Saint (23 page)

Images of more men swarming over the
mountain in response floated through her head. “What if they make it down and
call for help?”

“That’s gonna be some trick, seeing as how
they left without all their body parts.”

Did she really want to know? No, she
decided, she didn’t. “I’ll take your word for it.”

“I thought you would. Gettin’ shot at is
one sure way to sober up, eh, sister?”

“Bite me, Gabriel.”

“Gabe!” Harris warned before the Marine
could open his mouth.

Maria sat with Francis when the makeshift
surgery was over, wiping the sweat from his forehead and temples. When he
stirred restlessly, she soothed him with soft words. Joan had given him a piece
of gum to chew on, which calmed him somewhat. Harris tried to get her to bed
down, but she stubbornly refused to move from her Francis’ side.

Gabriel and Joan were sacked out on the
ground and the fire had been doused. Maria listened to the cicadas and crickets
and the occasion rustle of some foraging night creature.

“Too quiet, Angelface,” Francis murmured,
dashing her hope that he was resting. “Can’t sleep when it’s quiet. Sing.”

She remembered Seth telling her about the
hole the preacher had lived in—how his hearing had developed because of the
silence. But it wasn’t the crickets he wanted to hear, for all their racket. He
craved the sound of a human voice.

Maria sang low and soft, the same Spanish
tune he’d requested those nights they sat on the porch of the cabin, and heard
him sigh contentedly.

“I’m sorry, Francis,” she whispered when
she was sure he’d given in to sleep. “I’m so sorry.”

* * * * *

Seth listened to Maria’s melodious voice as
he lay awake on guard duty. Despite her insistence she was learning to harden
herself against the ravages of the war Juarez had declared on her, she was
still too soft at heart. He knew she blamed herself for Francis’ injury, even
though he had assured her it wasn’t life-threatening.

He couldn’t fault her for caring. He had
cared once. All of them had. He just didn’t seem to be able to push the pain
into a compartment of his mind and forget it. Francis drank to forget. Joan ran
a boxing club for boys. And Gabe…it had been one day at a time for the now
successful oilman. For a short time, years ago, Gabriel had a drug habit that
would have killed a horse. It was anybody’s guess if he still had the other
fetish he’d picked up in China along with the opium and heroin addiction.

As for himself, he drank in moderation,
gave up smoking and started teaching literature instead of war tactics. Well,
that wasn’t entirely true, he’d taken up smoking again when Maria Carvania had
landed on his doorstep. The difference between him and the others was he no
longer felt the deeper emotions. Love and laughter had died in a raging
explosion somewhere in Venezuela. He simply existed now, indifferent to the
world around him.

In protest, memories from the past rose to
the surface, taunting him, poking at him, causing the animal inside to stir
restlessly.

* * * * *

Harris’ rough hand on her shoulder brought Maria
awake.

“Let’s move. I want to be off this mountain
and on the way to Joan’s before evening. Francis, can you manage?”

“Hell, I’m like a man reborn after sleeping
beside—”

“Save it for the trail. If you’re so
energetic, you won’t have any trouble keeping up.”

Maria stood up to gather her clothes from
the branches. They were still slightly damp because of the morning fog.

Harris startled her from behind as she
rolled the clothes into a bundle. “Do you think you can walk for a couple of
hours if I slow the pace?”

She didn’t know what had put him in such a
foul mood this morning, but he obviously had no qualms about taking it out on
Francis.

“I can manage just fine,” she replied
shortly, shoving bundled clothing into the knapsack. The swelling in her ankle
had gone down significantly, thanks to the ace bandaging and the fact her foot
stayed propped up most of the night.

She turned her back on him and rooted
through the pack for her brush, pulling it through her hair briskly. Her near
drowning last night would have to take the place of washing up, there wasn’t
time to do anything else. She retied the tattered green ribbon and thanked Joan
when he handed her breakfast, never really tasting the contents of the tin. Then
she quickly brushed her teeth. It seemed anal to worry over such trivial
details, but the act made her feel human.

Maria took the blanket from Francis and
folded it while Harris checked his wound once more. She felt Seth’s eyes on
her, but ignored him.

Joan presented Francis with a cane of
sorts, fashioned from a sapling oak.

“What do I look like, an old maid?”

“Well, we were beginning to wonder.”
Gabriel’s sarcasm earned him the finger.

“Cut the crap and get moving.” Seth
shouldered his duffel and took the lead.

Francis’ questioning glance encompassed
Gabriel and Joan in turn. “What did you do to piss him off while I was
sleeping?”

“I don’t think it’s anything we did.”
Gabriel’s sidelong look grazed over her before turning to follow Harris,
leaving Joan to spare both her and Francis a jaundiced eye.

“Oh, just give me the damn thing.” Francis
jerked the homemade cane from his hand. “I’ll carry it in case Maria needs it
later.”

Joan literally scowled at her before
turning to fall in line. She poked Francis in the arm. “Thanks, Francis. You’re
all heart.”

“Don’t mention it, Angel.”

But she was grateful for the crudely made crutch
a few hours later, when her ankle started to ache because of the constantly
uneven ground and her cursedly thin canvas shoes.

Storm clouds moved in toward afternoon and
Harris’ mood darkened along with them. Sweat dampened her whole body, so she,
for one, looked forward to the relief of a cooling summer shower. Just to spite
her, the heavens broke open, sending torrents of rain that drove them to seek
shelter beneath the umbrella foliage of several elms. But the protection was
tenuous with the wind whipping sheets of rain in every direction. If the goose
bumps on her skin were any indication, the temperature had dropped at least ten
to fifteen degrees.

So, yeah, things were going along pretty
smoothly.

One thing was for sure, she was never going
to take up residence in the Ohio Valley. The weather was too unpredictable here.
She missed the smog of Los Angeles, the dry air, the ocean. Here in these
mountains and hills it was hot one minute and cold the next. But on the bright
side, at least the storm had provided a break in the pace without her having to
feel guilty for holding up their progress. She had the feeling Harris would
have raced down the mountain if he could have. The sooner he deposited her in
the land of the Klan, the sooner he would be rid of her.

No one talked. They just sat, miserable and
wet, waiting for the storm to end. Thunder boomed overhead, closer than she
cared for. Lighting ran in jagged streaks across the rain-soaked sky.

Thinking to avoid some of the slashing
drops, she leaned backward against the tree trunk and pulled her knees into her
body. Something colder than the rain, with a much firmer consistency, slithered
across her hand.

Maria never heard the warning rattle over
the thunderclap echoing through her ears. When she turned, expecting to find a
frog or small lizard, the snake’s fangs were bared, its tail twisting to smack
against her cheek. She opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out.

“Look here.” Gabriel dangled the reptile
not one foot from her face. “A rattler.”

“Oh God.”

* * * * *

“I’ve never seen anything like her in my
life.” Gabe leaned over to slap her cheek. “Guys leveling M-16s at her and she
faints over a snake. Hell, it didn’t even bite her.”

“Maria.” Seth pulled her into a sitting
position and tapped her face.

Her eyes fluttered open. “What happened?”

“You fainted, that’s what happened.”
Francis was grinning like a hound.

“Too bad we’ll be making it to the bottom
by nightfall. This would have made good eatin’.” Gabe pitched the dead snake a
few yards away. It landed with a thud in the leaves.

“Did it bite me?” Her hands went to her
face, feeling for the telltale marks.

“No,” Seth told her. “You probably scared
him more than he scared you.”

“I doubt that.” She disengaged herself from
his hold and jumped to her feet, careful to keep clear of the lifeless snake.

“It’s dead,” he assured her.

She made a distasteful face at Gabe. “You would
eat it?”

“Sure,” Gabe said. “The meat’s sweet, sort
of like chicken. You’d be surprised what you’ll eat if you get hungry enough.
Don’t they serve rattlesnake fillets in those fancy restaurants around L.A.?”

“Not in the classy part of town.” Her
retort was meant to be an insult, but the entire effect was ruined when she
turned on her heel and stomped away, only to slip on a muddy patch of leaves.

Francis grimaced as she hit the ground flat
on her back. Joan turned his head and coughed.

Gabe didn’t bother to hide his amusement.
He burst out laughing. “I’d rather eat with the common folk than the classy
upstarts any day of the week.”

Seth helped her to her feet. Her back, legs
and buttocks were covered with the slick brown paste, but if she hadn’t been so
intent on getting the better of Gabe, she might have watched where she was
going.

Since the rain had let up only moments before
she passed out cold, the mud would be left to dry, caking to her clothes and
arms unless they waited for her to change.

She shrugged off his hands again and turned
to face the grinning Gabriel. “That’s it! I’ve had just about all I’m going to
take from you, cow puncher.”

“Now, Angel—”

“Stay out of this, Francis,” she snapped,
never taking her eyes off the archangel. She challenged him, fire dancing in
her almond eyes. “This is what you’ve been waiting for, so take the stance.”

“I’d love to, darlin’, but you’re hurt and
I don’t kick a woman when she’s down.”

“Put up or shut up.” She crouched,
motioning for Gabe to make his move.

“I could’ve let that snake bite you, you
know. A little gratitude is in order here, don’t you think?”

“You didn’t have any reason for holding
that thing in my face other than to piss me off and get a few laughs.”

Gabe drew himself up indignantly. “You’re
reachin’, sister.”

“Oh really? Would you have pulled that shit
on your wife?”

“That’s enough,” Seth told her firmly.

“No, it’s not enough! He’s been needling me
since he stepped foot on this mountain. You give me that knife and I’ll get
closer than any six inches with it this time, buster.”

“I don’t take advantage of women,” Gabe
contended.

“Funny, that’s not the impression I get,”
she sneered.

Gabe clearly understood the innuendo. “Just
make sure if you ever do have occasion to stab someone, you twist the blade
before pulling it out. Makes closing of the wound more difficult.”

“Thanks for the tip.”

They stared one another down for a tense
moment before Gabe picked up his duffel and walked past Maria, careful to keep
any sarcasm out of his voice. “You’re gettin’ there, sister.”

Joan and Francis kept whatever thoughts
they had on the matter to themselves, shouldering their packs to follow behind
Gabe.

“Feel better now?” he inquired when they
were alone.

“No,” she replied stonily. “I’m wet, I’m
muddy, I’m tired, and I’m stuck in the middle of nowhere with four he-men who
think I’m from Kansas.”

“I suppose the guys from the chopper could
be considered flying monkeys.” His mouth pulled to the side wryly before he
caught himself and sobered. He’d actually been about to smile. “Why do you care
what we think?”

She didn’t have any way of knowing Gabriel
needled her to keep from becoming overly amorous. Her exotic looks and petite
packaging attracted the archangel even as it repelled him, reminding Gabe of
the Asian women who had helped hook him on the drugs that nearly ruined his
life.

“I don’t.”

Seth watched her failed attempt to sluice
the mud from her arms and pants, succeeding only in smearing it. “What am I
going to do with you?”

“Besides trying to turn me into GI Joe
overnight, you mean? You’re going to hide me in the backwoods of Mississippi
with a black man who stands a very good chance of getting lynched by his own
townspeople if he’s caught with me. And then you’re going to take a hike. Did I
leave out anything?” She twisted around to reach her back.

“If you stay with me, you know what will
happen.”

“Yeah, we might mistakenly have sex, and
God forbid you’d fraternize with the enemy. Worse, you might enjoy it, and that’s
against the rules, isn’t it, Colonel? Just what is it you’re so hell-bent on
protecting me from anyway?”