The Kissing Stars

by Geralyn Dawson

  “Our plan is that I’m gonna leave and find Monty. I’m giving official notice.” As her long, curled lashes narrowed, he led her beyond eavesdropping distance of the others, ignoring his son’s glare as he did so, and added, “I have a confession to make. I’m awfully happy you felt like following us.”

  “You are?”

  “I am.” He quickly told her about the rendezvous spot and added, “From the way Robards described the terrain it would be nigh on impossible to protect Will. I mean for him to stay here with Blackwell and keep an eye on the colonel’s gold, but I was torn about leaving him with someone I’m not certain I trust.”

  She shot a quick glance toward Blackwell. “But he’s a Ranger. He’s the law.”

  Gabe chided her with a look. “I’d feel better knowing you are here with him, Tess. Just in case.”

  “I guess I should be glad you trust me.”

  He stared deeply into her eyes. “Darlin’, I could tell you I trust you with my life, but that’s not nearly as important as the feet that I trust you with my son.”

  “Well, you should. I’ve kept him safe for eleven years, haven’t I?”

  Before he could answer, Ranger Blackwell called, “Montana? Daylight’s wasting. Let’s get a move on or are you planning to make camp?”

  “Actually, I’m planning on you making camp, Blackwell. If one is needed, that is. I have every intention of being back here before nightfall.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I think we need someone to stay behind and guard the gold.” He turned to Will. “Your mother’s injuries are paining her, and she can’t go any further. She plans to stay here and guard the gold, and I’m hoping you’ll stay behind and help guard her. We shouldn’t ignore the possibility that Bodine wants us to dump the gold before we meet up with him. Could be this is a ruse to get his hands on it without turning over his prisoner.” If Will’s beloved Doc truly is a prisoner, that is, Gabe silently added. “I can’t see any way around splitting up, and I’ll feel better if you’re here to watch over the situation. Bodine wouldn’t be…kind to a woman as beautiful as your mother.”

  Will scowled and lifted his voice in protest “But what about Doc? Don’t you need me—”

  Tess manipulated the moment with a theatrical wince and sway, her hand pressed to her head. The little moan she let out didn’t hurt either.

  “I’ll take care of her,” Will said, hurrying to his mother’s side.

  Minutes later, Gabe and Lionel Robards mounted up and headed out. Once he spurred his horse, Gabe purposely didn’t look back. He was on his way to rescue Monty Cameron from the likes of Jimmy Wayne Bodine.

  If he looked back, he might just turn around.

  THE UNEASY feeling crept up Tess’s spine like a desert centipede.

  Gabe hadn’t been gone ten minutes before the back of her neck began to twitch with a sense of menace. She wished Twinkle were here. For as little as Tess actually believed Twinkle’s supernatural superstitions, she had to admit the woman knew what she was doing when it came to hunches. Tess wasn’t nearly so adept.

  Probably it’s nothing, she told herself, scanning the desert around them with a keen eye. As flat as the land was and with such little cover, nothing bigger than a snake could sneak past three pairs of eyes standing watch. She was simply reacting to the seed Gabe had planted in her mind about a trap.

  Lieutenant Blackwell certainly wasn’t the source of her disquiet. On the contrary, his presence reassured her. He took his guard duty seriously, and his friendly manner toward both Tess and her son eased any concern that he might be a threat. If the man intended to hurt them, he’d have never apologized with such vigor as he had when he accidentally bumped Will, sending him sprawling into a fresh pile of camel droppings.

  Keeping her eyes focused on the area she’d been assigned to watch, she tuned into what Will was saying to the Ranger now. Ah, it was the story of how Rosie had knocked the Hero of Cottonwood Hollow school flat during the state fair pig race. Tess bit back a sigh, wishing she could rewind the clock and somehow prevent his finding out about his father the way he had.

  Blackwell displayed no reserve in reacting to the boy’s story. In fact, his laugh was so mirthful that it drew Tess’s gaze.

  Just in time to see the red badge of blood splatter across his chest

  The sound of the gunshot blasted through her mind simultaneously, and then the moment seemed to pass in slow motion. “Will!” Tess cried, diving for her son even as the Texas Ranger slumped to the ground.

  “Mama!” Will shouted, turning in circles and waving his gun with a shaking hand.

  Tess got him down behind the shelter of one of the boulders. Fear pounded through her veins; her heart beat triple-time. She held her breath, her mind racing as she tried to decide what to do as she waited for another gunshot.

  A voice threaded up from the other side of the boulder, menacing, threatening, and amused. “Scared you, didn’t I? I love to do that. Now, throw your guns outside this here ring of boulders and I won’t have to shoot the boy.”

  Will’s arms grabbed her around the waist and he buried his head against her bosom. She could feel him trembling and she wanted desperately to tell him everything would be all right. But she wouldn’t lie to her son, not now. Not when it might be the last thing she ever said to him.

  Tess threw away her gun and instructed her son to do the same. Immediately thereafter, a face loomed up from behind one of the rocks. Black hair, thick, bushy brows. Mean green eyes that glimmered with an unholy light. Thin lips showing a smile sporting two broken teeth. “Jimmy Wayne Bodine.”

  “Yep.”

  Tess shuddered all the way to her bones. He scrambled over the top of the rock, keeping his Colt revolver pointed their direction. A dozen questions boiled in her head, and they popped from her mouth in no conscious order. “We didn’t see you. How could we not have seen you?”

  He grinned evilly. “That’s ‘cause I was already here. I’ve been watching for you. Expected you either today or tomorrow. Doc said you’d drop the gold, so I fixed hiding places in every logical spot. I was tucked beneath a wash of scrub in the gully here and every one of you walked past me half a dozen times. I wanted to laugh but I kept quiet. I’ve been watching you coming at me. You and your camels and that dead man Whip Montana.”

  “Dead?” Will gasped.

  “Sure. He’s been a walking dead man since I took my first step outside the Walls in Huntsville. Tell you what, I didn’t like giving up my chance to kill him just now. But the boss, he wants it done a certain way. That Doc sure does like games, don’t he?”

  The boss? Doc? Oh, no.

  “You’re lying!” Will accused recovering enough to unwind from his mother and stand alone once more. “Doc wouldn’t kill my father!”

  Bodine shrugged. “He’s not planning to. That’s my pleasure, and my payment for Doc’s breaking me out of jail.”

  Tess felt as if her feet were sinking into quicksand.

  No, she couldn’t believe this. But the timing fit. The wanted poster fit. She didn’t understand. “Why? Why is he doing this?”

  “The boss?” Bodine gestured with the gun for Will to step away from Tess. When he added a glare, the boy moved. “I don’t rightly know why he’s after Montana, except for something he said about payback. Doesn’t matter to me because my reasons are all I need to turn that sonofabitch into worm food.” He gazed at Tess with a predatory gleam in his eyes and added, “And after seeing the way he ran his tongue down your throat, I’m thinking he’ll especially hate what I have in mind for you.”

  Plans for me. Oh, Lord, help me.

  “Boy,” he said to Will. “I want you to start loading that gold right back on that monstrosity with the hump on his back. Handy of your pa to leave the camel here for me. We won’t need to go fetch the travois I have stashed in the gully to move the gold to my hiding place. Go on, now. We don’t have all day. I have plans for when we get to where we’re going.” />
  Fixing his gaze on Tess, he reached down and rubbed his crotch. “Special plans.”

  Tess shut her eyes as the knowledge seeped into her pores like a poison. Rape.

  Fear fluttered through her, threatening to send her to her knees. But maternal instinct was mightier than fear, and as she turned her attention to protecting her son, her strength came roaring back. Take it one step at a time, Tess. You’ll know what to do when the time is right.

  Jimmy Wayne Bodine would not hurt her son in any way. Period.

  “Do as he says, Will,” she told the frightened boy.

  It took them almost twenty minutes to get the bags property balanced and lashed onto Pollux’s saddle. Bodine sat and watched them, waving his gun, talking tough, and touching himself. Tess watched her son closely and saw the moment he realized what Bodine had in mind for her. The wild look on his face convinced her she must convince the criminal to leave her son behind. To that end she began to talk.

  “Don’t be afraid Will. You know how you get when you’re afraid. We don’t need to deal with vomiting and the other…well…I don’t know that Mr. Bodine will allow you to change your britches. And you don’t have that many extra pairs with you.”

  “What?” her son said looking at her as if she were crazy.

  Bodine scowled “Are you saying the kid gets the trots when he’s—”

  “Upset or frightened or even just a little tense. It’s a physical problem, and not something he can control. So, please, Mr. Bodine, don’t take it out on Will when he becomes unpleasant to be around.” Turning to her son, she said “I know you’ll try your best, honey, but when it happens, just make sure to stay downwind of Mr. Bodine.”

  Now she’d made the boy crazy. “Mama, what are you doing?”

  “I’m sorry, honey. I know it embarrasses you, and I try to be extra sensitive of the fact. However, under the circumstances I thought it best for Mr. Bodine to know.”

  “Damned right,” Bodine said rearing back and holding his hand over his nose. “I’m not taking a boy who shits his pants with me anywhere. Don’t need him anyway. Get a rope, lady. Well tie him up and leave him here.” He scratched at his beard and added, “I sorta like that thought, anyway. He can give my message to Montana personally.”

  Bodine directed Tess to tie the knots so he need not get too close to the boy. “I will check them, though,” he added. “So do them up right.”

  While she retrieved a rope from Castor’s saddle, she kept her gaze on the ground, searching for the best sharp-edged rock among the many scattered across the desert sand. Making her choice, she dropped the rope to hide the act of scooping up what she intended to be a makeshift knife. Then, as she bound her son’s hands, she whispered in his ear. “You are my best hope, Will. Try to get loose and get back to Twinkle. Maybe Andrew will have arrived by then. If not, she and Colonel Jasper will figure out a way to help me.”

  “But I can follow you,” he whispered back. “Surprise him.”

  “No. I forbid it, Will. Do you understand me? You are not to come alone. I’ll have your word on it.”

  Bodine said, “Hey, what are you mumbling about. No funny business, ya hear?” He took a step toward them. “Ya got him tied?”

  “Yes.”

  Holding a hand over his nose, he approached Will.

  His grimace told her he’d caught a whiff of the camel droppings ground into her son’s pants during the earlier fall. The chiding glare he shot Tess told her she’d failed to sufficiently hide the laxity in her knots. “Get back over here and tie him again, woman.” He put the barrel of his gun against her son’s temple. “Do it right this time or I’ll take care of the problem myself.”

  Tess tied good knots. Bodine checked them again and grunted his approval “Damn boy smells like a goat. I can’t get out of here fast enough, I’m telling you.” He gave the rope a vicious yank, setting the knot even tighter, and backed away. “You won’t be going anywhere now. You’ll be here in case your pa misses the message we’re leaving him up in the mountains. If that happens, see that he gets this.” He removed a folded sheet of paper from his pocket and set it on the ground, weighting it with five gold coins. “Then give him a personal message from me. Tell him I’ve a hankering for a woman. Tell him while I’m waiting for his arrival, I’ll be having me a right fine time with his wife.”

  CHAPTER 16

  CHISOS MOUNTAINS ROSE TO nearly eight thousand feet above the flats of the Chihuahuan desert. For comparison, if Gabe dubbed the lush, pretty little Aurora Springs valley as Eden, the area of the Big Bend wouldn’t make a bad hell.

  Robards had underestimated the length of time required to reach the rendezvous spot. It had taken them closer to twenty minutes to ride into the mountains to the base of Dagger Mesa. Though Gabe could see the needle shaped rock that was his destination, they still had a goodly climb to go before they would reach it. “This is shaping up to be a long ten minutes,” he told the Ranger.

  “Guess we made better time before.”

  Guess Bodine better not get too antsy when it takes longer than ten minutes to retrieve the gold to ransom Monty. If ransoming Monty was what this was all about, that is. Gabe wouldn’t bet so much as a pebble on that being the case.

  He eyed the steep narrow trail up the side of the mesa, noting the abundance of cover. “If Bodine is perched up high waiting to pick us off, he’s had better opportunities elsewhere.”

  “I don’t think that is his plan, do you?”

  “No. He won’t try to kill us until he knows for certain we brought the gold and I intend to see and speak with ol’ Doc myself before we let anybody know anything about where we stashed the stuff.”

  They conversed no more as they started up the trail. It was a slippery business and each man stumbled and skidded a number of times along the way. Gabe kept a close watch on his surroundings, on guard against ambush or other surprises as he climbed. Nothing untoward happened and finally, the trail leveled out and a campsite of sorts was revealed.

  Two items lay on display beside a ring of stones. Gabe identified the first item the moment he spied it. My mother’s locket. His father had called it his most prized possession. That clenched it Monty Cameron was involved in this plot one way or another.

  The second item was a sheet of paper. Gabe picked it up and scanned the page.

  “What does it say?”

  “It’s signed J.W. Bodine. Says he has moved his hostage to a place called Burro Canyon.”

  “Burro Canyon! That’s at least a two hour ride from here. Maybe longer. In fact,” Robards paused and rubbed his jaw. “Burro Canyon isn’t far from where Doc has been working in those caves that have him so inspired.”

  Gabe’s brow furrowed in thought. What was the purpose of having them come this way to begin with? He felt like a miner lost in tunnels whose walls kept shifting. Somebody was playing with him, and he damned well didn’t like it.

  “So, do we ride on?” Captain Robards asked.

  Gabe shook his head. “No. We go back. The rules on this game we’re playing have just changed. We’re going back for Tess and my son. Then we’ll take the gold and head for Burro Canyon.”

  “You’re taking a chance,” Robards warned. “We’ll be lucky to make it by dark and sunset is Bodine’s deadline.”

  Gabe shrugged. “By sunset I expect Bodine will be dead, period. I’m gonna kill him.”

  With that profound statement, Gabe headed back down the hill. He led them away from Dagger Mesa and made better time than Robards going in. Upon reaching the flats, he spurred his horse into a gallop, a sense of urgency riding his shoulders, trepidation clutching his gut. Bodine or Doc or whoever played puppet master had sent them on a wild goose chase.

  That knowledge was why, when they returned to the ring of boulders where he’d left his family, he wasn’t surprised to find it empty.

  JIMMY WAYNE Bodine talked murder all the way to Burro Canyon. Starting with the playmate he’d purposefully drowned at the age o
f eight, he spoke in excruciating detail of the killings he’d accomplished. He threw in a robbery account now and then, and spoke of beatings and assaults. Mostly, though, he talked about death. Thirty-seven bodies.

  Whip Montana, he told her, would be thirty-eight.

  “I’ve been looking forward to this since the minute my friend Doc broke me out of jail. You know, I spent at least an hour of every day planning how I’d kill him when I had the chance. Thought up some great tortures.” He chuckled with devilish glee and added, “For all my thinking, I never expected you. You are the best surprise I’ve had in a coon’s age. Just think how it’ll burn his ass when I plant ol’ Dickory Dock in the pole hole.”

  His crudity served to insulate her from the fear and instead flamed her anger. Tess renewed her struggles to free herself, working the leather bonds at her wrists until her skin was raw and bloody. Tied to the saddle horn of the mule he’d provided for her to ride shortly after leaving Will, she was unable to loosen the knots at all She was good and stuck on this animal until Jimmy Wayne Bodine saw fit to release her.

  She tamped down her temper and forced herself to think. She’d be hanged before she’d let Bodine succeed at his cruelty. What she needed was a plan. Gabe had been scornful of Bodine’s intelligence and she’d seen nothing that contradicted his low opinion. It didn’t take smarts to be evil, and that’s all Bodine had revealed up to now.

  I’m bright. I can outsmart him. I’m not scared.

  He turned his head and leered at her, licking his lips.

  And rice grew in the Chihuahuan desert in July.

  She lost track of the time they traveled, but eventually they arrived at a campsite deep in what he told her was Burro Canyon. Bodine left her tied in her saddle while he divested Pollux of his golden burden and stashed the bags in a brush-concealed opening in the rock. That he openly allowed her to view the hiding place told her without words of his intention to kill her.

  “This area is riddled with caves,” he explained matter-of-factly. “Easy to get lost in. When Doc first left me here, I went exploring one day and damn near didn’t find my way out. I could’ve died in that maze.”