Desert Dreams Read Online Free Page B

he'd looked into her face again.
    " Por favor, senorita ,
you must listen."
    Anne focused on the face of the wounded man. His skin was
covered in a thin sheen of sweat, his voice so weak she could scarcely hear
him. He probably wanted comfort, but she had none to offer. All she wanted was
to escape this dangerous situation. All her senses focused on the man who had
casually called her his wife.
    "Please don't get excited. The doctor will be here
soon," she lied, kneeling beside the Mexican again. She could smell the
blood. He was dying.
    "I want to make you a very wealthy woman," he
murmured. "I can tell you where there is a million dollars in gold."
He looked skyward. "Maybe this will make up for some of my sins."
    Anne divided her attention between the delirious man and the
drama going on around her.
    "Come closer." The wounded man grabbed hold of
Anne's arm and pulled her down toward his face. Something in his eyes stilled
her, and the noise and tension around them receded as he started talking.
    "The gold," he whispered. "It is hidden in a
small church in a place called Concepción near Chihuahua, Mexico. There are
some loose boards behind the altar. A million dollars. No one could find it if
they did not know already where it was. Go there. It is yours. Do what you will
with it." He licked his lips as he winced with another pain. "And
now, I must ask you to do one thing for me."
    "What is it?"
    She waited while he coughed convulsively. He fought for
breath, fought to speak.
    "Get a priest," he murmured.
    Those words were his last. His body went limp and his life
escaped on a ragged sigh. She peeled his fingers from around her arm and stared
down at his silent, empty body. His words echoed in her mind and she began to
tremble.
    Slowly she became aware of her surroundings again. The huge,
dirty man she had threatened with the pistol earlier moved toward the
gunfighter, but the man closest to him placed a hand on his chest, halting him.
"Leave it alone, Jake."
    "Shut up, Tucker, I ain't scared of this hombre," Jake replied without taking his gaze off the
bounty hunter. "And I don't believe this pretty little thing is his
wife."
    "Better listen to him, Jake," the bounty hunter
said. The menace in his voice shivered down Anne's spine, and she wondered
again if she'd made the right choice in trusting him. "You might not
believe she's my wife," he went on, "but believe this. Either you back
down or you'll die."
    "That's Rafe Montalvo," Tucker informed Jake.
"I seen him gun down three pistoleros in Mesilla a few months ago. Ain't never seen nothing
like it before or since."
    A tick started in Jake's left eye. Anne held her breath as
Jake considered Tucker's revelation and his own options. She could almost see
his bravado faltering. Her gaze moved between the two men – Rafe Montalvo's a
mask of deadly intent, Jake's indecisive.
    All of the men had taken a step back, leaving Jake alone to
face this man whose name alone sent a wave of fear through these hardened
teamsters.
    "Why don't you fellows move along now?" Rafe
Montalvo suggested. "The show's over."
    Slowly the disgruntled crowd began to disperse. Jake lingered
for a moment after the others wandered off. Anne could scarcely breathe through
the tension in the air. She exhaled the breath she hadn’t been aware of holding
when he finally followed his companions and the gunfighter turned his attention
back to the wounded man and to Anne, who struggled to her feet.
    "He—he's dead," she murmured.
    The gunfighter stepped toward her and she took an involuntary
step back. She noticed the tensing of a muscle in his jaw and the anger that
flashed briefly in his eyes before he hunkered down next to the Mexican and
placed a finger against the dead man's throat.
    "One minute he was alive and talking, and the
next—"
    "Talking?" The gunfighter stood and narrowed his
eyes, cold, emotionless eyes that seemed more animal than human. "What did
he say?"
    He took another step and she backed