and her tawny body emerged. The dark nipples looked like they were pointed at him. With his suspenders down, his pants fell, and he stepped out of them and walked to her. He gathered her into his arms and kissed her mouth, finding her hot tongue in his mouth. In his arms, she squirmed until it felt like her muscled body was a huge snake's. His fingers combed through her soft pubic hair, and she moved her legs apart for his finger to probe the crease. The lips of her cunt were already wet with her juices and he smiled, rekissing her. Her nail-like pointed nipples stuck to his bare chest. He savored her closeness and the previews of what was ahead for him to enjoy.

They were on the bed, making the ropes squeak in protest under them. His rock hardness made his entire dick feel ready to blow up, the powerful muscles inside of her crushing his efforts to plunge in her any more than halfway. Not to be denied, the muscles in his butt began to win the depth battle. She strained hard, but his power took over and he was slamming his dick against the bottom of her vagina. By the moaning deep in her throat and the wild look of her hair in her face as she shook her head from side to side, he knew he had won the second battle. He plunged to the bottom and exploded.

From there on she was his to do with as he wanted—but he did it gently. They finally collapsed to sleep in each other's arms.

He opened his eyes, his foggy vision making out the sunlight spilling in through the two French doors. Looking over beside him, he saw that Silvia's tawny bare body was in a fetal position on her side. A pretty woman sleeping. He dressed and smiled at her soft breathing.

He bent over and kissed her cheek. Then he left the room and found Sobell in the restaurant. The waiter brought Slocum a steaming cup of rich coffee. With a nod to Sobell, he took the yellow telegram the man handed him.

“The thousand dollar reward is in the Texas National Bank. Family will pay,” said Sobell.

Slocum raised his gaze up from the telegram to look at the man. “Where do they pay at?”

His partner shrugged. “I imagine Texas.”

“They killed their boss in either Montana or Wyoming. They'll have to be tried up there.”

“I say take them to Mason, Texas, collect the reward, and that should be enough. Fifty-fifty.”

Slocum shook his head in deep doubt. “It may not be that damn easy.”

“Hell, Slocum, what can they do but pay us if we bring them two killers?”

“I hope they will.”

“Let's do some figuring how we're going to do this. They don't look all that tough.”

The waiter brought Slocum his plate of food, and he waited until the man was gone before he commented again. “When you face a hanging charge, you can get your back up.”

“That's lots of money.”

Slocum agreed, then set into eating his tortilla-wrapped breakfast. Where was that damn Sanchez at anyway?

Sleepy-eyed, Silvia came down and joined them. She leaned wearily toward Slocum. Not close enough, she scooted the chair over to cling to him and moan some. “I am so sore. Did you use sandpaper on me last night? I think I need to sit in a cool tub of water all day.” Her hand slipped to her waistband and she rubbed her crotch. “I am on fire. Did you use chili powder too?”

“No. Just me,” he said, a little uncomfortable with her complaining so publicly.

“I have to go to Santa Maria today. Could you rent a rig and take me? My grandmother is going to be ninety years old. She would be glad to see me.”

Slocum stood up. “Get your things. I'll rent a horse and buggy. We can leave in thirty minutes.” He turned to Sobell. “That damn Sanchez comes, you stall him for me. I'll be back.”

“Sure, no problem. You think more about that pair. I'm damn near broke myself.”

“I will. You get more particulars.”

“I can do that. Don't worry. I can keep Sanchez here.”

Silvia had left on the run to get “some of her things,” and Slocum finished his coffee standing up, gave Sobell a head toss that he was leaving, and went to the livery. He rented a fast horse and a two-person buggy with a top on it and swung around to pick Silvia up. She had two carpet bags, so he tied off the horse and loaded them on the small rack in back.

“Will they stay on there?” she asked, sounding concerned.

He nodded, strapping them down tight, then put her on the seat. She scooted over to make room for him. From all the items she had, Slocum decided that she must make big money or had a rich godfather. They left the streets of the border town behind, and he drove where she directed, south on the busy road.

“How far away is this place?” he asked when at last she turned to him, put a hand on his shoulder, and jabbed a breast in his side to get cozy.

“Oh, not too far.”

“Far?”

She kissed him on the cheek. He'd noticed she wore a long skirt and blouse and a flat-topped hat like many Spanish ranch women wore—a much milder outfit than the other two he'd seen her in.

“We are going where?”

“To see my grandmother.”

“Who else?”

“My father.”

“You about to get me in trouble with him?”

“No, no. I will tell him you were so nice to bring me down there to his hacienda and such a gentleman. He will like you.”

“Oh, yes, and when he finds out I'm fucking his daughter, he will shoot me.”

“No, but if I don't go home for Grandmama's birthday, he will cut off the money he sends me to stay up here. That is what he said in his telegram.” She sat back and held her hand to her forehead like she had a headache.

“So you didn't have money to take transportation back home?”

“That would be such a boring ride. This way”—she perked up like she was excited to be with him—“I have you to entertain me.”

“I don't like it. If some old cowboy brought my daughter home and he wasn't going to marry her, I'd shoot him.”

She turned his head to face her. “That is an idea.”

“No, it ain't, and I am not being used to make a lie.”

She rose up and kissed him on the mouth. “I never charged you, did I?”

“I never paid you.”

“Good, then you owe me much money.”

“How much?”

“Oh, lots of money for all you did to me in the bed. I am still sore. No, I'm not a
puta
. But I do like to make love and my father knows that, so he sends me money to enjoy myself up here on the border, and I don't embarrass him in the village near his hacienda.”

Slocum took a breath and looked at some longhorns with calves busy grazing in the mesquite and grass that covered the rolling hills. The calves were roan crosses. In a few years, all the cattle in the southwest would be of some British breed. Shorthorn was a popular cross.

He was still in a quandary about this trip she hauled him away on—to see her grandmama. Then, it was her father who kept her up in San Jose. He must have a big hacienda to afford her. How much did he know about his daughter's wild ways, which he was financing?

He slapped the horse with the lines to speed up his gait. How far away was the hacienda anyway? As time went on he grew a little more impatient with her evasive answers.

“How much farther is this place?” he asked.

She looked hurt. “Still a ways.”

“How far do we have to go?”

“I'm sorry. It is still a ways.”

No matter, he couldn't get too mad at her. They were on the road, and he might as well accept it.

By late afternoon, they stopped in a small dusty town and took a room in the hotel as Mr. and Mrs. Crown. The clerk promised the couple there were no bugs in their rooms. They ate supper in the hotel dining room, and she drew lots of looks from men in the room. Even in everyday clothes, she was an eyeful, and she knew it.

While eating across from her, in a soft voice he asked her, “Have you ever been married?”

She wrinkled her nose at him. “It was very bad. He was a jerk. He got drunk and passed out the night of our wedding. I was a virgin then. The next night he went out to some whorehouse, left me in the room, came in after midnight stinking of cheap perfume, and said he was going to consummate our marriage. He was too drunk to get it up, and I went home the next morning without him.”

“That was a heartbreaker.”

Her dark eyes narrowed to slits. “I was so mad, I could have killed him if I had had a gun. Of course, my father had the marriage annulled. Do you know how that went over in a small village?” Her eyes like cold steel bored into him. She shook her head from side to side. “That goofy rich girl is so cold in bed, she can't keep a husband. I didn't want a husband.”

He reached over and patted her hand. “That was tough. I'm sorry I even asked.”

“Then, like a fool, I fell in love with a married man. I was going to show everyone. He was good in bed too. I was dumb. My father learned about our affair. He and I talked one whole night. He said that I must shut this man off. I told him no, that I needed him, I was addicted to him. He said no, you're addicted to men, like your mother was. Then we reached a compromise. I was to move to San Jose, where he would support me.”

“Did your mother leave your father?”

“Yes. I never knew her. I grew up in the casa and had everything I wanted. Someday, he wants me to find a real man and return to run the hacienda. Interested?”

“Would you want to be a housewife? No parties, no drinking and flirting with men. Be the lady of the house and worry about meals and lazy help.”

She wrinkled her nose at him. “Good as you are in bed, yes. But I can't say I wouldn't meet a man and want him for a night or even a couple of days to have a honeymoon.”

“If I get shot in Mexico by an angry father, it will all be your fault.”

“He won't shoot you. I promise. You may even like him.” She hugged Slocum to her breast and kissed him sweetly on the cheek. “If I had had you on my wedding night, I'd have lived out my life with you. Where were you at?”

“Probably sleeping with my hand for a lover, driving cattle to Kansas.”

She laughed aloud. “No wonder you are so big in bed. My, that would have been boring.”

The second night they slept in hammocks in an old woman's yard and hit the road before daylight. She tried to honey up to him so he wouldn't be angry at her about the long trip. It almost worked.

On the third day, they reached the Grande Hacienda. Slocum saw palm trees, manicured flower beds, and, as the buggy's rims crunched a seam in it, a driveway that he'd guess was raked down by hand every day.

Small girls came running beside the buggy, screaming that La Donna was home. Servants came from the house to get her luggage. They bowed to Slocum when he got down, and he shook their hands instead. Then he helped Silvia down. This was not the Silvia he knew. On the ground, she looked elegant, hugged the dusty children to her skirt, and talked to all of them.

A tall, stern-faced woman in her forties came out and shooed the children away. They left reluctantly, then Silvia introduced him. “Madonna, this Slocum—I don't know if that is his first or last name, but that is what he calls himself. Slocum, Madonna is the majordomo of my father's house.”

Slocum thought Silvia might have embarrassed the woman. “Come inside,” Madonna said and showed them the way. “I guess they have all your luggage?”

“I think so. Slocum needs some fresh clothes, a bath drawn. We left all his things in San Jose when I realized that Grandmama was having a birthday. We were in such a hurry. But we are here.”

“Tomorrow. Your father is out working stock with some vaqueros.”

“Good. We both can be cleaned up and ready for supper. We will stay in the south suite.”

“It will be ready for you both. Bath water in thirty minutes.” She looked Slocum up and down. “I have clothes to fit him. They will also be delivered.”

Silvia hugged her arm. “You are so organized, Madonna. Thanks so much.”

Madonna turned to Slocum. “I was so excited to see my girl, sir, I may have forgotten my manners. Welcome to the Grande Hacienda.”