Free Desert Dreams by Deborah Cox Page B

deep breath and resumed, "Luis is dead, jefe ."
    "Dead?" El Alacran bellowed,
his deep baritone voice ricocheting off the stone walls of the cantina.
    "He was shot by vigilantes."
    " Perdicion !" El Alacran swore. "How did this happen?"
    Munoz shrugged. "I do not know. We watched him all night.
He got away from us only for a moment."
    "And did you get close to him? Did he talk?"
    "No and si jefe . I did not get close to him, but he did talk,
only not to me. There was a woman."
    "What woman?" El Alacran banged his fist on the table, nearly upsetting the bottle of tequila.
    "I do not know. I'd never seen her before—a gringa with pale hair.
She ran out in the middle of the street. I saw Luis talking to her just before
he died. There was a man with her: Rafael Montalvo."
    For a moment, El Alacran sat
stone-faced, then he began to laugh mirthlessly. "So, my old friend
Rafael. It seems we are destined to meet again."
    "That's not all, jefe ."
Munoz swallowed convulsively. He was obviously prolonging the moment when he
would have to impart whatever information he still possessed.
    "Out with it," the comanchero growled.
    "Valdez, he's dead too. Montalvo shot him near
Castroville a few days ago."
    El Alacran's smile faded, his
expression darkened.
    Perdicion ! He is killing
off my men one by one, the bastard!"
    Valdez's death had nothing to do with Luis Demas. Valdez's
death was part of another matter between him and Montalvo, a matter he had
considered long settled. He hadn't seen Rafael in five long years and had begun
to believe that his adversary must have gone east to fight in the gringo war.
But then he had reappeared on the border and started systematically going after
all the men who had ridden with him five years ago.
    It had to stop, and soon. But right now he had more urgent
matters on his mind.
    El Alacran rose from the chair,
still holding the terrified girl by the waist. She renewed her struggles with
the same results as before. She was no match for him, and he had no intention
of releasing her.
    "What do you want me to do?" Munoz asked.
    "Rest!" El Alacran said,
his voice booming in the small barroom. "You've earned a little enjoyment,
my friend. Then tomorrow you can take three men and return to San Antonio.
Bring them to me—both of them—alive. I leave tomorrow for Chihuahua. And take
Carlos with you. It's about time he grew up a little."
    Munoz watched as El Alacran dragged
the girl through a door to the left of the bar. The nervous bartender scurried
over to the table with a fresh bottle of tequila and a clean glass. Munoz
gladly accepted both.
    He had fared much better with El Alacran than he had dared to hope. But for all his surface calm, the chief was close to
exploding with rage at that moment.
    He heard the girl scream from the adjoining room, followed by
the bandit's merciless laugh. Lucky for him, El Alacran had another object for his fury tonight.
    Munoz opened the tequila bottle and poured a glassful, which
he drank in two gulps. Tomorrow he would make the long ride back to San
Antonio. He'd have to take El Alacran's little
cousin. When would El Alacran accept the fact that
Carlos Delgado didn't have what it took to be a comanchero ?
The niño nearly
fainted at the sight of blood.
    Well, he would worry about that tomorrow. Tonight he was
determined to enjoy himself. And with that decision made, he grabbed the
tequila bottle by the neck and sauntered out of the cantina, intent on finding
some suitable outlet for his own frustration.
    * * * * *
    The first thing Anne felt the next morning when she woke up
was pain. It started at the top of her head and spread down her body to her
feet. Her muscles and bones ached every time she tried to move, but she managed
to get to her feet.
    She stood on legs that threatened to give way beneath her and
gazed around, sighing in despair.
    Even though the morning was still young, the sun on her face
was uncomfortably hot, and she held a hand to her brow to shield it as