Rico (The Rock Creek Six Book 3)

by Lori Handeland

  The morning was as boring as it always was. Mr. Reese tried, but Carrie would rather learn about guns and outlaws than recite psalms and cipher.

  When the lunch bell rang, Carrie was the first one out the door. She didn’t have too many friends, mainly because she didn’t know how to make any. In the past, she’d skipped school so much everyone had made friends without her. Millie, Teddy, and Rafe Sullivan were nice enough, but those three hung together in a pack.

  The bratty Sutton twins were her age, but Carrie wished they’d drop into a deep, dark hole and the earth would swallow them forever. They’d been picking on Johnny since the day he arrived at school, and sooner or later Carrie was going to have to do something.

  Johnny appeared at the door, and Carrie brightened. “Johnny!” she called. “I’ve got your lunch.”

  Although he was a lot older than Carrie, Johnny was her friend. Maybe he’d eat lunch with her; then she wouldn’t be so lonely.

  He looked up at the sound of her voice. Raising his hand, he started down the steps. Just then, the Sutton twins appeared behind him. They grinned and shoved Johnny in the middle of the back.

  He landed in the dirt at Carrie’s feet. A flush of embarrassment darkened his already-dark complexion. Carrie’s hands curled into fists.

  “Whatcha gonna do about that, Fortier?” Frank sneered. “Gonna tell on me?”

  “You know he can’t tell no one nothin’,” Jack said. “He’s a dummy.”

  “Not half as dumb as you two,” Carrie shouted. “You don’t have one brain put together.”

  Carrie was going to bloody their noses, as she’d done a few times before. She’d get into trouble, probably sent home with another note. But at least this time her granddad wouldn’t slap her and add to the bruises the twins had already caused.

  Johnny took her hand. She glanced at him with a scowl, and he shook his head.

  “He’s not only dumb,” Jack announced, “he’s chicken.”

  “Is not!” Carrie barreled forward. Johnny grabbed her skirt and yanked her back. “Stop that!” she told him.

  He picked up the lunch pail she’d dropped, pointed to a shady spot beneath a nearby tree, and rubbed his stomach.

  “You’re hungry?”

  She glanced at the Sutton twins, who sneered and giggled, then back at Johnny. She really wanted to bust their snotty noses, but she also wanted to sit in the shade with her friend and share lunch.

  Johnny jerked his head toward the tree then held out his hand as if she were a woman and not a little girl. She was just about to take it when Frank shoved between them, knocked the pail onto the ground, and squished the contents into the dirt beneath his boot.

  “Gonna tell on me now, dummy?”

  The rest of the children smelled a fight and gathered in a circle. The Sullivans hung back, looking as nervous as Carrie felt, and she recalled how Teddy had been picked on when he first came to Rock Creek. The Suttons were bullies. Beating up on the new kid was what they did whenever Mr. Reese wasn’t looking.

  Carrie glanced at the school, hoping their teacher would put a stop to the twins’ torment. She thought she saw a shadow at the window, but when Mr. Reese didn’t come outside, she figured it was just a reflection of the clouds and the sun. She could tattle, but then she’d have to leave Johnny alone, and you didn’t do that to a friend.

  Johnny bent to pick up what was left of their lunch. Frank put a foot on his shoulder and shoved him into the dirt. Carrie hurried forward. Johnny stopped her with a single look.

  Standing, he towered over the twins. But there were two of them, and they were solid and mean. Carrie held her breath, prepared to wade in and help. Then Johnny turned his back and held out his hand to her again. She couldn’t believe he meant to let them get away with that.

  His gaze implored her to take his offer, so she did. As they walked toward the shade tree, she recalled the scars on his arm and the sadness in his eyes all the time. Maybe being hurt himself made Johnny unable to hurt anyone else, even if they deserved it.

  They were halfway to the tree when something hit Carrie in the back, and she fell to the ground. Sputtering and coughing as she ate dirt, Carrie felt a rush of air past her ear, and when she rolled over, Johnny shook Frank like a dog with an old towel. Things looked almost fair until Jack grabbed Johnny’s arm and held him as Frank punched Johnny in the gut.

  Carrie jumped on Jack’s back and evened things up her way.

  Chapter 15

  Three Queens didn’t get much business when the sun shone. People drifted in and out. Rarely more than two or three occupied the place at one time.

  Lily stood behind the bar, eyeing Virgil Wyndham, an unpleasant, potbellied man who seemed to come to town every week for no discernible reason other than to drink, smoke, and gamble. Why such behavior in a gambler surprised her, Lily had no idea. Why he annoyed her so much, she could not decide, either. So he looked down her dress whenever he ordered a drink. She’d gotten used to that years ago and considered it part of the territory. But since coming to Rock Creek, since knowing Rico, who never looked at her like that, leers had become more personal than professional.

  Her second customer sat in the corner. A stranger, he also made her nervous, because while she never caught him watching her, she knew that he was.

  “You seem uncomfortable, querida.”

  She jumped, and Rico caught the bottle as it slipped from her hand. He set it on the bar. “How many times do I have to tell you not to sneak up on me?” she demanded.

  “I did not mean to. You were engrossed in watching the man in the corner. Should I be jealous? Must I kill him?”

  Rico’s grin would have negated the words if it weren’t for that flicker of violence in his dark eyes, which always surprised her. Although he was nothing but gentle, there was always an undercurrent of tension, a barely suppressed savagery, which made Lily’s stomach dance.

  “He’s handsome enough.” She took in the stranger’s long, tall body, his wind-roughened hands and sun-bleached hair. “But not my type.”

  “What is your type?”

  “You,” she whispered, and kissed him.

  The saloon doors slammed inward with uncommon force. Rico had a knife in his hand so fast that Lily had no idea where he’d gotten it. Perhaps from the same place she’d gotten hers. They both pocketed their weapons when they recognized Reese.

  “What are you doing here in the middle of the day?” Rico asked.

  Reese stood aside to admit Carrie and Johnny.

  At the sight of them, Lily let out a cry and hurried from behind the bar. Rico just vaulted the thing altogether. He reached Carrie seconds before she reached Johnny.

  “What have you done to her?” Rico touched a bloody scrape across Carrie’s cheek then examined several bruises already darkening her arms.

  Johnny had a black eye, and he held his forearm against his stomach.

  “Your hand?” Lily asked.

  He shook his head and placed his palm against his belly. At the slight touch, he winced.

  Fury shot through Lily, and she turned on Reese. “Who touched him?”

  He glanced at Rico, obviously didn’t like what he saw there, either, and took a single step back. “The Sutton twins—”

  “We kicked their ass!” Carrie shouted.

  “Stop swearing.” Lily advanced on Reese.

  “You let those devil children loose?” Rico penned in Reese from the other side.

  Reese held up his hands. “Whoa.”

  “Whoa, yourself. Where are those children’s parents?”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Lily.”

  “I don’t care what you think, Reese. No one touches my child.”

  “Thought he was your brother.”

  “He’s a child in my care, and I thought he was safe in yours.”

  Reese motioned for Rico and Lily to join him out of the children’s hearing. Without even knowing when she had reached for him, Lily found her hand hold
ing Rico’s.

  “I told you, Rico, that Johnny would have to stand up for himself sooner or later.”

  “So he did. How did Carrie get hurt?”

  “He didn’t stand up for himself. He let the Sutton twins shove him into the dirt, trip him, stomp on his lunch. It didn’t matter, he just walked away. But one of them touched her, and then all hell broke loose.”

  “He wouldn’t defend himself, but he’d defend her?”

  Johnny watched the adults solemnly while Carrie leaned against him and chattered. Lily winked at him, and his concerned expression faded.

  “I am still not seeing how Carrie got hurt.”

  “One of the Suttons hit Johnny, and she jumped on him.”

  “Good for her,” Lily murmured.

  “You approve?”

  “Carrie loves who she loves, deeply and without question. She defends them with everything she has. Sounds to me like two bullies against one silent, gentle boy needed a bit of evening out.”

  “And where were you, mi capitan?”

  Reese cleared his throat. “Inside. I went out when Carrie got involved.”

  “But you watched while the Suttons tormented Johnny?” Lily resisted the childish urge to kick him in the knee. “You told me there was nothing that went on in your school you didn’t know about.”

  “There isn’t. They’ve been picking on Johnny from the beginning. The only way to stop it completely was for him to stand up to them. I can’t be there every minute.”

  “Where do the Suttons live?” Lily asked.

  “I don’t think—” Reese began.

  “I do,” Rico said. “Let’s go.”

  “Yvonne!” When the bartender appeared, Lily pushed the children in her direction. “Could you do a little doctoring, please? We’ll be right back.”

  Yvonne herded the children toward her room without question or quiver. Which was why Lily had called her. She wasn’t sure if she could keep her hands from shaking with anger or her lips from trembling at every gasp of pain. If this panic-stricken feeling was any indication of how she dealt with minor injuries in children, it was lucky she would never have any of her own.

  “Three Queens is closed,” she announced.

  The creepy, handsome stranger had disappeared during the excitement. Only Wyndham remained, and he downed his drink then slipped out the door.

  Lily took Rico’s hand again. Reese stepped in front of them. “Your knives?”

  “You think we’re going to use knives in this discussion?”

  “The last time Rico had a discussion with Sutton, he used his knife to make him eat pie. I don’t want to be responsible for what he makes Sutton eat this time around.”

  “This is no longer your business, mi capitan. You brought the children home. You told us what happened. Now it is mine and Lily’s business. Move aside.”

  “I’ll go with you.”

  “I do not need your help. I do not need you to make certain I do the right thing. Or to stand behind me and make certain Sutton does. Carrie is mine. Johnny is Lily’s. And I think Carrie and Johnny have somehow become each other’s.”

  Reese contemplated Rico then turned his sharp green gaze on Lily. She tilted her chin and met that suspicious stare head-on, until his eyes dropped to their joined hands. “Looks to me like you have the start of a family here, Rico.”

  Lily waited for Rico to laugh and deny they were anything of the kind. Four lonely people with pasts murkier than a creek in a summer drought did not a family make. Rico pulled his hand from hers, and she braced herself for the pain of his denial.

  Instead, he put his arm around Lily’s shoulders and tugged her close to his side. “Looks to me like I do, too.”

  * * *

  The meeting with Rose and Baxter Sutton went better than Rico expected. He walked in, grabbed Baxter by the shirt, shook him a little, and told him how things were going to be. “You will control your demons, Baxter.”

  “Gurgle, glunk,” Baxter agreed.

  “You’re cutting off his air!” Rose cried.

  She attempted to run forward and help her husband, but Lily stepped in front of her. “Ah, ah, ah.” She waved her finger in Rose’s face. “If you’d controlled your demons, none of this would be happening.”

  Rico loosened his hold a bit. He didn’t want Baxter to pass out and miss all the fun. “Not another mark on Carrie, not a single scratch on Johnny, or I’ll be back.”

  He let Baxter go. The man tumbled to the ground. Rose rushed over and helped him up. Rico never could figure out what Rose saw in the man. Maybe love wasn’t so much blind as dumb.

  “I don’t know why you’re having such a fit,” Baxter said. “No one else in town ever does.”

  “That’s because they don’t want their credit cut off.”

  “I never did that.”

  “Because no one has ever complained.”

  “If you’re going to get picky, that girl’s mouth needs a good wash with soap.”

  “We are working on her language.”

  “And that boy don’t belong in school.”

  “Excusez-moi?” Lily sashayed up to Sutton, pulled her knife from her pocket, and examined the blade. “I thought you said my brother didn’t belong in school, but that could not be. Because in this country every child belongs, oui? Even demon seed.”

  Lily tilted the silver right, then left, until it caught the sunlight from the window and flashed into Baxter’s eyes. The man flinched. “Yeah, you’re right. Free country.”

  Rico fought not to pick up Lily and twirl her around. She was magnificent.

  He took her arm. She pocketed the knife. As they left, Rico saw the man who had been watching Lily in the saloon all day slip out the back door of Sutton’s store.

  That guy was beginning to get on his nerves.

  * * *

  Monday night in Rock Creek might as well have been Ash Wednesday anywhere. Three Queens was deader than El Diablo. The children had gone to bed. Lily and Yvonne, too. Jed walked in about ten, but he left well before midnight. When he stayed at Eden’s, he made certain he never went home drunk.

  “Don’t want my little sister to think I’m a worthless big brother.”

  Rico could understand that.

  The saloon was empty long before Rico closed up. Turning out the last light, he glanced around the place. Funny, but it felt like home.

  He trudged upstairs. At Carrie’s room, he opened the door. She lay asleep, freshly washed and dressed in a white nightgown Lily had insisted she have, even though the child had never slept in anything but underclothes in her life. Rico had to admit she looked adorable in the garment.

  He stood at her bed and fought the lump in his throat. How had he come to love her more than life itself? He’d battle any monster, slay any dragon, give everything he had so she would never be hurt again.

  The scrape across her cheek shone stark against the sleep-pale shade of her face. He leaned over, kissed the hurt, and in her sleep she murmured, “Rico.”

  He left quickly lest he wake her. Passing Johnny’s room, Rico noticed the door ajar. Meaning only to close it, he glanced inside to make sure the boy was asleep. He wasn’t.

  Golden lamplight filled the room, illuminating Johnny standing shirtless, his back to the door. Despite the tawny shade of his skin, a livid bruise marred the flesh just under his ribs, extending from the back around to his front. The sight of it made Rico angry all over again.

  “Are you all right?” Though he spoke softly so as not to startle the boy, Johnny jumped, and the gaze that flew to Rico’s was far too frightened for the situation.

  Johnny grabbed for his shirt, but it was too late. Rico could see the scars that marred both his arms, all the way up to his shoulders.

  “Madre de Dios.” Rico shut the door behind him.

  Johnny’s dark blue eyes loomed huge in his suddenly stark face. The paleness of his skin only made his black eye look worse. As he fumbled with his shirt, the movements drew more a
ttention to the marks on his arms. No wonder the boy had been so scared whenever Rico held a knife.

  “Who did that to you?”

  Johnny finished putting on his shirt then shook his head frantically.

  Rico grabbed his wrist and shoved up the sleeve. “I know what these are.”

  Johnny’s mouth moved, but as usual, no sound came out.

  “I want to know who did this and where I can find them.”

  Johnny spread his hands wide and shrugged. Why?

  “Because I’m going to kill him.”

  The boy’s gentle smile made Rico feel almost foolish. “Why is that funny? If Lily saw—”

  Johnny grabbed Rico’s hands in a crushing grip and shook his head some more. Rico wondered if all that head shaking was keeping the boy from talking. He might be tossing his brains around too much.

  “Lily doesn’t know, does she?”

  No.

  “They must be pretty recent if your sister hasn’t seen them.”

  Yes.

  “Because if she did see them, she’d do murder, wouldn’t she?”

  Yes.

  “You don’t want me to tell her?”

  Johnny’s entreating gaze said it all.

  “Why not?”

  The boy opened his mouth then shut it again. He covered his face.

  “You don’t need to be embarrassed. Whoever did that to you is the one who should be embarrassed.”

  Johnny lowered his hands. He pointed at the scars on his arm, then to Rico, then next door to Lily’s room, then slashed his hand across his neck.

  “I won’t tell.”

  Johnny put his palm over his heart.

  “I promise.” Rico paused with his hand on the door. “No one’s going to hurt you like that again. Not while you live with me.”

  The boy had never trusted him, and Rico understood why. A man with a knife had hurt him. Rico was surprised Johnny had even been able to look at him.