Quillan, however, had had a couple of serious lady friends since they had broken up. It was no surprise; the man was a gentle soul, successful businessman, handsome as hell, and hung like nobody’s business. That he hadn’t married any of them had been a genuine surprise, and she had been more than happy to sleep with him between his romances. Perhaps it was ego, but she couldn’t help but entertain the notion he was holding off committing to these other women because he still had hopes of an endgame that found the pair together forever.
Her mind now cycled back to that last coupling they'd had. Quillan's runs for the day had been completed, and they'd packed a dinner and gone out to a riverbank outside of Godspell. Following their meal things had quickly turned passionate. Honor closed her eyes and hugged herself as she remembered his strong arms encircling her as they lay on the picnic blanket …
***
The happy memories were still coursing through her mind as she made her way back to the campsite. As she walked towards the dry river bed, she was surprised to see that now tied to the same bush as their horses was a new addition—a small, shaggy pony. Quickly sweeping past them her mouth dropped open slightly at the final surprise that sat waiting for her. In the pale glow of the firelight a small, hesitant form sat next to Katie … Marisol.
“Katie?” there was more sharpness in her voice than she intended.
“Simmer down, Honor Elizabeth. She showed up here not more than five minutes after you went all wandering off. She be hungry, so I made her a meal.”
Marisol was holding an empty plate in her lap in confirmation of what she had just been told. Marisol looked up at her sheepishly.
“Please don’t be mad, Miss Wilde.”
Honor looked at Katie. “So, I see she knows my name now. Clearly, you two must have had quite a chat while I was away."
Setting the plate aside, Marisol fixed her with a pleading look. “Like I told Miss Katie here, I followed ya … followed ya all the way from town.I reckoned ya would have to stop and camp somewhere and I would join up with ya.”
“Join up. A colorful euphemism for running away.”
“Don’t know what that big word means, ma’am.”
"You do, however, know what running away means. You cannot run away from your mother like this. From what little I saw this afternoon, I know that life with her must be far from ideal, but there must be other ways to deal with your situation with your mother."
Katie shot up off the ground and drew close to Honor Elizabeth, so close she could see the sparking of her eyes and the indignant way she was jutting her jaw out. At least for the moment, the feisty Katie Dodge from the onset of their trip had returned.
“She aint her mama! Not her real one anyhows! She be a step-mama, and all she be doing is just using Marisol! We can't turn her back over to that woman! We just can't! Marisol be winding up dead if we do!”
An icy stare from Honor Elizabeth was her way of telling Katie to tone herself down a notch, but she followed it up with a soothing request.
“It does indeed seem as if I missed a good deal of Marisol’s story while I was indulging in my star gazing.”
“You can say that all right!” Katie piped in, but Honor remained calm.
“I am listening. Perhaps we can start with just who exactly this woman is and how you came to be with her.”
“She goes by the name of Patti Stuart, ma’am, though my papacito once told me he wasn’t sure if that was even her real name.”
Honor nodded, her experience had been that many a bad person in the West indulged in using an alias when they were sought after by the authorities. With the temper she had seen from Stuart earlier it would have been a surprise if she was a stranger to the law.
“So how is it now that you came to be with her? Where is your father?”
The girl's shoulders slumped, and Honor saw the sympathy on Katie's face who had already heard the girl's tale and quite a tale it was. Until two years ago Marisol had been happily living with her mother and father in the town of Arbusto de Brezo near the valley wall separating the Canebraro and the Verde Abundante. Theirs was a poor but happy family on their little patch of land where they grew vegetables on the edge of the fertile Rio Corriendo. Then cancer had come to take Marisol's mother. Her father could barely hold it together, and the farm failed without his wife and her skills with the crops. A year ago, they had left Mexico heading for Arizona hoping for a better life across the border. While working the only job, he could find tending bar in a brothel in Tucson, her bereaved father soon fell prey to another worker in the establishment.
Patti Stuart was not the madam, but she worked for the madam, making sure the girls stayed in line and produced a steady income from between their legs. Any that were caught skimming off their earnings could expect a beating from Stuart to teach them a lesson. Honor’s face had flushed beneath her dusky skin when she had heard this. It was as she expected, Stuart was used to dealing out her fists on beaten-down women who had few options in life.
Marisol's father had never led the single life having married her mother as teenagers. Though Stuart was nothing to look at, he was desperately lonely, and he had struck up a relationship with the woman who had immediately gravitated to it, as unlike the lovely working women of the brothel she was as homely as the day was long. Marisol had immediately feared the woman when she moved into their home after their quickie marriage by the justice of the peace.
Then two months ago, the new family was going through a very rough patch. The brothel had burned down when two saddle tramps had gotten into a fight over who was going to lay with the best-looking whore available that night. In the melee, a lantern had been knocked over setting the place ablaze. Soiled doves and johns alike had escaped with their lives, but Marisol's father and Patti were out of work with no income.
It was in this stressful environment when Marisol had angered the woman. Patti Stuart had smacked her so hard that she had given her a black eye. Enraged when he found out, her father had threatened to throw her out. The following day Stuart had begged him to reconsider, and he said he would mull it over as he left to head into Tucson from the little cabin they were renting hoping to find work. When he came back the man was gleeful saying he had received the most astonishing news in the form of a letter from his sister back in Arbusto de Brezo. So happy was he that he allowed Patti to stay providing she changed her ways and never dared lay a hand on his daughter again.
Honor Elizabeth's lips had parted in surprise as she listened to what had caused the man's sudden euphoria. It seemed a lawyer from across the sea in far-off Spain had contacted the local lawyer in their town looking for Marisol's mother. Though a very distant relative, her mother turned out to be the only heir to a fortune from a wealthy businessman in Cadiz who had died the year prior. The Spanish lawyer had finally managed to track down Marisol's mother, and now it seemed that left Marisol as the heir to the bounty of Spanish money.
Her father had been buoyant that now at last Marisol would be able to have the life that he and his late wife had always dreamed of for her. He began to make plans for them to return to Mexico and meet with the local attorney who was holding the papers from his Spanish counterpart in Cadiz to transfer the wealth into Marisol's name officially. As the final preparations were falling into place, suddenly José Luis Martinez was dead, made even worse by the fact that it had been Marisol who had found him upon returning from the schoolhouse.
The sheriff had ruled it an accidental death saying Martinez appeared to have been killed while cleaning his gun. All the evidence pointed to it, of course, with the cleaning materials laid out neatly at the table where the man had been sitting. Somehow it had discharged piercing his brain.
Honor had sucked in a breath. She didn't need to be Cassandra the detective to see where this was going. Sure, enough after a proper period of mourning Patti Stuart had said her goodbyes, and a few days ago they had headed south.
Now Honor knelt in front of Marisol and gripped he
r shoulders and looked her in the eye. “Honey, you think Patti killed your father, do you not?”
"I know she did, ma'am. I know she did. The night before he died they argued something fierce. Papacito wanted her to remain behind until the papers got signed, and then he was going to send for her. She said if we left she knew she'd never see us again!" Marisol blurted out and Honor couldn't help but wonder if there wasn't some truth to Patti's concern.
There was little doubt in her mind once Martinez became a wealthy man by proxy of being Marisol’s father, that had a way of bringing out the gold diggers, some of them quite lovely indeed.
“Did your father say why he wished for her to stay in Tucson?”
"Si. Patti had just started a new job, and he had told her he did not know how long it would be before we got the money from Spain, so one of them had to keep working in the meantime. She wouldn't believe him though. She was sure he was leaving her." The girl's gaze dropped downward. "The next day … the next day I found him." Tears started streaming down the girl's face, and Katie slipped past Honor and pulled the girl to her feet, hugging her. The pair had bonded so quickly after having met only earlier in the afternoon, Honor mused.
As Katie stroked the girl's hair, she looked at Honor Elizabeth with genuine conviction in her eyes. "Don'tcha see now, Honor? We can't let her get to that lawyer. You knows what’s gonna happen to Marisol once that money is signed over to her!”
Honor did know … Marisol would likely be as good as dead. It was certain in her mind the woman had murdered José Luis removing an obstacle in her way to getting her hands on the fortune her step-daughter was inheriting. As the adult and the legal guardian of Marisol, she would have full control over the money. Marisol would be kept alive for as long as she was convenient and then …
“I do see, and you are right. We will not allow it.”
Marisol wiped away her tears and squeezed Katie tight. "I knew ya was good people from what ya did to me back in town. She hit me before because I was talking to folks in Spanish and she only knows a bit she picked up from my papacito. She was worried I might be what she called spreading lies about her. She was worried I was going to tell someone exactly what I done told ya both now. After ya left us, she went over to the doctor to see about getting some laudanum or something. Knocking her tooth out left her in a lot of pain. That's when I slipped away and followed ya both!"
“You can rest assured we shall not allow you to fall into her hands again. I just need to figure out what our plan of action shall be.” Honor said firmly, and she began to pace about with her hands behind her back. Suddenly she stopped and looked at the other two.
“Wait a minute something you said-” she never finished as suddenly from the inky blackness beyond the firelight two massive arms thrust out knocking her forward. She heard screams from Katie and Marisol at the same moment she hit the ground … hard. Suddenly a figure was kneeling at her side where she lay slightly dazed next to the fire pit. In a matter of seconds, she felt both her Colt and her Bowie knife being yanked from where they straddled each of her curvy hips. Honor Elizabeth was now weaponless.
CHAPTER 3
Rolling away from the heat of the fire, Honor sat up to take in the frightening sight of Patti Stuart clutching the knife in one hand while the other kept swinging her purloined pistol from being trained on her to where Katie stood, shielding Marisol behind her back. Her pig-like eyes shone with undisguised triumph.
"It's just as I thought when I came out of the doc's office and found you gone. I just knew you lit out after these black bitches. If you could follow them from Córdoba, didn't you think for a damn minute that I could follow you? You didn't just think I was gonna let you waltz, away, did you? If you did, then you're just as dumb as those bitches back at the brothel that didn't have a brain in their head, only able to make a living spreading their legs," she sneered with a joviality in her voice that Honor found infuriating.
Slowly she held up her hands and climbed back up on her feet with the fire pit separating her from where Stuart stood near Katie and Marisol. Her gaze fell upon Katie’s bedroll where the younger woman had left the new gun belt with the captured pistol snug inside it, laying on top of it earlier when she went about preparing them dinner. It was too far from any of them to be of any use. Honor knew she would have to bide for time until she figured out an option.
“Of course, you would not. She is, after all, your meal ticket to a better life. As for those poor women forced to sell their bodies, well at least they could. I am quite certain it is no coincidence that you were some type of enforcer there as you surely would not be drawing in a steady clientele.”
It took Stuart a couple of seconds to react, still clearly having trouble processing such refined diction coming from someone she no doubt did not think capable of it based solely on her race, Honor suspected. When the meaning of her words hit home, however, the woman’s face turned crimson in the flickering light from the fire.
“You just want me to pull the trigger here and now dontcha, darkie? I only fired a gun once before in my life, but I don’t think I’ll have any trouble dropping you first, but I-”
“You mean when you kill my papacito, you puta!” Marisol shouted angrily as she peered from around Katie who instantly used her arm to shove her back behind her. Stuart’s hand holding Honor’s Bowie knife shook it for effect.
"Shut up, you little greaser, or I'll cut your tongue out! Might do it anyway as it'll guarantee you keep your mouth shut when I bring you in to sign those papers!" The evil woman's threat had an effect on the girl, and she seemed to shrink further behind Katie.
“Now as I was saying, I need you alive a little while longer. One at a time I want you to turn, go gather up whatever money you’ve got in your saddlebags and bring it to me. Don’t think about running either. If you don’t come back in five minutes, I’ll kill the one of you who stays behind!”
Katie surprised everyone by snarling, “You be kidding, right? You be wanting to rob us too? A whole band of outlaws already tried that, not to mention trying to sell us as whores, and most of them jaspers wound up dead!”
Puzzled, Stuart turned her head slightly to regard Katie, “What the hell you talking about, nigrah?”
The slight distraction was just what Honor needed, instantly darting forward to the fire pit, her booted right foot skirted over the ring of rocks and dug deep into the coals. Before she could even begin to feel the heat, she let loose a mighty upward kick. A comet of hot glowing embers exploded into the air pelting Stuart. Instinctively, the woman recoiled and brought both of her arms up to shield her face!
"Take Marisol and run!" Honor Elizabeth shouted as she leaped over the fire. If she failed to best the brutish woman she wanted the pair to have as good a head start as possible. Landing on the opposite side of the fire she saw the pair dart into the darkness beyond the sphere of firelight.
Stuart was struggling to regain her footing from stumbling backward from the assault of Honor Elizabeth's impromptu firestorm. Desperately, she was trying to bring the gun back to bear on her assailant, but Honor had handily snatched up the empty tin that had housed the uncooked biscuit dough they had bought in Córdoba. A powerful swing from Honor Elizabeth hit home smashing into Stuart’s hand clutching the gun. The large woman bellowed as the gun flew from her hand, vanishing somewhere in the pitch-black river bed.
Honor didn't pause to congratulate herself, Stuart still had the knife, and she knew just how deadly it could be. Only the night before she had used it to pierce the heart of one of the banditos out to sell the two women into the South American sex trade. Lunging she grabbed Stuart's wrist, gnashing her teeth together as she squeezed as hard as she could to make the woman drop it. For her part, Stuart wasn't just going to stand still, and she backhanded Honor across her face leaving her wondering if she would be the one to lose a tooth this time.
The blow had been so severe that it knocked her backward and for the second time she landed on the ground
on her back, landing next to a pair of skillets they had used earlier, and Katie had just used to fix Marisol a meal. In the fleeting seconds, as Stuart raised the knife for a fatal blow, ready to plunge it into her chest, her mind raced through the astonishing turn of events. She replayed her walk out into the desert, the stargazing and the warm memory of her last tryst with Quillan. If she didn't act, these would be her final memories. Honor's searching hand frantically grabbed the empty skillet that the biscuits had been cooked in and brought it up just in time to deflect the blade of the knife arcing down at her. The big woman cursed as she lost her grip on the knife when it bounced off the metal pan.
Flipping over Honor tried to crawl away on her hands and knees to reach the knife, but her hair suddenly felt like it was on fire as Stuart's hand seized her curly locks and used them to draw her head back. Honor Elizabeth yelped in pain as the woman pulled even harder, and she knew she was out to pull her head so far back that her neck would break.Her left hand slapped the ground near her desperately until she found what she was looking for. Gripping the handle of the other skillet, she flipped it behind her. It had been the one Katie had made the bacon in for the girl, and the hot grease still remained, grease that now struck Stuart.
The woman howled in agony, and the next thing she knew Honor was free. Scrambling away and back up on her feet she saw that she had missed her face like she had hoped to hit but the grease had managed to splash the woman’s shoulder and chest. Still caterwauling Stuart clutched at her shoulder in distress. Cassandra had often spoken when she was training her sisters to look for what she called “The Window of Opportunity” to end a fight, and this was it.
The Town 0f No Return: Special Edition (Half Breed Haven Book 11) Page 3
