Slocum and the Diamond City Affair (9781101612118) (2 page)

“They are small, but they are sweet as honey,” she said, cupping her breasts in her small hands and examining her pointed brown nipples. “In case you need some dessert.”

Then, acting excited, she untied the dark brown skirt at her waist and stepped out of it, exposing her glass-stem-shaped legs and the black patch of pubic hair. The skirt joined the blouse in a short toss. “Now you can see all of me. I am not as pretty as some girls, but I am also not as fussy as some of them either.”

She wrinkled her nose at him, seeming a little uncomfortable standing naked in the glaring red light pouring into the hot room. “Do you want me?”

“Of course.” He nodded. “Come over here.”

She obeyed and climbed atop the bed on her knees, inching toward him until he reached out and pulled her to his chest. Then he kissed her hard on the mouth and her eyes blinked in disbelief, but her arms quickly encircled his neck and she returned his effort with a hot tongue.

“Oh, señor.” She nearly swooned. “You didn't come to simply fuck me. You came to make love. Yee-ha! Oh, hombre, you are going to be fun—” Her small hand sought his dick and she began to pump his limp tool awake. He lifted her up and tasted her nipples, which turned out to be as hard as a rock, and she pushed them at him. They did taste like honey and she was fast turning into a hot fire. The idea of having sex was fast consuming her brain and she twisted like a powerful serpent in his arms. He laid her on her back, then reached down and parted her stiff pubic hair with his finger and traced the damp slit, rubbing easily over the small clit and entering the lips of her vagina with his middle finger.

His actions made her gulp for air. “Oh,
madre de Dios
, that feels so good, I may go crazy. I would lock you in the calaboose—so no other woman could fuck you. Oh, my, you are driving me mad.” She hunched her ass and thrust herself at his finger in a new fury.

His two fingers worked in easy to probe and spread her open. Her jacking him off was raising a great erection. Her breathing came in gasps, but she still fought harder and harder for him.

“Oh, señor, please take me!”

“I will. Keep going, you aren't quite wild enough—not like you will be soon.”

His mouth and tongue fell upon her lips. She began shaking as he moved to mount her and she raised her knees to give him room to get into her. He realized how small she was when he lowered himself on top of her. In haste, she reached for his thick hard dick and stuck it in her cunt, then raised her butt off the bed so she could get as much of him as possible inside her squeezing pussy. Hard muscle contractions pulsed in the walls of her vagina and almost crushed his erection as he drove it in her again and again.

Ropes under the worn mattress creaked beneath them as he plunged in and out of her vagina. He wondered how rotten the ropes were and if they would break under all this activity. Rosa's bare heels beat a tattoo on the back of his legs as she seemed to cling to him for her life, her short fingernails gouging into his back like a bobcat attacking him.

She began moaning and he could see she was close to fainting. The dark pupils of her eyes were large, and she was clearly past seeing as her hair spilled around her face, veiling the features of her sharp nose and too-full lips. In the room's dimming light, she looked beautiful. The jiggle of her firm small breasts underneath him as he drove his dick into her harder and harder excited him more. His cock was soon jammed against the base of her works. He could feel the bottom of her womanhood and the flowerlike opening of her uterus when he came. Grasping both sides of her small ass, one half in each hand, he drove as deep as he could go and then the head of his erection exploded into a geyser.

She threw her arms out, swallowed hard, then fainted. A smile crossed his whisker-bristled mouth as he bridged her body with his dick still in her. Coming to after a moment, she half rose and searched around. Gently-like he began to poke her again and a smile split her mouth. Quickly she kissed his hairy chest and lay back down for more pleasure.

“You aren't finished with me, are you?” She shuffled her body a little bit underneath him. “I had a lover once who swore he would someday make me come. He never did, but I think”—she shrugged—“tonight you made me come, I know it now. I am a little sloppy down there. You want me to clean up for you?”

“No, I have lots more for you.”

She threw her head back, laughed, and shook all over. With her fingers, she parted the hair at her forehead and pushed it in place beside her face. “I hope my heart is strong enough, hombre. You are a macho stallion.”

After the third time they coupled, she collapsed and he curled around her warm, small body. Some women could surprise a man. Some never were aroused to having fierce sex, while others were like kerosene and burst into flames at the slightest spark. After a few minutes of lying on her side with her back to him, Rosa reinserted his still-stiff prick into her cunt from behind and then patted his leg. “Good night and
gracias
—I loved it so much, hombre. . . .”

2

The first rooster began crowing even before the dawn light awoke Slocum. By then Slocum and Rosa were no longer attached, and he slipped out of the bed slow and quiet so as not to wake her. He needed to find a vendor and get some breakfast. O'Riley would be waiting for him at the stable. There were stolen horses to recover, if they could find them. He dressed and strapped on his gun. He left Rosa two more dollars on top of her skirt and nodded good-bye to the sleeping form curled in a fetal position on the bed.
You are hell of a
puta
, Rosa. Maybe we will meet again.

He set the weather-beaten hat on his head and eased out of the room. The clerk was snoring in a stuffed chair in the lobby. Slocum never woke him. He had not put on his spurs yet. Once outside the hotel, Slocum leaned on the wall and finished dressing. Spurs on his boot heels, he drew the six-gun and checked the five loaded cylinders before he pushed his shoulder off the adobe wall and went to look for something to eat.

He found an old toothless hag who squatted on the ground tending a small stove.

“What's for breakfast?” he asked her.

“A big tortilla, two eggs, goat cheese, some peppers, and well-cooked brown beans.”

“
Bueno
. I will take one. How much?”

“Ten centavos.”

“Cook it for me while I go get my horse.”

“You must be in a helluva hurry, hombre.” Squatted down, she crept over to get some things cooking on the small stove.

“Some men stole a couple of fancy horses. Have you seen them?”

“No. I never saw them. And if they'd come by, I would have.”

“
Bueno
, then they're west of here.” He left her and went for his horse, recalling how he had placed the half bottle of whiskey in his saddlebags. A good snort of that might clear the thick drainage down the back of his throat.

The sky was pink coming up over the New Mexico horizon. The cool air around him would not last long. He saw a hipshot saddled horse and a man under a great sombrero sleeping seated on the ground. That must be his man, O'Riley. He probably had been there all night, so as not to miss Slocum.

“Get up, hombre, and go get some breakfast from the old woman who's in front of the cantina. She's cooking mine and I will be up there in a short while with my horse.”

“What's her name?” the sleepy Irishman asked, struggling to get up.

“Damned if I know,” Slocum said and shouldered his saddle and pads to go catch his bay out in the pen. “She's the only one I saw.”

“All right.” O'Riley went stumbling off in the dust to find the old woman.

In a few minutes, Slocum joined him and paid the woman, who put the tortilla-wrapped meal in his hand. It was hot to the touch, and she almost had his partner's food ready.

“How far is it back there to Benson?” O'Riley asked him. “Oh, and I could have paid for this.”

“Next meal, you pay. I got both of these. And Benson is, oh, maybe thirty, forty miles.”

“You think you know where my horses are at?” O'Riley took a bite of his tortilla and went to fanning his open mouth. “Too hot.”

“Hell, it was cooked on fire, what did you expect?” Slocum laughed at him.

His man yawned big. “I didn't get much sleep last night. I didn't want to miss you.”

“Check your cinch and we'll head out. We can ride and eat too.”

Slocum handed his wrap to the old lady and quickly checked the girth on his own horse, then mounted and retrieved his meal. Around a mouthful of food, O'Riley said, “I'm ready.”

They booted their horses westward on the Tucson road. Someday there would be a railroad headed west on this tract, when the big banks let the money loose to build more miles. Financial markets reflected by the stock exchanges had the railroad stuck back at Deming for this year.

O'Riley kicked his horse up beside the bay. “What have you been doing that brought you to Diamond City?”

Slocum thought about telling him he'd been busy fucking a fiery woman in one of the finer establishments in Silver City, but that wasn't necessary. “Looked at some mines for sale, but none looked that rich.”

“If I bought a gold mine, it wouldn't have enough gold in it to fill one tooth.”

“You can be taken if you don't watch 'em. What did you do before those rustlers stole your horses?”

“I imported racing horses from England and Ireland and made some good money. I had one die coming over once and they buried him at sea. He cost me four hundred pounds and they gave me half his fare back. But after that, I only shipped them in the fall or spring.”

“You have some more horses?”

“Yes, in the Adirondacks. I have six racehorses up there at the track and a man to train them.”

“This stallion was a good one?”

“A wonderful horse. Never lost but one race. Finished second that time and they shouldered him hard coming out of the starting gate.”

“Sounds like a good enough horse to steal.”

“The mare was from the King George breeding line.”

“I don't know about racehorse pedigrees.”

“Well, these two certainly have an impressive ancestry. King George horses are hotly sought after in the racing circles.”

“What can these rustlers do with them? Any lawman who knows horses will know they aren't simple ranch horses and ask questions.”

“I have no idea.”

O'Riley frowned at a burro honking behind them. Slocum turned in the saddle and saw the straw sombrero and the rider with a stick in her hand making the burro short lope. They had company. The hard-flailing rider was Rosa. A slow smile settled on Slocum's mouth. This business with O'Riley might not be so bad with her along.

Rosa reined her mount up and the mule, with the bit in his teeth, tried not to stop, but he was not dealing with a novice. The girl knew how to jerk him down.

“You going this way?” Slocum asked, amused and not at all unhappy to see her.

She nodded and looked upset. “You rode off without me.”

“Did I say anything about you joining me?”

She shook her head. “No, but I'll be helpful to you.”

He took his hat off and wiped his sweaty forehead on his sleeve. “There's a thought. Maybe you can be helpful. Whose burro?”

“Don't you know? Down here burros don't belong to anyone. You use them and turn them loose when you are done with them. The saddle and bridle cost me two dollars.”

He gave a head toss at his man. “O'Riley, this is Rosa.”

“I met him yesterday at the cantina,” she said, not sounding too impressed.

The man nodded and reined his horse around to face her. “Good day, miss.”

“Come on, you two,” Slocum said. “We need to make it to Benson by dark today.”

Benson was the last place he knew about the horses passing through. Their trail began there. Along with him, he had one lethargic guy he'd have to push to get to move and one honey-tasting titty girl. That should be a powerful enough posse to turn over an outhouse or two, and they were looking for some expensive racehorses stolen in Tucson. Plus, one of O'Riley's grooms had run off with his wife. She must be a dandy. No telling what else lay ahead for them or what he'd run across with this circus act looking for horse rustlers.

“Come on. We have to trot these animals,” Slocum said and jabbed the bay in the sides with his spurs.

At Fort Bowie, no one had seen the racing horses. Not a mention either among the enlisted military men when he asked around if anyone had seen them. Horse soldiers would have been curious. Most knew good horses on sight. So they headed for the Dos Cabezas, the next stage stop up in the hills that gave it the name. There they found several dirty-faced miners sitting on the cantina porch drinking beer.

Slocum asked them about seeing two fancy horses. The rattle of their heads told him the animals had not been brought through there. He made the other two in his party water their own mounts again as they had done at the fort, and then they headed for Benson.

The next spot on the stage road was Dragoon Springs.

The stage station man standing on the porch met them. “Can I help you?”

“This man lost two great horses. A mare and stallion. Racehorses. You seen them come through here?”

The man shook his head.

Slocum dropped from the saddle to water his horse at the public trough. That was not good news. The thieves must have gone south from Benson. Slocum's belly was hollow from not eating since before dawn.

“Rosa, go find us some food.” He tossed her a silver dollar.

“No, no.” O'Riley made her give the money back to Slocum. Then he bought their supper—or gave her the money for it, anyway—and she went skipping off like a free spirit.

While the horses and her burro slurped up the water from the wooden trough, O'Riley asked Slocum about her.

“A nice young woman from back there,” Slocum said, with a head toss over his shoulder toward Diamond City, where they'd met the night before.

“What does she charge?”

“A dollar, I guess.”

O'Riley shook his head at the price. “I can get all the pussy I want for fifty cents.”

Slocum shook his head at the man's attitude. “From your wife for free, if you ever find her again.”

“That no-good bastard,” O'Riley grumbled and scowled at the thought of the wife-stealing horse trainer.

Rosa soon returned with her two hands full of tamales, and they sat on the stage office porch, unwrapped the corn shucks, and ate them.

“What's next?” O'Riley asked. “My asshole is sore. I could sleep for a week. And still no horses.”

Slocum looked at him hard in disgust. “Did I tell you this would be easy?”

“No, but—”

“That's right. Now stop your bellyaching.”

They rode on through boulder-strewn Texas Canyon to Benson, arriving in the night, and ate supper in a small café they found still open.

“When she gets through eating, I'm sending Rosa up to the block of crib houses and see if they've seen your fancy horses. The rustlers had to go by those narrow cribs to have gone south to Tombstone. And those women don't miss much.”

“Who are the ones that you want?” she asked between bites.

“They would have been leading two fancy horses, a mare and a big stallion. You don't have a good description of them, do you, O'Riley?”

“They are both fine, bay-colored horses. Heads high and powerful. The stallion has a scar, but you wouldn't see it unless you were up close.”

“Oh, sure, if they went by, one of those
putas
would have seen them.” Rosa jumped to her feet. “I won't be gone long.”

“What help will she be?” O'Riley asked, disgusted, when she was started away from them.

“She probably can find out more from those women in half an hour than you or I could in a day or more.”

“She's a whore, ain't she?”

“I don't know. She ain't run off with another man yet.”

“Why do you keep reminding me about my damn wife? That money-grubbing bitch left me.”

“Maybe because you treated her so nice is why she left you. You know, you are about the dopiest guy I ever met. You gripe even when folks are trying to help you for free and are doing their best.”

“Hell, you'll get paid.”

“Start paying me and her every day then.”

“I need a drink.”

“Sure, go blab off in some cantina and warn them bastards who've got your horses that we're coming after them. That's why I sent her. She can learn more from those sisters than you or I could spending a week in those saloons. Besides, the women won't mention she's been there.”

“All right, all right. What do I need to do then?”

“Stop bitching. We will run these thieves down and get your horses back somehow. Be more helpful and damn sure stop treating Rosa like she's a slave. She came on her own and she can go on her own, anytime she wants. I figure she doesn't like working in a whorehouse, and she can be invaluable to us in this job.”

“I never really thought about that.”

“So now go back and tell me about your wife and the guy she left with. Did they take the horses?”

“No. I don't think so.”

“Why not?”

“They left Tucson, and I learned that they went north. I think those two went to Preskit in my buggy. They have horse races up there, the marshal told me. Do they?”

“Yes, they do.”

“They have races up there. He wanted to find another sucker like me and race his horses for him. No, I don't think they stole my racehorses. They just took my buggy and those two buggy horses. She could always say they were hers.”

“Where did you meet her at?”

“At Albany, New York. Her father had some racehorses. I met her at the racing meet. She was a lovely young woman, though I doubted she was a virgin at the time. She got a little tipsy at a party one night and I seduced her, bent over at the waist in a cupboard closet in the kitchen. Very easily done, I might say. Later she told me she was concerned that her monthly event had not come—she said she was pregnant.

“I decided to marry her. Her father offered me a nice dowry. I accepted it and we had a bloody honeymoon. I doubt she ever was pregnant at all, but we took off from there to Maryland and raced at Baltimore. And so on, I watched her more careful so she didn't entertain any other men. I mean, she liked it rather well and it was very easy to, what do you say, to make her hot.”

“Did she ever complain?”

“Oh, from time to time, she said, ‘I thought you were more aggressive when I married you.' I guess that meant she needed to be bedded more often than I had time for.”

“I see,” Slocum said, still wondering if she and the horse groom she went off with had any part in the horse theft.

“Where will we sleep?”