Texas Temptation

by Kathryn Brocato

  “What?”

  “You saw how he lives, AJ. Besides, if Mike ever discovers you’re Gina’s sister—”

  “Okay, so we get him out.”

  “And bring him here.”

  “Here?” The word croaked out. “After—”

  “She’ll be okay. And Rosa and you will be here.”

  “Why not a hotel?”

  “You’d have to register. Rosa and you will be safer here. No one knows who I am or who Emily is.”

  That made sense. But—

  She took a deep breath. “And then I go back for Rebel?”

  Chance’s face hardened. “You don’t get Rebel, AJ. Robbie’s the best I can do.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  It was like he’d punched her in the gut. He saw the shock in her face. She tried to step toward him, but her legs shook and she sagged backward, a chair arm breaking her fall. He held his breath, expecting her to fling herself at him, shrieking and flailing.

  Instead she sat there like a stone for several long seconds, with an expression he couldn’t decipher. Then she straightened and looked around.

  “Go say goodbye to your aunt.” It was an order, not a suggestion. He stared at her for a moment, then shrugged slightly and did as she said.

  When he came out of his aunt’s room, AJ was outside in the sun, bending over the side of the truck and staring down into the bed.

  You could literally cook eggs in this heat. He’d seen it done on the hood of cars on news programs. He wondered why the burn didn’t bother her. Didn’t speak well for the conversations they still needed to have.

  He clicked the lock open but didn’t open her door, going to his own side and turning the air conditioning on. “Get in, AJ,” he called, as he did the same.

  He waited until they were heading back toward San Bernardo Avenue before he broached the subject again.

  “Look, AJ, I know I took you by surprise, but you know you can’t get him out.”

  “He’s ours. My mom and I own him. We have the papers. We can prove it.”

  “But Mike has him. Possession—”

  “Isn’t nine-tenths of any damn law! Mike stole him!”

  “Did he?” Chance challenged. “Because that’s not what I heard. Not even from you, at first.”

  He crossed San Bernardo, with its crush of traffic, and headed toward the stop sign on the access road.

  “Where are we going?” AJ demanded.

  “Shopping.”

  “No.”

  “But—”

  “Say we fought. Say I didn’t feel well and wanted to get out of the heat. Tell him to go to hell and to take you with him! I want to go home—no, not home! Just back. To my nephew—and to Rebel.”

  He turned sharply onto the access road and headed toward the bridge. No point in trying to reason with her while she tried on clothing anyway, he admitted to himself. But María would notice. An old truck lumbered across in front of him and he swore violently and jerked the steering wheel to avoid a collision.

  “Look, AJ—we can get Robbie out. We put him in the car and take him for his next round of shots. We can say he isn’t eating well and we don’t want to take chances with him while Mike’s gone. There are easy explanations for escaping with Robbie. But Rebel—you know we can’t do that.”

  “I came here for him,” AJ said, not looking his way. “And I won’t leave here without him.”

  “And you would do that how?” he asked. “Mike has a horse trailer. But no matter what I did, you’d be stopped before you got to the bridge.”

  “Maybe I wouldn’t,” she argued. “Maybe I could get to the bridge. If I got to the U.S., I’ll go to court. Even if I didn’t, there are honest courts here. I could find someone—”

  “You’re assuming Mike wouldn’t do something as spiteful as having Rebel shot to death in his trailer. Just to make a point.” She went white and hunched forward, clutching her stomach, as if sickened by his words.

  He reached over to pat her arm, but she moved away.

  “Tell me more about your uncle and Emily.”

  Another order, but she had a right to know. Because of his uncle, he couldn’t let her have Rebel. Maybe down the road, but not now. He turned onto the narrow road that paralleled the river as it meandered toward the outskirts of Nuevo Laredo. Lush vegetation flanked the road on both sides, creating a curtain that shielded cars from viewers along the river or those on other, more major roads. Not far down the road, a small cross with roses dotted the empty landscape. He hoped AJ didn’t ask. She didn’t, and he thought she must have known instinctively whose life and death the small monument marked.

  Gina had died when her speeding car flipped, of course, but he’d always considered this the perfect place for an ambush. He’d warned Mike, who had ignored his suggestions to have the foliage trimmed, but he felt the danger again now. He hoped AJ did—maybe she’d admit he was right. There’d be no chance to save the big red horse crawling down this road in a trailer. Even if she went to the authorities and they decided to confront Mike, Rebel’s safety couldn’t be guaranteed. And AJ—he shuddered with revulsion thinking about what could happen to her.

  “Your uncle,” she reminded him, insistent, but not as harsh.

  “He had a good reputation as a trainer, but he moved around a lot, followed show circuits—sort of floated. That is, until he met Emily.”

  He smiled with genuine fondness. “You could see it the night they met each other at a potluck dinner for someone’s birthday. They married almost immediately, but Emily didn’t feel comfortable traveling. They didn’t want to be apart. And then my uncle met Mike Towers.”

  “In New Mexico? I thought he was a Texan?”

  “He’s a bastard who moved around making money off everyone he found. His first wife was a Mexican national. She left him a fortune, although there was some funny business to keep it in the stepson’s name. Strangely enough, the stepson hasn’t been seen or heard from in years.”

  “So how did he get to New Mexico?”

  “Second wife. Married him and made him a partner in her real estate business. She left him after less than a year, but he kept the company in the settlement. There were rumors she was so afraid of him she preferred to just start over somewhere else.”

  “And you knew this when you found out he’d married Gina? Yet you believed every terrible thing he said about her?”

  Damn! Won’t she stop already? He shifted in his seat and looked out again at the moving vegetation. They were so near the river, and it was clearly breezier here than it had been in central Laredo.

  Abruptly he felt uneasy, almost sure that men would jump out on either side of the truck and open fire. Or a demented woman would run in front of the truck, wailing for her lost children. He could feel his heart accelerate and cursed himself silently. His aunt’s desperate sorrow and AJ’s grief were soaking into him, making him—

  Something large splattered against the windshield.

  He jumped. Beside him, AJ couldn’t bite back her little “iiig!” of alarm.

  They exchanged glances and AJ finally smiled. “Stupid butterfly.”

  “That’s harsh,” he protested, turning into the drive up to the house. “But yeah—stupid butterfly.”

  He parked the truck, but let it idle. “AJ, careful with María. You came back because you didn’t feel well, or—”

  “That won’t work,” she said immediately. “Because I’m not going to stay in the house all day. I might swim.” She opened her door, but tossed over her shoulder, “And I am going to see Rebel.”

  He sighed and slid out, ready to call off the dogs if they were loose. Then he followed a few steps behind her as they went in out of the blistering heat.

  He still hadn’t figured out how she thought she could escape with Rebel. He couldn’t let her try, though.

  He had one last chance to prove that Mike Towers trafficked in insurance fraud, that he framed innocent people for heinous crimes. And to do it, he need
ed AJ to take Robbie and go. She’d have to be safely across when he outed her—when he told Mike Towers that Gina’s sister had come for her horse.

  • • •

  María was in the living room dusting and fussing with the embroidered runners covering many of the furnishings when they went in.

  AJ knew María held her in great contempt, but she still gave her a fleeting smile.

  “Back so soon?” the woman asked, her voice too sweet. “And with not a bag to show for being gone most of the day?”

  AJ shrugged. “Nothing suited me.” Then she turned up her smile, matching María’s false demeanor. “Besides, I wanted to get Mike’s opinion on the dress I really want. Wouldn’t want to get something too sexy—or not sexy enough.”

  María glowered and turned away, setting a candle down on a table so hard that it rattled the glass top.

  Beside her, Chance grinned and mouthed something—“Touché,” she thought he said. She acknowledged his praise with a nod, then remembered they had issues to settle. She walked over to the stairs, turning to address both of them.

  “I’m lying down for a while. The heat gave me an awful headache. I hate to ask, María, but do you think someone could bring me a pitcher of ice water? I just need to go lie down.”

  Chance looked puzzled at that, but she didn’t care. María hated her and probably wouldn’t take the water—she’d send Rosa. And Rosa would walk in that door holding the pitcher in one hand and Robbie in the other.

  She smiled all the way up the stairs and down the hall to her room. So Chance thought she couldn’t be smooth and sneaky? She’d show him—no, no she wouldn’t. She’d talk to him one last time about Rebel, and if he didn’t give in and help her, she’d just do what she’d come to do anyway. Robbie would be safely out of the way and—and Chance would be here to face Mike Towers’s rage. Alone.

  Fear for Chance gripped her. In the short time they’d known each other, he’d become important. Someone looking out for her. Someone at cross-purposes, maybe. But a man she could want. A man whom she could—she bit back the word. She couldn’t love him.

  “Señorita AJ?” Rosa called softly, and AJ went over to open the door, smiling. She was right, and immediately pulled Robbie out of Rosa’s arms, hugging and kissing him as she shut the door.

  “Sorry to make you bring water—”

  “Don’t be silly,” Rosa said matter-of-factly. “I’m a servant.”

  “Not mine,” AJ muttered. “But I’m glad you came instead of María.”

  “I think that was the plan, no?” Rosa winked. “Were you really going to lie down?”

  AJ kissed Robbie’s tummy, hands, and toes and settled him on the carpet. “No, actually,” she admitted. She looked at Rosa, wondering what, if anything, she knew of Chance’s plans for Robbie. This woman had apparently been Gina’s last friend. Piercing pain cut through her and she reached for the baby again, but he gurgled merrily and crawled away, leaving her to focus on Rosa.

  “Rosa, has Chance—?”

  “Wait,” she whispered, and went to peer out the door. “I have seen María listen at doors,” she explained.

  “We must talk about tomorrow,” she acknowledged. “But first—AJ, I want you to know I came to love Gina. I … don’t have family now, and she was like a sister.”

  “Thank you.” AJ blinked hard. “I’m glad you had her, and that she had you. Rosa … how bad was it for Gina?”

  Rosa sighed and walked over to the window, pulling the curtain aside. She peered out and spoke quietly. “Gina seemed happy when I met her. So pretty, always laughing—so alive.”

  Then she faced AJ again, her face hardening. “There is no man as evil as Mike Towers. When he had guests, he would show off your sister like—like a Hollywood starlet. Bring her out in beautiful clothes, covered in jewels.” She smiled slightly, remembering. “Gina won over many of her husband’s friends. But then …

  “He always had affairs, but he hid them from her at first. Then—” Rosa shrugged. “He would have women at his home, here or in Laredo. He seemed to encourage the men he invited over to make passes at her, and then he would insult her and accuse of being unfaithful.”

  “She never let me know anything,” AJ whispered, tortured. “Could she have?”

  Rosa shook her head. “At first, I know she could have. Even later, I would have done anything she asked to help her. I think she thought she could change him. But once Mike brought Rebel over here—and then Gina found out she was pregnant—I think he threatened her. She never said so, but I think she was afraid of losing everything if she did anything he didn’t want her to.”

  She glanced at her watch. “I cannot stay much longer, and I need to take Robbie.” She came across the room and embraced AJ. “Have faith, AJ. Trust me. And trust Chance.” She picked Robbie up from where he sat playing with the handles on one of the dresser drawers, and held him up. AJ brushed a kiss on his cheek, fear gripping her at the thought of losing him now that she’d found him.

  “Bye, Gordito,” she whispered, and he patted her, then gave her a sloppy kiss before yawning and tugging Rosa’s hair.

  “Dinner,” Rosa translated, then repeated, “Have trust.”

  “I’m trying. I just keep thinking Chance could have done more.”

  Rosa spun around, but AJ held up a hand. “We can argue later. We don’t need María outside the door.”

  “Hard to believe tomorrow’s my last day here,” Rosa murmured, and then, when AJ raised an eyebrow, “I won’t be able to come back without Robbie.”

  “I hadn’t thought of that,” AJ admitted, ashamed that she hadn’t. Rosa reached for the doorknob, and AJ remembered the question she’d asked herself so often.

  “Rosa, you’re college-educated, a U.S. citizen. Why have you stayed with Mike?”

  Rosa snorted in disgust. “For the very worst reason in the world,” she answered. “No, I have never been his lover, as I’m sure you thought. I am his daughter.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  “What?” AJ breathed, stunned.

  Rosa shifted Robbie more comfortably on her hip and brushed at her hair. “Yes. It comes as a shock, no?” She managed a half shrug. “Almost nobody knows. But I cannot talk now. Robbie needs to eat, and I must go down to the kitchen to help María before she looks for me here.”

  She opened the door and called over her shoulder, “I’ll bring you supper in a bit. Be sick.”

  And she was gone. AJ sat down on the edge of her bed. The words rang in her ears, and she had to swallow past a lump in her throat. Rosa’s declaration explained everything. Or nothing. What web of deception had Gina fallen into? What had she walked into herself?

  Her phone buzzed, announcing a text message. She glanced at it, then re-read it carefully. Meet me in the barn at 9.

  Chance. Her head throbbed dully. She was one more nervous shock away from a full-blown, bang-your-head-on-the-wall migraine. The phone buzzed again. Try to bump into Santos. He’ll have the dogs tonight. Tell him you needed air. In case María sees you.

  She slid off her shoes and reclined on the bed, staring at the ceiling. Tomorrow, Chance wanted her to leave Towers’s place. She’d get Robbie away. But Rebel—her stomach clenched.

  She wouldn’t leave Rebel. And Mike was due back the day after tomorrow. Not much time to convince Chance to help her. Then he’d be screwed, too, as far as working for Towers.

  But he couldn’t refuse. She wouldn’t let him.

  Someone moving about in the dim room woke her. For a moment, she didn’t move at all, letting feelings penetrate her sleep-dulled senses. No unnatural chill; no feeling that Gina’s presence inhabited the room with her. AJ propped herself up on an elbow and saw Rosa setting a platter of fruit on a portable table.

  “ Rosa!” AJ protested, embarrassed. “Since when do you bring my dinner?” The irony stormed back—Mike Towers’s daughter? Waiting on her? Not irony, she realized. Injustice.

  “Part of the plan, remember?” Ro
sa answered with her customary good cheer.

  “But—”

  “Robbie’s asleep. I managed to slip him out this afternoon for awhile—introduced him to the joys of a swimming pool. Veeerrry carefully,” she assured AJ.

  “I hope this is enough. I thought María might be more convinced you didn’t feel well if I didn’t bring anything heavy.”

  “Too much food,” AJ murmured, surveying the heap of cantaloupe, watermelon, strawberries, and grapes, and a mountain of salad greens in another bowl, with two different bottles of salad dressing.

  Rosa pulled the chair from the dresser over. “Thought I’d help you.” She grinned.

  AJ sat down on the edge of the bed, and hunger stirred. Neither she nor Chance had eaten much of their impromptu brunch. Why couldn’t she think of anything—anyone—other than the man who represented a far worse danger than Mike Towers?

  “You must be thinking about Chance,” Rosa decided, chasing a grape around her plate with a plastic fork, then picking it up with her fingers. “You sighed.”

  “Did I? I didn’t realize. Never mind Chance.” She ate a bite of watermelon. “Rosa, can I ask you about—”

  “About being la hija del patron? The boss’s daughter?” She ate a forkful of cantaloupe, then shrugged. “I suppose so. There’s not much to know, really.”

  “Have you always been with him? Why are you working—”

  Rosa stood up, pushing aside her unfinished fruit. “No, I did not spend my childhood with him. I confronted him when I was seventeen and taking college classes along with my high school classes.”

  “Confronted?”

  Rosa smiled. “You and I think a lot alike, AJ. Meeting him was … essential. I dressed in my shortest skirt and lowest-cut blouse and showed up at his house in New Mexico, pretending I wanted a job.”

  AJ raised her eyebrows. “But—how—why?”

  Rosa flushed with anger, her answer blunt. “I am the product of rape,” she said. “My mother—I am told that I look just like she did as a teenager. She did not have many advantages, and when she was working as kitchen help during one of his parties …”