Arizona Embrace (36 page)

Trinity took Victoria’s mouth in a deep, lingering kiss. At the same time he covered her breasts, one with each hand. Victoria gasped from shock, but she didn’t pull away. Trinity’s tongue forced its way between her teeth and plunged deep into her mouth. At the same time, he traced circles around her nipples with his fingertips.

Victoria’s body arched against him, and she broke the kiss. Her breath came fast and shallow. She didn’t pull away. She lay still before Trinity’s assault, waiting.

Deserting Victoria’s lips, Trinity laid a trail of kisses down her neck. As his lips reached the mound of her breast, he felt her body stiffen. He slowed his advance while his fingers continued to create circles of fire around her nipples.

Then ever so gently, he touched the tip of one puckered, swollen nipple with the tip of his tongue. Victoria nearly rose off the bed. When he let his tongue caress its hot surface, she gasped for air. When he took it in his mouth and sucked it, he thought she would faint. Her body became as rigid as a corral fence.

Fearing he had upset her, Trinity pulled away, but Victoria took his head and pressed it tightly against her breast.

Before Trinity surrendered completely to her invitation, a feeling of danger fought its way through the tide of his inflamed senses. Even as he tried to push away this detested intrusion, instincts, honed by years of practice, scaled the walls erected by unleashed desire. The desire to consume her fought with the desire to shield and protect her.

Protection won.

Trinity broke his embrace. Only his understanding of the necessity for swift action enabled him to force his brain to ignore the objections of his enraged body. Their lives were in danger.

He listened intently.

“Wha—” Victoria started to say, but one hissed syllable cut her short.

“Shh! Somebody’s outside,” Trinity whispered.

Chapter Nineteen

In the single second that he recognized danger, Trinity transformed from an enraptured lover to a trained hunters In a series of swift movements, he took a pair of guns from his saddlebags and handed them to Victoria. “Here. Shoot anybody who tries to get in. And shoot to kill. They will.”

Trinity picked up his rifle then closed the door to the stove, casting the room into total darkness. Only gradually could his eyes make out the barely lighter squares that represented the cabin windows.

“Keep down. I’m going outside,” he whispered.

Victoria fought to understand what was happening around her. She felt her body plummet from the heights of fiery passion to the depths of icy fear, but she lacked Trinity’s experience. Her mind had none of his lucidity or elasticity. The quick descent left her shaking, the blood thundering in her ears, her brain a useless whirl of confused thoughts and sensations.

Red Beard.

Her numbed brain shouted that message over and over again. She told herself it could be anyone out there, but she didn’t believe that. She was certain it was Red Beard and his friends. Maybe he had had time to get others to join him. Maybe mere were too many for Trinity.

Why had he gone outside? Didn’t he know it was much easier for them to kill him? And why had he left her alone? Her hands shook so badly she didn’t know if she could hit anything she aimed at. Besides, she’d never shot at anyone except the Indians. She didn’t know if she could shoot at a man now.

Get out of that bed. Trinity’s risking his life for you. You can’t let him go out there alone
. That thought steadied her nerves. She was scared for herself, but she felt different about Trinity. The fact that anybody would follow her to kill him, just because he’d tried to protect her, made her furious. She wasn’t about to let Trinity die while some miserable, lecherous miners lived.

Victoria got off the bed. Oblivious to the feel of her bare feet on the cold floor, she walked to the window. She couldn’t see anything. There was no moon. She moved to the door. Trinity had left it slightly ajar. Opening it a few inches, she looked out. Nothing. Silence.

But she expected that. Red Beard wouldn’t advertise his presence. He’d want to sneak up behind Trinity and shoot him in the back. Or they’d surround him and shoot him down from all sides. There were no mirrors to help him this time, but she would. She’d be his second set of eyes and ears.

Victoria eased the door open. Even in the dark night, she hesitated to step outside. Her white nightgown would make her an easy target. She rifled through Trinity’s gear until she found a black shirt. Dropping her gown to the floor, she slipped the shirt on and stepped out into the night.

The cold snapped at her legs, whistled up the shirt to chill her inflamed body, but she hardly noticed. Trinity was outside, and so were the killers.

She slipped along the wall under the overhang. She noticed movement across the yard and froze. It was a man, but it wasn’t Trinity. It didn’t move like him. The man moved again, and Victoria raised her gun, drew back the hammer, and took careful aim.

“Ben! You goddamned son of a bitch. You scared the hell out of me.”

Trinity’s booming voice, breaking the tense silence like the crack of falling timber, nearly caused her to fire the gun accidentally.

“You ain’t been scared by anything since you popped out of your mother’s belly,” a strange voice replied. “What do you mean moving into my place behind my back? Next thing you’ll be telling me you done drunk up all the coffee.”

“Why didn’t you come to the door instead of sneaking around like some lobo wolf?”

“Because there are too many lobo wolves about to suit me. Seeing tracks of three horses sorta made me careful. Knowed it was you the minute I saw that buckskin. But why do you need so many horses? I thought you were through chasing after gunslinging galoots.”

“I decided to go out one more time.”

“You got him tied up in the cabin?”

“Her.”

“You got a woman in there?”

“Yes.”

“Just the two of you?”

“Sure.”

“This I got to see” Ben said, starting for the cabin. “She must be ugly as a sow. I ain’t never seen you within fifty feet of anything but a whore.”

Victoria scampered into the cabin, frantic to exchange the shirt for her gown. She didn’t have enough time to get properly dressed, so she put the shirt on over her gown, for warmth and decency. She lit the lantern before the men reached the door.

“I may be ugly as a sow” she said as Ben stepped into the cabin, “but I’m not a whore.”

Ben stopped in his tracks, unable to move. His eyes grew as big as hawk eggs, his jaw swung loose on its hinges.

“This is Victoria Davidge,” Trinity said. “She was convicted of killing her husband.”

“Involuntary manslaughter,” Ben mumbled. “The little lady couldn’t help it if he died on his wedding night. His heart was probably too weak to stand the shock.”

His eyes twinkled. Definitely, they twinkled.

“He was shot with a small caliber gun. They’d only been married a week.”

“For a week with her, I’d let you shoot me,” Ben said. “Might as well. I wouldn’t be any good for the rest of my life.”

“I’m taking her back to be executed.”

Victoria could tell Trinity was teasing his friend.

“If you’re going to hang her, couldn’t we just keep her here for a little bit? Somebody put in a lot of work on her. I’d hate to see it go to waste. Why don’t you marry me?” he said to Victoria. “I could overpower him in his sleep, and we could escape to Colorado.”

“Aren’t you afraid I’d kill you?” Victoria asked, struggling to keep a straight face.

“You’re not a killer, ma’am. I don’t know what happened, but you never killed your husband.”

“How can you know that?” Victoria asked, surprised out of any desire to joke.

“Trinity left you in this cabin with two guns and not tied up. I’ve known him for more than a dozen years. He’d never turn his back on anybody he didn’t trust completely.”

“Why don’t you come inside your own house?” Victoria asked. “We didn’t drink up all the coffee, but I’m afraid we did make pretty heavy inroads into your bacon.”

“There wasn’t much left. I only stopped off here to change horses before I went for supplies. Now I’m going outside to take care of my horse. When I get back, I want some hot coffee and some answers. I got a feeling this is going to turn out to be more than just a friendly visit.”

“So what do you want me to do?” Ben asked Trinity. Victoria had fixed more than coffee. While Ben ate his supper, Trinity told him the story from the day he returned to Bandera until now.

“I’m not expecting anything.”

“Oh, yes you are. There are dozens of places you could have gone to on earth, most of them a sight prettier than this place. Come on, tell me. What is it?”

“I want you to help me find Chalk Gillet.”

“What makes you think I can? He may be dead. Five years is a long time for some people.”

“I know, but if he’s anywhere near Texas, you’ve heard of him. I never saw anybody like Ben for remembering everything he ever heard,” Trinity said to Victoria. “He can quote conversations word for word more than ten years later.”

“Suppose we do find this Gillet, how do you propose to get him to go back to Bandera? If he’s stayed away this long, he’s probably got a good reason for staying away a while longer.”

“You let me worry about that. I just want you to help me find him. Can you?”

“I did hear something about him a couple of years back.”

Trinity turned to Victoria, a grin of triumph on his face. “I told you Ben could find him if he were still alive.”

“Now hold on there a minute. I didn’t say I knew where he was. I just said I heard something about him. You’d have to go looking for him. And I don’t think you’d find him, not with your reputation. Not even if you changed your name again.”

“Changed his name!” Victoria hadn’t said a word, but the shock of learning Trinity wasn’t Trinity after all surprised her out of her silence.

“He goes through at least a couple of names a year,” Ben said. “I never know when people are talking about him or somebody I never heard of before.”

“You could find him for me,” Trinity said. “He wouldn’t hide from you.”

“You want me to go chasing back and forth along the Mexican border for some guy you mean to shanghai back to Bandera? Somebody may be waiting to kill him.”

“Why would you change your name so often?” Victoria asked point-blank.

“Can’t use the same name all the time when you’re catching criminals” Ben explained. “It warns them off.”

“Ill see nobody kills him,” Trinity said, “but I’ve got to talk to him. He’s the only person who can prove Victoria didn’t kill her husband.”

“Except the real killer.”

“If he hasn’t come forward by now, I don’t expect he means to,” Trinity snapped.

“Probably right,” Ben said, looking thoughtful. “I guess I could go. It’ll cost you though. I can’t go traipsing over half of the Rio Grande valley on a hope and a prayer.”

“Ill pay you.”

“I knew you would,” Ben said with a grin. “I just wanted to hear you say it. I never knew anybody so tight with money,” he said to Victoria. “You could have knocked me over with a calfs ear when he bought that ranch. Now I know what he’s been doing with all that gold he dug up.”

“Stop gossiping,” Trinity admonished. “We’ve got to leave tomorrow. When can you get away?”

“I can leave with you. I’m not busy right now.”

“That reminds me” Trinity said, “I didn’t see any cows. You have trouble with rustlers?”

“Might have if I’d kept that herd long, but I got rid of it. Didn’t want to be tied down.”

Trinity opened his mouth to make an astonished reply.

“What’s his real name?” Victoria asked.

“You’ll have to ask him that, ma’am. Now if I’m to be in the saddle come dawn—I know it’ll be dawn because he doesn’t know how to break camp any other time of day—I’ve got to get my beauty sleep. I’ll bunk outside.”

“I’ll bunk with you.”

“No need.”

“You don’t dunk I’m going to stay inside with you outside with your ear to the door to hear what’s going on.”

Ben grinned unashamedly. “If we both sleep inside, I won’t have to peep.”

“If you both sleep inside I won’t get a wink of sleep,” Victoria said. “You’ll talk all night.”

“Found out already,” Ben said with a chuckle. “You got a sharp one there, son. Just might have overreached yourself this time.”

“And just what do you mean by that?” Trinity demanded.

“Exactly what you think I mean,” Ben shot back. “You been looking at her like you was a bear and she was a honeycomb without a bee in sight. Never knowed you to come within fifty feet of a decent woman unless you was on a horse headed out of town. You been practically leg-shackled to this one for nigh unto a week. Got that much and more to go. Either something’s gone wrong with you since I saw you last, or she’s got you over a barrel. And if she ain’t got you over a barrel, something
has
gone wrong.”