CHAPTER SEVEN
Brody knew he should have gagged her and left her outside. The damn woman couldn’t take a simple order and obey it. No, she had to go ahead and do exactly what he told her not to. He suspected she did it deliberately to prove a point. If Olivia didn’t have every last bit of detail about every last thing, she nagged until the other person’s ears bled and they gave in.
He had refused to do that, choosing to keep his plan to himself. All she had to do was stand at his side and keep quiet. It was obvious that wasn’t going to happen since she opened her mouth as soon as they walked in.
“Buenas noches, señors y señoritas.” With a sway to her hips that made Brody’s eyes widen, she stepped over to the bar. She looked every bit the seductress. “Whiskey.”
The buffalo behind the bar spilled at least half a shot of whiskey because he was staring at Olivia. There appeared to be a line of drool coming out of the left side of his mouth too. Brody didn’t blame him one bit. Olivia screamed for attention with every inch. Jesus.
“You lost, hombre?” A man in the back of the tavern spoke. He was dressed in black, similar to Brody, but his clothes were rougher looking. The stranger wore a black, flat-brimmed hat, which shaded his face. This was the man in charge, the one Brody had to watch. “Tu chica es muy guapa. ”
Pretty? Hell, Olivia was simply gorgeous. She had a natural sensuality that had been hidden by her smart mouth and prim clothes. Now she made his cock hard without even trying. He had felt in control before they walked across that damn river. Now he was hanging on by his fingernails, lost in a twister named Olivia.
“Sí, but she’s mine.” The words crept out through Brody’s clenched teeth. Not only did they sound real, they felt real.
“Mmm, you shoot knives from your eyes, señor.” The stranger took a tug from the bottle of whiskey in front of him. “I ask you again, you lost?” The man’s voice was calm, not cold but very controlled.
“No. I’m looking for somebody. You Rodrigo?” As soon as Brody dropped the name, the entire mood in the room changed. Tension replaced uneasy curiosity and he had to hold back the urge to pull his gun. Instead, he just kept his hand on the butt, his gaze locked on the man he assumed was Rodrigo.
The name was the right one judging by the reaction it got. Olivia was murmuring to the buffalo but everyone else was staring at him, even the whores.
“You came here to die, señor? You walk in my tavern with a pistola and disrespect me?” The man got to his feet and Brody sized him up. The Mexican was obviously strong, with muscled arms and legs, shoulder-length black hair and one missing pinky finger. A man who had lived life on the edge
“I do not disrespect you.” Brody managed to sound calm, although he knew at any second, he and Olivia could be stains on the floor amidst the dirt and grime. “I came to do business with you.”
“Business? Who tells you I would do business with a gringo?” Rodrigo’s laugh didn’t have an ounce of humor in it.
“Jeb Stinson.” As soon as Brody said it, the dangerous amusement in the stranger’s face vanished. “I came to pick up where he left off.”
There were so many things that could happen. Brody knew he’d gone far beyond what he was authorized to do as a Texas Ranger. Hell, he was so far off the map, he was literally and figuratively in another country.
The question he didn’t ask himself was why. Brody could have stayed in Texas and waited for Chavez and the rest of the crew to make another run at a ranch. He could have waited for the court to decide Stinson’s guilt. He could have asked for another assignment. But he hadn’t.
Armstrong had been investigating five of the ranch attacks for eight months. The attacks always came when the hands were out on the range, so it was someone who knew the comings and goings of the ranchers. Therefore the gang was in Texas, not Mexico. Someone had been buying the land either left behind by the dead or sold by the ones who ran. The mastermind was Jeb Stinson, but two more attacks had been carried out since his arrest.
Hell, the man had had his own sister killed. Whoever he rode with was worse than anyone Brody had come up against.
That still didn’t answer the question of why he had followed this case into Mexico. Was it just for Olivia? Or because whoever these men were, they killed women, took at least one if not two children, and burned what they could. These acts were cowardly and malicious, and darker than the blackest night.
Brody didn’t think of himself as a hero, far from it, but he would not let this type of crime go unpunished. It was a matter of honor and doing what was right. If his brothers had taught him anything, it was that. He carried their honor with him now and everything he did held true to their beliefs.
Rodrigo watched him like a predator, with the eyes of a man who sized up his enemies the same way he did his allies. After a few excruciatingly long minutes, he finally spoke.
“I hear of this Jeb Stinson. I also hear he is dead, hanged until his neck snap.”
Brody kept his face still, showing no flicker of a reaction. “That’s why I said I wanted to pick up where he left off.”
“You would step over his body?”
“Someone has to.” Brody pulled out a cheroot from his shirt pocket slower than a snail on cold dirt. As he lit it, he kept his gaze on Rodrigo.
“What do you know of Jeb’s, ah, business?” From the other man’s accent, or rather the lack of a thick accent, Brody would bet money he was not born in Mexico. His English was too smooth.
“I know where he hit, what he took, who he took, and where he brought it.” Brody took a long tug from the cigarillo. “I need you to buy it from me now.”
Rodrigo took another drink of whiskey. That’s when Brody realized everyone was watching them. Olivia stood behind him, her hands on his chair. He dared not look at her.
Shit, he didn’t even want to break wind.
“You and your chica, you stay here for a couple days and enjoy my hospitality.” Rodrigo smiled at Olivia, his teeth white and shiny in the dim light. “We get to know each other and then we can discuss business.”
Brody realized two things at once. One, Rodrigo had never confirmed he was the one doing business with Jeb. Two, the man had it in his head to bed Olivia.
Shit.
Although they had been welcomed in a fashion by Rodrigo, Brody felt far from at home. Two dark-haired, dark-eyed girls came through a door in the back with plates for the three of them. Olivia sat down between them, a trembling in her fingers the only sign she was nervous. Otherwise, she thanked the girls and Rodrigo and daintily picked at her food.
Brody made sure Rodrigo ate before he did. He wanted to be sure they hadn’t put something in the food to make them sick or worse. It was beans, tortillas and rice, standard fare anywhere in Texas or Mexico. However, the food did have a nice kick to it and his grateful belly thanked him.
He’d eaten out on the plains, in jails, in battle, hell, he’d even eaten in a swamp once, but this tavern was a new experience. He was hungry but on edge, the spicy food dancing on his tight nerves. Rodrigo spent his time watching, or rather devouring Olivia with his gaze.
“Señorita, you are with this cabron, no?”
She touched Brody’s hand. “Sí, señor. He is mine and I am his.”
He had the crazy notion to wonder if she really meant it.
“You are from Texas.” It wasn’t a question and Rodrigo apparently didn’t expect an answer. “But your skin is brown from the sun and your Spanish es magnifico.”
“Gracias, señor.” She dabbed her mouth with her sleeve because she had no napkin to do so. However she did it, Olivia maintained her dignity while using her shirt that way.
“I do not know your name, bonita.” Rodrigo ran his fingers down Olivia’s arm. “You must tell me.”
To Brody’s secret delight, she carefully removed the other man’s fingers. To his surprise, she used her mother’s name. “My name is Meredith. And you?”
“You wound me, Meredith. I just want to see if your skin is as soft as it looks.” Another sly smile from Rodrigo. “Your man does not want to share.”
“No, I don’t want to share.” She glanced at Brody and flashed her blue-green eyes at him. “I don’t play that game.”
“Ah, this is tragic. I would be good for you.” Rodrigo winked at her.
Brody had to hold back the growl that threatened.
Who was he to get angry? Olivia wanted the same thing he did—to find her brother. If some two-bit Mexican warlord wanted to flirt with her, then so be it. If she wanted to bed the man to further her mission, then so be it.
If he wanted to tear the man’s arms off for looking at her that way, then so be it.
“And your name, señor. You did not give it.” Rodrigo took off his hat and placed it on the table beside him. He was a handsome son of a bitch.
Brody knew his name was unique enough that Rodrigo might have heard it, so he had to give one Liv would remember. “Stuart.”
“Ah, this is a strong name for a strong man.” Rodrigo smiled.
Brody just nodded, not willing to get into a discussion with the man about the name Stuart. All he needed was for Olivia to remember he wasn’t Brody Armstrong.
“Didn’t pick it. Parents gave it to me.” Brody shrugged. “I could pick a different one but I’m used to it. It’s a good name.”
Olivia kept her gaze on her plate, but she answered, “It’s a good name.”
He understood the message and she obviously understood his. They had to tread lightly and keep as anonymous as possible. As far as Rodrigo was concerned, Brody was looking to go into business with him, nothing more.
Before he met Olivia, Brody had it all figured out. He had left the war a wounded man, inside and out. The Rangers gave him a new home, a new purpose, and he fully intended on living as one for as long as they’d have him. Now he found himself betraying the very thing he had sworn to be true to and all because of her.
That didn’t make him any less culpable. He wanted to beat on his chest and declare his territory in the face of a charming, handsome stranger’s flirtatious behavior. Olivia wasn’t his, she wasn’t anyone’s. Brody had to keep reminding himself of that lest she get it in her head to take Rodrigo up on his offer to “share.”
“Elena, venaca.” Rodrigo summoned one of the whores from the corner where she sat.
The woman who walked toward them was nothing short of stunning. Brody hadn’t noticed her because she’d been in the shadows. She had long, silky black hair shining in the lamplight. Her equally dark eyes were framed by long lashes, high cheekbones, ruby red lips and flawless skin. He could only stare at her while enduring a kick from Olivia under the table.
He might appreciate the way Elena looked but that didn’t mean she stirred his loins. Matter of fact, they weren’t even twitching at the sight of the most perfect woman he’d ever laid eyes on.
Brody didn’t want to think about why just yet.
Rodrigo swept his arm toward them. “Elena, this is Stuart and Meredith, who are my guests tonight.”
Brody didn’t think they were guests in truth and he knew Rodrigo didn’t either.
“You have horses, sí?” He’d probably heard them ride up but he asked anyway.
“Yep. They’re outside at the hitching post.” Brody assumed one of Rodrigo’s men had already searched the horses and knew very well what they had and didn’t have.
“Bueno. Elena, show them where to put their horses, then give them a room. Make sure they enjoy themselves.” Rodrigo’s smile appeared to be more like a baring of teeth. “In the morning maybe we do business.”
Brody understood that now their meal was over, Rodrigo was dismissing them. It stuck in the ranger’s craw, but he could do nothing but thank his host and follow the beautiful Elena out the door with Olivia on his heels.
He felt Rodrigo’s gaze on him, watching as any predator would from the cover of the shadows. Brody would sleep with his pistol in his hand and ammunition in the other.
Olivia was in a bad dream. The delicious food sat like a rock in her churning stomach. She followed Brody and the incredibly beautiful Elena outside, wondering if she’d see the sun rise again.
Rodrigo made her skin crawl each time his gaze or his touch fell on her. He was probably in cahoots with the men who’d killed the real Stuart and Meredith, her parents. But it was more than that, it was something inside her that recoiled from him. Something instinctual, protective.
Now they were to actually sleep in this tavern, knowing he was downstairs with his men, ready to kill them or something worse. It might be funny if it wasn’t true. She wouldn’t be able to do anything but sit up with her pistol close by.
She tried not to think about the woman ahead. Elena. When she’d approached the table, every man’s face looked stunned. Even Olivia had been struck by just how lovely Elena was.
That didn’t mean she had to like the woman or the fact Brody looked as if he’d been pole axed. Olivia would not admit to him that she was jealous, but she was.
The night air cooled her overheated face a bit, but she still felt hot and out of control. That had been the strangest meal she’d ever eaten, with the strangest company. She kept reminding herself it was for Benjy and that her own discomfort was minor compared to what he had already endured.
“The horses can stay behind the tavern with the others.” Elena’s English was lightly accented but soft as butter. “They will be safe there.”
Olivia didn’t bother to tell her no one, and nothing, would be safe in this pueblo. She didn’t think it needed to be said. This was not a place anyone would choose to be. Perhaps not even Rodrigo.
They walked toward a small stable, which was nondescript but relatively clean. They brought the horses into two empty stalls in the back. At least half a dozen horses were already sleeping or munching on feed. Mariposa didn’t want to go into the stall and Olivia didn’t blame her.
After some careful coaxing, the mare finally stepped in and let Olivia unsaddle her. The simple chore gave her a few minutes of normalcy in an otherwise far from normal week. Brody was talking softly to his own horse in the stall next to her. It was comforting to have him near, much as she wanted to be angry with him. He was putting his life at risk the same as she was.
When she stepped out of the stall with her saddlebags, she was startled to find Elena right in front of her. She stared at Olivia as though studying her face.
“Your name is Meredith?”
“Um, yes, Meredith.” Oh, how it hurt to say her mother’s name.
After another few awkward moments, Elena turned away and Olivia was able to take a breath. The look on the other woman’s face had been recognition. How was that possible? Olivia had never been to Mexico and she was fairly certain Elena had not been anywhere near the Graham ranch.
What did the recognition mean? Did Elena see something in her face that reminded her of someone else? Could she possibly have seen Benjamin?
Olivia wanted so badly to ask but knew it wasn’t the time. If she even tried, no doubt the woman would stop talking to them and they might even be dead before the moon was high in the sky. No, it wasn’t the time but her heart actually ached to ask about her brother.
She took a few minutes to swallow the frustration and fear before she walked into the other stall. Elena was there, her hand on Brody’s arm. A surge of annoyance rushed through Olivia at the sight.
“Are you finished yet?” She hadn’t intended to snap at them, but she did anyway.
Brody’s mouth tightened. “Just about. Anxious, darlin’? You want to find our bed?”
“Of course, honey. I always want to find our bed together.” She turned her gaze to Elena. “Can you take us back now?”
Elena looked between them before she nodded. “You must be married. Only married people fight like this.”
Olivia was startled by the other woman’s observation. Did they fight liked married people? She didn’t think anything at all of how much they tussled verbally. Yet others must have seen something there. The question was, were they right?
Olivia didn’t want to think her heart was involved yet, but she knew she was kidding herself. No matter how angry she got at Brody, he had wormed his grumpy way into her heart. He was smart, strong and honorable, the kind of man her father would have wanted for her had he lived.
Her heart was caught between pursuing what she felt for Brody and her love for her family. She had to find Benjy, to find the people who’d murdered her parents, before she could even think about what she might have with the ranger.
There was the possibility he didn’t want anything to do with her. She had to stop thinking about the future and concentrate on the present. She was in a Mexican pueblo, at an outlaw’s tavern, and now her horse was going to be left out of her reach, unsaddled and unprotected. There was definitely enough danger and fear to keep her occupied without thinking too much about other things.
If Brody wanted to bed the beautiful Elena, Olivia had no say in the matter. He was a grown man and she was not his wife or even his intended. She was simply the woman who had found passion in his arms. That was a bitter truth to swallow.
“Ah, Meredith?”
She realized she’d been staring at Brody, and he’d called her mother’s name more than once.
“What?”
“You plan on sleeping out here?” He gestured to Elena, who hovered by the door, watching them with her dark gaze. “She’s waiting for us. Are you ready?”
Olivia stared at him, as the events of the several days rushed through her mind. She trusted him. She trusted him. They would do what they’d come to do. They had to.
“Yes, I’m ready.”
Walking back to the tavern was harder the second time. She knew who and what was in there. Her free hand shook and she clenched it into a fist to hide the trembling. She refused to let Rodrigo see how scared she actually was.
Elena’s long braid swung back and forth across her back, following the gentle sway of her hips. Everything she did seemed graceful, an incongruous quality against the backdrop of the dark place she existed in.
Conversation was down to a murmur when they walked back in. If she had more gumption, she would have ordered a drink of whiskey. But she needed a clear head. Everything depended on whatever plan Brody had, the one he wouldn’t tell her about.
By the morning, she would know. He could count on that. Olivia would not allow another hour to go by without having the truth from the ranger.
Elena nodded at the overly large bartender as she walked directly to the stairs. Every eye in the room was on them, like a pack of rats watching fresh meat march past. If they had Rodrigo’s permission, they probably would have taken out their pistols and knives.
Rodrigo had put a spell around the newcomers, protecting them, for now. Olivia understood clearly that the outlaw’s protection was a temporary thing that he could snatch away any second. Her pulse pounded through her as they walked up the stairs. Sweat tickled down her spine and between her breasts. It even pooled in her palm as she held onto the leather saddlebags.
It took only seconds to reach the top of the stairs, but it felt much longer. There was an open railing overlooking the tavern, allowing all those below to keep watching them. Olivia wanted to scream at them to stop staring but she focused on Elena’s braid; the tick-tock motion held her gaze.
The pretty woman led them to the end of the hallway to the last door on the left. If they stayed in that room, they would have no way to leave without everyone seeing them. Rodrigo could choose to put a guard at the stairs, thereby completely cutting them off from even going to the outhouse.
Olivia’s mouth dried up like Texas dirt in the summer. They were going to be prisoners in the outlaw’s tavern. Was this Brody’s plan? What was he thinking about when he devised it?
Her mind swam with questions she couldn’t voice aloud. She pressed her lips together and kept walking. When they arrived at the door, Elena opened it and gestured for them to walk inside.
Olivia wanted to run in the other direction but she stepped into the room. Brody followed her in and when she turned around, she realized Elena had entered the room, shutting the door behind her.
Was she going to be an ally? Or was she their jailer to watch them for the night?
“Elena?” Brody sounded as confused as Olivia felt.
“I am to be sure you have pleasure.” She stepped toward Brody and put her hand on his chest; then she turned her head to look at Olivia. “Both of you.”
Olivia’s education with regard to sex was limited to the two men she’d been intimate with and watching the animals do their mating. Nothing had prepared her for the surge of panic that burst within her now. She wasn’t sure if it was part curiosity and part crazy fear, or more one than the other.
Brody stood very still, looking down at Elena with his face devoid of emotion. “We don’t need help with our pleasure.”
Elena shook her head. “You do not understand. I cannot leave this room until you are both satisfied. Rodrigo would be unhappy if I did.”
With that, Elena reached for Brody’s trousers. He tried to push her away but she would not be deterred. She dropped to her knees and had the buttons undone in minutes. His cock was half-aroused, yet when she wrapped her long fingers around him, it appeared to grow and harden instantly. Then Elena opened her lips and pulled his pulsing staff into the dark recesses of her mouth.
Olivia was frozen, stuck to the door as though an unseen force kept her there. She’d never seen anything like this, never knew people did such things.
When she and Brody had been together, they had both found pleasure, but was it the same as what he was experiencing at Elena’s touch? She didn’t want to know the answer to that question.
Her own body reacted to what she saw. Her nipples ached and grew taut while a low throb settled in her core.
“Jesus, stop. Stop.” He pushed Elena’s shoulders away and stepped back. His cock bobbed up and down, wet and pulsing with life. Olivia wanted to shove the other woman out of the way and taste him.
The thought shocked her. It also sent a pulse of pure arousal through her.
Brody pulled his trousers up, pushing himself back in as best he could. “No mas, Elena. No mas.”
Elena wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and stared up at him for a moment before she turned her head toward the door. Toward Olivia.
The other woman’s eyes were darker than pitch. She got to her feet and approached Olivia. It was like a dream, unreal and unbelievable.
“Leave her alone.” Brody’s husky command didn’t stop Elena’s approach.
She took Olivia’s hand and pressed a kiss onto the palm, her lips hot and moist. As Elena moved closer, her breasts pressed into Olivia’s and she gasped.
Just as Elena’s mouth brushed hers, suddenly the other woman was gone. Brody held her by the arm, righteous anger on his face.
“I don’t know what Rodrigo told you to do, but she’s not a whore and she sure as hell isn’t going to fuck you.” He glanced at Olivia. “Move aside, Meredith.”
Olivia slipped sideways along the wall and tried to catch her breath. Her body hummed with both fear and arousal. She watched Brody push Elena out the door, then vaguely heard the lock tumblers scrape together.
They were locked in.