Savage Desire

by Rosemary Rogers

  Some of the anger leached from her stormy face. “Missie and Renaldo are here?”

  “In the restaurant we passed—and so was your father. It looks like a reunion in town. Just what I need. Since I’ll be busy for a while, do you think you can stay out of trouble?”

  “Steve! My father is here, too…I wonder what he’s doing here still? I mean, he was here before Christmas, but I assumed he’d rejoined Sonya in Louisiana by now. Oh, I must go and visit him, then. I have some things I want to discuss.”

  “You’ll have to wait your turn. I have business with him first. Besides, you’ll want to see Missie. You’ll be traveling back to my grandfather’s with them when they leave.”

  As he expected, her eyes narrowed at him. Before she could reply, he added, “I’ll meet you there as soon as I can.”

  “You’re not leaving me now! We just got to town. You haven’t been here an hour yet, Steve Morgan!”

  “Ginny, the sooner I take care of what I have to do, the sooner we can send for the children. Keep that in mind while you’re badgering me.”

  Two bright spots of color flamed in her cheeks, but she said with prim resignation, “I have no intention of badgering you, Steve, so you needn’t look so expectant. I know you have to finish whatever it is Jim Bishop has sent you to do, and I know you have no intention of taking me with you. It should make you happy to know that I’m quite content to stay here. I’m just rather surprised to discover that Renaldo and Missie are here, as well as my father. Quite a crowd. Are you sure you didn’t send for all of them, just to keep me busy?”

  He grinned. “Maybe I did mention to my cousin in a telegram that we would be visiting San Antonio and suggested it was a good idea for him to get Missie away for a while. You like Missie well enough, don’t you?”

  “You know I do. And I see through your plan. You’re quite obvious, you know. I’ll go back with them, don’t worry about that. And I will wait for you, Steve Morgan, but I won’t wait forever! Don’t forget where you left me, because I may not be there if you take too long to come back!”

  Even though she had said it with a faint smile, he thought about that, and of all the times he’d left her before as he stepped out of the hotel into the street.

  The wheel always seemed to swing back around, bringing everything full circle. It wasn’t so long ago that he’d run into Francesca in Dallas, too, but then Toni Lassiter had been there. Vicious, depraved Toni—the beautiful blond bitch who had tried to destroy him.

  If not for Francesca’s help then, Toni may very well have succeeded. And then Ginny had been there, come to find out what she could about him. After everything, he had gone to her rescue, taking her from Toni and Matt Cooper before they could hurt her.

  Ginny, above everyone else, still had the power to seduce him into forgiving her transgressions, however unwillingly. He hoped that, this time, she did what he told her and went home with Renaldo and Missie.

  The back of the Majestic smelled like new paint and grease, with stale odors he’d just as soon not identify. Steve slipped inside, finding the dressing rooms by instinct more than memory.

  He heard her before he reached the closed door, and grinned to himself. The long-suffering Costanza was the recipient of one of Francesca’s famous tirades, her Italian temper flaring into heated invectives, the gutter speech of her youth more familiar despite her outward elegance.

  He opened the door slightly, leaned his shoulder against the frame and waited.

  “Am I to wear a gown without a sleeve?” Francesca was demanding shrilly. “It is too much, this! I am not some simple actress who does not care how she looks. Bah! I do not know why I bother! This town has never appreciated my talent, and is full of crude men who leer at me as if they have never seen a woman before!”

  “They have never seen a woman like you, carissima.” Costanza’s answer was mechanical and dutiful as she bent to pick up the sleeve her precious bambina had carelessly discarded on the floor. “I will sew it back on. Take off the gown now, before you rip the other sleeve.”

  “Oh, it is not the sleeve! It is this town! I do not think I can bear it here.” Pacing, her dark hair loose and held from her face by a glittering diamond comb, she swept regally across the carpet, angrily snatching up a glass of champagne and downing it in a single gulp.

  “It is not the town you hate,” Costanza observed with a sniff. “It is a man.”

  “No! I never think of him anymore. I am happy with Lord Lindhaven, you know I am.”

  “So? You do not seem to miss him when we are away.” Costanza’s sturdy body quivered with indignation, and when she looked up, her dark eyes widened with incredulity and then dismay. “Ah, it is the banditti!”

  “I told you no,” Francesca said irritably, flouncing around to glare at her companion, but as she caught sight of him in the doorway, the words died in her throat and the empty champagne glass dropped to the floor with a tinkling crash.

  “Stefano! Oh, it is you!”

  “Still making poor Costanza’s life miserable, I see. Don’t you ever get tired of being angry?”

  His lazy stance in the doorway, and the slow drift of his gaze over her, made her laugh throatily, her dark head tilting back so that her long dark hair swung seductively.

  “I never tire of being angry at you, my banditti. What are you doing here, in this hellish town?”

  “I could ask you that.”

  “Yes.” Her glossy lips curved into a smile, and she moved to him to press them against his mouth in a lingering kiss that made Costanza mutter under her breath. “Leave us,” Francesca commanded, ignoring her protests. The older woman stalked from the dressing room, banging the door loudly behind her.

  “She still hates me, I see,” Steve said, his arm having gone automatically around Francesca’s waist. “I feel quite at home again.”

  “Do you? I think not.” She drew back a bit, eyeing him with a critical frown. “You look—dangerous. Is that a new scar I see on your so beautiful face?”

  He caught the hand she put against his jaw, turned it over to kiss the palm, then held it. “I just came by for old times’ sake, ’Cesca. I can’t stay.”

  A note of sadness crept into her tone. “It is your wife, caro? She is with you?”

  “Yes, but that’s not the reason. Ginny will be staying in town. I’d like it if you avoided her. She doesn’t need any reminders of recent problems right now.”

  A dark brow arched. “And how would seeing me remind her of recent problems? Oh, have you two been quarreling about me? How provincial, caro!”

  “Nothing so mundane, ’Cesca. Do you recall a persistent admirer of yours by the name of Rafael Luna?”

  Francesca waved a dismissive hand. “So many men follow me persistently. I cannot remember them all, Stefano!”

  “But perhaps you recall the man who accosted you in Florence. I had to throw him bodily out of your dressing room after he saw us together.”

  “Perhaps I recall him. Has he followed me here? How intriguing. Should I see him, do you think?”

  “That would be rather difficult. I had to kill him.”

  Francesca laughed. “Such a vicious banditti! Did you kill him for me?”

  “No. He abducted Ginny to get to me. She went through hell because of him—and because of you and me.”

  “I had nothing to do with this Luna!”

  “No, but he blamed me for keeping him from you. And Ginny suffered for it.”

  “So you want me to avoid her.” Francesca stared at him for a long moment, then shrugged. “I shall not seek her out, if that concerns you. But should she confront me, I will not play the role of a coward. I warn you now.”

  “I don’t think Ginny will be confronting you, ’Cesca. I hate leaving her behind, especially now, but I must.”

  “So you try to wrap her in cotton wool so she does not see anything unpleasant? I see. Do you recall that I once told you to go back to your wife, that you must love her? I was more right tha
n even I knew.”

  Sighing, Francesca stepped back; her luscious figure was flattered by the gown that hugged her curves, and she looked every inch the princess she claimed to be.

  “I knew the day would come, Stefano. I felt it. You were never really mine. But then, I was never really yours. It was always a fleeting thing between us. I do not have time for a man in my life.”

  “Not even Lindhaven?” Steve’s mocking reminder of her most faithful protector made her shrug.

  “He accepts me as I am, and makes no demands upon me. I am free with him.”

  “He’s the kind of man you need in your life.”

  “Yes.” She gazed at him with a faint smile. “You and I, we learned not to give too much of ourselves. Lindhaven is willing to settle for little. But I think perhaps you have given all this time. There is a difference in you, Stefano. Is it because you are a father now?”

  “Partially.” He released her hand, and she put it behind her, leaning back against the dressing table scattered with bottles of perfume and face powder, waiting. “Mostly because of Ginny. She’s gone through a lot. Some of it is my fault, some of it’s hers, but we’ve both realized that we need each other. Hell, we love each other.”

  “So, it is true. She is a lucky woman to have you.”

  He walked to the back door with her on his arm, and stood just inside. “Your performance begins soon. Go back inside, ’Cesca.”

  Genuine tears sparkled in her eyes, and she kissed him, a long, passionate farewell kiss.

  “Ciao, mi amore.”

  He had gone only a few steps when he heard her behind him again. She flung her arms around him, heedless of her costume. “I will never forget you, my banditti!”

  Steve kissed her again. “Try not to make Lindhaven’s life miserable, cara.”

  Half laughing, half sobbing, she took a step back. “And for you, Stefano, I wish much happiness.”

  Ginny tied the sash of her dressing gown around her waist. Still damp from a long, soothing bath, she looked into the long mirror tilted on a stand by the tub. No sign of the bruises remained on her body. All traces of her recent ordeal were gone, except that Steve was right—she was too thin. Now her eyes looked too large for her face, and there were hollows beneath her high cheekbones.

  The silk dressing gown she had purchased in a dress shop upon their arrival in San Antonio clung to her damp curves, drifted around her legs as she walked to the window to pull down the shade. Sunlight poured into the room in broad swathes that made her eyes narrow against it as she fumbled with the shade. To her irritation, it snapped loose from her hands, spinning up around the wooden roller with a brisk hum. She reached for the cord to pull it down again, but paused suddenly as a glitter caught her eye.

  Across the street, just visible from her third-floor window, was the alley that ran beside the Majestic Theater. Sunlight reflected from a huge diamond comb tucked into the dark hair of Francesca di Paoli. Ginny would recognize her anywhere. And the man with her was Steve, of course, his lean frame far too familiar to her. His back was to the street, and the opera singer was glued to his front, her arms flung about his neck in a passionate embrace.

  Suddenly cold inside, Ginny stepped away from the window.

  I should have known…should have remembered that he can never resist a beautiful woman!

  But it didn’t mean that he’d been unfaithful, she told herself. I have to trust him! Oh God, I cannot let the doubts destroy us again….

  40

  Steve was still thinking more of Francesca than he was Ginny when he found Senator Brandon in the office he had taken in a two-story building overlooking the river.

  “I’ve been expecting you, Morgan.”

  Brandon looked at ease, his manner cordial and even friendly as he gestured him to a chair. “I was told you were in town with my daughter. How is Virginia? I trust she came to no harm while in Mexico City. She never listens. I did my best to get her to leave, even offered to send an escort for her. She refused, of course. Apparently, President Díaz treated her quite well.”

  “That made it convenient for you.”

  Brandon frowned slightly, and there was a wariness in his eyes that told Steve he was on the defensive.

  “If by that you mean that I was relieved, yes.”

  “I had the thought that you might have been more relieved to learn that Díaz is willing to allow you to operate your mine as long as you pay for the privilege.”

  “Ah, the mine. It has become an expensive luxury I am not sure I can afford any longer.” Brandon’s shoulders lifted in a slight shrug, and he held out a carved lacquer box of cigars. Steve took one, clipped off the end and ran his fingers over the smooth tube of tobacco; it was fragrant and distinctive, a good Cuban cigar.

  “So you intend to close the mine?”

  “I’ve had an offer.” Brandon eyed him for a long moment before saying, “I think there is more money to be made in railroads. Tell me, you own a large chunk of Union Pacific stock, what are your thoughts?”

  Steve narrowed his eyes at him. “Railroads are risky. You know that. What do you have in mind?”

  “I’ve recently met with Shanghai Pierce. He told me about the Texas Western Railway Company. It’s a narrow gauge railroad, recently amended to change the name to Texas Western Narrow Gauge Railway Company. The amended charter also gave the company the right to build west, to cross the Rio Grande at, or near, Presidio del Norte and into Mexico. The plan is to eventually cross Mexico to Guaymas on the Gulf of California. It sounds feasible, since the charter grants authority to construct a branch line from the northwestern border of Texas up to connect with the Denver and Rio Grande Railway Company.”

  “Right now, they’ve only got tracks laid between Houston and Pattison,” Steve said bluntly. “Not close enough to your mines to do you any good.”

  Brandon’s brow rose. “Perhaps I’m not as worried about that as I once was. I applied for government funding to run tracks all the way across Copper Canyon eventually.”

  “That will take more money and time than you can get, Senator.” Steve met his gaze calmly. “There are barrancas and arroyos there, hundreds of feet deep. Peaks are so high that even birds get dizzy. It’s not practical any time in the near future. Maybe not in our lifetime.”

  “You need a grander vision, perhaps.”

  “Senator, you’ll need financing. And you’ll need the Mexican government’s permission to lay your tracks. Even if I believed that’s what you intend to do, I wouldn’t advise it.”

  “It’s comforting to know that you’re so worried about my investments, Steve.”

  He stood up, a slight smile slanting his mouth. “If you’re planning on calling in Durant or Gould, you might want to be certain that President Díaz will allow you to continue mining ore, Senator.”

  “I don’t think that’s going to be a big problem. I have become acquainted with Díaz, and I find him to be quite agreeable.”

  “If he learns that you intend to remove silver and not pay him his share, he won’t be quite so agreeable, I can assure you of that. But take your own chances, Senator. You have been warned.”

  “I trust you would do nothing to interfere, Morgan. I have told you that I knew nothing about your being at the Galena until I saw you that day.”

  Steve recognized the angry frustration in Brandon’s eyes. He held up the unlit cigar he’d been given. “Thanks for the cigar, Senator. I’m leaving town tonight, but Ginny will be here for a while. I’m sure you’ll want to visit.”

  He left, smiling when he heard Brandon cursing as the door slammed shut behind him. That should give him something to think about for a few days, Steve thought.

  Within an hour, he and Paco left San Antonio.

  Heat shimmered from flat expanses of brush-studded hills, closing in like a heavy fist on the riders. The Rio Grande was behind them as they left Texas and crossed into Chihuahua. Their eventual destination was the capital city, El Paso del Norte, that lay
to the northwest.

  “Brandon will never be able to finish what he started,” Paco said flatly when they paused beneath the welcome shade of a scrub oak. Rugged hills and canyons stretched red-and-dun folds on each side, high crags gnawing at the horizon like jagged teeth. “Getting rails laid through Copper Canyon will be impossible.”

  “I don’t think that’s his main goal.” Steve squinted against the glare of the sun, drew a shirtsleeve across his brow to wipe away the sweat stinging his eyes. “He wants to get his ore to a seaport, and rails are the quickest method of transport. It’s all a cover. He doesn’t give a damn about laying tracks anywhere else.”

  “Then the government funding—”

  “Will be used for his own private enterprise, is my guess. Thomas Durant is an old crony of his, associated with innumerable accusations of bribery, fraud and scandal, from the president on down through the halls of Congress. He and Senator Brandon make a good team, acquiring venture capital at the expense of everyone else.”

  “So how is Brandon going to get his ore to the U.S. without the railroad?” Paco hefted a skin of water to squirt a stream into his mouth before offering it to Steve, then held it out. “By pack mule?”

  “Maybe. You know what Copper Canyon’s like, and the country is just as rough going around it. He can take his ore across the border into Arizona, even Texas, but either way, he risks running into Federales always on the watch. It’s my guess when he’s run rails as far as he can, he’ll pack it out of the Sierras to a seaport. With Durant’s help, he’ll end up getting the ore out of Mexico more efficiently, and both men will make enormous profits at the expense of the Mexican government and politicians.”

  “What about Terranzos?”

  “Right now the governor has his own problems worrying about his future since Díaz came to power. We have to worry more about Gould and Durant providing capital to the senator for his Mexican railroad.”

  “Durant—we met him with Murdock out in California, right?”

  “He’s an acquaintance of Murdock, but not an affiliate. Sam Murdock prefers not to maintain close association with men identified with virtually every accusation of scandal connected to railroad construction. Durant is as dirty as Senator Brandon, and as adroit at escaping consequences for his actions. With politicians like Brandon behind him, he’ll continue to get wealthier while the people he exploits go out of business.”