Someone Like You (Night Riders) (21 page)

The man fell to the ground and lay there in an unmoving lump.

Rafe turned back to Luis. “Are you all right?”

Luis nodded, wide-eyed.

“Did he hurt you?”

Luis shook his head. “He said he didn’t want to hurt me, that he just wanted to take me to my mother.”

Rafe looked down at the man, who hadn’t moved. “Get up.”

The man lay still.

“I’m not going to hit you again unless you try to escape.”

The man continued to lie still.

Rafe would have pulled the man to his feet, but just then Broc rounded the corner of the cornfield, closely followed by Maria. “Who is that?” he asked.

“I don’t know who he is, but he told Luis he didn’t want to hurt him, that he just wanted to take him to his mother.”

Maria looked puzzled. “That doesn’t make sense.”

“A son should be with his mother,” the man mumbled.

The smell of strong spirits caused Broc to look at the man more closely. “Did you knock the sense out of his head, or is he just drunk?”

“I only hit him once.”

“Got to help a beautiful lady,” the man mumbled again.

Rafe directed his gaze to the man. “Who are you?”

The man made an attempt to sit up, then nearly fell back before managing to get upright. “My name’s Billy Cassius.” His words were slurred but understandable. “Beautiful lady was crying that she couldn’t see her son. That’s not right. Offered to get him for her.”

Maria’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Are you saying my sister asked you to kidnap Luis for her?”

“Don’t know your sister,” Billy said. “Does she need a boy kidnapped, too?”

Rafe would have liked to take his anger at Dolores out on this guy by pounding him, but the man was drunk. It was frightening to think Dolores had this kind of power over men.

“My sister’s name is Dolores Jerry,” Maria told Billy.

Billy frowned, shook his head slightly. “Can’t be. My Dolores Jerry lives in Cíbola. Has a room at the hotel. Can’t be two Dolores Jerrys.”

Maria blushed at what that confession could possibly mean.

“I’m going to take him to the sheriff. Maybe he’ll be sobered up by the time we get there.”

“I’m coming with you,” Maria said.

“Me, too,” Broc added.

“Can I come?” Luis asked.

The boy had regained his color, but Rafe could tell he was still upset. “You’d better stay with Rosana and Juan.”

Luis looked both disappointed and relieved at the same time.

Rafe reached down and dragged Billy to his feet. “Are you sober enough to ride?”

“Rode all the way here,” Billy told him. “Then mount up. I’m taking you to the Cíbola jail.” “Can’t go to jail. Have to take the boy to Dolores.” It was clearly useless to talk to the man until he sobered up. “Fine. Just get into the saddle.”

Much to Rafe’s surprise, Billy mounted up without difficulty. Apparently riding drunk was something he did often.

Rafe had accomplished little by taking Billy to the sheriff. He said Billy was a likable young man who had appeared in Cíbola recently with enough money to pay for the whiskey he drank and the room where he slept. He would keep the fellow in jail until he sobered up, but he wouldn’t charge him with kidnapping because Billy was too drunk to know what he was doing.

Billy’s rambling conversation during the ride to town had convinced Rafe that Dolores had chosen the drunk because he was so idealistic, he was virtually brainless. She’d cried on his shoulder and like some quixotic character in a romance book, he’d charged out to avenge her. Rafe wished he could laugh at him and forget the entire episode, but he couldn’t forget it because he had no assurance Billy wouldn’t come after Luis again. If his garbled conversation could be trusted, he wouldn’t rest until he’d accomplished his mission.

They had left their horses at the livery stable and were headed to the hotel. If Billy could be believed, Dolores had taken a room there.

The town had changed considerably in the ten years Rafe had been gone. The single street running east to west had been extended to five with nearly that many crossing north to south. Wood-frame buildings stood side by side with those of brick, and there was even one of rough stone. Signs above a bakery, billiard hall, dentist’s office, loan agent, even ladies’ intimate apparel indicated that the town was serving the
needs of a larger community. An Episcopal church, a newspaper office, and a theater advertising a dance troop from San Francisco attested to a wider scope of interests than before.

“What are you going to do to Dolores?” Maria asked Rafe as they walked along the boardwalk.

“I can’t
do
anything to her. It’s not a crime to cry on a suggestible young man’s shoulder. The sheriff didn’t say so, but I could tell that in the eyes of the law—at least in
his
eyes—I’m more at fault than Dolores or Billy.”

Broc’s snort of indignation wasn’t elegant. “As often as Dolores is in Cíbola, he ought to know what she’s like.”

“My father and I lived in the same house with her for two years, and neither of us knew what she was like.” Despite his dislike of Dolores, Rafe regretted his words. He turned to Maria. “Sorry. I know she’s your sister.”

Maria didn’t meet Rafe’s gaze. “I should be the one apologizing. I’ve spent so many years being thankful she invited me to live at Rancho los Alamitos, I refused to see what she was really like. I should have known she’d do something like try to kidnap Luis. She doesn’t want him. She wants more money. But she knows you’d give Luis a big allowance. If he was living with her, she could use his allowance for herself.”

“She told you all of this?” Broc couldn’t conceal his amazement.

Maria nodded.

Broc shook his head. “And you still defend her?”

“Not anymore, but I am still grateful for the opportunity she gave me.”

“Don’t be,” Rafe said. “You worked for everything you got. You were no better than a paid servant. You were so grateful you would do virtually anything she wanted.”

Rafe regretted the words as soon as they were out of his mouth. No one likes to know their love has been wasted, their loyalty abused, their trust violated. He didn’t know if it was harder when it happened with a sister or a lover, but it was painful either way.

The hotel came into view. It was one of the new brick buildings that helped give Cíbola the appearance of prosperity. The cool, dark interior of the lobby was a welcome change from the heat and bright sunshine of the morning. Dark mahogany furniture, velvet curtains, and thick rugs gave the lobby an appearance of opulence unusual in Cíbola.

Rafe stepped up to the desk. “I’d like the room number for Mrs. Dolores Jerry.”

The clerk, a nondescript man probably somewhere in his forties, favored Rafe with a speculative gaze. “What is your business with Mrs. Jerry?”

Rafe stifled a desire to return a sharp reply. “I don’t see that’s any of your concern.”

The clerk cleared his throat deferentially. “It’s a policy of the hotel to guard our guests’ privacy. Unless you’re a relative, I can’t give out that information.”

Rafe had never had occasion to announce to anyone that Dolores was his stepmother. He was sure the words would stick in his throat. He was relieved when Maria stepped forward.

“I’m Maria de la Guerra. Mrs. Jerry is my sister. We’re here to give her some news about her son.”

“Mrs. Jerry isn’t in just now. I don’t know where she has gone. I expect she will return soon. Lunch is already being served in the dining room.”

Rafe met Maria’s gaze and they came to an unspoken agreement. “We’ll wait.”

They settled in a corner of the lobby with a view of the entrance. Broc drummed his fingers impatiently. Maria perused a few pages of a romantic tale of the West. Rafe was nearing the end of an article in the weekly newspaper about the expansion of the Southern Pacific Railroad into northern California when a familiar laugh brought his head up.

Dolores, accompanied by Laveau, had just walked into the hotel. Her laugh was cut off by a gasp when she saw the
group seated in the corner of the lobby. For a moment she lost color, but then she regained control.

“What are you doing here?” She addressed her question to Maria. “Nothing has happened to Luis, has it?”

She should have been an actress, Rafe thought. With her beauty and ability to believe anything she wanted, she would have been a sensation.

“Luis is fine, but he’s upset that Billy Cassius tried to kidnap him this morning.”

“Who’s Billy Cassius?” Had he not known otherwise, Rafe could have believed Dolores had never heard of the man.

“If I remember correctly,” Laveau intervened, “he’s the young man who was so entranced by your tale of a devoted mother who had been forcefully separated from her cherished son.”

Rafe was fully aware of Laveau’s ability to play both sides of the fence, but he couldn’t understand why he was undercutting Dolores’s position.

Dolores uttered one of those tinkling laughs Rafe so disliked. “How am I supposed to remember one besotted young man out of so many?” she asked Laveau.

“You aren’t, my sweet. That’s left for those of us who are beset with jealousy because we have to share your attention.”

Dolores playfully slapped Laveau on the arm. “You know you’re the only man I really care about.”

“You’d be safer bedding down with a nest of angry rattlesnakes,” Broc told her.

Dolores ignored him. “What did this man do?” she asked Maria.

“He was trying to drag Luis off his pony when Rafe got to him.”

She turned on Rafe. “You’re not a fit guardian if you can’t protect him from drunken young men.”

Rafe couldn’t repress a smile. “I thought you didn’t remember Billy.”

“All young men end up getting drunk when I won’t go off with them,” Dolores said dismissively.

“I warned you not to talk to him,” Laveau said. “I knew he was the type to do something foolish.”

“That’s probably why she talked to him,” Broc said.

“Did you ask him to kidnap Luis?” Maria asked.

“No, I didn’t.”

“That’s not exactly true, my love,” Laveau said. “Though you didn’t use the word
kidnap
, you did say you’d be forever in his debt if he returned your child to your bosom.”

Dolores’s feigned dismay was masterful. “Surely I didn’t say that.”

Laveau looked sympathetic. “You’d had a few drinks by that time.”

Dolores turned to Rafe. “Well, I wish this Billy what ever-his-name-is person
had
kidnapped Luis. You have no right to keep him from me. I’m considering taking you to court to get him back.”

“I wouldn’t advise it. There’s too much evidence of your neglect, of your near total lack of interest in him.”

“Maria will tell you that I’m devoted to the boy.”

Maria locked gazes with her sister. “
The boy
is named Luis. Since I’ve had sole responsibility for him almost from the moment he was born, I’ll be happy to tell a judge exactly how devoted you are to a child you never ask to see, not even when he’s sick.”

Dolores stared at her sister in disbelief. “After all I’ve done for you, how can you say that?”

“Because I can’t continue to ignore the truth. You don’t care about me or Luis. You care only about how you can use us to your advantage.”

“That’s not true. I love you both.”

“When I found out you’d lied about the rape, I knew I had to stop defending you. When you talked Billy into attempting to kidnap Luis, I knew I couldn’t keep quiet any longer.”

“Luis should be with me. I’m his mother.”

Rafe didn’t wait for Maria to answer her sister. “As far as I’m concerned, you abrogated any such right when you talked Billy into trying to kidnap Luis. Since I can’t trust you not to make another attempt that might result in harm to him, I’m forbidding you to return to the ranch today or any other day.”

Dolores clutched at Laveau’s arm.

“I’ll see that the rest of your belongings are packed up and brought to you as soon as possible.”

“Rancho los Alamitos is my home,” Dolores declared. “Warren should have left it to me.”

“Maybe he should have, but he didn’t. I’ll ask Rosana to pack your belongings and have Juan bring them to you.”

“I forbid you to let that woman touch anything of mine,” Dolores declared. “She hates me.”

“Margarita and I will put together your things,” Maria offered.

“You can’t do this,” Dolores wailed. “I don’t have a permanent place to stay.”

“We found out today that you have a room here in the hotel.”

“I can’t afford a room on the miserable allowance you give me. That’s Laveau’s room.”

Rafe turned to Laveau. “I hope you have a lot of space. Her gowns alone will fill a large room.”

“I’ll be happy to reserve all the space she needs.”

The change in Dolores was instantaneous. From an outraged virago, she became a smiling seductress. “I’ll need a full suite, not just another room.”

“Certainly, my sweet.”

Rafe didn’t know what Laveau’s game might be, but he wanted to set him straight. “I don’t know what you’re doing in California, but be assured a second kidnapping plot will not succeed.”

Laveau’s cheerful demeanor was undented. “I tried to talk Dolores out of that scheme. I hope I don’t appear to be unfeeling, but I have an unfortunate dislike of children.”

Rafe extended his hand and helped Maria to her feet. “I’m going to the lawyer’s office now. I’ll set up the terms under which you’ll receive your allowance. He’ll send it to you for your approval.”

“I won’t approve anything you send me.”

“Fine. That will make things easier.”

Broc left quickly. Rafe was ready to follow him but Maria lingered.

“You had so much. Why did you throw it away?” she asked her sister.

“What did I have besides an old husband who wanted nothing to do with me, and a house full of servants who hated me?”

Rafe reached out to Maria. “It’s too late. She doesn’t understand what you’re talking about.”

“She’s not to set foot on Rancho los Alamitos land,” Rafe told the lawyer. “Her allowance is to be paid on the first of the month with no advances under any circumstances.”

Maria was uncomfortable listening to Rafe’s strictures. She kept telling herself that her silence didn’t mean she’d stopped loving Dolores or worrying about her. It meant that she had reluctantly accepted it was best that Dolores not have another chance to hurt Luis.